I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Plus, they look FRENCH!
DUH!
Yes, Kerry is flying under the radar, bypassing the impossibly biased big media and going direct to the voters.
Well, of course. Why spend time and energy fighting a losing war, as Bush is doing in Iraq?
Kerry is changing the playing field. He's playing on his terms.
That is damn smart.
D'Oh!
The response of the Oregon media thus far to the Kerry rally this afternoon in Portland has been overwhelmingly positive. When the major outlets inform Oregonians that George W. Bush drew 1,000 when John Kerry drew 50,000 (!!!!)(not a typo--he drew 50,000 according to Portland Fire and Rescue), it says a lot. I write about the event and its effects on the state here (http://basie.blogspot.com/2004/08/kerry-in-
oregon-huge-succe_109243602140604222.html).
Big media has pretty much discredited itself.
In the blogopshere, we obsess on it. But most people don't.
Kerry is smart enough to realize what relics they are. They are discredited. They are even writing their own mea culpas in the Times and WaPo.
Gore won the popular vote in 2000 with a much less effective campaign and an equally nasty media, if not worse.
Give the guy some credit. Big media has shot its wad, and lost.
Calling it right now: If Kerry/Edwards gets more than 200 electoral votes, I'd be very surprised.
This campaign has been weak and inept. Allowing Bush/Cheney to define you is unacceptable.
This one is over. The fat lady has sung and is preparing to get into the limosine.
Thaddy,
Thanks for your opinion.
Thaddy -
Yeah fuck it . . . let's all just roll over . . . dipshit
Big media has shot its wad, and lost. - Alan S
I think you may be right. Things are changing. Major Media has trivialized itself right out of the discussion. How can you listen to any parts of a network that has "reality shows" as it's ratings generator? It's a new era. The Web Mammals are sucking the eggs of the Dinosaur Media. They're going extinct but they just don't know it yet.
doesn't Kerry already have more than 200 Electoral votes?
I'm calling it right now.
thaddy boy, this thread is about to slap you down "big time".
To get better coverage for Kerry, compared to what he is getting, is what Carville recommended in Boston, that is more flat out intimidation of media members. Most of the media seems to be doing what it can for Kerry - for example, you can't beat Thursday's op-ed slamming the Swift vets as a sleazy outfit, without ever mentioning their specific allegations. It's tougher to get better coverage than that. Perhaps the campaign ought to look into getting larger spokespeople with bigger foreheads, rather than people who are better spoken or who make stronger arguments. I would recommend the Steamfitters union.
this explains why nationwide polls (Gallup today) say Kerry is tied or is behind but local ones say he is ahead in battle ground states. Like somebody said before: red states are getting redder, but purple ones are turning blue.
Lets hope the blue ones that Kerry is ignoring dont turn purple in the process. (cough CA cough)
They are kicking *major* ass in their campaign tour.
The only time shrub gets nearly the reception that Kerry does is when the audience is a military academy.
This campaign has been weak and inept. Allowing Bush/Cheney to define you is unacceptable.
Yes. That's why K/E are ahead in the polls despite BushCo having blown millions and millions and millions on negative advertising. That's why when the SBVT came out in April and sang their song of woe, Kerry pulled ahead of Bush in state after state. That's why after this latest round of SBVT attacks, Bush has lost his five-point lead in Ohio.
With failure like Kerry's, who needs success?
Yeah, it looks like it's pretty much over.
Electoral-vote.com, a nonpartisan site, has the current breakdown at 327 for Kerry, and 211 for Bush.
As S in Mich so eloquently put it, "Collect your shit and get the fuck out of OUR White House."
Kerry was also boffo in southern Oregon, he drew a packed house in 100+ temperatures (between 6 and 9 thousand). The press coverage was as good as could be expected in a fairly conservative local market, better than when Cheney was in town a week or two ago. I do not think he will win over a lot of Republicans here but he might get some of the independents and IMO the key may be to get Repubs to stay home this time around, many are uneasy with Bush and if Kerry can look presidential, they might be alright with letting it happen. Interestingly, as much as I like Teresa, she does not play well with consevatives, even though she was a Repub for what, 10-20 years? I do not know why strong women make Repubs uptight, but it seems to be the case. Anyway, Kerry dominated the news, big front page spread, great full page of pictures, and the anti-rally (starring Flipper of course) drew maybe 100, and I understand that was a generous estimate. Just the fact that he is willing to face Bush on his own turf is a real sign of strength and, of course, the event was totally open to anyone, unlike the other guy.
Let's look at the results. The polls are spectacular! Gallup is a complete outlier. Every other poll, even Fox, shows Kerry pulling ahead.
But there is still all this hand wringing and second guessing by nervous nellies.
Big media is going to turn around slowly, as they realize they are on the losing side. All they understand is power, and guess what? They are losing it.
Look at the results. Kerry is forging an insurountable lead.
And don't feed the trolls.
Thanks, Scrutinizer.
that's what i was looking for.
so Kerry already has 327 Electoral Votes.
Hey Thad,looks like you are waaaaay off.
better get that fat lady back in here.
Actually, the REALLY interesting thing at electoral-vote.com is that Kerry was at 307 electoral votes only YESTERDAY!
In other words, after a solid week of SBVT shrieking and waling and rending of garments...Kerry picked up 20 more electoral votes.
Adios, El Chimpo.
"[T]he beltway journalists/cable news bobbleheads/talk radio set" are always running to get in front of the parade, and thereby claim they are leading it.
To confuse their opinion of themselves with reality is dangerous.
Just as dangerous as imagining that blogging and posting on blogs is somehow influential in the "larger" world.
It may be Kerry is outsmarting this very group by not giving them much credence. Clinton was mocked for "feeling your pain" and playing sax on Arsenio (gee, are you old if you remember him?). But it worked.
Kerry may be running a similar campaign. Right now, anyway, it makes sense. It's August; Bush is getting no traction; Bush may get some traction from the GOP Convention; and if the polls are right and people have made up their minds, then Kerry seems to be winning where he needs to.
And after 4 years, what does Bush really have to say, except to lie about Kerry? It's really all he's got, and it really isn't worth that much.
So maybe Kerry is on to something.
i really think kerry knows what he's doing. keep in mind how surprised people were by his early primary victories. the guy knows how to win elections. i think he is just avoiding bickering over trivia, which makes him look good.
And don't feed the trolls.
Alan S.
Are you kidding me? If it weren't for this troll, I wouldn't have noticed that Kerry gained 20 electoral votes in the wake of the SBVT attacks, and my night would be a little more somber than it is right now.
I'm thinking of mailing Thaddy a box of chocolates out of sheer gratitude.
On the negative side, the campaign also seems unprepared for all of the mud, slime and dirty tricks coming their way.
It goes beyond not having good enough surrogates. They do not have a sound strategy in place for dealing with the coordinated attacks and attempt to ridicule Kerry into the image of a wimpy wishy washy mushy indecisive limp liberal noodle.
My prediction soon after Kerry sewed up the nomination was that he would have to destroy bush (bush's credibility) before bush destroyed him, because the attacks will be too fast and furious and spun and spun by the echo chamber to effectively to be able to defend against them.` The only sure defense is to destroy Bush's credibility early on so that the attacks lack credibility and backfire on bush.
They imply they are willing, ready and able to do this with their "nothing will be off the table" posturing that has surfaced again. I hope they don't wait too long to deploy whatever it is they have.
Can they mobilize more short burst and targetted road tours?
I like the very soundstage-like quality of the Bush/Pawlenty photo on the main page of the Minnesota Governor's Office.
i don't think shrub will get much out of the convention, robert. there is no way you can get that many conservatives together in an emotionally charged setting like nyc on the anniversary of 9/11 without having a lot of really wacko stuff being said publically on videotape.
Kerry picked up Ohio in the latest electoral-vote.com results. That's where the 20 came from.
Re conflicting (and close) national polls & decent battle ground state polls --
Not that I'd like it, but I'd take a 2 point popular vote loss and an electoral vote victory - could happen
On the negative side, the campaign also seems unprepared for all of the mud, slime and dirty tricks coming their way.
I think they know exactly what they are up against. Teresa Heinz certainly does and she's been dealing with Scaife for years. You honestly think Kerry never noticed?
I credit them with playing their cards close to the chest.
But why the hell is Kerry saying he would still vote to authorize the use of force. That really disappointed me. He should have said "knowing now how incompetent this administration is, i would not authorize them to drive my car" or something.
They do not have a sound strategy in place for dealing with the coordinated attacks and attempt to ridicule Kerry into the image of a wimpy wishy washy mushy indecisive limp liberal noodle.
Again, that would explain why Kerry gained 20 electoral votes in the wake of the SBVT attacks.
Sheesh. If Kerry's campaign is a failure to date, I can't wait 'til he starts trying to win.
i wouldn't even let him wash my car.
There is a lot of water still to go over the dam between now and November. If we get some real news stories, like, say, another 9-11, and the idea is not outlandish, Kerry is going to need way better national surrogates than he has right now. Duncan is correct, Kerry is very effective at retail politics, but if something happens that has Joe and Ethel turning to the broadcast channels and the cable shows, even the patented Dem attack dog, Jim Carville, hasn't exactly been tearing it up on Crossfire and Jamie Rubin has been unprepared on his last few outings. The Repubs are running professionals and we're still in the gifted amateur class. RoveCheney are relentless and it looks like our team is still taking the weekends off. It's brutal, but that's the way the game is played now.
Kerry knows the mude and worse is coming. Why do you think he is traveling by train and bus? He remembers Paul Welstone. There is nothing that is beyond the pale for these guys. Let's face it, we're being ruled by an organized crime family. The Sopranos would have done a better job.
I whole heartedly agree. But, to "turn the corner", to borrow the Lesser's line, we need to control the national picture. Once done, Chimp is done. I think the Dems and the Kerry campaign have done a good job not only energizing the base but getting them aboard the Kerry wagon not just the ABB wagon. They just need to gain control of the national pr. Once the conventional wisdom is that W is toast, Bush can only hope for "something big" to happen between now and November. To use the old and tired baseball analogy, this election is on third base and Kerry just needs that base hit to win this thing.
i don't think shrub will get much out of the convention, robert.
I honestly don't expect it, either.
But...never say never, eh?
Ooog. Some Tom Waits on the internet radio...something I've not heard before...
It's good to stay up late....
The fat lady may have sung, but hardly anyone's listening. My first involvement in politics was stuffing mailboxes in Phila., PA in 1950 for Joe Clark and Richardson Dilworth, my first vote was for the first JFK in 1960, and I'm obsessing on this election, but most of my colleagues and acquantainces aren't yet paying attention: a quick survey the other day yielded 0 for 5 who had even heard of the swift boat liars.
My wife and I recently completed a 4300 mile trip from LA to KS, then to CT, back to PA then through VA, GA, AL to LA: I saw exactly *three* Bush-Cheney 04 bumper stickers: one outside of Memphis, one in Overland Park, KS, one in VA. Even in very depressed towns in PA (Mahanoy City, Shenandoah) with flags on nearly every front porch, there were no Bush-Cheney signs or stickers.
I'm enough of an historian to know that anything can happen between now and 2 November (history is what I do for a living), but I'm certain that if the election were this Tues., Kerrey would will more than 300 EVs. September and/or October surprises could change that but, right now, I think that another 9/11 type attack would doom Bush to a Dukakis-level loss.
Brownshirt T is the latest model to roll out of Unka Karl's boilerroom: the supposedly embittered "Dem" who thinks its time to face facts - Kerry's going down. He's been flooding Drum's site with 'em the past couple of days, since the regular cast of moronic brownshirt fucks has become so desperate, you can smell the flopsweat.
This one won't work either...
Funny how the use of the word "insensitive" appears in the first paragraph of this Nedra Pickler piece on "Bush, Kerry Trade Charges Over Tax Cuts."
It is not a direct quote... so it seems like an SCLM attempt to frame the "sensitivity" smear on Kerry into a larger campaign theme (in order to discrediit Kerry, of course).
XXXXXXXXXX
By NEDRA PICKLER and SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writers
President Bush (news - web sites) traded one refrain for another Friday, saying he is "getting the job done" on the economy and more. Not so, said Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), criticizing administration tax cuts as insensitive to the middle class as he ended a 22-state tour.
I'm finding this studdy veddy interesting. Sorry if I first saw it here, I've been on several blogs today and can't remember anymore where I found it
Headline: Terrorism fears no longer helping Bush, study finds
Click my "homepage" for the link
Re. post above, I should also say to associate "insensitive" with Bush since the hypocrisy of Cheney's and the SCLM's "sensitivity" attack made it onto the Daily Show last night.
As for the electoral vote map Central Scrutinizer linked to, isn't it kind of a story that the Carolinas are "Weak Bush"?
would will = would win. Sorry
here's another thing i've noticed which is different from last time around. in 2000, the right wing wurlitzer relentlessly covered gore events and publicized their spin on them. they aren't doing that this time and i think i know why. bush's campaign is entirely made for television. otherwise why would you exclude non-supporters from your campaign stops? i think their efforts are all going towards trying to make shrub look good on tv and they don't have time/money to misrepresent kerry's events.
But why the hell is Kerry saying he would still vote to authorize the use of force. That really disappointed me.
A) He was asked the hypothetical question about INTELLIGENCE. The question wasn't, "If you'd known how bad Bush was going to fuck up, would you have given him that authority?"
You're making a logical error by thinking that what Kerry said indicates "he would still vote to authorize force." That inference would be logical onbly if there were no other problems with the war. If that seems "nuanced," too bad. It's not that complicated, and if we can't understand it, we have no business electing presidents in the first place.
B) As someone who watched Kerry throughout Iran/Contra, and in other hearings...he's not even remotely stupid. He's got an extremely sharp legalistic mind, as befits an effective prosecutor, and he's EXTREMELY tough and sly. In most cases, it's safe to assume that he says what he says for a reason; lawyers who aren't very attentive to shades of meaning in language don't get as far as he has. He knows what BushCo is going to do, and what the media's going to do, and he knows how he's going to handle it. And I suspect there won't be enough of Bush left to bury by the time this campaign's over.
I don't think the campaign is a failure. I'm actually impressed with a lot of it and where they are in the polls. But Kerry has had a lot of help from outside events. Bush took a royal pounding during the spring/early summer. And Kerry has stumbled some this week as the attacks have intensified. He is on the defensive, or at least he has not been able to get his message out effectively. The attacks have been getting all of the attention.
Past dem losses have shown how important it is to not let the other side destroy your credibility and message with dirty tricks and slime attacks. Gore, Dukakis, Mondale, Carter all fell to a similar type of GOP ridicule/mocking attacks on their character and competence.
This just seems like a very important and dangerous period in the campaign. And Kerry does not seem to be on top of it as well as I was hoping, at least this week. Here's hoping they prove me a worry wart know nothing!
Bush cartels radical, undemocratic overhaul of U.S. regulations.
Re conflicting (and close) national polls & decent battle ground state polls --
Not that I'd like it, but I'd take a 2 point popular vote loss and an electoral vote victory - could happen
"kerry has had a lot of help from outside events."
i agree. shrub's numerous gigantic failures have worked to kerry's advantage.
...an immediate problem is the wack media is now parroting the bush press releases... not the message, but the buzz-words, i have heard faux, of course, and pumpkin, but even Brokaw use the word "mock" that's what they have workshopped...if he is mockable.. he is not presidential...they are also, trying to co-op the tag "serious" candidate and attache it to Cheney, seemingly to offset, the incoherence of the Chimp...they must be challenged with thier false statements of folly...
How hysterical was it to read headlines on Friday morning that informed me that Cheney was attacking Kerry for advocating sensitivity during the War on Terror, and then hearing on NPR that the big offensive on Najaf had been called off so that Muktada al Sadr could negotiate with representatives of the sovereign government of Iraq?
Let me end the suspense and tell you it was pretty hysterical.
Apparently the populations of many Iraqi towns were upset about the desecration of the temple in Najaf. The U.S. military decided to take this into account.
what was the tom waits song, robert?
what was the tom waits song, robert?
"Tango til their sore," from the "Raindogs" album. Or CD. Or whatever.
Another gap in my musical library to be filled.
thats a great song. great album.
Apparently the populations of many Iraqi towns were upset about the desecration of the temple in Najaf. The U.S. military decided to take this into account.
"None Dare Call It Sensitivity."
"Just as dangerous as imagining that blogging and posting on blogs is somehow influential in the "larger" world."
Um, you just MIGHT want to ask Trent Lott about how little influence blogs have on "the real world".
Dan Perkins and his SITE kept the story alive, and one of his readers found a third smoking gun quote of Lott's that pretty much sealed his fate.
And frankly, I've seen a few things here and on other blogs that lead me to believe that what we find and reveal here can wind up in the SCLM a few days later.
thats a great song. great album.
Yeah. Tom always fits the mood, when it's late at night.
small change is still my favorite tom waits record.
this place generally turns into a music chat room late at night. just thought i'd warn everyone.
