Tristero

Good Morning!

2008-11-05T07:24:00.003-05:00

I had the most amazingly beautiful dream last night.

Blog Against Theocracy: Meet The Theocrats Part I

2007-04-06T09:31:00.000-04:00

by tristeroThis Easter weekend, there is a blogswarm going on called Blog Against Theocracy. My contribution is a bit idiocsyncratic, namely a series of posts consisting of numerous excerpts from a book advocating theocracy entitled With Liberty & Justice for All: Christian Politics Made Simple by Joe Morecraft III. There will be a lot of material but if you are worried about the “religious right

Paranoia Strikes Deep

2005-09-27T18:36:00.000-04:00

Via Digby comes an article on the strange death, from friendly fire, of sports star and soldier Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. Bottom line: the article implies and Digby explicitly conjectures that Tillman, a vocal opponent of both the Iraq war and Bush, could have been fragged because his fame made him too dangerous to the powers that be.Personally, I doubt it. I seriously doubt Tillman was fragged

Living In An F State

2005-09-23T17:54:00.000-04:00

Surprise, surprise. U.S. BARS ROBERT FISK FROM ENTERING COUNTRY

Michael Totten Needs His Real Friends. NOW.

2005-09-13T17:28:00.000-04:00

(Links added, content slightly revised.)Michael Totten is, to be sure, not a man I either like or whose judgment I respect. But now, he is about to do something incredibly stupid and his clueless supporters are more than prepared to let him go ahead and do it.According to his blog, Michael intends to move to Beirut soon, ignore State Department warnings, see what he can see amongst the Hezbollah

The Global War On Nature

2005-09-02T16:52:00.000-04:00

What now? Is he going to pray to God to come and part the waters? Declare a Global War On Nature and pre-emptively attack the Atlantic winds in order to end all natural disasters in our lifetime? Why not? It makes as much sense as the End of Evil his advisers talked about for some four years.And so finally, the scales are starting to fall. Unfortunately many of us were right: it took the tragic

There Is No Compromise Possible

2005-05-20T14:59:00.000-04:00

Jeralyn over at Talk Left urges all liberal bloggers to speak out against a compromise that would permit the likes of Patricia Owen to get confirmed by the Congress. So I am breaking my blog silence to say that I fully agree that no compromise is possible on this issue. The Republicans have framed this in the typically fascistic manner that they've used since Bush entered the White House. They

The F Word - Day Two

2005-03-22T10:50:00.000-05:00

In a spirited discussion of my previous post at Majikthise's terrific blog, Robert M. Jeffers recognized the serious nature of the Schiavo ruling but urged a retreat from hyperbole, "It's not judicial Armageddon, but it is as poor a law as can be imagined."While today's ruling by Judge Whittemore might lend support to Jeffers' point, I must note that this disgusting circus is far from over. I'm

The F Word

2005-03-21T08:31:00.000-05:00

Well, it happened. On March 21, 2005 12:44 am, the extremists in charge of the US Government showed the world that when they don't like a law or a legally valid court decision - ANY law, ANY court decision, for ANY reason, no matter how carefully adjudicated - they are prepared to rip it up. There is a word for this. The word is fascism. As of early this morning, America can no longer maintain

The End Is My Beginning, The Beginning Is My End

2004-11-03T16:06:00.000-05:00

Thus the title of a famous motet by Guillaume Machaut, the great late medieval/early Renaissance composer. And thus, this blog ends. Longer explanation follows (along with an irresistible link!). It's become much too hard to be an American. In my case, I took a break from the middle of a pretty decent career, to add my dissenting voice during what was -and remains- a national emergency.

