Saturday, December 20, 2003

Simple Enough 

DERRY, N.H. (AP) - Moments after praising his opponents in the Democratic presidential race as worthy running mates, Wesley Clark said, in no uncertain terms, how he would respond if they or anyone else criticized his patriotism or military record. "I'll beat the s--- out of them," Clark told a questioner as he walked through the crowd after a town hall meeting Saturday.

That's what Derry, NH does to people.

# posted by Scout @ 11:55 PM


Friday, December 19, 2003

Don't They Know We Caught Saddam? 

Someone should tell al-Qaeda that Americans are safer because Saddam Hussein was captured. Because they seem to have a different opinion.

- Authorities are evaluating a surge of information related to possible terrorist threats to a number of cities in the United States, including New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. -ABC News

- An audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden's deputy in al-Qaida, aired on Arab television Friday, warned that the terror group would target Americans "in their homeland" and would drive U.S. forces from bases in the region [...] "We are still chasing the Americans and their allies everywhere, even in their homeland," he said. - ABC News

# posted by Scout @ 9:04 PM


Bash For Cash Fundraiser for Friday 

Daily Lieberman Attack on Dean:

Presidential hopeful Joe Lieberman warned Friday against replacing "one divisive leader with another divisive leader," a swipe at both President Bush and the front-runner for the Democratic Party's nomination, Howard Dean.

I like how the Liebester attacks Dean when he says we need to go after the NASCAR Dads and then Lieberman calls Dean "divisive."

Dean's response today:

"Washington candidates know all about divisiveness. They get more desperate every day and they continue to distort the truth because they have almost nothing positive to say about anything."

Daily Kerry Attack on Dean:

Rival John Kerry continued his criticism of Dean's foreign policy credentials Friday, saying his comments this week have "added immeasurably to the already significant doubts about his ability to be commander in chief." Kerry challenged Dean to a debate on national security.

John Kerry just had to mortgage his goddamned house to pay for his campaign because no one wants to give him any money, and he wants a debate with the guy leading him by 32 points in the NH Polls. I'm sure that if Kerry was the front runner he'd be giving Kucinich a one on one debate.

So:

9 x P (where P = your pledge)

# posted by Scout @ 8:39 PM


Thursday, December 18, 2003

Not Convinced.  

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - Osama bin Laden will "with absolute certainty" be caught if he's still alive, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Thursday.

Well, I don't know how much "absolute certainty" you can have about catching a guy when you don't even know if he's alive or dead. It's sort of like saying we will "most certainly" find the Sasquatch "If it, in fact, exists."

# posted by Scout @ 11:51 PM


Single Women, Where Are You?  

"Using census and other voting data analyzed by two Democratic polling firms, the study released Tuesday found there would have been 6 million more ballots to count in 2000 if single women had voted at the same rate as their married counterparts. The study, the first phase of a project designed to help get single women to the polls, showed that they are the largest nonvoting group and also one of the most dissatisfied with the country's direction." - Newsday

I always found it interesting that the majority of political lines has been about "families" and "the children", but talk about single non-parents is virtually invisible. I think we saw this at work with the Dan Quayle "Murphy Brown" gaffe, but it's also an interesting conservative definition of the political machine. Democrats have to talk family and children because Republicans are; and the mostly left-leaning young Americans and unmarried women get written out of the discourse.

The untapped voter source for the Republicans, by the way, is the "Nascar Dad," which is why Bush had the NASCAR team at the White House. Where I'm from, we call NASCAR Dads "White Trash." But they're the exact demographic that Dean argued was voting against their own best economic interests and the interests of their children's (there it is!) health and education by voting Republican based on car-culture, confederate flags and gay-bashing. Who would you prefer to have for your untapped demographic?

# posted by Scout @ 11:34 PM


"Bash For Cash" Fundraiser Update for Thursday 

Today's attacks all come from Mr. Deans speech wherein he: "called for American business to accept stricter accountability, but said he would offer greater access to capital for small businesses and national investment in growth industries of the future, like renewable energy." (Source: AP, 12/08/03)

In other words, Dean would support local independent businesses ("Local companies stay local, big companies go offshore"), increase the accountability of big bushiness by eliminating Clinton-era deregulation (which led directly to Enron and the current flock of scandals- sorry, fellow Clintonistas), and investing in renewable energy. But of course, people who aren't the front runner don't like these ideas because the front runner has them.

