Intelligent Thought vs Endless Catch Phrases.

What a contrast.

9:13: Ha ha- "mexed missages"

9:16: Bush promises to shift tactics in Iraq

9:18: Heh... "prong"

9:22: Heh... "Vladimur"

9:25: Wow. Kerry: "He was a threat. That's not the issue. The issue is what you do about it."

Here ends my half-assed comments on the debate. I started yapping halfway through and had nothing of substance to add. Remember this is a free web site, so you get what you pay for.

Oh... and Kerry wiped the floor with 'em.

Those sidelong glances into camera Bush takes while Kerry is talking are freakin' me out, man.

Literally.

Feinstein dismayed:

"I want to express my profound dismay about reports that officials from your administration and your reelection campaign were 'heavily involved' in writing parts of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's speech," California Senator Dianne Feinstein wrote in a letter to President George W. Bush.

"You may be surprised by this, Mr. President, but I viewed Prime Minister Allawis speech as an independent view on conditions in Iraq," she wrote.

"His speech gave me hope that reconstruction efforts were proceeding in most of the country and that elections could be held on schedule."

"To learn that this was not an independent view, but one that was massaged by your campaign operatives, jaundices the speech and reduces the credibility of his remarks," Feinstein wrote.

Well. I guess that's that. Allawi isn't just a puppet of America, he's a puppet of the Bush reelection team.

Sickening.

It's good to know at least the handshake will go well.



link
They changed it...

From the September 29th, 2004 Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Jon finally takes on Bill O'Reilly's comments about Daily Show viewers and their alleged "stoned slacker" status.

Also covered:

• O'Reilly interviews Bush
• Ed Helms pre-reports on the debate (This is a case of life imitating art imitating life as pointed out by TheDudeTim and Atrios)
  
• Kerry gives a maddening non-answer when asked about Iraq. Dude, just say, "I voted to give Bush the authority and he fucked it up." - come on man, it's as simple as that!

Choice quotes:

"Spinners!"

"Damn you liberal file footage!"

link (RealMedia file, Length- 10:06)

The Onion knocks another one out of the park:

"We originally invoked the Freedom Of Information Act to request material relating to Bush's spotty record while in office," CIS director Catherine Rocklin said. "But then we realized that the information was readily available at the corner newsstand, on the Internet, and from our friends and neighbors who pay attention to the news."

According to Rocklin, the most damning documents were generated at roughly one-day intervals during a period beginning in January 2001 and ending this week. The document's sources include, but are not limited to, the U.S. newspaper The New York Times, the London-based Economist magazine, and the well-known international business and finance record, The Wall Street Journal.

"Factual data presented in these publications indicates that Bush took little or no action on issues as widely varied as the stalled economy, increasing violence in post-war Iraq, and the lagging public education system," Rocklin said. "The newsprint documents also reveal huge disparities between the ways Bush claimed to have served Medicare patients, and what he actually did."

more

Okay- this time for sure- Here's the whole interview - (48.2 megs, 24 minutes 58 seconds)

Rest assured the underlings responsible for this mixup have been sacked.

Right? I mean, this is a debate with rules that forbid actual debate... so the real burning question is how much will Bush's stylist color his gray hair?

Before:


After:


After-er:


Even more after-er:

Another part of the USA PATRIOT Act has been ruled unconstitutional.

Only took three fucking years.

Now is as good a time as any to donate to the ACLU- they're fighting for your rights on this...

Update:
Also donate to the EFF

The San Francisco Chronicle has a good roundup of the endless stream of flip-flops from Bush. Here's one:

Prior to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, Bush focused on weapons of mass destruction and stated the U.S. goal in straightforward terms.

"Should we have to go in, our mission is very clear: disarmament. And in order to disarm, it would mean regime change,'' Bush said at a news conference two weeks before he took the nation to war.

"And our mission won't change,'' Bush continued. "Our mission is precisely what I just stated.''

Six weeks later, speaking to workers at an Army tank plant in Ohio, the goal seemed to expand.

"Our mission -- besides removing the regime that threatened us, besides ending a place where the terrorists could find a friend, besides getting rid of weapons of mass destruction -- our mission has been to bring humanitarian aid and restore basic services and put this country, Iraq, on the road to self- government.''

Last month, speaking to supporters at a campaign event in Wisconsin, Bush put it more plainly: "The goal in Iraq and Afghanistan is for there to be democratic and free countries who are allies in the war on terror. That's the goal.''

Oh that's the goal... okay. I wonder for how long?

By the way, here's the key flip-flop:

In the fall of 2002, as Bush sought congressional support for the use of force, he described the vote as a sign of solidarity that would strengthen his ability to keep the peace. Today, his aides describe it unambiguously as a vote to go to war.

link

It takes real balls (or real stupidity) for Bush to ridicule Kerry for flubbing a word.

Kerry's flubs =

"Lambert Field"

Bush's flubs =

"I don't think you can win [the war on terror],"

"If Saddam Hussein were in power, the world would be better off, not -- the world would be worse off, not better off."

"Uranium from Africa"

"He possesses weapons of terror. He provides funding and training and safe haven to terrorists who would willingly deliver weapons of mass destruction against America and other peace-loving countries."

Update: How could I forget...
"BRING 'EM ON"

While Kerry misspoke (after having said the name "Lambeau" correctly several times earlier, according to Slate) no one died. Bush's mistakes have killed countless thousands of people.

Thought this was particularly appropriate given Drudge's current headline- More death and destruction in Iraq? Wrong. Kerry has a tan! Scandalous!

From Dan Froomkin's White House Briefing:

I haven't seen him up close and personal in quite a while, but looking at the photos lately, it looks to me like Bush has aged tremendously, just in the last several months.

I suppose it's possible that this photo and this photo could just be particularly unflattering.

But compare any of these recent shots with, say, this one from just this past May, and you can't help but notice that his hair has gone quite gray, his skin has gone a bit slack and his wrinkles have gotten more prominent.

And I thought he liked campaigning.

link

Since Media Matters busted FOX's "Big Story" for only airing viewer email that's pro-Bush or anti-Kerry Big Story has stopped airing viewer mail entirely.