Loss

2004-11-03T10:51:00.000-05:00

A catastrophic catastrophe. Losses in the House, losses in the Senate, and Bush will almost certainly win. That he is ahead in the popular vote by 3 1/2 million is frightening enough. For those who expect more of the same over the past four years, I strongly urge you to stop kidding yourselves. It is about to get worse. Much, much worse. For those who say, well, the bright side is that Bush will

Vote

2004-11-02T03:59:00.000-05:00

No excuses, my friends. Got the flu? Drag your sorry tuchus out of bed and vote. Got a bad deadline? It can wait an hour or 7: Vote. Lines too long? Bring a book or better yet, gather up your slacker friends, throw a queue party and vote. Think your vote doesn't matter? You gotta be kidding. Think you're above the unseemly farce? If you don't vote, you're the joke. Think the election's fixed? It

Some Good News

2004-11-01T11:35:00.000-05:00

2 Federal Judges Bar Challengers at Polling Places in Ohio Tuesday's election. United States District Judge Susan J. Dlott in Cincinnati found that the application of Ohio's statute allowing challengers at polling places was unconstitutional and that allowing any candidates other than election judges and other electors into the polling place would place "an undue burden upon voters" and impede

Open Letter To Fred Hiatt Of WaPo

2004-11-01T10:48:00.000-05:00

Dear Mr. Hiatt, Considering how important this election is (I'm 52 and I can't remember a more important one, not even '68), I find it rather astonishing that the topic of your column today focused upon the woebegone appearance of the Capital. What story could you have told instead? There are many, but here's one that's vital: Voters, millions of them, have focused on the substantive issues in

Electoral College

2004-11-01T10:09:00.000-05:00

10:00 am

Tora Bora: What Really Happened?

2004-11-01T09:55:00.000-05:00

Peter Bergen, an expert on terrorism and one of the few western journalists to have met bin Laden:So: Was al Qeada's leader at Tora Bora? According to a widely-reported background briefing by Pentagon officials in mid-December 2001 there was "reasonable certainty" that bin Laden was indeed at Tora Bora, a judgment based on intercepted radio transmissions. In his autobiography, American Soldier,

The Little Gift

2004-11-01T09:47:00.000-05:00

Sleazebags:We want people to think 'terrorism' for the last four days," said a Bush-Cheney campaign official. "And anything that raises the issue in people's minds is good for us." A senior GOP strategist added, "anything that makes people nervous about their personal safety helps Bush." He called it "a little gift," saying it helps the President but doesn't guarantee his reelection.Oh, and

Prediction From Oz: It's Kerry In A Landslide

2004-11-01T08:53:00.000-05:00

via my friend JV:With only one close US presidential election per century it is a very safe prediction that it will not be close this year. To be precise, historically there is one chance in 25 that this election will be close. My "Landslide to Kerry" prediction was met with jeers at the time. And readers may well ask once again how I can predict landslides when almost all US experts are saying

seraphiel's Cartoon Roundup

2004-11-01T08:42:00.000-05:00

From Two 9/11 "Jersey Girls" RE: Bin Laden Video

2004-10-31T19:03:00.000-05:00

We cried when we saw the tape on Friday of Osama Bin Laden. He's tanned and healthy. He does not look desperate or scared. He does not look like a man on the run. Three years ago, President Bush promised us he would capture Osama Bin Laden--Dead or Alive. He didn't do that. The man that murdered our husbands, is back terrorizing our country again. The videotape of him has brought us back to 9/

Eight Marines Killed In Iraq

2004-10-30T12:55:00.000-04:00

Near Falluja:Eight U.S. Marines were killed and nine wounded Saturday in al Anbar province west of Baghdad, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said. The casualties came amid heavy air and artillery assaults in the province, where the restive city of Falluja is located. A Marines spokesman said those casualties were outside Falluja in a single incident. No further details were immediately

Congratulations To A Talented Friend

2004-10-30T11:06:00.000-04:00

It is always a pleasure when someone whose art you love receives wider recognition. When you actually know the artist (a rare thing) and like them enormously (much, much rarer), the pleasure is doubled, tripled, exponentialed. So I was thrilled when my wife told me that our friend Catherine Barnett had won the prestigious Whiting Award for her first collection of poems, Into Perfect Spheres Such

Osama Returns, Fails To Endorse Either Candidate

2004-10-29T16:43:00.000-04:00

What a week you've had, George Bush. Missing explosives, the outing of massive voter fraud by your party, your VP's company gets investigated by the FBI, the Red Sox hero cancels on you, Caroline Kennedy disses you, songwriters complain when you use their song. And thenguess who pops up to remind everyone that he's still out there and you failed to catch him?

Major Battle In Iraq On Election Eve?

