Election day


CNN reports that Homeland Security officials are seeking congressional approval to delay the November Presidential election in the event of a catastrophic terrorist attack. It's doubtful that such approval will be given, as the Presidential election day is written into the constitution as the first Tuesday in November.

I'm not sure what to make of this. Are we seeing another desperation move by the administration that already views the Bill of Rights as optional? Or is creating continency plans for attack simply a prudent course of action?

On one hand, I don't trust the Bushies to be honest with Americans anymore. People who argue with a straight face that down is up and left is right have lost all credibility with me.

But what is the downside to hoping for the best and preparing for the worst in a time of war? If the US elections commission had a contingency plan for the Florida debacle that included pushing out the schedule for the electoral college to meet, then the US Supreme Court may have given more time to the Florida justices to sort out the recount mess. Do we really want the Republicans to run out the clock again?

Update: Patrick Belton at Oxblog points out that Congress has the "theoretical" power to delay the date when the electoral college meets. This, to my way of thinking, is more crucial than worrying about the date of the election. If terrorists were able to delay or disrupt November voting, I would hate to see state election commissions pressured by the need to meet a national deadline. In the event of an extremely cost state vote count, we could see a replay of the 2000 Florida debacle,when Republicans ran out the clock rather than abide by a lawful recount.


Generation F

Cheney apologist and US senator Pat Roberts, speaking Sunday on Meet the Press, said he's not worried about the effect that Fahrenheit 9/11 will have on the November election. I haven't found this remark on the MTP transcript, but I heard it with my own eyes: he said the effect of the movie on the November election will be minimal, because "most people who saw the movie are young, and young people don't vote in Presidential elections."

There you have it. Maybe if you wacky kids spent less time sipping cherry phosphates at the corner drug store, and paid more attention to your civic duties, Uncle Sam wouldn't be sending you to die in foreign wars.

Ludicrous beyond words.


Sing along with Dubya

We all know the words.




Viva le weekend!



Organizers of Milwaukee's annual Bastille Days celebration have held the most successful French-themed outdoor celebration ever, claiming to have annoyed 3,642 Republicans during the four-day event. "That's nearly double the number of Republicans we annoyed last summer," says Jacques Victoire, event organizer. With free music, a 25-foot Eiffel Tower, beer, wine, and truffles, Republicans had plenty to be annoyed about. ""We tried to make sure French was being spoken at every opportunity," says Victoire, "and we proudly displayed the French tri-color flag, which is also red, white and blue."

"I came down here to listen to Dickie Betts, but first I had to endure all this culture stuff," said William Whiteman, a Whitefish Bay accountant. "I was annoyed."

I wasn't. Bastille Days is the best free outdoor event held in Milwaukee all year. This month I have the pleasure to host a young woman from Normandy, who is the chaperone for a group of 20 French teenagers who are being hosted by area families. That's Melanie in the picture, with Allan, 17, who lives near Paris.


Take that, Pharisees!

Stigmata sold seperately.

from Turnspit
12.7.04 15:29


Media bias 101


I'm sure there's a good explanation for this this headline:
Kenya town kills 500 pigs for mating with dogs.

I blame gay marriage.


Class clowns

Billmon is in rare form with a post about how the GOP has been playing the class warfare card recently to smear Kerry and Edwards as, well, millionaires.
"The irony, of course, is that by taking up the demagogic cudgel against Kerry and Edwards, the Republicans are effectively conceding something the Democrats themselves have been arguing about for years: Class warfare, used adroitly, can be an extremely potent political weapon."
13.7.04 04:08


The Perminator


For three months, Italian police secretly recorded accused Madrid bombings mastermind Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, aka Muhammad the Egyptian. During one telephone conversation, Ahmed bragged that terrorists possess "something in the form of a hair dryer" that causes "the most horrible death possible" by suffocation.

Could this be the start of a new arms race?


Taliban babes

I declare a jihad on U, baby.


Access denied

So the Republicans are really steamed about the recent Democratic fundraiser where Whoopi Goldberg used some Dick-Cheney like language to tweak the President's nose. And now the Republicans have asked the Democrats to fork over a video of said fundraising event. Which prompted this gem of a reply from Kerry's campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill:
"Over the past several months, allies of the President have questioned John Kerry’s patriotism while your staff has criticized his service in Vietnam. Republicans and their allies have gone so far as to launch attacks against his wife and your campaign has run $80 million in negative ads that have been called baseless, misleading and unfair by several independent observers.

