Electoral Vote Predictor 2004 :) Go Blue!
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Politics 101: Interactive Electoral College Map
Interactive Electoral College Map for 2004 Presidential Election

National Polls Kerry/Bush approval ratings
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Bush Approval: Raw Poll Data (with terror alert correlations) See also Timeline
Presidential approval ratings Common Space Scores Congresses 75 - 107 (13 July 2003)

Iraq Coalition Casualties Count ... DOD Body Count

Doonesbury Daily Dose
An Index of Paul Krugman articles
Rating the Blogosphere

9.26.2004 Google results for worst president ever = 1,170,000 -- Graph
Gossip from the Net

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11.1.2004 "Osama Bin Laden Tape Threatens U.S. States Not to Vote for Bush" By: Yigal Carmon, Memri "The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired on Al-Jazeera(1) on Friday, October 29th included a specific threat to "each U.S. state," designed to influence the outcome of the upcoming election against George W. Bush."

11.1.2004 "Bush Win Would Mean Dark Times -- World Would Perceive Support For Preemptive War" by Helen Thomas

10.31.2004 "I'll stop calling this crew "Orwellian" when they stop using 1984 as an operations manual." Bradford Delong

10.31.2004 "The new bin Laden tape" Peter Bergen again backs up Kerry on Tora Bora.

10.31.2004 "Land's End Founder Runs Full Page anti-Bush Ad" Atrios

10.31.2004 "Codependent No More -- Can Bin Laden keep Bush in office?" By William Saletan, Slate "The only thing that keeps a clear majority of us from recognizing Bush as the worst president in memory is that history has graced him with such an ugly adversary. Bush hasn't had to do anything well. All he's had to do is point out that he's on your side and that the guy on the other side is a mass-murdering lunatic."

10.31.2004 For example, look at this calendar for November, 2001 Pointer from Josh Marshall

10.31.2004 George Soros: "President Bush has shown that he is incapable of recognizing his mistakes. He insists on making reality conform to his beliefs even at the cost of deceiving himself and deliberately deceiving the public. There is something appealing in the strength of his faith, especially in our troubled time. But the cost is too high. By putting our faith in a President who cannot admit his mistakes we commit ourselves to the wrong policies. We are the most powerful nation on earth. No external power, no terrorist organization, can defeat us. But we can defeat ourselves by getting caught in a quagmire." ... "But the trouble goes deeper. The war on terror as defined by President Bush is a one-dimensional presentation of reality. We cannot fight terrorism by military means alone. We can use military force only when we have a known target; but it is the habit of terrorists to keep their whereabouts hidden. To track them down we need the support of the populations amongst whom they hide. Offense is not necessarily the best defense if it offends those whose allegiance we need.
John Kerry is aware of this other dimension. That is why he cannot be as single-minded as George W. Bush. He is nuanced because reality is complicated. This has been turned into a character flaw by the Bush campaign. Yet, that is exactly the character we need in our commander in chief. John Kerry is prepared to defend the country as he showed in Viet Nam; but he has learned first hand the devastation that war can bring and will use military force only as a last resort."

10.31.2004 Thomas L. Friedman endorses the Political Heir of George Herbert Walker Bush. (not George W.)

10.31.2004 "Will Osama Help W.?" By MAUREEN DOWD "The Bushies' campaign pitch follows their usual backward logic: Because we have failed to make you safe, you should re-elect us to make you safer. Because we haven't caught Osama in three years, you need us to catch Osama in the next four years. Because we didn't bother to secure explosives in Iraq, you can count on us to make sure those explosives aren't used against you."

10.31.2004 "Cherie Blair lambasts Bush over human rights" NICHOLAS CHRISTIAN, Scotland on Sunday

10.30.2004 "As mentioned by me on many occasions in the past, the Tora Bora operation failed due to two reasons. Firstly, the warlords and the narcotics barons played a double game. While ostensibly helping the US forces, they kept bin Laden and his fighters informed of the US military movements. Secondly, Pakistan on which too the US depended for sealing off its border with Afghanistan to prevent the escape of bin Laden and other jihadi terrorists into Pakistani territory, quietly let them pass." By B. RAMAN, Outlook India.com

10.30.2004 "Queen Elizabeth backs Kerry" pie at Eschaton

10.29.2004 "Study puts civilian toll in Iraq at over 100,000" By Elisabeth Rosenthal International Herald Tribune

10.28.2004 "An ABC affiliate in Minneapolis, KSTP, had a crew embedded with the 101st Airborne when the division arrived at the Al Qaqaa facility. They have video proof that that the explosives were there on April 18, 2003.

10.27.2004 "60,000 missing absentee ballots in Florida... Drudge

10.27.2004 Josh Marshall quotes Rick Jervis

"The insurgents probably are using weapons and ammunition looted from the nearby Qa-Qaa complex, a 3-mile by 3-mile weapons-storage facility about 25 miles southwest of Baghdad, said Maj. Brian Neil, operations officer for the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, which initially patrolled the area.
The facility was bombed during last year's invasion and then left unguarded, Neil said. "There's definitely no shortage of weapons around here," he said. "

See also Carpetbagger: "Second, the "look at all the other munitions we've destroyed" defense is almost laughably inane. This facility had 377 tons of deadly explosives. The bomb that took down Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland used less than one pound of this same explosive -- and there were 760,000 pounds at Al Qaqaa. I'm delighted that we've secured some 409,000 munitions, but it doesn't come close to answering the relevant question. Indeed, it suggests the White House can't think of an answer to that question."

