Kos Points A Finger

I can't recall Markos being this accusatory. File under Things That Make You Go Hmm.

The Delegate Count

It's not being shouted from the rooftops, but...

Dean currently leads the Democratic delegate count with 113. Kerry, the front-runner in the race with his strong victories in New Hampshire and Iowa, has 94 delegates. To win the Democratic nomination, a candidate must have at least 2,161 delegates.

Rove Opens His Kerry File And Wingnuts Get A New Attack Motto

Kerry in the crosshairs

WASHINGTON (CNN) --Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie delivers another broadside against John Kerry today at the RNC winter meeting in Washington. We can summarize it in a single tried and true phrase: "soft on defense."

See, this underscores what we've been talking about. The RNC is the de facto unifying mouthpiece of the White House and the right wing militia. Their messages are clear and united.

The DNC's Terry McAuliffe just sits on the sidelines and waves a donkey flag while 319 different agendas flail wildly among the Dem candidates. The time for this simp to grow some balls and set the table has long passed. I urge whoever the nominee is to make his first move the removal of this useless slug from the DNC.

Memo To AARP

From: The Taxpayers
Re: The Medicare Reform Bill You Endorsed
Message: Thanks a pantload.

Worst Flavor Of The Month

The decomposing remains of a 60-ton sperm whale exploded on a busy Taiwan street, showering nearby cars and shops with blood and organs and stopping traffic for hours, local newspapers said. The 56-foot dead whale had been on a truck headed for an autopsy at a university earlier this week, when gases from internal decay caused its entrails to explode in the southern city of Tainan.

The whale had died after it was beached on the southwestern coast of the island.

Here's A Friggin' Surprise

Washington expects to nab Osama 'in the next year'

Draw your own conclusion.

ABC News: Finally Getting The Dean Yawp Right

Sometimes, it has to be S-P-E-L-L-E-D O-U-T...even if it is almost two weeks too late. Video

(The funny part is Diane Sawyer saying, "I noticed he was holding a handheld microphone." Now THAT'S investigative journalism, you freak.)

I...Love...New Hampshire.

(replaces defunct video clip)

As I said many times, I respect John Kerry and admire his courage for speaking out against the Vietnam War after his return from duty. But DAMN, I still don't hear the fire in his speaking. I'm still trying to buy the package, but it's difficult, especially after hearing this - Kerry's version of a rally speech. I can't help but think that drone is going to wear very poorly as the year drags on.

I've been rehashing the last couple of weeks in my mind and in my heart. I'm really trying to like all these guys, but I'm just not seeing America being wooed by button-down college professor types going against the perceived Texas folksiness of the spoiled brat from Connecticut.

I went with Dean because he's the first guy since Clinton '92 who pulled me into the process after years of disappointment. He has a track record, a clear vision (read it - don't depend on sound bites, you're not going to get them), and is by all accounts a good guy. My father, rest his soul, would have had a word about the fallout over Dean's Iowa speech: Horseshit. Now, don't blame me. That's my dad talking. He was a car dealership owner for decades and he could spot horseshit three towns away. Dean delivers the least amount of it. Sadly, he's caught in a nation that yearns for it.

None of the other candidates have done anything to really excite me yet. The Dean camp is shaken, stirred but not deterred. The message is still there. He needs to answer more questions about his plans and policies - he's INCREDIBLE at that. And he needs to stop answering to people who just want to talk about the horseshit.

I want Bush out. That's no secret. And I want one of these guys to do it. But none of them will do it by being polite. America IS angry. Deal with it. Embrace it. And use it to get the message out.

Chris Bowers, commenting on how the polls have followed the positive-press arc, has a sobering post at Daily Kos which draws this conclusion:

Democrats are Dittoheads who will do whatever the Political Opinion Complex tells them to do.

We're better than this. We've got to get our act together or face the consequences for another four dark depressing years.

We simply cannot afford to wait for Hillary in 2008. We need more people with passion. We need them with guts. We need them as big as life to draw in the disappointed and the disenfranchised. We need more people like Dean. And we need them now.

Aim For Your Foot And You Stop Running

My dilemma here was wondering which paragraphs to repro here - it's that good. Robert Reich:

The dismal fifth-place showing by Senator Joseph Lieberman in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday serves as both reminder and motivator to the other Democratic presidential candidates on what it will take to win in November. The real fight is between those who want only to win back the White House and those who also want to build a new political movement — one that rivals the conservative movement that has given Republicans their dominant position in American politics.

...the Democratic Party has had no analogous movement to animate it. Instead, every four years party loyalists throw themselves behind a presidential candidate who they believe will deliver them from the rising conservative tide. After the election, they go back to whatever they were doing before. Issues rise and fall, depending on which interests are threatened and when. They can even divide Democrats, as each advocacy group scrambles after the same set of liberal donors and competes for the limited attention of the news media.

As a result, Democrats have been undisciplined, intimidated or just plain silent. One hears few liberal Democratic phrases that are repeated with any regularity. In addition, there is no consistent Democratic world view or ideology. Most Congressional Democrats raise their own money, do their own polls and vote every which way. Democrats have little or no clear identity except by reference to what conservatives say about them.

Self-styled Democratic centrists, like those who inhabit the Democratic Leadership Council, attribute the party's difficulties to a failure to respond to an electorate grown more conservative, upscale and suburban. This is nonsense. The biggest losses for Democrats since 1980 have not been among suburban voters but among America's giant middle and working classes — especially white workers without four-year college degrees, once part of the old Democratic base. Not incidentally, these are the same people who have lost the most economic ground over the last quarter-century.

Thanks, Readers

This week, we've been averaging over 550 unique visitors a day - about 525 more than I thought I'd ever garner - as we close in on the magic 100,000 mark. And best of all, these are mostly folks who come in on their own - repeat customers if you will - checking in because they've bookmarked us. About 1 in 20 are linked from other sites.

To all of you, no matter how you got here - thanks. Feel free to join the conversation. You're in good company.

Dave Barry's In NH

Wish I knew this sooner. Catch Dave's campaign coverage here.

Dean is trying desperately to soften his image by wearing suits, smiling, no longer ending speeches by breaking boards with his forehead, etc. But these measures may be too late, as almost all the experts now predict that Kerry will win in New Hampshire, which probably means he won't.

Voice Of Experience: The GOP Economy "Sucks"

From the Syracuse Post-Standard:

Investor Martin J. Whitman first came to Syracuse University just after World War II, under the G.I. Bill of Rights, a federal program conceived when the country was running deficits that Whitman says was a good use of taxpayer money.

Whitman, Class of '49 and nearly 80, was back in Syracuse on Thursday, in a building with his name on it and in an economy newly stung with word of extensive layoffs at Kodak and a deepening federal deficit.

The U.S. economy in one Whitman word?

"Sucks," said Whitman, known as a straight shooter.

So what's the first step to right it?

"The biggest thing we have to do about it is get rid of the Republicans," said Whitman. "It's just a disaster. I'm more a use-of-proceeds person than I am a deficit person.

"Deficits can be very, very constructive if the funds so raised are used in a productive manner, such as what brought me to Syracuse in the first place: the G.I. Bill of Rights. But when you piss the money away in useless wars and ill-conceived tax cuts, you're headed toward becoming a banana republic.

"The people there are just interested in trying to make the economy look good for the next election, but they're not interested in the Draconian long-term consequences."

Broadband: The Faulkner Dean Remix

This is outstanding.

Absolutely Truthful Headline Of The Day

Failure to find WMD in Iraq points to intelligence failure, Kay says

Zogby: The NH Gap Narrows

Ladies and Gentlemen...we have a race.

Independents wooed as N.H. race tightens

In the MSNBC/Zogby Reuters tracking poll released Sunday and covering Thursday through Saturday, Sen. John Kerry held a 30-23 percent lead over his closest rival, Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont.

The seven-point margin for Kerry in the three-day period was down two percentage points from the previous day's numbers. "Dean had another good polling day, actually bouncing back to 25 points on Saturday, compared to Kerry's 28," pollster John Zogby said. "Undecideds climbed slightly on Saturday, indicating a shift may be taking place."

KB Toys: Let's Analyze

KB Toys Seeks Chapter 11 Protection

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - KB Toys Inc. became the second major casualty of this past holiday's toy price wars, filing Wednesday for bankruptcy protection and announcing it will close up to 500 stores and cut its work force.

Here comes the funny part: KB's big push running up to the holidays was...? Anyone? Right, the selling of the George W. Bush Pilotpants action figure. Since then, on top of kicking thousands of employees out into the street, they also seemed to have done the same to you-know-who.

Getting screwed in this "booming economy" will do that to you.

When Op-Ed Pieces Hit A Chestnut Tree At 75 MPH

Tony Quinn has a rather huge column on the front page of the L.A. Times' Opinion section this morning. Let's read it!

The Politics of Prayer
As Democrats abandon traditional values and religion, their core voters are slipping away
Could 2004 be 1928 all over again?

Not since the 1928 elections have the Republicans retained control of both Congress and the White House. Now that 76-year-old record may be about to fall: President Bush is looking stronger...

