Friday, October 22, 2004
Maytag: The Business of America is Business
People in this big-shouldered town, birthplace of the poet Carl Sandburg, say Maytag broke their hearts. After a decade of tax breaks and union concessions to keep the company in a place that has been making refrigerators for more than 50 years, Maytag closed its factory last month, terminating 1,600 jobs.
Maytag may be done with Galesburg, but Galesburg is not done with Maytag.
District Attorney Paul L. Mangieri wants to sue Maytag to recoup what he says were excess tax breaks in a broad package of incentives to keep the company here. Much of the money, he said, came from a purse that would have gone to schools in this economically fragile community.
"We gave Maytag these incentives, and they accepted them," said Mr. Mangieri, a Navy veteran who grew up in a small town not far from here in western Illinois. "We did it based on faith and trust. If we don't do anything now, it sends a message that we lack the resolve to treat the rich and privileged the same as everybody else."
Maytag says it honored its agreement and took just the breaks to which it was entitled. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/20/national/20taxes.html?ei=5090&en=4ddc103dfe407c02&ex=1256011200&partner=rssuserland&pagewanted=print&position=
Women in Combat Not surprising, as there is a shortage of troops and the legislation re the draft calls for both women and men, ages 18-34.
The Army is negotiating with civilian leaders about eliminating a women-in-combat ban so it can place mixed-sex support companies within warfighting units, starting with a division going to Iraq in January. Despite the legal prohibition, Army plans already have included such collocation of women-men units in blueprints for a lighter force of 10 active divisions, according to Defense Department sources. http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20041022-120846-1796r
Missile Defense: It Doesn’t Work
With the technology we judge could become available within the next 15 years, defending against a single ICBM would require a thousand or more interceptors for a system having the lowest possible mass and providing realistic decision time. Deploying such a system would require at least a five- to tenfold increase over current U.S. space-launch rates.
Hey, we knew that. This report, from the American Physical Society is just confirmation. More:
4. The Airborne Laser now under development could have some capability against liquid-propellant missiles, but it would be ineffective against solid-propellant ICBMs, which are more heat-resistant.
5.The existing U.S. Navy Aegis system, using an interceptor rocket similar to the Standard Missile 2, should be capable of defending against short- or medium-range missiles launched from ships, barges, or other platforms off U.S. coasts. However, interceptor rockets would have to be positioned within a few tens of kilometers of the launch location of the attacking missile.
6.A key problem inherent in boost-phase defense is munitions shortfall: although a successful intercept would prevent munitions from reaching their target, it could cause live nuclear, chemical, or biological munitions to fall on populated areas short of the target, in the United States or other countries. Timing intercepts accurately enough to avoid this problem would be difficult.
http://www.inesap.org/bulletin22/bul22art32.htm
Planting WMDs …with a grain of salt, for now. Via the Pakistan Daily Times:
According to a stunning report posted by a retired Navy Lt Commander and 28-year veteran of the Defense Department (DoD), the Bush administration’s assurance about finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was based on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plan to “plant” WMDs inside the country. Nelda Rogers, the Pentagon whistleblower, claims the plan failed when the secret mission was mistakenly taken out by “friendly fire”, the Environmentalists Against War report.Nelda Rogers is a 28-year veteran debriefer for the DoD. She has become so concerned for her safety that she decided to tell the story about this latest CIA-military fiasco in Iraq. According to Al Martin Raw.com, “Ms Rogers is number two in the chain of command within this DoD special intelligence office. This is a ten-person debriefing unit within the central debriefing office for the Department of Defense.” http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_12-8-2003_pg1_9
Crummy Economy
The Index of Leading Economic Indicators, a widely watched barometer of future economic activity, edged lower in September for the fourth month in a row, indicating a slowing in economic growth, a private research group reported Thursday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6298650/
Bush Administration Supports the Troops. Familiar.
The number of uninsured veterans jumped by 235,000 since 2000, meaning they are losing health insurance at a faster rate than the general population, said Physicians for a National Health Program......the report traced some of the increase to the Bush administration's decision last year to suspend health care services for higher-income veterans in order to reduce waiting times for doctor's appointments.Other veterans reported that they were on waiting lists for appointments, could not afford co-payments or lived in communities with no veterans' facilities, the report said.
Another 3.9 million people without health insurance live in veterans' households and also are ineligible for veterans' health care, the report said.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041019/ap_on_he_me/veterans_health_1
Bush Tax Cuts = Less Money
We knew this- Fed cuts mean that state taxes or fees, tuitions, property tax, etc. get raised. But worth repeating to them swing folk, amongst others.
The basics:
Tuition at the nation's public universities rose an average of 10.5 percent this year, the second-largest increase in more than a decade, according to the annual survey released today by the College Board. Last year's rise, 13 percent, was the highest.
Private universities and community colleges also increased tuition -- by 6 percent and 9 percent respectively, in a year when inflation has been hovering at about 2.5 percent. The tuition increases at private and community colleges were also among the steepest in a decade.
Bill O’Reilly, Mary Cheney, Karl Rove: from Frank Rich.
And guys, if you exploit a girl, it will come back to get you. That's called 'karma.' "- Bill O'Reilly, "The O'Reilly Factor for Kids"
Hmm. That doesn’t fit well with the current lawsuit brought by a former Asst. Producer at FOX. Rich’s article- in this coming Sunday’s NY Times- connects O’Reilly’s travails with the Mary Cheney flap.
To understand what strange game is playing out here, you must go back to the equally close 2000 election. In the campaign postmortems, Karl Rove famously attributed his candidate's shortfall in the popular vote to four million "fundamentalists and evangelicals" in the Republican base who didn't turn up on Election Day. A common theory among Bush operatives had it that these no-shows had been alienated by the pre-election revelation of Mr. Bush's arrest for drunk driving years earlier.
The current Bush-Cheney campaign clearly believes that for these voters, Mary Cheney's sexuality could be a last-minute turnoff equivalent to Mr. Bush's D.U.I. history. When Rich Lowry of National Review said on Fox that "millions and millions of people" were not aware that Mary Cheney was gay until Mr. Kerry brought it up, it was clear just which four million he was talking about. Mr. Kerry, his critics all speculate, was deliberately seeking to depress voter turnout among Mr. Rove's M.I.A. religious conservatives by broadcasting Mary Cheney's sexuality to them for the first time.
To buy this theory you have to believe that by this late date a large group of potential voters obsessed with homosexuality didn't yet know that Ms. Cheney is gay. I find that preposterous, but only Mr. Kerry knows if he thought so and if his intentions were so smarmily Machiavellian. Even if they were, there's no ambiguity about what the Bush campaign is up to. Mr. Rove can out-Machiavelli Mr. Kerry anytime. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/arts/24rich.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
Election Ad:
Kerry has pulled punches, “taken the high road”. Not everyone has. Here’s an independent ad to view that reminds the voter that Bush is a flip, non-empathic frat boy.
Pollsters Greenberg, Quinlan & Rosner tested the ad and found that after viewing it just once, there was an almost unprecedented 8 point gross shift away from Bush in voting intentions among the 750-person test sample. It also badly eroded support for Bush across a wide range of measures including confidence in his Iraq policy and key measures of character including honesty and sharing the concerns of ordinary people. http://www.winbackrespect.org/ads/
Such must be used, including the many effective ones made by Errol Morris... in which he interviewed Republicans who were voting against Bush…but that the Kerry campaign had passed on. Utilizing the above ads would be more effective than joining a goose hunt in Ohio.
