Please go over to Obsidian Wings and read this post: The Republican leadership of Congress is attempting to legalize extraordinary rendition. "Extraordinary rendition" is the euphemism used for sending terrorism suspects to countries that practice torture for interrogation. The staff for Edward Markey, a MA congressman (who tried to introduce legislation to prevent this very thing), has sent out a memo which explains:

The provision Rep. Markey referred to is contained in Section 3032 and 3033 of H.R. 10, the "9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act of 2004," introduced by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL). The provision would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue new regulations to exclude from the protection of the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, any suspected terrorist - thereby allowing them to be deported or transferred to a country that may engage in torture. The provision would put the burden of proof on the person being deported or rendered to establish "by clear and convincing evidence that he or she would be tortured," would bar the courts from having jurisdiction to review the Secretary's regulations, and would free the Secretary to deport or remove terrorist suspects to any country in the world at will - even countries other than the person's home country or the country in which they were born. The provision would also apply retroactively.

Go read Katherine's post and then write your representative NOW. This bill may be on the floor as early as next week.

posted by Opus 1:51 AM

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Here's A Good Soundbite, Mr. Kerry

Are you listening?

posted by Michael 11:55 PM

Texas Recall

Looks like Crawford wants its village idiot back.

posted by Jerry Bowles 4:33 PM

A Gift For Kerry

Bush’s sidekick, Tony Blair, just gave Kerry an opening. Blair came very close to apologizing for the war: he admitted that the evidence against Saddam “turned out to be wrong.” All Kerry has to do is say, “If Tony Blair is finally admitting it, why can’t you?" And then be silent. Let the seconds tick away. Just stare at him. Say nothing. Nada. It will remind folks of the sounds of silence in that Florida classroom.

posted by Josh 1:58 PM

George W Bush is a Coward!

At least the editorial board of the LA Times thinks so (and says so).

Cowardice is the hallmark of w and his administration. I've said so here twice before, but the words Kerry needs to use during the debates (and on the stump) are afraid and its synomyns. More lines for the debates: George Bush is afraid to talk honestly about my positions because he fears that in honest comparison with his own my positions will better protect the American public. George Bush was afraid to handle the real dangers in this world, Iran, North Korea, and especially Osama Bin Laden because he feared these more dangerous situations would imperil his re-election campaign. And George Bush is afraid to admit the reality of the situation on the ground in Iraq because he fears the consequences of accountability.

posted by Blackdogred 11:27 AM

Today's Open Thread

My biggest fear about a Bush second-term is (fill in the blank).

posted by Jerry Bowles 9:42 AM

Addressing The Elephant In The Room

Kerry needs some surprise responses early on in the debate to get Bush off script and off guard. And he needs to quickly address the big elephant in the room—Bush’s charge that he is a flip-flopper. Kerry should say something like this:

“Mr. Bush is fond of calling me names, saying I’m a flip-flopper, that I change my position on everything all of the time. Well, you know, after 20 years in the senate and after 10 years as a prosecutor, I can think of no senator or no prosecutor who hasn’t changed his mind on proposals or the guilt or innocence of people when presented with new evidence and new facts.

"What we have here is Mr. Bush refusing to change his mind, refusing to change his policies, refusing to change his destructive approach to Iraq and other foreign policy matters but stubbornly insisting that he is right regardless of what his own intelligence reports show. You will need to judge if you want a president that can look at the facts, admit mistakes, correct them, change course, and thereby better protect America, or if you want a president who is stubborn and ignores the truth as Mr. Bush does. He (pointing to him) claims he has made no mistakes and we know he thinks no one else has because no one, not one single person, except a few low level privates in the prison abuse scandal, are being held responsible for this mess in Iraq. Not one single person in the high ranks of government or the military is being held responsible. Not one. And that is wrong.

"Mr. Bush reminds me of the bullies I used to prosecute. He calls me names, such as flip-flopper, but fails to acknowledge his own flip-flops. (Pointing again to Bush) He opposed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, then supported it when it was clear that WE in Congress where going to create it. He opposed the creation of the 9/11 Commission, but now embraces most of its recommendations. He called North Korea and Iran part of his “axis of evil” and sounded like a bully, but when it comes to action in both of those countries he is taking a different course. His bully talk doesn’t have a place in foreign policy. He opposed going after Osama bin Laden, after promising us that he would be captured “dead or alive.”