"Considering that the President has failed to even come close to keeping his promise to change the tone in Washington, we find your outrage over and paparazzi-like obsession with a fund-raising event to be misplaced."

It gets better. Read the whole letter.

Heh.
14.7.04 15:17


Beasts of burden




Box turtles? Dogs? What is it about Republican senators and animals?
"Is Santorum haunted by visions of the love that dare not bark its name? Does he wake up at night in a cold sweat to find his faithful pooch sitting at the foot of the bed, her ears flopping seductively, her nose wet with anticipation, wearing an expression that says, "You know you want it"? And just what is it about the box turtle that led Senator Cornyn to see erotic possibilities where few had found them before?"

Senator Nugent

Illinois Republicans are reportedly floating sixties rock idol Ted Nugent's name for a run against Democrat Barak Obama for the US Senate seat. Nugent has spent the last 25 years or so making a name for himself as a gun rights advocate, which puts him in good stead with today's party of Lincoln. So far no word of his position on box turtles.
15.7.04 16:10


Myth of the liberal media

Figures lie and liars figure, and in American popular culture, there is no greater liar than Rush Limbaugh. El Rushbo, he who has the ear of 15 million adoring dittoheads, lies so much that his critics are surely suffering from Liar Fatigue keeping up with him. Limbaugh's latest lie, as of this hour, is the fantastic claim that 80 percent of journalist are self-described liberals (the study says 34 percent). He bases his claim on a sloppy interpretation by Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz of a recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

What? You thought Limbaugh would read the poll report himself? If he did, he would have known:
"The survey includes just four questions probing journalists' political attitudes, yet the answers to these questions suggest journalists have in mind something other than a classic big government liberalism and something more along the lines of libertarianism. More journalists said they think it is more important for people to be free to pursue their goals without government interference than it is for government to ensure that no one is in need. "


No brain zone

Here's a great first person account of a liberal guest who had the misfortune of appearing on right-wing hackathon The O'Reilly Factor.
"Apparently O'Reilly does not like being called 'the pot.' He exploded, repeatedly called me an S.O.B. and assured me that he would cut my accusation from the interview when the show aired. He also said I would 'never ever' be on his show again. At this point, I wasn't sure whether to take that as a threat or a promise. "
16.7.04 03:41


One of these things is not like the other


Federal air marshalls are required to wear a suit coat, tie and dress shoes, to be clean shaven, and to blend in with the rest of the million or so slobs who fly every day.

What is wrong with that sentence? The only well-dressed persons you will ever see on an airplane are the guys flying the plane, and the undercover federal agents whose job it is to fool terrorists. The pilots can do their job. But the federal air marshalls say the dress code imposed on them won't fool anyone.
Andrea Houck, 52, who was traveling through New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport this week, said that she thought federal air marshals should be "totally undercover."

"Look around you," Ms. Houck said as she pointed to other passengers waiting in the food court. "Most people are traveling in T-shirts, sweatshirts and khakis." She added: "If I was a terrorist and I spotted someone dressed like an air marshal in a suit, I wouldn't get on that flight. I would get on another one."

I have a solution to all this: Encourage all able bodied Americans to dress like air marshalls when they fly. What American wouldn't want to be mistaken for a macho, Glock-toting federal agent, trained to snap necks on a moment's notice? The price of admission to this elite fraternity is a sport jackets and dress shirt. It will drive the terrorists crazy. Instead of spotting one or two fashion plates in the terminal, the Islamofascists will be haunted by an entire jumbo jet crawling with potential Rambos.
17.7.04 18:11


What keeps Karl Rove awake at night

I found this comment on The Nader Factor, posted by someone named Adam:

"How about going to war to liberate a people, only to place one of the recently liberated on a box, with a hood over his head and wires attached to his hands? This is America; Nader has a right to run. Voters have an obligation, however, to vote for a candidate that can actually unseat Bush. BTW, I supported the war and Bush until the prison abuse scandal. In fact, I tend to side with the conservatives in general. But Bush has proved in the last year that he's not conservative--he's not even human. Any human with a conscience would have resigned in shame-faced guilt. I thought Clinton deserved impeachment for lying to the American people it was his duty to serve, but this is absolutely ridiculous."
19.7.04 03:21


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