BootsBlog

Nuh uh

2004-11-29T19:02:00.000-05:00

I think I've hit on a way to cope with the unsettling truth that Bush 2.0 is really about to happen.

It's called denial.

Not a sophisticated form of denial, along the lines of failing to recognize his authority as president because he stole the election four years ago and likely did so again, though we'll never know, thanks to a compliant and de facto complicit media. And not a defiant form of denial, as voiced by the "Count every vote!" people who genuinely believe such a thing is possible when the GOP has a hold on the electoral machinery not unlike the hold that got Pee-Wee Herman in trouble so many years ago.

No, this is a more, um, primitive form of denial. Think Khruschev banging his shoe on the table. Think "nana-nana-boo-boo." I've been doing this for years.

Here's a transcript of a conversation from 1972.

My sister: "I'm telling!"
Me: "Nuh uh!"
My sister: "Yuh huh!"
Me: "Nuh uh!"

Oh, wait. That was actually from this past Thanksgiving. Whatever. The point remains: I'm just ignoring an uncomfortable reality. It's worked so far.

There are certain situations in which it's probably not a great idea -- for instance, if you find yourself saying, "That isn't a cop behind me. With his lights flashing. And a shotgun pointed at me," it might be time to face the truth. But in this political climate, it just might be the thing that gets me through the next four years.

Well, that and raspberry vodka.

(slightly edited Nov. 30)

Stoppage of play

2004-11-26T11:46:00.000-05:00

Yeah, it's been kind of a bleak autumn so far. Mainly because of that whole election thingie this month (my God, that was this month!), but it's felt like something else was missing. It wasn't until I found myself rereading Full Spectrum, by Jay Greenberg, that I realized how much I missed major-league hockey.
Remember hockey? A bunch of oversized Canadians and Europeans with consonant-laden surnames hitting each other and occasionally shooting something called a "puck" at a guy too bashful (or, more often, embarrassed) to show his face?
Sigh. Those were the days.
The problem with the Greenberg book is that it's a history of the Flyers' first three decades. When the last two decades and change consist of desperate attempts to recapture the glory, it gets a little depressing. But it's a Philadelphia sports book. It has to be depressing.
The amazing thing about the book is how many guys have donned the orange and black and then retreated into anonymity. Ah, for the glory days of Claude Boivin. And who can forget the stirring moments of drama provided by Blake Dunlop? These guys aren't even trivia questions, because the people who write trivia questions haven't heard of them.

'Give up hope,' newspaper advises

2004-11-12T15:56:00.000-05:00

Heartfelt advice to John Timpane:
Many people consider a newspaper a source for information. Sometimes, that information is not readily available elsewhere. Hence the need for independent research by a newspaper's reporters. It's a process known as "newsgathering." Many newspapers still employ it.
One more thing. Remember Watergate? It was a really big scandal back in the 1970s. It was broken by a couple of reporters who were assigned to cover a story about a burglary. They suspected there was more to the story. And guess what? There was! (There was even a movie about it and everything!)
This comes to you as a public service from a reader.

Oh, I guess I should explain the 'tude here. This was in Thursday's Philadelphia Inquirer, on the op-ed page (it's linked above, but because it's not available without subscription, here it is):

Heartfelt advice to those who insist
John Timpane
is
the Commentary Page editor for The Inquirer
I write in answer to a couple hundred e-mails, a couple hundred phone calls, a raft of personal communications from depressed folks waist-deep in denial. I have some news that will not cheer them. But, hey, it's my job. Brace yourself. Here it comes.
On Jan. 20, George W. Bush will take the oath of office. Again. He will make an inaugural speech. Again. And then, Lord willing, he will be your president for four years.
The guy won the election. It is o-verrrrr. Give up hope, all ye who linger here.
But news abounds, you say, of election fraud in Ohio and Florida! Buried voting machines found with thousands of Kerry votes uncounted! Voters misinformed, miscounted, missed! Fraud rampant, barefaced, gory-visaged! Scandal alleged! Collusion! Investigations threatened! We'll turn this thing around yet.
Dear friends: Give it up.
This comes to you as a public service by this newspaper.
Contact John Timpane at 215-854-4406 or jt@phillynews.com.

Sitting shiva

2004-11-05T16:10:00.000-05:00

I know it's three days later and all, and it's time to come back into the world and accept the fact that President Bush has, for the first time, been duly elected by a majority of the people and, stunningly, without requiring the intervention of five activist judges.
But it's still mourning in Blue America.
I figure I'm allowed three days of grieving. It could be seven, but frankly I'm not quite that religious. And I'm running out of black clothing.
So at some point this weekend, the crazy blogging action should resume.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 101)

2004-10-31T21:24:00.000-05:00

1,001. Because George W. Bush and his administration have established over the last four years that they are blind and deaf to any opinions, any situations, any facts that contradict their preconceptions.
Maybe it's a religious thing -- the zeal of the true believer. Maybe it's a defense mechanism -- if you tune out the naysayers, you bolster your self-confidence. Maybe it's something more nefarious. But from compiling this list over the last few months, this is what I've learned: Bush and his cronies just don't want to hear anything that doesn't agree with them.
It's evident on the campaign trail, where protesters -- sometimes defined as people wearing anti-Bush T-shirts -- are kept apart at Bush rallies and not infrequently arrested. It's evident in Bush's domestic agenda: He's managed to ignore the threat of global warming, which a scientific consensus has concluded is a growing danger. It's evident in Iraq, where Bush and Cheney and the crew might actually have believed what they said publicly: that U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators rather than conquerors, that the invasion would be speedy and efficient, that the mission really would be accomplished in a matter of weeks.
But perhaps nowhere was this Bush doctrine more tragically in evidence than on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
Bush and Cheney like to warn that John Kerry is living in a Sept. 10 world. They're wrong, not surprisingly. But it goes deeper than that. The people who lived in a Sept. 10 world were, almost by definition, Bush and Cheney. And Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz and the whole gang.
When the Bush administration came into Washington, departing Clinton officials made a point of telling them about the dangers the nation would face from a new kind of enemy, one that isn't based in a state, one that has no tangible boundaries. They warned the Bushies specifically about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. They might as well have been telling Bush about the benefits of solar energy over oil. Bush and his crew weren't listening. It didn't fit the paradigm, so in their minds, it didn't exist.
It's not that Bush is stupid. He's an astonishingly poor speaker, and he certainly has been prone to say the opposite of what he's supposed to say, particularly during the campaign. But the bigger problem is exactly what he's touting as his greatest strength: his conviction that his course is the right one. Certitude is great, but being sure you're right when you're actually wrong carries only one certainty: disaster.
Which has been pretty obvious for some time.
I'm not a student of political science. I started compiling this list as a way of getting involved in the election to a limited extent, and as a way to crack some "Is our children learning?" jokes. But as I chronicled the myriad flaws and errors and shames of George W. Bush and his administration, the unmistakable pattern of willful self-deception emerged.
Would John Kerry be any different? There's no way to know for sure, but I'm reasonably certain he would. For one thing, he sees nuance. Just as Al Gore was slimed in the 2000 campaign for being intelligent, Kerry is getting slimed for being perceptive. (One of the things Republicans do well is run nasty campaigns, although this year's wolf commercial might indicate their streak is nearing an end). But perceiving subtlety and nuance is not a bad thing. Kerry is certainly up to the job of being president, but more importantly, the current president is not.
More than 100,000 Iraqis and more than 1,100 U.S. service people have been killed in the Iraq war. (You remember the Iraq war. It's the one where "major combat operations" ended in the spring of 2003, as proclaimed by a president who stood beneath a banner reading "Mission Accomplished.") If you've read all 1,001 reasons and you still really want to vote for Bush, there isn't much I can say that's likely to change your mind. But think about all those lives lost in this military campaign, and think about why we went there in the first place. Not the rhetorical reasons mouthed by Bush and Cheney and Rice and Powell, but actual reasons to take lives and lose lives in Iraq. Weapons of mass destruction? Nope. Imminent threat? Uh-uh. Any sort of threat at all? Not so much. Keeping the weapons that Saddam didn't actually have out of the hands of terrorists Saddam wasn't actually in contact with? If that's enough of a reason for you, there's a job waiting for you in the Pentagon public-relations department.
Bush has been a failure in foreign relations, in protecting the environment, in job creation, in fiscal restraint, and in being, as he liked to say, "a uniter, not a divider." These are not my opinions. These are facts. Foreign relations: By alienating the UN and most of its members, Bush has virtually isolated the United States. The environment: He started with a repeal of Clinton administration restrictions on arsenic levels in water and continued through his bogus "Healthy Forest" and "Clean Skies" initiatives that produced effects diametrically opposite to their names. Job creation: No president since Herbert Hoover has presided over a net loss of jobs. Until Bush. Fiscal restraint: That tax-and-spend liberal Clinton left office with a federal budget surplus. Bush, through war spending and amazingly ill-timed tax cuts, turned that into the steepest deficits in U.S. history. And do I really need to spell out how Bush's four-year term has resulted in the most polarized electorate in memory?
If you're happy with the way things are -- with the color-coded death threats, and the alternating "wanted dead or alive"/"I don't think about him" approach to terrorist murderers, and the reflexive inability to acknowledge, let alone heed, alternative points of view -- then by all means, vote for Bush, or better yet, stay the hell home on Tuesday. Otherwise, come out to the polls on Election Day and help John Kerry take this nation back from the oligarchy that has controlled it for the last four years.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 100)

2004-10-31T20:03:00.000-05:00

991. Lila Lipscomb. (Yes, I finally saw Fahrenheit 9/11.)
992. In an article in its Nov. 8, 2004, edition, Newsweek includes this doubly surprising passage: "Both plans depend heavily on building significant Iraqi forces to take over security. But the truth is, neither party is fully reckoning with the reality of Iraq—which is that the insurgents, by most accounts, are winning. Even Secretary of State Colin Powell, a former general who stays in touch with the Joint Chiefs, has acknowledged this privately to friends in recent weeks, Newsweek has learned."
993. I don't know which is more surprising: that Colin Powell would be so candid, even privately, or that after his lies to the United Nations and the American people, Colin Powell still has friends.
994. This is just revolting. From an Oct. 30, 2004, New York Daily News article on the political ramifications of Osama bin Laden's videotaped message: "A senior GOP strategist added, 'anything that makes people nervous about their personal safety helps Bush.' He called it 'a little gift,' saying it helps the President but doesn't guarantee his reelection."
995. Not everyone saw the bin Laden video as "a little gift." Kristen Breitweiser and Monica Gabrielle, whose husbands died on Sept. 11, 2001, offered up an open letter to Bush: "Our question to President Bush is: Why didn't you catch him when you promised us you would? Why is this mass murderer -- this madman -- still out there making videotapes and terrorizing our country three years after you promised our country that you would make us safe from him?"
996. From an article in the Oct. 29, 2004, Washington Post: "A Bush political appointee in the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection bureau drafted and distributed a public relations strategy designed to 'change perception' about the nation's security by repeating the message, in the weeks leading up to the presidential election, that America is safer, according to internal government documents."
997. Yes, that would be the "we don't do politics" Department of Homeland Security.
998. At Slate.com, author Daniel Benjamin provides yet another example of the Bush administration's inability to see where the real threats are: "The idea that states are the real issue and terrorists and their organizations are of secondary concern has been present throughout the Bush presidency....After 9/11, senior officials such as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, simply refused to believe the assessment of the intelligence community that Iraq had no hand in the attack and that al-Qaida operated independently of state support. In the Pentagon's conduct of operations in Afghanistan, the overwhelming focus was on unseating the Taliban, the effective state power, while less attention was paid to pursuing al-Qaida, which had just killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil." (Via Kevin Drum)
999. From Maureen Dowd's Oct. 31, 2004, column in the New York Times: "The Bushies' campaign pitch follows their usual backward logic: Because we have failed to make you safe, you should re-elect us to make you safer. Because we haven't caught Osama in three years, you need us to catch Osama in the next four years. Because we didn't bother to secure explosives in Iraq, you can count on us to make sure those explosives aren't used against you."
1,000. A view from the U.K.: The Guardian, in an Oct. 30, 2004, editorial, says: "To adapt the words of Talleyrand, the Bush presidency has been not merely a crime but a mistake. Mr Bush has proved a terrifying failure in the world's most powerful office. He has made the world more angry, more dangerous and more divided -- not less. This, above all, is why it matters to us, as it should to Americans, that John Kerry is elected on Tuesday."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 99)

2004-10-30T11:43:00.000-04:00

981. The lying. Oh, the lying. From an Oct. 30, 2004, article in the New York Times about a chapter in the 9/11 Commission report that still has not been made public: "Drawing from this unpublished part of the inquiry, the commission quietly asked the inspectors general at the Departments of Defense and Transportation to review what it had determined were broadly inaccurate accounts provided by several civil and military officials about efforts to track and chase the hijacked aircraft on Sept. 11." (Via Campaign Extra!)
982. So what were those broadly inaccurate accounts? From the Oct. 30, 2004, New York Times article: "In testimony before the commission, officials had described a quick response to the hijackings that narrowly missed intercepting some of the planes, but the commission's investigators later determined from documentary evidence that none of the military planes were anywhere near the four airliners."
983. And from that Oct. 30, 2004, Times article: "In addition, officials at the Federal Aviation Administration testified that they had notified the military within a few minutes of each hijacking, but the investigation found that tape recordings contradicted that assertion."
984. They might be hiding the truth about 9/11, but the Bush people aren't averse from exploiting the hell out of it. An Oct. 29, 2004, posting on BlueLemur.com by John Byrne of Raw Story describes an RNC ad approved by Bush-Cheney '04: "On the front side, the ad asks in red print, 'How Can John Kerry Lead America In A Time of War?' ... Following that, there are nine images of the front pages of Sept. 12, 2001 newspapers ... all of which display the smoking towers of the World Trade Center before they collapsed, killing some 2,600 people. One includes the approach of the plane."
985. The Blue Lemur site includes scans of the actual mailing, which went out to people in Pennsylvania. I wouldn't advise going unless your tolerance for conscienceless, shameless exploitation is much higher than mine. And your blood pressure is much lower.
986. In an Oct. 27, 2004, column, Dan Gillmor, a technology columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, wrote of Bush: "He and his allies have used terrorism to launch a massive assault on civil liberties. They are not just indifferent to liberty, they are actively hostile to it."
987. For instance? Dan Gillmor listed some examples in his Oct. 27, 2004, column: "He has expanded surveillance -- electronic and otherwise -- without adequate safeguards. He has had a mania for secrecy, shielding more and more government information from public view. ... This president has curbed dissent through intimidation. His attorney general practically labeled as traitors people who questioned the outrageously named 'Patriot Act,' for example. More recently, the Bush forces have excluded anyone who is not a declared supporter from being even in the vicinity of campaign events, and have even fenced off protesters in Orwellian 'free speech zones' far from the scenes."
988. In his Oct. 30, 2004, column, Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times gives us another glimpse -- several glimpses, actually -- of Bush the Flip-Flopper. Kristof reminds us of Bush's words and shows how they have no more than a cursory relationship with his deeds.
989. A sample: "Feb. 27, 2001: 'I hope you will join me to pay down $2 trillion in debt during the next 10 years. ... We should approach our nation's budget as any prudent family would.' But Mr. Bush, with the help of a weak economy, has transformed the Clinton budget surpluses into huge deficits. Since Mr. Bush took office, the federal debt has increased by $2.1 trillion, or 40 percent."
990. And the kicker: "Sept. 2, 1999: 'Effective reform requires accountability. ... It is a sad story. High hopes, low achievement. Grand plans, unmet goals. My administration will do things differently.' Oh?"

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 98)

2004-10-29T23:08:00.000-04:00

971. For a poorly planned operation, the Iraq invasion was apparently a long time in the making, according to journalist Russ Baker in an Oct. 27, 2004, article posted at TomPaine.com: "Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in preparation for a planned autobiography."
972. According to Russ Baker's Oct. 27, 2004, article, Mickey Herskowitz said that in 1999, Bush told him: "One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief. My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade … if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."
973. This charming tidbit is also in Russ Baker's Oct. 27, 2004, article: "In December 1999, some six months after his talks with Herskowitz, Bush surprised veteran political chroniclers, including the Boston Globe’s David Nyhan, with his blunt pronouncements about Saddam at a six-way New Hampshire primary event that got little notice: 'It was a gaffe-free evening for the rookie front-runner, till he was asked about Saddam’s weapons stash,' wrote Nyhan. ' "I'd take 'em out," [Bush] grinned cavalierly, "take out the weapons of mass destruction…I’m surprised he’s still there," said Bush of the despot who remains in power after losing the Gulf War to Bush Jr.’s father.' "
974. Another WTF?! moment, this time from the boss of the guy who praised the "brilliance" of the Iraq and Afghanistan attacks. In an Oct. 29, 2004, article, Reuters quotes a USA Today article that quotes Bush as saying, mind-bogglingly: "This campaign boils down to a matter of trust: Who has earned the trust of the American people?"
975. And still another WTF?! moment, from that same Oct. 29, 2004, Reuters article. It quotes USA Today quoting Bush as saying of John Kerry: "He's willing to go on the attack for political gain without knowing the facts on the ground."
976. Dedicated Swallowers of Fascism Department: On Oct. 28, 2004, Slate.com reported that at a Florida rally, Bush supporters followed a Republican lawmaker's cues and recited the following pledge: "I care about freedom and liberty. I care about my family. I care about my country. Because I care, I promise to work hard to re-elect, re-elect George W. Bush as president of the United States."
977. According to an Oct. 27, 2004, AFP article, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg called on Bush to stop using her father's name for political gain: "It's hard for me to listen to President Bush invoking my father's memory to attack John Kerry. Senator Kerry has demonstrated his courage and commitment to a stronger America throughout his entire career."
978. In that Oct. 27, 2004, AFP article, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg said: "President Kennedy inspired and united the country and so will John Kerry. President Bush is doing just the opposite. All of us who revere the strength and resolve of President Kennedy will be supporting John Kerry on Election Day."
979. Another AFP article, this one published Oct. 29, 2004, after Osama bin Laden's tape was telecast nationwide, quotes a Bush flack saying there should be a double standard: "Speaking to reporters outside the campaign rally here, White House communications director Dan Bartlett said that the tape should not affect the way Bush campaigns but that Kerry should have marked a 12-hour truce." (Via Josh Marshall)
980. Gen. Wesley Clark finally voices what should be common knowledge: On HBO's Oct. 29, 2004, edition of Real Time with Bill Maher, he said: "If George Bush had done his job as Commander in Chief before 9/11 we would never have had the strikes of 9/11." (Via Americablog)

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 97)

2004-10-29T15:41:00.000-04:00

961. Tip of the Iceberg Department: Knight Ridder reported Oct. 28, 2004, that those missing 380 tons of explosives are only part of the problem: "Huge amounts of arms and ammunition were stolen from military sites, and there's 'ample evidence' that Iraqi insurgents are firing looted weapons at U.S. troops and using some of them in car bombs and improvised explosive devices, said a senior U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity."
962. From that Oct. 28, 2004, Knight Ridder report: "In a new disclosure, the senior U.S. military officer and another U.S. official, who also spoke on condition he not be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that an Iraqi working for U.S. intelligence alerted U.S. troops stationed near the al Qaqaa weapons facility that the installation was being looted shortly after the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003."
963. Why didn't they do anything? The Oct. 28, 2004, Knight Ridder article quotes a senior U.S. military officer who served in Iraq: "That was one of numerous times when Iraqis warned us that ammo dumps and other places were being looted and we weren't able to respond because we didn't have anyone to send."
964. And there's this Ahmad Chalaby footnote in the Oct. 28, 2004, Knight Ridder article: "Al Qaqaa was on a classified list of Iraqi weapons facilities that the CIA provided to Pentagon and military officials before the invasion, said the U.S. intelligence official. But when the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command produced their own list of sites that a limited number of U.S. 'exploitation teams' should search, priority was given to those identified by exiled Iraqi opposition groups, he said. Al Qaqaa wasn't one of them."
965. Another rocker against Bush: The Associated Press reported Oct. 29, 2004, that the president's campaign abruptly stopped using the song "Still the One" after its composer complained.
966. From that Oct. 29, 2004, article about Orleans songwriter John Hall: "Hall, still a working musician at 56, wrote "Still the One" with his then-wife, Johanna D. Hall. The two, as well as surviving members of the band, are supporters of Democratic Sen. John Kerry and didn't want their work used to promote Bush's re-election."
967. Also from that Oct. 29, 2004, AP article: "Later, upon learning of the campaign's decision to pull the song, Hall welcomed the news and said, 'It's obviously attractive as a slogan, but this lection should be about content and facts.' "
968. With a quote like that, you know he isn't a Bush supporter.
969. Pissing off its few remaining allies, the Bush team let slip that Russia might have absconded with some of those missing 380 tons of weapons. An Oct. 29, 2004, Reuters article has this less-than-amiable response from a Russian official: " 'You can't really take statements like this as anything but far-fetched rubbish,' said spokesman Vyacheslav Sedov."
970. I literally took my head in my hands when I read this one. From an Oct. 29, 2004, Associated Press story: "At an airport rally at a hangar in Montoursville, Pa., Cheney said the U.S. invasions of 'Afghanistan and Iraq will be studied for years for their brilliance.' "

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 96)

2004-10-29T11:19:00.000-04:00

951. Bruce Springsteen, Oct. 13, 2004: "Mislead a nation to war, a man loses his job. It ain't rocket science."
952. More voter-suppression shenanigans, this time in Ohio: A Lake County TV station, WKYC-TV, reported Oct. 28, 2004, that "newly registered voters signed up by the Kerry or Capri Cafaro campaigns or the NAACP" -- Cafaro is a Democratic candidate for Congress -- are getting letters telling them "their registrations are illegal and they will not be able to vote." (Via Campaign Extra!)
953. The no-surprise angle of WKYC-TV's Oct. 28, 2004, report: " 'That was not authorized by the Board of Elections,' said Elections Director Jan Clair. 'It was not mailed by the Lake County Board of Elections.' "
954. This is kind of staggering. From an Oct. 28, 2004, Associated Press article: "A survey of deaths in Iraqi households estimates that as many as 100,000 more people may have died throughout the country in the 18 months after the U.S. invasion than would be expected based on the death rate before the war."
955. Yeah, yeah, I know. War is hell and all that. But that Oct. 28, 2004, AP article quotes the researchers' report: "Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children."
956. In his Oct. 29, 2004, column in the New York Times, Paul Krugman sums up just why the Al Qaqaa debacle is so damaging to the Bushies that they're spinning frantically to blame, er, John Kerry and the media: "U.S. soldiers passed through Al Qaqaa, a crucial munitions dump, but were never told that it was important to secure the site. If administration officials object that they couldn't have spared enough troops to guard the site, they're admitting that they went in without enough troops."
957. In his Oct. 28, 2004, column in the New York Times, Bob Herbert offers a counterpoint to all those "Kerry's bashing the troops!" claims by Bush operatives who are, in fact, bashing the troops: "The thing to always keep in mind about our troops in Iraq is that they were sent to fight the wrong war. America's clearly defined and unmistakable enemy, Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, was in Afghanistan. So the men and women fighting and dying in Iraq were thrown into a pointless, wholly unnecessary conflict."
958. In that Oct. 28, 2004, column, Bob Herbert quotes Times reporter Edward Wong, who interviewed marines in Ramadi: "They said the Iraqi police and National Guard are unhelpful at best and enemy agents at worst, raising doubts about President Bush's assertion that local forces would soon help relieve the policing duties of the 138,000 American troops in Iraq."
959. According to Salon.com, that bulge in Bush's back during the debates actually was a listening device.
960. In an Oct. 27, 2004, column in the Washington Post, Richard Cohen said that if he were the headline writer, he'd title his piece "Impeach George Bush." He adds: "Of course, I realize there's no chance Congress would impeach the president at this point or under almost any circumstance. It somehow reserves its outrage for lying about sex under oath and not, as now seems clear, the making of war under false pretenses. Say what you will about Bill Clinton, no one died in the White House pantry."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 95)

2004-10-28T16:04:00.000-04:00

941. More on the disgraceful disappearance of 380 tons of weaponry from Iraq, from an Oct. 28, 2004, Associated Press report: "The U.N. nuclear agency said Thursday it warned the United States about the vulnerability of explosives stored at Iraq's Al-Qaqaa military installation after another facility - Iraq's main nuclear complex - was looted in April 2003. Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency, told The Associated Press that U.S. officials were cautioned directly about what was stored at Al-Qaqaa, the main high explosives facility in Iraq."
942. And still more on the timing of that theft, from the Oct. 28, 2004, New York Times: "Looters stormed the weapons site at Al Qaqaa in the days after American troops swept through the area in early April 2003 on their way to Baghdad, gutting office buildings, carrying off munitions and even dismantling heavy machinery, three Iraqi witnesses and a regional security chief said Wednesday."
943. From that Oct. 28, 2004, Times article, which says the witness accounts do not settle the question of when the first weapons were taken: "But the accounts make clear that what set off much if not all of the looting was the arrival and swift departure of American troops, who did not secure the site after inducing the Iraqi forces to abandon it."
944. Bush campaign surrogate Rudy Giuliani put the blame for the Al Qaqaa fiasco where he thinks it belongs: On the troops. On the Today show, he said: "The actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Did they search carefully enough? Didn't they search carefully enough?"
945. Here's an election Bush deserved to win -- and did: Readers of a British magazine voted him best film villain, the Associated Press reported Oct. 27, 2004.
946. In his column in the Oct. 28, 2004, New York Times, Thomas Friedman writes: "I have been struck by how many foreign dignitaries have begged me lately for news that Bush will lose."
947. In that Oct. 28, 2004, Times column, Thomas Friedman notes ominously: "If the Bush team wins re-election, unless it undergoes a policy lobotomy and changes course and tone, the breach between America and the rest of the world will only get larger. But all Mr. Bush and Dick Cheney have told us during this campaign is that they have made no mistakes and see no reason to change."
948. In an Oct. 28, 2004, article, the Associated Press reported: "The FBI has begun investigating whether the Pentagon improperly awarded no-bid contracts to Halliburton Co., seeking an interview with a top Army contracting officer and collecting documents from several government offices."
949. They just can't stop themselves from lying in their campaign ads, even when it doesn't involve John Kerry. In another Oct. 28, 2004, article, the Associated Press reported: "President Bush's campaign acknowledged Thursday that it had doctored a photograph used in a television commercial and said the ad will be re-edited and reshipped to TV stations."
950. How much more proof could you possibly want that these people think truth is a malleable commodity that can be whatever they decide it is at any given time?

