7.31.2004 "...the original Clinton Treasury Secretary - Robert Rubin - had one of the best seats in the house, right next to Teresa Heinz Kerry. That wasn't an accident. I doubt many Americans recognize Rubin on sight, but I have no doubt that the helpful television commentators pointed him out and the implication of his presence in such a prominent spot couldn't have been lost on many. Remember this guy? The one who shepherded our economy through the boom years of the '90s? Wouldn't you like to see him running the economy again? Maybe as Treasury Secretary again, or even Chairman of the Federal Reserve? Sure you do.
In fact, that subtle theme ran throughout the evening. Look at the line-up of speakers: Max Cleland - future Secretary of Veteran Affairs; Wesley Clark - future Secretary of Defense or State; Joe Biden - future National Security Advisor or Secretary of State. You know them, you trust them, and you sure as heck like them better than Rumsfeld and Cheney and Ashcroft. That's what the Kerry/Edwards campaign is hoping." Amy Sullivan

7.31.2004 Bush Speech in Springfield ("achievements" only)
"We gave tax relief to every American who pays taxes. We didn't play favorites with the tax code."
... "Because we acted, our economy, since last summer, has grown at a rate as fast as any in nearly 20 years. Because we acted, America's added more than 1.5 million new jobs since last August."
... "And as a result of our actions, America and the world are safer."
... "Today, because America and our allies have sent a strong and clear message, the leader of Libya has abandoned his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and America and the world are safer."
... "We've put together a strong coalition to help us defeat the terrorist threats."
... "We've transformed our defenses and created a new Department of Homeland Security. We passed the Patriot Act to give law enforcement new tools to track terrorists."
..."We're integrating intelligence and law enforcement better than we have ever before."

7.30.2004 "Economic Growth Slows During Second Quarter " Holden at Eschaton

7.31.2004 "White House Projects Highest Deficit Ever" ""What we've got now is a president of the United States who is actively misleading the American people on the financial condition of the country," said Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee. "Shame on him."

7.31.2004 David Brooks "Around the arena I spotted some of the people most often talked about as senior officials in a Kerry administration: Richard Holbrooke, Biden, Rand Beers and Dick Gephardt. On the international economy side: Roger Altman, Steve Rattner, John Spratt. On Thursday night I saw Mr. Sober and Serious himself, Robert Rubin, sitting next to Teresa. These are tough centrists from the Washington-Wall Street axis who would be heroes in any crisis." (emphasis added)

7.31.2004 "Woman's Dying Wish: Bush Defeated -- Loved Ones Asked To Donate To Democratic Cause" Drudge.

7.30.2004 "But until he was well into middle-age President Bush's most noteworthy public utterances seem to have been limited to various invocations and inflections of 'par-TAY' and reciting the alphabet under legal compulsion." Josh Marshall

7.30.2004 "Bush-Cheney resorts to trading tickets for written pledges" Carpetbagger

7.31.2004 "President Bush's re-election campaign insisted on knowing the race of an Arizona Daily Star journalist assigned to photograph Vice President Dick Cheney. The Star refused to provide the information" Atrios

7.30.2004 "Maybe that Falwell story was more than just a rumor after all" Carpetbagger.

7.30.2004 "Sikh student detained by Secret Service -- BC leader says beard, turban triggered stop" By Ralph Ranalli, Boston Globe Staff - Pointer from Aaron

7.30.2004 "Will Farrell's impression of Bush on Saturday Night Live always made me laugh out loud, so this video was a real treat (via Poppy and Taegan ). Carpetbagger

7.30.2004 "PAKISTAN FOR BUSH. -- July Surprise?" by John B. Judis, Spencer Ackerman & Massoud Ansari, The New Republic Online Saleh Hayyat, announced that Pakistani forces had captured Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian Al Qaeda operative wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The timing of this announcement should be of particular interest to readers of The New Republic. Earlier this month, John B. Judis, Spencer Ackerman, and Massoud Ansari broke the story of how the Bush administration was pressuring Pakistani officials to apprehend high-value targets (HVTs) in time for the November elections--and in particular, to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. Although the capture took place in central Pakistan "a few days back," the announcement came just hours before John Kerry will give his acceptance speech in Boston.]"
BUT "The Pakistani security sources said the arrests took place Sunday morning after a standoff that began Saturday night in Gujrat, just southeast of Islamabad." CNN (4 1/2 days before the announcement)

7.30.2004 "Berger Cleared of Withholding Material From 9/11 Commission" pie at Eschaton

7.30.2004 "Iraq Funds Are Focus of 27 Criminal Inquiries" By T. Christian Miller, LA Times Staff Writer

7.30.2004 "Triumph of the Trivial" By PAUL KRUGMAN

7.29.2004 Michael Moore "But here's my plea to the Democrats and to Mr. Kerry. You will not win this election by being weak kneed and wimpy and wishy-washy and lacking the courage of your convictions. The only way this is going to happen is if you stand up forthrightly and say what you believe and push for the liberal progressive agenda that the majority of America already agrees with. If you move to the right, thinking that's how you are going to pick up a few extra votes from that very small sliver of likely voters who haven't made up their mind yet, if you give up the very principles and things that the people in this room and those delegates believe in, to get those few votes over there, you will encourage millions to stay home. ...
... The Canadians really do like us. They just wish we would read a little more and - but it took a Canadian journalist to write that perhaps one of the problems that Mr. Moore had with Disney is the fact that the Saudi world family owns almost 17% of Euro-Disney. And that in 1994, Prince Walid, one of the richest men in the world, and a member of the Saudi Royal Family, wrote Michael Eisner and Disney a check for over $300 million to bail out Euro-Disney. And the people that helped put the thing together to bring the two together was a company called the Carlyle group."