Ha ha- busted.

link

Way down at the bottom of the NY Times article about the FBI's problems translating all the material they intercept:

"Since terrorists attacked the United States on 9/11, the F.B.I. has been trying to assure the Congress and the public that its translation program is on the right track," said Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. "Unfortunately, this report shows that the F.B.I. is still drowning in information about terrorism activities with hundreds of thousands of hours of audio yet to be translated."

Mr. Grassley also urged the inspector general to release a public version of an internal report about the case of a former F.B.I. linguist, Sibel Edmonds, who complained of ineptitude and possible espionage in the translation program. A still-classified version of the report found that Ms. Edmonds's complaints played a part in the F.B.I.'s decision to dismiss her in 2002, officials said.

Saleton:

1. Reframe the "consistency" issue. Bush says you often change your mind. You've denied this. According to yesterday's Washington Post, Democrats are grumbling that Bush flip-flops a lot. They're wrong. The Post story showed how peripheral Bush's shifts are. On the big issues—tax cuts and Iraq—he's been even steadier than Reagan. Stop fighting his consistency shtick, and go with it. The economy sucks. Iraq is a mess. Polls show that people understand these things and that they want change. You're the challenger, the candidate of change. You've already picked up the Clinton '92 theme, "Change versus more of the same." In the first debate, when Bush accuses you of changing your mind, admit it. Say that your goals and values are firm but that when the president's policies are going in the wrong direction—away from those goals and values—you're not afraid to change course. This is what Bush can't do, and everyone knows it. You took a step in the right direction with today's observation that "the president still says he wouldn't do anything different. I would." You need to come back to this theme more, uh, consistently.

It's about fucking time. Bush's perceived strengths are that he is resolute and unbending -- not great traits when you're consistently wrong and refuse to admit it. It's great to see Kerry finally using the "flip-flop" label to his advantage -- and to see someone noticing that he's doing it.

Link

...to have thirty reporters roll their eyes at you at once?

Here's Scott McClellan setting expectations for the debate:

Senator Kerry has been preparing -- preparing and practicing for this all his life, from the time he was in prep school to being a star debater for his Ivy League school, to being a prosecutor, to spending 20 years on the floor of the Senate debating the issues. And I expect the President will do fine but he's up against a very formidable debater.

This is one of the few times the Bush campaign is okay with the President being classified as borderline retarded.

The Guardian reports:

[T]he new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, [Prescott Bush] worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.

link

For Prescott Bush, war meant profit. My, how times haven't changed.

Well, okay, they're more knowledgeable about the election than those who don't watch...

Young people who watched The Daily Show scored 48% correct on the campaign knowledge test while young people who did not watch any late-night comedy scored 39% correct. Meanwhile, young people who watched four of more days of network news scored 40% correct, equally frequent cable news viewers 48% correct and newspaper readers 46% correct.

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I'm a news junkie- I could watch CNN/Fox/MSLMNOP all day and not see stuff Jon Stewart covers on The Daily Show. The bottom line is catching someone lying is compelling television, and there is a wealth of material coming out of this administration daily.

Will the mainstream media ever catch on? Stewart has the balls to call bullshit. That's what regular reporters are supposed to do, but somehow (I suppose because 9/11 changed everything) it seems it can only be done on a comedy show.

O'Reilly lies. He lies about stuff that doesn't even matter. A constant, never-ending stream of lies. My theory? I think he lies about the little stuff to cover for the big stuff.

From last night's 60 Minutes profile of Billo:

"Not like Maria Shriver, with all due respect to her. Nice woman who started in Los Angeles. Why? Because her name is Maria Shriver," says O'Reilly. "O'Reilly starts in Scranton, Pa., with the coal miners. I loved it. My folks."

"Give me a break," says Wallace. "Why are you comparing yourself all of the sudden with Maria Shriver?"

"Because I'm telling you that this road I took had to be taken," says O'Reilly. "There was no other way to do it."

For the record, Shriver started in Philadelphia as a low-level assistant.

"I don't throw my weight around. I'm not partying with Puff Daddy. I'm not cuttin' a line. I'm not drivin' a Mercedes Benz."

Again, for the record, his wife has a Mercedes, but he says he won't get in it.

link

...but it's not.



There's a John Kerry video game coming soon- you can fight alongside him on the Mekong Delta.

link

That's just creepy.

...if we're hand selecting the people who are and aren't allowed to vote?*

Maybe Rummy can throw that question in to the next Q & A session with himself.

Was it a mistake to pin reelection on the invasion of a soverign nation? Maybe.
Did we invent intelligence to justify invading Iraq? Certainly.
Did we then blame the CIA for it? Sure.
Will we get caught and tried for war crimes? Who knows?

I think the media has fallen out of love with Rummy- just 11 months ago everyone was calling his disagreements with reality "Vintage Rumsfeld"... now maybe they're finally calling bullshit.

*Yes, I'm aware of the irony of asking Republicans that question...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 - A Pentagon-appointed panel of outside experts has concluded in a new study that the American military does not have sufficient forces to sustain current and anticipated stability operations, like the festering conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and other missions that might arise.

Rumsfeld both praised the report and said it's inaccurate. I'm not kidding:

Mr. Rumsfeld said the report was an "excellent piece of work," and that he had ordered briefings on its findings for senior military and civilian officials.

But he cautioned after the hearing that the section read by Senator Reed was not a comprehensive synopsis, and that the authors of the study may not be fully aware of the variety of steps under way by the Pentagon broadly to lessen stress on the force, and actions taken specifically by the Army to increase the number of available combat forces without further expanding the military.

link

Am I the only one who's feeling a draft?

Print "USPS does not acknowledge the authority of the Bush administration" on US Postal Service shipping labels, then mix them back in with regular labels at the post office:



link

More from Bush's press conference with some middle-eastern looking guy:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Okay, let me stop you. First of all, the Iraqi people now have got Iraqi leadership. Prime Minister Allawi and his cabinet are making decisions on behalf of the Iraqi people. Secondly, I saw a poll that said the right track/wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America. (Laughter.)

Doesn't that just say it all? As bad as things are in Iraq, Bush is worse here.

I can see why they're hiding from the press- the last time Bush talked to the press he proclaimed the war on terror couldn't be won.

Bush today:

"The Afghan national army is a part of the army.

