10 Ways Bush has hurt New York

The 2004 Republican National Convention will be held in New York City this year. New York is a predominantly Democratic state, and New York City is a predominantly Democratic city. (Pataki and Bloomberg notwithstanding). Now, this piece from The Village Voice is somewhat more City-specific, rather than state-specific, but any upstater can tell you that politically and economically, what happens in NYC does have a palpable effect statewide. So here, ladies and gentlemen, are the 10 ways Bush has hurt NYC in particular, and NYS in general. Click the link to the piece for more details. 1. Will any convention speaker dare mention the name of Osama bin Laden? What ever happened to Bush's cowboy threat to "smoke 'em" out? 2. Why was Bush so afraid of a 9-11 investigation? 3. Was the Bush team awake in the nine months before the attack? 4. Iraq plus tax cuts adds up to a deficit that will force a second-term squeeze on social programs vital to NYC. 5. Bush did OK on the $20 billion, but he's still shortchanging us on the edges of the minimal pledge he made to a city whose economy took an $80 billion hit. 6. Senator Schumer says NY doesn't expect a share of Idaho's farm subsidies, so why does Idaho take a chunk of NY's security subsidies? 7. What could be worse than lying to GZ workers and residents about the air they were breathing?

The original EPA draft of a September 13, 2001, press release, for example, said that the agency considered even the low levels of asbestos that surfaced in their GZ tests "hazardous in this situation." The final White House version of the release simply scratched out the phrase. And when a September 16 EPA draft warned of "higher levels of asbestos," the White House changed it to the hot-air hoax that "ambient air quality meets standards and is not a cause for public concern." The EPA chief of staff conceded in an interview with the agency's inspector general that the "desire to reopen Wall Street" factored into the releases, saying she did not feel the releases were her own.

8. Bush has left most New York children behind. 9. Ten thousand NY families are in jeopardy of losing their housing subsidies and homes. 10. With NYC the No. 1 target of bio and nuclear terrorists, the go-it-alone Bush administration has torpedoed international treaties that would make us more secure.

Max Cleland turned away

Max Cleland left three limbs in Vietnam. He is a former Georgia Senator who was defeated in 2002 by Saxby Chambliss. Senator Chambliss, a chickenhawk, somehow painted this Vietnam Vet as soft on terror. He didn't just do that, however. He also released a disgusting, horrific ad that actually linked and compared Senator Cleland to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Obviously, George Bush supported Chambliss and made numerous visits to Georgia. Bush never met a candidate who bashes vets he hasn't liked. Cleland is a fervent Kerry supporter, and is traveling the country campaiging for Kerry. Yesterday, he traveled to Crawford, Texas to deliver a letter signed by nine Senators who are veterans. He traveled directly to Bush's ranch, intending to hand-deliver the letter to the President with whom he served in Washington. Here's a picture that depicts how far he got: Was this a political stunt? Sure it was. What would a campaign be without stunts. But what's so typical and telling about Bush is that he's not man enough to invite Cleland in for a talk. Just a private talk without handlers or media to accept the letter. He's a baby. Our President is a petulant teenager. He sends people like the Swift Boat Liars to do his smearing for him. (Bush, obviously, could never question anyone's military service.) He then fails to denounce their slanderous perjury. (All of the Swiftees signed sworn affidavits. Several have now turned out to be false statements. Remember when the GOP CARED about perjury?) In any event, Kerry's folks set Bush up on this one, and he predictably took the bait. Bush could have looked gracious by inviting Cleland in without cameras, but he didn't do that. By turning Cleland away AND offering him a "competing" letter written by the B-C04 campaign and signed by some veterans, he looks like a pompous ass and the arrogant frat boy he is. And by the way, Mr. Incumbent's approval ratings are in the toilet. 39% approval. Where's the SCLM to harp on just how disliked Junior has become?

Scandal.

Hey! Did you know that 527 organizations like Swift Boat Liars and MoveOn.org are forbidden from coordinating their activities with the campaigns? Did you know that MoveOn.org is a PAC and must release records of their contributions and contributors, while the Swiftees don't? Hey, did you know that a Bush/Cheney '04 Military "adviser", Kenneth Cordier, had to quit the campaign because he was a member of the Swiftees? Oh, and did you realize that Benjamin Ginsberg, the Bush campaign's top outside lawyer said Tuesday that he had given legal advice to the Swiftees in a book, television commercials and countless appearances on cable news programs? Yeah, Ginsberg quit today. Cordier was kicked out last week. What a clean, hopeful & optimistic campaign of issues the Bush/Cheney cabal is running.

Curiouser

Via Democratic Underground.

We can clearly see that in this picture, George W. Bush is wearing an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award and a Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon, however, on line 24 of his ARG22 National Guard discharge form, George W. Bush has NO awards listed. Now, here in another picture where his father is pinning lieutenant bars on his shoulder, George W. Bush is again wearing the Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon: So, in fairness we must give George W. Bush the benefit of the doubt here. Let's dig further and look at other records released by the Bush campaign team. Our next stop is a Form AF11 dated May 16, 1971. You will note on this document Bush has already been promoted to First Lieutenant. All that is listed in this document is the Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon. The Air Force Outstanding Unit Award is not listed. Our next stop is the "military biography" released by the Bush Campaign: http://img56.exs.cx/img56/5791/bio1.jpg?click http://img56.exs.cx/img56/6018/bio2.jpg?click In this document, the claim is made that Bush was awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon, BUT NO MENTION OF THE AIR FORCE OUTSTANDING UNIT AWARD!!! This document was clearly prepared after Bush's service ended. Exhaustive searches for any indication that any unit Bush served with was awarded the AFOUA have, to date, yielded nothing. The ONLY documents released by the Bush administration related to his service that make mention of any awards whatsoever have been included in this report. The only conclusion that can be made is George W. Bush wore a ribbon he did not earn in the above photograph.

Bush's Service in the TANG

Information gleaned via Democratic Underground & Daily Kos There is one medal awarded to members of the Texas National Guard basically for showing up: Texas Govt Code 431.134 Para 1 Texas Faithful Service Medal The Texas Faithful Service Medal shall be awarded to a member of the state military forces who has completed five years of honorable service during which the person has shown fidelity to duty, efficient service, and great loyalty to the state. According to his ANG22 (The Air National Guard discharge papers), * Received *NO* Texas National Guard Medals. This means he did not faithfully execute his duty for five years in the TANG. Furthermore, in the following photograph he wears two Air Force ribbons, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, and the Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon : Neither of which show up on this line of his ARG22. There is some question as to whether Bush was authorized to wear the SAEM ribbon, because, although it was omitted from his ANG22, it is mentioned elsewhere. Assuming Bush was wearing authorized awards, here is a comparison of Kerry and Bush's awards records:

Kerry

Kerry' s




Dubya*



I have verified the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award and Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksmanship ribbon only via a photograph of George W. Bush.

Top to bottom, left to right as you look at them

Kerry:

Silver Star (Verified via DD214)
Bronze Star (Should have Bronze Combat "V" Device, Verified via DD214)
Purple Heart (Should have two Gold Star devices for subsequent awards, Verified via DD214)
Combat Action Ribbon (Verified via DD214)
Presidential Unit Citation (Verified via DD215, worn above left pocket per Navy regs)
Navy Unit Commendation (Verified via DD215)
National Defense Service Medal (Verified via DD214)
Vietnam Service Medal(Verified via DD214, w/four bronze star devices verified via DD215)
Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation (Verified via DD215)
Republic of Vietnam Civil Actions Unit Citation (Verified via DD215)
Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal (Verified via DD215)

Dubya:

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award (verified via photograph only)
Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon (verified via photograph only)

Comparing in order of precedence, The Air Force Outstanding Unit Award falls below Kerry's Navy Unit Commendation and above his National Defense Service Medal. The Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon falls between Kerry's Vietnam Service Medal and his Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation.

 

John O'Neill: Unfit for Everything

This is burning up the blogosphere this morning, so I won't bother to link to anyone except Liberal Oasis, which describes pretty much the end of any and all credibility for the Swift Boat liars, John O'Neil & bigot Jerome Corsi once & for all:

1. Still Think Kerry Can't Play Hardball? You may not have heard yet, but yesterday, Kerry's team applied a late-night smackdown on chief Swift Boat Liar John O'Neill. O'Neill has repeatedly challenged Kerry's statements regarding his crossing of the Cambodian border. O'Neill said Kerry would have been "court-martialed" for such an act. Further, that he did the same patrol two months after Kerry and it only ran "50 miles from Cambodia. There isn't any watery border." But yesterday, the Kerry campaign alerted both Fox (extra chutzpah points) and CNN to a taped conversation between O'Neill and Richard Nixon where O'Neill explicitly says the opposite: O'NEILL: I was in Cambodia, sir. I worked along the border on the water. NIXON: In a swift boat? O'NEILL: Yes, sir.

