LINK - President Bush based his famous and false claim that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger on a set of crudely forged documents. For the last two years, no one has uncovered who falsified these documents, which lie at the heart of Bush's case for war.

Now, CBS' 60 Minutes program has uncovered new and important revelations about the Bush administration's reliance on the documents. But, in an unprecedented and astonishing move, CBS bumped the report back until after the election, saying it would be "inappropriate" to air the piece when it might interfere with the political season.

It's outrageous that a major TV news outlet would censor an important piece of news for political reasons. Especially since this report has met CBS' standards for accuracy - it's true. One can only assume that CBS is buckling under pressure from the right - and that's just plain wrong.

Call CBS and its parent company, Viacom, now, at:

Sumner Redstone, Chairman, Viacom
(212) 258-6000

Les Moonves, Chairman of CBS; co-President & co-CEO, Viacom
(323) 575-2345

Andrew Heyward, President, CBS News
(212) 975-3247 or
(212) 975-4321

If you don't get through, you can write to CBS at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml

You can also contact CBS' local affiliates, which are linked here:
http://newslink.org/cbstele.html

Urge CBS to reverse its decision and air the 60 Minutes piece on Iraq before the November 2nd election. Let them know how important it is that they not censor the news.

How to Debate George Bush

My advice to John Kerry is simple: be prepared for the toughest debates of your career. While George Bush's campaign has made "lowering expectations" into a high art form, the record is clear - he's a skilled debater who uses the format to his advantage. There is no reason to expect any less this time around. And if anyone truly has "low expectations" for an incumbent president, that in itself is an issue.

But more important than his record as a debater is Mr. Bush's record as a president. And therein lies the true opportunity for John Kerry - because notwithstanding the president's political skills, his performance in office amounts to a catastrophic failure. And the debates represent a time to hold him to account. For the voters, these debates represent an opportunity to explore four relevant questions: Is America on the right course today, or are we off track? If we are headed in the wrong direction, what happened and who is responsible? How do we get back on the right path to a safer, more secure, more prosperous America? And, finally, who is best able to lead us to that path?
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In the coming debates, Senator Kerry has an opportunity to show voters that today American troops and American taxpayers are shouldering a huge burden with no end in sight because Mr. Bush took us to war on false premises and with no plan to win the peace. Mr. Kerry has an opportunity to demonstrate the connection between job losses and Mr. Bush's colossal tax break for the wealthy. And he can remind voters that Mr. Bush has broken his pledge to expand access to health care.

Senator Kerry can also use these debates to speak directly to voters and lay out a hopeful vision for our future. If voters walk away from the debates with a better understanding of where our country is, how we got here and where each candidate will lead us if elected, then America will be the better for it. The debate tomorrow should not seek to discover which candidate would be more fun to have a beer with. As Jon Stewart of the "The Daily Show" nicely put in 2000, "I want my president to be the designated driver."
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If Mr. Bush is not willing to concede that things are going from bad to worse in Iraq, can he be trusted to make the decisions necessary to change the situation? If he insists on continuing to pretend it is "mission accomplished," can he accomplish the mission? And if the Bush administration has been so thoroughly wrong on absolutely everything it predicted about Iraq, with the horrible consequences that have followed, should it be trusted with another four years?

The biggest single difference between the debates this year and four years ago is that President Bush cannot simply make promises. He has a record. And I hope that voters will recall the last time Mr. Bush stood on stage for a presidential debate. If elected, he said, he would support allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada. He promised that his tax cuts would create millions of new jobs. He vowed to end partisan bickering in Washington. Above all, he pledged that if he put American troops into combat: "The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well defined."

Comparing these grandiose promises to his failed record, it's enough to make anyone want to, well, sigh.

Kerry Will Restore American Dignity
2004 Iconoclast Presidential Endorsement

Few Americans would have voted for George W. Bush four years ago if he had promised that, as President, he would:

- Empty the Social Security trust fund by $507 billion to help offset fiscal irresponsibility and at the same time slash Social Security benefits.

- Cut Medicare by 17 percent and reduce veterans' benefits and military pay.

- Eliminate overtime pay for millions of Americans and raise oil prices by 50 percent.

- Give tax cuts to businesses that sent American jobs overseas, and, in fact, by policy encourage their departure.

- Give away billions of tax dollars in government contracts without competitive bids.

- Involve this country in a deadly and highly questionable war, and

- Take a budget surplus and turn it into the worst deficit in the history of the United States, creating a debt in just four years that will take generations to repay.

These were elements of a hidden agenda that surfaced only after he took office.

The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda.

Today, we are endorsing his opponent, John Kerry, based not only on the things that Bush has delivered, but also on the vision of a return to normality that Kerry says our country needs.

Minister: N. Korea Has Nuclear Deterrent

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - North Korea says it has turned the plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into nuclear weapons to serve as a deterrent against increasing U.S. nuclear threats and to prevent a nuclear war in northeast Asia.

Warning that the danger of war on the Korean peninsula "is snowballing," Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon provided details Monday of the nuclear deterrent that he said North Korea has developed for self-defense.

He told the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting that Pyongyang had "no other option but to possess a nuclear deterrent" because of U.S. policies that he claimed were designed to "eliminate" North Korea and make it "a target of preemptive nuclear strikes."

"Our deterrent is, in all its intents and purposes, the self-defensive means to cope with the ever increasing U.S. nuclear threats and further, prevent a nuclear war in northeast Asia," he told a news conference after his speech.

In Washington, a State Department official noted that Secretary of State Colin Powell has said repeatedly that the United States has no plans to attack the communist country.

But in his General Assembly speech and at the press conference with a small group of reporters, Choe blamed the United States for intensifying threats to attack the communist nation and destroying the basis for negotiations to resolve the dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Nonetheless, he said, North Korea is still ready to dismantle its nuclear program if Washington abandons its "hostile policy" and is prepared to coexist peacefully.

Stewart's 'stoned slackers'? Not quite
Comedy Central defends audience against O'Reilly tease

The folks at Comedy Central were annoyed when Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly kept referring to "The Daily Show" audience as "stoned slackers."

So they did a little research. And guess whose audience is more educated?

Viewers of Jon Stewart's show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch "The O'Reilly Factor," according to Nielsen Media Research.

O'Reilly's teasing came when Stewart appeared on his show earlier this month.

"You know what's really frightening?" O'Reilly said. "You actually have an influence on this presidential election. That is scary, but it's true. You've got stoned slackers watching your dopey show every night and they can vote."

Comedy Central executives realized, and O'Reilly acknowledged, that he was poking fun. But they said they didn't want a misconception to persist.

"If the head of General Motors was watching O'Reilly's show, that could be very important to us," said Doug Herzog, Comedy Central president.

"If you listen to O'Reilly, you get the sense that it was crazy longhairs behind the show," he said. "And it's not. It's great, smart television that attracts a well-compensated audience, most of whom are voting age."

Relax, said Fox News Channel spokesman Rob Zimmerman.

"Comedy Central must have lost their sense of humor," Zimmerman said. "Without Jon Stewart, Comedy Central would turn into the Great American Country Channel."

Swagger vs. Substance

Let's face it: whatever happens in Thursday's debate, cable news will proclaim President Bush the winner. This will reflect the political bias so evident during the party conventions. It will also reflect the undoubted fact that Mr. Bush does a pretty good Clint Eastwood imitation.

But what will the print media do? Let's hope they don't do what they did four years ago.

Interviews with focus groups just after the first 2000 debate showed Al Gore with a slight edge. Post-debate analysis should have widened that edge. After all, during the debate, Mr. Bush told one whopper after another - about his budget plans, about his prescription drug proposal and more. The fact-checking in the next day's papers should have been devastating.

But as Adam Clymer pointed out yesterday on the Op-Ed page of The Times, front-page coverage of the 2000 debates emphasized not what the candidates said but their "body language." After the debate, the lead stories said a lot about Mr. Gore's sighs, but nothing about Mr. Bush's lies. And even the fact-checking pieces "buried inside the newspaper" were, as Mr. Clymer delicately puts it, "constrained by an effort to balance one candidate's big mistakes" - that is, Mr. Bush's lies - "against the other's minor errors."

The result of this emphasis on the candidates' acting skills rather than their substance was that after a few days, Mr. Bush's defeat in the debate had been spun into a victory.
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During the debate, Mr. Bush will try to cover for this dismal record with swagger, and with attacks on his opponent. Will the press play Karl Rove's game by, as Mr. Clymer puts it, confusing political coverage with drama criticism, or will it do its job and check the candidates' facts?

There have been some encouraging signs lately. There was a disturbing interlude in which many news organizations seemed to accept false claims that Iraq had calmed down after the transfer of sovereignty. But now, as the violence escalates, they seem willing to ask hard questions about Mr. Bush's fantasy version of the situation in Iraq. For example, a recent Reuters analysis pointed out that independent sources contradict his assertions about everything "from police training and reconstruction to preparations for January elections."

Mr. Bush is also getting less of a free ride than he used to when he smears his opponent. Last week, after Mr. Bush declared that Mr. Kerry "would prefer the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to the situation in Iraq today," The Associated Press pointed out that this "twisted his rival's words" - and then quoted what John Kerry actually said.

Nonetheless, on Thursday night there will be a temptation to revert to drama criticism - to emphasize how the candidates looked and acted, and push analysis of what they said, and whether it was true, to the inside pages. With so much at stake, the public deserves better.

How Dare Kerry Speak Up

Why would any president even wish to plunge this country into war and keep it there without a level of support from the citizenry that is strong enough to survive the obvious counterarguments?

Bush's own campaign strategy has put the events of 9/11 and their aftermath at the center of this election. The president asks to be reelected based on the claim that his response to that event has been a success. It would be convenient for him if any challenge to this notion were considered beyond the pale. Increasingly convenient, in fact, as the word "success" seems less and less applicable. But Bush's convenience is not what this election is about.

This attempt to delegitimize criticism rather than rebut it comes as part three of a three-part Republican strategy. (At least we hope there are only three parts.) Part one was the first wave of Swift boat ads (and the ridiculous hoo-ha around them), raising questions about Kerry's Vietnam service. From there it was an easy leap to part two, the second Swift boat wave and the accompanying fuss about Kerry's leadership of the Vietnam antiwar movement. Part three drives it all home: As during Vietnam, so during Iraq. The guy is still at it, disloyally attacking his own country in wartime and giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

As this page noted during the second Swift boat attack, the Vietnam antiwar movement (or at least the part of it Kerry was associated with) was the essence of patriotism, trying to rescue our country from a terrible mistake and to prevent the waste of any more young lives. Those who attack Kerry today for opposing the war back then overlook the fact that the country came to agree with him. If Kerry and others had refrained from criticism out of a crude notion of patriotism and a misguided "respect" for American troops, many more of those troops would be long dead today.
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Compared with Kerry, George W. Bush is a coward. This is not a reference to their respective activities during Vietnam. It refers to the current election campaign. Bush happily benefits from the slime his supporters are spreading but refuses to take responsibility for it or to call point-blank for it to stop. He got away with this when the prime mover was the shadowy Swift boats group. Will he get away with it when the accusers are his own vice president, high officials of his own administration (Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage) and members of Congress from his own party (House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert or Sen. Orrin Hatch)? The answer is yes: Based on recent experience, he probably will get away with it.

Powell contradicts Bush, says Iraq 'getting worse'

WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell sees the situation in Iraq "getting worse" as planned elections approach, and the top U.S. military commander for Iraq says he expects more violence ahead.

Their comments yesterday came after a week in which President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi optimistically spoke about the situation despite the beheadings of two more Americans and the deaths of dozens of people in car bombings.

In its latest report, the military said four Marines died Friday in separate incidents, adding to a toll that has topped 1,000 since the U.S.-led invasion.

Powell said the insurgency is only becoming more violent as planned January elections near.

"It's getting worse," he said on ABC's "This Week." "They are determined to disrupt the election. They do not want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free, democratic election."

Army Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. troops in the Middle East, warned that voting might not be possible in parts of Iraq where the violence is too intense.

"I don’t think we'll ever achieve perfection, and when we look for perfection in a combat zone, we're going to be sadly disappointed," he said on NBC’s "Meet the Press."

Dreier's challenger acknowledges she is a lesbian, rebukes his positions on gay issues

In a surprising twist to an already unusual California congressional race, the Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican Congressman David Dreier has told RAW STORY that she is a lesbian, and has made a series of conditional statements rebuking Dreier's position on gay issues while concurrently questioning the payment arrangements with his chief of staff Brad Smith.

Her statement makes this the first known time in history an openly gay candidate has run against another candidate also believed to be gay. The L.A. Times, presented with this information, has said they are not planning a story.

Democrat Cynthia Matthews, who has not kept her sexuality secret from the press, said Saturday that she was proud of her relationship with her same-sex partner.

New voters coming out in droves

A sweeping voter-registration campaign in heavily Democratic areas has added tens of thousands of new voters to the rolls in the swing states of Ohio and Florida, a surge that has far exceeded Republican efforts in both states, a review of registration data shows.

The analysis of county-by-county data shows that in Democratic areas of Ohio - primarily low-income and minority neighborhoods - new registrations since January have increased 250 percent over the same period in 2000. In comparison, new registrations have increased 25 percent in Republican areas.

A similar pattern is apparent in Florida: In the strongest Democratic areas, the pace of new registration is 60 percent higher than in 2000, while it has risen 12 percent in the heaviest Republican areas.
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Republican officials say they think the paid workers who are registering low-income voters are sloppy. Matt Damschroder, director of Ohio's Board of Elections, said he had to throw out many of the cards he received because the voters already were registered. "One woman had signed a card three different times," with three groups, he said.

Prosecutors in Columbus have filed criminal charges against an Acorn registrar, saying he filed a false registration form and forged a signature. Officials for the group say they fired the worker and instituted a quality checking system before prosecutors acted.

Nevertheless, an examination of county registration records shows that the groups have added thousands of new Democrats to the rolls and have far outnumbered new registrations in Republican areas.
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In rock-ribbed Republican areas - 103 ZIP codes, many of them rural and suburban areas, that voted by 2 to 1 or better for President Bush in 2000 - 35,000 new voters have registered, a substantial increase over the 28,000 that registered in those areas in the first seven months of 2000.

"It's not easy work, but we go door-to-door in strong Republican precincts, making sure everyone is registered," said Chris McNulty, the state party chairman.

But in heavily Democratic areas - 60 ZIP codes mostly in the core of big cities such as Cleveland, Dayton, Columbus and Youngstown that voted 2 to 1 or better against Bush - new registrations have more than tripled.
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"If every Democrat showed up at the polls, you'd win, no question," said James Koehler, a precinct organizer in Columbus working for MoveOn.org, another soft-money group. Koehler said MoveOn hoped to have a volunteer in every precinct to call neighbors Nov. 2.

Republicans in Ohio, as well as nationwide, have accused the independent groups of essentially flouting campaign-finance law. But they clearly are concerned about their impact. "I would say we are in the unfortunate position of having to fight a two-front war," said McNulty, the Ohio party chairman. "I'd be a lot less concerned if it was just us against the Democrats and the Kerry campaign, but unfortunately it's not."

Al Qaeda Seen as Wider Threat
The network has evolved into a looser, ideological movement that may no longer report to Bin Laden. Critics say the White House focus is misdirected.

Authorities have made little progress worldwide in defeating Islamic extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda despite thwarting attacks and arresting high-profile figures, according to interviews with intelligence and law enforcement officials and outside experts.

On the contrary, officials warn that the Bush administration's upbeat assessment of its successes is overly optimistic and masks its strategic failure to understand and combat Al Qaeda's evolution.

Even before the Sept. 11 attacks, Al Qaeda was a loosely organized network, but core leaders exercised considerable control over its operations. Since the loss of its base in Afghanistan and many of those leaders, the organization has dispersed its operatives and reemerged as a lethal ideological movement.

Osama bin Laden may now serve more as an inspirational figure than a CEO, and the war in Iraq is helping focus militants' anger, according to dozens of interviews in recent weeks on several continents. European and moderate Islamic countries have become targets. And instead of undergoing lengthy training at camps in Afghanistan, recruits have been quickly indoctrinated at home and deployed on attacks.

The United States remains a target, but counter-terrorism officials and experts are alarmed by Al Qaeda's switch from spectacular attacks that require years of planning to smaller, more numerous strikes on softer targets that can be carried out swiftly with little money or outside help.

EPA's chief under Nixon rips Bush on environment
Says he will vote for Kerry

Russell Train is so disappointed in President Bush's environmental record that the staunch Republican, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's second leader 30 years ago, is casting his vote in November for Democrat John Kerry.

Train, 84, EPA administrator under Presidents Nixon and Ford from 1973 to 77, was in Madison Tuesday in support of Environment2004, an organization trying to end what it calls the anti-environmental agenda of the Bush administration.

A Washington insider for more than half a century, Train said the Bush administration's performance is a radical rollback of environmental rules to benefit special interests.

The administration's reversal of a finding that mercury is a hazardous pollutant is one of 400 rollbacks of environmental protections cited by Enviroment2004, and Train said the reversal is the reason he's switched parties this presidential election.

"Almost anybody's policy would be better than George Bush," Train said in an interview with The Capital Times Wednesday. "Kerry's environmental record in Congress is extremely good."

