February 23, 2005
They come not to praise Social Security
...but to bury it.
When Republicans chant "Social Security has got to go!" (link via just about everyone), I think it's pretty safe to say they're not all that interested in saving it.
I believe a while ago I was involved in a dispute in the comments as to whether or not president Bush wanted to kill Social Security. Well, his proposal for private accounts - according to him - does exactly dick to "save" Social Security and the members of his party are gleefully (and stupidly, I might add - more power to 'em!) chanting that it's "got to go."
So, um, yeah, I don't believe I was engaged in demagoguery.
February 22, 2005
February 20, 2005
The state of conservative discourse
Conservative blogger responds to an email about Gannon (link via Daily Kos):
You dumb shit... you stupid asshole... Go crawl back into your hole, you stupid left-wing shithead. And don't bother us anymore. You have to have an IQ over 50 to correspond with us. You don't qualify, you stupid shit.
Ah. Touché! Was that one of Oscar Wilde's?
Methinks he doth protest too much
Kos makes a good point about Howard Kurtz's concern about delving into Gannon/Guckert's so-called "private" life that was, you know, on the Internet:
Apparently, he doesn't know that prostition is the world's oldest profession. People are digging into Guckert's professional life, not his private life.
Follow that up with Atrios' flashback to Kurtz's treatment of Dick Morris and it spells just one thing: hack.
February 19, 2005
The difference between certain nuts
TBogg points out the difference between Ward Churchill and Ann Coulter: Coulter's gainfully employed.
Must be nice to be a crazy demagogue and still get invited to the party.
February 18, 2005
The Howler
Somerby, incomperably, makes a good point.
The transition cost of Bush's privatization plan is not $1 trillion, it's not $2 trillion, it's not even $4.5 trillion.
It's $15 trillion.
Also, don't miss Charles Krauthammer telling Ross Perot that his U.S. treasury bonds are worthless pieces of paper down at the bottom.
It's like these guys came out of a survivalist cabin in Idaho and proclaimed that the gubbiment has no ability to issue bonds.
What else is worthless? All those cool state quarters they've been minting? The new nickels? Presumably everything but the dime, as soon as they can get Reagan's face on it.
Shorter Krauthammer (to be said in voice of Kang from the Simpsons): YOUR RETIREMENT IS DOOMED! DOOOOOOOMED! END COMMUNICATION.
February 15, 2005
Shorter Bush Administration to POWs
"No amount of money can truly compensate these brave men and women for the suffering that they went through at the hands of this very brutal regime and at the hands of Saddam Hussein," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters when asked about the case in November 2003.Government lawyers have insisted, literally, on "no amount of money" going to the Gulf War POWs. "These resources are required for the urgent national security needs of rebuilding Iraq," McClellan said.
February 14, 2005
Playing the game you know.
See, this makes sense to me.
Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice... all of these goofballs came to office having focused their careers on the Soviet block during the cold war. So, what do you do when the rules change? Try to change 'em back.
They're just trying to create an Islamic block.
February 11, 2005
GAH!
There seems to be a lot of concern about what the Republicans "have" on Howard Dean and how much they're going to turn up the noise machine to attack his chairmanship.
Jesus fucking Christ, haven't we seen this movie?
I'm the first to say that there's no way to tell whether Dean would have had a better chance against Bush than Kerry had he won the nomination instead. But you'd think that after the Swift Boat Veterans Against Veterans attack the lesson might have sunk in that no one is bulletproof.
Yes, they'll play the scream over and over and, yes, they'll hurl whatever dirty they can fabricate at him.
They will do that to anyone.
You don't win the game by playing nothing but defense. We picked the guy with the best offense to be the chairman of our party.
Good times. Good times.
Remember the quaint old days before 9/11 when lying under oath could get you impeached?
Ha-ha! Ahhhh...
We were all so young!
You, particularly! I mean, look at you! All that hair! Ha-ha! All dressed up in that grunge wear! That plaid shirt was like three sizes too big for you!
Oh, for fun!
Well, in this post-9/11 world of things that have happened since 9/11, it's good to see that we don't let little things like lying to Congress under oath prevent someone who's done such a bang-up job prosecuting the war on things loosely tied to terror from getting promoted.
I mean, we didn't let her incompetence bother us, why should we let a little thing like lying?