By the way, it's the Afghan national army that went into Najaf and did the work there."

No, it really fucking isn't the "Afghan national army."

Doesn't the casual "By the way" tag at the beginning of his comment just magnify 100-fold how stupid his comment is?

Really makes you wonder if someone this addle-brained should be in charge of the button. I don't know if it's some kind of degenerative disease or it's just all that blow he did in the 70's and 80's coming back to bite him in the ass, but the guy is not able to put forth a comprehensible thought on anything besides killing brown people.

I heard Patton Oswalt on the Howard Stern Show the other day and he had a great comment on Bush's clumsyness with things he doesn't really care about:

Bush, you know everyone says he stutters, he can't talk... I'm like, you know the only time he stutters is when he's trying to sound caring or compassionate about people, that's when he says stuff like, you know, "it's hard to put food on your family" because he just doesn't care. He doesn't care, that's when he stutters.

But, when he's talking about war and death he's really focused and poetic you know? He turns into Dylan Thomas.

Because I realized if you gave Darth Vader a basket of puppies he'd look like an imbecile, it'’d be like, "“How do you like those puppies Darth?”" He’'d be like, “"I-— I-— I don’'t know, they’'re furry… I don'’t li--”" They go, "“What are you going to do to Alderaan?” "“WE WILL DESTROY YOUR-"“ like, that'’s George Bush.

Generally I'm against the government jailing journalists, but I know I'd feel safer with her off the streets.

link

Apparently everything is peachy in Iraq. Pay no attention to those freedom craters that keep popping up.

Sibel Edmonds, the FBI translator fired for blowing the whistle on security lapses in the bureau's translator program, is suing to get access to the results of the Justice Department's investigation of her firing.

I love this- they announce this big investigation and then keep the results secret. What a fucking joke.

link

From Tuesday's Daily Show- Includes brilliant (and I really, really mean that, BRILLIANT) analysis from Daily Show correspondent Stephen Colbert.

BitTorrent link (13 MB, 5:16)

They were all so delusional, weren't they?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon has begun tapping into its $25 billion emergency fund for the Iraq war to prepare for a major troop rotation and intense fighting this fall, administration officials said on Tuesday, despite the White House's initial insistence that it had enough money.

Before the invasion, then-White House budget director Mitch Daniels predicted Iraq would be "an affordable endeavor," and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz even assured Congress: "We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon."

The predictions would almost be funny, if this administration's ineptitude wasn't killing so many people...

Update: How could I forget the link?

Votes can be changed with a five-line visual basic script.

Imagine if ATMs could be screwed with that easily... They can't, people wouldn't stand for it. Why so little interest in fixing this stuff?

link

Update: You know what's great about Diebold's comments in the linked article? They repeat over and over any vote tampering would be detected. The problem is if fraud is detected there's nowhere to go from there. The votes are changed and nothing can get them back to the way they were cast. Unbelievable.

Oliver Willis has a clip of Peter Jennings busting Bush on his recent comments about Kerry's position on Iraq.

Kos is right- up to this point, the only place you could get truth-squading like this was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and they're supposed to be the fake news... Here's hoping the media is turning a new leaf.

Drudge posted this for about 10 minutes tonight ...


MCAULIFFE POINTS FINGER AT REPUBLICANS OVER CBS FLAP

But quickly switched to this.

Could the Republicans be behind the CBS memos? Did someone get to Drudge, and fast?

Nice catch tg in ny!

Here's John Kerry's interview on Letterman last night in case you missed it:

BitTorrent link (65.4 MB, 22 Min. Divx)

Here's a clip of The Daily Show's coverage of the CBS documents and Bush's speech to the National Guard.

BitTorrent link (12.52MB, 2:33 Divx file)

...who gave him the documents. (Who's Burkett?) CBS no longer stands by the documents. Sad thing about all this is that the documents weren't really needed to prove Bush is guilty of desertion. Existing records already show that.

Here's part of the CBS statement:

Burkett, a retired National Guard lieutenant colonel, also admits that he deliberately misled the CBS News producer working on the report, giving her a false account of the documents’ origins to protect a promise of confidentiality to the actual source.

Burkett originally said he obtained the documents from another former Guardsman. Now he says he got them from a different source whose connection to the documents and identity CBS News has been unable to verify to this point. Burkett’s interview will be featured in a full report on tonight’s CBS Evening News with Dan Rather (6:30-7:00 p.m., ET/PT).

Novak says the Bush administration will order the troops out shortly after the election and hope things work themselves out.

Don't expect Bush to mention this- he's gotta be all resolute-y.

Hmmph... some war on terra this turned out to be.

link

Update: Of course it could just be plausible deniability for those voters who don't want to vote for Kerry, but see that Bush is talking out his ass. Josh Marshall has a good take on it.

CNN article about presidential debates:

"No deal has been reached. Reports of a tentative agreement -- I don't even know what that means -- are false," said Nicolle Devenish, communications director for the Bush campaign, said late Sunday.

Wow. When your communications director doesn't know what a tentative agreement is, it's time to fire your communications director.

Ouch.

Wonder if the American public will notice. It's not like we'll read about it in any of our newspapers.

link

Good primer on GWB's "lost years" published in the NYT today:

He abandoned his once-prized status as a National Guard pilot by failing to appear for a required physical. He sought temporary reassignment from the Texas Air National Guard to an Alabama unit but for six months did not show up for training.

Still, a wider examination of his life in 1972, based on dozens of interviews and other documents released by the White House over the years, yields a portrait of a young man like many other young men of privilege in that turbulent time - entitled, unanchored and safe from combat, bouncing from a National Guard slot made possible by his family's prominence to a political job arranged through his father.

"I asked Jimmy, 'What does Georgie do?' '' Mrs. Allison, 73, said in an interview, repeating the account she had given to Salon, the online publication. "He just said George had called him and told him that Georgie was having some difficulties in Houston. Big George thought it would be beneficial to the family and George Jr. for him to come to Alabama to work on the campaign with Jimmy."

Whatever precisely was drawing Mr. Bush away from flying, [COKE! IT WAS ALL THAT F'N COKE, BITCH!!! -McLusky] it was then, in the spring of 1972, that the Alabama job came along. He had worked for Jimmy Allison before - on a 1968 Senate campaign in Florida - but this would be his first full-time job in the family business, politics.

