Daily Show LIVE!

Jon Stewart and Co. are giving LIVE post debate analysis... NOW!

No, I don't know where Comedy Central is on your cable system.

UPDATE: "'A group of folks?' 'A group of folks?!?' That's what you meet in Olive Garden!"

UPDATE 2: "Your second country is Poland?!?"

UPDATE 3: "Wait... that was pretty clear... I got nothin'."

UPDATE 4: "And you were very much on the fence about him."

UPDATE 5: Samantha Bee to undecided voters: "What the f*ck are you waiting for? Sh*t or get off the pot! How do you f*cking dress yourself in the morning?"

Post Debate Analysis

I think this fellow just about sums it up.

I always wondered what happened to the League of Women Voters

If, like me, you go to great lengths to avoid the Tavis Smiley Show, you missed the "Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the Debates."

Cowboys don't go to Andover, Yale and Harvard Business School

It took the greenhorns at the freaking Village Voice to step forward and declare: "George W. Bush Ain't No Cowboy."

[L]iberals from both coasts and Europeans who derisively call Bush a "cowboy" foolishly insult not Bush, but one of America's prime ennobling myths. Instead of ridiculing the myth exploited by George W. Bush, they may want to measure him against it.

"The idea of the American cowboy is the direct lineal descendant of the chivalric knight," observes Bonnie Wheeler, a medievalist in cowboy country. "The only serious difference is that your status doesn't depend on your social class." Editor of Arthuriana, the journal of Arthurian studies, Wheeler teaches at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

"Our president," she says, "is neither a knight nor a cowboy. He doesn't believe in taking care of the little guy, nor does he have the restraint or dignity of the cowboy."

George W. Bush isn't a cowboy, he's an outlaw.

Play "Who said it?"

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer provides our [emphasis added] quote:

[T]he question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.

Don't know? Here's another clue:

I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel [Saddam] from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq. *** All of a sudden you've got a battle you're fighting in a major built-up city, a lot of civilians are around, significant limitations on our ability to use our most effective technologies and techniques. *** Once we had rounded him up and gotten rid of his government, then the question is what do you put in its place? You know, you then have accepted the responsibility for governing Iraq.

You guessed it, the correct answer is Vice-President Dick Cheney.

I, for one, wish that he had formulated an answer to his question, "Once we had rounded him up and gotten rid of his government, what do you put in its place?" before he spearheaded the invasion of Iraq.

I'm "sleazy and unreliable" and you probably are too.

Nick Coleman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune asserts that bloggers "are to journalism what ticks are to elephants."

Do bloggers have the credentials of real journalists? No. Bloggers are hobby hacks, the Internet version of the sad loners who used to listen to police radios in their bachelor apartments and think they were involved in the world.

Bloggers don't know about anything that happened before they sat down to share their every thought with the moon. Like graffiti artists, they tag the public square -- without editors, correction policies or community standards. And so their tripe is often as vicious as it is vacuous. *** Most bloggers are not fit to carry a reporter's notebook.

You may be surprised to hear that I agree with that last sentence.

Unfortunately, I don't think that most journalists are fit to carry a reporter's notebook either.

via Romenesko

Obama's trip to the City of Brotherly Love

The University of Pennsylvania's Daily Pennsylvanian covers Barack Obama's visit to Philadelphia:

Many people were particularly moved by Obama's final two anecdotes of the day. He first discussed an experience that he said defines his perspective on politics. It came during a visit to the site of a church-bombing in Birmingham, Ala., where four girls were killed.

"I said to myself, we all stand on the shoulders of four little girls because they capitalized the nation's conscience, and they transformed America," Obama said. "It's because of that that we were able to come together as a country."

"If it wasn't for them, then I wouldn't be here, and you wouldn't be here. ... The sacrifices that are expected of us are so modest in comparison.

The second story recounted a trip he made to southern Illinois after he won the primary election.

"For those of you who don't know, southern Illinois is really the South."
While he was on the way to Karo, Ill., his senior U.S. senator, Dick Durbin, recounted all the racial discrimination he encountered there 30 years prior. However, when they arrived at the city, Obama encountered a different attitude.

"There's a parking lot of over 300 people ... and they all are of the age in which they would have been active participants in this enormous racial strike that had taken place. As we pull up closer, we look, and they all are wearing these little blue buttons, and all the blue buttons said "Obama for U.S. Senate.'"

He finished the speech with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. "Dr. King once said the arch of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. It bends because we do the work. It bends because we all put out our arms and hang on that arch and pull it down."

***

"I saw Obama at the Democratic Convention, and I thought he was really awesome," Drexel nursing student Matthew Kalinowsky said.

Others also enjoyed Obama's eloquence and the way he presented himself.

"His speech was great and had a lot of energy," Rutgers law student Frank Calabrese said.

"He smiles a lot. Before he got on stage, he was smiling, and that's something a lot of politicians don't do," College freshman Nathan Hake said. "I got him to sign my sign, and he was really friendly. There was nothing forced about him."

"He brings this youthful idealism and optimism that is so absent from American politics today. Everyone is so cynical," Wharton freshman Asuka Nakamura said. "Seeing someone who is so hopeful for the future really appeals to me."

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Obama drew a crowd of over 500 people to the Pennsylvania event. By contrast, his opponent draws crowds of over 50 to events in Illinois.

"This guy is great, let's hope he'll stick around."

The Daily Northwestern profiles Northwestern assistant basketball coach Craig Robinson, and asks him about his brother-in-law Barack Obama.

Simply put, "his platform rings true to smart people."

But students should also know about Obama's compassion and sincerity, Robinson said.

"Many of us are cynical about politicians," he said. "But it's not smoke and mirrors. What you've seen, heard and read about Barack is about as close to what you can get.

"If I wasn't related to him, I'd still be excited about this guy Barack Obama."

Sheesh, Robinson is organizing a three-on-three basketball tournament fund-raiser for Obama and my brother-in-law won't spot me twenty bucks.

Oil Prices Reach Record Level

Now that crude oil prices have broken the $50 per barrel milestone under the leadership of George W. Bush, lets take a moment and join the Media Fund in reviewing Mr. Bush's cozy relationship with the ruling family of Saudi Arabia.

Missing Pages

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All In The Family

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IL-GOP folds up the Big Tent

Tom Roeser to moderates: "Get the hell out of the Republican party."

"Keyes will lose in a landslide, but his candidacy will make over the Republican Party in Illinois," Thomas Roeser, a GOP analyst, said in an interview. "Keyes is serving as a purgative, driving the moderates out of the party and catching Republicans in Illinois up to the conservative revolution started by Ronald Reagan that passed over Illinois."

From Scripps Howard.

Lesbian parents and parents of lesbian

Chaplain at Opus Dei school in Kenya says Barack Obama better get homophobic if he wants Kenyans to look up to him:

Promoting the gay-lesbian agenda has practical consequences. A male couple can adopt a boy and be his parents. The boy has to cope with living with two gay men. This is the worst form of injustice one can possibly impose on a child. A female couple can go to a fertility clinic to get a test-tube baby, allowing one of the two to give birth. The baby has to grow up with two lesbian mothers and no father. In some states, this is already happening. If it seems like a mess, it gets worse. But the more dreadful consequences are too revolting to put in print.

Consequences even more dreadful than two loving, accepting parents? That doesn't sound so bad.

But if you want an example of actual revolting parenting, you need look no further than here and here. The father of that poor young lady truly has imposed "the worst form of injustice" on his child.