CRASH AIR BAGS DEPLOYED - Man...I hate when my newspaper does that. Look two posts down, and you'll see why I couldn't read any more.

Video: How Presidential Is Bush?

If you were "shocked...SHOCKED!" over Dean's rally speech in Iowa, you ought to be horrified by our current president's behavior here. Anyone who claims that they've never said "Holy Shit" out loud in their lives should refrain from viewing.

Bottoms up.

Worst. Numbers. Ever.

Let's check the bounce from the State Of The Union speech:

Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. Jan. 22-23, 2004. N=1,233 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.

"Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?"

Approve: 50% (down from 54% Jan 8-9)
Disapprove: 44% (up from 41%)
Don't Know: 6% (up from 5%)

Tied for lowest approval rating ever (May 2001); Highest disapproval rating ever.

Overdosing On Homophobia

Wow. Accuracy In Media needs to check into rehab. Fast.

The Columbia Journalism Review Blasts Dean Coverage

A good look at the chronology of a smear by Brian Keefer. It garishly underscores what we keep discussing here: The validity of firsthand accounts versus the laziness of reporting from in front of a TV or computer monitor.

Correction

XXXXX ERRONEOUS INFORMATION FOUND AT HOFFMANIA! XXXXX
XXXXX 13:09:59 PST 01-24-04 XXXXX

IN AN EARLIER POST, we implied that Matt Drudge works out of the attic of his mother's house. HOFFMANIA! insiders report that this is not true. HOFFMANIA! offers its apology and retracts the statement.

Log cabins do not have attics.

Developing . . .

Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk. Why, You Chowderheads. I Oughta...(CLANK) Woo Woo Woo Woo

Click the play button
as you read the following:

WMD hunter: No stockpiles in Iraq

WASHINGTON (CNN) --The man who has led Washington's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, David Kay, says he does not think Iraq had stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons.

Kay quit his post as the CIA's chief weapons hunter in Iraq and will be replaced by Charles Duelfer -- a former official with the U.N.'s inspection team in Iraq.

---

Iraq weapons find remains a possibility, Cheney says

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney said it is still possible that investigators will find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, reviving the possibility after nine months of fruitless searches.

---

Powell: Possible Iraq Had No Banned Arms

TBLISI, Georgia - Secretary of State Colin Powell held out the possibility Saturday that prewar Iraq may not have possessed weapons of mass destruction.

The View From The Crowd

Here's the perspective no one wants to report because it's not character-assassinating enough.

Fox And Friends! Where The Ignorant Are Being Replaced By The Misinformed

Reader Dave watched the Fox News morning fustercluck and writes:

On Tuesday or possibly Wednesday morning, the one in the middle (semi-cute but very vacuous E.D. Something) [E.D. Hill] was railing against the Democratic responses to the SOTU, in particular the criticism that pre-emptive war had never been a part of the American makeup. With a sneer she said "Oh yeah? What about Kosovo? What about Pearl Harbor?" Uh, Pearl Harbor? Perhaps all of my old history books are wrong but I am reasonably sure that Pearl Harbor wasn't an instance of American pre-emptive war. Did anyone else notice this?

Kinda reminds me of Blutarsky's "It's not over until WE say it's over!" speech in Animal House.

Bloggers In New Hampshire: Reports From The Trenches

American Stranger files his first Blah3 report from NH where he and Symbolman will do their next TBTM show.

Josh Marshall is packing on the miles hitting as many of the stump spots as he can, with reviews of Dean, Kerry and Clark's appearances.

And Kos seems to have more correspondents in NH than all the news networks combined. The poll-savant reports the Dean slide seems to have stopped - maybe even reversed. Jerome Armstrong visits the defunct Gephardt HQ which has been taken over by Kerry's folks.

Good job and congrats all around, guys and gals. Thanks for being there.

Ed Gillespie Wants My Money

I received this letter today from the RNC. I haven't a clue as to why I did, but here it is - presented in its original form so you can see the their latest effort. You can make your own comments at the end - I've already made the first one to get the ball rolling. The bold, underscored and italic portions are exactly as they appear in the original.

Dear Friend and Fellow American,

I must alert you to an important matter - At this very moment, a fierce battle is being waged for America's heart and soul.

And - the decision you make in the next few moments could determine the outcome.

But let me explain:

Since taking office on January 20, 2001, President Bush has transformed our party, our country, and our world.

He has passed two of the LARGEST TAX CUTS in history, igniting the fastest rate of ECONOMIC GROWTH since 1984 - and creation of new jobs is on the increase.

And, on November 25, 2003, President Bush and our Republican Congress passed a historic Medicare prescription drug bill, which allows for the first modernization of this senior health care program in nearly 40 years.

In addition, Mr. Bush has signed into law the most important education reform in a generation, transformed the federal government to protect our homeland, AND led our Nation courageously in the War on Terrorism.

But - despite these tremendous accomplishments - the fight for America's future is far from over.

In fact, the real battle is just beginning...

You see, the liberals are retrenching! And now, they're hungrier than ever to undermine President Bush, and his agenda for a better, more prosperous America. Just consider this quote from a prominent liberal activist:

"Now the President is out of control and threatens American democracy and the peace of the world...Bush must be beaten in 2004. Not only the nation, but the world, depends on it." *

That's why I'm asking you to STAND UP for America's future by becoming a sustaining member of the Republican National Committee (RNC) today. Your pledge of support, along with a membership contribution of $25, $35, $50, $100 or more, will help President Bush enact his agenda for a stronger, safer and better America.

As a sustaining member, you'll be entitled to a number of benefits which I'll describe for you in a moment.

But more important - you'll feel a strong sense of personal pride knowing that you're part of the team fighting for a better future for all Americans.

While President Bush has already passed two of the largest tax cuts in history...sparked the fastest pace of economic growth in nearly 20 years...passed a historic Medicare prescription drug bill...AND led our country courageously in the War on Terrorism...

...we must ALL continue to FIGHT for America's future!

And - as a sustaining member of the RNC, you'll be doing your part to help President Bush further his agenda to strengthen the Economy, secure our Homeland, safeguard Social Security, and win the War on Terrorism.

We've done so much in the past year!

I know you're as proud about what we've accomplished as I am. But now is not the time to rest. It's the time to build, and the decision you must make is simply this:

Will you stand up NOW and FIGHT for the future of America?

I hope that your answer is YES - and that you'll join the RNC as a sustaining member today.

Your show of support, and a generous membership donation of $25, $35, $50, $100 or more will be a strong statement of personal support, and a pledge of commitment to the future of our country.

By standing up and joining the RNC today, you'll be doing your part to fight for opportunity: Opportunity for yourself, and opportunity for every American.

You see, President Bush has a bright, bold vision - one of unity, and common purpose which draws strength from the timeless American principles of empowerment, independence, individual liberty and free enterprise.

He wants you to be able to chart your own course in life, empowered to take your own risks and succeed, rather than be caught in a web of government dependence.

He wants every child - regardless of the color of their skin, regardless of their house of worship, regardless of whether they live on a small farm or in a big city - to have the opportunity to succeed.

But the LIBERALS don't agree with President Bush. They want BIGGER GOVERNMENT, HIGHER TAXES, and LESS PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!

And now, they're more determined than ever to take TOTAL CONTROL of the federal government in 2004!

Make no mistake: The liberals will stop at nothing to undermine President Bush and his agenda for a better America.

That is why I must have your support today!

[more solicitations for $25, $35, etc. and list of benefits including a newsletter, phone access, membership card, lapel pin and access to RNC events]

The greatest benefit of membership, however, is the knowledge that you've taken a stand - that you're part of the team fighting for a better future for all Americans.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND: There is a fierce battle being waged at this very moment for the heart and soul of America. Your involvement is VITAL to the future of our country, and we need you on the Republican team today!

The decision you make right now to become a Sustaining Member of the RNC could alter the shape of America for years to come.

I hope you'll follow your heart. I hope you'll join us now!

Sincerely,

Ed Gillespie
Chairman

* Hoffmania note: From "Ralph, Don't Run" written by Ronnie Dugger in The Nation 11/14/02

Obesity Problem In America?

Oh. My. God.

(Wouldn't Rhode Islanders NEED this during the winter?)

Okay. Fine. Here.

Predictable, Predictable, Predictable

Now that Kerry's lead has increased by several furlongs, I'm tuning around the dial here in LA (which for those of you in the rest of America, has no Hollywood Liberal talkshows despite what you've been led to believe). Guess what! The conversations have shifted from Screamin' Dean to the more-liberal-than-Ted-Kennedy John Kerry.

Man, you can set your freakin' watch to the topics all these clowns come up with.

Separated At Birth

The Fred Flintstone Of Sports Journalism Makes His Choice

The L.A. Times reports today that ESPN's Chris Berman is supporting Joe Lieberman.

We Can Throw The "CBS Didn't Carry The Last Super Bowl" Argument Out The Window

CBS: 'No' to MoveOn, 'Yes' to White House

CBS rejected a request from MoveOn to air the 30-second spot, saying "Child's Pay" violated the network's policy against accepting advocacy advertising, a company spokesperson told reporters.