Today's Kerry Attack on Howard Dean:

"It's really interesting to see Howard Dean campaign against tax shelters and corporate abuse when he spent time as governor creating tax shelters for companies like Enron," Kerry said Thursday.

Of course, Dean "invited Enron" to take advantage of tax breaks offered to non-polluting companies. Howard Dean did not personally create tax shelters for Enron.

Today's Lieberman Attack on Howard Dean

"I want to build on the Clinton record and Howard Dean seems to want to tear it down. We're not going to lift up America or the Democratic party by tearing down Bill Clinton's extraordinary record of economic success..."

The Liebster might want to let Al Gore know about how Dean wants to tear down Clinton's legacy. Also, Dean suggests going back to Clinton-era tax rates, whereas Lieberman favors keeping The Spectacle's middle class tax cuts intact, at the expense of, oh; education, health care, and the like, and increasing the burden on local governments to pay for services (ironically, raising the money the middle class spends on taxes.)

Also, how did I miss these from earlier in the week? Sen. Joe Lieberman said Dean had crawled into a "spider hole of denial," and Kerry said Dean showed a lack of "leadership skills or diplomatic temperament" to be president. That came from Deans statement that "The capture of one bad man doesn't mean the president and Washington Democrats can declare victory in the war on terrorism" and his assertion (or statement of fact, depending on how much you like Lieberman) that Americans are "no safer" from terrorism now that we caught Saddam Hussein.

So today's formula for your end of the week Bash For Cash fundraiser:

3 (tuesday) + 2 (thursday) + 2 (retroactive) = 7 X P (where P = your pledge).

# posted by Scout @ 11:14 PM


Wednesday, December 17, 2003

User Notification 

People who are linking to this website via http://www.one38.org/a177 should change their links directly to http://www.one38.org

Thanks.

# posted by Scout @ 7:53 PM


"Iraqi Missile Crisis": Thwarted! 

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Monday the Bush administration last year told him and other senators that Iraq not only had weapons of mass destruction, but they had the means to deliver them to East Coast cities. Full Story Here.

Insert another sarcastic remark about how this sort of thing never seems to matter to anybody. C/O Buzzflash.

# posted by Scout @ 7:38 PM


Bash For Cash Roundup for Tuesday, Dec 17th 

Today's Daily Lieberman Attack on Dean:

"He seems to believe if you are just against everything, that's enough. Against removing Saddam Hussein, against middle-class tax cuts, against knocking down the walls of protection around the world so we can sell more products made in America," Lieberman said. "Dr. Dean has become Dr. No." Lieberman earlier also stated: "To me, this race has crystalized between Howard Dean and me."

The AP Reporter then writes: "But Lieberman said it's Dean who is focused on the negative" and remarks that Lieberman is polling in the single digits in New Hampshire.

Today's Daily Gephardt Attack on Dean:

On top of new links found between the "Dean Loves Osama" ad in Iowa and the Gephardt campaign, he also made statements today: Gephardt said Saddam's capture and Dean's comments "make one thing pretty clear. And that is a candidate with no foreign policy experience is not going to beat George Bush."

How much foreign policy experience does it take to know Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11, and was simply a reprisal of the "enemy of the week" approach to politics embraced by the GOP since the 1980's with Noriega, Khadaffi, etc etc etc. Defense budgets need to be justified, and quite simply put, the military cannot protect us from suicide bombers on airplanes. If anything, the war in Iraq was designed to prove the use of the "large" military was still vital, when in fact, the new way to fight our domestic wars is through intelligence and data analysis.

Today's Daily Kerry Attack on Dean:

"When American needed leadership on Iraq, Howard Dean was all over the lot," he said. "One moment he supported authorizing the use force. The next, he criticized those who did." Kerry noted that Dean, bunched atop the field of Democratic contenders in most polls, supported the war in Iraq only with UN Security Council authorization. Dean embraces a "'Simon Says' foreign policy where America only moves if others move first," Kerry said. "That is just as wrong as George Bush's policy of school yard taunts and cowboy swagger."

What's hilarious about John Kerry's attack is that it makes no sense whatsoever. He's saying that going into the war with UN support and a broad coalition of troops is just as bad as Bush's "cowboy swagger" which I can only take to mean his unilateral attitude. So Kerry is saying he wouldn't have gone to war unilaterally or multilaterally, but he certainly would have gone to war, (I guess, since it's popular this week) in whatever way each separate and individual voter wishes to imagine the best approach to be. Brilliant!