Committed, passionate supporters of either party tend to think their candidates ought to be more like themselves; but there's no point in appealing to the true believers if a strident approach turns off the swing voters who are, after all, the most wishy-washy and slow-witted segment of the voting public.. Effective national campaigns are always rather disappointing to us zealots since we're not in the target demographic.
I mind losing. I don't mind grumbling.
I think this motherfucker hinges on the motherfucking debates.
Kerry knows that if he's in a position where Bush has to land a knockout blow in the debates... it's over, motherfuckers.
Kerry's strategy is motherfucking based on the motherfucking fact that if he can act like the statesmanlike motherfucker and the sitting president can't, that motherfucker is motherfucking, well, motherfucked.
(This really is shrewd analysis. I just dropped my laptop on my toe, hence the expletives. Motherfucker!)
In a perfect world, someone in the media would note that Bush's one main, unfailing talent is that he can mock others. We can forget the Karla Faye Tucker moment?
The mocking Bush is the non stuttering Bush. He's at his most confortable. And all that would be fine if he was the kid at the back of the room who smirked and tossed spitballs. As a president, it makes for a thin resume.
I'm very glad to hear the local level politics is so strong. As inept as the big media may be, they're still very influential, of course. If I hear just one more person tell me that Kerry is liberal or voted against the troops...
Jaysus.
But thanks for the positive report.
We should remember no campaign is without bumps.
The attacks have been getting all of the attention.
Well, you know...Gore DID win the popular vote. And he ran one of the worst campaigns in history, with twice as much hostility from the media.
Bush can't win a fair election.
When you read this shit all day, you get a distorted viewpoint. You know how many people in this country have ever heard of Ann Coulter? If memory serves, it's below ten percent.
You know how during the anti-war protests, a group of fifteen potbellied jerkoffs in stars-n-stripes bandannas could get equal billing on the news with 500,000 anti-war folks? Same principle.
The mainstream print media, in particular, have barely touched the SBVT. And even with cable news flogging the SBVT, Kerry's gained ground after a solid week of deranged attacks that'd make a normal candidate wilt like celery in the microwave.
But beyond that, sitting back and letting Bush's failed policies sink his presidency is a great idea. There's too much chaos for the Bush folks to stay on message...and remember, Kerry may know of some upcoming problems for BushCo that we don't. If one of the dozens of scandals brewing breaks wide open, Kerry can send a talking Elmo doll to the debates as a surrogate and still win by a mile. Whatever Sy Hersh, for instance, knows about Abu Ghraib or Halliburton, you can't bet Kerry knows at least double that.
Um, you just MIGHT want to ask Trent Lott about how little influence blogs have on "the real world.
And yet, Trent Lott is still in the Senate, no?
"A patch of ice doth not a winter make/Nor a single swallow, summer."
Blogs (and especially their comments pages) quickly take on all the worst aspects of "echo chambers," where the posters (at least) are convinced their words are the voice of unheard millions, and that they are re-shaping democracy.
It was that tendency toward hubris I was warning against. Never start believing your own press reports, or it's all over but the cryin'.
"And a German dwarf dances with the butcher's son . . ."
You can't make this stuff up. Oh, yeah, I guess he did. God bless TW.
By the way, what's he *building* in there?
Well, some of the EVs being counted in that tabulation are from states that are "Weak Kerry," so there's a chance Kerry won't take all of them. I still think it's looking good, though, for August. Would i love Kerry to be up 20 or more percentage points? Sure, but not possible with this year's electorate at this point in the campaign.
I do expect Bush to win back a few waverers with the convention, and so gain a modest bounce in the polls. I also expect this modest bounce to be spun out of all recognition as an amazing comeback by Faux and the other wingnut organs, and picked up by the more mainstream outfits, who will be desperate to keep this as a horse race.
I also expect more attacks of the Swift Boat type, so I hope the Kerry campaign gets its game together.
I>small change is still my favorite tom waits record.
"Small change got rained on with his own .38"
Yeah, great stuff. Have to admit deep affection (it's the maudlin streak in me) for "Somewhere" off "Blue Valentine." Although "Step Right Up" is classic. Ah, there are too many, can't start listing 'em all or I won't stop.
"when you read this shit all day, you get a distorted viewpoint."
good point. we really do forget thet sometimes i think.
i agree. shrub's numerous gigantic failures have worked to kerry's advantage.
You're right about that. Bush's own failures and failings have been the biggest help of all. But Bush has been able to win 3 elections now despite his obvious shortcomings and life chock full of fialures, primarily by destroying his opponent and relying on his so called folksy charm.
i've been listening to "frank's wild years" a lot lately. it never really grew on me when it came out, but there is some great stuff on it.
...we/kerry needs to lay off any dead weight and lower the salary cap to get Carville in here full time...the pundits seem deferent to the likes of him...don't get complacent...two months is more than enough time to construct a sewer the likes of which we can only imagine....
Kerry's strategy is motherfucking based on the motherfucking fact that if he can act like the statesmanlike motherfucker and the sitting president can't, that motherfucker is motherfucking, well, motherfucked.
Spoken like a true fucking patriot and a cocksucking gentleman. Tell old man Satan to throw another log on the fire, 'cause El Chimpo's riding that Hellbound Train to Gehenna and points south.
"And a German dwarf dances with the butcher's son . . ."
"English as She Is Spoke"? I was just looking at that today, and this sounds strangely familiar.
I wonder....(well, something to do tomorrow, when the store is open!)
All of the handwringing about Kerry and his campaign isn't going to change the fact Bush is going to get another term.
And Bush and company don't even have to work all that hard when they have somebody who is SO godawfully untalented and ridiculous an opponent as John Kerry. John Edwards can't bail him out, and Edwards is smart to keep a low profile so he can prepare himself for 2008, since he was denied the nomination he should have had this year.
One thing to bear in mind is Democrats should NEVER allow the media, in bed with the Republicans, to pick their nominee during the primaries by declaring him "electable." Additionally, so-called "leaders" of the DNC shouldn't help the Republicans by frontloading their primaries, making it likely the weakest candidate to prevail. And finally, people need to wake the hell up and realize that the old rules of electing candidates don't work anymore after 2000. Democrats are in grave danger of being a token political party to be used by the other side if they don't wake the hell up.
_English As She is Spoke_, a classic.
Nighthawks at the Diner has always been my fav.
i've been listening to "frank's wild years" a lot lately. it never really grew on me when it came out, but there is some great stuff on it.
That took a while to grow on me. On "swordfishtrombones," isn't it? All of those took awhile, but I finally came around.
Nighthawks at the Diner has always been my fav.
"Big John and Phantom 309."
My introduction to Waits.
I'm gonna have to go see if I still have these albums in my collection. It's been a long time.
See, what keeps me positive about this election (oh,how my wife would laugh if she heard me claiming to be positive about this), is that I really believe that the internecine warfare between Bush's people and everyone else is what'll really decide the election. I just don't think he's got enough friends in high places at this point. All it takes is another Daniel Ellsberg, or another John Dean, and Bush'll be lucky if he's simply allowed to throw the election and walk away with his billions in profits.
change your shorts
change your life
change into a nine year old hindu boy
get ridda your wife
-tom waits
Ever heard Waits doing 'Waltzing Matilda'? It's brillant.
yeah. there's a song called frank's wild years" on swordfishtrombones, but there is also a whole album which is unrelated. it's an operacchi romantico in 2 acts.
...trouble
Matthews Q: 'did you speak to the people on his boat?'
O'neil A: 'we had a private detective go ask'
...they are working 24/7...every lie, innuendo, and misremembered truth...the worse the better...independants are not immune to laziness and reflex...
The "press" in the United States is a pack of whores. There's no way that surrogates or Senator Kerry can get honest coverage. It's a huge problem, but let's not blame Senator Kerry, the people in his campaign, or his surrogates. American "journalists" have no honor, and their only allegiance is to America's enemies, so the Crawford Coward will always get fawning coverage while patriots like Senator Kerry will be slandered.
Let's realize that Senator Kerry still leads in the polls, which, especially in the case of Gallup, are fixed for the Grand Theft Party, so let's try to realize that perhaps the Senator and his team are doing what they have to do to save America from these deserters, cowards, and traitors.
[from the black steel pulpit of utter condemnation]
Yes..."Bush'll be lucky to walk away with his BILLIONS" in stolen and corruption-based profits...
...no, really, that would be lucky...
damn it...
yeah. waltzing matilda is on small change. every song on that record is great.
Ever heard Waits doing 'Waltzing Matilda'? It's brillant.
I love the Pogues' version of that. It makes yuo want to open a vein and pour Bushmill's into it.
I don't understand why "protestor" has become the standard term for someone who goes to a political event to oppose the candidate. Why aren't they just "demonstrators"? What is someone protesting against when they go to a Bush event or a Kerry event to hold up a hostile placard? The fact that Bush is President? The fact that Kerry dares to stand for election?
It used to be that "protestors" were people who were agitating for or against some cause -- racial justice, for example, or the war in Vietnam -- not just expressing their preference in the next election.
Thersites: (This really is shrewd analysis. I just dropped my laptop on my toe, hence the expletives. Motherfucker!)
Oh, you think that's bad? I've spent the last 36 hours in the throes of a motherfucking agonizing gout attack. At 2:00 a.m. last night, if I'd had a chainsaw, I'd have cut my motherfuckin' foot off. As it was, I got an hour's sleep at a time, on and off, through this afternoon.
I've been drinkin' water like a mofo. Ouch!
.
OT, but has anyone else seen a rise in local gas prices? the gas station I tend to notice the most since I pass it practically every day hasn't changed prices in about 3-4 weeks, even though crude prices have hit record highs. is this a local anomoly or are the oil companies taking a hit to keep aWol from looking bad in exchange for favors from his administration?
the pogues were great too. i love that one about a pair of brown eyes.
pgmt,
I've been wondering about this myself. In the early summer, we were assured that there was nothing tht could be done... high crude prices=high gas prices. But obviously that's not the case. So are gas prices that arbitrary?
We're in upstate NY, and creeping toward $2 again.
i haven't noticed gas going up either, turkee. it is kinda strange.
"All donuts have names like prostitutes." - Tom Waits
And, yes, his version of "Waltzing Matilda" is quite possibly the best...
All of the handwringing about Kerry and his campaign isn't going to change the fact Bush is going to get another term.
So you think his lawyer will beat the last few charges on appeal?
Interesting, interesting...
...a drunk was found on his hands and knees on 5th street...when the cops asked what are you doing...he explained at a crap game on 4th he lost a 100 dollar billl on the corner...why are you here on fifth? the cops asked...he replied the light is better here...moral you must go where the light is...the light here is in the gutter...we must go there...
Re: gas prices
Here in my part of Southern California, they've actually gone down a little from what they were a month ago. It does cause one to wonder.....
Ever hear Waits do 'Hi Ho' from Snow White? It's on a Red Hot compilation called 'Stay Awake,' and he makes it every bit as menacing as it always should have been.
Dwarves marching off to work in a mine should never have sounded happy.
Lots of good stuff on that record, too - Bonnie Raitt with Was/Not Was, Los Lobos, Buster P.
Wow. 50K in Portland. Ohio swinging to Kerry... This is failure?
My current stepfather is from Boston, originally. Back in the spring, when Kerry had the nomination locked up and it seemed like he was just coasting along from it, I was starting to get, well, worried. Why was he just goofing off? Why wasn't he DOING something?
Stepdad laughed. Hard. Said Kerry always did this, hanging around, kinda politicking kinda not, Dems would start getting antsy, media would say he's blowing it. Kerry ignored it all.
Then, at some moment only Kerry knows, about a month or two before the election, he suddenly comes from nowhere and goes for the jugular. Iowa, anyone?
So StepD said to hang in there, enjoy my summer. Because fall would be a' rockin'.
Dang, I hope so.
i haven't noticed gas going up either, turkee. it is kinda strange.
Olaf glad and big
yeah, since when the oil prices started getting volatile earlier this year they were changing the price 3-4 times a week. guess Bandar or Chenron is coming through for them
Hitchens is still drunk.
Well, at least Atrios can listen to Gene Shey. How I miss his show out here on the west coast. I still remember a string of different versions of Waltzing Matilda he played on one show that ended with Wiat's version.
Gas prices are expected to rise in 3-4 weeks unless per barrel costs fall. The oil cos. clearly will do whatever they can to help bush, including keeping the prices down below 2.00 as long as they can, but at $45 a barrel, it's gotta go up at the pump at some point. It's as much as $2.35 for mid-grade in SF, but only $185-1.90 in NV and WYO (last week).
One more look in and ...hey, thank you Ms. Troll up there! Ya perked me right up with that Freeperish language. As if Bush came onto the political scene because people were so taken with him.. And as if his people were so comfortable, they'd need to trot out a Nixon operative with a smearfest for God's sake.
Anyway,
I'm so old I rememember when Tom Waits looked way too young for his voice.
He's an extraordinary guy. "Waltzing Matilda" is one of my favorites. And on some of his newer things, I swear he's channeling Louis Armstrong.
And in a perfect world, a guy like Bush would be laughed off the stage before he got near the WH and there would be a high talent version of "American Idol" where gifted newcomers sang only songs from people like Waits, Randy Newman, Leobard Cohen, Richard Thompson and the like. (I could list favorite singer-songwriters all night.)
This recent stanza really got to me for some reason.
The face forgives the mirror
The worm forgives the plow
The questions begs the answer
Can you forgive me somehow
Maybe when our story's over
We'll go where it's always spring
The band is playing our song again
And all the world is green
Spoken like a true fucking patriot and a cocksucking gentleman.
Shit yeah!
OT, but has anyone else seen a rise in local gas prices?
Gas prices have been dropping a tad here in San Antonio. I was paying $1.74 about 3-4 weeks ago. Now I'm paying $1.68.
lj, that's definitely true. i used to live in ma. in fact kerry was the first senator i ever voted for (and i never regretted it, btw). he does have an uncanny knack for that. it's like one morning everyone gets out of bed and decides that kerry is the obvious choice.
kei, yuri,
hewwo dere, widdle cutey ones...
Atrios posted a picture of you earlier tonight,you guys/gals are a lot sweeter and cuter-looking than i would have guessed.
although, still deadly, what with the laser beams eyes and all.
Hitchens -- what a fraud.
And all smart people know how to laugh at President Bush for having problems with articulation.
And that's something Hitchens has done himself.
Ditto Toonscribe- in the SFValley it is down 7-8 cents this past week alone, finally dropped under $2 and is at $1.95 at the chapest place I know of.
Ah... that was me. More laptop mixing. Frankly, this this marital laptop sharing is ruining the integrity of heterosexual marrige, and we need a fucking constitutional amendment posthate.
I believe George Carlin was right about the reason certain words are both popular and effective. Words with a bunch of k's really do sound aggressive. 
what song is that, lucky? sounds like it would work with "the stories of the streets", but it's not from any version i've heard.
It's on a Red Hot compilation called 'Stay Awake,'
actually it was a seperate, mainly A&M, series where they did Kurt Weill, Mingus, Monk and Nina Rota as well
Lots of good stuff on that record, too - Bonnie Raitt with Was/Not Was, Los Lobos, Buster P.
stranger
don't forget Syd Straw's beautiful rendition of "Blue Skies (on the trail)" and my fave Tom Waits song is "Jockey Full of Bourbon"
Oh, and Theri, I do hope your toe is okay.
jockey full of bourbon. also great.
i don't know what my favorite song would be. probably "a soldier's things."
a tinker, a tailor
a soldier's things
his rifle and his boots
full of rocks
and this one is for bravery
oh and this one is for me
and everything's a dollar
in this box
OT, but has anyone else seen a rise in local gas prices?
In the SF Bay Area, they've gone down a bit.
girls not cats.
though if we used any feline imagery, it would be in the way of catsuits, not the expansive and roomy bear rugs those gals were sporting...
i hate happy songs generally.
Kestrel
The SFValley is where I am. West Hills.
'Blue Shadows On The Trail!'
Nearly forgot that one altogether, preznit - I had that gorgeous Raitt version of 'Baby Mine' running through my head...
Now you guys are gonna have me digging out records.
the pogues were great too. i love that one about a pair of brown eyes.
One summer evening drunk to hell
I stood there nearly lifeless
An old man in the corner sang
Where the water lilies grow
And on the jukebox Johnny sang
About a thing called love
And it's how are you kid and what's your name
And how'd you bloody know?
That's the shit!
Kerry needs to show up at the climax of Bush's convention speech, wasted, waving a bottle of Jameson's around by the neck and calling Bush a "goddamn half-fart weasel." Rove will run up in a panic and Kerry will flatten him with an almost careless left. Then Bush will crawl under the podium, whimpering... Kerry will be all cool like, and mutter, "You ain't worth it bitch!" and then loosen his fly and take a leak on Shrub's quivering fearbox...
Sorry.
Is there a good reason why I am not a highly-paid, top-shelf Political Strategist?