Can they get any more discredited?

Confirmed - Bob "Viagra" Dole is an asshole.

Bob Dole says he was just "tweaking" Kerry when he said that Kerry "never bled" from any of the "superficial wounds" Dole says Kerry sustained in Vietnam. Well, Kerry never threw a grenade that hit a tree that bounced back at him either, but we can't all be Bob Dole, can we? Check this out:

"This is presidential race. We're 70 some days away. It's political hardball, and certainly Senator Kerry understands that," Dole told CNN. Dole said Kerry called him to express "disappointment" over his comments Sunday that the Massachusetts senator had won "three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds." Dole's suggestion that Kerry "never bled" runs counter to US Navy records showing that Kerry, who also won a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for bravery, still carries shrapnel in his left thigh from a February 1969 firefight. "There's respect there," Dole said Monady. "We were in the Senate together. But we're talking about the presidential race, and I tweaked him a little on the Purple Hearts."

There's tweaking, and then there's outright, malicious slander/libel. That's the hole into which Bush's mouthpieces have fallen. I honestly can't fathom how people can support a guy who has been President for 4 years and doesn't have a goddamn positive issue on which to run. All he's done- all he can do - is go negative against Kerry. Think I'm wrong? Go to Bush's campaign website, and check out the "Kerry gas tax calculator" (which ignores Cheney's opinion that gas prices are too low), the "John Kerry's Flip Flop Olympics", and "Taxing our Economy". Then go to www.johnkerry.com and check out the main item: A Stronger America. Which campaign is the most forward-thinking, optimistic and positive?

Bush - up to his old tricks.

I urge anyone visiting this site to sign this petition. Dear Friend, A front group for the Bush campaign called"Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" is continuing to spread lies about John Kerry's military record. Their statements have been contradicted by official Navy records, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and every man who served under John Kerry, yet George Bush refuses to condemn their tactics. Through his silence, George Bush is approving their action. In fact, Bush campaign officials in Florida are even promoting events for this front group. Today we're calling for all of you to join together and stand with John Kerry. Tell George Bush to stop the smear, and get back to the issues. Sign John Kerry's petition by visiting http://www.johnkerry.com/oldtricks Enough is enough. No matter what these Bush campaign shills now say, John Kerry's commanders in 1969 remarked that, "In a combat environment often requiring independent, decisive action, LTJG Kerry was unsurpassed." In fact all John Kerry's performance reports, available on John Kerry's website, display an absolutely heroic record of service. John Kerry's campaign has just released a new internet ad (which should be on TV. -ed) called "Old Tricks", which shows John McCain asking George Bush to apologize for attacking his own heroic record. View the ad by visiting http://www.johnkerry.com/oldtricks I did -- and you should too.

Bush & his lying liars.

This Editorial from the Boston Globe, which is arguably the paper that knows Kerry best, is a must-read. Especially for former McCaniacs like me:

IMAGINE IF supporters of Bill Clinton had tried in 1996 to besmirch the military record of his opponent, Bob Dole. After all, Dole was given a Purple Heart for a leg scratch probably caused, ccording to one biographer, when a hand grenade thrown by one of his own men bounced off a tree. And while the serious injuries Dole sustained later surely came from German fire, did the episode demonstrate heroism on Dole's part or a reckless move that ended up killing his radioman and endangering the sergeant who dragged Dole off the field? The truth, according to many accounts, is that Dole fought with exceptional bravery and deserves the nation' gratitude. No one in 1996 questioned that record. Any such attack on behalf of Clinton, an admitted Vietnam draft dodger, would have been preposterous. Yet amazingly, something quite similar is happening today as supporters of President Bush attack the Vietnam record of Senator John Kerry."

Zig Zag Zell

Zell Miller will be a keynote speaker during the upcoming Republican Convention. Here's what Zell had to say about Kerry back in 2001 (via Pandagon) "My job tonight is an easy one: to present to you one of this nation's authentic heroes, one of this party's best-known and greatest leaders -- and a good friend. He was once a lieutenant governor -- but he didn't stay in that office 16 years, like someone else I know. It just took two years before the people of Massachusetts moved him into the United States Senate in 1984. -- U.S. Senator Zell Miller [Remarks to the Democratic Party of Georgia Jefferson Jackson Dinner 2001] "In his 16 years in the Senate, John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington. Early in his Senate career in 1986, John signed on to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Bill, and he fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so. John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment.” -- U.S. Senator Zell Miller [Remarks to the Democratic Party of Georgia Jefferson Jackson Dinner 2001]

Swift Boat Liars for Bush

Just in case you were wondering: are the swift boat vets lying? Do they have any ties to Bush and/or Rove? This New York Times graf makes it aaaalllll clear. Lying liars, indeed.

Bush supporters in a nutshell.

Here's a charming photograph of a Bush supporter committing a battery upon a Kerry supporter who is attempting to exercise her free speech rights.

Turning astroturf into grassroots

Daily Kos brings up some new astroturf. Let's have some grassroots fun with it, shall we? Happily, the Kerry campaign relies on volunteers’ own brains to write letters to the editor, etc. Not so for GWB. Karl Rove-approved scripts are online at the GWB ’04 website, ready for anyone to cut & paste and e-mail as a letter to the editor. Since this is nothing but phony grassroots politicking, it’s known as Astroturf. Well, what I’ve done is take the Bush-approved script and messed with it a bit, and then used GWB’s own bandwidth to send a pro-Kerry LTE. How, you ask? Point your browser to http://www.georgewbush.com/Economy/WriteNewspapers.aspx?AgendaID=2 (there are probably other places at this website to do this for other policy issues, like foreign affairs, for instance). Take the approved text, and change it as follows: (bold = my changes) New job figures and other recent economic data show that America’s economy is weak and getting weaker – and that the President’s jobs and growth plan is clearly not working. The Labor Department announced that employers added a mere 288,000 new jobs in April. In total, only 1.1 million jobs have been added since August, with 8 consecutive months of modest gains. The truth is that the US economy has lost a net 1 million jobs since Bush took office in 2001. No president since Hoover has presided over a four-year term where the economy failed to add jobs.

Keyes' conservatism

Conservatives used to be fiscal conservatives, as well as social conservatives, right? Well, Alan Keyes is so fiscally conservative that he can't/won't pay his Maryland state inbcome taxes, which caused Maryland to place a lien against Keyes' (true) Maryland home. Furthermore, Keyes still owes over $500,000 from his 1996 and 2000 Presidental "runs".

Truth About Keyes

Here's a great website. Truth About Keyes. You know it's legit because there's no "squad".

Obama Truth Squad

HA ha ha! The wingers in Illinois have an "Obama Truth Squad". Setting aside the totalitarian and militarist overtones of the word "squad", (why aren't they a cadre?), I think they have quite an uphill battle. First of all, Alan Keyes is running against Barack Obama. Alan Keyes is, in my opinion, crazy. There is absolutely no way around that. The man just may be certifiably insane and wholly unfit to wear the title of dog catcher, much less Senator. Or even State Senator. (For starters, Keyes, who is still a Maryland resident and is now running to become a Senator from Illinois, criticized Hillary Clinton for carpetbagging in 2000. At least Hillary had already bought a house in Chappaqua when she announced. Truth Squad doesn't like Obama because Obama doesn't like the Iraq war, and just might be for universal health care (*gasp* perish the thought!) 1. What difference does it make what a State Senator has to say about Iraq, an issue on which he had no vote – only an opinion? As for the war being “dumb”, in retrospect it was dumb. Not only was the very idea a dumb one, but planning and execution – especially as it relates to the postwar period – was supremely dumb. It was dumb not only because we attacked a country that posed zero threat to the US, but also because the neocon hijacking of the war was based not on an effort to “democratize” Iraq, but in a macro sense to make Israel safe. Nice job, fellas. 2. Even GWB and the neocons who got to him understood that we can’t just go in and invade a country. You need at least a light coating of international legitimacy. So they reluctantly let UN inspectors go to Iraq for 6 months. 200 inspectors in 6 months found next to nothing violative of UN resolutions. Didn’t matter. Bush & Co., and their winger media mouthpieces began calling Hans Blix an Iraqi tool, and that the inspectors didn’t know what they were doing. Over 100,000 US troops have occupied the entirety of Iraq for over a year, and they have found less in the way of material violative of UN resolutions from 1990-1992 than did Blix. Wow. How great is that? And 1,000 Americans have died to make Iraq safe for Ba’athist and Qaeda insurgents. Woo hoo. 3. What difference does it make what a State Senator has to say about the subsequent $87billion (that’s $87,000,000,000) appropriation for troop support & supplies and, ostensibly, Iraqi reconstruction. I thought Wolfowitz said Iraqi oil would pay for all of this? Maybe all the people with “W” stickers on their cars and American flags a-waving might stop for a second and think that $87billion would do a lot of good here at home. Maybe we could have considered giving troops enough supplies & armor, etc. before we sent them to Iraq? Remember a few months ago, you posted a message about Bush visiting a wounded soldier or marine at Walter Reed, and he told Bush that they needed water? You crowed about the fact that Bush got them water right away. Did you stop to think why the hell didn’t they have water in the first place? 4. Barack Obama merits a Truth Squad because the wingers are so afraid of him. They know he’s going to beat the living bejeezus out of Alan Keyes and coast to the Senate. They know he’s on his way to a glorious career in public service. Alan Keyes is on his way to a mental asylum. As for him being a progressive, so what? If Keyes can defeat him based on real ideas rather than sound and fury, God bless him. The problem is that Keyes has no ideas. Keyes doesn’t even know what the issues are facing the people from Illinois. All Keyes can do is make a lot of noise. What’s so pathetic is that he’s the best the GOP can do in the whole state of Illinois. Out of all the republicans that I’m sure live in Illinois, they went with a wackjob from Maryland.