Todays Bash for Cash Formula:

3 X P = _____

Where P = Your pledge amount. That means $1.50 from me, $3.00 from commenter J. Shirk (If I am not mistaken- I don't know if JShirk is embracing a Lieberman-only Bash for Cash fundraiser or a full party one?), and 12 bits [not sure what that means yet :) ] from Mr. NTodd. If you're pledging, let us know in the comments section!

That means the Dean campaign made at least $4.50 today plus whatever "12 bits" is. At this rate, it's $25.00 by next monday- but let's get more of you to join the fun!

# posted by Scout @ 1:05 AM


No Comment.  

Bush reiterated that he doesn't read newspapers and prefers getting the news - without opinion, he said - from White House chief of staff Andrew Card and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. First Lady Laura Bush, who appeared briefly during the interview, said she does read the papers and often discusses them with her husband. -AP News Report on the Spectacle's interview with Diane Sawyer.

# posted by Scout @ 12:55 AM


Tuesday, December 16, 2003

An "Absurd Insinuation" 

When asked by reporters if he had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, as Dean "crazily" "claimed", GW Spectacle said: "There's time for politics, and I - it's an absurd insinuation." And about the war, "There will be ample time to have the debate about whether or not it's the right strategy or not,'' Bush said. "I look forward to the debate. I look forward to making my case to the American people about why America is more secure today, based upon the decisions that I've made.''

Now, never minding that Dean never said it (there was a "well, the most interesting theory I have heard so far..." qualifier) there's the little matter that Bush did have advanced warning:

ABC News:
"White House officials acknowledged that U.S. intelligence officials informed President Bush weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks that bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack American planes, and that information prompted administration officials to issue a private warning to transportation officials and national security agencies." (May 16th, 2002)

CBS News:
"Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al Qaeda's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives (C-4 and semtex) into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House," the September 1999 report said. The Bush administration has asserted that no one in government had envisioned a suicide hijacking before it happened.

Well, the "most interesting" article I have seen so far, is this article on CBS News, written a month before the 9/11 attacks, where John Ashcroft is quoted as saying he had to fly in a Government Jet because of a "threat assessment" that would make flying in commercial air craft too dangerous.

All by way of the Daily Misleader, more "Liberal Activists" out to destroy Democracy by pointing out when Democracy is getting destroyed.

# posted by Scout @ 2:52 PM


Don't Listen to Him, He's A Liberal 

Paul Krugman in the New York Times today with an editorial on Halliburton and Bechtel and all the good things they do for the children and people of Iraq.

But hardcore conservatives don't have to listen to Paul Krugman- he has reasoned out his position against the Bush administration, so he's a "tainted liberal activist"- as is anyone who uses reason to come to conclusions contrary to the Bush regime's system of governance. Or, I am beginning to suspect, anyone who uses reason.

# posted by Scout @ 12:05 PM


Vote for Empty Spectacle in 2004!  

By way of ABC's News Note, The Washington Post has this hilarious piece of "journalism":

The headline says Hillary Clinton offered "faint praise" for catching Hussein; what she said: "I was thrilled that Saddam Hussein had finally been captured [...] We owe a great debt of gratitude to our troops, to the President, to our intelligence services, to all who had a hand in apprehending Saddam. Now he will be brought to justice, and we hope that the prospects for peace and stability in Iraq will improve."

It's been interesting. I got a search hit on my sitemeter stats yesterday for "Leftist Response to Saddam Capture," and it seems a lot of right wing bloggers have declared themselves "excitement police" and are chastising any left wing bloggers who didn't show proper excitement over the news.

You're right: I'm not excited. I am saving my excitement for the Super Bowl Half time show, where I predict we will see GW carry a naked Saddam into the stadium on a leash, where GW will present him to his father and ask for his fathers acceptance. Bush the elder will bestow it, and they will single handedly fire shots into Saddams face in front of a cheering crowd, televised across America. Then, of course, GW gets not only re-elected but appointed emperor by a Supreme Court, empowered by the gratitude of the American people for, as the daily show put it, "catching the guy who had nothing to do with September 11th".

Vote for Spectacle in 2004! The winner of this election will be the one who can give us the biggest images to wipe away the memory of September 11th. It bodes well for Bush, the master of empty gesture and hollow spectacle, but Dean could cut through the need for synthesized reality and win if he gives us a bold enough vision of what the country could be. But god damn, it's going to be tough: Americans love their blockbuster.

