John Moltz

Saletan

I haven't had the stomach to watch any of the convention yet, but William Saletan lets the hot air out of it.

Being There - What does 9/11 tell us about Bush? Nothing. (link via TAPPED)

But isn't it odd to see Republicans belittle the physical risks Kerry took in battle while exalting Bush's armchair wars and post-9/11 photo ops? Isn't it embarrassing to see Bob Dole, the GOP's previous presidential nominee, praise Bush's heroism while suggesting that Kerry's three combat wounds weren't bad enough to justify sending him home from Vietnam?

Watching the attacks on Kerry and the glorification of Bush reminds me of something Dole said in his speech to the Republican convention eight years ago. It was "demeaning to the nation," Dole argued, to be governed by people "who never grew up, never did anything real, never sacrificed, never suffered and never learned."

You tell me which of this year's presidential candidates that statement best describes.

Flip-flopper In Chief

Flip.

Flop.

So... what the hell's going on?

No, really, I've been on a boat in Alaska for a week and I have no idea.

OK. Well, it'll take a little time for me to catch up so be patient.

Plus, I got really used to someone mixing my drinks for me...

(Comments are back on line.)

Vacation

Off for a week of adventure. And, since I learned how to turn comments off for all posts, I'm going to do so to keep this place from being knee-deep in spam when I get back.

Have a good week!

Uuuuuuuh... huh.

So now Kerry's a hothead.

A... sort of monotone hothead... I guess. The kind of hothead that's... er... not easily riled.

Next week: the Bush campaign accuses Kerry of being too young to run for the office of President of the United States.

"He's actually a 14-year-old girl from Deluth," Scott McClellan will say.

(Where's the fairy imp when you need him?)

Was... was that it?!

Remember when Bush was supposed to come out swinging after the Democratic Convention?

Bush to Take Break During Dem. Convention

Bush plans to spend July 23-29 at his Crawford, Texas, ranch catching his breath before the campaign's home stretch, aides say.

Bush to ignore rivals' convention

Bush plans to charge back out to the campaign trail July 30, the day after the Democratic National Convention ends, heading straight to four battleground states in two days.

Well, after an exhausting two weeks of Shocking and Awing (as one Freeper comment I won't link to breathlessly expected) one campaign stop after another, it's back to Crawford for some much-needed rest!

Bush Begins Weeklong Stay at Texas Ranch

See, there was that one campaign stop... then there was the other one... and there was the Shock and the Awe at both of them... but now it's back to Crawford.

While Bush's rival, Democrat John Kerry, continues to campaign, the president is scheduled to be at his ranch for about a week, taking a break from re-election appearances. It's his 38th presidential trip to his ranch where he spends time outdoors fishing, clearing brush and exploring its rocky terrain, waterfalls and canyons. On Wednesday, he took a bike ride, and has been watching some of the Summer Olympics, McClellan said.

Wait... what? "Exploring its rocky terrain, waterfalls and canyons"? Who is he? Major Matt Mason?

Dramatic Sighting

Driving home from having dinner with my parents who are in town, I saw the PantsOnFire-mobile of PantsOnFire.net driving up and down Tacoma's Ruston Way waterfront. It's kind of a big anti-Bush Mardi Gras float that has the PantsOnFire.net URL on it and says "Don't get burned again."

I chased them for a while and took these dramatic photos with my cell phone that have sort of a David Lynch quality to them.

Fire. Walk with me.

The homosexual agenda revealed

Over at Eat Your Vegetables.

Will nothing stop these femi-lebo-nazis?! Won't somebody please think of the children?!

Whoa!

Tom Tomorrow reader has "issues"!

Me likey

Report: Bush Fails N.Y., Site of Republican Meet

The report, "Bush Misleads New York: A Four-Year Record of Failure," said the U.S. government had not provided enough money for counter-terrorism efforts in New York.

...

New York ranks 35th in per capita funding from the homeland security agency despite being the most populous city in the United States with eight million residents, and the place most frequently mentioned by security experts as a possible target for another attack by al Qaeda.

The report said the administration had cut funding for biological attack preparedness, firefighting equipment, personnel and the communications systems that hampered rescue efforts in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center, killing nearly 2,800 people.

In addition, it said ports were vulnerable because most of the millions of containers that enter the country were not inspected by the government. It described as inadequate Bush's proposal of $46 million for port security in 2005 compared with $4 billion over 5 years that Democrats in Congress call for.