Ironically, Train was awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in America, from the first President George Bush in 1991.

Bush's dismal policy failures in tax cuts and Iraq are being sold as achievements

By WALTER WILLIAMS
GUEST COLUMNIST

During his first term, George W. Bush has inflicted more damage on the nation's people than any other president in the post-World War II era. Not only has the Bush administration failed, it has been far and away the most dangerous presidency in this period.

No other administration has seen itself above the law or so disregarded the Constitution by attacking the venerable institutions created to uphold democracy. In addition, the Bush presidency pushed through its policies by employing a calculated lawlessness that featured both deception and secrecy. A couple of examples help illustrate the administration's use of subterfuge. (Hoffmania note: Read the full article for the examples)
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Amazingly and unfortunately, the dismal policy failures in pursuing the tax cuts and the invasion and occupation of Iraq are being sold as achievements during the presidential campaign and apparently being bought by large numbers of the public.

The Bush administration's strong suit has been its political propaganda machine. From the first tax cut introduced at the outset of the presidency, the administration has exploited every trick in the books to win the public to its side.This makes it imperative that the electorate has hard evidence readily available showing the dimensions of the failed presidency. What's needed is to provide a solid base for refuting the administration's deceptive presidential campaign, which has used alchemy to change the hard reality of its disastrous policy performance into untruths that proclaim a successful four years.

If not, the most polarizing and likely the most important election in the 60 years since World War II ended will be decided on misinformation and a distorted imagery that covers over a failed presidency.

The reasons to vote against Bush in the upcoming election go beyond partisanship. The nation has become an entrenched plutocracy ruled by immensely wealthy individuals and the leaders of corporate America. It closely resembles the Gilded Age of a hundred years earlier with its concentrated wealth and robber barons. I truly fear for my country -- not because of the threat of terrorist attacks but because the nation's constitutional framework is being destroyed.

I do not believe the destruction is purposeful on Bush's part. Nonetheless, that he sees himself as a patriot defending the nation does not refute the hard evidence that his misguided policies, based on now-disproved theories, are in fact destroying the American republic created by the Founders.

Walter Williams is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington's Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs and is the author of "Reaganism and the Death of Representative Democracy."

Professor says Bush revealed National Guard favoritism

A business school professor who taught George W. Bush at Harvard University in the early 1970s says the future president told him that family friends had pulled strings to get him into the Texas Air National Guard.

Yoshi Tsurumi, in his first on-camera interview on the subject, told CNN that Bush confided in him during an after-class hallway conversation during the 1973-74 school year.

"He admitted to me that to avoid the Vietnam draft, he had his dad -- he said 'Dad's friends' -- skip him through the long waiting list to get him into the Texas National Guard," Tsurumi said. "He thought that was a smart thing to do."
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"What I couldn't stand -- and I told him -- he was all for the U.S. to continue with the Vietnam War. That means he was all for other people, Americans, to keep on fighting and dying."

Tsurumi got to know Bush when the future president took his "Economics EAM" (Environmental Analysis for Management), a required two-semester class from the fall of 1973 to the spring of 1974, Bush's first year at Harvard's business school.

Bush had transferred to Air National Guard reserve status before he enrolled in the MBA program. He had enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard in May 1968 and trained to fly fighter jets until he was suspended from flying status in August 1972 for failing to submit to an annual physical, according to Bush's military records released earlier this year.

Tsurumi said he remembers Bush because every teacher remembers their best and worst students, and Bush was in the latter group.

"Lazy. He didn't come to my class prepared," Tsurumi said. "He did very badly."

Tsurumi concedes that he disapproves of Bush's politics. He wrote a letter to the editor of his hometown newspaper, the Scarsdale Inquirer, that derided the president's claims to "compassionate conservatism."

"Somehow I found him totally devoid of compassion, social responsibility, and good study discipline," Tsurumi said. "What I remember most about him was all the kind of flippant statements that he made inside of classroom as well as outside."

The Story That Didn't Run

In its rush to air its now discredited story about President George W. Bush's National Guard service, CBS bumped another sensitive piece slated for the same "60 Minutes" broadcast: a half-hour segment about how the U.S. government was snookered by forged documents purporting to show Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium from Niger.

The journalistic juggling at CBS provides an ironic counterpoint to the furor over apparently bogus documents involving Bush's National Guard service. One unexpected consequence of the network's decision was to wipe out a chance - at least for the moment - for greater public scrutiny of a more consequential forgery that played a role in building the Bush administration’s case to invade Iraq.

Armitage: No Plans for Partial Iraq Election

Iraq's elections in January should encompass the entire country, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Friday, differing from comments by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that some violent areas could be excluded.
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Armitage said he knew of no plans to hold partial elections that exclude violent areas.

"I know of no changes and no plans. We're pushing ahead, fully supporting the Iraqi people, and the United Nations and the Iraqi electoral commission to have nationwide elections for a 275 person national assembly before the end of January," he told reporters after a House appropriations foreign aid subcommittee hearing.

Rumsfeld raised the possibility of partial elections on Thursday, just hours after Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and President Bush both insisted national elections would be held on schedule in January despite the flaring insurgency.

"If there were to be an area where the extremists focused during the election period, and an election was not possible in that area at that time, so be it. You have the rest of the election and you go on. Life's not perfect," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Rumsfeld said there could be a situation where an election could be held in "three-quarters or four-fifths of the country. But in some places you couldn't because the violence was too great."

In new attacks on Kerry, Bush twists his rival's words

WACO, Texas - President George W. Bush opened several new scathing lines of attack against Democrat John Kerry, charges that twisted his rival's words on Iraq and made Kerry seem supportive of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.

It was not unlike the spin that Kerry and his forces sometimes place on Bush's words.

Campaigning by bus through hotly contested Wisconsin on Friday, Bush sought to counter recently sharpened criticism by Kerry about his Iraq policies:

-He stated flatly that Kerry had said earlier in the week "he would prefer the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to the situation in Iraq today." The line drew gasps of surprise from Bush's audience in a Racine, Wisconsin, park. "I just strongly disagree," the president said.

But Kerry never said that. In a speech at New York University on Monday, he called Saddam "a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place in hell." He added, "The satisfaction we take in his downfall does not hide this fact: We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure."

-Bush attacked Kerry for calling "our alliance 'the alliance of the coerced and the bribed.'"

"You can't build alliances if you criticize the efforts of those who are working side by side with you," the president said in Janesville, Wisconsin.

Kerry did use the phrase to describe the U.S.-led coalition of nations in Iraq, in a March 2003 speech in California. He was referring to the administration's willingness to offer aid to other nations to gain support for its Iraq policies.

But Bush mischaracterized Kerry's criticism, which has not been aimed at the countries that have contributed a relatively small number of troops and resources, but at the administration for not gaining more participation from other nations.

-Bush also suggested Kerry was undercutting an ally in a time of need, and thus unfit to be president, when he "questioned the credibility" of Iraqi interim leader Ayad Allawi.

"This great man came to our country to talk about how he's risking his life for a free Iraq, which helps America," the president said in Janesville. "And Senator Kerry held a press conference and questioned Prime Minister Allawi's credibility. You can't lead this country if your ally in Iraq feels like you question his credibility."

Bush repeated the attack later in the day and Vice President Dick Cheney echoed the message in Lafayette, Louisiana. "I must say I was appalled at the complete lack of respect Senator Kerry showed for this man of courage," Cheney said.

Kerry's point was that the optimistic assessments of postwar Iraq from both Bush and Allawi didn't match previous statements by the Iraqi leader, nor the reality on the ground, and were designed to put the "best face" on failed policies.

An Un-American Way to Campaign

President Bush and his surrogates are taking their re-election campaign into dangerous territory. Mr. Bush is running as the man best equipped to keep America safe from terrorists - that was to be expected. We did not, however, anticipate that those on the Bush team would dare to argue that a vote for John Kerry would be a vote for Al Qaeda. Yet that is the message they are delivering - with a repetition that makes it clear this is an organized effort to paint the Democratic candidate as a friend to terrorists.

When Vice President Dick Cheney declared that electing Mr. Kerry would create a danger "that we'll get hit again," his supporters attributed that appalling language to a rhetorical slip. But Mr. Cheney is still delivering that message. Meanwhile, as Dana Milbank detailed so chillingly in The Washington Post yesterday, the House speaker, Dennis Hastert, said recently on television that Al Qaeda would do better under a Kerry presidency, and Senator Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has announced that the terrorists are going to do everything they can between now and November "to try and elect Kerry."

This is despicable politics. It's not just polarizing - it also undermines the efforts of the Justice Department and the Central Intelligence Agency to combat terrorists in America. Every time a member of the Bush administration suggests that Islamic extremists want to stage an attack before the election to sway the results in November, it causes patriotic Americans who do not intend to vote for the president to wonder whether the entire antiterrorism effort has been kidnapped and turned into part of the Bush re-election campaign. The people running the government clearly regard keeping Mr. Bush in office as more important than maintaining a united front on the most important threat to the nation.

Mr. Bush has not disassociated himself from any of this, and in his own campaign speeches he makes an argument that is equally divisive and undemocratic. The president has claimed, over and over, that criticism of the way his administration has conducted the war in Iraq and news stories that suggest the war is not going well endanger American troops and give aid and comfort to the enemy. This week, in his Rose Garden press conference with the interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, Mr. Bush was asked about Mr. Kerry's increasingly pointed remarks on Iraq. "You can embolden an enemy by sending mixed messages," he said, going on to suggest that Mr. Kerry's criticisms dispirit the Iraqi people and American soldiers.

It is fair game for the president to claim that toppling Saddam Hussein was a blow to terrorism, to accuse Mr. Kerry of flip-flopping and to repeat continually that the war in Iraq is going very well, despite all evidence to the contrary. It is absolutely not all right for anyone on his team to suggest that Mr. Kerry is the favored candidate of the terrorists. And at a time when the United States is supposed to be preparing the Iraqi people for a democratic election, it's appalling to hear the chief executive say that loyal opposition gives aid and comfort to the enemy abroad.

The general instinct of Americans is to play fair. That is why, even though terrorists struck the United States during President Bush's watch, the Democrats have not run a campaign that blames him for allowing the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to be attacked. And while the war in Iraq has opened up large swaths of the country to terrorist groups for the first time, any effort by Mr. Kerry to describe the president as the man whom Osama bin Laden wants to keep in power would be instantly denounced by the Republicans as unpatriotic.

We think that anyone who attempts to portray sincere critics as dangerous to the safety of the nation is wrong. It reflects badly on the president's character that in this instance, he's putting his own ambition ahead of the national good.

TRIUMPH OF THE STULTOCRACY
Ted Rall

"Kerry doesn't know what the working-class people do; he hasn't done any physical labor all his life," Sharon Alfman, a 51-year-old cook in New Lexington, Ohio, told a New York Times reporter. It's true. Kerry is a rich boy. But then she added: "Bush's values are middle-class family values."

George W. Bush earned $727,000 last year. Estimates of his net worth range between $9 and $26 million. Middle class he most assuredly is not. Working class he never has been. Like fellow Skull and Bones member John Kerry, man of the people he never will be. But it matters that Sharon Altman thinks he is. Unless you too are a voter living in a swing state like Ohio, her vote counts more than yours.

Demonstrating that stupefying ignorance can be bipartisan, another Ohioan interviewed for the same article said she is against the war in Iraq because, like 42 percent of her fellow Americans, she thinks Iraq was behind 9/11: "We shouldn't be over there building them back up because they didn't build our towers back up." She is wrong on so many levels that it makes my brain hurt.

Both women are entitled to their unawareness. We can't pass a law to force them to read the paper. But neither of these people ought to force their fellow citizens to suffer the consequences of their being so uninformed. Voting should be a privilege earned by an intellectually engaged citizen, not a right given to any adult with a pulse.
_______

The fact that these yahoos are allowed to vote is an abomination. Their ill-considered ballots cancel or dilute those cast by those who do the heavy lifting that makes them good citizens: keeping abreast of current events, researching issues, studying candidates' positions.

In the Old South, literacy tests were used to disenfranchise blacks. Alternatively, a basic political literacy test should be used to ensure that anyone who picks ESPN over CNN--regardless of race or creed--stays home on Election Day. Prospective voters should be required to answer at least three of the following questions correctly; to give people a fair shot, the test should be published in newspapers a week before an election:

1. Who is the vice president?

2. What is your state capital?

3. Name one of the following: your governor, congressman or one senator.

4. What is the capital of the United States?

5. Name one federal cabinet-level department.

Of course, such a political literacy test would drastically reduce voter turnout. On the other hand, those who pass could take comfort in knowing that they're not competing against the 60 percent of Americans who think we've found Iraq's imaginary WMDs, or the 22 percent who "believe" that Saddam Hussein used such weapons against U.S. troops during the 2003 invasion.

Congress Votes to Extend Tax Cuts
$146 Billion in Relief Would Be Bush's 4th Reduction in 4 Years

The House and the Senate overwhelmingly voted last night to extend three tax cuts aimed at the middle class, along with an array of business tax breaks, sending President Bush a $146 billion tax cut that would be his fourth in four years.

With the approval of the legislation, virtually all of Bush's first-term tax agenda -- four tax measures worth nearly $1.9 trillion over 10 years -- would survive a potential second Bush term, unless Washington elects to change the tax code again. The total is $300 billion more in tax relief than Bush envisioned with his first tax-cut proposal in 2001.

Dear Editor,

Jonathan Weisman's story, "Congress Votes to Extend Tax Cuts: $146 Billion in Relief Would Be Bush's 4th Reduction in 4 Years" (Sep. 24, A1) is playing into the GOP's strategy by helping them frame the debate by using the controversial word "relief". What is wrong with the neutral term "tax cut"? Personally, I would prefer the term "deficit exploding revenue killer" but "tax cut" will suffice.

So I ask, relief for who? Relief for our kids who are stuck with a massive deficit to pay off? Relief for my parents when the government can no longer afford to pay social security? Relief for the millions of school children who are being under-funded by the federal government? Relief for the soldiers who have to traverse Iraq in unarmored vehicles without body armor, because we can't afford it? Just who does this provide relief for?

Although the story does talk about the relationship of these tax cuts to our national debt, words like 'tax relief" automatically frames the argument and tilts it to the Republican advantage. I ask you refrain from Republican or Democratic buzz words and stick to the facts.

Michael

Kerry is Doing Much Better than the Polls State
Accurate voter turnout has not been part of the equation for pollsters.
Recently Pollster John Zogby of Zogby International wrote an article discussing how the Newsweek Poll that showed an 11-point lead for the president after the convention was flawed and deceitful.

Zogby's article stated that, ''If we look at the three last Presidential elections, the (percentage of voters per party) was 34% Democrats, 34% Republicans and 33% Independents (in 1992 with Ross Perot in the race); 39% Democrats, 34% Republicans, and 27% Independents in 1996; and 39% Democrats, 35% Republicans and 26% Independents in 2000. While party identification can indeed change within the electorate, there is no evidence anywhere to suggest that Democrats will only represent 31% of the total vote this year. In fact, other competitors have gone in the opposite direction. The Los Angeles Times released a poll in June of this year with 38% Democrats and only 25% Republicans. And Gallup's party identification figures have been all over the place."

Unfortunately, the deceitful Newsweek Poll that showed the 11-point "bounce" was because the pollsters at Newsweek polled "38% Republican, 31% Democrat and 31% Independent voters". This is very deceitful because the Republicans, in recent history have NOT come even come close to that type of voter turnout. Pollster Scott Rasmussen says the Time Magazine Poll that showed an 11- point bounce after the convention, also over sampled 38% Republicans.
_______

So as you can see, not only is it obscene and not historically accurate to take a poll using 38% Republicans, 31% Democrats, and 31% Independents, it is also inaccurate to take polls based upon what has happened over the last 3 elections. (I.e. 34% Republican, 34% Democrat, 33% Independent). Because based upon the motivations on the right and the left, we could see very high voter turnout on the Democratic and Independent side, and lower turnout on the Republican side.

So don't believe the polls. Just go out and vote.

SITE LINK - In response to numerous requests that I start signposting in swing states, I've decided to extend the following offer. If I get 25 pictures of signs hung in Arizona, I'll go there and put up 75. Same for New Mexico and Colorado.

LINK - Standing beside Iraq's interim leader, President Bush contended Thursday that insurgents could "plot and plan attacks elsewhere, in America and other free nations," if the United States pulled out. He said his top commander there has not asked for more troops but if he did, "I'd listen to him."

Ivan Remnants Return to Gulf of Mexico

Ivan is making an encore appearance in the Gulf of Mexico, this time as a tropical storm that could come ashore along the coasts of Texas or Louisiana.

After hitting Florida on Sept. 16 as a hurricane, Ivan weakened and broke apart as it traveled north, drenching southern and mid-Atlantic states before returning to sea. Its remnants then swung southward, growing slightly as it traveled over warmer waters.

The regenerated storm was expected to make landfall in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday night, and could bring 50 mph winds and 5 to 10 inches of rain.

LINK

Oct. 9, 2002

Senate floor speech on Iraq resolution:

"In giving the president this authority, I expect him to fulfill the commitments he has made to the American people in recent days -- to work with the United Nations Security Council to adopt a new resolution setting out tough and immediate inspection requirements, and to act with our allies at our side if we have to disarm Saddam Hussein by force. If he fails to do so, I will be among the first to speak out."