2004-10-29T16:30:00.000-04:00

Could this be the October Surprise? A rapid, major victory in Fallujah?.S. marines prepared on Friday to storm the Iraqi cities of Falluja and Ramadi to crush Sunni Muslim insurgents and Arab fighters. "We are gearing up for a major operation," Brigadier General Denis Hajlik told reporters at a base near Falluja. "If we do so, it will be decisive and we will whack them." Hajlik, deputy

Bush Plays The 9/11 Card

2004-10-29T16:02:00.000-04:00

Shameful:With just four days to go, President Bush sought today to turn the campaign's focus back to the 9/11 attacks, appearing at a political rally with several relatives of prominent victims of the terrorist strike and highlighting their heroic sacrifice.The question, my friends, is how will Kerry deal with this? It may not even be necessary for Kerry to mention the 9 months of willful

Ratfucking In Milwaukee

2004-10-29T15:37:00.000-04:00

via talkleft who got it from others.

Voter Fraud And Dirty Voting Tricks In Ohio

2004-10-29T11:43:00.000-04:00

What Atrios says.

Schilling Cancels Appearance With Bush

2004-10-29T11:39:00.000-04:00

He did the right thing. And his statement is exactly right, too:While I am a Bush supporter, and I did vote for him with an absentee ballot, speaking as I did the other day was wrong. While I hope to see him re-elected, it's not my place, nor the time for me to offer up my political opinions unsolicited...''A rare case of truly gentlemanly conduct. Bravo, Schilling. Bravo, Sox.

2004's Scariest Halloween Costumes

2004-10-29T11:32:00.000-04:00

Guaranteed to scare the beejeesus out of you. Go NOW.

Richard Cohen Wants To Waste Our Money

2004-10-29T10:49:00.000-04:00

Digby led me to check out a new Richard Cohen column in which he calls for the impeachment of George W. Bush. You would think I would be among the first to amen this, seeing as I've often discussed what are clearly impeachable offenses by Bush. But I'm not. What is wrong with this idea? 1. There's not enough time. Bush will be gone by January 20. There are many more things that take priority

Economist Endorses Kerry

2004-10-29T10:32:00.000-04:00

If you subscribe, read it here. The Economist vacillates a lot in their editorial (if you read what they say, you will get my joke.) But their summation is decisive:... as Mr Bush has often said, there is a need in life for accountability. He has refused to impose it himself, and so voters should, in our view, impose it on him, given a viable alternative. John Kerry, for all the doubts about him,

Answers For Kevin Drum

2004-10-29T10:20:00.000-04:00

Kevin asks,The evidence so far seems to indicate that the explosives [at al QaQaa] were indeed looted after the invasion. But does it matter? Is 380 tons of this stuff really important in the grand scheme of things?Answer: Let's ask the survivors of the bombings. And their relatives.

Case Sealed

2004-10-29T10:12:00.000-04:00

Yup, the IAEA seals were on the doors videotaped by KSTP tv reporters. Remember what Bush said recently? "“…a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your Commander in Chief." It's about time that someone who acknowledges facts and can make proper inferences is our Commander in Chief.

GOP Dirty Tricks Redux

2004-10-29T03:09:00.000-04:00

Again, Ohio. Just read it all. Sickening. Note: this and the previous post via Atrios, who hopefully will forgive me not linking to him these two times as its 3 in the morning.

GOP Dirty Tricks

2004-10-29T03:01:00.000-04:00

Ohio voter fraud.It is an outright case of election fraud in Lake County. The phony letter says newly registered voters signed up by the Kerry or Capri Cafaro campaigns or the NAACP, their registrations are illegal and they will not be able to vote. “That was not authorized by the Board of Elections, said Elections Director Jan Clair. “It was not mailed by the Lake County Board of Elections.”

Civilians In Iraq: Perhaps 100 Times The Official US Casualty Rate

2004-10-28T17:56:00.000-04:00

How to lose hearts and minds forever:A survey of deaths in Iraqi households estimates that as many as 100,000 more people may have died throughout the country in the 18 months since the U.S.-led invasion than would be expected based on the death rate before the war. There is no official figure for the number of Iraqis killed since the conflict began, but some non-governmental estimates range

Hah Hah! Hah!

