Tom Ridge Had a Few Spare Moments Yesterday...

...so he took the opportunity to scare us into staying away from ballparks.

U.S. Warns Sports Officials of Al Qaeda Threat

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Friday warned top executives of major American sports organizations that al Qaeda may strike soon -- possibly at large sports events.

In a seminar for commissioners and other top officials of professional and amateur sports organizations, Ridge and other Homeland Security officials asked for help in ensuring safety at and around major sporting events.

He repeated a warning that the government fears al Qaeda might try to stage another large-scale attack in the United States, though he said he had no details on the time, place or method.

Yes, Tom. Bush lords over the timid. We know...

The U.S. Found a Kindred Spirit!

The United States has tried in the past three years to capture Osama bin Laden, but failed because we lacked:
- Funds which were spent in Iraq and on tax cuts
- Support from other countries which we pissed off
- And competent leadership within our ranks.

Is there anyone else with these problems?

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - The [al-Qaida-linked organization] Jemaah Islamiyah terror group tried in the past year to carry out attacks in Southeast Asia but failed because it lacked funds, support from other militant operations and leadership within its ranks, officials said Friday.

Huh. How 'bout that.

Reasons for a Democratic House - #2

#1 being a congress that can launch impeachment proceedings against Bush if he's somehow re-selected. This Business Week profile of Kerry's economic plan underscores why we MUST, MUST, MUST put a Democratic majority in the House this year - possibly far and away more important than the presidential race itself. (Italics ours)

[Kerry's] agenda -- a set of programs aimed at helping workers cope with rising health and tuition costs, the offshoring of jobs, and stagnant wages -- is complex and pricey. It's also a sketchy blueprint that, should Kerry win the election, will almost certainly undergo radical surgery when the candidate confronts budget reality and what's likely to be a hostile GOP Congress. At its core is a grand bargain: Kerry offers a $650 billion health-insurance plan and $200 billion in education spending, to be financed by rolling back Bush's tax cuts for families earning more than $200,000 - about 3% of taxpayers. That could free up some $600 billion to $860 billion - money the Dems feel could be better used to ease stress on working families and spur consumption.

But that would leave nothing for Kerry's pledge to slash the deficit. And if a GOP-controlled Congress balks at rolling back tax breaks for the wealthy, he would have to drastically scale down his ambitions, risking the ire of voters.

Oh, yeah. Voters. Imagine that - a plan which helps them and not the Bush Buddy corporate elite. Work for your local Democrat congressional candidate. It's that important.

Jeb Bush, Environmentalist!

He wants to use less paper. That's his story and he's sticking to it. Jackass.

Ex-felons face new twist in voting

Days after a Florida appeals court demanded that the state provide more help to felons who want their right to vote restored, Gov. Jeb Bush introduced a new policy that civil rights advocates say circumvents the will of the court and threatens to exclude tens of thousands of potential voters.

Last week, the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee unanimously ruled that state prison officials must follow the law and provide newly released felons the necessary paperwork and assistance to get their full civil rights back.

That would include a one-page application for a formal hearing before the Florida Clemency Board -- the only way an estimated 85 percent of felons will ever get their rights restored.

But instead of providing the application, Bush decided to scrap it altogether. On Wednesday, he announced that felons will now have to contact the Office of Executive Clemency when and if they want to apply for a hearing to have their rights restored.

Bush argues that the policy reduces paperwork and, therefore, provides the ease and assistance demanded by the court.

"You have to hand it to the governor. It's a very clever legal tactic and even more clever propaganda," said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU in Florida. "It's done under the guise of trying to simplify the process and eliminate paperwork, but it just shows his true character. It's completely disingenuous."

Rumors We Like

Bartcop floats the one he heard that Mike Malloy is being looked at for 10pm-1am ET on Air America Radio.

Interesting time slot. That would mean either taking an hour away from Garofalo or moving her up to 7pm, replacing Marty Kaplan's Parade of Intern Reporters ("So What Else Is News?") from 7 to 8.

Rumors are rumors. Let's see if it plays out. There is this at Mike's website:

Keep checking here for some exciting radio news!!
--July 19, 2004

If true, it means AAR is making a real go at being a full-time program supplier. Their New York success has blindsided the industry - although the 50% of the population of America who's been aching to hear this kind of radio for the past 12 years has been telling said deaf industry, "THERE'S A MARKET FOR THIS!"

It takes a good whack in the head sometimes...

So I Ordered "Outfoxed" from Myself...

...and what a terrific deal I got ordering it through Hoffmania!