At the same time, CBS is allowing an ad placed on the docket by the White House's anti-drug office. For the third year in a row the White House has paid between $1.5 and $3 million each for 30-second spots during the broadcast. The 2004 ad, produced for the White House by Ogilvy & Mather, is expected to convey a message similar to their previous Super Bowl spots. While CBS would not reveal the content of the upcoming ad, previous White House Super Bowl spots drew a controversial link between casual drug use and the financing of global terrorists.

Debate: Dueling Headlines

Palm Beach Post: Democrats rip Bush, one another
ABC News: Dems Rap Bush, but Not Each Other in N.H.
Miami Herald: Democrats tone it down

And oh yeah, Newsweek: Dissecting Howard Dean's Implosion
(Just to make the media happy.)

The Latest From Hatboy

XXXXX SOMEONE PUTS BEE IN DRUDGE'S PORKPIE HAT! XXXXX
Developing news from Mrs. Drudge's attic:

---

Matt horny for John Edwards for second time in one week...

---

Tells Moby to "butch up..."

---

Developing serious Freudian attributes...
Reports moved as situations lose interest...

Icons Of My Childhood Keep Disappearing

When I was a rugrat, I used to think that Captain Kangaroo and Walter Cronkite were the same guy. They both lived on Channel 2, they both had moustaches, they both spoke in assuring basso profundo tones. It's just that he'd wear his captain's costume in the morning when we kids were watching, then put on his serious suit and demanor at night because dad was home to watch.

Bob Keeshan passed away this morning at 76.

Remember This Story? The Computer Break-In? Hmmm?

Yeah, it's been met with the same ennui the "liberal" press gives stories like these because they're still too busy analyzing the never-ending Screamin' Dean story and how it's been skewered by the late-night comedians and sampled on the internet and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

For the six of us still interested in this illegal high-tech break-in, here's an update.

GOP downplays reading of memos
'Fact sheet' asserts no rules, laws broken
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff, 1/23/2004

WASHINGTON -- Although Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle's investigation into GOP surveillance of Democratic Judiciary Committee communications from 2002 to 2003 is not yet complete, Republicans are preemptively trying to head off any criminal charges or even ethics complaints in the Senate or the D.C. Bar.

The Committee for Justice, headed by C. Boyden Gray, a former senior White House counsel during the first Bush administration, this week began circulating a "fact sheet" arguing that no rules or laws were broken by Republican staffers who exploited a computer glitch on a shared server that allowed them to access memos written by their Democratic counterparts without having to enter a password.

However, Democrats, including Beryl Howell, a former general counsel for the Judiciary Committee who left the Hill a year ago and now runs the D.C. office of the cybersecurity consulting firm Stroz Friedberg, were quick to dispute each of the major points advanced by the Committee for Justice.

Said Howell: "Just because you can do it doesn't mean it's right, doesn't mean it's ethical, and doesn't mean it's legal."

Gray responded, "Yeah, but Howard Dean was really loud Monday night."

(Look, folks, I'm just trying to draw the press' attention to this story somehow.)

Thank You

David Greenberg in today's L.A. Times:

When I first saw the snippets of Dean's Monday night speech, they struck me as little more than the fiery rallying cry of an exhausted, hoarse campaigner trying to keep disappointment from sapping his troops. His final grunt did sound sort of odd, but juxtaposed against Dean's other comments that night, which were subdued and conciliatory, his overall reaction seemed reasonable.

Within 24 hours, however, a consensus among the news commentators had congealed that Dean had lost it. Cable news replayed the offending speech fragments over and over Tuesday. Pundits tittered and shook their heads over Dean's eruption of "anger" — a quality of Dean's they had always overstated and overrated anyway.

Ultimately, television pumped this nonstory so full of life that many newspapers felt obliged to run another round of articles about it Wednesday and even Thursday. Dean was described as a "rabid dog" and "borderline psychotic" by analysts. Soon the conventional-wisdom buzz was not that Dean's third-place showing would doom him but that his grunts and howls would.

What had been a relatively innocuous, if slightly goofy, speech has metamorphosed into a real threat to his prospects, as late-night comedians drill home the image of a deranged Dean. Perhaps the propensity toward hysteria and overheated rhetoric belongs to the media, not to Dean.

Three At Bats: A Hit, A Walk, A Home Run

Howard Dean had a television trifecta tonight. Did okay at the debate - not astounding, but still solid - and did the Letterman Top Ten (Things I can do to turn things around) - dutifully delivering the writers' lines with a very decent response.

But on Primetime Live, he and his wife Judy met Diane Sawyer's insipid questioning head-on and were brilliant. Sawyer made her usual attempt to make her questions more newsworthy than her subjects' answers. The Deans were unapologetic - as they should have been - when Sawyer predictably drilled them on the Iowa speech:

Diane Sawyer: But it is the sort of thing that can hurt … really hurt you.

Howard Dean: You know what, Diane? It could. But there's nothing I can do about it. I did it. I own it. Maybe it was over the top. I was trying to pump up 3,500 kids who gave me three weeks of their lives, and I'm not a perfect person. But, my attitude is, that's done. And, now we gotta get back to running for president.
-----
The young people are incredibly disillusioned. They see … the things that people care about the most who are under 30 are the deficit, the environment, and how to get through college. This President's wrecked the environment. We have the biggest deficit in the history of the country. What do they have to look forward to? They desperately want change and they're enormously energetic. That video shows it. Now look, I … I mean, was it over the top? Sure it was over the top. Do I do things that are a little nutty? Sure I do things that are a little nutty. But the truth is, I was having a great time. They were having a great time. It was really tough for those kids who worked their hearts out and come in third when they thought I was going to come in first. You know? I'm a little sheepish, Diane, but I'm not apologetic because I was giving everything to people who gave everything to me.

That's how I saw it from the get-go. People keep asking me if I'm still supporting this guy after the past few days. I put it this way:

The Democrats were simpering little wussies scared to death of offending Bush and the Crackheads. Dean knew he'd be labeled unpatriotic and unAmerican by the White House frauds if he stood up to them and identified them as the liars they were. He did - and as expected, they labeled him. But something amazing happened. They didn't stick. In fact, his words and attitude resonated with voters. It was only then that the other candidates came out of their shells and slammed Bush - using their newfound courage to slam Dean while they were at it.

If I have any doubts about Dean, it's from the way the media have been beating the crap out of him since he began to lead the polls. It's tough to win the race when it looks like that tortoises-and-hare Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Dean still impresses me as the real deal. I'm also impressed by Clark and Edwards. Kerry's past actions (war vote notwithstanding) still bother me, though I respect his accomplishments. Lieberman, Sharpton and Kucinich, on the other hand, are toast and should stop wasting debate airtime. We need to hear more from the other four.

Tonight's interview demonstrated why I'm still standing with Dean.

If you missed it, read it here or watch it here.

What We're Up Against

Um...er...uh...

...this?

Flashback: Four Years Ago

Tucker Carlson: The 'compassionate conservative' gets angry
By TUCKER CARLSON/CNN
February 16, 2000
Web posted at: 1:04 p.m. EST (1804 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- You didn't hear the phrase "compassionate conservatism" much in the Republican debate Tuesday night. Over the past week in South Carolina, George W. Bush has waged one of the roughest primary campaigns in memory. The man who describes himself as "a uniter, not a divider" has gone profoundly negative against his chief rival, John McCain. When he talks about his political philosophy, Bush typically goes out of his way to sound gentle and inclusive. He didn't bother during the debate on Larry King Live.

Instead, Bush sounded angry, raising his voice and scowling. He seemed close to losing his temper several times, usually when the three others on the set attempted to speak over him. Bush hates -- absolutely can't stand, won't tolerate -- to be interrupted. During the first hour of the debate I tried to count the number of times he petulantly snapped, "Let me finish," or "May I finish?" or "Wait a minute!" My pen ran out of ink before I completed the tally, but the point was clear: Bush, not McCain, appears to be the one with the temper problem.

Did We Call It, Or Did We Call It?

Government Computer News is calling the high-tech break-in of Senate Democrats' computers by the GOP:

Democrats' Cyber-Embarrassment

Just friggin' shoot me.

Memo To Dean Campaign

Enough TV spots made by college kids with camcorders. You have the bucks. It's time to go pro. Hire an advertising agency. Or at least hire Charlie Fisher, winner of Bush in 30 Seconds. But do it NOW.

Fom the Pen of: Ann Telnaes

DUH!

KNX Radio's Chris Stanley was speaking with CBS News' Barry Bagnato this afternoon about John Kerry's strong showing in New Hampshire polls. Chris expressed surprise that Kerry would be leading Howard Dean there since Dean was once the governor of neighboring Vermont.

Bagnato was almost too embarrassed to respond with the obvious, which he ultimately did.

Another Bit Of My Childhood Checks Out

George Woodbridge, an illustrator for Mad magazine for nearly 50 years, has died. He was 73. His illustration of 1965's "43-Man Squamish" is still a classic.

