NOOSPHERIC SAMPLING

September 1, 2004

The Must-Read Feel-Good Piece of the Day -- by William Saleton on Slate. "Now the Republican National Convention is showcasing Bush's own heroic moment. As John McCain put it last night: 'I knew my confidence was well placed when I watched him stand on the rubble of the World Trade Center with his arm around a hero of September 11 and, in our moment of mourning and anger, strengthen our unity and our resolve by promising to right this terrible wrong and to stand up and fight for the values we hold dear.' Pardon me for asking, but where exactly is the heroism in this story? Where, indeed, is the heroism in anything Bush has done before 9/11 or since?" A little sanity about all the idea that 9/11 somehow made George W. Bush a great hero.

Nuclear Bombshell -- A Zogby poll released Monday had astonishing results: 50 percent of 808 New York State poll respondents said they believed members of the Bush administration knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act." (!) Fifty percent! Big News Network

You Can't Stop Us -- Jackson Thoreau: "We had been told not to come to New York to protest Bush. People on the left warned of 1968 Democratic Convention-like violence and arrests that would help throw the election to Bush. The Bush campaign warned of terrorism incidents and threatened violence and mass arrests. The FBI targeted 'potential' protesters for interrogation, and the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into whether people who posted names of Republican delegates and their hotels on Indymedia.org engaged in voter intimidation, as it ignored much worse tactics by Bush supporters in Florida and other states to suppress the black vote ... In the end, we had to come. We had to show the Republicans and the world that we weren't going to be intimidated by their threats, by their lies, by their smug cynicism. We had to stand up for real liberty and justice for all, not the fake, only-for-the-wealthy kind supported by most Republicans." Op Ed News

Good Money For People Willing to Lie -- According to the Misleader, "Rear Admiral William L. Schachte Jr., the man who claims Kerry was not under fire when he received his first Purple Heart, is a top lobbyist for a defense contractor that recently won a $40 million grant from the Bush administration."

David Corn on The Submission of McCain /

Oops! Bush on the "war on terror": "I don't think you can win it, but I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world." ABC

Richard Cohen NEW YORK - Sunday morning here John McCain appeared on ``Face The Nation'' and committed truth, as he is often wont to do. Asked right out of the box if John Kerry's recent dip in the polls was attributable to those wretched TV ads attacking his war record, McCain did not launch into some praise of George Bush as almost any other politician would have done, but instead ripped the muggy air with candor: ``I can think of no other reason,'' he said. Maybe you heard the thunder. htm

Repubs rekindle the fear of 9/11 -- The Australian

Chomsky on the differences between Kerry and Bush -- "On domestic issues there could be a fairly significant difference–it’s not huge–but different in its outcomes. The group around Bush are real fanatics. They’re quite open. They’re not hiding it; you can’t accuse them of that. They want to destroy the whole array of progressive achievements of the past century. They’ve already more or less gotten rid of progressive income tax. They’re trying to destroy the limited medical care system. The new pharmaceutical bill is a step towards that. They’re going after Social Security. They probably will go after schools. They do not want a small government, any more than Reagan did. They want a huge government, and massively intrusive. They hate free markets. But they want it to work for the rich. The Kerry people will do something not fantastically different, but less so. They have a different constituency to appeal to, and they are much more likely to protect some limited form of benefits for the general population. There are other differences. The popular constituency of the Bush people, a large part of it, is the extremist fundamentalist religious sector in the country, which is huge. There is nothing like it in any other industrial country. And they have to keep throwing them red meat to keep them in line. While they’re shafting them in their economic and social policies, you’ve got to make them think you’re doing something for them. And throwing red meat to that constituency is very dangerous for the world, because it means violence and aggression, but also for the country, because it means harming civil liberties in a serious way. The Kerry people don’t have that constituency. They would like to have it, but they’re never going to appeal to it much. They have to appeal somehow to working people, women, minorities, and others, and that makes a difference. These may not look like huge differences, but they translate into quite big effects for the lives of people. Anyone who says "I don’t care if Bush gets elected" is basically telling poor and working people in the country, "I don’t care if your lives are destroyed. I don’t care whether you are going to have a little money to help your disabled mother. I just don’t care, because from my elevated point of view I don’t see much difference between them." That’s a way of saying, "Pay no attention to me, because I don’t care about you." Apart from its being wrong, it’s a recipe for disaster if you’re hoping to ever develop a popular movement and a political alternative." ISReview