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 94)

2004-10-28T11:06:00.000-04:00

931. As if Iraq weren't enough of a Vietnam reference, there's this paragraph from an Oct. 28, 2004, Washington Post story about security at Bush campaign stops: "Alex Vitale, a sociology professor at Brooklyn College who studies police behavior at political protests, argues that the United States has not seen such tactics during protests since the Vietnam era."
932. In that Oct. 28, 2004, Post story, protester Tristan Egolf, who was arrested when Bush visited Lancaster County, Pa., in July -- and against whom charges were subsequently dropped -- says: "They denied us our chance at expression. That seems to be what they're doing these days: They don't agree with your opinion, so they haul you off and drop the charges later."
933. In the Oct. 27, 2004, Boston Globe, Peter W. Galbraith recalls telling Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense, about what he saw in Baghdad after Saddam Hussein was toppled. Not to give away the punch line or anything, but the headline is "Eyewitness to a failure in Iraq."
934. Here's one of those failures from Galbraith's Oct. 27, 2004, column: "On April 16, 2003, a mob attacked and looted the Iraqi equivalent of the Centers for Disease Control, taking live HIV and black fever virus among other potentially lethal materials. US troops were stationed across the street but did not intervene because they didn't know the building was important. When he found out, the young American lieutenant was devastated. He shook his head and said, 'I hope I am not responsible for Armageddon.' "
935. Galbraith, who says he favored Bush's decision to attack Iraq, notes ruefully: "In spite of the chaos that followed the war, I am sure that Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein. It is my own country that is worse off -- 1,100 dead soldiers, billions added to the deficit, and the enmity of much of the world."
936. The first paragraph of an Oct. 27, 2004, Associated Press story posted on the charmingly named Space.com site: "The Bush administration is trying to stifle scientific evidence of the dangers of global warming in an effort to keep the public uninformed, a NASA scientist said Tuesday night."
937. From that Oct. 27, 2004, AP article about scientist James E. Hansen: "Hansen said the administration wants to hear only scientific results that 'fit predetermined, inflexible positions.' Evidence that would raise concerns about the dangers of climate change is often dismissed as not being of sufficient interest to the public."
938. Only accepting evidence that matches predetermined conclusions: Haven't we seen this somewhere before? Like, I don't know, maybe Iraq?
939. In an Oct. 26, 2004, column, Molly Ivins notes this troubling truth: It seems the majority of Bush supporters, according to recent polls, still believe Saddam Hussein had ties to Al Qaeda and even to 9-11, and that the United States found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."
940. Are they dumb or something? Not according to Molly Ivins: "Bush and Cheney misled the country into war using these two false premises, and it turns out an enormous number of our fellow citizens still believe both of them to be true. It's not because they're stupid, but because an administration they trust is still telling them both phony propositions are true."

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921. Because in the 21st century, we really shouldn't be harking back to the 19th. As Seymour Hersh noted in the Oct. 27, 2004, Ann Arbor News: "I think one thing you have to face up to is the fact there are roughly 70 million people in America who do not believe in evolution - and those are Bush supporters."
922. A Bush administration flip-flop: The New York Times reported Oct. 27, 2004: "President Bush's aides told reporters that because the soldiers had found no trace of the missing explosives on April 10, they could have been removed before the invasion. They based their assertions on a report broadcast by NBC News on Monday night that showed video images of the 101st arriving at Al Qaqaa. By yesterday afternoon Mr. Bush's aides had moderated their view, saying it was a 'mystery' when the explosives disappeared and that Mr. Bush did not want to comment on the matter until the facts were known."
923. In the Oct. 27, 2004, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dan Simpson, a career diplomat and self-described "virtually a lifelong Republican," explains why he plans to vote for John Kerry. Among the reasons: "as a longtime foreign affairs professional I feel that George W. Bush has made an awful mess of U.S. policy."
924. From that Oct. 27, 2004, Post-Gazette piece: "I believe that he came to office with the intention of transferring as much of America's wealth as possible into the hands of defense contractors such as Dick Cheney's Halliburton and the oil companies that were his background and remain his so-called 'base.' The result is a U.S. economy on the skids."
925. And from that Oct. 27, 2004, Post-Gazette article: "All I can say is that I was not used to being systematically lied to by an American government that was cooking the intelligence on the basis of which it was supposed to be making serious decisions, such as to go to war."
926. An Oct. 26, 2004, Knight Ridder article says a senator is accusing the Bush administration of withholding documents on the flu vaccine shortage until after the election: " 'What is happening is obvious,' said Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Government Reform. 'The administration is trying to delay the release of the vaccine documents until after the election. These documents should be released immediately.' "
927. Thanks to that Bush quote about jumping to conclusions without knowing the facts, Gen. Wesley Clark got the chance to say something you don't hear very often: "President Bush couldn’t be more right."
928. From Wesley Clark's statement, via Atrios: "He jumped to conclusions about any connection between Saddam Hussein and 911. He jumped to conclusions about weapons of mass destruction. He jumped to conclusions about the mission being accomplished. He jumped to conclusions about how we had enough troops on the ground to win the peace. And because he jumped to conclusions, terrorists and insurgents in Iraq may very well have their hands on powerful explosives to attack our troops, we are stuck in Iraq without a plan to win the peace, and Americans are less safe both at home and abroad."
929. The president who was going to restore decency and all has an affinity for a certain obscene gesture.
930. On Oct. 27, 2004, the Associated Press reported: "Four British citizens released from Guantanamo Bay filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the United States seeking $10 million each in damages for abuse they allegedly suffered at the U.S. military outpost in Cuba, attorneys said Wednesday."

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911. More suppression of democracy, this time in the Oct. 16, 2004, Des Moines Register: "One of the latest incidents came when John Sachs, 18, a Johnston High School senior and Democrat, went to see Bush in Clive last week. Sachs got a ticket to the event from school and wanted to ask the president about whether there would be a draft, about the war in Iraq, Social Security and Medicare. But when he got there, a campaign staffer pulled him aside and made him remove his button that said, 'Bush-Cheney '04: Leave No Billionaire Behind.' The staffer quizzed him about whether he was a Bush supporter, asked him why he was there and what questions he would be asking the president."
912. That Des Moines Register article quoted Sachs as saying: "Then he came back and said, 'If you protest, it won't be me taking you out. It will be a sniper.' "He said it in such a serious tone it scared the crap out of me."
913. From the Des Moines Register article: "Sachs stayed at the event, but he was escorted to a section of the 7 Flags Events Center where he was surrounded by Secret Service and told he couldn't ask questions. 'I was just in a state of fear,' he said. 'I was looking at the ceiling and I didn't know what to expect, I was so scared.' "
914. "They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other." (Sept. 20, 2001, speaking of America's enemies without a trace of irony)
915. Turns out there's one billionnaire (or at least very wealthy guy) Bush is leaving behind: According to the Oct. 26, 2004, Philadelphia Inquirer, Jack Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group, says he's voting for Kerry.
916. In the Oct. 26, 2004, article, Bogle says: "If you can't admit you're wrong, you have a problem, because we're all wrong so often. Why is admitting it so awful?"
917. More from Bogle: "Commitment is admirable in a leader, but there's no virtue in committing yourself to the wrong idea. Staying the course just to stay the course is folly that invites tragedy."
918. "A political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not who you want as commander in chief." (Oct. 27, 2004, on CNN, again with no discernible sense of irony. Via Kevin Drum.)
919. Remember those people who were going to greet American soldiers as liberators? Um. Well. According to an Oct. 26, 2004, report on the Voice of America: "A new public opinion poll shows more Iraqis favor Democratic challenger John Kerry than President Bush, who launched the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. ... The group, which has been operating in Iraq for about a year, says its latest survey indicates that among Iraqis with a preference, Mr. Kerry leads President Bush by 6.5 percentage points."
920. In the Oct. 26, 2004, VOA report, the director of Iraq's Center for Research and Strategic Studies added: "And, that's a decline for Bush because when we asked the Iraqis two months ago, Bush was in front of Kerry."

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901. They never learn. The BBC reported Oct. 26, 2004: "A secret document obtained from inside Bush headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals."
902. In the Oct. 27, 2004, edition of The Hill, Brad Bannon notes Bush's slippage in a Washington Post tracking poll and comments: "The Post survey indicates that a clear majority of Americans feel that state of the nation is pretty screwed up. More than half (55 percent) of the likely voters in the national voter poll feel that things in the United States have gotten seriously off the right track while only two out of every five Americans think that things generally are going in the right direction."
903. In his Hill commentary, Brad Bannon expands on that "seriously off the right track" stuff: "The economy is soft and Iraq is a quagmire. Americans are losing good paying jobs overseas and getting new jobs at the Taco Bell downtown. We have lost over a thousand young Americans in Iraq and there is no end in sight to American involvement there. The number of Americans living in poverty has increased in each of the last three years while the number of Americans who have health insurance has decreased in the same period."
904. In an Oct. 25, 2004, story about the nation's murder rate rising for the fourth consecutive year -- four years? what a coincidence! -- the nation's top law enforcement officer offered this view: "All across our country, law-abiding Americans are enjoying unprecedented safety."
905. The Oct. 26, 2004, Daily Mislead sums up another pitiful administration attempt to avoid responsibility:" In Iraq, 380 tons of powerful explosives have been looted and may have fallen into the hands of insurgents. In an effort to deflect blame, administration officials are pushing the theory that when 'U.S. forces...reached the Al Qaqaa military facility in early April 2003, the weapons cache was already gone.' This theory is not credible."
906. Why not? From the Oct. 26, 2004, Daily Mislead: "According to an AP report, U.S. solders visited the Al Qaqaa in April 2003 and 'found thousands of five-centimetre by 12-centimetre boxes, each containing three vials of white powder.' Officials who tested the powder said it was 'believed to be explosives.' Yesterday, 'an official who monitors developments in Iraq' confirmed that 'US-led coalition troops had searched Al Qaqaa in the immediate aftermath of the March 2003 invasion and confirmed that the explosives, which had been under IAEA seal since 1991, were intact.' Thereafter, according to the official, 'the site was not secured by U.S. forces.' "
907. From the Oct. 22, 2004, Daily Outrage at The Nation: "Last week a former employee at the voter registration firm Sproul & Associates in Las Vegas--run by ex-Arizona Christian Coalition head Nathan Sproul and funded with $600,000 of GOP-money--said he witnessed co-workers shredding new applications of registered Democrats. (Investigations are under way in Oregon and West Virginia into similar Sproul allegations.)"
908. The Associated Press reported Oct. 26, 2004: "Iraq's interim prime minister blamed U.S.-led coalition forces Tuesday for 'great negligence' in the ambush that killed about 50 American-trained soldiers, and a U.S. airstrike in Fallujah killed an aide to Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the military said."
909. In that Oct. 26, 2004, AP article, Ayad Allawi, the interim prime minister, is quoted as telling the Iraqi National Council: "You should expect an escalation in terrorist acts."
910. Guess Allawi isn't using those Bush speechwriters anymore. On Sept. 21, 2004, he had a slightly different tone at an appearance with Bush: "It's very important for the people of the world really to know that we are winning, we are making progress in Iraq. We are defeating terrorists."

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891. "Now my opponent is throwing out the wild claim that he knows where bin Laden was in the fall of 2001, and that our military passed up the chance to get him in Tora Bora. This is an unjustified criticism of our military commanders in the field." (Oct. 25, 2004, via Talking Points Memo)
892. Washington Post, April 17, 2002, page A1: "The Bush administration has concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the battle for Tora Bora late last year and that failure to commit U.S. ground troops to hunt him was its gravest error in the war against al Qaeda, according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge." (Also via Talking Points Memo)
893. From an Oct. 24, 2004, article posted on the Toronto Globe and Mail Web site about how the scientific community, including the journals Nature and Science, has soured on Bush: "As an overt example, the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which is devoted to climate-change research, was shuffled to the Commerce Department. According to Science, not only is the administration's attitude toward global warming a national embarrassment — it is also dangerous."
894. And, geez, this sounds a little familiar. From the Oct. 24, 2004, Globe and Mail article: "Editorials accused the administration of not only ignoring dissenting opinion, but also refusing to hear it in the first place. Furthermore, the journals say the administration tends to distort scientific evidence or rig advisory panels for political purposes. Advisory committees have been stacked with individuals too often in complete agreement with the administration. Politics also determined what science would be publicized."
895. Speaking of ignoring uncomfortable information, USA Today reported Oct. 24, 2004, that the intelligence community warned of an impending Iraqi insurgency, but: "The war plan put together by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Army Gen. Tommy Franks discounted these warnings. Rumsfeld and Franks anticipated surrender by Iraqi ground forces and a warm welcome from civilians. "
896. From that Oct. 24, 2004, USA Today article: "Rumsfeld, in an interview with Fox News Channel, said he had not anticipated the strength of the insurgency 'because no one has a perfect view into the future.' Administration critics have offered a different explanation: 'In the planning phase, officials played down potential postwar problems partly in order to garner support for launching the war,' writes Dominic Johnson in a forthcoming book, Overconfidence and War."
897. So they spun. But did they screw up? Um, yep. From that Oct. 24, 2004, USA Today article: "A critical danger missed by the Bush administration and U.S. war planners was the possibility that the insurgent ranks could grow with resentment to the occupation.
An Army War College report to the Army's No. 2 general a month before the invasion and since made public predicted, 'The longer U.S. presence is maintained, the more likely violent resistance will develop.' "
898. Dick Cheney, Oct. 25, 2004, incredibly (literally) discussing the Iraq situation: "I think it has been a remarkable success story to date, when you look at what has been accomplished overall."
899. Wondering what the president has to say about the missing tons of weapons or the slaughter of Iraqi military recruits? There's a reason, as Dan Froomkin explained Oct. 26, 2004, on the Washington Post Web site: "Bush was out on the stump talking at great length about national security and Iraq and Democratic challenger John F. Kerry yesterday, but, as is his custom, he didn't say a word about the big news story of the day: In this case, the apparent failure by American troops to safeguard hundreds of tons of high explosives in Iraq. Nor did he respond to Kerry's accusation of 'grave incompetence.' It's just like on the previous day, Bush didn't say anything about the slaughter of 49 Iraqi National Guard recruits. Instead, yesterday, he sent out his aides to try to downplay the story."
900. In his Oct. 26, 2004, posting, Froomkin notes that Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman is blasting Kerry for ... talking about the news. He quotes from a Mehlman memo: "Everyday brings a new charge against the President and every charge is pulled right from the headlines of the New York Times."

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881. It's that anti-democracy thing again. Campaign Extra! provides this telling quote by Philadelphia politician John Perzel (in U.S. News and World Report) on what the Bush campaign sees as the key to success: "The Kerry campaign needs to come out with humongous numbers here in Philadelphia. It's important for me to keep that number down."
882. It's not just the human cost of war that keeps rising. From an Oct. 26, 2004, Washington Post article: "The Bush administration intends to seek about $70 billion in emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year, pushing total war costs close to $225 billion since the invasion of Iraq early last year, Pentagon and congressional officials said yesterday."
883. The by-now-obligatory reference to erroneous administration statements on Iraq, from that Oct. 26, 2004, Washington Post article: "The new numbers underscore that the war is going to be far more costly and intense, and last longer, than the administration first suggested."
884. The Sunday Herald reported Oct. 24, 2004: "Coalition claims that Iraq may still be able to hold elections in January are seriously undermined by secret intelligence material passed to the Sunday Herald which reveals the full extent of the resistance in the country. Far from a limited number of pro-Saddam resistance groups fighting coalition forces, well-funded cells and militias representing a spectrum of Islamic groups are now spread across Iraq."
885. From that Oct. 24, 2004, Sunday Herald article: "The increasing number of anti-coalition militias are believed to receive funds from wealthy Saudi donors and to be in receipt of funds from money placed in Syrian banks before the fall of Saddam."
886. Saudi Arabia. Hmmmm. Isn't that a country with ties to most of the 9/11 hijackers? And isn't that a country with ties to the administration?
887. In his Oct. 26, 2004, column in the New York Times, Paul Krugman sums things up nicely: "Although President Bush's campaign is based almost entirely on his self-proclaimed leadership in that war, his officials have thrown a shroud of secrecy over any information that might let voters assess his performance."
888. Under that shroud, it's not pretty. As Krugman writes in that Oct. 26, 2004, column: "Administration officials have known about the looting of Al Qaqaa for at least six months, and probably much longer. But they didn't let the I.A.E.A. inspect the site after the war, and pressured the Iraqis not to inform the agency about the loss. They now say that they didn't want our enemies - that is, the people who stole the stuff - to know it was missing. The real reason, obviously, was that they wanted the news kept under wraps until after Nov. 2."
889. Maureen Farrell offers undecided voters 101 "points to ponder" before Election Day. This is No. 8: "FBI officials complained after Bush took office, intelligence agencies were instructed to 'back off' from investigations involving other members of the Bin Laden family, the Saudi royals, and possible Saudi links to the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Pakistan."
890. And in Maureen Farrell's list, this is No. 48: "School teachers threatened with arrest and tossed out of a Bush rally for wearing T-shirts that read 'Protect our civil liberties.' "

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871. John at Americablog has a chilling post listing the potential ramifications of the theft of more than 300 tons of explosives from the Al Qaqaa facility in Iraq. It's suitably frightening, as you might gather from the title: Explosives lost in Iraq could kill 205 million people.
872. An article in the Oct. 25, 2004, New York Times drops the H-bomb: "The top civilian contracting official for the Army Corps of Engineers, charging that the Army granted the Halliburton Company large contracts for work in Iraq and the Balkans without following rules designed to ensure competition and fair prices to the government, has called for a high-level investigation of what she described as threats to the 'integrity of the federal contracting program.' "
873. From that Oct. 25, 2004, Times article: "The Pentagon has asserted that, as the invasion of Iraq began, Halliburton was the only company able to provide services with the required speed and secrecy. But Pentagon auditors later questioned the company's billing practices and found examples of reckless spending or unjustified charges."
874. Ah, forget Poland. And the rest of 'em. On Oct. 24, 2004, the Washington Post, following up on a report in BradBlog, reported: "The list of names of countries supporting the U.S.-led military action in Iraq has been removed from the White House Web site."
875. Coincidentally, other things have vanished faster than 380 tons of lethal weapons, according to that Oct. 24, 2004, Post report: "Gone are links to the audio and video of President Bush's statement that 'I'm not that concerned' about Osama bin Laden, a Q&A when Bush said 'misunderestimate' and Bush's acknowledgment that his decision making on stem cell policy was 'unusually deliberative for my administration.' "
876. Newspapers are shunning Bush as if they were the administration and Bush were France. Editor and Publisher reported Oct. 23, 2004: "The Detroit News, which has never endorsed a Democrat, and which backed Bush in 2000, announced that it would sit out the 2004 election, not happy with either candidate. The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, another Bush backer in 2000, said the same thing today in an editorial titled 'No One to Champion.' A third Bush supporter in 2000, The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., also declared neutrality today."
877. Speaking of mixed emotions: In an interview scheduled to be telecast Oct. 25, 2004, on "Hannity and Colmes," Bush said of the nation's safety from terrorists: "Whether or not we can be ever fully safe is up — you know, up in the air."
878. Which is a truly horrible choice of words. Even for him.
879. In an article in the Nov. 1, 2004, Newsweek on the fading "coalition" in Iraq comes this charming anecdote: "The Coalition's Potemkin-village quality is perhaps best illustrated by Japan's contribution: 600 Self-Defense Force troops. By law, they cannot instigate combat, and have not fired a single shot in anger. In fact, troops from the Netherlands' 500-strong contingent are deployed around the SDF compound in southern Iraq to provide an extra layer of security for the Japanese."
880. In addition to Axis of Evil member Iran, lip-syncher Ashlee Simpson and all-around cretin Ted Nugent, two more Bush supporters have come to light: a pair of alleged Mafia soldiers.

