It's safe to say Kerry kicked Bush's ass on national TV tonight. I have to say that I'm surprised Bush looked and sounded so bad. His speech was halting or stuttering, and god knows didn't he realize he was on camera for reaction shots? He was grimacing and smirking. Maybe I was beginning to believe the spin about him "being comfortable in his own skin," but he looked more like he was 1) on something; 2) needed a drink 3) needed some meds. Was he just overprepped, under/over medicated or what? His body language suggested he wanted to either clock Kerry, or walk offstage at times. I think having to be on the defensive, one-on-one, really sent him over the edge. It was as if his handlers, particularly whoever stood in for Kerry during the Bush's prep, didn't hit him hard enough so he wouldn't be so rattled in the real debate. He was off even his lame 2000 debate performance.

I didn't expect him to be fantastic, but, this being the foreign policy debate, he's got nowhere to go but down. No lie, I think there is something going wrong "under the hood" with Bush; he looked so bad. His stumbling and bumbling was at a such a level of impatience and discomfort that he looked unbalanced. It was funny at first, but after it all settled in and I watched a replay, it was actually frightening.

And the spinners really had a hard time defending that performance.

Kerry on the other hand, was wildly successful at being succinct and skewered great points home. He way surpassed my expectations. Some coverage (MSNBC):

Sen. John Kerry assailed President Bush’s prosecution of the war in Iraq in the first presidential debate Thursday night, accusing the president of “a colossal error of judgment” as the candidates finally faced each other after a torrent of speeches and hostile television advertisements.

Kerry wasted no time taking on the marquee issue of the evening, saying in his opening response to a question from moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS that “I can make America safer than President Bush has made us.”

Kerry rejected Republican contentions that he would consult too much with foreign leaders before taking action to secure America, promising that “I’ll never give a veto to any country over our security.”

In response, Bush said that, better or worse, “people know where I stand” in putting U.S. interests first. He said the United States must “constantly stay on the offensive” against terrorists.

Atrios has a howler about the AP writing a post-debate story that is already online. If this isn't the most lazy-ass journalism, I don't know what is. Plug and Play. Jesus.

The U.S. has tried to create its little oasis called The Green Zone in Iraq, which has been corraled off from the random, wonton violence occurring outside of it. Apparently it's not so safe anymore. (Christian Science Monitor):

Site of Saddam Hussein's most sumptuous Baghdad palaces and now headquarters for both US officials and the Iraqi interim government, the Green Zone - as opposed to what the military calls the "Red Zone," anything outside the vast compound's 12-foot concrete walls - is experiencing a case of the jitters.

...Other reasons for the heightened anxiety include the ever-bolder attacks on Baghdad streets just a short drive from the zone, and the recent spike in kidnappings and killings of foreigners in Baghdad.

Then there are the almost daily mortar attacks against the zone - most of which cause little or no damage or injury, but which do rattle nerves.

So even though the Green Zone operates like an island in the Baghdad storm, it is not the picture of tranquility.

On various visits to the Green Zone over the past few weeks, this reporter has noticed few signs that security is being taken for granted. The perimeter walls and tire wells of official vehicles parked in guarded lots are checked for explosives. Even some restaurants inside the supposedly high-security sector are now off limits to a growing number of diplomats and other officials.

"They should be worried," says one American technology contractor here who has refused - despite the recent kidnapping and beheading of two US contractors who lived in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood - to relocate to the Green Zone. "I still feel safer where I am than living in there," the contractor says. requesting anonymity. "The place never has been what I'd call secure, but it's gotten worse. If they think the mortars and rockets going in there now are something, they aren't going to know what hit them."

Graphic from John A., at AmericaBlog.

Gotta love it. Tips to the Dems for this one! The card is randomized, so go to the site and have fun.

LA Weekly: News is taking heat (and dishing it too) about the fact that local papers are not covering the outing of David Dreier and his hypocritical stance on gay rights. What is more disconcerting is that the papers won't call Dreier on the fact that his lover has been on the payroll, a la McGreevey. If nothing else, this should outrage his constituents. If the man was out, he wouldn't be doing this.

The P.R. strategy adopted by Dreier is silence — he’s hoping that, by ignoring the story about the Internet campaign to out the congressman as a hypocritical closet homosexual who consistently votes against the rights and interests of gay people, it will simply go away. So far, the strategy seems to be working, at least where some of the major print and television outlets are concerned. For example, absent a comment from Dreier, the Los Angeles Times (where there were serious internal discussions about whether or not to cover the story) has been reluctant to weigh in for its many readers in Dreier’s district — even though Dreier’s Democratic opponent came out of the closet to denounce him. L.A. Times’ editor John Carroll did not return phone or e-mail requests for comment.

After the Weekly’s article, Cynthia Matthews — the Democratic nominee in Dreier’s Foothills congressional district — gave interviews to local radio stations and Internet media saying she was proud of her lesbian relationship. “I have been in an 11-year relationship with my partner,” Matthews told RawStory.com, “and refuse to run for office if I would be required to relegate my partner to the closet.”

Matthews particularly criticized Dreier for paying the man he lives with — his chief of staff, Brad Smith — a remarkably high salary. “David Dreier contributes to a culture that allows closeted gays and lesbians to pay those with whom they have personal relationships from the government payroll,” she added, citing New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey’s recent resignation for having done just that.

...I had questioned, in my article, why the chain of daily papers in Dreier’s district had been silent on the contrast between Dreier’s anti-gay voting record and his closeted gay life. And I heard from the Pasadena Star-News (one of the larger dailies in this chain) requesting information. But, when I asked the reporter who called me if the Star-News would be running a story the next day, he warned me not to expect a story “any time soon” while telling me he couldn’t fill me in — even off the record — on the discussions about it at the Pasadena paper. Trying to talk to journalists from this pro-Republican Valley newspaper chain about Dreier is like trying to talk to a reporter from Pravda about Stalin in the dictators’ salad days — the fear of reprisals from management is palpable. Clearly, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” editorial policy about Dreier’s straight hypocrisy is still in effect in the Media News Group’s string of San Gabriel Valley dailies — none of which have published a single word about all this.

Hell has frozen over. Buchanan endorses Kerry over Iraq war

CBS News goes off on Bush's Top Ten Flip-Flops:

The charge of 'flip-flopping' has resounded throughout the presidential race, with the Bush campaign repeatedly accusing Sen. John Kerry of changing his mind on the issues. The Kerry campaign, in turn, has declared that Mr. Bush is the one doing the flip-flopping.

CBSNews.com Chief Political Writer David Paul Kuhn looks at the record and finds both men are correct. Here, the president's most notable flip-flops. Later today, John Kerry's.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Announcing the invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, Mr. Bush said, Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.

Two months into the war, on May 29, 2003, Mr. Bush said weapons of mass destruction had been found. "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories, Mr. Bush told Polish television. For those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them.'

On Sept. 9, 2004, in Pennsylvania, Mr. Bush said: I recognize we didn't find the stockpiles [of weapons] we all thought were there.

Nation Building and the War in Iraq

During the 2000 campaign, George W. Bush argued against nation building and foreign military entanglements. In the second presidential debate, he said: 'I'm not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say, 'This is the way it's got to be.''

The United States is currently involved in nation building in Iraq on a scale unseen since the years immediately following World War II.

Iraq and the Sept. 11 Attacks

In a press conference in September 2002, six months before the invasion of Iraq, President Bush said, “you can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror... they're both equally as bad, and equally as evil, and equally as destructive.”

In September of 2004, Mr. Bush said: “We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September 11th." Though he added that “there's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties,” the statement seemingly belied earlier assertions that Saddam and al Qaeda were “equally bad.”

