ledge of liberty

The Bin Laden Trial: And we thought O.J. was big

Can you imagine -- an American trial of Osama bin Laden? Think about it, the months glued to court TV.

[AP/CNN] John Kerry said Friday he would put Osama bin Laden on trial in U.S. courts rather than an international tribunal to ensure the "fastest, surest route" to a murder conviction if the terrorist mastermind is captured while he is president.

"I want him tried for murder in New York City, and in Virginia and in Pennsylvania," where planes hijacked by al-Qaida operatives crashed Sept. 11, 2001, Kerry said in his first interview as the Democratic presidential nominee.

The Saudi-bred terrorist is suspected of plotting attacks that have shed blood across the globe, not just in the United States. Kerry suggested he would place the highest priority on avenging American deaths.

He called the Bush administration's attempt to create a Muslim security force in Iraq an overdue act of desperation. "Great idea," he said. "Should have been done from the very beginning."

Kerry, fielding questions about foreign policy, presidential politics, abortion and the death penalty during a 12-minute interview with The Associated Press in this GOP-leaning Hudson Valley community, took Bush and his Republican allies head-on.

"They don't have a record to run on so all they can do is attack," Kerry said. He was responding to Bush, who a few minutes earlier had said from the campaign trail that Kerry had no significant achievements in Congress.

Word of the criticism drew a chuckle from the fourth-term senator, who wore an open-collar shirt and slacks. "That's the response to a positive campaign," he said sarcastically.

The night before, in his hometown of Boston, Kerry accepted the Democratic nomination at a convention scripted to project a positive, upbeat image to independent voters. The Democratic National Committee launched a one-week, $6 million ad campaign that features images of the convention, and party officials expect the DNC ads to turn negative this summer.

Noting that federal law limits his influence over DNC ads, Kerry didn't rule out airing his own ads critical of the White House. "I'm going to certainly reserve the right to respond to these people if they continually hack away," he said.

On the Muslim force initiative pushed by Saudi Arabia, Kerry said "Why is that being done as an act of desperation today rather than two years ago before a lot of lives were lost?" He said it was yet another lost opportunity to build a coalition that would help ease the U.S. burden in money and lives.

"A change in the presidency is essential to our ability to restore our respect" in the world, Kerry said.

Replied Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt: "John Kerry's decision to characterize progress in the war on terror as an act of desperation is his latest attempt to inject politics and opportunism into a subject that should unite Americans."

Kerry has long been an opponent of the death penalty, but in recent years has made an exception for terrorism. The former prosecutor said crimes like rape and child murder do not warrant the highest punishment.

"It's certainly terrorizing to the person who's undergoing it. I understand that,'' Kerry said. "But terrorism is a political act to terrorize a nation, to try to challenge a way of life and a standard.. It's just a different act."

He said bin Laden deserves to die.

"I would go the fastest, surest route of conviction, and in my belief that would be a trial for murder in the United States," the Democrat said when asked if he would seek to try bin Laden at The Hague.

Stepping gingerly into another social issue, Kerry reiterated that he believes that life begins at conception - and that a woman has the right to choose whether to abort.

Asked whether he believes abortion is taking a life, Kerry said a fetus is a "form of life."

"The Bible itself - I mean, everything talks about different layers of development. That's what Roe v Wade does. It talks about viability. It's the law of the land.'' The Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v Wade ruling legalized abortion in America.

"I don't believe personally that it's the government's job to step in and take my article of faith and transfer it to somebody who doesn't share that article of faith," said Kerry, a Roman Catholic.

Anti-Candy Fascist Police State

Yesterday it was dildos in Alabama and today it's candy-bars in Washington. Oh it’s good to be an American where at least...I know...I’m...free?

The 45-year-old scientist was munching on a PayDay, when subway police arrested her for violating the city's "no eating en route" law. Still enjoying her "packed with peanuts" snack, in an act of sweet and salty sedition -- she continued to munch the PayDay as she traversed the escalator.

"If she had stopped eating, it would have been the end of it and if she had just stopped for the issuance of a citation, she never would have been locked up," Transit Police Chief Polly Hanson said Thursday.

Woman Arrested for Eating Candy in Subway [AP/CNN]

LIVE DNC Balloon Meltdown: "WHAT THE F*CK"?!

DNC Balloon Director freaks out on CNN Live to soft rock 80's hit tune, "Higher" by Van Halen...

The some 100,000 balloons were choreographed by expert balloon engineers to drop in a crowd pleasing display of red, white and blue patriotism. But sadly -- balloon ballet was never to be fully realized.

In a pre DNC balloon exposé, a journalist asked a convention Official, “But what if the balloons don't fall right”?

"I have a house in England. Bye!" she said.

Go balloons... Balloons... What's happening balloons? There's not enough of them coming down. All balloons! Where the hell, there's nothing falling! What the fuck are you guys doing up there?!? [Wonkette]

'WHAT THE F**K ARE YOU GUYS DOING UP THERE' [Drudge]
Thousands Of Balloons Prepped For DNC Finale [WCVB5]
Balloons and a thousand pounds of confetti to shower FleetCenter [UPN38]
Matt Drudge: Where the Hell are my Sources!?! [Wonkette]
Thread 2: "Can't miss the balloon drop" [Atrios]

Goth Bush

White House interns have confessed -- they're concerned with the President’s downward spiral of depression and paranoia. My advice Mr. President -- black clothes, eyeliner, The Cure, The Smiths, dye your hair -- black, black, black like your heart.

Sullen, Depressed President Retreats Into Private, Paranoid World [CHB]

John Edwards: The Manchurian Candidate?

You have to admit -- the resemblance is uncanny. The Manchurian Candidate, in theaters tomorrow [07/30/04] nationwide.

[Synopsis] Academy Award® winners Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep, along with Golden Globe and Emmy nominee Liev Schreiber, mesmerize a whole new generation of audiences in Academy Award® winner Jonathan Demme’s “The Manchurian Candidate.” As the entire nation watches the presidential campaign hurtle towards Election Day, one soldier races to uncover the conspiracy behind it – a conspiracy that seeks to destroy democracy itself.

U.S. Army Major Bennett Marco (Washington) can’t sleep at night … and he doesn’t want to. Marco spends his days giving inspiring speeches about his platoon’s ambush in the Kuwaiti desert and the heroics of Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Schreiber), who won the Medal of Honor for saving Marco’s crew. But at night, Marco’s dreamlike memories of the desert turn sinister and terrifying. And Marco privately wonders whether the two soldiers who died in the firefight might have met darker fates than officially recorded – and whether Shaw might not be the glorious hero that everyone thinks he is.

When Shaw takes the national stage as a surefire candidate for vice president – under the thumb of his controversial mother, Senator Eleanor Prentiss Shaw (Streep) – Marco is forced to act on his growing suspicions. With military officials questioning his sanity, and the net of security tightening around Shaw, Marco races to probe deeper into the unimaginable, shocking truth before the White House is won.