No.
Except bigoted views of my Daring Vision, of course.
'Blue Shadows On The Trail
ack, I stand corrected, too many beers in these digits tonight
Yeesh. 'Baby of Mine.'
Corrections for everyone!
Or mebbe I'll just hit the rack.
Uh, that drunk Kerry thing was Thersites, not me.
Maybe we need to do a kei & yuri thing. Hell, I don't know.
you should check out "frank's wild years". it's actually a whole story about this guy who leaves his small town in hopes of becoming a world famous accordian player. the whole album has this really wild, raucus operatic quality to it. it came out in the late 80's sometime and i bought it but never really got into it. now i can't get enough of it.
Well, it looks like the smear machine is all cranked up for next week:
resident Bush's campaign will begin a blistering new attack against Senator John Kerry on Monday questioning his attendance at Intelligence Committee hearings in an advertisement that ends a brief pause in confrontational advertising by Mr. Bush.
A mix-up led the Fox News Channel to show the commercial on Friday, forcing Bush aides to talk about the change in tone and content of the new commercial, days before they had planned.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/1...aign/
14fox.html
'Blue Shadows On The Trail
ack, I stand corrected, too many beers in these digits tonight
preznit giv me turkee
or in honor of TW, maybe it's the keyboard that's been drinking tonight ;}
Frank's Wild Years is one of Thersites' driving-all-night albums.
Oh, and Theri, I do hope your toe is okay.
Ah, I'm doing that ridiculous male thing where I expect processions and rose-petal tossing over insanely minor injuries. Meanwhile, I could have my lower intestine flung over my right shoulder and be sullenly telling my wife "I'm cool. Lemme alone."
Sorry, Jefferson Prestonian. You suffer honestly. My wife, however, has snuck onto these boards, which is distinctly unfair, because she has caught me whining. We need a fucking constitutional amendment to allow me to continue my minor marital subterfuges.
Theresa Hines Kerry singing "Blue Velvet"
Karl Rove in Gimp SUit
DONT YOU FUCKIN' LOOK AT ME!
All this to a soundtrack of a waits bootleg about bridge troll graffitti...
Trolls. Hmmmm....
Enough mindfucking for one evening.
Atrios using the hypnotic power of cats to make gallop polls read Kerry leads after tommorrow.
John McGlaughlin in drag= Janet Reno in slacks. There's no difference between the two. Attempted Rove meme fails...
Sthuffed flight suit pic- drudge headline- Bush PITCHES ELECTION TENT!
Really I've got to stop. All this good material and John Stewart is busy playing serious journalist.
thersites' driving all night albums. yeah!! hang on saint christopher!!!!
It would help immensely if we all got out there and helped Kerry win. Maybe I'm preaching to the choir here, but we can do more than donate on Atrios's bitchin' blog- we can do more than write our own blogs- we can do more than chat in the comments section.
What are you doing to get the message out? What more could you do?
Honestly, I think the answer for myself and most others is we could do more. Yes, I'm doing a lot already, but there's less than three months left: what's three months of nothing but work and campaign work?
Yes, they could do more too. But they need us. Let's roll.
I guess I'm supposed to be talking about Tom Waits if I wanna hang around here? Oy. Very well then...
Liked him in the early/mid-seventies, when I was a little kid. Lost interest during my teenage years. Liked "Rain Dogs" in my early twenties(especially...what's his name...Marc Ribot). Lost interest again. Heard "Bone Machine" whenever that came out. Thought the music was very interesting, but was completely over his vocal schtick. I guess that's where I stand now. Don't get me wrong, he's good and everything...it's just...ah, never mind...it's just another personal failing of mine.
Tonight, I'm halfway through a five-CD randomized playing of Chirgilchin (astonishing throat-singing maniacs from Mongolia), 1930s cajun ballads by Amedee Ardoin and Cleoma Falcon, Neil Young's "On the Beach," Cabaret Voltaire's "Red Mecca," and Alfred Deller's "Western Wind." Don't think I'll make it through the whole cycle, though. I was trying to organize my CDs/LPs while cleaning today, and found so many things I hadn't listened to in months that I figured I'd better start playing five CDs per night, without fail.
and every single one of those ohio guardsman was a draft dodger! bastards.
i saw some throat singing live once. it really is astonishing.
We need a fucking constitutional amendment to allow me to continue my minor marital subterfuges.
Thersites
My wife's not allowed on here, and I'm not allowed on the boards she frequents. Which is a shame, because I hear they get pretty racy...
But it works out nicely, overall.
On the other hand, now that NYMary's here, she's obliged to stay. I, for one, am hooked. Besides, Eschaton should have at least one expert on every conceivable subject, and I don't think anyone else specializes in her field!
Olaf glad and big --
the song is " All The World Is Green " - it's from one of the newer records. It's one of those that creeps up on you. I could go through his catalog and call song after song a favorite. ("Shiver Me Timbers"? "Jesus Gonna Be Here"? it depends on my mood.)
And I'm with you - the music that usually gets me is the dark music. The high, lonesome sound got me even as a kid. Overly perky music makes me want to hit somebody. (Is that a sign of being bipolar, or what?)
But the best happy song may be "Little Birdhouse of Your Soul". That one I love.
The 5-CD changer is an amazing invention. A great tool for cleaning, grading, anything time-consuming. I did it today for the purposes of cleaning: XTC, Superchunk, Shoes, the Nerk Twins, The Dukes of the Stratosphear (which is really just XTC in another mode). You can get hours of work done that way, but my teenage daughter was complaining about my loud music.
One of my students told me last semester that he and his suitemates had a 20-CD changer. That's just decadent.
i saw some throat singing live once. it really is astonishing.
Olaf glad and big
It's unbelievable! Actually, I just saw this particular group a couple months ago...they seem to get out here once or twice a year. The amount of cognitive dissonance between watching them and hearing the sounds they produce is really unsettling...
What am i doing to help? My son and I wore the "Dude wshere's my weapons" tee shirts in Yellowstone park and in nevada on vacation. They got a tremendous reaction from people. Some just stared dumbfound. Their expressions seemd to bespeak a confused fascination and longing to be free to criticize the jerk openly. Others literally shouted their approval.
http://www.dudewheres.com/
And bumper stickers work too, in swing states!
http://a1.cpimg.com/image/AF/1E/...7-01800200-
.jpg
wow, lucky. that was tom waits? it sounded like something leonard cohen would write. and you can sing it to the tune of "the stories of the streets" too. try it!
I may have mentioned this before, but Thers & I got the finger from an old man for our Kerry bumper sticker. That's not really helping, I guess, but it's a genuine report from the field.
The 5-CD changer is an amazing invention. A great tool for cleaning, grading, anything time-consuming.
I just wish I had one for my car. I drive cross country pretty often, and it'd be really convenient.
I was trying to organize my CDs/LPs while cleaning today
Man, you are so full of shit. And I say this with Love. The "organizing your CDs/LPs" to avoid cleaning... dude, that has whiskers on it you can't cut with hedge clippers. Your wife may be in the market for that stuff, but I wouldn't count on it...
If you do get away with it, though, can I borrow?
Good god, olaf, you're right. It does always descend into music. Even without Backslider (though he's always a hoot and knows scary, obscure things).
Cd Changers?
They're too confining after the iPod.
LJ, serious question. Can you download from an IBM-comp onto an iPod? It might almost be worth it for me then.
yeah, backslider knows his shit. that's for sure. i guess he had something better to do tonight. i'm kinda jealous!
I wonder Dan Quayle's guard unit shared duty with some Ohio units from Indiana I believe.
Trigger Dan?
NYMary:
But of course. As long as you have USB 2.0 or Firewire.
LJ,
Thanks. My students all have them and I have massive technology envy.
I was trying to organize my CDs/LPs while cleaning today
Man, you are so full of shit. And I say this with Love. The "organizing your CDs/LPs" to avoid cleaning...
I hear ya...but this time it's true, honest! All my CDs and albums are in a closet, and if I don't refile them regularly, they just get dumped in there. But because I also sell music online, my living-room fills up with LPs. So the only way I can clean the living-room is by putting 'em in the closet, so I have to clean the closet first.
Not saying I didn't do it in a...sort of...leisurely fashion...but luckily, the wife was so exhausted from re-tarring the roof that she didn't notice.
i have a 25 cd changer.
How can you help the national campaign in a red state when you have already donated your limit?
-don't mean just helping the state or local candidates.
What can you do, beyond donation, for Kerry's campaign, in a red state.
NYMary:
And think of this...
When you can carry the equivalent of 300 CDs in a device that's smaller than a cigarette pack, imagine the freedom... Imagine not having to worry about lugging those big binders of CDs with you everywhere...worrying about having them stolen from your car...
I hardly use any of my CD players anymore, not even the 6+1 in my car. Only time I do use the one in my computer is when I'm burning tunes to transfer to my iPod.
Atrios... you mean... the Democratic Party...could be on the verge of...discovering grassroots politics?
Excuse me while I go somewhere private and faint.
Olaf,
decadent, decadent, decadent....
LJ,
You're just teasing me now.
One more Waits-related item...
He produced an album by John Hammond. I've got it here somewhere, but i forget the name.
Bare-bones, white-knuckle blues - not a ninth chord on the whole record. Nominated for a Grammy, as I recall.
Still can't remember the title of the damn thing, tho.
Must.... sleep....
Having said that, I'll be here another hour, I just know it.
I hardly use any of my CD players anymore, not even the 6+1 in my car.
iPod's run mp3's, though...don't they? I have "issues" with the fidelity on those, if so.
My biggest problem with the iPod is that I've just got too many records that aren't available on CD, so I'd have to convert 'em all to digital first...
But for cross country drives, where I end up bringing 30-40 CDs...an iPod sounds like a pretty swell idea, actually! How do they hook up to the car stereo, if that's not too personal a question?
Anonymous,
We have the opposite problem--we live in a blue state, but I feel similarly useless. Still, we live in a staunchly conservative area (thus the old guy's flipping the bird), so we may be able to make some progress among our neighbors. We decided a couple of months ago that our usual low profile was no longer tenable in the current situation. Bush needs to go, and people need to stand up publically and say so.
But the best happy song may be "Little Birdhouse of Your Soul". That one I love.
Lucky_Ducky
yeah, "Bangs" is wonderful too, same producer worked with them on in it, too (assuming you're talking about the TMBG song)
I think I have all of you beat out when it comes to housework laziness. Mr LJ and LJ spawn know their place. They do the nasty work I don't like to do. This is because I made two important command decisions:
1) I handle all food matters. Cooking, shopping for food, all that. Takes enough of my precious free time.
2) I relieved them of yard duties and hired Enrique and Abel to do the gardening. Now, never mind that Enrique is quite wonderful to look at...
Anyway, since the LJ staff doesn't have guy yard stuff to do, they can do the dreary cleaning stuff.
What can you do, beyond donation, for Kerry's campaign, in a red state.
Anonymous
You can always call up campaign headquarters and volunteer...
At this point in the comments, I'm just typing to hear the clicks on the keyboard. And to vent. I do agree that blog culture is a bit obsessed and sees the race in those terms. However......how freaking hard could it be to make sure every surrogate is as informed as possible on the issues and able AND WILLING to listen what's being said while they wait their turn to talk. I also agree with the poster who remarked Kerry should have have said that after the administration's demonstrated incompetence, he wouldn't trust them to drive his car.
I relieved them of yard duties and hired Enrique and Abel to do the gardening. Now, never mind that Enrique is quite wonderful to look at...
Sounds like the intro to a porn film! Or one of those letters people alledgedly write in to skin mags...the ones that start with "I never DREAMED I'd be writing to you, but..."
I'm in that weird stage of pregnancy where I clean everything. Spawn are recruited, but spouse has been working like a dog grading. Today I washed all the crystal and scrubbed the windows and woodwork in the kitchen. Apparently, this is hormonal, but it's still pretty insane. We've also got a killer infestation of fruit flies which are making me crazy.
Putting the CDs away was yesterday's psychosis.
Phila:
For power, there's a car adapter that plugs into your lighter, and into the "power" input. For sound, you can either hook up through your tape deck, a la the old Walkman CD way. Or you can tap into the FM radio of your car. I use the tape deck method.
As for the fidelity issues, it depends on bit rates and all that. I haven't noticed a terrible diminishment of sound.
Bonus feature on iPods: There are some preset equalizers, BUT, iTunes lets you manually adapt equalizer settings. And you can program a particular setting to a song, so it's always set that way.
yeah, "Bangs" is wonderful too, same producer worked with them on in it, too (assuming you're talking about the TMBG song)
The Johns were on Conan tonight.
Bangs is a great song. I wasn't too impressed with Mink Car early on, but it's grown on me lately. Still love the "old" stuff, though.
Interesting hypothesis link. It would be awesome to have some kind of popular database on this.
Swing States and Gas Prices
Just a quote from the original post on the thread.
Iowa (Swing) $1.78
Illinois (Kerry) $2.00+
Indiana (Chimp) $2.00+
Ohio (Swing) $1.78
PA (Kerry, but in play) $1.85
New England (Kerry) $2.00+
Its funny how at a 1.30 an oil fire in some podunk refinery somewhere can push the national consumer price up 5-10 cents a gallon.
But major squeezes on production/delivery on a global scale can push the per-barrel price to record highs, yet the consumer price is barely budging from its current 1.85 mark.
What were Exxon's record earnings again last quarter?
Now where in the fuck did I put my tinfoil hat again??
Sounds like the intro to a porn film! Or one of those letters people alledgedly write in to skin mags...the ones that start with "I never DREAMED I'd be writing to you, but..."
Hey, nothing wrong with looking. And nothing wrong with touching, sometimes, either. One of the reasons I love going into the mosh pits? Sheesh, any chance I can get a half-dressed 20-year-old stud's body next to mine and not get in trouble for it, I'm taking it!
the ones that start with "I never DREAMED I'd be writing to you, but..."
I put my plastics into your paper bin, big boy....
Even without Backslider (though he's always a hoot and knows scary, obscure things).
Well, I'm no Backslider...but if you want obscure and scary, I'll be happy to lend you "Insect Noises in Stored Foodstuffs"...or my CD of bioelectrical recordings of psychotropic plants...or "Allessandro Moreschi: The Last Castrato."
LJ,
One of my mother's favorite sayings: "It doesn't matter where you get your appetite, as long as you eat at home."
Throw a party and have a couple of computers set up and have people donate to the Dem party or move on (for get out the vote efforts). That's what my neighbor is doing tomorrow. She invited 55 people and hopes to raise $1000+, and have a good time too of course.
BBC just reported that Sadr in a sermon today is calling for the overthrow of the interim govt., which he calls corrupt and worse than Saddam, and for expulsion of US troops.
Bangs is a great song. I wasn't too impressed with Mink Car early on, but it's grown on me lately. Still love the "old" stuff, though.
Central Scrutinizer
you hear "The Spine" yet?
NYM:
Yeah. But dang if there aren't some fine restaurants out there that I find mighty tempting. LOL
Phila,
I've got obscure covered, I think, at least in certain areas. Power pop from 1978-1983 or so, for example, much of it on vinyl. If narrow focus is the sign of true geekiness, I definitely qualify.
Much as I'd rather be commenting on one of my favorite bands (TMBG, whom I first saw in 1984 opening for Robyn Hitchcock. Bought their first piece of vinyl after the show from them personally, and made them autograph it - not bad for $8!), I did have a topical rant to get to late on a Friday.
I know this was discussed a few days ago, but I just caught the video of Porter Goss stating he could not get a job with the CIA today over at Michael Moore's site. I'm just outraged. Outraged I tells ya! All I can say is Jeebus! It's virtually a 30-second spot as is. All it needs is video of Bush standing next to him saying that this is the man Bush thinks "knows the CIA inside and out" and is "the right man to lead this important agency at this critical moment in our nation's history."
WTF are the Dems doing rolling over for this idiot? Forget negative ads- just start saturation bombing ads during the Republican convention showing them, unedited, being the lying sacks o' crap they are. How about video of Cheney's "pretty well confirmed" comments about Mohammad Atta followed by the video of him denying he said it? How about some of Ridge's greatest misses ("We don't do politics..." "This terror alert made possible by the uber-leadership of our president..."). Rumsfeld alone should have enough contradictory and confusing crap to produce a whole series. Geez, how about a little flippity floppity of Bush being the "war president" and the "peace president"? For that matter, how about the full text of Kerry's 'sensitive' quote followed by a montage of all the Bushies making similar comments? I'm with Somerby- these guys are actively mocking the press now. I mean, Jeebus!
The TV media has dropped all pretense of trying to inform the viewers; to wit, O'Neill's ubiquitous presence this week and the near-complete absence of context from the pundits and knowledgable and articulate lefties to dope-slap him - don't forget who makes the bookings. We can (and should) produce a set of 1-2 sentence responses to the crap and train anybody heading on air as many have been suggesting, but they'll just find "liberals" even squirrelier than Alan Colmes to put on. I think they're going to have to start doing more end-runs around the press.