Illinois gets the short end of the stick

It's just not fair to trade Keyes for Obama... even if it's only for a day.

Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama came to Alan Keyes' home state Monday for a campaign fund-raiser at a waterfront hotel.

Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, invited Obama to the state from which Keyes ran two failed campaigns for the U.S. Senate.

"Alan Keyes was out of step with the people in Maryland," Cummings said.

AP story via Mercury News.

Iraq v. The War Against Terror

President Bush assured the American people that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is "still tight with us in the war against terror."

So how did Mr. Bush's "tight" ally reply when asked, "Is the world a safer place because of the war in Iraq?" Musharraf said, "No. It's more dangerous. It's not safer, certainly not."

From the CNN transcript (scroll down)

ZAHN: Is the world a safer place because of the war in Iraq?
MUSHARRAF: No. It's more dangerous. It's not safer, certainly not.
ZAHN: How so?
MUSHARRAF: Well, because it has aroused actions of the Muslims more. It's aroused certain sentiments of the Muslim world, and then the responses, the latest phenomena of explosives, more frequent for bombs and suicide bombings. This phenomenon is extremely dangerous.
ZAHN: Was it a mistake to have gone to war with Iraq?
MUSHARRAF: Well, I would say that it has ended up bringing more trouble to the world.

Bush/Cheney '04: Bringing more trouble to the world.

Iraq round-up

Reuters refutes President Bush's claim that nearly 100,000 "fully trained and equipped" Iraqi soldiers, police officers and other security personnel are already at work, and that would rise to 125,000 by the end of this year.

The documents show that of the nearly 90,000 currently in the police force, only 8,169 have had the full eight-week academy training. Another 46,176 are listed as "untrained," and it will be July 2006 before the administration reaches its new goal of a 135,000-strong, fully trained police force.

Six Army battalions have had "initial training," while 57 National Guard battalions, 896 soldiers in each, are still being recruited or "awaiting equipment." Just eight Guard battalions have reached "initial (operating) capability," and the Pentagon acknowledged the Guard's performance has been "uneven."

Training has yet to begin for the 4,800-man civil intervention force, which will help counter a deadly insurgency. And none of the 18,000 border enforcement guards have received any centralized training to date, despite earlier claims they had, according to Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.

Knight Ridder reveals Iraqi Health Ministry statistics showing that twice as many of the 3,487 Iraqis who died from April to September were killed by U.S.-led forces and Iraqi police as by insurgents.

According to the ministry, the interim Iraqi government recorded 3,487 Iraqi deaths in 15 of the country's 18 provinces from April 5 - when the ministry began compiling the data - until Sept. 19. Of those, 328 were women and children. Another 13,720 Iraqis were injured, the ministry said. *** During the same period, 432 American soldiers were killed. *** Iraqi officials said the statistics proved that U.S. airstrikes intended for insurgents also were killing large numbers of innocent civilians. Some say these casualties are undermining popular acceptance of the American-backed interim government.

From the Washington Post: A report prepared by Kroll Security International for the U.S. Agency for International Development indicates that most of 70 attacks per day against U.S. and Iraqi forces over the past two weeks took place in the 15 provinces that Iraq's interim prime minister declared are "good for elections."

Reports covering seven days in a recent 10-day period depict a nation racked by all manner of insurgent violence, from complex ambushes involving 30 guerrillas north of Baghdad on Monday to children tossing molotov cocktails at a U.S. Army patrol in the capital's Sadr City slum on Wednesday. On maps included in the reports, red circles denoting attacks surround nearly every major city in central, western and northern Iraq, except for Kurdish-controlled areas in the far north. Cities in the Shiite Muslim-dominated south, including several that had undergone a period of relative calm in recent months, also have been hit with near-daily attacks.

In number and scope, the attacks compiled in the Kroll reports suggest a broad and intensifying campaign of insurgent violence that contrasts sharply with assessments by Bush administration officials and Iraq's interim prime minister that the instability is contained to small pockets of the country.

Thank Heavens we're winning this war... I'd hate to imagine what losing would look like.

All emphasis added.

Daschle leads in South Dakota

It must be true, it's scientific!

KELOLAND-TV-Argus Leader scientific poll shows if voters decided today, democrat Senator Tom Daschle would edge out republican challenger John Thune. *** With a margin of 50 to 45 percent, our KELOLAND-TV Argus Leader poll shows Tom Daschle ahead of John Thune. 5 percent of respondents were undecided. There's a 3.5 percent margin of error. *** The democrat draws 89% of the vote from his own party, and 18% of republicans. In comparison, Thune has support from 77% of his party, and 6 percent of democrats.

Unfortunately, the poll was based on intelligent-design science.

But what about his deep roots in Calumet City?

From WEIU:

Keyes who is originally from Maryland has taken residence in the Chicago area.

But says he hasn't closed his mind to living in downstate.

Maryland, Calumet City or somewhere down state -- I don't know where Alan Keyes is going to be living after November 2, but it sure isn't going to be Washington D.C.

Distinguishing between the Senate candidates

Despite Alan Keyes' many inflammatory remarks and Barack Obama's keynote address at the Democratic Convention, there still seems to be some confusion at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Let your cursor rest on the picture of the Illinois Senate candidate and see how the SLPD identifies him.

Lynn Sweet's error exposed!

In her September 23 Sun-Times column Lynn Sweet wrote:

In Los Angeles, Obama hit the big big-time. His fund-raiser there was at the home of media mogul Haim Saban, the billionaire who is one of the Democrats' all-time megamillion donors. Saban, born in Egypt and raised in Israel, created the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and made a fortune.

Actually, Saban did not create the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Rather he repackaged the MMPR and brought it to the United States of America from Japan -- where it was originally broadcast as "Dinosaur Task Force Beast Rangers."


Dear God, I'm a geek.

Keyes hometown paper examines his campaign

The Baltimore Sun, not the Star, reports on Alan Keyes' Illinois Senate race:

"If he loses, he just goes back home," said Eugene Zarwell, a one-time opponent of Keyes in Maryland. (Keyes owns a home on three acres near Gaithersburg, assessed at $715,000.) "If he wins, he already has a nice place to stay in the Washington area. He's a step ahead of the game."
***
"Alan Keyes is really full of himself, and that's going to hurt him. He gets a little reckless when he gets worked up and excited about things. I'm hoping he has a little more dignity in Illinois," said Zarwell, who was born in Chicago. "Out in the Midwest, he's going to be talking to farmers, Mennonites and Amish. I'm not sure those people are going to buy his pitch."
***
Mike Murphy, a GOP consultant who most recently worked for Arnold Schwarzenegger's California gubernatorial campaign, said the upcoming debates, while entertaining, probably won't sway any voters.
"Both of them will be smooth," he said.
Murphy is no stranger to Keyes. He was working for Lamar Alexander's presidential campaign in 1996 when Keyes chained himself to a door to protest being excluded from a candidates' debate.
He sees Keyes' selection by Illinois Republicans as a sign that the party is in "a sorry state. It's sad that the party is down to the stunt stuff. What's really happened here is that it's no longer a serious election."
"The Illinois Republican Party is so beat down," he added. "My theory is that Keyes has a small but very vocal following, made up mostly of people from the pro-life movement, and when all else failed, some of the grassroots activists started agitating for Keyes," Murphy said.
"Plus, they liked the card trick of 'we got a black candidate, too.'"
***
Murphy thinks any number of in-state Republicans, including the tainted [Jack] Ryan, would have been a wiser choice than Keyes.
"My view was they should have found some nice young state representative. He could have lost with honor. That would have been better than bringing in a man from another state who jumps from entertaining oratory to madness in about a nanosecond."