Neocons Divided -- Salon

Bush's War on Democracy -- Marjorie Cohn Truthout

Sane Republicans? Moderate Republicans criticize the "extremist element that controls the Republican party, which has polarized this country." They beg the party to come back to the mainstream.

Michael Moore got louder boos than Osama bin Laden. But then, he's never been a family friend of the Bushes. New York Times

Cronkite: Iraq is one of the great mistakes in history -- But what does he know? Boston magazine

September 1, 2004

Schwarzenegger at the Republican convention -- He described the epiphany when he decided he was a Republican. When he came to the U.S. in 1968 the election season was going on. He heard Humphrey speak and it sounded like socialism to him, he said. Then he heard Nixon speak and that was it. He loved Nixon. If that man was a Republican, Arnie decided, then he was a Republican. "AND I'VE BEEN A REPUBLICAN EVER SINCE!" he said, with giant emphasis, bringing his story to a crescendo, jabbing his finger JFK-style in a signal to the audience that it was time for applause. So that was it -- Nixon that turned Arnold on politically.

His wife, oddly enough, is JFK's niece. Her father was McGovern's running mate. And Arnold's political idol is Nixon. It's all so riddled with paradox. Arnold read off a bunch of beliefs that would define you as a Republican. "If you believe you should be able to decide better how to spend your money -- then you are a Republican!" Every one of them was something I believe in, more or less. Yet I'm still not a Republican.

There's so much irony when you hear these people telling you what they supposedly believe in. Freedom, democracy, moral integrity. But it's just a fantasy. Don't they see the paradoxes in the things they are saying. Like the big criticisms about Kerry's war record, whether he really did enough to win all those medals, whether he "bled," as Dole said, as if revealing that they would really like to make him bleed if they could. It felt like a primitive ritual sacrifice. And all the time their man has never been within thousands of miles of a battle zone. Yet the irony is lost on them, and on the hypnotic corporate media.

McCain in his little hate fest of Michael Moore last night said that a certain "disingenuous" film maker had made Iraq look like a peaceful haven, when actually it was ruled by a tyrant, with mass graves and torture chambers -- and I'm thinking: so what has changed? Is that different than Iraq today? 12,000 Iraq dead since the invasion, I would bet that is more than happened in a comparable period before. And the question of torture is obviously not an issue America has any authority to discuss.

McCain gave his little rap about how we shouldn't be divided as Democrats and Republicans, and then you got to see the Republicans roll out their visceral hatred of Michael Moore, a mere filmmaker. They can't even pretend a little tolerance and civility when they are talking explicitly about it and trying to show everyone how compassionate and generous they are.

Constant ironies, paradoxes, contradictions, big fat lies. Schwarzenegger talks about how the Soviets occupied part of Austria when he was young and how awful it was with the soldiers on the streets, and I'm wondering, has this guy been outside? Has he walked around the Garden a little. His good buddy Chooage Dubaya Boosch has ushered in a police state with much in common with the old Eastern Europe.

And then he is saying that the world is free of the Soviet threat because of America. I think a serious historian may say there's a little more to it than that, but to whatever degree that is true, the overthrow of the Soviet autocracy can in no way justify the establishment of a military dictatorship of the model that is being advanced by George W. Bush. The human aspiration for freedom that ultimately was the cause of the fall of the Soviet Union (not Ronald Reagan's absurd arms race, as conventional wisdom in the U.S. has it) is also diametrically opposed to the kind of police state Bush, Ashcroft, Poindexter, etc. are constructing in America. These men are the greatest force against freedom in America and in many other places, including Iraq.