February 09, 2005
Flush
That sound you just heard was the president of the United States flushing the last of our national integrity down the drain by saying U.S. bonds are worthless.
And, as Marshall points out, that almost certainly violates his oath of office.
But, message received: Bush would rather the U.S. default on its loans than raise taxes on his rich friends.
Actually, even that's not true. He'd rather the U.S. default on its loans so he can dismantle a highly popular and succesful social program that keeps the elderly from dying in a cardboard box under an overpass.
Nice.
February 07, 2005
Smackdown
Cole continues to kick Jonah's ass up and down the street. (Link via Atrios.)
Intellectually speaking, of course.
Well, and then there's this:
I don't think there is anything at all unpatriotic about a young man opposing a war and declining to enlist. But a young man (and this applies to W. and Cheney too) who mouths off strongly about the desirability of a war is a coward and a hypocrite if he does not go to fight it.
Indeed.
And Cole notes essentially what I mentioned previously:
The thing that really annoyed me about Goldberg's sniping was it reminded me of how our country got into this mess in Iraq. It was because a lot of ignorant but very powerful and visible people told the American people things that were not true.
And, by the way, it'd be nice if we had more people who actually know something about anything call out these ass-clowns who know nothing about everything.
Shorter Jonah Goldberg
"The Iraq War was well worth the cost I paid for it. Which is nothing."
And, really, he's too busy to spend any more time on having his ass handed to him so if you'd just not pay attention anymore that'd be great.
February 06, 2005
Killing Social Security
If you're having trouble figuring out the whole Social Security debate, Josh Marshall has lengthy, but worth while post that helps explain why, yes Virginia, George Bush is trying to kill the program.
Short story: Social Security was designed as a defined benefit plan - where you could count on what you'd get out of it later in life. Bush wants to replace that with a defined contribution plan - where you determine how much you put in, but what you get out later depends on market performance.
That, kids, is killing Social Security.
February 05, 2005
Inexperts
It struck me after reading Juan Cole's complete takedown of Johah Goldberg (link via Daily Kos) that it was largely endemic of the last four years. People who know absolutely nothing about a given subject matter and stand to gain personally by defending the indefensible side have been treated as equals to subject matter experts. That is perhaps the greatest single thing that keeps the conservative house of cards from collapsing.
"Global warming is a farce!" says group of scientists (many of whom turn out to be Republican dentists).
"Social security is doomed!" say retirement experts (who turn out to be stock brokers).
"Iraq has nuclear weapons!" says pundit (i.e. nitwit son of conservative media mogul).
Like Goldberg, I don't know squat about the Middle East. Unlike Goldberg, I don't get paid handsomely to pontificate about it.
February 03, 2005
Flim-flam artist
You know, I'm fairly certain that there are rules in the mutual fund industry against making claims about future returns from the stock market.
It's a shame the same rules don't apply to the president.
January 28, 2005
Did I mention Condi was black? Because she is.
Shorter Charles Krauthammer to black people: "Hey, there's a black guy who goes to my gym! Do you know him?"
Every time I hear a Republican deride how Democrats "take the black vote for granted", I remember discussing the runup to the '96 election with some well-heeled white Republicans who claimed Clinton was on his way out as the eventual GOP nominee would pick Colin Powell as his running mate to "get the black vote."
Could the Democrats better represent African Americans? Absolutely. Consistently standing up for their voting rights would be a great place to start. But at least Democrats don't just run black faces up the flag pole and expect African Americans to salute.
And speaking of taking things for granted...
January 27, 2005
More like this, please
Democrats are introducing the Stop Government Propaganda Act.
Golly, who are these "Democrats" I've been reading about recently? Some new party? I like the cut of their jibb.
January 26, 2005
Yes, we are all doomed
The juxtaposition of these two posts struck me today.
During the Clinton years, conservatives grieved the supposed decline of the moral fiber of the United States that they believed was the result of having a... well, I guess since Republicans are adulterers and liars too, they must have thought it was just from having a Democrat as president.
Now under Bush we are left to grieve the decline of the United States' economy, the legitimacy of its political process, its international standing and its ability to look itself in the mirror.
You know, an actual decline instead of one ginned up by politicians and right wing ministers.
Bush's ardent supporters believe that A) America can do no wrong and B) America is so good it doesn't even have to try. Perhaps this is the logical result when you believe that your country was chosen alone by god to do his bidding.