Alabama: Dildo-free zone

It's official – sexually frustrated red state Alabamians will have to resort to sex with their husbands due to new anti sex toy legislation. The state, now a dildo-free zone, will police the sale of any and all "sexually stimulating" contraband.

Federal Court OKs Ban on Sale of Sex Toys [AP, 07/29/04]

Bush Using Anti-Depressants

When Bush rolled out components of his New Freedom Initiative last month, a plan that moves to screen the entire U.S. population for mental illness, the overall consensus was -- you first! Well, apparently Bush has taken us up on the offer. Prognosis -- doesn’t look good.

[CHB] President George W. Bush is taking powerful anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned.

The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President’s mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” says one aide. “We can’t have him flying off the handle at the slightest provocation but we also need a President who is alert mentally.”

Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay.

“Keep those motherfuckers away from me,” he screamed at an aide backstage. “If you can’t, I’ll find someone who can.”

Bush’s mental stability has become the topic of Washington whispers in recent months. Capitol Hill Blue first reported on June 4 about increasing concern among White House aides over the President’s wide mood swings and obscene outbursts.

Although GOP loyalists dismissed the reports an anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a “paranoid meglomaniac” and “untreated alcoholic” whose “lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad” showcase Bush’s instabilities.

“I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed,” Dr. Frank said. “He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated.”

Dr. Frank’s conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School.

The doctors also worry about the wisdom of giving powerful anti-depressant drugs to a person with a history of chemical dependency. Bush is an admitted alcoholic, although he never sought treatment in a formal program, and stories about his cocaine use as a younger man haunted his campaigns for Texas governor and his first campaign for President.

“President Bush is an untreated alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies,” Dr. Frank adds.

The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment on this article.

Although the exact drugs Bush takes to control his depression and behavior are not known, White House sources say they are “powerful medications” designed to bring his erratic actions under control. While Col. Tubb regularly releases a synopsis of the President’s annual physical, details of the President’s health and any drugs or treatment he may receive are not public record and are guarded zealously by the secretive cadre of aides that surround the President.

Veteran White House watchers say the ability to control information about Bush’s health, either physical or mental, is similar to Ronald Reagan’s second term when aides managed to conceal the President’s increasing memory lapses that signaled the onslaught of Alzheimer’s Disease.

It also brings back memories of Richard Nixon’s final days when the soon-to-resign President wandered the halls and talked to portraits of former Presidents. The stories didn’t emerge until after Nixon left office.

One long-time GOP political consultant who – for obvious reasons – asked not to be identified said he is advising his Republican Congressional candidates to keep their distance from Bush.

“We have to face the very real possibility that the President of the United States is loony tunes,” he says sadly. “That’s not good for my candidates, it’s not good for the party and it’s certainly not good for the country.”

Michael Moore Takes on Bill O'Reilly

I don't like linking to Fox News, but this debate between Michael Moore and Bill O'Reilly is worth reading.

[FOX News] It was a match-up the media and political observers have longed for. No, not George W. Bush against John Kerry. It's Michael Moore (search) against Bill O'Reilly.

Moore, the director who made "Fahrenheit 9/11" (search) and created one of the election season's biggest uproars, said he wouldn't go on "The O'Reilly Factor" until O'Reilly saw the entire movie. And he said any conversation would have to be aired without any editing and with the opportunity for Moore to ask O'Reilly questions.

All of the demands were met and Moore sat down with O'Reilly in the FOX News sky box high about the floor of the Democratic National Convention. Following is the full transcript of their meeting:

MICHAEL MOORE: That’s fair, we’ll just stick to the issues.

BILL O'REILLY: The issues… all right good, now, one of the issues is you because you’ve been calling Bush a liar on weapons of mass destruction, the Senate Intelligence Committee, Lord Butler’s investigation in Britain, and now the 9/11 Commission have all come out and said there was no lying on the part of President Bush. Plus, Vladimir Putin has said his intelligence told Bush there were weapons of mass destruction. Wanna apologize to the president now or later?

MOORE: He didn’t tell the truth, he said there were weapons of mass destruction.

O'REILLY: Yeah, but he didn’t lie, he was misinformed by — all of those investigations come to the same conclusion. That’s not a lie.

MOORE: Uh huh. So, in other words, if I told you right now that nothing was going on down here on the stage…

O'REILLY: That would be a lie because we could see that wasn’t the truth.

MOORE: Well, I’d have to turn around to see it and then I would realize, oh Bill, I just told you something that wasn’t true… actually it’s President Bush that needs to apologize to the nation for telling an entire country that there were weapons of mass destruction, that they had evidence of this and that there was some sort of connection between Saddam Hussein and September 11th, and he used that as a…

O'REILLY: OK, He never said that, but back to the other thing: If you, if Michael Moore is president…

MOORE: I thought you said you saw the movie? I show all that in the movie.

O'REILLY: Which may happen if Hollywood, yeah, OK, fine…

MOORE: But that was your question…

O'REILLY: Just the issues. You’ve got three separate investigations plus the president of Russia all saying… British intelligence, U.S. intelligence, Russian intelligence, told the president there were weapons of mass destruction; you say he lied. This is not a lie if you believe it to be true, now he may have made a mistake, which is obvious…

MOORE: Well, that’s almost pathological. I mean, many criminals believe what they say is true; they could pass a lie detector test…

O'REILLY: All right, now you’re dancing around a question…

MOORE: No, I’m not. There’s no dancing.

O'REILLY: He didn’t lie.

MOORE: He said something that wasn’t true.

O'REILLY: Based upon bad information given to him by legitimate sources.

MOORE: Now you know that they went to the CIA, Cheney went to the CIA, they wanted that information, they wouldn’t listen to anybody.

O'REILLY: They wouldn’t go by Russian intelligence and Blair’s intelligence too.

MOORE: His own people told him. I mean, he went to Richard Clarke the day after September 11th and said, “What you got on Iraq?” and Richard Clarke’s going “Oh well this wasn’t Iraq that did this sir, this was Al Qaeda.”

O'REILLY: You’re diverting the issue… did you read Woodward’s book?

MOORE: No, I haven’t read his book.

O'REILLY: Woodward’s a good reporter, right? Good guy, you know who he is right?

MOORE: I know who he is.

O'REILLY: OK, he says in his book George Tenet looked the president in the eye, like how I am looking you in the eye right now and said, “President, weapons of mass destruction are a quote, end quote, ‘slam dunk.’” If you’re the president, you ignore all that?

MOORE: Yeah, I would say that the CIA had done a pretty poor job.

O'REILLY: I agree. Tenet was fired.

MOORE: Yeah, but not before they took us to war based on his intelligence. This is a man who ran the CIA, a CIA that was so poorly organized and run that it wouldn’t communicate with the FBI before September 11th and as a result in part we didn’t have a very good intelligence system set up before September 11th.

