Well, turns out those GIs who refused to undertake their suicide mission had good reason to do so: BAGHDAD, Iraq – The U.S. Army Reserve soldiers who refused orders to drive a dangerous route were members of one of a few supply units whose trucks are still unarmored, their commanding general said Sunday. The soldiers, now under investigation, had previously focused on local missions in safer parts of southern Iraq (news – web sites) and had never driven a convoy north along the attack-prone roads passing through Baghdad. “Not all of their trucks are completely armored. In their case, they … Continue reading Operation Sitting Duck, Continued

With the Bill O’Reilly story: And when Steve has fun, we all have fun: Bill, the word is deposition. It is what Benedict Morelli will conduct this winter. It will involve every senior person at Fox, every staff member and every bed partner you had there. Your wife will read the details of your extramarital affairs and may well decide to file for divorce. He will not only ask, but will find every woman you hit on, not only on Fox, but at every other job you had. Boston, ABC, whatever the fuck that other show was, all of them. … Continue reading Steve Is Having Way, Way Too Much Fun

I’ve talked about this before, but the New York Times’ endorsement of Kerry (Yay!) reminds me of the real reason I dislike our preznit so much: The president who lost the popular vote got a real mandate on Sept. 11, 2001. With the grieving country united behind him, Mr. Bush had an unparalleled opportunity to ask for almost any shared sacrifice. The only limit was his imagination. He asked for another tax cut and the war against Iraq. A person of vision in that office might have taken that day and rededicated this nation to stamping out the poverty and … Continue reading Remembrance

From Holden: If you have seen this distrubing video over at Kos’ place then you may be wondering about the preznit’s mental and physical well being. I started genuinely questioning his mental state when I happened to catch his mini-press conference in Air Force One on Thursday. As noted yesterday by Dan Froomkin this was the first time he has deigned to address the press on board the presidential airliner since Septmebr 11, 2001. As I was watching the president take a few questions I was reminded of the final years of the Reagan presidency, in which his handlers did … Continue reading He Finally Did It: George Bush is Becoming Ronald Reagan

A Florida newspaper is investigating instances of plagiarism that basically involve its editorial page editor cutting and pasting vast swaths of right-wing press releases and calling them the newspaper’s opinion. A very brave employee spoke up about this and other problems with this editor, including his checking out porn on his work computer, and like a good reporter, she kept documentation. Here’s some of the evidence. First, she quotes the press releases from the wingnuts, and then follows with the editorials the paper published. The Jerusalem Post, June 12, 2002, “Stop Apologizing for 1967” by Michael Freund Pointing out that … Continue reading It’s So Much Simpler To Cheat

And his name is Jon Stewart. Everybody’s been quoting this Crossfire transcript all damn day, and you should really read it all, if only to become newly disgusted with the smarmy little phony mummy’s boy that Tucker Carlson truly is, but this is my personal favorite moment: CARLSON: Welcome back to CROSSFIRE. We’re talking to Jon Stewart, who was just lecturing us on our moral inferiority. Jon, you’re bumming us out. Tell us, what do you think about the Bill O’Reilly vibrator story? STEWART: I’m sorry. I don’t. CARLSON: Oh, OK. STEWART: What do you think? BEGALA: Let me change … Continue reading There is a God, Billie

I read this story today. It’s about the person who finished dead last in the Chicago Marathon. I don’t think I’ve ever read something so inspiring. I know, how like a Democrat, to be inspired by the poetry of the loser, but hear me out: 800 people who started that race didn’t finish at all. Untold thousands never even tried to run it. Filtered through that lens, it’s an extraordinary achievement to cross the finish line, even if it was just steps ahead of the street sweepers and the cleanup crews. Election day is coming, and it’s a huge day, … Continue reading Happy Kerry Photo: Bonus Cornfield Edition

Over at Seditious Libel: Inflating Vote Counts: a tutorial. 1) Look for the biggest bills you can find. Hypothetical (imperfect but illustrative) example: say that Senator A supports foreign aid, and publically supports increasing foreign aid in the budget. Say the same budget proposal contains a provision to underfund education, to give a big tax cut to the wealthy, and would explode the deficit. Because Senator A believes that those harms outweigh the gains of increasing foreign aid (or he believes that the increase can be retained in a bill without the harms listed above), he votes against the bill. … Continue reading What Beth Says