It angers me that while we find ourselves forced to spend our time fighting their control of the rhetoric (let alone their control of the implementation of policy), our country continues to to be sold down the river by shallow and greedy men and women.
The audience that they play to - one that they have successfully trained to jump like trained poodles through a hoop come election day when they yell about foreigners and butt-fuckers - longs for a fantasy version of 1954 where all is Mickey Mouse and Howdy Doody and sock hops and ice cream socials and America is an island unsullied by unsavory ethnic types or anyone who made the mistake of being born different. It's a fantasy of a nation that never existed, where America single-handedly won World War II and black people would be happier if they just kept to themselves.
Where America never needed France's help to win its independence from Great Britain, there was no French resistance to German occupation during World War II, the Soviets didn't lose millions of people on the eastern front and more and more of our ass isn't owned by foreign crediters every day.
But America is not an island and the rest of the world is fully capable of accomplishing things - important things - on its own without us. While we arrogantly strut and posture and mortgage our future, young Koreans and Thais and Vietnamese are no longer learning English, they're learning the language of mortgager: Chinese.
I love this country. I was born and raised here and my time abroad has only made me appreciate what we have. That's why this administration makes me angry. Because I hate to see them tear it down.
January 22, 2005
And here you thought they were extinct
First it's "fightin' Dems", then it's "fightin' pro-choice Republicans".
Next up, "fightin' blue-footed boobies".
January 20, 2005
Traffic was hell.
Yesterday I received an email from John Kerry informing me that he would vote against Condoleeza Rice's nomination for Secretary of State, partly because of her poor job architecting the Iraq war.
That's good, I thought. If only you and more Democrats had voted against authorizing the Iraq war in the first place and created some actual debate about it, maybe we wouldn't be losing more lives each day over nothing.
Today I received an email from Terry McAuliffe telling me how Democrats "won't stop fighting" even though Bush is being inagurated today. That's nice, I thought. But I can't help but think also that if you had simply started fighting when we were all screaming "FIGHT!" at you, maybe a Democrat would be being sworn in today.
So if Dems are finally fighting back, my question is simply, what took you so god damn long?
January 07, 2005
Thoughts for the day
- The state of Republican discourse can apparently be summed up thusly: because I had a proctologic exam once, we should be allowed to anally rape Iraqi prisoners.
- I know it's considered hyperbole for a Mac user to call Bill Gates evil, but if he'd just stop actually being evil it'd make it easier not to.
December 27, 2004
Indeedily-oh, blogarinos!
Jesse Taylor notices how conservative blogs are more of a, well, circle jerk than liberal blogs. In general, I think liberal blogs try to actually add something to the commentary if they link to a post on another blog - either by way of support or contradiction. Glenn Reynolds can spend the whole day "Indeed"-ing his way through ten or twenty posts. Reynolds also does not offer comments on his site, so if anyone wants to comment they have to do so on their site, driving up links to him and, conveniently, making sure there are no uncomfortable facts or critiques that run counter to his thesis ("Indeed.") right there below the post.
The circle jerk reaches full frenzy when Glenn then links to Little Green Footballs which had linked to his post and "Indeeds" their "Indeed" of his original "Indeed."
Finally, they all lie back and enjoy a nice smoke.
Conservative blogging - link with full release.
(And this is not just an "Indeed" of the Pandagon post. See, I added that bit about comments and a disgusting sexual metaphor that is guaranteed to stick with you for the rest of the day.)
December 22, 2004
What did you do in the great Social Security War, grampa?
Bush plans to spend hordes of taxpayer money next year trying to convince taxpayers that they should gamble with their futures.
But this is winnable as long as you don't play his game. Here's how this can play out:
BUSH: Social Security is in crisis! Your only hope is to put all your money on red and let the big wheel spin! Quickly! You may not get a second chance!
DEMOCRATS: President Bush is looking to kill Social Security. He doesn't care if your last days are spent coughing up blood in a homeless shelter somewhere, he wants to get rid of your safety net. Instead of spending money to fund a big party for Wall Street brokers, let's just fund the system.
Republicans even fear they're vulnerable on this.
The ball is in the Democrats' court. Josh Marshall has been keeping track of which ones are likely to sell out the American people.
This is unequivocal. Democrats cannot support the destruction of Social Security.
December 15, 2004
Your mission, should you choose to accept it...