Arnold was ridiculous. I'm sorry. I do wish to be civil, but Arnold is ridiculous. Since I saw him in New York last winter, I will never be able to see the image again. He wore such thick pancake make up, projected himself totally into the cameras as if he was not there in the actual room. In person he was a short, very broad guy beaming with a huge, radiant smile, but mechanical and unreal. He's like a big wind-up dummy. I wonder if he is ever seen without his makeup.

And speaking of make up, Awnuld brought out one of his most infantile lines ever and tried it again. To people who refuse to believe that Bush is great for the economy, he said, "Don't be economic gullymen!" And it may not have played so well to the "Cullyfawnia" legislature, but the Republicans leaped to their feet -- no lie. The "girly men" line set off a standing ovation, and the camera cut to -- Trent Lott! From time to time it showed Mrs. Schwarzenegger Maria Shriver sitting next to George H. W. Bush, where all the wives of the speakers sit, apparently.

George W.'s twin daughters performed. I don't want to say anything about any kids. I think it's sad when dictators have kids, but they almost always do. What's it like to be the daughter of Pinochet, for example, or Stalin? So my heart goes out to them. It was strange, though, seeing them. They read a bunch of jokes written for them by someone, most not very funny and the audience didn't seem to even be with it enough to know when to laugh to be polite.

So much weirdness. I'm trying my best to be a good American and watch the Republicans, be informed, hear them out, try to understand why they do the things they do. But it's not easy.

Meanwhile:

It's sad when someone can win elections by telling vicious lies about another person, not by legitimately putting up your ideas and proposals up against theirs to allow voters to judge, but by underhanded campaigns of character assassination. Karl Rove has been doing this for many years, and he still gets away with it. On Democracy Now Wayne Slater, the author of Bush's Brain, about Karl Rove, had some interesting things to say:

WAYNE SLATER: It was remarkable. I was covering the Bush campaign in 2000, and I remember leaving New Hampshire, Bush lost to McCain. And being in a restaurant in the morning with Karen Hughes, who was an advisor to President Bush. And she was worried, I think for the first time, that their campaign, the Bush campaign, was in trouble. And what we then saw in the next few days, in South Carolina was extraordinary. This attack on John McCain.

AMY GOODMAN: Let's explain South Carolina. New Hampshire happened and McCain won, Bush came in second. So then, the primaries, South Carolina. Bush is behind.

WAYNE SLATER: Absolutely he's behind. And the campaign is worried, that, wait a minute, this McCain juggernaut may be real. So what we first saw was the emergence of this suspect veteran's group, that stood up on the stairs and basically raised questions about McCain's abilities. It said does he have the temperament to be President? That's code for: “He was a P.O.W. so he may be crazy.” Where did this suspect veteran's group come from? Then as we approach the primary, a series of dirty tricks happen. And we reporters who were there, just as Molly Ivins said in the clip we saw, we were watching this event where phone calls were being made by Bush allies, raising questions about possibly a McCain love child. Questions about McCain's wife. Whether she had used illegal drugs, prescription drugs and abused them. All kinds of things really aimed at winning over Republican primary supporters and they worked. After that, the relationship between Bush and McCain was bitter and vicious. At one point in a studio in South Carolina, right before the primary, McCain and Bush were standing beside each other. And Bush said, you know, let's shake hands. It's just politics. McCain said, George, not everything's politics. And after that, the relationship was extraordinary. Last night you saw him praising the man. As I said, it's like two parallel universes...