From Holden: Is Ahnold running away from the preznit? Q Scott, Arnold Schwarzenegger, yesterday, had a radio interview in which he was critical of the President’s debate performance, as well as Senator Kerry’s. Is Schwarzenegger helping you, or is this helpful? MR. McCLELLAN: I haven’t seen his interview, so it’s hard for me to comment on something I haven’t seen or heard. Obviously, the President appreciates his strong support for his reelection. And Governor Schwarzenegger outlined some of the clear differences in the race during the convention. And he is a strong supporter of the agenda that the President has … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: Kudos to Josh Marshall who has been all over this story: President Bush’s New England campaign chairman stepped down Friday after the Democrats accused him of taking part in the jamming of their telephone lines on Election Day 2002. “The Democrats’ allegations against me are without merit,” James Tobin said in the statement. “But to avoid any harm to the campaign from their underhanded tactics, I elected earlier this week to step down from my voluntary position with the campaign.” Continue reading BC ’04 New England Campaign Chairman Resigns

From Holden: According to a recent Annenberg survey: US military staff and their families believe the United States sent too few troops into Iraq and put too great a burden on inexperienced National Guard and reserve forces, even though they support George W. Bush’s overall handling of Iraq, a poll showed. The Annenberg National Election Survey results came from polling of 655 adults who either had served on active duty between February and October, or who were family members of those who served; their results were contrasted with 2,436 adults polled nationwide from September 27-October 3. [snip] Sixty-two percent of … Continue reading Military Families Critical of Bush’s Iraq Strategy

From Holden: Via Josh Marshall we learn that Karl Rove testified before the grand jury investigating the Plame affair today: President Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, testified Friday before a federal grand jury trying to determine who leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer. Rove spent more than two hours testifying before the panel, according to an administration official who spoke only on condition of anonymity because such proceedings are secret. [snip] Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s campaign was quick to pounce on news of Rove’s appearance, with senior adviser Joe Lockhart issuing a statement calling on Rove … Continue reading I Call This One ”Prelude to a Frog March”

From Holden: Via Josh Marshall we learn that Karl Rove testified before the grand jury investigating the Plame affair today: President Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, testified Friday before a federal grand jury trying to determine who leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer. Rove spent more than two hours testifying before the panel, according to an administration official who spoke only on condition of anonymity because such proceedings are secret. [snip] Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s campaign was quick to pounce on news of Rove’s appearance, with senior adviser Joe Lockhart issuing a statement calling on Rove … Continue reading I Call This One “Prelude to a Frog March”

From Holden: skippy says all one needs to say about the Cheney’s false sense of propriety. Continue reading Ashamed of Sensible Shoes

From Holden: Dan Froomkin’s White House Briefing is excellent today. Go read it yourself, or if you don’t want to register with WaPo here are a few highlights: On Georgie’s brief chat with reporters in Air Force One after the third debate: The last time President Bush ventured into the rear cabin of Air Force One to reassure the press pool that everything was okay was on Sept. 11, 2001. Yesterday’s five-minute visit on a flight from Phoenix to Las Vegas came after three widely panned debate performances that have arguably given Democratic challenger John F. Kerry the momentum going … Continue reading Froomkin is Back!

From Holden: Continue reading Yo, O’Reilly. Got Wood?

From Holden: Governor Robert Taft opposes amending the Ohio constitution for the wrong reason, but opposition is opposition so I’ll take it. Republican Gov. Bob Taft said he opposes a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, saying it goes farther than the law he supported earlier this year and could lead to lawsuits because of its ambiguous language. The amendment says, in part, that government entities cannot create a legal status for unmarried people that “intends to approximate” various elements of marriage. Taft said there will be as many interpretations of that phrase as “there are judges in … Continue reading Ohio’s Republican Governor Opposes State’s Hate Amendment

From Holden: How did this Cornell University study slip through the cracks of blogtopia (yes, skippy, we know)? When the federal government issues a terrorist warning, presidential approval ratings jump, a Cornell University sociologist finds. Interestingly, terrorist warnings also boost support for the president on issues that are largely irrelevant to terrorism, such as his handling of the economy. Robb Willer, assistant director of the Sociology and Small Groups Laboratory at Cornell and a doctoral candidate in sociology who expects his Ph.D. in May 2005, tracked the 26 times that a federal government agency reported an increased threat of terrorist … Continue reading Manipulating the Public through Terror Warnings: Empirical Evidence