Josh Marshall tells Democrats what they must do in order to have a chance at thwarting Bush's desire to destroy social security in the coming years.
It's a good read and pardon me if I fear our current crop of elected Democrats isn't up to the task.
December 14, 2004
Get your post-election war on
The first Get Your War On since the election (despite the post dates, I've been checking and there hasn't been anything at this link anyway).
December 13, 2004
No excuses
Here's a great answer to those who, like the Stork in Animal House, would ask "Well, what the hell are we supposed ta do, ya mor-on?"
The money shot from Digby: when health care reform was shot down with the help from the Harry and Louise ad...
... the Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the Presidency...
December 09, 2004
Amazing
You know, it kind of damages your point about how blogs are not responsible when you change the online version of your story without posting a correction.
This is something I find fascinating about big media on the Internet. They know that if a mistake was made, they have to issue a correction for a story that appeared in print or on TV, but it's as if when they discovered the Internet they decided that rule didn't apply there. Hey, we can just change it! Forget about all those people that have already read it! It's no big deal! No harm, no foul!
They do this all the time.
Blogging etiquette dictates that when you change a post, you note what was changed. All of the good blogs do this. How is it the professionals feel self-righteous enough to criticize bloggers when their standards are more lax than ours?
December 08, 2004
He's got my vote - again
I don't pretend to know a lot about the deep machinations that make successful political campaigns, but it sure doesn't seem like the people currently in charge of the Democratic party know a heck of a lot more than I do.
I like what I see of this Dean guy.
I think it's time for some new ideas.
December 06, 2004
How to fight and why we must.
I had started a lengthy post keyed off this Tom Tomorrow cartoon. I was trying to talk about how we can fight back without losing our self respect, but it was going nowhere. Then I read this post on Hullabaloo, linked to by Ezra Klein at Pandagon.
Digby was succintly able to get to the point I was trying to make:
Go for the gut, not the head.
Joseph Campbell talked about the need for ceremony, the need to belong. As progressives and "free thinkers" we value open dialog, questioning authority and challenging the status quo. Those are admirable qualities, but so are the spirit of kinship, loyalty and conviction in your beliefs. We need to re-learn how to talk in those terms.
To wrap up, read this post on the Left Coaster, to remind yourself what we're fighting. It's disturbing and important.
November 30, 2004
Partial points
Kevin Drum has a good post about framing - short synopsis: we can do this - but he's clearly wrong about one thing.
The Bush administration has shown that it can slap a catchy phrase on something and rely on enough people to not notice that the actual meat of the effort is completely antithetical to the catch phrase.
The "war on terror" is actually increasing terrorism. The "Clean Skies" initiative is allowing companies to pump more pollutants into the air. The "No Child Left Behind" act is, well, leaving children behind.
The list goes on and on.
Now, simply because they get away with it doesn't mean we should do it. Besides, we shouldn't have to cover up the real purpose of our proposals because people actually want those things.
November 23, 2004
Enron nation
Hey, remember when there was a big uproar about shady accounting practices and we were assured it was all taken care of but we all pointed out that it was our preznit who was in tight with Ken Lay and all the guys who invented those practices?
Well, congratulations! Now we're all Enron employees! Don't worry, though, some of us will land on our feet!
November 19, 2004
Kerry
According to Atrios and Josh Marshall, Kerry will have a statement later today that looks to be good stuff.
Also, it looks like he's going to use some of the vast amount of money he inexplicably saved to help other candidates.
Why he didn't use it to help himself we'll never know, but seeing as we are where we are, these are good moves.
November 17, 2004
New Hampshire recount
You have to give credit to the Nader campaign for pushing for this recount.
It is absolutely astounding that in some states people are willing to take the word of private corporations with a history of partisanship and incompetence that their votes are being counted correctly.
November 15, 2004
Powell gone
I'm shocked... shocked!... that Colin Powell is stepping down (is it still called stepping down if your integrity hit rock-bottom a couple of years ago?).
Oh, wait, no I'm not.
November 13, 2004
Just a question
What if they stole the election?
To tell you the truth, I don't think they did. I don't think it's possible to pull it off without someone coming out and talking about how they were told to put more votes into Bush's column than Kerry's.
The point is, if they had stolen the election - or, if Kerry had managed to steal the election - no one would have any way of proving it.