10.26.2004 "Zarqawi story gets a little more attention" "Twilight-Zone politics. When a president has three chances to kill a terrorist mastermind, chooses not to, and then has to deal with that terrorist's brutal killings of U.S. troops, he shouldn't get to use the guy as an example of his capabilities." Carpetbagger quotes the Wall Street Journal.

10.26.2004 "Pittsburghers appreciate Ms. Rice's coming here, even this late in the game. What was disappointing was that her presentation was so partisan and out of touch with the reality of the world. If she actually believes what she said Thursday, it is frightening to think she is the president's chief national security adviser." Post-Gazette.com Pointer from Carpetbagger

10.26.2004 "Are you pro-life -- and undecided?" BY GLEN HAROLD STASSEN, The Miami Herald "Under Bush, the decade-long trend of declining abortion rates appears to have reversed. Given the trends of the 1990s, 52,000 more abortions occurred in the United States in 2002 than would have been expected before this change of direction"

Via Carpetbagger

10.26.2004 The New Yorker endorses Kerry and tells why.

10.26.2004 Thoughtful academics contribute to Kerry - "scandalous uniformity in a university community" The Wall Street Journal op-ed.

10.26.2004 "Bush Says His Party Is Wrong to Oppose Gay Civil Unions" By ELISABETH BUMILLER, The New York Times

10.25.2004 "T.R. Thought for the Week:

"The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others."

10.25.2004 Josh Marshall discusses possible government cover up regarding the missing Iraqi explosives. "Some 350 tons of high explosives which were under IAEA seal while Saddam was in power, were looted during the early days of the US occupation. Like so much else, it was just left unguarded."

10.25.2004 "Report: CIA transferred detainees without notice -- Congressmen cite a possible violation of the Geneva treaties" By RICHARD SIMON Los Angeles Times ""The thing that separates us from the enemy is our respect for human rights," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on ABC's This Week."

10.25.2004 "Why I'm voting for John Kerry" By Steve Chapman, The Chicago Tribune "At the age of 50, I get few chances to try something entirely new. Come Nov. 2, I plan to take one of those rare opportunities. I'm going to vote for a Democrat for president.
I've never done it before, and I hope I never have to do it again. But President Bush has made an irresistible case against his own re-election. His first term has been one of the most dismal and costly failures of any presidency. His second promises to be even worse."

10.24.2004 "AMERICA'S CORRUPTION PROBLEM IN IRAQ AND AT HOME" Steve Clemens

10.24.2004 "Beyond the Call of Duty -- A whistle-blower objected to the government's Halliburton deals—and says now she's paying for it" By ADAM ZAGORIN & TIMOTHY J. BURGER, Time Magazine

10.24.2004 "CORRUPTION ACCUSATIONS -- Memos Warned of Billing Fraud by Firm in Iraq" By ERIK ECKHOLM The New York Times

10.24.2004 Jon Stewart: "After playing a clip of Bush hitting Kerry on taxes by saying "the rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason, to stick you with the tab," Stewart said, "Let me get this straight: Don't tax the rich because they'll get out if it? So your policy is, tax the hardworking people, because they're dumb-asses and they'll never figure it out?"

10.24.2004 "After Terror, a Secret Rewriting of Military Law" By TIM GOLDEN The New York Times "White House officials said their use of extraordinary powers would allow the Pentagon to collect crucial intelligence and mete out swift, unmerciful justice. "We think it guarantees that we'll have the kind of treatment of these individuals that we believe they deserve," said Vice President Dick Cheney, who was a driving force behind the policy.
But three years later, not a single terrorist has been prosecuted. Of the roughly 560 men being held at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, only 4 have been formally charged." ... "In fact, many officials contend, some of the most serious problems with the military justice system are rooted in the secretive and contentious process from which it emerged."

10.23.2004 "Sen. Kerry's charge that Tora Bora was a missed opportunity to bring bin Laden to justice isn't "garbage", but an accurate reflection of the historical record." Peter Bergen Pointer from Josh Marshall.

10.22.2004 "A FORMER REPUBLICAN SENATOR FOR KERRY -- 'Frightened to death' of Bush" By Marlow W. Cook The Courier-Journal "I am not enamored with John Kerry, but I am frightened to death of George Bush. I fear a secret government. I abhor a government that refuses to supply the Congress with requested information. I am against a government that refuses to tell the country with whom the leaders of our country sat down and determined our energy policy, and to prove how much they want to keep that secret, they took it all the way to the Supreme Court."

10.22.2004 "Bush's Blinkers" By BOB HERBERT The New York Times "There are consequences, often powerful consequences, to turning one's back on reality. The president may believe that freedom's on the march, and that freedom is God's gift to every man and woman in the world, and perhaps even that he is the vessel through which that gift is transmitted. But when he is crafting policy decisions that put people by the hundreds of thousands into harm's way, he needs to rely on more than the perceived good wishes of the Almighty. He needs to submit those policy decisions to a good hard reality check."