The thing that infuriates me more than anything about the Dems is that they seem to think that if they just keep following the playbook, eventually they're going to win. Meanwhile, they've lost all three branches of federal government and could still manage to avert a landslide for Kerry. (Now I'm starting to sound like k&y - "The only people we hate more than the DNC are the fucking Judean People's Front!") Remember the Seinfeld when George decided to do the opposite of what his instincts told him and became amazingly successful? I think it's time for the Dems to admit their instincts suck.
Ok, I feel much better now.
www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/13/
moore.goss.reut/index.html
To CNN & Cnn.com
in reference to the article above , it is stated : White House dismissed the Moore interview transcript as "ridiculous hearsay" and emphasized the depth of bipartisan respect for Goss on Capitol Hill.
please refer to the link below and notice it is video of Porter Goss Stating Exactly what he is quoted as having said by Micheal Moore.It is not out of context ,it is merley the person in his own words.
I think it is encumbant upon you to make the required correction , both on your website and on future television appearances of White House Representatives.
The omission betrays a degree of lassitude on the part of the spot writer , as I am only one person with a degree of curiousity and no budget, and I certainly shouldn't be able to embarrass you this easily.
www.michaelmoore.com/words/goss.
(Now I'm starting to sound like k&y - "The only people we hate more than the DNC are the fucking Judean People's Front!")
JeffCO, that was the best line I've heard in days. And I live with Thersites.
Much as I'd rather be commenting on one of my favorite bands (TMBG, whom I first saw in 1984 opening for Robyn Hitchcock. Bought their first piece of vinyl after the show from them personally, and made them autograph it - not bad for $8!), I did have a topical rant to get to late on a Friday.
damn, now you're making me all jealous
here's something obscure that i heard on the radio once and i want big time. i think it may be a smithsonian recording.it was recorded in luray caverns, virginia and it is a stalactite organ. what i heard was "greensleeves", but i think there is more stuff than just the one song out there.
Olaf, The Smithsonian distributes a bunch of little stuff, like Folkways. Keeping alive a lot of stuff which would otherwise be totally inacessible. Damn you, big government!
preznit gmt,
No, I haven't.
I wasn't terribly impressed with the song they played tonight on Conan, but that's just one song. Seemed kinda like a typical Linell/formula thing going on. (Not that there's really anything wrong with that.)
Phila,
I've got obscure covered, I think, at least in certain areas. Power pop from 1978-1983 or so, for example, much of it on vinyl. If narrow focus is the sign of true geekiness, I definitely qualify.
NYMary
You're talking about DIY stuff, or bands like Real Kids, or what? I'm not too up on that stuff, really...though I'm pretty well up on DIY punk singles, some of which bleed over into power pop. And I like the second and third Big Star albums, which I guess is in the ballpark.
here's something obscure that i heard on the radio once and i want big time. i think it may be a smithsonian recording.it was recorded in luray caverns, virginia and it is a stalactite organ. what i heard was "greensleeves", but i think there is more stuff than just the one song out there.
Olaf glad and big
It's a promotional seven-inch that you used to be able to buy at the caverns. There've been a few different versions of it over the years. I'd call the caverns directly..they probably have a CD out. I'm pretty confident that it's not on Smithsonian.
If you like that, go to the House on the Rock in Wisconsin. You won't be sorry.
thanks phil! i'll look for it.
JeffCo,
Frankly, given where the polls are now, and where the money is, Kerry will not counterattack himself strongly until October. The debates will feature very powerfully this year, and Kerry is banking on making Bush have to be overly aggressive in the debates: if Bush has to actually perform in the debates, and not merely mouth-breathe, he's done.
I'm more and more convinced my analysis is correct.
I don't have much obscure music, really. But I do have the Dead Fucking Last's "Proud to Be." Just about the worst punk album, ever. I swear, I've heard demo tapes recorded on 8-track in garages that had better audio quality.
I am too late for poli-talk. Damn it, I wouldn't know Waits from Wilhem.
The Smithsonian distributes a bunch of little stuff, like Folkways. Keeping alive a lot of stuff which would otherwise be totally inacessible.
Also, every single record ever released on Folkways is available online. Go through Smithsonian, and they'll burn you a CD-R of whatever you want for 25 bones, along with a copy of the original booklet (for wage slaves, I recommend the classic "Sounds of the Office" LP...it's the next best thing to being there!).
They also have a few oddball labels like Cook Labs, if you've been wondering what the aurora sounds like...or wanting to hear the sounds of an earthquake...
Phila,
Well (you asked for it...), Big Star was really influential on a lot of these guys, but they're really earlier, sorta like you can consider the MC5 punk if you want, but generationally, they're not, exactly.
No, I'm talking about bands like Shoes (my personal faves), 20/20, The Knack (much better band than their hits would suggest), The Vapors (ditto), XTC eventually, though they weren't poppy until a little later--not so much electronic or synth stuff, but guitar-based pop melodic stuff. Lyrically ridiculous mostly, and will get you zero hipness cred, but great, in my opinion.
Told you I was a geek.
I don't have much obscure music, really.
Judging from your waywardness, I'm not surprised...when would you find the time?
Hey--I liked the Vapors album.
Nick Heyward had a pretty good debut album, for power pop of the kind you're talking about.
Told you I was a geek.
NYMary
nah, true geekiness would have meant including Tommy Keene, the dB's and Let's Active
i'm not worried about kerry. the recent attacks aren't having any impact on undecideds i don't think. the swift boat thing just re-established a divide that is already over 30 years old anyway.
See, and here I was convinced that I'd dated myself irretrievably. But this stuff was very influential for me, and influential ever since, too. There's a traveling music festival called International Pop Overthrow (from a pop-alternative band of the early nineties) that plays in major cities all over the country--they're all power-pop declensions more or less.
Be nice, Phila.
Okay, I do have SOME obscure music, but that's because my latest music rage is Japanese pop. And anything by Yohko Kanno.
No, I'm talking about bands like Shoes (my personal faves), 20/20, The Knack (much better band than their hits would suggest), The Vapors (ditto), XTC eventually, though they weren't poppy until a little later--not so much electronic or synth stuff, but guitar-based pop melodic stuff. Lyrically ridiculous mostly, and will get you zero hipness cred, but great, in my opinion.
OK, gotcha. And I know plenty of "hepcats" who love some or all of those bands...along with the Plimsouls, the Undertones, Green, Spoons (?...if memory serves). You get plenty of cred for it..at least on the West Coast!
I like early Cheap Trick too, come to think of it. That's also somewhat in the ballpark, maybe.
Frist!
nah, true geekiness would have meant including Tommy Keene, the dB's and Let's Active
preznit giv me turkee
And--dare I say it?--the Bongos.
pgmt--
I have the db's and Let's Active--just not my favorites. Also, of course, the big boys to come out of that movement were Cheap Trick, and hell, they're still around.
I don't have much obscure music, really. But I do have the Dead Fucking Last's "Proud to Be." Just about the worst punk album, ever.
I remember being very young, sitting in a place I was not legally allowed to be sitting in, and having a friend of a friend play Superchunk's "Slack Motherfucker."
Was schweet. I've always had a soft spot for Merge. Good fucking label. Superchunk is the shit, for me... Great band, great label.
Be nice, Phila.
Hey, it's a compliment! If I'd been a little more "popular" in my mid-teens I would've spent a lot less time digging for weird records in thrift stores!
Thersites: Sorry, Jefferson Prestonian. You suffer honestly.
Naw... I was, but I think the worst is over, thankfully. I can now bear to have my foot lower than the rest of my body without an ice pack, and the police have stopped coming by to ask about the screaming. Avoid gout, at all costs.
.
Pop bands are fun, and they tend to be nice guys, in my opinion. Mostly guys, though not always. And almost never popular.
Thersites- I fully agree that Kerry personally should be saying squat about the crap (sorry for that juxtaposition!), but what good are the 527's if not to try to clear the air of some of the haze Rove and company are creating? I'm sure I'm like many of us, almost too sure Bush is going to pull something to try to steal or avert the election. I'm against negative ads, but I'm all for hoisting 'em petardwise.
Being in MST, I'm just getting to see TMBG now. Hmm, sounds like a direct descendant of Purple Toupee. And thinkin' of Lincoln, I can see the next Bush/Cheney bumper sticker now (courtesy of Ana Ng): "We don't want the world, we just want your half."
And--dare I say it?--the Bongos.
Philalethes
damn, hadn't thought about those guys in years. and then there's also the the Individuals/Wygals and Beat Rodeo/Steve Almaas
Phila:
Honey, it was possible to do both, you know. If you had the right kind of opposite-sex friend. Or same-sex friend, if that were your leaning. You know what I mean.
I hardly ever buy anything full price. I especially don't do it with anything RIAA. Truly Indy labels are the only ones that get retail bucks from me.
Oh, and I'm finding myself strangely drawn to norteno, Tejano and other forms of Latin music these days. I fought it as long as I could here in South Texas, but
remember the other day we were talking about crappy music that we like. i thought of another one, btw. anything by squeeze.
OK, folks. Gotta crash. Cheers!
Being in MST, I'm just getting to see TMBG now. Hmm, sounds like a direct descendant of Purple Toupee. And thinkin' of Lincoln, I can see the next Bush/Cheney bumper sticker now (courtesy of Ana Ng): "We don't want the world, we just want your half."
JeffCO
yeah, I often think of "Purple Toupee" when aWol starts talking about the vision thing or any historical event
nah, true geekiness would have meant including Tommy Keene, the dB's and Let's Active
Well, having made a dB's joke earlier in the week during the DB troll infestation (Why does Chris Stamey hate America? I think), I guess I'll share in the geekiness. And throw in one of my favorites, the Nails (of 88 Lines about 44 Women fame).
Grrr... Link left me.
Try again...
Oh, and I'm finding myself strangely drawn to norteno, Tejano and other forms of Latin music these days. I fought it as long as I could here in South Texas, but this kinda changed my mind.
hah! 88 lines about 44 women! haven't heard that in years. great song!
N iter sNYMar y. Thanksforthe conversationthis morning.
Thersites- I fully agree that Kerry personally should be saying squat about the crap (sorry for that juxtaposition!), but what good are the 527's if not to try to clear the air of some of the haze Rove and company are creating?
Hmmm. I'm not sure what the Swifties could even be saying that warrants a return. Seheeit, Kerry's almost sewed up Pennsylvania in these months. Nobody expected that.
Look, the election dynamics are Bush's, not Kerry's. Kerry has not yet had to fight. Bush knows this. He can't win with a negative campaign.
Us? Pressure, baby. We'll win.
Avoid gout, at all costs.
Okay, good plan.
Actually, I didn't know people still got gout. And I have nothing to add to this conversation musically. It's been a very long week.
As for Kerry, everyone wrote him off in January... I think everyone should remember that he's a closer. Though I do think they need to beef up their war room some. Like chimpy's new commercial... Iraq is now a democracy? how do they figure? we're still occupying the fucking place, it's ruled by a CIA backed unelected strong man that we installed, and as far as I can tell, the war is still going on. Kerry's guys should be all over that shit.
Okay, I do have SOME obscure music, but that's because my latest music rage is Japanese pop. And anything by Yohko Kanno.
LJ
do you like Puffy Amiyumi?
Individuals/Wygals
preznit giv me turkee
Yeah...what was that..."Dancing With My Eighty Wives," "My Three Sons Revolve Around the Earth." Didn't like the record much...but what song titles! Beautiful cover, too...
Okay, I do have SOME obscure music, but that's because my latest music rage is Japanese pop.
HA! I just picked up a double CD by the Peanuts today (aka the Ito Sisters)...best known for their performance in "Mothra"...
Preznit:
Sorry, no. I'm more into the Maaya Sakamoto and Okui Masami type of J-pop. Very smooth, very polished sounds. Not so bubble-gummy.
Honey, it was possible to do both, you know. If you had the right kind of opposite-sex friend. Or same-sex friend, if that were your leaning. You know what I mean.
Sure. But I didn't figure that out for a while. Once I started actually playing music, I learned that there were lots of gals who were happy to spend their Saturday afternoons digging through record bins...
Phila:
OMG. LOL Really? Is it just to have in your collection, or do you really like that?
Phila:
OMG. LOL Really? Is it just to have in your collection, or do you really like that?
LJ
Sure...I'll buy and listen to just about anything, really. I have to confess I was a bit disappointed in it, but I may be able to brainwash myself into loving it yet. I'm crazy about those "Mothra" tunes...but I have 'em already on a soundtrack CD.
OK, the truth ain't sexy. Still the truth.
Merge is a cool label.
I love Superchunk. I grew up and old with a certain punk band.
What's there to say?
i don't give a damn about the truth
unless it's the naked truth
OK, must jump ship now. Pleasant dreams, all! Or pleasant wide-awake, bug-eyed, radiation-bathed delirium...if that's the path you choose.
And as always, a special smooch for you, LJ!
Problem for me was that there weren't a lot of record bins to dig through where I lived during my teen years. But every now and then I got, well, lucky. The secret in small towns was to hit up garage sales, especially of an ex-druggie who got religion. And to have a honey along for the treasure hunt was all the better.
Mmm. Thanks, Phila. But, really, you'll get us arrested if you keep smooching THAT in public.
Niters.
in like the mid to late 90s there was a band that did a song called "i love my yak". they also did a song about a caveman or something but i don't know the title. and i don't know the name of the band. does anyone know?
Dead Milkmen...they were fun,
bitchin camaro!!!
bitchin camaro!!!
Donuts on your lawn...
Tony Orlando and Dawn....
One of my students told me last semester that he and his suitemates had a 20-CD changer. That's just decadent.
NYMary | Email | Homepage | 08.14.04 - 2:44 am | #
I have a 25-disc changer. My brother has a 100-disc changer.
We don't screw around.
Yeah...what was that..."Dancing With My Eighty Wives," "My Three Sons Revolve Around the Earth." Didn't like the record much...but what song titles! Beautiful cover, too...
Philalethes
yeah, Janet went on to form Splendora which did the "Daria" theme and some other really good stuff too
Another '80's favorite- Swamp Thing, out of Madison. I don't know that they ever made much of a splash nationally, but they used to come to Phila quite a bit (that's -delphia, not -lethes!) and I got to know them some. They only managed two albums I think, but one of the guys, Michael Dorf, went on to found the Knitting Factory in NYC. And I saw one of the guys playing flugelhorn with the B-52's once (I guess they must be another guilty pleasure). I remember seeing them in a small club during the '86 World Series, and the drummer was from Boston and was watching the game on a monitor while they were performing. Sadly for all of us, it was Game 6, and when Bill Buckner did his infamous Colossus of Rhodes impression and lost the game, the show ground to a halt for a while.
I havea24CDchanger.
and I must thank you all, and also google, since I just found out that one of my all time favorite records is now available on a custom CD
caution, sound file
Beeronkeyboardno wIcan't space.
I have a 25-disc changer. My brother has a 100-disc changer.
We don't screw around.
why not?
i have a 25 disc changer, but i screw around. i hardly ever use my stereo any more anyway because my computer sounds better.
well, I'm off to sleep folks, fun talking pop tunes etc with y'all
Olaf, I th ought you were m arried?
My keyboard seemstobe drying out .
blah blah blah yup, it's getting better. I have it tilted up no w .
While I'm musing... Ah the Dead Milkmen- I was going to get to them. Took a date to the Philly Pizza Company once (not a punk rock girl and we didn't jump on the tables). They were friends of a friend of mine, and I met a couple of the guys once, but they're one of my big misses. They played frequently at a local frat, but aside from avoiding frat parties, more salient was the fact that my ex-girlfriend was a fan and was dating one of the frat brothers, and I did everything I could to avoid seeing her. Not even remotely similar, but I also passed on a chance to see Squeeze right before they broke up, and to see 10,000 Maniacs early in their career at a tiny bar ("Who? Never heard of them..."). Probably my biggest miss (apparently I still haven't recovered!) was my first week of college in 1982- being young and naive, I had no idea how to go buy scalped tickets, and thus missed a mega-show featuring both The Police and The Clash (among others).
On the plus side, I did get to see the Sugarcubes once, which I was reminded of while listening to Katie F'in "Navy Seals Rock" Couric yammer over Bjork's ethereal voice during the Olympic's opening ceremonies.
Ok, where's the Grampa Simpson rambling font- I think I need it. "So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time..." Now it's time to say goodnight....
fourlegsgood: Actually, I didn't know people still got gout.
Apparently, there's a genetic disposition to it -- my brother's had a few bouts with it, too. It happens when too much uric acid builds up in the bloodstream. Next to childbirth and kidney stones (neither of which I've experienced), gout is supposedly one of the most painful things going. I can attest to the pain. Sadly, there's not much can be done for it but drink a lot of water, and pray. Oh, and screaming. That helps some.
From now on, eight glasses of water a day, every day, I swear.