WAYNE SLATER: There's something, I guess in Texas, we call the mark of Rove. And it's essentially this. In any campaign, or any operation he's involved in, there are a couple of things that are the same. One is, your opponent is targeted at the strength, not the weakness, the tradition is to attack and exploit the weakness of an opponent. That's never been Rove's style. He's always gone after the strength of your opponent. Secondly, he never leaves any fingerprints. When we saw this basic outing of a C.I.A. agent, married to what turned out to be an opponent of George Bush, someone who is offering information that was contrary to the Bush party line, then the first thing I thought, and I think an awful lot of people thought, gosh, that sure is similar to the pattern we've seen not simply once or twice, but for almost two decades, involving Karl Rove.

September 3, 2004

Feel the Hate -- Paul Krugman: "Why are the Republicans so angry? One reason is that they have nothing positive to run on (during the first three days, Mr. Bush was mentioned far less often than John Kerry). The promised economic boom hasn't materialized, Iraq is a bloody quagmire, and Osama bin Laden has gone from "dead or alive" to he-who-must-not-be-named. Another reason, I'm sure, is a guilty conscience. At some level the people at that convention know that their designated hero is a man who never in his life took a risk or made a sacrifice for his country, and that they are impugning the patriotism of men who have." New York Times

Kerry Strikes Back -- "For the past week, they have attacked my patriotism and even my fitness to serve as commander in chief. Well, here is my answer to them. I will not have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could've and who misled America into Iraq." Hit 'em again, John. Don't stop.

Iraq War veterans join the protest -- "We have a currency no one else has," said a Marine veteran who is the national coordinator of the group. "We've been there, we've seen stuff out there that no one else has, and nobody can argue with that." Boston Globe

It's been four harsh years -- "It's been an extremely disappointing period for our economic well-being, " said Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution in Washington. "On balance, President Bush's policies have done more harm than good." SF Gate

September 4, 2004

The Hate Just Keeps on Coming -- At a campaign stop Bush said he wished Bill Clinton a speedy recovery from heart surgery. His audience booed. He didn't discourage it. CBS

Iraq American casualties top 1,000 during Repub convention. Global Security

The Failure of Fact-Checking at the Republican Convention -- Journalist remain sleeping. FAIR

Bush may decline to face Kerry in a debate.

Michael Moore on Why Democrats Shouldn't Be Scared -- "Exactly what moment was it during the convention that convinced them that the Republicans had now "connected" with the majority of Americans and that it was all over? Arnold praising Richard Nixon? Ooooh, that's a real crowd-pleaser. Elizabeth Dole decrying the removal of the Ten Commandments from a courthouse wall in Alabama? Yes, that's a big topic of conversation in the unemployment line in Akron, Ohio. Georgia Sen. Miller, a Democratic turncoat, looking like Freddy Krueger at an all-girls camp? His speech - and the look on what you could see of his strangely lit face - was enough for parents to send small children to their bedrooms... Kerry supporters and Bush-bashers should not despair. These Republicans have not made a permanent dent in Kerry's armor. The only person who can do that is John Kerry. And by coming out swinging as he did just minutes after Bush finished his speech Thursday night, Kerry proved he knows that the only way to win this fight is to fight - and fight hard." USA Today

Flip Flopper Zell Miller on John Kerry (in 2001) "My job tonight is an easy one: to present to you one of this nation's authentic heroes, one of this party's best-known and greatest leaders - and a good friend. He was once a lieutenant governor [and] it just took two years before the people of Massachusetts moved him into the United States Senate in 1984. In his 16 years in the Senate, John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington. Early in his Senate career in 1986, John signed on to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Bill, and he fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so. John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment. Business Week magazine named him one of the top pro-technology legislators and made him a member of its 'Digital Dozen.'" Zell Miller's Website

Former Texas Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes will tell his story about getting the Shrub in the the Texas Air National Guard to keep him out of Vietnam on 60 Minutes.

NOTES FROM THE MOON

September 5, 2004

Bush Bombshells. Be ready. Linda Starr writes: "Tell everyone to have VCR's ready to tape next Wednesday's airings of 60 Minutes. Expect some big surprises, bigger than has been rumored. I think BushCo and the GOP are going to be having screaming fits of apoplexy. TRUST ME, watch and be ready to record."