7.29.2004 "Sharpton Speech Draws Standing Ovations" By MARC HUMBERT, My Way News Drudge

7.29.2004 "In a Shift, Bush Moves to Block Medical Suits" By ROBERT PEAR The New York Times "The logic here is amazing. Applying the same reasoning to cars, for example, would mean that you could never sue a car maker as long as the car was built with seat belts and proper emissions. Even if they knowingly delivered it with defective brakes." Posted by PWalker at Carpetbagger

7.29.2004 "Income Falls 9.2% During First Two Years of Bush" Holden at Eschaton

7.29.2004 "Oh Bama!-- "The belief in things not seen." by Rich Lowry from the National Review Online "This column by Rich Lowry in National Review Online makes some very shrewd points about Barack Obama's speech Tuesday evening. Praise across the political divide is often rich with backhanded compliments and disingenuousness. He includes some digs. But this is something different" -- Josh Marshall

7.28.2004 "Scaife's Hired Hack Deserved Teresa's Ire" by Joe Conason , The New York Observer Pointer from Atrios

7.28.2004 "Lost Record of Vote in '02 Florida Race Raises '04 Concern" By ABBY GOODNOUGH, The New York Times

7.27.2004 "Fears voiced on Bush Medicare plan -- Pay cuts could alter cancer care" Boston Globe

7.27.2004 ""Wisdom and strength are not opposing ideas." Brilliant. Listening to Clinton speech was like hearing Mozart play after an evening spent listening to Salieri's symphonies.
... "What was important to me was what I saw when the camera panned the delegates - black and white and every shade in between, male and female, gay and straight, young and old, union guys from Cleveland and lesbian couples from San Francisco, Irish pols from Boston and Hispanic pols from East L.A. Asian American businessmen from Seattle and African American teachers from Harlem.
God knows it's not perfect - not even close. I'm sure there was no shortage of vile hacks and corporate fat cats in the audience. And when it comes to actual policies, it's pretty clear the Democratic Party has about as much progressive backbone as a bowl of corn meal mush.
But compared to the sea of sour-looking honkies and fundamentalist zealots that have filled the seats (if not the stage) of every GOP convention I've ever watched, there's no question in my mind which side I'm on in this fight. It may not be my party, but those are my people, my America. I wish I could be there with them."
Billmon

7.27.2004 "Bush-Cheney Campaign Headquarters: What They Don't Want You To Know" by Wayne Madsen "Quickly scanning the map, I saw that the GOP numbers are a matter of serious concern. Using blue for its safe states (possibly the GOP feels that using red is too socialistic for its tastes), the Bush campaign sees itself in a commanding position in most of the wheat belt Prairie states, the upper Rockies, and the Bible belt South. Using yellow for toss-up states, the GOP pollsters seem particularly concerned about Louisiana, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Arkansas, Colorado, and North Carolina. Solid red states (in this case they are Kerry states) include the same states Al Gore won in 2000 with the addition of Ohio, West Virginia, and New Hampshire. If that is how the GOP is reading the political tea leaves, it is very bad news for Bush-Cheney." From the Wilderness

7.27.2004 "Scratch the surface of a black conservative group and you find a vast right-wing conspiracy." By Joshua Holland , Gadflyer.

7.27.2004 "Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi: 'There is No Dialogue between Us and the Jews Except by the Sword and the Rifle'" (with comments taken from the arabic press) Memri

7.27.2004 "Banned In Boston! - The Ann Coulter Column" by Ann Coulter. (You decide)

7.27.2004 "The Proposed Marriage Protection Act: Why It May Be Unconstitutional" By JOANNA GROSSMAN FindLaw

7.26.2004 "Adult Corrections Population Hits Record"

7.23.2004 "The Ghost of Vice President Wallace Warns: "It Can Happen Here",by Thom Hartmann "In this, Wallace was using the classic definition of the word "fascist" - the definition Mussolini had in mind when he claimed to have invented the word. (It was actually Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile who wrote the entry in the Encyclopedia Italiana that said: "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." Mussolini, however, affixed his name to the entry, and claimed credit for it.) " Pointer from Marni

"The problem is that there is no way to know for sure, but it seems like they are ALL lying.... so no way to really tell what would be what minus the propaganda, and no alternative to vote for that isn't "in bed" with corporations....overtly or covertly..... knowingly or unknowingly... robert heinlein wrote a "fictional" book about multinationals and their dangers back in the 1930's...... I remember thinking the first time i read it that i was glad we didn't live in that world... and on reading it again... ouch, that we did." Henya

7.26.2004 Andrew Sullivan (conservative) "Domestically, moreover, Bush has done a huge amount to destroy the coherence of a conservative philosophy of American government; and he has been almost criminally reckless in his hubris in the conduct of the war." ... "Kerry may be the right man - and the conservative choice - for a difficult and perilous time."