Okay, seriously. We watched it last night at our own house party attended by me, Bullitt (the missus), Hannah and Woody (the cats) and Jesse (the dog who the cats think is a real big cat).

We watched the "Making Of..." feature beforehand, and we recommend doing that before watching the big show. Nice backgrounding of the project and the horror of the participants after they volunteered to watch Fox News for several weeks is obvious.

Watching "Outfoxed" is very similar to seeing "F911" - we, on this side of the aisle, know just about all of it already, but seeing it laid out there on the screen in its condensed glory is a sight to behold.

There are three very effective scenes within the video. One is Fox's anchors' abuse of the term, "Some people say that..." as a way to inject their own editorializing of the story they're analyzing. Another is how they parrot almost word-for-word talking points laid out by memos and the GOP. The editing of these two pieces is truly a work of art. The third is a chronicle of boilovers by Bill "SHUT UP" O'Reilly which would be funnier of it wasn't so frightening.

There's nothing in "Outfoxed" that's really repelling aside from their agenda. They didn't show what I thought was the pinnacle of Fox's pandering to psychotics late last year - the showing of torture tapes made by Saddam's prison guards. This was unblinking video of bound and gagged people thrown off the roof of the prison and their resulting writhing in agony. Fox News showed this over and over and over during the day they obtained this "exclusive video" ("Exclusive" meaning no other news organization had the bad taste to run it). This of course was before our own Abu Ghraib nightmare which "Outfoxed" touches on.

There's a lot that's compelling about this documentary, and you'll get a workout shaking your head over what's passing for journalism today. I turned on CNN this morning to watch the 9/11 commission's Q&A session, and as soon as their anchors took over, I found myself shutting them off without even thinking. Yes, I did not want to watch cable news talking heads anymore, thank you.

There were a lot of things wrong with the country in the 60s and 70s, but the one thing we did right was journalism. Because networks' news franchises were their crown jewels, you knew you'd get the story without tinting or innuendo. They had their own rigorous standards and above all, pride.

This is part of the reason why the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine ("the "equal time" rule) during the Reagan administration seemed like a good idea on the surface - after all, no broadcasting organization would want to trash their good name and reputation. But the sale of all these companies after the relaxing of multiple ownership rules (yes, under the Clinton administration) to people with absolutely zero heritage, pride or reputation has created the ideological trainwreck we have today in broadcast journalism.

Here's the catch: Before 1987, radio and TV stations breaking the Fairness Doctrine could (and did) have their license renewals challenged by the public. This effectively kept them honest and made them strive to be at least trustworthy to their communities, lest they lose their stations. Today, with no such rule, PLUS no license the public can challenge to own a cable network, we're powerless to do anything, other than demand reinstatement of broadcast fairness laws AFTER we reinstate ownership limits. Yeah. Good luck on that, pal.


"Outfoxed" brings all this into crystal clarity (and made what you just read surface in my consciousness). It tries to offer solutions at the end, but it's a very long and very confusing row to hoe.

So I'll use my satellite TV thusly: Get my news from C-SPAN, and then switch to Aqua Teen Hunger Force before turning in for the night. Both are a lot more sane than Fox News.

From the Pen of: Jeff Danziger

Kerry Leads Fox News Poll for First Time

FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. July 20-21, 2004. N=900 registered voters nationwide (MoE ± 3), including 767 likely voters (MoE ± 4).

"If the election for president of the United States were held today, for whom would you vote if the candidates were Republican George W. Bush, Democrat John Kerry, and independent candidate Ralph Nader?"

John Kerry 44%
George Bush 43%
Ralph Nader 3%

(Without Nader, Kerry 45%, Bush 44%)

Deflecting the Arguments from Naderland

Alexander Cockburn wrote an op-ed piece in today's LA Times about how the Democrats deserve Nader. Part of his argument:

One useful way of estimating how little separates the parties, and particularly their presidential nominees, is to tote up some of the issues on which there is tacit agreement, either as a matter of principle or with an expedient nod and wink that these are not matters suitable to be discussed in any public forum: the role of the Federal Reserve; trade policy; economic redistribution; the role and budget of the CIA and other intelligence agencies; nuclear disarmament; allocation of military procurement; reduction of the military budget; the roles and policies of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and kindred multilateral agencies; the war on drugs; corporate welfare; energy policy; the destruction of small farmers and ranchers; Israel.

In the face of this conspiracy of silence, the more independent challenges the better. Nader is doing his duty.