The Sept. 11 commission found there was no evidence Saddam was linked to the 9/11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

The Sept. 11 Commission

President Bush initially opposed the creation of an independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks. In May 2002, he said, “Since it deals with such sensitive information, in my judgment, it's best for the ongoing war against terror that the investigation be done in the intelligence committee.”

Bowing to pressure from victims' families, Mr. Bush reversed his position. The following September, he backed an independent investigation.

Free Trade

During the 2000 presidential election, Mr. Bush championed free trade. Then, eyeing campaign concerns that allowed him to win West Virginia, he imposed 30 percent tariffs on foreign steel products from Europe and other nations in March 2002.

Twenty-one months later, Mr. Bush changed his mind and rescinded the steel tariffs. Choosing to stand on social issues instead of tariffs in steel country – Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia – the Bush campaign decided it could afford to upset the steel industry rather than further estrange old alliances.

Homeland Security Department

President Bush initially opposed creating a new Department of Homeland Security. He wanted Tom Ridge, now the secretary of Homeland Security, to remain an adviser.

Mr. Bush reversed himself and backed the largest expansion of the federal government since the creation of the Defense Department in 1949.

Same-Sex Marriage

During the 2000 campaign, Mr. Bush said he was against federal intervention regarding the issue of same-sex marriage. In an interview with CNN's Larry King, he said, states "can do what they want to do" on the issue. Vice President Cheney took the same stance.

Four year later, this past February, Mr. Bush announced his support for an amendment to the Constitution that defines marriage as being exclusively between men and women. The amendment would forbid states from doing "what they want to do" on same-sex marriage.

Citing recent decisions by “activist judges” in states like Massachusetts, Mr. Bush defended his reversal. Critics point out that well before the 2000 presidential race, a judge in Hawaii ruled in December 1996 that there was no compelling reason for withholding marriage from same-sex couples.

Winning the War on Terror

"I don't think you can win it," Mr. Bush said of the war on terror in August. In an interview on NBC's "Today" show, he said, “I think you can create conditions so that . . . those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world."

Before the month closed, Mr. Bush reversed himself at the American Legion national convention in Nashville. He said: "We meet today in a time of war for our country, a war we did not start yet one that we will win." He later added, “we are winning, and we will win."

Campaign Finance Reform

President Bush was initially against the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. He opposed any soft-money limits on individuals to national parties.

But Mr. Bush later signed McCain-Feingold into law. The law, named for Senate sponsors John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russell Feingold, D-Wis., barred both national parties from collecting soft money from individuals.

During the 2000 race, Mr. Bush showed support for the so-called 527 groups’ right to air advertising.

In March 2000, he told CBS News' "Face the Nation," "There have been ads, independent expenditures, that are saying bad things about me. I don't particularly care when they do, but that's what freedom of speech is all about.”

In late August of this year, in an effort to distance himself from controversial anti-Kerry ads by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Mr. Bush reversed his position, announcing he would join McCain in legal action to stop these "shadowy" organizations.

Though it would close the Swift Boat group's funding, court action would also silence well-funded liberal 527 organizations like MoveOn.org and America Coming Together.

Gas Prices

Mr. Bush was critical of Al Gore in the 2000 campaign for being part of “the administration that's been in charge” while the “price of gasoline has gone steadily upward.” In December 1999, in the first Republican primary debate, Mr. Bush said President Clinton “must jawbone OPEC members to lower prices.”

As gas topped a record level of $50 a barrel this week, Mr. Bush has shown no propensity to personally pressure, or “jawbone,” Mideast oil producers to increase output.

A spokesman for the president reportedly said in March that Mr. Bush will not personally lobby oil cartel leaders to change their minds.

You have to love Al Gore now. The man has been through a lot. I actually met Gore in Durham, NC, back in 1992 when Earth in the Balance was first published and he had not yet been chosen by Big Bill to be on the ticket. He had come for a book signing at a local independent bookstore, The Regulator Bookshop. I was working in a separate business, Africa News Service, downstairs in the basement of the building. He stopped by to shake hands (my recollection --cold, clammy hands!).

I forgive him for running such a lame ass campaign that the 2000 debacle -- it would have been avoided if he had been able to carry his home state of TN. Florida wouldn't have mattered, Gore would probably have saved tons in shrink bills, and we wouldn't be in the Bush mess we are in now.

He has a great piece in the NYT on how to debate George Bush:

...Senator Kerry can also use these debates to speak directly to voters and lay out a hopeful vision for our future. If voters walk away from the debates with a better understanding of where our country is, how we got here and where each candidate will lead us if elected, then America will be the better for it. The debate tomorrow should not seek to discover which candidate would be more fun to have a beer with. As Jon Stewart of the "The Daily Show'' nicely put in 2000, "I want my president to be the designated driver.''

The debates aren't a time for rhetorical tricks. It's a time for an honest contest of ideas. Mr. Bush's unwillingness to admit any mistakes may score him style points. But it makes hiring him for four more years too dangerous a risk. Stubbornness is not strength; and Mr. Kerry must show voters that there is a distinction between the two.

If Mr. Bush is not willing to concede that things are going from bad to worse in Iraq, can he be trusted to make the decisions necessary to change the situation? If he insists on continuing to pretend it is "mission accomplished," can he accomplish the mission? And if the Bush administration has been so thoroughly wrong on absolutely everything it predicted about Iraq, with the horrible consequences that have followed, should it be trusted with another four years?

The biggest single difference between the debates this year and four years ago is that President Bush cannot simply make promises. He has a record. And I hope that voters will recall the last time Mr. Bush stood on stage for a presidential debate. If elected, he said, he would support allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada. He promised that his tax cuts would create millions of new jobs. He vowed to end partisan bickering in Washington. Above all, he pledged that if he put American troops into combat: "The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well defined."

Comparing these grandiose promises to his failed record, it's enough to make anyone want to, well, sigh.

Mary Jacobs at Salon (subscription or day pass), reveals the story that CBS spiked. Thank god for new media.

By relying on documents that could not be absolutely authenticated from a blind source to make the otherwise irrefutable case that George W. Bush shirked his National Guard duties in the early 1970s, CBS anchor Dan Rather dealt the credibility of journalism a "body blow," according to Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler. But just how damaging was that blow?

One measure of the debacle is a "60 Minutes Wednesday" segment that millions of viewers now will now not see: a hard-hitting report making a powerful case that in trying to build support for the Iraq war, the Bush administration either knowingly deceived the American people about Saddam Hussein's nuclear capabilities or was grossly credulous. CBS news president Andrew Heyward spiked the story this week, saying it would be "inappropriate" during the election campaign.

Now Zellfire gets his "pay day" from the GOP (The Hill):

The Republicans are making sure that Sen. Zell Miller, who launched a withering attack on presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry last month, gets his pet projects paid for in appropriations legislation.

Miller, the Georgia Democrat who was the keynote speaker at the GOP convention in New York and who alienated his party by excoriating Kerry, has been told not to worry about losing his earmarks in the new fiscal year, which begins Friday.

The week that Congress returned after the GOP convention, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) grabbed Miller’s arm outside the Senate chamber and assured him, “Don’t worry about appropriations, I’ve already put that stuff of yours in there.”

"I would vote for Howdy Doody if it would keep my boys home and safe." (CBS video).


Thanks to John A., at AmericaBlog. :)

That quote is from Beverly Cocco of Philadelphia, speaking about the possibility of the draft returning.

We're battle ready -- 30% of soldiers called up haven't reported in, some are AWOL.

Thirty percent of former U.S. soldiers who have been called back to duty involuntarily to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan have failed to report on time, and eight have been declared AWOL, the Army said on Tuesday.