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861. You know that Zarqawi guy? The one we could have killed but didn't? He's back in the news, in a left-wing commie pinko rag known as the Wall Street Journal, which reports further on how the U.S. blew its chance to get this particular evildoer.
862. War and Piece provides an excerpt from the Oct. 25, 2004, WSJ story: "Questions about whether the U.S. missed an opportunity to take out Mr. Zarqawi have been enhanced recently by a CIA report on Mr. Zarqawi, commissioned by Vice President Dick Cheney. Individuals who have been briefed on the report's contents say it specifically cites evidence that Mr. Zarqawi was in the camp during those prewar months."
863. At War and Piece, Laura Rozen adds: "Kind of makes you angry, doesn't it? Those who are supporting the White House because of the war on terror are deluded, or egregiously misinformed. Look at the facts. Look at the record of failure. Look at those beheaded in Iraq. Look at the insurgency the White House never planned for. Look at the fifty killed Iraqi security recruits laid out in rows in the desert yesterday. Look at the raiding of the Al Qaqaa facility and the missing 380 tons of very high explosives, and the administration pressuring Iraq not to report it to the IAEA for fear of elections-season embarrassment. Look at Abu Ghraib. Look at Rumsfeld letting Osama getting away at Tora Bora. Look at their deceit and falling for Chalabi's lies and giving US intelligence to Tehran. Look at North Korea getting a half dozen nuclear weapons and Iran fast on that path."
864. "It is a -- it is certainly a wake-up call to many that the war on terror continues, that we've still got a big task to protect the American people and others who love freedom from the designs of -- and the will of these purveyors of hate. And we'll find them. We'll bring them to justice." (May 16, 2003)
865. On Oct. 24, 2004, the New York Times reported: "But three years later, not a single terrorist has been prosecuted. Of the roughly 560 men being held at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, only 4 have been formally charged. Preliminary hearings for those suspects brought such a barrage of procedural challenges and public criticism that verdicts could still be months away."
866. From the front lines: In an Oct. 22, 2004, article in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Daily Cardinal, Jennifer Giese of the 826th Ordinance describes her time in Iraq: "This was a complete, chaotic mess. In my opinion there was no plan ... no one knew where we were going."
867. You've probably seen the Bush/Cheney campaign's Scary Wolves Ad, featuring a pack of adorable cuddly canines in a forest that, amazingly, has not yet been clear-cut. Turns out there is something scary about that ad: the degree to which it tries to mislead.
868. From FactCheck.org: "A new Bush ad claims Kerry supported cuts in intelligence 'so deep they would have weakened America ’s defenses' against terrorists, and shows a pack of hungry-looking wolves preparing to attack. Actually, the cut Kerry proposed in 1994 amounted to less than 4 percent, as part of a proposal to cut many programs to reduce the deficit."
869. FactCheck.org adds: "And in 1995 Porter Goss, who is now Bush’s CIA Director, co-sponsored an even stronger deficit-elimination measure that would have cut CIA personnel by 20 percent over five years. When asked about that at his confirmation hearings he didn't disavow it."
870. "What a good man the Englers are." (Nov. 3, 2000)

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851. In its Oct. 23, 2004, edition, the Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Citizens' Voice reported that Bush campaign officials forced a registered Republican to leave a Bush appearance in Wilkes-Barre. (Via Campaign Extra!)
852. Oh, yeah. This guy is also a soldier scheduled to depart for Iraq in two weeks. So why did he have to leave? He was with -- gasp! -- a Democrat. From the Oct. 23, 2004, Citizens' Voice: "Individuals from the Bush campaign spotted the individual with the soldier and identified the person as a Democratic supporter."
853. Though both the soldier and the "Democratic supporter" had tickets for the rally, neither's name turned up on a "master list," so they were not allowed to stay, the Citizens' Voice reported.
854. Score one for democracy. From the Oct. 23, 2004, Citizens' Voice article: "Until Friday when he left the arena, the soldier was an undecided voter. Now he's voting for Sen. Kerry and volunteering for the Kerry-Edwards campaign."
855. Holy Shit! Department: The New York Times reported Oct. 25, 2004: "The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives -- used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons -- are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations."
856. From that Oct. 25, 2004, Times article: "American weapons experts say their immediate concern is that the explosives could be used in major bombing attacks against American or Iraqi forces: the explosives, mainly HMX and RDX, could produce bombs strong enough to shatter airplanes or tear apart buildings."
857. Not to worry. The administration's regard for international agencies, and for postwar planning, came through yet again. From the Oct. 25, 2004, Times article: "The International Atomic Energy Agency publicly warned about the danger of these explosives before the war, and after the invasion it specifically told United States officials about the need to keep the explosives secured, European diplomats said in interviews last week. Administration officials say they cannot explain why the explosives were not safeguarded, beyond the fact that the occupation force was overwhelmed by the amount of munitions they found throughout the country."
858. In fairness to the administration, who really thought there would be weapons in Iraq?
859. So maybe we didn't guard caches of potentially devastating weapons. But dammit, those oil fields are secure!
860. In endorsing John Kerry, and in breaking with its 80-year history of neutrality in presidential campaigns, the New Yorker wrote Oct. 25, 2004, of the Bush administration: "Its record has been one of failure, arrogance, and -- strikingly for a team that prided itself on crisp professionalism -- incompetence."

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841. Because he could have had U.S. forces capture or kill Abu Musab Zarqawi but didn't, as Kevin Drum pointed out in March (and regularly thereafter).
842. MSNBC.com reported March 2, 2004: "Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam."
843. In a report dated Oct. 23, 2004, the BBC said: "The war in Iraq probably helped boost al-Qaeda recruitment, according to a report from leading Western think-tank."
844. The Nation offers "100 Facts and 1 Opinion" on why you should not vote for Bush. (Nice idea, if a little limited in scope...)
845. From the Oct. 21, 2004, Los Angeles Daily News: "The Pentagon knows exactly where Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan, it just can't get to him, John Lehman, a member of the 9-11 commission, said Thursday."
846. From that Oct. 21, 2004, L.A.D.N. article: "Bin Laden is living in South Waziristan in the Baluchistan Mountains of the Baluchistan region, Lehman told The San Bernardino Sun after delivering a keynote speech on terrorism at Pitzer College in Claremont. In the exclusive interview, Lehman noted, 'There is an American presence in the area, but we can't just send in troops. If we did, we could have another Vietnam, and the United States cannot afford that right now.' "
847. "I was working full time for an inner-city poverty program known as Project PULL. My friend John White ... asked me to come help him run the program. ... I was intrigued by John's offer. ... Now I had a chance to help people." (From "A Charge to Keep," cited in an Oct. 22, 2004, Knight Ridder article)
848. Except. Um. The "working full time" part appears to have been a lie. And the "run the program" part too. From an Oct. 22, 2004, Knight Ridder article: "Instead, the associates said, White told them he agreed to take Bush on as a favor to Bush's father, who was honorary cochairman of the program at the time, and the younger Bush was unpaid. They say White told them Bush had gotten into some kind of trouble but White never gave them specifics."
849. In that Oct. 22, 2004, Knight Ridder article, Althia Turner, John White's administrative assistant, says: "We didn't know what kind of trouble he'd been in, only that he'd done something that required him to put in the time."
850. The Boston Globe apparently excised this line from that Oct. 22, 2004, Knight Ridder article, but other papers found it newsworthy: "A 1999 book, by a political reporter for The Dallas Morning News, said Bush's father had insisted on the service after Bush was involved in a drunk-driving incident."

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831. Because Bobby "Boris" Pickett says Bush "has the worst environmental record in the history of our great nation."
832. Bobby "Boris" Pickett, of course, is the man behind "Monster Mash," the best Halloween record in the history of our great nation. And he's joined the stop-Bush movement with an environmentally minded rewrite of his hit: "Monster Slash."
833. These are some of the lyrics to "Monster Slash":
We were hiking in the forest late one night
When our eyes beheld an eerie sight
Our president appeared and began to frown
Then he and his friends cut the forest down.
(he did the slash)
they did the forest slash
(he did the slash)
it was brutally brash
(he did the slash)
public opinion was mashed
(he did the slash)
they did it for the cash
834. Attorney General John Ashcroft credits his boss -- er, his Boss -- with keeping the nation safe. On Oct. 19, 2004, he said: "For three years, our nation has been blessed. But the hand of Providence has been assisted by the dedicated men and women of the Department of Justice."
835. In an Oct. 21, 2004, editorial, the New York Times wrote: "The Republicans' habit of suggesting that a vote for Mr. Kerry is a vote for the terrorists -- a notion that drew an embarrassing endorsement from President Vladimir Putin this week -- is a reminder of the reckless way this administration has squandered the public trust on public safety."
836. From that Oct. 21, 2004, Times editorial: "There is a real danger in having leaders so lacking in credibility on this vital issue: if they ever deliver a real warning, it could be discounted by a large segment of the population, and that could really put hundreds of thousands of lives at risk."
837. "I would tell them the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the war against those who caused the deaths on 9/11 is necessary." (Oct. 21, 2004, in an interview with Telemundo, via Atrios)
838. "First of all, of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us. I know that." (Sept. 30, 2004)
839. In a new ad, Bush/Cheney says John Kerry tried to gut intelligence funding "even after the first terrorist attack on America. As Josh Marshall notes: "Everything about the statement and the context is meant to communicate the impression that they mean after 9/11. But they don't. They mean after the World Trade Center bombing in 1993."
840. And even the part about trying to gut funding is, um, highly misleading, as FactCheck.org (in a link helpfully provided by Josh Marshall) pointed out in March: "But the proposal Bush criticized would have amounted to a reduction of roughly 1%. And senior congressional Republicans supported a cut two-thirds as large at the time."

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821. From an article posted on Editor and Publisher's Web site Oct. 21, 2004, about reporter Anna Clark's scoop: "Addressing the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan Wednesday night, George Tenet, former director of central intelligence, called the war on Iraq 'wrong,' according to Clark's article on Thursday, although it was unclear whether he meant the war itself or mainly the intelligence it was based on."
822. As Atrios put it: Now he tells us.
823. In noting the canyonesque chasm between Bush's words and deeds, Nan at As Far As I Know Right Now adds: "Bush was less cocky many years ago."
824. In an Oct. 22, 2004, article, the Washington Post reports: "In the second half of March 2002, as the Bush administration mapped its next steps against al Qaeda, Deputy CIA Director John E. McLaughlin brought an unexpected message to the White House Situation Room. According to two people with firsthand knowledge, he told senior members of the president's national security team that the CIA was scaling back operations in Afghanistan."
825. Also from that Oct. 22, 2004, Post article on how the Iraq war affected the fight against al-Qaeda: "But at least a dozen current and former officials who have held key positions in conducting the war now say they see diminishing returns in Bush's decapitation strategy. Current and former leaders of that effort, three of whom departed in frustration from the top White House terrorism post, said the manhunt is important but cannot defeat the threat of jihadist terrorism."
826. From the Oct. 22, 2004, Post article, the requisite acknowledgment of GOP election-year lying: "Classified government tallies, moreover, suggest that Bush and Vice President Cheney have inflated the manhunt's success in their reelection bid."
827. From an Oct. 22, 2004, article in the New York Times on a report released by Sen. Carl Levin: "The report said a classified document prepared by Douglas J. Feith, the under secretary of defense for policy, not only asserted that there were ties between the Baghdad government and the terrorist network, but also did not reflect accurately the intelligence agencies' assessment -- even while claiming that it did."
828. In the Oct. 21, 2004, Guardian, Sidney Blumenthal writes: "Passing almost without notice earlier this month, the public release of The Civil Rights Record of the George W Bush Administration - the official staff report prepared by the US Civil Rights Commission - whose submission is required by federal law, was blocked by the Republican commissioners. None the less, it was posted on the commission's website: 'This report finds that President Bush has neither exhibited leadership on pressing civil rights issues, nor taken actions that matched his words.'"
829. The Washington Post's Ben Bradlee, a guy who knows a bit about presidents who are less than fully truthful, tells German's Der Spiegel that Bush is a liar.
830. In its Oct. 21, 2004, endorsement of John Kerry, the Virginian-Pilot notes: "The dissembling continues to this day. Earlier this month the Duelfer report dished up the last word on weapons of mass destruction. 'We were almost all wrong,' the chief weapons inspector said. Yet Bush persists in arguing that he got it right. Meanwhile, the body count rises, our moral authority sags and Iraq looks more and more like what we most feared: a breeding ground for terrorists."

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811. "When a President says something, he must mean it. " (Sept. 7, 2004)
812. Knight Ridder reported Oct. 20, 2004: "President Bush will end his four-year term having fulfilled about 46 percent of the promises he made during the 2000 presidential campaign, according to an analysis by Knight Ridder."
813. Also from that Oct. 20, 2004, article: "A similar Knight Ridder analysis found that, during his first term, President Clinton had fulfilled about 66 percent of the 160 commitments that he made during his first presidential campaign."
814. From a Florida TV station's Oct. 19, 2004, news report: "Students at UCF and two local community colleges claim they were duped into switching their party affiliations from Democrat to Republican, campus police officials said Tuesday."
815. In that Oct. 19, 2004, report, a University of Central Florida campus police spokesman said: "They thought they were signing a petition to change child molestation laws. They didn't realize they had changed their political party."
816. And in a refreshing change of pace, this GOP electoral dirty trick is not confined solely to Florida! From the Montgomery County edition of the Oct. 19, 2004, Philadelphia Inquirer: "County elections officials confirmed yesterday that an undetermined number of students had their voter registration switched to Republican when they signed a petition supporting the legalization of medicinal marijuana in September."
817. Surprise! There's more! From the Indiana (Pa.) Gazette: "The old caveat, read the fine print before you sign, has taken on new meaning for some students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. An official from the Indiana County Voter Registration Office estimated Tuesday that several hundred IUP students had been duped into registering as Republicans several weeks ago."
818. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Oct. 20, 2004: "An ostensibly nonpartisan voter registration drive in Western Pennsylvania has triggered accusations that workers were cheated out of wages and given instructions to avoid adding anyone to the voter rolls who might support the Democratic presidential nominee."
819. The article describes the script that workers were given: "A lower portion of the form also advises the canvassers to ask undecided voters two questions: 'Do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro life?' and 'Are you worried about the Democrats raising taxes?' If voters say they are pro-life, the form says, 'Ask if they are registered to vote. If they are pro-choice, say thank you and walk away.' "
820. Why, it's almost enough to make you think it's an organized effort.

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801. Some time ago, I predicted Marvin Bush would come out against his brother George's presidential bid. I was close.
802. From the home page of Bush Relatives for Kerry: "As the election approaches, we feel it is our responsibility to speak out about why we are voting for John Kerry, and to do our small part to help America heal from the sickness it has suffered since George Bush was appointed President in 2000. We invite you to read our stories, and please, don't vote for our cousin!"
803. Obviously Bush needs to spend a little more time mending the rifts in his dysfunctional family and a lot less time creating rifts in this country.
804. "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties." (Before the Iraq war, quoted by Pat Robertson, Oct. 19, 2004)
805. In an Oct. 19, 2004, interview with Paula Zahn, Pat Robertson said: "I mean, the Lord told me it was going to be A, a disaster, and B, messy. I warned him about casualties."
806. And this is from someone who endorses Bush.
807. Speaking of Bush endorsements: The Associated Press reported Oct. 19, 2004, that Bush won the coveted backing of ... Iran.
808. From that Oct. 19, 2004, AP article: "Historically, Democrats have harmed Iran more than Republicans, said Hasan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran's top security decision-making body."
809. Former Nixon aide John Dean, in an interview with Mother Jones posted Oct. 15, 2004, said he studied Bush's 2003 State of the Union message. "When I pulled that speech apart, I realized, not only did he have good information -- he had exactly the information he wanted -- and he was manipulating what he had and distorting it; because he was actually naming and identifying the sources of his information. And as soon as you went to the source, you found it wasn't what he said it was."
810. John Dean, in that Oct. 15, 2004, Mother Jones interview: "What they've done is they have taken a very tragic event and used it for their maximum political advantage. What they've done with 9/11 is they've taken it and used it and done everything in their power to keep the 'terror' in terrorism."

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791. Surprise! That SincLIAR Broadcast guy who called the company's cheap political stunt a cheap political stunt? He got fired.
792. Reuters reported Oct. 19, 2004, that "Jon Leiberman said he was fired by Joseph DeFeo, Sinclair's vice president for news, and 'escorted out of the building.'"
793. In an Oct. 19, 2004, article, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported: "Yesterday, Kenneth J. Campbell, a University of Delaware professor who is one of the veterans depicted in the 41-minute film, sued the producer for libel, saying the film falsely portrayed him as a fraud and a liar."
794. In its Oct. 17, 2004, non-endorsement editorial headlined "Bush Has Gone Astray," the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal sounds an increasingly familiar theme: "What looked like strong leadership at first now looks like dangerous stubbornness. It is no virtue to lead the nation resolutely in the wrong direction."
795. The Winston-Salem Journal, which has backed Republicans for president since Nixon in 1968, says: "This is a presidency in deep trouble, made worse by the refusal to acknowledge the trouble."
796. In an Oct. 18, 2004, article, Newsday reported: "President George W. Bush rebuffed a plan last month for a Muslim peacekeeping force that would have helped the United Nations organize elections in Iraq, according to Saudi and Iraqi officials."
797. Why would a guy who's always trumpeting the importance of sharing the burden in Iraq do such a thing? From the Oct. 18, 2004, Newsday article: "Diplomats said Annan accepted the plan. But the Bush administration objected because the special force would have been controlled by the UN instead of by U.S. military officers who run the Multi-National Force in Iraq."
798. From an op-ed piece in the Oct. 19, 2004, Los Angeles Times: "The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago." (Via Kos.)
799. In that Oct. 19, 2004, piece, Robert Scheer quotes an intelligence official who has read the report as saying "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward."
800. At Pandagon, Ezra points out that in Bush's purported major speech on terrorism Oct. 18, 2004, he mentioned John Kerry 41 more times than he mentioned Osama bin Laden. And he mentioned Kerry 41 times.

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Special President Gore edition continued again!
(Can you tell I liked this speech?)

781. Gore: "It was in this period of recklessly willful ignorance on the part of the attorney general that the CIA was also picking up unprecedented warnings that an attack on the United States by al Qaeda was imminent. In his famous phrase, George Tenet wrote that the system was 'blinking red.'"
782. Gore: "It was in this context that the president himself was presented with a CIA report that carried a headline more alarming and more pointed than any I saw in eight years of six-days-a-week CIA briefings. The headline said, as many of you know, 'Bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S.'"
783. Gore: "The only warnings of this nature that remotely resembled the one given to George Bush that I recall was about the so-called millennium threats predicted for the end of the year 1999, and somewhat less specific warnings about the dangers that might face the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. And in both cases, these warnings in the president's daily briefing were followed immediately, on the same day, by the beginning of urgent daily meetings in the White House of all the agencies and offices involved in preparing our nation to prevent the threatened attack."
784. Gore: "By contrast, when President Bush received his fateful and historic warning of 9/11, he did not convene the National Security Council, did not bring together the FBI and CIA and other agencies with responsibility to protect the nation, and apparently did not even ask follow-up questions later about the warning."
785. Gore: "The bipartisan 9/11 commission summarized, in its unanimous report, what happened. And I quote: 'We have found no indication of any further discussion before September 11th between the president and his advisors about the possibility of a threat of al Qaeda attack in the United States,' end quote."
786. Gore: "We know the sworn testimony of the president's White House head of counterterrorism, Richard Clarke, that on the day after the attack, September 12th, and I quote from Clarke's account, 'The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door and said, "I want you to find whether Iraq did this." I said, "Mr. President, there's no connection." He came back at me and said, "Iraq. Saddam. Find out if there's a connection."' "
787. Gore: "When Clarke responded to that first question by saying that Iraq was not responsible for the attack and that al Qaeda was, the president persisted in focusing on Iraq. ... This was not an unfortunate misreading of the available evidence, causing a mistaken linkage between al Qaeda and Iraq. No, this was something else: a willful choice to make a specific linkage, whether evidence existed to support it or not."
788. Gore: "When the administration is told specifically and repeatedly that there is no linkage, and simultaneously makes bold assertions in a confident manner to the American people that leave the impression with 70 percent of the country that Saddam Hussein was primarily responsible for the attack, this is deception. This is deception."
789. Gore: "He claims that gaining dominance of Iraqi oil fields for American producers was never part of his calculation. But we now know, from a document uncovered by the New Yorker magazine, and dated just two weeks to the day after Bush's inauguration, that his National Security Council was ordered to meld its review of operational policies toward rogue states with the secretive Cheney energy task force's, quote 'actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields,' end quote."
790. Gore: "On the eve of war, when the formal presentation of America's plan to the military leaders and intelligence officers and others neared its conclusion, the slide describing President Bush's plan for the postwar phase, the Pentagon's plan for the postwar phase, was labeled 'to be provided' -- literally -- because it simply did not exist."

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Special President Gore edition continued!

771. Gore: "In one of the speeches that I gave a year ago last August, I proposed that one reason why the normal processes of our democracy have seemed dysfunctional is that our nation acquired a large number of false impressions about the choices before us including for example that -- the false impression that Saddam Hussein was the person primarily responsible for attacking us on September 11th, 2001. According to Time magazine again, 70 percent thought that in November of 2002."
772. Gore: "Or, to take another example, an impression that there was a tight linkage and close partnership and cooperation between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, between the terrorist group al Qaeda, which did attack us, and Iraq which did not."
773. Gore: "Also the impression was widely shared that Iraq would welcome our invading army with garlands of flowers. And even though the rest of the world opposed the war when it began, they would quickly fall in line after we won, and then they'd contribute lots of money and soldiers, so there wouldn't be a risk that our taxpayers would foot the whole bill. And, in any case, there would be more than enough money from Iraqi oil supplies which would flow in abundance quickly after the invasion -- we could use that money to offset expenses, and the net cost to America would be zero."
774. Gore: "Now, of course every single one of these impressions was wrong. And, unfortunately, the consequences have been catastrophic for our country."
775. Gore: "We have learned from information that has become public in a variety of ways that in virtually every case the president chose to ignore, and indeed often to suppress studies, reports, information, facts, that were directly contrary to the false impressions he was in the process of giving to the American people. In most every case he chose to reject information that was prepared for him by objective analysts and to rely instead on information that was prepared by sources of questionable reliability who had a private interest in the policy choice that the president was recommending -- a choice that was conflicted with the public interest."
776. Gore: "We now know that two months before the Iraq war began, President Bush received detailed and comprehensive secret reports warning him that the likely result of an American-led invasion of Iraq would be increased support for Islamic fundamentalism, deep divisions in Iraqi society, high levels of violent internal conflict and guerrilla warfare aimed at U.S. forces."
777. Gore: "There is a growing tension between President Bush's portrait of the situation in which we find ourselves and the real facts on the ground."
778. Gore: "In the latest U.S.-sponsored public opinion survey of Iraqis, only 2 percent say they view our troops as liberators. More than 90 percent of Arab Iraqis have a hostile view of what they describe as an occupation."
779. Gore: "We now know from the 9/11 commission that the chief law enforcement officer appointed by President Bush to be in charge of counterterrorism, John Ashcroft, was repeatedly asked by the FBI official in charge of protecting us against terrorism, repeatedly asked to pay attention to the many warning signs that were being picked up by the FBI throughout the summer of 2001. Former FBI acting director Thomas J. Pickard, the man in charge of presenting these warnings to General Ashcroft, testified under oath that Ashcroft angrily told him he did not want to hear this information anymore and shut down the discussion."
780. Gore: "It is worth remembering that among the reports the FBI was receiving, that Ashcroft had ordered them not to show him anymore, was an expression of alarm in one field office that the nation ought to immediately check on the possibility that Osama bin Laden was having people trained in commercial flight schools around the U.S., and another from a field office warning that a potential terrorist was learning how to fly commercial airliners and yet had made it clear he had no interest in learning how to land."