O'REILLY: Nobody disputes that...

MOORE: OK, so he screws up September 11th. Why would you then listen to him, he says this is a “slam dunk” and your going to go to war.

O'REILLY: You’ve got MI-6 and Russian intelligence because they’re all saying the same thing that’s why. You’re not going to apologize to Bush, you are going to continue to call him a liar.

MOORE: Oh, he lied to the nation, Bill, I can’t think of a worse thing to do for a president to lie to a country to take them to war. I mean, I don’t know a worse…

O'REILLY: It wasn’t a lie.

MOORE: He did not tell the truth, what do you call that?

O'REILLY: I call that bad information, acting on bad information; not a lie.

MOORE: A seven year old can get away with that…

O'REILLY: All right, your turn to ask me a question…

MOORE: “Mom and Dad it was just bad information…”

O'REILLY: I’m not going to get you to admit it wasn’t a lie. Go ahead.

MOORE: It was a lie, and now, which leads us to my question.

O'REILLY: OK.

MOORE: Over 900 of our brave soldiers are dead. What do you say to their parents?

O'REILLY: What do I say to their parents? I say what every patriotic American would say: “We are proud of your sons and daughters. They answered the call that their country gave them. We respect them and we feel terrible that they were killed.”

MOORE: But what were they killed for?

O'REILLY: They were removing a brutal dictator who himself killed hundreds of thousands of people.

MOORE: Um, but that was not the reason that was given to them to go to war: to remove a brutal dictator.

O'REILLY: Well, we’re back to the weapons of mass destruction.

MOORE: But that was the reason…

O'REILLY: The weapons of mass destruction…

MOORE: That we were told we were under some sort of imminent threat…

O'REILLY: That’s right.

MOORE: And there was no threat, was there?

O'REILLY: It was a mistake.

MOORE: Oh, just a mistake, and that’s what you tell all the parents with a deceased child, “We’re sorry.” I don’t think that is good enough.

O'REILLY: I don’t think its good enough either for those parents.

MOORE: So we agree on that.

O'REILLY: But that is the historical nature of what happened.

MOORE: Bill, if I made a mistake and I said something or did something as a result of my mistake but it resulted in the death of your child, how would you feel towards me?

O'REILLY: It depends on whether the mistake was unintentional.

MOORE: No, not intentional, it was a mistake.

O'REILLY: Then if it was an unintentional mistake I cannot hold you morally responsible for that.

MOORE: Really, I’m driving down the road and I hit your child and your child is dead.

O'REILLY: If it were unintentional and you weren’t impaired or anything like that.

MOORE: So, that’s all it is, if it was alcohol, even though it was a mistake — how would you feel towards me

O'REILLY: OK, now we are wandering.

MOORE: No, but my point is…

O'REILLY: I saw what your point is and I answered your question.

MOORE: But why? What did they die for?

O'REILLY: They died to remove a brutal dictator who had killed hundreds of thousands of people…

MOORE: No, that was not the reason…

O'REILLY: That’s what they died for…

MOORE: …they were given…

O'REILLY: The weapons of mass destruction was a mistake.

MOORE: Well there were 30 other brutal dictators in this world…

O'REILLY: Alright, I’ve got anther question…

MOORE: Would you sacrifice — just finish on this — would you sacrifice your child to remove one of the other 30 brutal dictators on this planet?

O'REILLY: Depends what the circumstances were.

MOORE: You would sacrifice your child?

O'REILLY: I would sacrifice myself — I’m not talking for any children —to remove the Taliban. Would you?

MOORE: Uh huh.

O'REILLY: Would you? That’s my next question. Would you sacrifice yourself to remove the Taliban?

MOORE: I would be willing to sacrifice my life to track down the people that killed 3,000 people on our soil.

O'REILLY: Al Qaeda was given refuge by the Taliban.

MOORE: But we didn’t go after them, did we?

O'REILLY: We removed the Taliban and killed three quarters of Al Qaeda.

MOORE: That’s why the Taliban are still killing our soldiers there.

O'REILLY: OK, well look you can’t kill everybody. You wouldn’t have invaded Afghanistan — you wouldn’t have invaded Afghanistan, would you?

MOORE: No, I would have gone after the man that killed 3,000 people.

O'REILLY: How?

MOORE: As Richard Clarke says, our special forces were prohibited for two months from going to the area that we believed Usama was…

O'REILLY: Why was that?

MOORE: That’s my question.

O'REILLY: Because Pakistan didn’t want its territory of sovereignty violated.

MOORE: Not his was in Afghanistan, on the border, we didn’t go there. He got a two-month head start.

O'REILLY: All right, you would not have removed the Taliban. You would not have removed that government?

MOORE: No, unless it is a threat to us.

O'REILLY: Any government? Hitler, in Germany, not a threat to us the beginning but over there executing people all day long — you would have let him go?

MOORE: That’s not true. Hitler with Japan, attacked the United States.

O'REILLY: From '33 until '41, he wasn’t an imminent threat to the United States.

MOORE: There’s a lot of things we should have done.

O'REILLY: You wouldn’t have removed him.

MOORE: I wouldn’t have even allowed him to come to power.

O'REILLY: That was a preemption from Michael Moore. You would have invaded.

MOORE: If we’d done our job, you want to get into to talking about what happened before WWI, whoa, I’m trying to stop this war right now.

O'REILLY: I know you are but…

MOORE: Are you against that? Stopping this war?

O'REILLY: No, we cannot leave Iraq right now, we have to…

MOORE: So, you would sacrifice your child to secure Fallujah? I want to hear you say that.

O'REILLY: I would sacrifice myself..

MOORE: Your child? It’s Bush sending the children there.

O'REILLY: I would sacrifice myself.

MOORE: You and I don’t go to war, because we’re too old…

O'REILLY: Because if we back down, there will be more deaths and you know it.

MOORE: Say, “I, Bill O’Reilly, would sacrifice my child to secure Fallujah.”

O'REILLY: I’m not going to say what you say, you’re a, that’s ridiculous…

MOORE: You don’t believe that. Why should Bush sacrifice the children of people across America for this?

O'REILLY: Look it’s a worldwide terrorism — I know that escapes you —

MOORE: Wait a minute, terrorism? Iraq?

O'REILLY: Yes. There are terrorist in Iraq.

MOORE: Oh really? So Iraq now is responsible for the terrorism here?

O'REILLY: Iraq aided terrorists. Don’t you know anything about any of that?

MOORE: So, you’re saying Iraq is responsible for what?

O'REILLY: I’m saying that Saddam Hussein aided all day long.

MOORE: You’re not going to get me to defend Saddam Hussein.

O'REILLY: I’m not? You’re his biggest defender in the media.

MOORE: Now come on.

O'REILLY: Look, if you were running he would still be sitting there.

MOORE: How do you know that?

O'REILLY: If you were running the country, he’d still be sitting there.

MOORE: How do you know that?