"Where's the Big O, Mr. President? We all know where the future Osama bin Ladens are—in Iraq as a result of your abandoning the real war on terrorism and starting the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Where is Osama, Mr. President?

Don't wake me up. I like this dream.

posted by Josh 9:26 AM

Agent Orange

Election Day: Reading Rd.and Melish Av., Cincinnati, OH

Officer:
Sorry sir, but those people you in the back of your car look like suspected Al Qaeda with possible links to the Zarkawi network. Because the terror alert has been raised to high for election season we're keeping you pulled over until we get clearance from Homeland Security.

Driver:
They're not terrorists. They're senior citizens and African-American. I'm taking them to vote at the AME church, officer. They are handicapped and couldn't make it on their own. Do you want to see their voter registration cards?

Officer:
That won't be necessary. I'm awfully sorry and I know the polls close in a few minutes but there's nothing I can do. We've got to be ready in case of a terrorist attack. Now y'all will have to remain in the car until we get authorization to let you go. Do not move! Do not ask any more questions! Do you understand?

posted by Groom 1:53 AM

Why Wait Until Friday Morning? Write Your Own Debate Postmortem Here

From Democratic Underground:

Don't be surprised! Here's how the media will cover Kerry's and Chimp's debate performance:

Kerry: If he's serious, they'll say he's glum, gloomy, pessimistic, and uninspiring.
If he's jovial, they'll say he's phony and trying too hard.

Bush: If he's serious, he's, presidential, the war-time commander in chief.
If he's jovial, everybody wants to have a beer with him.

Kerry: If he's forceful, they'll say he's too aggressive, mean, negative, desperate.
If he's calm, they'll say he's weak, unsteady, dull, lacks energy.

Bush: If he's forceful, he's strong, resolute, unwavering.
If he's calm, he's prepared, on-message, disciplined, reserved.

Kerry: If he's specific, they'll say he's wonkish, presenting "laundry lists," being overly-intellectual, show-offy, and nobody likes the smart kid.
If he's not specific, they'll say he's vague, criticizing but not offering solutions, not addressing the issues, and nobody knows who he is.

Bush: If he's specific, he "lays out his plan" and "makes his case."
If he's not specific, he's spanning the issues, giving a global presentation, painting a broad outline of his plans.

Kerry: If he jokes, they'll say he lacks gravitas, trivializes important issues, doesn't understand troops are in harm's way, nation's at war, disrespects the president, etc.
If he doesn't joke, they'll say he needs to lighten up, he's too stoney, he's wooden.

Bush: If he jokes, he's a man of the people, a regular guy, people relate to him.
If he doesn't joke, he truly cares about the American people and his sincerity resonates with voters in this difficult time.

Plus, if he finds his podium and doesn't trip on his way to it, he's surpassed all expectations. (Extra points for correct pronunciation of "Abu Ghraib" or "nuclear.")

posted by Michael 1:22 AM

Alas, Kerry

Let me be perfectly clear, as Richard Nixon used to say: I think John Kerry's election on November 2 may be the last, best hope of mankind. As the rest of the planet seems to realize, Junior Bush is dumb, dangerous and, by any reasonable interpretation of international law (if there really were such a thing), a war criminal. In a just world, he and Slobo and Saddam and Osama would be cellmates in The Hague.

Only John Kerry stands between us and four more years of the most destructive modern presidency of all time. I don't have to love the guy to appreciate his importance at this historic moment.

And, the fact is, I don't love the guy. Real leaders don't focus group to find out what they believe. From the way Kerry has run his campaign we know he is a gas bag who loves the sound of his own voice, that he is incapable of short declarative sentences, and that he is a man whose decisionmaking process sure does look like flip-flopping from the outside. Throw in his extremely limited management experience if you like. All this might be corrected by good cabinet choices.