U.S. Soldier: Stop Halliburton From Screwing Us -- Straight Talk

Rumsfeld and Cheney aids subject of an FBI probe into the Pentagon spy for Israeli intelligence. (Washington Post article at Truthout )

Protest groups empowered by large turnout -- "Kim Sue, 19, a New York college student, spent more than 24 hours in custody after she helped disrupt the Young Republicans rally in Madison Square Garden. She faces charges of assault from the ensuing scuffle — although she says she was punched by people attending the rally who were not arrested. 'I feel like my whole experience was utter hell. Every second of the way, I was scared ... but I would do it again in a heartbeat,' Sue said after she was released Thursday. 'Because 8,000 people a day are dying and they don't have the same access to the media. Their voices are silent, and it's my responsibility.' USA Today She was doing the job of the media.

Do You Buy Bush's Crusade? David Corn in The Nation : "It's official: the 2004 campaign is a referendum on whether the United States should wage a crusade to bring liberty to the repressed of the world--particularly in the Middle East--in order to heed the call of God and to protect the United States from terrorists who target America because they despise freedom. Or, at least, that is how George W. Bush would like the contest to be framed. In his acceptance speech, Bush pushed the message of the week--it's the war, stupid--to lofty heights... Bush also placed it within the context of an even grander mission. 'America,' he proclaimed from that altar-like podium, 'is called to lead the cause of freedom in the new century... Freedom is not America's gift to the world. It is the Almighty God's gift.'... Bush did not pussyfoot about. His message was nuance-free: la guerre est moi. In this regard, he is taking full and complete responsibility and asking to be judged accordingly. And God only knows how that's going to turn out."

The War Party -- Todd Gitlin at OpenDemocracy.net says the Repubblicans kept smiles plastered on their faces, but what they promised was war. "The language is democracy but the body-language is force". Iraq is a "war that has rescued Bush from the emptiness of his ambition and given him a purpose he believes divine -- an endless war."

Now They Are Denying Soldiers a Secret Ballot -- New York Times : "Members of the military will be allowed to vote this year by faxing or e-mailing their ballots - after waiving their right to a secret ballot. Beyond this fundamentally undemocratic requirement, the Electronic Transmission Service, as it's known, has far too many problems to make it reliable, starting with the political partisanship of the contractor running it. The Defense Department is making matters worse by withholding basic information about the service, and should suspend it immediately."

September 6, 2004

Young George was sent to Alabama to get him out of Houston -- He was a political embarrassment to his father. According to The Guardian: "Before Karl Rove, Lee Atwater or even James Baker, the Bush family's political guru was a gregarious newspaper owner and campaign consultant from Midland, Texas, named Jimmy Allison. In the spring of 1972, George HW Bush phoned his friend and asked a favour: Could Allison find a place on the Senate campaign he was managing in Alabama for his troublesome eldest son, the 25-year-old George W Bush? 'The impression I had was that Georgie was raising a lot of hell in Houston, getting in trouble and embarrassing the family, and they just really wanted to get him out of Houston and under Jimmy's wing,' Allison's widow, Linda, told me. 'And Jimmy said, "Sure." He was so loyal.'... Allison's account corroborates a Washington Post investigation in February that found no credible witnesses to the service in the Alabama National Guard that Bush maintains he performed, despite a lack of documentary evidence. Asked if she'd ever seen Bush in a uniform, Allison said: 'Good lord, no. I had no idea that the National Guard was involved in his life in any way.' Allison also confirmed previously published accounts that Bush often showed up in the Blount campaign offices around noon, boasting about how much alcohol he had consumed the night before. (Bush has admitted that he was a heavy drinker in those years, but he has refused to say whether he also used drugs). 'After about a month I asked Jimmy what was Georgie's job, because I couldn't figure it out. I never saw him do anything. He told me it basically consisted of him contacting people who were impressed by his name and asking for contributions and support,' Allison said."

