IT'S THE INCOMPETENCE, STUPID

Bill Clinton's mantra back in the 1992 presidential campaign was, "It's the economy, stupid." In describing George W. Bush we can keep the word "economy," because the economy is terrible, but we could also substitute "incompetence" or "corruption" or "lying." Richard Reeves writes about the reasons for throwing out Bush in this column linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:

John Kerry is winning the presidential election -- as far as I can tell. I have already voted absentee and I voted for the Democrat. I voted for him because I have children and grandchildren, too, and I love my country too much to watch George W. Bush try to figure it out for four more years.

Biased? Of course. That's why I write this column: to share my bias. I am always amazed when I get letters, many of them, accusing me of being a "liberal" or, a lot worse, an "elitist." Yes, I am. Hello!

REPUBS AREN'T EVEN GOOD FOR THE RICH

We know that Republican economics are heavily slanted toward the very wealthy. In the past few years of the Bush nightmare most of the new wealth generated has gone to the top 1%. It's interesting, though, that a new study shows that even the rich do better under Democratic administrations. This story is at www.opednews.com:

United States Census Bureau data on mean household income from the beginning of the Nixon Administration through 2002 (the last year for which these data are currently available) show that this almost universally held belief is simply, almost spectacularly, wrong. During that period, Republicans held the White House for 22 years and Democrats for 12 years. In constant 2002 dollars, the average annual gain in income by the richest five percent of American households under Republicans (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and the two Bushes) was $1706. Under Democrats (Carter and Clinton), the richest five percent saw their income rise by an annual average of $6,921.

BUSH LET CHEMICAL WEAPONS FALL INTO THE WRONG HANDS TOO

In the past few days we learned that the Bush administration failed to secure 380 tons of high explosives in Iraq. Now a story emerges that chemical weapons were also not secured and may have fallen into the hands of terrorists. This war was supposedly to make us safer and it has instead provided armaments to people trying to kill us. This story is at www.cbsnews.com:

Looters unleashed last year by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq overran a sprawling desert complex where a bunker sealed by U.N. monitors held old chemical weapons, American arms inspectors report.

Charles Duelfer's arms teams say all U.N.-sealed structures at the Muthanna site were broken into. If the so-called Bunker 2 was breached and looted, it would be a new case of restricted weapons being at risk of having fallen into militants' hands.

WAGES DROP FOR 14TH STRAIGHT QUARTER

Bill Clinton used to talk about people who work hard and play by the rules. It's difficult to play by the rules when the people running the game cheat. The share of the economy going to wages and salaries has dropped for an unprecedented fourth quarter. The story is at www.makethemaccountable.com:

The Commerce Department data released today on the nation’s Gross Domestic Product - which measures the overall size of the economy - indicate the continuation of a troubling trend for the country’s workers. The new data are for the third quarter of 2004 and show that a steadily dropping share of the nation’s income is going to wages and salaries. At the same time, data through the second quarter show that the share of GDP going to corporate profits has increased substantially. To a lesser degree, the share of GDP going to employer contributions to insurance and pensions has also risen.

TIME TO RECLAIM THE COMMONS

There were human societies once that didn't have a concept of private property. Even in England farmers would graze their livestock on common meadows. In North America the Native Americans were nomadic and didn't fence off property. The concept of private property may have advantages, but there are dangerous disadvantages when the powerful take control of more and more resources, even to the point of destroying all life on earth. Adam Werbach writes about it in this article linked at www.commondreams.org:

It would be difficult for a president to express more disregard for the environment than George W. Bush. Bush refused to act on global warming, declaring the Kyoto treaty dead. He refused to continue the Superfund program, sticking Americans with a multi-billion-dollar tab for cleaning up corporate toxic waste. He refused to enforce the Clean Air Act and shelved years worth of legal work by the Environmental Protection Agency to hold power plants accountable for breaking pollution laws. From the downright absence of discussion of the environment in his State of the Union address to his decision to appoint anti-regulation oil and gas industry lobbyist J. Steven Griles as Deputy Secretary of the Interior, his consistent hostility has sent shivers down the spine of every nature-loving American.