7.26.2004 "Can the Democratic Party stay relevant?" by kos

7.26.2004 "Bush targets marijuana smokers " Guardian Unlimited

7.26.2004 "IN THE LAND OF GENERALISSIMO JEB" ... "It is a third-degree felony in Florida to alter voter registration forms without the voter's consent." BUT --"Naturalization ceremonies in Jacksonville are to be relocated after complaints that GOP activists registered new citizens as Republicans." BY GARY FINEOUT AND ALFONSO CHARDY, Miami Herald

7.25.2004 "THE CASE AGAINST GEORGE W. BUSH: PART II. -- Power from the People" by Jonathan Chait The New Republic

7.25.2004 "Accounting and Accountability" By Paul Krugman "When KPMG auditors hired by an international advisory board finally got to work, they found that no effort had been made to keep an accurate record of oil sales, and that accounting for the $20 billion Development Fund for Iraq consisted of "spreadsheets and pivot tables maintained by a single accountant.
The auditors also faced a lack of cooperation. They were denied access to Iraqi ministries, which were reputed to be the locus of epic corruption on the part of Iraqis with connections to the occupiers. They were also denied access to reports concerning what they delicately describe as "sole-source contracts."
Translation: they were stonewalled when they tried to find out what Halliburton did with $1.4 billion."

7.25.2004 "Base Brawl -- Dems block anti-enviro Bush judicial nominee, and the conservatives are lovin' it " by Amanda Griscom, Grist Magazine "Installing extreme right-wing judicial nominees happens to be a top priority of the Bush administration -- and tracking these nominations happens to be a favorite pastime of their core conservative supporters. So when Frist and his colleagues advocate these nominees on the Senate floor -- and force the Democrats to block them -- it's like staging a pep rally on Capitol Hill for their biggest fans."

7.25.2004 "What's Good for the Michigander Is Good for the Goose -- Lessons from the Great Lakes on how enviros can win votes and influence people" by Keith Schneider, Grist Magazine.

7.25.2004 "The 9/11 Report: Bad News for Bush" By David Corn, The Nation via Alternet

7.25.2004 "How the Bush administration sought to obstruct and discredit the 9/11 investigation" Center for American Progress.

7.25.2004 "Wiring the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy" By MATT BAI, The New York Times

7.25.2004 "War of Ideology" By DAVID BROOKS, New York Times (Brooks is starting to understand what Fareed Zakaria has been saying all along.)

7.25.2004 "An Army Whitewash" - The Washington Post

7.25.2004 "The politics and ethics of outing" by MAJeff Daily Kos

7.24.2004 "Brauchli: Two more feathers in Bush's cap" (Unqualified appellate judges - lifetime appointments.)

Pointer from Howard Bashman.

7.24.2004 Any George but W - Naral

7.24.2004 "FDA Says Monsanto Biotech Wheat Safe for Consumers" ABCNEWS.com

7.24.2004 "The president who took bin Laden seriously -- Republicans are trying to blame 9/11 on Clinton, but the official report shows that he responded to al-Qaida threats far more effectively than Bush." By Joe Conason, Salon Subscription, but Salon has a freebie deal.

7.23.2004 "White House Intimidation: A Brief History of Threats and Defamation" Center for American Progress

"Exclusive report from the campaign front 7/23/04 5:00 KERRY~EDWARDS 2004"

7.23.2004 "House endorses court-stripping measure ... Now that the conservatives have been denied the opportunity to ban gay marriage, Congress' loony right has decided it'll pass a law to take away the courts' ability to even hear cases on the subject ... That's true, the GOP was not unanimous. And while I really am appreciative of those 17 Republican lawmakers who care about the Constitution they swore to uphold to reject this nonsense, I'd like to emphasize that 92% of the House GOP caucus voted for this garbage. 92% of Republicans in the House believe it is within their authority to simply reshuffle the separation of powers and take away the federal courts' ability to hear cases. 92% of Republicans in the House believe the notions of an "independent judiciary" and a system of "checks and balances" simply don't mean anything anymore. Carpetbagger

7.23.2004 "What liberal infidels will never understand about the president - The Church of Bush" by Rick Perlstein

7.23.2004 "The Arabian Candidate" Paul Krugman Pointer from Maureen.

7.23.2004 "A difference of opinion between Tucker Carlson and the 9/11 Commission ... " Josh Marshall

7.22.2004 And now for something silly from Sylvia.

7.22.2004 "Let's not forget who fought the 9/11 Commission every step of the way" Carpetbagger

7.22.2004 "Restoring democracy to the Hill" Carpetbagger

7.22.2004 "DeLay helps remind voters which party really stands up for the military" ... "Indeed, the very day the House voted to reject new funding for military housing, these same lawmakers voted for a new business tax cut worth $1.2 billion -- more than double the funds Dems wanted for military families. Carpetbagger

7.22.2004 "White House Helps Block Extension of Tax Cuts" By EDMUND L. ANDREWS, The New York Times
See also: "Bush White House opposes bi-partisan, middle-class tax cut plan" Carpetbagger

7.22.2004 "Bush Sketches His Agenda for U.S. in a Second Term" By RICHARD W. STEVENSON, New York Times

7.22.2004 "U.S. Reports 94 Cases of Prisoner Abuse" Pointer from Drudge

7.21.2004 "Russell E. Train, who headed the EPA from September 1973 to January 1977 - part of the Nixon and Ford administrations - said Bush's record on the environment was so dismal that he would cast his vote for Democrat John Kerry." Capitol Hill Blue

7.21.2004 "U.S. Underestimated War Costs by $12.3 Billion - GAO"