O'REILLY: You wouldn’t have removed him.

MOORE: Look, let me tell you something in the 1990s look at all the brutal dictators that were removed. Things were done; you take any of a number of countries whether its Eastern Europe, the people rose up. South Africa the whole world boycotted…

O'REILLY: When Reagan was building up the arms, you were against that.

MOORE: And the dictators were gone. Building up the arms did not cause the fall of Eastern Europe.

O'REILLY: Of course it did, it bankrupted the Soviet Union and then it collapsed.

MOORE: The people rose up.

O'REILLY: Why? Because they went bankrupt.

MOORE: the same way we did in our country, the way we had our revolution. People rose up…

O'REILLY: All right, all right.

MOORE: …that’s how you, let me ask you this question.

O'REILLY: One more.

MOORE: How do you deliver democracy to a country? You don’t do it down the barrel of a gun. That’s not how you deliver it.

O'REILLY: You give the people some kind of self-determination, which they never would have had under Saddam…

MOORE: Why didn’t they rise up?

O'REILLY: Because they couldn’t, it was a Gestapo-led place where they got their heads cut off…

MOORE: Well that’s true in many countries throughout the world…

O'REILLY: It is, it’s a shame…

MOORE: …and you know what people have done, they’ve risen up. You can do it in a number of ways . You can do it our way through a violent revolution, which we won, the French did it that way. You can do it by boycotting South Africa, they overthrew the dictator there. There’s many ways…

O'REILLY: I’m glad we’ve had this discussion because it just shows you that I see the world my way, you see the world your way, alright and the audience is watching us here and they can decide who is right and who is wrong and that’s the fair way to do it. Right?

MOORE: Right, I would not sacrifice my child to secure Fallujah and you would?

O'REILLY: I would sacrifice myself.

MOORE: You wouldn’t send another child, another parents child to Fallujah, would you? You would sacrifice your life to secure Fallujah?

O'REILLY: I would.

MOORE: Can we sign him up? Can we sign him up right now?

O'REILLY: That’s right.

MOORE: Where’s the recruiter?

O'REILLY: You’d love to get rid of me.

MOORE: No, I want you to live. I want you to live.

O'REILLY: I appreciate that Michael Moore everybody. There he is.

Politicians and Hookers: Like chocolate and peanut butter

The DNC has plunged Boston into a hooker recession. Reportedly, prostitutes are being imported to meet the demands of the visiting democratic constituency. And if it’s not hookers -- the internet personals are just brimming with delegates looking for that special anonymous someone.

From Wonkette:

- Prostitutes Join Police Converging on DNC Boston [Reuters/Yahoo]
- craigslist > boston > personals [CraigsList]
- How I would score at the convention. [Mr. Sun]

USA Today Rejects Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter was hired by USA Today to cover the DNC, she was fired after handing in the first article. Typically, I would never advocate reading Coulter [for the shear loss of brain cells], but this is just too insane – too funny to pass up. USA Today didn’t know what to make of it, hence the remarks, which move between confusion and frustration.

From Human Events, the National Conservative Weekly...

Put The Speakers In A Cage
by Ann Coulter

Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston, conservatives are deploying a series of covert signals to identify one another, much like gay men do. My allies are the ones wearing crosses or American flags. The people sporting shirts emblazoned with the "F-word" are my opponents. Also, as always, the pretty girls and cops are on my side, most of them barely able to conceal their eye-rolling.

USA Today: EYE-ROLLING? AT WHAT?

Democrats are constantly suing and slandering police as violent, fascist racists -- with the exception of Boston's police, who'll be lauded as national heroes right up until the Democrats pack up and leave town on Friday, whereupon they'll revert to their natural state of being fascist, racist pigs.

USA Today: WHAT DEMOCRATS SUE THE POLICE? BUT THEY WON'T ACTUALLY REVERT TO BEING FASCIST PIGS, DON'T YOU MEAN THE DEMS WILL THINK THEY HAVE REVERTED TO BEING FASCIST PIGS?

A speaker at the Democratic National Convention this year, Al Sharpton, accused white police officers of raping and defacing Tawana Brawley in 1987, lunatic charges that eventually led to a defamation lawsuit against Sharpton and even more eventually, to Sharpton paying a jury award to the defamed plaintiff Steve Pagones. So it’s a real mystery why cops wouldn’t like Democrats.

USA Today: IS THAT LAST SENTENCE SARCASTIC? IF SO, YOU SURE LOST ME.

As for the pretty girls, I can only guess that it’s because liberal boys never try to make a move on you without the UN Security Council's approval. Plus, it’s no fun riding around in those dinky little hybrid cars. My pretty-girl allies stick out like a sore thumb amongst the corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons they call "women" at the Democratic National Convention.

USA Today: NOT FUNNY, I DON'T GET IT.

Apparently, the nuts at the Democratic National Convention are going to be put in cages outside the convention hall. Sadly, they won't be fighting to the death as is done in WWE caged matches. They're calling this the "protestor's area," although I suppose a better name would be the "truth-free zone".

USA Today: CLARIFY WHICH NUTS (NOTE FROM AC: THAT KILLS THE JOKE OF THE NEXT PARAGRAPH)

I thought this was a great idea until I realized the “nut” category did not include Sharpton, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, and Teddy Kennedy -- all featured speakers at the convention. I’d say the actual policy is only untelegenic nuts get the cages, but little Dennis Kucinich is speaking at the Convention, too. So it must be cages for “nuts who have not run for president as serious candidates for the Democratic Party.”

Looking at the line-up of speakers at the Convention, I have developed the 7-11 challenge: I will quit making fun of, for example, Dennis Kucinich, if he can prove he can run a 7-11 properly for 8 hours. We’ll even let him have an hour or so of preparation before we open up. Within 8 hours, the money will be gone, the store will be empty, and he’ll be explaining how three 11-year olds came in and asked for the money and he gave it to them.

USA Today: I DON'T GET IT.

For 20 years, the Democrats wouldn’t let Jimmy Carter within 100 miles of a Convention podium. The fact that Carter is now their most respectable speaker tells you where that party is today. Maybe they just want to remind Americans who got us into this Middle East mess in the first place. We’ve got millions of fanatical Muslims trying to slaughter Americans while shouting “Allah Akbar!” Yeah, let’s turn the nation over to these guys.

With any luck, Gore will uncork his speech comparing Republicans to Nazis. Just a few weeks ago, Gore gave a speech accusing the Bush administration of deploying “digital Brown Shirts” to intimidate journalists and pressure the media into writing good things about Bush -- in case you were wondering where all those glowing articles about Bush were coming from.

The last former government official to slake his thirst so deeply with the kool-aid and become a far-left peacenik was Ramsey Clarke and it took him a few years to really blossom. Clinton must have done some number on Gore. Then again, with his yen for earth tones in a man's wardrobe, maybe Gore's references to "Brown Shirts" was intended as a compliment.