Sept. 9, 2003

Speech announcing presidential campaign, Patriot's Point, S.C.:

"I voted to threaten the use of force to make Saddam Hussein comply with the resolutions of the United Nations. I believe that was right -- but it was wrong to rush to war without building a true international coalition -- and with no plan to win the peace."

March 18, 2003

Statement on the eve of the attack on Baghdad:

"Even having botched the diplomacy, it is the duty of any president, in the final analysis, to defend this nation and dispel the security threat. ... Saddam Hussein has brought military action upon himself by refusing for 12 years to comply with the mandates of the United Nations. ... My strong personal preference would have been for the administration ... to have given diplomacy more time."

Dec. 3, 2003

Speech before the Council on Foreign Relations, New York City:

"Simply put, the Bush administration has pursued the most arrogant, inept, reckless and ideological foreign policy in modern history."

Sept. 20, 2004

New York University:

"President Bush tells us that he would do everything all over again the same way. How can he possibly be serious? Is he really saying that if we knew there were no imminent threat, no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to Al Qaeda, the United States should have invaded Iraq?"

Millions Blocked from Voting in U.S. Election

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Millions of U.S. citizens, including a disproportionate number of black voters, will be blocked from voting in the Nov. 2 presidential election because of legal barriers, faulty procedures or dirty tricks, according to civil rights and legal experts.

The largest category of those legally disenfranchised consists of almost 5 million former felons who have served prison sentences and been deprived of the right to vote under laws that have roots in the post-Civil War 19th century and were aimed at preventing black Americans from voting.

But millions of other votes in the 2000 presidential election were lost due to clerical and administrative errors while civil rights organizations have cataloged numerous tactics aimed at suppressing black voter turnout. Polls consistently find that black Americans overwhelmingly vote for Democrats.

"There are individuals and officials who are actively trying to stop people from voting who they think will vote against their party and that nearly always means stopping black people from voting Democratic," said Mary Frances Berry, head of the U.S. Commission on Human Rights.

Vicky Beasley, a field officer for People for the American Way, listed some of the ways voters have been "discouraged" from voting.

"In elections in Baltimore in 2002 and in Georgia last year, black voters were sent fliers saying anyone who hadn't paid utility bills or had outstanding parking tickets or were behind on their rent would be arrested at polling stations. It happens in every election cycle," she said.

Kerry Says Bush in 'Make-Believe World'
AP Interview: Kerry Says Bush in 'Make-Believe World,' Misleading American People

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. Sept. 22, 2004 — President Bush is living in a make-believe world in his understanding of Iraq, misleading the American people and attacking Democrats on phony issues, presidential rival John Kerry said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press.

"Even today, he blundered again saying there are only a handful of terrorists in Iraq," Kerry said. "George Bush retreated from Fallujah and other communities in Iraq which are now overrun with terrorists and threaten our troops."

Bush, campaigning in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, said, "It's hard to help a country go from tyranny to elections to peace when there are a handful of people who are willing to kill in order to stop the process. And that's what you're seeing on the TV screens. You know, these people cannot beat us militarily."

Bush said the insurgents "use the only tool at their disposal, which is beheadings and death, to try to shake our will. They understand the nature of America. ... We weep when we think about the families affected by those who have been brutalized by these terrorists."

Kerry said that in criticizing his statements on Iraq, Bush was "living in a make-believe world," unwilling to tell the truth or to understand the situation in Iraq.
_______

Kerry spoke to the AP shortly after Vice President Dick Cheney delivered a scathing attack on the Democrat. Speaking to reporters after meeting with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, Cheney argued that Kerry's penchant for wavering makes him a weak alternative to a "steadfast leader, which is exactly what we have in President George W. Bush."

"John Kerry gives every indication that his repeated efforts to cast and recast and redefine the war on terror and our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, of someone who lacks the resolve, the determination and the conviction to prevail in this conflict," Cheney said. "He has demonstrated throughout the course of this campaign that he lacks the clarity of vision and purpose necessary to lead our country during extraordinary times."

In a day filled with rhetorical charges and countercharges -- at campaign stops and in advertising -- all four candidates found fault. Responding to Cheney's criticism of Kerry, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards said in a statement that Bush and Cheney "are the last two people we need a lecture from about how to keep the American people safe."

"It is the height of absurdity for Dick Cheney, a chief architect of the Iraq quagmire, to talk about the leadership needed to fix the mess in Iraq that he created," said Edwards, reviving a word -- quagmire -- often used to describe the Vietnam War.

"President Bush must face reality and tell us the truth about Iraq. He must immediately release the CIA's July 2004 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq to the public."

LINK - The left-leaning alternative newspaper, LA Weekly, is set to launch a major piece formally outing anti-gay California Republican congressman David Dreier for the first time in print media, RAW STORY has learned.

Titled "The Outing," the 900-word piece penned by veteran investigative reporter Doug Ireland, will formally blast Dreier for his extremely anti-gay voting position and its apparent conflict with the relationship he is said to be having with his male chief of staff.

The piece begins by citing activist Mike Rogers, whose site, blogACTIVE, first intimated that Dreier might be gay.

"Rogers' campaign against Dreier got a major boost when it was taken up by Raw Story, the hot new liberal gadfly newsblog," Ireland writes. "Raw Story - which is edited out of Cambridge, Mass., by 23-year-old John Byrne...published an interview with Dreier's Democratic opponent in 1998 and 2000, Dr. Janice Nelson, who said she was aware during her 2000 campaign that Dreier was living with his chief of staff, Brad Smith. 'Brad was like an invisible presence,' she said, adding 'They really have the routine down slick.'"

Twinkies Maker Seeking Ch. 11 Protection

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Interstate Bakeries Corp., the nation's largest wholesaler baker whose products include Twinkies and Wonder Bread, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early Wednesday. The company also named a new chief executive.

"IBC has some of the most recognizable and popular baked breads and sweet goods brands in the nation," [CEO Tony] Alvarez said in a statement. "By filing for protection under Chapter 11 and obtaining...financing, the company should have the liquidity, time and resources necessary to thoroughly identify, assess and address the issues that will enable this company to be successful in the future."

NEW PROOF BUSH SNORTED COCAINE

While President George W. Bush's spokespeople are denying the allegation in Kitty Kelley's new book that Bush used cocaine, an ENQUIRER investigation has tracked down others who are making similar bombshell charges!

One source, author Toby Rogers, said a former member of George Bush Sr.'s staff revealed to him that George W. used cocaine and "has been out of control since college."

The issue that goes on sale Friday explores Kelley's charge that George W. did cocaine at Camp David while his father was President, that First Lady Laura Bush sold marijuana in college ... and much more.

Bush Campaign Gets a Case of Camera Shyness
Backs Away From Defending Bush Guard Service, Debating the Facts

Washington, DC - Facing questions about President Bush's Guard Service and its own possible involvement with the disputed National Guard documents, the Republican National Committee has postponed a call scheduled to discuss the issue this afternoon.

And, in the last several hours, the Bush campaign has also cancelled scheduled appearances by Dan Bartlett on cable networks this evening. These cancellations came as the Bush operatives refused to appear live alongside Kerry campaign official Joe Lockhart.

"It's clear that even the Bush campaign is having a problem defending the President's National Guard service," said Democratic National Committee Spokesman Howard Wolfson. "The Bush campaign has decided to once again duck the tough questions and avoid real debate. Given the President's National Guard service, I don't blame them for being camera shy."

DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe himself held a conference call earlier today where he focused on tough questions on the President's lack of service, his three different explanations for missing his physical and whether he deserved his honorable discharge.

McAuliffe also highlighted a New York Post article that suggested that GOP operative Roger Stone might be involved with the CBS documents.

"We're answering all the questions, and if the White House doesn't like our answers, then we're just going to have to live there."

- Joe Lockhart just now on MSNBC

LINK - In a decision that could affect Americans abroad who are not yet registered to vote in the Nov. 2 presidential election, the Pentagon has begun restricting international access to the official Web site intended to help overseas absentee voters cast ballots.

According to overseas-voter advocates who have been monitoring the situation, Internet service providers in at least 25 countries - including Yahoo Broadband in Japan, Wanadoo in France, BT Yahoo Broadband in Britain and Telefonica in Spain - have been denied access to the site of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, apparently to protect it from hackers.

In an e-mail addressed to a person in France who had tried to access the Web site, the Federal Voting Assistance Program's Web manager, Susan Leader, wrote: "We are sorry you cannot access www.fvap.gov. Unfortunately, Wanadoo France has had its access blocked to U.S. government Web sites due to Wanadoo users constantly attempting to hack these sites. We do not expect the block to be lifted."

President Bush's Ratings Slip to Lowest Level of His Presidency, According to Latest Harris Poll

President Bush's ratings have slipped to 45 percent positive and 54 percent negative, the lowest ratings of his presidency, according to a new Harris Poll. These numbers compare to 50 percent positive, 49 percent negative in June and 48 percent positive, 51 percent negative in August. This downward trend no doubt helps to explain why the lead which the president enjoyed over Senator Kerry immediately after the Republican convention in New York - the so-called "convention bounce" - has now disappeared.

Kiwi troops coming home
16 September 2004
By HANK SCHOUTEN

New Zealand's troops are pulling out of Iraq under a cloak of secrecy as security deteriorates in the battle to control the war-torn country.

Nearly 100 people have been killed in attacks in Baghdad and Baquba this week, while Australia has sent a "logistics team" to Iraq to determine whether two of its nationals are being held hostage.

The New Zealand Defence Force is refusing to give any details of the withdrawal of the 60-strong Kiwi military engineering contingent, which has been hunkered down in Basra for the past five weeks as violence escalates throughout Iraq.

"We do not discuss troop movements in circumstances like this where security is a factor," Defence spokeswoman Sandy McKie said. However, it is understood they are pulling out this week.

"Incredibly, he now believes our national security would be stronger with Saddam Hussein in power and not in prison," Bush said. "He's saying he prefers the stability of a dictatorship to the hope and security of democracy.

"I couldn't disagree more, and not so long ago, so did my opponent," Bush told an audience of supporters. Bush quoted Kerry as saying recently, "Those who believe we are not safer with his capture don't have the judgment to be president or the credibility to be elected president."

Bush also charged that Kerry had appropriated his administration's plan for postwar Iraq.

"Forty-three days before the election, my opponent has now settled on a proposal for what to do next, and it's exactly what we're currently doing," the president said.

Let me put it plainly: The President's policy in Iraq has not strengthened our national security. It has weakened it.

Two years ago, Congress was right to give the President the authority to use force to hold Saddam Hussein accountable. This President...any President...would have needed the threat of force to act effectively. This President misused that authority.

The power entrusted to the President gave him a strong hand to play in the international community. The idea was simple. We would get the weapons inspectors back in to verify whether or not Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. And we would convince the world to speak with one voice to Saddam: disarm or be disarmed.

A month before the war, President Bush told the nation: "If we have to act, we will take every precaution that is possible. We will plan carefully. We will act with the full power of the United States military. We will act with allies at our side and we will prevail." He said that military action wasn't "unavoidable."

Instead, the President rushed to war without letting the weapons inspectors finish their work. He went without a broad and deep coalition of allies. He acted without making sure our troops had enough body armor. And he plunged ahead without understanding or preparing for the consequences of the post-war. None of which I would have done.

Yet today, President Bush tells us that he would do everything all over again, the same way. How can he possibly be serious? Is he really saying that if we knew there were no imminent threat, no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to Al Qaeda, the United States should have invaded Iraq? My answer is no - because a Commander-in-Chief's first responsibility is to make a wise and responsible decision to keep America safe.

Now the president, in looking for a new reason, tries to hang his hat on the "capability" to acquire weapons. But that was not the reason given to the nation; it was not the reason Congress voted on; it's not a reason, it's an excuse. Thirty-five to forty countries have greater capability to build a nuclear bomb than Iraq did in 2003. Is President Bush saying we should invade them?

I would have concentrated our power and resources on defeating global terrorism and capturing or killing Osama bin Laden. I would have tightened the noose and continued to pressure and isolate Saddam Hussein - who was weak and getting weaker - so that he would pose no threat to the region or America.

The President's insistence that he would do the same thing all over again in Iraq is a clear warning for the future. And it makes the choice in this election clear: more of the same with President Bush or a new direction that makes our troops and America safer.

Hastert's al Qaeda comment draws fire

Top Democrats slapped back Sunday at a remark by House Speaker Dennis Hastert that al Qaeda leaders want Sen. John Kerry to beat President Bush in November.

At a campaign rally Saturday in his Illinois district with Vice President Dick Cheney, Hastert said al Qaeda "would like to influence this election" with an attack similar to the train bombings in Madrid days before the Spanish national election in March.

When a reporter asked Hastert if he thought al Qaeda would operate with more comfort if Kerry were elected, the speaker said, "That's my opinion, yes."

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe called Hastert's comments "disgraceful," saying there was "no room for this in our political discourse."

"And I remind you that, you know, we could have done a lot better," McAuliffe said on CNN's "Late Edition."

"The president of the United States, on August 6th of 2001, was told in his briefing that America was going to be attacked by al Qaeda and they may use airplanes," McAuliffe said, referring to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

"He didn't call the FAA. He didn't leave his monthlong vacation. He sat down there."

Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, said Hastert "has joined the fear-mongering choir."

"Let me just say this in the simplest possible terms," Edwards said at a rally in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. "When John Kerry is president of the United States, we will find al Qaeda where they are and crush them before they can do damage to the American people."

Hastert, who as speaker heads the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, showed no sign of backing off his comments.

Here are a few Baghdad Bob classics from the spring of 2003 (courtesy of one of his many Web shrines). See if you can imagine them coming out of the mouth of our president speaking to the press today.

*****

"I will only answer reasonable questions."

"No, I am not scared, and neither should you be."

"Be assured: Baghdad is safe, protected."

"We are in control, they are not in control of anything, they don't even control themselves!"

"The battle is very fierce and God made us victorious."

"They mock me for how I speak. I speak better English than they do."

"I have detailed information about the situation...which completely proves that what they allege are illusions . . . They lie every day."

"I blame Al-Jazeera."

"I can assure you that those villains will recognize in the future how they are pretending things which have never taken place."

"I would like to clarify a simple fact here: How can you lay siege to a whole country? Who is really under siege now?"

"We're giving them a real lesson today. Heavy doesn't accurately describe the level of casualties we have inflicted."

"Those are not Iraqis at all. Where did they bring them from?"

"The American press is all about lies! All they tell is lies, lies and more lies!"

"They are becoming hysterical. This is the result of frustration."

"Just look carefully, I only want you to look carefully. Do not repeat the lies of liars. Do not become like them."

"Search for the truth. I tell you things and I always ask you to verify what I say."

"The United Nations...it is all their fault."

"Even those who live on another planet, if there are such people, would condemn them."

"This is unbiased: They are retreating on all fronts. Their effort is a subject of laughter throughout the world."

"The force that was near the airport, this force was destroyed."

"They are achieving nothing; they are suffering from casualties. Those casualties are increasing, not decreasing."

"They think that by killing civilians and trying to distort the feelings of the people they will win."

"Our estimates are that none of them will come out alive unless they surrender to us quickly."

"They hold no place in Iraq. This is an illusion."

"Once again, I blame al-Jazeera. Please, make sure of what you say and do not play such a role."

"These cowards have no morals. They have no shame about lying."

"You can go and visit those places. Everything is okay. They are not in Najaf. They are nowhere. They are on the moon."

"Rumsfeld, he needs to be hit on the head."

Did Karl Rove dodge the draft?

Except for a lapse of several months, Selective Service records show presidential adviser Karl Rove escaped the draft for nearly three years at the height of the Vietnam War using student deferments.

Rove's avoidance of military service during the Vietnam War has become an issue in an ongoing presidential campaign debate retreading the military records of President Bush and challenger Sen. John Kerry. Bush's supporters have attacked Kerry's war decorations and statements he made opposing the war. And Kerry backers insist Bush was quietly ushered into the protective ranks of the National Guard to avoid combat, then failed to fullfil the last months of his service obligation.

We're back at war in Iraq, says general

Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the head of the Army, has admitted that British troops in Iraq are "back at war". He is the first authoritative figure to concede that war is still being waged in Iraq, 16 months after President George W Bush declared that combat operations were over.

In an interview with The Telegraph, the Chief of the General Staff said that August had been a difficult month for soldiers serving in southern Iraq.

"Soldiers are now fighting a counter-insurgency war," said Sir Mike. "August was a very busy month and British soldiers were involved in war fighting."

Trent Lott must resign as majority leader. I have been voting Republican and giving money and been active in the Party for many years. I have always been appalled by Trent Lott, and have always thought of him has as an unctuous, gutless, spineless, craven helmet-haired weasel of the first order. He surrenders to the enemy more than the French. He is a doormat for Daschle, and was a knee-pad wearing accessory after the fact for his secret crush, Bill Clinton.

He is a vacuous, vapid ignoramus. He is the author of Lott's Doctrine of Preemptive Capitulation. Except, of course, when he is sticking it to his own party. Then he is willing to burn down the Senate in order to preserve his sinecure and the perquisites of his office. He is a disgusting rodent of a man but is really much more of a Nancy Boy than a man.