10.21.2004 "Elmer L. Andersen: Why this Republican ex-governor will be voting for Kerry" ... "Also, if there as well had been proper and careful coordination of services and intelligence on Sept. 11, 2001, that horrific disaster might also have been averted. But it was a separate event from this brutal mess of a war, and the disingenuous linking of the wholly unrelated situation in Iraq to 9/11 by this administration is not supported by the facts." ... "In both presidential debates, Kerry has shown himself to be of far superior intellect and character than Bush. He speaks honestly to the American people, his ethics are unimpeachable and, clearly, with 20 respected years in the Senate, he has far better credentials to lead the country than did Bush when he was elected four years ago. And a far greater depth of understanding of domestic and foreign affairs to do it now." ... "I am more fearful for the state of this nation than I have ever been -- because this country is in the hands of an evil man: Dick Cheney. It is eminently clear that it is he who is running the country, not George W. Bush." ... (Elmer L. Andersen was Minnesota's governor from 1961 to 1963.)

10.21.2004 Republicans for Kerry 2004 By Kos, who includes: Bush relatives for Kerry

10.20.2004 "Roe = Dred" by Katha Pollitt "Many viewers were puzzled when, toward the end of the second debate, George W. Bush answered a question about Supreme Court nominees by referring to the Dred Scott case." The Nation Thanks, Maureen

10.20.2004 "Robertson: I warned Bush on Iraq casualties - President's response: 'We're not going to have any'"

10.20.2004 "Of course Iran wants four more years of Bush. Why wouldn't they?" Carpetbagger

10.20.2004 Kerry's Newspaper and Media Endorsements: Must Read

10.20.2004 Regarding the Sanchez memo: "Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, voted against the $87 billion in October 2003, and Congress gave its final approval to the measure in November. A memo written by Sanchez asking for more equipment, according to a story in Monday's Washington Post, came a month later. " Washington Post Pointer from Carpetbagger, who says: "McClellan chides reality-based community again"

10.20.2004 Carpetbagger discusses flu shots: "Which leaves Bush with tort reform. Trial lawyers, we're told, have created a system in which pharmaceutical companies don't want to create/market the vaccines. It's a last-ditch spin, but it's fundamentally flawed. My friend D.H. alerted me to a terrific article from 2001 from Business Week on this subject, which explains that the companies shy away from vaccines, not because of lawsuits, but because there's little to no profit, manufacturing the vaccines is difficult and time consuming, and they realize that unused supplies end up in the trash at the end of the year.

10.20.2004 "The Wall Street Journal's Alan Murray raised the question today: Why has Mr. Bush failed in his first four years to find an effective Treasury secretary? Fortunately, Murray also points at the explanation."

[Much of the answer comes from the fact that, for this administration, economic policy has been a direct extension of political strategy. The tax cuts that characterized President Bush's first term were forged during the campaign, and were as much a plan for election and re-election as for economic reinvigoration. The Treasury secretary's job was taken over, in effect, by political adviser Karl Rove.

10.20.2004 "Nearly 1.7 million veterans have no health insurance or access to government hospitals and clinics, according to a report released Tuesday." Chicago Sun-Times

10.19.2004 "U.S. Has Contingency Plans for a Draft of Medical Workers" By ROBERT PEAR, The New York Times

10.19.2004 "The 9/11 Secret in the CIA's Back Pocket -- The agency is withholding a damning report that points at senior officials." By Robert Scheer, LA Times

10.19.2004 "EPA's chief under Nixon rips Bush on environment -- Says he will vote for Kerry"By Bill Novak The Capital Times "The administration's reversal of a finding that mercury is a hazardous pollutant is one of 400 rollbacks of environmental protections cited by Enviroment2004, and Train said the reversal is the reason he's switched parties this presidential election."

10.19.2004 "Feeling the Draft" By PAUL KRUGMAN "Mr. Bush's assurances that this won't happen are based on a denial of reality. Last week, the Republican National Committee sent an angry, threatening letter to Rock the Vote, an organization that has been using the draft issue to mobilize young voters. "This urban myth regarding a draft has been thoroughly debunked," the letter declared, and quoted Mr. Bush: "We don't need the draft. Look, the all-volunteer Army is working."

Previous post on this subject:
10.15.2004 Ed Gillespie tells Rock the Vote to Cease and Desist discussing the draft issue "Claims that a draft is possible, Gillespie argued, are so ridiculous on their face that the the group could only be acting from 'malicious intent and a reckless disregard for the truth.' (Those, of course, are catchphrases laying the groundwork for legal action.)" Josh Marshall
Well, maybe a draft is possible: 3.20.2004 "The government is taking the first steps toward a targeted military draft of Americans with special skills in computers and foreign languages." Eric Rosenberg-Hearst Newspapers- San Francisco Chronical. Pointer from Mark Kleiman

10.19.2004 "Colorado HAVA Compliance Director - Racist -- Oh lovely. Atrios

10.19.2004 "The Strategy to Secure Iraq Did Not Foresee a 2nd War" By MICHAEL R. GORDON, The New York Times.
"Ms. Rice puts the blame for the insurgency primarily on the fact that many Iraqi forces fled during the American push to Baghdad, only to fight another day. She also said the minority Sunni population, which had been in power under Mr. Hussein, felt unsettled, contributing to a "permissive environment."
Any big historical change is going to be turbulent," she said. "There was a lot of planning based on the assumptions, based on the intelligence. It is also the case that when the plan meets reality, it's what it didn't think of that really becomes the problem. So the real question is, can you adjust and make the changes necessary?"