Only one major newspaper -- the Boston Herald -- reported Gore’s “Brown Shirt” comment, though a Bush campaign spokesman's statement quoting the "Brown Shirt" line made it into the very last sentence of a Los Angeles Times article. The New York Times responded with an article criticizing “both” Republicans and Democrats for using Nazi imagery. Democrats call Republicans Nazis, the Republicans quote the Democrats calling Republicans Nazis and “both” are using Nazi imagery. (It’s a cycle of violence!)

The nuts in the cages are virtual Bertrand Russells compared to the official speakers at the Democratic Convention. On the basis of their placards, I gather the caged-nut position is that they love the troops so much, they don’t want them to get hurt defending America from terrorist attack. “Support the troops,” the signs say, “bring them home.”

That’s my new position on all government workers, except the 5% who aren’t useless, which is to say cops, prosecutors, firemen and U.S. servicemen. I love bureaucrats at the National Endowment of the Arts funding crucifixes submerged in urine so much -- I think they should go home. I love public school teachers punishing any mention of God and banning Christmas songs so much -- I think they should go home.

Walking back from the convention site I chatted with a normal Bostonian for several blocks -- who must have identified me through our covert system of signals. He was mostly bemused by the Democrats’ primetime speakers and told me he used to be an independent, but for the last 20 years found himself voting mostly Republican. Then he corrected himself and said he votes for the “American.”

I’d say I love all these Democrats in Boston so much I want them to go home, but I don’t. I want Americans to get a good long look at the French Party and keep the 7-11 challenge in mind.

USA Today: WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY "THE FRENCH PARTY"? I DON'T GET IT.

Shock and “Oh Dear God What is That”?

Living just outside Boston, not far from the Fleet Center, the past few days have been really..."secure". And with all the pumped-up security, terrorist threat and all, I think it's safe to say -- people here are just a wee bit on edge. So yeah, it would've been lovely if someone told me there'd be fireworks at midnight.

Can I come out from under the bed now?

Talking Ann Coulter Action Figure

Plastic body, hollow head, hate rhetoric -- it's all there, it's Ann Coulter in doll form! The doll, part of the "America's real action heros" line, now joins the ranks of conservative action figure favorites such as Top Gun Bush, Talking Ronald Reagan, and the Donald Rumsfeld "Rummy" doll. Complete with slutty mini skirt and spiked silver heels, the new Anne Coulter doll parrots 5 exclusively recorded patriotic Coulter quotes. My favorite...

"Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like Liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now."

Don't forget those extra batteries!

Whitehouse Admitts Fault

This just in -- Whitehouse staff member, Jimmy Orr, has accepted blame for deliberately misleading the American people.

It was on the official Whitehouse website where the controversy began – Orr had repeatedly referred to Barney the dogs chew toy as a soccer ball. It was only after a thorough investigation, the shocking truth was revealed -- Presidents dog was not playing with a soccer ball in the Christmas 2003 “Barney and Spot's Winter Wonderland” video, it was actually a volleyball.

"I blame myself", says Whitehouse Internet News Director, Jimmy Orr. Though a resignation has not been ordered, there is speculation as to whether or not the Whitehouse Director will be able to effectively carry out his job in light of the recent scandal.

Bush administration critics are calling for "heads to roll" over Ballgate, but for me satisfaction comes from just hearing a Whitehouse employee admit fault.

DNC Protesters to be Placed in Cage

With the Democratic National Convention coming to town, citizens looking to exercise their right to speak freely might be surprised to learn, they’ll be doing it from a cage.

While Boston Officials are welcoming the DNC protesters, it’s apparent they’ve also exhausted the cities barbed wire supply. The “Free Speech Zone”, an amalgamation of Jersey barriers, lattice fencing, barbed wire and netting, is by all outward appearances, a large cage.

City officials, concerned of a possible terrorist attack during the Democratic National Convention, are asking DNC attendees to stay vigilant and under no circumstances should they feed the protesters as they pass the free speech cage.

9/11 Commission Findings: Who to Blame?

[Courtesy of TheHill.com]

Today’s the day -- at 11:30am, the 9/11 Commission will release their final report. For an immediate fix, visit the official Commission website on or after 11:30am, as the full report will be posted then. The findings will be available in bookstores nationwide by various publishers, but there's also a limited printing of GPO (Government Printing Office) copies available for $13 a piece. You can pre-order an official version, as I [book snob] did, from the GPO website.

Airport Security Video Shows 9/11 Hijackers

Just in from the Associated Press, a Dulles International Airport surveillance video of 9/11 terrorists has been released to the press. The video shows 4 of the 5 American Airlines Flight 77 hijackers getting stopped by security and subsequently being allowed to pass without following the standard security procedures -- surprising with the 3 FAA warnings that had been issued.

Watch the video HERE

Are Those Documents in your Pants? Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

Everyone shoves things down their pants at some point. You know how it is: You go out to read a few secret documents, you have a couple of drinks, the lights are low and the music is playing. . . things happen. [Wonkette, 07/21/04]

5 facts you should know about the pants stuffin' Sandy Berger...

1. Berger didn’t shove documents in his pants, socks, or anywhere else -- no one has come forward to collaborate this accusation.
2. The documents Berger took out of the archives without filling out the proper paperwork were photocopies of his own notes on the Millennium bomb plot, which was thwarted under the Clinton administration.
3. It was Berger’s job was to review the Clinton administration records for the 9/11 commission.
4. This was dealt with in October 2003.
5. The bipartisan 9/11 Commission report is to be released tomorrow [07/22/04]. What timing? Do you think this might affect the integrity of the Commission's findings?

This Week in The New Yorker - Me!

Ledge of Liberty blogger, Peter Smith i.e. me, mentioned in an enlightening article about George Bush's infamous Pet Goat story.

Curious viewers of Moore’s film who have tried to track down the book “My Pet Goat” have been unsuccessful, for two reasons: Moore, in his voice-over, got the title wrong—it is “The Pet Goat”—and it is not a book but an exercise in a workbook called “Reading Mastery 2.” This much was sussed out last month by a resourceful blogger named Peter Smith after he studied the raw footage from the Emma E. Booker Elementary School. Noticing that the teacher repeatedly cued the class with the same precise language (“Get ready to read these words the fast way”), Smith guessed that some particular pedagogical theory was at work. That’s what led him to Direct Instruction, a controversial teaching model that Engelmann developed in the nineteen-sixties. [Daniel Radosh, 07/19/04]

Read the article HERE

Get extra details on the writers blog at Radosh.net

Read my research on The Pet Goat HERE

Take Me to Your Leader

[As seen on GeorgeBush.com]

Breaking News: a Bush/Gephardt Ticket

There's been much speculation in recent weeks regarding the possibility of Bush dropping Cheney from the 2004 ticket. While there's a strong constituency looking forward to four more years of Bush, there's a percentage of those who would rather see Cheney dropped in favor of a more likeable character.