From Holden: Last year the Bush administration set a new record for the highest trade deficit ever, $489.4 billion. But that’s not good enough for the RESOLUTE George W. Bush. Oh, no, this year we’re on track to shatter that record by a full $100 billion: The US trade deficit, propelled by a record foreign oil bill, surged to $54 billion (R355 billion) in August, the second-highest level in history. The politically sensitive deficit with China hit a new high as US retailers upped their orders for cellphones, toys and televisions. The commerce department said the August trade deficit in … Continue reading My Unseen Bush Boom Shatters Its Own Trade Deficit Record

From Holden: Read with pleasure as Jon Stewart takes Novak to the woodshed. “Bob Novak could end this whole thing tomorrow,” the “fake news” apostle declared at a New Yorker magazine breakfast at the Bryant Park Grill. “There’s millions of dollars being spent on this investigation, and people are going to jail, but his evil is not allowed even in the darkened abyss of his soul – some would say soul.” Stewart added: “He leaked a CIA source for punitive reasons – for ugly, partisan purposes.” [snip] “Novak apparently broke his hip. I think that’s not the case,” Stewart said … Continue reading Big Jon

From Holden: An entire Army Reserve platoon has been arrested in Iraq after refusing to go on a “suicide mission” with Bush’s crappy equipment. A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson [Mississippi] and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a “suicide mission” to deliver fuel, the troops’ relatives said Thursday. The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq — north of Baghdad — because their vehicles were considered “deadlined” or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook. Sgt. McCook, a deputy at the … Continue reading Support Our Troops

From Holden: Take time out to watch Bill O’Reilly circle the drain: “Guys like O’Reilly who like to espouse what right-wing Republicans espouse about family values shouldn’t be doing stuff like this,” [plaintiff Andrea Mackris’s lawyer Benedict Morelli] said, adding: “The man knows he did it. He finally got it through his thick skull that he did it, and he’s not going to get away with it. . . . He’s going down.” [snip] After Rush Limbaugh, who acknowledged an addiction to painkillers, and William Bennett, who admitted he had a gambling habit, O’Reilly — a television and radio host … Continue reading “He’s Going Down”

From Holden: Take time out to watch Bill O’Reilly circle the drain: “Guys like O’Reilly who like to espouse what right-wing Republicans espouse about family values shouldn’t be doing stuff like this,” [plaintiff Andrea Mackris’s lawyer Benedict Morelli] said, adding: “The man knows he did it. He finally got it through his thick skull that he did it, and he’s not going to get away with it. . . . He’s going down.” [snip] After Rush Limbaugh, who acknowledged an addiction to painkillers, and William Bennett, who admitted he had a gambling habit, O’Reilly — a television and radio host … Continue reading ”He’s Going Down”

From Holden: It’s difficult when the “responsible authorities” kept two sets of books when they kept any records at all: U.S. and Iraqi officials doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in oil proceeds and other money for Iraqi projects earlier this year, but there was little effort to monitor or justify the expenditures, according to an audit released yesterday. Files that could explain many of the payments are missing or nonexistent, and contracting rules were ignored, according to auditors working for an agency created by the United Nations. “We found one case where a [$2.6 million] payment was authorized … Continue reading Following Your Money in Iraq

From Holden: Sounds like at least one of Iraq’s hand-picked interim leaders did not get Unka Karl’s script: Iraq’s president said in an interview published yesterday that the Jan. 31 date for Iraqi elections is “not sacred” and the vote could be postponed if a lack of security threatens the fairness of balloting. President Ghazi al-Yawer’s comments, made in an interview with the London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, represent a departure from a major policy goal of both the U.S. and Iraqi governments. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi have insisted the election will proceed as planned … Continue reading Iraqi President: We May Not Hold Elections in January

What Americablog says. Jesus Christ on a hot pink pogo stick. These are the people who deemed that this was not true love. These are the people who said they should not be allowed to keep their children. These are the people who said wrong, invalid, sinful, unworthy of our nation’s protection. One of the lasting legacies of this election will be the definition of the parties, once and for all. No more Bush-Lite, no more “Me too, but not quite as mean.” No more. You vote with these people, you run with these people, know that you are forever … Continue reading The Outrage Deficit

“It’s big, and white, and FDR used to live there!” A. Continue reading Happy Kerry Photo: I Can See My House From Here Edition