10.19.2004 "In a challenge to both political parties, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites ) on Monday endorsed a ballot measure to drastically alter how Californians pick candidates for the Legislature, Congress and statewide office." By Nancy Vogel, LA Times

10.19.2004 "A canon lawyer seeking to have Senator John Kerry excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church because of his support for abortion rights said on Monday that he had ammunition in the form of a letter issued at the request of a senior Vatican official.
The lawyer, Marc Balestrieri of Los Angeles, who heads a conservative Catholic nonprofit organization called De Fide, also said that, based on the letter, he would now seek to have four other Catholic politicians excommunicated: Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mario M. Cuomo, the former governor of New York." By PAM BELLUCK, The New York Times

10.19.2004 "Sinclair Fires Washington Bureau Chief" By KASEY JONES, Associated Press Writer "They're using the news to drive their political agenda," Leiberman said. "I don't think it served the public trust."

10.18.2004 Republican William G. Milliken, former Governor of Michigan, endorses Kerry

10.18.2004 "As I write this, the market is at about 9920. That's about 600 points lower than when Chao said this was the only number that matters and about 800 points lower than when Bush took office. Indeed, chances are Bush will likely be one of the rarest of presidents -- fewer jobs than when he started and a lower stock market at the end of his term than when it started." Carpetbagger

10.18.2004 "Imagining America if George Bush Chose the Supreme Court" By ADAM COHEN The New York Times How the dissenting opinions of Justices Scalia and Thomas may become law.

10.18.2004 "Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh spills the secrets of the Iraq quagmire and the war on terror" By Bonnie Azab Powell , NewsCenter From Steve Clemons

10.17.2004 Boston "GLOBE EDITORIAL -- Kerry for President"
"Daily Endorsement Tally: Kerry Picks up 30 Papers, Owns Huge Lead

10.17.2004 "Exciting news out of Houston, the big city paper has chosen to endorse Richard Morrison over Tom DeLay!" Burnt Orange Report Pointer from Memeorandum

10.17.2004 "Without a Doubt" By RON SUSKIND The New York Times. "In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.
The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'' ...
"George W. Bush and his team have constructed a high-performance electoral engine. The soul of this new machine is the support of millions of likely voters, who judge his worth based on intangibles -- character, certainty, fortitude and godliness -- rather than on what he says or does. The deeper the darkness, the brighter this filament of faith glows, a faith in the president and the just God who affirms him."
"Read this article today. It says it all. This election is increasingly about not letting Medievalism conquer the Enlightenment. It's a head-to-head contest between rationality and dogma." Steve Clemons

"Clyde Prestowitz: The conservative case for Kerry
The line of lifelong Republicans who have decided to vote for John Kerry keeps getting longer. The latest new Kerry voter is Clyde Prestowitz, who was counselor to the secretary of commerce in the Reagan administration. Here is his explanation of why conservatives should vote for John Kerry."
See comments from Steve Clemons

10.16.2004 Jon Stewart trys to elevate the discourse on Cross Fire. video. Transcript

10.16.2004 "Block the Vote" Paul Krugman

10.16.2004 "THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY: WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY OPINES" ... "This view holds that Kerry was in fact trading on bigotry.
That position is of course irreconcilable with the position that Mr. Cheney has profited politically from publicizing his daughter's gayness -- that he has, in effect, said to the gay community: Look, my own beloved daughter is a member of the Cheney family, and a member also of the gay community. You can hardly suspect in the GOP ticket prejudice against gays, when you see that we have one in the family, whom we cherish." Per Steven Clemons

10.16.2004 "Its time for Bush to get worried" By Frank Luntz "Asserting that the economy is strong and Iraq a success is simply not credible to the majority of Americans or to the stubborn 5 per cent who remain uncommitted."

Votemaster says: "In a world where the spinmeisters constantly claim that their horse can not only walk on water, but also trot and gallop on it, having a top GOP strategist with access to real data say his horse is sinking fast is ominous for the Bush campaign."