Alex - read the 2004 Democratic platform before you write anymore. If you can't tell the difference between us and the GOP by now, I'm just wasting my time here.

In the comments to an earlier post here at Hoffmania, a Berkeley reader posed the following:

Some one please explain:

Democrats voted for bu$h in the millions.

Greens voted for Nader, their own candidate.

Who are the bad guys in this picture?

Democrats accept millions upon millions of dollars from the same corporations that own the Repugs.

Nader gets a few thou from some loony wingnuts who think they are somehow sabatoging the demos. Nader then uses it to blast all the corporate whores on both sides.

I think you guys actually hate Nader because he has the guts to point out whats wrong with the way Democrats are doing business. Because it stinks!

My reply was - and is this:

Simply, to a lot of people across the political divide, Bush was sold to America in 2000 as a bi-partisan kind-hearted aw-shucks fella with no axe to grind and a break from the big bad old Clinton misbehavin'. His biggest selling point was his alleged ability to work with both sides of the aisle.

I'll also go on record as saying that Al Gore's campaign was horrible, from his selection of running mate to the tsk'ing and sighing in the debates, to the wholesale tossing aside of the Clinton record. His handlers did more to turn people off to Clinton than the Repubs could ever dream of doing themselves.

With those two strategies in play, some Democrats voted for Bush, thinking they were getting some kind of change for the better. Others "sent a message" and voted for your guy, Nader. I can guarantee that an overwhelming majority of them today regret their decision and would love to have that vote back.

This time, we have a clearer (albeit too late) understanding of what was under Bush's nice-guy veneer, and thankfully, Americans are paying more attention to this race than they ever have in the past - especially in contrast to the ADD-infused 2000 race.

And since Nader is happily accepting the Republicans' help - I know it's a crashing blow to your entire argument - it speaks volumes about how Nader is trashing his core beliefs - that he'd accept the cash and support of the disasterous, deadly, deep-pocketed and divisive 2004 Republican party, and still get a good night's sleep. If Nader had a chance to earn any respect by returning the money, he blew it big time.

Not one - NOT ONE of those Repubs are going to vote for him - but they know he can still peel 2-5% of the left-leaning vote away from Kerry. If Nader's too stupid to see that, and if his supporters are naive enough to ignore that, maybe you deserve another four years of hell. The rest of us don't.

You've heard this before: Nader has a proud history of activism and championing the rights and safety of Americans. I'll always love the guy for that. Today, he sticks his fingers in his ears, yells "NA NA NA NA NA" whenever anyone from the Democratic party reaches out to him. Yet he'll gladly take contributions by Republicans. Please reconcile that for me. My head hurts just thinking about it.

And don't give me the "You just want a two-party system" crap either. Find me a non-delusional, sane and open-minded third-party candidate, and I'll take him or her seriously.

THE FINAL DAYS

It's last-push time. The primary season ends and the campaign begins with next week's convention. It's the final week of direct-from-the-voters contributions. Come on. We need all the FU money we can get against Bush's thugs.


Now is the time. Click to contribute.

LA Times: "The Berger Smoke Screen"

Every once in a while, someone gets it right. From this morning's LAT editorial:

Indeed, it's striking that Berger's accusers have yet to supply a motive for his actions. Do Hastert and DeLay believe that Berger would take that kind of risk to "assist" the Kerry campaign? Or to cover up a personal failure in confronting terrorism, because the documents were about the foiled so-called Millennium terrorist plot, which occurred during his watch? They don't say.

Anyway, the problem with such theories would be that because the original documents remain in the National Archives, Berger would not have been able to deny the 9/11 commission access to them. Any attempted cover-up would not have covered anything up. Instead, he's now drawn attention to the documents.

By contrast, the motives for whoever in the administration leaked the Berger investigation appear clear enough. Like the outing of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA agent, someone is sending up a smoke screen to deflect more serious charges. By creating a brouhaha about Berger's actions, the leaker distracts attention from any criticisms of President Bush and his administration in the independent 9/11 commission report.

The New Republic or NewsMax?

You decide. I can't.

O, the Laughter! O, the Uproariousness!

Jenna Bush Cracks Up Media With Gesture

When first lady Laura Bush counseled her twin daughters on how to behave while campaigning with their father, she may have skipped the part about not sticking your tongue out at the media.

That's what Jenna Bush did Tuesday after President Bush arrived at St. Louis' Lambert International Airport.

After Bush got in the back seat beside Jenna, the 22-year-old graduate of the University of Texas at Austin started smiling through the window at about 10 to 12 news photographers and radio reporters stationed on a platform.