2004-10-28T17:55:00.000-04:00

"Whatever It Takes" is right:One of President Bush's closing television advertisements features a doctored photograph with certain images of uniformed soldiers sprinkled repeatedly into a crowd to enhance the backdrop of a presidential speech. A Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman acknowledged the editing of the image, which was still posted today at the top of the Bush website to publicize the 60-

Warning: Don't Trust Everything You Read In The New York Times

2004-10-28T17:05:00.000-04:00

Recently, I speculated on a detail in a recent Kristof column.. I wrote:So let's go to the intelligence tests Bush and Kerry took some 30 years ago, in which Bush scored higher than Kerry, and which Kristof also mentions in this misbegotten column. Apparently it never occurred to Kristof that such a result might highlight how utterly bogus such tests are. Or if you want to make the unwarranted

Missing Explosives: Case Closed

2004-10-28T12:13:00.000-04:00

KSTP has the video proof that tons of explosives were in the al Qa Qaa area, if not al Qa Qaa itself when the troops arrived. They were poorly protected. Worse, the troops broke in and when they left, failed to secure the opened doors. Nor were there enough troops to guard the explosives. Case closed. (Note: Mac users won't be able to view the video in safari, but is viewable in internet

Visualize Winning

2004-10-28T11:55:00.000-04:00

Oh, please, please, please!

Iraq US Military Deaths Now At 1111

2004-10-28T11:52:00.000-04:00

Via Iraq Coalition Casualties

New Richard Clarke Book

2004-10-28T10:57:00.001-04:00

Richard Clarke heads the list of authors of "Defeating the Jihadists: A Blueprint for Action." A generous selection of excerpts are available in pdf form at the link to The Century Foundation site, above. Here's the beginning of the overviewGovernment spokespeople and the media often use the phrase “al Qaeda” or “al Qaeda-related” as shorthand for a larger and more complex array of jihadist

Ohio Voter Fraud/Suppression Update

2004-10-28T10:38:00.000-04:00

It's gonna be a mess:Ohio Republicans said they will step up their Election Day challenges of questionable voters in light of a federal judge's ruling Wednesday blocking them from making pre-election challenges.That means intimidation and long lines that will discourage voters, especially the kind that Republicans hate. Ordinary Americans.

David Kay Says It Was Nigh Impossible, Too

2004-10-28T10:35:00.000-04:00

Still not convinced Bush is bluffing?DAVID KAY: I must say, I find it hard to believe that a convoy of 40 to 60 trucks left that facility [al QaQaa] prior to or during the war, and we didn't spot it on satellite or UAV. That was because the main road to Baghdad from the south was a road that was constantly under surveillance.

Iraq denies explosives disappeared before war.

2004-10-28T10:33:00.000-04:00

Sounds plausible.A top Iraqi science official says it is impossible that 350 tonnes of high explosives could have been smuggled out of a military site south of Baghdad before the regime fell last year. The UN nuclear watchdog this week said the explosives went missing from a weapons dump some time after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled in April 2003. But as the issue of the missing

Looting In Iraq

2004-10-28T10:31:00.000-04:00

Peter Galbraith has a horror story just in time for halloween. Unfortunately, it's true:On April 16, 2003, a mob attacked and looted the Iraqi equivalent of the Centers for Disease Control, taking live HIV and black fever virus among other potentially lethal materials. US troops were stationed across the street but did not intervene because they didn't know the building was important. When he

Al QaQaa Timeline

2004-10-28T10:05:00.000-04:00

Al QaQaa timeline put together by Jeanne d'Arc, useful for those who still doubt that Bush is lying through his teeth about this.

Red October!!

2004-10-27T23:47:00.000-04:00

And to a Blue November!!!

Stolen Munitions Failing The Austin Powers Defense

2004-10-27T14:46:00.000-04:00

Josh has the skinny: head of the Iraqi Science Ministry's site monitoring department says there's no way the explosives were snagged from al Qaqaa before the former regime fell. "It is impossible that these materials could have been taken from this site before the regime's fall," Mohammed al-Sharaa told the AFP. "The officials that were inside this facility (Al-Qaqaa) beforehand confirm that not

General Clark Gets It

2004-10-27T14:27:00.000-04:00

And General Clark has been reading TristeroToday George W. Bush made a very compelling and thoughtful argument for why he should not be reelected. In his own words, he told the American people that “…a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your Commander in Chief. President Bush couldn’t be more right. He jumped to conclusions about