Fraud, (cont.) Maybe we should invite election observers from Afghanistan and Iraq- Bob Kuttner provides a fine summary of Democracy in Trouble:
THE REPUBLICANS are out to steal the 2004 election -- before, during, and after Election Day. Before Election Day, they are employing such dirty tricks as improper purges of voter rolls, use of dummy registration groups that tear up Democratic registrations, and the suppression of Democratic efforts to sign up voters, especially blacks and students.
On Election Day, Republicans will attempt to intimidate minority voters by having poll watchers threaten criminal prosecution if something is technically amiss with their ID, and they will again use technical mishaps to partisan advantage.
But the most serious assault on democracy itself is likely to come after Election Day.
Here is a flat prediction: If neither candidate wins decisively, the Bush campaign will contrive enough court challenges in enough states so that we won't know the winner election night. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/10/20/the_art_of_stealing_elections?mode=PF
And, Paul Krugman similarly notes:
If he election were held today and the votes were counted fairly, Senator John Kerry would probably win. But the votes won't be counted fairly, and the disenfranchisement of minority voters may determine the outcome. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/22/opinion/22krugman.html?oref=login&hp
Two more (possible) examples (from Pennsylvania and Florida):
An ostensibly nonpartisan voter registration drive in Western Pennsylvania has triggered accusations that workers were cheated out of wages and given instructions to avoid adding anyone to the voter rolls who might support the Democratic presidential nominee. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04294/398767.stm
Students at UCF and two local community colleges claim they were duped into switching their party affiliations from Democrat to Republican, campus police officials said Tuesday. http://www.wftv.com/news/3831251/detail.html
[Not so]Invisible Edwards: From Thursday’s speech in Iowa:
Not bad
"There’s a problem when our troops are in harm’s way, fighting for a secure Iraq and our national security adviser is out on the stump campaigning instead of working.
“There’s a problem when the Vice President is warning of a nuclear attack and the Homeland Security Secretary who has declared that he is separate from politics spends the bulk of his time traveling battleground states.
“There’s a problem when there is a flu shot shortage and the Secretary of Health and Human Services is too busy advocating for George Bush instead of those who most need these shots.
“There’s a problem when the economy has lost 800,000 jobs and the Treasury Secretary is out on the stump calling these losses a myth instead of focusing on bringing them back.
“There’s a problem when the Chinese are playing fast and loose with our trade agreements and the Commerce Secretary is acting like it’s having no impact on our manufacturing companies here at home.
“But I know how to fix this problem – it’s called Election Day. On November 2, we’re going to cast the votes to put John Kerry into the White House and we’re going to nip this problem in the bud.”
The Liberal Media:
This has been a pattern: When Kerry leads by 1 – 3 points, i.e. within the margin of error, the headline is “Kerry-Bush even” or similar. When Bush has the same margin, it’s “Bush establishes lead” or similar. It’s happened again in 2 Yahoo postings:
The AP:
President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are locked in a tie for the popular vote, according to an Associated Press poll, while a chunk of voters vacillate between their desire for change and their doubts about the alternative. ..The result is deadlock. In the survey of 976 likely voters, Democrats Kerry and Sen. John Edwards had 49 percent, compared to 46 percent for Republicans Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&e=3&u=/ap/20041021/ap_on_el_pr/president_ap_poll
Reuters:
President Bush opened a slight one-point lead on Democratic rival John Kerry in a tight race for the White House, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Thursday. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=2&u=/nm/20041021/pl_nm/campaign_poll_thursday_dc
(lots of) Polls: Throw out Fox, and Ohio looks better
Ohio: Kerry 47, Bush 47 (Rasmussen)
Ohio: Bush 49, Kerry 44 (Fox News)
Ohio: Kerry 49, Bush 47 (Survey USA)
Ohio: Kerry 50, Bush 47 (ABC News)
Florida: Bush 45, Kerry 43 (Quinnipiac)
Wisconsin: Bush 48, Kerry 47 (University of Minnesota)
Wisconsin: Kerry 48, Bush 43 (St. Norbert College)
Wisconsin: Kerry 47, Bush 47 (ARG)
New Hampshire: Bush 47, Kerry 46 (ARG)
New Mexico: Kerry 48, Bush 46 (ARG)
Florida: Kerry 45, Bush 44 (University of North Florida)
Florida: Bush 48, Kerry 45 (Oralando Sentinel)
West Virginia: Bush 47, Kerry 45 (Global Strategy Group)
Electoral:
Electoral Vote Predictor: Kerry 284, Bush 247
The Hotline: Bush 227, Kerry 214
2.004k.com: Kerry 289, Bush 232
Slate: Kerry 284, Bush 254
Race 2004: Kerry 218, Bush 205
MyDD: Kerry 316, Bush 222
*Pew Research Center poll shows "the presidential race is again extremely close." President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are tied at 45% to 45% among registered voters, and 47% to 47% among likely voters.
*Economist Poll: Kerry leading Bush, 48% to 46%.
*Marist College poll: each candidate with 47% of registered voters
*AP-Ipsos Public Affairs poll: Kerry is leading Bush 49% to 46%. Most striking: "Some 56% say the country is on the wrong track."
*Harris Interactive poll: Bush leading Kerry, 48% to 46%, among likely voters.
-R
People in this big-shouldered town, birthplace of the poet Carl Sandburg, say Maytag broke their hearts. After a decade of tax breaks and union concessions to keep the company in a place that has been making refrigerators for more than 50 years, Maytag closed its factory last month, terminating 1,600 jobs.
Maytag may be done with Galesburg, but Galesburg is not done with Maytag.
District Attorney Paul L. Mangieri wants to sue Maytag to recoup what he says were excess tax breaks in a broad package of incentives to keep the company here. Much of the money, he said, came from a purse that would have gone to schools in this economically fragile community.
"We gave Maytag these incentives, and they accepted them," said Mr. Mangieri, a Navy veteran who grew up in a small town not far from here in western Illinois. "We did it based on faith and trust. If we don't do anything now, it sends a message that we lack the resolve to treat the rich and privileged the same as everybody else."
Maytag says it honored its agreement and took just the breaks to which it was entitled. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/20/national/20taxes.html?ei=5090&en=4ddc103dfe407c02&ex=1256011200&partner=rssuserland&pagewanted=print&position=
Women in Combat Not surprising, as there is a shortage of troops and the legislation re the draft calls for both women and men, ages 18-34.
The Army is negotiating with civilian leaders about eliminating a women-in-combat ban so it can place mixed-sex support companies within warfighting units, starting with a division going to Iraq in January. Despite the legal prohibition, Army plans already have included such collocation of women-men units in blueprints for a lighter force of 10 active divisions, according to Defense Department sources. http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20041022-120846-1796r
Missile Defense: It Doesn’t Work
With the technology we judge could become available within the next 15 years, defending against a single ICBM would require a thousand or more interceptors for a system having the lowest possible mass and providing realistic decision time. Deploying such a system would require at least a five- to tenfold increase over current U.S. space-launch rates.
Hey, we knew that. This report, from the American Physical Society is just confirmation. More:
4. The Airborne Laser now under development could have some capability against liquid-propellant missiles, but it would be ineffective against solid-propellant ICBMs, which are more heat-resistant.