In his 1999 book, "A Charge to Keep," Mr. Bush did not mention the missed physical or the suspension. "I was almost finished with my commitment in the Air National Guard," he wrote, "and was no longer flying because the F-102 jet I had trained in was being replaced by a different fighter." In fact, when he missed his physical he had almost two years left in the Guard.

Later, an aide to Mr. Bush explained that he had missed his physical because he was waiting to get examined by his personal physician. But pilots were required to be examined by military doctors.

More recently the White House has said that he did not take the physical because Alabama units were not flying the F-102. But his second application to transfer to Alabama - after the rejected transfer in July - was filed in September 1972, at least two months after he had missed his physical.

Whatever the reason, on Sept. 5, Mr. Bush was notified that he was suspended from flying "for failure to accomplish annual medical examination."

more

Update: I wonder if Boehlert's Salon.com article shamed them into this...

Senator Russ Feingold, aside from being one of the few sane voices in Washington DC, is hilarious. Check out his latest campaign ad, "Tough Questions"



Also be sure to take a look at his campaign ads from '92 and '98:

Home Movies



Stoop Gaining



Travelogue

Bwahaha!

In addition to the letter from Bush's father, the latest documents contain news releases that the Texas Air National Guard sent to Houston newspapers in 1970 about young Bush, then a second lieutenant and new pilot.

"George Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed," the news release said. "Oh, he gets high, all right, but not from narcotics."

Three decades later, a new book by Kitty Kelley has alleged that Bush used cocaine while he was a student at Yale University and later at Camp David while his father was president.

link

Here's John Murtha (D-PA) with the scoop:

I have learned through conversations with officials at the Pentagon that at the beginning of November, 2004, the Bush Administration plans to call up large numbers of the military guard and reserves, to include plans that they previously put off to call up the Individual Ready Reserve.

I have said publicly and privately that our forces are inadequate to support our current worldwide tempo of operations. On November 21, 2003, a bipartisan group of 135 members of the House of Representatives wrote to the President urging an increase in the active duty army troop levels and expressed concern that our Armed Forces are over-extended and that we are relying too heavily on the Guard and Reserve.

We didn't get a reply until February 2004, and now as the situation in Iraq is deteriorating, it seems that the Administration will resort to calling up additional guard and reservists, again with inadequate notice.

John Kerry mentioned this in a speech, so Bush's reelection campaign comes back with:

"John Kerry's conspiracy theory of a secret troop deployment is completely irresponsible," said spokesman Steve Schmidt.

Well, it's a theory until after November 3rd. If Bush is elected all theory goes out the window- we'll just be left with the conspiracy.

Bush is sitting on his hands while Iraq burns. Someone hand him a copy of "My Pet Goat."

Busy day... not much time to yap, but this caught my eye.

It takes a special kind of asshole to use your kids like that.

Here we see why the administration doesn't let Rumsfeld speak publicly anymore. (You'll need the Divx codec to view this file)

Here's a torrent to Wednesday's Mess O' Potamia coverage. (Length: 4:46, Size: 23MB, Divx file)

Bryan Curtis of Slate skips to the good parts of the Kitty Kelly book:

Page 253: At Andover, George W. Bush writes a morose essay about his sister's death. Searching for a synonym for "tears," he consults a thesaurus and writes, "And the lacerates ran down my cheeks." A teacher labels the paper "disgraceful."

Page 381-82: Sharon Bush on Barbara: "She can be a tyrant. That's why her boys called her 'The Nutcracker.' "

Page 268: W. on Yale's decision to admit women: "That's when Yale really started going downhill."

Page 427: In Midland, W. and his lawyer, Robert Whitt, try to hire the same housekeeper, an illegal alien named Consuela. When Whitt wins, Bush calls his wife and cusses her out.

Page 598: George W. to McCain during the nasty 2000 South Carolina primary: "John, we've got to start running a better campaign." McCain: "Don't give me that shit. And take your hands off me."

more

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 - A classified National Intelligence Estimate prepared for President Bush in late July spells out a dark assessment of prospects for Iraq, government officials said Wednesday.

The estimate outlines three possibilities for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst case being developments that could lead to civil war, the officials said. The most favorable outcome described is an Iraq whose stability would remain tenuous in political, economic and security terms.

link

I still want to believe Wolfowitz- the problem isn't that Iraq is a bubbling cauldron of hell fire and fury, it's that the reporters are just too scared of being viciously murdered to cover the positive things going on in Iraq- like schools getting fresh coats of paint from Halliburton. Then the second coat when someone discovers what a shitty job they did the first time.

Since the reporters don't leave the green zone they report rumors, like 46 dead Americans so far this month. It's this kind of reporting that leaves most Americans with the distinct impression that invading Iraq was a decidedly bad thing. We can't have that!

C'mon! Where's the real news? It's getting to the point where if you want a story that tells you how great things are going in Iraq you have to watch six-month old tapes of Fox News.

They'll be throwing candy and flowers at us any day over there, I'm sure of it!

Sounds like the leaker (or should I say one of the leakers) has talked to prosecuters:

A Washington Post reporter's confidential source has revealed his or her identity to the special prosecutor conducting the CIA leak inquiry, a development that provides investigators with a fact they have been pursuing in the nearly year-long probe.

Post reporter Walter Pincus, who had been subpoenaed to testify to a grand jury in the case, instead gave a deposition yesterday in which he recounted his conversation with the source, whom he has previously identified as an "administration official." Pincus said he did not name the source and agreed to be questioned only with the source's approval.

"I understand that my source has already spoken to the special prosecutor about our conversation on July 12 [2003], and that the special prosecutor has dropped his demand that I reveal my source. Even so, I will not testify about his or her identity," Pincus said in a prepared statement.

The article goes on to say four of the reporters have testified that Scooter Libby didn't leak the name to them.

