Kentucky Senate Race update

Take a look at this article and tell me that the incumbent Sen. Bunning isn't incompetent. Go on, I dare you. In yet another round of seeming senility Bunning when asked about a current events item could only respond, "I don't watch the national news. And I don't read the paper. I haven't done that for the last six weeks. I watch Fox News to get my information." So this guy is happy that he's out of touch and uninformed as to current events and I'm supposed to be happy he's representing my state? (And we all know that Fox News is such a reputable source of news...)

Even worse is the fact that McConnell, the senior senator, defends the damn guy. Of course, we all know that McConnell, just like Northup, is nothing but a greedy partisan bastard, but he sounds just as clue-less and incompetent in his response:

I think for Sen. Bunning to be lambasted for not paying close attention to an issue over which members of the Senate do not have any responsibility in any event is just further piling on by the press in an effort to try to defeat Sen. Bunning.

The democrats aren't lambasting Bunning for not paying "close attention"... They are lambasting Bunning for not seeming to pay attention at all to current affairs that although not directly affecting his Senatorial responsibilities, may have (and probably will have) indirect consequences. I don't think the media is "piling on" anything but facts, and obviously the facts are biased against Bunning. Just for national impact:

Bunning is a member of the Banking, Budget, Energy and Natural Resources, Finance, and Veterans Affairs committees.

...and of course, the typical:

Bunning campaign manager David Young said, "It is Kerry-Mongiardo that is out of touch on the war on terror."

Please inform me how not believing in going to war in the first place, or not voting to put money into a failing war, shows "out of touch", because I'm just not getting it.

Let's see where the real Sox fans are...

In light of all the disturbing behavior and spending habits from rabid Red Sox fans, I thought I'd step things up a notch. Posing as a woman, I submitted this phony ad on craigslist.

How much of a REAL SOX FAN are you?

Would you SUCK DICK to get World Series tickets at Fenway?

I've give away my ticket on the first base line to the first REAL SOX FAN who SUCKS MY HUSBAND'S DICK.

NO SNOWBALLING!!

If the ad even goes up and I get responses, I'll be sure to publish them tot he blog.

It's nice to see the mainstream media catch up, two weeks later...

But nonetheless, printing stories about GOP front groups destroying registration cards from Democratic voters is a good thing.

Feed me!

For those into RSS readers, you may have noticed that I added a Feedburner feed. Hopefully this works out better than the feed provided by Blogger, whose coverage is pretty spotty from what I hear.

Fark Headline of the Day

"Man offers sex with his wife in return for Red Sox tickets"

And I thought a willingness to pay over $500 for these tickets was bad.

I like the Sox, but...

ESPN has a pre-World Series poll, and this question stuck out like a sore thumb for my cheap ass: "How much would you pay for a World Series ticket at Fenway Park?"

Most people answered "More than $500."

Holy shit. I'll pay about $25, otherwise I'm content with watching it on the tube.

Biased? Nah.

I love the polls Wizbang has listed before their blog. They all show Bush in the lead, of course. They used to show one from Electoral Vote, but it had Kerry in the lead... So now it's gone!

Sigh... It's so obvious.

Hey guys, EV says Kerry and Bush are now tied. Quick, put up a link to it again!

Dispatches from Conservistan

I've said many bad things about the AM radio hosts out here, so I tried thinking of something positive to say about them. So, I'll say this much: Most of them at least have a sense of humour. A couple of things reminded me of this. First being Gary Burbank's drive time afternoon show on WLW, where things never get too political because he's more of a goofball. I listened long enough to hear his $3 suggestion to replace noisy car alarms: Just slap a bumper sticker on your car which says, "HONK IF YOU ENJOY ANONYMOUS GAY SEX." I have to admit it... Around here, that sticker would reduce car thefts. And, as Burbank put it, "You could make a few new friends."

I was reminded of how devoid of humor the left can be when I picked up a copy of International Socialist Review. I also bought the latest issues of the libertarian Reason and (I assume non-partisan, though I haven't had a chance to read it yet) Middle East Report. I looked at ISR first, read through their editorials, and I was surprised by how many arguments they left out in their attempt to prove that Kerry is the same as Bush. There was absolutely no mention of the Supreme Court justices, Iran, the draft, health care, shifting the tax brackets, etc. I'm not one who will say that Kerry and Bush are like night and day, I do realize that there are many thingss I won't agree with the Kerry administration on, but anybody who still believes that there are no major differences between Republicans and Democrats after living with Bush for the last 4 years is a blind-ass fucking moron. I'm not sure if I want to continue reading ISR, because the level of intellectual ignorance and dishonesty displayed by their editor was astounding.