Me love you long time, N.Y. Democrats!

Just in case anyone says "Dude, we're gettin' the Soviet Union back together!"

And doesn't anyone remember when those terrorists attacked us with intercontinental nuclear missiles on 9/11?!

Bush Defends Pursuit of Missile Defense System

Kerry Seen Cutting Spending on Missile Defense

It was in all the papers!

Whoops!

Ambrose thought I had banned him but in actuality I put a blank entry in the list of banned IP addresses, effectively banning everyone. It's fixed now.

I don't have a question, Mr. President, but can I touch the hem of your garment?

We've seen a lot of local stories about Bush's tight control of media events, but this is the first national story I've seen.

The thing that's somewhat aggrevating about this is that it's not something that started with the campaign, it's been going on for years.

Basically, Kerry fosters an environment of open debate, Bush tries to create the sense that all love and pray for Dear Leader, and his election in November is a fait accompli.

Which world do you want to live in?

Take those lemons and make lemonade!

Poll: Bush Tops Kerry As a Strong Leader

Ah, Will Lester. Doing the yeoman's work of the Bush campaign.

Yes, apparently we should ignore all those other categories where Kerry beats Bush - including, you know, who respondents said they were going to vote for - and focus on that one shining pro-Bush example.

Moving Day!

Yes, tempting fate, we moved on Friday the 13th. And a surly representative of Tacoma's Click! Network hooked us up and we're now enjoying the miracle of Airport on our fabulous back deck.

My feet are killing me and I smell bad. But food is here and I'm happy.

Swung on and belted in the corner!

Joey will score....HERE COMES JUNIOR...the throw WILL BE LATE! THE MARINERS WILL PLAY FOR THE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP!

So long, Edgar.

Thanks for the memories.

UPDATE: Looks like it's the end of the year, not immediately. Still, Edgar's time has been reduced in favor of Edgar and Jay Buhner's bastard love child, Bucky Jacobsen, who's hitting .321 with 6 HR in 16 games.

Results matter

And Bush has none to show (link via Daily Kos).

Gays have real ultimate power!

Republican senator reveals that (link via Atrios):

• Gays are mammals
• Gays have anal sex all the time
• The purpose of gays is to subvert our missionary position-only heterosexual nation

(For those of you who have not yet tasted real ultimate power, please go here.)

But what's with the equivalence between abortion and sex with multiple partners?

I mean, I don't speak from experience with either (assuming he means multiple as "at the same time"... that's what I like to think it means... oh, wow) but, from what I understand, sex with multiple partners is a lot more fun than an abortion.

And, again, correct me if I'm wrong, but how does intercourse between two people of the same sex promote abortion?

It's not just me, right? It's him, isn't it?

Cha-laaaaaaaaa-bi!

Josh Marshall on the arrest warrants for Ahmed and Salem Chalabi on charges of counterfeiting and murder, respectively (not to be confused with respectfully):

Salem, of course, remains head of the war crimes tribunal charged with trying Saddam Hussein and other leaders of the former regime. But the tribunal covers crimes committed under the former regime, not the present one. So perhaps there's no conflict.

Ha!

Again.

Flip.

Flop.

Ouch

Failure of Leadership (link via Atrios)

The failure of leadership that led to the bonehead decision to invade Iraq remains painfully evident today.

Flip

Flop.

Although, to be fair, it is perfectly in line with Bush's "got mine" philosophy.

Turning the corner

And... er... running into an oncoming train.

Job Growth Meager, Markets Stunned

Gosh, you mean tax cuts for the rich aren't the great job-creation engine everyone said they were?!

Wwwwwhoops

Clashes Threaten to Reignite Shi'ite Rising in Iraq

So much for Dear Leader's glorious victory via the shock and awe of appeasement over Moqtada al-Sadr.

George Orwell, please pick up the white curteousy phone.

The Justice Department was asking libraries to destroy certain books that explain how citizens can retrieve items that have been confiscated by the government (link via BoingBoing, which notes they have rescinded the order).

Sharp Reaction

This is a little late in coming, but I've finally had a chance to sit down and put together some reaction to Al Sharpton's speech at the convention and the clips of the MSNBC talking head reaction I saw on the Daily Show.