Dan Rather tonight on 60 Minutes II:

We will keep an open mind, and we will continue to report credible evidence and responsible points of view as we try to answer the questions raised about the authenticity of the documents. Having said that we do feel it's important to underscore this point: Those who have criticized aspects of our story have never criticized the heart of it, the major thrust of our report, that George Bush received preferential treatment to get in to the National Guard, and once accepted, failed to satisfy the requirements of his service. If we uncover any information to the contrary, rest assured, we shall report that also.

tick, tick, tick, tick, tick...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 - Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency has fewer experienced case officers assigned to its headquarters unit dealing with Osama bin Laden than it did at the time of the attacks, despite repeated pleas from the unit's leaders for reinforcements, a senior C.I.A. officer with extensive counterterrorism experience has told Congress.

The bin Laden unit is stretched so thin that it relies on inexperienced officers rotated in and out every 60 to 90 days, and they leave before they know enough to be able to perform any meaningful work, according to a letter the C.I.A. officer has written to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

Feeling safer yet?

Not that killing him will solve anything- as Bill Maher has pointed out, McDonalds didn't go out of business when Ray Kroc died.

Bush has flip-flopped all over this one though... first he's wanted dead or alive, then it doesn't matter if we ever catch him.

Well... it'd be good if we caught him, but it doesn't appear fighting actual terrorists is on our current president's radar.

CRYSTAL LAKE, NJ—Reports of a shadowy figure in the woods and heavy breathing heard in the night, coupled with a recent series of grisly murders, have generated rumors that U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney has returned to terrorize the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake, sources reported Friday.

link

If anybody's looking for a bumper sticker type catch phrase for this campaign, that's my suggestion.

If Senator John Kerry really has advisers telling him not to attack Mr. Bush on national security, he should dump them. When Dick Cheney is saying vote Bush or die, responding with speeches about jobs and health care doesn't cut it.

Mr. Kerry should counterattack by saying that Mr. Bush is endangering the nation by subordinating national security to politics.

In early 2002 the Bush administration, already focused on Iraq, ignored pleas to commit more forces to Afghanistan. As a result, the Taliban is resurgent, and Osama is still out there.

In the buildup to the Iraq war, commanders wanted a bigger invasion force to help secure the country. But civilian officials, eager to prove that wars can be fought on the cheap, refused. And that's one main reason our soldiers are still dying in Iraq.

This past April, U.S. forces, surely acting on White House orders after American television showed gruesome images of dead contractors, attacked Falluja. Lt. Gen. James Conway, the Marine commander on the scene, opposed "attacking out of revenge" but was overruled - and he was overruled again with an equally disastrous decision to call off the attack after it had begun. "Once you commit," General Conway said, "you got to stay committed." But Mr. Bush, faced with the prospect of a casualty toll that would have hurt his approval rating, didn't.

Can Mr. Kerry, who voted to authorize the Iraq war, criticize it? Yes, by pointing out that he voted only to give Mr. Bush a big stick. Once that stick had forced Saddam to let W.M.D. inspectors back in, there was no need to invade. And Mr. Kerry should keep pounding Mr. Cheney, who is trying to cover for the absence of W.M.D. by lying, yet again, about Saddam's ties to Al Qaeda.

Gave this week's Time Magazine cover a once-over in Photoshop:


For those of you unfamiliar with goatse, trust me, you don't want to know.

I know, I know... news flash, right? Oh.. wait... here we go:

Seriously, Drudge is a moron.

Attempting to bolster President Bush as he continues to stonewall questions about his Texas Air National Guard service, Internet gossip Matt Drudge posted a 1968 document from Bush's military personnel file Monday afternoon that purports to buttress a long-ago claim by Bush that he served not only in the Texas Air National Guard but in the Air Force as well. Although this "exclusive" Drudge posting is a trivial sidebar to the larger story of Bush's absence from two years of military service, the document itself -- presumably provided to Drudge by a Republican operative -- turns out to be an incriminating piece of evidence against Bush's case.

Like the White House aides who in February released a portion of Bush's military payroll records under media pressure without fully understanding the incriminating evidence embedded in their military coding -- information that has come back to haunt Bush -- Drudge, by posting Bush's 1968 signed statement, merely reminds people how far short of fulfilling his military requirement the president fell.

For example, in his 1968 statement, Bush pledged to maintain "satisfactory participation" with his Guard unit, which meant fulfilling "satisfactory performance of assigned duties at 48 scheduled inactive duty training period days and 15 days filed training annually." Failure to do so meant being transferred to active duty, and the possibility of being sent to Vietnam. But in both 1972 and 1973, Bush failed to meet that participation standard.

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Update: Drudge has pulled the document link from his page.

Wow. Took him long enough. Wonder if they'll make him take a physical.

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A staple of Bush's stump speech is his claim that his Democratic challenger, John F. Kerry, has proposed $2 trillion in long-term spending, a figure the Massachusetts senator's campaign calls exaggerated. But the cost of the new tax breaks and spending outlined by Bush at the GOP convention far eclipses that of the Kerry plan.

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Bush is proposing spending $3 Trillion.

This could be more of that fuzzy math someone was talking about a few years back...

Drudge has a .pdf file up on his site that he thinks proves Bush was in the Air Force.

The date on the document is May 27, 1968, the same date, it happens, that Bush enlisted for his six year commitment (ha, ha) to the Texas Air National Guard. The 120 days Drudge is touting as proof Bush was "in the Air Force" appear to actually refer to his basic training.

Now, I don't claim to be an expert in 60's era pilot training in Texas, but it would make sense to me to train pilots on a military base. Does that mean said pilots are in the Air Force?

Drudge seems to be saying here that everyone who went through basic training in the TANG was actually in the Air Force.

Seems like kind of a stretch to me, but with Drudge's impeccable accuracy rate I hate to call him a moron (again) before I know all the facts.

Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder!

/Doug the nerd from that Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie episode of The Simpsons

A West Bend student who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance said she was questioned by school officials and humiliated in front of classmates for not participating.

The school's principal said she in no way intended to pressure the girl into standing or cause her embarrassment.

Rachel Morris, 13, an eighth-grader at Silverbrook Middle School, said she was singled out by her teacher, called to the principal's office and urged to stand during the pledge even if she chose not to recite it.

She has refused to stand all five days of this school year, she said.

Principal Cindy Guell said she called Rachel to her office on the second day partly to discuss the pledge but also to make sure everything was going OK for her. This is Rachel's first year in the district.