Rather than letting him gratify his ego lust by hanging on to the Senate Majority Leadership, may I suggest just paying someone to walk around behind him calling him "Leader" every few minutes in a room full of mirrors, and throwing in a life-time supply of Aqua Net hairspray? He would be equally happy, and we would all be a lot better off.

The latest imbroglio is just more more good reason this pathetic loser, this pale pint-size knock-off of a genuine leader, has to be removed from the leadership. He has got us so far off message we need a trip planner and a telescope to find it again. He has gladly capitulated to a constellation of race-hustling poverty pimps in an repellent effort to hang on at all costs.

Get rid of this weasel or go down in flames with him.

Harry W. MacDougald
Atlanta, GA

Kovic Asks if Vietnam Taught Us Anything
by Steve Lopez

Ron Kovic comes toward me in his wheelchair before the doors of the elevator close. He reaches for my hand and squeezes hard. "Come on," he says, and we slip into the third-floor Redondo Beach apartment where he's been painting, writing, suffering through another war.

Kovic's home is strikingly neat, as if this is his way of bringing order to the world. His canvas paintings hang from the walls like Polaroids of disturbed dreams. They hang next to photos of him with Oliver Stone and Tom Cruise, who played Kovic in the movie based on his searing, angry and sorrowful book, "Born on the Fourth of July."
_______

"The president says the terrorists hate us because we're free," Kovic says, bristling at the simplification.

Let's go get the terrorists, he says. But let's admit there's a backlash against decades of hypocritical U.S. foreign policy based on economic self-interest, and let's admit this country has bedded a long line of despots.

"People forget that we supported Saddam Hussein to begin with," Kovic says. "What's been missing after Sept. 11 is a national dialogue about all of this."

It's missing in the presidential campaign too.

"Democracy is loud, it's angry, it's spirited, it's passionate," Kovic says. "I love this country and care about the safety of every American, and for our future security, we have to talk about what happened, and why, and go on from there."
_______

"People say, 'Yeah, I support the war, I support the president, I think we should be in Iraq.' Do they really know what it's like to be there? To be hit by a bullet? To live with your wounds for the rest of your life? Do they have any idea what parents go through?"

Kovic leans forward, eyes burning.

"Will these people who support the war be there when these soldiers come home? Will they be there on lonely nights five years later, 10 years, 20 years later? Will they be there when they're homeless because their lives have been ruined, or they're in prison because they were never able to adjust?

"I'm glad President Bush didn't have to suffer the way some of us did. I'm glad he didn't get shot and end up in a wheelchair and suffer all the awful consequences. I know what it means. I've been on the battlefield fighting for my life when another Marine came up to save my life and was killed.

"I know what it means to come home to a government that isn't prepared for all the wounded. I saw paraplegics and quadriplegics. I remember it, I can smell it and I will never forget it.

"This is a war we should never have fought to begin with, and it's becoming a catastrophe and a mirror image of Vietnam. Another guerrilla war, another senseless quagmire…. It can only make us greater targets of terror, and it can only harm the soul of America."

Kovic takes off frequently on these flights of rage, then almost seems to pull himself back. Don't get him wrong, he tells me. He's not a cynic, because he can't afford to be.

"I feel a lot of energy," he says. "This is a great challenge."

He looks down toward frail bent legs, smiles and says:

"How can I turn this into something wonderful? Victorious? It's important for me not to be a victim. Dignity over despair is what I tell myself.

"Dignity over despair."

Gov. Vetoes Minimum Wage Hike
Schwarzenegger also axes a bill that would have made retailers such as Wal-Mart pay for studies of proposed stores' economic impact.

Aligning himself with business leaders in perhaps his most unambiguous way yet, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday vetoed a measure to boost California's minimum wage to the nation's highest, instead leaving it at the lowest level on the West Coast.

Schwarzenegger also rejected legislation that would have required giant retailers such as Wal-Mart that wanted to open colossal stores to first finance studies showing whether they would hurt the neighborhood economy and affect traffic.

Together, the two vetoes and accompanying explanations were some of Schwarzenegger's clearest articulations of where his views lie in disputes between business and labor.

"In recent years, the high cost of doing business in California has driven away jobs, businesses, and opportunity," Schwarzenegger wrote in his veto of the minimum-wage bill, AB 2832. "Now is not the time to create barriers to our economic recovery or reverse the momentum we have generated. I want to create more jobs and make every California job more secure."

California's minimum wage has been $6.75 an hour since 2002. The bill passed by the Democratic-controlled Legislature would have raised it by 50 cents on July 1, 2005 and then to $7.75 a year later. The federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour.

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, the author of the minimum-wage bill, said Schwarzenegger's veto was disappointing. "The state minimum wage is under the federal poverty line," said Lieber (D-Mountain View). "This veto is evidence that you can't serve two masters. You either side with the corporate interests or the people. Schwarzenegger sided with the corporate interests."

Bush's Cut-and-Spend Plan Is Math-Challenged

To hear President Bush talk about his plans for a second term, voters might think that the era of big government spending is back.

From his proposal to overhaul Social Security to his commitment to fighting terrorism and his initiatives on health, education and job training, the agenda Bush is spelling out in speeches and campaign documents calls for the robust use of government money.

All this comes from the same candidate who promises to cut the federal budget deficit in half by 2009 and whose Cabinet agencies are preparing for some serious belt-tightening of domestic programs if he is reelected.

That mixed message — a smaller deficit, but costly new initiatives — may have more appeal to swing voters than the simpler message of old-fashioned conservatism, which calls for smaller government and less spending.

But many analysts say Bush's second-term promises may be a poor predictor of what he could actually accomplish. Even some administration allies say it would be nearly impossible for Bush to achieve all his ambitious objectives and still halve the deficit by 2009.

"Can it be done?" said G. William Hoagland, top budget aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). "Sure. On paper. But politically it's very difficult."

To do it all, Hoagland said, "lots of other things would have to be eliminated, terminated."

For whom did my son die in Iraq?
By Diane Davis Santoriello

For the last year and a half, the pain in my gut screamed at my head write about this war, speak out against the war! But my aching heart said, "You can't undermine your son's confidence in what he is doing." Memories of people scorning and smearing Vietnam vets ran rampant through my mind. You see, my son, 1st Lt. Neil Anthony Santoriello Jr., was living his dream. He had fulfilled his dream of becoming a military officer. I thought he was fulfilling his destiny of being a man of purpose, compassion and justice working to make the world a better place.

Now my son is dead. How did he die? According to the Army, he was killed on Aug. 13 in western Iraq when an IED -- an "improvised explosive device" -- detonated near his vehicle. According to me, he was killed by the arrogance and ineptitude of George W. Bush aided by Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
_______

My son voted for Bush. If he were alive, would he be voting for him again? I am not sure. His wife and I avoided political discussions with him before and during his deployment. He would have never talked badly about the president, because you do not criticize your commander in chief.

But I sensed frustration in his letters. When he came home, I would have talked to him about it. I can't ask him now. Now I speak for him.

He worried about his men, his stateside friends set to deploy next month. I did not speak out against the war earlier and for this I am angry with myself. My son, a man of incredible honor, died from the actions of dishonorable men. I cannot bring him back. But I speak out now to protect the people still serving, to try to restore honor to our country.

John Kerry was not my first choice for president, but I believe he has demonstrated a willingness to be open-minded. He knows that changing your position is not a character flaw, but a character plus. I believe he is the only person capable of getting the rest of the world to help us clean up the mess created by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the administration's other Iraq hawks.

Diane Davis Santoriello lives in Penn Hills

Britain to cut troop levels in Iraq

The British Army is to start pulling troops out of Iraq next month despite the deteriorating security situation in much of the country, The Observer has learnt.

The main British combat force in Iraq, about 5,000-strong, will be reduced by around a third by the end of October during a routine rotation of units.

The news came amid another day of mayhem in Iraq, which saw a suicide bomber kill at least 23 people and injure 53 in the northern city of Kirkuk. The victims were queueing to join Iraq's National Guard.

More than 200 people were killed last week in one of the bloodiest weeks since last year's invasion, strengthening impressions that the country is spinning out of control.

The forthcoming 'drawdown' of British troops in Basra has not been made public and is likely to provoke consternation in both Washington and Baghdad. Many in Iraq argue that more, not fewer, troops are needed. Last week British troops in Basra fought fierce battles with Shia militia groups.

A less kind, less gentle John Kerry

Sen. John Kerry is condemning President Bush with sharper language and more pointed attacks as the campaign heads into its final six weeks, hoping to turn the 2004 election back into a referendum on the incumbent.

After a summer of muddled messages and sagging poll numbers, the focus of Kerry campaigners has shifted from introducing their candidate to the nation to drawing distinctions with the president, a more combative posture that aides said will characterize their tone through election day.

In the past six days, Kerry has charged Bush with caving in to the gun lobby, favoring Halliburton at the expense of American taxpayers, glossing over glum news from Iraq while "living in a fantasy world of spin," and presiding over an economic recovery that has generated "more excuses than jobs."

"I am absolutely taking the gloves off," Kerry told radio host Don Imus this past week. "I'm prepared to take (Bush) on."

The confrontational tone, cheered by party loyalists, nevertheless carries a risk for the Democratic challenger. Kerry won his party's nomination in part because he was seen as more steady and careful -- and therefore more electable -- than former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, his chief rival in the early primaries. If Kerry's attacks are viewed as too strident, it may leave some voters wondering what he stands for besides "not-Bush," and turn off other voters who are reluctant to change presidents during a war.

This week's more strident tone is a calculated risk. While it may serve to fire up his base and help define his differences with Bush, it could also turn off voters who are hesitant to remove a wartime president. Some of Kerry's words were reminiscent of Dean, who soared to the top of Democratic polls last year because of his confrontational style and anti-war stance. Democrats ultimately rejected Dean in favor of Kerry, in part because Kerry seemed like a safer, and more electable, alternative.

Bush 'pleased with the progress' in Iraq

"The Iraqis are defying the dire predictions of a lot of people by moving toward democracy," Bush told the paper. "It's hard to get to democracy from tyranny. It's hard work. And yet, it's necessary work. But it's necessary work because a democratic Iraq will make the world a freer place and a more peaceful place.

"I'm pleased with the progress," Bush said. "It's hard. Don't get me wrong. It's hard because there are some in Iraq who want to disrupt the election and disrupt the march to democracy, which should speak to their fear of freedom."

Ex-Guardsman: I Contacted Kerry Campaign

A retired Texas National Guard official mentioned as a possible source for disputed documents about President Bush's service in the Guard said he passed along information to a former senator working with John Kerry's campaign.

The retired Guard official, Bill Burkett, said in an Aug. 21 e-mail to a list of Texas Democrats that after getting through "seven layers of bureaucratic kids" in the Democrat's campaign, he talked with former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland about information that would counter criticism of Kerry's Vietnam War service. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the e-mail Saturday.

"I asked if they wanted to counterattack or ride this to ground and outlast it, not spending any money. (Cleland) said counterattack. So I gave them the information to do it with," Burkett wrote.

Burkett, who lives just outside of Abilene, wrote that no one at the Kerry campaign called him back.

Bush Raises Questions About CBS Documents

President Bush questioned the authenticity of documents aired by CBS News that said he received special treatment during his Vietnam-era service in the National Guard, according to a Bush interview published on Saturday.

"There are a lot of questions about the documents and they need to be answered," Bush told the Union Leader newspaper of Manchester, New Hampshire, after a week in which some experts questioned whether the documents had been fabricated by those seeking to damage Bush in his re-election race.

"I think what needs to happen is people need to take a look at the documents, how they were created, and let the truth come out," Bush added.

Insurgents aim to influence U.S. vote, official says

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage alleged Friday that insurgents have stepped up their deadly assaults in Iraq because they want to "influence the election against President Bush," a statement that drew a sharp condemnation from the campaign of Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry.

It is apparently the first time that a Bush administration official has linked the escalating violence in Iraq to an effort by insurgents to help defeat Bush in November.
_______

After Armitage had apparently ended the news conference by saying, "Thank you very much," a reporter asked him to clarify his statement linking the violence in Iraq to the elections, according to the transcript.

"It's quite obvious that they would like to raise [the] costs to President Bush. I think this is their cynical effort to do that and to somehow influence our elections, and they will fail," Armitage said.

"They are trying to influence the election against President Bush," he added.

Asked whether he meant that insurgents or terrorists were working for Kerry, Armitage replied, "I didn't say that. What I said was that they were trying to influence the election against President Bush."

David Wade, a spokesman for Kerry's campaign, fired back Friday.

"These comments are an outrage and an offense to all Americans," Wade said. "It's even more offensive that the Bush administration thinks they can cover up the indefensible words of the deputy secretary of state."

Although Armitage is apparently the first administration official to link the escalating death toll in Iraq to efforts to defeat Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney drew similar ire from Democrats last week. Cheney said during a campaign stop in Iowa that the U.S. could be hit in a devastating terrorist attack "if we make the wrong choice" on Nov. 2.

Saddam Hussein would have done his best to lay waste to Washington D.C. sooner than later. His sons were in training for the baddest guy in town and eventually the world.

GW is a hero in fact! He had the balls to say to Saddam "Stop and decist, show us your hand or else".

On the other side of reality, I believe John Kerry would sit on his hands watching the greatest country in the world be destroyed even witout a fight rather than show a stand against his great and wonderful UN.

Lorin

The Bogus Assault -- Father Freeper of the Year
Serial Republican Victim complains for the THIRD straight presidential election of being assaulted and has his family assist.

Unbelievable.

Here is today's newspaper story:

A Republican family attended the rally to show support for the Bush-Cheney ticket. Phil Parlock, a Barboursville resident and strong Republican, said his family was accosted by some Kerry supporters.

"We do it peacefully and quietly to show respect. And, we don’t want to get kicked out of anything," Parlock said.

After standing on the tarmac with the Kerry supporters, Parklock and three of his children moved down to the airport road near a parking lot exit.

With Parlock were sons Phil II, 21, and Alex, 11, and daughter Sophia, 3.

Parlock said a Kerry supporter yanked a Bush-Cheney sign out of Sophia’s hands, making her cry. As they stood along the road later, someone threw the ripped-up remains of the sign at them as they passed.

Problem is, as pointed out by some (Rezmutt) at D.U. is he has done this before.

Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, August 27, 1996, Page 3C

Phil Parlock's experience was less calm.

The Huntington man said he was knocked to the ground by a Clinton supporter when he tried to display a sign that read "Remember Vince Foster," the deputy White House counsel who committed suicide in a Washington, D.C., park. His death has become the subject of much debate among Clinton opponents.

"It must have been a strict Democrat who did this," Parlock said, feeling the red abrasions on his face. "Everyone with the exception of him was real peaceful about our protest."

Parlock said some of the crowd tried to make other anti-Clinton demonstrators feel unwelcome. He estimated that about 150 Dole supporters attended the rally, but their signs couldn't be seen for most of the rally.

Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, October 28, 2000, pg. 1A:

Phil Parlock didn't expect to need all 12 of the Bush-Cheney signs he and his son Louis smuggled in their socks and pockets into the rally for Vice President Al Gore.

But each time they raised a sign, someone would grab it out of their hands, the two Huntington residents said. And sometimes it got physical.

"I expected some people to take our signs," said Louis, 12. "But I did not expect people to practically attack us."

The two said they didn't go to the Friday morning rally to start trouble.

"I came to support Bush and try to change some people's minds," Louis said.

Now here is the picture of Parlock with his three-year old daughter, who he enlisted as his assistant (father of the year no doubt).



Notice closely the young man wearing the union shirt and holding a piece of the sign?

Now here is a picture of the very productive Parlock family:



What are the odds, this allegedly angry sign-ripper in the union shirt, holding the fragments of a ripped Bush sign is either the guy in the grey sweater or the blue shirt?

So was Parlock having one of his sons portray a union stooge?


This guy is a serial disrupter with pretty much the same story every time.

Remember this when the Cornerites and Little Green Snot Bubbles spout off and try to make this a big story...especially in the wake of the known abuse protestors get at the regular "Triumph of the Will" functions that comprise a Bush Campaign appearance.

We're ending this campaign week in the Pacific Northwest with two stops in Oregon. Oregon is a state that Dick Cheney will likely keep visiting... they lost by just under 7,000 votes last time, and they feel they have a pretty good shot this year. But that's not the case with neighboring Washington State. We used to make campaign stops there too, and the campaign might not tell you this, but they've pretty much conceded the state to Kerry and now they're focusing on Oregon and its 7 electoral college points.

While Cheney focuses his attacks pretty much on Senator Kerry and all but ignores John Edwards, the Kerry campaign feels Cheney is a major liability for the Republican ticket that they can play up. So they attack the VP pretty consistently on the stump, and today launched a full attack. The released a campaign ad accusing Cheney of profiting off the war in Iraq through no-bid contracts with his former employer, Halliburton. Kerry also attacked Cheney in a speech in Albuquerque today, saying that he has two words for companies like Halliburton, "You're Fired," and calling for an end to corporate "cronyism."

Ex-Guardsman: Probe Gaps in Bush Service

A former Texas Air National Guard official who served at the same time as President Bush says he believes the bigger story about gaps in Bush's service is being overlooked in disputes over the validity of certain Guard documents.

