Bush campaign spokes-ass

I'm not going to bother looking up any stats for this post, I think memory will serve well enough. Now as far as I remember the economy needs to generate somewhere between 120,000 and 145,000 jobs a month to keep up with population growth. Now this Reuters article has a spokesman for Smirky McJackass accusing Kerry of being pessimistic, (can these idoiots come up with more clever talking points?

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt accused Kerry of pessimism and talking down the U.S. economy which he said had created 1.5 million new jobs since August.

"He's trying to tell America that things aren't improving," Schmidt said. "But his disingenuous campaign cannot hide the fact that America is stronger and safer because of the president's leadership."

12 months times 120,000 jobs a month just to break even=1,440,000 Jobs. Cool that economy is really hopping along, what with 60,000 more jobs than the break even point.
Picture Beavis and Butthead sitting on the couch. "Leadership huhuhuhuh" Just keep repeating the same old shit. It almost worked last time, before we knew you guys were lunitics hell bent on starting armegeddon.

Digby again

This is a perfect indictment of republican governance:

That's no surprise. You have to be either a fool or a patriot to feel the duty to govern after a Republican has been in power. They come in to office, reward themselves and their rich friends, totally fuck up the country and then leave the mess for the Democrats to clean up. Then they use their time out of office assassinating the characters of the Democrats for fun and profit preparing the way for them to get back into office and fuck it all up again. These people are not interested in governing in a democratic system, which takes negotiation, compromise and patience. They are about power which requires far less complexity.

This remind you of anyone you know. Off the top of my head I see the Godzilla of Gerrymandering, the former insect assasin Tom Delay. That Mothra of Marketing, dirty trickster Karl Rove. Rodan of Moral Rectitude, christian crusader Ralph Reed.

[snip]

The GOP gets away with murder over and over again, leaving chaos in its wake and forcing the taxpayers to clean up mess after toxic mess --- savings and loan bailouts, record deficits, crumbling infrastructure, foreign wars and international threats. Their product is defective. They need to be held accountable.

This is the problem, the republicans are great salesmen, you only find out too late that you purchased a bill of goods, and when you call to complain, you find the phone disconnected. Then a few years later you see a shiny new toy in a catolog with a strangely familier name and...., well you get the picture.

Tucker look, another sperm suit

This is an early '70's hard drive, from gizmodo, by way of Zuky,
whose very good post about Obama started this all, that interweb wow.

Something about Tucker part II

It is just smoke and mirrors with the wingnuts, all image no substance, all politics no policy.
I find it fascinating that they would try to make something out of a Kerry visit to NASA and a picture of him in a clean room suit. But then again we are dealing with the Kings of Image Manipulation (see Codpiece below). In the previous post we went after Carlson in one Crossfire episode, well there is more from the same, this time from the beginning of the show:

PAUL BEGALA, CO-HOST: Hello, everybody. Welcome for CROSSFIRE. The good old CNN Election Express is anchored alongside the USS Constipation just across the river from the FleetCenter, where tonight the whole country is fixing to fall in love with a first lady named Teresa and a senator named Obama.

TUCKER CARLSON, CO-HOST: Well, after last night's eye-glazing lectures by party has-beens, tonight's session promises the much more amusing, if not utterly hilarious lineup of Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, Ron Reagan and Teresa Heinz Kerry. But, wait, there's more. We're also going to toss around some questions with Jerry Springer, who is a delegate from the state of Ohio.

If this beat is so dreadfully boring that you can barely be bothered to deal with the insignificance of the proceedings, why the fuck are you here.

But, first, the best political briefing in television, our CROSSFIRE "Political Alert."

Well, it's a fact of political life that politicians love to dress up in other people's clothing. Over the years, elected officials have been caught on film wearing helmets, cowboy hats, Indian headdresses, football jersey and, yes, flight suits. But, until yesterday, no elected official in the history of the United States had ever dressed up as a sperm. John Kerry has changed that, breaking the sperm barrier at an event in Florida Monday. During a trip to Cape Canaveral, Kerry donned what is known as a clean suit as he embarked on a crawling tour of the space shuttle Columbia. Unfortunately for him, a clean suit looks almost exactly like the sperm suit Woody Allen wore in " Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask." Ouch.

So far, no one on the Kerry advance team has been fired, but that will change, and it should, because let's be honest. This story is a big deal, because if a man will dress up as a sperm in public, the question is, what won't he do?

Can I ask you a personal question Tuck, can I call you tuck, do you have any pictures of little tucker in your wallet? No I don't want to have a look. So according to you that a picture found its way to the media, Kerry should fire someone, because this story is a BIG DEAL, because if someone wants to check out a clean room containing the space shuttle, they kind of have to wear a clean room suit, which I believe doesn't come with a tail.

Given the enormous litany of fuckups made by the Bush administration, I am interested in two things: Has anyone been fired, I mean the carrier photo-op turned out to be a big blunder, by Bush? And if not, who do you think the president should get rid of? Just asking.

Codpiece and Hagiography

For any that may have wondered. One of these days,
I'll fire up the gimp and have some fun.

Something about Tucker

I can't quite explain my fascination


with this Jackass

But my intense desire to kick this man in the teeth grows daily, lets take a look at a few examples which may explain why I am so inclined:

CARLSON: But I also think there's something disturbing about any group that votes in the 90 percentile for one political party.

BEGALA: You can go lecture African-Americans about their voting patterns if you want.

CARLSON: I'm not lecturing anybody.

BEGALA: But this man says he wants to suppress voters in Detroit, by which he means black voters, I presume.

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: That's exactly what he means.

Ok Tucker, you claim that there is "something disturbing" about a group in this country voting 90% of the time for one party, and Begala calls your ass on your race baiting, but let me ask you this. Would you consider it disturbing that people who identify themselves as fundimentalist christians tend to vote for one party in higher percentages than niggers do? ..........Crickets chirping........... I didn't think so. Have you stopped beating your wife?
This started out as a discussion about remarks made to the Detroit Free Press by a Michigan state rep John Papageorge, I wrote about it here. Back to the crossfire:

CARLSON: And no one is going to prevent anyone else from voting.

BEGALA: Oh, they did in Florida. They disenfranchised tens of thousands of people.

CARLSON: That's a total lie. That's a total lie. As you know.

BEGALA: No, it's not.

CARLSON: Nobody prevented anyone from voting.

BEGALA: They knocked tens of thousands off the rolls in Florida.

CARLSON: Because they were convicted felons.

BEGALA: No, they weren't. That's the problem. They got the wrong.

CARLSON: I can't reargue something, especially when you're wrong.

BEGALA: No, I'm right.

Well actually Begala is right as we find out in this fairly exhaustive report filed by the US Commision on Civil Rights, and which you can also read about in Million vote March.
Here Carlson is either playing us all for fools or is a fool. Either way it demonstrates a lack of fitness for his job. He is on the one hand flat out lying, or he has not bothered to look into the vast wealth of information on what is the subject of at least 4 books. It is precisely this lack of respect for history and the factual record that well, should leave Carlson and his ilk, wary of dark alleys. On a lighter note it is kind of fun to watch the grownups play their version of "I know you are but what am I?"
Moving along let's see if we can find any other examples, and remember today's post is only going to concentrate on one episode.

CARLSON: Now, Tad Devine, tonight, Ron Reagan is going to speak and it's being billed as this kind of great moment. Not so surprising. He's a liberal. He voted for Ralph Nader. It's another liberal speaking at your convention full of liberals.