"She said it was against her religion to say the pledge. I said, That's fine.' I told her that basically, we stand anyway as a way to honor our nation."

Guell said Rachel was never told she had to stand. However, Guell acknowledged that, at her instruction, a statement was read over the intercom Wednesday and Thursday before the pledge that said, "The reason we stand is to honor our country."

The statement was intended to clarify the issue for students, not to needle Rachel, Guell said.

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Requiring kids to participate in daily worship of our golden calf flag is objectionable enough- throwing the phrase "under God" in there multiplies the problems I have with this daily indoctrination session exponentially.

The rule (as I understand it) is that students can't be forced to participate. Seems like they can still be harassed by the faculty about it.

"I would simply say that when you order elements of a Marine division to attack a city, you really need to understand the consequences of that, and not, perhaps, vacillate in the middle of that. Once you commit to do that, you have to stay committed."
- Lieutenant General James T. Conway

Oh.. well... "probably." Well then, I guess Iraq was a bigger threat.

Copied nearly word-for-word from BoingBoing

Powell says we've got a secret plan to fix all this.


To be enacted November 3rd I suppose...

Thanks Matthew!

Eventually there'll be a fine memorial to honor the young Americans whose lives were sacrificed for no good reason in Iraq. Yesterday, under the headline "The Roster of the Dead," The New York Times ran photos of the first thousand or so who were killed.

They were sent off by a president who ran and hid when he was a young man and his country was at war. They fought bravely and died honorably. But as in Vietnam, no amount of valor or heroism can conceal the fact that they were sent off under false pretenses to fight a war that is unwinnable.

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via Fark

Read the new White House transcripts! New and improved with footnotes to tell you what the reporter really meant to ask!

Q This was a direct order he defied, right? I mean, he did have a direct order that he defied?*

MR. McCLELLAN: John, these issues have come up every year. This was all part of the records -- that he was seeking to transfer to a unit in Alabama because he was going there to work in a civilian capacity. And he was granted permission to do so. And he was proud of his service and he was honorably discharged in October '73, after meeting his obligations.

*The memos that were released, in fact, show the President was working with his commanders to comply with the order.

No, in fact, they don't. The memos that were released, in fact, show the President disobeyed a direct order.

I wonder how that reporter feels being mis-footnoted. I mean, it makes the reporter sound like the one telling the big lie.

We know about this administration's policy of having reporters submit questions in advance- are the reporters so lazy they'll allow the White House to change their questions after they've been asked?

I've been reading all this stuff about the White House releasing some of the documents that CBS showed on 60 Minutes last night- if the AP story link is actually the White House version of the documents it appears they just released a faxed copy of the documents that CBS News sent over on September 7th.

Since this broke I couldn't think of a good reason why, if the White House was concealing the documents, they would release them now... these guys aren't exactly known for full disclosure. If this was something they could keep secret they would have. But having come into possession of the documents from CBS they released them.

Dumb of the WH to not to make clear where these came from, but the "CBS NEWS" text at the top of the White House copy is a bit of a tip-off...

[S]trings were pulled to get Bush out of the Guard in 1973, just as they were pulled to get him enrolled in 1968.

Check out Eric Boehlert's primer (of sorts) on Bush's National Guard service.

How long before we get a full review like this in the Post or the Times?

Too good ...

Link

60 Minutes gives us some documentation from Bush's commander in the Texas Air National Guard. These are memos written by Col. Jerry Killian describing what a shitty soldier Bush is, how he's disobeying direct orders, and how covering W's ass is a real pain.

In a memo from Aug. 18, 1973, Col. Killian says Col. Buck Staudt, the man in charge of the Texas Air National Guard, is putting on pressure to "sugar coat" the evaluation of Lt. Bush. Staudt, a longtime supporter of the Bush family, would not do an interview for this broadcast.

The memo continues, with Killian saying, "I’m having trouble running interference and doing my job."

"He was trying to deal with a volatile political situation, in dealing with the son of an ambassador and former congressman," says Strong. "He was trying to deal with at least one superior officer, Gen. Staudt, who was closely connected to the Houston political establishment. And I just see an impossible situation. I feel very, very sorry, because he was between a rock and a hard place."

One of the Killian memos is an official order to George W. Bush to report for a physical. The president never carried out the order.

On Aug. 1, 1972, Lt. Bush was suspended from flying status, due to "failure to accomplish his annual medical examination." That document was released years ago. But another document has not been seen until now. It’s a memo that Col. Jerry Killian put in his own file that same day. It says "on this date, I ordered that 1st Lt. Bush be suspended not just for failing to take a physical….but for failing to perform to U.S. Air Force/Texas Air National Guard standards."

He goes on: "The officer [then-Lt. Bush] has made no attempt to meet his training certification or flight physical."

I love the White House response- "This irrefutable documentation is just dirty politics!"

Right. Gotcha. Run on that.

Here's the transcript of the 60 Minutes piece.

Bush Campaign More Thought Out Than Iraq War
WASHINGTON, DC—Military and political strategists agreed Monday that President Bush's re-election campaign has been executed with greater precision than the war in Iraq. "Judging from the initial misrepresentation of intelligence data and the ongoing crisis in Najaf, I assumed the president didn't know his ass from his elbow," said Col. Dale Henderson, a military advisor during the Reagan Administration. "But on the campaign trail, he's proven himself a master of long-term planning and unflinching determination. How else can you explain his strength in the polls given this economy?" Henderson said he regrets having characterized Bush's handling of the war as "incompetent," now that he knows the president's mind was simply otherwise occupied.

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Damn they're good.

From the AP story:

The newly released records do not include any from five categories of documents Mr. Bush's commanders had been required to keep in response to the gaps in his training in 1972 and 1973. For example, National Guard commanders were required to perform an investigation whenever any pilot skipped a medical exam and forward the results up the Air Force chain of command. No such documents have surfaced.
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While these new documents aren't the ones we're looking for, they are more proof that Bush was, at a minimum, AWOL.

Since all of the incriminating documents were scrubbed from his record when Bush was elected Governor of Texas in '94, we may not find the documents that deal with his AWOL status. The AP needs to keep pressing this. Why were the records scrubbed? Who scrubbed them?