The Army's problem with mobilizing soldiers from the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), a seldom-tapped personnel pool, is another sign of the difficulty the Pentagon is encountering in maintaining troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So far, the Army has mobilized 3,664 people from the IRR to active duty, but 1,085 have not reported on time to the Army post to which they were assigned, said Julia Collins, a spokeswoman for the Army Human Resources Command.

The Individual Ready Reserve is made up of 111,000 people who have completed their voluntary Army service commitments and have returned to civilian life but remain eligible to be mobilized in a national emergency. Many have been out of the active-duty military for years.

Eight of those recently ordered back to active duty have been listed as absent without leave, or AWOL, and could face military criminal charges as deserters, Collins said. All eight have been notified they are being classified as AWOL and still refused to report for duty, Collins added.

In addition, their names will be entered into a national criminal investigation database, and they could be arrested if, for example, they are stopped by a police officer for a routine traffic violation, Collins said.

Six others had been listed as AWOL but have agreed to report after being contacted by the Army, Collins said.

EXEMPTION REQUESTS

About 85 percent of those who did not show up on time have formally requested that the Army exempt them from duty due to health issues or some other hardship, Collins said. Most of the others have requested a delay in their reporting date.

Most exemption requests are likely to be rejected, Collins said.

Bush had no cheat sheet on O'Reilly (or Karl Rove speaking to him in an earpiece) yesterday and today, and it shows. The transcript and clips are up. He sounds like a freaking simpleton. And he dodges the National Guard stuff again.

I'll have to grab the latest Vanity Fair, because Supreme Court clerks reveal the scuttlebutt on the Bush v. Gore election debacle in 2000 . This hit the news because a joint statement by lawyers and former clerks has been release, criticizing the clerks that were sources for the article. Apparently they breached their confidentiality agreement to talk.

More than 90 prominent lawyers and former Supreme Court law clerks including former Attorneys General Richard Thornburgh and William Barr have joined in a statement sharply criticizing the law clerks who gave behind-the-scenes details about the 2000 case Bush v. Gore to Vanity Fair magazine.

The anonymous clerks' disclosures also violate the clerks' Code of Conduct and their "duty of confidentiality" to their justice and to the Court, the joint statement asserts.

Entitled "The Path to Florida," the article reviews the dramatic events of four years ago and depicts sharp divisions within the Court over whether the Florida recount should proceed or be ended. Justices Antonin Scalia, Sandra Day O'Connor and, eventually, Anthony Kennedy are portrayed as determined to reach a result that would hand victory to George W. Bush.

...Several law clerks are named, though they are not necessarily among the clerks Margolick was able to interview. Margolick says roughly one-fourth of that term's 35 clerks spoke with him.

In a footnote published with the article, Margolick, a former legal affairs reporter for The New York Times, acknowledges the confidentiality rule and says none of the clerks he spoke to disclosed internal documents or conversations with their justices. But he indicates that the clerks who were willing to give him other details did so because they felt strongly the Court had acted improperly in the election case. "We feel that something illegitimate was done with the Court's power, and such an extraordinary situation justifies breaking an obligation we'd otherwise honor," Margolick quotes one clerk as saying.

..In one episode reported in the story, Scalia clerk Kevin Martin visited the chambers of Justice John Paul Stevens to discuss the case with Stevens' clerks. The conversation "turned nasty," Margolick reports, and Martin stormed out. Martin could not be reached for comment. On another occasion, Kennedy was said to have visited Justice Stephen Breyer's chambers, where he stated aloud that he hoped Breyer would join his opinion against continuing the recount. "We just kind of looked at him like he was crazy," a clerk is quoted as saying.

An excellent DKos thread points out the irony of the Red (GOP) states that feed at the taxpayers' trough versus the Blue states that take less in government resources and support those Red states:

States Receiving Most in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid (red states in bold):

D.C. ($6.17)
North Dakota ($2.03)
New Mexico ($1.89)
Mississippi ($1.84)
Alaska ($1.82)
West Virginia ($1.74)
Montana ($1.64)
Alabama ($1.61)
South Dakota ($1.59)
Arkansas ($1.53)

In contrast, of the 16 states that are "losers" -- receiving less in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes -- 69% are Blue States that voted for Al Gore in 2000. Indeed, 11 of the 14 (79%) of the states receiving the least federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid are Blue States. Here are the Top 10 states that supply feed for the federal trough (with Blue States highlighted in bold):

States Receiving Least in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid:

New Jersey ($0.62)
Connecticut ($0.64)
New Hampshire ($0.68)
Nevada ($0.73)
Illinois ($0.77)
Minnesota ($0.77)
Colorado ($0.79)
Massachusetts ($0.79)
California ($0.81)
New York ($0.81)

Two states -- Florida and Oregon (coincidentally, the two closest states in the 2000 Presidential election) -- received $1.00 in federal spending for each $1.00 in federal taxes paid.

So much for the GOP representing smaller government.

Amazing, good news. It looks like gay marriage in Massachusetts is likely to stand, without a challenging amendment (BGlobe):

"The effort to bring a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to voters in November 2006 suffered a major setback yesterday with departure of House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran and the elevation of Salvatore F. DiMasi, whose arrival is expected to shift the Massachusetts legislative agenda to the left on social issues such as gay rights, abortion, and stem cell research.

A key legislative backer of the proposed amendment to ban same-sex marriage and establish civil unions yesterday all but declared defeat, saying that Finneran's exit from Beacon Hill was the final straw in an effort that already was in trouble because the state has legalized same-sex marriage with little of the uproar predicted by opponents.

'It is pretty much over,' said Senate minority leader Brian P. Lees, a Springfield Republican who cosponsored the amendment with Finneran and Senate President Robert E. Travaglini. The House and Senate, sitting in a constitutional convention, must vote a second time in the next session before it could go to the voters on the 2006 ballot.

'In fact, there will be a question as to whether the issue will come up at all,' Lees said. He said the issue has faded to the 'back burners of Massachusetts politics,' because few problems have surfaced with the implementation of the Supreme Judicial Court's decision to legalize gay marriage."

And now, what will all the rest of the naysayers in other states make of this? The world didn't come to an end.

Tell me how this is not problematic "for fair and balanced coverage" of the first debate. Fox News will be doing the camerawork for the debate on Thursday, feeding for all the major nets (NYT): "Debate commission officials also said they could not and would not enforce the agreement's stipulation that network cameras refrain from showing Mr. Bush when Mr. Kerry was speaking, and vice versa.
'There are certain things that are clearly beyond our control,' said Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., a co-chairman of the commission. 'We don't control the feed so we don't know what the networks are going to show; that's not within our purview.'

Paul Schur, a spokesman for the Fox News Channel, which is telecasting the first debate on Thursday for the major news networks planning to carry it, said, 'Because of journalistic standards, we're not going to follow outside restrictions.'"

U.S. crude rises to a record $50.17. And the world is safer too.

Now we know why GWB doesn't like non-scripted events. The first part of his interview with Bill O'Reilly aired tonight, and it's official... the president is a moron.

Crackpipe hit #1:
O’REILLY: If they're dumb questions, look that's just dumb. Um, the first one is, according to a poll taken by the Coalition Authority last spring, only five percent of the Iraqi people see the United States as liberators. Are you surprised they don’t appreciate the American sacrifice more?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I, I think they're beginning to, appreciate the sacrifice, because the country is getting better. It’s tougher than heck right now, because Zarqawi (search) and some of these former Baathists are killing innocent Iraqis and killing our soldiers in order to try to get us to leave. Um, I also saw a poll where it said by far the vast majority of the Iraqis believe the world is getting better. And that's positive. In other words, people are beginning to see progress. Electricity is better, schools are opening, hospitals are running. Um, I think when it’s all said and done, the Iraqis are going to look back and say thank God for America.