Besides the lies and dishonesty, reading ISR reminded me of the main reason why most people are scared of socialists: Doom and Gloom. It's all doom and gloom, all the time, with them. That's all they write about. This is bad, that is bad, people are dying here, nobody cares but us, blah blah blah. It's bad enough that they permanently saddle themselves with an "us against the world" philosophy, but they let that burden weigh down their writing. It's like they thinking giving readers a guilt trip will encourage them to start reading Marx. And it's sad because there are many good causes that socialists stand for, but to take up arms for said causes, you have to deal with these depressing assholes who could use a shirnk more than a revolution. Could you imagine if a doom and gloom socialist was president? [shudder]

Constrast this with Reason, whose cover has four floating heads of Kerry, Bush, Nader, and Badnarik, and the headline says, "Voting is a lot like Sex." Inside, they ask many celebrities and other personalities/oddities (like RU Sirus) who they voted for in 2000, who they will be voting for this year, and what their most embarrassing vote ever was. Yeah, this isn't heavy mental lifting, but it's funny and uplifting. And I'd rather read many different opinions presented equally as opposed to the doom and gloom socialists myopic, single-minded views, insulting everybody who doesn't dot their I's and cross their T's exactly like them. What I always found funny about socialists is how much they target themselves? The ISR editorial even stuck it to socialists stalwarts like Michael Albert, for christ's sake. I may be in more agreement with the socialist end of things, but I'd much rather read Reason instead of this backstabbing crap.

Making frinds in Mt. Lookout

I hate it when I leave my shaving cream at home, and home happens to be 800 miles away. My face is getting very fuzzy and this must stop.

So I just got some shaving cream, but not without making a new friend, first. He's already labeled me with affectionate nicknames like "faggot" and "dickhead". I was in the Mt. Lookout neighborhood of Cincinnati, and they have this enclosed island in the middle of the street that serves as the neighborhood parking lot. I missed the first turn to get into it, and I assumed there would be a second one on the other side. I didn't know there was a "Do Not Enter" sign before turning into is because the sign itself is 8 feet off the ground, and you really can't see it from car level -- even if you're driving an SUV. Which is not my rental, BTW. (I've got a gold PT Cruiser that came with some bucking problems, thank you.)

The Saturn in front of me took some offense to me trying to turn into the parking lot, and having to back up a couple times to make the turn. He started making a couple gestures at me. Forgetting that I'm not in the northeast, I replied to him out of habit by giving him the finger. After I drove past his car, I saw him in my rearview. Actually, I heard him yelling first, then I looked to see that he had gotten out of his car and grabbed his crotch in my general direction.

Lovely. I'm an asshole from the northeast, and apparently I've run into a bigger asshole from NYC. They're all assholes there.

After I parked, he drove by my space and shouted something about how I needed a license. At first I said "What?", but then I quickly followed with a "FUCK YOU!" loud enough for everyone within a 5 mile radius to hear. And while I was at the door to CVS, he decided to drive by again, and I heard him clearly this time: "HAVE A NICE DAY, DICKHEAD!"

This time, he only got the finger in return.

I haven't seen him since. Not that I'm crying over it or anything.

...I told a friend who used to work in Mt.Lookout about this, and she wasn't surprised. Apparently, people in Mt. Lookout are bigtime assholes.

10 Reasons to not Vote for Bush

Ted Rall reminds us of many of the bad bad crimes of our president of the last four years. We already know all this stuff, but it never hurts to refresh your memory once in awhile.

Morons

How come sports championships are synonymous with car flippings and death? Sigh...

Dispatches from Conservistan

You can't escape the story of how many Bush/Kerry signs are being vandalized and outright destroyed in Cincinnati. There seems to be equal guilt on both sides, but that's not how the Republican media here likes to view it. The Cincinnati Enquirer well mention it, but the picture accompanying the front page story shows a Bush support holding his crumpled up sign. Then Andy Furman will take the story and run with it, blaming everything on Kerry supporters, saying that they also must be destroying their own signs just to make things look equal. Then he takes a caller, which is never a Kerry supporter, always a Bush supporter with something horribly terrible to say about Kerry or his supporters. One insisted that a Kerry supporter lobbed f-bombs at her, with her children in tow, all because she had a Bush sticker on her car.

Riiiiight.