Those of us who have been following this story know the answers to these questions, but the mainstream press seems to have missed the boat on this one...

Update: Now we're talkin'.

From AP:

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

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

If this is what the next two months are going to be like ...

For whatever reason, a casualty count moving into four digits is a story.

For me, every death is a tragedy. Why does it take so many people a certain number of caskets before they take notice?

So now that we've passed 1000 dead Americans in Bush's huge mistake, Tom Ridge has stepped up to announce that we're all going to die very soon (again) and that you shouldn't pay any attention to any other news that might have happened today because it couldn't possibly be more important than this.

They think we're stupid. They think that if every time something bad happens they send Ridge out to say "We're all gonna die!" it will distract us and we'll just forget. The sad thing is, it's been working.

Used to be a day where you could count on the White House transcripts to clean up after W and print what he meant to say instead of the often embarrassing, gaffe-ridden truth. I always despised this practice, and now it comes back and bites me in the ass.

Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country.
- George W. Bush, September 6, 2004

This is the one time I wish I knew what he was supposed to say, but the White House transcript is no help.

Anyone know what he meant?

On the plus side, this clip might make a good anti-drug commercial. "Look what happens to your brain when you snort coke for twenty years! Just say no, kids!"

I bet med school enrollment spikes too. This whole thing is just diabolical!

thanks tim!

Anybody else reminded of the Chris Farley movie "Black Sheep" when reading Mary Jacoby's Salon article from last week about Bush being banished to Alabama to avoid embarrassing the family?

"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."

I didn't post about this when it came out because there didn't seem to be much that we didn't already know... but then I was reminded how many people seem to think that any examination of Bush's history is tin-foil hat territory. It's not.

This isn't about the crap he pulled then so much as his lies about it today. That's what really speaks to Bush's character (or lack thereof.)

Amazing how Richard Perle's mistakes always seem to benefit him personally.

Now he's saying he was duped by Conrad Black of Hollinger. Duped all the way to the bank- he's now several million dollars richer.

Earlier, Perle was duped by Iranian spy Ahmad Chalabi into getting the United States to invade Iraq, which was something he's wanted to do for decades.

Shucks, tricked again into getting exactly what he wanted... how unlucky can you be?


Creepy fucker Richard Perle

Can you really keep claiming you're being "duped" when the "duping" results in millions of dollars being placed in your bank account and your deepest, darkest, imperialistic fantasies coming true?

Really?

Here's an interesting commentary from the Asia Times Online about the impact of the Chechnyan slaughter of middle school students in Breslan. There are a couple of things to note:

1.) The Russians are considering this their 9/11 -- and all that entails. Putin has built his political power based on an image of strength, but he hasn't been able to deal with the Chechnyans. Look for a brutal response.
2.) But that response may not be alone. The commentary suggests that Russia may look for international assistance in dealing with the Chechnyans -- an almost unimaginable request from a nation that believes the west dreams of dismantling Russia and its nuclear arsenal. Consider:

Thus, without doubt the terrorist-related setbacks faced by Putin, whose confidence in his charted course of action has now been seriously undermined, underscore the need for a new era of partnership by Russia in the global campaign against terrorism. This may, in fact, lead Putin to reverse course on Chechnya, solidly regarded until now as an internal problem, by instead seeking to internationalize the problems faced by Russia in Chechnya, such as the growing role of outside forces fueling Chechen separatism. Concerning the latter, the dominant wisdom in Moscow until now has been that Chechen separatism may be motivated by religious principles, but is primarily driven by political goals. The "shock of Beslan" may be precisely in revising this perception and thus closing the mental gap between Washington and Moscow.

It's also worth noting that Putin has already linked al-Qaeda to Chechnya -- a claim the west seems all too willing to accept. President Bush has already called the Russian president, and the media is reporting the connection as fact. One problem: the attack has far more resemblance to the Moscow theater siege in 2002 than it does an al-Qaeda operation. The news today is Putin has shutdown talk of a public inquiry into the Breslan massacre. What is there to hide? He wants this linked to Arab jihadists, not the Chechnyan rebellion he can't control.

3.) The commentary notes that Putin faces all sorts of political problems if he were to seek outside assistance, but it also notes that his only hope is to break the will of the Chechnyan rebels. Considering that the Chechnyans have been fighting the Russians for 500 years, that seems unlikely without a massive effort and a lot of dead people.

Why is this important? It could become an election issue in the next month. The world is clearly stunned by Breslan. Paired with other recent attacks, the Chechnyans are showing themselves to be the most active terrorists in the world. If Bush can align with Russia in the "war on terror," he could show the public that the global threat remains, that the U.S. is a leader is this war, and that the international community is starting to come around.

The war on terror is already proving to be a difficult issue for Kerry, with Bush holding a majority of the public's confidence in keeping the country safe. This may compound if the U.S. can enter into a meaningful alliance with Russia to battle terrorism -- no matter how unfounded the roots of the agreement.

Gallup has an interesting take on the recent Bush-Kerry poll results. Yes, the president is in the leads. But ... his "bounce" out of the convention is actually the smallest for an incumbent president in Gallup polling history. This is encouraging. If Bush was a winning candidate, he would have a stronger grip on the race. The fact that Republicans delivered their strongest shots (swiftboats, convention) at Kerry with minimal impact is a sign that the Democrat is here through November. That makes him more Clinton than Dukakis or Mondale. Next up: The debates, where Kerry should pound Bush, but the "fuzzy math" media will pound Kerry.

Here's Gallup's conclusions:

The Bush Bounce in Historical Context

Bush's two-point convention bounce is one of the smallest registered in Gallup polling history, along with Hubert Humphrey's two-point bounce following the 1968 Democratic convention, George McGovern's zero-point bounce following the 1972 Democratic convention, and Kerry's "negative bounce" of one point among registered voters earlier this year. Bush's bounce is the smallest an incumbent president has received.

The following table summarizes the convention bounces among registered voters going back to 1964. Gallup calculates a convention bounce as the increase in a candidate's vote share from the polls conducted immediately before and immediately after the party's nominating convention.