5.The existing U.S. Navy Aegis system, using an interceptor rocket similar to the Standard Missile 2, should be capable of defending against short- or medium-range missiles launched from ships, barges, or other platforms off U.S. coasts. However, interceptor rockets would have to be positioned within a few tens of kilometers of the launch location of the attacking missile.
6.A key problem inherent in boost-phase defense is munitions shortfall: although a successful intercept would prevent munitions from reaching their target, it could cause live nuclear, chemical, or biological munitions to fall on populated areas short of the target, in the United States or other countries. Timing intercepts accurately enough to avoid this problem would be difficult.
http://www.inesap.org/bulletin22/bul22art32.htm
Planting WMDs …with a grain of salt, for now. Via the Pakistan Daily Times:
According to a stunning report posted by a retired Navy Lt Commander and 28-year veteran of the Defense Department (DoD), the Bush administration’s assurance about finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was based on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plan to “plant” WMDs inside the country. Nelda Rogers, the Pentagon whistleblower, claims the plan failed when the secret mission was mistakenly taken out by “friendly fire”, the Environmentalists Against War report.Nelda Rogers is a 28-year veteran debriefer for the DoD. She has become so concerned for her safety that she decided to tell the story about this latest CIA-military fiasco in Iraq. According to Al Martin Raw.com, “Ms Rogers is number two in the chain of command within this DoD special intelligence office. This is a ten-person debriefing unit within the central debriefing office for the Department of Defense.” http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_12-8-2003_pg1_9
Crummy Economy
The Index of Leading Economic Indicators, a widely watched barometer of future economic activity, edged lower in September for the fourth month in a row, indicating a slowing in economic growth, a private research group reported Thursday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6298650/
Bush Administration Supports the Troops. Familiar.
The number of uninsured veterans jumped by 235,000 since 2000, meaning they are losing health insurance at a faster rate than the general population, said Physicians for a National Health Program......the report traced some of the increase to the Bush administration's decision last year to suspend health care services for higher-income veterans in order to reduce waiting times for doctor's appointments.Other veterans reported that they were on waiting lists for appointments, could not afford co-payments or lived in communities with no veterans' facilities, the report said.
Another 3.9 million people without health insurance live in veterans' households and also are ineligible for veterans' health care, the report said.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041019/ap_on_he_me/veterans_health_1
Bush Tax Cuts = Less Money
We knew this- Fed cuts mean that state taxes or fees, tuitions, property tax, etc. get raised. But worth repeating to them swing folk, amongst others.
The basics:
Tuition at the nation's public universities rose an average of 10.5 percent this year, the second-largest increase in more than a decade, according to the annual survey released today by the College Board. Last year's rise, 13 percent, was the highest.
Private universities and community colleges also increased tuition -- by 6 percent and 9 percent respectively, in a year when inflation has been hovering at about 2.5 percent. The tuition increases at private and community colleges were also among the steepest in a decade.
Bill O’Reilly, Mary Cheney, Karl Rove: from Frank Rich.
And guys, if you exploit a girl, it will come back to get you. That's called 'karma.' "- Bill O'Reilly, "The O'Reilly Factor for Kids"
Hmm. That doesn’t fit well with the current lawsuit brought by a former Asst. Producer at FOX. Rich’s article- in this coming Sunday’s NY Times- connects O’Reilly’s travails with the Mary Cheney flap.
To understand what strange game is playing out here, you must go back to the equally close 2000 election. In the campaign postmortems, Karl Rove famously attributed his candidate's shortfall in the popular vote to four million "fundamentalists and evangelicals" in the Republican base who didn't turn up on Election Day. A common theory among Bush operatives had it that these no-shows had been alienated by the pre-election revelation of Mr. Bush's arrest for drunk driving years earlier.
The current Bush-Cheney campaign clearly believes that for these voters, Mary Cheney's sexuality could be a last-minute turnoff equivalent to Mr. Bush's D.U.I. history. When Rich Lowry of National Review said on Fox that "millions and millions of people" were not aware that Mary Cheney was gay until Mr. Kerry brought it up, it was clear just which four million he was talking about. Mr. Kerry, his critics all speculate, was deliberately seeking to depress voter turnout among Mr. Rove's M.I.A. religious conservatives by broadcasting Mary Cheney's sexuality to them for the first time.
To buy this theory you have to believe that by this late date a large group of potential voters obsessed with homosexuality didn't yet know that Ms. Cheney is gay. I find that preposterous, but only Mr. Kerry knows if he thought so and if his intentions were so smarmily Machiavellian. Even if they were, there's no ambiguity about what the Bush campaign is up to. Mr. Rove can out-Machiavelli Mr. Kerry anytime. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/arts/24rich.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
Election Ad:
Kerry has pulled punches, “taken the high road”. Not everyone has. Here’s an independent ad to view that reminds the voter that Bush is a flip, non-empathic frat boy.
Pollsters Greenberg, Quinlan & Rosner tested the ad and found that after viewing it just once, there was an almost unprecedented 8 point gross shift away from Bush in voting intentions among the 750-person test sample. It also badly eroded support for Bush across a wide range of measures including confidence in his Iraq policy and key measures of character including honesty and sharing the concerns of ordinary people. http://www.winbackrespect.org/ads/
Such must be used, including the many effective ones made by Errol Morris... in which he interviewed Republicans who were voting against Bush…but that the Kerry campaign had passed on. Utilizing the above ads would be more effective than joining a goose hunt in Ohio.
Fraud, (cont.) Maybe we should invite election observers from Afghanistan and Iraq- Bob Kuttner provides a fine summary of Democracy in Trouble:
THE REPUBLICANS are out to steal the 2004 election -- before, during, and after Election Day. Before Election Day, they are employing such dirty tricks as improper purges of voter rolls, use of dummy registration groups that tear up Democratic registrations, and the suppression of Democratic efforts to sign up voters, especially blacks and students.
On Election Day, Republicans will attempt to intimidate minority voters by having poll watchers threaten criminal prosecution if something is technically amiss with their ID, and they will again use technical mishaps to partisan advantage.
But the most serious assault on democracy itself is likely to come after Election Day.
Here is a flat prediction: If neither candidate wins decisively, the Bush campaign will contrive enough court challenges in enough states so that we won't know the winner election night. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/10/20/the_art_of_stealing_elections?mode=PF
And, Paul Krugman similarly notes:
If he election were held today and the votes were counted fairly, Senator John Kerry would probably win. But the votes won't be counted fairly, and the disenfranchisement of minority voters may determine the outcome. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/22/opinion/22krugman.html?oref=login&hp
Two more (possible) examples (from Pennsylvania and Florida):
An ostensibly nonpartisan voter registration drive in Western Pennsylvania has triggered accusations that workers were cheated out of wages and given instructions to avoid adding anyone to the voter rolls who might support the Democratic presidential nominee. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04294/398767.stm
Students at UCF and two local community colleges claim they were duped into switching their party affiliations from Democrat to Republican, campus police officials said Tuesday. http://www.wftv.com/news/3831251/detail.html
[Not so]Invisible Edwards: From Thursday’s speech in Iowa:
Not bad
"There’s a problem when our troops are in harm’s way, fighting for a secure Iraq and our national security adviser is out on the stump campaigning instead of working.
“There’s a problem when the Vice President is warning of a nuclear attack and the Homeland Security Secretary who has declared that he is separate from politics spends the bulk of his time traveling battleground states.