DEVINE: Right.

CARLSON: But I guess the problem that I have with it is not anything with Ron Reagan as a person, but with the idea that the Democratic Party is using the child of a recently dead American president to make a partisan political point.

Don't you think there's something unseemly about that? If the Republicans put on some relative of John Kerry's or one of the Kennedys who was an apostate, wouldn't you say, well, that's kind of gross? You're only putting him on because of his blood relation to this hero on the other side.

DEVINE: He's speaking tonight because he's talking about a very important issue, which is stem cell research. And there's a huge difference between what the president wants to do on this critically important issue and what John Kerry will do.

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: Oh, is he a scientist, an expert on stem cell research?

"For shame for shame" (channeling granpa Simpson) using the child of a recently dead president for partisan polical purposes, Ha ha ha ha. Please Tucker, I'm interested in any qualifications, besides passing some partisan political litmus test, that you have to fill the airways with misinterpretation, misunderstanding, and mewling partisan prattle. And you get to do this with impunity on two of the "most liberal" outlets available.

Absentee Ballot related pogram activities

The following comes from buzzflash via digby

I used the part of Krugmans column in a post that decribed the florida republican party asking that republicans cast absentee ballots, if they were living in a precinct with paperless machines.
Above you see the flier that has been ditributed to the faithful. the text of the flyer follows:

The liberal Democrats have already begun their attacks and the new electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of a recount. Make sure your vote counts order your ansentee ballot today. Just sign the request form below and drop it in the mail. Don't be fooled by imitations. This is the official Republican Party absentee ballot request form.

I believe that everyone in a district or precinct with paperles voting machines avail themselves to absentee ballots, for precisely the reasons elucidated by our friends in fairness above in sentence two: Make sure your vote counts... I find sentences four: Don't be fooled by imitations. And five, chilling: This is the official Republican Party absentee ballot request form.
I understand that during primary season, many of us declare party affiliation in order to select the candidates that our parties will run in the general election. I have never been asked about party affiliation before casting a vote in the general election. Color me paranoid, but I can't help but wonder if these "official Republican Party ballot request forms" will be treated differently that "our regular old official State of Florida absentee ballot request form". According to a commentor on Digby's take says that this particular document was targeting Miami-Dade in general and the conservative Cuban vote in general.

At least 2 angles immediatly come to mind involving the potential for disenfanchisement:
1. The ballot request form with the smiling king will recieve preferential treatment.
2. This could be the tip of the spear among a broader get out the vote early (if not often) so that republican voters will not have to deal with whatever plans that might be on the books to suppress the vote

Digby follows thusly:

This is post modern politics at its best. Up is down, black is white. We will tell you what is real. This is an example of the Republicans using the Democrats' own repetitive rallying cries against them. ("Political hate speech" is another good example.) It's brilliant because many people are apparently so goddamned stupid that they don't even have a second of cognitive dissonence when they see something like this. You can't really blame the GOP. It works.

[....]

Damn, I'm starting to pray that somebody out there is keeping track of reality because this is getting mighty difficult to follow.

It is up to us to try to keep track of all of the various shitstorms rising across the plains, because clearly the fourth estate is dead, and if not dead, lies in its own filth in an alley, brutally beaten and raped, in a neighborhood that the police avoid.

Loyalty Oath program related activities

For a couple of straight-shootin' cattle drivin' cowboy playing politicions, they sure seem to a pretty thin skinned pair. First it was the protest zones, then people tossed out of or not allowed to attend campaign appearances because they wore t-shirts that did not flatter the cry-baby in chief. Now it is a loyalty oath of sorts required to attend a vice presidential event in New Mexico:

By Jeff Jones
Journal Staff Writer
Some would-be spectators hoping to attend Vice President Dick Cheney's rally in Rio Rancho this weekend walked out of a Republican campaign office miffed and ticketless Thursday after getting this news:
Unless you sign an endorsement for President George W. Bush, you're not getting any passes.
The Albuquerque Bush-Cheney Victory office in charge of doling out the tickets to Saturday's event was requiring the endorsement forms from people it could not verify as supporters.

Now I thought that these guys were my president and vice president for better or worse, I guess that I have been mistaken. Apparently Smirky and Snarly believe themselves representatives of the elect i.e. republican and preferably rich:

State Rep. Dan Foley, R-Roswell, speaking on behalf of the Republican Party, said Thursday that a "known Democrat operative group" was intending to try to crash Saturday's campaign rally at Rio Rancho Mid-High School.

Better call Ridge, oh wait, he's looking for another job because, ya know, it's damn near impossible to put your kids through college on a 178,000 dollar salary. Waaahhhhaaahhh,
there are known Democrat operative groups coming to crash the party...I feel the vapors...
Here any way is a portion of the oath:

An endorsement form provided to the Journal by Random says: "I, (full name) ... do herby (sic) endorse George W. Bush for reelection of the United States." It later adds that, "In signing the above endorsement you are consenting to use and release of your name by Bush-Cheney as an endorser of President Bush."

What will these nuckleheads come up with next. Boggles the mind.

Digby's on Fire

Talk about yer Blogger Envy, Digby has pitched two perfect games in the last two days. Lets take a look at a sample, based on Ron Reagans article in esquire magazine. an excerpt of which preceeds this part:

I have no statistics and no data to support the idea that there are moderate republicans out there who are ready to jump, but like Ron Reagan, I have seen a vast amount of anecdotal evidence in my own life.

An investment banker friend of mine who reports that formerly rabid GOP colleagues will not vote for Bush again. He's perceived by these macho masters of the universe as a loser.

Veteran friends of my father who haven't voted for a Democrat since Truman cannot vote for Bush. His arrogance on the world stage is offensive to them.

Libertarian relatives who have never voted much but who are afraid of the Bush's overly warm embrace of the religious right and are talking to their friends about voting for Kerry.

An active Republican neighbor who is disturbed by the fact that there turned out to be no WMD in Iraq and expressed a very unusual desire to hear Kerry speak tonight.

Hopefully you'll just run on over and read the last two days worth, fresh of the boat.

Words mean stuff

Pesident Do-Little, started off (ended his vacation) his re-election campaign attacking Kerry in ways he should avoid (like the plague-Jackass).

Jul 30, 1:45 PM (ET)

By Adam Entous

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (Reuters) - President Bush sought to grab back the political spotlight from John Kerry on Friday by casting his Democratic rival as a man of few achievements and offering a bare-bones preview of his own second-term agenda.

"We're turning the corner and we're not turning back," Bush told cheering supporters on a rain-soaked ballpark in Springfield, Missouri, as he returned to the campaign trail a day after Kerry's televised Democratic National Convention speech.

What corner would that be, stupid git. More like "full speed ahead-shut up about that wall".

In his sharpest attack yet, Bush said Kerry had little to show for nearly 20 years in the U.S. Senate, including eight years on the Intelligence Committee. During that time, Bush said, Kerry had "no record of reforming" the intelligence services.

So what your most Humbleness forgot to mention, because you are so humble, is that you were "reforming the intelligence services" during that august vacation in 2001. You should have said so, now I'm listening.

Bush, who aides said slept rather than watch his rival's Democratic nomination acceptance speech to run against him in November, defended his actions in Iraq and warned: "If America shows uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy. This will not happen on my watch."

In his speech late on Thursday night, Kerry drew a sharp contrast between Bush's decision to invade Iraq based on faulty intelligence about the threat of weapons of mass destruction and his own promise that he would "ask the hard questions and demand hard evidence."