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Special President Gore edition!

761. In an Oct. 18, 2004, speech at Georgetown University, Al Gore, the man who was the popular choice for president four years ago (and who knows a thing or two about how the Bush campaign distorts its rivals' words) gave a speech titled "The Failed Presidency of George W. Bush." And he made his case pretty damn persuasively.
762. Gore: "There are many people in both political parties who worry that there is something deeply troubling about President Bush's relationship to reason, about his disdain for facts, his incuriosity about new information that might produce a deeper understanding of the problems and policies that he wrestles with on behalf of the country."
763. Gore: "Most of the problems President Bush has caused for this country stemmed not from his belief in God but his belief in the infallibility of the right-wing Republican ideology that exalts the interest of the wealthy, and of large corporations over and above the interests of the American people. It is love of power for its own sake that is the original sin of this presidency."
764. Gore: "Bush's seeming immunity to doubt is often interpreted by people who see and hear him on television as evidence of the strength of his conviction when, in fact, it is this very inflexibility based on a willful refusal to even consider alternative opinions or conflicting evidence that poses the most serious danger to our country."
765. Gore: "The essential cruelty of Bush's game is that he takes an astonishingly selfish and greedy collection of economic and political proposals, and then cloaks them with a phony moral authority, thus misleading many Americans who have a deep and genuine desire to do good in the world. And in the process he convinces them to lend unquestioning support for proposals that actually hurt their families and their communities."
766. Gore: "Truly, President Bush has stolen the symbolism and body language of religion and used it to disguise the most radical effort in American history to take what rightfully belongs to the American people, and give as much of it as possible to the already wealthy and privileged. And these wealthy and privileged look at his agenda and they say, as Dick Cheney said to former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill, 'this is our due.'"
767. Gore: "In Bush's ideology there is an interweaving of the agendas of large corporations that support them and his own ostensibly public agenda for the government that he leads. Their preferences become his policies, and his politics become their business."
768. Gore: "The Geneva Convention, for example, and the U.S. law prohibiting torture were both described by President Bush's White House counsel as 'quaint,' and then effectively discarded as a constraint, so that Bush and Rumsfeld could institute policies that resulted in the widespread torture of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and numerous secret locations elsewhere."
769. Gore: "When Congress's approval is required under our current Constitution, it is to be given without meaningful debate. As Bush said to one Republican senator in a meeting described in Time magazine -- and I quote from the magazine's account -- 'Look, I want your vote -- I'm not going to debate it with you.'"
770. Gore: "It has also become common for President Bush to rely on special interests for his basic information about the policies important to them. And he trusts what they tell him over any contrary view that might emerge from public debate. He has in effect outsourced the truth."

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751. Truth is finally creeping into campaign coverage! From a Knight Ridder story filed Oct. 18, 2004: "Bush, in a blistering speech that included some mischaracterizations of Kerry's views, said his opponent had a 'fundamental misunderstanding' of terrorism."
752. Via PolySigh, a CBS/New York Times poll shows that Bush's favorability rating is lower than Nixon's.
753. In 1960, the Oct. 18, 2004, CBS News.com article on its poll says, Richard Nixon had a 74% favorability rating. In the poll, 43% say they view Bush favorably, 45% unfavorably.
754. And, yes, it is stunning that 74% of Americans had a favorable impression of Nixon in 1960. But it's arguably more stunning that 43% have one of Bush now.
755. An Oct. 18, 2004, posting by Howard Kurtz at WashingtonPost.com quotes Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt as saying: "The Bush campaign should be able to make an argument without having it reflexively dismissed as distorted or inaccurate by the biggest papers in the country."
756. Hmm. Maybe that wouldn't happen so much if the Bush campaign didn't reflexively make arguments that are plainly distorted or inaccurate.
757. From that Oct. 18, 2004, Post article: "Bush keeps charging that Kerry is pushing a 'government-run' health care plan, even though nearly all analysts and journalists have concluded that it builds on the existing system of private insurance."
758. Those Herbert Hoover references keep on coming! From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (via The Hamster): "This is the first time since before the Depression of the 1930s that the deficit has continued to increase this far into a recovery."
759. Here's a guy who will be looking for work soon. Jon Leiberman, lead political reporter for Sinclair Broadcast Group, told the Baltimore Sun (via the Al Franken Show) with regard to its planned Kerry-bashing telecast: "It's biased political propaganda, with clear intentions to sway this election. For me, it's not about right or left—it's about what's right or wrong in news coverage this close to an election."
760. In an Oct. 17, 2004, article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Karen Desnick rattles off a few Bush errors and says: "Since President Bush can't think of anything he would do differently, I think it's fair to say that he would continue to do more of the same."

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741. Because his party isn't just anti-Democratic, it's anti-democratic.
742. From an Oct. 18, 2004, article in the Philadelphia Daily News: "Republican operatives working to re-elect President Bush submitted last-minute requests in Philadelphia on Friday to relocate 63 polling places. Bush's Pennsylvania campaign staff filed the requests, using the names of two Republicans running for the U.S. Congress and seven Republican ward leaders."
743. The part you'll be amazed, amazed, to learn: "Of the 63 requests for changes, 53 are in political divisions where the population of white voters is less than 10 percent."
744. But that's only somewhat racist. Here's the more overtly racist part: "Race played a role in at least five of the requests, according to Matt Robb, the Republican leader of the 48th ward in South Philadelphia. Robb said he allowed his name to be used because those polling places are in neighborhoods he doesn't wish to visit. 'It's predominantly, 100 percent black,' said Robb, who is white. 'I'm just not going in there to get a knife in my back.'"
745. In an Oct. 13, 2004, Associated Press article, former President George H.W. Bush shows where his potty-mouth son got his profane ways from: The elder Bush called filmmaker Michael Moore a "total ass, slimeball."
746. In an Oct. 18, 2004, editorial headlined "Why We Cannot Endorse President Bush For Re-Election," the right-leaning Tampa Tribune explains, um, why it cannot endorse President Bush for re-election.
747. From the editorial: "As it turns out, the neoconservatives in the Bush administration were bamboozled by dubious sources named Curveball and Chalabi, whose integrity and access to real- time information was repeatedly questioned by our own intelligence services. ... It was almost as though someone who asked tough questions was seen as siding with the terrorists."
748. From the editorial: "At the time, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said with great hubris that the uprising was 'untidy'' but not unexpected. And the president himself challenged the enemy to 'bring it on.' Now we learn from Ambassador Paul Bremer, former presidential envoy to Iraq, that 'we never had enough troops on the ground' to stop the insurgency."
749. Also from the editorial: "Bush has yet to veto a single spending bill. Even Franklin Roosevelt scaled back New Deal programs after Pearl Harbor. The result: Bush has turned the $150 billion surplus he inherited into a $450 billion deficit. "
750. And while you should really read it yourself -- it's a perfect example of a true conservative's take on this administration -- here's one last quote from the editorial: "People view Bush as a man with strong convictions. And while he's clearly convinced of the rightness of his ways, that doesn't mean he's always right."

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731. They may not be much for inspecting airline cargo, but the folks at the TSA like to get their groove on. From the Oct. 15, 2004, Washington Post: "The Transportation Security Administration, the people who forced airline travelers to make sure their socks had no holes, knows how to party hearty. So much so that the Department of Homeland Security inspector general slapped them for spending too much money -- about $461,745 -- to host 'the first annual TSA Awards Program' at the Grand Hyatt here in November."
732. From that Oct. 15, 2004, Post article: "The IG objected to the high cost of munchies and drinks during coffee breaks. TSA paid '$64 for each gallon of coffee' -- that's about $3 a cup -- 'and $3.75 for each soft drink.'"
733. In all fairness, though, those prices are lower than you'd pay on an airplane.
734. And you could probably even bring a nail file to the TSA party.
735. Hey, remember how the Bush campaign and the Bush White House and the Pentagon and all released every single imaginable document even tangentially related to Bush's stint in the Air National Guard? And how they then released some more later? And some more after that? And so on? Associated Press, Oct. 16, 2004: "Weeks after Texas National Guard officials signed an oath swearing they had turned over all of President Bush's military records, independent examiners found more than two dozen pages of previously unreleased documents about Bush."
736. That busy Associated Press reported Oct. 17, 2004: "Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ignored advice to throw out a flawed felon voter list before it went out to county election offices despite warnings from state officials, according to a published report Saturday."
737. From that Oct. 17, 2004, AP article: "A software program matched data on felons with voter registration rolls to create the list of 48,000 names. Secretary of State Glenda Hood junked the database in July after acknowledging that 2,500 ex-felons on the list had had their voting rights restored. Most were Democrats, and many were black. Hispanics, who often vote Republican in Florida, were almost entirely absent from the list due to a technical error."
738. But hey. So maybe there's some electoral chicanery going on in Florida involving the presidential race and the Republican candidate's brother, who happens to be the governor. What's the worst that can happen?
739. You know those tax cuts? Those super middle-class tax cuts Jeb's brother is always talking about? Here's David Broder in the Oct. 15, 2004, Washington Post, via Suburban Guerrilla: "According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, households in the middle 20 percent of the income scale -- the 'middle class' -- receive only 9 percent of the benefits. Their average saving will be $162. Those in households with incomes from $200,000 to $500,00 will be $2,390 better off."
740. An Oct. 17, 2004, Knight Ridder article, via Daily Kos, confirms the increasingly obvious: "A Knight Ridder review of the administration's Iraq policy and decisions has found that it invaded Iraq without a comprehensive plan in place to secure and rebuild the country."

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721. Associated Press article, Oct. 17, 2004: "Despite gaining their freedom by signing pledges to renounce violence, at least seven former prisoners of the United States at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have returned to terrorism, at times with deadly consequences."
722. From that Oct. 17, 2004, AP article: "Some 146 detainees have been released from Guantanamo, but only after U.S. officials had determined the prisoners no longer posed threats and had no remaining intelligence value."
723. I can't believe someone accused of being a terrorist would lie to get out of a prison where people are being abused!
724. From an Oct. 18, 2004, New York Times article: "Many detainees at Guantánamo Bay were regularly subjected to harsh and coercive treatment, several people who worked in the prison said in recent interviews, despite longstanding assertions by military officials that such treatment had not occurred except in some isolated cases."
725. From that Oct. 18, 2004, Times article: "In August, a report commissioned by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld found that tough techniques approved by the government were rarely used, but the sources described a broader pattern that went beyond even the aggressive techniques that were permissible."
726. I can't believe a report associated with Donald Rumsfeld would have been dishonest!
727. The Times article continues: "One independent military panel said in a report that the approach that was being used at Guantánamo 'migrated to Abu Ghraib,' where abuses grew exponentially."
728. In an Oct. 17, 2004, Associated Press article, Brent Scowcroft, former national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush, is quoted as telling the Financial Times that recent U.S. overtures to the United Nations and NATO on working together in Afghanistan and Iraq were "as much an act of desperation as anything else...to rescue a failing venture."
729. Brent Scowcroft, quoted in that Oct. 17, 2004, AP article, discussing life after 9/11: "We had gotten contemptuous of Europeans and their weaknesses. We had really turned unilateral."
730. The very fact that I'm quoting Brent Scowcroft approvingly illustrates how dire the need for change is.

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2004-10-17T21:08:00.000-04:00

711. Former Republican political appointee Bruce Bartlett, to reporter Ron Suskind, in the Oct. 17, 2004, New York Times: "If Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3."
712. Bruce Bartlett, in that Oct. 17, 2004, New York Times piece: "This is why George W. Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy. He believes you have to kill them all. ... He understands them, because he's just like them."
713. Sen. Joseph Biden, in that Oct. 17, 2004, Times piece: "I was in the Oval Office a few months after we swept into Baghdad, and I was telling the president of my many concerns. ... 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'How can you be so sure when you know you don't know the facts?' ... 'My instincts,' he said. 'My instincts.'"
714. Christie Whitman, former EPA secretary, is quoted in the same article as telling Suskind on the day she submitted her resignation in May 2003: "In meetings, I'd ask if there were any facts to support our case. And for that, I was accused of disloyalty!"
715. Biden again: "Most successful people are good at identifying, very early, their strengths and weaknesses, at knowing themselves. For most of us average Joes, that meant we've relied on strengths but had to work on our weakness -- to lift them to adequacy -- otherwise they might bring us down. I don't think the president really had to do that, because he always had someone there -- his family or friends -- to bail him out. I don't think, on balance, that has served him well for the moment he's in now as president. He never seems to have worked on his weaknesses."
716. "This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while." (Sept. 16, 2001, quoted by Ron Suskind)
717. For some reason, his choice of the word "crusade" met with a measure of disapproval from the Muslim community.
718. And yet, as Suskind notes, in an Alaska speech some time later, "Bush again referred to the war on terror as a 'crusade.'"
719. "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job." (July 9, 2004, quoted in the Lancaster, Pa., New Era)
720. I have an Aunt Faith whom I adore. "Faith" was a big hit for George Michael in the 1980s. But faith is not something to base a presidency on.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 71)

2004-10-17T20:24:00.000-04:00

701. Associated Press, Oct. 17, 2004: "The U.S. Army Reserve soldiers who refused orders to drive a dangerous route were members of one of a few supply units whose trucks are still unarmored, their commanding general said Sunday."
702. From that Oct. 17, 2004, AP article: "'Not all of their trucks are completely armored. In their case, they haven't had the chance to get armored,' said Brig. Gen. James E. Chambers, commanding general of 13th Corps Support Command, which sends some 250 convoys ferrying Army fuel, food and ammunition across Iraq each day."
703. "When American puts our troops in combat, I believe they deserve the best training, the best equipment, the full support of our government." (Oct. 2, 2004)
704. Washington Post, Oct. 17, 2004: "The top U.S. commander in Iraq complained to the Pentagon last winter that his supply situation was so poor that it threatened Army troops' ability to fight, according to an official document that has surfaced only now."
705. From that Oct. 17, 2004, Washington Post article: "He also said units were waiting an average of 40 days for critical spare parts, which he noted was almost three times the Army's average. In some Army supply depots in Iraq, 40 percent of critical parts were at 'zero balance,' meaning they were absent from depot shelves, he said."
706. "And I assure you we'll keep the commitments I have made to our troops. We will make sure they have all the resources they need to complete their missions." (Oct. 16, 2004)
707. A Bush flip-flop! "I made it very plain we will not have an all-volunteer Army. And yet this week -- we will have an all-volunteer Army. Let me restate that. We will not have a draft." (Oct. 16, 2004)
708. Bush to America: I'm a liar! "You know, when I asked her to marry me, she said, fine, just so long as I never have to give a political speech. I said, okay, you'll never have to give one. Fortunately, she didn't hold me to that promise." (Oct. 2, 2004)
709. "One of the most amazing events of my life, at least as the presidency, was to go to the NASCAR Race here at the Daytona 500." (Oct. 16, 2004)
710. The scary thing? This time, he might not have been lying.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 70)

2004-10-15T20:24:00.000-04:00

691. On Bush's fraudulent claim that John Kerry voted 98 times to raise taxes, Jonathan Chait in the Los Angeles Times notes: "Meanwhile, Dick Cheney as a member of Congress from Wyoming voted to raise taxes 144 times. If 98 tax-hike votes make Kerry a far-out liberal, than Cheney would have to be placed somewhere in the ideological vicinity of Che Guevara."
692. I could take the easy way out and count this -- the Philadelphia Inquirer's three-week series listing a reason a day to vote for Kerry -- as 21 separate reasons, but I won't. At least not yet.
693. Please note I haven't said a word about Bill O'Reilly's troubles. Though if I were to say a word about Bill O'Reilly's troubles, that word would be: Falafel.
694. CNN.com, Oct. 15, 2004: "The head of the nation's largest gay and lesbian Republican group slammed fellow Republicans Friday for 'feigning outrage' over comments by Sen. John Kerry, and called on President Bush to 'stop attacking gay families on the campaign trail.'"
695. Kerry's sin: Commenting at the third presidential debate that Dick Cheney's daughter Mary is a lesbian. Which she is. As Dick himself talked about at a campaign event some weeks ago.
696. Another thing about Mary Cheney: She's also director of vice presidential operations for the Bush/Cheney campaign. So it's not like Kerry brought up a bystander with no connection to the race.
697. In that Oct. 15, 2004, article on CNN.com, Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, is quoted as saying: "The reality is the type of outrage that is being expressed by some Republicans should be expressed at themselves. They've decided to use gay families as wedge issues across America in swing states -- that is truly outrageous."
698. Think Bush's policies are going unnoticed overseas? Not according to a series of polls in various countries. From an Oct. 15, 2004, Associated Press story: "'We like Americans, we don't like Bush,' was how Britain's Guardian newspaper summarized the results of the surveys published Friday."
699. From that Oct. 15, 2004, AP article: "The polls found that to an overwhelming degree, respondents in most of the countries have a more negative view of the United States now than a few years ago, disapprove of the war in Iraq and dislike Bush. Democratic challenger John Kerry is favored — often by landslide proportions — in all but two of the nations. ... The polls, commissioned by major papers in each country, were conducted in Canada, France, Britain, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Mexico, Israel and Russia."
700. They forgot Poland!

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 69)

2004-10-15T18:35:00.000-04:00

Special third presidential debate edition continued again!
681. "We relied upon a company out of England to provide about half of the flu vaccines for the United States citizen, and it turned out that the vaccine they were producing was contaminated. And so we took the right action and didn't allow contaminated medicine into our country." (Oct. 13, 2004)
682. FactCheck.org: "Actually, it was the British and not the US that blocked shipment."
683. Also from FactCheck.org: "In fact, the Bush administration seems to have been caught by surprise when Chiron Corp. notified the US Center for Disease Control Oct. 5 that the company wouldn't be shipping the vaccine due to the British action."
684. "He talks about middle-class tax cuts. That's exactly where the tax cuts went. Most of the tax cuts went to low- and middle-income Americans. And now the tax code is more fair." (Oct. 13, 2004)
685. Good ol' FactCheck.org: "Bush could hardly have been farther off base when he said most of his tax cuts 'went to low- and middle-income Americans.' That's just not true."
686. "Twenty percent of the upper-income people pay about 80 percent of the taxes in America today because of how we structured the tax cuts." (Oct. 13, 2004)
687. FactCheck.org: "That's incorrect. In fact, as we reported only that morning, the Congressional Budget Office calculates that the top 20% now pay 63.5% of the total federal tax burden, which includes income taxes, payroll taxes and other federal levies."
688. "Actually, Mitch McConnell had a minimum-wage plan that I supported that would have increased the minimum wage." (Oct. 13, 2004)
689. Kevin Drum this time: "Mitch McConnell is a Republican. You're a Republican. The Republican party controls both the House and Senate. So if you supported McConnell's bill, why didn't it pass?"
690. Well, one reason might be: It was never actually introduced. Oopsie.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 68)

2004-10-15T17:09:00.000-04:00

Special third presidential debate edition continued!
671. "I sent up my budget man to the Congress." (Oct. 13, 2004)
672. Look! Up in the sky! It's a debit! It's a line item! It's Budgetman!
673. Though I guess for a president who describes terrorists as a "group of folks," a financial analyst can be a budget man.
674. "He voted to increase taxes 98 times and to bust the budget 277 times." (Oct. 13, 2004)
675. This has been debunked more often than a Bigfoot sighting. For example, FactCheck.org notes: "But that total includes up to 16 votes on a single tax bill, and 43 votes on budget measures that set targets but don't actually legislate tax increases."
676. "It's the equivalent of the buggy and horse days." (Oct. 13, 2004)
677. "In all due respect, I'm not so sure it's credible to quote leading news organizations about – oh, never mind." (Oct. 13, 2004)
678. In all due respect, I'm not so sure it's credible to attack the media when books have been filled with the lies of George W. Bush.
679. "The Lewin report is a group of folks who are not politically affiliated." (Oct. 13, 2004)
680. A group of folks?! Yikes! Head for the hills!

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 67)

2004-10-14T15:48:00.000-04:00

Special third presidential debate edition!
661. In the three presidential debates, we saw the incumbent variously smirking, shouting, and foaming at the mouth.
662. None of those are valid substitutes for, like, answers.
663. You've seen this before, but it's a classic: "Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those ex-ag-ger-ations." (Oct. 13, 2004)
664. "So I don't know where he is. Nor -- you know, I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you." (March 13, 2002, responding to a question about, um, Osama bin Laden.)
665. "I'll repeat what I said: I truly am not that concerned about him." (March 13, 2002)
666. It doesn't seem right to insult Bush with the number of the Mark of the Beast. Why not? Professional courtesy. Ba dum pum.
667. "He talks about paygo." (Oct. 13, 2004)
668. "I'll tell you what paygo means ... " (Oct. 13, 2004)
669. At first I thought he was thirsty and wanted some Faygo brand soda.
670. Then I remembered: He was trying to say "pay as you go," but he can't speak the language.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 66)

2004-10-13T01:34:00.000-04:00

651. Speaking of Sinclair and the Swifties and Bush operatives, Sid's Fishbowl has a pretty comprehensive report on the Sinclair situation that notes: "Oh, and Sherwood's group, POWs for Truth, just merged with the Swift Boat liars, for good measure."
652. "Sherwood" is Carlton Sherwood, the producer of the anti-Kerry diatribe that the Sinclair (truth-in-advertising spelling: SincLIAR) people are so determined to show before the election.
653. Sherwood also served as a media consultant to Tom "We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security" Ridge in his pre-security days.
654. But wait! There's more! A company called Jadoo Power Systems landed a federal contract to develop power systems for the US Special Operations Command. The press release announcing the contract adds: "Jadoo's investors include Sinclair Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. as well as other individuals."
655. So a subsidiary of a company headed by major Bush donors scores a federal contract, and the parent company forces propaganda smearing Bush's opponent onto its TV stations. Why, you'd almost think there was a connection.
656. But wait! There's still more! As the wonderfully named No More Mr. Nice Blog points out: "Sinclair Broadcast Group says Stolen Honor isn't a Bush campaign ad, but it ought to be noted that filmmaker Carlton Sherwood's Red, White and Blue Productions shares a mailing address and phone number with Quantum Communications in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The 'principal' of Quantum Communications (here he's called the CEO) is Charles R. Gerow -- a delegate to this year's Republican convention and a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association."
657. No More Mister Nice Blog pointed this out, but I would have posted it independently a couple days ago if I'd only remembered to: Karen Ryan's back! The faux news reporter (not a Fox News reporter, though that could change) who got rave reviews for her work on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services -- "Covert propaganda!" cheered the Government Accountability Office -- got more federal money to do more covert propaganda for the Department of Education.
658. Which is ironic in itself, because this administration never learns.
659. The Associated Press reported Oct. 11, 2004: "The video includes a news story that features Education Secretary Rod Paige and promotes tutoring now offered under law. The story ends with the voice of a woman saying, 'In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting.' It does not identify the government as the source of the report. It also fails to make clear the person purporting to be a reporter was someone hired for the promotional video."
660. Fake "news" for partisan political purposes. Sounds like Karen Ryan has a future with the SincLIAR Broadcasting Group.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 65)