Jerome Corsi.

Here's more about Jerome Corsi, bigot. Courtesy of Media Matters. This really is a must-read. I keep saying this like a mantra, but when wingers (not regular old low-tax, low-spend republicans, but wingers) tell you that they're not fascist, or they're not bigots, etc., just go to freerepublic.com or lucianne.com. I guarantee that within 5 minutes, you'll find a bigoted post. Promise. What Jerome Corsi says is par for the course in wingnutworld.

Karma

To paraphrase the late Rick James, Karma's a helluva thing. Everybody remembers 10 years ago? 10 years ago, the vast right-wing conspiracy, funded by Richard Mellon Scaife (who owns the Pittsburgh rag that employs a certain editor/reporter whom Teresa Heinz-Kerry instructed to "shove it"), concocted this amazing story about Bill Clinton's escapades as Governor (troopergate), among others. Well, the trooper who sold his story to Scaife's monkeys (like Newsmax's Chris Ruddy) may be going to jail. For lying to an FBI officer. Oh, the humanity. Oh, the credulity.

"A former Arkansas state trooper who said years ago that he arranged sexual liaisons for former President Clinton while Clinton was governor has pleaded guilty to a felony in an unrelated federal civil-rights case. "

Is Alan Keyes crazy, or just a good singer?

As you may recall from this post, I think Barack Obama is a great American, a great orator, and will make a great Senator. Hopefully someday a great President. The Illinois GOP, fishing for a candidate, came up with Maryland resident, perennial presidential candidate, devout Catholic and nutty wackjob Alan Keyes to run against Obama. Here, Keyes serenades a local Chicago CBS affiliate with a little Judy Garland flava. Check it out to get your crazy fix for the day.

The nerve of these people.

Dick Cheney has no shame. He has no scruples. He just likes to say that he does. Take a look at this, via Oliver Willis:

'We don't want to turn that responsibility over to somebody who doesn't have deeply held convictions about right and wrong,' Cheney told a town hall meeting in Joplin.

Then juxtapose that outrageous statement about John Kerry with this:

Halliburton to pay $7.5 million fine for not disclosing accounting change The violations occurred while Vice President Dick Cheney served as Halliburton's chief executive officer, although Cheney, who provided sworn testimony to the SEC, wasn't charged. Two other former executives were charged, however: former controller Robert C. Muchmore Jr., who also settled with the SEC, agreeing to a $50,000 penalty, and former chief financial officer Gary V. Morris, who has not settled."

Let's read about

John Corsi, the guy who wrote "Unfit for Command" for the Republican part... I mean George W. Bu... I mean "Swift Boat Veterans for Falsity." Wingers always get huffy when you accuse them of being intolerant of various people and things. For instance, Michelle Malkin, who is respected as a commentator in winger circles, is now an advocate for internment camps (read: concentration camps) for Arabs/Muslims. She points to the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII as an instructive and positive example. I really don't give a crap about her point, because I don't think that a liberal, pluralistic democracy lik the United States has any business interning people based solely on their ethnicity or religion. (Guilt by association alone). Anyway, back on track, it's interesting that Corsi is..well, lots of things. He is/was a regular poster on the right wing jihadist website, freerepublic.com. Here's how James Carville introduced a story about Corsi on Crossfire:

John Kerry, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Katie Couric, CBS, NBC are all communists. Hillary Clinton is a lesbian fat hog with fake hair. Al and Tipper Gore are terrorists who are part of the Taliban. The pope is senile. And pedophilia is fine with him as long as it's not reported in the liberal press. If you think all this sounds nutty, well, it is. According to the organization Media Matters For America, all this has been written by Jerome Corsi. Why do we care what Jerome Corsi says? Well, we don't. But as co-author of the book "Unfit for Command" about John Kerry and his service in Vietnam, some people are making the mistake of taking him seriously. In the world of putrid right-wing pond scum, Corsi is one of the biggest bottom-feeders of them all.

"Few signature achievements"

Check this out, via Atrios. Bush's latest attack on Senator Kerry is that Kerry had "few signature achievements" after all that time in the Senate. And Bush - as the one-term governor of a State with one of the weakest, most symbolic governorships in the Country had a lot of signature achievements, I take it? Or maybe Bush's signature achievements have to do with running companies into the ground. (Harken, Arbusto). How 'bout that Dick Cheney? The same Dick Cheney who remarked some time ago that gas prices are too low?

Cheney, 11 years in the House: 96th Congress: 4 Bills Sponsored; 0 became Law 97th Congress: 4 Sponsored: 0 became Law 98th Congress: 8 Sponsored: 0 became Law 99th Congress: 7 Sponsored: 1 became Law (H.R.1246 : A bill to establish a federally declared floodway for the Colorado River below Davis Dam.) 100th Congress: 7 Sponsored: 1 became Law (H.R.712 : A bill for the relief of Lawrence K. Lunt.) 101st Congress: 1 Sponsored: 0 became Law

Whew. What a fantastic record of signature achievements. /sarcasm. Can someone remind me exactly what Cheney's ever done to merit being SecDef?

Let's be clear

Just so everyone understands what, exactly, the whole story is about the "shove it" incident

The dustup occurred after Heinz Kerry gave a speech to the Pennsylvania delegation denouncing 'some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics.' McNickle approached her and asked what she meant by 'un-American activities,' in effect accusing her of McCarthyism. Heinz-Kerry denied using the phrase 'un-American activities' and stormed off. Yet when Pa. Gov Ed Rendell pointed out to her that McNickle was a reporter from the Tribune-Review, Heinz Kerry returned to him with a rebuke. 'You're from the Tribune Review?' she asked McNickle with a face tightened with rage. 'That's understandable. You said something I didn't say. Now shove it.' ...McNickle's provocation of Heinz Kerry represents the latest manifestation of a poisonous dirty tricks campaign Scaife has financed to undermine Heinz Kerry, a fellow western Pennsylvania philanthropist whom he considers his rival. And now that Heinz Kerry has been thrust into the national spotlight by her husband's presidential candidacy, Scaife's smears are likely to intensify. The Tribune-Review routinely sniped at Teresa Heinz during her marriage to Pennsylvania's Republican former Senator John Heinz. When the senator died in 1991, and the Massachusetts Junior Senator John Kerry stole Teresa's heart, the paper's attacks grew increasingly slanderous. On December 28, 1997, the paper featured an anonymously penned cover story falsely insinuating that a woman named Sheila Lawrence had had affairs with both Bill Clinton and Kerry. "Far from giving all to Bill, there was still something left over for Sen. John Kerry," who had "a very private tete-a-tete" with "sexy Sheila," the columnist alleged. In another column, the Tribune-Review mocked John Kerry as "Mr. Teresa Heinz." Perhaps the most spurious of the Tribune-Review's attacks came in December, 2003, when it ran a piece accusing Heinz-Kerry of secretly "funneling cash" from her Heinz Endowment to the Tides Foundation, a group that "supports extreme left wing groups... anti-war protests... unlimited abortion rights, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy, as well as and [sic] environmental extremism." The piece was based on research conducted by the right wing think tank Capital Research Center, yet failed to mention that Scaife granted the center $240,000 in 2002 or that he was connected to it in any way. The article also omitted the fact that the Heinz Foundation's grants were all strictly earmarked for mainstream western Pennsylvania environmental charities, an inexcusable omission that could have been avoided if the paper had bothered to call either the Heinz Foundation or the Tides Foundation to confirm its wild claims. Despite the article's shoddy research, its accusations became a favorite tune on the right's Mighty Wurlitzer. FrontPageMagizine plugged it in a piece called, "Teresa Heinz Kerry: Bag Lady of the Radical Left;" The New York Post followed with the headline, "Teresa Heinz's Cash Connection;" Rush Limbaugh promoted the claims; the Weekly Standard picked the story up. By the time Fox's Brit Hume reported the accusations, they had been brushed clean of Scaife's fingerprints. ...McNickle has also displayed a disregard for journalistic ethics throughout his career. His chronic carelessness was most apparent in his July 2000, column, "Thus (Mis)Speaketh Al," a collection of imbecilic quotes by then-presidential candidate Al Gore. Though the article was laugh-out-loud funny, there was one small problem: the statements McNickle attributed to Gore were actually quotes by former Vice President Dan Quayle. Yet even after his mistake was exposed, McNickle refused to give an inch. "I'll stand by where we got the information from," McNickle told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Let's be perfectly clear. You know how the right's strategy against Clark was to just repeat that he's crazy? Their strategy against Teresa is to just repeat that she's out-of-control, and uncontrollable. And our SCLM will lap it up like dogs.