"I think the public ought to be concerned about his preferential treatment getting in and whether he satisfied his commitment to the Air Guard. Those are the two fundamental questions," said Robert Strong, the administrative officer in charge of air operations at Guard state headquarters from early 1971 until March 1972.

Kerry accuses Cheney of conflict on Halliburton

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Friday that the Bush administration ignored overcharging in defense contracts awarded to Halliburton, the company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, calling it evidence of the president's mismanagement of the war in Iraq.

"Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton, has profited from the mess in Iraq at the expense of American troops and taxpayers," Kerry said. "While Halliburton has been engaging in massive overcharging and wasteful practices under this no-bid contract, Dick Cheney has continued to receive compensation from his former company."

Coupled with a new campaign ad aimed at the vice president, the criticism showed Kerry charging at one of his harshest critics. He rarely responds directly to the sharp words Cheney uses while campaigning for the president's re-election.
_______

The new line of attack dovetails with Kerry's escalating criticism of Bush's management of security and reconstruction in Iraq.

Kerry said Bush glosses over the increasingly dangerous situation in Iraq, while the United States bears the cost in lives and money. He also said congressional leaders say Bush plans to call up more National Guard and reserve troops after the election.

"It is clear that almost every aspect of this war, from how we went to how it was conducted, has been mismanaged and mishandled," Kerry said.

Drafts say no arms stockpiles in Iraq

Drafts of a report from the top U.S. inspector in Iraq conclude there were no weapons stockpiles, but say there are signs that fallen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had dormant programs he hoped to revive at a later time, according to people familiar with the findings.

In a 1,500-page report, the head of the Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, will find Saddam was importing banned materials, working on unmanned aerial vehicles in violation of U.N. agreements and maintaining a dual-use industrial sector that could produce weapons.

Duelfer also says Iraq only had small research and development programs for chemical and biological weapons.

As Duelfer puts the finishing touches on his report, he concludes Saddam had intentions of restarting weapons programs at some point, after suspicion from the international community waned.

After a year and a half in Iraq, however, the United States has found no weapons of mass destruction - its chief argument for overthrowing the regime.

Afghan Leader Targeted in Attack

Afghan President Hamid Karzai survived an assassination attempt Thursday when a rocket was fired at his helicopter as it prepared to land near the southeastern city of Gardez.

The rocket missed the helicopter by about 300 yards, a U.S. military spokesman said in Kabul, the capital. Karzai was not hurt, and the helicopter immediately flew back to Kabul.
_______

Once back in the capital, Karzai made light of the incident and said his American security guards overreacted.

"It was like the padding paws of a cat," he said, quoting an Afghan proverb meaning that the attack was not serious. "We were about to land. I saw a big crowd of people, but suddenly the chopper took off and speeded up.

"We thought something might be wrong with the engine. Later they told us that we are going to not land, [because] there was a rocket attack."

He added: "I think our guys were really taking a lot of precautions for no reason. It was nothing actually. The governor [of Paktia] told me that it was a rocket that hit a house door."

Swiss Secrecy May Be a Lure for Al Qaeda

BERN, Switzerland - The trail began in the desert mayhem of Saudi Arabia and led to a suspected militant Islamic network operating in the Alpine tranquillity of Switzerland.

It started with a Saudi investigation into the May 2003 suicide attacks on three expatriate housing compounds in Riyadh by Al Qaeda that killed 26.

Investigators recovered a suspect's cellphone and made a startling discovery: The memory contained 36 Swiss numbers. And one of them belonged to an alleged Yemeni extremist based in the pristine village of Aegerten, an area known more for clockmakers than for terrorists.
_______

The unlikely setting shows how extremists establish footholds in whatever corner of the world they can.

In some ways, Switzerland does not seem a hospitable base for the Al Qaeda terrorist network. The country lacks the big cities and vast Muslim neighborhoods of neighboring nations. It does not belong to the borderless European Union, making entry and exit more complicated.

Nonetheless, that banking system remains a magnet for the global underworld: Swiss prosecutors are pursuing two massive investigations of wealthy Arabs accused of financing Islamic extremists through Swiss bank accounts. And street-level militants know that, like other small European nations with traditions of tolerance and neutrality, Switzerland has generous political asylum laws, strong protections for criminal defendants and an ingrained respect for privacy.

This Is No Time to Channel Al Gore

How hard can this be?

It's one fat home-run pitch after another. Kerry knocks a two-bagger now and then, but often fails to get the bat off his shoulder. He's too busy looking for a sign from the third base coach, and to make matters worse, he hires a new one every other day.

Swing for the fences, says one. No, play it safe, says another.

Talk up your own record. No, attack Bush's.

Kerry has the disease.

It's akin to multiple personality disorder, it's a killer, and it afflicts virtually the entire Democratic Party. They can't quite figure out who they represent, what they stand for, or how to explain themselves.

Republicans, on the other hand, are much more cunning. Bible-toters don't have anything in common with social moderates in the GOP, but they all come together when they have to and rally around meaningless slogans.

Compassionate conservative? Count them in.

Terrorists hate freedom? Sounds good.

Tax cuts and smaller government? You don't even have to deliver the goods. Conservatives just love the sound of the words.

The Democrats have no slogan, no idea, as ingeniously simplistic as those of the Republicans. Bill Clinton had a bridge to the 21st century, but Al Gore fell off it chasing soccer moms - or was it NASCAR dads? - while trying to hold onto the Democratic base, whatever that might be.

The other day on the radio with Don Imus, Kerry was asked about getting American troops home from Iraq.

"What you ought to be doing - and what everybody in America ought to be doing - today is not asking me," Kerry said. "They ought to be asking the president: What is your plan?"

Even if he'd tried, Kerry could not have come up with a more harebrained answer. All he had to say is that he foolishly bought into the president's justification for war, and soon as possible, he'll get us out of that mess and fight a true war against actual terrorists.

"We're asking you," Imus persisted, "because you want to be president."

Kerry's response?

"I can't tell you what I'm going to find on the ground on Jan. 20."

How about his political career?

From Campaign Trail to Ho Chi Minh Trail
Let's trade that Iraqi quagmire for another Swift boat spin down the Mekong Delta

Let's stop re-fighting the Vietnam War on the campaign trail and re-fight it where it'll do some good: in Vietnam. That's right, let's stop mucking around and just...reinvade Vietnam.
_______

Now, some of you are saying, Bill, we can't bomb Vietnam. Who's going to make our sneakers? And if no one makes the sneakers, who's going to make the big endorsement deals? And without those, how do basketball players pay for their pricey rape lawyers? Yes, it's like a row of dominos. That's why they call it Vietnam.

I know that we didn't win it last time - but we will this time because, if you read the papers, you'll see that since Vietnam we've mastered this whole guerrilla insurgency thing.

Plus, Vietnam doesn't have any weapons of mass destruction or any links to 9/11 or any ties to Al Qaeda.

They're practically asking for it!

But this isn't about them anyway. It's about us, and our need for closure and completion and all that other stuff Dr. Phil talks about. This will allow us to move forward, into a shining future, so that decades from now, the president - whichever of the Bush twins it is - can say: Our national nightmare is truly over. Vietnam is behind us. Now let's go kick the heck out of Peru.

How tough is Bush, really?

Anyone looking at his record on defense and foreign policy can see that Bush indeed has flinched and yielded, time after time. What this president has proven is that Republicans can routinely get away with behavior that, in a Democrat, would be labeled wimpy.

Most people have long forgotten the crisis that erupted early in his term, when a U.S. spy plane landed in China after colliding with a Chinese fighter. When Beijing demanded an apology before it would release the crew, Bush refused, only to back down. In the end, the administration issued a letter saying it was "very sorry" for the plane's intrusion.

Early on, Bush met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and emerged glowing with admiration: "I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. ... I was able to get a sense of his soul." Apparently his glimpse into Putin's soul missed the Russian leader's authoritarian tendencies. Those became hard to ignore this week when he proposed to strengthen his own power--dismaying democracy advocates in Russia, but drawing no rebuke from Bush.

Nor was Bush fiercely resolute in confronting Al Qaeda. He came into office only three months after the terrorist attack on the USS Cole. At first, it was uncertain who carried out the bombing, but by the time Bush arrived, the CIA had pinned the blame on Osama bin Laden. Yet Bush let the attack go unavenged.

That's ancient history, you say? He proved his ferocity in Afghanistan and Iraq, you say? To some extent, that's true. At the same time, his refusal to send large numbers of ground troops into Afghanistan allowed bin Laden and many of his confederates to slip the noose.

He also declined to provide a sufficient force in Iraq to assure peace and order, giving our enemies ample opportunity to mobilize against us--as they did, and as they continue to do. If a Democratic president had fallen so conspicuously short in these military ventures, Republicans would portray him as a girlie man.
_______

The administration's supporters can claim that Bush has done his best in playing a very weak hand, and that former President Bill Clinton didn't succeed in stopping them either. But the inescapable fact is that Bush has failed to prevent two dangerous regimes from becoming even more dangerous.

Bush, we are told, is a tough man for tough times. But his record suggests one of two things: Either he isn't that tough, or toughness isn't much of a solution.

Kerry Hurls Essence of Report on Iraq at Bush

Citing a new classified intelligence report predicting serious troubles ahead for Iraq, John F. Kerry yesterday accused President Bush of living in a "fantasy world of spin" and refusing to speak honestly about mounting casualties, indiscriminate killings and chaos in Iraq. "Stability and security seem further and further away," Kerry said.

The White House, which had planned a vigorous election-season defense of its Iraq strategy next week, was forced into the debate yesterday. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the intelligence assessment "states the obvious," and he dismissed skeptics of the Iraq policy as "pessimists and naysayers." Bush, at a campaign stop, repeated his generally upbeat assessment of Iraq: "Freedom is on the march."
_______

Kerry, speaking to thousands of National Guardsmen in Las Vegas two days after Bush addressed the same group, said the administration's strategy in Iraq is failing and that the White House is trying to hide that reality from the American people.

"The president stood right here where I am standing and did not even acknowledge that more than 1,000 men and women have lost their lives in Iraq," Kerry said. "He did not tell that you with each passing day, we're seeing more chaos, more violence, indiscriminate killing. He did not tell you that with each passing week, our enemies are getting bolder -- that Pentagon officials report that entire regions of Iraq are now in the hands of terrorists and extremists."

Kerry has been trying to turn Iraq into a referendum on Bush's honesty overall. Bush has "failed the fundamental test of leadership: he failed to tell you the truth," Kerry said. "The hard truth -- and it is a hard truth -- is that our president has made serious mistakes in taking us to war."

Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) joined a small, but growing, chorus of GOP voices sounding grave concerns about Iraq, comments that tend to support Kerry's view. "We've got to be honest with ourselves," Hagel said. "The worst thing we can do is hold ourselves hostage to some grand illusion we're winning. Right now, we are not winning. Things are getting worse."

Cartoon Network Commits to Boondocks

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cartoon Network has ordered 15 episodes of a half-hour animated series based on the syndicated comic strip, The Boondocks, created by Aaron McGruder and partner Reggie Hudlin. Sony Pictures Television is producing the show.

The Boondocks uses edgy humor to tackle cultural and political issues as seen through the eyes of two inner-city kids relocated to the suburbs and placed in the custody of their grandfather. The toon is expected to land a spot in Cartoon Network’s hugely popular Adult Swim late-night block.

The comic strip first appeared in 1999 and is now seen in more than 200 newspapers. McGruder and Hudlin wrote the pilot for the toon and will serve as exec producers on the TV series. The duo is also scripting a Boondocks feature film, which Sony will develop as well.

The latest national survey of 1,972 registered voters by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted in two waves over a seven-day period, finds that the president's large margin of support in the initial period (Sept. 8-10) dissipated in the polling conducted Sept. 11-14. Among all registered voters Bush initially led Kerry by 52%-40%. However, the second wave of interviewing shows the race even among registered voters, at 46%-46%. When the sample is narrowed to likely voters, Bush holds a statistically insignificant lead of 47%-46% in the second wave, down from a huge 54%-38% advantage he held in the first wave of interviews.

The latest Harris Poll finds that Senator John Kerry and President George W. Bush are now enjoying almost equal levels of support. Immediately after the Republican convention in New York, several polls showed President Bush jumping ahead of Senator Kerry with a clear lead of between six and 11 percentage points. This "convention bounce" has now disappeared.

These are some of the results of a nationwide poll of 1,018 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive® between September 9 and 13, 2004. It seems that the short-term effects of the Republican convention have worn off. The poll shows Senator Kerry leading 48 percent to 47 percent among likely voters.

Bush raps Putin on powers

Russian President Vladimir Putin's moves to centralise power could undermine democracy, US President George Bush said in an unusual rebuke of an ally. Mr Putin's announcement on Monday that he would seek further control over regional governments and the legislative branch has been widely interpreted as an attempt to use fear of terrorism as a justification for imposing tyranny.

Mr Bush's silence for two days led to widespread questions about his commitment to promoting freedom in all parts of the world. But Mr Bush on Wednesday said he was "concerned about the decisions being made in Russia that could undermine democracy in Russia".

"Great countries, great democracies have a balance of power between central government and local governments, a balance of power within central governments between the executive branch and the legislative branch and the judicial branch," he said.

"As governments fight the enemies of democracy, they must uphold the principles of democracy."

Mr Bush did not repeat the praise of Mr Putin as "a man who I admire" that he offered on Sunday when he stopped at the Russian embassy to write a note in a condolence book for more than 300 children and adults killed in the terrorist siege of a school in southern Russia.

LINK - Vice President Cheney suggested Monday that the Sept. 2 terrorist strike at a Russian school may signal a shift in how the Putin government and others in Europe view the fight against terrorism: They will become more aggressive.

"What happened in Russia has demonstrated conclusively that everyone is a target," he said. "I think there will be a higher degree of cooperation from all countries as we move forward."

Gold Star mother arrested after interrupting Laura Bush

A Hopewell woman whose son was killed while serving in Iraq was arrested Thursday after she interrupted a campaign speech by first lady Laura Bush.

Sue Niederer had refused to leave the rally and demanded to know why her son was killed in Iraq. She was eventually escorted from the rally site, a local firehouse, by police.

Niederer wore a T-shirt that bore the words "President Bush You Killed My Son" and a picture of her son, Army 1st Lt. Seth Dvorin.

Dvorin was killed in February while trying to disarm a bomb in Iraq. The 24-year-old had just returned to Iraq after spending two weeks with his family.

The first lady continued speaking after the arrest, touting her husband's record on the economy, health care and the war on terror.

Annan: Iraq war was 'illegal'

The U.S. decision to go to war in Iraq without the approval of the U.N. Security Council was "illegal," Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the BBC on Wednesday.

"I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time -- without U.N. approval and much broader support from the international community," he said in an interview with the BBC World Service.

The U.N. Charter allows nations to take military action with Security Council approval as an explicit enforcement action, such as during the Korean War and the 1991 Gulf War.

But in 2003, in the build-up to the Iraq war, the United States dropped an attempt to get a Security Council resolution approving the invasion when it became apparent it would not pass.

At the time, Annan had underlined the lack of legitimacy for a war without U.N. approval, saying: "If the United States and others were to go outside the Security Council and take unilateral action they would not be in conformity with the Charter."

I get the lettering using transparencies printed out from my computer and shined onto the cardboard (painted white) with an overhead projector. Then I trace the outlines with a marking pen, lay it flat and fill in with cheap enamel. It's easy, relaxing, and goes a lot quicker than you'd think. That sign took me about half an hour to make, half a minute to hang, cost about
45 cents in materials and, for all I know, people are still looking at it.

The reason I don't mention the overhead projector method on my site is that I don't want people thinking "Once I get my hands on one of those projectors by golly, then I'll do it!" because then it'll never happen. Get some cardboard, roll some white paint over it, let it dry and then either handpaint or spraypraint your message on it and stick it up someplace where lots of people will see it. I suggest the freeway.

When you handpaint a sign and post it in public it says two things:
1) whatever-the-hell you want it to say, and 2) that somebody cared enough about whatever-the-hell-they-wanted-to-say to actually paint a sign and put it where people could see it.

If everybody who read this post put a sign on the freeway tomorrow, millions of Americans would see it. If everybody who read this post put ten signs on the freeway tomorrow, it could very well change the face of politics.

We have 46 days left. Do it.

Lawmakers Target Bush Administration Over Iraq

U.S. Lawmakers blasted the Bush administration Wednesday for its handling of the war in Iraq and said they were confounded only a fraction of $18.4 billion in U.S. rebuilding funds had been spent.

In an unusually nonpartisan hearing, Republican and Democratic senators urged senior State Department officials to try harder to speed up the reconstruction program, which lawmakers said could lead to a more stable environment in Iraq.

They also told officials to be more honest in their assessments of what was going on, with Indiana Republican Sen. Dick Lugar taking aim at what he called the "dancing in the street crowd," who painted an overly positive picture.

"The nonsense of all of that is apparent. The lack of planning (for Iraq) is apparent," said Lugar, chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

The committee's top Democrat, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, said virtually every problem in Iraq was predicted by experts before the U.S. invasion, but no plan was in place.

"The ideologues were in control and in denial," Biden said. "There is such a disconnect between what I hear (from Bush administration officials) and the reality of the situation on the ground."

So far, just over $1 billion of the $18.4 billion has been spent. Lawmakers said they were perplexed why it was taking so long to spend that money when the administration had pressed Congress to rush the funds through last November.