“There’s a problem when there is a flu shot shortage and the Secretary of Health and Human Services is too busy advocating for George Bush instead of those who most need these shots.
“There’s a problem when the economy has lost 800,000 jobs and the Treasury Secretary is out on the stump calling these losses a myth instead of focusing on bringing them back.
“There’s a problem when the Chinese are playing fast and loose with our trade agreements and the Commerce Secretary is acting like it’s having no impact on our manufacturing companies here at home.
“But I know how to fix this problem – it’s called Election Day. On November 2, we’re going to cast the votes to put John Kerry into the White House and we’re going to nip this problem in the bud.”
The Liberal Media:
This has been a pattern: When Kerry leads by 1 – 3 points, i.e. within the margin of error, the headline is “Kerry-Bush even” or similar. When Bush has the same margin, it’s “Bush establishes lead” or similar. It’s happened again in 2 Yahoo postings:
The AP:
President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are locked in a tie for the popular vote, according to an Associated Press poll, while a chunk of voters vacillate between their desire for change and their doubts about the alternative. ..The result is deadlock. In the survey of 976 likely voters, Democrats Kerry and Sen. John Edwards had 49 percent, compared to 46 percent for Republicans Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&e=3&u=/ap/20041021/ap_on_el_pr/president_ap_poll
Reuters:
President Bush opened a slight one-point lead on Democratic rival John Kerry in a tight race for the White House, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Thursday. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=2&u=/nm/20041021/pl_nm/campaign_poll_thursday_dc
(lots of) Polls: Throw out Fox, and Ohio looks better
Ohio: Kerry 47, Bush 47 (Rasmussen)
Ohio: Bush 49, Kerry 44 (Fox News)
Ohio: Kerry 49, Bush 47 (Survey USA)
Ohio: Kerry 50, Bush 47 (ABC News)
Florida: Bush 45, Kerry 43 (Quinnipiac)
Wisconsin: Bush 48, Kerry 47 (University of Minnesota)
Wisconsin: Kerry 48, Bush 43 (St. Norbert College)
Wisconsin: Kerry 47, Bush 47 (ARG)
New Hampshire: Bush 47, Kerry 46 (ARG)
New Mexico: Kerry 48, Bush 46 (ARG)
Florida: Kerry 45, Bush 44 (University of North Florida)
Florida: Bush 48, Kerry 45 (Oralando Sentinel)
West Virginia: Bush 47, Kerry 45 (Global Strategy Group)
Electoral:
Electoral Vote Predictor: Kerry 284, Bush 247
The Hotline: Bush 227, Kerry 214
2.004k.com: Kerry 289, Bush 232
Slate: Kerry 284, Bush 254
Race 2004: Kerry 218, Bush 205
MyDD: Kerry 316, Bush 222
*Pew Research Center poll shows "the presidential race is again extremely close." President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are tied at 45% to 45% among registered voters, and 47% to 47% among likely voters.
*Economist Poll: Kerry leading Bush, 48% to 46%.
*Marist College poll: each candidate with 47% of registered voters
*AP-Ipsos Public Affairs poll: Kerry is leading Bush 49% to 46%. Most striking: "Some 56% say the country is on the wrong track."
*Harris Interactive poll: Bush leading Kerry, 48% to 46%, among likely voters.
-R
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
CIA Report Naming Names Being Held…till after November 2: Robert Scheer has the scoop.
It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago."It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward."When I asked about the report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she and committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) sent a letter 14 days ago asking for it to be delivered. "We believe that the CIA has been told not to distribute the report," she said. "We are very concerned." http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-scheer19oct19,1,654534,print.column?coll=la-util-op-ed
Fraud (Pennsylvania, Florida) Updates :
As per some ballots in Hamilton County, Ohio leaving off Kerry and Edwards, the reports continue.
Republican operatives working to re-elect President Bush submitted last-minute requests in Philadelphia on Friday to relocate 63 polling places.
Bush's Pennsylvania campaign staff filed the requests, using the names of two Republicans running for the U.S. Congress and seven Republican ward leaders.
Of the 63 requests for changes, 53 are in political divisions where the population of white voters is less than 10 percent.
"I think this is more evidence of Republicans working to disenfranchise low-income and minority voters," said Mark Nevins, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. John Kerry. "It's despicable."
Bob Lee, voter registration administrator for the City Commission, said the requests appear to be "discriminatory" and were filed too late to be eligible for a hearing on Wednesday.
"They're trying to suppress the vote," Lee said of Republicans.
Deborah Williams, a minister running against Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, said the Republican State Committee asked if it could use her name in the effort.
One of the polling places is in a district office of state Sen. Vince Fumo, a Democrat. Two are in local bars, 43 are allegedly inaccessible to the handicapped and 17 are in businesses or homes where voters could be intimidated, according to the requests. http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/9947413.htm
Rampant voter fraud in Florida will disqualify 200,000 mainly Democratic and African American voters on November 2, according to an article in next week’s Harper’s by Greg Palast, the BBC investigative reporter who in 2000 broke the original story regarding the infamous felon list in Florida. Palast’s findings were echoed in the October 14 New York Times Op Ed by Paul Krugman. http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=1972&blz=1
With memories of 2000 and the state's bitter fight over ballots still fresh, Floridians began casting votes Monday and within an hour problems cropped up.
In Palm Beach County, the center of the madness during the recount four years ago, a Democratic state legislator said she wasn't given a complete absentee ballot when she asked to opt for paper instead of the electronic touch-screen machines. And in Orange County, the touch-screen system briefly crashed, paralyzing voting in Orlando and its immediate suburbs.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041018/D85PUJCG0.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: Iraq Paying Reparations?! The Iraqis have been forced to pay $1.8 billion in reparations, 78% of it going to multinational corporations. That’ll help them to get on their feet.
Next week, something will happen that will unmask the upside-down morality of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. On October 21, Iraq will pay $200m in war reparations to some of the richest countries and corporations in the world.
If that seems backwards, it's because it is. Iraqis have never been awarded reparations for any of the crimes they suffered under Saddam, or the brutal sanctions regime that claimed the lives of at least half a million people, or the US-led invasion, which the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, recently called "illegal". Instead, Iraqis are still being forced to pay reparations for crimes committed by their former dictator.
Quite apart from its crushing $125bn sovereign debt, Iraq has paid $18.8bn in reparations stemming from Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait. This is not in itself surprising: as a condition of the ceasefire that ended the 1991 Gulf war, Saddam agreed to pay damages stemming from the invasion. More than 50 countries have made claims, with most of the money awarded to Kuwait. What is surprising is that even after Saddam was overthrown, the payments from Iraq have continued.
Since Saddam was toppled in April, Iraq has paid out $1.8bn in reparations to the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), the Geneva-based quasi tribunal that assesses claims and disburses awards. Of those payments, $37m have gone to Britain and $32.8m have gone to the United States. That's right: in the past 18 months, Iraq's occupiers have collected $69.8m in reparation payments from the desperate people they have been occupying. But it gets worse: the vast majority of those payments, 78%, have gone to multinational corporations, according to statistics on the UNCC website.
Away from media scrutiny, this has been going on for years. http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5040740-103390,00.html
Casualties:
It began with the killing of two Iraqi civilians in a suicide bomb attack against an American military convoy in the northern city of Mosul last Monday. It ended Sunday evening, when a car bomb killed seven Iraqi police officers and civilians at a Baghdad cafe where police officers had apparently broken their fast during this month of Ramadan.