And what poll was he looking at?

Crackpipe Hit #2:

O’REILLY: How long is it going to take before that happens, do you think?

PRESIDENT BUSH: You know, it’s uh, as soon as possible. Now, I think the elections are going to have uh, uh you know, a very positive effect, and they take place in January, and, but the people want to vote.

O’REILLY: But can they vote when people are being blown up,

PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah.

O’REILLY: And these guys are threatening them, then they vote,

PRESIDENT BUSH: That's when you're supposed to vote. You’ve got to stand tough with these terrorists. You cannot allow the terrorists to dictate whether or not a society can be free or not.

In all fairness, I'm reading this back and, as bad as it reads, it was a hell of a lot worse seeing him speak this. He looked completely out of his depth. O'Reilly deadpanned most of this interview, especially on the tough questions. Now, on Saddam and WMD. He is truly lost...

Crackpipe Hit #3:
O’REILLY: What happened to Saddam’s chemical arsenal, do you know?

PRESIDENT BUSH: No. I don’t. We thought we’d have stockpiles, uh, we do know he had the capability of making weapons. And that capability could have been passed on to terrorists, and that was a risk, after 9/11, we could not afford to take.

And now, he describes how he will now prevent Iran from developing NU-CU-LAR weapons.

Crackpipe Hit #4:
O’REILLY: Iran. Uh, said yesterday, hey, we’re going to develop this nuclear stuff, we don’t care what you think. You ready to use military force against Iran if they continue to defy the world on nuclear?

PRESIDENT BUSH: My hope is that we can solve this diplomatically.

O’REILLY: But if you can’t.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, let me try to solve it diplomatically first. All options are on the table, of course, in any situation. But diplomacy is the first option.

O’REILLY: Would you allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon?

PRESIDENT BUSH: We, we are working our hearts out so that they don’t develop a nuclear weapon, and the best way to do so is to continue to keep international pressure on them.

O’REILLY: Is it conceivable that you would allow them to develop a nuclear weapon?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Uh, no, we’ve made it clear, our position is that they won’t have a nuclear weapon.

O’REILLY: Period.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah.

The draft is around the corner...

Then there was a long excruciating exchange about the lack of any border control between the US and Mexico, and trust me, it's worth going to the site and reading, because Bush contradicts himself on so many levels it's amazing.

The NEW Draft....get ready for it:

This time Selective Service System (SSS) regulations have been changed. This time, as SSS states, 'a college student could have his induction postponed only until the end of the current semester. A senior could be postponed until the end of the full academic year.' Canada will no longer welcome anti-draft people. A new SSS plan, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last May, proposes raising the age of draft registration to 34 years old, up from 25, and possibly including women as well. People with special skills, such as computers, foreign languages, medical training and the like, will also be subject to being drafted. In effect, if approved, it will be a universal draft where everyone, including the kids of the rich and powerful, will allegedly be eligible to serve in the military.

But remember this: No congressional son was drafted during the Vietnam War and today there are virtually no congressional sons or daughters serving as enlisted combat personnel in Iraq. Since 9/11, it is almost impossible to name a single prominent pro-Iraq war activist, those who demand an all-out war against terrorism, whose son or daughter has enlisted for active military duty.

However, queers have nothing to fear. The government doesn't want us.

Bush, are you listening? The King of Jordan thinks there will be chaos if elections are held in Iraq in Jan. Moreover, he thinks it will result in even more extremist takeover of the country.

Jordan's King Abdullah has said it will be impossible to hold fair elections in Iraq in the current state of chaos.

He told the French newspaper Le Figaro that only extremists would gain if the elections went ahead in January without the security situation improving.

Correspondents say these were remarkably frank comments from a man Washington regards as one of its key allies in the Middle East.

Ohio rejects 1000s of voter registration applications due to paper weight (DKos). Is this out of control? This is complete bullshit.

When voter registration applications were maintained for years and used to verify signatures for petitions a requirement that the cards be on 80 lb. stock paper was adopted in Ohio, that law remains on the books. Since the applications are now scanned for preservation, there is no current need to continue that requirement. Today the only time that the heavy weight paper becomes an issue is when the new voter uses the application as a postcard. If heavy paper isn't used for postcards the machinery jams at the Post Office.

In the final days before the registration deadline Ken Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State, has ordered the local election boards to send out new applications to applicants who have submitted registrations on the wrong paper. The ostensible reason for this order is to insure that the applications can make it through the postal system without being damaged. The Secretary didn't point to any examples of voters who were stupid enough to mail regular weight paper as a postcard, nor did he cite examples of complaints from the Postal Service that this has been a problem. Never mind also that the applications he wants thrown out have already been delivered to the election boards safely.

The local boards have been bombarded with applications and will be unable to comply with Blackwell's order before the deadline to register to vote for this November's election.

This outrage in a swing state is unbelievable. Call 614-466-2585 to let them have it.

The latest in a string of gay GOP hypocrite unveilings is buzzing from BlogActive today. Apparently it's the #2 guy guy at the RNC, Daniel Gurley (Jay Bunning, the RNC CFO was outed last week --- what is it with these people?!). Gurley confirmed his homo status with BlogActive's Mike Rogers on the phone.

: Lately, I never know what will happen when I call one of these gays responsible for gay bashing. But much to my surprise, Daniel Gurley, the NUMBER TWO POLITICAL OPERATIVE at the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE completely confirmed for me on the phone that yes, he's gay. Now, I know some readers have a tough time connecting the guy who manages all the money to the political hate...but could it be any clearer in this case? This man is paid, blogACTIVE readers, to supervise campaigns in the field and what a field day against gays he has been having! Unreal! You can read all about the phone call to Gurley over at Raw Story and Blue Lemur.

And here are some tidbits from the Raw Story:

Gurley said he would not speak about anti-gay marriage flyers the party admitted mailing in the south. As National Field Director, he would have a hand in political mailings. During the call, he repeatedly stressed that he had nothing to say about party politics.

“I have no comment to make about anything,” he said. “I have no comment about my work, or what I do.”

He did, however, intimate that he might not agree with some of the party’s tenets.

“I, like anyone else, have policy disagreements with any number of elected officials,” Gurley said. “I don’t expect to agree with everything that everybody says.”

Dumbass, you may not agree with their policies...so stop working to make their policies succeed!

Are they sh*tting us? Who will we fight with in Syria and Iran, cub scouts? :

Deep in the Pentagon, admirals and generals are updating plans for possible U.S. military action in Syria and Iran. The Defense Department unit responsible for military planning for the two troublesome countries is 'busier than ever,' an administration official says.

Looks like little Jenna takes after Pop.

Stumbling drunk Jenna Bush spotted in skanky DC bar. AmericaBlog's John Aravosis has a scoop -- one of the sources for this story is someone he knows.

My source, who was out for drinks at Smith's Point bar in Georgetown, described the bar that night:
"It's gross, it's disgusting, it's the grossest bar ever, you would never go there if you weren't either wasted or stupid. The place is like a crawling Republican hangout - they all look like Tucker Carlson, it's like a bad frat boy party. The guys that hang out there are reeking of money, it smells like puke and looks like a basement."

Ok then, sounds like a place ready-made for the Bush family.