"A man from another state who jumps from entertaining oratory to madness in about a nanosecond."

Barack Obama's Advice for John Kerry

From BET:

I think that if John Kerry focuses his attention on a clear message about how we’re going to deal with our health care crisis, make education better, and how we’re going to create a foreign policy that restores respect in the world, effectively fight terrorism, and deal with the aftermath of what I think was a bad decision to go into Iraq, then I think we’re going to be fine.

If we’re reacting to the negative campaigning, the distortions that have been produced by the Bush campaign, then we won’t do as well. So the key is just to stay on course and talk about issues we [Democrats] think are important.

Click here for video of Obama interviewed by the BET staff.

Musharraf backs Obama

The Indo-Asian News Service reports that at a fundraising dinner in Oakbrook, Naveed Musharraf, the brother of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, told Barack Obama:

I am going to vote for you. You remind of Martin Luther King's dream and his advice, 'You don't judge a man by his colour, but by the strength of his character'. You have the same idealism of President John F. Kennedy.

Senate Candidates on Immigration

Chicago Public Radio's 848 continues its series of short interviews with Republican Alan Keyes and Democrat Barack Obama discussing a specific issue affecting Illinois voters.

Alan Keyes on Immigration

Barack Obama on Immigration

Ballpoint pens also defeat laptop locks

By now you have probably read -- here or here or here -- that you can open an expensive Kryptonite U-Lock with a plastic ball point pen.

More bad news: When the thief rides away with your bike, he may have your laptop in the basket. I just received this e-mail from my brother who is in computer sales:

This morning, using the same techniques described in various locations on the internet as defeating kryptonite bike locks, I easily opened several laptop-locks. They are manufactured by APC and Kensington and use the same "tubular lock" style so popular with Kryptonite. I'll call you later, I have to sell some laptops. Haw haw.

Ouch.

The Coalition of the States of America

From the Guardian Newspapers:

The British Army is to start pulling troops out of Iraq next month despite the deteriorating security situation in much of the country, The Observer has learnt.

The main British combat force in Iraq, about 5,000-strong, will be reduced by around a third by the end of October during a routine rotation of units. ***

Senior officers say the scaling back of the British commitment in Iraq is a sign of their success in keeping order and helping reconstruction. But both Basra and Maysan have seen heavy combat recently, with some units sustaining up to 35 per cent casualties, and remains restive. The al-Mahdi army, which was responsible for most of the fighting, remains heavily armed.

'Whatever they say, fewer troops mean less capability,' a military expert told The Observer . 'You need as many boots on the ground as you can get for low-intensity warfare and peace-keeping operations.'

This morning on Meet the Press, Sen. Tom Daschel revealed that "if South Dakota were a country, we'd be the seventh largest coalition partner today."

FYI: The nation of South Dakota would have a population of just 764,309 people.

IL-GOP assessed in Candorville

An examination of Alan Keyes' broad support in the Black Community

You can click here to read the Washington Times commentary by Alvin Williams, president of Black America's Political Action Committee, in which he uses BAMPAC polling as support for his statement that:

The Keyes-Obama Senate race should be seen in a different context than that presented by the media and other so-called experts. It is not, as the media and others suggest, a race between a candidate who reflects African- American public opinion and a conservative outsider.
This campaign is a historic race between two African-American candidates whose differences of opinion and political perspective mirrors the diversity of opinion and political perspective among African-Americans.

But you will need to read this story from the Peoria Journal Star to find out that Black America's Political Action Committee was founded in 1994 by Alvin Williams' "personal friend": Alan Keyes.

Michelle Obama has broiled salmon

Debra Pickett had Sunday Lunch with Michelle Obama:

Michelle Obama is just like me. And you. And your stylish-but-harried working mom neighbor who, right at this very moment, is struggling to get the groceries out of the car as her cell phone rings and her toddler demands a snack.

Obama, the wife of U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama, just happens to mention, over a lunch of broiled salmon at the Hyde Park French restaurant La Petite Folie, that she feels as though she shares a lot of "Midwestern values" with her husband's white, Kansas farm-raised grandmother. And that she and her husband "don't have a huge savings fund" for their two young daughters. And that when she attends potluck suppers at the kids' school, she always tries to be dessert mom so she can go to the store and buy a pie, rather than having to cook something.

***

"My focus has been making sure my kids' lives are normal in all of this," she says, "that they make their play dates and we don't forget the potluck and I get all their forms in on time so that they're not, 'Oh, the Obama kids didn't get their shots ...' I just don't want them to have that kind of experience where people are making exceptions because their parents are so busy and they can't go to the birthday party because they're at the rally. We've got to sign them up for activities and get them there and get them picked up and make sure I know the moms in the class and that I'm visible in the classroom."

Dick Cheney is sitting in a room and off in a corner of the room is a deeply smelly toad...

From the AP:

Keyes canceled his appearance at the [Illinois News Broadcasters Association meeting in Springfield] and instead spoke to the group by telephone, saying he was attending a political rally for Vice President Dick Cheney. He did not answer a question about whether he had been invited to the event.

Emphasis added.

You think?

"Illinois is a big mess. The party's in a big mess, and our Senate race is a big mess."
-- U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Peoria)

Obama on Iraq

From AP:

Barack Obama said Saturday he would be willing to send more soldiers to Iraq if it is part of a strategy that the president and military leaders believe will stabilize the country and eventually allow America to withdraw.

"If that strategy made sense and would lead ultimately to the pullout of U.S. troops but in the short term required additional troop strength to protect those who are already on the ground, then that's something I would support," said Obama. ***

A quick withdrawal would add to the chaos there and make it "an extraordinary hotbed of terrorist activity," he said. It would also damage America's international prestige and amount to "a slap in the face" to the troops fighting there, he said.

Kerry has accused Bush of hiding a plan to mobilize more National Guard and Reserve troops after the election. Kerry says if elected, he would withdraw American troops from Iraq within four years - a timetable that Obama said he can accept.

"Given the situation on the ground, I think if we had our troops out in four years, that would be an extraordinary accomplishment," Obama said.

Okay, but lets not forget the first rule of getting out of a hole.

Obama blames job losses during the Bush administration on Bush

From the Southern Illinoisan:

"Every business always feels that it is overtaxed and every individual feels that they are overtaxed -- I know I do when April 15 rolls around," Obama said. "Republicans at the state level would like to maintain that Illinois' economic problems have to do with Illinois being a uniquely high taxed stated and that is simply not the case. Our tax rates in Illinois when compared to other states in the Midwest are on par or lower than many surrounding states." ***

"The real problem we have in Illinois are the policies that have been filtering down from the Bush administration during the past three or four years," Obama said. "Those policies have accelerated the loss of manufacturing jobs and also accelerated health care costs. Unless we solve those problems I don't think we're going to be able to make much progress." ***

Obama said the deindustrialization of the state -- the loss of manufacturing jobs -- was not caused by fee increases.

During Bush's presidency, 2.8 million manufacturing jobs have been lost. Manufacturing is the hardest-hit sector of the economy -- accounting for 95 percent of jobs lost and having lost jobs every month since Bush took office. [www.bls.gov]

GWB TCB 4 UBL

Karen Kwiatkowski, a retired USAF lieutenant colonel, answers the question:
"What have Bush and his neoconservative team really accomplished?"