A weeklong effort to tally Iraqi casualties shows soldiers, insurgents, politicians, journalists, a judge, a medic and restaurant workers among the victims. They included Dina Mohammed Hassan, a television reporter killed by three men who called her a collaborator, and Ali Hussein's son and nephew, nighttime guards who died when Americans bombed a restaurant in Falluja.
From Oct. 11 to Oct. 17, an estimated 208 Iraqis were killed in war-related incidents, significantly higher than the average week; 23 members of the United States military died over the same period. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/international/middleeast/19casualties.html?oref=login&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
Post War Planning:Even though the neocons were acutely aware of the steps necessary to privatize Iraq (see Naomi Klein’s September Harpers article http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html ), their general failure to anticipate what post-war Iraq would be like is now legendary. Still, I couldn’t resist posting this:
In March 2003, days before the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, American war planners and intelligence officials met at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina to review the Bush administration's plans to oust Saddam Hussein and implant democracy in Iraq.
Near the end of his presentation, an Army lieutenant colonel who was giving a briefing showed a slide describing the Pentagon's plans for rebuilding Iraq after the war, known in the planners' parlance as Phase 4-C. He was uncomfortable with his material - and for good reason.
The slide said: "To Be Provided." http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9927782.htm
Election Scenarios: 5 to contemplate:
“In the meantime, we are left with nothing to cling to but the election administrator's prayer: Lord, let this election not be close”. http://slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2108339&
Polls: Yes, still even. I’m still (since Spring) of the thought that Kerry needs either Ohio or Florida.
New Hampshire: Kerry 46, Bush 41 (Suffolk University)
Florida: Kerry 50, Bush 49 (Survey USA)
Pennsylvania: Kerry 51, Bush 45 (Survey USA)
Arkansas: Bush 51, Kerry 46 (Survey USA)
North Carolina: Bush 50, Kerry 47 (Survey USA)
Colorado: Bush 51, Kerry 45 (Gallup)
Minnesota: Bush 47, Kerry 47 (Rasmussen)
New Jersey: Kerry 49, Bush 45 (Quinnipiac)
New Jersey: Kerry 51, Bush 38 (Star-Ledger)
Ohio: Kerry 48, Bush 46 (University of Cincinnati)
Oregon: Kerry 50, Bush 44 (Research 2000)
Oregon: Bush 48, Kerry 43 (Riley Research)
Electoral:
Electoral Vote Predictor: Kerry 284, Bush 247
The Hotline: Bush 227, Kerry 214
2.004k.com: Kerry 289, Bush 232
Slate: Kerry 284, Bush 254
Race 2004: Kerry 218, Bush 205
MyDD: Kerry 316, Bush 222 http://politicalwire.com/
-R
It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago."It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward."When I asked about the report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she and committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) sent a letter 14 days ago asking for it to be delivered. "We believe that the CIA has been told not to distribute the report," she said. "We are very concerned." http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-scheer19oct19,1,654534,print.column?coll=la-util-op-ed
Fraud (Pennsylvania, Florida) Updates :
As per some ballots in Hamilton County, Ohio leaving off Kerry and Edwards, the reports continue.
Republican operatives working to re-elect President Bush submitted last-minute requests in Philadelphia on Friday to relocate 63 polling places.
Bush's Pennsylvania campaign staff filed the requests, using the names of two Republicans running for the U.S. Congress and seven Republican ward leaders.
Of the 63 requests for changes, 53 are in political divisions where the population of white voters is less than 10 percent.
"I think this is more evidence of Republicans working to disenfranchise low-income and minority voters," said Mark Nevins, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. John Kerry. "It's despicable."
Bob Lee, voter registration administrator for the City Commission, said the requests appear to be "discriminatory" and were filed too late to be eligible for a hearing on Wednesday.
"They're trying to suppress the vote," Lee said of Republicans.
Deborah Williams, a minister running against Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, said the Republican State Committee asked if it could use her name in the effort.
One of the polling places is in a district office of state Sen. Vince Fumo, a Democrat. Two are in local bars, 43 are allegedly inaccessible to the handicapped and 17 are in businesses or homes where voters could be intimidated, according to the requests. http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/9947413.htm
Rampant voter fraud in Florida will disqualify 200,000 mainly Democratic and African American voters on November 2, according to an article in next week’s Harper’s by Greg Palast, the BBC investigative reporter who in 2000 broke the original story regarding the infamous felon list in Florida. Palast’s findings were echoed in the October 14 New York Times Op Ed by Paul Krugman. http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=1972&blz=1
With memories of 2000 and the state's bitter fight over ballots still fresh, Floridians began casting votes Monday and within an hour problems cropped up.
In Palm Beach County, the center of the madness during the recount four years ago, a Democratic state legislator said she wasn't given a complete absentee ballot when she asked to opt for paper instead of the electronic touch-screen machines. And in Orange County, the touch-screen system briefly crashed, paralyzing voting in Orlando and its immediate suburbs.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041018/D85PUJCG0.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: Iraq Paying Reparations?! The Iraqis have been forced to pay $1.8 billion in reparations, 78% of it going to multinational corporations. That’ll help them to get on their feet.
Next week, something will happen that will unmask the upside-down morality of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. On October 21, Iraq will pay $200m in war reparations to some of the richest countries and corporations in the world.
If that seems backwards, it's because it is. Iraqis have never been awarded reparations for any of the crimes they suffered under Saddam, or the brutal sanctions regime that claimed the lives of at least half a million people, or the US-led invasion, which the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, recently called "illegal". Instead, Iraqis are still being forced to pay reparations for crimes committed by their former dictator.
Quite apart from its crushing $125bn sovereign debt, Iraq has paid $18.8bn in reparations stemming from Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait. This is not in itself surprising: as a condition of the ceasefire that ended the 1991 Gulf war, Saddam agreed to pay damages stemming from the invasion. More than 50 countries have made claims, with most of the money awarded to Kuwait. What is surprising is that even after Saddam was overthrown, the payments from Iraq have continued.
Since Saddam was toppled in April, Iraq has paid out $1.8bn in reparations to the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), the Geneva-based quasi tribunal that assesses claims and disburses awards. Of those payments, $37m have gone to Britain and $32.8m have gone to the United States. That's right: in the past 18 months, Iraq's occupiers have collected $69.8m in reparation payments from the desperate people they have been occupying. But it gets worse: the vast majority of those payments, 78%, have gone to multinational corporations, according to statistics on the UNCC website.
Away from media scrutiny, this has been going on for years. http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5040740-103390,00.html
Casualties:
It began with the killing of two Iraqi civilians in a suicide bomb attack against an American military convoy in the northern city of Mosul last Monday. It ended Sunday evening, when a car bomb killed seven Iraqi police officers and civilians at a Baghdad cafe where police officers had apparently broken their fast during this month of Ramadan.
A weeklong effort to tally Iraqi casualties shows soldiers, insurgents, politicians, journalists, a judge, a medic and restaurant workers among the victims. They included Dina Mohammed Hassan, a television reporter killed by three men who called her a collaborator, and Ali Hussein's son and nephew, nighttime guards who died when Americans bombed a restaurant in Falluja.