2004-10-12T10:54:00.000-04:00

641. The Sinclair Broadcasting Group in general.
642. More specifically: In the spring, Sinclair forbade its stations from running a Nightline program that consisted of listing the U.S. military dead in Iraq. Because that was somehow unpatriotic or something.
643. Sen. John McCain agreed on the unpatriotic part. But not on the part of Nightline. In a May 1, 2004, New York Times article, he was quoted as saying to Sinclair's CEO: "Your decision to deny your viewers an opportunity to be reminded of war's terrible costs, in all their heartbreaking detail, is a gross disservice to the public, and to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. It is, in short, sir, unpatriotic."
644. And now, with days to go before the election, Sinclair is ordering its stations to show a "documentary" called "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," in which other Vietnam veterans are highly critical of Sen. John Kerry's antiwar activism after his return from combat.
645. From an Oct. 11, 2004, New York Times article: "Two of the former prisoners who appeared in the Swift Boat advertisement were interviewed for the movie, including Ken Cordier, who had to resign as a volunteer in the Bush campaign after the advertisement came out."
646. Ah, yes. Ken Cordier. He was the first (but not last) link between the Swifties and the Bushies that the Bushies first denied and then played down.
647. The producer of "Stolen Honor" is a former Washington Times reporter. So you know it will be nothing if not straightforward and factual.
648. Sinclair Group executives are major donors to the Bush campaign. So you know their policy is nothing if not fair and even-handed.
649. Not enough outrage for you? Then enjoy the measured and restrained and not at all nauseatingly inappropriate words of Sinclair spokesman Mark Hyman in an Oct. 12, 2004, San Antonio Express-News article: "The networks are acting like Holocaust deniers and pretending these people [the POWs] don't exist. It would be irresponsible to ignore them." (Via Atrios.)
650. Speaking of irresponsibility, in that Oct. 12, 2004, article from the San Antonio Express-News, Robert Huesca, a Trinity University communications professor, says: "This development is something that we should all be concerned about because it's a clear case of the public interest not being served by the media."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 64)

2004-10-12T01:38:00.000-04:00

631. So here I was making fun of Bush for his "Dred Scott" response at the Oct. 8, 2004, presidential debate, when there might have been a method to his verbal madness after all: Turns out "Dred Scott" is a potent code phrase among anti-abortion types who liken it to Roe vs. Wade.
632. As Paperwight's Fair Shot notes: "Anti-choice advocates have been comparing Roe v. Wade with Dred Scott v. Sandford for some time now. There is a constant drumbeat on the religious right to compare the contemporary culture war over abortion with the 19th century fight over slavery, with the anti-choicers cast in the role of the abolitionists."
633. Skeptical? Don't take it from me. Take it from National Right to Life (you'll forgive me if I don't link to the site; bad enough I had to click on it): "One of the more frequently used arguments to defend abortion goes like this: The United States Supreme has settled the issue. Because the Court has ruled that abortion is legal, it must therefore be a correct and moral act beyond challenge. In an 1857 court case, known as the Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court ruled that slaves, even freed slaves, and all their descendants, had no rights protected by the Constitution and that states had no right to abolish slavery. Where would Blacks be today if that reasoning had not been challenged? The reasoning in Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade is nearly identical."
634. Maybe those secret transmitter devices are helping Bush after all.
635. Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly, who has way more patience and mathematical skill than I have, crunched the numbers on Bush's debate lies vs. Kerry's debate lies. His startling conclusion: "In other words, Bush rather clearly lied more than Kerry and lied more seriously than Kerry. I did my best to apply the same rigor to both candidates, but even with a different formula and different scoring, it's hard to see how Bush wouldn't come out as seriously more deceptive than Kerry."
636. Associated Press, Oct. 11, 2004: "The war in Iraq did not damage international terror groups, but instead distracted the United States from confronting other hotbeds of Islamic militancy and actually 'created momentum' for many terrorists, a top Israeli security think tank said in a report released Monday."
637. AP, Oct. 11, 2004: "Jaffee Center director Shai Feldman said the vast amount of money and effort the United States has poured into Iraq has deflected attention and assets from other centers of terrorism, such as Afghanistan."
638. "So the terrorists understand that Iraq is the central front in the war on terror." (March 18, 2004)
639. In Bush's defense, there certainly are terrorists in Iraq. I fear the point he's missing is that THEY WEREN'T THERE BEFORE WE INVADED.
640. I had to use capital letters because this blog isn't wired into any of Bush's secret transmitter devices.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 63)

2004-10-11T10:54:00.000-04:00

621. From an Oct. 11, 2004, article posted on SFGate.com, via Kos: "An exhaustive report released last week by Charles Duelfer, the CIA's chief weapons investigator in Iraq, concluded that Saddam Hussein destroyed his stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the early 1990s and never tried to rebuild them. But a little-noticed section of the 960-page report warns that the danger of a 'devastating' attack with unconventional weapons has grown since the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq last year."
622. "We are safer -- we are safer and the world is better off because Saddam is sitting in a prison cell." (Aug. 5, 2004)
623. From the Los Angeles Times, Oct. 11, 2004, via Campaign Extra!: "The Bush administration will delay major assaults on rebel-held cities in Iraq until after U.S. elections in November, say administration officials, mindful that large-scale military offensives could affect the U.S. presidential race."
624. Think about that one for a second. The president who is running on the basis of what a success the Iraq war has been is now delaying military strikes in order to help his reelection campaign. That is utterly, unspeakably wrong.
625. And yet not without utterly, unspeakably wrong precedent. I missed this until Frank Rich mentioned it in his Oct. 10, 2004, New York Times column, but Time magazine reported in March 2004: "Administration sources tell TIME that employees at the Department of Homeland Security have been asked to keep their eyes open for opportunities to pose the President in settings that might highlight the Administration's efforts to make the nation safer. The goal, they are being told, is to provide Bush with one homeland-security photo-op a month."
626. Tom Ridge, Homeland Security director, Aug. 4, 2004: "We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security."
627. Also via Campaign Extra! and a host of others come the rumors that Bush wore a transmitter device to at least the first presidential debate with Sen. John Kerry.
628. Because it's hard to remember to get irate and make chimpy faces without being reminded by an offstage handler.
629. If he cheated, he obviously ignored the first rule of cheating: If you're going to get answers dishonestly, make sure they're good ones.
630. E.J. Dionne, in the Washington Post, Oct. 11, 2004, on Bush's non-answer when asked in the second presidential debate to name three wrong decisions: "That's why Bush's refusal to admit mistakes matters. It suggests his belief that voters, even at election time, have no right to a clear and candid explanation of what went wrong, and why."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 62)

2004-10-09T01:02:00.000-04:00

610. Think of the inaugural ball. Artists backing Kerry: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, REM, John Fogerty, and for the kids, Bright Eyes. Artists backing Bush: Lee Ann Womack, Ted Nugent, and Steven Tyler.
611. A Cheney flip-flop: The Associated Press reported Oct. 8, 2004: "Vice President Dick Cheney, who has called Iran 'the world's leading exporter of terror,' pushed to lift U.S. trade sanctions against Tehran while chairman of Halliburton Co. in the 1990s."
612. From the same Oct. 8, 2004, AP article: "At an energy industry conference in 1996, Cheney said sanctions were the greatest threat to Halliburton and other American oil-related companies trying to expand overseas. 'We seem to be sanction-happy as a government,' Cheney said. 'The problem is that the good Lord didn't see fit to always put oil and gas resources where there are democratic governments.'"
613. Is it me, or was Dick taking a shot at God there?
614. In the same AP article, New York City Comptroller William Thompson Jr., who has criticized Halliburton and other companies for doing business with countries involved in terrah, is quoted as saying: "This began in February 2000, and Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton then. Yes, he obviously bears some responsibility."
615. OK, back to the debate. "The truth of the matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power, if he were the president of the United States, and the world would be a lot better off."
616. At least he got the last part right.
617. One man acted presidential at both presidential debates, and it wasn't the, um, president.
618. As Campaign Extra! explains, Bush aides told the Washington post that part of the campaign's new tougher strategy is aimed at stoking fears about terrorism.
619. From an Oct. 8, 2004, New York Times article headlined "In New Attacks, Bush Pushes Limit on the Facts": "Mr. Bush's aides defended Mr. Bush's statements, saying that the president had fairly spotlighted positions Mr. Kerry has taken over the years. 'The campaign's criticisms of John Kerry are meticulous and precise and most of the criticisms involve reading back John Kerry's own words,' said Steve Schmidt, a campaign spokesman for Mr. Bush. But other analysts, including some Republicans, said Mr. Bush was repeatedly taking phrases and sentences out of context, or cherry-picking votes, to provide an unfavorable case against Mr. Kerry."
620. I was thinking about this during the Oct. 8 debate: Of course the Bush team takes quotes and such out of context. That's because context doesn't work in Bush's favor. Saying we must be resolute in Iraq -- nice sound bite. Saying we must be resolute in Iraq, where more than 1,000 U.S. troops have died, and where prisoners were ritually degraded in a military prison, and where Americans and Europeans have been abducted and beheaded, and where people haven't exactly greeted us as liberators the way Dick Cheney predicted they would -- that doesn't sound quite so nice.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 61)

2004-10-09T00:27:00.000-04:00

Special second-debate edition still continued!

601. "I own a timber company? That's news to me!"
602. What a shock that a president who can read and ignore a daily briefing warning that al-Qaeda is determined to strike in the U.S. isn't aware of his investment portfolio.
603. "I mean, I -- because I think whoever's the president must guard your liberties, must not erode your rights in America."
604. Point taken. Bush to America: Vote for Kerry!
605. "Let me give you a couple of examples, I guess, of the kind of person I wouldn't pick. I wouldn't pick a judge who said that the Pledge of Allegiance couldn't be said in a school because it had the words "under God" in it. ... Another example would be the Dred Scott case, which is where judges years ago said that the Constitution allowed slavery because of personal property rights."
606. I was on my third vodka-and-tonic when I heard that line, so I checked the transcript to make sure I heard it right.
607. Of course, for a president who has said Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas are the sorts of judges he admires, coming out firmly against the Dred Scott decision might actually be progress.
608. And yet he still got it wrong. Dred Scott wasn't about personal property rights. As PBS noted (via Atrios): "The decision of the court was read in March of 1857. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney -- a staunch supporter of slavery -- wrote the 'majority opinion' for the court. It stated that because Scott was black, he was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue. The decision also declared the Missouri Compromise of 1820, legislation which restricted slavery in certain territories, unconstitutional."
609. Bush, craven coward that he is, made no mention of his view of the Missouri Compromise. Or even the Hawley-Smoot Tariff.
610. "I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not going to name them. I don't want to hurt their feelings on national TV." Asked to name three mistakes he had made in nearly four years, this was the best he could do. Utterly pathetic.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 60)

2004-10-09T00:07:00.000-04:00

Special second-debate edition continued!

591. "We found out today that over the past 13 months we've added 1.9 million new jobs in the last 13 months."
592. Gosh. I wonder why he mentioned the 13 months twice but hasn't talked about net jobs gained or lost for his entire administration.
593. Oh, right! He's the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net loss in jobs!
594. "Is my time up yet?"
595. Say what you will about Bush, he sure can serve up a straight line.
596. "He voted 98 times to raise taxes. I mean, these aren't make-up figures."
597. Well, except they are. From an article on FactCheck.org (note to Dick Cheney: That ".org" is kind of important) about a Bush-Cheney campaign ad that used the 98 figure: "The number is an improvement on Bush's earlier claim that Kerry cast 350 votes for 'higher taxes,' which we described as inflated. But even the new, reduced total is padded."
598. "Now, I'm going to tell you what I really think is going to happen over time is technology is going to change the way we live for the good for the environment. That's why I proposed a hydrogen automobile, hydrogen-generated automobile." Aha! Bush is an inventor in his spare time! I guess that's what he's been doing all those weeks in Crawford.
599. "Do you realize 900,000 small businesses will be taxed under his plan because most small businesses are Sub-chapter S corps or limited partnerships, and they pay tax at the individual income tax level."
600. Once again, courtesy of FactCheck.org: "A Bush-Cheney '04 ad claims Kerry would raise taxes on 900,000 small businesses and 'hurt jobs.' But it counts every high-salaried person who has even $1 of outside business income as a 'small business owner' -- a definition so broad that even Bush and Cheney have qualified while in office. In fact, hundreds of thousands of those 'small businesses' have no jobs to offer."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 59)

2004-10-08T23:49:00.000-04:00

Special second-debate editon!

581. Shouting your answers does not equal having good answers.
582. Mr. President? The last name of the leader of the Italian government is Berlusconi. It's not Berlusco. You might want to practice that for the next time you talk about how close you are with him.
583. "I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft."
584. Um. I know you think Al Gore invented it and all so you don't need to know much about it, but there's one Internet. Singular.
585. I guess that much like the rules of when to go to war, and the rules governing humane treatment of enemy prisoners, the rules of a freaking debate don't mean much to this president.
586. Oh, and by the way? Peninsula? It's not pronounced peninchula.
587. "Show me one accomplishment toward Medicare that he accomplished."
588. Smackdown! Sen. John Kerry, in response: "Actually, Mr. President, in 1997 we fixed Medicare, and I was one of the people involved in it. We not only fixed Medicare and took it way out into the future; we did something that you don't know how to do, we balanced the budget."
589. "First, the National Journal named Senator Kennedy the most liberal senator of all, and that's saying something in that bunch."
590. Which might have meant something if Teddy Kennedy were the Democratic nominee.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 58)

2004-10-08T11:59:00.000-04:00

571. You can't spell Bush without BS.
572. It would be nice for Jenna to get a little time out of the spotlight.
573. Same goes for Barbara.
574. "I'm trying to put a leash on them." (Sept. 30, 2004, discussing his daughters at the first presidential debate)
575. Dick Cheney, to Sen. John Edwards, at the vice presidential debate, Oct. 5, 2004: "In my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight."
576. Nice job, Mr. Vice President! A multipronged lie!
577. As has been well established by now, what with the videotape and all, Cheney and Edwards met three and a half years ago at the February 2001 National Prayer Breakfast.
578. Oh, and presiding officer on most Tuesdays? It's true if you consider "most" to mean "two."
579. Dick Cheney, to Sen. John Edwards, at the vice presidential debate, Oct. 5, 2004: "Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you Senator Gone."
580. As Sen. John Edwards' hometown newspaper noted parenthetically on Oct. 6, 2004: (An archive search finds no such reference in The News & Observer.)

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 57)

2004-10-08T11:55:00.000-04:00

561. Remember all those Bush National Guard documents that were released, all of them, in 2000? And the ones that somehow turned up later? And the ones that turned up after that? Surprise! There were more!
562. The Associated Press reported Sept. 30, 2004: "The White House on Wednesday night produced a November 1974 document bearing Bush's signature from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was attending Harvard Business School, saying he had decided not to continue as a member of the military reserve."
563. From that Sept. 30, 2004, AP story, which is otherwise crammed full of careful denials: "The White House did not answer whether Bush disobeyed a direct order to take the exam."
564. "The enemy understands a free Iraq will be a major defeat in their ideology of hatred. That's why they're fighting so vociferously." (Sept. 30, 2004, in the first presidential debate)
565. If you noticed that Iyad Allawi's remarks to Congress in September sounded more than a little like Bush campaign soundbites, you were right. From the Sept. 30, 2004, Washington Post: "...details have emerged showing the U.S. government and a representative of President Bush's reelection campaign had been heavily involved in drafting the speech given to Congress last week by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi."
566. Because making chimpy faces while your opponent speaks is not considered good debating form.
567. About the only honest thing Dick Cheney said during his Oct. 5, 2004, debate with John Edwards was when he thanked Edwards for his kind words about Cheney's family.
568. F'r instance: Dick said in that debate: "I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11..."
569. Via FactCheck.org, Dick Cheney on Meet the Press, Sept. 14, 2003: "If we’re successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq, that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it’s not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it’s not a safe haven for terrorists, now we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11."
570. By the way, Mr. Vice President: It's FactCheck.org, not, as you said, FactCheck.com, though the latter is pretty good too.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 56)

2004-09-29T18:28:00.000-04:00

551. John Eisenhower, son of Ike, doesn't like Dubya.
552. In the Union Leader, John Eisenhower writes: "Leadership involves setting a direction and building consensus, not viewing other countries as practically devoid of significance. Recent developments indicate that the current Republican Party leadership has confused confident leadership with hubris and arrogance."
553. More from John Eisenhower: "Today’s Republican leadership, while not solely accountable for the loss of American jobs, encourages it with its tax code and heads us in the direction of a society of very rich and very poor."
554. So (John) Eisenhower and (Ron) Reagan are backing Kerry over Dubya. Can (Marvin) Bush be far behind?
555. From a Sept. 29, 2004, Washington Post article on Bush's and Kerry's military records: "The unit histories undermine the initial contention of the Bush camp that he gave up flying because his services as an F-102 pilot were no longer needed. They show that the F-102 remained the workhorse of the 147th through mid-1972, when Bush moved from Texas to Alabama to take part in a political campaign, even as pilots were being trained on the more sophisticated F-101."
556. "I was almost finished with my commitment in the Air National Guard, and was no longer flying because the F-102 jet I had trained in was being replaced by a different fighter." (In A Charge to Keep, his campaign "autobiography")
557. In that Sept. 29, 2004, article, the Post notes: "The Freedom of Information Act officer assigned to the Bush records case, James Hogan, declines to talk directly to reporters."
558. And people thought irony was dead after 9/11.
559. Col. John H. Wambough Jr., USAF (Ret.), wrote Sept. 20, 2004: "Lt. Bush would have gladly gone to Vietnam or anywhere else his unit was deployed -- but the reality was that young Lt. Bush had no say as to how his unit would be utilized to support our country's National Security interests."
560. From a New York Times article, Sept. 20, 2004: "When Bush applied, in 1968, one of the forms he filled out asked if he would volunteer for overseas duty; he checked 'I 'Do Not' volunteer for overseas.'"

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 55)

2004-09-28T23:24:00.000-04:00

541. Digby at Hullabaloo reports that a reader who works at the U.N. says Bush's speech was unique: No other speaker there needed pronunciation guides in the TelePrompTer text: "In the last year alone, terrorists have attacked police stations, and banks, and commuter trains, and synagogues ... and a school filled with children. This month in Beslan [bez-LAN] we saw, once again, how the terrorists measure their success in the death of the innocent, and in the pain of grieving families. Svetlana Dzebisov [day-BEES-off] was held hostage along with her son and her nephew and her nephew did not survive."
542. Democracy schmemocracy: Time magazine reported Sept. 27, 2004, that the Bush administration had planned to secretly help Iraqi candidates the administration preferred.
543. From the Sept. 27, 2004, Time article: "U.S. officials tell TIME that the Bush team ran into trouble with another plan involving those elections — a secret 'finding' written several months ago proposing a covert CIA operation to aid candidates favored by Washington. A source says the idea was to help such candidates — whose opponents might be receiving covert backing from other countries, like Iran — but not necessarily to go so far as to rig the election."
544. Speaking of contempt for long-standing American principles: The New York Times sued Attorney General John Ashcroft on Sept. 28, 2004, trying to block the Justice Department from obtaining two reporters' phone records, which would reveal the identities of confidential sources, the AP reports.
545. Has Ashcroft spent as much time chasing down paleolithic right-winger Robert Novak after he outed a confidential CIA operative in his column, endangering her life and clandestine operations she might have been working on?
546. I didn't think so.
547. "These have been months of steady progress, despite persistent violence in some parts of your country. Iraqis and their leaders are engaged in a great and historic enterprise to establish a new democracy at the heart of a vital region." (Sept. 23, 2004, to Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi)
548. The Washington Post reported Sept. 29, 2004: "People at the CIA 'are mad at the policy in Iraq because it's a disaster, and they're digging the hole deeper and deeper and deeper,' said one former intelligence officer who maintains contact with CIA officials. 'There's no obvious way to fix it. The best we can hope for is a semi-failed state hobbling along with terrorists and a succession of weak governments.'"
549. Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi: "There are three areas, three provinces where there are pockets of insurgents, pockets of terrorists who are acting there and are moving from there to inflict damage elsewhere in the country."
550. The New York Times reported Sept. 29, 2004: "Over the past 30 days, more than 2,300 attacks by insurgents have been directed against civilians and military targets in Iraq, in a pattern that sprawls over nearly every major population center outside the Kurdish north, according to comprehensive data compiled by a private security company with access to military intelligence reports and its own network of Iraqi informants."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 54)

2004-09-28T18:12:00.000-04:00

531. Associated Press, Sept. 28, 2004: "A tiny weekly newspaper that bills itself as President Bush's hometown paper has endorsed John Kerry for president, saying the Massachusetts senator will restore American dignity."
532. OK, so the Lone Star Iconoclast is a weekly with a circulation of 425, or less than half the number of U.S. personnel killed so far in Iraq. But still.
533. From a FactCheck.org critique of a pro-Bush ad: "The charge that Kerry is 'endlessly changing positions on Iraq' is without factual support. In fact, Kerry has never wavered from his support for giving Bush authority to use force in Iraq, nor has he changed his position that Bush should not have gone to war without greater international support, and without making greater efforts at diplomacy backed by the threat of force."
534. Another critique at FactCheck.org, headlined "Bush Ad Twists Kerry's Words on Iraq," notes: "Kerry has never wavered from his support for giving Bush authority to use force in Iraq, nor has he changed his position that he, as President, would not have gone to war without greater international support. But a Bush ad released Sept. 27 takes many of Kerry's words out of context to make him appear to be alternately praising the war and condemning it."
535. Thanks to Campaign Extra!, we know that Bush's plan titled "Defending American Lives & Liberty" mentions Iraq exactly twice.
536. Osama? Not at all.
537. The New Yorker's Talk of the Town column notes: "No one can now doubt the effectiveness of the President’s political operation. Here’s one measure: between May and September, the number of Iraq stories that made page 1 of the Times and the Washington Post dropped by more than a third. During the same period, the percentage of Americans who support the President’s handling of the war increased."
538. Andrew Card, Bush's chief of staff, said Sept. 1, 2004: ''It struck me as I was speaking to people in Bangor, Maine, that this president sees America as we think about a 10-year-old child."
539. He meant that as a compliment.
540. Unguarded Irony Dept.: USA Today reported Sept. 28, 2004: "Fewer than two-thirds of the former soldiers being reactivated for duty in Iraq and elsewhere have reported on time, prompting the Army to threaten some with punishment for desertion. The former soldiers, part of what is known as the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), are being recalled to fill shortages in skills needed for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 53)

2004-09-27T16:40:00.000-04:00

521. A Bush flip-flop: From the Associated Press, Sept. 27, 2004: "When he first ran for president, George W. Bush talked tough on Russia. He threatened to cut off international aid if Moscow continued 'killing women and children, leaving orphans and refugees' in its war in Chechnya. This year, as president, Bush casts Russia not as an oppressor, but as a victim of terror — even as fighting continues in Chechnya and President Vladimir Putin moves to consolidate power in ways seen as threatening the country's fledgling democracy." (Via Americablog.)
522. A Cheney flip-flop: On Sept. 15, 2003, he said: "We need legal reform because the strength of our economy is undermined by frivolous lawsuits." But Halliburton Watch notes: "During Cheney's 5-year tenure as CEO, Halliburton was involved in 151 court claims it filed in 15 states around the nation. On average, Halliburton petitioned America's legal system 30 times per year while Cheney was CEO." (Via David Sirota.)
523. A Bush flip-flop, courtesy of Paul Krugman: "There's also North Korea, which Mr. Bush declared part of the 'axis of evil,' then ignored when its regime started building nuclear weapons. Recently, when a reporter asked Mr. Bush about reports that North Korea has half a dozen bombs, he simply shrugged."
524. Kinda like his reaction to Osama bin Whatshisname.
525. New York Times, Sept. 28, 2004: "Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, more than 120,000 hours of potentially valuable terrorism-related recordings have not yet been translated by linguists at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and computer problems may have led the bureau to systematically erase some Qaeda recordings, according to a declassified summary of a Justice Department investigation that was released on Monday."
526. Is this really a big deal? From the Sept. 28, 2004, Times article: Overhauling the government's translation capabilities has been a top priority for the Bush administration in its campaign against terrorism. Qaeda messages, saying 'Tomorrow is zero hour' and 'The match is about to begin,' were intercepted by the National Security Agency on Sept. 10, 2001, but not translated until days later, underscoring the urgency of the problem."
527. "America must remember the lessons of September the 11th." (July 12, 2004)
528. "We have followed this strategy -- defending the peace, protecting the peace and extending the peace -- for nearly three years." (July 12, 2004)
529. War is peace. Lies are truth. 2004 is 1984.
530. In 2000, Al Gore won the debates on points but lost them in public perception. (In case you forgot, he also won the election on numbers but lost it in the Supreme Court.)