My real beef with Kerry is his failure to recognize until almost too late that this isn't just another election but a defining moment in American history--more important and dangerous than even those difficult days after he came home from Viet Nam. Young John Kerry didn't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blew but until recently he has behaved like a man who's just been paroled after 20 years of boredom for trying to change the system from within. He has about 72 hours to find his inner moral outrage again or the America we know and love is toast.

posted by Jerry Bowles 12:02 AM

Monday, September 27, 2004

Florida's Voters, Ohio's Voters

Jimmy Carter in today's WaPo op/ed page.

And then read this from over at MyDD.

Again, as I said this morning, I think Kerry can win, but he faces an incredibly daunting number of obstacles, not the least of which, as the above two items indicate, is that Bushco will do anything to win. Anything.

Still, voter registration numbers as cited in Jerry's article are encouraging not only in the increase of Democratic voters but as a sign that Dem grass root organizations are out there working. Let's hope the get out the vote Election Day plans are just as effective. Everyone already volunteer to drive the carless to the polls or work some phone banks?

posted by Blackdogred 3:34 PM

Let the Sun Shine In

This is the best piece of news I've read in weeks:

A sweeping voter-registration campaign in heavily Democratic areas has added tens of thousands of new voters to the rolls in the swing states of Ohio and Florida, a surge that has far exceeded Republican efforts in both states, a review of registration data shows.

The analysis of county-by-county data shows that in Democratic areas of Ohio — primarily low-income and minority neighborhoods — new registrations since January have increased 250 percent over the same period in 2000. In comparison, new registrations have increased 25 percent in Republican areas.

A similar pattern is apparent in Florida: In the strongest Democratic areas, the pace of new registration is 60 percent higher than in 2000, while it has risen 12 percent in the heaviest Republican areas.

You've got to believe that fear and loathing of George Walker Bush--not a passion for our guy--is the key motivator here. But, who cares? Imagine if this is going on everywhere--we've got ourselves a new voter-led dump Shrub landslide. Be still my heart.

posted by Jerry Bowles 3:21 PM

Lowering the bar

With the president getting a decided home court advantage heading down to Miami thanks to Brother Jeb and the Hurricaines, secretary of state Powell's latest moral machinations have lowered expectations on what we can expect from our misadventure in Iraq. It becomes easier for the prez to make his case for "staying the course" now that top gun Muqtada Al-Sadr is telling his followers to boycott January elections if US forces are still in-country at that time. The question Kerry ought to ask the president is "how come your father and Dick Cheney could get their Arab buddies to pony up $70 billion and pay us to kick Saddam's butt back to Iraq in three months and you and Cheney take the American people for nearly a trillion and get our ass in a sling. It won't happen.

posted by Groom 2:19 PM

Not Yet

I am not ready to concede this election though I’m not sure of which way to taunt superstition. This past April, when Maryland was down ten with three minutes to play against Duke in the ACC tournament final and came back to win? It’s because I turned off the TV, a rite that’s responsible for many Terrapin victories for thirty years. But two nights ago United played Columbus, and despite Jaime Moreno leaving in 22nd minute with hammie and Ryan Nelsen - the best defender in MLS - getting two questionable yellow cards so DCU had to play a man down the entire 2nd half, I sensed a comeback and kept watching. They lost.

Part of me wants to proclaim that 43 is going to win because predicting a Kerry victory, in my fatalistic world, guarantees Kerry’s loss, because I predicted 43's victory in 2000 and got it wrong but got it right, because I wonder if in the grander scheme the American public needs to discover personally - when Grandma’s cancer screenings aren’t covered by insurance, when the war on terror comes home again and sisters and brothers and husbands and children in skyscrapers, tunnels, subways, and airports are incinerated, when prayer is required in public places, when dissent is illegal, when democracy flourishes more in American-occupied countries than in America itself - needs to discover personally just what the dumb effs are voting for when they vote for w.