7.21.2004 ""For a while we were marching to war. Now we're marching to peace. ... America is a safer place. Four more years and America will be safe and the world will be more peaceful." As quoted by Josh Marshall

7.21.2004 "American on trial for private "war on terror" claims Rumsfeld link" Pointer from Drudge

7.21.2004 "Clinton poverty tables"

7.21.2004 "Fourth, one effect of centralization is that the president would hear only one interpretation of intelligence. Is that necessarily good? Having competing sources of information can be a considerable benefit to a president who knows how to make use of this, and I'm not sure we should rearchitect the intelligence community just because George Bush doesn't seem to be such a president. Electing a better president seems the better option." Kevin Drum

7.21.2004 "Tangled webs and the Bush family" (The Riggs Bank) pie at Eschaton

7.20.2004 "Trickle-down economics continues to fail" Carpetbagger. "I know Republicans go apoplectic when we even mention such disparities, with the "class warfare" trump card expected to cut off discussion altogether. Nevertheless, it's worth noting that these inequalities don't have to be part of the government's economic policies. Indeed, they weren't -- just one president ago.

7.20.2004 "Bush believes God speaks through him"

7.20.2004 "For an alleged religious leader, Falwell has some trouble with the truth" Carpetbagger

7.20.2004 Cheney/Leahy "NEW DETAILS SURFACE" by PAUL SIMMS The New Yorker.

7.20.2004 "Writing with Blinders On at the Times" (Regarding Riggs Bank and Dubya's uncle) Holden

7.20.2004 "Bush's Agenda on Slow Track - With Democrats united and the GOP divided, the White House faces a congressional logjam. Election-year politics are a key factor, experts say." By Janet Hook, LA Times Staff Writer
Pointer from Carpetbagger who says: "And I'd add that congressional Republicans have been at odds with the White House over shaping the federal budget, leading to a stalemate. This will probably be only the third year in three decades in which the federal government will not have a detailed blueprint for government spending and tax policy, all because the GOP is divided against itself."

7.20.2004 "Afghanistan's Taliban, still in business" Carpetbagger.

7.20.2004 "Dick's Flirtations with the Axis of Evil" Holden at Eschaton

7.20.2004 "FOX CITED FOR ITS DISHONESTY: The British Government's Office of Communications "

7.20.2004 The 2004 Democratic National Platform Committee Report

7.20.2004 "The Republican Platform 2004" (parody)

7.20.2004 The Republican Platform 2000 - (not parody)

7.20.2004 "Voter Purge II" "Partisan trends and base political motives notwithstanding, there's no debating that those who rightfully belong on the registration lists are wronged when removed erroneously. For practical purposes, however, correcting these errors and restoring names to voter registration rolls, in Florida or other states, is easier than it sounds. Unlike a judicial system based on presumed innocence, the registration system works in reverse: If you appear on the purge list, you are presumed ineligible until and unless you can prove otherwise." Thomas F. Schaller, Executive Editor, The Gadflyer

7.19.2004 "Fox News' Use of 'Fair and Balanced' Challenged Legally" By Jake Coyle Associated Press Writer Pointer from Aaron

7.19.2004 "Pro-life speakers sought for convention" By Ralph Z. Hallow THE WASHINGTON TIMES "More than half the Republicans in the House have signed a formal complaint to President Bush about the failure to give prominent conservative, pro-life party members even one prime-time speaking role at the Republican National Convention."

7.19.2004 "I'm inclined to believe Wilson's account, but at the risk of sounding insensitive, I don't really care. Republicans could have solid evidence that Wilson lies as often as Dick Cheney, but it wouldn't change a simple and avoidable fact: White House officials leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent. It's a felony, it put our national security at risk, and it's currently the subject a White House criminal investigation that is too often overlooked." Carpetbagger

7.18.2004 "... Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song, A medley of extemporanea; And love is thing that can never go wrong; And I am Marie of Romania" (Dorothy Parker) quoted in part, to good effect, by Maureen Dowd

7.18.2004 "Previews of the final report are in the Washington Post; useful graphic comparison here." DemfromCT at Daily Kos

7.18.2004 "If somebody is calculating the cost of the Bush administration's ceaseless pandering to their right-wing base, the estimate should include at least 80,000 deaths because the administration continues to stupidly and cruelly withhold assistance for international family planning programs : ... To mollify their anti-abortion supporters, the Bush administration is pursing a policy that will result in 800,000 preventable abortions. That's obviously a stupid policy if the goal is to limit abortion. But as stupid as the policy is, it's probably more repugnant for being another case where the Bush administration inflates and passes on the costs of its political payoffs to the people least capable of paying the price." DHinMI from Daily Kos

7.18.2004 "Puerto Rico's Biotech Harvest" By Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, AlterNet . "But fears of GE contamination are indeed well founded. In 2000, over 300 US supermarket products were found to be tainted with Starlink, a variety of GE corn that the FDA had deemed unfit for human consumption. Some 140 million bushels were contaminated, food processors and grain traders spent around $1 billion over six months trying to locate it and get rid of it, and even today traces of Starlink keep showing up occasionally in American corn exports."

7.18.004 "Warming the World To Dry Our Socks" By Bill McKibben , Prairie Writers Circle Per Alternet

7.18.2004 "Regarding Media Fuel for the pro-war blogs -- It takes a strong stomach to plunge into the sea of malice, mendacity and misrepresentation that now churns around the affair of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV and his wife, Valerie Plame." Tim Ruttin, LA Times
"Can someone explain why *outing* Plame was a good thing?" pie at Eschaton.