There is one Bush sign I'm glad to see gone. I was forced to see it when I drove to my friends apartment, 4x8, huge... The fucker was even lighted at night. But somebody torn it down and left it on the road Monday morning, right in the lane I was going down. I wished I could have stopped on the sign and peeled out to tear it apart.

Tuesday, my friend and I got caught up in traffic for half an hour 100 feet away from her apartment. The cops were everywhere, but there was no accident up ahead, they just had traffic closed for, apparently, no reason. Come to find out later that Heartattack Dick was in town, and the police needed to shut down roads just to make sure his highness could get down the big, bad streets of white, suburban, western Cincinnati. We had no clue it was the veep that held up traffic until one of her neighbors said so, and then suggested that it would be better to just stuff him into a trunk of some unconspicuous car and get him to the airport that way without holding up hundreds of commuters. I then offered to drive the car.

Yesterday, Jenna and Barbara were in town. They took in a NASCAR rally in Cincinnati, then shot upto nearby Oxford to partake in a rally at Miami University. One of my ex's, whose not only a Republican but also a Miami U. alum, used to have a Miami U. College Republicans tee-shirt. I have it now, and no, surprisingly enough, it hasn't been burned yet! I should hvae known better than to leave it home, because I could have worn it and blended in at the rally. I may look older than your average college student, but I'm already fat and balding just like a normal Republican, so I think they'd accept me. Then I could have whipped out a huge Kerry sign and see how long it takes to get arrested. :)

Just being out here, though, makes me feel like I am part of the political process. I can flip on the TV and actually see a political commercial. I can't do this is RI because nobody gives a shit about us. Our wonderous electoral college system is supposed to give more power to voters in small states, but that's certainly not the case in RI. We may get the veep and first lady to visit, but never the head hencho. So being out in a state that actually matters is great, I great to see commercials calling John Kerry a liberal on a daily basis. There is not one time when the word "LIBERAL" doesn't appear on the screen. I think the latest one said, "John Kerry is a liberal... AND HE'LL EAT YOUR FIRST BORN! Kerry even voted for eating first born's in the Senate!"

Ahhhh, I wonder what today will bring.

How can they even say this with a straight face?

This Wizbang post makes me want to scream.

More and more, the Democrats are showing they don't care who the voters want, they will try to gain power via the courts...

Does the Democrat party have any idea the harm they are doing to our country?

So, let me get this straight: If there's a disputed election, only Republicans have the right to draft lawyers to their cause? If the Democrats want to do the same exact thing, they are causing "harm to the country?" Christ. If this wasn't on one of the leading conservative blogs, I'd think it's a joke. But it isn't. This goes beyond irony, hypocrisy, and even comprehension... It's just utterly unfuckingbelievable that anybody could even fucking say this with a straight face. This is proof that Republicans really have been brainwashed.

...And on another point, I've been wondering lately how some of the outbursts I have, when I drop f-bombs in trackbacks to top Republican blogs, could ever possibly help build a bridge to rational discourse between the left and the right. In truth. they can't, and that's very much my fault. However, this is my contention: How can I even talk to somebody who holds an opinion so backwards that it's not even funny? How can I even take people like this seriously? These people make me seriously fucking angry because I do, in fact, believe with every ounce of my being that they are fucking morons. It's one thing to believe that Bush got the most votes in Florida last election. You're wrong, but if you want to be delusional, fine, go ahead and believe it. However, to criticize John Kerry for shoring up help from lawyers after Bush did the exact same thing in 2000, and then not have a problem with Bush doing it... I'm simply stunned that somebody could even think this.

The only time I feel bad about calling all Republicans fucking morons is when I remember blogs like Interested-Participant are out there. Mike is a conservative who runs a good blog, and has a good head with common sense on his shoulders. And I wish everyone on his side of the fence were like him. So I do feel bad when I get so angry that I accuse all Republicans of being fucking morons, because they're not. However, I can't possibly see how a rational discussion could ever come from a Republican blogger posting the crap I just saw on Wizbang because their tripe is just so unbelievably irrational that there's no possible way to reply to it without saying how goddamn fucking stupid it is.

Not like the discussion aspect of this matters, though, because Wizbang thinks they are above me, won't touch my comments when I make one, and goes through back channels to indirectly respond to something I've said just to make sure I know that they have a problem with it. I shouldn't even bother tracking this back to them, lest they whine and complain again about how they don't "appreciate" it when I drop f-bombs. You know what, Wizbang? Fuck you. Instead of practicing the Republicans time honored task of trying to discredit a point by complaining about how it was said, why don't you try addressing the actual fucking issue for once?

