Forget the South: "Consider the numbers. Democrats and Republicans agree that Bush and his eventual rival will each start the race with an ironclad base of states that are virtually unwinnable for the other party. Bush's base is rooted in the South, plains and interior West of the country, while the Democratic nominee can take for granted most of New England, the West Coast and a smattering of the Midwest. Most strategists calculate that Bush can count on 20 states with 170 electoral votes, and that the Democratic candidate starts with 11 states and the District of Columbia, totaling 168 electoral votes. That leaves the two candidates with a battleground of just 19 swing states.
Nine of those 19 states -- none of them in the South -- went for Clinton in 1992 and 1996 and for Gore in 2000. These are the blue-leaning states, and any Democratic candidate has to lock them up before dipping his toe below the Mason-Dixon line. Victory in all nine would increase the Democrat's total to 260 electoral votes, still 10 short of victory.
That leaves 10 "

Judge Frees 9/11 Suspect In Germany (washingtonpost.com): "In Washington, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told reporters that he was 'disappointed that the case in Germany has taken the turn it has taken.' He added that 'fortunately, in the United States, we enjoy a legal structure which anticipates the need for protecting both national security and adjudicating the innocence or guilt of individuals who are charged.' "

Yahoo! Mail - iyam_leq@yahoo.com: "The WSJ says up high that the flu vaccine shortage is actually the eighth major U.S. shortage of a vaccine since 2000. Supplies of vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, chickenpox, and measles have all been inadequate at one point or another recently. Among the problems, profits for vaccines are thin. According to one apparently non-partisan study cited by the Journal, that's partially because the government keeps prices artificially low by buying about 50 percent of vaccine production and negotiating cut-rate deals."

Rumsfeld wants Iraq tied up: "The power transfer plan calls for putting a caretaker government in place by June next year after the drafting of a basic law by end-February 2004, and the selection of a transitional assembly by end-May 2004 through regional caucuses."

beware of upcoming RPM rev-up. under the guise of 'unifying national goals' will be lofty goals without much in the way of means to accomplish them.

"what's better? forcing people to do the right thing, or giving them an incentive to do the right thing" --EPA chief 12/3/03 ABC Evening News

remind us why we invaded iraq again?

so we should believe now, that Howard Dean wouldn't have done anything on 9/11. how absurd.

Pushing Technology And Fighting Skeptics (washingtonpost.com): "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has extended Kadish's tenure twice, keeping the general in place to prepare for the planned deployment in September 2004 of antimissile interceptors in Alaska and California."

listen to bbc, and i'm wrondering just what the hell is going on. their attitude has changed with this latest attack in turkey. there's no doubt those that did this should pay. but likewise, what these attacks are in response to is still a mystery. unlike most of the ditto heads, i don't believe these attacks are just randomized targets. so these terrorists had to have an agenda.. but this is why they keep attacking us. because we won't listen to what that agenda is. god knows, everybody knows ours. and i somehow can't help but believing that it's that agenda of ours that is making theirs.

watching 60 minutes tonite, about how insecure chemical plants are, 60 in all uncovered by a pittsburgh investigator, makes me wonder. is the threat from terrorists really that real? i mean, c'mon. if terrorists really wanted to hit us like we're led to believe, what has stopped them? certainly not any security guard at these plants.

repukes will betray you. and they use it so hypocritically that it becomes evil. how? like this:

first they lie. the lie to gain your confidence. they want you to agree with them. that way, when the truth comes out, they can blame you because you agreed with them.

this is sinister betrayal. pure and simple. forget the hypocrisy. forget the lies. forget that the deed gets done.

but remember that those things happened by a 'friend'.

well, i got news for them. trust isn't in the republicon vocabulary. and in a way i'm glad. for if it was, we're really be in trouble.

if defeating the insurgents were as easy as we're being told, then why hasn't israel won by now?

ya know, the republicons keep on keepin on with this bashing about how democrats 'want this and what that' and yet, they jus can't get it through their lil' pointy heads that we want the same thing. its' HOW we get it that we'll do differenly.

can't ya hear all those republicons whining about how the democrats are pissed off at the republicans destroying everything? i swear, they are truly, and i mean TRULY out for blood, to destroy the democrats, not with kindness, but with real weapons simply by majority rule, which by virtue holds the purse strings. republicons know no compromise. they know no openness. they know no negotiation. they do everything behind closed doors, lock democrats out of important legislative meetings, and have come to be the 21st century version of facism.

my letter to the editor of the globe-gazette - it'll be in tuesday's edition. webb(master) cole was nice enough to allow me a day and i was able to take advantage of not displaying the wrong number of dead soldiers.

DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion: "To require my time in military servitude would not guarantee that what I would do and whom I would shoot would be for Walt Shotwell's romantic sense of America's grandeur and betterment. I would simply be serving and killing based on the decisions of a presidential administration. To many of us, the current administration is profane to our idea of what makes America great. How then would it bind us together if we were required to die for such an administration?
A state of constant war with many nations (when at heart there is but a small group of radicals who want to fight us) is what would require this vast pool of soldiers, and that this state is not only inevitable but desirable is implicit in the author's argument.
I pray that, under the rubric of patriotism and ignorance, our nation does not take this path.
Eben Seaman
Iowa City."

put a democrat in charge, and stop this insanity!

i wish someone would do a poll and ask the basic question:

is gwb a liar?

plain and simple. yes or no.

too telling?

you goddamned right it is.

which proves my point: the media does NOT want us to flourish in knowledge.

bena while huh. ok, i promise to fill'er up over the next few days. but today, let's deal with crossfire. ever notice how paul will give credit and praise the "opposition", and agree even with his rival novak when appropriate, yet, novak, especially novak, NEVER EVER will side with paul, as if paul never ever says anything correct. but notice, the applause out of the audience is 99% supporting paul, much to the dismay of novak, and even tucker. true to form for the repukes: they will never accept the opposing party's position even if that position was that the sky is blue.

Medicare Premiums to Rise 13.5%
The monthly Medicare premium paid by most older Americans will increase by 13.5 percent next year, Bush administration officials said today.

The premium for Medicare Part B, which covers physician services, outpatient hospital services, durable medical equipment and some home health care, will go up $7.90, to $66.60 a month, for 2004.

Most Medicare beneficiaries do not pay a premium for Part A services, which includes coverage of inpatient hospital stays, because they have 40 quarters of Medicare-covered employment. The Part A deductible, however, will rise by $36, to $876 in 2004.

The Health and Human Services Department, which administers the Medicare program, will announce the new premium and deductible rates on Thursday.

The rates are updated annually according to formulas set in law. Under the formulas, the Part B premium must cover 25 percent of the Medicare program's estimated costs for enrollees who are 65 and older. General tax dollars cover the other 75 percent of the costs.

About 95 percent of Medicare's 41.7 million beneficiaries are enrolled in Part B.

Washington Post

the middle class is being destroyed. with every utterance of the leaders of our country, it becomes clearer and clearer every day. destroy the middle class, and not feel guilty about it is nothing but evil. because America was built for the middle class.

everybody talks about how people should 'quit whining' about paying more for their healthcare, pay more for their gas, pay more for their clothes. yet those same 'people' whine about raising the minimum wage.

those same 'people' don't get it. it's not how much one pays. it's the burden created by how much one pays. this is something a real, a REAL compassionate conservative would understand. Sadly, there aren't many of those left today.

TBRNews.org: "Only in America do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Greek meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'"

i just have to post a bit of an article from the Washington Post today. things are getting so bizarre, i can hardly believe it's unfolding right before my eyes.

Cheney's speech was an uncompromising argument that far exceeded what other figures in the administration have asserted. Cheney, for example, dismissed a dozen years of inspections, patrolling of no-fly zones and strikes against military targets in Iraq, saying "all of these measures failed."

David Kay, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, presented a different view in his congressional testimony last week. For example, he said: "Information found to date suggests that Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW [chemical weapons] munitions was reduced -- if not entirely destroyed -- during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of U.N. sanctions and U.N. inspections."

Cheney outlined several findings from the Kay report yesterday that, while finding no actual weapons of mass destruction, found items that could have been used to create such weapons. The vice president cited equipment "suitable for" chemical and biological weapons research; prison laboratories "possibly used" for human testing of biological weapons; a microorganism "which can be used" to make biological weapons; "BW-applicable" materials; "not fully declared" aerial drones; and "design work" for missiles and "attempts" to acquire missile technology.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, each and every one of these findings confirms a material breach by the former Iraqi regime of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441," Cheney said. "Taken together, they constitute a massive breach of that unanimously passed resolution, and provide a compelling case for the use of force against Saddam Hussein."