But here’s my problem: I think Kerry is a better candidate than Josh and Jerry and Groom and pretty much everyone else think. 43 has this: a country whose belief in its own exceptionalism was both challenged and reaffirmed by 911; a country whose anti-intellectualism is a point of pride and which considers complex views of 911's causes suspect and justification for ridicule; a country with an indefatigable capacity for homeness (really, did your heart swell with nationalistic pride when the female saber fencer won whatever medal in the Olympics?); a country in which there are a considerable number of people who would take my parenthetical snark as smackable disloyalty. 43 has a country so attuned to patriotic dreck that true patriotism - loyal opposition, informed dissent, honest differences of opinion - is deemed cowardice at best, treason at worst. 43 has a party, an organization, an ideology that encourages the impugning of anyone who differs with their positions as immoral and has bitchslapped the media into docile cooperation. He has incumbency, an utter disregard for truth or fairness, and a complete unwillingness to engage in open and honest debate. It’s a sign of Kerry’s strength as a candidate that going into the debates he’s as close as he is.

Has Kerry made mistakes? Jeebus, yes. August was a lost month, unforgivable coming out of his convention. If he loses this election his campaign’s failure to be prepared for the predictably vile attacks from Bushco will be cited as crucial. And now he can expect more and worse. He can expect to win the debates in reality but lose them in Punditstan on Foxstan and CNNStan; more lies will come from Swiftistan and Novakistan. When he says something smart he’ll be accused of being an elitist, when he says something articulate he’ll be accused of being French. Teresa hasn’t been smeared recently: soon. Kerry will point out, reasonably, logically, forcefully, that America is less safe under w than w says and will be branded a pessimist, an opportunist, and a betrayer of troops in the field and an underminer of American society.

Beyond persistent, relentless attacks on Bushco’s foreign and domestic policies, Kerry needs, not just for the sake of his candidacy but for all of us who are proud American dissenters from Bushco’s worldview, to, this Thursday, make an impassioned declaration that opposition to w’s Iraq war and criticism of w’s failure in the war on terror is not treason, is not an abandonment of support for our troops put in harm’s way by errors in judgment by 43, and it is as UN-AMERICAN as was McCARTHYISM to suggest that you, George, are somehow more American than me or my supporters. To suggest, George, to imply that Democrats in general and me in particular are giving aid and comfort to the enemy when we justly claim that you have led us into a war we didn’t need to fight and neglected to fight the war we need to win, when you yourself, through your decisions and actions, have not only not defeated Al-Qaeda but have helped them increase their numbers, increase their funding, is beyond contempt. It is reprehensible; it is an insult to all Americans. But more than that: it represents the same narrowness and close-mindedness that informs both your policies and worldview.

And then let w smirk into the camera, raising his eyebrows in his “get this liberal” mug.

Can Kerry win? Yes. Is he losing now? Yes. Will he win? I’m not predicting, but I’m not turning off the TV. Sometimes Maryland, sometimes DCU, wins when I’m watching.

posted by Blackdogred 11:17 AM

Today's Open Thread

What must Kerry do to win the debate?

posted by Jerry Bowles 9:07 AM

A Voice from the Past

Interesting, isn't it, how topical certain authors can be, even centuries later than the times in which they lived.

Here is Samuel Johnson (yes, the Johnson of Boswell fame), in a bit from his poem "London." I think of pundits, politicians, fortunate sons and would-be kings.

How, when competitors like these contend,
Can surly virtue hope to fix a friend?
Slaves that with serious impudence beguile,
And lie without a blush, without a smile;
Exalt each trifle, ev'ry vice adore,
Your taste in snuff, your judgment in a whore;
Can Balbo's eloquence applaud, and swear
He gropes his breeches with a monarch's air.

For arts like these preferr'd, admir'd, caress'd,
They first invade your table, then your breast;
Explore your secrets with insidious art,
Watch the weak hour, and ransack all the heart;
Then soon your ill-plac'd confidence replay,
Commence your lords, and govern or betray.

By numbers here from shame or censure free,
All crimes are safe, but hated poverty.
This, only this, the rigid law pursues,
This, only this, provokes the snarling muse.
The sober trader at a tatter'd cloak,
Wakes from his dream, and labours for a joke;
With brisker air the silken courtiers gaze,
And turn the varied taunt a thousand ways.
Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest;
Fate never wounds more deep the gen'rous heart,
Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.

posted by John 5:24 AM

Will the real president of Afghnistan please stand up...