My source, who says she was at the bar with a few friends waiting to meet another friend, suddenly saw someone walk by:

"I was standing by the back bar, standing a couple feet away from the bar, and this guy with a Bush/Cheney trucker hat comes by. I noticed him dragging the hand of some girl, and thought 'holy shit' that's Jenna Bush. It was obvious it was her, I knew it was her the minute she walked by. She looked just like she looks on TV, she had on jeans and a tank top."
"She was drinking Budweiser and smoking Marlboro Reds. She was incoherent, that's how drunk she was. She was holding court in back, trying to be inconspicuous. She was so drunk she couldn't even sit up, her friend dragged her to the back of the bar stumbling because she couldn't' walk on her own. She then proceeded to take more shots because, like, that's what this girl really needed at this point was more liquor."

"Later, we walked out through the back and her friend with the bad trucker hat, he was kind of like shielding her from everyone, by this point people had realized it was her. Jenna starts shoving her hand in her face to kind of cover it up, meanwhile she's so disheveled cuz she's wasted.

"She definitely liked the firewater."

Jimmy Carter blows the whistle on the likelihood voting in Florida in 2004 is going to be no less corrupt that it was in 2000. WP:

"After the debacle in Florida four years ago, former president Gerald Ford and I were asked to lead a blue-ribbon commission to recommend changes in the American electoral process. After months of concerted effort by a dedicated and bipartisan group of experts, we presented unanimous recommendations to the president and Congress. The government responded with the Help America Vote Act of October 2002. Unfortunately, however, many of the act's key provisions have not been implemented because of inadequate funding or political disputes.

The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now seems likely, even as many other nations are conducting elections that are internationally certified to be transparent, honest and fair.

...Four years ago, the top election official, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, was also the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney state campaign committee. The same strong bias has become evident in her successor, Glenda Hood, who was a highly partisan elector for George W. Bush in 2000. Several thousand ballots of African Americans were thrown out on technicalities in 2000, and a fumbling attempt has been made recently to disqualify 22,000 African Americans (likely Democrats), but only 61 Hispanics (likely Republicans), as alleged felons.

The top election official has also played a leading role in qualifying Ralph Nader as a candidate, knowing that two-thirds of his votes in the previous election came at the expense of Al Gore. She ordered Nader's name be included on absentee ballots even before the state Supreme Court ruled on the controversial issue.

Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, naturally a strong supporter of his brother, has taken no steps to correct these departures from principles of fair and equal treatment or to prevent them in the future.

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Pam :: permalink

I almost cannot fathom how weird this election cycle is. With all of the outings and hypocrisy and truly unbelievable revelations, this one is particularly bizarre...Alan Keyes's daughter is a lesbian. DKos has a thread on it, as does Chillinois (with pictures). Apparently Maya Keyes has a public blog out there and isn't hiding the fact that she's queer and has a girlfriend. What's strange is how could her dad be the biggest homophobe in the world. After all, he raises money (for his losing campaign), specifically on a virulent anti-gay stance.

Alan Keyes, September 1, 2004:
But as I said to someone the other day, if my own daughter were a homosexual or a lesbian, I would love my daughter, but I would tell my daughter that she was in sin. And I would love her and pray for her and try to open her heart to the truth of God's intention for her life. That's what I would do.

And the Keyes' do know...from her blog, also excerpted by Chillinois:

Third, my parents and I were seriously not getting along and so we needed some time off from each other; the idea was that after a year of being a wonderful good helping-the-poor type person they would once again like me and therefore be willing to pay for my college I'm not so sure that part of it will work; despite the fact that I'm all about working for global justice THEY don't care about that, THEY only care that I am an evil dyke.

Apparently she took down her site last night (or at least all that was "incriminating"). The pix are on AmericaBlog.

So, Bush wants to turn over Iraq security to people like this:

The US military announced yesterday that it had arrested a top Iraqi National Guard commander in Tikrit, accusing him of working with the insurgency. It was the most serious publicized confirmation so far that the growing resistance movement, which US officials admitted yesterday is fanning out from bases in Fallujah and Baghdad, has infiltrated the top echelons of Iraq's new security forces.

***



Big thanks to FreewayBlogger for putting up the above sign. The regulars at AmericaBlog gave suggestions for a sign, and "Can you feel a draft" won.

Jim Cooper, AP

Bush apparently sat down with Bill O'Reilly and expected a free ride. The interviews air starting tomorrow, and the whispers are that Shrub was on the defense and he didn't like it. Can't wait to see it. Advance word from Tom Watson's blog:

Just caught a clip of Bill O'Reilly's upcoming interview with President Bush, during a profile of the sometimes nasty Fox talking head on 60 Minutes. This could be a big one, a take-down from the right. The interview was taped last week to be presented pre-debate this week and in what I saw, O'Reilly slams a clearly angry President into silence on WMDs and Iraq. Kos already has a post on it. Bush really doesn't do defense very well; remember when McCain slammed him on the attack ads in South Carolina? ...I'm frankly surprised the Rove machine let the President sit down with the bull terrier - didn't they know he turned on the Iraq policy (like Pat Buchanan and many other conservatives) months ago?

Nova Scotia approves gay marriage. Andrew Sullivan puts it into context with the fight for it in the U.S. nicely:

Yet another Canadian province allows gays to marry. I know this sounds esoteric, but Canada does make a difference here for the U.S. It's country deeply intermeshed with this one; it is relatively easy for gay couples to go there, get married and come back with an even deeper sense of their own equality. And the psychological impact of having your relationship affirmed and supported is profound. The truth is: there is no real struggle over whether gays will get married in this country. They are and they will. Gay marriage is a social fact. What is disputed is whether society will accord these relationships any legal validity, whether such couples will live constantly with the threat of their de facto marriages being derailed by the meddling of hostile relatives, using Republican-sponsored law to undermine them and break them up. Canada and the rest of the civilized world adds a huge amount of weight to the gay side of the debate. It shows gay couples that many parts of America are the exception, not the rule. And the idea of marriage as both imaginable and a right will percolate down to the next gay generation and make marriage seem a no-brainer. That goes for younger straights, as well, who already have very few issues with two dudes loving each other and living together as a married couple. What I'm saying, I guess, is that this social movement is unstoppable. All you can do is persecute, harass and marginalize those who are a part of it. But you can't stop them loving one another, or committing to each other, or getting actual marriage licenses (from Canada) that will reinforce the revolution. For a long time, I urged conservatives to co-opt this social change rather than resist it. For the most part, I failed. But the real victims of this, in the very long run, will not be gays. It will be conservatives."

The man is a sociopath. The most miserably embarrassing photo op in history -- "Mission Accomplished" (and I know Mike Dukakis in a tank was awful in its own way), is something Bush would do all over again. This is going to air on the O'Reilly Factor. (Reuters)

President Bush said he had no regrets about donning a flight suit to give his "Mission Accomplished" speech on Iraq in May 2003 and would do it all over again if he had the chance, according to excerpts from an television interview released on Sunday.

When asked by Fox News if he still would have put on a flight suit to declare major combat operations in Iraq over, Bush replied, "Absolutely."

When Bush gave his May 1 speech fewer than 150 Americans had died in the war. Since then more than 900 have died. Amid a rising U.S. death toll and a rash of abductions and beheadings in Iraq, some members of Bush's own Republican Party have criticized him for not doing enough to secure insurgent areas in Iraq sooner.

But Bush said he also did not regret the decision to withdraw U.S. forces from the rebel stronghold of Falluja earlier this year because he believed the conflict there could have jeopardized the June handover of sovereignty to Iraqis.

In response to Bush's remarks, Kerry ripped him a new one:

Kerry, arriving in Madison, Wisconsin for debate preparations, called the statement "unbelievable."

"I will never be a president who just says mission accomplished. I will get the mission accomplished," said the Massachusetts senator. "That's the difference."

Michael and his mother and nephew (WP photo).