They toppled Saddam Hussein, America now militarily threatens both the Shia government in Iran and the secular one in Syria, the House of Saud is crumbling and we have removed American troops from Saudi Arabian territory.

These achievements match – word for word – the oft-stated goals of the Wahhabist Sunni radical Osama bin Ladin.

Bush has clearly delivered the goods for Osama, our one time friend in fighting Soviet communism. The turmoil, destruction of economic and social life in Iraq, the escalation of political Islam there, both Sunni and Shia, and the sheer daily injustices visited on the very people we were "liberating" gives al Qaeda added bonuses of recruitment opportunities, local support, and tactical access to Americans and American interests.

Is it any wonder that Bush isn't running on his record.

Edit: Lt. Col. Kwiatkowski isn't alone it that view.

Here’s a statement from Abu Hafs al-Masri, the Islamic militants who claimed “credit” for the Madrid train bombings, in support of Bush’s election campaign:

"We are very keen that Bush does not lose the upcoming elections," it said.

Addressing Bush, it said: "We know that a heavyweight operation would destroy your government, and this is what we don't want. We are not going to find a bigger idiot than you." The statement said Abu Hafs al-Masri needs what it called Bush's "idiocy and religious fanaticism" because they would "wake up" the Islamic world.

Comparing Bush with his Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry, the statement tells the president, "Actually, there is no difference between you and Kerry, but Kerry will kill our community, while it is unaware, because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish infidelity and present it to the Arab and Islamic community as civilization."

And you thought the Zell Miller endorsement negative.

via Altercation

Oh *that* "back-door draft"

The Rocky Mountain News reports that hundreds of soldiers from a Fort Carson combat unit claim they were told to re-enlist for three more years or face re-deployment to Iraq.

Ride in style from Chicago to Milwaukee for swing state canvassing

Bus from Chicago to Milwaukee
Saturday 8:30AM —

Address: Chicago Marriott O'Hare, 8535 W. Higgins, Chicago, IL 60631 map
Directions: Marriott is on Higgins just west of Cumberland and north of I-90, and walking distance from the CTA "Blue Line" stop at Cumberland.

Bus will leave at 8:30 from the north end of the lot.

Bus will drive to Bucketworks in downtown Milwaukee. We will join the League of Conservation Voters for a call with Howard Dean. Volunteers will have a brief orientation and then head out to conduct door-to-door canvassing.

We will depart from Milwaukee at about 3:45 pm, and should make it back to the Marriott by 5:30 or so.

When the Illinois GOP gives you lemons...

From the Windy City Times:

Chicago-based entrepreneur Nick Libert announced that he’s taking advantage of the anti-homosexual comments made by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes, and has launched a limited-edition line of clothing to highlight the controversy.

“ihedonist” is a line of t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts for men and women featuring the text “selfish hedonist” and the company’s Website, ihedonist.com. Libert has applied for copyright protection for the design, as well as for other designs related to this fall’s elections.

“Alan Keyes’ comments have made this campaign a circus, and when you go to the circus you want to take home a shirt or trinket to remember the occasion. I think this circus merits at least a few clever shirts. Somebody has to gain from this mess, and unfortunately the voters aren’t profiting a bit,”Libert commented.

ihedonist apparel will initially be sold exclusively through the internet on ihedonist.com, and retails between $31-51 depending on the style of product involved.

Somebody make sure that Peter Labarbara acquires this WCT story.

The Bush Recovery in action

I'll bet these folks in Galesburg just can't wait for George Bush to slash their capital gains taxes.

Two years after learning their jobs would disappear, the last production workers walked out of Maytag's Galesburg plant Thursday, some hauling cut-rate refrigerators or work benches and others clutching only years of memories.

.

Nearly 900 workers lost their jobs this week at the half-century-old plant, which become a symbol of America's job losses to foreign factories when Maytag announced in late 2002 that it would move the jobs to plants in Mexico and Iowa.

.

Many of the plant's workers are bitter over losing jobs they thought would stretch to retirement.

.

"I think 90 percent of the people here thought that. They thought 'This is Maytag. They aren't going anywhere,''' said Kevin Bowman, 47, who spent 26 years at the plant where his dad retired after 40 years.

from the Quad-City Times

A short message to the Undecideds

From Vanity Fair contributing editor James Wolcott:

THE SUREST WAY TO BE PROVEN WRONG IS TO GIVE GEORGE BUSH THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT.

The environment. The judiciary. WMDs. The occupation of Iraq. The deficit. Pick a subject, any subject, and giving Bush the benefit of the doubt has been a guaranteed loser.

Let's not give George Bush the benefit of the doubt again on election day.

Kitty Kelley's naughty naughty book

Slate's reading guide provides the best (if somewhat dubious) dish from The Family, Kitty Kelley's new treatise on the Bush clan:

Page 309: At Harvard Business School, which W. attends from 1973 to 1975, a professor screens The Grapes of Wrath. Bush asks him, "Why are you going to show us that Commie movie?" W.'s take on the film: "Look. People are poor because they are lazy."

Page 266: George W. and cocaine. One anonymous Yalie claims he sold coke to Bush; another classmate says he and Bush snorted the drug together. Sharon Bush, W.'s ex-sister-in-law, tells Kelley that Bush has used cocaine at Camp David "not once, but many times." (Sharon has since denied telling Kelley this.)

Page 304: While working on a 1972 Alabama Senate campaign, Bush, witnesses say, "liked to sneak out back for a joint of marijuana or into the bathroom for a line of cocaine."

Page 257: Bush elects not to tell his friends back in Texas—where all-male Andover is derided as "Bend Over"—that he has become the school's head cheerleader.

Page 252: George W. hangs a Confederate flag in his dorm room at Andover.

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

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."

Page 578: A retired National Guard officer says he overheard a conversation between a Bush staffer and a guardsman about tidying up W.'s service record.

Now you can take the $29.95 that you have saved and send it to the DNC or ACT.

The golden touch of Dave Syverson

This mistake by Dave Syverson is really nothing when compared to his mistake of bringing Alan Keyes to Illinois.

From WTVO in Rockford

Before Democratic U.S. Senate Candidate Barack Obama's visit to Rockford Wednesday, local Republicans put out a news release claiming the State Senator had voted for major funding cuts to Rock Valley College.

It turns out the statement is not entirely true.

The news release was titled "Why Obama opposes Rock Valley College."

It claimed he voted for a budget plan that cut funding to the local college by 4% and increased money for Chicago community colleges.

It turns out Obama actually voted against the plan.

Maybe I am being pedantic but doesn't that make the statement entirely false rather than "not entirely true"?

"I think they assumed that I voted for this last year's budget as well as the last year's and they were mistaken about that so they should have checked their facts," said Obama.

Rockford State Senator Dave Syverson, who helped put out the news release, admits the information was wrong.

"I stand corrected," Syverson told WTVO.

But Syverson believes Obama, who was the only Democrat to vote against the plan, did so to avoid controversy in his U.S. Senate race.

Just to be clear: Syverson doesn't know what Obama did, but he knows why he did it.

The budget that eventually was approved by the General Assembly during its overtime session - and supported by Obama - kept funding levels for RVC the same.

Syverson also claims Obama did vote for last year's budget that cut funding to Rock Valley College.

Thanks again Dave, I'm glad you're on their side.