HUNTER S. THOMPSON ON BUSH

A few decades ago Hunter S. Thompson championed a new style of reporting called "gonzo" journalism. Back then he was writing about the unbelievably dark and malevolent Richard M. Nixon, among others. Who knew that Nixon would look saintly compared to George W. Bush? In this article linked at www.commondreams.org Thompson takes on the Bush administration:

The genetically vicious nature of presidential campaigns in America is too obvious to argue with, but some people call it fun, and I am one of them. Election day - especially when it's a presidential election - is always a wild and terrifying time for politics junkies, and I am one of those, too. We look forward to major election days like sex addicts look forward to orgies. We are slaves to them.

Which is not a bad thing, all in all, for the winners. They are not the ones who bitch and whine about slavery when the votes are finally counted and the losers are forced to get down on their knees. No. The slaves who emerge victorious from these drastic public decisions go crazy with joy and plunge each other into deep tubs of chilled Cristal champagne with naked strangers who want to be close to a winner.

PHOTO ANALYST SAYS BUSH WORE DEVICE

George W. Bush tried to dismiss speculation he wore a device of some kind during his debates with John Kerry. Bush claimed it was a poorly tailored shirt. A NASA photo analyst says it was definitely a device of some kind. When the photos are enhanced you can even see a wire running up Bush's right shoulder. Lies, lies, and more lies from this guy. The story is at www.salon.com:

George W. Bush tried to laugh off the bulge. "I don't know what that is," he said on "Good Morning America" on Wednesday, referring to the infamous protrusion beneath his jacket during the presidential debates. "I'm embarrassed to say it's a poorly tailored shirt."

Dr. Robert M. Nelson, however, was not laughing. He knew the president was not telling the truth. And Nelson is neither conspiracy theorist nor midnight blogger. He's a senior research scientist for NASA and for Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and an international authority on image analysis. Currently he's engrossed in analyzing digital photos of Saturn's moon Titan, determining its shape, whether it contains craters or canyons.

LONG LIST OF BUSH INCOMPETENCE

With the disappearance of 380 tons of high explosives in Iraq, the record of Bush incompetence just becomes longer and more glaring. The failure to prevent 9/11 when there was ample intelligence to prevent it should be number one on the list. Then we have the massive deficits created to benefit just a few of the very rich. We have the lousy economy and outsourcing of jobs. We have the invasion of Iraq, which was immoral to start, and then no plan to exit Iraq. In this column Paul Krugman briefly summarizes some of the most massive Bush blunders. The column is at www.nytimes.com:

It's remarkable that the right-wingers who dominate cable news and talk radio are still complaining about a liberal stranglehold over the media. But, that absurdity aside, they're missing a crucial point: Al Qaqaa is hardly the only tale of incompetence and mendacity to break to the surface in the last few days. Here's a quick look at some of the others:

CONSERVATIVES HYPOCRITCALLY ATTACK THE MILITARY

George W. Bush has loved doing photo-ops with the military, including the notorious landing on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. He used harsh rhetoric against John Kerry in claiming that Kerry was denigrating the military by attacking Bush's policies in Iraq. Now that tons of munitions have disappeared in Iraq, suddenly the troops are at fault, according to conservatives. When is Bush ever responsible for anything? This story is at www.mediamatters.org:

In falsely accusing Senator John Kerry of denigrating American troops, it is in fact conservatives themselves -- including one of Bush-Cheney '04's most vocal campaigners -- who are suggesting that soldiers on the ground are responsible for explosives going missing in Iraq. On FOX News Channel, both Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and conservative radio host Laura Ingraham claimed that it was the soldiers -- not President George W. Bush -- who decided not to search for the explosives. And on NBC's Today, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, an active Bush campaigner, placed the "actual responsibility" squarely on the troops.

On October 27, Bush accused Kerry of "denigrating the actions of our troops and commanders in the field without knowing the facts." But in defending the president, Giuliani, Kristol, and Ingraham engaged in precisely the kind of finger-pointing at the troops of which Bush falsely accused Kerry.

