Superstition Watch
Suffering from a terrible cold, so didn’t hit the streets today in AZ. So I’m turning to quackery to soothe me…
Redskins: if they loose, incumbent looses election. 1:48 to go in the 4th, 28-14 Green Bay. True since 1936. Advantage: Kerry.
Halloween masks: candidate with most sales of their masks in last 6 (since 1980) presidential elections wins. Advantage: Bush
Astrology: “Planets governing President Bush are eclipsed and in an uncomfortable position, making his tenure controversial and his re-election bid unsuccessful…” Advantage: Kerry
…update: Redskins go down 28-14. Go Kerry.
Soros Speak, You Listen
Link. Even-tempered and sound.
You should read the whole thing, but if you’re too lazy… some excerpts (emphasis mine):
An open society such as ours is based on the recognition that our understanding of reality is inherently imperfect. Nobody is in possession of the ultimate truth. As the philosopher Karl Popper has shown, the ultimate truth is not attainable even in science. All theories are subject to testing and the process of replacing old theories with better ones never ends.
Faith plays an important role in an open society. Exactly because our understanding is imperfect, we cannot base our decisions on knowledge alone. We need to rely on beliefs, religious or otherwise, to help us make decisions. But we must remain open to the possibility that we may be wrong so that we can correct our mistakes. Otherwise, we are bound to be wrong.
[…]
The war on terror is an abstraction. But the terrorists are real people and they are not all alike. Most of the people attacking our soldiers in Iraq originally had nothing to do with al Qaeda. They have been generated by the policies of the Bush administration. We have been spared a terrorist attack at home but it is quite a stretch to attribute that to the invasion of Iraq. The insurrection in Iraq, however, is a somber reality and it doesn’t make us safer at home. Our security, far from improving as President Bush claims, is deteriorating.
Bush’s war in Iraq has done untold damage to the United States. It has impaired our military power and undermined the morale of our armed forces. Our troops were trained to project overwhelming power. They were not trained for occupation duties. Having to fight an insurgency saps their morale. After Iraq, it has become more difficult to recruit people for the armed forces and we may have to resort to conscription.
Before the invasion of Iraq, we could project overwhelming power in any part of the world. We cannot do so any more because we are bogged down in Iraq. Iran and North Korea are moving ahead with their nuclear programs at full speed and our hand in dealing with them has been greatly weakened.
There are many other policies for which the Bush administration can be criticized but none are as important as Iraq. Iraq is the proof that we cannot put our faith in the President.
[…]
I have been crisscrossing the country for the last three weeks arguing against the reelection of President Bush. On my travels I have heard many doubts about John Kerry. Why can’t he project the same certainty as President Bush? Admittedly, he won the debates, but does that qualify him to be our Commander in Chief? Will he be as single- minded in pursuing the war on terror as George W. Bush?
Let me address these concerns. John Kerry has presented a cogent and coherent case but the Bush campaign managed to define him before he could define himself. They made fun of his explanation of the various votes he cast on the $87 billion appropriation for Iraq, although it made perfect sense. He was practically not heard, except in snippets, until the debates.
But the trouble goes deeper. The war on terror as defined by President Bush is a one-dimensional presentation of reality. We cannot fight terrorism by military means alone. We can use military force only when we have a known target; but it is the habit of terrorists to keep their whereabouts hidden. To track them down we need the support of the populations amongst whom they hide. Offense is not necessarily the best defense if it offends those whose allegiance we need.
John Kerry is aware of this other dimension. That is why he cannot be as single-minded as George W. Bush. He is nuanced because reality is complicated. This has been turned into a character flaw by the Bush campaign. Yet, that is exactly the character we need in our commander in chief. John Kerry is prepared to defend the country as he showed in Viet Nam; but he has learned first hand the devastation that war can bring and will use military force only as a last resort.
By contrast George W. Bush revels in being a war president. His campaign is shamelessly exploiting the fears generated by 9/11. Vice President Cheney is conjuring mushroom clouds into our cities. But fear is a bad counselor; we must resist it wherever it comes from. President Roosevelt had the right idea when he said, “We have nothing to fear but Fear itself.” If we re-elect President Bush the war on terror will never end. The terrorists are invisible, therefore they can never disappear. It is our civil liberties that may disappear instead.