This is no way to run a democracy. I don't want to look at these issues because I think it will change the results of the election. I want to look at them because there is a serious problem with the legitimacy of what is supposedly the world's preeminent democracy.
November 10, 2004
Oh! Hi!
That's right! I have a blog! Almost forgot.
No, turning 40 did not kill me in some Logan's Run-esque ritual of youthful purity. But I did have a busy weekend with visitors in from out of town and the bowling and the drinking and the whoring...
Uh... OK, not that last part. As far as you know.
But, still, there's more to my lack of posting than just being busy, because I haven't been busy since Sunday. No, in light of our failure to get the nation to hold the worst president in 70 years accountable for his failure, lies and incompetence, I've been thinking. I've been thinking about where I should be spending my time.
This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone, but blogging is not a political act, it's more of an an exercise of personal expression. As much as it might feel like you're doing something when you blog against the establishment, you're not doing anything if no one is reading it.
Of course, it's likely that someone will read it and even making a small contribution online is better than screaming at the radio in the car. I did that for years and it never got me anywhere.
But I've been asking myself if the effort I put into blogging politically might be better used somewhere else (politically). I haven't come to any firm conclusions yet, but I'm looking at my options.
So, forgive me if my posts aren't coming as fast and furious as before. The last thing I would want you to think is that I've given up. I haven't. I'm just trying to be as effective as I can.
November 04, 2004
November 03, 2004
One more thing...
Before I roll off to what I hope will be a better night's sleep than last night's.
Remember how Bush didn't win the previous election but acted like he won by a landslide?
Well, we didn't win this election.
So now it's our turn.
This isn't the time to roll over.
Marketing
Great post by Chris Bowers at MyDD about how there are more of them than there are of us.
Why? Well, why is "liberal" a dirty word? They've made it a dirty word. Why is "card-carrying member of the ACLU" bad? They've made it bad.
But there's nothing wrong with us. We're not bad or dirty (we're only good and dirty!). Fuck, we're better than they are. They're just better at marketing themselves.
We're gonna change that. Right now.
From these lemons I shall make delicious lemonade
Here are two companion posts from the Left Coaster and the Carpet Bagger on how el Slackidente managed to win. Long story short, they were able to sell snake oil to people dying from tuberculosis. The Republicans have managed to turn religion into, well, religion, or at least the worst of religion. An opiate for the masses who picked the guy who looks more religious even if he's going to rob them blind and kill their children. And even if they know that.
Over at Pandagon the soul-searching is so deep they're saying "Now, tell me more about why you hate the ass fucking..."
And they're right to do that.
This is something that occured to me when thinking about Nader supporters over the summer. While I have my ideological problems with the Democratic party and wish they could be more progressive, I recognize a simple fact that they refuse to acknowledge: we have to live with the other parts of the country that just flat out are not socially progressive. They aren't going away. If anything, they're becoming more powerful. Clearly, the Republicans have managed to have their cake and eat it, too, by tapping into this group. By picking certain wedge issues, they managed to get people to vote for them even against their economic and personal self interests.
Contrary to the DLC's opinion, this does not mean running to the middle. How do I know? Because the most right-wing administration in the last 30 years if not more just won the election. They didn't do it by taking centrist positions.
Our challenge is to get these people to vote in their personal self interests and against their baser social beliefs.
We need to pick our issues. Simply because Uncle Karl came up with God, Gays and Guns doesn't mean we have to try to outdo them on those issues. Folks would probably rally around "free big-screen TVs" as a platform, too, if we could afford it.
This is the kind of thing that takes market research to figure out and is not going to be solved by looking at what the Republicans did and trying to jam it into our platform.
And, speaking of our platform, scrap it. "We are for affordable health care for all, a more rational foreign policy that engages rather than confronts, a..." is not going to cut it. There's nothing wrong with our agenda. It's smart, it progressive and it's right for America. But this is a country with a weight problem and while you see a lot of people on fad diets, you don't see many just eating more sensibly.
This doesn't mean we won't get them to eat better but these people want a fad diet.
[I'm watching Super-Size Me right now, hence the reference.]
So how do we do this?
Organize - We've started something big. We need to keep going. we're still not as organized as they are - that much is obvious. We need to turn this organization to work now for 2006 and 2008. Where can we win? How can we win? We need more people doing the next two things.