So-called "Jersey Girls" endorse Kerry

From the New York Daily News:

Five 9/11 widows instrumental in creating the commission that probed the 2001 attacks endorsed Sen. John Kerry yesterday and accused President Bush of waging an unnecessary war in Iraq.

"Iraq was a distraction from the war on terror, and has made America more vulnerable, not less," said Lorie Van Auken, who lost her husband, Kenneth.

via Zorn

The City of Big [Brother Looking Over Your] Shoulders Pt. 2

"It's going to be the future; every public place will be recorded."
-- Chicago Police Commander Ed Gross

From the Sun-Times.

Pt. 1

ROAD TRIP!

If you're like me, when you think of Wisconsin you think of two things:
1) cheese curds, and 2) the future of the United States of America!

This weekend you can help play a critical role in determining the fate of our great democracy by making a quick trip up to the Badger State and helping one of the fine organizations below get out the vote for John Kerry and the Democratic party.

I am not saying you have to go to Wisconsin, but Barack Obama thinks you should.

(And if you wake up on Nov. 3 wondering "Could I have done something more?" this will be the something you could have done.)

Kerry Chicago Outreach will even bus you up to Cheeseland:

This Saturday we will be canvassing in Milwaukee.

Please come ride the bus or drive to Milwaukee to help us with this blitz. Please read the instructions below and RSVP back to NIKerryTravelers@yahoo.com

This time buses will be leaving simultaneously from Evanston and Chicago at 9:30am sharp.
WHEN: Saturday, September 18 @ 9:00 AM
WHERE: Chicago - Kerry HQ - 57 W Grand map @9:30 am (Organizers Daniel B and Jonas) (This is just a block or so from the Grand stop on the red line, and a relatively short walk from the downtown terminus of the 6 bus.)
Evanston - DPoE HQ - 826 Custer map @9:30 am (Organizer Daniel D)
Please RSVP back to NIKerryTravelers@yahoo.com.

Your RSVP should include: 1) Where you want to meet the bus (in Evanston or Chicago). 2) If you are willing to drive if needed and take other volunteers. 3) Your cellular phone for the organizer. Volunteers are asked to arrive at their respective locations at 9:00 am to get checked in with the coordinator.

Canvassers will be back in Chicago/Evanston after 8:30pm Saturday night.

More opportunities to make a difference in Wisconsin:

Kenosha
Labor 2004 Canvass - Kenosha
Date: 09/18/2004 Time: 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Event Sponsors: AFL-CIO
Location: UAW Hall, 3615 Washington Road map
Contact: Jose Perez - 414-477-6637 (Jperez@aflcio.org)

Description: Tired of having a President who takes away overtime pay, advocates policies that encourage companies to send jobs overseas and has no plan to reduce health care costs?

Join us on Election Action Day in visiting union members at their homes and talking with them about the issues at stake in this election, especially where the candidates stand on issues that affect America's workers and their families.

Milwaukee
Election Action Day Kick-Off-and Canvass - Milwaukee
Date: 09/18/2004 Time: 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Event Sponsors: America Coming Together (ACT), League of Conservation Voters
Location: 207 East Buffalo St - Milwaukee, WI map
Contact: Jay Els (ACT) - 608-250-5923; Trish or Tassos (LCV) at 414-225-0302 (jels@act4victory.org; wisconsin@lcv.org)

Description: Come hit the streets of Milwaukee with ACT and the League of Conservation Voters as we talk to voters about the issues that matter most this election season!

Milwaukee/Franklin
Sierra Club "Road to Somewhere" Volunteer Walk
Date: 09/18/2004 Time: 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM
Event Sponsors: Sierra Club
Location: Root River Parkway (near W. Grange Ave. and S. 84th Street in Franklin)
Contact: Jessica Eagle, 414-453-3127 (jessica.eagle@sierraclub.org)

Description: Join with fellow conservationists as we talk to voters in Franklin about clean air and clean water and motivate them to get out and vote this November!

George W. Bush: Fortunate Son

Check out the DNC video Fortunate Son.

And, if you are pleased to see the Democrats finally punch back, contribute.

Alan Keyes: Obama voters aren't true Christians

Keyes in the Champaign News-Gazette:

Obviously, since Barack Obama supports something that Jesus Christ couldn't support ... I'm arguing no Christian worth his name should vote for him.

Neilwatch

I. From Neil Steinberg's September 10 column:

So that's the thought. If I were Prof. Zorn, I'd now offer four academics bloviating on this. But I'm more interested in what you think.

Neil may be interested in what his readers think, but I couldn't care less.

This is why I don't listen to talk radio. This is why, although I hate Tavis Smiley's show, I don't miss "Talk of the Nation." I just don't care what "Joe six-pack" thinks.

Every day I commute with hundreds of examples of "the man on the street." If I cared what they thought, I would ask them. I don't ask because I don't care.

Regardless of the subject, I want to hear from people who either, 1) know more about the subject than I do, 2) have thought more about the subject than I have, or 3) are just smarter than I am. I guess I just don't see much value in non-expert opinions.

Why does Neil need to solicit his reader's opinions? Is Neil afraid to approach regular folks on the street? Does he lack all social skills? Does he fear that if the people around him knew who he was they would punch and kick him?

II. Also from Steinberg's September 10 column column:

I am announcing the First Annual Maximizing Their Advantage Award, which will be presented in late December to the person best embodying this loathsome trait. I nominate Stollberg as representing the pinnacle of the kind of small-minded, graceless, elbows-up selfishness that so frequently mars life, particularly in the suburbs.

I think I will nominate the Chicago Sun-Times columnist who printed a letter from Jeannie Glickson even though she twice asked that he not do so. Consider how well that columnist represents "small-minded, graceless, elbows-up selfishness."

Three times a week, the columnist has the opportunity to express himself and craft his own image in the number two paper in Chicago. I am sure that the columnist hasn't presented every thoughtless and stupid thing he has written in his column. Instead, I believe that the columnist makes very careful and deliberate choices as to what goes into the paper under his name. And if the columnist has regrets about something he has written, he can write a follow-up column to either explain his opinion or to admit that he was wrong.

By contrast, Ms. Glickson not only didn't know that her writing would be published in the paper, she expressly request that it not be published. By printing the letter against her wishes, the columnist was able to present a deliberately unflattering caricature of Ms. Glickson. And of course the letter will likely be the sole public image of Ms. Glickson presented in the Sun-Times.

So the columnist was able to "maximize his advantage" by using Ms. Glickson's letter to construct a grossly unfair straw-man-- a straw-man that he didn't even need to battle because it was so weak that it collapsed under its own weight. And all with no opportunity for Ms. Glickson to reply.

The columnist's cowardly journalistic ambush isn't as bad as the actions of Steinberg's nominee but it was truly "loathsome" nonetheless.

III. Can you imagine being the type of person who considers "Professor" to be an insult? Neil Steinberg clearly does:

If I were Prof. Zorn, I'd now offer four academics bloviating on this. But I'm more interested in what you think.

I'd like to pick one or the other stance and leave the equivocating to Prof. Zorn.

Steinberg clearly thinks that calling Zorn "Professor" is ironic and insulting. But, as any playground bully could tell him, Steinberg has bungled it.

If you are going to repeatedly engage in name-calling by using the same ironic name -- let's call it the "negative compliment" -- you need to pick a name that is clearly and demonstrably inappropriate for the subject. For example, you call a fat kid "Slim" or you call a poor reader "Brainiac." Just as calling a weightlifter "Muscles" isn't insulting, neither is calling a writer "Professor." Those aren't negative compliments, they are merely nicknames.