1,001 Reasons To Vote For Bush (Vol. 1)

2004-09-26T18:16:00.000-04:00

1. Um. OK. He's not inarticulate -- oops. I mean, he was elected fair and square -- oh, right. That is, he's filled his administration with highly qualified people -- Er, he isn't a mean drunk -- oh, the hell with it. There's no reason to vote for the guy. We now return to our list already in progress.

I've seen the light!

2004-09-26T18:12:00.000-04:00

SWATCOP writes in comments:
I think democrats are STUPID!!!! and if I ever got the chance I would smack one right in the face! Bush ROCKS vote for G. W. BUSH.

It's tough to reason with that kind of logic. So why try? Thanks, Swatcop! You've changed my mind. I'm voting for Bush!

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 52)

2004-09-26T17:26:00.000-04:00

511. Reuters, Sept. 24, 2004: "With interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi at his side, Bush said on Thursday that "nearly 100,000 fully trained and equipped Iraqi soldiers, police officers and other security personnel are already working and this number would rise to 125,000 by the end of this year."
512. Reuters, Sept. 26, 2004: "The documents show that of the nearly 90,000 currently in the police force, only 8,169 have had the full eight-week academy training. Another 46,176 are listed as "untrained," and it will be July 2006 before the administration reaches its new goal of a 135,000-strong, fully trained police force."
513. This is a classic. Reuters, Sept. 26, 2004: "The White House defended its figures, and a senior administration official defined 'fully trained' as having gone through 'initial basic operations training.'"
514. For a president who lost the popular vote but proceeded as if given a popular mandate, it's not much of a leap to conflate "fully trained" with "initial .. training."
515. Bush, the CEO president with a Harvard MBA, was an utter and abject failure as a businessman before becoming president.
516. Harken Energy? Miserable failure. Spectrum 7? Miserable failure. Arbusto Energy? Miserable failure. Bush Exploration? Miserable failure.
517. Associated Press, Sept. 26, 2004: "American troops have arrested a senior commander of the U.S.-trained Iraqi National Guard for alleged ties to insurgents, underscoring the obstacles toward building a strong Iraqi security force capable of taking over from U.S. troops and restoring stability to the country."
518. Washington Post, Sept. 26, 2004: "Attacks over the past two weeks have killed more than 250 Iraqis and 29 U.S. military personnel, according to figures released by Iraq's Health Ministry and the Pentagon. A sampling of daily reports produced during that period by Kroll Security International for the U.S. Agency for International Development shows that such attacks typically number about 70 each day. In contrast, 40 to 50 hostile incidents occurred daily during the weeks preceding the handover of political authority to an interim Iraqi government on June 28, according to military officials."
519. From that Washington Post article: "After his speech to a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday, Allawi described Baghdad as 'very good and safe.' In fact, during the period for which security reports were available, the number of attacks in the capital averaged 22 a day."
520. More from that Washington Post article: "'People are very naive if they think Baghdad is safe,' said Falah Ahmed, 26, a cigarette vendor in center city. A nearby tailor, Hisham Nuaimi, 52, said Allawi 'is either deceiving himself or the Americans.' 'What do you call a city with a car bomb every day?' he said. 'Is this the security they are achieving?'"

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 51)

2004-09-26T13:33:00.000-04:00

501. Because I'm halfway done this list, and I'd hate to see this effort go to waste.
502. The Republican National Committee sent out flyers in a couple of states saying that Democrats want to ban the Bible.
503. In the aftermath of the forged memo debacle, CBS is delaying a report critical of the administration's buildup to the Iraq war. Until after the election. Because that's fair.
504. This is the kind of statement by Bush campaigner and Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi that John Kerry was blasted for questioning: "Well, I assure you if Saddam was still there, terrorists will be hitting there again at Washington and New York, as they did in the murderous attack in September; they'll be hitting also on other places in Europe and the Middle East."
505. I guess Bush's advisers forgot to tell Allawi that even among the right-wing lunatic fringe (redundant, I know), everybody but Dick Cheney has given up on the Saddam-9/11 connection by now.
506. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Sept. 26, 2004, asked about the situation in Iraq: "Yes, it's getting worse." (Via Americablog)
507. "On television sets around the world we see acts of violence yet in most of Iraq, children are about to go back to school, parents are going back to work and new businesses are being opened." (Sept. 24, 2004)
508. In fairness to Bush, Powell's less-than-upbeat remark was, in fact, shown "on television sets."
509. Reuters, Sept. 26, 2004: "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."
510. Being "resolute" is all well and good. But being stubborn and willing to make the same mistakes over and over again, at a cost of hundreds of lives, is just plain wrong.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 50)

2004-09-25T01:54:00.000-04:00

491. So there was this State Department map. And it listed all the countries in which al-Qaeda was known to have operated. Lots of countries in the Middle East are on it, not surprisingly, including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. None of which were invaded by the United States recently.
492. Iraq? Not on the list.
493. Oh, yeah. And the map was posted Nov. 10, 2001. That was back when Osama bin Laden was still "wanted dead or alive."
494. But not as much as Saddam was.
495. From a Paula Zahn interview with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf shown Sept. 24, 2004, on CNN: ZAHN: "Is the world a safer place because of the war in Iraq?" MUSHARRAF: "No. It's more dangerous. It's not safer, certainly not."
496. "I do believe the world is a safer place." (June 25, 2004)
497. More from Zahn and Musharraf, Sept. 24, 2004: ZAHN: "Was it a mistake to have gone to war with Iraq?" MUSHARRAF: "Well, I would say that it has ended up bringing more trouble to the world."
498. And this guy is a Bush ally. You know. Like John McCain and Richard Lugar and Chuck Hagel and Lindsey Graham.
499. The Guardian.co.uk Web site reported Sept. 26, 2004, on the President's grandfather's financial dealings: "The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism. His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy."
500. From the Guardian story, Sept. 26, 2004: "But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 49)

2004-09-25T01:00:00.000-04:00

481. A Bush flip-flop: "If Saddam Hussein were in power, our security would be threatened. If Saddam Hussein were in power, the world would be better off -- the world would be worse off, not better off, and so I strongly disagree with the assessment of my opponent." (Sept. 24, 2004)
482. Seems like he's been doing that a lot lately, saying the opposite of what he intends to say, as if he's nervous, or lying, or something.
483. "Now, when the President says something, he better mean what he says. In order to keep this world safe and secure, you better mean what you say when you speak. And you better say it so everybody can understand it." (Sept. 20, 2004)
484. Unmitigated Gall Dept.: "We believe in freedom of speech. They say, if you speak wrong, you're in trouble." (Sept. 20, 2004, at a typically restricted campaign event open only to supporters of the man whose attorney general said opponents were traitors and whose former press secretary warned Americans to watch what they say)
485. More Unmitigated Gall Dept.: The AFP wire service reported Sept. 25, 2004: "The US president also accused Kerry of saying 'he would prefer the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to the situation in Iraq today. I just strongly disagree.' What Kerry actually said, in a speech in New York City, was: 'Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place in hell. But that was not, in and of itself, a reason to go to war.'"
486. It's pretty well established that Bush is not good with nuance. But that's beyond nuance. That's lying.
487. Donald Rumsfeld, Sept. 24, 2004, on Iraq: "Because it's never been peaceful and perfect, and it isn't likely to be. It's a tough part of the world."
488. Donald Rumsfeld, Sept. 24, 2004, on Iraq: "We had something like 200 or 300 or 400 people killed in many of the major cities of America last year. Is it perfectly peaceful? No. What's the difference? We just didn't see each homicide in every major city in the United States on television every night."
489. A nuance-free observer might note that the defense secretary seems to be saying New York and Najaf are equally fated to unstoppable violence. A psychoanalyst might comment that the defense secretary seems to be getting a little, um, defensive.
490. Washington Post, Sept. 22, 2004: "Congressional negotiators beat back efforts yesterday to expand and preserve tax refunds for poor families, even as they added $13 billion in corporate tax breaks to a package of middle-class tax cuts that could come to a vote in the Senate today."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 48)

2004-09-23T15:36:00.000-04:00

471. A Bush flip-flop: "I used an unfortunate word, guess. I should have used estimate." (Sept. 23, 2004, backpedaling from his "just guessing" comment on the CIA)
472. "It's hard to help a country go from tyranny to elections to peace when there are a handful of people who are willing to kill in order to stop the process." (Sept. 22, 2004)
473. A Bush flip-flop: "Look, I'm fully aware we're fighting former Baathists and Zarqawi network people." (Sept. 23, 2004)
474. Flashback! Colin Powell, Feb. 24, 2001: "We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they have directed that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was 10 years ago when we began it. And frankly, they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors." (Thanks to Michael Moore.)
475. A Bush flip-flop: From a Sept. 23, 2004, Washington Post article: "While Bush professes himself a strong free-trader, most other free-trade proponents said he bent on principle in March 2002 when he ordered tariffs on imported steel — a move that resonated politically in electorally important industrial states such as Pennsylvania. Facing an escalating global trade dispute, he lifted the tariffs at the end of last year."
476. A Bush flip-flop: From the Sept. 23, 2004, Post article: "In 2000, Bush said he would include carbon dioxide on a list of air pollutants requiring federal oversight, a stand he abandoned within weeks of taking office."
477. The headline of the Sept. 23, 2004, Post article: "Despite Bush flip-flops, Kerry gets label." (Via Campaign Extra!)
478. "I saw a poll that said the right track/wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America. It was pretty darn strong." (Sept. 23, 2004)
479. A Bush flip-flop: When he signed the resolution authorizing the use of force, he said: "Hopefully this [disarmament] can be done peacefully." But in his campaign ads, he describes Kerry's vote for the same resolution as being a vote "for the Iraq war." (Thanks to Atrios.)
480. We can't find Osama, but dammit, we've got our eye on Cat Stevens!

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 47)

2004-09-21T16:27:00.000-04:00

461. "There are a lot of questions and they need to be answered. I think what needs to happen is people need to take a look at the documents, how they were created, and let the truth come out." (Quoted in Manchester, N.H., Union-Leader, Sept. 18, 2004)
462. No, not questions like "Where were you in 1972, Mr. President?" or "So why did you skip that physical anyway?" Bush was referring to those scurrilous CBS documents, the content of which the White House didn't even challenge.
463. Devere McLennan, who worked with Bush on that Alabama Senate campaign in 1972, quoted in the Sept. 19, 2004, New York Times on W: "To say he brought in a bunch of initiatives and bright ideas, no he didn't."
464. From that New York Times article, Sept. 19, 2004: "But a review of records shows that not only did he miss months of duty in 1972, but that he also may have been improperly awarded credit for service, making possible an early honorable discharge so he could turn his attention to a new interest: Harvard Business School."
465. New York Times, Sept. 19, 2004: "Mr. Bush, while missing months of the Guard duty that allowed him to avoid Vietnam, was the political director of the Blount campaign, which accused Mr. Sparkman -- a hawk on the war -- and the national Democrats of supporting 'amnesty for all draft dodgers' and of showing 'more concern for coddling deserters than for patriotic American young men who have lost their lives in Vietnam.'"
466. "And they were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like." (Sept. 21, 2004, on a CIA assessment predicting more troubles in Iraq)
467. When the CIA tells him what he wants to hear -- such as, say, Iraq has weapons of mass destruction -- it's good solid intelligence. When it doesn't, it's "just guessing."
468. A Bush flip-flop: "And they want us to leave. That's what they want us to do. And I think the world would be better off if we did leave. If we didn't, if we, if we -- if we left, the world would be worse. The world is better off with us not leaving." (Sept. 20, 2004)
469. American Heritage Dictionary definition of "Freudian slip," from Bartleby.com: "A verbal mistake that is thought to reveal an unconscious belief, thought, or emotion."
470. On Sept. 10, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft sent Congress his Justice Department budget request. It included no spending increases for any program dealing with terrorism.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 46)

2004-09-20T19:14:00.000-04:00

451. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., N.C.), on Hardball, Sept. 16, 2004: "I have believed for over a year and a half that we do not have enough people to repair the infrastructure and provide security and we need more."
452. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R., Neb.), on Face the Nation, Sept. 18, 2004: "The fact is we’re in trouble. We’re in deep trouble in Iraq. We need more regionalization. We need more help from our allies. We need the Iraqi people to come around us in a more supportive way. That means more jobs, more development… I think we’re going to have to look at recalibration of policy."
453. Sen. Chuck Hagel on Face the Nation, about the Iraq war: "No, I don’t think we’re winning. ... The fact is a crisp, sharp analysis of our policies are required. But to say, well, we just must stay the course and any of you who are questioning are just hand wringers is not very responsible…"
454. Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.), Sept. 19, 2004: "Allowing the Iraqis to make the decisions not to go into some of these sanctuaries, I think, turns out to have not been a good decision, which we're going to have to correct now by going in with our Marines and Army divisions."
455. Just in case you might have missed it, these things are coming from Bush's fellow Republicans.
456. In an election year.
457. Even Tony Blair got into the act, saying on Sept. 20, 2004: "Whatever the differences over the Iraq conflict, there is a clear right and wrong on these issues, and that is to be with the democrats and against the terrorists."
458. "Do you remember Abu Nidal? He's the guy that killed Leon Klinghoffer. Leon Klinghoffer was murdered because of his religion. Abu Nidal was in Baghdad, as was his organization.'' (Sept. 20, 2004)
459. I remember Abu Nidal. But Bush doesn't. The guy who murdered Leon Klinghoffer was Abul Abbas, the Associated Press (via Atrios) notes.
459. Bush had confused Nidal and Abbas at least 10 times before. Why, one might almost think he was exploiting the death of an innocent person at the hands of a terrorist.
460. During the whole Big Scary Dan Rather Document Scandal Imbroglio-Gate, the Bushies never really questioned the content of the disputed memos and all the negative implications for Bush's National Guard "service" they implied.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 45)

2004-09-20T16:05:00.000-04:00

441. The secretary-general of the United Nations says the war in Iraq was illegal.
442. Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the U.N., told the Guardian on Sept. 15, 2004: "I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN charter. From our point of view and from the charter point of view it was illegal."
443. "I believe when international bodies speak, they must mean what they say. I believe when the President speaks, he must mean what he says." (Sept. 17, 2004)
444. On the Sept. 19, 2004, Fox News Sunday, Sen. John McCain said that regarding Iraq, Bush had been "perhaps not as straight as maybe we'd like to see. I think the president is being clear. I would like to see him more clear."
445. Sen. John McCain, Sept. 14, 2004, on NBC Nightly News: "There’s nowhere in the history of warfare that shows that if you allow the enemy to have sanctuary, that you can--that you can win the battle. And we’re not winning."
446. Hmmm. Maybe John McCain hasn't forgotten that South Carolina mudslinging after all.
447. Rep. Doug Bereuter (R., Neb.), quoted on CNN.com on Sept. 18, 2004: "Left unresolved for now is whether intelligence was intentionally misconstrued to justify military action."
448. Rep. Doug Bereuter, again on CNN.com, Sept. 18, 2004: "It was a mistake to launch that military action."
449. Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Ind.), at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sept. 15, 2004: "Our committee heard blithely optimistic people from the administration prior to the war, and people outside the administration, what I call the ‘dancing in the street’ crowd, that we just simply will be greeted with open arms. ... Now, the nonsense of all of that is apparent. The lack of planning is apparent."
450. Sen. Richard Lugar, on ABC This Week: "Well, this is incompetence in the administration."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 44)

2004-09-17T23:16:00.000-04:00

431. Dick Cheney won't let the New York Times send a reporter on his plane, the Washington Post reported Sept. 15, 2004.
432. The New York Times, Sept. 15, 2004, on a classified National Intelligence Estimate: "The estimate outlines three possibilities for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst case being developments that could lead to civil war, the officials said. The most favorable outcome described is an Iraq whose stability would remain tenuous in political, economic and security terms."
433. Dan Bartlett, Sept. 16, 2004: "President Bush gets his briefings from commanders on the ground. He has reason for his optimism because of the enormous amount of progress we have made."
434. CNN.com, Sept. 18, 2004, quoting John Kerry on optimistic President Bush: "He won't tell us what congressional leaders are now saying, that this administration is planning yet another substantial call-up of reservists and Guard units immediately after the election. Hide it from people through the election, then make the move."
435. Rep. John Murtha (R., Pa.) was quoted on CNN.com, Sept. 18, 2004, saying that "the Bush administration plans to call up large numbers of the military Guard and Reserves, to include plans that they previously had put off to call up the Individual Ready Reserve."
436. Can you even begin to freaking IMAGINE the levels of hypocrisy it takes for a president who dodged the draft by joining the National Guard, then dodged the guard, then dodged the Ready Reserve, planning to send into battle servicepeople in the very organizations he exploited and then avoided?
437. Rolling Stone's Sept. 16, 2004, issue notes: "The Constitution forbids a state's electors from voting for candidates for president and vice president who are both 'an inhabitant of the same state as themselves.' Yet by voting for Bush and Cheney [in 2000], electors in Texas did precisely that."
438. Rolling Stone, Sept. 16, 2004, continued: "Cheney lived in Texas, had a Texas driver's license and filed his federal income tax using a Texas address. He had also voted in Texas, not in Wyoming, a state where he had not lived full-time for decades."
439. That Rolling Stone article enumerates some highlights of Cheney's time in Congress: "He repeatedly voted against funding for the Veterans Administration. He opposed extending the Civil Rights Act. He opposed the release of Nelson Mandela from jail in South Africa. He even voted for cop-killer bullets."
440. A senior adviser to Sen. John McCain, talking to Jake Tapper about the Florida 2000 recount shenanigans, as reported in "Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency": "When the going gets tough for President Bush, he turns to the darker side of our party. We saw that in South Carolina, and we see that today."

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421. "Nineteen individuals have served both in the Guard and as President of the United States, and I am proud to be one of them." (Sept. 14, 2004)
422. Leaving aside his questionable use of the word served, he's not being entirely a non-liar. As Joshua Micah Marshall notes at Talking Points Memo: "The president didn't come up with the number 19 out of whole cloth. The National Guard Association of the United States for instance speaks of the 19 presidents 'who served in the Guard or its forerunner, the organized militia.' President left off that little detail."
423. Josh Marshall: "If the question is, how many presidents served in the National Guard? The real answer is, I believe, three -- including President Bush. If the question is how many served in the modern, post-19th century Guard, the question is basically one -- President Bush."
424. The New York Times reported Sept. 15, 2004: "Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency has fewer experienced case officers assigned to its headquarters unit dealing with Osama bin Laden than it did at the time of the attacks, despite repeated pleas from the unit's leaders for reinforcements, a senior C.I.A. officer with extensive counterterrorism experience has told Congress."
425. Maybe that's why bin Laden went unmentioned at the Republican National Convention.
426. From the Village Voice, Sept. 14, 2004: "Colleen Kelly, who heads 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, says: 'I think all the families would like to see justice brought to the real perpetrators. It seems we've gotten sidetracked from who we were supposed to be going after.'"
427. "Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat." (Sept. 17, 2004)
428. In the Sept. 14, 2004, edition of the Nation, Russ Baker quotes Linda Allison, wife of former Bush pal Jimmy Allison, on W's time in Alabama: "Well, you have to know Georgie. He really was a totally irresponsible person. Big George [George H.W. Bush] called Jimmy, and said, he's killing us in Houston, take him down there and let him work on that campaign.... The tenor of that was, Georgie is in and out of trouble seven days a week down here, and would you take him up there with you."
429. Linda Allison, referring to her husband, in Russ Baker's Nation article: "I had the impression that he knew that Georgie was using pot, certainly, and perhaps cocaine."
430. From Russ Baker's Nation article, a remarkably deadpan paragraph: "It is notable that in 1972, the military was in the process of introducing widespread drug testing as part of the annual physical exams that pilots would undergo. "

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 42)

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411. In a visit to the Philadelphia area on Sept. 9, 2004, Bush held a rally at Byers Choice Ltd., which is a major donor to the Swift Boat Veterans Who Lie.
412. "They decided to take risk. They hired people wisely, they invested wisely, and their company is growing. And I appreciate the contribution they made." (Sept. 9, 2004)
413. A Bush flip-flop: In 2002, he rules out incentives to North Korea for disarmament. In 2004, Scott McClellan allows that there could be incentives to North Korea for disarmament.
414. Yoshi Tsurumi, a professor at Harvard Business School in the 1970s, remembers Bush calling the New Deal socialist and poor people lazy, according to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof (Sept. 15, 2004)
415. From Nicholas Kristof's Sept. 15, 2004, column: "'He said he'd gotten an early honorable discharge,' Professor Tsurumi recalls. 'I said, "How did you manage that?" He said, oh, his daddy had a good friend,' Mr. Tsurumi said. 'Then we started talking about the Vietnam War. He was all for fighting it.'"
416. That wouldn't have been the first -- or last -- time Bush took a short-sighted and self-serving approach to a war other people without his daddy's connections would have to die in. (slightly edited Sept. 18, 2004)
417. In the debate over those Bush National Guard memos, the key controversy doesn't seem to be over whether he actually served in Alabama, but over typography.
418. I'm pretty sure nobody questioned the Swift Boat Veterans For Unabashed Shameless Mean-Spirited Lying about penmanship.
419. In an article titled "Go to Hell: The Gospel According to George W." that appeared on Slate.com on July 24, 1999, Michael Kinsley writes: "In 1993, discussing his decision around age 40 to accept Christ as his personal savior, Bush told a Houston Post reporter that--as the reporter paraphrased it -- 'heaven is open only to those who accept Jesus Christ.'"
420. A Bush flip-flop: "I believe that God decides who goes to heaven, not George W. Bush." (Quoted in the Houson Chronicle)

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 41)