Florida Follies: Broward Lost 60,000 Absentee Ballots

2004-10-27T13:57:00.000-04:00

Oops:The Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office on Tuesday pointed a finger at the U.S. Postal Service for nearly 60,000 missing absentee ballots, but it acknowledged it has been overwhelmed by calls from frustrated voters. While the Postal Service denied responsibility for the missing ballots, Broward County commissioners, anxious to avoid another election debacle, offered to send county

Quote of the Day

2004-10-27T13:40:00.000-04:00

George W. Bush:[A] political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief.For once, I fully agree with him. If the Kerry campaign doesn't exploit this gift from heaven to the full, they are crazy.

Reyes-Alonzo Update

2004-10-27T13:04:00.000-04:00

I received a phone call from Charles Kuck, the lawyer for Juan-Manuel Reyes-Alonzo, the ex-Cuban Intelligence officer who married an American, moved here, informed the authorities of his intelligence activities, but didn't register as a foreign agent, and therefore has been arrested and held incommunicado since September 2. Kuck explained to me that they have a request pending with ICE and he

Found!

2004-10-27T11:02:00.000-04:00

No, not the 380 tons - remember, tons - of explosives, but something else entirely:Considered the worst filmmaker of all time, Ed Wood won a cult following after his death and now fans can see his long-lost last film "Necromania," a work some say shows he was so bad that he was brilliant. But it's not for the faint-hearted. The 1971 movie is a porn film documenting the sexual enlightenment of a

For A Good Time

2004-10-27T09:15:00.000-04:00

Lie Girls

Poor Nick Kristof

2004-10-27T06:42:00.000-04:00

Something's seriously awry with Kristof. Here it is, a week before the most important election since, what?, 1860? well, surely within the lifetime of most of the country's voters, and what's on his mind? The autobiography of George H. W. Bush's dog, as ghostwritten by Barbara Bush. If only that were the strangest thing in Kristof's latest:Like President Ronald Reagan, reality to him [G.W.

Dirty Tricks - Florida Republican African-American Voter Disruption

2004-10-26T15:33:00.000-04:00

BBBC: "A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals. Election supervisor Ion Sancho believes some voters are being intimidated Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in

Oh, Yeah, Wise Guy? Prove It. Y'ain't Got Nuttin' On Us, Kerry! Nuttin,' see?

2004-10-26T13:27:00.000-04:00

Like a cheap hood bluffing the cop in a bad movie, the Bush administration's only coherent response to their incompetent loss of 380 tons of terrorist-grade explosives is, I'm not kidding here, that Kerry "can't prove it was there".

Sinclair Death Watch #12

2004-10-26T11:33:00.000-04:00

Moody's goes negativeody's Investors Service on Monday revised the outlook on Sinclair Broadcast Group's debt rating to negative from stable, citing factors including lower-than-expected 2004 revenue growth, and concerns about revenue in 2005, a non-election year.

Accentuate The Positve, Obfuscate The Negative

2004-10-26T09:29:00.000-04:00

Here we go again. A perfectly clear story, that 380 tons of terrorist-class explosives were left unguarded, has been muddied up as obsessives focus on minutiae to rebut the Bush administration lies. Over the past two or three years, the reality-based community has become somewhat more effective than before in the first step: exposing rightwing propaganda. The problem is that the right has

Iraqi Security Forces: Bush vs. Reality

2004-10-25T17:53:00.000-04:00

Here's Bush from the first debate:There are 100,000 troops trained, police, guard, special units, border patrol. There's going to be 125,000 trained by the end of this year. Yes, we're getting the job done.But how good are these forces? (pdf)Manpower totals are misleading because some 25-33% of men are on leave or in training at any given time.And the whole report is even more sobering. And that

"In The Air"

2004-10-25T13:15:00.000-04:00

Anyone else find Bush saying that it "is up in the air" whether the US can be safe from terrorism a rather tasteless remark after the 9/11 attacks?