I remember seeing Sharpton defend Tawana Brawley back in the '80s, when both Reverend Sharpton and myself were somewhat younger. I remember feeling a smug sense of superiority because, punk-ass product of white suburbia that I was, it didn't occur to me that the police might do something illegal from time to time.

Rape a black girl? Is he crazy?

Well, not long ago an officer in the area forced a teenaged boy to masturbate in front of him in a holding cell. Raping a black girl has long since ceased to seem far fetched to me.

But, as it turned out, Sharpton was wrong. His big mistake - and not certainly his only mistake - was to vociferously stand up for someone who had no one else to stand up for her. Someone, it turned out, who was lying.

But read Sharpton's speech.

There is nothing he said that was not true.

Yet I saw Dorris Kearns Goodwin say that Sharpton was so "grating" that "you can't bear to listen" and nod sagely as Howard Fineman said it was "an insult to African American voters that they're giving as much time to this guy as they are" and that "he could actually turn off the black vote."

I can't believe I bought my wife that bitch's baseball book. No wonder she couldn't get through it.

As well as taking a writing class, Goodwin should also consider civics. From the transcript of the show the Daily Show took the clips from, she says that, because Sharpton hasn't been elected to any position, "these are words without any connection to a constituency." She goes on to blame the media for Sharpton.

Apparently Goodwin believes that if you don't make up 51% of a given population, you don't exist.

Meanwhile someone on Fox, the network next to Godliness, should call his clergyman and ask him what he does because he thinks the Reverend Sharpton "has never held a job."

I have no idea what part of Sharpton's speech offended these fuckers so much. Was it simply mentioning reparations? Personally, I found Goodwin's Member's Only jacket to be the truly grating thing.

Maybe it was just the way Sharpton said what he said. But, frankly, I don't know how you talk about the following without getting worked up.

Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we took Florida so seriously, is our right to vote wasn't gained because of our age. Our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs, soaked in the blood of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner, soaked in the blood of four little girls in Birmingham. This vote is sacred to us.

This vote can't be bargained away.

This vote can't be given away.

Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale.

...

And I wanted somebody in my community -- I wanted to show that example. As I ran for president, I hoped that one child would come out of the ghetto like I did, could look at me walk across the stage with governors and senators and know they didn't have to be a drug dealer, they didn't have to be a hoodlum, they didn't have to be a gangster, they could stand up from a broken home, on welfare, and they could run for president of the United States.

How dare he stand up for people who have no one else to stand up for them? The same people who the president's brother continues to try to cut from the voter rolls.

Yes. It's a damn shame the Democrats put this man up on the stage. John Edwards' tale is so much more palatable! So much whiter! Please take this intemperate black man from my sight before I come down with a case of the vapors!

Well, I'll let the man who makes the pundits uncomfortable have the last word:

Mr. President, we love America, not because all of us have seen the beauty all the time.

But we believed if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America beautiful for everybody.

Starting in November, let's make America beautiful again.

Hmm

Far be it from me to criticize those in power (huuuuh?), but in all this talk about creating an intelligence czar, has it occurred to anyone that we kinda sorta already have one of those, but it's just that she sucks?

Giving credit where credit is undue

The New York Times today:

Much of the information that led the authorities to raise the terror alert at several large financial institutions in the New York City and Washington areas was three or four years old, intelligence and law enforcement officials said on Monday.

Tom Ridge on Sunday:

But we must understand that the kind of information available to us today is the result of the President’s leadership in the war against terror.

Now, I'm no math major or, certainly, well versed in the quantum underpinnings of space, time and dimension, but it seems unreasonable to expect that Bush should get much credit for ringing a conveniently timed alarm about terrorist threats we've known about since before 9/11.

Unless Ridge meant that ironically. Was he rolling his eyes when he said it?

Oh, yeah... the president's sooooo goooood at fighting terror. Like... here are some three or four year old warnings for you. That should show you how goooood he is at fighting terrorism. Pff.

Was it anything like that? 'Cause I didn't see the whole press conference.

ADDENDUM: Michael Burton in comments notes that I'm misreading the Times article. U.S. intelligence has not known of these threats since before 9/11. These were Al Qaeda reconnaissance missions from before 9/11 that have come to light this year. Still, the bogosity meter is way high.

The real pessimism is saying we can't do better.

As our next president said.

Laura Rozen provides a prime example (link via Pandagon).

But verification is so haaaaaaaard! And I'm all hot and itchy!