The only time that you can use an ironic insult against a "regular" person is when you are commenting on a particular misstep. For example, when your brother drops the tray of mugs, you can call him "Grace" or when your brother locks himself out of the car for the third time in a year, you can call him "Brainiac."

I suspect that I know the origin of Steinberg's confusion. Someone who was exclusively the recipient of insults as a child would never learned how to properly deliver one. Such a child would only learn that "names hurt." But he would never learn which names are appropriate and when.

That is why Neil Steinberg is now "the 'Brainiac' of insult columnists."

Tribune mistakenly puts $301K into news carrier's account

It seems to me that the Tribune Co. could kill two birds with one stone by putting this news carrier in the Cubs' rotation.

From the Hartford Courant:

The money was supposed to go into the account of Mark Guthrie, the former Cubs relief pitcher. Instead, it went to former Hartford Courant news carrier Mark Guthrie. "Nearly a year later, $26,000 is still in the deliveryman's account and the Cubs want it back," writes Kim Martineau. "They've had a lawsuit pending against Guthrie since February, but in legal papers filed last month, the ball club offered to drop the suit if he simply pays up."

via Romenesko

IL-GOP: Alan Keyes can speak in English

From The Southern Illinoisan:

Jim Patrick, a Williamson County precinct committeeman, helped organize the effort to bring Keyes to Southern Illinois.

"We are very excited and happy about bringing Alan Keyes to Southern Illinois. He is a man of character," Patrick said. "He's not afraid to speak his mind and he does it very fluently. I don't think there is a more eloquent speaker than him. I don't know of anybody on the state or national level that can speak more eloquently than Alan Keyes." [emphasis added]

It really says something about the Republicans' choice for Senate that, at its core, their most glowing praise is: "Our candidate is quite a good talker."

That is sure to help elect GOP candidates further down the ballot.

Secret Service hassles reporters during heckling at Bush rally

From Romenesko:

One Secret Service agent complained to a colleague that "the press is having a field day" with AIDS activists disrupting a Bush event in Pennsylvania. "The agents quickly clamped down," writes [the Washington Post's] Dana Milbank. "Journalists were told that if they sought to approach the demonstrators, they would not be allowed to return to the event site -- even though their colleagues were free to come and go. A reporter who was blocked from returning to the speech was told by an agent that this was punishment for approaching the demonstrators and that there was a "different set of rules" for reporters who did not seek out the activists.

That "different set of rules" is available here.

Going once... Going twice...

Who knew that OneMan's Dreams From My Father auctions played such a critical role in our nation's economy?

From Associated Press:

Indicators measure the nation's unemployment rate, consumer spending and other economic milestones, but Vice President Dick Cheney says it misses the hundreds of thousands who make money selling on eBay.

"That's a source that didn't even exist 10 years ago," Cheney told an audience in Cincinnati on Thursday. "Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay."

John Edwards responded:

If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking.

Now get out there, start bidding and help prop-up the Bush-Cheney economy.

The City of Big [Brother Looking Over Your] Shoulders

From the AP:

More than 2,000 surveillance cameras in public places would be tied in to a network that would use sophisticated software to spot emergencies or suspicious behavior under a plan announced Thursday by Mayor Richard Daley.

"Cameras are the equivalent of hundreds of sets of eyes. They are the next best thing to having police officers stationed at every potential trouble spot," Daley said.

Emphasis added.

Learn more about surveillance here and here

Overlooked while the Swift Boat lies were being covered

Censored 2005: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2003-2004

1. Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy -- The top 1% of the U.S. population now owns about a third of the wealth in the country...reports released in 2003 by global economy analysis groups warn that further increases in the imbalance in wealth throughout the world will have catastrophic effects...
   
2. Ashcroft vs. the Human Rights Law that Holds Corporations Accountable -- Attorney General John Ashcroft is seeking to strike down one of the world's oldest human rights laws, the Alien Torts Claim Act (ATCA) which holds government leaders, corporations, and senior military officials liable for human rights abuses taking place in foreign countries.
   
3. Bush Administration Censors Science -- Critics charge that the Bush Administration is purging, censoring, and manipulating scientific information in order to push forward its pro-business, anti-environmental agenda.
   
4. High Levels of Uranium Found in Troops and Civilians -- Civilian populations in Afghanistan and Iraq and occupying troops have been contaminated with astounding levels of radioactive depleted and non-depleted uranium as a result of post-9/11 United States' use of tons of uranium munitions.
   
5. The Wholesale Giveaway of Our Natural Resources -- Not since the McKinley era of the late 1800s has there been such a drastic move to scale back preservation of the environment.
   
6. The Sale of Electoral Politics
   
7. Conservative Organization Drives Judicial Appointments
   
8. Cheney's Energy Task Force and The Energy Policy
   
9. Widow Brings RICO Case Against U.S. government for 9/11 -- Ellen Mariani has studied the facts of the day for nearly two years and has come to believe that the White House intentionally allowed 9/11 to happen in order to launch the War on Terrorism...
   
10. New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits
    
11. The Media Can Legally Lie -- Started when Fox news decided to hide facts about dangerous Monsanto products in February 2003, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with an assertion by FOX News that there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States.
    
12. The Destabilization of Haiti
    
13. Schwarzenegger Met with Enron's Ken Lay Years Before the California Recall
    
14. New Bill Threatens Intellectual Freedom in Area Studies
    
15. U.S. Develops Lethal New Viruses -- Scientists funded by the US government have developed a way to make pox viruses incredibly deadly
    
16. Law Enforcement Agencies Spy on Innocent Citizens -- The effort to create a new national intelligence collection, analysis, and sharing system has frightening implications for privacy and other civil liberties.
    
17. U.S. Government Represses Labor Unions in Iraq in Quest for Business Privatization
    
18. Media and Government Ignore Dwindling Oil Supplies
    
19. Global Food Cartel Fast Becoming the World's Supermarket
    
20. Extreme Weather Prompts New Warning from UN -- The UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO reports extreme weather and climate occurrences all over the world Supercomputer models show that, as the atmosphere warms, the climate is not only becoming hotter, but very unstable.
    
21. Forcing a World Market for GMOs
    
22. Censoring Iraq
    
23. Brazil Holds Back in FTAA Talks, But Provides Little Comfort for the Poor of South America
    
24. Reinstating the Draft
    
25. Wal-Mart Brings Inequality and Low Prices to the World

story synopses from John Shirley

Where Was W When?

Simon Woodside has created a great graphic depicting GWB’s service in the Texas National Guard. Mr. Woodside: "I put together this visual explanation of Dubya's Air National Guard service (or lack thereof) based entirely on the released documents to date. My goal was to put the confusing mixture of events and records into some kind of order."

PDF link here.

via Boing-Boing

I guess they found the telephone.

The NYT reports that the White House recently called NBC news president Neal Shapiro to discourage him from broadcasting interviews with Kitty Kelley about her book "Bush Dynasty" on the "Today'' show and "Hardball With Chris Matthews.''

This is the same White House that never called their supporters who were behind the Swift Boat lies to ask them to pull the plug.

Unbelievable

President Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David during his father's tenure in office, and First Lady Laura Bush was a pot-smoking drug dealer in college, according to an Independent summary of claims said to be made in Kitty Kelley's forthcoming book, "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty."