.
i don't give a damn about the truth
unless it's the naked truth
umm. leonard cohen? i love that one.
*
Hah Eschatonies, I'm back again, I've had great sex with a grey haired crazy woman, a fine dinner of barbeque'd halibut, very simply served with garlic, lemon and butter, A nice Oregon Pinot Noir, a mixture of fresh green beans and carrots from me garden. An occasional shot of Herradura Tequila. She is wondering why I should give a fig about you bastids, and frankly so am I. So tell me again, what the fuck is wrong with me? It's rally hard to type from under a blanket in the middle of th night.
NYMary or JeffCO (or other dB's fans), you wouldn't have a copy of "Like This" by the dB's would ya? I've been looking for it for years. Lost mine looong ago, and Bearsville records has been defunct forever.
The year that came out it only left my turntable long enough for me to play Alex's "Feudalist Tarts".
Or, as Verlaine, from the great band Television put it, "I've got a pillow stuck in my head."
"we are so small between the stars
solarge against the sky
and lost among the subway crowds
i try to catch your eye"
if you put catshit in a bag and set it on fire i would be out struggling to make sure that flaming catshit was "our" next president. george w. bush has been an egregious and preposterous abortion-like sockpuppet for the oligarchy. the wretched damage that he has done will not be undone in our lifetimes. it is to the shame of "our" people that this next election preposterously pretends to be close. having said that, this is a horsebleep war. there is no honor to be found in slaughtering the people who invented writing so that the meanspirited white people from low i.q. states can feel tough for a while until the chinese and the saudis call in our ious. the reason that drunks with a chargecard can't put every extravagence "off budget" is that eventually the bill comes due. and you and we owe. and we do.
we should have gotten the fuck out of iraq yesterday. the sooner someone says it, the better off we'll be.
if you put catshit in a bag and set it on fire i would be out struggling to make sure that flaming catshit was "our" next president
That about sums it up.
"Oh, you think that's bad? I've spent the last 36 hours in the throes of a motherfucking agonizing gout attack. I've been drinkin' water like a mofo. Ouch!--Jeffraham Prestonian"
Have you tried the cherry juice?
--
It's not dehydration that causes gout, though it doesn't help. What you have to do is swear off any alcohol, which for some Eschats is apparently tantamount to committing suicide, and greasy foods. Black cherry juice is often specifically effective in treating gout attacks, and the condition in general.
Another factor is poor lymphatic function. About a pound of protein leaks from the blood vessels every day, and only the lymph vessels can raise it to the level of the shoulders, where it is sucked into the large veins there by negative pressure produced by inhalation.
Since deep inhalation and persistent movement serves lymphatic drainage of fluids and protein from the feet, I would heartily recommend taijiquan ('Tai Chi') as a great basic cure for gout. You can probably find it at the local senior center, since tjq practice has been proven to reduce hip breaks in seniors by 75%, primarily by improving balance.
--
"About a pound of protein leaks from the blood vessels every day..."
Oops, I forgot to say, INTO THE FEET. About a pound of protein leaks by gravity into the body, and all that fluid and protein tends to leach downward into the feet.
People who experience general foot swelling ought to consider this basic fact of animal existence, and take care not to sit on their arses too much. Movement is the ONLY thing which pumps lymph out of the legs.
--
Wingnuts are not born of man.
They're an extraterrestrial clan.
No human form
Would accept as a norm
That the best sex is found in a can.
Television. Ooh, yeah! They saved me from FM Album Rock metal-band hell. Hated metal then, indifferent to it now. Too many rotations of the same shit over and over and over...Stopped listening to radio in the late '70's. I'm guessing it's even more worthless now.
Marquee Moon, Televisions first full-length, is an over-looked classic. 1977 was really depressing, since disco was everywhere. As well as the Dallas Cowboys and their cheerleaders. Yick! Hated the Cowboys for years. Decades even. Popping into the record store where a friend worked and hearing it for the first time gave me hope that mabye, just mabye, there were a few people left out there with some remaining functioning brain cells. Bought it, brought it home, spun the whole thing through, and felt liberated. And smug and superior to all my disco-drone contemporaries. I still have my "Disco
Sucks!" t-shirt folded neatly away in a box in the storage unit.
I saw a thread a few days ago mention The Fall. Whew! They're another one. I have over 60 Fall CDs in my collection. Anything/everything by them I could get my hands on. I saw them in Tucson in '82. One of the best shows ever. Sweaty frat-brats getting verbally jack-slapped by a angry, skinny smartass Brit. Don't ever get into an argument with Mark E. Smith. Especially when he's had a few. He'll rip anyone to shreds.
John Cale in Tucson as well. Yikes! He sure was angry that night...seething. Could feel it dripping off him with each drop of sweat. In Tucson in August there is a lot of sweat. He has a menacing stare that is hard to avoid. He was very good, but scary. Wasn't very tolerant of mistakes by bandmembers. I think that's what he was pissed off about. That and the heat. It was hot and humid that night, and equipment, lights and 200+ people weren't making it any better.
Tom Waits. Saw him on PBS in the late '70's (!) and have been following him ever since. "Pasties and a G-String/Beer and a shot/Lookin' out through a shot glass at a Buffalo Squeeze". Yeah, boy!
Dead Milkmen/DIY/et al. That's what shaped my adult musical life. Husker Du is still in the rotation - only on CD, not vinyl since the original vinyl was stolen years ago. Minutemen were mind-boggling in their time. Hard to find anybody playing faster than they did...even to this day.
Meat Puppets. Second only to Television in terms of life-changing musical experiences. That's my photograph on the back of Meat Puppets II. Nirvana/Kurt Cobain seemed to get it/them and carried on the DIY spirit, despite getting sucked up into "Corporate Rock" land. Still love Nirvana. Don't care if anyone else does.
I-Pods. Anything with earphones/plugs/etc is out for me. Too many people I know are going even deafer because of personal headphone use. My hearing is bad enough already, having been subjected to 30 years worth of concerts and shows, since my first, the Charlie Daniels Band, oddly enough, in '74. Anything that makes my hearing wors
Sorry. Cut off by haloscan. 3000 chars comes fast sometimes.
Anything that makes my hearing worse intentionally is off-limits for me. Discovering earplugs and their relationship to concert-going has been a real attitude changer. Now I can get my socks rocked off and not have 3 days of ringing in my ears. Vive Le Earplugs!
The last concert I saw was Modest Mouse at the Celebrity Theatre in Phx. The same place I saw CDB 30 years earlier. Hadn't been back to the place in close to 20 years. Strange. Very strange. Great show though. Aside from a few minor technical glitches. Kinda came full circle, back to where it all started for me. Long strange trip and all that. All in all, a great evening.
cheers
One side of the Kerry strategy worth noting is that this IS his strategy. Quite a few of us would prefer to directly question Bush's right to continue in office for even one more day, by using our political voices to out the truth and have at the real exercise of democracy. But the strategy of the high road is dogma to DC Dems, and I do certainly think that Kerry has many strengths---including strength under fire, which is Rove's greatest negative (thus the SBVTliars to hit that worst comparison to the Flake-in-Chief).
If it fails this time around, quite obviously we are going back to the strategy mentioned in the Constitution. At that point, post-election fraud episode, or post-MTE, or post-MCE (because hurricanes and earthquakes happen), we are going to be greatly weakened by this high road approach, which goes so far as to validate Bushliarco's actions.
So when the great number of us who want impeachment, right fucking now, get to the other side of a stolen election, we will be accused of having accepted policies and actions which we ARE SURE are incredible crimes against our nation. Because the high road campaign attempted to heal what should have been PROSECUTED and not abetted.
Kerry has paid his dues, and I'm happy to let him swing the bat. But the protest continues:
NOT IN OUR NAME!
--
It is his strategy, because this is his campaign FOR the Presidency. Obviously. A campaign and a subsequent Presidency are 2 completely different things. That aside, the likelihood of Weed and Co. ever being brought to justice for anything is remote. 2 chances, and Slim just rode out of town on his horse. If you know what I mean.
Don't know how you feel about him, but have you read "Worse Than Watergate" by John Dean? At the time of printing, he listed 11 possible impeachable offenses. There may be more to add to that list since then. I don't know. Given the current political climate, though, they're more likely to Reagan-ize him. No offense intended. Just sayin'.
comprehensive list of known Hurricane Damage, site is being updated frequently:
http://tinyurl.com/3tuax
The death toll of this storm looks like will surpass Andrew's 26
Bob Kerrey has an op-ed piece in the WAPO today defending John Kerry against the SBV attacks. Nice enough until you get to this:
"I was going to end this by calling on President Bush to join McCain in calling for the cessation of this misguided effort to discredit Kerry's service in Vietnam. But fair is fair. There are just as many misguided ads running against President Bush today by these "527" organizations."
Jesus Cheneying Christ Almighty!
Is there some kind of death wish that afflicts democrats? Does he really think any of the 527 ads against Bush are anything like as scurrilous as this one? Does he think he gets brownie points for being perceived as fair? NO! All he does is increase the level of cynicism which is a principal weapon of the Right. That's how they depress turnout and turn a party that represents the minority into one that controls ALL the levers of power.
Glad he never got to be President.
Buy a Cheneying clue.
Yikes! I'm glad I hate Florida at times like these, because it keeps me the hell outta there. I watched Andrew on TV in Seattle. That was really harsh. Most vividly remember hillbillies stocking their pickup trucks with building supplies to cash in on the massive rebuilding effort post-storm. Convoys of toothless Gomers "tryin' ta lenda hand". Yeah, right. Lend a hand into their pockets.
Homer Simpson: "Florida is America's Wang!"
"It is his strategy, because this is his campaign FOR the Presidency. Obviously. A campaign and a subsequent Presidency are 2 completely different things."
The point is that that strategy gives the appearance that we consent. This may be politics, but is FOR SURE ISN'T CONSENT. I wouldn't have given Bush the keys to a golf cart, though I do understand a Senator who wishes to protect the emergency war powers of the Executive by authorizations pro forma (without regard to the issue of right to rule).
"That aside, the likelihood of Weed and Co. ever being brought to justice for anything is remote. 2 chances, and Slim just rode out of town on his horse. If you know what I mean."
No, totally disagree, sakahamaz. This is a handful of bastards with billionaires trying to scam the table. Fuck them! There are 310 million of us---they can't get us all.
--
Kerry is taking a beating, as we all have been saying here. Wapo agrees.
Over the past week, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have thrown Sen. John F. Kerry on the defensive with a daily assault designed to tarnish his credentials as a possible commander in chief. But the orchestrated attacks also revealed the president's vulnerabilities on the issue that continues to shape the presidential campaign as much as any other.
The volleys over terrorism came after Kerry and his advisers believed they had put behind them most questions about his capacity to lead the country in a war on terrorism. Instead, Kerry and his advisers allowed themselves to be drawn into a new debate about Iraq and terrorism and were forced to rebut daily charges that Kerry has equivocated and sent conflicting signals on national security.
The report goes downhill from there.
Yes, Kerry is playing local media very well. That's where the real action is.
But the national media and TV talking heads only look at the national picture and that ain't looking pretty this wk.
Screw 'Don't Owe Us An Apology' WaPo, and the syphlitic dog they rode in on.
Kerry is doing fine. The Noise Machine does not run the country. The grassroots WILL support Kerry, and that's D and R, specifically because they are horrified at what is going on under the radical right.
But the crap press won't admit that. They'll come crawling next year, after they've gotten a lot of their fellow citizens killed.
--
ecoast:
If Kerry is taking a beating, it might be because the WAPO is trying it's damndest to administer one. From that same article;
"Cheney fired back that sensitivity never won a war. "America has been in too many wars for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive," he said. "A 'sensitive war' will not destroy the evil men who killed 3,000 Americans and who seek the chemical, nuclear and biological weapons to kill hundreds of thousands more."
Kerry allies accuse the vice president of taking the comment out of context. Bush allies say it is Kerry who has sown confusion with his own words."
WAPO makes no mention of the fact that Bush used the same language at the same convention the next night. Only Jon Stewart played the clips back to back and said the VEEP had just called Bush a pussy.
We can help by writing to these tools and calling them on each and every example of this shoddy and misleading writing.
Kerry's trying to get elected. If he starts banging his shoe on the table about impeachment etc, how long before the VRWC says, "We got chunks of Kerry in our stool"? 5-1 it's 1 millisecond or less. I'm with you, Paul, I just don't see it happening.
I also don't see an overwhelming number of those 310 million understanding the issues well enough to get up off the couch. ~45% still think he's ok. I don't know why, but they do. Go figure.
"Get the government off our backs!"
Is the cry of Repukelican hacks.
But when their ox is gored,
They want their shit restored.
They're hypocrites to the fucking max.
A point to consider:
How many people read the Washington Post, or the New York Times?
How many people watch the punditry?
As a percentage of the population, not very many.
Do you think the average undecided voter does? If that voter has gotten this far and is undecided, he's not likely very politically inclined.
So, big effin' deal that the Swift Nuts got on Crossfire. I don't know anyone who makes his choice for President based on one episode of Crossfire.
At this point, with Kerry ahead, the winning election strategy is pretty simple: get the ball, keep it on the ground, run out the clock. No long passes that might get intercepted. Don't fumble.
Make sure the GOTV machine is in overdrive on 11/2, keep appealing to moderates and disaffected Republicans, and above all, don't make campaign decisions out of anger. That's what Rove wants.
If Kerry continues to play the game he's playing, he wins. If he changes tactics and starts running like a Republican, he may not.
Kerry has resisted becoming a soundbite candidate, and I believe it is to contrast himself with the Republicans. Same here - go local, stay positive, let surrogates slap back at the Swift Nuts. It's working - your rage may not be addressed by this strategy, but frankly, that's fine. He's not running to assuage your anger, he's running to win an election, and he needs to appeal to people who aren't angry.
He's doing it.
How about Bruce Springsteen as Kerry's spokesperson? What do you late night music fans think of the concerts?
Paul: It's not dehydration that causes gout, though it doesn't help. What you have to do is swear off any alcohol, which for some Eschats is apparently tantamount to committing suicide, and greasy foods. Black cherry juice is often specifically effective in treating gout attacks, and the condition in general.
Thanks for the info, Paul. I'm not able to get to the store in this condition (yeah -- at 4 a.m., I thought I'd "turned the corner," but apparently only in a Dubya sort of way -- 7 a.m., agony strikes!), but I'll see if I can get someone to pick some cherry juice up for me.
.
Exactly right, jac. There are finer points to argue, as Paul says, but the campaign is not the place to do it. And given the current political climate, like I said, it ain't gonna happen. It pisses me off, I don't like it either, but the bigger picture, Kerry in the WH come January '05, is way more important.
Springsten would be good, but after I crashed I thought of the perfect person to do these talking head shows....
We need someone who's smart, articulate, funny, not afraid of Bush or the wingnuts, not affiliated directly with the Kerry campaign now, not afraid to piss people off, and not under contract to the big cable channels.
My answer....Molly Ivins. (I don't think she's on TV these days...) I'd accept Anne Richards as a plausible substitute.
News from OffTopicistan:
From the Seattle Times:
"The gathering was one of the largest — if not the largest — Kerry has drawn in a two-week, 22-state cross-country swing that followed his nomination at the Democratic Convention in Boston and ended here in Portland.
City officials said it was the biggest gathering in Portland for a politician in at least a decade.
Crowding prompted city fire marshals to shut off access to a section of Gov. Tom McCall Waterfront Park more than an hour before Kerry arrived, even as thousands of people still waited in lines that wound down a street and across part of the Hawthorne Bridge over the Willamette River.
David Rasmussen, special-events inspector for the Portland Fire Bureau, estimated the waterfront crowd at between 40,000 and 50,000 people.
"I've never seen anything like this, even when Bobby Kennedy and [Bill] Clinton were here," said Suzie Kerschner, a 58-year-old Portland native.
If their ground war is so effective then tell them to get their asses to Knoxville Tennessee for a rally.
greymattermom,
I'm not sure the concerts wil preach to anyone but the choir, but they'll earn a ton of money and get lots of press, which arguably might be more important.
route66,
Thanks for the link. I lived in FL for seven years, and damn, I don't miss it a bit. Andrew was sheer hell, for months and months. Miami was all cracker contractors and flat tires. (They were remarkably cavalier about cleaning up construction garbage, so your changes of getting a nail stuck in your tire were pretty decent, always.) Even in the coldest NY winters, I never sigh and think, "oh, to be in Miami again."
Bob Kerrey isn't a real Democrat.
Bob Kerrey is still pissed off Clinton got elected.
I agree with jac. Most people are too busy with their lives to watch cable news. The media is not going to tell us Kerry is ahead. They want to keep it a horse race until the end, it makes for a more interesting story for them.
Karin,
You are right. Kerry has been the front runner since late spring, and only gets stronger. The MOE thing is a new wrinkle to be make it appear to be a horse race. If you go state by state, Kerry is only getting more entrenched. And now that NC is within the margin of error, the electoral battle becomes more lopsided.