Meet "the Viceroy"... US Ambassador Zalmay "I used to be an Afghan exchange student" Khalilzad. This smarty pants is the puppetmeister of Kabul, and the man who is de-facto campaign manager for narcocrat Hamid Karzai in the coming "elections." Even after his term as Ambassador ends, he will remain as "special presidential envoy" to Afghanistan. Maybe him and Karzai will both get cameos at next year's State of the Union like Chalabi did last January...

posted by Groom 1:24 AM

Sunday, September 26, 2004

Response to open thread …divine intervention needed…

Back when I was supposed to be growing up I would drink with a few of my Deke brothers in a duck blind off Salter’s Point in Southeastern Massachusetts and gaze across Buzzards Bay at the summer home of two time Democrat presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson. When the lights would go out I’d always wonder- if Adlai had beaten Ike- how long it would have taken for Stu Knight’s Secret Service boys to find us and shoo us out of the blind. It never happened because Stevenson could never connect with the traditional Democratic base.

There was no Black or Hispanic or Arab-American vote back then. It was the era before the Voting Rights Act; poll taxes and other disenfranchisement schemes being run in the “solid South” were tolerated by Democratic chairman like J. Howard McGrath and Jim Farley. Big labor got out the vote but working Americans never considered the patrician Stevenson “one of us.” Stevenson was an eloquent speaker and an excellent debater, which gave Ike’s handlers an opportunity to define him as an “egghead” intellectual. The good ol’ boys and belles, and independent voters, cottoned to the image of the former military man, the “intuitive leader.”

Stevenson, McGovern, Dukakis, Mondale...the Democratic Party leadership has not learned from the lessons of the past. Kerry has little traction with Blacks and less with Hispanics (who don't generally get on well with Blacks) who tend to lean GOP. Unless John Kerry has an epiphany and the Pope secretly appeals for some Divine Intervention on his behal in Mexico next month, the Dem standard bearer seems destined to follow in the footsteps of Adlai Stevenson.

Kerry performed poorly in the "inclusionfest" debates with Al Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean and Dick Gephart. Go to the videotapes and you'll see a political persona struggling to be relevant. Kerry's only "acid test" is the Iowa caucus, a suspect political event at best. He got down and dirty and beat on the other Dem contenders but why didn't he do the same to Bush out of the starting gate? The media did its job on Dean and positioned Geppy as an old fart and the potty bigs settled on Kerry in part because he seemed the most attractive of what was available to go mano a mano with Bush on the "what did you do in the war" issue.

Because Kerry’s campaign has reduced his focus to the “war on terrorism” and Iraq, prospective voters don’t know much about his vision of America and thanks to the lies and half truths put out by the White House and its minions, even less about the real state of the US economy. But it’s way too late to go there... just another backstory in the script. We know more about what the Swifties say about Kerry and what CBS said about Bush’s military records than we know about what both candidates actually plan to do for Veterans, which is very little. But Veterans organizations prefer the G.I. Joe doll of Bush telling lies on the aircraft carrier to the eager beaver Purple Heart winner offering a few kernels more of truth.

John Kerry’s “qualities profile” is strikingly similar to that of Adlai Stevenson. Then too, it was so easy to say “I like Ike.” It’s not so easy to say “I like Kerry.” Karl Rove has made it easy for a dumber, less politically energized America to believe that “Bush is doing what’s right for America.” You can talk to the spinmeisters or rock star-friend James Taylor or patrician former brother-in-law John Thorne and hear what a great guy John Kerry is, and how he has inner strengths and yatta-yatta. But his campaign hasn’t projected those qualities- the “non-Adlai” qualities to the American electorate. In Latin America a winning candidate is one who is deemed to be con el pueblo (with the people); John Kerry’s campaign hasn't packaged him that way, and that's the "package" that's needed to win. I've been a bit windy. But if you think I’ve been negative, perhaps you now have some perspective. In Vietnam they would have called the way Kerry’s campaign is being run “one big clusterfuck.”

posted by Groom 10:40 PM

Question #1 At The Debate:

Has Bush ever stopped doing drugs?


CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush said he had no regrets about donning a flight suit to give his "Mission Accomplished" speech on Iraq in May 2003 and would do it all over again if he had the chance, according to excerpts from an television interview released on Sunday.

Kerry's already begun pummelling Bush about the head and shoulders for this, and rightly so.