Then she stuck her tongue out and began to laugh.

As everyone on the platform started to laugh and snap photographs, Jenna Bush looked at them for a few more seconds, smiling and laughing.

And then we all laughed. We were laughing and laughing and laughing. And then she laughed which made us all laugh. Then we journalists all went out for pie.

When Charlie reminded us of Jenna sticking out her tongue, we all laughed and laughed some more. Joey's milk shot out of his noze. We all laffed again. And then we meedia peepul went home, wundering if preznit's dawter Jenna giv me tung. An we lafft mor. ha ha ha! we rite gud nooz!

- the assocheeatid pres

Rick Santorum is Writing the Funnies

Prickly City is a newcomer to the funnies pages, and is starting to make Mallard Fillmore look like The Boondocks. I don't mind ideology, but I do mind lying - like the bestiality meme.



Yipes. What's also weird about this strip is that the girl character is black (as evidenced by the Sunday strips) and the voice of the reasonable conservative against the coyote's wacky liberal bend. Lest you think creator Scott Stantis is a conservative Aaron MacGruder, you better meet him yourself.

Good!

Kerry Camp Accuses White House of Berger Leak

Democrat John Kerry's presidential campaign accused the Bush White House on Wednesday of disclosing the existence of a criminal investigation against former national security adviser Sandy Berger for political advantage.

The objective of such a leak, the Kerry campaign said in a political memo distributed by email, was to take attention away from a report to be issued on Thursday by the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The criminal investigation of Berger began last October but only came to light this week.

"The timing of this leak suggests that the White House is more concerned about protecting its political hide than hearing what the commission has to say about strengthening our security," the Kerry campaign said.

Complaining of the "questionable timing" of the leak, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the release of any correspondence between the Justice Department and the White House on the Berger probe.

Again, this is the difference between the parties. Our guy gets "caught" doing something insanely benign, he 'fesses up and excuses himself from doing any potential damage to the campaign he's advising. Our party chairman uses legal routes to get information about the leak.

Their side never, ever, EVER owns up to their mistakes, and God knows (as well as anyone) how over-the-top numerous and deadly they are - and they'll stop at nothing to smear the opposition, no matter how illegal, no matter how untruthful.

TRUTH. It's our best friend. And it'll ride us right onto the shore of sanity this November.

The "Terror In The Skies" Story

Last week, we pointed you to the article at Women's Wall Street about a terror scare one of their writers experienced on a flight from Detroit to LA. Patrick Smith at Salon puts in perspective today.

Now, in fairness to Jacobsen, I'll admit that in-flight jitters over the conspicuous presence of a group of young Arabs is neither unexpected nor, necessarily, irrational. She speaks of seven of the men standing in unison, a moment that, if unembellished, would have even the most culturally open-minded of us wide-eyed and grabbing our armrest. As everybody knows, it was not a gaggle of Canadian potato farmers who commandeered those jetliners on Sept. 11. See also the legacy of air crimes over the past several decades, from Pan Am 103 to the UTA bombing to the failed schemings of Ramzi Yousef, the culprits each time being young Arab males.

Air crews and passengers alike are thus prone to jumpiness should a certain template of race and behavior be filled. Jacobsen's folly is in not being able to step back from that jumpiness -- neither during the flight itself, at which point her worry and behavior are at least excusable, nor well after touching down safely. Speaking as a pilot, air travel columnist, and American, I find Jacobsen's 3,000-word ghost story of Arab boogeymen among the most overwrought and inflammatory tracts I've encountered in some time.

Today's Accomplishment of the "Peace President"

Death toll of U.S. forces in Iraq reaches 900

A roadside bomb exploded north of Baghdad early Wednesday, killing one U.S. 1st Infantry Division soldier and bringing to 900 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since the beginning of military operations in March 2003.

Maj. Neal O'Brien of the 1st Infantry Division said the most recent soldier killed was on patrol in a Bradley fighting vehicle in Duluiyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad, when the bomb detonated shortly after midnight Wednesday.

America Ain't Gonna Buy It

Especially after you bragged of being a "war president," you little thug.

"No one wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president," he told about 1,000 supporters at the Kirkwood Community College gym...

Guaranteed: the Kerry camp has the Russert interview, ready to roll if Bush makes this his new catchphrase.

Come on, little man. Go for it.

Not Mad Yet? Then Pay Attention to This...

If RepublicanGear.com can sell pure unadulterated crap like this...