The banality of stupidity

Colin McNickle is an editor at the Richard Mellon Scaife rag the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Mr. McNickle is the chap instructed by Teresa Heinz Kerry to "shove it." Apparently, Mr. McNickle "covered" the convention in Boston last week, and even posted to this blog while there. The blog itself is nothing more than brain farts from an opinionated hack. (Just check out his favorite links.) What's fun is just how stupid some of these posts are. For instance, even Kerry haters gave Kerry pretty good marks for his convention acceptance speech. McNickle gives him a "D" for writing, an "F" for content, and that his delivery was "at times awkward", resulting in a C-. Let's face it. McNickle wrote the wrong column. He was apparently reporting on George W. Bush's grades at at Yale. If Kerry's delivery is "at times awkward", what does he call Bush's incoherent, illiterate mumblings?

The 'right' to health care Posted July 29, 2004 10 :54 PM Kerry says health care is a "right?" Let me know if you find that one in your copy of the U.S. Constitution....

Let me know if you find "you don't need to actually count the ballots" in the Constitution. Let me know where in the Constitution it says that drug addict Rush Limbaugh has a right to privacy. I presume that Mr. McNickle is very up-in-arms about his tax money going to subsidize the health care plan of the entire federal government and associated bureaucracy.

Redistributionist economics Posted July 29, 2004 10 :53 PM Mr. Kerry says he wants to roll back tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans ... those richest 2 percent of Americans. That just happens to be the cohort that pays the greatest percentage of taxes. The Kerry plan is income redistribution -- nothing else.

Well, who said Kerry wants to distribute to the poor or the middle class the money earned from rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy? Seems to me that Senator Kerry would like to, oh, pay for Bush's Iraq misadventure, for instance. I guess he's right.

Kerry's economic [sic] Posted July 29, 2004 10 :53 PM John Kerry says he wants an America that "exports products, not jobs." Which, when you get right down to it, will make products here less affordable and supress wage rates.

Yeah. Jobs in the US is a bad idea. I really, really hope the GOP reads Mr. McNickles' blog and runs with his deep ideas. Exporting products is, in Mr. McNickles' opinion, a bad & counterproductive thing.

Family 'values' Posted July 29, 2004 10 :53 PM John Kerry wants to "value families" by raising the minimum wage (that will reduce the pool of entry-level jobs), add more and more government to health care (which will raise the cost of health care and lead to rationing), and "protect" Social Security (which will go bankrupt when our children are older unless steps are taken to privatize it, which will lead to greater benefits for everyone). Help is on the way? Heaven help us.

So many gems in this one. If we raise the minimum wage, is McDonalds all of a sudden going to use robots to get your fries with that? Will Starbucks become self-serve? Social security needs to be privatized? Hell, let's privatize everything, because privatization = good thing for everything, right? With the dow hovering lower than where it was in the summer of 2000, I'll bet some retirees are pretty happy that they have something a little more stable than mere market whims backing a piece of their retirement.

Oh, really? Posted July 29, 2004 10 :51 PM How did John Kerry ride his bicycle into East Berlin without getting shot?

Well, it depends on when Kerry was in Berlin. If it was before 1961, he could have crossed freely between East and West Berlin, possibly being stopped at an allied checkpoint. If it was after 1961, he probably just showed his diplomatic passport to the guards at Checkpoint Charlie. Idiot.

Looking out for us

Gosh, doesn't it seem a little counterproductive for our self-puffing Adminisration to release information like this to the press? If the Government has captured a computer geek who has all the secrets about Qaeda's computer communication, why publicize it, except to toot your own tarnished horn?

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 - The unannounced capture of a figure from Al Qaeda in Pakistan several weeks ago led the Central Intelligence Agency to the rich lode of information that prompted the terror alert on Sunday, according to senior American officials. The figure, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, was described by a Pakistani intelligence official as a 25-year-old computer engineer, arrested July 13, who had used and helped to operate a secret Qaeda communications system where information was transferred via coded messages. A senior United States official would not confirm or deny that Mr. Khan had been the Qaeda figure whose capture led to the information. But the official said 'documentary evidence' found after the capture had demonstrated in extraordinary detail that Qaeda members had for years conducted sophisticated and extensive reconnaissance of the financial institutions cited in the warnings on Sunday.

Why not keep the capture secret and get the guy to help in a sting?

Federal ineptitude

Maybe Hastert's right. Why should you and I continue to subsidize a bunch of idiots like this? Tony Masiello should breathe a sigh of relief. At least his is not the only administration that can't account for millions of dollars.

WASHINGTON - U.S. authorities in Baghdad spent hundreds of millions of Iraqi dollars without keeping good enough records to show whether they got some services and products they paid for, government investigators said. Officials of the former Coalition Provisional Authority did not have records to justify the $24.7 million cost for replacing Iraq's currency, according to the report from the authority's inspector general. The report also said the authority paid nearly $200,000 for 15 police trucks without knowing if the trucks were delivered.

I wonder if Instapundit is going to bleat on about this half as much as he has over the stolen/squandered oil-for-food money from Saddam-era Iraq. At least that money was squandered by a totalitarian fascist dictatorship. What's Bush's excluse? What's Bremer's excuse?

Gimmick / trial balloon du jour

So, the Bushies are sending up a trial balloon this week. In a new book by Speaker Denny Hastert, he advocates eliminating the IRS and replacing it with a flat tax, a national sales tax, or a VAT. I'm sure places like New Hampshire that have no sales tax are really psyched about this idea. I'm sure you and I just can't wait to add an additional 10% sales tax to the 8.25 we already pay to Albany and Erie County. (I'll do all my shopping in Canada, where at least I can get my GST back). A modified flat tax I'd actually support, provided that the poorest Americans were exempted, and those making over 1,000,000 paid a little extra. I wouldn't mind being able to file my return on a post card, as Steve Forbes famously promised in 2000.

Cheney outrage #2

Loyalty oaths. You know, as self-righteous as some wingers get when they're compared with fascists, these guys really have learned their Gestapo tactics.

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... ... 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." A Journal reporter, who is a registered Democrat, called to inquire about a ticket Thursday afternoon. He was asked for his name, address and driver's license number but was not told over the telephone that he would need to sign any endorsement form. He got the news after arriving at the Bush-Cheney office.

Wow. It's illiterate, too.

Cheney outrage #1

I guess Cheney's a "uniter", too.

"President Bush's re-election campaign insisted on knowing the race of an Arizona Daily Star journalist assigned to photograph Vice President Dick Cheney. The Star refused to provide the information. Cheney is scheduled to appear at a rally this afternoon at the Pima County Fairgrounds. A rally organizer for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign asked Teri Hayt, the Star's managing editor, to disclose the journalist's race on Friday. After Hayt refused, the organizer called back and said the journalist probably would be allowed to photograph the vice president. 'It was such an outrageous request, I was personally insulted,' Hayt said later. Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the president's re-election campaign, said the information was needed for security purposes... ...Organizer Christine Walton asked for Popat's race in telephone conversations with two other Star editors before she spoke to Hayt. They also refused to provide the information. Walton told Hayt that Popat's race was necessary to allow the Secret Service to distinguish her from someone else who might have the same name.

Gosh, I've lost count of how many Momta Popats I know.

St Ralph the Nader

Really, can we put the St. Ralph garbage to bed, already?

"Nader office shuts down as workers seek pay Petition circulators demanded payment for signatures collected. A campaign employee said the scene smacked of dirty politics. Ralph Nader's presidential campaign this week abruptly abandoned the Center City office that housed its efforts to get on the Pennsylvania ballot, leaving behind a mess of accusations and a damaged building.

Saletan explains how Rove helped Kerry

Also in Slate, William Saletan explains that Rove and Bush gave Kerry all the issues he needs to win.

