today's story in the des moines register about some vet speaking out against kerry... makes you wonder just what his motive really was.

not knowing the right thing to do is acting dumb.
ignoring the right thing to do is acting stupid.

can you believe the GALL rove has in coming out with this new ad campaign about kerry raising taxes, questioning what he says and what he does. i mean, really. one thing you can always count on from that baldprick: whatever he accuses kerry of, is something his own man is guilty of and needs to divert the attention away. the old adage that if you make the accusations first, regardless of their basis in fact, or whether you yourself are guilty of the very same charges, you've scored the first round.

it's no secret: rove's plan is to run kerry's money out. well, moveon had better step up to the plate and start bitchslapping the liars. God, if there was anything that pissed me off more than anything, it would be being lied to.

what's really sad is that there are people out there that'll swallow it like water. don't you find it simply amazing that given the adoration of almost deity proportions george commands of his sympathizers - forget the fact that such adoration should be worthy of in the first place, that he's not ahead in more than one poll? if he was so great, why is he not winning? he's losing and he's resorting to nixon's book of dirty tricks. that's what scumbags do. they only fight fair when they're winning.

i can just hear the rest of the world now: "America, if you can't see that you're being conned AGAIN, then you deserve what you get."

saw on bushwatch today (i admit i have been lax in reading his daily newsletter and only God knows why), but he has a grouping called SWIFT BOATS, SWIFT LIES, that really sums it all up.

it's really sad that when the truth becomes lies, and you have to fight the truth to kill the lies, America loses part of her heart & soul.

re: the switfyvets .... the problem isn't the ads, it's the truth in those ads, or the lack thereof.

but no, republicons must create enemies to justify being an enemy. they couldn't win their battle in bringing down the 527s, so they made the 527s ugly and distasteful by introducing the crackwhore swiftyvets. this is how they work. they can't have their way, so they attack & destroy it for the rest of us.

"i may be conservative, but that doesn't mean you have to be."

the bushite evangelicals. that's what all the anti-bush sentiment is really about. it's not about HIM, as much as WHO and WHAT he is. but those like rush limpbaugh and annthrax coulter will make it personal, that way they have an enemy, to justify being an enemy.

the next time some pukehead gives you some shit about your 'librul' attitudes, just remember, he wants you to be his enemy, so he can act out. the best way to deal with bullies, is to smile back as if they're making a complete ass out of themselves.

we need a change in America
a change in our Attitudes
by a change in the Administration

only then, will there be hope for us all.

modo is on real time with bill maher.. god i luv the premium channels. anyway, she's so very unpretentious. but she makes a very interesting point: KERRY NEEDS TO TAKE CONTROL.

the reagans, on showtime... i can now see why the r'pukes were so afraid of showing it on primetime cbs.

the po' paranoid sissies.

there's clearly a differentiation between the old school guard in the senate, and the new whippersnapper-egomaniacal freshman who are getting a stronger direction from those on the wrong side.

well, i got a flyer on the door yesterday, and it was from mediacom, my cable provider. advertising some new deals. well, i jus had to call and find out what they were doin on the dish buy-back thing. and in the process got hoodwinkd into ordering the #2 package. he came today, and now i finished watching my first movie. the italian job. and it was wonderful. i had to sign a contract for a year tho. so i gotta keep it. which is fine. got 12 ppv tickets. so that's kinda nice. anyway. havent been keepin up much on the politics of things. needed a serious break.

build a better chimp

WOW
Jane's Defense Weekly is reporting this week that Kim Jong-Il, unstable North Korean dictator may be able to target California with sea-launched missiles. His know-how, the Reuters story relates, comes from 12 ex-Soviet submarines that fell into his hands. They came with their original launch tubes and stabilizing gear intact. Where does Kim get those wonderful toys?