The Party Of Smaller Government Kicks Us In The Nutsack Again

The Senate gave President Bush and his Republican allies a victory today by approving an $820 billion spending bill covering more than a dozen federal departments and agencies in the fiscal year that began almost four months ago.

We'll break it down for you: That's close to another trillion our kids will be smacked with.

The Embryo Sprouts Legs

The Boston Globe story (next post down) on GOP Senate Judiciary Committee members ransacking Democratic files has been picked up verbatim by the Kansas City Star, the Seattle P-I, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

THIS Is The Story Our "Journalists" MUST Cover. NOW.

This caught my eye over at Blah3 via the Boston Globe. It puts the Dean-screaming story in proper perspective as the non-story it is.

Remember Watergate? And I don't mean that it was the event that gave the world "-gate" as a cheap scandal suffix.

The 1972 break-in at the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington ultimately led to the impeachment procedings and resignation of President Richard Nixon.

What you're about to read here is nothing less than a high-tech version of Watergate. And it stinks to high hell.

Infiltration of files seen as extensive
Senate panel's GOP staff pried on Democrats
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff, 1/22/2004

WASHINGTON -- Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The Globe.

From the spring of 2002 until at least April 2003, members of the GOP committee staff exploited a computer glitch that allowed them to access restricted Democratic communications without a password. Trolling through hundreds of memos, they were able to read talking points and accounts of private meetings discussing which judicial nominees Democrats would fight -- and with what tactics.

The office of Senate Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle has already launched an investigation into how excerpts from 15 Democratic memos showed up in the pages of the conservative-leaning newspapers and were posted to a website last November.

WHERE IS THIS STORY BESIDES THE BOSTON GLOBE? The main page at the otherwise useful Google News still leads with Dean Scream, and this story is NOWHERE. Nothing at CNN. Nothing at ABCNews. Nothing at MSNBC. Nothing at CBSNews. And do we even need to mention FoxNews and XXXXX Mr. Developing Story, Matt Drudge XXXXX?

Give 'em several months, and they'll do a story on how sloppy the Democrats are with their computers.

Shrill, Blustery, Fist-pounding, Shouting

He crusaded endlessly on matters big and small, exciting audiences with his high-pitched voice, jutting jaw, and pounding fist.

Some of [his] most effective achievements were in conservation. He added enormously to the national forests in the West, reserved lands for public use, and fostered great irrigation projects.

"Our place ... is and must be with the nations that have left indelibly their impress on the centuries!" he shouted in San Francisco.

Whatever his interest, he pursued it with extraordinary zeal. "I always believe in going hard at everything," he preached time and again.

Who's this progressive loudmouth? President Teddy Roosevelt, of course. Look him up sometime, chickenhawks. That'd be under "Republicans Who Once Did The Right Stuff."

Unbefrigginglievable

Four days after the fact, the L.A. Times has loaded its corpulent journalistic butt onto the Trash-Dean bandwagon. Here are some of the terms used in a front-page above-the-fold story called Dean's Late-Night Battle Cry May Have Damaged Campaign:

"irreparable harm"
"prone to outbursts"
"fits of pique"
"unqualified to be president"

As insane as this sounds, that's just the first paragraph. In the rest of the story, you'll also find these lovely pejoratives, all, except where noted, written by the writers - not quotes:

"emotional meltdown"
"rabid dog" (quote by Charlie Cook, newsletter writer)
"shrieking"
"manic'
"wild-eyed"
"mentally unstable"
"borderline psychotic" (quote from Don Sipple, a GOP strategist)
"screeching"
"volatile temper"
"He'll melt and melt and melt" (quoting Sipple again)
"Had he been drinking before he went on stage?"

That last one, by the way, was the writers' quoting of a comment at the Dean Blog. Ever been there? There are generally no less than 150-300 comments for every entry. This meant the Times' Mark Barabak and and Faye Fiore had to wade through possibly thousands of comments to find that choice quote. Nice use of your time, you pitiful excuses for journalists. Just more scribes trying to win an AP award by traveling no further than you are right now to research a story.

Did they even bother to touch on the context and setting of this speech? Oh, yeah. About halfway into this lengthy diatribe, you can find these few sentences:

Indeed, the speech seemed to play well within the fevered confines of the retro disco ballroom of a West Des Moines hotel where Dean spoke soon after the results were known. Some in attendance said they felt the candidate resorted to shouts to be heard over the roar of the crowd.

"Anyone who thinks Dean was over the top last night obviously wasn't there," wrote one website supporter who was.

Then the editorial-disguised-as-news-story resumes with the next sentence:

But when carried on worldwide television, the speech seemed to cross an invisible line from passion to self-parody.

Needless to say, this story was accompanied by several unflattering pictures of a flailing-armed Dean.

It's the story that the media won't let die - because it's all they've got. And they didn't have much to begin with.

Truly Interesting Site

Love In War is a people-meeting service with a twist - it's for political-centric folks on all sides of the spectrum, although the only folks there seem to be good guys/gals whose political intensity is measured from Clinton Mellow to Dean Angry. Heh. Okay, I'll give them slack on that.

Thanks to regular reader Bryan, founder of Love In War. Check it out and be part of the launch. And let us know if you meet someone.

So You Came Here To Hear Howard Dean Going Nuts?

Fine. You want to listen to the insane guy who's lost his mind. Click here for the lunatic ravings of a certified madman. After hearing this, you'll know this guy is unfit to be President of the United States.

Oh God

Diane Sawyer will be doing one of her simpering transparent non-penetrating interviews tomorrow - this time with Howard and Judith Dean. Gee. I wonder if she'll spend 90% of the time dwelling on "YEAAAHHH!"

Place your bets.

Enough Of Dean's YEAAAAAAAH Already

Have any of the people railing on Dean's high-voltage post-Iowa pep talk ever seen him speak to a crowd before? Predictably, the wingnut radio twits are playing it almost in an endless loop throughout their shows. Oh ho ho. Imaginative little bastards. But news "organizations" are making wacky sampling videos, labeling him as crazy, asking psychoanalysts, bringing in experts, smirking at the loudness of it all and having roundtable/town hall discussions about the freakin' Dean speech. What the hell?

I've seen him live several times. He emotes. He raises his voice often. Especially when the crowd is egging him on, as they did Monday night. This is NOTHING NEW. This is what he does. He obviously saw a lot of sunken faces that night and wanted to light a fire under their asses. He committed the biggest sin of all: showing emotion in front of cameras - with all the sound picked up through just one microphone - the one he was yelling into - not picking up the obvious crowdswell which you can see all around him.

Because the crowd wasn't mic'ed, all you heard was Dean. Therefore, that's all the story you're getting: Dean yelling.

The meteoric rise of Dean was - at least for one night - successfully squashed by the "liberal" media. But that wasn't enough. They need to finish the job. They have to wrap their jaws around a rally speech and drag that through the dirt for the last couple of days.

I'm so glad we're focusing on the right issues here. I was afraid our esteemed journalists were waxing superficial again (/sarcasm).

MA! I'M TYPING UP HERE

XXXXX It's amazing what your imagination whips up when you only see the world from the attic of your mother's house. XXXXX

XXXXX Developing... XXXXX

From the Pen of: Jeff Danziger

Why The Ground Is Feeling Chilly

That's because hell froze over. Oh, sure he takes his requisite swings at Bill Clinton as a president, but that's only because he's got a career at the NY Post to think about. That aside, neocon nut Ralph Peters falls under the spell of the big dog.

"Journalistic Integrity"

In an e-mail message sent on Feb. 15, 2003, Marc Graboff, an NBC business executive, urged [Michael] Jackson's representatives to consider a bid of "$5 million for the exclusive rights to the footage and the interview."

Mr. Graboff then added: "Unlike with other networks, the acquisition of the rights to this special on NBC will have the added benefit of pre-empting NBC's planned broadcast of the one-hour [investigative program into Mr. Jackson by] Dateline scheduled for Feb. 17." The message was copied to the executive producer of "Dateline" and to the president of NBC Entertainment.

When first reported a year ago, deep in a Washington Post gossip column, Mr. Graboff said the offer "was not a quid pro quo: 'You give us the interview, and we'll kill the Dateline special.' "

But a close adviser to Mr. Jackson who negotiated with NBC said the offer had been precisely that.

The SOTU Promised Us The Moon, The Stars And...Hey, Wait A Minute

...Also left out was any mention of the president's proposal, made only last week, to send astronauts to the moon as the first step of a program to land humans on Mars. Polls have found that many voters are unenthusiastic about spending the money an expanded manned space program would take.

"It's not real popular," an administration official said.

Whatever You Do, Don't Let Facts Sway Your Decision

Editorial excerpt from the LA Times on the SOTU:

His real accomplishment was a persuasive delivery of a good speech that sent a steady message: "I'm the boss. I'm unafraid to do what needs doing. Stick with me." And the less a listener let the facts get in the way, the more effective the speech became.

-----

Bush's address was the start of what should be the most serious, substantive debate over domestic and foreign policy in 20 years. Bush offered himself as the president who slays terrorism, kills taxes and saves traditional values. While the facts of the matter may get in the way, it's a smart strategy for reelection.