From the Washington Post:

[Peter Gethers, vice president of Random House and Kelley's editor] said Kelley used more unnamed sources in the book than she generally does, but that this doesn't diminish its credibility.

"We either know who the sources are or are extremely confident from what Kitty said that they're genuine," he said. "People are very afraid to go on the record for this book. Kitty is a fearless reporter; even her detractors would acknowledge that. But she's tackling a sitting president of the United States and ex-president of the United States." Potential sources, he said, "are afraid that these people can literally ruin their lives, and ruin them socially in Washington."

I can't speak for anyone else, but I certainly don't believe that these charges could be true. Of course Mr. Bush intentionally misled the nation into war in Iraq, but cocaine use?

I just can't believe that a rich, hard-partying, third-generation son-of-privilege like Mr. Bush would even know where to find cocaine.

I hope that the President is cleared of these scurrilous allegations -- after a thorough airing of the matter in the press.

Update: And even if it were true:

An Alan Keyes Two-fer

In video from CBS-2, Alan Keyes

1. tells us how Jesus would vote and
2. accuses Barack Obama of using "the language of the master who, when he is displeased with the slave, gives him a whipping."

The video is here
(It's entitled "Keyes Says Jesus Would Not Vote For Obama")

Update from Channel 5:

"Christ would not stand idly by while an infant child in that situation died," Keyes said. "And I'm not the only person, obviously, who thinks if you are a representative of me, I cannot vote for you if you would ignore the dignity and claims of that child's life. So, yes, I did respond quite logically -- you'll see it's quite logical, right -- with the conclusion that Christ would not vote for Barack Obama, because Barack Obama has voted to behave in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved."

Update from AP:

Keyes, whose rhetoric concerning gay marriage and abortion has stunned Illinois Republican Party leaders, said Obama's use of the word spanking was "colorful language" and is "the language of the master who, when he is displeased with the slave, gives him a whipping." *** "Christ would not vote for Barack Obama because Barack Obama has voted to behave in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved," Keyes said.

It's not a speech until it's spoken and it's not a Bush speech until it's broken

In his Notebook discussion of Kos' breaking the Bush speech embargo, Eric Zorn said:

There's a certain insider-geek thrill to knowing the news before it happens and reading along with the prepared text of a speech, but it gets old fast. And not only that, big political speeches are as much theater as they are content, and watching a speech with fresh eyes and ears is by far the best way to get a feel for its impact. *** In the end, not many people are going to want to do it and such leaking wouldn't be worth trying to stop even if it were possible.

But Mr. Zorn left out the best argument against reading the prepared text of a Bush speech -- that the text often doesn't contain Mr. Bush's most revealing statements. For instance it is unlikely that the prepared text of Monday's speech contained this revelation from Mr. Bush:

Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB-GYNS aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country.

From the Tribune Company's Los Angeles Times

Anything but Grand

Mathew Gross on George W. Bush:

The AP has just reported that the 1000th American soldier has been killed in Iraq.

That's 883 Americans since George W. Bush declared "Mission Accomplished."

That's 795 Americans since George W. Bush declared "Bring Them On."

That's 588 Americans since the capture of Saddam Hussein.

And folks, it ain't over yet.

Remember the good old days when the Saudi royal family only controlled our energy policy

Sen. Bob Graham says two of the 9/11 hijackers had a support network in the U.S. that included agents of the Saudi government, and that the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship.

Newsweek has more from Mr. Graham's "Intelligence Matters."

"W stands for wrong. Wrong choices. Wrong direction."

On "Meet the Press," Sen. Bob Graham said that in February 2002, Gen. Tommy Franks told him that resources were being shifted from Afghanistan in preparation for invading Iraq.

Bloodiest Month for U.S. Troops in Iraq

From The Washington Post:

About 1,100 U.S. soldiers and Marines were wounded in Iraq during August, by far the highest combat injury toll for any month since the war began and an indication of the intensity of battles flaring in urban areas.

***

The sharp rise in wounded was, for the first time, accompanied by a far less steep climb in battlefield fatalities. Since the start of the war in March 2003, 979 U.S. troops have died in Iraq and almost 7,000 have been wounded. Until last month, however, the monthly tallies of fatalities and wounded rose and fell roughly in proportion.

In August, 66 U.S. service personnel were killed in Iraq, according to the Defense Department. The toll was the highest since May, when 80 fatalities were recorded.

Stating the Obvious, Parts I and II

Part I from The Lincoln Courier:

"It shouldn't be a surprise to those who picked Mr. Keyes that there would be these moments that might make people uncomfortable," said state Sen. Kirk Dillard, a state central committeeman from Hinsdale who backed a different nominee.

Part II from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

"I think Alan Keyes needs to start listening," said state Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Pontiac. He expressed a common and growing frustration among Illinois GOP officials who worry that Keyes - a two-time presidential candidate - is in full national soap-box mode, without taking into consideration the moderate nuances of Illinois Republicanism. "He needs to listen to the people who know how to win elections in the Republican Party in Illinois. . . . This is about winning elections. If that's his intent, he needs to get on the dime and get it done."

But was it ever really about winning elections?

"People are suspicious of ideology or absolutism and much more interested in solving problems."

The staff of the QUAD-CITY TIMES Springfield Bureau recently sat down with Barack Obama for an exclusive “One-on-One” interview. Here are some fair-use abusing exerpts:

Q: What are the issues in Illinois?

.

A: The first is the long-term, structural loss of jobs in the state, that fact that the jobs we’re losing are the $25-an-hour jobs and the ones that are being created are $7- and $8-an-hour jobs. That’s something the people are very concerned about.

.

I think they’re very concerned about the ever-escalating price of health care — not just people who don’t have health insurance, but people who do but who’ve seen their premiums and deductibles go up repeatedly and small businesses that are having trouble getting health insurance for their workers.

***

Q: As you’ve traveled around the state, what has most surprised you most about Illinois — particularly since you’re fighting the stereotype of being a Chicago Democrat?

.

A: I’m struck by how decent people are all around this state. The Midwestern values that I grew up on continue to thrive in communities all across the state: hard work, decency, common sense, the fact that people are suspicious of ideology or absolutism and much more interested in solving problems.

***

Q: For the better part of the past two years, the Republican spin machine has been intent on painting you as left-winger. How do you respond to that sort of absolutism?

.

A: The problem is that they make these assertions, but when you press them on specifics, it is a pretty thin gruel that they are offering up.

***

Q: When you speak in General Assembly debate, you seem to emphasize the points Republicans and Democrats have in common on an issue. Is that by design?

.

A: That’s how politics should work. I’m not in politics just to score points or make other people look bad or to diminish them in some fashion. What I’m interested in is lifting up people and creating a climate where we can work together to solve our common problems.

***

Q: Who are your political heroes?

.

A: We all have personal heroes … my mother and some other people I have known in my life. I guess publicly it would be Lincoln, Gandhi, King. I’m a huge admirer of political leaders who transform the debate. They don’t just take the debate as it exists and work that, but rather they create a whole new language and a whole new way of thinking about our obligations to each other and our ideals.

Be sure to read the whole interview.

"It starts right here, it starts right now, and it starts with us.

Barack Obama spoke to some of the sixteen hundred workers in Galesburg who will soon lose their jobs when Maytag shuts down their Galesburg plant and moves production to another country.

"How do I make sure a situation like what's happening in Galesburg does not happen again? How can I make sure ordinary folks get a decent shot at life?” says U.S. Senate Candidate Barack Obama to hundreds of cheering Galesburg residents.