Only three million people regularly watch cable news, and all this stuff we are talking about would get blank stares.
The Swift Boat Side show isn't showing much of any effect at all, but I think it was basically something which was calculated to energize the brownshirt base. Most vets know it is a load of crap. And the kind which happens a lot.
We are in very good shape.
just heard a report that Captiva Island was carved in half by the hurricane, there's a 40 yard channel making two islands now. Obviously if any structures were on that area they're washed away and God forbid if folks tried to ride this out....
Every televised clip of a whistleass whistlestop shows AWOL at a podium with the audience behind him (carefully depicted in shirtsleeves sans ties with the slogan du jour as a backdrop.) Never shows him speaking TO anyone. Giving a speech with his back to the audience.
By contrast, media clips show Kerry and Edwards plowing through crowds or on a (mostly outdoor) stage addressing the enthusiastic audience answering a question (coherently) or a clip from a stump speech. The camera then pans over an enthusiastic crowd with "Make America Stronger" banners.
There are never any anti-bushies in the Bush clips, but the TV crew always manage to find an anti-Kerry or two in Kerry's crowds.
Which is the more effective strategy, to win over non-policy wonks?
While we weren't watching, the NYTimes reports, here are some things the Bushies have been up to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/1.../14bush.html?
hp
Which is the more effective strategy, to win over non-policy wonks?
After seeing that photo of Dubya preaching to a crowd restrained by a wooden fence, I've been left wondering just how many of his stops are staged in that manner.
And yet the cameras never pull back from framing Dubya front and center, to show what the scene really looks like.
As someone said, this is being played entirely for television. One question is: why is television cooperating? Because television is not interested in the people, only in the candidates? Bias? Laziness? Complicity?
Enough questions to keep a paranoaic spinning plates and theories for days. The point is: Kerry and Edwards are talking to people. Bush is talking to a camera.
Gee, I wonder which one votes in November?
Repug machine hit Kerry on 3 things this week - Kerry's response to Bush's question ("If you knew then..."), "sensitive war" and the swift boat guys.
Fair to say Kerry lost the wk on the first two with weak responses and third was probably a draw. Not a good record.
He could have hit the first two out of the park, if he had only listened to us here. On 1) say "No WMD, No AQ-Saddam connection, no nuclear program, why would there be a Senate resolution? Come again". That would
have shut them up. On "sensitive war"
thing, Edwards should have come out and say (first day - not on the third or fourth day) "sensitive war" means "sensitive to our values and to our allies". Means no Abu Ghraib. Anyway, Bush also said that, blah, blah...
That would have shut them up.
With weak responses, they lost that.
On the third point (swiftboat/O'Neill thing), they should have made an ad on the first day rebutting the allegations point by point.
Has Kerry campaign learnt its lesson? Because here is what is coming next week - new attack of the week.
From today's Wapo:
President Bush's campaign yesterday rolled out an upbeat, soft-focus ad using the Olympics as a backdrop. But, within hours, the focus shifted to an attack ad, assailing John F. Kerry's record on intelligence, that was supposed to remain under wraps until Monday.
The negative ad leaked out after it was mistakenly played on the Fox News Channel, giving Kerry strategists an opportunity to change the debate and challenge the president's charges three days before the spot receives widespread airing.
Noting the Democratic nominee's promise to reform the intelligence system, a narrator says: "Oh, really? As a member of the intelligence committee, Senator Kerry was absent for 76 percent of the committee's hearings. In the year after the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Kerry was absent for every single one.
"That same year," the ad says, "he proposed slashing America's intelligence budget by $6 billion. There's what Kerry says, and then there's what Kerry does."
We have sufficient warning and, if Kerry people cannot hit this one out, they are just a bunch of amateurs.
ecause television is not interested in the people, only in the candidates?
Television is interested in Money.
Good question, Robert. Why doesn't the camera pull back? Beats me. Why didn't the camera pull back to show the almost empty square when the Saddam statue was being pulled down?
I watched John and Teresa in many small venues on CSPAN during the primary campaign, and that is where they are very strong and compelling. That is how he did it in Iowa. He is better up close than on TV.
ecoast,
I have long since given up second guessing the Kerry campaign, since January.
He used to piss me off, puzzle and disappoint me...until I noticed that his campaign runs in cycles where he gets his ducks in a row, and he resurfaces and basically delivers a knock out punch which pushes him ahead. And then he goes back into stealth mode...only to repeat the cycle.
The Swift Boat thing has no traction. No ad is necessary. I have feeling that thing will evaporate in Sept, when the knockout punch is delivered. Same deal the sensitive and the iraq vote thing.
No matter how frustrating this stuff is for us, right now he is testing the bejesus out of every thing which is coming out his mouth because he is building up to a crushing closing.
I don't know how he does it. But he does. He is one of the best prepared, most highly disciplined candidates in my lifetime, and right now he is taking George Bush down.
The 3 things you mention might seem to be problems, but basically you have to try to put yourself in the place of the voters who he is targeting.
Hint: they ain't us.
Because television is not interested in the people, only in the candidates?
Television is interested in Money.
True. But candidates pay for air time, not news coverage. It's an indictment of the news coverage, frankly, that they can be so easily and openly used (and even when the evidence is presented, it has no effect on them. The picture I mentioned is fairly old. Has anyone noticed any change in TV camera angles?)
Good question, Robert. Why doesn't the camera pull back? Beats me. Why didn't the camera pull back to show the almost empty square when the Saddam statue was being pulled down?
Sheer wartime propaganda. And when it was exposed, it was a mini-scandal (well, it was finally admitted that that entire scene was staged, not spontaneous, and conducted by the U.S. military, not "angry crowds of happy Iraqis enjoying liberation.").
So, is TV news finally and bluntly in the propaganda business? Wolf Blitzer and others have expressed some measure of "contrition" for being to apologetic for this Administration. Funny, they were calling for Clinton's head on a platter, based primarily on schemes hatched in an Arkansas bait shop. Now, they willingly give the President the propagands shot he wants (or do they? We still can't seem to find out).
Curiouser and curiouser....
If you have the chance, catch the CSPAN speech by Geoffrey Nunberg in support of his book "Going Nucular." It was a fascinating examination of the success of the Republican noise machine from the vantage point of linguistics. It reminded me of the letter to the editor that someone posted here yesterday questioning the headline that Bush's challenge drowned out Kerry's message. I was unfamiliar with Mr. Nunberg's work, although he is a regular on Fresh Air and writes a weekly column for the Sunday New York Times Week in Review.
I think we could learn a lot from his work. Although he believes that the Repubs have been much more successful at using the language in the past twenty years, he sees that changing in this election cycle. His parsing of a Peggy Noonan speech was priceless. Good stuff!
from an Amazon review: ...he defends "blog" as being a verb and noun that has earned its place in the language; it's very phonetic clunkiness being part of the appeal.
Let's look at the results. The polls are spectacular! Gallup is a complete outlier. Every other poll, even Fox, shows Kerry pulling ahead.
But there is still all this hand wringing and second guessing by nervous nellies.
Big media is going to turn around slowly, as they realize they are on the losing side. All they understand is power, and guess what? They are losing it.
Look at the results. Kerry is forging an insurountable lead.
And don't feed the trolls.
Alan S. | Email | Homepage | 08.14.04 - 12:46 am | #
Yes, Kerry is clearly surging ahead .
.....
Bushies don’t know anything but digging, then they are surprised why they are going thuddy thud thud.
.....
The only tools they have are shovels and they keep on digging and digging.
.....
Kerry locomotive surging forward, Bushies digging themselves in deeper.
.....
"Then, at some moment only Kerry knows, about a month or two before the election, he suddenly comes from nowhere and goes for the jugular. Iowa, anyone?
So StepD said to hang in there, enjoy my summer. Because fall would be a' rockin'."
[end quote]
Keep in mind that Kerry is already under the post-convention spending limits and has to be cautious about money. After the Republican convention they'll both be on the same footing.
He may be waitiing to launch an all-out assault until that time. I hope so.
I always like a candidate who sets the agenda. Also, the word of moth created y local appearances is far greater and more energetic that the water cooler feedback of a commercial (as it THAT has ever happened).
Moreover, it is clearly the bast bang for the political buck out there, especially when combined with the grassroots and internet capabilities.
The television will eventually catch up with the current disconnect between field and television, bbut not until it's too late (one hopes).
I reminds me of the way the unions used to operate n a political front.
Does that make any sense to anyone else out there. I have had no coffee and pain meds for an abcessed tooth, so I'm not too sure how to spell myown name this morning. Please bear with me.
Or feel free to tell me to STFU.
Alright, I just read all that back. I'm shutting up now and returning to lurking until the drugs wore off.
Sorry, guys.
I'm sure many of you have seen this clip of Chimpster, but here it is anyway.
1992 wedding video excerpt--shot years after Bush went cold turkey in July 1986--needs to be preserved for future generations
Drinking?
Kerry's success is forcing Rove to show his hand earlier.
Also, from my experience in Iowa, one can assume there embedded staff in Bush campaign. (as one can assume there are Bush moles in the Kerry campaign.)
"Liberal Bias," Noch Einmal
Ever since I got involved -- well, no, make that "got myself involved" -- in a catfight over partisan labeling and media bias a couple of years ago, I've been receiving emails with pointers to new quantitative studies that purport to show that the media really do have a liberal bias, just as conservatives have been claiming all along.
The latest of these -- and certainly the most ambitious and analytically complicated -- comes from Tim Groseclose of the UCLA Department of Political Science and Stanford Business School and Jeff Milyo of the Harris Public Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Groseclose and Milyo's study has been approvingly cited by Bruce Bartlett in National Review, by Linda Seebach in the Rocky Mountain News, and by Harvard economist Robert J. Barro in Business Week, not to mention conservative bloggers like Instapundit, Andrew Sullivan, and Matt Drudge, among a number of others, who trumpet its "objectivity." (There's a bit of more critical discussion of the study at deadparrots.)
But sand sifted statistically is still sand. If you take the trouble to read the study carefully, it turns out to be based on unsupported, ideology-driven premises and to raise what would it would be most polite to describe as severe issues of data quality, however earnestly Groseclose and Milyo crunched their numbers. As we linguists have had ample opportunity to learn, sigmas ain't no substitute for scholarship.
from Geoffrey Nunberg's Language Log.
Fox News just interviewed Charlotte County hospital info director, described DOA count in county above 100, possibly 150 to 200...
Except for the numnuts of NBC
I was lolling about and heard the reporting on Kerry and Bush in Oregon my looney local affiliate had video of the Bush rally and video of John Kerry riding his bike in Portland no mention of the 50k at the Portland rally and mentioned that
Bush won Oregon in a close race failing to mention that Kerry is 8 points up --needless to say --I sent off a email to the news director even before coffee --I think I said he sucks.
Kerry=LEADER Bush=WIMP, PATHEIC, FOLLOWER
This may have been said up-thread but I don't have time now to read it all. Kerry's camp should emphasize the Bush strategy to follow him around the country. "Following the LEADER" should be the meme. Kerry is the leader and Bush is following him. The Carville-types on talk shows should bring it up with sneers in their voices and point out how Bush is following Kerry around like a puppy dog. Bush can't plan his own route and voice his own message. He is following Kerry hoping Kerry trips up and says some wussy word like "sensitive" that Bush can then make fun of. They should hammer home the PATHETIC and WEAK aspect of Bush's strategy and point out the crowd sizes. Since Bush's team has less lead time to organize events and Kerry's team has already booked the best venues they should point out what a non-leader, but a follower, Bush is. He is like a scavenging jackal trying to pick up some scraps from Kerry's lion pride. They should bring up the WIMP factor in relation to Bush. In the back of their mind's, Bush supporters know it is true so Team Kerry should not let examples like this go by without pointing it out somehow. I am sure there are some very creative types that can get this meme going better than I.
*** OK, you have convinced me that Kerry knows what he's doing and that hitting back on the Swift Boat Mafia, Cambodia, the war statement, the Intelligence Committee stuff, and the other rethug stupidities would be counterproductive. I have to trust that Kerry, at least, is following his tried and true campaign pattern and that my frustrations will be satisfied in the Fall. Still, understand that many of the frustrations that I and others have are based on the campaign statements that they will hit back at the lies and slanders and won't take it without response. So far, it seems that the campaign is doing exactly that.
It's frustrating specifically because we care so much.
In any event, I agree with Atrios that the PR, advertising, and media staff and consultants for the K/E campaign staff suck and are getting killed in the marketplace. Can't we get the best with all the money that the campaign has? How about some media training for the spokespersons?
Where is Carville? Jim, quit CNN and get your tail to Boston. We'll raise money to replace the income (or let Mary support you for a while!) We need you on a national level.
Finally, looking at the electoral map, it appears to me that 69 electoral votes are in play (VA, TN, AR, NC, AZ, NV, CO). While maintaining our strong areas, of course, it appears that concentrating on these states is critical. My math indicates that if we can pull 30 EV out of these states, it will not only cinch this thing, it will have a negative impact on the Bush campaign.
Our major goal is to discourage the other side and to make them try the most outrageous stunts to turn things around. This is already working; we need to keep it up.
So much for an assortment of positives and negatives for a Saturday morning.
Onward and upward!
Nancy - I agree with you. Kerry is a monster closer. He attacks just like he did when he was on his swift boat - hide, hide, ATTACK, then hide, hide.
As a friend said to me the other day -
Kerry has his Boston Irish mafia
(in a good way) behind him. You don't get to be a sissy politician when you grow up under the shadows of Kennedy machine and Tip O'Neill
type of guys. I agree with all that.
But here is what is happening.
Rove's attacks are not aimed at us.
They are only aiming at that small sliver of the electorate, the undecideds in the battleground states.
Most of them (that is to say 80% of the 10% undecided, or 8%) are not yet listening.
But this kind of incessant, unanswered attacks can get through to some of those undecideds. Rove will take what can get right now - like 1 or 2% each wk. If Kerry doesn't answer, Rove machine will slowly chip away at that undecided base. Every week, they will come up with something new to get the same or a different undecided voter. Why give them that chance now?
Attack on the same point on the same day, so you can reach the same undecided voter in the same news cycle, effectively nullifying that attack. We are only fighting over the margins here - the 10% undecided in those 18 battleground states. You reach them anyway you can and more importantly, do not let the other guy reach them by running negative stuff against you.
This is all tactical, not strategic, I agree. But if the other guy's whole strategy is a series of tactical attacks, what do you do? You rob him of that opportunity in parallel, while
you keep doing your strategic stuff.
I built a little empire out of
some crazy garbage called the
blood of the exploited working class.
Now they've overcome their shyness and they're calling me your highness and the world screams
Kiss me son of God.
TMBG
ecoast--
Thanks---
Exactly!
If previous campaigns had heeded your advice, the encyclopedias would talk about President Dukakis and President Gore instead of two President Bushes.
How many times do we have to go down this road? Maybe they need more history professors as campaign advisors.
Moveon.org is hitting the airwaves with a new WMD ad during RNC wk.
From MyDD:
While the right-wing Blogosphere has moved on to the Cambodia schelp after failing to get anywhere with the Swift Boat crap, MoveOn.org has announced the winner of their "Real People" ad campaign. It details the real lie about war in this campaign, and is told by Lee Buttrill, a Marine Corps veteran who has returned from the war that is still raging:
(ad text)
We were given these idea that there's weapons of mass destruction, but where are the weapons of mass destruction? They said they were so sure where they were, but where are they? When we were over there, we looked around. I was, I was on an intelligence gathering team. We looked, we looked in scientific installations. We never found anything. It was just a lie and it wasn't a proper use of American troops. It wasn't a proper use of my life, or my friends' lives, or the marines who I've seen die around me. It was not a proper use.
Pure and simple, the administration lied about WMDs in order to go to war. They had been planning to lie about them to go to war even if the September 11th attacks never took place.
(end of ad text)
This is a very good ad. Watch it here. MoveOn plans to air it during the RNC, so consider contributing and helping them out.
>But if the other guy's whole strategy is a series of tactical attacks, what do you do? You rob him of that opportunity in parallel, while
you keep doing your strategic stuff.
Well, undecideds hate negative attacks. So my feeling the Swiftie thing is calculated to hold down turn out.
I am speculating that Kerry is waiting to let O'Neill play out his hand. And then...never directly, deal with it, if necessary...but never under the aegis of Kerry-Edwards 2004. Already, the backlash is building. And the 527s are running out of time.
You will notice that the Kerry campaign is not producing attack ads.
Bush has been forced to spend 10's of millions of dollars on them, with no serious damage being done. Kerry will throw out a little defense out here and there to test them, but he knows it is waste of time to bother with shows up on Fox.
Kerry is positioning himself never to be put on the defensive...he is never going to be allowed to go off message as he tests what they've got.
(and he is keeping his top gun surrogates in reserve. He can trot out his generals at anytime.)
You don't show your hand until the other guy has played his out.