10.16.2004 "Army investigates possible mutiny" Washington Times

10.15.2004 Halliburton gets its moneys worthAn EPA engineer named Weston Wilson isn't pleased with the agency's process in deciding that hydraulic fracturing didn't need to be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Wilson opines that the decision is scientifically unsupported and legally unsound, and points out that the the review committee that approved the study included a consultant for ... Halliburton." Mark Kleiman

10.15.2004 "Roger Stone Behind Kerry/Specter Signs" Surprise surprise. Atrios

10.15.2004 "Bush's Crowd Control -- irony edition" Bush, last week:
"I think whoever is the president must guard your liberties, must not erode your rights in America."
Bush event, yesterday :
"President Bush taught three Oregon schoolteachers a new lesson in irony -- or tragedy -- Thursday night when his campaign removed them from a Bush speech and threatened them with arrest simply for wearing t-shirts that said “Protect Our Civil Liberties,” the Democratic Party of Oregon reported." Carpetbagger

10.15.2004 "Bush plays his deficit shell game" By David Lazarus "In his final debate with Sen. John Kerry on Wednesday night, President Bush reiterated his pledge to cut the nation's record budget deficit in half by the end of one more term in office.
"It requires pro-growth policies that grow our economy and fiscal sanity in the halls of Congress," he declared.
A day later, Bush's Treasury secretary, John Snow, told the halls of Congress that he's taking the extreme step of using government workers' pension money to avoid increased borrowing that would push the Bush administration past a $7.38 trillion debt ceiling." SFGate.com

10.15.2004 "What Happened in Kerry's Vietnam Battles? -- 'Nightline' Speaks to Witnesses of Disputed Firefights" By ANDREW MORSE, ABC NEWS (Villagers confirm Kerry records)
"Unbelievable. The SBVT folks, hoping to dig up dirt on Kerry, interviewed these villagers six months ago and have known the truth all along.
It wasn't just a case of differing recollections in the heat of the battle. They knew the truth. But they went ahead and told their lies anyway.
What a revolting bunch of men. What a disgusting, repellent, sleazy operation. And now Sinclair Broadcasting is about to air their movie." - Kevin Drum

10.15.2004 "Republicans Resign Over Questionable Absentee Ballot Applications" (South Dakota) Jodi Schwan, KELOLAND TV.
"Today comes news, however, that Russell -- still under investigation in South Dakota -- has been reassigned to run President Bush's get-out-the-vote operation in Ohio. Russell will now "lead the ground operations" for Bush in Ohio, according to an internal Republican party memo obtained by the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
And Russell's bringing along with him to Ohio three of the five other GOP staffers who had to resign in South Dakota and are similarly under investigation in that state." Josh Marshall

10.15.2004 "Bush Admin. Spent $700,000 in Taxpayer Dollars to Evaluate Public Image of President Bush and the Republican Party" Senator Frank Lautenberg

10.15.2004 "Creeping Fascism at Sinclair" Molly Ivins "No one serves this country well who blindly supports misbegotten wars in the name of patriotism. The right to dissent is one of the founding principles of this country and is in itself a high form of patriotism."

10.15.2004 "Democrats name GOP official in phone jamming" By NANCY MEERSMAN, Union Leader 10.14.2004 The New York Post! "LABOR DOES PHONE-WORK FAVOR FOR PREZ ON JOBS REPORT "

10.14.2004 "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana.

From Aaron: Subject: Reichstag Fire Drill
Feb. 27th, 1933: The German Parliament burns down.
Feb. 28th, 1933: In response to what Chancellor Hitler said were the actions of Communists, the constitution is suspended and the Chancellor is given dictatorial powers.
Sept. 25th, 2004: "Can we re-check the sprinkler system in the Reichstag?" -Josh Marshall
10.13.2004, Right at the end of the Presidential debates... Fire in Basement of Rayburn House Office Building

10.14.2004 Halliburton: "A Hard-to-Swallow Lesson on Pensions" The New York Times
Steve M says, "Halliburton rejiggered some workers' pensions. Then, taking advantage of a loophole that became law in Bush and Cheney's first few months in office, Halliburton screwed the workers out of a big chunk of their pension money using deceit."

10.14.2004 "Checking the Fact-Checkers" Kash at Angry Bear

10.14.2004 Josh Marshall illustrates the differences between Kerry's and Bush's foreign policy.

10.14.2004 "An Angry Bear Guide to Bush's Economic Claims"

10.13.2004 "Voter Registrations Possibly Trashed" ... "Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats."KLAS TV, Las Vegas
And here's a careerbuilder.com listing for the same company looking for door-to-door canvassers. Paid for by the GOP. And here it seems that the same outfit was doing work for Nader in Arizona." Josh Marshall
"Librarian bares possible voter registration dodge" Per Josh Marshall See also "GOP Consulting Firm Investigated for Voter Fraud Claims (Oregon)

10.13.2004 "Bush has his priorities; are they yours? "In case you missed it (I sure did), the Detroit News ran a great series a few weeks ago detailing the ways in which the working poor suffer under Bush's tax cuts. It's a devastating indictment, accompanied by some helpful charts (and I do love good charts)" Carpetbagger.

10.13.2004 John Le Carré "Maybe there's one good reason - just one - for re-electing George W Bush, and that's to force him to live with the consequences of his appalling actions, and answer for his own lies, rather than wish the job on a Democrat who will then get blamed for his predecessor's follies."