Would that character be Dick Gephardt? Of course not, but who wouldn't like to see the two of them holding hands, skipping down the campaign trail? McCain seems like a logical pick, but I think he'd sooner drown than get on the sinking ship.

The candidate would have to stand up to John Edwards’s overall likeability and dare we say it – cuteness. So, who comes to mind? Tom Ridge? He's too aggressive. John Ashcroft? He's unpleasant to look at. Ralph Nader? He's too… well, isn't he already campaigning for Bush? Here's an idea -- how about Hillary Clinton? As Marc Perkel predicted in a humorous rant -- this may be Bush's sole chance of re-election.

So when Cheney feigns a heart attack, the only reason he'd drop out, who do you suppose will step in? McCain? Hillary? Powell? All unlikely candidates, but perhaps the most incredible, is the one in Bush’s head -- the Pet Goat. Now that's a cute and likeable character.

GeorgeBush.com: Hours of Fun!

Am I crazy or does this photo look like a room full of cardboard cutouts?

One can have quite a time looking over Bush's campaign website. Whether it’s the "Marlboro Man" photos, the Hitler ads or the "Hispanics for Bush" page -- hours can be sucked away in "shock and awe".

A new Bush campaign ad reveals an important issue -- Kerry hates pregnant women! But it’s another ad that really got me thinking; will McCain be offered the Vice Presidential ticket? I know Cheney refuted the rumor, but this ad seems to support the recent chatter. Not that McCain really has a chance -- lets face it, it’s all about who has the better hair.

Outfoxed: the War on Liars

Keeping with the Bill O'Reilly theme -- Outfoxed, the film that exposes Rupert Murdoch's FOX Network, is currently the #2 best selling DVD on Amazon.com, sandwiched between the top selling Star Wars Trilogy and The Passion of the Christ.

One of the more damning tidbits recently about the "Fair and Balanced" network, comes from an April memo instructing Fox "employees how to report on the increasing number of American fatalities in Iraq: “Do not fall into the easy trap of mourning the loss of U.S. lives", it reads." [Atrios]

MoveOn.org members are hosting Outfoxed viewing parties this weekend and there's still time to sign up, so don’t miss out. As a bonus, Air America’s Al Franken will be joining the party via the internet and offering up his usual insight on how you and I can make a difference in the War on Liars.

Watch a preview of Outfoxed HERE.

"Those Who Trespass", a Pornographic Work by Bill O'Reilly

By day he's a political talk show host, but by night he's transformed into an aquatic sex monster! He's Bill O'Reilly! He's Snorkelman!

This is the funniest thing ever -- FOX's Bill O’Reilly of the O'Reilly Factor, reading from his badly written pornographic novel, Those Who Trespass. I think the sound of Janeane Garofalo laughing in the background really adds to the overall effect.

Stripping off her bathing-suit, she walked into the huge shower. She pulled the lime green curtain across the entrance and then set the water for a tepid 75-degrees. The spray felt great against her skin as she ducked her head underneath the nozzle. Closing her eyes she concentrated on the tingling sensation of water flowing against her body. Suddenly another sensation entered, Ashley felt two large hands wrap themselves around her breasts and hot breathe on the back of her neck. She opened her eyes wide and giggled, "I thought you drowned out there snorkel man."

Tommy O'Malley was naked and at attention. "Drowning is not an option", he said, "unless of course you beg me to perform unnatural acts – right here in this shower." -Those Who Trespass, Bill O’Reilly

Hmm, Bill O’Reilly... Tommy O'Malley... do you think this is supposed to be at all autobiographical? Thank you Majority Report for bringing this literary masterpeice to my attention! The clip was extracted from hour 2 of the July 14, 2004 show.

Live Journalist Flipped-Off by Bush

He describes it as the single greatest event of his life. It was the day George W. Bush gave him the finger.

After waiting around for about 45 minutes, the motorcade passed by us again. A few police cars, followed by a van or two, drove by. Then, a Bush/Cheney bus passed, followed by a second one going slower. At the front of this second bus was The W himself, waving cheerily at his supporters on the other side of the highway. Adam, Brendan, and I rose our banner (the More Trees, Less Bush one) and he turned to wave to our side of the road. His smile faded, and he raised his left arm in our direction. And then, George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States of America, extended his middle finger.

Check out the live journal page HERE.

The Convention Will be Blogged! But Not by Me

I’m feeling like a middle child Brady -- the DNC's coming to town, my town, and only the “cool” kids are invited. Middle child laments aside, I’m thrilled the DNC is coming to Boston and what’s more exciting?! Could it be the A-List bloggers?

Irreverent blogger Ana Marie Cox, known as Wonkette, has been given “pol position” for the convention. “[Wonkette] will cover the Democratic National Convention for MTV and...MTV.com's Choose or Lose 2004 campaign.” [Variety, 07/08/04]

The much deserving folks at Talk Left have been given the cool kid pass, but they need reader support to make the Boston trip possible -- so, if you have a few dollars to spare, send them their way. Others on the list include, Taegan Goddard of Political Wire, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga from the Daily Kos, Byron LaMasters of Burnt Orange Report, and Aldon Hynes from Greater Democracy. Though not yet present, I’m sure Atrios will soon be added to the list.

For a more complete ballot, Cyber Journalist is tracking all the blog-worthy invitees.

On a side note, I learned through Atrios today – “The RNC is planning to pay bloggers a 30% commission on donations to Republicans that they raise through their web sites.”

The New York Times Reports “Under the program, site owners registered on Commission Junction can direct donors from their sites to the Republican National Committee's site through a banner ad or other link. Ms. Iverson would not provide details on how the Web sites would be paid. Still, by enlisting others to help it raise money, the committee hopes to reach audiences that might not donate otherwise.” [NYT, 07/12/04]

Read a related article HERE

Ye Ole Terror Threats of Yore

Remember the good ole days when terrorist threats didn’t make the news till after any imminent threat had passed? We could just go on with our days productively, then sleep soundly knowing those on the receiving end of our tax dollars were doing their jobs -- keeping the homeland secure, keeping the people safe. And hey, if the threat was real; you best believe, you would be the last person to know about it. A calm country is a stable country.

Inciting fear has always been a powerful political tool, and why wouldn’t it be? People love to feel like they’re being protected. And while it’s good to know that measures are being taken to plan for, even preempt attacks, protection is not just physical -- it’s psychological. It’s the job of our leaders to protect us from not only the physical, but the psychological threat. But the increasing political trend is destabilization and fear; exemplified here in a letter to the editor, on Marc Perkel Rantz…

The Bush administration is moving to steal the election again by postponing the election in case of an attack around election day. If this passes and Bush is behind in the polls - there will be an attack to delay the election.

A president who is crooked enough to go to war with Iraq based on lies is crooked enough to fake a terrorist attack to usurp the election process. Bush has already stolen one election when he got the Supreme Court to halt the vote count and appoint him president. This time the people should choose our own president.