"The theory behind Bush's hard-line style of governance came from his chief political adviser, Karl Rove. Rove believed that Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 because millions of conservatives stayed home. He believed that Bush's father lost the 1992 election by alienating the right and creating a Republican primary challenge by Pat Buchanan. So, on issue after issue, the current President Bush has played to his base. On Rove's theory, every step to the right earns Bush another conservative vote. That calculation is correct. But it's only half the story. For every conservative voter who's inspired to turn out for Bush because of his unyielding conservatism, there's a liberal voter who's inspired to turn out for Kerry. That's why Kerry has had no trouble uniting his party after the primaries. It's why the FleetCenter exploded tonight at every one of Kerry's applause lines. And it's why Kerry can now move aggressively to the middle without fear of losing the left. In his determination to unite the right, Bush hasn't just united the left. He has lost the center. Look at last week's New York Times/CBS News poll of registered voters. 'Do you think the result of the war with Iraq was worth the loss of American life and other costs of attacking Iraq or not?' Fifty-nine percent say it was not. 'Which do you think is a better way to improve the national economy - cutting taxes or reducing the federal budget deficit?' Fifty-eight percent say reducing the deficit. 'When it comes to regulating the environmental and safety practices of business, do you think the federal government is doing enough, should it do more, or should it do less?' Fifty-nine percent say more. One more Bush voter on the right, balanced by one more Kerry voter on the left, plus the tilting of one more voter in the middle toward Kerry, is a net loss for the president. That's the lesson of this administration, this election, and this convention. Kerry doesn't have to write any good lines. He just has to read them."

That pretty much sums up the current landscape.

Clark-Kerry

Chris Suellentrop, who covered the NH campaign last winter, describes Kerry as a composite candidate.

"He also adapted Dean's line about a president's most solemn duty being to tell the truth before taking a nation to war, when he promised to 'be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war.' There was also a dash of Wesley Clark's 'new patriotism,' Clark's affirmation of dissent as patriotism's highest form, when Kerry said, 'We are here to affirm that when Americans stand up and speak their minds and say America can do better, that is not a challenge to patriotism; it is the heart and soul of patriotism.' Clark also had a riff about family values that Kerry adapted tonight, saying, 'It is time for those who talk about family values to start valuing families.' "

Sounds like a candidate who has understandably appropriated the best themes and issues from all the primary candidates. Absolutely nothing is wrong with that.

Kerry's Speech

Granted, I only watched it on TV, but I really thought it was expertly delivered, and that he struck just the right themes throughout. It was optimistic. "America can do better, and help is on the way." Throwing a GOP line from 2000 back in Bush-Cheney's face. It was unyielding on the war on terror, and it explained what's missing in Iraq. He promised to end the "back-door draft" of reservists and guardspeople. He promised to uplift the middle class while ending corporate welfare and huge tax cuts for the rich. He talked about unity. We're not red and blue states. We're all red, white & blue. Since this is the "Clark Democrat", I have to add that I think that Kerry did a fantastic job appropriating and adopting Clark's "New American Patriotism". The Democratic Party, and the Kerry/Edwards campaign are definitely stronger competitors in the arena of ideas, thanks to Wes Clark.

Wes Clark's speech at the Convention last night

When he first started campaigning back in September 2003, let's face it, he was pretty green. Boy, what a difference a few months can make. He was absolutely brilliant last night. A fantastic speech by a great American and a proud Democrat.

A text of Ret. General Wesley Clark's speech as prepared for delivery Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention: Thank you, my fellow Democrats. I am an American soldier. Our country was attacked. We are at war. Our nation is at risk, engaged in a life-or-death struggle against terrorists who are seeking nuclear and biological weapons. And as I speak tonight, our Armed Forces are in combat. Our freedoms were won in war, and protected by generation after generation of selfless service and sacrifice. From Bunker Hill to Bastogne, from the frozen hills of Korea to the jungles of Vietnam, from Kabul to Baghdad, American men and women in uniform have served with honor; they've given us so much, and they've asked for so little. Tonight we honor them: our soldiers, our veterans, our families. I want to thank my wife, Gert, my son, Wesley, his wife and son and all the military families who stand behind those who serve. Now I ask you to observe with me a moment of silence to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, so that we could have the freedom we exercise tonight. War. I've been there. Heard the thump of enemy mortars. Seen the tracers fly. Bled on the battlefield. Recovered in hospitals. Received and obeyed orders. Sent men and women into battle. Awarded medals, comforted families, attended funerals. And this soldier has news for you: Anyone who tells you that one political party has a monopoly on the defense of our nation is committing a fraud on the American people. Franklin Roosevelt said it best: "Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth." This hall and this party are filled with veterans who have served under this flag -- our flag. We rose and stood reveille to this flag. We fought for this flag. And we've seen brave men and women buried under this flag. This flag is ours! And nobody will take it away from us. The safety of our country demands urgent and innovative measures to strengthen our armed forces. The safety of our country demands credible intelligence. The safety of our country demands cooperation with our allies. The safety of our country demands making more friends and fewer enemies. The safety of our country demands an end to the doctrinaire, ineffective policies that currently grip Washington. Enough is enough! A safe America -- a just America -- that's what we want, and that's what we need. And with John Kerry and John Edwards, that's what we will achieve. John Kerry has lived the values of service and sacrifice. In the Navy, as a prosecutor, as a Senator. He proved his physical courage under fire. He's proved his moral courage too. John Kerry fought a war and came home to fight for peace -- his combination of physical courage and moral values is my definition of what we need in a Commander in Chief. And John Edwards, with his leadership and competence, will be a great member of this command team. John Kerry is a man who -- in times of war -- can lead as a warrior, and who -- in times of peace -- can heed the call of scripture to beat swords in to plowshares. John Kerry will lead America with strength and wisdom. He has the will to fight, and the moral courage born in battle to pursue and secure a strong peace. Under John Kerry we will attack and destroy the terrorist threats to America. He'll join the pantheon of great wartime Democrats. Great Democrats like Woodrow Wilson, who led us to victory in World War 1. Great Democrats like Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who turned back the tide of fascism to win World War II. Great Democrats like John Kennedy, who stood firm and steered us safely through the Cuban Missile Crisis. And great Democrats like Bill Clinton, who confronted ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, and with diplomacy -- backed by force -- brought peace to a shattered land. My fellow Americans, Democrats are leaders. Democrats are fighters. John Kerry is a leader and fighter and he will be a great Commander in Chief. John Kerry knows the power of America is our values and ideals. John Kerry knows that our soldiers embody the best of America's values: Service. Sacrifice. Courage. Compassion. They're serving to build something greater than themselves. They're serving to build something worth fighting for. They're serving to build something worth dying for. They are a company of heroes. Everyone who fights for the best in American life is also a hero. Firefighters. Police officers. Teachers, and so many others. John Kerry's time to lead this company of heroes has arrived. Right here. Right now. In this town. Tonight, from this place, we set out together to put our country back on track to security, freedom and opportunity. America: hear this soldier. Choose a leader whose physical courage, moral values and sound judgment will -- with the grace of God and our determined commitment -- strengthen our country, protect our liberty, renew our spirit and secure a future for our children that is worthy of our heritage. Make John Kerry the next president of the United States. Thank you, and God bless America.

Sharpton hits a home run

Sharpton went a good 10 minutes or so over his originally-scheduled speech last night. CNN has the transcript of the speech as given. As usual, Rev. Al gave a rousing performance, and his best lines were ad-libbed, referencing Bush's speech to the Urban League last week:

Mr. President, as I close, Mr. President, I heard you say Friday that you had questions for voters, particularly African- American voters. And you asked the question: Did the Democratic Party take us for granted? Well, I have raised questions. But let me answer your question. You said the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule. That's where the argument, to this day, of reparations starts. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres. We didn't get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us. Mr. President, you said would we have more leverage if both parties got our votes, but we didn't come this far playing political games. It was those that earned our vote that got our vote. We got the Civil Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the Voting Rights Act under a Democrat. We got the right to organize under Democrats. Mr. President, the reason we are fighting so hard, the reason we took Florida so seriously, is our right to vote wasn't gained because of our age. Our vote was soaked in the blood of martyrs, soaked in the blood of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner, soaked in the blood of four little girls in Birmingham. This vote is sacred to us. This vote can't be bargained away. This vote can't be given away. Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale."