7.17.2004 More about James Woolsey from Josh Marshall.

7.17.2004 "Hourly Pay in U.S. Not Keeping Pace With Price Rises" By EDUARDO PORTER The New York Times Pointer from Drudge.

7.17.2004 Sept. 11 Commission to Release 1998 Report By Tabassum Zakaria Reuters/Yahoo "An Aug. 6, 2001, report to President Bush (news - web sites ) titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US" was released by the White House in April under pressure from the commission.
That CIA report that Bush received a month before the attacks made reference to the 1998 document to be revealed next week as containing "sensational threat reporting" that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites ) wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of extremists jailed in the United States." Pointer from Drudge

7.17.2004 "US again denies money to population fund -- Chinese practices on abortion cited" By Farah Stockman, Boston Globe Staff

7.17.2004 "Groups blast new cholesterol guidelines TRENTON, N.J. -- Most of the heart disease experts who urged more people to take cholesterol-lowering drugs this week have made money from the companies selling those medicines."By LINDA A. JOHNSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

7.16.2004 "Citing Falwell's Endorsement of Bush, Group Challenges His Tax-Exempt Status" By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, The New York Times.

7.16.2004 "OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Former Congressman Tom Coburn relishes his reputation as a political maverick in his return to active politics as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate." ... "On the death penalty, he said: "I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life." Fox 23 News

7.16.2004 "I really do think George W. Bush is making a mistake by declaring we're safer today. Sure, it's true we haven't been attacked once inside the United States since 9/11 - something everyone considered a sure thing for at least the first year after that fateful day. It may be an old argument but having the U.S. Army and Marines fight terrorists in Fallujah is still preferable to having civilian passengers in trains, planes, and automobiles fight them in Cleveland. Nevertheless, the world is a mess, and only a fool would think it wouldn't be after we created more havoc in the Middle East than that region has seen for a generation." Jonah Goldberg of the National Review

7.16.2004 "Mass. Governor Criticizes Own Party" By LOLITA C. BALDOR , The Associated Press "WASHINGTON - Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney criticized the Bush administration on Wednesday, saying the government engages in wasteful spending and often gives money to ensure Republican votes." ... "The government doles out money "based on who will vote for us or for our party: in effect, we buy votes," Romney said in remarks prepared for delivery. "We fund programs that don't work. We tolerate abuse and cheating in the multiples of billions of dollars." Pointer from Carpetbagger

7.16.2004 "Reforming corporate America -- Bush speech: Where was the outrage?" By Chris Matthews, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

7.16.2004 "R. James Woolsey: Former CIA Director, Bogus WMD Intelligence Pimp, War Profiteer" Posted by Holden at Eschaton

7.16.2004 "U.S. keeps Halliburton data from U.N. auditors" By Colum Lynch, Washington Post (Article quotes Lt. Commander Flex Plexico.)

7.16.2004 "Medical Class Warfare" By PAUL KRUGMAN, The New York Times. "The difference couldn't be starker. Mr. Kerry offers a health care plan that would extend coverage to most of those now uninsured, paid for by rolling back tax cuts for those with incomes over $200,000. President Bush offers a tax credit that would extend coverage to fewer than 5 percent of the uninsured, plus a new tax break for the affluent that would actually increase the number of uninsured. As I said last week, I don't see how Mr. Bush can win this debate."

7.15.2004 " We weren't doing anything wrong "Police took Nicole and Jeff Rank away in handcuffs from the event, which was billed as a presidential appearance, not a campaign rally. They were wearing T-shirts that read, "Love America, Hate Bush." ... "Let's think about this for a minute. Two American citizens go to an official presidential event in their community. They got tickets and went through security, just like everyone else. They, like nearly everyone around them, were wearing t-shirts. But because their shirts included four non-obscene words that sort-of criticized the president, they were considered trespassers who had to be removed in handcuffs. Indeed, law enforcement officials believed they "didn't have any choice."
"This was in the United States of America on the 4th of July." From Carpetbagger.

7.15.2004 Peggy Noonan "Rather, we have a national-security obligation to foster democracy in the world because democracy tends to be the most peaceful form of government. Democracies tend to be slower than dictatorships to take up arms, to cross borders and attempt to subdue neighbors, to fight wars. They are on balance less likely to wreak violence upon the world because democracies are composed of voters many of whom are parents, especially mothers, who do not wish to see their sons go to war. Democracy is not only idealistic, it is practical." ... "When you are president and you are doing hard things in history like making war, and you are doing it in the jingle-jangle of the modern media environment, you have a kind of moral responsibility to make it clear that you hate war, really hate it, and love peace."