Investigate - We need to figure out how to reach the rest of the country. Look at the electoral college map and figure out how we sell - yes, sell - to folk in the south and the middle parts of the country. We know our agenda is in their best interest - how do we close the deal? Candidates with religious values? Free toaster? We need to know.
Educate - A large percentage of the people who voted for Bush were not only unaware of his many, er, shortcomings, but were completely backward on his stance on basic policies. They thought Iraq was involved in 9/11, they thought al Qaeda was tight with Iraq... the list goes on. We need to keep exposing this administration for the fraud that it is.
Of the three, the second will be the hardest for us. We already know we're right and we think that if we just explain it loud enough, people will see the light of reason. The links above prove that's not the case. This is listening and market research and we haven't done enough of it.
There are going to be two fronts to this battle. Picture Apple's product grid and think of a "pro" and "consumer" front. We're getting the "pro" down - building our own media infrastructure and getting organized through MoveOn and Democracy for America.
Where we need work is on the "consumer" front. We need an iMac.
These are just the thoughts of a well-educated but politically wet blogger. I've never won a race. I have no special knowledge whatsoever.
But I know one thing - whatever we've been doing ain't working.
A lot of people put in a lot of hard work for this and it didn't turn out the way we'd hoped. But think about the people you've met, either in person or online. We're building a community of people who love their country and have nothing to be ashamed of or to apologize for. We need to act just as audaciously and with conviction in our beliefs as our opponents. They may run this country, but they do not own it.
Go back? Oh, you can't go back. Gotta go forward to go back. Better press on.
- Willy Wonka
The Daily Show
Steven Colbert on why Americans should not take this opportunity to come together:
Our identities have become wholly dependent upon rejecting each other. For who am I, if not not you?Fatty.
Well THAT could have gone better!
Kerry just conceded.
Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick! I don't blame him - it really didn't look like he had the votes. But what the fuck is wrong with this country?
I understand that there were a lot of ballot initiatives involving gay marriage that turned the religious right out just where Karl Rove needed them.
So that's what it's all about? It's all about the ass fucking? And the Democrats are just not sufficiently anti-ass fucking to overcome a guy who got us into an illegal war and blah, blah, blah?
Well, that's GREAT! What do we do about THAT? Do we have to try to leapfrog the Republicans and say "We're SO opposed to ass-fucking that we're even against ass! How 'bout that?!"
While I regret losing a Democratic senator, I won't miss Daschle. Maybe we can get someone in there who will actually stand up for Democratic principles and, you know, BE a minority LEADER. Kos says Dean for DNC chair and Durbin for Senate Minority Leader. It'd be a start.
Last night when Albert came over with a bottle of tequila as things seemed to be slipping away, I shared a dual toast with him and my wife.
"To victory!"Or...
"The resistance begins tomorrow!"
We came very close. That doesn't count for a hill of beans right now, but remember that this isn't the same atmosphere that existed right after 9/11. There is criticism of this president even if there isn't enough. We need to work our message, we need to continue to organize and we need to fight back.
Let the resistance begin.
UPDATE: Ezra Klein has some good thoughts on "Where do we go from here?" In particular he recommends this Washington Monthly piece by Todd Gitlin written back in September.
Those in the Democratic camp and the rational liberal-left who believe in long-term institutional politics should conclude that they could not possibly have compensated for 30-plus years of right-wing base-building with one year's fever of anti-Bush resolve. They should, like the Republican Party after the Goldwater cataclysm of 1964, sigh, shudder, mourn--and organize. They'll pick themselves up and get back to work building their start-up think tanks and media and Internet networks, from the Center for American Progress through Air America Radio through MoveOn.org and various 527 soft money distributors, all of which, despite starting late, made up for a good deal of Democratic organizational weakness in 2004.
November 02, 2004
Still alive
Remember the Red Sox.
Someone asked me tonight, "How are we going to deal with four more years of Bush?" I said, "What? We already know how to do this. We've been doing it for four years."
The game's not over. Ohio's still up for grabs. But I'm going to bed.
Good night.
Fucked up
Via Atrios, Oliver Willis notes Lucas County, Ohio, has 4,685 votes for a guy named David Cobb, 1,917 for Bush and...
...zero for Kerry.
Hmm.
Via Google, I see Lucas County uses Diebold e-voting machines.
Hmm.
Earlier in the evening in Hamilton County, Kerry had exactly the same number of votes as David Cobb. Hamilton also uses Diebold machines.