Slept, drank, played with himself, anything but watch his opponent. Could you please explain your definition of watch, and while your at it how about your definition of Tragedy. And does "on my watch" in any way relate to "Bin Laden determined to strike targets in the US". I may be wrong but when you are demanding that "hard evidence" are you goint to be employing thae scientific method, or is that anathema to your faith.

"When it comes to choosing a president, results matter," said Bush, who spent a week in self-imposed silence at his Texas ranch during the Democratic convention, which he summed up as a collection of "clever speeches" and "big promises."

I mean this shit just writes itself. Can you tell us a little something about "cleverness in speechifyin'" Oh and the big ole texas sized promises. WMD's Flowers in the streets, Occupation self paying machines. Do you really want to open that "results matter" can of worms?

"My opponent has good intentions. But intentions don't always translate into results. After 19 years in the United States Senate, my opponent has had thousands of votes but very few signature achievements," Bush said.

Them damn intentions, always paving a road to hell. Buddy (I am talking to the dog) I feel your pain. You are particularly well suited to speak on this with authority, but do you really......

Bush said, "Reform is not easy. Achieving reform requires taking on the special interests, requires challenging the status quo. It's not enough to advocate reform. You have to be able to get it done."

I can well imagine. It has to be made doubly more difficult, when the party you lead controls all branches of government and has done so during a majority of your time in office. I know we just need to give you another four years and I am sure that you will get around to that reform stuff. Thanks for the laughs Jackass.
[Update]You can also enjoy another take on this story over at Sids Fishbowl. I would be happy to link to others who have run with this and will happily add them to the roll.

Krugman

Today has another must read from Paul Krugman, near the end are some juicy bits:

In short, the triumph of the trivial is not a trivial matter. The failure of TV news to inform the public about the policy proposals of this year's presidential candidates is, in its own way, as serious a journalistic betrayal as the failure to raise questions about the rush to invade Iraq.

P.S.: Another story you may not see on TV: Jeb Bush insists that electronic voting machines are perfectly reliable, but The St. Petersburg Times says the Republican Party of Florida has sent out a flier urging supporters to use absentee ballots because the machines lack a paper trail and cannot "verify your vote."

I have considered this tactic for a number of reasons ok, maybe two. Say you want to help watch the polls in a battleground state, and keep an eye out for hanky panky. Or you live in a touch screen precinct and are not confident that your vote will be counted, (the republicans in Florida agree with me-whodathunkit). If this is not an indictment of paperless eledtronic voting, I don't know what is. Shout it to the skies friends.

If you haven't already check out the rest of the column.
cheers

Afghanistan (Paradise) Lost

From what I understand, when Doctors without Borders vacates the area, the shit has hit the fan. From the Guardian:

Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Friday July 30, 2004
The Guardian
Afghanistan will fall apart unless Nato countries urgently fulfil promises to send troops, the Commons foreign affairs select committee warned yesterday.

With violence rising ahead of an election scheduled for October, the MPs concluded: "There is a real danger that if these resources are not provided soon Afghanistan - a fragile state in one of the most sensitive and volatile regions of the world - could implode, with terrible consequences."

The prediction came 24 hours after Médecins sans Frontières announced it is to end its operations in the country after 23 years because of the deterioration in security.

I had been meaning to get to this one as it, has been out there for awhile. I had not had the oportunity to study this in any detail, but the last sentance is as large an indictment as possible of our mishandling of the post war operation. Doctors without borders has been there for 23 years. Since 1981. Wow. Is it possible to conclude that the situation is worse now than during the Afghan/Soviet conflict, during the reign of The Talaban.

Do we get to call W King Merde(s) now, 'cause everything that guy touches turns to shit. Well maybe things are going better in Iraq™

The cross-party committee of MPs, in a 174-page report entitled Foreign Policy Aspects of the War Against Terrorism, also expressed concern over Iraq and the risk that it too could become a failed state that will create regional instability.

They said: "Iraq has become a 'battleground' for al-Qaida, with appalling consequences for the Iraqi people."

No that doesn't sound good at all, I think that King Merde(s) is an appropriate nom de guerre for the Dauphin, (and because we like all things french). Well there is more. Juan Cole has some more insight today:

In a sign that the political situation in Iraq is even worse than anyone had suspected, the caretaker Iraqi government has had to postpone the holding of national congress until mid-August. The complicated selection process for choosing delegates had favored the expatriate parties and politicians, and had stirred up bad feelings by important players who felt excluded. The Sunnis of largely Shiite Basra are among those constituencies that felt shortchanged by the process. So far no press reporting I have seen has given the full details of the floor fights in key cities, but apparently in some cases they have been vicious.

[snip]

Meanwhile, Italian troops in Nasiriyah clashed with militiamen who tried to take control of two bridges into the city. The militiamen were not identified but are likely to be followers of Muqtada al-Sadr. These sorts of incidents suggest that PM Allawi really is just the mayor of downtown Baghdad, and that neither the Iraqi government nor the US-led coalition really are in control of Iraq's cities. (-ash-Sharq al-Awsat)

As Karzai is only the mayor of Kabul and now it appears that Allawi might only be the mayor of Bagdad, damn this nation building stuff is hard. Thank you King Merde(s), but please don't get your hands on any of my stuff-mmkay.

At CNN it's all about the Balloons

In our continuing examination of what the Conservative Noise Network finds important, we bring another post examining the post acceptance speech coverage. Again from some of our friends at Eschaton:

WTF ... CNN is relaying the floor director's direction ... "more ballons dammit ... what's happening ballons ... all ballons ... what the fuck are you guys doing up there? " right now on CNN ... what a fuck up Wolf Nitzer
51st state | 11:07 pm

There were previous mentions of balloons on this thread but this is the first one that put the picture firmly in mind. WTF I'm thinking, I mean this is right on the heel of the acceptance speech and CNN is reporting about balloons. Maybe misunderstanding or abberation:

cnn is carrying the audio of some guy yelling for more balloons. seriously, he's yelling "we need more balloons, more balloons. we need more fucking balloons."

nice job cnn.
mxh |11:08 pm

Hmmmm, maybe there really is something about this that we should all find disturbing. Meanwhile on C-Span I'm watching Kerry walking around with Edwards and working the crowd, a beautiful thing IMHO. Let's see:

Now the fucking nitwits will spend an hour on the fucking ballon gate ...

why do ballons hate America?
51st state |11:09 pm

My personal favorite, you go D.C. or Puerto Rico whichever 51st candidate you have in mind. But wait, let the other shoe drop:

MORE BALLOONS!! freakin CNN.... Blitzer starts comparing the convention to carters convention and said it may be a turning point....
XIAN | 11:10 pm

Ha! I wonder if CNN will get fined by the FCC.
Chris Andersen |11:10 pm

wouldn't hold my breath,

What the is CNN's problem? This is Kerry's moment and they have some guy in the background screaming, dropping the f-bomb, about balloons! Do they know what they're doing? At this point in media culture I have to say yes. Anyone else catch this?
dv1 | 11:13 pm

No I'm sure that it was an honest mistake, and that no advantage was intended, afterall they invited that very nice Ed Gillespy on after Kerry's speech to provide some balanced analysis, and I'm sure that that nice man Terry McCaulif will be doing the same after GWB accepts his nomination. Speaking of Gillespy:

gillespi is on cnn now -- very weird body type -- almost turtle like -- i wonder if he was spawned from a box turtle love fest
Anonymous