But some of the items Cheney cited from Kay's report as violations remain unconfirmed. The prison laboratory story was first explored in 1998 by U.N. inspectors. Kay said U.S. inspectors still did not have enough evidence or witnesses "that would indicate that in fact that's what they [the prison facilities] were used for."

Similarly, a former U.N. inspector said that in the past, investigators in Iraq were continually discovering technical equipment that had not been declared or tagged "because almost any lab equipment is dual purpose." And experts say the drones Cheney cited probably could not travel far enough to violate U.N. requirements and were not designed to carry weapons.

Cheney made only one mention of evidence that Iraq had a nuclear program. The allegation had been central to the administration's case for going to war, noting that the "smoking gun" from Hussein could be a "mushroom cloud." Before the war, Cheney said Hussein had "reconstituted" his nuclear weapons program.

Kay's testimony noted: "Despite evidence of Saddam's continued ambition to acquire nuclear weapons, to date we have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material."

Cheney did not dispute that finding, but noted the discovery of equipment in scientists' homes "that would have been useful in resuming uranium enrichment by centrifuge and electromagnetic isotope separation." Kay had said that despite interviews with scientists involved, "the evidence does not tie any activity directly to centrifuge research or development."

there's much more on the WP site. a definite worthwhile read!

so arnold gets the gubnatorial trophy. whoopee. ya know why? because he wont get california out of the mess they're in. so this can only be a good thing for democrats. let them dig their own hole, and what better way than to start with the one and only mr dumbell.

the voting is underway. after hours and hours, it's still too close to call, unless of course you're listening to cnn, msnbc or *cough* fox. then you would know, arnold is going to win.
and if he didn't they could blame you.

if ever there was a need for a post, it would be today's. FUCK YOU CNN & MSNBC. fox duznt count. take your fuckn ARNOLD ARNOLD signs and shove them up your unfair & unbalanced cunts

ahh, so the truth finally emerges
DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion: "During this interview, Cheney perpetuated the mythical connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of Sept. 11.
He said the cost of the war in Iraq would be a 'whale of a lot less than trying to recover from the next attack in the United States.'
He also supposed only two choices for where the 'war on terrorism' would be fought: there or here. Iraq is the place 'we want to take on the terrorists . . . and it's far more appropriate for us to do it there and far better for us to do it there than it is here at home,' Cheney said."

the inspectors "didn't do their job" because, you asshole, of the fact that you bombed the country before they could!

jeeezuz christ, if any of you are listening to meet the press, you must be getting awfully nauseated by now. i think i'll go for the pepto bismal myself.

another reason i love slate so much

When President Bush took office, the budget was $281 billion in the black, with a cumulative surplus of $5.6 trillion projected to pile up by 2011. Since then, the sluggish economy, three rounds of tax cuts, and the post-9/11 spike in defense spending have darkened the picture considerably, contributing to a decline that one analyst deemed "Miltonian" in degree. According to the Congressional Budget Office, by August of 2001, the projected total 2011 surplus had dropped to $3.4 trillion, and by January of 2002, to $1.6 trillion, before sliding further still to the current estimate of a $2.3 trillion deficit. For those keeping score at home, that $8 trillion swing in the projections is about equal to the total revenue the federal government collected between 1789 and 1983.

well, welll welllllll...

According to the WP's poll, which was conducted over the past four days, a 41 percent plurality of those surveyed thought that recent tax cuts should be rolled back in order to free up funds if Congress approves Bush's $87 billion reconstruction proposal. Overall, 52 percent said they approved of the President's handling of affairs in Iraq, a figure down 23 points since the end of the war in April.

at that rate, it'll only take another 10 months to completely wipe any chance of his continuing the conjob! woohoo

timmy timmmy timmmmmmy

how do you have the guts to get on national tv and let yourself be shown to not only kissing the butt of whatever admin rep you invited to sit on your face, but i now truly believe that you think you're doing us all a favor by exhibiting your utter lack of class in providing us with more lies deceptions and, for lack of a better term, enronizing of what is going on in that cabal.

cheney was bitchslapping you with lies, and you just sat there asking for more toilet paper to wipe his ass with. you're a fool tim. a stupid fool who obviously is no more American than your guest.

DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion: "David Yepsen calls on me to sacrifice for my country with a 1 or 2 percent 'Freedom Tax' for President Bush's misguided war in Iraq. I have watched Bush alienate our allies, threaten our environment and favor big business and wealthy cronies with reckless tax policies. I've sacrificed enough.
Brian Joens,
Manning."

Mirror.co.uk - POT SMOKING TO BE MADE LEGAL: "SMOKING cannabis will no longer be against the law under new Government plans.
From January, recreational users of the drug will be free from prosecution, unless they are pushers, it emerged yesterday.
Cannabis will be downgraded to a Class C drug - although people smoking near schools and playgrounds will face arrest and have the cannabis confiscated.
No further action will be taken unless there are complaints from locals, evidence of repeated possession or the smoking is in public."

ya know, asscroft is out touring the nation givin up these hurrahs to the patriot act to a bunch of cops & prosecutors (sorta like preachin to the choir), he neglects to admit just how porous our borders are, and nothing being done to secure them. it's almost as if he wants these terrorists in the country so he can justify his lust for power with pat II.

david yepsen, winner of poopyhead of the year, des moines' head basher of democrats, will regret these words. so help me God.
DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion: "Those of us who support a vigorous war on terrorism should be intellectually honest enough to tell the American people how we'd pay for it, and the president's speech prompts me to renew my call: Let's enact a temporary income-tax surcharge on all personal and corporate incomes to pay these costs. Call it a 'Freedom Tax.' It would be 1 or 2 percent of our taxable incomes, renewed by Congress and the president each year. It would be clearly identified by a separate line on the tax form"

FUCK YOU DON IMUS. you're a ego maniac poopyhead. cutting off howard dean's response to the lying chimp's conjob he did on the American people last night, was the last straw. YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH. so what do you do? you cut it off. you' just not man enough.

The study, released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on Friday, finds that 19.5 million Americans used illicit drugs in 2002. This works out to 8.3 percent of the population age 12 or older.

Yahoo

[02:58] if i make you hate me, then you're my enemy

lets see how long it'll take before we start getting the whispers
Bush's Media Barbecue: No Grilling (washingtonpost.com): "CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 28 -- In the time-honored political tradition of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer, President Bush invited the White House press corps out to his ranch Wednesday night for a poolside barbecue. "

is there anything as hardhitting as this salvo in today's slate, where it couldn't be more true? when the bu$h administration thinks something is "positive", everybody else feels just the opposite?
Nuclear Test-osterone By Emily Biuso: "The latest North Korean brouhaha arose when, during a meeting in Beijing with officials from the U.S. and four other countries, a North Korean delegate announced that Pyongyang had 'no choice but to declare its possession of nuclear weapons' and 'conduct a nuclear weapons test,' according to the WP. While no reporters appear to have been on hand to hear this, they cite unnamed U.S. officials, and the Post says its quotes are from a cable from the U.S. negotiating team. Everyone notes the disconnect between the U.S. official reaction and the apparent shock expressed by other diplomats at the meeting: While a Bush spokeswoman called the talks 'positive,' sources said that delegates present were visibly upset. Pretty much everyone agrees, though, that this will lead nowhere good: The NYT even hypothesizes that a test could lead to the U.S. seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution, which could lead to sanctions, which North Korea would consider an act of war."

some letters today in the des moines register worth mentioning:

Don't trust Ashcroft with our civil liberties
Foreign nationals are immediately affected by the Patriot Act limitations on civil liberties.

If we, like David Yepsen in his Aug. 21 column, "Ashcroft's Defense Is Simple: Patriot Act Works," repeat without question Attorney General John Ashcroft's unsupported claims the act would have prevented Sept. 11, then we will have no standing to complain when, for example, it is our relative who is held secretly and without formal charges.

It is more difficult to police a citizenry that has rights to privacy, assembly, due process, legal representation and free speech. But it wasn't these rights that prevented detection of the terrorists. Lack of resources, poor communication and degradation of investigative agencies under the Clinton administration all contributed to terrorists slipping through the cracks.

I do not ascribe bad intentions to Ashcroft, President Bush or any legislator, but the act was passed in haste in response to an emergency. Now that we have had time to reflect, we need to decide how many liberties we are willing to give up in the name of security and which principles our troops are dying for in Iraq.

Lori Chesser
Des Moines.

*****

I wasn't surprised to see David Yepsen go to bat for John Ashcroft and his liberty-stomping Patriot Act.