I smell a big, fat, hairy rat.
They just don't get it
Via Kevin Drum, here's an amusing example of either willful ignorance or plain ol' stupidity.
Let's explain it slowly for the slower people in the class.
Doing any of the following...
- Delivering leaflets into heavily Democratic areas indicating that the election is on the 4th
- Delivering leaflets into heavily Democratic areas indicating that if you've ever had a parking ticket you can't vote
- Calling voters to tell them, incorrectly, that their polling places have moved
...in an attempt to deter people from exercising their constitutional right to vote IS NOT EQUAL TO issuing a leaflet stating the law that governs challenging voters.
Frankly, it's not equal to that no matter who it's passed out to, but the fact that it was intended for Republican thugs with the sole goal of trying to prevent as many Democrats from voting as possible makes their whining all the more pathetic.
Boneheads.
Ladies and gentlemen...
Boys and girls...
Children of all ages...
This is the moment you've been waiting for.
The main event.
See you under the Big Top.
November 01, 2004
More lies
Remember when Bush said he'd be the one who'd better protect America from having to institute the draft?
Well, that's why it was so strange to learn of this Seattle PI article about a meeting Rumsfeld had about how to implement an expanded draft.
This may come as a shock to the Pentagon chief, but most of the rumors have arisen from actions within the Bush administration, which has studied how to expand draft registration to include women, target some civilian work specialties for special attention by the draft and extend the required draft registration age from 25 years old to 34 years.
That is so weird! Isn't that weird?
October 31, 2004
Doesn't he know today's Halloween?
Guess that's what you get when you don't read the papers, but Atrios heard a rumor Bush will be handing out candy tomorrow to try to win votes.
Too little.
Too late.
October 30, 2004
October 29, 2004
Down. Down. Down.
I've been watching this Reuters poll for the last week. Bush's lead has gone from 3...
If you're going to pull bin Laden out of your ass, you'd better stand up, Mr. President.
October 28, 2004
Shorter media
I'll save you the trouble of reading today's campaign coverage. It all boils down to this:
Here's some actual evidence Bush sucks! But Bush says Kerry sucks! Which is right?!
Lying about their lying
Bush Campaign Acknowledges Ad Was Doctored
Shoot. I was kind of hoping they'd say "No. All those soldiers really do look alike!" I'm kind of disappointed in them.
But, there's always room for some lyin' about sumpin'!
"It was completely unintentional," [I totally didn't mean to click the clone tool! I wanted the lasso!] he said. "The ad has already been replaced." [Oh, well, good, then it's all settled and...]The ad still appeared on the front page of the campaign's Web site as of Thursday afternoon.
Whoops! And...
Dickens said, "There was no attempt to mislead."
Uh... yeah! The deliberate Photoshopping of an image to make it appear that there were more soldiers in the crowd than there were was somehow... educational! Not misleading!
Although, to be fair to Dickens, maybe he meant that while there was no attempt to mislead, but there was a deliberate attempt to lie. That could have been what he meant.
GOP: taking things out of context is our platform
I got an automated call from the RNC this morning that derided Patty Murray for praising Osama bin Laden as "charitable".
Of course, Murray's point was that much of the Muslim world supports bin Laden because he does support them with money. But rather than recognizing the validity of Murray's comments or recognize the nature of the enemy we're supposed to be fighting instead of the one they've been distracted by, the RNC will simply take things out of context to attempt delude voters that she supports the terrorists.
As the automated call said, "Please."
Add that to Bush's puppies ad that falsely insinuates that Kerry voted to cut intelligence spending after 9/11 and you're left to wonder, is the primary agenda of the Republican party now just to see how many things they can take out of context?
Blame the troops first
Giuliani backs up the "I didn't do it" president by pointing the finger at the troops.
These fuckers don't give a shit about the troops. They never have. To them they're a tool - a tool to keep them in power and a tool to get sweetheart no-bid contracts for their friends. They won't take responsibility for anything - it's always someone else's fault.
The troops did and are doing a difficult job that was handed to them by a shitty-assed president as best they can. Giuliani is a punk for trying to blame them for Bush's fuck ups.
October 27, 2004
Quick hits
1 - "I was exercising my political expression," it quoted him as saying. "I did not run them down, I scared them a little." (Via James.)
3 - And Howard Dean was supposedly unpresidential.