Another Day, Another Republican, Another Abuse Of Usage Of State Troopers

State troopers relay Sugar Bowl tickets to New Orleans for senator

Louisiana state troopers maintain they rendered no special favors when they relayed Sugar Bowl tickets from Shreveport to New Orleans for newly-elected state Sen. Sherri Smith Cheek on game day earlier this month.

It all began when Cheek received a call from her husband about 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 4. He was in New Orleans, but he'd left the tickets in Shreveport, she said.

"After calling FedEx, UPS, the bus station and the airport, I knew there was nothing else for me to do but get on the road," Cheek said Tuesday. "I called the state Senate's office in Baton Rouge and they connected me to the state police in either Baton Rouge or New Orleans, I don't remember."

When asked how the troopers were able to get the tickets to New Orleans in time for the game after Cheek had been advised there was no way for her to make it there in time, Whittaker said, "I don't know the answer to that. We got the tickets down there. As far as the traffic and how they handled it in New Orleans, I don't know."

We Knew The Beatles. The Beatles Were Friends Of Ours.

You four fenderheads are NOT the Beatles.

Out Of Context

SOTU - I was running the gauntlet at LAX while he was talking:

Bush was combative at times, challenging opponents of the Iraq war — particularly those who complained he lacked international backing.

"America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people," he said.

Nor will it seek a permission slip to carry out a crackhead agenda which had nothing to do with terrorism based on trumped-up "evidence" which makes us look like lying bastards to the rest of the world.

Keep talking, cowboy. You're getting thrown off your horse one year from today.

Absolute Must-Read Material - Plus: Our Message

Get over to Media Whores Online and read some greatness titled Bush Fatigue Grips Nation (link now updated to archived story). Some samples:

Our candidates have finally abandoned holding back harsh criticism of George W. Bush, the individual for fear of being labeled unpatriotic. And they aren't afraid of accusations they are "not respecting the office of the presidency" because they finally understand that only the most deluded and hopeless Bush apologists believe it is in any way respectful of the office of the presidency to avoid criticizing someone who occupies it illegitimately as a result of successfully fighting to prevent the will of the American voters from prevailing.

Repairing the image of Democrats-as-wimps was essential if we were to have any chance of defeating the Unelected Fraud in November.

--------

Democrats failed to lead after 9/11 and instead allowed their actions to be determined by a terrorized public begging them not to give them any further "bad news" about Bush's defective character, his corruption, or his incompetence.

Democrats failed to lead at a time when Democratic leadership was needed more than ever. A time when the corrupt Bush Regime signaled it intended to utilize the deaths of 3000 Americans to push an unrelated radical right-wing agenda that included an unnecessary and immoral Iraq war, and draconian domestic policies rejected by the American people when Bush was defeated in 2000.

For months after 9/11, Democrats bought into the Republican Party and state-run news media's exploitative and disgraceful "unity means agreeing with Bush's radical right-wing agenda" propaganda.

And when the midterm elections rolled around in November 2002, Karl Rove and Ralph Reed showed Democrats what happens when they foolishly trust known corrupt power abusers: Republicans will unceremoniously shove Democrats' goodwill down their throats with ads portraying them as traitors and terrorist sympathizers.

Democrats seem to be wising up. Now they're ignoring the New York Times editorial admonitions not to question the Unelected Fraud's character and have begun to fight back hard.

Our candidates are saying things you used to see only on Websites like this one.

-------

There was the ABC-American Spectacle story implying Dr. Howard Dean knowingly vouched for a wife-beater.

Next came an equally vaporous New York Times story about General Wesley Clark strategist Chris Lehane, headlined at Drudge, complete with grainy black and white photo of Lehane resembling Chupacabra.

Finally, accusations flew about John Kerry's alleged advocacy for the abolition of the Dept. of Agriculture, clearly intended to set us on a dangerous slippery slope toward the abolition agriculture itself.

But given that these are considered the most "damaging" stories for each of the candidates - what is most remarkable is not the nastiness of the campaign, but the fact that when one examines all of the so-called "scandals" thrown around thus far, the heartening question that comes to mind is: Is this all they have?

Here it is - in writing - what we really have been believing and what we've really needed to see. We've been saying on this blog that the Democrats will have the truth on our side this November. MWO has put forth the argument in an absolutely must-read essay. If you've already read it, go read it again. Cut and paste it into your documents. Read it every two weeks.

I'm also compelled to add that we're finally seeing some balls in the speeches by most of the remaining candidates regarding the criticism of the frauds in the White House. That was a path that was blazed by the guy I've been supporting almost as long as I've been blogging. It took guts and the ability to take a lot of crap to do so, but Howard Dean needs to be credited for opening the flood gates - making it okay to speak out against the lies and hijacking of patriotism by Bush and the rest of his crackheads. Not that we needed permission, but as MWO points out, we were taking "the high road." Being the nice guys. Attempting to work with these barbarians. And we got our asses kicked roundly for doing so. Well, people - those days are over. And thanks in no small part to the "angry" Howard Dean.

He opened the door and the other candidates walked in - some of them stomping a mudhole in him as they did. But we now have a message which is resonating with America. We must deliver it this November - no matter who the candidate is. I'll be there. Please - you need to be there as well.

Back In L.A.!

And finally back online. My information drought is about to end, but I wanted to check in first. So...I bet Dean kicked ass in Iowa, huh? On to New Hampshire!

In Case The Day Gets Past Me...

(SEATTLE) - I'll be sans internet access for most of today and tomorrow. I don't know how significant the results of today's Iowa caucuses (shouldn't that be "cauci"?) will be, but the significance of tomorrow must not escape us.

Tomorrow should be George W. Bush's final State of the Union message. Because one year from tomorrow - if there's any justice and proper voter outrage - we'll be swearing in a new president.

Celebrate the day.

From the Pen of: Plantil

The world notices. From Paris Le Monde:

Today's Pollster Head-Scratcher

The latest Zogby poll has Howard Dean trailing John Kerry 24.4 to 23.1 percent in its three-day rolling-average tracking poll. What's even stranger is the explanation:

"Kerry continues to poll strong. Dean seems to have bottomed out and move almost back to where he was," pollster John Zogby said. "There are fewer doubts about Dean's ability to defeat Bush, a factor that has hurt him much of this week."

Some of you may not quite grasp what was just said there. I'll clarify it.

Zogby is saying that there is - less doubt - about Dean being able to beat Bush. "More doubt about Dean's ability to beat Bush" would mean there's growing concern that he can't. But Zogby's saying the opposite. And this has somehow hurt Dean.

Let that sink in - and you'll understand why my diddling around with caucus poll numbers here will make my freaking head explode.

DAMMIT. It Always Takes Forever To Clean The Coffee I Spit On My Monitor After Reading Stuff Like This

Bush prefers our pretty boy to his pretty boy

OTTAWA -- This is the tale of the two Scotts -- one American, the other Canadian. One is dark-haired, the other blond. Both are 35 and both work for the most powerful men in their respective countries.

Scott McClellan is the press secretary to U.S. President George W. Bush; Scott Reid is the senior strategist to Prime Minister Paul Martin.

But, according to Mr. Bush, Mr. Martin has the prettier Scott.

Mr. Bush wandered over during Mr. Reid's chat with the Prime Minister. Mr. Reid introduced himself and shook hands with Mr. Bush.

"Well, what do you do for this guy?" the President asked as he pointed to the Prime Minister.

"Well, you know, sir, I can't really say," Mr. Reid said. "It's not that I don't want to. It's just that, you know, I don't really know from day to day."

This is true. Mr. Reid handles a number of files and performs a number of different duties, depending on the issue and the day.

The President chuckled. "Well, you got a pretty face," he told the surprised Mr. Reid. He wasn't done. "You got a pretty face," he said again. "You're a good-looking guy. Better looking than my Scott anyway."

This is true. His Scott has a receding hairline and is on the chubby side, while Mr. Martin's Scott has a full head of hair and is quite fit.

When The Lustre Of Saddam Wears Off...

...it could get ugly. Oh look, it did:

CBS News/New York Times Poll Jan. 12-15, 2004. N=1,022 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.
Trend includes surveys conducted independently by CBS and by The New York Times.

"Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?"

Approve: 50% (60% 12/21)
Disapprove: 45% (33%)
Don't Know: 5% (7%)

Hasn't Scalia Done Enough Already For These Crackheads?

Trip With Cheney Puts Ethics Spotlight on Scalia
Friends hunt ducks together, even as the justice is set to hear the vice president's case.

WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spent part of last week duck hunting together at a private camp in southern Louisiana just three weeks after the court agreed to take up the vice president's appeal in lawsuits over his handling of the administration's energy task force.

While Scalia and Cheney are avid hunters and longtime friends, several experts in legal ethics questioned the timing of their trip and said it raised doubts about Scalia's ability to judge the case impartially.

But Scalia rejected that concern Friday, saying, "I do not think my impartiality could reasonably be questioned."

What he MEANT to say was, "I do not think my impartiality will reasonably be questioned."