Historical Convention Bounces, 1964-2004 Gallup Polls, Registered Voters
Year	Democratic candidate	Post- Democratic convention bounce	Republican candidate	Post- Republican convention bounce
2004	Kerry	-1	G.W. Bush	2
2000	Gore	8	G.W. Bush	8
1996	Clinton	5	Dole	3
1992	Clinton	16	G.H.W. Bush	5
1988	Dukakis	7	G.H.W. Bush	6
1984	Mondale	9	Reagan	4
1980	Carter	10	Reagan	8
1976	Carter	9	Ford	5
1972	McGovern	0	Nixon	7
1968	Humphrey	2	Nixon	5
1964	Johnson	3	Goldwater	5

The fact that neither candidate got much of a bounce from his convention is not surprising given that levels of attention paid to the 2004 election were extremely high even before the convention period began. And the current level of attention rivals those found at the end of campaigns in higher-turnout election years like 1960, 1968, and 1992. Also, 65% of registered voters say they are "more enthusiastic about voting than usual" compared to previous elections, which has been the majority sentiment all year. By comparison, in October 2000 just 38% said they were more enthusiastic about voting, and in October 1996 only 17% said so.

Prior to this year, Democratic candidates had averaged a 6.9-point post-convention bounce in the registered voter figure (5.9 points excluding the unusually high 1992 bounce) and Republicans had averaged a 5.6-point bounce.

John McCain grabbed some spotlight today with the underwhelming suggestion that John Kerry was being "unfair" when he labeled Bush "unfit for duty."

"I categorically reject that just as I categorically reject allegations that Senator Kerry didn't serve honorably," McCain is reported as saying.

Previously, McCain described the swiftboat ads against Kerry as "dishonest and dishonorable," noting: "It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me."

The latter was widely cited a few weeks back as a Republican breaking ranks and calling on Bush to condemn the ads. This was significant because McCain is a star within his own party, and is well-respected by the American public. Such a comment positioned him as an impartial observer of an increasingly nasty presidential campaign who could somehow bring both candidates in line and refocus them on the issues.

McCain, in turn, uses his newfound position to call Kerry to task -- just as he had done to Bush. Unfortunately, this is apples and oranges. The Bush campaign's attack on Kerry's heroic military service was built on a network of lies and distortions that lacked even a shred of truth. As McCain knows, Bush's response to his own pathetic military service is to attack military veterans as undeserving liars. But, and this is a key point, Bush is quick to distance him from these attacks. He gets other people to do the dirty work and then stands on the outside and offers weak rebuttals well after the fact.

Kerry did no such thing. One of his key campaign points, and arguably his most powerful, is that Bush has had four years in office and has failed in all aspects of his job. He's tanked the economy to help the rich, taken us into an unwinnable war that has fueled the growth of terrorism and became the first president in U.S. history to rollback environmental protections. Kerry is saying, to anyone who listens, Bush is unfit to serve. How does he know this? Because he's served for four years without one significant accomplishment. Notice how Kerry isn't relying on a bunch of political friends to fabricate stories about Bush -- he's doing it himself, in legitimate campaign settings, with a wind storm of evidence to back his claim.

McCain jumps in and tries to link Kerry with the swiftboats, as if these attacks are comparable. One is underhanded myth masking as a critical issue, the other is the fundamental belief of a movement of millions of people, built over the last four years, dedicated to removing an incompetent and ineffectual leader.

McCain is too much of a partisan hack with an eye to his own political future to offer an honest assessment of the campaign. By attacking Kerry's comments about Bush, McCain has proven himself firmly entrenched in the Republican mainstream. It's time for people, particularly swing voters, to realize that the senior senator from Arizona is a partisan hack, not some sort of free-minded voice above the political fray.

Pretty fucking low, it would appear...

"Who knows? It could be the result of a successful Republican convention, said Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., of Clinton's chest pains.

link

I thought the chances were 50/50 that they would wheel out a chained Osama, Hannibal Lecter style, from under the podium as the balloons dropped.

Needless to say, when that didn't happen and the speech turned out to be more vague bullshit and billions more in unfunded federal programs, I was disappointed.

<>
Bwhahahahahah!

Zell Miller found himself persona non grata last night among Republicans after his non-sensical attack on John Kerry Wednesday night. From MSNBC, via Kos:

After gauging the harsh reaction from Democrats and Republicans alike to Sen. Zell Miller’s keynote address at the Republican National Convention, the Bush campaign — led by the first lady — backed away Thursday from Miller’s savage attack on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, insisting that the estranged Democrat was speaking only for himself. Late Thursday, Miller and his wife were removed from the list of dignitaries who would be sitting in the first family’s box during the president’s acceptance speech later in the evening.

Kos also notes that Dick Cheney had no problem embracing Miller following his speech. Apparently the change of heart came after realizing that the entire country took Miller's rant as insane. Talk about a flip-flop!

The Daily Show (somehow) has an exclusive look at the film to be shown before Bush's speech tonight.

link (linked using freecache.org- let me know in comments if you have any problems downloading. If that link doesn't work for you, try this one.)

Although there is no $200 bill in circulation, never mind one with George Bush's picture on it, the cashier at the Fashion Bug in Hempfield Township, Pa., accepted the bill for some clothes and handed the woman about $100 in change, the paper reported.

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Jean Teasdale was fired from Fashion Bug, right? So we can't blame this one on The Onion columnist.

Seems William Saletan has given up Kerryisms. Here's the newly enlightened Saletan today:

But the important thing isn't the falsity of the charges, which Republicans continue to repeat despite press reports debunking them. The important thing is that the GOP is trying to quash criticism of the president simply because it's criticism of the president. The election is becoming a referendum on democracy.

In a democracy, the commander in chief works for you. You hire him when you elect him. You watch him do the job. If he makes good decisions and serves your interests, you rehire him. If he doesn't, you fire him by voting for his opponent in the next election.

Not every country works this way. In some countries, the commander in chief builds a propaganda apparatus that equates him with the military and the nation. If you object that he's making bad decisions and disserving the national interest, you're accused of weakening the nation, undermining its security, sabotaging the commander in chief, and serving a foreign power—the very charges Miller leveled tonight against Bush's critics.

Are you prepared to become one of those countries?

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It's about time some Republicans pulled their heads out of their asses and took a look around. Welcome to the party, Billy.