LETTING THE MILITARY DOWN

War is a nasty business and it should be avoided whenever possible. When war becomes necessary there should be no doubt about the purpose and the mission. If our objective was truly to stop Osama bin Laden and his gang of terrorists, we had no business going into Iraq. Bob Herbert talks about the failure to respect and take care of the military in this column at www.nytimes.com:

We have not done right by the troops we've sent to Iraq to fight this crazy, awful war. We haven't given them a clear mission, and we haven't protected them well. I'm reminded of the famous scene in "On the Waterfront" when Terry Malloy, the character played by Marlon Brando, tells his brother: "You shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit."

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.

BUSH HAS CREATED FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER IN IRAQ

In her latest column Maureen Dowd uses a Halloween theme, which is apropos when you consider the horror Bush has unleashed by invading Iraq. Terrorists may have gotten biological weapons and nuclear materials, according to her column. The column is at www.nytimes.com:

If you really want to be chilled to the bone this Halloween, listen to what Peter W. Galbraith, a former diplomat who helped advance the case for an Iraq invasion at the request of Paul Wolfowitz, said in a column yesterday in The Boston Globe.

He said he'd told Mr. Wolfowitz about "the catastrophic aftermath of the invasion, the unchecked looting of every public institution in Baghdad, the devastation of Iraq's cultural heritage, the anger of ordinary Iraqis who couldn't understand why the world's only superpower was letting this happen.'' He told Mr. Wolfowitz that mobs were looting Iraqi labs of live H.I.V. and black fever viruses and making off with barrels of yellowcake.

BUSH WANTED TO INVADE IRAQ LONG BEFORE 9/11

According to a former ghostwriter, George W. Bush was talking about the "political benefits" of invading Iraq at least two years before the terrorist attacks on 9/11. We again have evidence that Bush wanted this war and that 9/11 was a convenient excuse. This article is at www.guerillanews.com:

Houston: 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.

"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said to me: ‘One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.’ And he said, ‘My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.’ He said, ‘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."

NAMES OF DEAD SHOULD BE READ IN ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT

In this column Richard Cohen makes the point that he would read the names of the Americans killed in this ghastly Iraq war in articles of impeachment on the House floor. The column is at www.washingtonpost.com:

Well over 1,000 Americans and countless more Iraqis have died because the president insisted on going to war. I know I should grieve for the Iraqi dead as much as I do the Americans, but I simply don't. It is the Americans -- those names I read almost every day, the hometowns, the lives I conjure up for them, the hideous moments of death -- who would make up every one of my articles of impeachment. I would read every name from the well of the House.

STUDY SAYS 100,000 INNOCENT IRAQIS KILLED BY BUSH'S WAR

It makes me sick to think that my hands, as an American, are stained by innocent blood. But they are. This article from Reuters says that as many as 100,000 innocent Iraqis have been killed by the U.S. military action in Iraq. And George W. Bush has the gall to call himself a Christian. Read this and weep:

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in violence since the U.S.-led invasion last year, American public health experts have calculated in a report that estimates there were 100,000 "excess deaths" in 18 months.

The rise in the death rate was mainly due to violence and much of it was caused by U.S. air strikes on towns and cities.

"Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100,000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq," said Les Roberts of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a report published online by The Lancet medical journal.

"The use of air power in areas with lots of civilians appears to be killing a lot of women and children," Roberts told Reuters.

PAPPAS BROADCASTING OUTRAGE

Pappas Broadcasting is a powerful media company in the Central Valley of California. The head of Pappas Broadcasting, a right-wing Republican, decided to do his bit to imitate right-wing Sinclair Broadcasting. The twist from Pappas was to "donate" free airtime to Republicans and make Democrats pay for airtime. It gives an obvious advantage to Republicans and is a flagrant abuse of the public airwaves. Now Pappas is trying to mitigate the outrage by offering Democrats a small portion of the airtime offered to Republicans. Heck no! Give free airtime to Democrats, or take away the free airtime to Republicans. This story is at www.sacbee.com:

Central Valley media mogul's decision to donate $325,000 in airtime to GOP candidates sparked a boycott of his stations Tuesday, threats of legislative hearings and, ultimately, a new offer from the broadcaster.

Pappas Telecasting Cos. announced late in the day that it would donate to Democrats a total of $125,000 in airtime on KTNC, a Spanish-language television station serving Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto and the Bay Area.