Funny story: According to U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency documents, they were furnished by Reverend Moon.*

Bush Truth Squad Members
Mr. Skip Barker, fellow skipper who served in Vietnam with John Kerry
Ms. Ann Lewis, former Clinton White House Communications Director
General Merrill McPeak
Senator John Breaux
Senator Richard Durbin
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Senator Bob Graham
Senator Frank Lautenberg
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Congressman Sherrod Brown
Congressman Elijah Cummings
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro
Congressman Richard Gephardt
Congressman Mike Honda
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
Congressman Gregory Meeks
Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald
Congressman Ciro Rodriguez
Congresswoman Hilda Solis
Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones

from buzzflash

from today's SLATE on the impending announcement by John Kerry of some 200 corporations who support him: "George is a really good guy personally," said one. "He had an opportunity to bring the country together—which was his MO in Texas. But for reasons only his psychiatrist would know, he's chosen to do just the opposite as president. He's turning out to be the worst president since Millard Fillmore—and that's probably an insult to Millard Fillmore."

another difference between democrats & republicans. democrats, with their 'tax & spend' label clearly defines them as ones who pay for the necessities & pleasures they want. republicans however, will borrow the money for the necessities (of which are fewer by the hour) and pleasures (which are greater by the hour) and make our children liable. so, dems expect to pay for their shit, repubs expect others to pay for their shit.

which you would rather have in power defines your ability to get into heaven.

so junior talks about never turning over national security decisions to leaders of other countries, and got his expected standing O. well, i doubt kerry would do that either, but kerry WOULD not only ASK for their cooperation, but most likely GET that cooperation. the bush-go-it-alone doctrine can not work. only dictators have that ideology.

from today's slate (http://slate.msn.com/id/2104541/ . something that should scare the hell out of us a whole lot more than worrying about alqaeda.

In the WSJ, a Page One story on the Securities and Exchange Commission explores its new role as global corporate watchdog, investigating foreign companies that have presences in the U.S. but are based in countries with weak regulatory authority. The article attributes this new internationalism to integration of financial markets, a broader mandate in the post-Enron era, and global cooperation during the investigations into possible insider trading by the 9/11 attackers. The piece, at one point detailing how the agency deftly handled the French legal system, doesn't fully explain the legal reasoning that allows them to cross borders.

soldiers aren't what the iraqis need. they need people like democrats to build that barn the republicans tore down and can't replace because of their greed. like our own gov tom vilsack said: republicans are good at tearing down barns. democrats are the ones you call to rebuild them.

the net is surprisingly fast considering all the video feeds that must be going on.  either way, i'm glued to abc.  they seem to be the only ones who aren't breaking every 3 minutes.  or shoving inane commentary down our throats.

hillary's on, and she's off script, and she's energizing me.  bbl

i've figured it out.  watching cbs's face the nation, and this jackass c0-anchor is questioning kerry's 'saying a variety of things to a variety of people' with such disdain as if there's something wrong with it, is pure republiCON tactic.

why?  because, they can not comprehend that the democrats aren't a groupthink segment of the population.  they just can't comprehend individuality in its most basic form.

they perpetuate their lies with repetition.  we all know, tell a lie long enough, it'll become true.

oh shit, god dammit blogger.  this new GUI takes such a fuckn long time to load, that by the time i get the edit window, i've lost track of what i wanted to say. 

gimme a sec

oh yeah, if kerry was to be as fake as bush, his numbers would skyrocket.

MY LTTE TO THE GLOBE-GAZETTE, submitted at 02:30 7/24:

One day after the 9/11 Commission's report is released, and warning in no uncertain terms that we are not safe, even making recommendations on what can be done, our president leaves on vacation.

Isn't that what he did the last time?

This time however, it is the Congress who is failing miserably.  They have the opportunity to do something to prevent another attack, something they all like to tell voters they wished they had in 2001.  So, how can they possibly excuse themselves this time?  I am solidly convinced now:  the warnings we received before 9/11 were ignored.  The Commission didn't say it when they wrote the report, but if they had the chance to amend their report after witnessing what is happening now, I'd bet a dollar that they would have come to the same conclusion.

Our leaders have been virtually slapped in the face with not only the failings of the government prior to 9/11, but with solid recommendations on how to prevent another disaster.  And what does the republican leadership do?  They go on vacation.

Senator Joe Biden is correct when he stated: "Republican or Democrat, if they are not going to skip their vacations in order to do what is necessary to protect this country, they have no business being in office."
There's something different unfolding here.  I can smell it.  The report states:  "We do not have the luxury of time."  That is pretty stark language, and it seems only the Democrats are listening.  Too bad they are not in any position to do anything about it.