Soxtober Surprise!

And goddamn, am I ever surprised... This is so cool.

The Nader Cult redux

Today, I received an email from David Segal of Greens for Impact about my 9/10/04 post showing Nader's connections to a cult. I thought this was weird because the name sounded familiar... Surely enough, it is. David Segal is an RI Green and was also elected to the Providence City Council in 2002. I'm a former RI Green official, and even though I don't remember a face-to-face meeting, I'm sure I must have met David a couple of times. Despite my split from the party, I still think they're good people, and I'm glad they are giving Nader the boot.

Of course, Davd sent me an email because he wanted to advertise something, he probably doesn't know who I am. And that's cool with me, because what he's plugging is already making the PBA rounds. Doug Ireland links to what David sent me. And once I get Adobe reinstalled on my crippled laptop, I'll be sure to give it a read...

Kids for Kerry

I just asked Lily who she wanted to be president, and she said John Kerry. Of course, if you were 5 years old and someone gave you a choice between 2 strangers, one of whom shared a name with your mother, whom would you choose? My daughter Lily, however, is not the only child who would vote for Kerry. The majority of the nearly 400,000 children surveyed by the Nickelodeon children's network chose Kerry too, and they have correctly predicted the last four elections. ( And I don't think that the majority of these children have a parent named Kerry)

Soxtober Surprise!

I'm glad that Curt "I'm not sure I can think of any scenario more enjoyable than making 55,000 people from New York shut up." Schilling was able to pitch last night, because he certainly did silence the Yankees rabble. On a bloody ankle, das to boot. Talk about a legendary performance. I may have wrote off the Sox earlier this week (me and the rest of the planet), but my money's on them tonight.

Working the Bake Sale

I went to my first PTO (parent teacher org.) meeting last night, and got recruited to work the school bake sale today. This means that I will not have time to read the news until later, but it is for a good cause.
My daughter's school holds a bake sale every Wednesday. The proceeds go to help pay for field trips, puppet shows, and real luxury items like art supplies.
Maybe those disobedient soldiers overseas should have a bake sale to buy their own armor! Will this be Bush's next big idea?

In reply to some blog snobs

This message will not contain links, or even names. It concerns a post propmted by the actions of yours truly on a top conservative blog whose name starts with a "W" and ends with a "!". They took offense to one of my trackback links calling them out for staying silent about my comments on their blog, saying that the reason nobody responded to me was because I'm a "newbie."

Well, excuuuuuse me. I thought the blogging world was supposed to be a free exchange of ideas, and somebody who has a credible point deserves to see a response. I didn't know that there was a ranking system in place that determines who will and won't see a reply to their points. I guess I'm just supposed to talk to myself for a while until the great God of Blogging determines that I'm seasoned enough to deserve a response? Gee, that would be fun K, where the fuck do I sign up?!

Fucking blog snobs.

What I'll never understand is why many bloggers, usually on the conservative side of the fence, have a stick up thier ass about commenting. Many of them will delete comments outright, or ban people, say that you can't post a certain thing, etc. Why? Who honestly gives a shit? If these people actually believed in the free exchange of ideas, they wouldn't. And as for saying that I don't deserve a response because I'm a "newbie," that's a classic cop out. Maybe I just didn't receive a response from you or any of your readers because [shock] I was right? What is it with Republicans and the truth, anyways? Why can't they face it? And while I may be a "newbie" on that particular site, I've been a blogger for almost 2 years, and I administrated a news Yahoo/eGroup before Atrios was blogger semen. It's not like I started reading blogs yesterday.

K, if you can't take the heat from comments and trackbacks telling you that you're wrong, then maybe you shouldn't be a blogger.

If I were Maria Shriver...

...how frigging pissed would I be about this?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041019/ap_on_re_us/people_schwarzenegger_1

British Prime Minister attempts goofy political move?

It appears that Blair wants to send 650 more troops to Iraq, and the only possible motive looks to be as a move to back Bush. I'm just as stumped as the British liberals as to why these particular 650 soldiers might be needed other than for the fact that the war is entirely understaffed. So it's either Blair's way of saying, "Yeah I'm still working with Bush" or Bush is about to pull a surprise election coup and admit the armed forces are stretched too thin... My money is obviously on the former, but we can hope...

Inflation higher than expected...

US Core inflation is a tenth of a percent higher than expected. Obviously nothing to panic over just yet, as it is still reasonably low, but the oil hikes haven't really shown up in inflation numbers yet, so its only expected to rise. The only real reason to bring it up is that its just one more data point showing that the Economy isn't the "peaches and cream" color that Bush is trying to paint, but still showing largely recessive traits. (High private sector unemployment being a key factor.)