THE MISSING HIGH EXPLOSIVES IN IRAQ JUST THE "TIP OF THE ICEBERG"

With the Bush administration the news only gets worse. According to this article, the missing tons of munitions in Iraq are just a portion of what we have to worry about. The story is at www.salon.com:

John Kerry called described Al Qaqaa as "one of the great blunders of Iraq, one of the great blunders of this administration." However disturbing this story, what the New York Times and CBS News have overlooked so far is that the missing munitions at Al Qaqaa are only the tip of the iceberg and in all likelihood represent a mere fraction of the illicit explosive material currently circulating in Iraq.

FLORIDA ELECTION DEBACLE ALL OVER AGAIN

Just how much incompetence or corruption can one state produce? The 2000 presidential election was stolen from Al Gore because of the corruption in Florida. In the 2002 mid-term elections there were problems. Now 58,000 absentee ballots are mysteriously missing. Who is the Governor of Florida? Isn't his name Bush? This story is at www.local10.com:

Local 10 has received many phone calls from viewers in Broward County who say they have not received the absentee ballots –- and the news from the elections office doesn't sound good.

Local 10 has learned that many as many as 58,000 ballots that were supposed to mailed out on Oct. 7 and 8 could be missing.

The Broward County Supervisor of Elections office is saying only that the situation is "unusual," and they are looking into it.

FRESNO'S VERSION OF SINCLAIR BROADCASTING

KMPH-TV, Channel 26, here in the Valley has long held a right-wing bias in the way it covers the news and in its editorial slant. But now Pappas Broadcasting, the owner of Channel 26 and other media outlets, is pulling a Sinclair Broadcasting move in donating airtime to Republican candidates in an attempt to sway elections. These are public airwaves, which belong to us who don't support Republicans, and it's an outrage. The story is at www.fresnobee.com:

Attempting to boost Republican Party prospects, the owner of a chain of Central Valley television and radio stations has donated $325,000 in air time for GOP candidates in many of the state's hottest legislative elections.

The contribution by Harry J. Pappas comes in the final days of campaigning, and those involved in the campaigns could not recall another instance in which a California media mogul donated time on public airwaves for advertisements to benefit one party over another.

Critics say the contribution is a clear attempt to sway close elections, is likely to raise new questions of media bias, and violates federal law requiring broadcasting companies to provide equal time to political candidates.

REMEMBERING PAUL WELLSTONE

It has been two years since Senator Paul Wellstone was killed in a tragic plane crash, and as we examine the horror that is Iraq we do well to remember Senator Wellstone. This article is at www.commondreams.org:

Though he was known for his passionate, arm-flapping speaking style, Sen. Paul Wellstone was unusually reserved when he explained his vote against the Iraq war resolution two years ago.

"The United States should unite the world against Saddam, and not allow him to unite forces against us," he said.

Cautious in his rhetoric, he was clearly conscious of what the vote could cost him. The only senator in a tight race for re-election to go against the tide, he told his wife, Sheila, "This could be the end."

As we now know, the end came much sooner, just 10 days before the election, when he and his wife, his daughter, Marcia, and campaign staffers Mary McEvoy, Tom Lapic and Will McLaughlin died when their plane crashed near Eveleth, Minn.

IT'S THE ESTATE TAX, NOT THE "DEATH TAX"

Because their policies would be reprehensible to most of us, Republicans like to pitch their ideas in coded language. It's like pouring a bottle of perfume over a skunk. For a brief time, the skunk smells good, but underneath it's still a skunk. Sean Gonsalves talks about the estate tax, or what Republicans dishonestly call the "death tax." The column is at www.capecodonline.com:

If I were president, I'd take a page from Teddy Roosevelt's playbook and halt the Bush push to eliminate the estate tax. I would re-tool the estate tax rate so that small business owners would not lose the family farm. I would tailor the rate to specifically target the top 2 percent of America's wealthy class.

Because the hereditary transfer of concentrated wealth is incompatible with the ideal of equality of opportunity and democracy and because society plays a significant role in the creation of individual wealth, I would declare, as did President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, that "the man of great wealth owes a particular obligation to the State because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government.