An open society is always in danger. It must constantly reaffirm its principles in order to survive. We are being sorely tested, first by 9/11 and then by President Bush’s response. To pass the test we must face reality instead of finding solace in false certainties. This election transcends party loyalties. Our future as an open society depends on resisting the Siren’s song.
“Osama bin Taping”
…was one of those witty captions on CNN last night, making light of the golden-robed posterboy of terror which the GOP is jumping all over as “a little gift” for Bush. The wingnut CW on this being anything terror-related helps Bush.
As the news broke yesterday, Wolf suggested Osama “bin” watching F-9/11, to which Danielle Pletka spewed, bug-eyed and seething with rage, “It’s nice that Michael Moore is providing aid and comfort to our enemy.” Never mind that Osama got most of it wrong aside from it being something involving a goat.
Wes Clark last night on Bill Maher:
If George Bush had done his job as Commander in Chief before 9/11 we would never have had the strikes of 9/11….
The guy that had the 9/10 mindset, that was George Bush. The guy who didn’t want to listen to the threat of terrorism. The guy who never held a cabinet meeting. Why didn’t he call his cabinet together and introduce the Attorney General to the Director of CIA and say gentlemen I’d like you to meet each other, and please I don’t want any terrorist attacks?
…and this about cod-piece boy:
But if he wants to wear the uniform, and take the glory of the men and women who are actually risking their lives in that flight suit, then he ought to understand what the command responsibility of being Commander in Chief is. When you wear that uniform, especially in the United States Navy, it’s a one strike and you’re out system. If you’re the captain of the ship and it runs aground, they don’t care whether you were on the bridge, eating lunch, asleep, chopping cedars in Texas, they don’t care. You’re out! They only ask one question, were you the captain on the day it ran aground? You’re out.
Whether this helps or hurts either campaign is entirely beside the point. Our cowed media is all-over the “Bush polls better when it’s related to terror” line, something that will undoubtedly be pushed through the weekend. FOX has shifted into full “Holy fucking crap, we’re all gonna die!” mode which probably will crescendo on Monday and be nary of any interest come Wednesday.
Let’s not forget Dear Leader 6 months after invading Afghanistan:
I don’t know where he is. I’ll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run.
Yes, apparently “on the run” to the The Golden Robe Warehouse, Miss Burka’s Nail Palace, and Podiums-R-Us.
Three more days and this this administration will know they should of fucking cared, not shot their decade-old neocon wad all over Iraq while playing lip-service to the 3,000 people who died on 9/11.
The Things I Do For My Country
Off to Arizona (and maybe NV) tomorrow for swing state neighborhood-walking or whatever else I need to do.
Prediction: Kerry wins at least 285 electoral and popular vote. Don’t believe the polls. Especially the oversampling-GOP Gallup and electoral-vote.com, which despite its best intentions, is more-for-fun than employing any real methodology.
Buh-bye George. Congrats — you’re just like daddy.
Meanwhile, my attempts to find Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was somewhat fruitless today despite stops in Circuit City, EBGames, CompUSA, and Good Guys. So I ordered it off Amazon and had it two-dayed to Arizona where I’ll be. That’s one way of cracking that nut I suppose. I think Sam owes me a free copy anyway, but bygones… read the OPM review here. It might — just might — be the best game ever.
See you Monday. We are gonna win this thing. Trust me on this one.
Shutup!
You can hear O’Reilly now telling the NY Supreme Court, “Just shutup!”
Admittedly, I pictured him more as a genital mutilation and snuff flicks kinda guy. Or, at the very least, all butt-sex all-the-time. Anyway, here’s a few gems. Enjoy!
36. During the course of their dinner in early May 2002 Defendant BILL O’REILLY proceeded, without solicitation or invite, to inform Plaintiff ANDREA MACKRIS that he had advised another woman to purchase a vibrator, and had taught that woman how to masturbate…
37. …such as when he [O’Reilly] received a massage in a cabana in Bali and the “little short brown woman” asked to see his penis and was “amazed.”
[…]
42. …two “really wild” Scandinavian airline stewardesses… a “girl” at a sex show in Thailand who had shown him things in a backroom that “blew [his] mind.”… going to Italy to meet the Pope, that his pregnant wife was staying at home with his daughter, and implied he was looking forward to some extra-marital dalliances with the “hot Italian women.”
[…]
45. Defendant once again tried to convince Plaintiff to engage in telephone sex with him. Plaintiff again adamantly refused….