Reporting the truth, it's somewhere in here...

Let's see how this latest dispatch from the campaign trail starts:

MARLTON, N.J. — In his most blistering attack yet on his opponent's credentials on national security, President Bush on Monday unleashed a lengthy critique of Sen. John F. Kerry's position on Iraq and warned that the Democrat's policies would raise the danger of new terrorist attacks in the United States.

Wow, that sounds bad! Of course, near the end of article, the reports decided to bury the truth:

Bush also revived a long-standing Republican mantra this year, played out in speeches and television ads, that Kerry is weak on defense. He said Kerry had proposed in 1994, one year after the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, to cut $6 billion in the intelligence budget. And he told supporters that Kerry tried, but failed, to cut intelligence funding again a year later.

He also ticked off the names of six weapons systems that he said Kerry voted against.

"Sen. Kerry has a record of trying to weaken American intelligence," the president said.

According to factcheck.org, a website operated by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center, Kerry has been more of a supporter than an opponent of weapons systems that troops depend on. [Notice how there's no "But," at the beginning of this sentence?]

Moreover, factcheck.org said, Vice President Dick Cheney and Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush, had proposed cutting or eliminating several of the weapons systems that the president now faults Kerry for opposing. [Cheney: Weak on defense!] Those proposals came after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

It is true that Kerry proposed cutting the intelligence budget by several billion dollars in 1994. But that amendment, defeated on a 75-20 Senate vote, was part of a larger effort on Capitol Hill to reduce the deficit and had the support of some Republicans.

So Bush lied. The facts they printed in this article, from a Cheney-endorsed website, I might add, prove that Bush lied. So why doesn't the article start with this sentence: "Today in New Jersey, Bush slandered Kerry while criticizing his stance on national security." Why do we have to hear this crap about a "blistering attack?" The man fucking lied! Why can't the media just come out and fucking say it?

Go Go Doublespeak!

Headline: "U.S. Says It Poses No Threat to N.Korea."

Do I really need to mention the "Axis of Evil?" Do I? Honest to fucking god...

Shameless

Bush will do anything to get elected.

The most expensive TV ad buy of the presidential campaign shows President Bush consoling a teenage girl whose mother died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

You know, at the risk of being insensitive (but when have I ever worried about that?), if Kerry goes out and dismantles al-Qa'ida instead of hugging people, then wouldn't he be doing a better job?

Like, duuuh.

Kerry's name left off some absentee ballots in Ohio

Big surprise. Who would have ever thought this could happen in Conservistan?!

Just another manic Tuesday

Good morning from NH! It is a cloudy, drizzly day here. Was browsing the headlines at CNN.com, and there is one about Britney Spears. I did not read the article, I am just wondering why anyone would. Why do people care about this girl is all I want to know!

In other news, I am no sports fan, but what the Red Sox pulled off last night was pretty amazing. And if them winning helps to get Bush out of office, I am behind them 100%!

I know that I promised to do a better job with the news, but today is pretty busy! I need to clean my house, which looks like a bomb exploded in it when I get home form working all weekend. I would post a picture, but it is too embarrassing. I also need to bake something for the school bake sale, go to a staff meeting from noon -2, rush home from the meeting to get my daughter and bring her to swim lessons, rush home from swim lessons to cook supper, and rush through supper to go to a PTO meeting! Maybe tomorrow will work out better.

Have a great day, everyone!

Black voter disenfranchisement in PA

Hey Needlenose, add this to your list, courtesy of Prometheus 6:

GOP in Philly: Block the Vote "It's predominantly, 100 percent black. I'm just not going in there to get a knife in my back."

-- Matt Robb, Republican ward leader in South Philadelphia, on his last-minute request to move five Philly polling places in African-American neighborhoods...

Chris Brennan (with a big assist from Dave Davies) has the scoop in today's Philadelphia Daily News. They learned that high-ranking state GOP and Bush operatives asked local Republicans to try to move 63 polling places at the last minute. Some 53 of the 63 polling places are in districts less than 10 percent white.

[Hattip to David.]

Dispatches from Conservistan

Andy Furman can suck it.

I swear that Cincinnati is the only place in America where the local AM talk radio hosts are so right wing that they make Rush Limbaugh a relief to listen to. This is rather weird, since all of them are Rush wannabes: They hold blind faith in the same ideologies, and they have the same exact manner of speaking... That annoying, right-eingnut accent. Get Rush's voice going through you head for a minute and pay close attention to how it sounds, then ask yourself: What American talks like this? In what region of America are people's voices always tinged with this high degree of comeuppance? Nobody in America talks like this!