BUSH'S RELIGION BASED PRESIDENCY IS FIRST IN OUR HISTORY

The Founding Fathers of this country, like all humans, were fallible. But they created the most brilliant form of government in human history. One of the foundations of that government is a separation of church and state. Although not explicitly stated in the Constitution, it's clear from reading the Constitution and the writings of the Founding Fathers that they did not want a mixing of government and religion. We can see the disastrous results of that mixing in the Bush administration. Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr:, a top aid to President Kennedy, writes about it at www.latimes.com:

George W. Bush's presidency is the first faith-based administration in U.S. history.
The founding fathers did not mention God in the Constitution, and the faithful often regarded our early presidents as insufficiently pious.

ASCENDING RUM DOODLE

One of the funniest books I've ever read is The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W. E. Bowman. It's about an inept team of mountain climbers who set out to conquer the imposing Rum Doodle. After they've somehow blundered their way to the top they discover they climbed the wrong mountain! It reminds me of the Bush administration and Iraq. In creating a "war on terror" the Bush administration invaded the wrong country. Unfortunately, there's nothing funny about Iraq.

MORE INCOMPETENCE IN IRAQ

The U.S. failed to secure over 300 tons of conventional high explosives in Iraq, according to this article in The New York Times. We were too busy protecting the Oil Ministry, I guess. Those explosives can be used to blow up buildings, produce missile warheads, and even detonate nuclear weapons. The story is at www.nytimes.com:

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, produce missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.

The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no-man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished after the American invasion last year.

SUMMATION OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION:
MOUNDS OF GARBAGE PILING UP DURING A GARBAGE STRIKE

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert uses the interesting analogy of mounds of garbage piling up to describe the way things look with the Bush administration. Karma is proving extremely bad now. The lies, the incompetence, and the blood lust are all coming back like a boomerang. This column is at www.nytimes.com:

Polls show the president running even or slightly ahead of Senator John Kerry. But bad news is piling up like mounds of trash in a garbage strike, and that's never good for an incumbent.

PRESIDENT CARTER SAYS BUSH HAS EXPLOITED 9/11

You wonder if 9/11 had not happened if George W. Bush would have any support at all. When the terrorist attacks occurred his poll numbers were sinking like a deflated balloon. The country rallied around after the attacks and Bush and his administration have shamelessly used 9/11 to justify or obfuscate almost all of their actions since, whether it be shredding of civil liberties or passing huge tax breaks for their fat cat friends. This article is at www.guardian.co.uk:

George Bush has exploited the suffering of September 11 and turned back decades of efforts to make the world a safer place, the former president Jimmy Carter says in an interview with the Guardian published today.

Attacking Mr Bush and Tony Blair over Iraq, Mr Carter calls the war "a completely unjust adventure based on misleading statements".

He also criticises Mr Bush for "lack of effort" on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and accuses him of abandoning nuclear non-proliferation initiatives championed by five presidents.

THE NEW YORKER ENDORSES KERRY

One of the most literate magazines in the world has endorsed John Kerry for president. The New Yorker is famous for its witty cartoons and literate writing, but this editorial gets down to the bottom line. The editorial can be found at www.newyorker.com:

The Bush Administration has had success in carrying out its policies and implementing its intentions, aided by majorities—political and, apparently, ideological—in both Houses of Congress. Substantively, however, its record has been one of failure, arrogance, and—strikingly for a team that prided itself on crisp professionalism—incompetence.

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE ENDORSES KERRY

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has endorsed John Kerry for president and issued a stinging rebuke of the Bush administration. The editorial is at www.post-gazette.com:

Four years ago Al Gore won the popular vote and George Bush, after a Supreme Court decision, became president. The new chief executive promised to be a uniter, not divider. So much for that pledge.

It gets worse. Since 2001, the incumbent has been lacking on foreign policy, national security, the economy, safeguarding constitutional rights and maintaining credibility at home and abroad.

GOOD EDITORIAL IN THE ANNISTON STAR

The Anniston Star in Anniston, Alabama, has a good editorial summarizing the Bush administration and endorsing John Kerry. The editorial is at www.annistonstar.com:

From using an aircraft carrier for a photo-op to handing out ice to hurricane victims, this president has shown no restraint in using the office of the presidency in his bid to win reelection. Each instance lends credibility to the comment made recently by one Bush staffer to journalist Ron Suskind: "We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality."