Yet.

and just now, i wake up to this from MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - Reacting to the Sept. 11 commission’s call for urgent intelligence reforms, key lawmakers announced Friday that the Senate would interrupt its August recess for hearings focused on immediate legislative proposals.

too weird.

i wonder who's taking the line on the odds of when OBL will appear during what day of the RNC convention.
 
i'll go on record and say on wednesday.

listening to wolf blitzer doing some interview with someone about how the administration used the intel.  if the intel is bad, then how can you blame the administration.
 
the only problem with that argument of course, is that if the intel was bad, and they KNEW it was bad and used it anyway....  well.  you can understand our concern.
 
war should be judged like a criminal in a court.  beyond any reasonable doubt.  that didn't happen with iraq.
 
ok?
 

i find it interesting that there's alllll this security for the DNC convention in boston, guarding against a 'very real threat' of terrorist attack. why? a because, it's not the democrats who are their enemies. plus, the only ones i know who would want to disrupt the democratic convention would be republicons.

another difference between republicans and democrats:

democrats hate republicans for what they do
republicans hate democrats for what they are

oh but there WERE those at the CIA who were getting it right.

they just weren't being heard.

new .sig?

dear Lord, they're going to let it happen. the rope is around their necks already, and before it tightens, there will be some event to shock the public again. it's as clear as day.

unless...

unless there are enough Americans, REAL Americans, who are in positions to just say no. so God, if you're listenin.... please, do not let America suffer another attack that benefits and strenghtens the real target of the attack.

Catalog Page for PIA00132: "This false-color photograph is a composite of 15 images of the Moon taken through three color filters by Galileo's solid-state imaging system during the spacecraft's passage through the Earth-Moon system on December 8, 1992. When this view was obtained, the spacecraft was 425,000 kilometers (262,000 miles) from the Moon and 69,000 kilometers (43,000 miles) from Earth. The false-color processing used to create this lunar image is helpful for interpreting the surface soil composition. Areas appearing red generally correspond to the lunar highlands, while blue to orange shades indicate the ancient volcanic lava flow of a mare, or lunar sea. Bluer mare areas contain more titanium than do the orange regions. Mare Tranquillitatis, seen as a deep blue patch on the right, is richer in titanium than Mare Serenitatis, a slightly smaller circular area immediately adjacent to the upper left of Mare Tranquillitatis. Blue and orange areas covering much of the left side of the Moon in this view represent many separate lava flows in Oceanus Procellarum. The small purple areas found near the center are pyroclastic deposits formed by explosive volcanic eruptions. The fresh crater Tycho, with a diameter of 85 kilometers (53 miles), is prominent at the bottom of the photograph, where part of the Moon's disk is missing."

well, it's my birthday today, and the only one to wish me happy birthday (other than joe on #interport) was sam congello. talked to him to let him know i'm done with josh's computer - had to install some dvd stuff. anyway, it's been an uneventful day. oh well. 48 came and gone.

sent letter to the editor of the des moines register after watching msnbc's lisa meyers lamblast michael moore's new award-winning documentary fahrenheit 9/11. she was going on and on and on about the 'facts', and while not 'disavowing' any of them, she certainly strains to give the impression that these 'facts' are false. impressive. the media is straining every ounce of integrity they have to check the facts of someone who exposes the lies that were covered up by the media. had the media done half the job they're doing now on moore's film, we wouldn't be in this mess-o-potamia we're in.

ok, watching lou dobbs (God bless his soul), is cornering some repuke about the massive tax-cut for corporate america, and it just strikes me: corporations need these tax breaks to be competitive, yet, their profits are so astronomically high that they can't 'create new jobs' without those tax breaks? i don't get it. companies whine for more federal dollars (tax breaks), and yet everybody on wall street's swimming in cash because of this so-called booming economy.

the ones who are not benefitting from all this money changing is the poor. in fact, we have a reverse robin hood game being played out. it's disgusting. nauseating. and frightening.

the American people 'know little about John Kerry' seems to be a line that is in the boilerplates of every newspaper in the country. it works well for the republicans because it helps them define kerry, er rather, un-define him. the very fact that we have a major-right-wing-slant in the media at the highest levels (and even at some lower levels), helps them to continue this charade that kerry has not yet defined himself.

but he has, and if anybody were to just pay attention to him, they would see it. but that's the whole point. republicans don't want people to see it. so the media, the lapdog pets they are, abides and falls into their rovish rituals of portraying kerry as 'someone who the people don't know', and bam! the people say they don't know. repeat a lie often enough, it'll become a truth.