Except for the hosts on 700 WLW, like Andy Furman. And Furman went in such a roll yesterday that he forced me to search for Rush. At least Rush checks his facts sometimes, but Furman is just unbelievable. Not only does he spout off Republican talking points from 5 months ago that nobody talks about anymore because they were proven wrong, but then he says, "You won't hear this in the liberal media, you have to come here!" It's so ridiculous. Yesterday, in five minutes he nearly managed to drive me insane:

• Since there have been more deaths in LA than soldier's deaths in Baghdad this year, he declared that Baghdad was safe than LA. He neglected to mention the 21,000+ Iraqi civilian deaths, nor did he take percentages into account. He would have realized that a much higher percentage of Americans have died in Baghdad then they have in LA sicne LA has millions off residents, and Iraq only has 140,000 US troops.
  
• He said that unemployment is low. Do I even need to get into that one?
  
• He actually disagreed with Bush and said that our government shouldn't pay for anybody to get new job training at community college. He said that people who are out of work simply need to sit there and think about what to do, do that, and the boatloads of cash will start flowing in.

And this was what he covered in five minutes! Had I listened to the rest of his show, I probably would have driven up Mt. Adams to his braodcasting booth and beat a clue into the guy. Furman makes Rush look like he's rooted in reality. He really is a joke.

But, unfortunately, many people in Cincinnati take him seriously. And then they'll vote.

And we wonder why the whole world hates us?

Memo to Wizbang: You're a bunch of fucking idiots

Yesterday, Wizbang published a post praising Russian President Putin for supporting Bush. This led to an attack from the PBA, which are always justified and fun, as far as I'm concerned. And the Wizbang readers fired back, posting angry and stupid replies to our comments. They replied to most PBA members, but I noticed that no Wizbanger attempted to take a whiz on my comment:

It's funny that Wizbang trusts the word of a man who won't even keep nuclear sites in his own country guarded, thus letting materials needed to build a nuclear bomb out onto the black market so the highest bider, whomever they may be, can purchase them.

If this is how Putin fights the war on terror, I guess we shouldn't be surprised that he supports Bush, eh?

Thanks for letting us know which side you're on, Kevin.

I wonder why none of the Wizbangers touched a comment proving that Putin was helping international terrorism and making the world a more dangerous place simply through his own inactions. Doesn't this discredit any advice the man has to give concerning the war on terror? Why din't any Wizbanger actually admit that they are wrong to listen to him?

The ignorance of the right never ceases to amaze me.

The Red Sux become Sox again

And here's hoping that they proving asshole fans like me to be wrong. And I agree with Matt: If the Sox make it to the World Series and win, it really can't hurt the Kerry campaign, can it? At the very least, it would give Kerry some more face time in front of the cameras.

But grinding out a win out of thaqt 14 inning game... That's true grit right there. Big Papi's last at bat, driving in Damon from second, had "legendary" written all over it. He just fought, and fought, and fought, until he got the right pitch to hit. Relentless. Committed.

Mahowup!

Americans showing their true colors!

And those three colors are red, red, and more red. Capitola sent me a link to a Guardian follow-up article on their Operation Clark County letter sending campaign: "Dear Limey assholes." I think this is my favorite letter:

KEEP YOUR FUCKIN' LIMEY HANDS OFF OUR ELECTION. HEY, SHITHEADS, REMEMBER THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR? REMEMBER THE WAR OF 1812? WE DIDN'T WANT YOU, OR YOUR POLITICS HERE, THAT'S WHY WE KICKED YOUR ASSES OUT. FOR THE 47% OF YOU WHO DON'T WANT PRESIDENT BUSH, I SAY THIS ... TOUGH SHIT!
[By] PROUD AMERICAN VOTING FOR BUSH!

If I were an editor at the Guardian, I'd shoot off a reply to this "PROUD AMERICAN" and ask him how many flies he's caught in the past 24 hours.

Intro to Modern Imperialism

I mentioned this in my own blog a few days ago... I recommend as an appetizer to a showing of Fahrenheit 9/11 the short film "What Barry Says". You can watch it full screen from AtomFilms Hi-Def or you can watch it from the creator's page. The film serves as a good propaganda introduction to The Project for the New American Century. Post-discussion can jump to sites like The Project for the Old American Century, PNAC.info, and even the Project's own website. The 1997 Report "Rebuilding America's Defenses" is a chilling tale of Imperialism.