...and if a fenderhead schmuck like Jefferson County (KY) GOP Chairman Jack Richardson can distribute a bumper sticker stating "Kerry is bin Laden's Man. Bush is Mine" - and say with a straight face, "I believe in the question this bumper sticker raises..."

...and if they expect to be taken seriously as viable points of view - then we propose sending them and anyone from their scum bog this: A real Reuters story from March.

Purported al Qaeda letter calls truce in Spain

A group claiming to have links with al Qaeda says it is calling a truce in its Spanish operations to see if the new Madrid government would withdraw its troops from Iraq, a pan-Arab newspaper says.

In a statement sent to the Arabic language daily al-Hayat, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombings that killed 201 people, also urged its European units to stop all operations. [...]

The statement said it supported U.S. President George W. Bush in his reelection campaign, and would prefer him to win in November rather than the Democratic candidate John Kerry, as it was not possible to find a leader "more foolish than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom."

In comments addressed to Bush, the group said:

"Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilisation."

"Because of this we desire you (Bush) to be elected."

The group said its cells were ready for another attack and time was running out for allies of the United States.

"Whose turn is it next? Will it be Japan or America, or Italy, Britain or Oslo or Australia?" the statement said, adding Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were also targets.

The group is named after Muhammed Atef, also known as Abu Hafs, a close bin Laden aide killed in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

Again...we have evidence. We have an account by a real news source. The wingnuts have bullshit. It's time to end their "Kerry=Terrorists" fairy tale once and for all.

Thanks, Jer

From the Pen of: Ben Sargent

Today's Lesson in Selective Journalism

When you get all your journalistic information from the White House, you make a point to mention under which administration this guy worked for:

Sandy Berger, former President Clinton's national security adviser, is under criminal investigation by the Justice Department after highly classified terrorism documents disappeared while he was reviewing what should be turned over to the Sept. 11 commission.

Okay. Fair enough. But when quoting the high-profile person who comes to his defense, you can go two ways. You can report it thusly (as AP did, and as a result is being published verbatim in hundreds of newspapers and said verbatim on hundreds of TV and radio stations):

David Gergen, who was an adviser to Clinton and worked with Berger for a time in the White House, said Tuesday, "I think it's more innocent than it looks."

Or, you can report it thusly (and a little more honestly):

David R. Gergen, the longtime political strategist who worked in the administration of President Bill Clinton as well as in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan White Houses, said he thought what Mr. Berger did was "more innocent than it looks."

Class? CLASS? WAKE UP!!! Now can anyone tell me who launched this anti-Clinton barrage moments before the release of the 9/11 Commission's report and days before the Democratic convention? Anyone?

How Bad is the Bush Environmental Record?

Even Republicans are repulsed by it.

Republicans blast President Bush on environment

CONCORD - One of the Environmental Protection Agency's earliest leaders, flanked by Republican state politicians, blasted the president's record on the environment Monday during a news conference organized by an anti-Bush environmental group.

Russell Train, a Republican, was the EPA's second chief under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. But he said Bush's record is so dismal he's casting his presidential vote for Democrat John Kerry in November.

"It's almost as if the motto of the administration in power today in Washington is not environmental protection, but polluter protection," he said. "I find this deeply disturbing."

Air America Makes the BIG MOVE!

They fiddled with their logo. "Air" and "America" are now the same size. It's a start.

Read the Palm Beach Post's story on Randi Rhodes. They still love her, as do we.

And from Crain's New York Business:

Air America soars to No. 2 in talk

Air America, the liberal talk-radio network that launched at the end of March on WLIB-AM, has landed in second place in the New York talk arena, its 1.7 share in the 25-to-54 demographic beating rival WOR's 1.0 share, according to the spring Arbitron report.

WOR's hosts include conservatives Bill O'Reilly and Bob Grant.

WLIB trailed AM-radio leader WABC, whose hosts include Rush Limbaugh. It had a 2.3 share in the demographic.

How Republicans Communicate Among Themselves

This should scare anyone into voting against Bush. A wingnut outfitter named RepublicanGear.com sells lovely keepsakes with beautiful warm sentiments like:

"Satan's for John Kerry. Are You?"
bin Laden Says: "I Want YOU to Vote for John Kerry"
"Christians for Bush-Cheney"
"Jews for Bush-Cheney"
"Terrorists for John Kerry (Americans are for Bush!)"
"Bush-Cheney: Protecting our Childrens Future" (Yup - no apostrophe.)

We demand that the Republican National Committee post these at their website to show the voters what President Bush enthusiastically declares, "I believe the heart and soul of America is found in places right here."