10.13.2004 "Bush special envoy embroiled in controversy over Iraq debt -- Consortium plans to cash in as Baker asks countries to end £200bn burden" The Guardian

10.12.2004 Cheat sheats for Wednesday's debate: Paul Krugman, The Daily Howler, Kevin Drum

10.12.2004 "Bush’s Campaign Ads… Brought to You By Special Interests"

10.12.2004 "From: [Wall Street Journal reporter] Farnaz Fassihi, Subject: From Baghdad. Via Gary Trudeau

10.12.2004 Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt sent the following message to executives at Sinclair Broadcasting Group ..."Why should a broadcaster keep its licenses if it behaves in this manner?" Per Josh Marshall

10.12.2004 The Economy and the Election "In an informal poll of 100 academics, conducted by The Economist, Mr Bush's policies win low marks. More than 70% of the 56 professors who responded to our survey rate Mr Bush's first-term economic policies as bad or very bad. Fewer than 20% give positive marks to Mr Bush's second-term economic agenda, and almost six out of ten disapproved."

10.12.2004 "Roll Call -- Who are novelists voting for?" Slate Kerry, of course. Regarding Bush: "Under his leadership, I think this country has not just fallen into recession ... but regression." Jodi Picoult

10.12.2004 "Group of Bishops Using Influence to Oppose Kerry By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and LAURIE GOODSTEIN, The New York Times "In an interview in his residence here, Archbishop Chaput said a vote for a candidate like Mr. Kerry who supports abortion rights or embryonic stem cell research would be a sin that must be confessed before receiving Communion." ... "The National Catholic Reporter reported that that on a visit to the pope this year Mr. Bush asked Vatican officials directly for help in lining up American bishops in support of conservative cultural issues.
For four years, the party has held weekly conference calls with a representative of the White House for prominent Catholic conservatives. To ramp up the Catholic campaign last summer, the party dispatched its chairman, Ed Gillespie, and a roster well-known Catholic Republicans on a speaking tour to Catholic groups throughout the swing states.
The party has recruited an undisclosed number of Catholic field coordinators who earn $2,500 a month, along with up to $500 a month for expenses to increase conservative Catholic turnout."

Xan@Corrente says: "Time to Render Unto Caesar, Boys" Tax 'em, dammit." Per Memeorandum

Carpetbagger "Look, if Chaput and his allies want to work to elect Bush and other Republicans, they are free to make a choice. They can leave their congregations and form a political action committee, which is not tax-exempt, and which can intervene in political campaigns to its leaders' hearts content. Or they can stay with their houses of worship, continue to speak out on moral issues they find important, counsel their congregations, but let congregants decide on their own who to vote for.
The church, however, cannot do both."

10.12.2004 "UN: Iraqi Nuclear-Related Materials Have Vanished" By Irwin Arieff Reuters

10.12.2004 Mark Steyn's censored column regarding terrorists and hostages.
He quotes Anna Quindlen: "As Miss Quindlen described them, "the father, the mother, the two-year old girl off on an adventure, sitting safe between them, taking flight." Christine Hanson will never be three, and I feel sad about that. But I did not know her, love her, cherish her; I do not feel her loss, her absence in my life. I have no reason to hold hands in a "healing circle" for her. All I can do for Christine Hanson is insist that the terrorist movement which killed her is hunted down and prevented from targeting any more two-year olds. We honour Christine Hanson's memory by righting the great wrong done to her, not by ersatz grief-mongering." (emphasis added)

10.12.2004 Essay on Justice Clarence Thomas, By Michael A. Fletcher and Kevin Merida Washington Post Staff Writers. "Former University of Southern California law professor Catharine Pierce Wells wrote more than a decade ago: "For Thomas, there are no gray areas and no mitigating factors -- one's abstract principles generate a series of categorical judgments that need never yield to a human dimension."

10.11.2004 "WATCH OUT FOR THE "CHAMPION ACT": JOHN ASHCROFT ON THE MOVE AGAIN" Steven C. Clemons

10.11.2004 “I've got a plan to increase the wetlands by three million.” What?? "Bush committed errors and grossly misrepresented his environmental record in second debate, experts say" Environment2004 Contact: Peter Kelley

10.11.2004 "President George W. Bush has picked up two new editorial endorsements but still trails Senator John Kerry badly in the race for newspaper editorial backing, according to E&P's exclusive daily update." ... "Overall, nationwide, Kerry is up 11 papers to eight. Or, if you want to measure in terms of circulation, he's winning 2,534,377 to 637,187." Editor and Publisher.

10.11.2004 "US seizes webservers from independent media sites" Rachel Shabi, The Guardian "It is unclear why, or to where, the servers have been taken. The FBI, speaking to the French AFP, acknowledged that a subpoena had been issued but said this was at the request of Italian and Swiss authorities."
Eugene Volokh discusses some possibilities Here

10.11.2004 Senile Dementia? (4mb.mov).

10.11.2004 The Philadelphia Inquirer "John Kerry isn't perfect. He has things to learn. One thing Americans should have learned by now, though, is that the incumbent lacks the realism, judgment and ability to adjust to events that the United States needs in its commander in chief. In this perilous moment, the safer choice, the wiser choice, is John F. Kerry."

10.10.2004 Read This essay by E.L. Doctorow (thanks to Marlynn)
"But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man.
He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the 1,000 dead young men and women who wanted to be what they could be.