Kerry In The Senate

2004-10-25T10:49:00.000-04:00

One more amazing story, courtesy of Salon, about John Kerry's exceptional Senate career: In December 1985, when Brian Barger and I wrote a groundbreaking story for the Associated Press about Nicaraguan Contra rebels smuggling cocaine into the United States, one U.S. senator put his political career on the line to follow up on our disturbing findings. His name was John Kerry. Yet, over the past

And Had Bush Been President During The Cuban Missile Crisis

2004-10-25T10:36:00.000-04:00

He'd have started a major nuclear war.

If So Much As An Ounce Was Used To Harm An American Soldier...

2004-10-25T10:29:00.000-04:00

It wasn't just the Museum, or the Library, or even the nuclear facilities. They didn't bother to secure nearly 380 tons of major explosives. But at least they kept the oil ministry safe from looters. The Bushites are the most overachieving incompetents since...since...since...well, I'm sure I'll think of a comparison. Custer? Nah, only about 210 died under his command. Nero? No, at least he had

Bunning Fauxed Up

2004-10-24T05:54:00.000-04:00

Fox makes you stupid:U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning [R-Ken.] said yesterday that he was unaware of reports that a unit of Army Reserve soldiers in Iraq had refused an order to deliver fuel for reasons including that their trucks were lightly armored. "I don't know anything about that," Bunning said during a news conference after a speech he gave to the Rotary Club of Louisville... When reporters told

Bush Administration Will Lie About Everything

2004-10-23T16:56:00.000-04:00

The other day, Tommy Franks published an op-ed in the Times critical of John Kerry's statements on bin Laden at Tora Bora. Essentially, Franks said it was not at all clear he was even there and if he was, they didn't let him escape. Now you can forgive a guy a lot for calling Douglas Feith "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth", but this steps over the line. Because about Tora

USO Seeks To Drive US Troops Mad

2004-10-23T05:57:00.000-04:00

Pitiful:Las Vegas mainstay Wayne Newton, belting out his trademark version of "Danke Schoen," entertained troops during a recent trip to a U.S. base in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

What Robert Kuttner Says

2004-10-21T09:47:00.000-04:00

Boston Globe:Here is a flat prediction: If neither candidate wins decisively, the Bush campaign will contrive enough court challenges in enough states so that we won't know the winner election night. The right stumbled on a gambit in 2000, which could become standard operating procedure in close elections: If the election ends up in the courts, all courts eventually lead to the Supreme Court,

All Hail Tom Friedman!

2004-10-21T09:39:00.000-04:00

Here's Tom at the height of his awesome powers. As he so often does, Tom puts what sounds like his own befuddled, often perverse, metaphors in the mouth of another:In British politics there used to be a standard test for candidates for prime minister: Would you want to go on a tiger hunt with this person? That is, would this candidate kill the tiger or try to reason with the tiger? Graham Allison

The Peter Pan President

2004-10-21T08:39:00.000-04:00

After reading this post on how Bush's worldview resembles an unusual deus ex machina from an early Woody Allen movie, correspondent DB conclusively solved the mystery of where Bush first got some of his more cockamamie ideas of how the world works:<"if all of you in the audience who believe in fairies" Presumably this is a reference to Peter Pan. Peter explains to Wendy: "You see children know

Rolling Stone: John Kerry for President

2004-10-21T08:17:00.000-04:00

And it's a damn fine editorial:For now, it is our job to right the wrongs of the Bush administration, to fix the damage before it is too late. But to simply list the dangerous failures of the Bush presidency as the primary reason to vote for John Kerry would sell short a man of high purpose and moral courage. He is battle-tested, both as a young man in war and as a political leader up against the

Dear Alessandra Stanley

2004-10-21T08:08:00.000-04:00

You idiot. You stupid, stupid idiot. You have no idea what you've done. Love, Tristero

The Truth About Lesbians

2004-10-21T05:53:00.000-04:00

A round-up of all the views on lesbian sex held by decrepit male pundits:Witnesses in the trial of a U.S. soldier charged with abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib have told the court that the CIA sometimes directed abuse and orders were received from military command to toughen interrogations.Ooops! I guess I made a boo-boo and pasted in the wrong story. Just ignore it. Here's the lesbian sex stuff:

Answering MoDo's Rhetorical Questions

2004-10-21T05:06:00.000-04:00

In a withering takedown of Bush's faith-based war policies, MoDo asks,What does it tell you about a president that his grounds for war are so weak that the only way he can justify it is by believing God wants it? Or that his only Iraq policy now - as our troops fight a vicious insurgency and the dream of a stable democracy falls apart - is a belief in miracles?It tells you that this president

Great Commercial

2004-10-20T18:20:00.000-04:00

From Errol Morris.