# posted by Scout @ 11:41 AM


Monday, December 15, 2003

GOP says "Bring The Mothafuckin Ruckus!"  

Aw shit, Wu-Tang Clan spark the wicks an' however, I master the trick just like Nixon:

"Once again McDermott has embarrassed this state with his irresponsible ranting," GOP state Chairman Chris Vance said in a news release. "Calling on him to apologize is useless, but I call on other Democrats to let the public know if they agree with McDermott - and Howard Dean, who recently said he thought it was possible that President Bush had advance knowledge about 9/11. The voters deserve to know if the entire Democratic Party believes in these sorts of bitter, paranoid conspiracy theories."

Bring da mother, bring da motherfuckin ruckus!

It's hilarious when Republicans give snaps. McDermott made the mistake of saying Bush and co probably knew where Saddam was for a while and that "when they're having all this trouble, suddenly they have to roll out something."

Special Bonus Track for "Write Like Nedra Pickler Day": When GOP state chairman Chris Vance says Howard Dean claimed Bush had advanced knowledge of 9/11, he fails to state that Howard Dean said it like this: "The most interesting theory that I've heard so far - which is nothing more than a theory, it can't be proved - is that he was warned ahead of time by the Saudis. Now who knows what the real situation is?" He also fails to mention that Howard Dean proposed the idea as evidence of theories that will persist until Bush released his secret 9/11 documents.

# posted by Scout @ 11:15 PM


Unofficial "Bash for Cash" Fundraiser 

Okay. This post concerns something a lot of people find annoying: Politics and Money.

Today I donated an additional $25.00 to the Dean campaign, on top of my previous contributions. The reason was simple: Yesterday, Saddam Hussein was captured. Howard Dean was quoted on the CNN news ticker as simply saying, "Today is a day of celebration." But if you saw Joe Lieberman or John Kerry, it was politics, politics, politics. Lieberman and Kerry both went so far as to assert that this vindicated their pro-war vote, as if the capture of Saddam Hussein meant that he was captured in the best possible way, and that his capture nullified any other problems that have come out of this war. Did they really believe that people were only against the war because Saddam was still on the loose? Please.

But then there is the new, anonymous-democrat-sponsored attack ad on Dean, which shows a picture of Osama Bin Laden and calls Dean weak on National Security. It's a 527 ad, so no one knows everybody who is behind it, but who we do know is involved happens to include former members of the Gephardt and Kerry campaigns.

It is my firm belief that people attack Howard Dean simply because their own ideas are not strong enough for them to win on. Howard Dean has captured a spirit of possibility for what this country can be, and he carries with it the hope that it is possible. He has addressed the issues of Gay Rights and Racism head on, intelligently and compassionately, and he was attacked for doing it by soundbite-hungry campaigns.

I am sick of dirty politics, I am sick of in-party mud slinging. It is this crap that keeps voters away from the booths on election day, it's what keeps decent people out of politics. It's what keeps fresh ideas and intelligence from being communicated in the media.

So here is what I propose: I am going to keep an eye out for one week, to be announced later, for any new attacks from any of the candidates for the Democratic Nomination. For every new attack, I am going to donate $.50 cents to the Dean campaign. If I get 50 other people to join me, that means $25.00 for every new attack on Howard Dean. If we can get 100 to join, that means $50.00 for every new attack.

I am doing this to drive home that to many of us, negative campaigning does nothing but strengthen the support of a candidate and hurt the campaign of the one slinging the mud. It will also help provide a small amount of the campaign money that gets diverted from spreading ideas and information to defending a candidate against ridiculous and petty attacks.

You can use the comments section below to post your pledge, if you want to join me, or, when I post the results, you can use that to formulate your own response. But let Dean know you are doing it as part of the "Bash for Cash" fundraiser so we can send the message to Dean and every other candidate that dirty politics doesn't work anymore.

# posted by Scout @ 3:56 PM


Sunday, December 14, 2003

Saddam Captured "Peacefully" After Only 450 American Deaths 

Remember when the statue came down and all the warhawks claimed they were vindicated? Yeah. Well, everything I would have to say about the newest distraction from the wars failures is said here brilliantly. Read it. Read it. Read it.

# posted by Scout @ 8:15 PM


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