Kind of an inside joke, material provided by a rep named Cornyn (lots more fun to be had with this name), an audible called, but once the cat is out of the bag, well, ya just got to run with whats given you, ya know. Back to this balloon thing:

Can you believe that after that, CNN talks about the BALLOONS????? Yeah, THAT'S important. Oh, it's just like Carter's convention, the balloons went bad then, too, so Kerry's gonna LOSE.
redhead |11:14 pm

Thats pure punditopea, Wolfie rubs a couple of neurons together and coughs up another analytical hairball, get that man some butter - stat. But there is a point, at which, you know a new meme has blasted off, something about a blue dress, and bottom feeding comes to mind Oh yeah here it comes, and it ain't no 19th nervous breackdown:

Matt "Fudge the Truth" Drudge has this posted on his site:

"IF ANYONE HAS AUDIO OF CNN LIVE FEED OF OPEN MIC AND DNC BOOTH AND YELLING AT FAILURE OF BALLONS, PLEASE EMAIL TO MDRUDGE@AOL.COM... "
postcolonialman |11:15 pm

You know you have arrived, when the inestimible Drudge, did I mention bottom feeding....Back to our friend, the one who broke the story as far as I am concerned:

CNN is souless ... simply disgusting media fucking whores
51st state |11:15 pm

There are a number of ways to put this but would they be as honest a reflection of frustration. A frustration no doubt bourn of countless examples like this:

That insipid viper Gillespie is trying to call Kerry's speech pessimistic?
So much hate in that tiny, stupid man. Any normal human being would have been rotted away right from the core... he must surely be made of baser stuff.
Seraphiel |11:15 pm

For the love of topical digs:

Damn those Diebold balloon machines!
Seth | 11:17 pm

A quick thinking response to slimebag "can't you afford a bank of DVR's" Dumbass:

IF ANYONE HAS AUDIO OF CNN LIVE FEED OF OPEN MIC AND DNC BOOTH AND YELLING AT FAILURE OF BALLONS, PLEASE EMAIL TO MDRUDGE@AOL.COM..

Fill up Drudge's mailbox with fake mp3s. Ideally ones of you saying 'FUCK YOU, EGGMAN!' But any old MP3 that you've renamed to 'fuckingballoons.mp3' will do.

Do it now.
anonymous in nc | 11:17 pm

And now that french thing, that phrase with peace and resistance:

Now the CNN guy is complaining he's "inundated" by balloons. Jeez,
you just can't please these guys. You asked for balloons, Kerry gave you balloons
Karin | 11:18 pm

There's your vaunted CNN for you, and an example of what you can learn from others. To all my pals at Atrios, I couldn't have done this without you. lets just hope I don't have to chase down alot of formatting issues.

Chris Matthews, Hero, Goat, or Whore.

Welcome to our new fair and balanced look at the fourth estate. Any unsourced innuendo about the private lives of the millionaire media mavens will be employed to suit our purposes.

We will also examine examples of on the air, honest to goodness journalistic integrity. Today we will take a look at a fine example of "wadda ya mean the story isn't about me". Last night during the runup to the Kerry acceptance speech, during the Band of Brothers tribute to the man they fought with, I shared this exchange on a comment thread at Atrios:

The MSNBC whores are now attacking the stage management and production.

Chris reminds us of his heroic service in the Peace Corps.

Why do I watch?

OK, here comes the action.
Speedy | 07.29.04 - 9:55 pm |

Now I chose to watch C-Span for the evening speeches, because I like to make up my own mind about what the people are saying, and quite frankly, I have had it with the obvious to anyone with a fucking brain, water carrying GOP shills. I let friends like Speedy and FourLegsGood among others, bring news of various examples of shamelesss punditude to my attention. When I saw the above my response was brief and to the point:

"Chris reminds us of his heroic service in the Peace Corps."

Yer shittin me right?
kent || 07.29.04 - 9:56 pm

I'm sorry, but as you can see I was somewhat incredulous, I really thought that Speedy was, you know, exaggerating. I mean think about it, the swiftboat comrades, are being introduced or they are playing that vietnam footage, and Matthews, fidgeting in his chair, chooses to talk about himself, his service in the Peace Corp. While still finding it difficult to picture Chris Matthews would actually stoop to this level-"can it be about me yet", I get the reply:

I shat you not, kent.
Speedy | 07.29.04 - 9:58 pm

Wow! Was my first thought. Confirmation. Was my second. Fucking unbelievably self-absorbed Gasbag. Was my third. The following was my fourth:

I'm gonna get homicidal
thanks speedy,
Im goin off on his ass tomorrow
kent | 07.29.04 - 10:00 pm

So why is Chris "I get really bored, because I have a 15 second attention span" Matthews covering the convention at all. If the run up to a speech about to be given, makes him want to overcompensate for a shriveling manhood, by attempting to compare his valor in the field of agricultual education, (yep its a guess, I'm not gonna worry my pretty head, researching what exactly Tweety did in the peace corps, as I am sure will hear about that during a moment of boredom at the debates) in some unknown third world country to Kerry's multiple medal earning heroism under fire in Vietnam, then what the fuck is the dude doing there.
The everchattering pundits kept telling us about how we did not "know" who this Kerry fellow was and that he was going to have to define himself at this convention. If the above is remotely emblematic of the other "network and cable" coverage available to the people,
is it any wonder that people might have a difficult time getting to "know" JFK.

Chris Matthews, you are a stain on the Blue Dress of Jounalism. "At long last sir have you no sense of decency"? Last night was not about you. Last night was not about you, DIG.

The fairness doctrine needs to be reimplemented, our Republic and future of the country demand it. The FCC needs to represent the interests of the people and not the corporate interest of media consolidation.

Speech Videos

Here is the best site I have found so far that has all the videos of the convention speeches.
What I like best is that you can download mp3's for listening pleasure, well here you go.

Their attitude in a nutshell

[update}


Here's the princess
Kos, and Billmon have run this but ya know its just to fucking emblematic for it not to show up here.

WASHINGTON - A campaign worker for President Bush said Thursday American workers unhappy with low-quality jobs should find new ones — or pop a Prozac to make themselves feel better.“Why don’t they get new jobs if they’re unhappy — or go on Prozac?” said Susan Sheybani, an assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt.

When told the Prozac comment had been overheard, Sheybani said: “Oh, I was just kidding.”

Ain't this sweet."I was just kidding". And George was just giggling while mocking Karla Faye Tucker after refusing to grant her clemency.

He asked her real difficult questions, like 'What would you say to Governor Bush?' 'What was her answer?' I wonder.

'Please,' Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, 'don't kill me.'

I must look shocked -- ridiculing the pleas of a condemned prisoner who has since been executed seems odd and cruel, even for someone as militantly anticrime as Bush -- because he immediately stops smirking.

Them kids are sooooooo funny, especially ones who play president. Ya know when yer parents are super rich and you are, well, entitled to feel superior, because dammit you are.

Yes folks the massive cash grab by the wealthiest of us is to assure little miss funny pants never has to work a day in her life, if she doesn't want to. As Billmon notes, maybe they are trying to shore up the Lilly vote. I for one am still waiting for that big Pharma cash to trickle on down Highway 37 and into my pockets, needless to say I ain't holding my breath.

Best line in Clinton's speach.

"First of all, America just works better when more people have a chance to live their dreams.