Keeping us safe from terrorism is a test of the presidency and if Bush can't figure out how to keep America safe then he doesn't deserve to be president. The Constitution is clear on the subject and it doesn't provide an exception to move the election if Bush decides to create a fake attack. We need to resist tempering with the election process and prevent Bush from stealing the election again. Bush can not be trusted with any process to delay the election for any reason. And we sure don't need to give Bush a reason to blow up buildings if he's behind in the polls.

These may seem like words of lunacy, but it represents the ideology of a growing constituency, completely fed up wth this administration and it’s fear tactics. And lets face it, with headlines like “Officials discuss how to delay Election Day” [CNN, 07/11/04], who can blame them for being paranoid.

This administration is depressing in every way. Between the endless job losses, the economy, the war, and the ever-increasing terror rhetoric -- isn’t it ironic, the new GOP slogan should be, “It’s a time for optimism”? Well Mr. President, it isn’t a time for optimism, it’s time for you and the powers that be to get back to protecting America. You see Mr. President – when you continually pass on these terrorist threats, in your own words, “the terrorists have won”. You are proliferating a system of fear – when you raise the level of threat or report some vague terrorist chatter, Mr. President, you might as well hand the terrorists a megaphone and a scaffold, sell tickets and have a powwow.

Dick Gephardt said, “this President is a miserable failure” and I have to agree, but perhaps it would be equally true to say, “this President is just plain miserable”.

John Edwards: More Than Just a Pretty Face

He’s smart, self-made, and successful. He’s a champion of the under-dog, he’s a Senator with ideals, and hey -- he’s sexy! He’s your new Vice President, he's John Edwards!

Okay, so he’s not technically Vice President, but I’ll bet you a Thanksgiving turkey -- come November, Cheney will be handing over those sought after lavatory keys.

Why so confident? Well, lucky for you, I've made a list...

1. The Charisma...

"His charisma will excite voters across the nation, especially in the South," says Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport. [Democrat & Chronicle]

2. The Working Class Appeal...

Edwards grew up around the textile mills in the Southeast. He describes his family as close-knit and hard-working - the kind of family that had to sit around the kitchen table to figure out what to sacrifice to send their son to college. Edwards played high school football, worked some summers in the mills and studied textiles at North Carolina State University, figuring on returning to the mills as his family's first college graduate. Instead, he went on to law school at the University of North Carolina, where he met his future bride. [The Des Moines Register]

3. The American Dream...

“[Edwards] is a fresh face with an attractive bio that is the American dream,” says Peter Feaver, a political scientist at Duke University in Durham, N.C. "He is extremely wealthy, but he started very poor and he presents that in a compelling way. [Christian Science Monitor]

4. The Political Record...

In Congress, Senator Edwards quickly emerged as a champion for the issues that make a difference to American families: quality health care, better schools, protecting civil liberties, preserving the environment, saving Social Security and Medicare, and reforming the ways campaigns are financed. [Biography]

5. The Sexiness!

Let’s face it; people have seen what a bunch of stodgy old men can do to a country. John Edwards is fresh and new like a dewdrop or a blossoming flower. Okay, perhaps I'm joking, but John Kerry’s daughter Alex agrees, "I have the biggest crush on John Edwards." [Political Wire]

The Pet Goat: Part One & Two

It’s the obscure book George Bush was reading on September 11th, now immortalized by Michael Moores Fahrenheit 9/11. It’s the harrowing tale of a girl, her goat, and a robber. It’s a tough one to track down, but look no further, here it is in it’s entirety, the final chapter in the goat saga; The Pet Goat: Part One & Two. Read at you own risk, this story may distract you for up to 7 minutes.

Part One: The Pet Goat

A girl got a pet goat. She liked to go running with her pet goat. She played with her goat in her house. She played with her goat in her yard.

But the goat did some things that made the girl's dad mad. The goat ate things. He ate cans and he ate canes. He ate pans and he ate panes. He even ate capes and caps.

One day her dad said, "that goat must go. He ate too many things." The girl said, "dad if you let the goat stay with us, I will see that he stops eating all those things."

Her dad said he will try it.

So the goat stayed and the girl made him stop eating cans and canes and caps and capes.

But one day a car robber came to the girls house. He saw a big red car near the house and said, "I will steal that car."

He ran to the car and started to open the door. The girl and the goat were playing in the back yard. They did not see the car robber.

More to come.

Part Two: The Goat Stops the Robber

A girl had a pet goat. Her dad had a red car.

A car robber was going to steal her dad’s car. The girl and her goat were playing in the back yard.

Just then the goat stopped playing. He saw the robber. He bent his head down and started to run for the robber. The robber was bending over the seat of the car. The goat hit him with sharp horns. The car robber went flying.

The girl’s Dad ran out of the house. He grabbed the robber. “you were trying to steal my car,” he yelled.

The girl said, “but my goat stopped him.”

“Yes,” her dad said, “that goat saved my car.”

The car robber said, “something hit me when I was trying to steal that car.”

The girl said, “my goat hit you.”

The girl hugged the goat. Her Dad said, “that goat can stay with us. And he can eat all the cans and canes and caps and capes he wants.”

The girl smiled. Her goat smiled. Her Dad smiled. But the car robber did not smile. He said, “I am sore.”

The End.

The Pet Goat, Siegfried Engelmann & Elaine C. Bruner, Lesson 60, page 153, Reading Mastery 2, Storybook #1, SRA (Scientific Research Associates), McGraw-Hill, 1995, ISBN# 0026863553

Related article: The Pet Goat, a Story by George W. Bush

Related article: Mystery of “The Pet Goat” Revealed

Shame, Shame, Shame

If you only have time for 1.5 minutes of news today, this is the news for you. Vt. Congressman Bernie Sanders brought a bipartisan sponsored U.S. Patriot act amendment to the House floor. The amendment would “restore protections to library and bookstore patrons’ records which have been undermined by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.” When voting time expired, the amendment received a majority of votes in the U.S. House with 191 Democrats and 18 Republicans - that's majority support. But, “the House Republican Leadership then held open the vote twice as long as scheduled, an additional 20 minutes, as they “persuaded” Republicans to switch their votes. As Democratic members chanted, “Shame, Shame, Shame,” Republican leaders closed the vote on a 210 to 210 tie.

Watch the video HERE

Read a related article HERE

Stephen John Jordi, Terrorist?

Religious fundamentalist, Stephen John Jordi, plotted to blow up abortion clinics, churches, and gay bars; he had the gasoline cans, the flares, the starter fluid, and propane tanks - the threat was real. So, when Jordi was sentenced yesterday [07/08/04] in a Fort Lauderdale court, why did U.S. district judge James Cohn apply a minimum sentence, declaring these not acts of terrorism, but ones of a lesser charge and a 5 year sentence?