2004-09-09T22:50:00.000-04:00

401. Boston Globe, Sept. 8, 2004, quoting Major General Paul A. Weaver Jr., who retired in 2002 as the Pentagon's director of the Air National Guard: ''It appears that no one wanted to hold him accountable."
402. Bush's campaign plane: Accountability One.
403. CBSNews.com, Sept. 8, 2004, quoting from a 1972 memo by Col. Jerry Killian: "The officer [then-Lt. Bush] has made no attempt to meet his training certification or flight physical."
404. Dan Bartlett, incredibly, on that very same memo: "So at every step of the way, President Bush was meeting his requirement. Granted permission to meet his requirement. And that's why President Bush was honorably discharged."
405. Boston Globe, Sept. 8, 2004, quoting retired Army Colonel Gerald A. Lechliter: ''He broke his contract with the United States government -- without any adverse consequences."
406. Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, Sept. 8, 2004, quoting Bob Mintz, who actually served in the Air National Guard in Alabama: "I'm sure I would have seen him. It's a small unit, and you couldn't go in or out without being seen. It was too close a space."
407. Kristof, Times, Sept. 8, 2004, quoting Leonard Walls, who also actually served at the base: "I was there pretty much every day. I never saw him, and I was there continually from July 1972 to July 1974."
408. A Bush (spokesman) flip-flop: Boston Globe, Sept. 8, 2004: "In 1999, Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett told the Washington Post that Bush finished his six-year commitment at a Boston area Air Force Reserve unit after he left Houston. Not so, Bartlett now concedes. 'I must have misspoke,' Bartlett, who is now the White House communications director, said in a recent interview."
409. A Cheney flip-flop: Though he attacks Kerry for advocating defense cuts in the 1980s and early 1990s, Cheney, as defense secretary, proposed many of the same cuts.
410. The American Prospect, Sept. 9, 2004: "At one point, Cheney told the Post he had terminated 'the F-14, F-15 and F-16 fighters, the A-6, A-12, AV-8B and P-3 Navy and Marine planes, and the Army's Apache helicopter and M-1A1 tank.' Five of these weapons systems are listed by the Bush campaign in its attempts to chastise Kerry for his anti-defense votes."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 40)

2004-09-08T23:10:00.000-04:00

391. A Bush flip-flop: New York Times, Sept. 9, 2004: "President Bush said on Wednesday that he wanted to give a new national intelligence director 'full budgetary authority,' a sharp shift from an earlier position and an acquiescence to a major recommendation of the Sept. 11 commission."
392. Scott McClellan, Feb. 10, 2004, on the Texas Air National Guard flap: "All the information that we have we shared with you in 2000, that was relevant to this issue. And all the additional information that has come to our attention we have shared with you."
393. Scott McClellan, Feb. 10, 2004, a few minutes later: "People asked for records to be released that would demonstrate he met his requirements. The records have now been fully released."
394. Associated Press, Sept. 9, 2004: "The White House said in February that it had released all records of Bush's service, but one of Killian's memos stated it was 'for record' and another directing Bush to take the physical exam stated that it was 'for 1st Lt. George W. Bush.'
395. Oh, those records that didn't exist in February? They show that Bush was suspended not merely for failing to take his required physical, but also for "failure to perform to USAF/TexANG standards." (Associated Press, Sept. 9, 2004)
396. "I did the duty necessary." (May 23, 2000)
397. Boston Globe, Sept. 8, 2004: "Bush fell well short of meeting his military obligation, a Globe reexamination of the records shows."
398. CBSNews.com, Sept. 9, 2004: "In a memo from Aug. 18, 1973, Col. Killian says Col. Buck Staudt, the man in charge of the Texas Air National Guard, is putting on pressure to 'sugar coat' the evaluation of Lt. Bush."
399. "The question is: Did I receive preferential treatment? There were some pilot slots available, and I was chosen. I sought and was chosen." (Boston Globe, March 29, 1999)
400. Ben Barnes, on 60 Minutes II, Sept. 8, 2004: "I would describe it as preferential treatment. There were hundreds of names on the list of people wanting to get into the Air National Guard or the Army National Guard. I think that would have been a preference to anybody that didn't want to go to Vietnam or didn’t want to leave."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 39)

2004-09-08T15:39:00.000-04:00

381. "This commission is not only important for this administration, this commission will be important for future administrations, until the world is secure from the evildoers that hate what we stand for." (Nov. 27, 2002, at signing of the 9/11 Commission bill)
382. Which is why he named Henry Kissinger to root out those evildoers.
383. "We must uncover every detail and learn every lesson of September the 11th." (Nov. 27, 2002)
384. Washington Post, Jan. 19, 2004: "President Bush and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) have decided to oppose granting more time to an independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, virtually guaranteeing that the panel will have to complete its work by the end of May, officials said last week."
385. "We have a duty -- a solemn duty -- to do everything we can to protect this country." (Nov. 27, 2002)
386. Time magazine, March 26, 2003: "Sources tell TIME that the White House brushed off a request quietly made last week by the 9-11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean, the Republican former governor of New Jersey, to boost his budget by $11 million."
387. "There is no cave dark enough or deep enough to hide from the justice of the United States of America." (Nov. 27, 2002)
388. Three words, Mr. President: Osama bin Laden.
389. "The sooner we have the commission's conclusions, the sooner this administration will act on them." (Nov. 27, 2002)
390. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Sept. 8, 2004: "Seven weeks ago, the 9/11 Commission issued its report recommending change -- in the intelligence community and elsewhere -- to deal with the terrorist threat. ... There has been too much delay. ... We should have had something passed by now."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 38)

2004-09-07T16:38:00.000-04:00

371. Dick Cheney, Sept. 7, 2004: "It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States."
372. So I guess Dick is saying we made "the wrong choice" in 2000.
373. Which, by the way, "we" as a nation didn't technically make.
374. In fairness, if I were a fiscal conservative campaigning on the day the Congressional Budget Office projected a record U.S. fiscal deficit, I'd probably try to focus attention elsewhere, too.
375. Bloomberg News, Sept. 7, 2004: "U.S. budget deficits will total $2.3 trillion over the next decade and may be almost double that if tax cuts are renewed as President George W. Bush has requested, the Congressional Budget Office said."
376. Bloomberg, Sept. 7, 2004, next paragraph: "The non-partisan agency forecast the deficit will reach a record $422 billion this year and swell to more than $4.3 trillion over the next 10 years unless all tax breaks including those pushed by Bush expire on schedule."
377. Bush, of course, doesn't want those tax breaks to expire on schedule.
378. "We've got an issue in America. Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." (Sept. 6, 2004)
379. On May 23, 2002, Bush lobbied against what would ultimately become the 9/11 Commission, according to CBSNews.com: "CBS News Correspondent Bill Plante reports that Mr. Bush said the investigation should be confined to Congress because it deals with sensitive information that could reveal sources and methods of intelligence. Therefore, he said, the congressional investigation is 'the best place' to probe the events leading up to the terrorist attacks."
380. A Bush flip-flop: "This is an important commission, and it's important that they ask the questions they ask so that they can help make recommendations necessary to better protect our homeland." (April 29, 2004, after he and Dick Cheney spoke with the 9/11 Commission)

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 37)

2004-09-06T22:50:00.000-04:00

361. Remember Osama bin Laden? Bad guy, dialysis machine, responsible for 3,000 deaths in the United States three years ago? President Bush didn't even mention him at the Republican National Convention.
362. Also not mentioned at the convention: the record 17 percent increase in Medicare premiums announced Sept. 3, 2004.
363. That's the day after the convention.
364. Voting Bush out would be the functional equivalent of overruling the U.S. Supreme Court. Which would be pretty cool.
365. Just Google the words Miserable Failure.
366. "In 1946, 18 months after the fall of Berlin to Allied forces, a journalist in the New York Times wrote this: 'Germany is a land in an acute stage of economic, political and moral crisis. European capitals are frightened. In every military headquarters, one meets alarmed officials doing their utmost to deal with the consequences of the occupation policy that they admit has failed.' End quote. Maybe that same person's still around, writing editorials." (Sept. 2, 2004)
367. Times columnist Maureen Dowd responded in a Sept. 5, 2004, piece: "The president distorted the columnist's dispatch. The 'moral crisis' and failure she described were in the British and French sectors. She reported that the Americans were doing better because of their policy to 'encourage initiative and develop self-government.' She wanted the U.S. to commit more troops and stay the course -- not cut and run."
368: Maureen Dowd, Sept. 5, 2004: "Mr. Bush Swift-boated her."
369. Ron Reagan, September 2004 Esquire: "And chances are your America and George W. Bush's America are not the same place. If you are dead center on the earning scale in real-world twenty-first-century America, you make a bit less than $32,000 a year, and $32,000 is not a sum that Mr. Bush has ever associated with getting by in his world. Bush, who has always managed to fail upwards in his various careers, has never had a job the way you have a job—where not showing up one morning gets you fired, costing you your health benefits."
370. Ron Reagan's conclusion: "Come November 2, we will have a choice: We can embrace a lie, or we can restore a measure of integrity to our government. We can choose, as a bumper sticker I spotted in Seattle put it, SOMEONE ELSE FOR PRESIDENT."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 36)

2004-09-06T16:11:00.000-04:00

351. "I'm proud of my service." (Aug. 28, 2004)
352. Linda Allison, widow of Jimmy Allison, a Midland, Texas, political consultant, in an article on Salon.com about George W. Bush's work with an Alabama political campaign, which drew him from the Texas Air National Guard to the Alabama National Guard: "The impression I had was that Georgie was raising a lot of hell in Houston, getting in trouble and embarrassing the family, and they just really wanted to get him out of Houston and under Jimmy's wing."
353. From the Salon.com article: "Asked if she'd ever seen Bush in a uniform, Allison said: 'Good lord, no. I had no idea that the National Guard was involved in his life in any way.'"
354. From a Sept. 5, 2004, Associated Press article: "'It's sort of like a code of honor that you didn't go DNF (duty not including flying),' said retired Air Force Col. Leonard Walls, who flew 181 combat missions over Vietnam. 'There was a lot of pride in keeping combat-ready status.'''
355. Bush lost his flight status after skipping a required physical.
356. In April 1972, the military began mandatory drug and alcohol testing, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
357. Bush's physical would have been in May 1972.
358. AP story, Sept. 5, 2004: "Bush's spokesmen have said he skipped the exam because he knew he would be doing desk duty in Alabama. But Bush was required to take the physical by the end of July 1972, more than a month before he won final approval to train in Alabama."
359. Washington Post, Feb. 15, 2004: "Only one person has vivid recollections of serving with Bush at Dannelly field. John B. 'Bill' Calhoun, 69 -- whose name was provided by a Republican ally of Bush's -- said he saw Bush sign in at the 187th eight to 10 times for about eight hours each from May to October 1972."
360. The Post article continues: "But Calhoun remembers seeing Bush at Dannelly at times in mid-1972 when the White House acknowledges Bush was not pulling Guard duty in Alabama yet; his first drills were in October, according to the White House."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 35)

2004-09-03T22:02:00.000-04:00

341. "We are on the path to the future -- and we're not turning back." (Sept. 2, 2004, accepting the Republican nomination for president)
342. Not without a Wayback Machine, we're not.
343. "If you say the heart and soul of America is found in Hollywood, I'm afraid you're not the candidate of conservative values." (Sept. 2, 2004)
344. What John Kerry actually said, on July 8, 2004: "Every performer tonight in their own way, either verbally or through their music, through their lyrics, have conveyed to you the heart and soul of our country."
345. "Do I forget the lessons of September the 11th and take the word of a madman, or do I take action to defend our country? Faced with that choice, I will defend America every time." (Sept. 2, 2004)
346. As noted below: THAT WASN'T THE CHOICE.
347. "Because we acted to defend our country, the murderous regimes of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban are history, more than 50 million people have been liberated, and democracy is coming to the broader Middle East." (Sept. 2, 2004)
348. Um. Saddam Hussein had not attacked the United States.
349. "My opponent and his running mate voted against this money for bullets, and fuel, and vehicles, and body armor." (Sept. 2, 2004)
350. From CommonDreams.org: "The references to Kerry voting against body armor were particularly disingenuous, given that the $87 billion only included money for body armor at the insistence of congressional Democrats-- Army Times, 10/20/03"

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 34)

2004-09-02T18:29:00.000-04:00

331. Zell Miller at the Republican National Convention, Sept. 1, 2004: "For more than 20 years, on every one of the great issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak and more wobbly than any other national figure."
332. Zell Miller in a speech posted on his Web site, March 1, 2001: "In his 16 years in the Senate, John Kerry has fought against government waste and worked hard to bring some accountability to Washington. Early in his Senate career in 1986, John signed on to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Bill, and he fought for balanced budgets before it was considered politically correct for Democrats to do so. John has worked to strengthen our military, reform public education, boost the economy and protect the environment."
333. Zell Miller, in the same speech: "John is a graduate of Yale University and was a gunboat officer in the Navy. He received a Silver Star, Bronze Star and three awards of the Purple Heart for combat duty in Vietnam. He later co-founded the Vietnam Veterans of America."
334. So all in all, that would be ... what's that term? Oh, yes. A flip-flop.
335. Karl Rove to the Associated Press, Sept. 1, 2004, on John Kerry's antiwar activism: "It was a period of intense feeling on both sides for and against the war, but I think that was painting with far too broad a brush to tarnish the records and service of people who were defending our country and fighting communism and doing what they thought was right."
336. In all fairness, Karl Rove served the nation valiantly in Vietnam. If serving the nation valiantly means getting a student deferment.
337. A book title identifies Karl Rove as "Bush's brain." Evidently he has set his sights lower.
338. A Bush flip-flop: A campaign ad released Aug. 23, 2004, said John Kerry had voted 98 times for tax increases. An earlier ad put the number at 350 votes.
339. FactCheck.org comments: "But even the new, reduced total is padded."
340. From FactCheck.org: "Most of the 98 votes were on procedural measures, such as votes to end debate or votes on amendments, and not on passage of the measure itself. More than once, the 98-vote total counts half a dozen votes or more on on a single bill."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 33)

2004-09-01T16:34:00.000-04:00

321. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told of a day in 1968 when he watched the "Nixon-Humphrey presidential race" and was swept away by the free-market charm of Richard Nixon.
322. The Los Angeles Times used slightly different wording in an article I found this excerpt of but couldn't track in its entirety: "Fresh from Austria, a socialist country, Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to become a Republican after listening to 'the debates of Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon when they were debating for the presidential race,' or so he told television talk show host Bill O'Reilly in May 2001."
323. Nixon and Humphrey didn't debate in the 1968 campaign.
324. Even when O'Reilly isn't actually lying, the lies are unabated.
325. Credit where credit's due: A Google search I should have done some time ago turned up a site that does methodically what I've been doing haphazardly. It's called One Thousand Reasons, and it's at http://www.thousandreasons.org/listB.html.
326. It's pretty pathetic when there are competing voluminous lists to illustrate why Bush shouldn't be re-elected.
327. Or, more accurately, re-selected.
328. So when the Bush twins spoke at the Republican National Convention on Aug. 31, 2004, some onlookers said they sounded kinda drunk.
329. One of Barbara Bush's one-liners from the RNC, Aug. 31, 2004: "Who is this man they call Dick Cheney?"
330. From a Web page titled "Genetics of Alcoholism" http://alcoholism.about.com/od/genetics/: "There is a growing body of scientific evidence that alcoholism has a genetic component, although the gene has not been identified."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 32)

2004-08-31T22:12:00.000-04:00

311. Sins of the Fathers Dept.: George H.W. Bush, soon to be described as the elder former President Bush, joins in on the Kerry-bashing, telling CNN on Aug. 30, 2004, that the Swift Boat claims were "rather compelling," the New York Times reported.
312. According to the Times, George H.W. Bush told CNN: "I have great confidence in Bob Dole. I don't think he'd be out there just smearing."
313. Dole told CNN on Aug. 22, 2004: "Not every one of these people can be Republican liars. There's got to be some truth to the charges."
314. Speaking of Republican liars, the Times article notes: "The former president said that in his last campaign, in 1992, he was 'very careful' not to attack his opponent, Bill Clinton, for avoiding service in Vietnam."
315. George H.W. Bush, Aug. 20, 1992: "What about the leader of the Arkansas National Guard, the man who hopes to be Commander in Chief? Well, while I bit the bullet, he bit his nails."
316. "It's about time you had the heart to invite me." (March 2, 2000, on the Late Show with David Letterman, alluding uproariously to Dave's recent bypass surgery)
317. "It means when it comes time to sew up your chest cavity, we use stitches as opposed to opening it up." (March 2, 2000, on the Late Show, cracking wise again after Dave asked about that uniter-not-a-divider stuff)
318. "Oh, I'd say I'm a compassionate conservative." (April 25, 2001)
319. "I can understand why Senator Kerry is upset with us. I wasn’t so pleased with the ads that were run about me." (Aug. 29, 2004)
320. As Andrew Sullivan noted: "'Us'?? I thought Bush had nothing to do with it."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 31)

2004-08-31T17:03:00.000-04:00

301. First, Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Although, technically, he didn't.
302. Then he had weapons of mass destruction program related activities.
303. Then: "Even though we did not find the stockpiles that we thought we would find, Saddam Hussein had the capability of making weapons of mass destruction, and he could have passed that capability on to the enemy, and that was a risk we could not afford to take after September the 11th." (Aug. 31, 2004)
304. That's a lot of could haves on which to spend hundreds of lives.
305. Clinton played saxophone. Kerry played bass. Bush? Instrumentally inept.
306. "Redefining the role of the United States from enablers to keep the peace to enablers to keep the peace from peacekeepers is going to be an assignment." (Jan. 14, 2001)
307. At the RNC, delegate Morton Blackwell of Arlington, Va., handed out hilarious "purple heart bandages" with the motto: "It was just a self-inflicted scratch, but you see I got a Purple Heart for it."
308. Because, you know, when a guy goes to Vietnam, it's fodder for comedy, but when a guy goes-but-doesn't-go to the National Guard, that's serious national service.
309. "You're a good friend." (To Rush Limbaugh, Aug. 31, 2004)
310. At least Bush's "good friend" acknowledged his drug use.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 30)

2004-08-30T22:47:00.000-04:00

291. "This man has outspent me." (Oct. 3, 2000, referring to Al Gore)
292. Mark Crispin Miller, The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder: "In fact, Bush raised and spent more money than any presidential candidate in U.S. history."
293. Bill Clinton, Oct. 15, 2003: "In his campaign, Bush had said he thought the biggest security issue was Iraq and a national missile defense. I told him that in my opinion, the biggest security problem was Osama bin Laden."
294. That conversation took place before Clinton left office in 2001.
295. Sept. 11, 2001, did not change everything.
296. A Bush flip-flop: "We meet today at a time of war for our country, a war we did not start, yet one that we will win." (Aug. 31, 2004, on the War on Terror, a day after his somewhat different "I don't think you can win it" opinion was aired on Today)
297. "So I had a choice to make: Do I forget the lessons of September the 11th and take the word of a madman, or do I take action to defend our country?" (Aug. 31, 2004)
298. How to say this with all due restraint? THAT WASN'T THE CHOICE.
299. Another option, for example, would have been allowing the inspections to continue.
300. Or here's a crazy one: When claiming to retaliate against a nation violating the wishes of the UN, don't act unilaterally in violation of the wishes of the UN.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 29)

2004-08-30T21:42:00.000-04:00

281. A Bush flip-flop: In late 1993, the administration pushed a Medicare prescription-drug plan that it said would cost about $400 billion over 10 years. After Congress passed the plan, the administration said the real cost would be $534 billion.
282. And the administration knew that when it touted the lower price tag.
283. And the administration's chief Medicare actuary told colleagues he would be fired if he released numbers to lawmakers indicating the higher estimate.
284. And the administration's TV spots promoting the changes violated a ban on spending federal dollars on covert propaganda, the General Accounting Office said on May 19, 2004.
285. The spots were shown on several TV news programs. Two of them ended with a woman saying, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."
286. The administration helpfully gave news broadcasters a suggested lead-in to the clips: "In December, President Bush signed into law the first-ever prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare. Since then, there have been a lot of questions about how the law will help older Americans and people with disabilities. Reporter Karen Ryan helps sort through the details."
287. Karen Ryan is not a reporter.
288. An article about her on the Public Relations Society of America Web site (http://www.prsa.org/_Publications/magazines/0604spot1.asp) is titled: "Karen Ryan, PR professional."
289. Columnist Dennis Roddy wrote of Karen Ryan in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on March 20, 2004: "She touted the Medicare bill, but when I asked her if she thought it was a good bill, she replied, 'I have no idea.'"
290. And she didn't know if she'd vote for Bush.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 28)

2004-08-30T18:04:00.000-04:00

271. On Fidel Castro: “The dictator welcomes sex tourism. Here’s how he bragged about the industry. This is his quote — ‘Cuba has the cleanest and most educated prostitutes in the world’ and ‘sex tourism is a vital source of hard currency.’” (July 16, 2004)
272. Here's what Castro really said, in July 1992: "There are hookers, but prostitution is not allowed in our country. No women are forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist. Those who do so do it on their own, voluntarily ... We can say that they are highly-educated hookers and quite healthy, because we are the country with the lowest number of AIDS cases."
273. Asked where the "cleanest and most educated prostitutes" quote came from, according to a July 27, 2004, report on CBSNews.com, the White House "cited a 2001 paper posted on a University of Texas Web site. The Los Angeles Times tracked down the author of that paper, Charles Trumbull, now studying law, to report that he is 'annoyed' because Mr. Bush took the 1992 quote out of context and misinterpreted Castro's intent."
274. MSNBC.com, July 27, 2004: Castro charged that Bush "could be having a difficult time 'distinguishing between relevant and inconsequential information.'"
275. New York Times, Aug. 27, 2004: "Mr. Bush also acknowledged for the first time that he made a 'miscalculation of what the conditions would be' in postwar Iraq."
276. In 1995, Bush got his driver's-license number changed to keep reports of his 1976 drunk-driving arrest from surfacing, MSNBC reported.
277. In Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency, Jake Tapper reports that Bush had a nickname for his pillow.
278. The nickname was "Pilly."
279. Bush's nickname for Russian president Vladimir Putin: "Pootie-Poot."
280. Baltimore Sun, June 2, 2003: "President Bush proclaimed that a report by leading economists concluded that the economy would grow by 3.3 percent in 2003 if his tax cut proposals were adopted. No such report exists."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 27)

2004-08-30T16:39:00.000-04:00

261. A Bush flip-flop: The administration now says that rising temperatures since 1950 in North America were probably caused in part by human activity (Reuters, Aug. 26, 2004).
262. New York Times, Aug. 27, 2004: "Previously, Mr. Bush and other officials had emphasized uncertainties in understanding the causes and consequences of global warming."
263. "Ah, we did? I don't think so." (Aug. 26, 2004, quoted on the New York Times Web site the next day, responding to a question about why the administration had changed its position on global warming.)
264. Guess he hadn't read that particular "report put out by the bureaucracy." See reason 52.
265. I forgot to mention this after reason 52: That report by the bureaucracy? He never read it. The AP quoted Ari Fleischer on June 10, 2002: "Whenever presidents say they read it, you can read that to be he was briefed."
266. New York Times, Aug. 27, 2004, paragraph after "Ah, we did?": "Scott McClellan, Mr. Bush's press secretary, said later that the administration was not changing its position on global warming and that Mr. Bush continued to be guided by continuing research at the National Academy of Sciences."
267. "We are the nations that have recognized the threat of terrorism, and we are the nations that will defeat that threat. Each of us has pledged before the world: We will never bow to the violence of a few. We will face this mortal danger, and we will overcome it together." (March 19, 2004)
268. ''I don't think you can win it." (Aug. 30, 2004, on whether victory is possible in the war on terror)
269. Scott McClellan, Aug. 30, 2004, called on again to talk his boss out of a jam: ''He was talking about winning it in the conventional sense ... about how this is a different kind of war and we face an unconventional enemy. I don't think you can expect that there will ever be a formal surrender or a treaty signed like we have in wars past.''
270. Scott McClellan clearly needs to take some time off.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 26)