"This is an extraordinarily ineffective administrative procedure and it is exasperating for anybody looking at this from any vantage point," Lugar said.

LINK - Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Jeanne is battering Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands this afternoon. St. Thomas, V. I., is be hammered by wind gusts over 50 mph and San Juan, P. R., is reporting 45-mph gusts. Jeanne, located over eastern Puerto Rico now, is swirling toward the WNW and is forecast to brush along the north coast of the Dominican Republic tomorrow. Jeanne may intensify into hurricane once it departs Puerto Rico and probably will continue strengthening as it churns through the Turks and Caicos Islands and Bahamas late this week and weekend.

Democrats Score Win in Fight Over Nader in Florida

A Florida judge ordered county elections officials on Wednesday to issue absentee ballots without the name of independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, a possible blow to President Bush in the battleground state.

Circuit Judge Kevin Davey overruled a move this week by Florida's elections supervisor to include Nader on the ballot for the Nov. 2 election as a Reform Party candidate.

Nader was a candidate in 2000 when Bush won Florida by 537 votes to clinch the White House. Analysts said most of Nader's nearly 98,000 votes in Florida would have gone to Democrat Al Gore had Nader not been on the ballot.

A poll released on Aug. 30 by the Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times showed Bush leading Democrat John Kerry in Florida by 48 percent to 46 percent, with Nader at 2 percent. The poll surveyed 800 voters from Aug. 22 to 25.

We are at one of the defining moments of this campaign -- one of those points we will look back on when we win. We will remember that George Bush and Dick Cheney tried to completely ignore reality -- and we will remember that we stood side by side and refused to let them get away with it.

George Bush and Dick Cheney wake up every morning with their fingers crossed, hoping the American people will ignore their miserable record, forget their trail of failures, and fear the future. But with your help, we are going to make sure that the American people see through their bluster and posturing, and see what a mess they have made.

George Bush and Dick Cheney have lost over a million jobs, made our health care crisis worse, and turned record budget surpluses into record deficits. They misled America into war, failed to plan for the peace, and are running up a $200 billion bill at the expense of America's middle class taxpayers.

And now they are acting like they are doing us a favor by standing for re-election. They even have the gall to tell the American people how risky it would be if we turned them out of office.

The biggest risk to America's future is four more years of Bush-Cheney's incompetence, misinformation, and ill intent.

There are seven critical weeks left in this campaign. There will be moments when everything seems to be going our way -- and times when we will wish events were moving in a different direction. But we will never lose faith. We will never stop working for victory. And we will never yield an inch to our opponents.

Remember this: they are the ones who are hoping and praying that reality does not catch up with them by Election Day. We are the ones who are going to make sure that it does.

The rest of this campaign will be tough. But, we will be tougher. They will throw everything they have at us. But we will give as good as we get. And when the dust settles on Election Day, we are going to pull through to victory.

Thank you for all you have done to help me, John Edwards and other Democratic candidates. And, most of all, thank you for standing with us through thick and thin. Together, we will win.

Thank you,

LINK - "The president wants you to believe that this record is the record of the victim of circumstances, the result of bad luck, not bad decisions," Kerry said in his speech. "Well, Mr. President, when it comes to your record, we agree -- you own it."

"His is the excuse presidency -- never wrong, never responsible, never to blame ... no, it's not our fault; no, there's nothing wrong; no, we can't do better; no, we haven't made a single mistake," Kerry said.

While the Iraq war has supplanted the economy as voters' No. 1 issue in many opinion polls, and national security is considered one of Bush's strengths, the Kerry campaign believes the president is vulnerable on domestic issues.

The Democratic nominee underscored his hard-hitting broadside by writing in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal that "cleaning up President Bush's fiscal mess will not be easy."

He told the "Imus in the Morning" radio show, "I am absolutely taking the gloves off. I'm prepared to take them (the Bush team) on."

LINK - "George Bush's failed record is the result of George Bush's failed policies. And he chose time and again to do nothing to improve our economy or ease the burden on middle class families. In fact, nearly every choice has made it worse. You can even say that George Bush is proud of the fact that not even failure can cause him to change his mind."

I have one question. If Iraqis were unhappy with Saddam Hussein, why didn't we see this level of resistance when he was in power?

Frederick Cleveland
Hollywood

Here're my picks from the lot: (in no particular order...)

I miss peace and prosperity.

In your guts you know he's nuts.

No surplus left behind.

Name one thing he's done right.

Who's gonna pay for this? Ask your kids.

I think out of all of these, I like "Name one thing he's done right." the best.

KILL IRAQIS. CUT TAXES. VACATION. REPEAT.

Bush: No flip. All flop.

LINK (Salon Daypass) - The Jersey Girls' political foil is Deena Burnett, widow of Thomas Burnett, one of the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. Burnett, who lives in Arkansas, spoke to the Republican National Convention two weeks ago, giving an emotional account of her last conversations with her husband from the plane. "The heroes of 9/11 weren't created that day," Burnett told the convention. "Their actions were the result of virtues practiced over a lifetime." Delegates wiped away tears.

Watching the convention on television, Breitweiser felt not teary-eyed, she said, but frightened. She found the speakers angry and bellicose, and she worried that the Bush administration seemed to revel in war. "I am scared [by] the mentality that my daughter, who is 5 years old, is being handed a tomorrow that will be a war for a lifetime. My husband was killed on 9/11. I do not want to lose my daughter 18 years from now when she's walking or living in a large city, and it's payback for our actions in Iraq," Breitweiser said. Later she told me in an interview that she voted for Bush in 2000 because, well, she's a Republican. "I'm not a Democrat!" she said, when I asked if her endorsement of Kerry meant that she had switched parties.

On Tuesday I was unable to reach Deena Burnett, whose name is not listed in the phone directory, for comment about the Jersey Girls' endorsement of Kerry. But a telephone interview I conducted with her two years ago was revealing for her lack of knowledge about the origins and funding sources of al-Qaida. [...] I expected to talk with her about the substance of the case. Instead, she directed me back to the lawyers, pleading ignorance of such details as which Saudi prince made which overtures to the Taliban. She clearly wasn't a document hound.

The Jersey Girls are. They have read seemingly every scrap of information about 9/11 and al-Qaida, from news articles to affidavits to footnotes in obscure government reports. And their command of the facts is what has made them so effective. On Sept. 18, 2002, when much of the public was still sympathetic to the Bush administration position that the attacks could not have been foreseen or prevented, Breitweiser gave a statement before the joint House-Senate investigation into intelligence lapses; it may have changed the course of history.

In a concise, straightforward manner, she laid out the facts far more effectively than had any senator or representative on the panel. She asked how, for example, the CIA could fail to locate hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid al-Midhar, who had entered the United States despite being on a terrorist watch list, when one was listed in the San Diego phone book and both roomed with an undercover FBI informant. The day after her presentation, the White House -- once firmly against an independent commission -- reversed itself and endorsed the idea. And it was the 9/11 commission that would later find no operational ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, one of the key reasons Bush gave for invading Iraq.

On Tuesday, the widows cited the invasion of Iraq as one of their top reasons for supporting Kerry. [...]

The women said they approached Kerry about the endorsement, not the other way around. Their requests to meet with Bush were rejected. Breitweiser and Gabrielle plan to campaign actively. In Breitweiser's case, it will be difficult, because she hasn't traveled in an airplane since her husband died. "I have serious anxiety about getting on a plane," she said. "But that's how committed I feel."

McCAIN SAYS "WE'RE NOT WINNING" IN IRAQ

Regarding the Iraq war, Sen. John McCain told NBC's Jim Miklaszewski: "We are not winning." He attributed this to allowing "the enemy to have sanctuary."

Cheney: Terrorism Views May Shift
Russia Attack Could Affect Europeans

Vice President Cheney suggested Monday that the Sept. 2 terrorist strike at a Russian school may signal a shift in how the Putin government and others in Europe view the fight against terrorism: They will become more aggressive.

"There's been in some circles . . . in Europe, for example, a lot of our European friends have been somewhat ambivalent about this whole proposition with respect to how we deal with these terrorist attacks," Cheney said. He had been asked at a town hall meeting here in southeast Iowa whether he believed the siege would prompt Russia to be more forthcoming in assisting the United States in fighting terrorism.

Car bomb kills 47 in Baghdad

A huge car bomb blast has torn through a crowded market close to a Baghdad police headquarters building, killing at least 47 people in the deadliest single attack in the Iraqi capital in six months.

An Internet statement in the name of the Tawhid and Jihad group led by Jordanian al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for Tuesday's blast, which it said was carried out by a suicide attacker. Washington says Zarqawi is its top enemy in Iraq and has put a $25 million (13.9 million pound) price on his head.

"With the grace of God, a lion from our martyrdom brigades was successful in striking a centre for apostate police volunteers," said the statement, which could not be verified.

Bush-Kerry Race Tied As RNC Bounce Fades, New IBD Survey Shows

A new IBD (Investor's Business Daily)/TIPP poll put President Bush and Sen. John Kerry in a dead heat, suggesting Bush's post-convention bounce is quickly disappearing.

In IBD/TIPP's first poll of likely voters, conducted Sept. 7-12, both men garnered 47% in a two-man race and 46% in a three-way race. In the latter scenario, independent Ralph Nader would take just 3% of the vote.

Among registered voters, Kerry holds a two-point edge over Bush, with or without Nader, the poll found.
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"The boost Bush got during the RNC and the aura that surrounded an event marked by clever speeches and hitchless execution may be fading," said Raghavan Mayur, president of TIPP, a unit of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, IBD's polling partner.

Meanwhile, fresh questions have arisen about Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service, though questions also have been raised about the authenticity of documents critical of Bush. Also, U.S. casualties in Iraq have surpassed 1,000, a milestone played up by major media. And Kerry has sharpened his attacks against Bush on Iraq and the economy.

Colin Powell in four-letter neo-con 'crazies' row

A furious row has broken out over claims in a new book by BBC broadcaster James Naughtie that US Secretary of State Colin Powell described neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as 'fucking crazies' during the build-up to war in Iraq.

Powell's extraordinary outburst is alleged to have taken place during a telephone conversation with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The two became close friends during the intense negotiations in the summer of 2002 to build an international coalition for intervention via the United Nations. The 'crazies' are said to be Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.

Last week, the offices of Powell and Straw contacted Public Affairs, the US publishers of Naughtie's book, to say they would vigorously deny the claims if publication went ahead. But as no legal action was threatened, the US launch of the book, The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency, will proceed as planned this week.

Naughtie stands by his claims and is said to be privately delighted that Powell and Straw have reacted so violently to the suggestion that the former US general had fallen out with the 'neo-cons'.

Provocatively, the phrase 'fucking crazies' will be quoted on the jacket of the book, according to a source at the publisher.

LINK - National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice put forth one theory for the recent cloud over North Korea, on CNN's Late Edition.

"There are all kinds of assessments that are going on," she said. "Maybe it was a fire of some kind, a forest fire of some kind. But we do not believe at this point that it was a nuclear event."

Shortly after the picture of the mushroom was taken, a "landscaping company" swept through my yard, clearing all the brush from the property, as well as the aforementioned fungus. The name of the landscaping company? Forest and Brush Inc., address: 215 Ashcroft Lane, Washington D.C....I don't live in the D.C. area...

Surge of Baghdad Violence Leaves 60 Dead

Insurgents hammered central Baghdad on Sunday with one of their most intense mortar and rocket barrages ever in the heart of the capital, heralding a day of violence that killed nearly 60 people nationwide as security appeared to spiral out of control.

At least 37 people were killed in Baghdad alone. Many of them died when a U.S. helicopter fired on a disabled U.S. Bradley fighting vehicle as Iraqis swarmed around it, cheering, throwing stones and waving the black and yellow sunburst banner of Iraq's most-feared terror organization.

The dead from the helicopter strike included Arab television reporter Mazen al-Tumeizi, who screamed, "I'm dying, I'm dying," as a cameraman recorded the chaotic scene. An Iraqi cameraman working for the Reuters news agency and an Iraqi freelance photographer for Getty Images were wounded.

Maimed and lifeless bodies of young men and boys lay in the street as the stricken U.S. vehicle was engulfed in flames and thick black smoke.

Across the country, the death toll Sunday was at least 59, according to figures from the Health Ministry, the Multinational Force command and local authorities.

Nearly 200 people were wounded, more than half of them in Baghdad.

LINK - Tawhid and Jihad, a militant group linked to Al Qaeda and led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said it carried out Sunday's co-ordinated campaign of violence in Baghdad.

In an Internet statement, the group boasted that it holds the initiative in the Iraqi insurgency and possesses the "capability to surprise the enemy and hit its strategic installations at the right time and place."

The statement's source could not be verified, but the scope and intensity of the attacks raised serious questions about the state of security, which has deteriorated since the June 28 transfer of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government.

'Change' Is Vital Election Theme for Bush, Kerry
The president frames himself as the candidate of new ideas, a departure for an incumbent. It's an attempt to relate to voters' anxieties.

After nearly four years in office, President Bush has settled on a surprising new identity for his campaign's stretch run: he is selling himself as the candidate of change.

On issues from Social Security and healthcare to national defense, Bush now presents his agenda as a response to "changing times" and a "changed world." He also accuses his Democratic rival, Sen. John F. Kerry, of pursuing "the policies of the past."

Bush is relying more on this argument even as Kerry amplifies his efforts to portray the president's proposed second-term agenda as "more of the same," and his own proposals as a sharp change in the country's direction.

These pointed disputes illustrate the priority both sides place on identifying their candidate as a source of change at a time when surveys show about half the public dissatisfied with the country's direction.

Republicans think Bush's arguments have framed the race in a way that will help him win a solid share of voters eager for change — something presidential incumbents have almost never achieved. "It's a nice contrast to have for an incumbent: We're for new and they're for old," said Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee. "That's the biggest change in the [campaign's] dynamic that has taken place here going into the stretch run."

Kerry advisors agree that Bush will benefit if he can define the choice in those terms. But they say the president, with a record behind him, will have difficulty accomplishing that. "Listen: if they get away with it, it would be a threat," said Tad Devine, a senior Kerry advisor. "I don't think they are going to get away with it."

Bush's Bounce Back

One week after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention in New York, the latest NEWSWEEK poll shows George W. Bush's double-digit "bounce" narrowing by to six points. Bush-Cheney had enjoyed an 11-point lead over the Kerry-Edwards ticket coming out of their convention, but in the latest poll, taken on the eve of the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the incumbents now lead 49 percent to 43 percent in a three-way race.

With 2 percent of the vote going to Ralph Nader, removing the independent candidate from the ticket has little effect on the spread, with 50 percent of the vote for Bush and 45 percent Kerry. (The sudden shift in the NEWSWEEK poll from last week's results is dramatic but not unprecedented - in 1988 Michael Dukakis's 17-point lead dropped to 10 points within two weeks.)

104 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security and defence in the same period that mentioned Iraq or Saddam Hussein.

101 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security and defence in the same period that mentioned missile defence.

65 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security and defence in the same period that mentioned weapons of mass destruction.

0 Number of times Bush mentioned Osama bin Laden in his three State of the Union addresses.
_______

$1m Estimated value of a painting the Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, received from Prince Bandar, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States and Bush family friend.
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0 Number of American combat deaths in Germany after the Nazi surrender in May 1945.

37 Death toll of US soldiers in Iraq in May 2003, the month combat operations "officially" ended.

0 Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning home that the Bush administration has permitted to be photographed.

0 Number of memorial services for the returned dead that Bush has attended since the beginning of the war.
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4.7m Number of bankruptcies that were declared during Bush's first three years in office.

$489bn The US trade deficit in 2003, the worst in history for a single year.

$5.6tr Projected national surplus forecast by the end of the decade when Bush took office in 2001.

$7.22tr US national debt by mid-2004.

Bush shamefully exploits tragedy

THREE YEARS after 9/11/01, presidential politics is driven by fear of terrorism and war in Iraq. 9/11 represents horrifying failure of America's defense that happened on George Bush's watch. But Bush shamelessly campaignson it."A catastrophe" is how national security professionals describe Bush administration's response to 9/11 in James Fallows's piece in current Atlantic. Bush ignored clear warnings from outgoing Clinton officials that terrorism was serious threat. Ignored Aug. 6, 2001 briefing paper, "Osama bin Laden Determined To Strike inside US." On 9/11, when told "America is under attack," Bush froze in Florida classroom for seven long minutes reading "My Pet Goat."

Bush's anti-terrorism plan is simple: Kill Iraqis. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, but Bush knew most Americans felt someone had to pay for it. We don't like Saddam, let's blame him. Kerry needs anti-terrorism proposal. Thanks in large part to Bush, most of world's one billion Muslims now hate us. Senseless slaughter in Beslan, Russia, makes global anti-terror action urgent. Kerry's Grand Canyon doctrine of no regrets for voting to let Bush invade Iraq has got to go. Saying Iraq is "wrong war, wrong time, wrong place" is first step. But Kerry has to oppose Iraq war. Forget flip-flop charge. Supporting unjustifiable war that's killed 1,000 Americans and 12 to 15,000 Iraqis is worse.
_______

Does Sasso have enough time? Leaving master strategist John Sasso at Democratic National Committee was like leaving Ferrari parked in garage. Putting him on campaign plane with Kerry will make Kerry better. Sasso's smart, focused, respected, and tough. I used to play in poker game with him; he rarely lost. But if this were Texas Hold 'Em, he's holding small pair in hole.