To quote Alan who sent this along: "I wasn't going to comment on or pass along this story, but then I thought, That's what they want; they want to wear us down, they want their critics to shrug in tired acceptance and stop pointing to their mistakes or misdeeds... I can't do it... I can't stop..."

We know the feeling all too well around here.

Then On July 21st, The Guy In 23C Ordered A Mourgh Sandwich

Here we go again...

Airline Gave Government Information on Passengers

At the time of JetBlue's apology, Northwest [Airlines] officials publicly stated that their airline, the nation's fourth-largest, would not divulge information on its passengers.

"We do not provide that type of information to anyone," Kurt Ebenhoch, a spokesman for Northwest, told The New York Times in a story published on Sept. 23.

Northwest confirmed that it gave NASA data on passengers who flew during several months in 2001. The airline's action came to light through Freedom of Information Act requests made to the Transportation Security Administration and NASA by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based privacy-rights group. It was reported on the Web site of The Washington Post on Saturday.

The information Northwest turned over to the government appears to involve more than 10 million passengers, said David L. Sobel, the general counsel for the privacy group.

Great Names For Morning Show Disc Jockeys

(SEATTLE) - Species of fish we saw today at the Seattle Aquarium which would make good pseudonyms for radio hosts:

Red Lionfish
Walleye Pollock
Tubesnout
Snake Prickleback
Tiger Rockfish
Grunt Sculpin

...and the winner is:
Spiny Lumpsucker

Preview Of Tuesday Night's Meeting Of The Liars' Club

Address Will Depict Bush as Above Politics

But still beneath contempt. Okay, okay. Cheap shot. Back to the story.

According to Bush advisers, this is the gist of his speech, which will have solemn passages with an overall tone of optimism:

We are a nation at war. My bold decisions have made America safer, but we are not yet safe. At home, my administration's policies have made us better and more prosperous. But I am not satisfied, and Congress must pass more of what I have proposed.

The speech will begin with a tour of the world, including a claim by Bush that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq made the nation safer. Advisers said Bush plans to make a big point, in the speech and during the campaign, of Libya's decision last month to surrender its chemical and biological weapons. Many in Bush's circle contend that the decision was spurred by the confrontation with Saddam Hussein, and see the agreement as a prize to compensate for the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Bush's Mars Project Claims Its First Casualty

NASA Cancels Trip to Supply Hubble, Sealing Early Doom

Savor those cosmic postcards while you can. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration decreed an early death yesterday to one of its flagship missions and most celebrated successes, the Hubble Space Telescope.

In a midday meeting at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., two days after President Bush ordered NASA to redirect its resources toward human exploration of the Moon and Mars, the agency's administrator, Sean O'Keefe, told the managers of the space telescope that there would be no more shuttle visits to maintain it.

500

Three U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, toll reaches 500

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - Guerrillas killed three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi officials on Saturday, taking the death toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq to 500 since the war to oust Saddam Hussein began last March.

Let's Take A Look At Bush's Dayrunner

1 - Wake up
B - Lay wreath at Martin Luther King Jr.'s grave
3 - Eat some pie
8 - Raise millions at Atlanta fundraiser
5 - Think of something over-the-top insane to finish the day
4 - Force appointment of racist judge
7 - Go to bed incognasent uncognicent not aware of the idiocy of what I did today

Bush Seats Judge, Bypassing Senate Democrats

President Bush on Friday used the Congressional recess to install Charles W. Pickering Sr. in a federal appeals court seat from which he had been blocked twice by the Senate because of Democratic opposition.

In using a president's power to make appointments during Congressional recesses to fill vacancies, Mr. Bush was able to skirt the Senate confirmation process, which Democrats have used for three years to block not only the Pickering nomination but also those of several other Bush judicial nominees.

Senate Democrats argued that he did not deserve elevation because he had written an article as a young man recommending ways to strengthen Mississippi's anti-miscegenation laws, left the Democratic Party in 1964 when the national party tried to integrate the state delegation to the national convention and, more recently, presided over a 1994 trial in which he took extraordinary steps to reduce the sentence of a man convicted in a cross-burning incident.

We Have Reclaimed The Literature Franchise

(SEATTLE) - Hello from the cold moist Northwest. And it took me all of 78 minutes on terra firma to get a winger pissed at me. While walking the streets, I came across some folks demonstrating for Wes Clark. I gave them the thumbs-up, saying "Anybody but Bush!" A couple of guys in front of us who work in the business district (they wore jackets saying such) turned and shot us a look to kill. We kept walking, shrugged our shoulders and just said, "Hey - my country sucks right now." That was the end of it. It feels good to be proud of being liberal.

Which brings me to the thing that got me in such a giddy mood to begin with. I went to the bookstore at LAX during my 90-minute wait for the boarding (do we still have to be there two hours early?), and REALLY liked what I saw: A window display overflowing with the titles, "Fraud," "Dude, Where's My Country," "American Dynasty," "Red, White and Liberal," "The Price of Loyalty," "Had Enough..."

It began to sink in: The good guys have recaptured the bookshelves. Ann Coulter was nowhere. O'Reilly's latest was sitting alone on a back shelf. If you looked under a table, you'd find a copy of Glenn Beck's book. But prominently displayed were Paul Krugman, Michael Moore, Molly Ivins, Ron Suskind, James Carville...man. THAT was inspiring.

Once you get out into the real world, you find out there are a lot of us. And I'm liking what I'm seeing.

See? I'm not always pissed off.

Wait! Wait! One More Thing, Okay?

Joe Conason agrees with Famous Amos (see four posts down) on the Gore speech - he was there, too.

Al Gore's remarkable address on climate change and environmental policy won a sustained ovation from the audience that filled Manhattan's Beacon Theatre Thursday afternoon. Lucid, learned, witty and fearless, the man who won the last presidential election delivered what was certainly the best speech of his career and one of the best I've ever heard given by any politician. The event's only regrettable aspect was the absence of certain individuals who ought to have shut up and listened -- including Ralph Nader and his supporters, axe-grinding reporters who maligned Gore so unfairly in 2000, and such scientific authorities as Rep. Roy Blunt and Dr. Matt Drudge, who evidently think a winter snowstorm somehow disproves global warming.

Now, good night, dammit.

And Since She Tested So Well In Our Focus Groups...

We had more comments about her than the freakin' American condition this week. So here's Britney Spears with a message to Matt Drudge.



Thank you, and good night.

Why I Opened The Floodgates Tonight

I'll be out of town visiting our new niece up in the Pacific Northwest, so posts will be fewer. I just wanted to leave with a cleared conscience so I pounded out this pile o'posts tonight. I'll have the notebook, so I'll check in on location.

Like you're all following my life.

We're Angry. But They're Criminally Insane

At this point, it almost hurts to ponder - why is anyone - ANYONE - with half a brain believing the GOP? Simple question, but it hurts to ask it.

GOP chair claims Clark supported war; transcripts show otherwise

Ed Gillespie, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, charged Thursday that retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark endorsed President Bush's policy toward Iraq two weeks before Congress voted to authorize Bush to go to war.

If true, that would contradict the core message of Clark's presidential campaign. The complete transcript of Clark's Sept. 26, 2002, testimony, however, reveals that Clark didn't endorse Bush's policy during the congressional hearing, and that the Republican charge is based on selected excerpts of his remarks.

Gillespie accurately quoted portions of Clark's testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in which Clark said he believed that Saddam Hussein possessed chemical and biological weapons and was seeking nuclear weapons. But the RNC chairman didn't mention that Clark also said America should work through the United Nations to seek a diplomatic solution and go to war only as a last resort.

Firsthand Account of Gore Speech

I'll take Famous Amos' word on this before I believe the National Center for Public etc. etc. any day:

Eyewitness to history: this man was AWESOME. Never again believe that "all our politicians" are "dwarves", etc.... there are some great leaders available to this country. The people in power just want you to believe there's no real alternative, and depress political participation.

Believe me, when you hear a powerful, intelligent, well-informed, energetic, rousing speaker like AL... and then reflect on the 4-year freak show we've been subjected-to, with a smirking, inarticulate, incurious moron fronting a dark group of thieves, traitors and killers... it is enough to make you SICK.

Sounds like powerful stuff. No wonder the pinhead wingnuts are focusing on how cold it was in NYC. The speech kicked their asses from coast to coast. I haven't been able to load the video, but try it yourself.

To Judy Woodruff And Her Pals, A Big Shout Out To You Guys!

Study: Network News Criticizes Dean Most
The Associated Press

Howard Dean received significantly more criticism on network newscasts than the other Democratic presidential contenders, who were the subjects of more favorable coverage, according to a study released Thursday.

More than three-quarters of the coverage of Dean's foes by the nightly news programs was favorable, while a majority of attention to Dean was negative, the Center for Media and Public Affairs found.

National Center for Public Policy Research: Gore's Speech Was Demagoguery

Sometimes it pays to read the footnote before even bothering to start reading this sort of thing:

"The National Center for Public Policy Research is a non- partisan, conservative..."

CHECK, PLEASE.