Wow. The WP followed a gay teenager in Oklahoma to give people an idea of what it is like to come out in "unfriendly territory." This first article, In the Bible Belt, Acceptance Is Hard-Won, is quite amazing and powerful.

While the rest of the country is debating same-sex marriage, Michael's America is still dealing with the basics. There are no rainbow flags here. No openly gay teacher at the high school. There is just the wind knifing down the plains, and people praying over their lunches in the yellow booths at Subway. Michael loves this place, but can it still be home? What if the preachers and the country music songs are right?

...The gay revolution hit the buckle of the Bible Belt with a clang. The sweeping changes of 2003 -- the U.S. Supreme Court decriminalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults and the Massachusetts high court legalizing same-sex marriage in that state -- pushed gays more toward the mainstream than ever. If the revolution was coming, Oklahoma aimed to stop it. In the first weeks of Oklahoma's 2004 legislative session, 10 anti-gay bills were introduced, including one to ban gay marriage and another to prohibit the recognition of out-of-state adoptions by same-sex couples.

...For Michael Shackelford, blond and earnest, the question of salvation is a serious one. But his concerns about eternal life are eclipsed by the here and now of being a gay teenager in the rural town of Sand Springs, west of Tulsa. There are only a handful of openly gay students at Charles Page High, and they are subject to ridicule and vandalism. This year, they also became a convenient outlet for the fury against gay marriage, which is why Michael wanted to keep his sexuality a secret.

...While the rest of the country is laughing over "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," Michael stops using the restroom during the seven-hour school day.

...Brent Wimmer has a shelf of ribbons for raising purebred show chickens and knows his way around a hog auction. He is 6-foot-2 and also the most unabashedly gay student at Charles Page High. Michael is in awe of Brent's outspokenness, but it frightens him, too. Brent has paid a price for being so open. He's been called to the front of his church to have demons cast out of him. Someone sent a mailbox crashing through his living room window. His car gets egged and scraped with keys in the student parking lot. Nothing seems to stop him.

Please go read the whole article.

Alright. If this doesn't get your hackles up, nothing will. Are these poor people supposed to be cannon fodder? The Army plans to send 800 Reservists over to Iraq with no weapons and no vehicles.

About 800 members of the 98th Army Reserve Division from Rochester, New York will begin a year-long mission in Iraq next month.

The unit, which normally trains reserve and active-duty soldiers in the U.S., will find itself training Iraq’s new army.

The 98th is a non-combat unit that doesn't even have its own weapons or vehicles.

"This is a hard war and we, frankly, inside the Army Reserve have been not properly prepared for it,” said Lt. Gen. James Helmly, chief of the U.S. Army Reserve.

George Stephanopoulos of ABC's This Week, today asked Colin Powell about a return to the draft, and the answer was: "There is no need for a draft at this point." Reassuring, eh? It gets better as he's asked about the conditions in Iraq:

George Stephanopoulos: Is it getting worse?

Sec. Colin Powell: Yes, its getting worse and the reason it is getting worse is that they are determined to disrupt the election. They do not want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free, democratic election. And because it's getting worse, we will have to increase our efforts to defeat it, not walk away and pray and hope for something else to happen.

***

Meanwhile, on Meet the Press, the US head of military operations, General Abizaid was bobbing and weaving about the level of violence and the ability to have elections in January: "I also think we're going to have to fight our way all the way through elections, and there will be a lot of violence between now and then."

More power to the FreewayBlogger...


"The Freeway Blogger gets his anti-war message to the people one sign at a time"

The also site notes that an academy award-winning filmmaker is producing a documentary about freewayblogging and the new wave of high-profile individual free speech.

Gary Bauer's obsession with gay marriage is laughable.

Look at this ridiculous anti-Kerry commercial. (Thanks to AmericaBlog for that tip).

I really feel sorry for queer folks in the state of Virginia. They've got Bauer and Falwell cultivating hate, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and quite a few "ex-gay" ministries based there. And now, any "partnership contract or other arrangements that purport to provide the benefits of marriage." has been invalidated by the recent Marriage Affirmation Act.

My state, NC, is sandwiched between some seriously homophobic states (VA/SC). I mean SC has the freaking Christian Exodus movement, which is funny/sad in itself. That's a fertile area for Bauer's commercials.

The world has indeed turned upside down...gay homophobe David Dreier, up for re-election in CA was outed this week. But the NEW news is that his challenger has just acknowledged she is a lesbian. So we have a head-to-head race here, two queers, one out and proud, the other being dragged from his closet with a long record of anti-gay votes. Raw Story and Blogactive are covering this.

BlogActive:

The state of California is once again making history in the struggle for gay and lesbian equality. The U.S. House race in the state's 26th district is the first time in American history that both major political parties are fielding out gay or lesbian candidates. Cynthia Matthews (D) has been out and in a loving relationship with her partner of eleven years, while incumbent David Dreier (R) was recently outed in the LA Weekly and will be the subject of a Hustler Magazine article due out this fall.

As usual, RAW STORY is on top of the latest developments with a link to John Byrne's BLUE LEMUR. This story is of particular interest to people who live in Washington, DC. While Dreier was voting against gay and lesbian residents in the nation's capital, Cynthia Matthews was living an honest and open life in her congressional district.

Raw Story:

In a surprising twist to an already unusual California congressional race, the Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican Congressman David Dreier has told RAW STORY that she is a lesbian, and has made a series of conditional statements rebuking Dreier’s position on gay issues while concurrently questioning the payment arrangements with his chief of staff Brad Smith.

Her statement makes this the first known time in history an openly gay candidate has run against another candidate also believed to be gay. The L.A. Times, presented with this information, has said they are not planning a story.

Democrat Cynthia Matthews, who has not kept her sexuality secret from the press, said Saturday that she was proud of her relationship with her same-sex partner.

“I have been in an eleven year relationship with my partner,” Matthews said, “and refuse to run for office if I would be required to relegate my partner to the closet.”

While not rendering judgment on the veracity of the allegations against Dreier – that he has led a closeted 24-year tenure in Congress while concurrently voting against gay civil rights, and that he lived with his chief of staff whom he pays an unusually high salary – Matthews condemned Dreier’s positions on gay issues.

If the allegations are true, she added, Dreier should be ashamed.

...“If David Dreier is gay, it is absolutely shameful to me that he would amass a 24-year voting record against his own community,” Matthews said. “I am saddened that David Dreier has voted against funding housing for people with AIDS and that he has denied AIDS medications to impoverished Americans – those who are most in need of these life-saving drugs.”

Dreier’s former challenger, Democrat Janice Nelson, has said that she was aware Dreier was living with his chief of staff, but chose not to make an issue of it during her 2000 campaign.

Dave Dreier looks like a real loser now. He's got nowhere to hide now; she needs to talk about this to all the media for the rest of the campaign. She blew up what was remaining of the closet he had for shelter. His integrity and honesty regarding his record concerning gay rights are legitimate campaign issues, as is the "honey on the payroll" problem.

More power to her!

Sumner "liberal Democrat" Redstone, head of Viacom, CBS's massa, endorses Bush and spikes the CBS Iraq piece.

The Naked Truth about the death of big media journalism. CBS is spiking its story on Iraq because Viacom head endorses Bush.

Yesterday, the chairman of CBS's parent company chose Hong Kong as a place to drop a little bomb. Sumner Redstone, who calls himself a "liberal Democrat," said he's supporting President Bush.

The chairman of the entertainment giant Viacom said the reason was simple: Republican values are what U.S. companies need. Speaking to some of America's and Asia's top executives gathered for Forbes magazine's annual Global CEO Conference, Mr. Redstone declared: "I look at the election from what's good for Viacom. I vote for what's good for Viacom. I vote, today, Viacom.