Of course, if we any longer lived on the proper side of the Looking Glass, where what the President said and did got close and ruthless scrutiny by the media, Bush would already be long gone from office, shipped off to the Hague, and on trial alongside Slobo . . .

posted by Michael 10:07 PM

What Has Kerry Done Right So Far?
What Will It Take To Turn Things Around?

In response to the comments on the latest Open Thread that I’ve given up on Kerry, let’s try it this way: What has Kerry done right so far? I don’t need a dozen things, one or two will do. Never a fan of the Edwards pick, the decision looks worse now with Missouri out of play. Unlike the state of North Carolina, if Kerry had picked Gephardt, Missouri would be in his back pocket and the Electoral College numbers more in Kerry's favor. And Gephardt, among others, would not have let Cheney get away with his on-going shenanigans.

Now we are down to this: We have put all our eggs in the debate basket, probably fooling ourselves into believing that there are four debates that can make a difference and that Edwards will easily beat Cheney. But in reality only one counts—the first one.

Kerry needs to do two things on Thursday that I don’t think he is capable of doing. One is effectively address the flip-flop charge with either humor or, a riskier strategy, by saying that he has changed his mind in the past but, unlike Bush, when he is president he will not stubbornly stick to a position that is wrong and leads--as Bush's pigheadedness has--to a weakening of the war on terrorism at the unnecessary expense of the death of American soldiers. There is no virtue, he should say, in stubbornness and wrongheadedness. This is his knock-out punch, but can he deliver and will it land on Bush.

Second, Kerry needs to show a side of himself that we have not seen. He needs to co-opt Bush’s ah-shucks attitude, and the hardest part, is he needs to come across naturally, not contrived or over scripted. Again, I don’t think Kerry will attempt this or be successful at it, so the likeability vote, the key variable for last-minute voters will go to Bush, and so the election.

The only hope left then is a major screw-up by Bush during the debates, and that is not likely to happen.

The history of this campaign will show not what Bush did right but the fact that Kerry’s campaign applied NONE of the lessons of past failed Democratic campaigns. And the Democratic Party made the big mistake of thinking that ABB could win.

I hope I’m wrong.

posted by Josh 3:20 PM

Open Thread

If (fill in the blank) were the Democratic nominee today he or she would be 5-10 points ahead of George Bush in the polls.

posted by Jerry Bowles 11:21 AM

The CIA To The Rescue

I can’t tell you where I got this tip: you’ll understand why in a minute.

Remember how these pages speculated that Cheney was going to have heart trouble this summer courtesy the CIA and Bush was going to pick someone else to run with him, thereby dumping the Cheney “baggage”? We were right about what the CIA was up to, we just had the wrong guy. Word leaked out late Saturday night that Kerry is going to have a wind-surfing accident early next week that will incapacitate him from finishing the race. Since Edwards is too inexperienced to step in, Al Gore will be drafted…just in time for the debates to go on as scheduled.

Don’t wake me up. I like this dream.

posted by Josh 10:46 AM

Fortune cookie for winning race...
Cost of new Shanghai Grand Prix track- $240 million
Cost of cancelled Kerry TV ads- $5 million

posted by Groom 9:58 AM

Maybe He Will Do Anything to Get Elected

posted by Jerry Bowles 1:36 AM

Hurricanes? Meh. Try Politics!

As much fun as it is to see Anderson Cooper and others being assaulted by high winds and rain every week or so, I wish our TV news organizations would attempt to show the greater dangers that threaten us.

JOIE CHEN: And now we go out to Anderson Cooper, who is standing in Mansfield, Ohio, where forecasters are predicting the eye of the campaign will hit sometime in the next two hours or so. Anderson, how are you doing out there?

ANDERSON COOPER (shouting and shielding head from sheaves of memos flying by): I'm hanging in there Joie, thanks. I'm going to try and get back to our analysis of the health care plans proposed by the two candi- OOF! candidates. As I was saying before the break, while President Bush's Medicare plan has confused seniors and placed a huge burden on future budgets, Kerry's plan tries to address -- URGH! ACK!

JC: Anderson, can you still hear me? What was that?

AC: Yes, Joi