Seriously - we hit 'em with the cold hard facts, and their best response is to throw us into the wood chipper. Great strategy. Real winners.

Moore Fires Back at the Aladdin

Linda Ronstadt, after having been tossed out of the Aladdin Hotel in Vegas for dedicating "Desperado" to Michael Moore, didn't have to wait very long for his gratitude.

Open Letter to Bill Timmins, President Aladdin Casino and Hotel

Bill Timmins
President
Aladdin Casino and Hotel
Las Vegas, NV

July 20, 2004

Dear Mr. Timmins:

I understand from the news reports I've read that, after Linda Ronstadt, one of America's greatest singers, dedicated a song to me from your stage on Saturday night, you instructed your security guards to remove her from the Aladdin, which they did.

What country do you live in? Last time I checked, Las Vegas is still in the United States. And in the United States, we have something called "The First Amendment." This constitutional right gives everyone here the right to say whatever they want to say. All Americans hold this right as sacred. Many of our young people put on a uniform and risk their lives to defend it. My film is all about asking the questions that should have been asked before those brave soldiers were sent into harms way.

For you to throw Linda Ronstadt off the premises because she dared to say a few words in support of me and my film, is simply stupid and Un-American. Frankly, I have never heard of such a thing happening. I read that you wouldn't even let her go back up to her room at your hotel! Are you crazy? For crying out loud, it was a song DEDICATION! To "Desperado!" Every American loves that song! Sure, some people didn't like the dedication, and that's their right. But neither they nor you have the right to remove her from your building when all she did was exercise her AMERICAN right to speak her mind.

Of all the things that go on in Las Vegas, this is what creates the need for serious action? What about the other half of the crowd at the Aladdin who, according to the Las Vegas Sun, cheered her when she made her remarks? Did you throw them out, too?

I think you owe Ms. Ronstadt an apology. And I have an idea how you can make it up to her -- and to the millions of Americans you have offended. Invite her back and I'll join her in singing "America the Beautiful" on your stage. Then I will show "Fahrenheit 9/11" free of charge to all your guests and anyone else in Las Vegas who wants to see it.

Mr. Timmins, as the song "Desperado" says -- "Come to your senses!" How can you refuse this offer? I await your reply.

Yours,
Michael Moore
Director, "Fahrenheit 9/11"

The Winds Continue to Shift

And there's a big one blowing in Pennsylvania. Popular moderate Republican Rep. Jim Greenwood has suddenly announced his decision to retire from the Hill, leaving the seat wide open for Ginny Schrader. The story's been unfolding at dKos along with an astounding $14k pickup in contributions tonight for Schrader, who had a scant $7000 in her campaign until today.

This seat is a Democratic-leaning one, and is too good to miss. Schrader is a liberal-to-moderate, pro-choice Democrat. In addition, she supports civil unions and is against Bush's positions on Iraq and the Patriot Act. She is an attorney who ran for State Rep. in 2002 and lost by a respectable margin.

This is completely out of left field, folks, and it gives us another opportunity for a pickup. Ginny Schrader is the luckiest candidate in the nation today, but can her luck hold?

That was posted before the $14k. This looks amazing. And never forget - above and beyond the presidential race, returning the good guys to the House and Senate is of paramount importance. If the Bush thugs somehow cheat and steal their way back to the White House, we'll have the checks and balances in place to hold impeachment over their sorry heads.

Al Giordano, the BigLeftOutside blogger, made an entry at his dKos diary which bears your attention - his personal relationship with Greenwood, and how this fair-minded guy came to this decision. It's the kind of thing that elevates blogging into an art form.

Why Jim Greenwood Dropped Out
by Al Giordano

Jim Greenwood and I go back a long time... Twenty-one years plus change. I was 23, he must have been in his early 30s... but I digress... first I'll cut to the quick.

At 7:00 a.m. this morning Jim called his chief of staff to say "I've made a decision." He explained that he was dropping out.

Why?

He believes Kerry is going to win.

And it's payday. He got offered a $400,000-a-year job with some company or other. I didn't get the details on that because I was more interested in the political ramifications... and when you call people who haven't heard from you forever and know they should NOT be on the phone with you, you have to pick your shots.

The Bush people are livid. They feel they will hang on to the 8th District seat (locals will understand when I say: it's Conti or Fitzpatrick, and Boss Fawkes finally gets to pick a Congressman, that's what the Repubs are saying), but they are really mad at Greenwood because he was supposed to be the "moderate Republican" point person in Southeast PA...