From Oct. 11 to Oct. 17, an estimated 208 Iraqis were killed in war-related incidents, significantly higher than the average week; 23 members of the United States military died over the same period. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/international/middleeast/19casualties.html?oref=login&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
Post War Planning:Even though the neocons were acutely aware of the steps necessary to privatize Iraq (see Naomi Klein’s September Harpers article http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html ), their general failure to anticipate what post-war Iraq would be like is now legendary. Still, I couldn’t resist posting this:
In March 2003, days before the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, American war planners and intelligence officials met at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina to review the Bush administration's plans to oust Saddam Hussein and implant democracy in Iraq.
Near the end of his presentation, an Army lieutenant colonel who was giving a briefing showed a slide describing the Pentagon's plans for rebuilding Iraq after the war, known in the planners' parlance as Phase 4-C. He was uncomfortable with his material - and for good reason.
The slide said: "To Be Provided." http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9927782.htm
Election Scenarios: 5 to contemplate:
“In the meantime, we are left with nothing to cling to but the election administrator's prayer: Lord, let this election not be close”. http://slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2108339&
Polls: Yes, still even. I’m still (since Spring) of the thought that Kerry needs either Ohio or Florida.
New Hampshire: Kerry 46, Bush 41 (Suffolk University)
Florida: Kerry 50, Bush 49 (Survey USA)
Pennsylvania: Kerry 51, Bush 45 (Survey USA)
Arkansas: Bush 51, Kerry 46 (Survey USA)
North Carolina: Bush 50, Kerry 47 (Survey USA)
Colorado: Bush 51, Kerry 45 (Gallup)
Minnesota: Bush 47, Kerry 47 (Rasmussen)
New Jersey: Kerry 49, Bush 45 (Quinnipiac)
New Jersey: Kerry 51, Bush 38 (Star-Ledger)
Ohio: Kerry 48, Bush 46 (University of Cincinnati)
Oregon: Kerry 50, Bush 44 (Research 2000)
Oregon: Bush 48, Kerry 43 (Riley Research)
Electoral:
Electoral Vote Predictor: Kerry 284, Bush 247
The Hotline: Bush 227, Kerry 214
2.004k.com: Kerry 289, Bush 232
Slate: Kerry 284, Bush 254
Race 2004: Kerry 218, Bush 205
MyDD: Kerry 316, Bush 222 http://politicalwire.com/
-R
Sunday, October 17, 2004
In meetings I’d ask if there were any facts to support our case. And for that, I was accused of disloyalty! - Christie Whitman, in Ron Suskind’s NY Times article
Election: Limping to the Finish.
I don’t mean the candidates. I think I’m not alone in needing this to end. The pain of seeing Bush lie, butcher reality and conduct a failed presidency, yet not plummet in the polls is terribly disturbing. The Media playing along- no stories about the irregularities, fraud, disenfranchising, unless allusions and only then coupled with Republican “accusations” (‘fair and balanced’)- is maddening. Kerry obviously “winning” the debates on substance and style, yet pulling his punches…ugh.
As to the likely result, I’m of two (equal) minds:
1) People who voted for Gore are not likely to switch to Bush; some of the millions who have registered will vote, Nader’s support- far less than in ’00- will not matter, as polls show that support for him does not lower Kerry’s count. So, baring measurable fraud, Kerry should win. [But, fraud- already documented- could be decisive.]
2) There are enough voters who will vote their “faith” or denial, and coupled with their superior work ethic- doing ‘whatever it takes’ to win- including the disenfranchising of likely Kerry voters- that the Republicans will prevail.
Taxing the Wealthy: It can be done: Common sense in California. Most reassuring.
Despite widespread aversion to new taxes, there is one that most Californians don't seem to mind: the one they don't have to pay.
Supporters of a measure on the November ballot are seizing on the sentiment to push for a vast expansion of services for the mentally ill.
Their plan is to let millionaires pay the bill. And judging by polls, their campaign is proving effective.
The proposal targets a small group of taxpayers for one of the largest state tax hikes in recent history. It would place a 1 percent surcharge on all taxable income exceeding $1 million. The tax would cost the state's 25,000 or so millionaires $10,000 for every million they earn after their first million.
The cost to non-millionaires would be nothing. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/10/17/millionaire_tax_gains_steam_in_calif?mode=PF
Al-Qaeda Infiltration in the UK
The Territorial Army has been infiltrated by Al-Qaeda suspects, giving the Islamic terrorist group potential access to military bases, explosives and fuel dumps.
Five Al-Qaeda suspects are believed to have trained as part-time soldiers with the TA. At least one is now in custody.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed that other terror suspects have attempted to join the TA, but says they were rejected after undergoing security checks.
The connection with Britain’s Al-Qaeda network was uncovered in a series of wide-ranging investigations by MI5 and Scotland Yard’s Special Branch.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,1-1313759,00.html
Blair the Puppy (cont.)
Tony Blair faces a growing political row over Iraq after it emerged that hundreds of British troops may soon be sent to the Baghdad region to fight under American command.
Senior MPs and military sources warned of the danger of British soldiers being associated with heavy-handed US military tactics in central Iraq and of being drawn deeper into the conflict.
Blair himself risks accusations that he is acting to shore up his ally George W Bush in advance of the US presidential elections on November 2.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1313945,00.html
Medievalism vs the Enlightenment: Bush Profile: Ron Suskind’s NY Times magazine profile confirms that truth and “reality” doesn’t fit these guys. Yet, Bush’s “certainty” doesn’t explain the minds of Wolfowitz, Cheney, and the rest of the neocons who sold Bush on this set of policies.
So, will the Kerry camp make use of excerpts?
In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency. The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.''
I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'' http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html?oref=login
Democracy in Trouble: The Putinization of American Life: American media are better at tracking the authoritarian trend in Russia, but aren’t inclined to comment as to what’s happening here.
Matthew Yglesias:
Suskind's article along with other pieces of evidence of what one might call the creeping Putinization of American life (the Sinclair incident, the threatening letter to Rock The Vote, the specter of the top official in the House of Representatives making totally baseless charges of criminal conduct against a major financier of the political opposition [shades of Mikhail Khodorovsky], the increasing evidence that the 'terror alert' system is nothing more than a political prop, the 'torture memo' asserting that the president is above the law, the imposition of rigid discipline on the congress, the abuse of the conference committee procedure, the ability of the administration to lie to congress without penalty, the exclusion of non-supporters from Bush's public appearances, etc.) are beginning to make me think this assessment may have been misguided. Terrorist forces operating in and around Chechnya have done some horrible things -- I was in Moscow for the big apartment bombings -- but ultimately the most harmful thing they have done was to enable Putin to tighten his grip on power. http://yglesias.typepad.com/matthew/2004/10/threats.html
Fraud (cont.) The AP report notes that Jeb Bush is personally aware of and enabling of the disenfranchising of ex-felons. So, we can’t blame the Secretary of State, Glenda Hood, just as we couldn’t blame her predecessor, Katherine Harris.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ignored advice to throw out a flawed felon voter list before it went out to county election offices despite warnings from state officials, according to a published report Saturday.
Bush's spokeswoman, Jill Bratina, denied allegations that the governor ignored warnings about the list.
"It's also irrelevant because the list isn't being used," Bratina said Saturday.