A Slashdot reader, and I apologize for not remembering her/his nickname, gave the best explanation I have heard for why Europe has a hard time how people can support Bush... Because of World War 2 Europe has come to be skeptical of those who would try for Imperialism, and thus they are skeptical of too much Patriotism and Nationalism. Here, we pulled troop support for World War 2 through a heavy platform of Patriotism and Nationalism. So today the Conservatives have once more coopted Patriotism and Nationalism for Imperialistic purpouses and it's hard to tell the Patriotic White Collar American that the Conservatives are abusing his National Pride.

Influenze Influence

The Administration wants to assure America that there is no flue vaccine crisis while blaming Congress for insufficient funds. It's hard not to smell the warning signs of a potential panic. A blogger named Digby brings up how if the Administration dropped the ball on the flu vaccine they certainly didn't forget smallpox.

Episcopalians' panties in twist...

First it was the Baptists, which caused the Southern Baptists to finally split the nation in half, and now the Episcopalians are battling over the appointment of a Homosexual Bishop. Instead of seperating, however, the Episcopalians are leaning in the opposite direction... They want to take autonomy away from churches and build a national controlling group. They seem to have a good start at putting together a national beauracracy as the report this suggestion comes from is apparently 90 pages.

Explaining the Federal Budget with Ice Cream Toppings...

I was just introduced to True Majority Action, an attempt almost at a truely non-partisan brokering of issues founded by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's. Check out how an animated avatar of Ben's presents The Federal Budget in Oreos. (Cohen himself is fairly liberal, but the idea behind True Majority Action is that it should help represent the views of the majority. We all know the Majority of the nation is secretly liberal.)

The Justices of the Supreme Court exercise partisanship in their decisions? Who knew?

A Supreme Court clerk, who was on the inside to see how the justices handled Bush v. Gore in 2000, accuses the court of practicing partisanship when they installed Bush in the White House.

What's next? We'll find out Scalia likes orgies or something? Oh, wait a second...

(Please don't attempt to visualize that last comment. I will not be held responsible if you do such...)

Hello from NH!

Hi, I'm Kerry, one of Adam's [ed note: Adam would be me -tas] 2 older sisters. I told Adam that I would post something while he was away, but that it would probably not be anything like the stuff he posts. I don't have the time to comb the news like he does, and I work second shift Friday, and double shifts on Saturdays and Sundays. By the time Monday rolls around, I usually have no clue what is happening in the world.

This morning, I got up early to give my 5 year old daughter a bath and get her off to school. Then I tried to take a nap, which I rarely do, but the frigging phone rang and I could not get back to sleep. I got up again, took a shower, and got my daughter off the school bus. I just fed her some lunch and got online to see what the latest news is. The first story I saw was about how there is trouble with the voting system in Florida again. They have had nearly 4 years to fix this problem, yet here we are just weeks before the election, and it is still screwed up. I hope that history does not repeat itself!

The next article I saw was about the flu vaccine shortage. This story appeared in the New Hampshire Sunday News, which is the Sunday edition of Manchester, NH's "Union Leader". If I were a paranoid type, I might think that the Republicans were planning on infecting a bunch of registered Democrats right before the election for obvious reasons. I got my first ever flu vaccine last year, but only because my place of work really pressured me to. I guess that I will not have to worry about being pressured this year.:)

Also featured on above the fold on the front page of the NH Sunday News was an article on whether or not the drinking age should be changed from 21 to 18. I have always believed that if you are old enough to die for your country, you should be allowed to drink there as well. 18 year olds are going to drink if they want to anyway. If it were actually legal, it might take some of the fun out of it for them.

I promise to look for some better news for tomorrow:)

How to tell you're in Conservistan

Besides seeing billions of Bush/Cheney signs and stickers on the road, I caught a glimpse of lead headline on today's Sunday Cincinnati Enquirer: "Coming to terms with gay issues - Region leans toward tolerance, not acceptance." Geez, talk about framing an issue. Let me translate that headline into native conservative tongue: "Those goddamn faggots are a menace and we don't know what to do!" And yes, as if you needed to ask, this is the mindset of Bush's base.

More Iraq logistics problems...

According to this biased source more and more troop discipline problems are showing up in Iraq. The particular instance embedded within the biased text points out that several reservists from South Carolina simply refused to carry out an order they were given because they didn't have the armor they needed nor the training.