10.10.2004 "Bush's Civil Rights Record Is Criticized, Silently" By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS "The United States Commission on Civil Rights voted on Friday to wait until after next month's election to discuss a report critical of the Bush administration's civil rights record. Republican members had objected to the report's timing.
The report remains posted on the commission's Web site (http://www.usccr.gov/), despite objections from Republican commissioners." ...
The report said, however, that Mr. Bush is committed to help people with disabilities and praised him for "a commendably diverse cabinet and moderately diverse judiciary."

Here's what the report really said: "Federal Diversity and Support for Civil Rights: Although not to the extent of the previous administration, President Bush has assembled a commendably diverse Cabinet and moderately diverse judiciary. However, many of his nominees and appointees do not support civil rights protections. The effect may be eventual weakening of civil rights laws."
Pages 16-24 discuss his lousy judicial nominations and the fights they have stirred up.

10.10.2004 David Broder "The reality is that except for a few whistleblowers, a handful of independent, opinionated legislators and some few enterprising reporters, there is no accountability mechanism operating in one-party Washington.
If Bush and Cheney are reelected, the Republicans are likely to maintain control of the House and Senate, with all the investigative and oversight powers that reside in the legislative branch. That is an inherently risky situa- tion, particularly when the president and vice president are disinclined to question their own or their associates' judgment.
That is why the voters I met are right to think this election is so important. They themselves are the ultimate -- and only -- enforcers of accountability. (emphasis added)

10.10.2004 "But, once again, Bush's detachment from the truth reached new depths Friday night, as the president lied about almost every area of public policy. Here's the Top 10 list of my favorite Bush whoppers from the second debate, though there are plenty more where these came from (i.e., the transcript)." Carpetbagger

10.10.2004 "One or more seats on the high court may open in the next four years, and it would be a shame if they were filled with jurists with political and social agendas who seek to turn back the clock. We believe Kerry would nominate more moderate candidates to the court.
When George W. Bush took office in a deeply divided nation, he promised to reach out to unite the country. If anything, he has helped make the rifts deeper. That may be his real failure as president.
John Kerry can do better." The Oregonian

10.10.2004 CIA "Report Cites U.S. Profits in Sale of Iraqi Oil Under Hussein" By JUDITH MILLER and ERIC LIPTON, The New York Times
"The 918-page report says that four American oil companies - Chevron, Mobil, Texaco and Bay Oil - and three individuals including Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. of Houston were given vouchers and got 111 million barrels of oil between them from 1996 to 2003. The vouchers allowed them to profit by selling the oil or the right to trade it."

10.9.2004 "Okay. I'm going to bed. But I got my hands on a QuickTime version of the Rep. Tim Ryan speech, and it's top quality. Please feel free to pass the link around." Via Kos.

10.9.2004 ""BUSH FLIPS OUT: Click here to watch your President flip out of his gourd. I've never seen anything like it." Oliver Willis via Kos.

10.9.2004 "It was like watching a debate featuring the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. No WMD in Iraq? 'Tis but a flesh wound. Frayed international relationships? No, they're not, everyone loves us! Duelfer report has destroyed my rationale for the war? I'll just say the opposite is true! Drastic environmental policies? I support "off-road diesel engines," whatever the hell they are. Jobs? I have the worst record of any president in over 70 years, but it doesn't matter because...I'm invincible!" Carpetbagger

10.9.2004 "Forget the Constitution: The civilians reviewing the findings of the Guantanamo tribunals swear only to the defense secretary." By Bruce Ackerman , The American Prospect.

10.9.2004 "Booklet That Upset Mrs. Cheney Is History The Department of Education destroys 300,000 parent guides to remove references to national standards." By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Jean Merl, LA Times
"Lynne Cheney doesn't have a formal job in the federal government and yet she's quietly making sure federal agencies destroy public materials she doesn't like? This is a problem. Carpetbagger

10.9.2004 "A Bush-Cheney '04 ad claims Kerry would raise taxes on 900,000 small businesses and "hurt jobs." But it counts every high-salaried person who has even $1 of outside business income as a "small business owner" — a definition so broad that even Bush and Cheney have qualified while in office." ... "GOP fact-twisters claim 80% of the tax relief given to the rich goes to job-creating small businesses. Don’t believe it." Fact Check.org

10.8.2004 "59 Reasons Why Bush Sucks -- Why you’d have to be a freaking idiot to vote for this guy" by Greg Stacy

10.8.2004 "The Republicans and specifically Tom Warner are going to try to ban offshore wind electricity; there is a good chance they will ram it through as early as today." Max Speak

10.8.2004 "it remains true the Bush’s best year of job creation can’t measure up to Clinton’s worst year."Angry Bear

10.7.2004 "So Spencer Abraham taps a friend for a position for which he seems to have no qualifications whatsoever. Then that friend overrules his technical experts to greenlight a finding that Iraq is building nuclear weapons. Then Abraham gives him a big bonus for outstanding performance -- performance so outstanding that he doesn't keep him on in the job. " Josh Marshall

10.6.2004 "Cheney Drops the Ball -- The vice president declines to refute Edwards during the debate." By Chris Suellentrop, Slate.