7.15.2004 "Seymour Hersh says the US government has videotapes of boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq." From EdCone.com Pointer from Athenae at Eschaton

7.15.2004 "Shiite Leadership Clash in Iran, Iraq" By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer

7.15.2004 "Caught Jeb Handed" More on the Florida elections by Billmon
"Voting rights groups filed a lawsuit last week challenging the recount ban, and a Democratic congressman has also sued to request a printed record of every touch-screen vote." New York Times By ABBY GOODNOUGH

7.15.2004 "Democrats want answers on alleged Saudi prisoner swap. Senate Democratic leaders called on the Bush administration yesterday to confirm or deny the accuracy of a news report that the administration handed five terrorism suspects to Saudi Arabia in the period leading up to the April 2003 invasion of Iraq." The Hill Pointer from Carpetbagger

7.15.2004 "Panel's ties to drugmakers not cited in new cholesterol guidelines" BY DELTHIA RICKS AND RONI RABIN, Newsday.com

7.14.2004 "Bush administration abuses federal agencies for partisan gain -- again" Carpetbagger

7.14.2004 "Gov't search engines link to Kerry critics" By Elizabeth Wolfe, Associated Press Writer

7.14.2004 "Ten Reasons to Fire George W. Bush And nine reasons why Kerry won't be much better" Jesse Walker Reason.com Pointer from Billmon

7.14.2004 "Bush, Lay hire same attorney." BeatBushBlog Pointer from Josh Marshall.

7.12.2004 "Ahmed Chalabi's List of Suckers" By Douglas McCollam, Columbia Journalism Review per Alternet.

7.12.2004 "To the Ladies in the Room -- Warning: Frank Luntz arms Bush with 'framing' devices to court the womens' vote - Bush's anti-woman record be damned." By Molly Ivins, AlterNet.

7.12.2004 "Do you think that the United States should or should not have taken military action to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq?" "Should have" down 20% since April 2003. Polling report.com

7.12.2004 "Nations Liberals Suffering From Outrage Fatigue" The Onion

7.12.2004 "DeLay's Corporate Fundraising Investigated -- Money Was Directed to Texas GOP to Help State Redistricting Effort" By R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post Staff Writer
See also: "DeLay in the Dock", Posted by Holden at Eschaton
And: "DeLay solicited corporate funds from Enron" Daily Kos II
And "Does DeLay Own the House Ethics Committee? -- Nope. Just the Republican members" Posted by Holden at Eschaton.

7.12.2004 "Election Prevention Commission?" Billmon "In a previous post, I noted the curious fact that the history of the U.S. Constitution can be divided into three periods, each of precisely 72 years. The first began with the Philadelphia convention and ended with the firing on Ft. Sumter, which rung down the curtain on the aristocratic republic the founders had created. The second period stretched from Ft. Sumter to FDR's Hundred Days, and the peaceful revolution that created the modern welfare state. The third will take us to 2005, and the inauguration of the next president - assuming there's an election to be followed by that inauguration.

7.12.2004 "Bush policy on AIDS prevention hit at world convention"

7.11.2004 "Key Revisions Were Made to CIA Document" By Mark Mazzetti LA Times Staff Writer

7.11.2004 Politics and the Pulpit: A Guide to the Internal Revenue Code Restrictions on the Politial Activity of Relgious Organizations The Pew Forum

7.11.2004 "A Curious Piece of Trivia On March 4, 2001 - six months before 9/11 - FOX Channel aired the pilot program of a short-lived show called The Lone Gunmen", a spin-off of "The X-Files".
The plot centered around an attempt by the heroes - The Lone Gunmen - to prevent a hijacked commercial airliner from being flown into the World Trade Center." News Hounds We watch FOX so you don't have to.

7.11.2004 "Your Preznit Takes Charge" Posted by Holden at Eschaton "I will remind them that there has been some failures -- listen, we thought there was going to be stockpiles of weapons."... snip ... "Yes, we defintely need more human intelligence.
Or any. I'd go for any intelligence at this point in time."

7.11.2004 "Bush Presses Case Against Gay Marriage" ... "Senate Democrats signaled they will not throw barriers in front of the resolution, paving the way for a vote on the amendment as early as Wednesday." By PETE YOST, Associated Press

7.11.2004 "Charges Dropped Against Bush Protestors -- CRAWFORD, Texas - A judge on Friday dismissed all charges against five anti-war activists who were arrested last year on their way to President Bush's ranch" Fox News Pointer from Holden at Eschaton

7.11.2004 The making of ''Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism,'' The New York Times

7.11.2004 "NAACP Head Asks Bush to Rethink Convention Snub" ... "Bush, campaigning in Pennsylvania on Friday, said he would not attend this year's NAACP event. He said his relationship with its leadership was "basically nonexistent" and he referred to being called "names" by organization members." "NAACP Chairman Julian Bond last month said Bush and other Republicans were part of a "dark underside of American culture.". By Jon Hurdle Yahoo Pointer from Atrios

7.11.2004 "Ex-chief of Park Police denounces firing CNN "According to the Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees, a group of more than 250 former NPS officials, the Interior Department sent out memos to park superintendents to make further reductions -- and "to mislead the news media and public about the service cuts in order to avoid ... 'public controversy.'"

7.11.2004 "NRA and Outdoor Writers Have Falling-Out -- Head of Gun Group Rebuked For Attack on Sierra Club" By Blaine Harden, Washington Post Staff Writer "The NRA's insistence on drive-close hunting has, itself, generated considerable heat among outdoor writers. An editorial last month in the Lewiston, Idaho, Tribune said that "most of the legions of people insisting on a driveway right" to hunt "simply have more invested in their beer bellies than their boots."