George Jr sent out of Texas by father as a 'drunken liability' More on this story from The Guardian: "The US president, George Bush, was transferred to the Alabama National Guard during the Vietnam war because his drunken behaviour was a political liability to his father in Texas, the wife of one of his father's former confidants revealed yesterday. Linda Allison told the political website Salon.com that throughout the time Mr Bush was in Alabama she never saw him in uniform and had no idea he was supposed to be in the National Guard.

Those 'tough' Republicans -- At Talkleft.com you can see some ABC news footage of a young Republican kicking a female protester inside Madison Square Garden as she was lying on the ground held by three secret service agents. The protesters were arrested. The young Republican was not.

Senator cries 'Cover Up' -- Senator Bob Graham's book says 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, Miami Herald

Bush's National Guard records are still missing -- " Documents that should have been written to explain gaps in President Bush (news - web sites)'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." Yahoo-AP

Kerry 48% Bush 46% in new American Research Group poll. Emerging Democratic Majority

Osama could be arrested soon, says official SIFY.com

Vote for four more years of fear -- Big Time Patriot

The Bush Fantasy World -- "You would have thought from listening to President Bush's acceptance speech Thursday night before the Republican National Convention that he was running for election, not re-election. Or that much that had happened in the last four years hadn't happened at all. This contributed considerably to the week-long feeling that what went on in Madison Square Garden had little connection to the great outside world beyond it. With no domestic accomplishments to run on, Mr. Bush was left to promise action on health insurance, worker training and other programs that he has had four years to act on. He claimed his prescription drug program is a success even though seniors are outraged by a "reform" program that primarily benefits insurance companies. He spoke vaguely about something called an ownership society. Mr. Bush extolled the virtue of tax cuts that have created, along with his war, the largest budget deficit in history. He again called himself a compassionate conservative even though his policies brutalize America's less fortunate, including the children left behind by his unfunded education initiatives, and are often so radical they horrify true conservatives." Berkshire Eagle

September 7, 2004

Look out, here comes Kitty Kelly -- According to her forthcoming book The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, George W's ex-sister in law, the former Mrs. Neil Bush, told Kelly that Bush did cocaine at Camp David when his dad was president. According to the Mirror, Kelly says that "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.'"

"The Grinch That Stole Labor Day" by Greg PalastTruthout

Howard Dean on Labor Day -- Yubanet.com

The Hideous Ashcroft wants to establish camps -- "Ashcroft's plan, disclosed last week but little publicized, would allow him to order the indefinite incarceration of U.S. citizens and summarily strip them of their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them enemy combatants." Globalresearch.ca

September 8, 2004

The scariest of the many signs I saw at the big demonstration against Bush at the beginning of the Republican convention was one that said, "Now the world blames Bush, after Nov. 2, they will blame us." This is a very serious trial for the U.S. in the court of world opinion. If Americans acquiesce to the world conquest doctrine of the Bush administration, then we are no longer defensible in regard to atrocities committed by our government. This is our chance to repudiate the policies, emerge reborn through the miracle of democracy. But if we give in to fear and let ourselves be hornswaggled by these would-be cowboys who want to hijack the world, then we will have thrown ourselves to our own destruction.

Driving through Massachusetts last Sunday I tuned into a right wing political talk show. I didn't catch the name. It sounded like Ren and Stimpy at first. Then I figured out it was one guy's name -- Ron Incenza or something... And someone else was sitting in for him, someone very right wing in his propaganda line, but with a sunny manner, not a rancorous Bill O'Reilly type. Friendly, but full of s**t. He said, "How many people wake up and see a story like this one about an Al Qaeda-affiliated group of terrorists that killed all these children in Russia -- how many see a story like that and say, 'We need John Kerry for president.'"