10.6.2004 Memeorandum quotes Factcheck.org, "Cheney wrongly implied that FactCheck had defended his tenure as CEO of Halliburton Co., and the vice president even got our name wrong. He overstated matters when he said Edwards voted "for the war" and "to commit the troops, to send them to war."

10.5.2004 "BUSH'S SERVICE RECORD: The Onion gets to the bottom of it." Via Andrew Sullivan

10.5.2004 Letters to Michael Moore from Iraq: "Dear Mike, Iraq sucks"

10.4.2004 "CIA review finds no evidence Saddam had ties to Islamic terrorists" "A new CIA assessment undercuts the White House's claim that Saddam Hussein maintained ties to al-Qaida, saying there's no conclusive evidence that the regime harbored Osama bin Laden associate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." By WARREN P. STROBEL, JONATHAN S. LANDAY and JOHN WALCOTT, Knight Ridder Newspapers

10.5.2004 E-mail from Bagdad ""Being a foreign correspondent in Baghdad these days is like being under virtual house arrest," she wrote. "Forget about the reasons that lured me to this job: a chance to see the world, explore the exotic, meet new people in far away lands, discover their ways and tell stories that could make a difference.
Little by little, day-by-day, being based in Iraq has defied all those reasons. I am housebound. I leave when I have a very good reason to and a scheduled interview. I avoid going to people's homes and never walk in the streets. I can't go grocery shopping any more, can't eat in restaurants, can't strike a conversation with strangers, can't look for stories, can't drive in anything but a full armored car, can't go to scenes of breaking news stories, can't be stuck in traffic, can't speak English outside, can't take a road trip, can't say I'm an American, can't linger at checkpoints, can't be curious about what people are saying, doing, feeling. And can't and can't … " Reported by Tim Rutten, : LATimes

10.5.2004 "Bremer Criticizes Troop Levels -- Ex-Overseer of Iraq Says U.S. Effort Was Hampered Early On"... "The former U.S. official who governed Iraq after the invasion said yesterday that the United States made two major mistakes: not deploying enough troops in Iraq and then not containing the violence and looting immediately after the ouster of Saddam Hussein." By Robin Wright and Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post

10.05.2004 "Rumsfeld can't keep stories straight on Hussein-bin Laden link, Iraq WMDs" Capitol Hill Blue.

10.4.2004 "Back-room dealing a Capitol trend -- GOP flexing its majority power" By Susan Milligan, Boston Globe Staff (This is a must read) "With one party controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, and having little fear of retaliation by the opposing party, the House leadership is changing the way laws are made in America, favoring secrecy and speed over open debate and negotiation." ... "A Globe study of lobbying showed that on the Medicare and energy bills, businesses and other groups who reported lobbying on the two measures spent a staggering $799,091,391 in efforts to influence lawmakers, frequently employing former members of Congress, former staff members, and relatives of lawmakers to lobby on the bills." ... "The energy bill was mired in secrecy from its inception, when Vice President Cheney's energy task force met to develop proposals that formed the basis of the legislation. An analysis by Public Citizen of some public documents shows that at least seven energy industry executives and lobbyists met with the task force, and that several members of that group are major fund-raisers for the Bush-Cheney campaign. Virtually all of the energy companies whose leaders met with the task force would benefit from the tax credits, subsidies, and deregulation laid out in the energy package."

10.4.2004 "The 'smoking gun' wasn't a mushroom cloud; it was a New York Times article" (Regarding Rice and the aluminum tubes) Carpetbagger

10.4.2004 "Another old-school Republican abandons Bush" Carpetbagger

10.3.2004 Mark Kleiman'srebuttal for John Kerry: "The President isn't criticizing me. He's criticizing the signers of the Declaration of Independence. They proposed the first global test. They called it "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind." The test is not whether other people like what we're doing. It's whether we're doing it for reasons we're prepared to explain to the world."

10.3.2004 "Oil-rich Iraqi provinces push for autonomy" By Roula Khalaf in London, Published: September 29 2004 20:33 Via Mark A.R. Kleiman

10.3.2004 "Daley Hints at Change for Ill. Drug Laws" By DON BABWIN, Associated Press Writer

10.2.2004 "How the White House Used Disputed Arms Intelligence" By DAVID BARSTOW, The New York Times

10.2.2004 ""Fact check" by NBC's Myers distorted Kerry's statements" Media Matters

10.2.2004 "American Bar Association Statement on 'Extraordinary Rendition' Provisions of HR 10" (transfer for torture)

10.2.2004 "IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT TOM DELAY. . . THE HOUSE ETHICS COMMITTEE 'ADMONISHES' TOM DELAY FOR 2ND TIME' in five years." Steven C. Clemons

10.1.2004 William Saletan regarding Bush: "Tonight he scoffed, "If I were to ever say, 'This is the wrong war at the wrong time at the wrong place,' the troops would wonder, 'How can I follow this guy?' "
"Exactly, Mr. President. If you were ever to give them the correct assessment, they would ask the correct question."

10.1.2004 "ACLU Blasts Justice Department’s Attempts to Manipulate Truth About Patriot Act Ruling

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