***

“Because it took us 20 years to get in this hole, it's taking 20 years to get out, but its starts right here, it starts right now, and it starts with us,” says Obama.

From WHOI

"If you want to be first, you have to be first in service."

Barack Obama spoke to a standing-room-only crowd of supporters in East St. Louis about his visit to the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., where a bomb exploded on Sept. 15, 1963, killing four young black girls. He said that experience helped put his post-Democratic Convention status as a rising star in perspective.

It's easy to get swept up in the hoopla, to read your name in the papers and to see yourself on TV," he said. "And all of that is fun. But standing in that church in Birmingham, Ala., I realized and I reminded myself that the reason you get into public service is not for yourself. It's not about your family. It's not about your vanity. It's not about your ambition. If you want to be first, you have to be first in service.

from St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Alan Keyes: Far-Right Drag Queen?

Aaron Chambers of the Rockford Register Star says Alan Keyes is just too flaming for Illinois.

Big Jim: Obama looks moderate

From the Lincoln Courier:

Critics say Obama — like Keyes, an African American — is too liberal to represent Illinois. But former Gov. James R. Thompson, a Republican who supported abortion and equal rights for women, said Obama "looks pretty moderate to me" compared to the ultra-conservative GOP candidate.

"I’m just not voting for Alan Keyes," Thompson, an at-large delegate, said. He declined to say who he will vote for Nov. 2.

Keyes defends Illinois from the threat of adequate healthcare

In this AP story from the San Jose Mercury News, Alan Keys declares,"The way I win votes is by persuading people, not by manipulating them with deceit."

[Keyes] accused Obama, a state senator, of softening his positions to make them more palatable to voters.

"His record is the record of a hard-line, academic, Marxist socialist, who wants a government takeover of health care, who voted for infanticide because of his position on taking innocent human life and so forth," Keyes said.

Asked for examples that would support that claim concerning Obama's record, Keyes cited legislation introduced by the South Side senator that would have guaranteed all Illinois residents access to adequate health care.

Obama would guarantee all Illinois residents access to adequate health care?!?

What a MONSTER!

George W. Bush: Words Speak Louder Than Actions

From the Daily Show: George W. Bush's Words

Admit it, you were thinking it too...

Wonkette:

We wish Clinton all the best with the bypass surgery and all. Really, we do. But we also want to know the truth: Is this Bill just hogging the spotlight again or is this the influence of those crafty former Clintonites at KE04, stealing the spotlight from Bush's post-convention bounce? ("Hey, Bill, let's skip that jog and head to Mickey D's. . . ")

Baby Talk

The Boston Globe reports that "White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said yesterday that President Bush views America as a '10-year-old child' in need of the sort of protection provided by a parent."

A Kerry spokesman, seizing on Card's characterization of Bush as a parental figure for the nation, contended that the president had failed.

''Any parent that ran a household the way George W. Bush runs the country would find themselves in bankruptcy court on the way to family court," said Phil Singer, a Kerry spokesman. ''Just over the last year, 1.3 million people have fallen into poverty, including 700,000 children, and 1.4 million people have lost their health insurance while family incomes have declined three years in a row. America can do better."

Ironically, I view George W. Bush as a 10-year-old child in need of the sort of time-out provided by a parent.

Maybe it means John Ashcroft doesn't respect reading

Jessa Crispin of Bookslut asks

Not to get too political, but did anyone notice this in the Republican party platform:

Our Party believes, as does the President, that reading is the new civil right.

I'm not even sure what that means. This, from the party that brought us the surveillance of your library records? Somebody please explain to me what the fuck that means.

I think it means that the national GOP is fundamentally ignorant with regard to the meaning of the words "civil rights."

See also: Constitutional Amendment 'Protecting' Marriage.

Has Kerry been playing "Rope-a-Dope"?

Angry at being called "unfit to serve" by those who never did, John Kerry finally, finally, FINALLY fights back:

"The vice president called me unfit for office last night," Kerry told thousands of supporters who waited in the darkness to see him in Ohio. "I'm going to leave it to you to decide whether five deferments makes someone more qualified to defend this nation than two tours of duty."

***

"Let me tell you what I think makes someone unfit for duty. Misleading our nation into war in Iraq makes you unfit to lead this country. Doing nothing while this nation loses millions of jobs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting 45 million Americans go without healthcare for four years makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting the Saudi royal family control the price of oil for Americans makes you unfit to lead this country. Handing out billions of dollars in contracts without a bid to Halliburton while you're still on their payroll makes you unfit to lead this country.

"That, my friends, is the record of George Bush and Dick Cheney, and that only begins to scratch the surface. This president has misled American workers and misled the American people."

Sweet Baby J! Where has this guy been and where can we get some more?

Via Salon

Get Your Republican National Convention On

I'll bet he doesn't think much of those teens in the baggy dungarees either.

5ives, Merlin's lists of five things, presents:

Five things that are getting under Zell Miller’s hide

1. John Kerry openly supports difficult-to-open jars of hard candy
2. Dueling pistols now stored behind the counter at the Wal-Mart
3. Do-nothing liberal colleagues want to cut his generous coffee and Vivarin stipend
4. That ole’ possum just keeps a-gettin’ into his seed corn
5. Who keeps moving his slippers?

Is Zell Miller barking mad or was his performance another step in the elaborate plan to make Alan Keyes look comparatively semi-reasonable.

Denny Hastert and Lyndon H. LaRouche

Slate's Jack Shafer makes a compelling argument that this statement by the Speaker of the House proves that Dennis Hastert is an "an absolute nut job." But perhaps more significantly, he identifies the likely source of Denny's information:

Where did Hastert get the notion that Soros might be getting money from drug cartels? A good guess would be the organization headed by political fantasist, convicted felon, and perpetual presidential candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. This campaign literature from the "LaRouche in 2004" Web site, dated Oct. 29, 2003, makes the drug charge directly:

Years of investigation by LaRouche's associates have answered that question in grisly detail: Soros's money comes from impoverishment of the poor countries against whose currencies he speculates, and from deadly mind-destroying, terrorism-funding drugs.

(Emphasis in the original.)

The LaRouchie slander of Soros dates back to the early '90s. Michael Lewis recorded an anti-Soros protest by LaRouche followers in a Jan. 10, 1994, profile in the New Republic. Since then, the drug charge has been a LaRouche literature mainstay. See, for example, this cached copy of a 2002 interview with LaRouche from his organization's Executive Intelligence Review.

Is Denny really crazy or is he quoting LaRouchie "investigations" as part of an elaborate plan to make Alan Keyes look comparatively semi-reasonable?

Either way Illinois Republicans must be beaming with pride.

Michelle Obama profile

Michelle Obama is profiled in this week's WomanNews in the Tribune:

Always a disciplined and serious student, the former Michelle Robinson followed her plan from early on. It took her to Princeton University, to Harvard Law School, and on to a career at one of Chicago's top law firms. Then she met Barack Obama, a smart, charismatic young lawyer who changed her plans forever.

Note: I hesitate to consider what Alan Keyes thinks are the moral and spiritual ramifications of my reading WomanNews.

Staying on Message

This interview with cognitive linguist and cultural commentator George Lakoff, author of the forthcoming book, Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, provides some insight into the Republicans' precise interweaving of message and language at their National Convention.

(Well, of course some of the Republicans have strayed from the Convention's official message of moderation.)

An earlier interview with Lakoff.

via Boing Boing