He goes on with a great story of Greenwood taking umbrage to a comment by Giordano - and how they settled the dispute. It's a terrific reminiscence.

Turkee for Ginny! Click here.

No End to the Underhandedness - No End to the Lying

My fervent hope - my wildest dream - is that Ralph Nader wakes up about 3:00 tonight and realizes he's made a horrible mistake. That would be logic coursing through his nervous system. Sadly - never happen.

Republicans Helping Nader to Help Themselves
By Brian Faler
Washington Post

The Michigan Republican Party submitted more than 40,000 signatures last week in a bid to get independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the state's November ballot.

Of course, this is not really about helping Nader. It is all about helping President Bush and hurting Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry's campaign in a closely contested state.

The Michigan GOP denies that, of course. Matt Davis, a spokesman for the group, said it was merely concerned about third-party candidates being left off the ballot. He could not name, however, another third-party or independent candidate his party has helped.

What a benevolent son of a bitch.

Oooooo

From the Democratic Convention Blog:

If you're one of those people who go into a Best Buy and just stare at all the television sets and dream of having a plasma screen in every room and would if your wife didn't stop you by taking all of your credit cards away, then you will love this stage.

Can We Make Something Clear Here?

Newsweek:

9/11: The Iran Factor
The final report of the 9-11 Commission reveals troubling new evidence that Tehran was closer to Al Qaeda than Iraq was

Folks. Please. Pakistan had closer ties to al Qaeda than Iraq had. Nebraska had closer ties to al Qaeda than Iraq had. EVERYONE had closer ties to al Qaeda than Iraq had.

Shut Up!

And watch the Emperor of Shut Up in this great video by Outfoxed at MoveOn.org.

Easy, Tucker, Easy...

Man. I landed on Crossfire for the first time in ages, and Tucker Carlson seems to either be just plain angrier (there's that word again), or the grind of doing CNN and PBS is taking its toll. I've always given him credit for being at least entertaining if not horribly wrong. Today, there was a complete lack of the former. My observation was confirmed when Kathy Sullivan, the chair of the NH Democratic Party, smacked him down for focusing on stupid crap instead of real issues as an observer of the Beltway.

It must be Gang Up On CNN Flacks Month. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But it's looking like Tucker's getting desperate for talking points (see "Jacuzzi Trial Lawyer").

Ron Reagan Gets Tossed in the Shredder

Republican groupthink:

Disagreement: "Sad."
Pleading for stem cell research when the GOP rejects it: "A cute little story."
Speaking his mind about stem cell research: "Damaging the party."

To GOP, He's Dishonoring His Father
Affronted Republicans scramble to discredit Ron Reagan's scheduled speech on embryonic stem-cell research at the Democratic convention.

Ron Reagan, the late president's 46-year-old son, plans to use the global platform of the Democratic National Convention to endorse embryonic stem-cell experiments, an area of research that some think his father would have opposed but which his mother supports.

"I think his speech is a cute little story for convention coverage, but I don't think it's the sort of thing that will influence any voters," said Gary Bauer, a conservative activist and domestic policy advisor to President Reagan.

Summing up a sentiment widely held among conservative groups, Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America called the planned public appearance "sad."

Conservatives remember the younger Reagan's affinity for flustering his family — dropping out of Yale in 1976 to join the Joffrey Ballet, writing articles for Playboy magazine and professing atheism.

"He is seen as someone who didn't hesitate to embarrass his family," one conservative leader remarked, reluctant to publicly criticize any member of the Reagan clan.

"Ron Jr. has either allowed himself to be used or he's knowingly partaking in something whose purpose is to damage the party his father spent all of his adult political life in," Bauer said.

Zeroing In on the Important Crap

Front page of the L.A. Times Calendar section. What's really important about the campaign: Kerry's face. Cripes.

When discussing this, it is important to separate Kerry the man from Kerry the face. (I don't know what my face is doing half the time and have concluded I can't be responsible for its actions. My face has a mind of its own.)

Kerry the man talks about the botched execution of the war in Iraq, about the rising cost of prescription drugs. But often Kerry the face can't quite get on board with the urgency of the message. When "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl gushed that Kerry's energy level seemed boosted by Edwards' sudden companionship, Kerry responded, "Well, certainly I hope so. I want it to. I love it." As he spoke, Kerry's face looked on. The face had no comment.

"But he's definitely got energy without me, you know," Edwards chimed in helpfully. He and his face seemed to have gone out drinking and become buddies ages ago.