A reminder as to why this election may drag on:
Election officials have said that anyone who feels they have been inadvertently removed from the voter rolls on Nov. 2 will be allowed to use a provisional ballot that will be examined later to determine eligibility. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041017/ap_on_el_pr/florida_felons_voting&cid=694&ncid=716
Not just for Sports Fans: Jim Bunning in Trouble
Jim Bunning, Senator of Kentucky, a star baseball pitcher in the 1960s, is struggling in his re-election campaign. The (very) conservative Republican was a clear favorite against Dan Mongiardo until signs of mental distress, if not illness, appeared. The Republicans are denying trouble, trying to get through the election so that the Republican governor can appoint a Republican replacement. Putting aside the compassion, it gives the Democrats a tad more than an infinitesimal chance to take the Senate.
Marygate: The Media bought in. After the last debate, there were no headlines about Bush’s lie about not caring about bin Laden, no Washington Post poll of what people thought of the lie, or about the dirty tricks / fraud being perpetrated by the Republicans. Instead we got headlines and a Washington Post poll as to what people thought of Kerry’s comment about Mary Cheney.
An overwhelming majority of voters believe it was wrong for Democratic nominee John F. Kerry to have mentioned in Wednesday's presidential debate that Vice President Cheney's daughter was a lesbian, according to the latest Washington Post tracking survey.
Nearly two in three likely voters -- 64 percent -- said Kerry's comment was "inappropriate," including more than four in 10 of his own supporters and half of all swing voters. A third -- 33 percent -- thought the remark was appropriate. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36114-2004Oct15.html
Jon Stewart: "The press has bravely and nobly eroded the public trust. What I'm advocating is the media come back and work for us again. ... The bias of the media is not liberal. It's lazy and sensationalist."
As a devotee, I’ve watched his frustration build about our failing Major Media. He went on Crossfire to “not be your monkey”, but to let ‘em have it.
"I think you're a lot more fun on your show," said Tucker Carlson to "Crossfire" guest Jon Stewart this afternoon. "And I think you're as much of a dick on your show as on any other," Stewart shot back. It wasn't the faux avuncularity we've come to expect from Stewart on "The Daily Show" but there, of course, he's playing a role. Here he was himself -- and he wasn't buying any of it.
From the moment Stewart sat down he made no secret of how repugnant he found the show. In fact, he said to Carlson and co-host Paul Begala that he had been so hard on the show he felt it was his duty to come on and say to their faces what he has said to friends and in interviews. What he said was that their show was "hurting America," and he was being only slightly hyperbolic. Stewart told them that when America needed journalists to be journalists they had instead chosen to present theater.
Carlson, trying to affect an air of dry amusement that a comedian would presume to lecture him, important pundit that he is, but looking as if his bow-tie were about to start spinning, could barely contain his outrage. In an absolutely mind-boggling moment, Carlson tried to counter Stewart's criticism by pointing out that during John Kerry's recent appearance on "The Daily Show," Stewart asked the candidate softball questions. "If you want to measure yourself against a comedy show," Stewart said, "be my guest."
Paul Begala tried to put a more conciliatory face on things by pointing out that theirs was a "debate" show. Stewart was having none of it. "I would love to see a real debate show," he said. And went on to tell them that instead of holding politicians' feet to the fire by asking tough question, "you're part of their strategy. You're partisan -- what's the word? -- uh, hacks."
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/
The actual video is priceless: http://homepage.mac.com/duffyb/nobush/iMovieTheater231.html
Decision Day: November 2? Lots of speculation that 2000 wasn’t the exception, but rather has established the norm- of elections contested in the days or weeks afterward. One such positing:
President Bush's top campaign lawyer said yesterday that the winner of next month's presidential vote may not be known for "days or weeks" after Election Day if the contest is close.
Experts predict that a large number of absentee ballots will be cast, which could take time to count. For the first time nationwide, voters whose names do not appear on the rolls will be allowed to cast "provisional ballots," which will be counted only after a post-Election Day review determines their eligibility.
In addition, some battleground states will count overseas military ballots received after Election Day as long as they are postmarked before Nov. 3. In Florida, for instance, military ballots received through Nov. 12 will be counted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A36805-2004Oct15?language=printer
Polls:
Beginning on Friday, most national polls released had Bush ahead. Disturbing
*Reuters/Zogby poll released on Friday. "An improvement in Bush's showing among undecideds and a strong response from his base Republican supporters helped fuel the president's rise."
*Rasmussen daily tracking poll: Bush leading by 2 – 3 points
*The TIPP Tracking Pollshows Bush leading 47% to 44%.
*The ABC News/Washington Post tracking But the survey also suggests that Kerry continues to claim a large lead in key battleground states. In these 13 states, Kerry held a 53 percent to 43 percent advantage among likely voters.
State Polls:
Florida: Kerry 48, Bush 44 (Insider Advantage)
Florida: Kerry 47, Bush 47 (Washington Post)
Florida: Bush 49, Kerry 46 (Rasmussen)
New Jersey: Kerry 44, Bush 42 (Fairleigh Dickinson)
-R
Election: Limping to the Finish.
I don’t mean the candidates. I think I’m not alone in needing this to end. The pain of seeing Bush lie, butcher reality and conduct a failed presidency, yet not plummet in the polls is terribly disturbing. The Media playing along- no stories about the irregularities, fraud, disenfranchising, unless allusions and only then coupled with Republican “accusations” (‘fair and balanced’)- is maddening. Kerry obviously “winning” the debates on substance and style, yet pulling his punches…ugh.
As to the likely result, I’m of two (equal) minds:
1) People who voted for Gore are not likely to switch to Bush; some of the millions who have registered will vote, Nader’s support- far less than in ’00- will not matter, as polls show that support for him does not lower Kerry’s count. So, baring measurable fraud, Kerry should win. [But, fraud- already documented- could be decisive.]
2) There are enough voters who will vote their “faith” or denial, and coupled with their superior work ethic- doing ‘whatever it takes’ to win- including the disenfranchising of likely Kerry voters- that the Republicans will prevail.
Taxing the Wealthy: It can be done: Common sense in California. Most reassuring.
Despite widespread aversion to new taxes, there is one that most Californians don't seem to mind: the one they don't have to pay.
Supporters of a measure on the November ballot are seizing on the sentiment to push for a vast expansion of services for the mentally ill.
Their plan is to let millionaires pay the bill. And judging by polls, their campaign is proving effective.
The proposal targets a small group of taxpayers for one of the largest state tax hikes in recent history. It would place a 1 percent surcharge on all taxable income exceeding $1 million. The tax would cost the state's 25,000 or so millionaires $10,000 for every million they earn after their first million.
The cost to non-millionaires would be nothing. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/10/17/millionaire_tax_gains_steam_in_calif?mode=PF
Al-Qaeda Infiltration in the UK
The Territorial Army has been infiltrated by Al-Qaeda suspects, giving the Islamic terrorist group potential access to military bases, explosives and fuel dumps.
Five Al-Qaeda suspects are believed to have trained as part-time soldiers with the TA. At least one is now in custody.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed that other terror suspects have attempted to join the TA, but says they were rejected after undergoing security checks.
The connection with Britain’s Al-Qaeda network was uncovered in a series of wide-ranging investigations by MI5 and Scotland Yard’s Special Branch.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,1-1313759,00.html
Blair the Puppy (cont.)
Tony Blair faces a growing political row over Iraq after it emerged that hundreds of British troops may soon be sent to the Baghdad region to fight under American command.