We all know religious extremism is bad, right? Plotting to kill hundreds, if not thousands, in the name of god is kind of serious, yes? Targeting a specific group of people for their collective ideological or political views could, I don’t know, be construed as terrorism. So, I’m left with this big question, with the “War on Terror” upon us - why not a charge of terrorism?

ter·ror·ism (tr-rzm)
n.
The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.

Bushgate

Whether it be stealing an election, misappropriating tax funds, or favoring corporate over public interests; from Oilgate to Funeralgate, it’s clear Bush has more than two hands, two feet and a face in the scandal pie.

1. Oilgate

Harken Energy Corp. was in the midst of a serious financial crisis in the spring of 1990, and George W. Bush had been fully apprised of it when he sold most of his stock in the company in June of that year, newly released internal corporate documents reveal...

2. Riotgate

More than three decades apart, two political riots influenced the outcome of U.S. presidential elections. In 1968, protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago hurt Democrat Hubert Humphrey and helped Republican Richard Nixon eke out a victory. On Nov. 22, 2000, the so-called “Brooks Brothers Riot” of Republican activists helped stop a vote recount in Miami -- and showed how far George W. Bush’s supporters were ready to go to put their man in the White House...

3. Harrisgate

Five months before the election, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris ordered the removal of 57,700 names from Florida’s voter rolls on grounds that they were felons. Voter rolls contain the names of all eligible, registered voters. If you’re not on the list, you don’t get to vote...

4. Contractgate

Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion under Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to newly available documents...

5. Taiwangate

Desperate for international support, Taiwan under former president Lee Teng-hui established a secret $100 million fund to buy influence with foreign governments, institutions and individuals, including some in the United States, according to current and former Taiwanese officials...

6. Electiongate

George W. Bush wishes the election was over. He wants everybody to forget about what happened in Florida, stop examining ballots, move on, and accept him as a legitimate president...

7. Travelgate

President Bush is using Air Force One for re-election travel more heavily than any predecessor, wringing maximum political mileage from a perk of office paid for by taxpayers...

8. Ethicsgate

For an administration that likes to quote Scripture, the situation is fittingly biblical — an eye for an eye, do unto others, that sort of thing. The issue is Democrats raising ethical questions about key members of the Bush Administration, something that was rampant when the parties were flipped during the Clinton era...

9. Torturegate

The disclosure that the Justice Department advised the White House in 2002 that the torture of al Qaeda terrorist suspects might be legally defensible has focused new attention on the role President Bush played in setting the rules for interrogations in the war on terrorism...

10. Funeralgate

A sworn affidavit by Texas Gov. George W. Bush insisting he had no discussions about a state investigation into a political contributor's funeral home business has been contradicted by the company's own lawyer...

The U.S. Patriot Act: Security Vs. Liberty

In the wake of September 11th, there’s an overwhelming percentage of the population willing to sacrifice civil liberties for security purposes without question. Is this the collective consciousness of a nation wounded by a vicious terror attack or a nation affected by the ever-flowing terror rhetoric? Either way, the lines between freedom and protection are becoming increasingly blurred.

In the advent of the U.S. “Patriot Act”, a resolution that obliterates an American’s Constitutional rights, people have begun to question the government’s role in security, usually quoting Benjamin Franklin, “they that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” A poetic sentiment unfortunately lost on the less analytical among us.

Does security equal liberty? In the 1940’s the Nazi’s used a slogan, 'arbeit macht Frei' or in English, ‘work makes free’. Words that, chillingly, can still be read on the iron gates of Auschwitz prison. It’s when government is given this sort of clandestine right, without the checks and balances of a democratic society; government becomes a haven for those who abuse power.

These checks and balances are the fundamentals of our just and democratic society. Hundreds of thousands of true patriots have put their lives on the line - have died, and are dying still, to protect these democratic ideals. So when our elected officials, the puppets of our design, disregard these principals, behave surreptitiously and introduce law which threatens democracy, it’s our patriotic duty, our American right to cut the strings and ensure liberty’s success.

Kerry-Edwards: A New Team for a New America

Dear Peter,

In just a few minutes, I will announce that Senator John Edwards will join me as my running-mate on the Democratic ticket as a candidate for vice president of the United States. Teresa and I could not be more excited that John and Elizabeth Edwards will be our partners in our journey to make America stronger at home and respected in the world.

You are the heart and soul of our campaign. You've shattered records and expectations every step of the way. Every time someone said you couldn't do it, you proved them wrong. Because of your incredible grassroots energy and commitment, I wanted to make the first official announcement of my decision to you -- more than one million online supporters at johnkerry.com.

I want you to know why I'm excited about running for president with John Edwards by my side. John understands and defends the values of America. He has shown courage and conviction as a champion for middle class Americans and those struggling to reach the middle class. In the Senate, he worked to reform our intelligence, to combat bioterrorism, and keep our military strong. John reaches across party lines and speaks to the heart of America -- hope and optimism. Throughout his own campaign for President, John spoke about the great divide in this country -- the "Two Americas" -- that exist between those who are doing well today and those that are struggling to make it from day to day. And I am so proud that we're going to build one America together.

In the next 120 days and in the administration that follows, John Edwards and I will be fighting for the America we love. We'll be fighting to give the middle class a voice by providing good paying jobs and affordable health care. We'll be fighting to make America energy independent. We'll be fighting to build a strong military and lead strong alliances, so young Americans are never put in harm's way because we insisted on going it alone.

I can't tell you how proud I am to have John Edwards on my team, or how eager I am for the day this fall when he stands up for our vision and goes toe-to-toe with Dick Cheney.

This is the most important election of our lifetime, and a defining moment in our history. With you by our side every day of this campaign, John and I will lead the most spirited presidential campaign America has ever seen and fight to lead our nation in a new and better direction.

Thank you,

John Kerry

How Long Till Orwell?

Today CNN reported on a FBI bulletin sent out to local authorities of possible July 4th terrorist suspects. This has got to be the most Orwellian, paranoid piece of text I’ve ever read, rivaling the likes of 1984.

The sky is falling, big bother’s watching, everyone’s a suspect and everyone’s an informant. So, I’m curious; do you think we’re moving towards an Orwellian Society?

George Orwell's, the FBI’s list of suspicion…

1. Irregular, loose-fitting clothing not appropriate for warm weather, possibly with “protruding bulges or exposed wires” or a noticeable chemical odor.

2. Sweating, mumbling or unusually calm and detached behavior. In addition, people who refuse to show their hands, possibly to conceal a detonator.

3. Disguises, including military, police, medical or firefighter uniforms or someone posing as a pregnant woman.

4. Large or heavy baggage not appropriate for the location, such as a big duffel bag carried into a restaurant.

5. Terrorists may also make anonymous threats to observe how security reacts and may attempt surveillance disguised as homeless people, shoe shiners, street vendors or street sweepers.

6. Booby-trapped explosive plastic-foam beer coolers, inner tubes and other floating objects.

Comic: Saddam Ballet