I'm off to spend a week in the land where pigs fly...

I'll be in Cincinnati until October 25th. The laptop, after a quick reinstall of Windows 2000, is again able to connect to the Inernet and I'm taking it along for the trip, so I'll be doing some blogging but not as much as usual. To fill in the void, I have three guest bloggers.

- Matt, whose actually a Loaded Mouth permablogger, but he hasn't posted in a while. He helped me live blog the debate last Wednesday and had most of the best commentary.

- Max Battcher from WorldMaker, who introduced himself yesterday.

- Kerry, my older sis and very, very frequent LM commenter. Treat her nicely or you answer to me. ;>

My thanks to all 3 for helping me out, and I'm sure they'll do a great job. I'll be back to full blogging in a little over a weeks time, but you'll hear from me throughout the week.

Catching the mainstream media redhanded

Here's an exchange of emails between USA Today columnist Richard Benedetto and a Loaded Mouth, reader who will remain anonymous. She dares to ask the USA Today columnist why he's paying more attention to the Mary Cheney bullshit rather than Bush's actual lies in this debate. He had some candid comments in response. So candid, in fact, that it looked like he tried forwarding her email to a buddy but hit "reply" by mistake. My thanks to anonymous (you know who you are) for bringing this to my attention.

From: [anonymous]
Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2004 3:30 PM
To: Benedetto, Richard
Cc: USAT ED Letters to the Editor; loudobbs@cnn.com
Subject: Truth and Lies

Why is it that you are covering Kerry's mentioning of Mary Cheney with such fervor yet you are not talking about Bush's whopper of a lie about not caring about Bin Laden's whereabouts?

Why is it that Kerry's truth is making bigger headlines than Bush's lie?

KERRY: Six months after he said Osama bin Laden must be caught dead or alive, this president was asked, "Where is Osama bin Laden? " He said, "I don't know. I don't really think about him very much. I'm not that concerned. We need a president who stays deadly focused on the real war on terror.
SCHIEFFER: Mr. President?
BUSH: Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations.

Exaggerations? Cut to a March 13, 2003 press conference:

Q: Mr. President, in your speeches now, you rarely talk or mention Osama bin Laden. Why is that? [...]
BUSH: ... I don't know where he is. Nor -- you know, I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you [...]
Q: Do you believe the threat that bin Laden posed won't truly be eliminated until he is found either dead of alive?
BUSH: As I say, we hadn't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, you know, again, I don't know where he is.
I'll repeat what I said: I truly am not that concerned about him.

Much of this whole election year has been based on "Terror terror terror." Yet you turn away from it the second it should really get coverage. The Mary Cheney statements should have gotten next-to-no press because you should have been busy talking about the biggest lie about the biggest issue of our times (or so you, the media, says.) Your taking of the bait and distractions that Lynn Cheney put out is infuriating and disappointing.

-=-=-

From: Benedetto, Richard [mailto:rbenedet@usatoday.com]
Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2004 12:04 PM
To: [anonymous]
Subject: RE: Truth and Lies

more proof that the Kerry people are worried about the Mary Cheney comments. This is organized stuff, not a random email by someone who read my column

-=-=-

[no header provided for her reply]

Did you accidentally hit reply instead of forward? Don’t discredit my email by saying I’m a robot who is lead by an organization. I’m a lesbian and I can tell you that the only people angry by Kerry’s comments are Lynne and Dick Cheney who are probably embarrassed that their daughter is gay in the first place.

Why did you not address my point? Maybe because you didn’t actually reply to me.

I'm placing my tongue in cheek and posting this...

Because David told me too.

RatherGate proved that bloggers are the best fact checkers. That is why we are writing to a few bloggers asking for help.

Yes Bush Can has collected several documents that are clearly suspect.
But we need your help to prove they are fake:
Go to this site and take a look at the Documents...

Let's spring to action before these documents needlessly tarnish the
reputation of our Commander and Chief. You know the drill: analyze the
handwriting, search for factual errors, and post your discoveries.

And keep us posted by sending email to FakeDocs@yesbushcan.com

Thanks in advance for your help.

YesBushCan

Sunday isn't Cartoon Day!

For the first time ever, I looked at Rall's cartoons this week and I didn't laugh at any of them, so I won't be posting any this week.

Could a Sox player give me at least one happy memory from this ALCS and punch A-Rod tomorrow?

19-8. This is quite possibly the worst loss in the long history of the Red Sox. Like I've said before, the season's over, and I want Petey out on the mound tomorrow chucking fastballs at Jeter's head. Grrr.