When you describe your organization with an oxymoron, it's time to leave.

This Settles It

Drudge has brain damage. The reason we're experiencing these extremes is...

...aw jeeze, why do I even bother.

Flu Shot, Schmu Schmot

Why I never get 'em. Still, this comes from the network of Judy Woodruff so take it with a grain of salt. (MAN, I gotta lighten up...)

Study: Little or no value to flu vaccine

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) --This year's flu vaccine had little or no effectiveness against influenza-like illnesses, according to a preliminary study released Thursday.

The study, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, looked at workers at Children's Hospital in Denver, Colorado.

Of the 1,000 people who got the vaccine before November 1, 149 went on to develop influenza-like illness (14.9 percent). Of the 402 people who did not get the vaccine, 68 got an influenza-like illness (16.9 percent), the study said.

Former TX Governor Ann Richards Endorses Dean Tonight On CNN's Larry Ling Live

I hate it when the post title is longer than the post.

The Chronicle Gets Kos

We've been saying that Daily Kos has been providing the best political coverage on the web (although 'Kos still modestly refuses to believe he can replace "real journalism" - whatever that is these days).

Now the San Francisco Chronicle has taken notice. Welcome to the major leagues, Markos.

Most Of Us Go On A Spending Binge At The Dollar Slots

I can tell you firsthand. I've been to Vegas dozens of times. Not ONCE have I ever stood at the craps tables and said, "SWEET JESUS. THE ACTION! THE SMOKE! THE NOISE! CASH ME OUT. I GOTTA GET MARRIED."

"I do believe in the sanctity of marriage, I totally do. But I was in Vegas and it took over me and things got out of hand."
-Britney Spears on MTV's TRL yesterday

Republicans? Cheating On A Vote? NO!

Y'know that GOP online poll we showed you three posts down? It's now been rigged. An HTML expert outs them at Eschaton.

If you know web code, you can verify this doing a View, Source on that page. It's rigged.

We Will Definitely Miss Her Dignity At The Debates...

...but it'll be good to have her on the team.

Braun to drop out of race, will endorse Dean

DES MOINES — Former Illinois senator Carol Moseley Braun plans to drop out of the Democratic presidential race today and endorse Howard Dean, sources close to the Dean campaign said Wednesday.

Dean and Braun are scheduled to appear together in Carroll, Iowa, where Dean is campaigning for Monday's Iowa caucuses, which begin the nomination season. Braun will campaign for Dean three to four days a week, starting Saturday in South Carolina.

The high-profile endorsement comes as the race here is tightening and Dean, a former Vermont governor, appears to be losing some ground in tracking polls.

Two By Request

A couple of stories which slipped through our cracks (ouch), so we're passing them along.

First from reader David, this "improvement" on the Patriot Act which has the chicken$#!+ timing Bush is becoming famous for:

Bush Grabs New Power for FBI

While the nation was distracted last month by images of Saddam Hussein's spider hole and dental exam, President George W. Bush quietly signed into law a new bill that gives the FBI increased surveillance powers and dramatically expands the reach of the USA Patriot Act.

The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 grants the FBI unprecedented power to obtain records from financial institutions without requiring permission from a judge.

Under the law, the FBI does not need to seek a court order to access such records, nor does it need to prove just cause.

And secondly, the Rolling Stone Interview with Howard Dean. Thanks, Susan:

What do you think of today's Republican Party?

I think the Republicans are much meaner than the Democrats are. I don't want to absolve the Democrats, but Republicans are just brutal. They do not care what happens to the country as long as they stay in power, and they're willing to do anything they can to stay in power. It's the most unforgivable thing about this administration and the congressional leadership.

I admire George Bush's father. There were some things I strongly disagreed with him on -- but he tried to be a good president. This president is not interested in being a good president. He's interested in some complicated psychological situation that he has with his father. He is obsessed with being re-elected, and his obsession with re-election is hurting the country.

Practice This Exercise To Drive The GOP Nuts

Vote.

Then Buy Time On Fox News. They Have No Standards OR Practices

ANTI-BUSH AD CONTEST SUBMITS SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- Liberal activist group MoveOn.org announced it has chosen an anti-President Bush ad to air ahead of next week's "State of the Union" address and said it is negotiating with CBS to gain airtime on the Super Bowl.

A spokesman for CBS said the Viacom-owned network has received the request from MoveOn to run the ad in the Super Bowl, but added that the ad has to go through standards and practices before CBS will say if it can run an advocacy ad during the game. The spokesman said he didn't think it was likely that the spot would pass standards and practices.

The Latest Tactic Against Dean: The Usual Apples And Oranges

Foam was almost spitting out of Judy Woodruff's mouth on CNN today as she reported on a 1995 letter Howard Dean wrote to President Clinton which - as Judy gleefully suggested - goes against Dean's anti-war stance on Iraq. Let's look at the part of the letter they've been showing:

Dear Mr. President:

After long and careful thought, and after several years of watching the gross atrocities committed by the Bosnian Serbs, I have reluctantly concluded that the efforts of the United Nations and NATO in Bosnia are a complete failure.
(edit)
Since it is clearly no longer possible to take action in conjunction with NATO and the United Nations, I have reluctantly concluded that we must take unilateral action.

Big "GOTCHA" on Dean here over his views on Iraq, right?

Well - and I know this will come as a huge surprise (/sarcasm) - not really. On many levels. If you keep reading the letter, you'll see:

While I completely agree with you that no ground troops should be committed for other than humanitarian purposes in Bosnia, I would ask that you take the following steps in Bosnia. First, lift the arms embargo as it applies to the Bosnian government. Second, enforce a full embargo of the sort that is now in effect in Iraq on the Bosnian Serbs and upon Yugoslavia. Third, break off diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia. Fourth, commit American air power to support the Bosnian government until the situation is stabilized and the civilian murders and atrocities by the Bosnian Serbs have been stopped.

There's no mention here of the overthrow and occupation of Bosnia. No ground troops. No saber-rattling. No name-calling of uncommitted allies. And while CNN emphasized the line "we must take unilateral action," I'd like to underscore his use of the word "reluctantly" - twice.

And don't ever forget how few American casualties resulted in the Clinton-led Bosnia situation. Flashback July 3rd, 1996:

A fear of American casualties has driven Washington's policy about military involvement in Bosnia, but Army statistics show that the troops stationed here are safer, healthier, and less likely to be killed than soldiers in the Army as a whole.

Among the 18,500 soldiers assigned to the Army task force in Bosnia, there have been only three deaths through late June, one-third the rate last year among soldiers throughout the Army. In Bosnia, one soldier was killed by a mine, one by a kitchen fire, and one when his truck ran off a narrow bridge.

It took a while in the CNN broadcast for them to admit that Dean gave this speech in L.A. last December 15th:

During the past dozen years, I have supported U.S. military action to roll back Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, to halt ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, to stop Milosevic's campaign of terror in Kosovo, to oust the Taliban and al Qaeda from control in Afghanistan. As President, I will never hesitate to deploy our armed forces to defend our country and its allies, and to protect our national interests.

Most of you who read my tantrums here know that there's no such thing as black and white - that all aspects of all things in life are in shades of gray. No human being can live by a carved-in-stone set of rules. We adapt. We're flexible. And we have the ability to adopt different standards as different circumstances warrant. It seems Dean is being villified for having these basic traits and it's making me crazy.

You also know my rail against today's "journalists." They try too hard to create stories where there are none - all from the comfort of their cubicle armed with a search engine. I've just outlined a stellar example of newspeople taking a situation from nine years ago and trying to pound it into today's context. And in most cases - including this one - it simply does not wash.

They feebly attempt to make something out of nothing, when they should be making something out of something (hint: an outed CIA agent, a president who says "What's the difference?" when he's confronted with a lie, cronies getting lucrative rebuilding jobs, former high-ranking officials with stories to tell...HELLO!?!).

Nixon resigned over less atrocity, but today's "journalists" will simply Google their way to the next non-story instead of earning their keep.

Admit It - You Came To This Conclusion During The Debate

Minorities Say Dean Tried to Be Inclusive
Leader recalls efforts of former Vermont governor to recruit blacks and Latinos.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — During more than a decade as Vermont governor, Howard Dean did not appoint any blacks or Latinos to his Cabinet, but minority leaders say it was not for lack of trying in the nearly all-white state.

Contending that recruiting minorities for high-level posts in state government is difficult in a state that is nearly 98% white, one black leader who met regularly with Dean praised his efforts as governor. He recalled turning down Dean's requests to serve in the administration.

"He asked if I had an interest or if I knew of anyone who had an interest," said Vaughn Carney, a lawyer and executive with a financial services company. "I myself was constrained by other commitments. I wasn't aware of anyone who would be qualified or would be available."

Another non-issue put to rest. It's just not being as roundly reported as the Sharpton accusations because it would take all the fun out of the Dean-bashing.

Bush Sees Men On Mars

Bush Calls for New Moon Landing by 2015

WASHINGTON Jan. 14 — President Bush proposed on Wednesday to develop a new spacecraft to carry Americans back to the moon by 2015, and to establish a long-term base there as an eventual springboard to Mars and beyond.