DesMoinesRegister.com | Letters: "Count on me, Mr. Ashcroft
In response to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's warning of possible terrorists acts sometime this spring, summer or fall in New York, shopping malls, Walt Disney World or California by persons who may or may not already be in the United States, but whom we all know by now hate Jews, Christians, democracy and freedom-loving people everywhere:

I pledge as a patriotic American to be extra-vigilant, to keep my eyes peeled for anyone bundled up on a hot day, to take note of anyone who I hear denouncing the United States, to be especially mindful of anyone spouting strident religious views, to not accept any packages from strangers when I fly, to report everything that appears out of the ordinary to the authorities and to be extra attentive for persons with foreign accents looking to buy a crop duster or a tanker truck.

Those terrorists won't get by me while I'm on watch.
-Dave Swenson,
Des Moines."

the secrecy argument republicans use can hardly stand up to challenge: 'bad people' might do things with our 'secrets'

doesn't that undermine their argument against gun laws. 'bad people' might do things with our 'guns'

let today's anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre demonstrate that we are hypocrites for bombing baghdad on the sole basis of giving people 'freedom', since we do billions of dollars in trade with china.

why is andy rooney comparing dead soldiers in iraq with all the other wars? memorial day rememberance? yes. thanks. but to compare iraq with the 'other' wars, is ludicrous. when have we ever fought the population we're supposed to have liberated?

saw on bartcop:

"When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic."
--Dresden James

hye bo diddle, congratulations, you have won this week's POOPYHEAD OF THE WEEQ award. your snivelling whiney paranoid diatribe today on imus made me puke. you cry and shed tears almost about gays 'shoving it down your throat' is a load of crap. it's people like you, who think like you, that make this world dangerous.

watching 7th heaven, and hearing her say "have you asked God for anything lately? maybe He can..." and i thought wait a minute here... how can God 'think' that we could ask 'too much' of Him. i mean, c'mon. it just boggles the mind. here we are, asking GOD, and having to wonder... is this too much to ask?

gimme a break.

the new kerry theme needs to be: WE CAN DO IT BETTER

can you be a republican and of muslim faith? inquiring minds wanna know.

published yesterday in the globe-gazette. *applause*

kyra phillips on cnn is trying to 'gleam' over the iraqi soccer team going to the olympics. it's as if 'there IS good news, seee?" and i'm thinking to myself... hey bitch, nobody on earth believes that every single person living in iraq is suffering the horrors we're hearing... what an idiot thing to try to convey. if there were only a few pockets of problems (like the stance of the fright-wing seems to portray)... then why in God's name do we need A HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND TROOPS OVER THERE?

faux is getting a real hardon about the sarin IED that exploded yesterday. it's simply amazing how they can say this shit with a straight face. in fact, it brings back memories of the state of the union address of bush where republicans cheered loudly when the president stated that there would be more terrorist attacks. i'll have to find the transcript and post it for posture.

from today's globe
this is the son of the owner of the local harley davidson motocycle shop, and a real prick of the highest order. i wouldn't be surprised if he ran around with a white sheet over his head at night burning crosses. it's hypocrites like this that make it difficult for America to forge ahead.

Sick of ‘anti-American’ position

By STEVE MINEART

Mason City

Am I the only one who is sick and tired of LeAnne Clausen and her anti-American (exactly what I meant) blame-America-first skewed numbers by Amnesty International, Human Watch and every other hate-America-first loser group? If anything positive about America ever leaves her lips, I’ll probably have a stroke.

You can whine about the so-called abuse of prisoners all you want and have some phony outrage, but don’t lump all the military and this country with the actions of a few low-lifes that slip through the cracks.

They’ll be dealt with, and they are the ones to blame. And, by God, if we are that bad, please find some place where you‘ll be accepted with open arms. Do I dare use the cliche, “America, love it or leave it?”

It is actually quite appropriate in some cases. And please take Teddy Kennedy and Tom Harkin with you. They are national embarrassments.

REPUBLICANS CRITICIZED CLINTON DURING KOSOVO CONFLICT

From March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999, the United States and NATO engaged in a military campaign to protect ethnic Albanians in Kosovo from Serbian aggression. While American troops engaged in battle, Republican presidential candidates and leaders in the House and Senate criticized the Clinton administration and the war in Kosovo, including the proposed supplemental funding for the conflict.