[…]
55. ..Defendant sternly warned to the effect:If you cross FOX NEWS CHANNEL, it’s not just me, it’s Roger Ailes who will go after you. I’m the street guy out front making loud noises about the issues, but Ailes operates behind the scenes, strategizes and makes things happen so that one day BAM! The person gets what’s coming to them but never sees it coming. Look at Al Franken, one day he’s going to get a knock on his door and life as he known it will change forever. That day will happen, trust me.
[…]
GOP Senate Meltdown
(Been busy swing statin’… sorry for the lack of recent posts)
Something stinks in OK and KY — it’s their GOP Senate candidates. Regardless of your politics, these two take wingnuttery to a level which would even embarrass the Bugman. (Okay, maybe not.) Can’t subjugate without a majority, I ‘spose… must. win. at. any. cost.
First up: Baseball hall-of-famer and first term KY Senator Jim Bunning. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…
It’s no secret in Kentucky that Sen. Jim Bunning, a Republican who was expected to coast to reelection on Nov. 2, has been acting strange. Over the past few months, Bunning has angrily pushed away reporters, exchanged testy words with a questioner at a Rotary Club and stuck to brief, heavily scripted remarks at campaign events, delivered in a halting monotone. The former major league baseball star now travels the Bluegrass State with a special police escort, at taxpayer expense. His explanation? Al-Qaida may be out to get him.
[…]
On Monday, however, Bunning — who turns 73 this month — abruptly retreated behind yet another barrier, in an action so inexplicable that it appears likely to bring the rumors about his health, now referred to obliquely in Kentucky news reports, into open discussion. It may also mark a turning point in a race that, against all expectations, has been tightening recently.
Saying falsely that he was needed in Washington this week for Senate votes, Bunning tore up his own carefully crafted debate agreement and refused to return to Kentucky on Monday for his one scheduled debate with Mongiardo. It was to have taken place at 2:30 p.m. Monday in the Lexington, Ky., studio of WKYT-TV. Instead, Bunning insisted on “debating” via satellite from the womblike conditions of the Republican National Committee headquarters studio in Washington.
The senator refused to allow a member of the Kentucky media to be present at the RNC studio to monitor whether Bunning was receiving assistance with his answers, according to Mongiardo campaign manager Kim Geveden and WKYT news director Jim Ogle. And Bunning refused to engage reporters via satellite in a previously agreed upon post-debate news conference, insisting instead that his 15 minutes of answering questions occur by telephone, without accompanying video footage.
And then there’s our friend Tom “cryptosporidium kills fags dead” Coburn, who — THANK GOD — is finally thinking about the blessed children of OK:
…lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they’ll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that’s happened to us?
Coburn’s opponent Brad Carson is about as exciting as watching moss grow on a rock, and he’d never float here on the coast, but this ain’t OK. I don’t know anything about Bunning’s opponent, Daniel Mongiardo (who Bunning likens to one of Saddams’ sons), but good gravy, these people shouldn’t even be in the running, much less even on this planet.
So, WTF is wrong with KY and OK? Has there been a big sale at Wal-Mart thats got everyone distracted or sumthing?
UPDATE: If you’re in one of those two states, here’s how you can help.
But what about Poland!
In the new NEWSWEEK Poll, Bush’s 49-43 percent lead in a three-way race has been erased, with Kerry now ahead 47-45 percent. Electoral politics is a game of comparison, and the first appearance of the two men side by side
Fox Posts Fake Kerry Quotes
The phony item posted early Friday read in part:
“Rallying supporters in Tampa Friday Kerry played up his performance in Thursday night’s debate in which many observers agreed the Massachusetts senator outperformed the president.
“‘Didn’t my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate!’ Kerry said Friday.
“With the foreign-policy debate in the history books, Kerry hopes to keep the pressure on and the sense of traction going.
“Aides say he will step up attacks on the president in the next few days, and pivot somewhat to the domestic agenda, with a focus on women and abortion rights.
“‘It’s about the Supreme Court. Women should like me! I do manicures,’ Kerry said.”
The item also quoted Kerry as saying of himself and President Bush: “I’m metrosexual — he’s a cowboy.”
No, it’s a mistake, really! They swear!
Bush Debate Notes
The Talent Show lets us know what Bush was scribbling on that notepaper during the debate last night:
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