Bush's Cuba policy is remarkably stupid - to Florida Cubans

Let's drag ourselves back to 1999. Elian Gonzalez. Thought you'd forgotten all about him, right? Thought you'd never have to think the words "Marisleysis" again? It was right around the time that little Elian was being used as a political pawn by everyone and anyone that the Florida Cuban community pretty much hooked up with the Bush camp. Lot of good it's done them. After 3 years of a Bush administration, Cuba's still Communist, and it's still run by Castro. I think that we've pretty much proven that our anti-Cuba policies have been an utter and complete failure since, oh, 1961. So, the Bush administration got together with some of former Senator Jesse Helms' people to craft a new, stricter Cuba crackdown. Until recently, Cuban-Americans could send money home to Cuba, and even travel there once a year to visit family. (Interesting that you and I can't go to Cuba, but they can). Bush, with the help of Helms' ex-cronies, have changed the rule to permit visits once every three years, with no exceptions for weddings or funerals. They have also limited the money and parcels that can be sent to families in Cuba. The most rabidly anti-Castro folks in Florida, including at least one Congressman, think that even tougher measures would be appropriate. Of course, as we learned in the former Soviet bloc, Levi's and Led Zeppelin can certainly hasten the fall of a totalitarian dictatorship. It seems as if the Bushies' new get-tough policy is backfiring with the people whose support it was meant to curry - Cuban-Americans.

Another day in the asylum

For most paleolithic City-of-Buffalo-haters, (paging Sandy Beach & 90% of his listeners), it's been a repeated mantra that the City is mismanaged. In the 80s, when the County was in fiscal crisis, the City gave the County its share of the sales tax. Now that the City's in a fiscal crisis, the County is loath to return the penny to the City because the City "needs to get its own house in order" first. Hypocrites. Now we find out that Erie County is in another fiscal crisis. Yay. Two simultaneous fiscal crises in Erie County. When a brilliant guy like Kevin Gaughan runs for mayor, he loses because he's not originally from Buffalo. When the control board imposes some fiscal sanity on Buffalo, many of them are vilified because they're not from Buffalo. Well, City and County leaders who have been running the show for the last 30 years, and running the City and County deep into the cold ground have been from Buffalo. They have done such an incompetent job running things around here, that it's about time some intrepid outsiders started getting things in shape around here. So, King Joel submitted a budget that made a lot of assumptions. He assumed that the State Legislature would approve a homerule request for an early retirement package. Who in their right mind would rely on the State Legislature to do anything for anyone on time? They haven't been able to pass a budget on time in 20 years, and this is a corrupt and inept political system that's basically run by three guys, two of whom are Republicans. King Joel also assumed that there would be some sort of Medicaid relief by now. Yeah, fat chance. I'm sure Albany is just champing at the bit to take over the bloated, inefficient, overpriced Medicaid system that they've expanded exponentionally over the years, while laying a huge unfunded mandate burden on County governments. Yeah, that's right around the corner. /sarcasm.

[Democratic County Legislator Al] DeBenedetti said the Legislature's majority sees dozens of vacant positions that can be deleted to save money and lead to a better budget, but he suspects Giambra wants to keep the positions so he can refill them someday without the Legislature's approval. 'How do they know?' Giambra said when reminded the Democrats feel they've identified vacant jobs that can be eliminated. 'They are not the managers of county government. They weren't elected to manage county government. I was, all right? And my departments know which positions aren't necessary and which ones are. There should be some deference to the people who run the day-to-day operations of county government.'

Mr. Giambra, what you and the other cretins running the show around here don't know could fill Ralph Wilson Stadium.

Hannity & Dean

DEAN: I think what we're seeing is there was a lot of anger at George Bush. We didn't feel that he won fairly in Florida. We did feel that he sent us to war without telling us the truth about why we're going. There's a lot of stuff -- we've lost a lot of jobs. But I think what this convention really is, I hope, is a turning point. We can't win if we only have a negative message. Everybody understands that. So if we're going to win, we're going to have to have a strong, positive message coming out of the convention, and that's what we're trying to do. HANNITY: Well, you say that about -- we weren't telling the truth about going into Iraq, but John Edwards and John Kerry both laid out the case about weapons of mass destruction the way the president did. Why does he get a pass from people like you? DEAN: Well, there are other things that the president told us that were not so. There was no connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Even the 9/11 commission just said so. There was no... (CROSSTALK) DEAN: No, that's not what they said. As a matter of fact, that's what they didn't say. And if you think they should, you should watch "Outfoxed." It's a great movie that says why people like you say things like that on this television station. HANNITY: Well, the fact is they did say that there was correspondence. There was activity between the two. And, my only point to you is, John Kerry can say that there is a nuclear threat from Saddam Hussein, that his WMDs represent a real threat, but it seems the left gives him a pass. And George Bush is the only one who said these things now. DEAN: George Bush wasn't truthful. I'm not saying George Bush is a liar, because I don't know that for a fact. I do know that George Bush didn't tell the truth. I don't know if he didn't tell the truth because he didn't know the truth, because his intelligence messed it up or the vice president's office told him something that wasn't so. But we know that the things that George Bush told us when we went into Iraq weren't true. And most Americans know that they weren't true. HANNITY: Well, we know John Kerry, leading into this, Governor, he said that Saddam's WMDs are a real and dangerous threat to this country. He said it only a year ago. DEAN: That doesn't answer the question. The president of the United States tried to imply that Saddam had something to do with 9/11 and that was not true. He also tried to imply that al Qaeda -- and the vice president still does this to this day -- that al Qaeda was somehow connected with Saddam. And that was not true, and the president's commission said so. HANNITY: All right. Governor, we're going to take a break and go take a look at former President Jimmy Carter who is now on the podium directly to my left. DEAN: Thank you very much.

O-ba-ma

A most wonderful speech from a rising star in the Democratic Party, future Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. Barack Obama's Remarks to the Democratic National Convention Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dick Durbin. You make us all proud. On behalf of the great state of Illinois, crossroads of a nation, Land of Lincoln, let me express my deepest gratitude for the privilege of addressing this convention. Tonight is a particular honor for me because — let’s face it — my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father — my grandfather — was a cook, a domestic servant to the British. But my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America, that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before. While studying here, my father met my mother. She was born in a town on the other side of the world, in Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs and farms through most of the Depression. The day after Pearl Harbor my grandfather signed up for duty; joined Patton’s army, marched across Europe. Back home, my grandmother raised their baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through F.H.A., and later moved west all the way to Hawaii in search of opportunity. And they, too, had big dreams for their daughter. A common dream, born of two continents. My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or ”blessed,” believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren’t rich, because in a generous America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential. They are both passed away now. And yet, I know that, on this night, they look down on me with great pride. I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents’ dreams live on in my two precious daughters. I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible. Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation — not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ That is the true genius of America — a faith in simple dreams,, an insistence on small miracles. That we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm. That we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. That we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe. That we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted at least, most of the time. This year, in this election, we are called to reaffirm our values and our commitments, to hold them against a hard reality and see how we are measuring up, to the legacy of our forbearers, and the promise of future generations. And fellow Americans, Democrats, Republicans, Independents — I say to you tonight: we have more work to do. More work to do for the workers I met in Galesburg, Ill., who are losing their union jobs at the Maytag plant that’s moving to Mexico, and now are having to compete with their own children for jobs that pay seven bucks an hour. More to do for the father that I met who was losing his job and choking back the tears, wondering how he would pay $4,500 a month for the drugs his son needs without the health benefits that he counted on. More to do for the young woman in East St. Louis, and thousands more like her, who has the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn’t have the money to go to college. Now don’t get me wrong. The people I meet — in small towns and big cities, in diners and office parks — they don’t expect government to solve all their problems. They know they have to work hard to get ahead — and they want to. Go into the collar counties around Chicago, and people will tell you they don’t want their tax money wasted, by a welfare agency or by the Pentagon. Go into any inner city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can’t teach our kids to learn — they know that parents have to teach, that children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white. They know those things. People don’t expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. They know we can do better. And they want that choice. In this election, we offer that choice. Our Party has chosen a man to lead us who embodies the best this country has to offer. And that man is John Kerry. John Kerry understands the ideals of community, faith, and service because they’ve defined his life. From his heroic service to Vietnam, to his years as a prosecutor and lieutenant governor, through two decades in the United States Senate, he has devoted himself to this country. Again and again, we’ve seen him make tough choices when easier ones were available. His values — and his record — affirm what is best in us. John Kerry believes in an America where hard work is rewarded; so instead of offering tax breaks to companies shipping jobs overseas, he offers them to companies creating jobs here at home. John Kerry believes in an America where all Americans can afford the same health coverage our politicians in Washington have for themselves. John Kerry believes in energy independence, so we aren’t held hostage to the profits of oil companies, or the sabotage of foreign oil fields. John Kerry believes in the Constitutional freedoms that have made our country the envy of the world, and he will never sacrifice our basic liberties, nor use faith as a wedge to divide us. And John Kerry believes that in a dangerous world war must be an option sometimes, but it should never be the first option. You know, a while back, I met a young man named Seamus in a V.F.W. Hall in East Moline, Ill.. He was a good-looking kid, six two, six three, clear eyed, with an easy smile. He told me he’d joined the Marines, and was heading to Iraq the following week. And as I listened to him explain why he’d enlisted, the absolute faith he had in our country and its leaders, his devotion to duty and service, I thought this young man was all that any of us might hope for in a child. But then I asked myself: Are we serving Seamus as well as he is serving us? I thought of the 900 men and women — sons and daughters, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors, who won’t be returning to their own hometowns. I thought of the families I’ve met who were struggling to get by without a loved one’s full income, or whose loved ones had returned with a limb missing or nerves shattered, but who still lacked long-term health benefits because they were Reservists. When we send our young men and women into harm’s way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they’re going, to care for their families while they’re gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world. Now let me be clear. Let me be clear. We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued — and they must be defeated. John Kerry knows this. And just as Lieutenant Kerry did not hesitate to risk his life to protect the men who served with him in Vietnam, President Kerry will not hesitate one moment to use our military might to keep America safe and secure. John Kerry believes in America. And he knows that it’s not enough for just some of us to prosper. For alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga. A belief that we’re all connected as one people. If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for their prescription drugs, and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandparent. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It is that fundamental belief, it is that fundamental belief, I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family. E pluribus unum. Out of many, one. Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America. The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope? John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope. I’m not talking about blind optimism here - the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs. The hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores. The hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta. The hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds. The hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead. I believe that we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity. I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair. I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us. America! Tonight, if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the same urgency that I do, if you feel the same passion I do, if you feel the same hopefulness that I do — if we do what we must do, then I have no doubts that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November, and John Kerry will be sworn in as president, and John Edwards will be sworn in as vice president, and this country will reclaim its promise, and out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come. Thank you very much everybody. God bless you. Thank you.