Growing up, I was obsessed by the mission into space and the potential of global cooperation (I was a heady kid - no big surprise there).

I'm going to be watching this speech very carefully, because the phrasing of this story ("carry Americans back to the moon") worries me. I'm going to look for Bush to frame this as another unilateral project, which would (a) crush the spirit of a cooperative global space program, (b) preclude getting any outside financial help with this, and (c) be friggin' typical.

If he does, well...check back here later.

Gephardt Invokes The "A" Word

I guess that "miserable failure" act of Gep's was borne out of love and not anger. He sure seems to dislike anger lately - and conveniently.

Dick Gephardt Says Dean Can't Be Trusted

NEVADA, Iowa Jan. 14 — Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt on Wednesday called chief rival Howard Dean a "fair-weather friend of the American worker" whose promises can't be trusted and motives must be questioned.

"To me, there is no room for the cynical politics of manufactured anger and false conviction. I believe in standing for something," the Missouri lawmaker said in a speech that heightened his criticism of the Democratic presidential front-runner.

Sad

Pentagon: Suicides of U.S. Troops Rising in Iraq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least 21 U.S. troops have committed suicide in Iraq, a growing toll that represents one in seven of American "non-hostile" deaths since the war began last March, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

The Defense Department's top health official said the military plan to deal with "battle stress" in Iraq more aggressively than in past conflicts such as the Vietnam War and the 1991 Gulf War.

Biggest Non-Surprise Of The Campaign

Georgia Democratic Sen. Miller to Back Bush

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Zell Miller, a Georgia Democrat who has frequently broken with his party to support Republican policies, has agreed to campaign for President Bush's reelection, a campaign spokesman said on Tuesday.

Conason: "Afghanistan, Messy. Iraq, Doable." -Wolfowitz

Joe Conason is unlike most other columnists. Where a ton of news sources today are taking the Bush wackos' word that the Iraq project was started by Clinton, Conason will actually read the damned Iraq Liberation Act of 1998. We start with Paul O'Neill's transcript of Donald Rumsfeld in the situation room in early 2001:

"Sanctions are fine. But what we really want to think about is going after Saddam. Imagine what the region would look like without Saddam and with a regime that's aligned with U.S. interests. It would change everything in the region and beyond it. It would demonstrate what U.S. policy is all about." Even then Rumsfeld was formulating the justification for war. "It's not my specific objective to get rid of Saddam Hussein," he said, disingenuously. "I'm after the weapons of mass destruction."

Were Bush and Rumsfeld merely reiterating the Clinton administration's previous commitment to "regime change" in Iraq, as they now claim? Or were they abandoning the Clinton approach for a more muscular policy, as they and their ideologues have often boasted? They'd like to have it both ways. But the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, usually cited as precedent, provides no justification for an American invasion and occupation. Its final section states:

"Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize or otherwise speak to the use of United States Armed Forces (except as provided in section 4(a)(2)) in carrying out this Act." Section 4(a)(2) restricts military action to training and arming indigenous opponents of Saddam, at a cost not to exceed $97 million -- or a bit more than one-tenth of 1 percent of the last supplemental appropriation for the war.

O'Neill also reveals why the administration decided to invade Iraq after 9/11, despite the continuing dearth of any proof that Saddam possessed or produced weapons of mass destruction. At a Camp David meeting following the terrorist attacks, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz warned that while Afghanistan could turn into a mess, the Iraqi regime was ripe for an easy overthrow.

Iraq might not have been much of a threat, but Iraq was certainly "doable."

Ladies and Gentlemen - Your Winner

MoveOn.org's "Bush In 30 Seconds" winner has been announced. Next step - buying a spot on the Super Bowl. Let's do it. Click the pic.


"CHILD'S PAY" by Charlie Fisher of Denver, CO

Our Lazy Useless American Press

Lead article in Salon.com by Eric Boehlert, and it's dead-on. It underscores our post below it on how the press will do the White House's bidding to destroy the Dems over useless crap while BushCo is destroying the rest of the country.

Remember how Gore was dogged in the press by often phony, Republican-crafted stories about how he couldn't be trusted? A classic case in point was the "Gore invented the Internet" story. The facts were simple: In March 1999 Gore gave an interview to CNN in which he artlessly said, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." He was referring to his landmark "information superhighway" speech, as well as his well-known leadership in delivering key government funding to help nurture the Net in the '80s and early '90s. For a few days Gore's CNN comments were ignored in the 24-hour news cycle. Then the RNC issued a press release mocking Gore's statement, and soon the urban legend about Gore having claimed to invent the sprawling Internet took root in the political landscape. Almost five years later, even though it's been relentlessly debunked, it's a weed that can't be killed. Just last month it bloomed again when Gore endorsed the Internet-savvy Dean, and Joe Klein, Clarence Page, Jeff Greenfield, and Tim Russert all reached back and dug it up for public consumption. Lazy media habits die hard.

Today, the parallels between the Dean and Gore press coverage are impossible to miss. There's the charge Dean is constantly trying to "reinvent" himself, which Gore was accused of in 2000. That Dean is "angry"; Gore was tagged a "savage campaigner" during the primaries. There's the often nit-picking obsession with the "gaffes" that supposedly bedevil Dean; for Gore the problem was "exaggerations."

New York Times columnist David Brooks recently ridiculed Dean for beginning "a sentence with, 'Us rural people ...' Dean grew up on Park Avenue and in East Hampton. If he's a rural person, I'm the Queen of Sheba." Somebody might want to tell Brooks (or his editor) that Dean has spent half his life living in Vermont, and his wife still practices family medicine in the tiny town of Shelburne (pop: 6,618). Meanwhile, of course, the Andover, Yale and Harvard-educated Bush's claim to a pure Texas pedigree is rarely questioned.

And instead of schmoozing reporters on the campaign trail and handing out playground-type nicknames the way Bush did in 2000, Dean treats them professionally, but pushes back when he thinks they're wrong.

Perhaps not surprisingly, it's the Washington Post -- particularly its editorial and Op-Ed pages, which double as the house organ of the D.C. establishment -- that has taken the lead role in deriding the surging outsider. But the rest of the press also seems eager to play along with the established, critical Dean narratives.

Repost: Oh, NO, NO, NO!

Worth repeating. This administration has nothing but ripping contempt for the American press. The "lib'rul" media cower to them. They obey them. They jump on their laps and lick their faces. They spread their knees apart and allow themselves to be kicked repeatedly in the balls by them. And still, they do absolutely nothing but fall under their spell of fear - having the threat of not being called during their next press conference hanging over them if they hint at scandal.

I don't know where the "journalists" of today were taught. Unless it's oral sex, labeling a candidate as "angry," or another candidate's flashy sex-appeal sweater, these punks are totally lost. They're aimless. They're useless. Their lives are without any meaning because they let the crackheads in the White House and their majority lapdogs in the House and Senate go unpunished and unchecked. You want miserable failures? Look at the punching bags we call a "press":

W & aides broadcast media hate

He didn't free the slaves.
He didn't rid the world of Hitler.

He didn't even - like his father - preside over the destruction of the Berlin Wall.

Yet George W. Bush tells New Yorker writer Ken Auletta: "No President has ever done more for human rights than I have."

With stunners like that, no wonder he spends so little time with journalists.

The President's eyebrow-raising assertion comes during some Oval Office chitchat after Auletta - writing about the testy relations between the Bush White House and the news media - sits in on an interview with a British newspaper reporter.

In the latest New Yorker, Auletta reports that Bush and his minions have little use for the Fourth Estate.

Political guru Karl Rove claims that the job of journalists is "not necessarily to report the news. It's to get a headline or get a story that will make people pay attention to their magazine, newspaper or television more."

And Chief of Staff Andy Card scoffs: "[The media] don't represent the public any more than other people do. In our democracy, the people who represent the public stood for election."

Card argues that it's not the responsibility of top White House policymakers to provide reporters with facts.

"It's not our job to be sources. The taxpayers don't pay us to leak!" Card tells Auletta. "Our job is not to make your job easy."

Predictably, the reporters who cover Bush aren't happy. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank complains: "My biggest frustration is that this White House has chosen an approach ...to engage us as little as possible." And the New York Times' Elisabeth Bumiller grouses: "Too often they treat us with contempt."

Free the White House press corps!

9-11 Put Him On A "Hair Trigger" To Bomb The Crap Out Of Someone Else?

This is really f---ed up now. I'm speechless.

Bush admits he targeted Saddam from the start
By STEWART M. POWELL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- President Bush acknowledged for the first time yesterday that he was mapping preparations to topple Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as soon as he took office.

Bush's comments came in response to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's contention in a new book that the chief executive was gunning for Saddam nine months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and two years before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Bush said al-Qaida's surprise Sept. 11 attacks on the United States put him on a hair trigger to take pre-emptive action against Iraq rather than await evidence of a new threat to Americans.

"September the 11th made me realize that America was no longer protected by oceans and we had to take threats very seriously no matter where they may be materializing," Bush said.