Note: Bush had shakeup, too. Bush's top female attack dog Karen Hughes had to come back to help his struggling campaign. Footnote: Hughes was born in Paris, France, not Texas.
_______

Bush means more. More deaths in Iraq; more tax cuts for richest 2 percent; more assault weapons; more refusing to deal with worst deficit in American history; more jobs shipped overseas; more moves to privatize Social Security; more years of far-right John Ashcroft snooping and imposing his morals on us; two or more right-wing Supreme Court justices; no more stem-cell lines for research on incurable diseases; more damage to our air, water, and wilderness; more phony prescription-drug schemes for senior citizens; more control of US foreign policy by neocons who want to use US military as toy soldiers in ideological adventures; more energy policies designed for and by Big Oil.

Kerry needs swift recovery by Clinton. Bill Clinton is most popular white politician among African-Americans since John F. Kennedy. Kerry campaign should use satellite technology to beam Clinton to every black news outlet in United States.

Rove's righteous army. Bush strategist Karl Rove says 4-6 million conservatives did not vote in 2000. He's aiming to fix that by rallying Christian evangelicals and conservative Catholics. I'm not religious, so I want to know: Is coffee in hell cold?

Who said it? "Republicans sold us out with a generation of trickle-down economics that blew the deficit sky-high, drove poverty through the roof, and squeezed the middle class like a lemon at a county fair. They gave themselves the gold mine, and they gave the rest of us the shaft." Zell Miller, 2/25/96

Kerry's TV isn't working. Other than early biographical spots, not one Kerry TV commercial is effective or unique. (Go to MSNBC.com to see for yourself). We're lucky to live in Massachusetts. Bush's TV spots anger me, Kerry's depress me.

LINK - We have a more immediate sense of what physical bravery and cowardice are. In fact, when we speak of bravery and cowardice, the physical variety is almost always what we're talking about. It's whether or not you can charge an enemy position while you're being fired at. It's whether you're immobilized by the fear of death.

Moral cowardice is more complex. A moral coward is someone who lacks the courage to tell the truth, to accept responsibility, to demand accountability, to do what's right when it's not the easy thing to do, to clean up his or her own messes. Perhaps we could say that moral bravery is having both the courage of your convictions as well as the courage of your misdeeds.

On the balance sheet of moral bravery - as opposed to physical bravery - John Kerry and George W. Bush were about as far apart as you could be on Vietnam. On the one hand, you have Kerry, who already had doubts about whether we should be fighting in Vietnam before he went but put his life on the line anyway. On the other hand, you have Bush, who supported the war, which means he believed the goal was worth the cost in American lives. Only, not his life. He believed others should go, just not him.

That is almost the definition of moral cowardice.
_______

The stubborn refusal ever to change course, which the president tries to pass off as a sign of leadership or devotion to principle, is actually an example of his cowardice.

For the same reasons, he runs from soldiers' funerals as if they were burying victims of the plague - because it's the easy way out. If there's a problem, he denies it or finds someone else to take the fall for him.

Everyone has these tendencies in their measure. No one is perfect. But they define Bush.

The same sort of moral cowardice that led him to support the Vietnam War but decide it wasn't for him, run companies into the ground and let others pay the bill, play gutter politics but run for the hills when someone asked him to say it to their face - those are the same qualities that led the president to lie the country into war, to fail to prepare for the aftermath and then to refuse to take responsibility for any of it when the bill started to come due.

LINK - In a statement, CBS News said it stands by its story.

"This report was not based solely on recovered documents, but rather on a preponderance of evidence, including documents that were provided by unimpeachable sources, interviews with former Texas National Guard officials and individuals who worked closely back in the early 1970s with Colonel Jerry Killian and were well acquainted with his procedures, his character and his thinking," the statement read.

"In addition, the documents are backed up not only by independent handwriting and forensic document experts but by sources familiar with their content," the statement continued. "Contrary to some rumors, no internal investigation is underway at CBS News nor is one planned."

LINK - In October of 1986, Rove was working for Republican Bill Clements in his race against then-Gov. Mark White. A few days before the candidates were to debate, Rove discovered a listening device that had been planted behind a needlepoint picture of an elephant hanging on his wall. The FBI investigated. Accusations and counteraccusations were made. But no charges were ever brought, and the matter slowly dissipated, amid general speculation that Rove had planted the bug himself.
_______

In 1986, when Rove was working for Clements, the chief spokesperson for White was an idealistic young turk named Mark McKinnon. It is "outrageous and sad that Rove would suggest the White campaign would be involved in a matter like this," McKinnon told the Austin American-Statesman at the time. Calling the bugging incident "bizarre and incredible," McKinnon said the Clements campaign was "desperate and frayed at the edges."

There's more. The bug was reportedly responsible for tipping Democrats that the Clements campaign had recently hired a Washington-based consultant, whom Rove and Clements campaign manager George Bayoud had discussed hiring over the phone shortly before the matter was mysteriously leaked. The consultant was a sometime blues guitar player renowned for his facility with attack ads and dirty tricks. His name: Lee Atwater.

Oh, one other fact about the 1986 incident stands out: Rove's candidate won that year.

Bush Campaign Loses Spokesman

US President George W. Bush's campaign has lost its chief spokesman with less than two months left before the November 2 election, his Republican party said Thursday.

Terry Holt will become senior adviser to Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie, the RNC said in a statement on its Internet site. The information was not available on Bush's official campaign Internet site.

The Roll Call newspaper that covers the US Congress recently reported that Holt called reporters "the scum of the earth" during a closed-door event with young Republicans on the sidelines of the party's national convention.

The move came after US political analysts speculated that Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry's campaign was in trouble because it shook up its communications team, bringing aboard an erstwhile spokesman for former president Bill Clinton, Joe Lockhart.

Bin Laden Deputy: U.S. Losing Afghanistan
Bin Laden Deputy Says in Videotape That U.S. Forces Near Defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan

In a videotape made public ahead of the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden's chief deputy claimed Thursday the United States was on the brink of defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

With an assault rifle leaning on the wall behind him, Ayman al-Zawahri said, "The defeat of America in Iraq and Afghanistan has become a matter of time, with God's help. ...The Americans in both countries are between two fires, if they continue they bleed to death and if they withdrew they loose everything."

The videotape was broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, which said it received the tape exclusively. It was not immediately clear how Al-Jazeera got the video, but the network said it was obtained Thursday.

"Mr. Bush and I have both been under intense scrutiny over our military records, and it's time to move on from what happened over 30 years ago. We both now owe it to the American public to turn our attention and our discussion to focusing on the issues we all face today and in the future."

Bush fell short on duty at Guard
Records show pledges unmet

Bush fell well short of meeting his military obligation, a Globe reexamination of the records shows: Twice during his Guard service -- first when he joined in May 1968, and again before he transferred out of his unit in mid-1973 to attend Harvard Business School -- Bush signed documents pledging to meet training commitments or face a punitive call-up to active duty.

He didn't meet the commitments, or face the punishment, the records show. The 1973 document has been overlooked in news media accounts. The 1968 document has received scant notice.

On July 30, 1973, shortly before he moved from Houston to Cambridge, Bush signed a document that declared, "It is my responsibility to locate and be assigned to another Reserve forces unit or mobilization augmentation position. If I fail to do so, I am subject to involuntary order to active duty for up to 24 months..." Under Guard regulations, Bush had 60 days to locate a new unit.

But Bush never signed up with a Boston-area unit. In 1999, Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett told the Washington Post that Bush finished his six-year commitment at a Boston area Air Force Reserve unit after he left Houston. Not so, Bartlett now concedes. "I must have misspoke," Bartlett, who is now the White House communications director, said in a recent interview.

And early in his Guard service, on May 27, 1968, Bush signed a ''statement of understanding" pledging to achieve "satisfactory participation" that included attendance at 24 days of annual weekend duty -- usually involving two weekend days each month -- and 15 days of annual active duty. "I understand that I may be ordered to active duty for a period not to exceed 24 months for unsatisfactory participation," the statement reads.

Yet Bush, a fighter-interceptor pilot, performed no service for one six-month period in 1972 and for another period of almost three months in 1973, the records show.

LINK - The first memo is a direct order to take "an annual physical examination" - a requirement for all pilots.

On August 1, 1972, Col. Killian grounded Lt. Bush for failure to perform to U.S. Air Force/Texas Air National Guard standards and for failure to take his annual physical as ordered.

A year after Lt. Bush's suspension from flying, Killian was asked to write another assessment.

Killian's memo, titled 'CYA' reads he is being pressured by higher-ups to give the young pilot a favorable yearly evaluation; to, in effect, sugarcoat his review. He refuses, saying, "I'm having trouble running interference and doing my job."

Thirty-one years later, supporters of now-President Bush have been critical of opponent John Kerry's Vietnam record. Now it's the president's turn to answer tough questions about his own service.

It was just what the White House had hoped to avoid - a new examination of the president's military record just as he seeks to reinforce his credentials as a wartime leader. And Republican officials wasted no time taking dead aim at Ben Barnes' claim that he pulled strings to get George W. Bush into the National Guard, reports CBS News Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts.

"I chalk it up to politics," said White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett. "They play dirty down in Texas. I've been there. I see how it works. But the bottom line is that there is no truth to this."

Asked if this is dirty politics, Bartlett replied, "Oh, I think it is."

They told me that the wife of Democratic Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards had seen a story we'd done about her.

Since she was a Countdown viewer, I was further told, she wanted to let me know that my information was outdated. She wasn't upset - just a fan who'd spotted something wrong on the show, something that happened to be about her. Otherwise she thought everything had been pretty good that night.

Even with my comparatively limited exposure to the means of politics, I could smell this from a million miles away. Oh, Elizabeth Edwards is a viewer? Who are we kidding here? I've been wined-and-dined before, symbolically and literally. If it hadn't happened since I switched to news, it had already happened while I was in sports.

Big fan, Keith. Love the show. Big favor if you covered this story. Hugely appreciated if you covered it from this viewpoint.

Oops.

You probably know that the Edwards lost their first-born son, Wade, in a freakish automobile accident in 1996, when he was 16.

You probably didn't know they watched SportsCenter together.

I sure didn't.

"I have to just say that on a completely personal note, and not kissing up to you in any way, I said before this interview started what a great treat my son would have thought this was for me to be spending any time talking to you after he was a devoted watcher of you while you were on ESPN with Dan Patrick and Chris Berman."

Hadn't felt too good lately about having being on that program.

Mrs. Edwards kind of changed that.

Right now I'm very proud to be part of one of her warm memories about her son.

Family 'thanks' Bush for death of son

In Geauga County, anger and frustration over the death of a young soldier inside Iraq has prompted one family to send a personal message to President Bush.

Ken and Betty Landrus have put up a large sign outside their home near Thompson, Ohio that is sharply critical of the Bush administration.

The sign reads "Thanks Mr. Bush for the death of our son."

Their son, Staff Sgt. Sean Landrus was killed near Fallujah in January.

They believe the president misled the country about the reasons for invading Iraq and that their son died for nothing.

"Yes I do feel lied to because they kept saying there's mass destruction and nobody's found anything yet," father Ken Landrus said.

Sean Landrus also left behind a wife and three young children.

His youngest daughter, Kennedy, was born just before Sean left to serve inside Iraq.

Bush Likely to Bow Out of 1 Debate

President Bush may skip one of the three debates that have been proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates and accepted by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), Republican officials said yesterday.

The officials said Bush's negotiating team plans to resist the middle debate, which was to be Oct. 8 in a town meeting format in the crucial state of Missouri.

Remember how you felt when this year started.
You were pissed. You were ready to do anything to make a change.
Remember who pulled you back into the process. Dean. Kucinich. Whoever.
They now want Kerry to beat Bush. YOU want Kerry to beat Bush.

Remember that everything that got you angry is still ongoing.
Bush hasn't changed. Bush will NOT change. He's already admitted that.
Only his rhetoric will change to steal your vote.
He had four years to make things better. They're worse. MUCH worse.

Take the spare change from your pockets and contribute.
No spare change? Take your spare time and contribute that.

Don't ever forget that it's people like you who make the difference.
You're the one who is visible. Corporations work in the shadows.

If your folks are Republicans, tell them you want the good guy for YOUR future.
If they owe you just one favor, let this be it.
If they want to give you something for your birthday, graduation, Christmas, WHATEVER - ask them for only their vote.

Volunteer to take seniors and handicapped folks to the polls.
Register your family. Register your friends.

Watch the debates. Bush is going in as the champ this time.
He MUST bring all the bravado they gave him at the convention.
He MUST bring the leadership qualities he claims to have.
He MUST do better than just "not drool."

Know the issues. Know what Kerry wants to do about them.
Pay attention. Read. Research. Don't vote on hearsay.
If there was ever a time homework meant something, THIS IS IT.

Go forward knowing most of America agrees with us.
We need to make a change from the disasterous direction we're going in.

Bush was ready for four years of goofing off in 2000.
For the most part, he succeeded.
Kerry wants to work his ass off for the next four years.
We can show our appreciation by working ours off for two months.

Don't ever get discouraged. Stay angry. Fight back. Focus.
We're finally in that streetfight we've talked about for over a year.
This is our moment to shine. This will be our legacy. Don't waste it.
Be at least as strong as they are deceptive.

And if you do nothing else - VOTE.
If on November 1st, the polls show Bush ahead - VOTE.
If the polls are thisclose - VOTE.
If the polls show Kerry in a landslide - DEFINITELY VOTE.
This is not an election we can afford to sit out for ANY reason.

Change is in your hands. You will make it happen.
Don't screw it up.

Dear Friend,

Not long ago, the DNC sent you a beautiful "suitable for framing" photo of John Kerry and John Edwards.

That's all well and good. They're our leaders and we've got a lot riding on them in this election.

Still, maybe it's just my contrary nature, but I told the folks at the DNC I think they sent you the wrong picture. So they told me I can send you another one.

Check it out. It's George W. Bush and Dick Cheney celebrating their first Inauguration in 2001. Look at it closely - because if we don't pour our hearts and souls into the final nine weeks of this campaign - you're staring at America's future.

It's an ugly picture - and trust me, with a mug like mine, I'm not talking about George Bush's or Dick Cheney's personal appearance.

Look how much they're smiling in 2001. We'll never be able to wipe the grins off their faces if, this year, they actually win a presidential election fair and square.

And we'll never be able to undo the damage they will cause with four more years to stack the courts, destroy the environment, tilt the economy in favor of the rich and, as Hillary Clinton puts it, "create an America that we won't even recognize."

Losing the election to George Bush means setting him, Cheney, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld and the rest of that bunch loose, undermining everything we care about. And they will act with the freedom of knowing George Bush will never have to face the voters again.

"Today marks a tragic milestone in the war in Iraq. More than one thousand of America's sons and daughters have made the ultimate sacrifice. Our nation honors their service and joins with their families and loved ones in mourning their loss. We must never forget the price they have paid. And we must meet our sacred obligation to all our troops to do all we can to make the right decisions in Iraq so that we can bring them home as soon as possible."

Deficit to hit $2.3 trillion

In a report released Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revised its projection for the country's budgetary shortfalls, lowering its previous forecast for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 but raising its estimates for cumulative 10-year deficits by $281 billion.

Under current laws and policies, the projected 10-year deficit is expected to total $2.28 trillion, or 1.5 percent of the estimated 10-year combined gross domestic product (GDP), up from a March projection of $2 trillion.

Chad Kolton, a spokesman at the White House's Office of Management and Budget, said the lower numbers for 2004 and 2005 are evidence that the president's tax cut is working. He also said Bush's current deficit-reduction plan will erode those numbers even further.

...the CBO says that even if the economy grows faster than projected, significant long-term strains on the budget will start to intensify within the next decade as the baby-boom generation reaches retirement age.

"This is a fiscal situation in which we cannot rely on economic growth to cause deficits to disappear," CBO's Holtz-Eakin said at the agency's press conference earlier today. "Instead, the central path of the budgetary outlook will be dictated by policy choices."

Cheney Warns Against Vote for Kerry

DES MOINES, Iowa - Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday warned Americans about voting for Democratic Sen. John Kerry, saying that if the nation makes the wrong choice on Election Day it faces the threat of another terrorist attack.

The Kerry-Edwards campaign immediately rejected those comments as "scare tactics" that crossed the line.

"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States," Cheney told about 350 supporters at a town-hall meeting in this Iowa city.

If Kerry were elected, Cheney said the nation risks falling back into a "pre-9/11 mind-set" that terrorist attacks are criminal acts that require a reactive approach. Instead, he said Bush's offensive approach works to root out terrorists where they plan and train, and pressure countries that harbor terrorists.

Cheney pointed to Afghanistan as a success story in pursuing terrorists although the Sept. 11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden, remains at large. In Iraq, the vice president said, the United States has taken out a leader who used weapons of mass destruction against his own people and harbored other terrorists.

"Saddam Hussein today is in jail, which is exactly where he belongs," Cheney said.

Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards issued a statement, saying, "Dick Cheney's scare tactics crossed the line today, showing once again that he and George Bush will do anything and say anything to save their jobs. Protecting America from vicious terrorists is not a Democratic or Republican issue and Dick Cheney and George Bush should know that."