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES:

Then-GOP Presidential candidate Governor George W. Bush: According to the Houston Chronicle:"Bush, in Austin, criticized President Clinton's administration for not doing enough to enunciate a goalfor the Kosovo military action and indicated the bombing campaign might not be a tough enoughresponse. `Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exitstrategy is,' Bush said."

Then-GOP Presidential candidate Dan Quayle: "What has happened is we have taken a political crisisand a humanitarian crisis and escalated it into a full military crisis. The handling of the situation in theBalkans reflects the inattention of the Clinton Administration to foreign policy. ... You have the same situation . Ambiguity, no stated, clear cut mission and then you are going to have to be there quite some time."

Then-GOP Presidential candidate Lamar Alexander: "Once we've started bombing we should bomb aggressively and consistently and for a long time to try and bring Milosevic to the table. But the president needs to tell us the rest of the story. Which is that if we put peace-keeping American forces in Kosovo they are going to be there for a long time, maybe as long as they have been in Korea, 25 to 50 years; and if they are harmed as they were in Somalia, then we are going to put other forces in there to make sure that they are safe."

Then-GOP Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan: "And what are we doing bombing and attacking this tiny country that has never attacked the United States to rip away from them a province that does not belong to us? I believe it is an unjust war. I think we have failed in our strategic objectives, and it is now becoming basically no longer a war for Kosovo but a war to save NATO's credibility and NATO's face. And that does not justify sending in an army of 100,000 American ground troops into the Balkans."

Then-GOP Presidential candidate Gary Bauer: "The President has not demonstrated he's got a way to solve a crisis or conflict that literally has been raging since 1350. ... They treated each other with an incredible amount of inhumanity. That's a terrible thing. It offends our conscience. But how in the world are American boys flying over Kosovo dropping bombs going to somehow stop something that's been going on for 600 years?"

REPUBLICAN LEADERS IN THE HOUSE AND SENATE:

GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL): "Many may question the path that has taken us to this point. I have my own questions about the long term strategy of this campaign."

Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX): "Mr. Speaker, this is a very difficult speech for me to give, because I normally, and I still do, support our military and the fine work that they are doing. But I cannot support a failed foreign policy. ... But before we get deeper embroiled into this Balkan quagmire, I think that an assessment has to be made of the Kosovo policy so far. President Clinton has never explained to the American people why he was involving the U.S. military in a civil war in a sovereign nation, other than to say it is for humanitarian reasons, a new military/foreign policy precedent. ... Was it worth it to stay in Vietnam to save face? What good has been accomplished so far? Absolutely nothing."

Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX): The deployment of U.S. military forces in Kosovo is "just another bad idea in a foreign policy without a focus."

Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX): "America needs to quickly change directions and leave behind this chilling comedy of errors that has defined our foreign policy."

Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX): "First of all, it's using NATO for the first time to attack a sovereign nation. ... It's also one more adventure in a whole line of adventures of failed foreign policy." <"Fox News Sunday," 3/14/99>

Then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay (R-TX): "I had the utmost confidence in President Bush. He had laid the groundwork, and our national interest in the Middle East was clear. In the gulf we had a country that was invaded , and an oil interest to defend. ... we have a president I don't trust, who has proven my reason for not trusting him: had no plan. We have a civil war that was falsely described as a huge humanitarian problem, when in comparison to other places, it was nothing."

Then-Senate Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles (R-OK): "I think he's gotten us into a mess. I don't think you can bomb a country into signing a peace agreement."

Then-Senate Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles (R-OK): "The Administration, and NATO as a whole, greatly miscalculated the response Slobodan Milosevic would have to a bombing campaign. As I predicted, the Administration has escalated what was guerilla warfare into a much more serious conflict. The bombings have unleashed an evil reign and resulted in a humanitarian disaster."

Then-Senate Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles (R-OK): "I want NATO to be credible, but for crying out loud, when you are so arrogant to say here is our wisdom, here is this accord, we determined this is in your best interest and you must sign it or else we are going to bomb you--I stated in my speech on the bombing resolution that I don't think you can bomb a country into submission or into signing an agreement."

CRITICISMS FROM OTHER REPUBLICANS:

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK): "(P)resident has decimated our ability to defend ourselves."

Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH): "I don't believe that a ground war in Kosovo using American troops is going to be very successful."

Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA): "This is the most inept foreign policy in the history of the United States."

Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN): "This is President Clinton's war, and when he falls flat on his face, that's his problem."

remember , we won that one!