Well, at least we're 1st in something

Continuing on a theme from last week, the Business Council - a New York lobbying group - announced today that New York remains the most heavily taxed state in the nation. We're #1.

Reasons to Dispatch Bush

Check it out. 81 reasons have been posted as of today. Each one a doozy.

Tax cut, schmax cut.

How's this for a tax cut story?

"Jerry Bailey is precisely the kind of taxpayer President Bush had hoped to bestow his tax cuts on: an entrepreneur brew-pub owner, a job provider, not overly rich by Washington area standards but well off enough to pay a hefty sum to the federal government each year. But after three tax cuts in three years, the part-owner of Loudoun County's Old Dominion Brewing Co. is not exactly celebrating his gains. Sure, his federal tax bill was trimmed, by a healthy $5,600, according to a rough calculation by Clint Stretch, director of tax policy at the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP. But other factors having nothing to do with federal taxes have clouded Bailey's situation. This year, the property tax bill on his Bethesda home will reach $6,725, a $950 increase over his payment four years ago. The annual cost of his 56-mile-a-day commute has jumped more than $300 since 2001, and the long, slow decline of business profits these past four years has left Bailey far behind, no matter what his federal tax payment may be. 'I'm not paying any taxes at all because we're not making any money,' Bailey said with a sigh. 'I loved paying taxes. It meant we were doing all right.' "

Shorter Krauthammer

I never met a war I didn't like, and I never met a Muslim I didn't want dead.

The News gets it right.

It seems that even our sometimes sleepy broadsheet gets it right today.:

Here's an idea: Instead of 'Excelsior,' which means 'ever upward' and therefore constitutes deceptive advertising, New York should change its motto to reflect the true spirit of its government. Henceforth, the state motto should be 'Don't just do something, stand there!' Got a budget deadline? Don't worry! It'll keep. Cities and counties struggling with the cost of pensions? Delay! Instead of fixing the problem, let them postpone the payments they need to make. Costs of Medicaid sinking the state? No problem! Just ignore it and it will go away. Courts demanding a change in how the state funds education? Who cares? What do they know, anyway? But just so the governor can pretend he's doing something, he calls a special, one-day session of the Legislature less than 10 days before the deadline. As everyone expected, the Legislature said no dice to the governor's plan. Surely this must be the worst run state in the Union. California may be in worse financial shape, but it just had an honest vote on borrowing its way out of trouble. New York borrows on the sly. Louisiana may have more crooks, but New York legalizes anti-democratic behavior. State government of New York is a creature of extremes. Either it does nothing, as in passing a budget or fixing education, or it does something, usually big, without bothering to debate it, as in a dramatic expansion of Medicaid in 1999. Typical of the state's commitment to the status quo is its reported response to the problem of soaring pension costs in the state's lower governments. Partly because of state policies, pension costs in New York are exorbitant, and cities and counties this year are facing a crisis. Albany's solution: Instead of forcing those governments to come up with $980 million in December, let them come up with it in February. In Albany, it is always better to look away from a problem. That's what state leaders have done for months as a court-imposed deadline looms over the unconstitutional funding of schools in New York City. The need, obvious to everyone, is to craft a statewide response to the city-focused court decision, but everyone, including Gov. George Pataki and the two legislative leaders, for months did virtually nothing but complain about the other side. In the last few weeks, the Assembly and Senate tossed out plans like dead fish, but have done little to advance the discussion. Pataki called a special session of the Legislature to discuss the subject this week, but without any new effort to craft a serious proposal. It's like a show trial, with New York's public school students standing in the dock. That's the way government is in New York, the dyslexic state that thought Benjamin Franklin's advice was never to do today what you can put off until tomorrow.

Remain Calm.

This Mark Fiore Flash Cartoon sums up the administration's fearmongering pretty accurately. You know, it's nothing more than an old Leninist trick. You perpetuate your own power by perpetuating the revolution. There's a reason why Castro keeps telling Cubans that a US invasion is imminent, and that the forces of counterrevolution lurk around every corner. If he told people that those types of threats didn't exist, the citizens would take a harder look at their miserable, Stalinist existence and start asking some pretty "counterrevolutionary" questions. (That's why the travel ban & Bush's crackdown thereupon, and the ongoing embargo are so bleeding counterproductive to any sort of democratic change in Cuba). We didn't stop trading with: Russia Poland Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia East Germany Romania Bulgaria China (post-1972) Just because they were Stalinist dictatorships. Why should Cuba be any different? We didn't embargo those countries into pluralistic, free-market democracies. It was our way of life that helped that transformation come about. And our way of life was symbolized by little things like blue jeans, Led Zeppelin, and Coca-Cola. The longer we deny Levi's, CDs and Cokes from the Cuban people, the longer they'll be trapped in a stifling Stalinist tropical gulag. Which brings us back to Bush & Co. 9/11 happened, and it's the worst attack on our soil since who-knows-when. Setting aside for a moment the fact that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, that the Iraq war can properly be described as a fiasco, and that the war in Afghanistan has been largely ignored and remains incomplete, it seems that the announcement of a generalized terrorist threat (oftentimes with no movement on the good old alert scale) comes on the heels of some unimpressive Bush-Cheney poll numbers. Kerry's up 5 points, and he's picked his running mate? Send Ridge out to warn us about an incomplete threat of terror to coincide with the election. As Fiore says, we may have to disrupt the democratic process because the terrorists want to disrupt the democratic process.

File under "But we already knew that"

It's official. It's confirmed. According to a study conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU's Law School, the New York State legislature is the most dysfunctional legislature in the entire United States. We're 50th out of 50. New York is to good government what Mississippi is to schools. In 2002, only 4.1% of bills proposed were enacted. Compare that to Michigan's best-in-US 69%, or even California's with 41% passed. Why, you ask? You know why. Because the rules in Albany are draconian and fundamentally unfair.

The study said that legislative committees in New York do little real work, have few hearings on bills and release few reports to help members make voting decisions. It also noted New York has more restrictions on putting a measure to a full house vote than in any other state. Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno is the only legislative leader in the country who can unilaterally suspend action on bills listed in the Senate calendar. Both Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, are among just a handful of legislative leaders nationwide who can determine the order of bills to be considered.

Over 80% of bills passed in Albany do so with no debate or discussion. In a nutshell, the State is run by Bruno, Silver and Pataki. How do we know this for sure? Because Silver and Bruno both defend the current system, which gives them almost dictatorial power. Bruno (who's supposed to be a Republican - small government, etc.) calls the study "pure nonsense." Silver criticizes the study, saying that he "gets opinions on issues" from other Assemblypeople. Yay. Opinions don't mean diddly. Getting bills to the floor for debate and a vote would actually mean something. Some suggestions in the report, via the Times-Union of Albany:

Make it easier for members to request a public hearing on a bill. Require all bills reported to the floor to have a detailed public committee report reflecting the debate held on each. Limit committee assignments to no more than three per lawmaker per legislative session. Restrict the number of bills passed under a "message of necessity" from the governor, which gives lawmakers little time to read what they are voting on. The report also calls for the end of proxy voting. Legislators can swipe their ID cards, reporting themselves as "in," and leave the chamber -- sometimes even going home -- but still have their votes recorded. Those votes are automatically counted in the affirmative. Citizens are cheated by the existing system, Creelan said. Many bills of public interest never receive public hearings. The report found that from 1997 to 2001, the Senate held only one public hearing on a bill out of the 152 pieces of major legislation that passed the Senate.