Well, I for one, but when he poses the question, it embodies this widely swallowed assumption that Bush is great for national security. By treating the idea as a presumption, an underlying premise to what is actually stated, it slips by the mental censors, the critical faculty, as if disguised. But what is this assumption based on? What did Bush ever do that made the U.S. any safer, or that was even a credible attempt?

Bush saw an August 6 memo that said Al Qaeda was set to attack on the mainland, and he took a month-long vacation. When the attacks came, he did nothing for critical minutes, then stretched his inertness into hours flying around the country. He has infuriated the world and made Americans more vulnerable than ever before. And the worst attack on the American people is from them -- the Bush cabal. In a recent CNN poll, 49% of New Yorkers said they believed some members of the Bush administration knew about the 9/11 attacks beforehand and purposely allowed them to happen. Forty nine percent!

I have no idea what this idea that he is a great protector of the American people is based on. Some very desperate people who want to believe in someone, apparently.

Not turning the other cheek. A member of a Christian group allegedly punched several veterans marching for presidential candidate John Kerry in Monday's Harvest Festival parade in Windsor, Colo. That's showin' 'em. Any good Christian who lets a bunch of veteran scumbags insult our holy president ought to be ashamed. Kick ass for Jesus! The Denver Channel

US casualties in Iraq top 1,000 icasualties.org/oif

McCain: "John Kerry would make a fine president" -- Oops! New York Daily News

The Bush cocaine charges have resurfaced with the forthcoming publication of Kitty Kelly's book on the Bush family, which includes extensive interviews with the divorced and cast aside former wife of Neil Bush, deeply scorned and coldly furious. Washington Dispatch

Has Kerry gotten the idea that he has to come out swinging? Perhaps. Kerry's strategy has all along been to save the real assault until after Labor Day, when sleepy Americans start to wake up and reacquaint themselves with the democratic process. There are signs that Kerry has thrown down the gauntlet and the real battle is about to begin. Do I wishful think? Perhaps. Kerry has been chastened by having the lowest, lowlife smear tactics that were turned on McCain being turned on him. But unlike McCain in South Carolina, Kerry doesn't have only a week to fight it off. And the population has more than a week to assimilate it and begin to see through the fraud. This may well be happening. Already, according to Zogby, Bush's "bounce" (a bunch of B.S.) is already gone. Kerry launched into an attack of Bush at the very end of the acceptance speech. Yes. Counterpunch instantly. Now he has come out with some serious attacks, such as his calls for an inquiry into Senator Bob Graham's allegations in his new book that the Bush administration blocked an inquiry into allegations that Saudi Arabian government agents aided two of the hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Chicago Tribune.

Bogus Polls -- Zogby's clear explanation of how the Time and Newsweek polls are skewed. They have a higher percentage of Republicans in their samples than exist in the actual population.

Polls come back to earth. Truthout

Now Cheney, Mr. Fantasy, is telling people if they vote for Kerry, there will be another terrorist attack. Turn that fear screw as hard as you can, Dick! AP

Calling the Kettle Black -- Dennis Hastert made unsupportable claims that George Soros gets his money from drug cartels. But Reverend Sun Myung Moon, owner of the right wing Washington Times and family friend of the Bushes, has real ties with Asian drug lords.

Sites to check out:

For the lowdown on the lowdown Swift Boat Liars, the inconsistencies in their stories and their affiliations with the Bush network see swiftboatliars.com

U.S. FANATICS PLUNGE WORLD INTO NEW DARK AGE. "NOW THE RISE OF AMERICAN BARBARISM. What the World is Saying . . . Uncle Sam used to be everyone's favourite uncle. But not anymore. In recent times he has shown his true colours as a vicious and ruthless killer of men, women, and children and arch-proponent of unconstrained imperialism. Under smirking president-by-default and commander-in-chief George W. Bush, America has lost its way and gone Nazi. And become a serious threat to its own people and to our entire planet." celticsurf.net/freeworld

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