2004-08-26T16:12:00.000-04:00

251. From an "Against the Grain" commentary by Dick Meyer on CBSNews.com: "Any student of Bush family campaigns could have seen the swift boat shiv shining a mile away. This old family has traditions – horseshoes, fishing, bad syntax and having the help do the dirty work in campaigns as well as the kitchen. And they are very good at getting jobs done without leaving fingerprints, without compromising their patrician image and their alleged character."
252. More from Meyer: "In 2000, McCain had George W. on the ropes and South Carolina was the do-or-die state. Flyers appeared from thin air alleging that McCain had a black child (he and his wife had adopted a Bangladeshi daughter from an orphanage there). Other fliers said McCain was the 'fag candidate.' Rumors swirled that McCain’s time in a North Vietnamese prison camp had left him unstable and downright crazy - again, hitting at the opponent's greatest strength. Other rumors were that his wife was a drug addict. Nice stuff, and none of it had Bush’s inky fingerprints on it."
253. You know that kid in high school who can't win a fair fight but wins them anyway with groin kicking and hair pulling? That's Bush.
254. John Kerry, Aug. 9, 2004: "Yes, I would have voted for the authority [to use force in Iraq]. I believe it is the right authority for a president to have. But I would have used that authority, as I have said throughout this campaign, effectively. I would have done this very differently from the way President Bush has." President Bush, Aug. 18, 2004: "He now agrees it was the right decision to go into Iraq."
255. Bush is either dense or deceitful.
256. Although, in fairness, he could be both.
257. Scott McClellan, Bush spokesman, May 9, 2000: "Yucca Mountain has not been deemed scientifically safe, and as president, he would veto any legislation regarding nuclear waste if it was not deemed scientifically safe."
258. In February 2002, Bush called for a 57-year accumulation of nuclear waste from power plants and weapons to be buried in, um, Yucca Mountain, despite the fact that it had not been "deemed scientifically safe."
259. Associated Press, Feb. 18, 2004: "RENO, Nev. -- The nation's nuclear waste dump proposed for Nevada is poorly designed and could leak highly radioactive waste, a scientist who recently resigned from a federal panel of experts on Yucca Mountain told The Associated Press on Wednesday."
260. The scientist, Paul Craig, told the AP: "The science is very clear. If we get high-temperature liquids, the metal would corrode and that would eventually lead to leakage of nuclear waste," Craig said. Therefore, it is a bad design. And that is very, very bad news for the Department of Energy because they are committed to that design."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 25)

2004-08-25T21:55:00.000-04:00

241. The sheer number of trees being killed to publish book after book about the miserable failure that is the Bush administration.
242. The irony in that statement, given Bush's overt hostility to the environment.
243. After Georges Washington and H.W. Bush, this would make him George III.
244. Last time we were ruled by a George III, our taxes went to pay for an unjust war.
245. Even Dick Cheney disagrees with Bush's stance on gay marriage.
246. When a policy is too far to the right for Cheney, it's pretty damn far to the right.
247. Alice Cooper, in a Canadian interview: "When I read the list of people who are supporting Kerry, if I wasn't already a Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that's a good reason right there to vote for Bush." (World Net Daily, Aug. 24, 2004)
248. Alice, explaining why he feels that way, in the same interview: "Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons." (World Net Daily, Aug. 24, 2004)
249. If they're morons, what does that make the idiots who booed Linda Ronstadt for dedicating a song to Michael Moore at a Las Vegas show? Supermorons? Megamorons?
250. Speaking of morons: This is the hilarious and tasteful endnote to a hilarious press release about a hilarious play, John F. Kerry: He's No JFK, set to open in New York to coincide with the hilarious Republican National Convention: "Anyone who can prove he has had safe sexual relations with the Governor of the State of New Jersey, or his lover, will be admitted free."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 24)

2004-08-25T15:43:00.000-04:00

231. N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisors, Feb. 9, 2004: "Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade. More things are tradable than were tradable in the past. And that's a good thing."
232. Estimates of jobs lost to outsourcing so far range from 300,000 to 995,000, according to the Center for American Progress.
233. Goldman Sachs predicts 6 million jobs could be lost over a decade, CAP says.
234. Thomas Donohue, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, offered this advice on June 30, 2004, to workers affected by outsourcing: "Stop whining."
235. From an ABCNews.com report on his uplifting and inspirational speech: "One job sent overseas, if it happens to be my job, is one too many," Donohue said. "But the benefits of offshoring jobs outweighs the cost."
236. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, May 22, 2001: "When I mention the word 'straight talk,' I think about Tom Donohue. I tell you that. I mean this is a man of straight talk. Nowhere is that more necessary than on the issues today in the international arena."
237. "Today we're here to celebrate life, the value of life, and as importantly, the spirit of America. What took place here in Pennsylvania really represents the best of our country, what I call the spirit of America, the great strength of our nation." (Aug. 5, 2002, meeting with the Quecreek, Pa., coal miners rescued after being trapped in a mine for 78 hours)
238. Molly Ivins in Mother Jones, November/December 2003 issue: "In August 2002, Bush held a photo op with the Quecreek coal miners, the nine men whose rescue had thrilled the country. By then he had already cut the coal-safety budget at the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which engineered the rescue, by 6 percent, and had named a coal-industry executive to run the agency."
239. A lawyer with Bush's campaign resigned after acknowledging he had advised the Not Very Swift At All Boat Veterans for Something They Call, Ironically, Truth, becoming the second campaign worker to step down because of ties to the group.
240. Scott McClellan, Bush spokesman: "We've already said we weren't involved in any way in these ads. We've made that clear."

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 23)

2004-08-24T20:33:00.000-04:00

221. In 1992, six years after Bush supposedly gave up drinking, he was videotaped giving a presumably intoxicated talk at a wedding.
222. "You no good fucking sonofabitch, I will never fucking forget what you wrote!" (Quoted in First Son by Bill Minutaglio, addressing Al Hunt of the Wall Street Journal in 1987)
223. Hunt assumed that Bush, who says he stopped drinking when he turned 40 in 1986, "was quite clearly lubricated." (Quoted in First Son)
224. "I've had no alcohol since I decided to quit." (20/20, May 5, 2000)
225. "I have absolutely no problem with children learning different forms of how the world was formed." (Quoted in the eminently respectable New York Post, Nov. 5, 1999)
226. "I personally believe God created the earth." (Quoted in the Kansas City Star, Sept. 9, 1999)
227. If 2004 doesn't improve tremendously upon the pathetic job-creation trends of every year since Clinton left office, Bush would be the first president under whom overall jobs fell since Herbert Hoover. And Hoover was the last president to snub the NAACP for an entire term (see reason 33).
228. "We've turned a corner, and we're not turning back." (July 30, 2004)
229. Herbert Hoover, 1932: "Prosperity is just around the corner."
230. Herbert Hoover was a one-term Republican.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 22)

2004-08-24T17:02:00.000-04:00

211. Laura Bush dissed P. Diddy at the grand opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati on Aug. 23, 2004, according to the eminently reputable New York Post.
212. Laura Bush "considered herself a Democrat before marrying George W.," according to a USA Today profile published June 23, 2000.
213. The president has no need for newspapers. "I get briefed by Andy Card and Condi in the morning. They come in and tell me. ... I glance at the headlines just to kind of a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are [sic] probably read the news themselves. But like Condoleezza, in her case, the national security adviser is getting her news directly from the participants on the world stage." (Sept. 23, 2003)
214. "You know, look, I have great respect for the media. I mean, our society is a good, solid democracy because of a good, solid media. But I also understand that a lot of times there's opinions mixed in with news. ... I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news. And the best way to get the news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world." (Sept. 23, 2003)
215. The fact that the president of the United States thinks the most objective sources available are people who work for him indicates that either he doesn't know what "objective" means or he's using the word to deceive.
216. Laura Bush on the Tonight Show, May 19, 2004: "He really does read the newspaper."
217. Just to clear things up: The president doesn't read the papers. Except he does.
218. Did you know George W. Bush was accused of an extramarital affair with a Playboy model? (National Enquirer, September 2000)
219. Neither did I until Google turned up a hit when I was looking for that original Spy list about George H.W. Bush.
220. People accusing Bill Clinton of murder made the newspaper more frequently than this account of a Bush affair.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 21)

2004-08-24T16:06:00.000-04:00

201. Questions remain on Bush's National Guard service, USA Today notes: "Why did Bush, described by some of his fellow officers as a talented and enthusiastic pilot, stop flying fighter jets in the spring of 1972 and fail to take an annual physical exam required of all pilots?" (Aug. 23, 2004)
202. "What explains the apparent gap in the president's Guard service in 1972-73, a period when commanders in Texas and Alabama say they never saw him report for duty and records show no pay to Bush when he was supposed to be on duty in Alabama?" (Aug. 23, 2004)
203. "Did Bush receive preferential treatment in getting into the Guard and securing a coveted pilot slot despite poor qualifying scores and arrests, but no convictions, for stealing a Christmas wreath and rowdiness at a football game during his college years?" (Aug. 23, 2004)
204. "I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war." (January 2002, Houston Chronicle)
205. Um. He never went to war.
206. Tales of compassionate conservativism: Reuters reported on July 29, 2004, that Susan Sheybani, an assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt, was overheard saying of workers unhappy with low-paying jobs: Why don’t they get new jobs if they’re unhappy — or go on Prozac?"
207. The last line of that Reuters article: "Nearly 1.1 million jobs have been lost since Bush took office in January 2001."
208. To be specific, according to Senate Democrats: 1.8 million private-sector jobs and 2.7 million manufacturing jobs have been lost. (Aug. 6, 2004, policy paper)
209. Government hiring, however, has increased, which would seem to violate the small-government philosophy of the American conservative movement.
210. The best part? After adjusting for inflation, wages for American workers fell 0.8 percent in June 2004.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 20)

2004-08-23T20:20:00.000-04:00

191. Bush's theory on why you shouldn't raise taxes on the rich: They won't pay 'em anyway, and the middle class gets stuck with the bill.
192. Which leads to the obvious question: Why tax the rich at all?
193. Which segues nicely into: Republicans are starting to talk publicly about abolishing the IRS.
194. Recently released Congressional Budget Office data show that the middle class is picking up more of the tax burden, thanks to Bush's tax cuts.
195. Headline, San Francisco Examiner, Aug. 17, 2004: "Income gap widening."
196. Dick Cheney and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's duck-hunting trips didn't prompt Scalia to recuse himself from deliberations when Cheney's effort to keep documents of his energy task force secret reached the nation's highest court.
197. The New York Times reported on Dec. 15, 2003: On a hunting trip in Westmoreland County, Pa., in December, Cheney and some pals shot 417 pen-raised birds, of which the editor of Field & Stream said: "I don't see anything terribly wrong with it, but I don't think it should be confused with hunting."
198. The article says the Humane Society of the United States took a somewhat different view: "'This can only be called a shooting-gallery operation,' said Wayne Pacelle, the senior vice president of the Humane Society, who pronounced himself outraged. 'Hunting is supposed to involve some opportunity for the animal to evade the hunter. Hunting in this setting is reduced to mass killing.'"
199. Cheney and his office would not release the names of his hunting companions or the recipients of all the slaughtered fowl.
200. Secrecy under Bush/Cheney is "worse than Watergate," says John W. Dean, who really ought to know.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 19)

2004-08-23T18:44:00.000-04:00

181. New overtime rules that will effectively reduce pay for millions of American workers.
182. Even Arlen Specter opposes the new rules.
183. Karl Rove on Bush, January 2003: "Give him a choice between Wall Street and Main Street and he'll choose Main Street every time."
184. Ari Fleischer, to reporters, Sept. 26, 2001: "And that's why -- there was an earlier question about has the President said anything to people in his own party -- they're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do."
185. Fleischer was referring to comments by Bill Maher that cost him his job hosting ABC's Politically Incorrect.
186. And he wasn't kidding. Just ask the Dixie Chicks, who met with boycotts after one of them had the nerve to criticize the president.
187. Or ask Howard Stern, who praised Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars and coincidentally was dropped by ClearChannel.
188. John Ashcroft, Dec. 6, 2001: "To those who pit Americans against immigrants, and citizens against noncitizens; to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our nationality unity and diminish our resolve."
189. "Phantoms of lost liberty" sounds like a Scooby-Doo episode.
190. But thanks to the Patriot Act, it's not those meddling kids who do the actual meddling. It's the government.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 18)

2004-08-23T16:14:00.000-04:00

171. A Bush flip-flop: After dodging the issue, he sort of condemned the Swift Boat Veterans ad and sort of praised Kerry's war record.
172. He has trouble staying on message.
173. Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, nicknamed "Bandar Bush" by Bush kin for his close relationship with the family.
174. Perhaps if there's no Republican in the White House, Dennis Miller can be genuinely funny again, instead of angry and kind of sad.
175. OK, maybe sort of funny.
176. That threat against Air Force One on 9/11 that didn't, well, actually happen.
177. John Kerry: Purple Hearts and Bronze Star from U.S. military. George W. Bush: Yellow moons and green clovers from box of Lucky Charms.
178. Barney, the Bush family dog, has his own Web site: http://www.whitehouse.gov/barney
179. You can ask Barney questions via the Web site, which is more than you can do at a Bush campaign rally if the organizers don't know you'll say something nice.
180. Katherine Harris.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 17)

2004-08-22T22:01:00.000-04:00

161. "I denounced interracial dating. I denounced anti-Catholic bigacy -- bigotry. ... No, I -- I -- I -- I spoke out against interracial dating. I mean, I support inter -- the policy of interracial dating." (Feb. 25, 2000)
162. "Among the questions Bush had to answer on his application forms was whether he wanted to go overseas. Bush checked the box that said: DO NOT VOLUNTEER." (Washington Post, July 28, 1999, explaining why there are no Not-So-Swift Boat Veterans for 'Truth' ads questioning Bush's heroic war record and mulitple medals)
163. Richard Mellon Scaife.
164. Teresa Heinz Kerry telling a guy from Scaife's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review to "shove it" after years of harassment by the fiercely partisan right-wing paper prompts questions as to whether she's an asset or a liability to the Kerry campaign.
165. Dick Cheney spewing out an obscenity (one worse than anything ever broadcast by Howard Stern) on the Senate floor prompts no questions as to whether he's an asset or a liability to the Bush campaign.
166. John DiIulio, former head of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, in the January 2003 Esquire magazine: "What you got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis."
167. The fact that Bush had an Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Because, you know, church and state and all.
168. "Thank you, Jordan. Well, Jordan, you're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack. I was in Florida. And my Chief of Staff, Andy Card -- actually, I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident. But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it. And I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my Chief of Staff, who is sitting over here, walked in and said, 'A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack.' And, Jordan, I wasn't sure what to think at first. You know, I grew up in a period of time where the idea of America being under attack never entered my mind -- just like your Daddy's and Mother's mind probably. And I started thinking hard in that very brief period of time about what it meant to be under attack." (Dec. 4, 2001)
169. He could not possibly have seen the first plane "hit the tower," because that footage wasn't available right away.
170. "I wasn't sure what to think" might be the most honest thing he's said about 9/11. Or pretty much anything. Although it could be plausibly argued that maybe "the idea of America being under attack" ought not have left the nation's commander in chief quite so dumbfounded.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 16)

2004-08-22T21:43:00.000-04:00

151. Who'd have thought there would be a Bush volunteer in the Swift Boat Veterans for 'Truth'?
152. U.S. Olympic officials are pissed off about a Bush campaign ad.
153. Which brings U.S. Olympic officials in line with pretty much everyone else.
154. Paul Bremer to the Washington Post, Dec. 24, 2000: "Clinton correctly focused on Bin Laden."
155. Paul Bremer.
156. Hey, how's that winning-the-peace-in-Iraq thing going, anyway?
157. "I don't care what the polls say. I don't. I'm doing what I think what's wrong." (Quoted in the New York Times, March 15, 2000)
158. Judith Miller.
159. The people who cynically exploited Judith Miller to propagate the many, many lies about WMD.
160. The many, many lies about WMD.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 15)

2004-08-20T22:07:00.000-04:00

141. Those totally nonpartisan Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, with no connection whatsoever to the Bush campaign, turn out to have "a web of connections to the Bush family, high-profile Texas political figures and President Bush's chief political aide, Karl Rove," the Aug. 20 New York Times reports. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20swift.html
142. The whole Swift Boat Veterans campaign is vaguely reminiscent of the Willie Horton ad against Mike Dukakis.
143. Which, by the way, was never renounced by the incumbent president.
144. Who, by the way, was named Bush.
145. And whose son, a fellow named George W., is said to have worked on the Willie Horton ad.
146. Butterfly ballots.
147. Hanging chads.
148. Manufactured "spontaneous" protests disrupting the 2000 recount in Florida.
149. Pat Buchanan, Nov. 9, 2000, on the possibility that some voters got confused by the Palm Beach County ballot and mistakenly voted for him instead of Al Gore: "It does seem to me that those are probably not my votes. My guess is I got some votes down there that probably should not belong to me and I don't feel good about that. I don't want any votes that weren't meant for me."
150. How bad is it when even Pat Buchanan sides with the other guy?

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 14)

2004-08-20T16:39:00.000-04:00

131. "This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mential losses." (Jan. 14, 2000)
132. "There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again." (Sept. 17, 2002)
133. "Tribal sovereignty means that, it's sovereign. You're a—you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And, therefore, the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities." (Aug. 6, 2004)
134. "My administration has been calling upon all the leaders in the—in the Middle East to do everything they can to stop the violence, to tell the different parties involved that peace will never happen." (Aug. 13, 2001)
135. "The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself." (Jan. 29, 2003)
136. "One of the most meaningful things that's happened to me since I've been the governor—the president—governor—president. Oops. Ex-governor." (Jan. 9, 2004)
137. "First, we would not accept a treaty that would not have been ratified, nor a treaty that I thought made sense for the country." (April 24, 2001)
138. "And so, in my State of the—my State of the Union—or state—my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation—I asked Americans to give 4,000 years—4,000 hours over the next—the rest of your life—of service to America. That's what I asked—4,000 hours." (April 9, 2002)
139. "These are open forums, you're able to come and listen to what I have to say." (Oct. 28, 2003)
140. There are countless more where these came from, at Slate's Complete Bushisms site. And, frankly, the Internet might not be large enough to handle four more years' worth.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 13)

2004-08-20T16:04:00.000-04:00

121. Paul Wolfowitz.
122. Richard Perle.
123. Neocons in general.
124. Neocons who hatched the plan to attack Iraq and oust Saddam in particular.
125. 1,087 coalition soldiers (from the U.S., the U.K., and elsewhere) have been killed in Iraq since March 20, 2003, according to CNN.
126. More than 10,000 civilians have been killed by military action in Iraq since Jan. 1, 2003, according to IraqBodyCount.net.
127. The word nuclear is pronounced "new-clear." It is not pronounced "nucular."
128. Subliminable is not a word in English.
129. Nor is resignate.
130. "The woman who knew that I had dyslexia—I never interviewed her." (Sept. 15, 2000)

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 12)

2004-08-19T22:18:00.000-04:00

111. Just think of all the exciting Scarborough Country episodes on the corrupt Kerry administration!
112. "This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It's what you do when you run for president. You gotta preserve." (quoted Jan. 28, 2000, in the Los Angeles Times; it was actually Perseverance Month)
113. Oh, the hypocrisy! CNN, Jan. 22, 2003: "When the president delivered his remarks, he did so from the floor of a warehouse with American flags in the background along with the logo 'Strengthening America's Economy' on a backdrop of boxes. The boxes were stamped 'Made in U.S.A.' One problem: The boxes were made in China. And that was evident despite an effort to hide labels on boxes surrounding the stage. The boxes placed on the side of the stage had 'Made in China' labels covered up with white pieces of paper."
114. "The SEC fully investigated the stock deal. I was exonerated." (October 1994, on his sale of Harken Energy stock two months before Harken announced unexpected losses and its stock price plummeted)
115. "It must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result." (Letter from SEC to Bush's lawyer, obtained in 1994 by the Dallas Morning News)
116. "We must usher in a new era of integrity in corporate America." (July 9, 2002)
117. Even Norman Schwarzkopf isn't endorsing him this time.
118. The incredibly nasty smear-Kerry campaign by the ironically named Swift Boat Veterans For Truth.
119. The very notion of supporting a warmongering chickenhawk over a war hero with a Purple Heart.
120. "I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes." (May 8, 1994, Houston Chronicle)

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 11)

2004-08-19T18:36:00.000-04:00

101. "I remember campaigning in Chicago one time, and the guy said, would you ever deficit spend? I said, well, only if we were at war, or the country was in recession, or there was a national emergency. I didn't realize we were going to get the trifecta." (April 4, 2002)
102. He didn't actually say that in Chicago.
103. Or anywhere.
104. But there's this quote: "Barring an economic reversal, a national emergency, or a foreign crisis, we should balance the budget this year, next year, and every year." (May 8, 1998) It was spoken by Al Gore.
105. In the 2000 campaign, Al Gore was depicted as a serial liar.
106. "First and foremost, we got to make sure we fully fund LIHEAP, which is a way to help low-income folks, particularly here in the East, to pay for their high fuel bills." (Oct. 3, 2000)
107. Bush's budget proposal for fiscal 2003 cut $300 million from the LIHEAP budget.
108. "We will not deny, we will not ignore, we will not pass along our problems to other Congresses, to other presidents, and other generations." (Jan. 28, 2003)
109. "White House Predicts 2004 Deficit Of $445 Billion -- the Biggest Ever" (Washington Post headline, July 31, 2004)
110. "You can't say one thing and do another." (Oct. 31, 2000)

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 10)

2004-08-19T17:25:00.000-04:00

91. In Bush's world: Tax cuts that benefit the rich at the expense of the poor? Not class warfare. Calling attention to tax cuts that benefit the rich at the expense of the poor? Class warfare.
92. Tax cuts that benefit the rich at the expense of the poor.
93. More tax cuts that benefit the rich at the expense of the poor.
94. Michelle Malkin.
95. Laura Ingraham.
96. NewsMax.com.
97. Fox News.
98. Sinclair Broadcasting.
99. ClearChannel.
100. The left-wing media conspiracy.

1,001 Reasons Not To Vote For Bush (Vol. 9)

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81. When he was an owner of the Texas Rangers, they traded Sammy Sosa.
82. The "Axis of Evil."
83. As president, his father, accompanied by a vice president almost comically unfit for office, led the nation to war against Iraq, inherited a booming economy that promptly tanked, presided over a cultural war against Hollywood liberals, watched his approval rating soar and then plummet, and ultimately became a wretched one-term failure. So it's a family tradition.
84. "Mission Accomplished." (Wording of a banner behind Bush during a speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier, during which he announced an end to major combat in Iraq, May 1, 2003)
85. "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." (May 1, 2003, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln)
86. "The 'Mission Accomplished' sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished." Oct. 28, 2003
87. "We put it up. We made the sign." Ari Fleischer, April 2004.
88. The flight suit he wore en route to his speech below the "Mission Accomplished" banner.
89. By the way: The mission? It wasn't accomplished.
90. "Feels good." (March 19, 2003, minutes before announcing the start of the war in Iraq, exuding the cheerleading bravado known to hardened combat veterans of the Texas Air National Guard.)

We Interrupt This List for a Public Service Announcement

2004-08-19T15:48:00.000-04:00

Ronn G. at the Tool Shed has a bunch of worthwhile stuff in just a few days' worth of blogging. Check him out when you get a chance.
He'll be posting from outside the Republican National Convention, unlike certain other bloggers who will settle for watching as much as they can stomach on late-night C-SPAN reruns.

http://thetool-shed.blogspot.com/