Nancy, I think you're absolutely right about this.
ecoast, many of those undecideds aren't listening yet.
They'll start to perk up their ears in September, and October is going to be an all-out effort, because anyone who plans on voting will be paying attention then. Kerry needs to keep it positive, because Bush can't possibly do that. He doesn't have accomplishments that he can tout.
For good evidence of this, read Holden's latest. It's excellent!
Found on today's editorial page of the Rocky Mountain News (Colorado's right wing rag).
Bush said that colleges should stop giving preferences to "legacy applicants..."
The editor of the page writes, "Bush's position may seem somewhat awkward, since he was himself a legacy at Yale, which both his father and his father's father attended. But as a graduate of Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., with better than respectable SAT scores (the equivalent of 1280 in today's SAT scoring), Bush could well have had a reasonable shot at admission---given Yale's less-rigid standards of the time..."
1280??? Dubya?
Toes,
I am still trying to figure out how Kerry crushed us in Iowa. (I was there for Dean..I got on a plane a week before the caucus feeling all cocky, and left a destroyed wreck wondering what the hell happened there just now.)
For that reason, and for reasons which were reinforced over and over again until April (what the heck, we knew it was over in NH)
I have learned to accept as an article of faith, that Kerry is a juggernaut...and him being the nominee is a good thing.
I'm torn between the unrelenting optimism of a Kerry victory, and the increasingly pessimistic version by Somerby, who I think is 100% correct when he says that the Kerry campaign hasn't a clue how to defend itself in the mainstream media! Dems haven't figured out how to defend themselves since Clinton in '92.
Rove's attacks are not aimed at us.
They are only aiming at that small sliver of the electorate, the undecideds in the battleground states.
If Kerry doesn't answer, Rove machine will slowly chip away at that undecided base.
ecoast
Not exactly.
Attacks like the Swift Nut crap is not intended to change minds. It is intended to turn minds off - to cause undecideds to throw up their hands, curse about politics, and stay away from the polls on election day.
Negative ads don't increase your vote count, they decrease the other guys.
That simply isn't going to work this year - the number of undecideds is small, and Kerry is already enough ahead that the undecided vote won't sway things much, if at all. And the ads certainly aren't going to keep the Democratic base from voting - quite the opposite, it may enrage them.
The BC04 campaign is executing the only strategy it can, because its policies aren't vote-winners. It's almost a strategy to minimize the loss, not to win.
Unless Bush can come up with a positive vision that makes voters vote FOR him, he'll lose.
One final comment: is Kerry's campaign perfect? No. But it doesn't have to be. We have a natural tendency to compare an option to perfection, but the reality is that, when it's time to choose (a car, a phone service, a President) the winner doesn't have to be perfect - just better than all the other options.
Kerry's campaign isn't perfect, but it's better than Bush's right now, isn't it? "Turning the corner" was a disaster. "Mission Accomplished" was a disaster. When's the last time you heard "steady leadership in times of change"? Didn't work.
Kerry is beating bush on what matters.
Consumers of main stream news need to let them know their performance is unacceptable. Be specific when you complain --a general rant might make you feel better but no one will respond but specific complaints --and don't just send it to the offender send it to anyone and everyone including to their FCC file
Also previous studies have shown mainstream media can only reinforce a notion -most people get their political information from family friends and neighbors. It isn't the maintstream press the right controls but the nutcase press which is their enabler --they get the Drudges of the world to print it then they quote it and send it out on Newsmax
Remember we are the majority and we must not be silent anymore. The more people who vote the better Kerry will do --even in the red states. Register and vote. Complain everyday to your local media until they do the job right.
And I have found it is better to be nasty (and slightly amusing) and short -long explanations they don't read but a short nasty quip with a link to the proof can be very effective. They are hacks but they can be better hacks
From the Portland Rally yesterday:
"The subject of sensitivity arose when Kerry was told by one person in his audience that most people in prison are black or Hispanic. "How do we change that figure to make this country more sensitive - I don't want to use the word sensitive because Bush has screwed that word up - but more aware of the problem?" he was asked.
"Don't for an instant be shy about using the word sensitive," Kerry said. "I don't think it's very sensitive to have a vice president who has secret meetings with the polluters who write the laws. And I don't think it's very sensitive to expect the wealthy to shift the tax burden to the average American."
Add the "sensitive" attack to the trash pile, next to "turning the corner" and "steady leadership."
jac,
I would like to see someone develope a game called campaign manager.
This whole election has been a humbling experience for me, as before January I knew everything. LOL.
I just recall a time I was posting that Kerry was running behind Sharpton NATIONALLY, and now have learned not to complain too much and pay attention.
But yeah, we could use some better surrogates. I have a feeling that the Cable News people are picking a lot of them, and the word has to go out to the Leibermans and other to stay off the fucking cable shows...or else.
With regard to media...
frankly I think they are beyond redemption, for now.
And I also think that letters to the editor and that stuff is too work intensive, for so little return, we can deal with that crap after the election.
I also think that Jon Stewart, who is actually watched by the "working press and electronic media" does more good in a half an hour, than an avalanche of letters can do in a day.
They just tell themselves our missives are orchestrated, and throw them away. However, nationally a lot of good letters to the editor are getting into the paper.
But, the people we are trying to reach don't watch cable news, don't watch local news, except by accident, and haven't read the papers for decades.
Letter do make a difference -you have to do a little work and get individual email addresses and I have found short and nasty gets more attention with a link to the proof.
It abolutely has an impact. There never is dealing with it later.
The mainstream media is driven by money and it will never be different
but as unbelieveable as this sounds -these people think they are journalists --I know huh?--but if you attack them for their (lack) standards they do react.
The editor of the page writes, "Bush's position may seem somewhat awkward, since he was himself a legacy at Yale, which both his father and his father's father attended. But as a graduate of Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., with better than respectable SAT scores (the equivalent of 1280 in today's SAT scoring), Bush could well have had a reasonable shot at admission---given Yale's less-rigid standards of the time..."
1280??? Dubya?
He's smarter than he acts. Smart enough to steal an election, and smart enough to bamboozle a lot of otherwise decent people in this country. The image of the folksy simpleton is, like his accent, completely fake.
You would really have to be very smart and very disciplined to act that dumb all the time.
I had just assumed that someone else took his SATs...
Does anyone seriously believe Dan Quayle took his own bar exam?
Don't sell yourselves short. Your all as funny as anything Jon Stewart puts out.
How to get the last inch of Democratic cock up the media's ass?
Have you tried wiggling? Yes.
Maybe if you flared the media's butt cheeks out some more.
Oh wait you tried that yesterday. my bad.
When you really get serious, and cut the medias legs off (they are just getting in the way) whose going to believe what they have to say then?
Bob Costas told me last night that the partisan standing ovation for Team USA in that hotbed of anti -American feeling, Greece, doesn't have any relation to politics at all!
Ditto for the cheers for teams Italy and Britain. Don't read anything into the wild cheers for Team Iraq followed closely by quiet for Team Iran. It's not political Bob. The Greecians really hate our foreign policy. They were just being polite.
Nothing to see here.
does anyone know of a website that is keeping track of crowd size? Kerry got over 10k in Milwaukee, Laura Bush did a fake event on job creation for 200 invitees.... (and was pasted because the sainted small business finding the jobs was a temp service -- no benefits)
"But, the people we are trying to reach don't watch cable news, don't watch local news, except by accident, and haven't read the papers for decades"
Then I would suggest engaging people you meet in conversation, when the subject comes up, in a non-threatening way. No harangues, just make one simple point intended to plant the seed in their minds. Also, I've noticed people who do not read the major papers, do read at the small local papers in their area, including the letters to the editor. So don't forget about writing to them.
George is not in charge --he is the "face" of the Republican Party -their fake everyman. It is important to keep reminding everyone everyday The Republicans have been incompetent in every phase of government. Yes 9/11 did happen but that was three years ago and it is no longer an excuse for everything.
Bush said he fixed the economy and now that he can no longer lie about it --the economy is no longer his fault (it's Bill Clinton's according to the latest freeperbaloney)
Bush said he fixed the schools -fixed them so people like Bill Bennett could come in with for profit outfits --and neglected to fund his own progrm
Bush said he would make us safer but failed to give any money to the first responders
Bush said he would give us more of our own money -but his policies have made everyday items cost more and local government unable to deliver many basic services.
damn, i missed the music conversation.
nah, true geekiness would have meant including Tommy Keene, the dB's and Let's Active
true geekiness would have mentioned LMNOP, Translator, Wire Train, the Three O'Clock, and Sussman Lawrence.
and BTW, i do have a copy of the Db's Like This.
1280? dubya?
he might have been smarter back then, before he started drinking 24 hours a day and loading up on illegal drugs.
A guy with a headscarf and beads makes some vague comment about Kerry's surrogates and everyone jumps on the bandwagon? The armchair legions who know better than the campaign are always available in abundance. Those who can do, those who ... well, you know. I think the Kerry people know what they're doing when they script messages for these people. Maybe tell them to unscript their surrogates a bit, but that is about all I would complain about. All those I've seen on television recently--Jamie Rubin, Wes Clark, Admiral Crowe and others have been excellent. This kind of vetching is not constructive. And remember, rallies rarely attract undecideds ... the local press they get is good, indeed. But mostly they mean our base is motivated. We still need the unengaged, uninformed, and impressionable.
>Then I would suggest engaging people you meet in conversation, when the subject comes up, in a non-threatening way. No harangues, just make one simple point intended to plant the seed in their minds. Also, I've noticed people who do not read the major papers, do read at the small local papers in their area, including the letters to the editor. So don't forget about writing to them.
Karin, I am going to a purple state and work GOTV for a month.
Additionally, I am currently working inside California to register new citizens, as well as facillitate canvassers going to surrounding states like New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada on the weekends leading up to October.
I was working about 30 hours a week on the Dean Campaign, and after that did field training.
The only thing holding myself back from taking a paid field position and relocating for the duration are three demanding cats.
But yeah. I talk to everyone I meet about the election, and have been since March 2003.
Bob Costas told me last night that the partisan standing ovation for Team USA in that hotbed of anti -American feeling, Greece, doesn't have any relation to politics at all!
Ditto for the cheers for teams Italy and Britain. Don't read anything into the wild cheers for Team Iraq followed closely by quiet for Team Iran. It's not political Bob. The Greecians really hate our foreign policy. They were just being polite.
Nothing to see here.
Papertiger | Email | Homepage | 08.14.04 - 12:52 pm | #
Yoo hoo, Paper tiger, I’m trying to decipher what you are saying through all the ironic overlay .
.....
I did see the opening ceremonies last night and they were beautiful but it was way late for me, I was hoping to see the teams come in.
.....
I feel very happy and heartened if those events happened, did they really cheer us, oh wow, that feels good. .
.....
I am also happy they cheered Italy and Britan and Iraq, rock on .
.....
None of it of course makes me want to vote for Bush.
.....
OT but not really:
I was wondering if there is any plan to counter Bush if he ends up catching Osama in Sep. or Oct. There's definitely action (no doubt hindered by their outing of Kahn) in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region right now, which says to me their ramping up their efforts. Can't Howard Dean come out and say that they are obviously trying to time Osama's capture as an October surprise? This needs to get out, because without public suspicion of it, Kerry's toast if Osama is caught soon.
More cynically, what if one day before the election, the Bushies *lie* about having caught Osama and say they'll release the non-existant evidence in a few days. But then later on, we learn -- whoops! -- it really wasn't him and the evidence was mistaken.
papertiger is a troll sent to us by kkkarl rove.
one of the paid trolls. you know, one of those "i used to be a democrat, but now blah blah blah........."
ignore him.
lovice, the numbers I heard are that Kerry crowds are in the 10s of 1000s. The numbers they posted for Seattle or thereabouts appear to have been 40-50k.
.....
Rock on .
.....
Bobby, I think by this time anything that Bushies pull in the nature of a Voila Moment will either be a lead balloon or go over with a thuddy thud thud.
.....
Bushies big prollem is that people see him as the wrong person taking us in the wrong direction.
.....
That will not change by specific logistic occurrences except to continue the thuddy thud thud.
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dan, yeah, I usually do, except I really did want to find out about the Olympics, anyone knows, please post .
.....
Minnieb
You missed the point entirely. If you have Bob Costas toeing the Democratic line, who else in the media is there left to get?
It doesn't help Democrats at all to have Costas telling the general public that the Greeks are against Bushs policies while those Greeks are cheering our team and our allies teams. It doesn't help dems at all for Costas to say the Greeks are notoriously polite to Americans even when they disagree with our politics while those same polite Greeks are giving our enemie's teams (Iran) the cold stare.
I'm not the smartest guy, but I'm not that dumb.
PS you guys better get a team over there to set those Greeks straight pronto!
Hey Minnie, it was spectacular. The opening was a beautiful and artistic overview of Greek history and mythology. I am not ordinarily into the pomp and circumstance, but to me it was breathtaking.
And yes, the crowd cheered the US team quite enthusiastically. The reception for the Iraqi team was wildly exhuberant. I've never been able to sit through the opening ceremony, but this time I was riveted and watched it right up to the point that they lit the amazing high tech torch. Cool stuff!
Costas & Kouric were pathetic. During the opening march through history, they talked incessantly over the wonderful music and basically showed off their total lack of knowledge of history & mythology.
the people we are trying to reach don't watch cable news, don't watch local news, except by accident, and haven't read the papers for decades
How about that. Ever ask them why?
Didn't even Lyndon Johnson's 1964 campaign ran response ads to scurrilous attacks? When did so many professional Democratic strategists decide that it was best to be afraid of your own shadow?
WRT McPeak, the Kerry campaign is probably afraid of making the generals look too scripted. But there does seem to have been remarkable tactical ineptitude.
Put Rassmann in an AD waxing indignant, not on Op-Ed page of the "Wall Street Journal." Have the ad show text of Corsi's quotes and an image of the book's cover with his name on it. "Anti-Catholic bigotry" for real, right on TV for swing voters to see. Show Elliot's series of quotes, from 1996 to the first affidavit, to the "Globe" piece, to the second affidavit.
Then, for good measure, show photos of Rove fading into images of that Houston asshole's face, with narration detailing their past relationship, followed by photos of Bush and Rove together.
There's no chance of that happening, but you have to vent sometimes. The Democratic Party will start to take intelligent risks when it has absolutely no other choice.
I'm not the smartest guy, but I'm not that dumb.
Your words suggest otherwise. Not travelled much, have you? The general attitude to Americans in the world right now is built around a couple of precepts:
1. Most Americans who voted in 2000 didn't vote for Bush.
2. Most Americans don't support Bush's policies.
These precepts are borne out by (a) fact and (b) consistent polling numbers. Unlike the GOP, most people can distinguish between a country's nationals and its political leaders.
Now go and claim your 'W stands for Wanker' baseball cap from Karl Rove.
If your right Mr. Nobody, why the stony silence directed at the Iranians?
1) or 2)?
I think you need another number.
Response ads to scurilous truth?
Dems don't need that if the people we are trying to reach don't watch cable news, don't watch local news, except by accident, and haven't read the papers for decades
By the way the NYTimes outed Khan, not the administration. (Cheney word inserted here) DON"T YOU DEMS HAVE ANY BETTER CONTROL OF THEM THEN THAT?
>How about that. Ever ask them why?
Yeah. It is very interesting, but it would bore you.
We are talking about the 5 percent of Americans right now who have a history of being always voters. They are the people which the Kerry and Bush people are fighting over.
However, the Democrats are also working hard to get a number of young and new voters who don't get counted as likely voters, so they don't show up in the polls.
In other words, your guy is working like hell trying to hold together his BASE...while Kerry is quietly firming up a large electoral victory.
And if I was a Bush supporter, I would be very, very depressed....and getting ready to just attack President Kerry 24/7 like you did to Clinton.
But that won't work either, so you might as well go see a movie, and forget about poliitics for a long, long time.
By the way the NYTimes outed Khan, not the administration. (Cheney word inserted here) DON"T YOU DEMS HAVE ANY BETTER CONTROL OF THEM THEN THAT?
so what your saying is the people your trying to reach haven't ever read a paper since they haven't been alive for decades.
Makes perfect sense to me once you explain it.
ha
god republicans are stupid.
>god republicans are stupid.
you think?
Learn to read papertiger.
"In response, the White House official said that it appeared Mr. Khan's name had been first disclosed by officials overseas, not in the United States."
Ok, where is the part alleging that the NYT outed Khan? BTW some official, somewhere, had to leak it for the NYT or Post to know. What I like is how they say officials overseas did it, not someone in the US.. could be ANY official overseas, plus Condi admitted that info was revealed as background, now they're denying it.
A friend of my mother's (African-American, by the way) showed up for a Bush rally in Duluth, Minnesota. The screener asked her if she voted for Bush-Cheney in 2000. Yes. He asked if she was voting for Bush-Cheney in 2004. Not sure, that's why she wanted to hear the President speak. She was not allowed to attend. Apparently the Bush campaign is more interested in weeding out any possibility of dissent than in wooing undecided voters. Interesting strategery...