The Power Of Nightmares

2004-10-20T18:07:00.000-04:00

October 27 BBC TWO 9-10pm. Now, we're talking. Hopefully, this will appear on the web so Americans can see it:Series exploring the idea that the threat of a terror network is a myth. American Neoconservatives and radical Islamists come together to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and both believe that it is they who have defeated the Evil Empire and now have the power to transform the

More Voter Dirty Tricks

2004-10-20T17:36:00.000-04:00

Western PennsylvaniaAn ostensibly nonpartisan voter registration drive in Western Pennsylvania has triggered accusations that workers were cheated out of wages and given instructions to avoid adding anyone to the voter rolls who might support the Democratic presidential nominee. Sproul & Associates, a consulting firm based in Chandler, Ariz., hired to conduct the drive by the Republican National

If The Bush Administration Was Your Roomate

2004-10-20T17:20:00.000-04:00

Watch the whole series. And there are some other great films there as well.

Sinclair Death Watch #11

2004-10-20T16:58:00.000-04:00

Two responses to my letters: From Dunkin Donuts:Thank you for taking the time to contact Dunkin' Donuts about our advertising with Sinclair Broadcast Group. We have reviewed your comments, as well as those of other people who have contacted us. Based on that feedback, we will not be advertising with Sinclair Broadcast Group on the day its stations plan to air "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never

Bush 2nd Cousins Endorse Kerry

2004-10-20T14:54:00.000-04:00

Maybe he should've tried to see them once...ix blood relatives of President Bush who support John F. Kerry's bid for the presidency have launched a website to publicize their sharp disagreements with Bush's policies. The site, Bush Relatives for Kerry.com, consists of personal statements from a group of decidedly liberal second cousins of the president, none of whom knows him personally. All are

Kerry Leade

2004-10-20T14:46:00.000-04:00

Electoral College 291-247. Obviously it's not enough, but that is a decisive lead.

Looking A Little Stressed, Are We?

2004-10-20T14:43:00.000-04:00

Unretouched, just cropped.

Reporting lies gives them weight

2004-10-20T10:51:00.000-04:00

Wasserman gets it, even if he can't understand Michael Moore.[L]ies, even when exposed, work. Indeed, we're seeing a diabolical paradox: That exposing the lie enables it to work... It isn't just that a lie refuted is a lie repeated. Apparently we've now entered an era where the liar expects to be called on the lie - and wants to be. Take Dick Cheney's ridiculous assertion that he never met

Iraq War: Don't Blame Pat Robertson!

2004-10-20T10:37:00.000-04:00

Robertson said he warned Bush during a meeting. This brings up a more basic question: Why on earth does one of the craziest, nastiest men in America have personal access to the president of the United States?

Bush/Supremes Made A Deal??

2004-10-20T09:43:00.000-04:00

Looks like we all missed a rather important nuance in Suskind's important Times Magazine article. Suskind wrote, and just about no one noticed:[Bush] said that there will be an opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court justice shortly after his inauguration, and perhaps three more high-court vacancies during his second term.In an interview with Salon, Suskind elaborated:[T]he president said, "I'm

The Times, Sinclair Boat Liars, And The Fine Art Of Coitus Per Os

2004-10-20T09:30:00.000-04:00

Rutenberg's and Zernike's Times article today was headlined The Film: Accusations and Flaws, All Serious. Paragraph 1 begins:he documentary that Sinclair Broadcast Group has instructed 40 of its television stations to feature in a broadcast on Friday night makes some of the most serious accusations against Senator John Kerry of the campaign. Paragraph 2 starts off with:The film is rife with

Quote of the Day

2004-10-20T09:08:00.000-04:00

David D. Smith, Sinclair's Chief Exec:We cannot in a free America yield to the misguided attempts by a small but vocal minority to influence behavior and trample on the First Amendment rights of those with whom they might not agree.''Exactly, Mr. Smith.