Who knows how Kerry feels, going through these pro forma TV rituals of appearing menschy and at ease? On "60 Minutes" he claimed not to worry much about his charisma problem; this face had gotten him elected four times. And rhetorically, anyway, Kerry's most alive when attacked by the opponent. Challenged by Stahl about the Republican charge that his populist economic policies contradict that he is a mega-millionaire, Kerry retorted: "Is this coming from millionaire George Bush? And millionaire Dick Cheney? And millionaire Rumsfeld?" His back was up, he was apparently indignant, and he was showing off a quick-witted fearlessness; there was nuance in his answer. Meanwhile, that face didn't move.

Small redemption at the end of the article, but Paul Brownfield still needs to make his point.

In York, Bush gave a stump speech that went pretty well with his face. As always, however, he displayed his troubling habit of grinning at inappropriate times. Like when he talks about Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and how we're safer now. If Kerry has difficulty physically accomplishing a smile, Bush smiles too much, constantly, as if to say, "See? See what I mean?" It's a patronizing habit. But it will be Kerry who will wind up branded as the candidate of condescension.

"Sen. Kerry is the most liberal member of the Senate," Bush said, repeating a line he'd use all week. "And he chose as his running mate the fourth most liberal member of the Senate. In Massachusetts, that's what they call balancing the ticket." Somewhere, perhaps, Kerry was looking on. Ready to respond, expressionless.

Face face face face face face face. It's true. They can't find anything else to talk about here.

Governor Schwarzenegghead

Okay...call me politically incorrect. But we should stop wasting our time piling on people who just act in a painfully obvious dumbass manner.

A spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) said Sunday that the governor would not apologize for calling lawmakers "girlie men," despite criticisms from Democrats that the remark was sexist and homophobic.

Schwarzenegger dished out the insult at a rally Saturday as he claimed Democrats were delaying the budget by catering to special interests.

"If they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers ... if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men," Schwarzenegger said to the cheering crowd at a mall food court in Ontario.

The governor lifted the term from a long-running "Saturday Night Live" skit in which two pompous, Schwarzenegger-worshipping weightlifters repeatedly use it to mock those who don't meet their standards of physical perfection.

Democrats said Schwarzenegger's remarks were insulting to women and gays and distracted from budget negotiations. State Sen. Sheila Kuehl said the governor had resorted to "blatant homophobia."

No, he resorted to an old SNL bit, period. It was a simple-headed remark meant for us to remember he's this lovable showbiz personality. Calling it homophobic is a little too much. We can nail this guy on so many other things, so please - drop the outrage over this.

Air America Hits Miami

WINZ, a heritage set of call letters in Miami talk radio, has been reborn after a leave of absence - and it's Air America's newest affiliate.

In a "Things That Make You Go Hmmm" moment, the station's owned by Clear Channel who also owns the city's neocon outlet. It's a very similar (or completely opposite, if you will) scenario to ABC's mostly-liberal KGO in San Francisco launching ultra-right-winged KSFO a few years back, thereby creating their own competition.

This seems to be the first fundamentally sound thing ever heard out of a talk radio executive in years, incidentally...

WINZ launches liberal talk radio
(The Kos login works here! -Hoff)

Billed as yin to conservative radio's yang, the self-styled "progressive" outlet WINZ (940 AM) made its debut in South Florida on Monday with a syndicated cast of counterpunching, Bush-baiting liberal commentators.

The launch of the remodeled channel, formerly sports-and-talk station WRFX, was not flawless: One short spell of dead air, followed by a plea to stay tuned, interrupted the afternoon chatter. But WINZ did get its new chorus of left-leaning voices up and running.

The Limbaugh and Hannity shows air daily in South Florida on WIOD (610 AM). The company that owns both WIOD and the insurgent WINZ, Clear Channel, is calling the dueling signals its "Crossfire Combo."

"We just think the timing is perfect," said Dave Ross, vice president for Clear Channel South Florida, adding, "This is going to be an incredibly controversial [presidential] election, and you've got Fahrenheit 9/11 doing well."

Clear Channel South Florida decided to jump into the fray, Ross said, after seeing Air America programming draw "spectacular" ratings in New York City and at a Clear Channel-owned station in Portland, Ore.

The daily lineup is not complete; Ross said WINZ wants to find a local host to complement the syndicated fare. But he said the liberal lineup challenges one frequent complaint about media giant Clear Channel, the country's largest radio chain.

"We get accused of being the big bad boy: We don't experiment; we don't do what's innovative," said Ross. "Well, this is about as innovative as it gets."