Here's a link to the actual report, so you can read it for yourself; (you'll need Adobe Acrobat). Please be sure to contact your state Assemblyperson and Senator about the fact that you're absolutely fed up with the Banana Republic-style of governing that pervades Albany. It's time for a fundamental change in the way business is conducted in this state. It's time for Albany to stop handing perks out willy-nilly to coveted, parochial constituencies. It's time for Albany to stop viewing the hardworking, uphill-climbing taxpayers of this State - and especially those of us in disproportionately beleaguered upstate - as a big, unlimited piggy bank. Can you believe there's no fundamental, grassroots movement to reform the state? Maybe its time has come. Let me know what you think.

Hilarious

Click here to see a hilarious Flash animation, courtesy of jibjab.com.

Fix Albany

Republican or Democrat - this website is worth checking out "What is Fix Albany?

Fix Albany is a Political Committee created to reform New York State government, and keep Albany legislators accountable for their actions. New York state's elected officials in Albany are engaged in unfair legislative practices that directly and adversely affect local taxpayers. Our local taxes (primarily property taxes) are 72% above the national average because our representatives in Albany have forced the costs of huge expenditures, like Medicaid, onto county governments. In most other states, these programs are far less expensive because they are handled more efficiently at the state level, with state money. Our state representatives in Albany give themselves pats on the backs for passing politically popular programs, and then they shift the cost off the State's books and onto the local governments. Along with other unfunded mandates, Medicaid is the best example of this unfair and irresponsible governing. New York's Medicaid program is the most expensive one in the United States - two and a half times the national average. The fact is many of our legislators in Albany have been more focused on preserving power and the status quo than on solving problems, like capping the costs local counties must pay for Medicaid. In the past 22 years, there have been close to 2,300 reelection campaigns for the State Legislature. In that time, only 30 incumbent legislators have been defeated less than 1.5%. Moreover, this incumbent body has failed to pass an on-time budget for a record 20 years. We need drastic reform in Albany. The Fix Albany Political Committee will create awareness of the problems our Albany incumbents have created for local taxpayers and work constructively to change their practices by holding them accountable to the voters of New York.

Upstate is in a crisis, and nothing but strong reform out of Albany will fix it. Upstate is not Metropolitan New York, and it shouldn't be subjected to rules and regulations designed for that area. Upstate is unique politically and economically. Just think about this: Massachusetts, commonly referred to as "Taxachusetts", has a 5% sales tax, tax-free sales of clothes up to a certain amount, and a flat 5.25% state income tax. Doesn't that sound just dreamy compared to the New-York-State-cup-in-its-hand way of running things? How about this for another idea? In the mid-1990s, then-Governor Bill Weld ordered the Mass Pike to let cars go through the tolls without paying whenever the backups at tolls became excessive. New York would never dream of giving up a few pennies like that. At the same time, Governor Weld abolished certain tolls on the Pike extension from Newton (where you gave up your ticket) into Boston. Black Rock and South Buffalo, are you listening? Finally, for the rural western part of Massachusetts, tolls were abolished altogether. Once the toll reaches about $3.15 in Springfield, everything west of that is toll-free. Whether you exit in Springfield or Lee, you pay $3.15 max, coming from Boston. Just a little fairness. A little relief. A little pick-me-up for those of us brave and/or foolish enough to stick it out around here.

Mission Accomplished

The "Coalition of the Willing" is rapidly becoming the coalition of we're getting the hell out of here. Spain, Phillipines, Norway, Thailand, New Zealand, Netherlands, Poland will all be gone by the middle of next year. Here's what the White House says:

We think withdrawal sends the wrong signal and that it is important for people to stand up to terrorists and not allow them to change our behavior.

Easy for them to say.

A wonderful letter

Kerry's campaign manager sent this letter to the Bush campaign. I think it's brilliant, and gets right to the point. What does it tell you about the President that has hasn't managed to run one positive advertisement, touting anything he's done in 4 years. All he can do is attack Kerry.

July 13, 2004 Ken Mehlman Campaign Manager BUSH-CHENEY '04, Inc. Dear Ken: Over the past several months, allies of the President have questioned John Kerry's patriotism while your staff has criticized his service in Vietnam. Republicans and their allies have gone so far as to launch attacks against his wife and your campaign has run $80 million in negative ads that have been called baseless, misleading and unfair by several independent observers. Considering that the President has failed to even come close to keeping his promise to change the tone in Washington, we find your outrage over and paparazzi-like obsession with a fund-raising event to be misplaced. The fact is that the nation has a greater interest in seeing several documents made public relating to the President's performance in office and personal veracity that the White House has steadfastly refused to release. As such, we will not consider your request until the Bush campaign and White House make public the documents/materials listed below: Military records: Any copies of the President's military records that would actually prove he fulfilled the terms of his military service. For that matter, it would be comforting to the American people if the campaign or the White House could produce more than just a single person to verify that the President was in Alabama when said he was there. Many Americans find it odd that only one person out of an entire squadron can recall seeing Mr. Bush.

More after the jump.

Are Kerry and Edwards the most, and 4th most liberal Senators?

We report. You decide. Look - I'm not necessarily a liberal. I'm a centrist. I make no secret of the fact that I was a McCain supporter/volunteer in 2000, and that I was a registered Republican until about October 2003. So, when I hear charges from the Bush camp accusing Kerry of being the top liberal, and John Edwards being the fourth most liberal member of the Senate, I know how that charge will resonate with the more middle-of-the-road folks. They're not going to be thrilled by that. This leads us to this letter, written to former Bush supporter, but still a conservative Andrew Sullivan:

"I'm growing a bit frustrated with the media, including you, running with this Kerry and Edwards being the first and fourth most liberal Senators. Everyone is citing the National Journal's ratings but they are doing it sloppily. I have seen no recent article that cites anything but the 2003 ratings where Kerry missed 37 and Edwards missed 22 of 62 votes and both were setting themselves up for primary battles where their base was essential. Think what you may about missing votes and pandering a bit (seems suicide to not do both when going for the nomination), but my larger point is the media should be looking at this much more historically and in years when Edwards and Kerry actually showed up to do their jobs. I'll do it for them. Following are rankings and liberal scores since 1999. 2003: Kerry - 1st (96.5) Edwards - 4th (94.5) 2002: Kerry - 9th (87.3) Edwards - 31st (63.0) Edwards made the centrist list. 2001: Kerry - 11th (87.7) Edwards - 35th (68.2) Edwards almost tied with Lieberman. 2000: Kerry - 20th (77) Edwards - 19th (80.8) Rankings past 20 are not available nor are composite scores for all Senators, so Kerry is 21st or higher. 1999: Kerry - 16th (80.8) Edwards - 31st (72.2) Average: Kerry - 12th (85.9) Edwards - 24th (75.7) Now this paints a different picture. Certainly Kerry is a stalwart liberal (although probably not or barely a top 10 liberal), but he does hail from and represent one of the most liberal states. But Edwards is definitely a moderate Democrat (if you define that as somewhere in the ideological middle of the Democratic platform).

Shocking (?) arrogance

The government has apparently stepped up its efforts to catch Osama bin Laden and other high-level Taliban and al Qaeda figures. Intense pressure has been brought to bear on Pakistan's extensive secret police to produce some top names as soon as possible. Laudable, right? Think again. According to this report in the New Republic,

"This public pressure would be appropriate, even laudable, had it not been accompanied by an unseemly private insistence that the Pakistanis deliver these high-value targets (HVTs) before Americans go to the polls in November. The Bush administration denies it has geared the war on terrorism to the electoral calendar. 'Our attitude and actions have been the same since September 11 in terms of getting high-value targets off the street, and that doesn't change because of an election,' says National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack. But The New Republic has learned that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce HVTs by the election. According to one source in Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), 'The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the [upcoming] U.S. elections.' Introducing target dates for Al Qaeda captures is a new twist in U.S.-Pakistani counterterrorism relations--according to a recently departed intelligence official, 'no timetable[s]' were discussed in 2002 or 2003--but the November election is apparently bringing a new deadline pressure to the hunt. Another official, this one from the Pakistani Interior Ministry, which is responsible for internal security, explains, 'The Musharraf government has a history of rescuing the Bush administration. They now want Musharraf to bail them out when they are facing hard times in the coming elections.' (These sources insisted on remaining anonymous. Under Pakistan's Official Secrets Act, an official leaking information to the press can be imprisoned for up to ten years.) "

See the rest of this sad article about a pathetic administration.