I used to have this saying,
the difference between someone who thinks he's smart...
and a person who is really smart,
is that the smart person knows when he talking to someone smarter than he is.
But I stopped saying it, when certain people didn't get it.
Nancy
Your revelation suggests to me a new campaign strategy for the Kerry campaign.
VOTE FOR KERRY He 'll get you laid!
I normally charge for my advice but I'll let you have that one for free.
W stands for Wanker
He he!
Our children is not learning.
Good grief.
...plus Condi admitted that info was revealed as background, now they're denying it.
Because she know that the true believers like papertiger will swallow it and thus avoid that nagging cognative disonance that being a patriotic Bush supporter entails.
Anonymous, obviously, they're taking advice from the trolls.
Bliekker, that and most people just don't pay any attention.
Interesting strategery...
I don't think Bush could take it, dissent. The last thing 'they' want is for him to 'explode' on camera.
You didn't look far enough into the article Mr. no imagination
Next para down "The NYT reporters know whether they were given Khan's name by Pakistani or US officials, and their initial story sourced it to "a Pakistani intelligence official." The NYT reporters know whether any US officials confirmed the name before or after the NYT published it. Any "controversy" over the disclosure of Khan's arrest has been created and maintained by the NYT.
Surface looker!
...and most people just don't pay any attention.
Yeah, you got that right.
The unannounced capture of a figure from Al Qaeda in Pakistan several weeks ago led the Central Intelligence Agency to the rich lode of information that prompted the terror alert on Sunday, according to senior American officials.
papertiger has trouble with the english language, eh?
Linked to the NYT from his/her website.
So what we get is Condi gives his name, as she has already admitted, the Pakistanis comfirm it, but then other senior officals refuse to confirm it. What's so difficult about that?
It's a jump from a figure from Al Qaeda in Pakistan to HIS name is Freaking KHAN!
Your right, Condi is sort of niave in thinking that a democrat has America's interests at heart.
Shame on her.
Four Paragraphs above detailing administration incompetence in the war on terror.
huummmmm.
For some reason, these clowns don't make me feel terribly safe.
Well, I missed the late night music chat, but I'll solve the "yak mystery". It was a full-length CD by a band from Louisville, KY named King Kong. The album was called "Me Hungry!" and was sort of a mock "rock opera" about a caveman and his yak. Entertaining stuff.
Well someone spell it out to him in words a six year old can understand, please.
"The American officials would say only that the Qaeda figure whose capture had led to the discovery of the documentary evidence had been captured with the help of the C.I.A. Though Pakistan announced the arrest last week of a Qaeda member, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted in connection with the bombings of American embassies in East Africa in 1998, the American officials suggested that he had not been the source of the new threat information.
An account provided by a Pakistani intelligence official made clear that the crucial capture in recent weeks had been that of Mr. Khan, who is also known as Abu Talha. The intelligence official provided information describing Mr. Khan as having assisted in evaluating potential American and Western targets for terrorist attacks, and as being representative of a "new Al Qaeda."
Well someone spell it out to him in words a six year old can understand, please.
Papertiger,
You're a fool to believe that the Bush administration cares more about your safety then thier grip on power and the money making opportunities for them and thier friends.
BLITZER: Let's talk about some of the people who have been picked up, mostly in Pakistan, over the last few weeks. In mid-July, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan. There is some suggestion that by releasing his identity here in the United States, you compromised a Pakistani intelligence sting operation, because he was effectively being used by the Pakistanis to try to find other al Qaeda operatives. Is that true?
RICE: Well, I don't know what might have been going on in Pakistan. I will say this, that we did not, of course, publicly disclose his name. One of them...
BLITZER: He was disclosed in Washington on background.
RICE: On background.
On background means not for attribution, not that it shouldn't be published.
And Condi did disclose the name of the agent to back up her assertion the terror threats were real.
(even though he disclosed no such thing)
And by doing so, she burned an agent.
On background means not for attribution, not that it shouldn't be published.
Oh yes, for sure. I was just showing that Condi originally tried to wiggle out of blame by claiming it was 'on background.' Now that that lie didn't pan out they've changed the story. If she hadn't given it out, she would have said so in the first place.
US officials were the source of Khan's name, which was originally published on 8/2, his full name was revealed later in the evening edition, which is the current article posted on the NYT site Pakistan Source Under Cover When U.S. Confirmed Name.
I knew Condi publicly admitted it, (saw the interview), but I wanted to get the original NYT that claimed US officials provided his name, but apparently the day edition is only available via Lexis Nexis... once it was printed- day edition- Pakistan confirmed it.
god republicans are stupid.
I take some solace in this.
If they try to start a civil war, their utter incompetence means that the fight will at least be brief.
And, yes, I think they are dumb enough to start such a thing. Everyone should be prepared.
If they try to start a civil war, their utter incompetence means that the fight will at least be brief.
He He...
Oh yes, for sure. I was just showing that Condi originally tried to wiggle out of blame by claiming it was 'on background.' Now that that lie didn't pan out they've changed the story. If she hadn't given it out, she would have said so in the first place.
I don't think she was lying when she said that the name was disclosed on background.
But it was duplicitous of her (and, as usual, shameful of Blitzer not to call her on it) to try to confuse "not for attribution" with "not for publish."
"Oh, yes, we revealed his name, but it's okay because we told the reporters not to reveal who told them."
I don't think she was lying when she said that the name was disclosed on background.
It was an act of deception. She was trying to make it 'seem' as if the NYT should not have printed the name because it was given 'on background'. That way, the blame would fall on the oh-so-liberal times and not on themselves. Unfortunatelly for them most people know that 'on background' means that they couldn't give Condi's name but that Kahn's name was out there and free to print. You're right Blitzer should have called her on it.
Philalethes
Great series of post.
Kerry is up to something and I can't quite put my finger on it. That's to his credit because he's keeping all of us guessing.
Philalethes, the media is forgetting that long ago Kerry said he knows this guy. There seem to be not one but a series of traps being laid for Bush and he doesn't even see the first one yet. I have a feeling Kerry is quietly putting the Tecumsah Sherman plan into place. It won't be pretty.
Can you beleive this? Cheney goes sensitive on war. From Hugh Hewitt radio show via dailyKos.
An Interview with the Vice President:
HH: Vice President Dick Cheney, welcome to the Hugh Hewitt Show.
VP: It is good to be on here.
HH: Today you brought attention to John Kerry's plan to wage a more 'sensitive' war on terror. What do you think John Kerry meant when he said 'sensitive,' Mr. Vice President?
VP: Well, I'm not sure what he meant (laughing). Ah, it strikes me the two words don't really go together, sensitive and war. If you look at our history, I don't think any of the wars we've won, were won by us being quote sensitive. I think of Abraham Lincoln and General Grant, they didn't wage sensitive war. Neither did Roosevelt, neither did Eisenhower or MacArthur in World War II. A sensitive war will not destroy the evil men who killed 3,000 Americans, and who seek chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons to kill hundreds of thousands more....
Later in the same interview:
HH: Will the Najaf offensive continue until that city is subdued even if that means a siege of the Imam Ali shrine?
VP: Well, from the standpoint of the shrine, obviously it is a sensitive area, and we are very much aware of its sensitivity. On the other hand, a lot of people who worship there feel like Moqtada Sadr is the one who has defiled the shrine, if you will, and I would expect folks on the scene there, including U.S. commanders, will work very carefully with the Iraqis so that we minimize the extent to which the U.S. is involved in any operation that might involve the shrine itself.
ecoast, nice nab.
Eastcoast-
Link? Seriously: I've GOT to have that link
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 - The unannounced capture of a figure from Al Qaeda in Pakistan several weeks ago led the Central Intelligence Agency to the rich lode of information that prompted the terror alert on Sunday, according to senior American officials.
The figure, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, was described by a Pakistani intelligence official as a 25-year-old computer engineer, arrested July 13, who had used and helped to operate a secret Qaeda communications system where information was transferred via coded messages.
A senior United States official would not confirm or deny that Mr. Khan had been the Qaeda figure whose capture led to the information.
In explaining the decision to call a new terror alert, American officials would say only that the evidence obtained by the C.I.A. after the arrest of the Qaeda figure in Pakistan had provided a richer, more credible source of intelligence than could have been provided by any single individual. They declined to say whether the "documentary evidence" included physical documents or might also include electronic information stored on computers, like copies of e-mail communications.
The Qaeda communications system that Mr. Khan used and helped operate relied on Web sites and e-mail addresses in Turkey, Nigeria and the northwestern tribal areas of Pakistan, according to the information provided by a Pakistani intelligence official.
Douglas Jehl reported from Washington for this article, and David Rohde from Karachi, Pakistan.
Your bitch the NYTimes called up their bitch Dave in Karachi and got the name from a Paki.
Cheney all of ya'll Now clean up this mess your dog made on the sidewalk
Did I manage to work the word Traitor into that last post?
Well I meant to!
Oh and I meant to say surface lookers!
Thanks so much for explaining it to me like I was a six year old.
I was watching the coverage of the Kerry/Bush visits to Portland and believe it or not, one local reporter actually mentioned the "endorsements" the Bush supporters had to sign to get into the school gym where W was spewing his crap. The reporter didn't say "loyalty oath" but it was close.
Overall, what I saw was pretty well balanced. The Bush protesters were across the street behind a fence, and didn't get shown much, but they were mentioned a few times. Not perfect press coverage, but not bad for local dweebs.
Om K Lets play again
Rev Alston never served under Kerry's command on PCF-94.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
Eastcoast-
Link? Seriously: I've GOT to have that link
everyman
Go to the source at hughhewitt.com.
Scroll down to "Interview with Vice President" posted at 3PM Pacific, Aug 12.
Transcript is still there. Get there fast before Karl Rove asks Hewitt to take it down.
Are you still bored Atrios?
After his 50,000-spectator rally yesterday in Portland, John Kerry plans to windsurf later this week in Oregon.
While non-Oregonians and even some Eastern Oregonians (who are redder than Mississippi) might balk at the significance of this promised event, I don't think most residents of the state will take it lightly. True, it takes more than a nice photo-op to win over swing voters (though bicycling in one of the nation's most bike-friendly cities does look good); nevertheless, the if Kerry is able to ride the coattails of yesterday's hugely successful event (especially in the eyes of the local media) with a windsurfing event that also draws a good deal of media coverage, his image in the area will doubtless be improved.
from my blog, Basie!
Tom Harkin, my hero.
From AP via Waterloo/Cedar Rapids Courier.
Sen. Tom Harkin called Vice President Dick Cheney a "coward" for avoiding service in Vietnam and called on President Bush to end the "backdoor draft."
The Iowa Democrat was responding Friday to the call-up of a Des Moines police officer who has already completed his eight-year military commitment.
Harkin echoed comments earlier this week by Des Moines Police Chief William McCarthy, who said the military's treatment of Des Moines Police Officer Rodell Nydam was "evil."
[snip]
Harkin, who served as a jet pilot in the Navy, said the exemption wasn't intended for situations like the war in Iraq. He said first responders like Nydam are needed to protect the community.
Harkin also shot back at Cheney, who said in a visit to Iowa on Tuesday that presidential candidate John Kerry lacks a basic understanding of the war on terrorism and cannot make America safer.
He noted that Cheney had several student deferments that allowed him to skip serving in Vietnam.
"When I hear this coming from Dick Cheney, who was a coward, who would not serve during the Vietnam War, it makes my blood boil," Harkin said. "Those of us who served and those of us who went in the military don't like it when someone like a Dick Cheney comes out and he wants to be tough. Yeah, he'll be tough. He'll be tough with somebody else's blood, somebody else's kids. But not when it was his turn to go."
Thanks so much for explaining it to me like I was a six year old.
Papertiger
If you show the reasoning skills of a six-year-old, don't be surprised when you're treated as one.
BTW, Papertiger...you DO realize that your name basically means "something that's intended to be fearsome and intimidating, but is actually toothless and feeble"? If so, I applaud your honesty.
I-Pods. Anything with earphones/plugs/etc is out for me. Too many people I know are going even deafer because of personal headphone use.
I listen to my iPod at work, yes, because I'd rather risk deafness than endure C&W or "oldies" or adult contemporary, which is just about all that gets played. I'd rather listen to Top 40 than any of that crap.
As for iPods as headphone-only use? Um... You're obviously not very up on things if you don't realize that iPods can be used with your regular home stereo or in your car. I've hooked up mine to both.
DUH.
So you turn the volume down. So many assholes we knew in the military thought that the only thing you could possily do with a stereo--that's without headphones--was to cause it to blast as loud as possible, then leave so they're not even listening to it anyway. It's not headphones unless you're irresponsible with them. The ambient noise of a modern city is probably worse or as bad--imagine a time when people actually dsid not expect there to be noise at night or during a period of nominal rest.
Some people just can't conceive sinister treason. It's just too much for their silly little minds.
Rice is a TRAITOR.
The entire Bushliarco admin are traitors---obviously.
Racists and partisans can't tell that THEY THEMSELVES are traitors, but it doesn't save them. They ARE traitors.
And the history books will show it, and spit on them, their kin, and their graves.
--
"This man blows up everything he can't spell." --D.L. Hughley (on Maher's show).
"Yes, Kerry is flying under the radar, bypassing the impossibly biased big media and going direct to the voters."
What a load of crap. Doing local speeches means that he's bypassing the big media? Bush does local speeches too and meets with the local media. So has every other presidential candidate since, oh, Washington.
What is with you people? This used to be a great place to be enlightened. You all and Duncan seem to have jumped the shark during the DNC and got a hyperinflated view of your self worth.
Doing local speeches that draw more people than the venue, during a workday.
The fact is simple: a considerable majority is going to vote for John Kerry. Whether the votes get counted, whether some other shit is pulled, that's the obvious fact.
Americans just don't like shitheads as much as the media (or you, Tom) preaches. Dragging that dead Iraq nag around by her halter ain't helping the Traitor-in-Chief much. What does he care? He ought to: he made a lot of money for his billionaire friends, but he himself will never be able to leave the reservation for the rest of his life. He has THAT many for-real enemies.
Paul
You don't want to discuss Rev. Alston then?
Amplifier Magazine
Issue 43 July-August 2004
Herb Eimerman
& I You
Jam (jamrecordings.com)
Herb Eimerman offers the kind of precision most musicians don't seem all that concerned with anymore. While many of his contemporaries are more intent on aiming for the gut, this Chicago-based performer appeals to the heart,creating lush, richly-textured melodies that stir up the perfect pop confection. A one-time associate of Shoes (he formed a side project,coyly dubbed the Nerk Twins, with Shoes' Jeff Murphy), Eimerman literally plays every instrument on & I You, his fourth and perhaps best, solo effort to date. A collection of instantly engaging tunes, it boasts a timeless feel consistent with classic pop precepts. While many artists strive to evoke a mid-'60s Brit-rock sensibility, Eimerman effectively recreates the effect entirely; in this case, songs such as “All If Gotta Say”, “If We Want It”, Look Who's Talkin'” and “I Felt Clean” actually sound as if they could have been plucked intact from the repertoires of, say, the Searchers, the Left Banke or ever Herman's Hermits. His buoyant, effervescent delivery accounts for only part of the reason why; it's his delicate, mannered arrangements and a careful attention to detail that transforms this set into such a sumptuous aural delight.
-Lee Zimmerman
Herb Eimerman, & I You
Posted by Bill Sherman on August 12, 2004 10:48 AM (See all posts by Bill Sherman)
Filed under: Music, Music: Pop
I first became aware of Illinois popper Herb Eimerman through his collaboration with former Shoes-man Jeff Murphy. The duo released an album in the 90's under the name the Nerk Twins (an early Lennon/McCartney pseudonym - for those not hyper-attuned to Beatles Lore) that was lightweight in spots but still provided a good reminder of why so many power pop collectors were fanatical about the Shoes back in their heyday. Off on his own, Eimerman does the Todd Rundgren thing by writing every song, multi-tracking his voice and playing all instruments. & I You (Jam Recordings) is the guy's fourth solo release - and if the results of all this just fall short of purest Shoes divinity, I'm pretty sure you can't blame the songs, many of which are waiting for a more plangent band of power poppers to fly 'em into the stratosphere. (Are Teenage Fanclub still in bizness?)
Eimerman's sonic approach is exemplified on & I You's opening track, "I Don't Want to Know": easy tempo pop-rock with melancholy harmonies, sly high guitar touches, and tentative lyrics ("If you're coming back, that'll be just fine.") There are plenty of lyrical "if"s on this disc (two songs even have it in their title), which suits Eimerman's boyishly contemplative voice. If his forbearers in the Shoes at times may've focused too much on songs about emotional betrayal, Eimerman's protagonists often don't seem sure enough of themselves to recognize when they've been screwed. "I feel crazy almost a
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