U.S. toll passes 1,000 as forces battle al-Sadr

As U.S. forces again battled insurgents loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, U.S. military deaths in the Iraq campaign passed 1,000 on Tuesday, according to an Associated Press tally.

The grim milestone was surpassed after a spike in fighting that has killed 14 U.S. service members in the past two days.

Two soldiers died in fighting Tuesday with militiamen loyal to al-Sadr in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City in clashes that killed at least 36 people and wounded 203 others, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said.

"Our enemies have underestimated our country, our coalition ... certainly our commander in chief."

- Donald Rumsfeld

LINK - Last week's convention made it clear that Mr. Bush intends to use what's left of his heroic image to win the election, and early polls suggest that the strategy may be working. What can John Kerry do?

Campaigning exclusively on domestic issues won't work. Mr. Bush must be held to account for his dismal record on jobs, health care and the environment. But as Mr. Hedges writes, when war psychology makes a public yearn to believe in its leaders, "there is little that logic or fact or truth can do to alter the experience."

To win, the Kerry campaign has to convince a significant number of voters that the self-proclaimed "war president" isn't an effective war leader - he only plays one on TV.

This charge has the virtue of being true. It's hard to find a nonpartisan national security analyst with a good word for the Bush administration's foreign policy. Iraq, in particular, is a slow-motion disaster brought on by wishful thinking, cronyism and epic incompetence.

If I were running the Kerry campaign, I'd remind people frequently about Mr. Bush's flight-suit photo-op, when he declared the end of major combat. In fact, the war goes on unabated. News coverage of Iraq dropped off sharply after the supposed transfer of sovereignty on June 28, but as many American soldiers have died since the transfer as in the original invasion.

And I'd point out that while Mr. Bush spared no effort preparing for his carrier landing - he even received underwater survival training in the White House pool - he didn't prepare for things that actually mattered, like securing and rebuilding Iraq after Baghdad fell.

Will it work? I don't know. But to win, Mr. Kerry must try to puncture the myth that Mr. Bush's handlers have so assiduously created.

LINK - Speaking at the Minnesota State Fair with about 200 supporters, Mr. Cheney sought to portray President Bush as triumphing over economic and national security burdens inherited from previous administrations.

He blamed the Clinton and Reagan administrations for teaching terrorists that "they could strike us with relative impunity" and that "if they hit us hard enough, they could change our policy." Mr. Cheney cited the attack on United States Marines barracks in Beirut in 1983, in the first Reagan term, along with the 1993 killings of American soldiers in Somalia, a 1996 truck bombing at a housing complex in Saudi Arabia where many Americans lived, the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa and the attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen in 2000.

LINK - This was the most polarized event I have seen on the trail with supporter of President Bush yelling throughout Senator Kerry's speech and the candidate's supporters shouting back and the candidate hitting back on the stump. There were approximately fifty Bush supporters, including a very vocal group of about ten who were drinking lots of Busch beer. Senator Kerry stayed on message and delivered a short and focused speech, taking questions instead of talking endlessly to the crowd.
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The senator was interrupted with chants of "four more years" from Bush supporters. He told the crowd, "if you want four more years of your wages falling of social security trust funds raided in order to give tax cuts to the wealthiest people... schools shortchanged... if you want four more years of losing jobs overseas and replacing them with jobs that pay 9,000 less for the jobs you had before than you should go vote for George Bush."
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The Bush supporters did not let up shouting while an elderly woman who had several throat surgeries tried to tell her tale, prompting Senator Kerry to say to the cameras and the crowd, "While the Bush people were rudely shouting...a 70-year old woman was trying to tell the story of how she has to go out and work because she needs to take pills."

A Bush supporter yelled "Where is your swift boat?"
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The senator was more on message than I have seen him recently. His comments were simple and focused. His last line has improved greatly— going from convoluted to clear and concise. "This race is about the last four years and the next four years. This race is about the choices that George Bush has made...and has taken America backwards on the economy, on the environment...they've made the wrong choices, they're moving in the wrong direction. ...we need to turn America around and move in the right direction."

LINK - The CNN/USA Today/Gallup post-Republican convention poll -- the first national poll conducted entirely after the completion of that convention -- shows George W. Bush getting a small increase in voter support. Bush's share of the vote among likely voters increased two percentage points, from 50% to 52%, while Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's share dropped by an equal amount, in the two-way race. Bush now leads Kerry by 52% to 45% among likely voters, compared with a 50% to 47% lead for Bush prior to the convention.
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Bush's two-point convention bounce is one of the smallest registered in Gallup polling history, along with Hubert Humphrey's two-point bounce following the 1968 Democratic convention, George McGovern's zero-point bounce following the 1972 Democratic convention, and Kerry's "negative bounce" of one point among registered voters earlier this year. Bush's bounce is the smallest an incumbent president has received.

LINK - 20 million people have already seen it -- and the Gallup poll said that 56% of the American public has seen or plans to see "Fahrenheit 9/11" either in the theater or on home video. The DVD and home video of our film, thanks to our distributors listening to our pleas to release it before November, will be in the stores on October 5. This is very good news.

But can it also be shown on TV? I brought this possibility up in this week's Rolling Stone interview. Our contract with our DVD distributor says no, it cannot. I have asked them to show it just once, perhaps the night before the election. So far, no deal. But I haven't given up trying.

The only problem with my desire to get this movie in front of as many Americans as possible is that, should it air on TV, I will NOT be eligible to submit "Fahrenheit 9/11" for Academy Award consideration for Best Documentary. Academy rules forbid the airing of a documentary on television within nine months of its theatrical release (fiction films do not have the same restriction).

Although I have no assurance from our home video distributor that they would allow a one-time television broadcast -- and the chances are they probably won't -- I have decided it is more important to take that risk and hope against hope that I can persuade someone to put it on TV, even if it's the night before the election.

Therefore, I have decided not to submit "Fahrenheit 9/11" for consideration for the Best Documentary Oscar. If there is even the remotest of chances that I can get this film seen by a few million more Americans before election day, then that is more important to me than winning another documentary Oscar. I have already won a Best Documentary statue. Having a second one would be nice, but not as nice as getting this country back in the hands of the majority.

The deadline to submit the film for the documentary Oscar was last Wednesday. I told my crew who worked on the film, let's let someone else have that Oscar. We have already helped to ignite the biggest year ever for nonfiction films. Last week, 1 out of every 5 films playing in movie theaters across America was a documentary! That is simply unheard of. There have been so many great nonfiction films this year, why not step aside and share what we have with someone else? Remove the 800-pound gorilla from that Oscar category and let the five films who get nominated have all the attention they deserve (instead of the focus being on a film that has already had more than its share of attention).

The choice in this election couldn't be more clear. Do we want four more years of lost jobs and falling wages ... four more years of rising health care costs - four more years of raiding Social Security to give tax cuts to the wealthy - four more years of schools being shortchanged, leaving millions of children behind - four more years of shipping jobs overseas and replacing them with jobs that pay you less - four more years of a go-it-alone foreign policy. If you do, then you should vote for George W. Bush.

But if you want health care for all Americans. If you want schools that work. If you want jobs that pay you more money. If you want Social Security that's there for the future. Then we need to move America in a new direction and that's the choice in this election.

Of all George Bush's wrong choices, the most catastrophic one is the mess in Iraq. It's not that I would have done one thing differently in Iraq, I would have done everything differently. It was wrong to rush to war without a plan to win the peace. It was wrong not to build a strong international coalition of our allies. And it was wrong to put our young men and women into harm's way without the equipment and body armor protect themselves and get the job done.

It was wrong for America to go it alone. And now every American is paying the price. Almost all the casualties are the sons and daughters of America. And nearly 90 percent of the cost is coming out of your pocket. The price-tag so far: $200 billion and rising every day. That's $200 billion we're not investing in health care and education. That's $200 billion we're not investing to make sure no child is left behind. That's $200 billion we're not investing in new and better jobs.

That's $200 billion we're not investing in homeland security, to protect our airports, our subways, our bridges and tunnels. That's W and that's wrong. Wrong choices, wrong direction. In fact, there's nothing right about it.
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Amazingly, his own Labor Secretary says that what's happening to America is "something to celebrate." What are they celebrating? 1.6 million lost jobs? Well, I don't know about you, but the America I believe in doesn't celebrate when people aren't earning enough to pay their bills - when they don't have any health care or benefits - when they're working so hard that they can't even have dinner with their families, or tuck their kids into bed at night. This isn't that complicated. You don't celebrate when you lose good jobs. You celebrate when you create them.
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So this election comes down to a fundamental choice: if you believe that this country is heading in the right direction, you should support George Bush. But if you believe a vote for W is a vote for wrong choices and the wrong direction, then join with us. If you believe we need good jobs, health care for all, energy independence, and a smarter plan for Iraq, then stand with us to move America in a new direction.

Together, we can build an America that's stronger at home and respected in the world.

BUSH 'TOOK COCAINE AT CAMP DAVID'

GEORGE W Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David, a new book claims.

His wife Laura also allegedly tried cannabis in her youth.

Author Kitty Kelley says in her biography The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, that the US President first used coke at university in the mid-1960s.

She quotes his former sister-in-law Sharon Bush who claims: "Bush did coke at Camp David when his father was President, and not just once either."

Other acquaintances allege that as a 26-year-old National Guard, Bush "liked to sneak out back for a joint or into the bathroom for a line of cocaine".

Bush has admitted being an alcoholic but, asked during the 1999 election if he did drugs, he said: "I've told the American people that years ago I made some mistakes.

"I've learned from my mistakes and should I be fortunate enough to become president I will bring dignity and honour to the office."

Later an aide clarified his remarks saying Bush hadn't taken illegal drugs in the past 25 years.

Kelley says that the Bush family covered up scandals because of their wealth and influence. She claims George W started drinking at school and continued at Yale university to overcome shyness.

Former student Torbery George says in the book: "Poor Georgie. He couldn't relate to women unless he was loaded."

Another says: "He went out of his way to act crude. It's amazing someone you held in such low esteem later became president."

His supporters have slammed the allegations as outrageous.

LINK - The Kerry campaign has become roiled in recent days by criticism - from inside and outside - of its decision to initially resist responding to the attacks on Mr. Kerry's war record by a group of veterans. Members of the Clinton camp as well as some of Mr. Kerry's aides were said to have believed that the slow response hurt Mr. Kerry and contributed to polls in recent days suggesting that he had slipped behind Mr. Bush.

"We talked about this last year, the fact that Republicans would come after his service and the idea that they would come after what he did when he got home," said one midlevel Kerry adviser who is not part of the Clinton camp. "The idea that we got caught flat-footed is just crazy."

Mr. Shrum, in an interview yesterday, called such second-guessing "ridiculous," saying, "We responded within six or seven days."

LINK - Conservative radio kingpin Rush Limbaugh, 53, who announced his separation from his third wife, Marta, in early June, is dating CNN anchor Daryn Kagan, 41, a spokesman for Limbaugh has confirmed to us. The two were spotted at a party Limbaugh co-hosted at a New York restaurant, where guests included Vice President Cheney, New York Gov. George Pataki and Sen. Bill Frist. The coupling came as a surprise to some friends who consider the Atlanta-based Kagan part of the liberal media axis and a feminist -- but, then again, opposites attract. Kagan, who has been with CNN for 10 years, hosts "CNN Live Today," which airs from 10 a.m. to noon, ending just in time to catch her sweetie's three-hour radio show.

Bill Clinton Recovering After Heart Surgery

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton was recovering on Monday after successful heart bypass surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, a hospital source told Reuters.

"He is fine, he came through it okay," one hospital source told Reuters of the procedure, which lasted about five hours.

Graham book: Inquiry into 9/11, Saudi ties blocked

Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had a support network in the United States that included agents of the Saudi government, and the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship, Sen. Bob Graham wrote in a book to be released Tuesday.

The discovery of the financial backing of the two hijackers "would draw a direct line between the terrorists and the government of Saudi Arabia, and trigger an attempted coverup by the Bush administration," the Florida Democrat wrote.

And in Graham's book, Intelligence Matters, obtained by The Herald Saturday, he makes clear that some details of that financial support from Saudi Arabia were in the 27 pages of the congressional inquiry's final report that were blocked from release by the administration, despite the pleas of leaders of both parties on the House and Senate intelligence committees.

Graham also revealed that Gen. Tommy Franks told him on Feb. 19, 2002, just four months after the invasion of Afghanistan, that many important resources - including the Predator drone aircraft crucial to the search for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda leaders - were being shifted to prepare for a war against Iraq.

U.S. Official Says Close to Catching Bin Laden

The United States and its allies have put Osama bin Laden on the defensive, increasing chances of his capture soon, a U.S. counter-terrorism official said in remarks published in Pakistani media on Sunday.

Cofer Black, State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism, said in Islamabad the entire "infrastructure" was in place to capture bin Laden and his close lieutenants, Pakistan's English language Daily Times reported.

"In counter-terrorism, the programs are in place. We are after these guys globally," Black was quoted as saying after holding talks with Pakistani security officials.

"Success against people that you know about, Osama, could happen tomorrow, could happen the day after, a week from now, or a month from now," he added.

Black's comments, made only to Pakistani media, came just a few days after President Bush, who is standing for re-election in November, said that three-quarters of known al Qaeda leaders have been captured or killed.

AP: Bush's Guard File Missing Records

Documents that should have been written to explain gaps in President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service are missing from the military records released about his service in 1972 and 1973, according to regulations and outside experts.
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The five kinds of missing files are:

1) A report from the Texas Air National Guard to Bush's local draft board certifying that Bush remained in good standing. The government has released copies of those DD Form 44 documents for Bush for 1971 and earlier years but not for 1972 or 1973. Records from Bush's draft board in Houston do not show his draft status changed after he joined the guard in 1968. The AP obtained the draft board records Aug. 27 under the Freedom of Information Act.

2) Records of a required investigation into why Bush lost flight status. When Bush skipped his 1972 physical, regulations required his Texas commanders to "direct an investigation as to why the individual failed to accomplish the medical examination," according to the Air Force manual at the time. An investigative report was supposed to be forwarded "with the command recommendation" to Air Force officials "for final determination."

Bush's spokesmen have said he skipped the exam because he knew he would be doing desk duty in Alabama. But Bush was required to take the physical by the end of July 1972, more than a month before he won final approval to train in Alabama.

3) A written acknowledgment from Bush that he had received the orders grounding him. His Texas commanders were ordered to have Bush sign such a document; but none has been released.

4) Reports of formal counseling sessions Bush was required to have after missing more than three training sessions. Bush missed at least five months' worth of National Guard training in 1972. No documents have surfaced indicating Bush was counseled or had written authorization to skip that training or make it up later. Commanders did have broad discretion to allow guardsmen to make up for missed training sessions, said Weaver and Lawrence Korb, Pentagon personnel chief during the Reagan administration from 1981 to 1985.

"If you missed it, you could make it up," said Korb, who now works for the Center for American Progress, which supports Kerry.

5) A signed statement from Bush acknowledging he could be called to active duty if he did not promptly transfer to another guard unit after leaving Texas. The statement was required as part of a Vietnam-era crackdown on no-show guardsmen. Bush was approved in September 1972 to train with the Alabama unit, more than four months after he left Texas.

Bush was approved approval to train in September, October and November 1972 with the Alabama Air National Guard's 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group. The only record tying Bush to that unit is a dental exam at the group's Montgomery base in January 1973. No records have been released giving Bush permission to train with the 187th after November 1972.

Walls, the Air Force combat veteran, was assigned to the 187th in 1972 and 1973 to train its pilots to fly the F-4 Phantom. Walls and more than a dozen other members of the 187th say they never saw Bush. One member of the unit, retired Lt. Col. John Calhoun, has said he remembers Bush showing up for training with the 187th.

Pay records show Bush was credited for training in January, April and May 1973; other files indicate that service was outside Texas.

A May 1973 yearly evaluation from Bush's Texas unit gives the future president no ratings and stated Bush had not been seen at the Texas base since April 1972. In a directive from June 29, 1973, an Air Force personnel official pressed Bush's unit for information about his Alabama service.

"This officer should have been reassigned in May 1972," wrote Master Sgt. Daniel P. Harkness, "since he no longer is training in his AFSC (Air Force Service Category, or job title) or with his unit of assignment."

Then-Maj. Rufus G. Martin replied Nov. 12, 1973: "Not rated for the period 1 May 72 through 30 Apr 73. Report for this period not available for administrative reasons."

By then, Texas Air National Guard officials had approved Bush's request to leave the guard to attend Harvard Business School; his last days of duty were in July 1973.

Freewayblogger Plans 100 Sign Protest in LA

On Tuesday, Sept. 7th, the Freewayblogger will post one hundred signs on LA area freeways protesting the war in Iraq and the failure to find Osama Bin Laden. The lone activist has posted over 2,000 handpainted signs on California freeways since the war began.

According to the Freewayblogger, freeway signposting is the last opportunity open to the average individual to reach out directly to large numbers of their fellow citizens.

"Every other mass-medium for political speech is controlled by corporate interests. When you write a letter to the editor, it's the editor who decides whether or not it'll be published. When you call into a talk show, the host decides when to cut you off. When you put a sign on the freeway, it says exactly what you want it to say, and thousands of people will read it."