And, secondly, we live in an interdependent world in which we cannot possibly kill, jail or occupy all of our potential adversaries. So we have to both fight terror and build a world with more partners and fewer terrorists."

We cannot possibly kill, jail, or occupy all of our potential adversaries. Think about it. This is the most concise condemnation of the bush administration approach to the "war on terra". This is talking point to use in the discussion of these policies, with people who are still on the fence.

We cannot kill, jail, or occupy everyone with a beef against us. Period. No matter how many troops we can conscript from the homeland (every person between the ages of 16-35). Or thinking outside the box, offering citizenship to any immigrant who will join the military, will we ever be able to come up with the force strength required to occupy and subdue China. Period.

Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu, in the Art of War makes the famous pronouncement in chaper 1 paragraph 16 that:

"All warfare is based on deception".

I highly recommend that you read the whole thing, because it is a brilliant treatise that is as valid today as it was 2400 years ago, supporting my belief that we have not advanced nearly as far as we think we have in the last 20,000 years or more, but that is a topic of a later post.

Now it would appear that BushCorp, did follow this advice, but I think they did so out of context. You see, George, Dick, Rummy, it is the enemy that you wish to deceive. Maybe this will make more sense, "It's the enemy stupid".

The problem is twofold. One is the problem of "self deception" on the part of the administration, (which is me being polite). The other is "public deception" (which is me being not so polite).

You only have to skim the first two chapters of the book to appreciate how wrong this Operation Iraqi Freedom was handled. The old man would conclude that we would lose before we even started, and might suggest that we not engage in such a fools errand.

Iraq still a mess.

Juan Cole has a good rundown of the situation in Mesopotamia, and it aint pretty. This bit originally from Reuters, a quote from David Kay: .

U.S. officials should give up the "delusional hope" that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction so they can move forward with reform . . . "I think it's most important that the president of the United States recognizes that in fact the weapons are not there," Kay told reporters after speaking at The Government Security Expo and Conference. "It's because until you do that you will not take this fundamental reorganization of the intel community on board," he said. Officials such as acting CIA Director John McLaughlin "hold out the delusional hope that eventually you'll find weapons," Kay said.

This might lead the Bush administration wondering when Kay will choose to fly in a small aircraft.......When are they going to give up this ghost, I mean it's like the fanatical devotion of the renaissance Popes to a flat earth theory ending up in the excommunication of Galileo.

In other news, truck bomb kills 70 outside police recruiting station

In the grasping at straw department: A new plan for a Muslim force in Iraq.

If it was about Kerry we'd hear nothing else

Capital hill Blue, has a story up, one that I was reluctent to post hear, but realizing that this is the last bastion of balance, and given that CNN chooses to have Ralph Reed on to analyze the Edwards speech, well nuff said.


Is George Bush a Psychotic who needs pills to calm his poor paranoid ass down? Is George Bush unhinged? Lets take a look at the article:

President George W. Bush is taking powerful anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned.

The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President’s mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” says one aide. “We can’t have him flying off the handle at the slightest provocation but we also need a President who is alert mentally.”

Now I have had some friends that needed to take medication for bi-polar disorders, and by no means think that these people should be categorically denied the right to serve in politics. That said, the above coupled with another story from the same source, go a long way to explaining the actions of the petulant one.

Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay.

“Keep those motherfuckers away from me,” he screamed at an aide backstage. “If you can’t, I’ll find someone who can.”

Bush’s mental stability has become the topic of Washington whispers in recent months. Capitol Hill Blue first reported on June 4 about increasing concern among White House aides over the President’s wide mood swings and obscene outbursts.

I'll admit right here that I have been concerned since March 2000 when McCain strpped aside, leaving the door wide open for record setting fundraiser Bush, who I realized at the time was nothing more than a congenial sock puppet. McCain, I could accept as the CINC, as the president-He is a substantially better man. But that is just me.

These reports would also go along way towards explaining all the stories about people being thrown out of Bush events after being caught with Kerry t-shirts or any other paraphenalia that would suggest that your support for dear Leader was not 10000%. He has to be isolated from any dissenting views, Shitcans carreer soldiers, Generals, who didn't agree with the neocon viewpoint before the war. I am inclined to believe that the Sock puppet is a megalomaniacal, unhinged dry drunk with a plethora of other problems and should never ever been anything but a guest at the WhiteHouse, never it's occupant. There's
more:

Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a “paranoid meglomaniac” and “untreated alcoholic” whose “lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad” showcase Bush’s instabilities.

“I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed,” Dr. Frank said. “He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated.”

Dr. Frank’s conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School.

The doctors also worry about the wisdom of giving powerful anti-depressant drugs to a person with a history of chemical dependency. Bush is an admitted alcoholic, although he never sought treatment in a formal program, and stories about his cocaine use as a younger man haunted his campaigns for Texas governor and his first campaign for President.

“President Bush is an untreated alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies,” Dr. Frank adds.

The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment on this article.

This should be a suprise? I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but I think that Bush is Batshit Insane. It really is depressing watching a 58 year old bully, if you haven't lost the inner bully by the age of 25, you are forever consigned to an immature view of the people and world around you.

One long-time GOP political consultant who – for obvious reasons – asked not to be identified said he is advising his Republican Congressional candidates to keep their distance from Bush.

“We have to face the very real possibility that the President of the United States is loony tunes,” he says sadly. “That’s not good for my candidates, it’s not good for the party and it’s certainly not good for the country.”

Sherlock is in the house............. The will be more to follow. "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" Jon Stewart the Daily Show..

8:30 est as long as I can stands it. CNN

Hemmer plays segment of Edwards speech then says "Hope is on the way , is it?"
Carville goes after ralph reed, and Novacula goes after sharpton. Then Hemmer plays sharptons "clarence wouldn't have made it to law school" Novacula immediatly calls him a nasty man. And Says that they want to redistribute wealth and this is just the old time demo platform.

Novak is a fat ugly traitor, just said that the democrats had a wedge issue in stem cell research.
Novak is a fat ugly traitor, Novak is a fat ugly traitor, Novak is a fat ugly traitor, who has to pay for the affections of a woman. Why does Carville not punch the guy every time he opens his fucking mouth?
Novak is a fat ugly traitor, Novak is a fat ugly traitor,
Novak is a fat ugly traitor, Novak is a fat ugly traitor,
Novak is a fat ugly traitor, Novak is a fat ugly traitor, did I mention Fat Ugly Traitor.

Lori Hacking Lori Hacking Lori Hacking Lori Hacking Lori Hacking Lori Hacking Lori Hacking Lori Hacking Lori Hacking Lori Hacking reference to CSI and how real law enforcement doesn't work that way. Lori Hacking Lori Hacking Lori Hacking Lori Hacking

Over to you Daryn middle east middle east middle east middle east whitehouse aid, 911 commision recommendations, How have arab americans been treated? some bad.
Rain in maryland Rain in maryland Weather dude. Damn all of the guys n gals, cept Novak and well Carville aint that pretty but he isn't A fat ugly traitor like Novak A fat ugly traitor like Novak A fat ugly traitor like Novak A fat ugly traitor like Novak A fat ugly traitor like Novak. Ok thats it for cnn, maybe well see if we can last thirteen minutes with MSGOP
--8:44 est

Oh shit it's Imus Michael Beschloss, citing buchanin, and bring up mondale (who was honest about taxes), Imus asks which media outlet he should go. Imus loves britt hume and his journalistic integrety, Says Msgop is a joke, later says it leans democrat, that cspan doesn't say anything.