Nor was I surprised Yepsen - like many in our sad-excuse for a "free" press - failed to mention the Domestic Security Enhancement Act (aka: Patriot Act II), which is Ashcroft's latest attempt to use the threat of terrorism as an excuse to strip away more of our individual liberties.

I may be one of those "well-meaning" civil libertarians Yepsen brushes aside, but when Ashcroft sent his secret first draft of the act to Capitol Hill, it contained a section he explicitly titled: "Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus."

And this is the guy Yepsen thinks Americans should trust with their precious liberties.

I don't think so.

Steve Hosch
Gilbert.

*****

Attorney General John Ashcroft has been abusing the Patriot Act from day one.

Since its passage, hundreds of non-citizens have been not only detained, but imprisoned for months at a time without access to their lawyers and without knowing the charges against them.

No, the U.S. Department of Justice is not likely to truncate your civil liberties, David Yepsen, but there are thousands of resident non-citizens who are not so lucky. Not only is there potential for abuse, there have been egregious violations of both civil liberties and due process since this law came into effect.

Alex Body
Polk City.

Voting machine controversy: "Columbus - The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is 'committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.'

The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election. "

New York Times
WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 — Even if the economy rebounds strongly over the next few years, the federal budget deficit could climb for the rest of the decade if Congress adopts proposals strongly supported by President Bush, the Congressional Budget Office said today.

Offering a sharp contrast to recent projections by the White House, which had said the budget deficit would hit $475 billion next year and decline significantly after that, the Congressional report warns that annual deficits could rise rather than fall.

The nonpartisan office said the deficit would be $480 billion next year but could reach a cumulative total of $5.8 trillion by 2013.

Administration officials quickly dismissed the Congressional projections as too speculative to take seriously, noting that long-term budget projections have been notoriously inaccurate.

[they lied about the deficit, why should we believe them now?]

But the new analysis is nonetheless based on fairly cautious assumptions. It assumes that economic growth will surge next year and remain solid for the rest of the decade. The biggest reason for potentially much higher deficits is the added cost of legislation that both the White House and the Republican majority in Congress support.

Obituary backs 'removal of Bush'
Woman 'thought he was a liar'

"She'd always watch CNN, C-SPAN, and you know, she'd just swear at the TV and say 'Oh, Bush, he's such a whistle ass!' She'd just get so mad," Bettilyon said.

wouldn't it be wonderful if every activist brought a whistle to their protest?

no mr. bush, it's not "us versus them".... it's "you versus the us"

so today, 3 british soldiers are killed in basra. hmmm, first they were saddam loyalists. then "they" were ba'athist remnants. THEN "they" became terrorists. what's next? "they" becoming plain iraqi citizens? how long, how many more of our fine men & women in uniform must die and shed their limbs, before this administration admits: "THEY" do not want us in iraq?

i can think of a whole bunch of these "many Americans"
DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion: "Paying attention to the environment is different. It requires an attention span. It requires people to recognize they are only a blink on the planet's timeline. It requires people to care about what happens beyond the near future - something many Americans have difficulty doing."

Bush Revises Views On 'Combat' in Iraq (washingtonpost.com): "'We've got about 10,000 troops there, which is down from, obviously, major combat operations,' he said. 'And they're there to provide security and they're there to provide reconstruction help. But both those functions are being gradually replaced by other troops. Germany, for example, is now providing the troops for ISAF [International Security Assistance Force], which is the security force for Afghanistan, under NATO control. In other words, more and more coalition forces and friends are beginning to carry a lot of the burden in Afghanistan.'
In fact, the 10,000 troops in Afghanistan represent the highest number of U.S. soldiers in the country since the war there began. By the time the Taliban government had been vanquished in December 2001, U.S. troops numbered fewer than 3,000 in Afghanistan. And three months later, in March 2002, when the last major battle against remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda took place in eastern Afghanistan, about 5,000 U.S. troops were in the country. "

Davis to OK rights for same-sex couples / No position yet from top GOP recall rival: "Gov. Gray Davis pledged Saturday to sign a domestic-partners bill that would give thousands of same-sex couples many of the same rights as married couples -- including community property, child support and access to divorce court -- and would thrust California to the forefront of the national debate over gay rights.
The bill would put registered domestic partners in California on a par with members of civil unions in Vermont, the only other state with a comparable law, "