7.11.2004 "Fla. Scraps Flawed Felon Voting List" By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

7.10.2004 The Senate Report and the forged Niger documents Josh Marshall

7.10.2004 "It's not always about you" By GWYNNE DYER. The Toronto Star. "The true goal of the Islamists is to come to power in Muslim countries, and their problem until recently was that they could not win over enough local people to make their revolutions happen. Getting the U.S. to march into the Muslim world in pursuit of the terrorists was a potentially promising stratagem, since an invasion should produce endless images of American soldiers killing and humiliating Muslims. That might finally push enough people into the arms of the Islamists to get their stalled revolutions off the ground." Pointer from Roe.

7.10.2004 "Defining Marriage Down -- We need to protect marriage." By Senator Sam Brownback "The experience of Europe also shows that the decline of the institution of marriage goes hand in hand with a decline in married fertility, and a corresponding decline in population." Is this a bad thing? The National Review Online

7.10.2004 "The Donald has turned thumbs down on the President's war in Iraq, calling it a "mess." New York Daily News Pointer from Memeorandum

7.10.2004 "Plame's Input Is Cited on Niger Mission -- Report Disputes Wilson's Claims on Trip, Wife's Role" By Susan Schmidt Washington Post Staff Writer
Josh Marshall offers her a reality check
See Joseph Wilsons letter to the Republican members of the Sendate Intelligence Committee Here (Scroll Down) Pointer from Josh Marshall

7.10.2004 "The CIA is guilty: of aiding and abetting." -- Josh Marshall

7.10.2004 "What did Ashcroft know about the Plame Game and when did he know it?" ... "So many questions, so few indictments..." Carpetbagger

7.9.2004 "Patriot Act stays in tact -- under ridiculous circumstance" Carpetbagger.

7.9.2004 "Pentagon Reportedly Aimed to Hold Detainees in Secret. Proposal to keep some prisoners 'off the books' went against promises for yearly case reviews." By John Hendren and Mark Mazzetti, LA Times Staff Writers

7.9.2004 "The shame of the '350 tax increases' myth Forgive my obvious naïveté, but there's something amazing to me about the Bush campaign's capacity to state a falsehood, get caught, and then repeat it again anyway." Carpetbagger

7.9.2004 "In short, we went to war in Iraq based on false claims." Jay Rockefeller, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, at a news conference with Chairman Pat Roverts to discuss the committee's report on pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Steve M. No More Mister Nice Blog.

7.9.2004 "PAKISTAN FOR BUSH -- July Surprise?" by John B. Judis, Spencer Ackerman & Massoud Ansari The New Republic Online "But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that "it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July"--the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston." ... "Pushing Musharraf to go after Al Qaeda in the tribal areas may be a good idea despite the risks. But, if that is the case, it was a good idea in 2002 and 2003. Why the switch now? Top Pakistanis think they know: This year, the president's reelection is at stake." Pointer from Maureen.

7.9.2004 "The Enron Case" Robert Bryce, Author of Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron. His new book is Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas -- America's Superstate. The Washington Post.

7.9.2004 "WASHINGTON - President Bush has issued full pardons to two men convicted in separate fraud cases in Wisconsin and Oklahoma." Associated Press Pointer from Dan Froomkin

7.9.2004 "Blast Wave Blows Through the Solar System" ... "To fully appreciate this long-distance tracking marvel, the 26 year-old Voyagers 1 and 2 are located about 7 and 9 billion miles from Earth, respectively. That places them about four billion miles past Pluto's orbit and headed toward the outer reaches of our solar system. The amazing part: scientists still hear from Voyagers on a daily basis." NASA Drudge

7.9.2004 "U.S. Farmers to Get $112 Million for GE Starlink Corn Contamination" Thanks, Kurt

7.9.2004 "Health Versus Wealth" By PAUL KRUGMAN

7.8.2004 "Tenet Delivers Defiant Farewell Address to CIA" By Greg Miller, LA Times Staff Writer "Casting fresh doubt on a key component of such claims, Levin on Thursday released a letter from Tenet in which the CIA director said the agency does not believe that Mohammed Atta -- the reputed ringleader of the attacks -- met with an Iraqi agent in Prague just months before the attacks.
"Although we cannot rule it out, we are increasingly skeptical that such a meeting occurred," Tenet said in the letter, dated July 1 and written in response to a request from Levin.

7.8.2004 Regarding the massacre of the Kurds: "A report prepared by the top CIA official handling the matter says Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the massacre, and indicates that it was the work of Iranians." ... "Soon after the attack, the United States approved the export to Iraq of virus cultures and a billion-dollar contract to design and build a petrochemical plant the Iraqis planned to use to produce mustard gas." Sanjay Suri, Inter Press Service (IPS) Pointer from Atrios

7.8.2004 "Helen Thomas Points to Government "Lies" ... "At the age of 83, journalistic legend Helen Thomas obviously doesn't believe in mincing words. "This government lies," she told a group of editors, reporters and interns from The Indianapolis Star on Wednesday. She also called Bush administration claims on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction "baloney." Editor and Publisher

7.8.2004 "House Battles Over Patriot Act Provision " By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer Yahoo

7.8.2004 "Cheney alternatives" By Bruce Bartlett Wow! The Washington Times Pointer from Memeorandum

7.8.2004 "Senate Iraq Report Said to Skirt White House Use of Intelligence" ... "Under a deal reached this year between Republicans and Democrats, the Bush administration's role will not be addressed until the Senate Intelligence Committee completes a further stage of its inquiry, but probably not until after the November election." By DOUGLAS JEHL The New York Times

7.7.2004 Torture Talking Points

7.7.2004 "Children in Iraqi prisons"

7.7.2004 Arianna Huffington "Five reasons why John Edwards is the perfect choice - and will leave Dick Cheney dropping the F-bomb." ... "George Bush wants to define this campaign in terms of right and left. John Edwards will help make sure that it comes down to a discussion of right and wrong."