IMUS seems to need, someone to help him navigate his way through what those speaches mean, now ke's kissing Andrea mitchell's ass. so is guest.
Imus is an idiot who needs his news spoon fed.
Beschloss's gut feeling is kerry but we still don't know so much about him and can people connect with him as a hman being.
Imus is an idiot who needs his news spoon fed and peppered with balanced analysis which he can't seem to find anywhere, but Brit and Andrea are brilliant jounalists.
Imus is an idiot who needs his news spoon fed and peppered with balanced analysis which he can't seem to find anywhere, but Brit and Andrea are brilliant jounalists.
Imus is an idiot who needs his news spoon fed and peppered with balanced analysis which he can't seem to find anywhere, but Brit and Andrea are brilliant jounalists.
Now Imus is talking about how many times he's had Kerry on the show and is shocked to find that the media thinks that he's a plodding clod 'cause he's so good on this program. Imus is an idiot who needs his news spoon fed and peppered with balanced analysis which he can't seem to find anywhere, but Brit and Andrea are brilliant jounalists
8:52 est am.

It was drive-by for sure, but it is clear that all the blathering about how blogs don't have editors or fact checkers, and therefor add nothing to the discourse. I am not certain that I am, but there are plenty of guys out there who do, some of them have links on the right. One thing is certain, that in Blogistan, we do not parrot GOP talking points, and as far as any fact checking problems, The AP said that Barack Obama would be the first black senator if elected.

Prevarication is just a nice way of saying I lied.

Juan Cole takes Chenigula to the woodshed, and surprise of suprises, invites Reagan and Bush I, along for the ride.

He said, Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness.

This statement is half right and half wrong. Some terrorist attacks are caused by the use of strength. For instance, the Shiites of southern Lebanon had positive feelings toward Israel before 1982. They were not very politically mobilized. Then the Israelis invaded Lebanon in 1982 and occupied the South. They killed some 18,000 persons, 9,000 of them estimated to be innocent civilians. The Shiites of the South gradually turned against them and started hitting them to get them back out of their country. They formed Hizbullah and ultimately shelled Israel itself and engaged in terrorism in Europe and Argentina. So, Hizbullah terrorist attacks were certainly caused by Sharon's use of "strength."

I sometimes imagine that Chenigula and the demented Dauphin, have these beehives in their bellies filled with bees, except the bees are lies and they force themselves clear of the lips because they need to forage for sustenance, and at night the bee's (i mean lies) return through mouths opened in lumber sawing glory. Just a vision I had that really has nothing to do with the subject at hand. Cole continues, suggesting some lessons to be learned.

The lesson I take away from all this is that the US should not get involved in places that it may get thrown out of, because that projects an image of weakness and vulnerability to the country's enemies. There was no way the United States could possibly have maintained a presence in Lebanon in the early 1980s, and Reagan was foolish to put those Marines in there, and even more foolish to put them in without pilons around them to stop truck bombs. The country was embroiled in a civil war, and it would have taken a massive commitment of troops to make a difference. In the wake of the Vietnam failure, the American public would not have countenanced such a huge troop build-up. Likewise, Bush senior was foolish to send those troops to Somalia in the way he did (which became a poison pill for his successor, Bill Clinton).

The question is whether the quagmire in Iraq makes the US look weak. The answer is yes. Therefore, by Cheney's own reasoning, it is a mistake that opens us to further attacks.

Oh and it gets better:

Iraq was not a threat to the United States. Period. Let me repeat the statistics as of the late 1990s:

US population: 295 million
Iraq population: 24 million

US per capita annual income: $37,600
Iraq per capita annual income: $700

US nuclear warheads: 10,455
Iraq nuclear warheads: 0

US tons of lethal chemical weapons (1997): 31,496
Iraq tons of lethal chemical weapons (1997): 0

While a small terrorist organization could hit the US because it has no return address, a major state could not hope to avoid retribution and therefore would be deterred. Cheney knows that Baathist Iraq posed no threat to the US. He is simply lying. I was always careful not to accuse him of lying before the war because who knows what is in someone else's mind? Maybe he believed his own bullshit. But there is no longer any doubt that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, no active nuclear weapons program, no ability to deliver anything lethal to the US homeland, and no operational cooperation with al-Qaeda. These things are not matters of opinion. They are indisputable. Ipso facto, if an intelligent person continues to allege them, he is prevaricating.

Well maybe not, maybe it is the beehive, that is the problem. Maybe the bees assemble en masse, and slip into a Cheney suit.

Are you a member of the truth squad? No but I play one on TV

Head up from Mr. Black.
In the neverending wrestling match between the truth, and its *cough* presentation *cough* by the *cough* "media" *cough*, our frend David Brock takes on Brent Bozell, who seems to enjoy coughing up hairballs of discredited material so he can flog it again for our benefit.

"Ken Lay spent 13 nights ... in Bill Clinton's Lincoln Bedroom." In fact, although Lay did not spend a single night in the Lincoln Bedroom while Clinton was president, he was an overnight guest in the White House of former President George H.W. Bush.

I can understand the mistake. Lay has spent probably alot of time at the whitehouse and the Lincoln Bedroom, but only when a bush was in office. I am in some way inspired by Bozell, and wonder if I shouldn't spend a say a week pretending to be a journalist/pundit/truth seeking missle. And post all day, chestnuts of fact, that I pull out of my ass. I will feel no need to examine the source (my less than photographic memory) or provide information in support of my suppositions. How about I start-now.

Kent reporting for the Hagiograph-july 28

Ken Lay defrauded the state of California, the government of the United State, and betrayed the trust of those within his employ. He played fast and loose with regulatory guidelines, while taking "Grandma Millie" to the cleaners, nearly bankrupting California, depriving many under his "charge" of there hard earned retirement plans. That he did these things while receptive of the nod, wink, nudge, blind bat, from Nero (aka bunnypants, codpiece crusader, Dumbya, etc.) makes him no less a criminal. In fact while California burned, and was spurned while Nero Fiddled and Chenligula, scoured the senate looking for wives. Enron was engaged in the largest theft/skimming operation, in the history of the republican wet dream of deregulation.

That was easy, except it is true, most of it anyway, I don't really know if Chenigula actually was looking for Senator's wives, But he may have been engagued in an auto-erotic, acrobatic, contortionistic, carnival of carnality with Lynne, while in the Lincoln bedroom.

Meanwhile in the 30 seconds I could stand his bloviating ass, Jonah Goldberg complains that the "democrats keep talking about these assumed shared values, that bush lied, and they're vauge about presenting evidence. example in Barack Obama's speech, which was a great speech by the way........."

And I would be shocked to find in your analysis of any of the bush press conferences or speeches in the run up to war, a similar demand for evidence. Sorry, dumbass, the Velvet Hammer has arrived. If it is not profoundly obvious to you by now, that Bush is a liar, unfit for the office, an incurious dimwit, then no amount of cucumber sandwitches you choose to eat out of the hands of Richard Mellon Scaife are going to change that fact. Keep defending truth, justice, and the Straussian way. Jack ass.

Wow----Barack Obama----Vapors

HOLY SHIT..........full text of speech you should really see. here.

Nutjob that I am there was a time that I thought I might have to be the first black president of The United States. Misstep here, stumble there, and well, you know, worrying about getting shot and all, props to Martin and Bobby. I have seen the guy that I sh/could have been. I got chops, I coulda been a contender. but that is a story for another day.