Senior MPs and military sources warned of the danger of British soldiers being associated with heavy-handed US military tactics in central Iraq and of being drawn deeper into the conflict.
Blair himself risks accusations that he is acting to shore up his ally George W Bush in advance of the US presidential elections on November 2.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1313945,00.html
Medievalism vs the Enlightenment: Bush Profile: Ron Suskind’s NY Times magazine profile confirms that truth and “reality” doesn’t fit these guys. Yet, Bush’s “certainty” doesn’t explain the minds of Wolfowitz, Cheney, and the rest of the neocons who sold Bush on this set of policies.
So, will the Kerry camp make use of excerpts?
In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency. The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.''
I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'' http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html?oref=login
Democracy in Trouble: The Putinization of American Life: American media are better at tracking the authoritarian trend in Russia, but aren’t inclined to comment as to what’s happening here.
Matthew Yglesias:
Suskind's article along with other pieces of evidence of what one might call the creeping Putinization of American life (the Sinclair incident, the threatening letter to Rock The Vote, the specter of the top official in the House of Representatives making totally baseless charges of criminal conduct against a major financier of the political opposition [shades of Mikhail Khodorovsky], the increasing evidence that the 'terror alert' system is nothing more than a political prop, the 'torture memo' asserting that the president is above the law, the imposition of rigid discipline on the congress, the abuse of the conference committee procedure, the ability of the administration to lie to congress without penalty, the exclusion of non-supporters from Bush's public appearances, etc.) are beginning to make me think this assessment may have been misguided. Terrorist forces operating in and around Chechnya have done some horrible things -- I was in Moscow for the big apartment bombings -- but ultimately the most harmful thing they have done was to enable Putin to tighten his grip on power. http://yglesias.typepad.com/matthew/2004/10/threats.html
Fraud (cont.) The AP report notes that Jeb Bush is personally aware of and enabling of the disenfranchising of ex-felons. So, we can’t blame the Secretary of State, Glenda Hood, just as we couldn’t blame her predecessor, Katherine Harris.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ignored advice to throw out a flawed felon voter list before it went out to county election offices despite warnings from state officials, according to a published report Saturday.
Bush's spokeswoman, Jill Bratina, denied allegations that the governor ignored warnings about the list.
"It's also irrelevant because the list isn't being used," Bratina said Saturday.
A reminder as to why this election may drag on:
Election officials have said that anyone who feels they have been inadvertently removed from the voter rolls on Nov. 2 will be allowed to use a provisional ballot that will be examined later to determine eligibility. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041017/ap_on_el_pr/florida_felons_voting&cid=694&ncid=716
Not just for Sports Fans: Jim Bunning in Trouble
Jim Bunning, Senator of Kentucky, a star baseball pitcher in the 1960s, is struggling in his re-election campaign. The (very) conservative Republican was a clear favorite against Dan Mongiardo until signs of mental distress, if not illness, appeared. The Republicans are denying trouble, trying to get through the election so that the Republican governor can appoint a Republican replacement. Putting aside the compassion, it gives the Democrats a tad more than an infinitesimal chance to take the Senate.
Marygate: The Media bought in. After the last debate, there were no headlines about Bush’s lie about not caring about bin Laden, no Washington Post poll of what people thought of the lie, or about the dirty tricks / fraud being perpetrated by the Republicans. Instead we got headlines and a Washington Post poll as to what people thought of Kerry’s comment about Mary Cheney.
An overwhelming majority of voters believe it was wrong for Democratic nominee John F. Kerry to have mentioned in Wednesday's presidential debate that Vice President Cheney's daughter was a lesbian, according to the latest Washington Post tracking survey.
Nearly two in three likely voters -- 64 percent -- said Kerry's comment was "inappropriate," including more than four in 10 of his own supporters and half of all swing voters. A third -- 33 percent -- thought the remark was appropriate. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36114-2004Oct15.html
Jon Stewart: "The press has bravely and nobly eroded the public trust. What I'm advocating is the media come back and work for us again. ... The bias of the media is not liberal. It's lazy and sensationalist."
As a devotee, I’ve watched his frustration build about our failing Major Media. He went on Crossfire to “not be your monkey”, but to let ‘em have it.
"I think you're a lot more fun on your show," said Tucker Carlson to "Crossfire" guest Jon Stewart this afternoon. "And I think you're as much of a dick on your show as on any other," Stewart shot back. It wasn't the faux avuncularity we've come to expect from Stewart on "The Daily Show" but there, of course, he's playing a role. Here he was himself -- and he wasn't buying any of it.
From the moment Stewart sat down he made no secret of how repugnant he found the show. In fact, he said to Carlson and co-host Paul Begala that he had been so hard on the show he felt it was his duty to come on and say to their faces what he has said to friends and in interviews. What he said was that their show was "hurting America," and he was being only slightly hyperbolic. Stewart told them that when America needed journalists to be journalists they had instead chosen to present theater.
Carlson, trying to affect an air of dry amusement that a comedian would presume to lecture him, important pundit that he is, but looking as if his bow-tie were about to start spinning, could barely contain his outrage. In an absolutely mind-boggling moment, Carlson tried to counter Stewart's criticism by pointing out that during John Kerry's recent appearance on "The Daily Show," Stewart asked the candidate softball questions. "If you want to measure yourself against a comedy show," Stewart said, "be my guest."
Paul Begala tried to put a more conciliatory face on things by pointing out that theirs was a "debate" show. Stewart was having none of it. "I would love to see a real debate show," he said. And went on to tell them that instead of holding politicians' feet to the fire by asking tough question, "you're part of their strategy. You're partisan -- what's the word? -- uh, hacks."
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/
The actual video is priceless: http://homepage.mac.com/duffyb/nobush/iMovieTheater231.html
Decision Day: November 2? Lots of speculation that 2000 wasn’t the exception, but rather has established the norm- of elections contested in the days or weeks afterward. One such positing:
President Bush's top campaign lawyer said yesterday that the winner of next month's presidential vote may not be known for "days or weeks" after Election Day if the contest is close.
Experts predict that a large number of absentee ballots will be cast, which could take time to count. For the first time nationwide, voters whose names do not appear on the rolls will be allowed to cast "provisional ballots," which will be counted only after a post-Election Day review determines their eligibility.
In addition, some battleground states will count overseas military ballots received after Election Day as long as they are postmarked before Nov. 3. In Florida, for instance, military ballots received through Nov. 12 will be counted. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A36805-2004Oct15?language=printer
Polls:
Beginning on Friday, most national polls released had Bush ahead. Disturbing
*Reuters/Zogby poll released on Friday. "An improvement in Bush's showing among undecideds and a strong response from his base Republican supporters helped fuel the president's rise."
*Rasmussen daily tracking poll: Bush leading by 2 – 3 points
*The TIPP Tracking Pollshows Bush leading 47% to 44%.
*The ABC News/Washington Post tracking But the survey also suggests that Kerry continues to claim a large lead in key battleground states. In these 13 states, Kerry held a 53 percent to 43 percent advantage among likely voters.
State Polls:
Florida: Kerry 48, Bush 44 (Insider Advantage)
Florida: Kerry 47, Bush 47 (Washington Post)
Florida: Bush 49, Kerry 46 (Rasmussen)
New Jersey: Kerry 44, Bush 42 (Fairleigh Dickinson)
-R