"I don't want to denigrate Kerry," he went on, "but from a Viacom standpoint, the election of a Republican administration is a better deal. Because the Republican administration has stood for many things we believe in, deregulation and so on. The Democrats are not bad people. . . . But from a Viacom standpoint, we believe the election of a Republican administration is better for our company."

Sharing the stage with Mr. Redstone was Steve Forbes, CEO, president and editor in chief of Forbes and a former Republican presidential aspirant, who quipped: "Obviously you're a very enlightened CEO."

Also, here is MSNBC/Newsweek on CBS's spike: The Story That Didn't Run

As harsh as it sounds, I have to agree with Ted Rall, that there are some citizens that just shouldn't vote. They are too stupid, uninformed and unengaged.

--"Kerry doesn't know what the working-class people do; he hasn't done any physical labor all his life," Sharon Alfman, a 51-year-old cook in New Lexington, Ohio, told a New York Times reporter. It's true. Kerry is a rich boy. But then she added: "Bush's values are middle-class family values."

George W. Bush earned $727,000 last year. Estimates of his net worth range between $9 and $26 million. Middle class he most assuredly is not. Working class he never has been. Like fellow Skull and Bones member John Kerry, man of the people he never will be. But it matters that Sharon Altman thinks he is. Unless you too are a voter living in a swing state like Ohio, her vote counts more than yours.

Demonstrating that stupefying ignorance can be bipartisan, another Ohioan interviewed for the same article said she is against the war in Iraq because, like 42 percent of her fellow Americans, she thinks Iraq was behind 9/11: "We shouldn't be over there building them back up because they didn't build our towers back up." She is wrong on so many levels that it makes my brain hurt.

...A 2002 poll found that 64 percent of Americans--people whose votes help determine how much you pay in taxes--could not name a single Supreme Court justice. In 2003, 58 percent--people whose votes could elect someone who starts a nuclear war--couldn't identify a single department of the president's cabinet. Voters aged 18 to 24, whose recent schooling ought to inspire confidence in their knowledge of basic facts, are especially ignorant. National Geographic says that 85 percent of young American adults can't find Afghanistan, Iraq or Israel on a map.

The fact that these yahoos are allowed to vote is an abomination. Their ill-considered ballots cancel or dilute those cast by those who do the heavy lifting that makes them good citizens: keeping abreast of current events, researching issues, studying candidates' positions.

In the Old South, literacy tests were used to disenfranchise blacks. Alternatively, a basic political literacy test should be used to ensure that anyone who picks ESPN over CNN--regardless of race or creed--stays home on Election Day. Prospective voters should be required to answer at least three of the following questions correctly; to give people a fair shot, the test should be published in newspapers a week before an election:

1. Who is the vice president?

2. What is your state capital?

3. Name one of the following: your governor, congressman or one senator.

4. What is the capital of the United States?

5. Name one federal cabinet-level department.

Of course, such a political literacy test would drastically reduce voter turnout. On the other hand, those who pass could take comfort in knowing that they're not competing against the 60 percent of Americans who think we've found Iraq's imaginary WMDs, or the 22 percent who "believe" that Saddam Hussein used such weapons against U.S. troops during the 2003 invasion.

Amen.

This is the latest reason why you cannot trust mainstream media for your news. NYT: '60 Minutes' Delays Report Questioning Reasons for Iraq War. CBS caves, saying that a "60 Minutes" segment that questioned Bush administration rationales for going to war in Iraq. won't air until after the election. "We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election," the spokeswoman, Kelli Edwards, said in a statement.

WTF is this? If you're going to expose lies and deceit about a current administration's reasoning for getting into a war where citizens are dying, why is it in the best interest of the public not to know the information beforehand. This is bullshit garbage.

The gay news roundup...

1) Kerry explains his position on gay marriage in his first post-convention interview with the gay press. Apparently there were restrictions, according to the Wash Blade; Kerry’s presidential campaign negotiated a 15-minute interview with the local gay press, and a 15-minute interview with Advocate magazine. Kerry:

I think, you know, and I’ve said this before, I think marriage raises a different issue in the minds of a lot of people because of its deep religious foundations and institutional structure as the oldest institution in the world.

It is the oldest institution in the world — older than country, older than our form of government, older than most forms of government. And people view it differently.

What’s important to me is not the terminology or the status; what’s important to me are the rights. The rights. That you shouldn’t be discriminated against in your right to visit a partner in the hospital. You shouldn’t be discriminated against in your right to leave property to somebody, if that’s what you want. You shouldn’t be discriminated against if you have a civil union relationship that affords you the same rights.

Now I think that’s a huge step. There’s never been a candidate for president who has stood up and said I think we should fight for those things. And you’ve got to progress. Even that, I take huge hits for.

And you know, I stood up on the floor of the Senate and voted against DOMA because I thought it was gay bashing on the floor of the United States Senate. I was one of 14 votes. The only person running for reelection who did that.

2) Also in the Wash Blade, the damn third round of FMA is up for a vote in the house on September 30.

The move could finally put an end to more than a year of back-and-forth from House committee rooms to chambers regarding the contentious amendment’s future, marked by sharp protests, cancelled hearings, cancelled votes, bizarre alliances and an outing campaign.

But if defeated as expected, the amendment is expected to make an appearance in the campaign platforms of many conservatives and most likely on the House floor again next year, with its supporters vowing to resurrect it until it passes.

The most recent round of political posturing over H.J. Resolution 56, also known as the Federal Marriage Amendment, which Rep. Marilyn Musgrave introduced in May 2003, began Friday, Sept. 17, with both sides vowing to prevail on the vote. But despite the rhetoric, legislative experts predict a photo finish for the FMA.

Entitled “Battle for Marriage III,” the multimedia event broadcast from the First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., featured Dobson arguing that legalization of same-sex marriage would “seriously threaten religious freedom” and force schools to teach homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle.

3) More news from the Blade...

Blair wobbles on vote for civil unions. British Prime Minister Tony Blair last week delayed a vote on ‘civil partnerships’ to accommodate the born-again Christian preacher who leads Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party.

Spain to approve gay marriage Oct. 1. In a plan that has outraged church leaders in this traditionally Catholic country, Spain’s Socialist government will approve gay marriage at an Oct. 1 cabinet meeting, according to a party leader, Reuters reported. “The cabinet ... is going to approve the change to the civil code so that people of the same sex can marry. Why are we doing this? Because people have to be in charge of their own destiny,” Jose Blanco, a top member of the Socialist party, told participants in a rally Sunday, Reuters reported.

Manitoba became the fourth Canadian province to legalize same-sex marriage. when a judge last week declared the province’s current definition of marriage unconstitutional. Courts legalized gay marriage in the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec in 2003 and in the Yukon Territory in July.

Czech Republic leaders near vote on same-sex unions. Political leaders are set to debate a new measure later this month that would allow civil unions for same-sex couples, the Prague Post reported. The measure was approved upon its first reading in June, and the debate and second reading later this month are considered important milestones for the bill, according to the Post. Christian Democrats oppose the legislation, but a top party official said the legislation likely still will be successful, the Post reported.

4) The head of Georgia's branch of the Christian Coalition has a gay daughter. Sadie Fields, state chair of the Christian Coalition of Georgia, shepherded a constitutional ban on gay marriage through the General Assembly earlier this year — despite having a lesbian daughter.

Fields is estranged from her daughter, Tess Fields, 35, who now lives in Portland, Ore., with her partner and child, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Political Insider column on Sept. 20.

“I want to confirm my existence,” Tess Fields told the newspaper, noting that she did not want to engage in a public battle with her mother.

Contacted by Southern Voice, Tess Fields had only one statement.