Mr Obama, delivery extemporaneous
a speech of mythic genius
eloquent electrifying elocution

I am a jaded cynical mother with this incongruous positive streak, In a half empty schitzoid kind of way. I look forward to Billmons take on this speech. I would have been extremly happy to contribute one paragraph to this speech.
"the almost willful ignorance"
"its the hope of slaves sitting around the fire singing freedom songs"
shit I'm catching the thing for the Fourth time.
"the audacity of hope"
"I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs"
"and out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come."
I mean WOW, thats some damn good eatin'

Sorry Karl. you are going to get your ass beat. The Kerry campaign is ready to fight back. The Velvet hammer awaits. [update] Got around to watching cheney get his ass wooped by a thirteen year old girl. yer killin me.

Ok I saw the speech put the thing on pause ran over to a friends place to find out if they had seen it. "No just missed it" tried to convince them to rewind (DVR) "wanna see everything live" My entreaties dismissed, roll on back, replay once, call them again, they just caught a little and are coming over to see it. Finally. If I bust on over to your place and ask you to see something (and believe me, I am not so accustomed) It would probably be a good idea to take a gander. They ended up with tears. As I warned so many moons ago, an occasional steaming pile of consciousness.

This is a nice reminder

Shamelessly stolen from Kos. 907 Boots each tagged with the name of a fallen soldier.

One boot for every serviceperson killed in the Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Are we really getting the complete picture regarding casualties in Iraq?

"Official statistics do not include casualties among non-U.S. nationals who sign up to serve in the American armed forces in order to get a U.S. `green card.' According to reliable information the share of non-Americans in the U.S. force in Iraq may be as high as 60 per cent," the source said. "The real number of U.S. losses may be as high as 2,000 casualties and up to 12,000 wounded," the military diplomat said.

With the games this administration play, color me not suprised if indeed true.

Scattershot links

Sudan still a hightmare. The government promise troops will oppose foreign intervention.

A approprate takedown of Brokaw and other media whores.

Prison poulation in United States reaches new high.

Isreal redraws the Security Fence borders.

Indian teachers suspended for adding drugs and alcohol to meals.

Krugman on electronic voting and possible election theft strategies.

Oompa or Loompa you make the call

From the Kerry rapid response website comes this interesting analysis of the Bush/Cheney campaign, by one of there own:

“The Bush-Cheney penchant for attack-dog politics is out of control. Dick Cheney isn’t just going after Democrats, now he's going after Republicans and violating the eleventh commandment. It's time for a new administration that focuses on making America stronger at home and respected in the world, not one that takes gratuitous potshots,” said Kerry campaign spokesperson Phil Singer.

“I used to represent people in courts in the south. So I wish we’d get off that.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham said of Edwards: “He has been a lightning rod for a lot of attacks. You know, people in my party beat on John Edwards for being a trial lawyer. As far as I know John made his money honestly. I used to represent people in courts in the south. So I wish we'd get off that.

It wouldn't be the same guy who cried foul on George Stephanopoulos' show would it:

Stephanopoulos, who hadn't planned to discuss the subject, asked the South Carolina Republican to explain.

"There was this hatefest in New York, where people who don't mind being called liberal got up and ran President Bush into the ground and applauded these two gentlemen [Kerry and Edwards]," Graham said.

"I want that tape," Graham insisted again, this time with a touch of anger. "And let's see people in Louisiana and South Carolina - let's hear what was said in New York and let's look at the reactions of Edwards and Kerry."

Remember that this was a private gathering, Never mind that Dennis Miller along for the ride on the Bush campaign trail, basically insinuated that Kerry and Edwards were gay, and the media?..........crickets chirping.........we could go on and on, but it is nice to know that Senator Graham can be reasonable....If he want's to.........but calling the democratic fundraiser where Whoopi made her jokes, a Hatefest, is a little harsh, isn't it. But the senator is from the South, and they seem to have a little trouble from time to time with this affliction known as "the vapors".

Must have been democrats

From 365gay.com by way of this comment on a thread at Atrios, is the latest in outrageous behavior.

(Honor, Michigan) Dozens of sleeping gay cyclists scrambled for their lives as an arsonist set fire to their campsite. About 75 members of Friends North were on a summer bike outing. Twenty in the group set up camp near the town of Honor and bedded down for the night Sunday.

About 12:30 a.m. a member of the group awoke to find a portable toilet on fire and flames spreading to nearby belongings. The cyclist woke up the others fearing the fire would spread to the dry grass and encircle them.

Flames were shooting 20 feet in the air a member of the group said.

Later, about two dozen hate messages were found scattered throughout the area.

Bigotry in any form is unnacceptable, I just hope that the local constabulary can be counted upon to find the perpetrator/s and bring them to justice. For shame.

We're working on them shelters, really

LOL thanks to Farmer at Corrente

This is exactly the kind of snarkastic examination that makes me spit coffee all over the keyboard:

Great Tongues of Fire!

Backlash Report | dateline Boston, 07-26-2004.

The big news today, rocking the very foundations of the Republic and which will no doubt become the primary topic of discussion for the klaxon horns of cable TV news noise, concerns Theresa H. Kerry's verbal swipe at one of Richard Mellon Scaife's congregate gnats. You know what I'm talking about so any further detailed explanation is only redundant.

The expression "shove it", as many of you know, being a variant strain of the more traditional family friendly "conservative values" treatment of a similar command, "go fuck yourself", made it's firey debut in Boston on this summer day in history, Monday, July 26, 2004. News of the shocking and ferocious display of visceral spleen venting rage burned across the land like a windswept prairie fire. Children were rushed to safer ground as innocence itself withered in the hot whirlwind! "Shove it?" asked Millie McGill, a twenty four year old sexual abstinence advocate and GOP team leader from Cincinnati. "Shove what? Shove it where? Oh my, what can it mean," she begged, before raising the back of her pale delicate wrist to her fevered vestal brow and fainting politely upon the steps of the courthouse in a dramatic yet poised manner befitting her station.

Nicely done. The recipe: Start out with outraged reaction to non story, add a cup of sarcasm, a dollop of hyperbole, a quarter cup of snark, tablespoon of obscure cultural reference, and a dash of victorian verbiage. Mix in a bowl poor into a casserole dish, and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

How will they sell it to us?

Lets take a look at how the convention is being played by the GOP Talking Point Pez Dispensation Corps. I wonder if we will marvel at the balance (where the right side of the scale stays in contact with the base of the scale no matter how many tons of concrete you poor on the left side). Apparently a few networks, blew off the Alston speech, and the Fox guys couldn't keep their mouthes shut during the National Anthem.

From the newsroom: (Keith Olbermann) Nothing like watching the Convention from a newsroom to give you a sense of proportion. Amid shouts of "they're already behind schedule, they're already behind schedule," you look up and notice to your shock that of all the networks carrying it live, there's only one with the audacity to keep on blathering during the playing of The Star-Spangled Banner... Fox! Couldn't Bill O'Reilly and Dick Morris just pretend for a moment that they don't think themselves bigger than the national anthem?

Over at the reformed right wing pudit's, Media Matters, we are astonished to discover that O'Reily lives up to his reputation of being a straight shooting guy, just like the president. This time he misrepresents Howard Dean. Who needs facts when you can just pull them out of your ass.

FOX News Channel host Bill O'Reilly claimed that former Vermont Governor Howard Dean advocated "pull[ing] out of Iraq immediately" as a candidate in the Democratic presidential primaries. In fact, Dean advocated keeping troops in Iraq until stability was restored.