The What's Up, Tiger Lily President

2004-10-20T03:39:00.000-04:00

Fans of Woody Allen's first movie, What's Up Tiger Lily? (link to come) will never forget the climax. Our hero, a Japanese James Bond, runs out of bullets during a fierce gunfight. In desperation, he turns directly to the audience and begs (paraphrased), "If all of you out there concentrate really really hard, and really, really believe my gun still has bullets in it, it will magically refill

Sinclair Death Watch #10

2004-10-20T02:59:00.000-04:00

Reed HundtSinclair calling their proposed new show news does not make it news. What in fact one may think of their broadcast can and should be judged after the fact. But since Sinclair's relationship to objectivity, as reflected in its press statements, is rather attenuated, one should suppose that Sinclair's new show may well be judged just as much a smear as the so-called documentary they

Bush In The National Guard: Case Closed

2004-10-19T18:21:00.000-04:00

Digby:Paul Lukasiak has uncovered evidence that Bush was discharged from the TANG: 'for failing “to possess the required military qualifications for his grade or specialty, or does not meet the mental, moral, professional or physical standards of the Air Force.” ' It's likely because he was either dumb, gay, drunk, high, insubordinate or cowardly. That's what "mental, moral, professional or

Time To Leak Suppressed CIA Report

2004-10-19T18:16:00.000-04:00

Kevin has the skinny

The Dalmation Methodist

2004-10-19T18:13:00.000-04:00

The American Prospect:This is a huge mistake, because when judged by his deeds, an entirely different picture emerges: Bush does not demonstrate a life of faith by his actions, and neither Methodists, evangelicals, nor fundamentalists can rightly call him brother. In fact, the available evidence raises serious questions about whether Bush is really a Christian at all.I wouldn't go that far. Let's

Sinclair Death Watch #9

2004-10-19T17:28:00.000-04:00

What utter horse manure. Now they're claiming they never had any intention to broadcast the Sinclair Boat Lies and preempt all their programming and show it commercial free. These are both lies. The title of the Sinclair Boat Liars' propaganda was already listed for upcoming broadcast (it has been subsequently scrubbed, so I'll have to do some extra hard searching to add the links when I have

Sinclair Death Watch #8

2004-10-19T17:00:00.000-04:00

Well, it seems fair, but in truth it's not a great idea. Running GOING UPRIVER as well as the Sinclair Boat Liars' propaganda merely creates the impression that somehow they are equally fair and accurate versions of Kerry's record. They are not. Let's not forget: GOING UPRIVER has strong opinions are grounded in verified, undisputed facts. The Sinclair Boat Liars' propaganda uses nothing but

Sinclair Death Watch #7

2004-10-19T16:32:00.000-04:00

Down 3.54% at close. Comin' real close to $6.10/share before some deep Scaifean-like pockets came to the rescue in the closing 15 minutes.

Lou Dobbs Knows Who To Blame For The Flu Vaccine Shortage

2004-10-19T16:25:00.000-04:00

Incredible. I just heard Wolf Blitzer on CNN ask Lou Dobbs what's at fault for the flu vaccine shortage. He said it was "public policy," a policy going back "ten years." In other words: It's Clinton's fault. People will die from lack of a flu shot this year and it's all Clinton's fault. Ok folks, this is getting silly. Sure, Clinton killed Kennedy. We all know that Clinton can't prove that he

Vampire Politics

2004-10-19T13:51:00.000-04:00

Great article by Rick Perlstein: 'What these guys [in Bush's campaign and White House] do every day, as a matter of course, without thinking twice about it, would be dramatic transgressions even under Nixon,' Jeff Shesol admits from his Dupont Circle office, crowded with paraphernalia from Democratic triumphs past. He's just amazingly quick to dismiss the notion that there's anything a Democratic

You're Right To Be Paranoid

2004-10-19T13:25:00.000-04:00

Jeebus:Some absentee ballots distributed to Hamilton County voters do not include the name of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, local election officials confirmed today. Because of a printing error -- limited, election officials believe, to only a few ballots in the Forest Park area -- absentee ballots recently mailed out exclude the Democratic presidential ticket of Kerry and his

Sinclair Death Watch #6

2004-10-19T13:04:00.000-04:00

Media Matters helping to fund shareholder action against Sinclair. It's time to forgive Brock and donate!