“I hope that Georgians don’t let hate and bigotry divide their state the same way they have divided my family,” she said.

Sadie Fields did not respond to interview requests by press time, but told the AJC the proposed amendment “is about doing what’s right, regardless of the pain.”

5) Gay baiting in U.S. House race in TX. Houston Voice Online: Congressman Nick Lampson’s campaign to keep his seat in the U.S. House slid into the mud this week when a billboard went up overnight in Beaumont proclaiming, “Nick Lampson supports homosexual marriage. Do you?”

The billboard directs readers to a Web site, www.liberallampson.com, where the headline reads, “Why Rep. Nick Lampson is ‘bought and paid for’ by the homosexual lobby.”

Apparently flight boy has some more records that were released.

Reuters reports that the Defense Department said this latest round of documents had already been released in 2000 by the National Guard Bureau in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, but none of the documents contain substantial info.

My thought is that these documents couldn't possibly be stored with any care; they just trickle out as if some joe blow is in the back room and comes across a document from behind the copier or something. I can also visualize the episodes of the X-Files where the Smoking Man enters a cavernous vault at the Pentagon where all the papers and files are stored...maybe these Bush files were back there with the pickled alien baby.

Sully pointed to an unhinged Chuck Colson article in Christianity Today Magazine on why gay Americans achieving more civil rights is taunting the terrorists into action.

Radical Islamists were surely watching in July when the Senate voted on procedural grounds to do away with the Federal Marriage Amendment. This is like handing moral weapons of mass destruction to those who use America's decadence to recruit more snipers and hijackers and suicide bombers. One vital goal of the war in Iraq, and the war against terrorism, is to bring democracy to the heart of the Islamic world. Our hope is to make freedom so attractive that other Muslim countries will follow suit. But when radical Islamists see American women abusing Muslim men, as they did in the Abu Ghraib prison, and when they see news coverage of same-sex couples being "married" in U.S. towns, we make our kind of freedom abhorrent—the kind they see as a blot on Allah's creation. Preserving traditional marriage in order to protect children is a crucially important goal by itself. But it's also about protecting the United States from those who would use our depravity to destroy us.

One must remember that back in those Watergate days, when he served as special counsel to Tricky Dick Nixon, "Colson sought to hire Teamsters thugs to beat up anti-war demonstrators, and he plotted to raid or firebomb the Brookings Institution. He eventually pleaded guilty to scheming to defame Daniel Ellsberg and interfering with his trial. In 1974, Colson served seven months in federal prison." (David Plotz, Slate). A real clear sense of morality. Just declare yourself born again, and all the rest doesn't matter. Whatever.

Big Surprise...The National Guard falls short of recruiting goal this year. And guess what...they're going to come after high schoolers. Can you feel the draft...

Army Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said in an interview at his Pentagon office that the shortfall for the budget year ending Sept. 30 is likely to be about 5,000 soldiers. That is a little more than 1% of the total Army Guard force of 350,000.

The Guard had set a goal of 56,000 recruits for the year but is likely to end up with about 51,000, he said.

As a result, Blum said he will increase the number of recruiters and put more effort into targeting young people in high school and college who have not previously served in the military.

...Blum said he sees two main reasons why the Guard is attracting fewer soldiers from the active-duty force — a pool of recruits that in some states accounts for half of the total new Guard members in a given year.

One reason is that the active-duty Army is prohibiting soldiers in units that are in Iraq or Afghanistan, or are preparing to deploy there, from leaving the service, even if their enlistment term is up. Thus the number who might consider moving into the Guard has shrunk temporarily.

The other reason, Blum said, is that active-duty soldiers are aware that a growing number of Guard units are being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus they figure there is little to be gained, in terms of reduced personal risk, by switching from active duty to the Guard.

Boy, been busy at work and out this evening and there's oodles to blog about...

1) NYT: Republicans Admit Mailing Campaign Literature Saying Liberals Will Ban the Bible. The RNC finally fessed up to having sent out the hateful mailings to WV and Arkansas implying a Kerry election means banning the bible and approving gay marriage.

It said the mailings were part of its effort to mobilize religious voters for President Bush.

...In an e-mail message, Christine Iverson, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, confirmed that the party had sent the mailings.

Another note on this, Sully actually acknowledges the blogs broke this one.

BANNING BIBLES: Yep, the RNC did it. I might add that blogs broke this story, although David Kirkpatrick refers only to a liberal religious group. Still: it's enlightening to see how the RNC peddles hysteria and homophobia to win votes. And not an apology in sight.

Damn straight on that, lol, pun intended. No comment from anyone of consequence at the RNC. Speaking of which...

2) BlogActive outs the head of finance for the RNC, Jay Banning. There's also more at The Raw Story. Among his duties:

Banning, as CFO and Director of Administration for the GOP, is responsible for all accounting systems, the administration of party headquarters, GOP security, personnel, information services, graphic services and executive secretariat services.

...Banning, who has collected more than $270 million for the Republican Party in the 2004 election cycle for the most explicitly anti-gay platform the party has held in history, said he has no problem with spending tens of millions of dollars to restrict the rights of a group he's part of.

"I don't seem to have a problem with it," he said. I'm not in the policy area.

Queried further, he remarked, "I don't make the policy.

Asked if he was familiar with the anti-gay marriage flyers mailed by the Republican National Committee in Arkansas and West Virginia which suggested that elected liberals would ban bibles and allow gay marriage, Banning said he "wasn't aware of that."

3) Tell me, how did we go from this: Rumsfeld Suggests Limited Iraq Election to this: Powell Deputy Says Elections Must Be 'Open to All' in Iraq in the course of one day? DKos has a thread on the Kerry rapid response to this desperate failure of the Bush camp to stay on message.

4) Atrios has a nice graphic depicting the flip-flopping, two-faced president:

Naomi Klein of The Nation writes an incredibly damning piece on the "reconstruction efforts" taking place in Iraq, and how the corporate thieves are cashing in on our tax dollars and have little to show for it. It's another outrage and reason why contractors are getting beheaded and kidnapped. The Iraqis are getting a raw deal, and you can see why:

Good news out of Baghdad: the Program Management Office, which oversees the $18.4bn in US reconstruction funds, has finally set a goal it can meet. Sure, electricity is below pre-war levels, the streets are rivers of sewage and more Iraqis have been fired than hired. But now the PMO has contracted the British mercenary firm Aegis to protect its employees from "assassination, kidnapping, injury and" - get this - "embarrassment". I don't know if Aegis will succeed in protecting PMO employees from violent attack, but embarrassment? I'd say mission already accomplished. The people in charge of rebuilding Iraq can't be embarrassed, because, clearly, they have no shame.
In the run-up to the June 30 underhand (sorry, I can't bring myself to call it a "handover"), US occupation powers have been unabashed in their efforts to steal money that is supposed to aid a war-ravaged people. The state department has taken $184m earmarked for drinking water projects and moved it to the budget for the lavish new US embassy in Saddam Hussein's former palace. Short of $1bn for the embassy, Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, said he might have to "rob from Peter in my fiefdom to pay Paul". In fact, he is robbing Iraq's people, who, according to a recent study by the consumer group Public Citizen, are facing "massive outbreaks of cholera, diarrhoea, nausea and kidney stones" from drinking contaminated water.

If the occupation chief Paul Bremer and his staff were capable of embarrassment, they might be a little sheepish about having spent only $3.2bn of the $18.4bn Congress allotted - the reason the reconstruction is so disastrously behind schedule.

But then, if financial scandals made you blush, the entire reconstruction of Iraq would be pretty mortifying. From the start, its architects rejected the idea that it should be a New Deal-style public works project for Iraqis to reclaim their country. Instead, it wa