Two days after a dust up between Teresa Heinz-Kerry and Scaife funded columnist, Colin McNickle, the punditocracy can't keep their hands out of the story. Continuing to Hillaryify her-Why do they hate strong women.

Heinz Kerry said "I didn't say that" several times to McNickle. She then turned to confer with Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and others. When she faced McNickle again a short time later, he continued to question her, and she replied: "You said something I didn't say. Now shove it."

A spokeswoman for Heinz Kerry later said, "This was sheer frustration aimed at a right-wing rag that has consistently and purposely misrepresented the facts in reporting on Mrs. Kerry and her family."

Vice President Dick Cheney recently came under criticism for using a four-letter obscenity in an exchange with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on the Senate floor. He later was unapologetic about the remark, saying: "I felt better after I said it."

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said he didn't see anything wrong with what Heinz Kerry said.

"It was mild, polite and appropriate compared to Dick Cheney," Rendell said.

Now that sounds like a screaming harpie to me. Can they play that Dean screem again, I didn't get enough of that the first time. And more about this Colin McNickle. He has written wonderful beatitudes like "We need more Ann Coulters." And a screed about the Democratic nominees that Ill allow a portion to speak for itself

Liberals and socialists (is there a difference?) probably are nodding their heads vigorously about now. "Yeah, that's the ticket! Go, Johnny, Go!" But those with even a novitiate's understanding of basic economics -- and the patience to research the record and to put the statistics into their proper context -- are shaking their heads in disbelief. For Sen. Kerry is committing a populist fraud.

How dare they, those socialist traitors. Have they at long last lost all sense of decency. How far must the level of discourse fall before we will be forced to line them up and shoot them. Speaking of the political discourse, Ann Coulter has been handed a pink slip from Usa Today, when her column failed to match up the their standards of journalistic integrity. Lets take a peek shall we?

Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston, conservatives are deploying a series of covert signals to identify one another, much like gay men do. My allies are the ones wearing crosses or American flags. The people sporting shirts emblazoned with the "F-word" are my opponents. Also, as always, the pretty girls and cops are on my side, most of them barely able to conceal their eye-rolling.

I really like how them republicans have secret signals. I wonder if she keeps a lemon handy for use as invisible ink so she can pass messages safely to her eye-rolling palls. That doesn't sound too over the top, spawn of satan? that's just funny, I can almost understand Ann's frustration voiced thusly

“Apparently," said Coulter, "USA Today doesn’t like my ‘tone,’ humor, sarcasm, etc. etc., which raises the intriguing question of why they hired me to write for them in the first place. Perhaps they thought they were getting Catherine Coulter.”

I don't know who this Catherine Coulter is but judging from the snide in Ann's rejoinder, she must be a paragon of virtue, at least on Bizarro World. We'll be back with more chestnuts from the world of political coverage. And while a computer crash wiped out the first draft of this post (yes I am an idiot) I think this one is better. Later all.

Good thing I know a little html

All right she works.

I have this crazy idea of setting up a group of people who are interested in taking shifts monitoring the republican noise machine spin. Say 10-20 minutes, a couple of times a day. pick your station you want to monitor and write about. Longer shifts would be fine, it's just that I can't stand more than 20 minutes before I am ready to become homicidal. Any way you can leave comments here or head over to the diary I have at Kos specifically for this purpose. Lets watch the watchers.

Diary entry here Feel fre to let me know if you think this is a stupid Idea, but I'm kinda fired up again and am ready to roll.

JIMMY CARTER, just made rove shit his pants, all you are gonna hear from the media is he sounded funny, is he a dottering fool? Guarantee that, also the underwear change. OK later.

[update]

Nothing to see here, move along.

Convention night Goodness

First Al Gore gave an inspiring speach while kicking dumbassed Dauphin in the nuts with a velvet sock. And then Carter came on and proceeded to slap dubya with the velvet glove before putting it on and hitting him in the solar plexus, you know in the way an 80 year old souther gentleman can kick you in the nuts and you thank him for the priviledge.


Ok just noticed funnybiz with blogger- hopefully this will post and well just have to see.

Post 101

It crept up like a panther, and voila 100 posts. Something to be proud of I guess. While I wait for something inspiring to ponder in some detail, like when is someone gonna rid the media of the republican succubi pod people, the right wing noise machine as it were. Have they no shame. Picture for a moment what the media would say when Clinton stepped on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln-do you see it. Picture for a moment if you will if George Bush had gotten a blow job from an intern, I'll bet that we would never had become aquainted with Ken Starr.

Anyway Jesse at pandagon asks an interesting question, essentially boils down to "where would we be now if Dubya's daddy had won in '92, and as a result the republicans never took the house........Go read it.

Researchers have concluded that rougue waves are much more common than previously expected. We're talking 80 foot waves that come out of nowhere. Most tankers, container ships, and drilling platforms are rated for 50 foot waves. Kinda freaiks me out

Meanwhile the whores are playing the expectation game, security in boston seems designed, by the Secret Service, and Deparment of Homeland insecurity, to make the Democrats look bad, suprise suprise its all politics all the time for this administration. And the Rove troll team is hijacking threads to good effect.

Lance wins his sixth Tour de France and I fear that when he passes the mantle, that most people will quit paying attention. Congrats Lance.

In the "can we get the religious right out of politics as soon as possible, because the shit is piling really high and my keyboard is taking a beating" department. Virginia is apparently running an ad campaign targeted at men with the following message "You shouldn't have sex with minors" Read about it at Steve Guillard's place, turns out we're the same age.

Susan at Suburban Guerilla has a couple of things up that should merit your attention. High School hijinks. Another, and I might add deserved takedown of Gasbag Tim. How long must.......

cheers

Riding a Kawazaki through Chernobyl

While searching around to confirm that I had not been the first to think of "horesmen mid appocalypse", and finding that I was not nearly as clever as I sometimes make myself out to be, I came across this fascinating tale, via a comment in the billmon archives.

I know it's a little bit off-topic (and I posted it on the diaries at Kos) but I can't resist sharing with the patrons here this stunning, moving photo diary by a hot Ukrainian babe who likes to ride her kawazaki through Chernobyl -- no pedestriuans, no dogs to worry about. The eerie silence of the bike through a landscape of death.
Posted by: Lupin

Her name is Elena, she is Ukranian, and loves to ride her motorcycle through the dead-zone surrounding Chernobyl and her pictures.....thousand word material indeed.

I have ridden all my life and over the years I have owned several different motorbikes. I ended my search for a perfect bike with a big kawasaki ninja, that boasts a mature 147 horse power, some serious bark, is fast as a bullet and comfortable for a long trips. here is more about my motorcycle

I travel a lot and one of my favorite destinations leads North from Kiev, towards so called Chernobyl "dead zone", which is 130kms from my home. Why my favorite? Because one can take long rides there on empty roads.

The people there all left and nature is blooming. There are beautiful woods and lakes.

In places where roads have not been travelled by trucks or army vehicles, they are in the same condition they were 20 years ago - except for an occasional blade of grass that discovered a crack to spring through. Time does not ruin roads, so they may stay this way until they can be opened to normal traffic again........ a few centuries from now.

I can't think of anything to say, other than I have only made it through page (or chapter) six and that I want to go back and finish the thing. So please go read it. You can start at the link above about her bike (heavily modified by the way). Check it out--thanks