7.7.2004 "Taking on Tom Delay"

7.7.2004 "John Edwards, Esq. -- Republicans believe that Americans will never elect a trial lawyer president. They're wrong." By Joshua Green, Washington Monthly, October 2001

7.7.2004 "A major setback for Bush's faith-based initiative" Carpetbagger

7.7.2004 "Today's LA Times had yet another disturbing tale of corruption at the highest levels, in which a Pentagon deputy undersecretary exploited his office to win no-bid contracts for companies run by his friends. Carpetbagger

7.7.2004 "A combined 67% consider Edwards' experience as a trial lawyer as a "strength"? No wonder the Republicans are in a panic -- if the public actually likes lawyers who fight on behalf of working families against irresponsible corporations, then the GOP is in for a world of trouble." Carpetbagger

7.7.2004 Josh Marshall "I don't mean simply that the Bush administration has been unsuccessful or incompetent in pursuing its plans for democratization. I don't even mean that they've been hypocritical or inconsistent. I mean that democratization as a moral or strategic goal simply doesn't figure into the White House's plans." ... "the whole premise -- so widespread now in our political and foreign policy debates -- that the Bush administration is hawkish on democracy or neo-Wilsonian -- and that this is a departure from previous administrations or a potential Kerry administration -- is just an empty claim embraced by the inattentive and incurious."

7.6.2004 Carpetbagger

* McCain opposed Bush's tax cuts, calling them "irresponsible."
* McCain voted against Bush's Medicare plan, calling it "mind-boggling."
* McCain recently said he believes the Republican Party has "gone astray." 
* McCain fought the Bush White House on campaign finance reform,
federalized airport security after 9/11, showing photos of soldiers' coffins 
returning from Iraq, and creating an independent commission to investigate 
pre-war intelligence failures in Iraq.
* In describing John Kerry, McCain said the Dem nominee is "smart, he's 
tough, and he's experienced. He has the capability.... It's hard to know 
what the atmosphere is out there, but I'm confident John Kerry can connect 
with people in the same way [I did in 2000]."
* McCain rejected Bush administration complaints and worked with Senate 
Democrats  to craft legislation on a patients' bill of rights, better fuel-
efficiency standards, reducing greenhouse gasses, whistleblower protection, 
and requiring background checks at gun shows.
* McCain has said Bush's approach to funding national security is 
fundamentally flawed. "Throughout our history, wartime has been a time 
of sacrifice…. What have we sacrificed? ... I don't remember ever in the history 
of warfare when we cut taxes."
Yes, McCain has demonstrated his loyalty to his party by endorsing Bush, 
but keep this list in mind if you see the new campaign ad on TV.

7.6.2004 "Fahrenheit 9/11" Not Even About Temperature, Say Republicans -- "For one thing, the title is intensely misleading," said Spartelby Fisk, a Republican gnome. "It has nothing to do with heat. It's a crock." Holden at Eschaton

7.5.2004 "Fifty-nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 911" By Dave Kopel e.g. "Shortly before 9/11, the Post calculated that Bush had spent 42 percent of his presidency at vacation spots or en route, including all or part of 54 days at his ranch. That calculation, however, includes weekends, which Moore failed to mention." (Really stupid!)

See also: "Fahrenheit 9/11" is a tendentious, flawed movie, but it tells essential truths about leaders who exploited a national tragedy for political gain, and the ordinary Americans who paid the price." Paul Krugman Pointer from Roe.

And also: "Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911" A collection of reviews.

7.5.2004 "LETTER FROM A DEPORTEE -- Your Country Is Safe From Me" By ELENA LAPPIN New York Times "The Patriot Act revived much of the McCarran-Walter Act. It placed antiterrorism measures in a peculiar conceptual proximity to laws supporting the control and removal of undesirable aliens, although with a new emphasis: as dissident writers seem to have disappeared from the public sphere, journalists have become the new subversives, even when they have no agenda at all." ... "While old and new ideology seemingly mesh within the Patriot Act, the truth is that in the name of fighting terrorism, it has transformed a free, open, inimitably attractive democracy into something resembling an insular fortress of Kafkaesque absurdity. Perhaps Kafka was wise to write his visionary novel ''Amerika'' without ever having visited it. Chances are that today he would not have received a visa."

7.4.2004 "Their George and Ours" By BARBARA EHRENREICH The New York Times

7.4.2004 "Baptists Angry at Bush Campaign Tactics" AP

7.2.2004 "Poker With Dick Cheney" The Poor Man

7.2.2004 "Perhaps one ought to think of the entire Bush administration as an attempt to bring greater public attention to the fine points of epistemology" The Zarqawi training camp as a Gettier problem. By Matthew Yglesias

7.2.2004 "Big Day for Supreme Court -- Bad day for you" (Re Hamadi decision) Public Opinions

7.2.2004 "US lawmakers request UN observers for November 2 presidential election" AFP

7.2.2004 "Judge rules for media on Florida voter list -- Upholds both 'right to inspect' and 'right to copy'" CNN
List can be viewed Here

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gentle.reader@att.net ... A member of the reality based community.