America can no longer endure such imperial folly from a man who is driven by such wildly reckless instincts.

IOWA CITY, IOWA, ENDORSES KERRY

This is another good editorial from a small town newspaper endorsing Kerry. People in the heartland aren't fooled by Bush. The editorial is at www.press-citizen.com:

President George W. Bush has failed America. Most notable is Iraq. That he was not aware Saddam Hussein lacked weapons of mass destruction and had no link to al-Qaida at worst is an outright lie and at best an extreme error in judgment based on highly inaccurate information. Whether or not the world is better off without Saddam is irrelevant; the question is if the invasion of a foreign country at the sacrifice of more than 1,100 Americans, the cost of $25,000 every 15 seconds and the loss of international respect is worth misleading the American people or the mistake of an unjustified war. Considering that virtually no planning for winning the peace or for an exit strategy occurred, the answer to the question only can be that in either case it wasn't. America now is left in a quagmire with no easy solution.

JOURNAL GAZETTE IN FORT WAYNE, INDIANA, ENDORSES KERRY

The editorial writer in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette makes a good point in that even conservatives should support John Kerry for president. This editorial is at www.fortwayne.com:

Voters from the far left to the far right can find consensus in opposing a number of Bush’s actions. His Department of Justice has unilaterally removed the constitutional due process rights of hundreds of foreign citizens and an unknown number of Americans. He opposed fact-finding studies of the 9/11 attacks and reluctantly agreed to consider overhauling the nation’s intelligence apparatus only in response to bipartisan insistence nearly three years after the attack. His lack of diplomacy has strained relations with allies and threatened world peace. Deception and secrecy have marred the Bush presidency on a number of fronts: False reasons for the Iraq war, stonewalling freedom of information requests, a secret commission to draft energy policy and efforts to hide the true cost of the Medicare prescription drug benefit.

BUSH'S HOLLOW SUPPORT OF DEMOCRACY

George W. Bush likes to tout democracy and "freedom on the march" in his stump speeches, although he has been less concerned with protecting the Bill of Rights than any president in memory. This piece at www.latimes.com talks about how hollow is the sound of Bush's trumpet for democracy. Look at his endorsements: a dictator in Russia and a strongman in Iran.

It's ironic that while Republicans have mocked Kerry for claiming the support of foreign leaders, it is Bush who has reaped the only two actual foreign leader endorsements. The deeper irony is who's endorsing him.

Bush, remember, claims that the centerpiece of his foreign policy is democracy. Alas, his overseas support comes from an aspiring Russian strongman and an Iranian theocrat. So, while Bush is declaring, as he did last week, that "we will win the war on terror and make America safer by advancing the cause of freedom and democracy," at least two enemies of democracy are betting he won't.

THE BANANA REPUBLICANS

If you can't win on the issues, if you can't govern competently, if you can't win an election fairly, you cheat, you intimidate, you lie, steal, and commit thuggery. That's the Republican style in the era of George W. Bush. In this New York Times article we learn about "poll watchers" who will challenge voters at the polls they think may not be eligible. What do you want to bet that the voters who get challenged are predominantly African-American? Abraham Lincoln paved the way for ending slavery by signing the Emancipation Proclamation, but sometimes it doesn't seem we've moved very far at all. This article is at www.nytimes.com:

Republican Party officials in Ohio took formal steps yesterday to place thousands of recruits inside polling places on Election Day to challenge the qualifications of voters they suspect are not eligible to cast ballots.

Party officials say their effort is necessary to guard against fraud arising from aggressive moves by the Democrats to register tens of thousands of new voters in Ohio, seen as one of the most pivotal battlegrounds in the Nov. 2 elections.

CONDI RICE IS LOYAL TO BUSH, NOT TO THE COUNTRY

If Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser, had any integrity (ha!) she would stop lying to cover the backside of George W. Bush. But she's been out in the hustings giving speeches defending the invasion of Iraq, although the mountain of evidence is that the invasion wasn't justified. It is, in fact, criminal. This editorial is at www.post-gazette.com:

President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, spoke in Pittsburgh Thursday as part of a series of campaign speeches she is making in seven closely contested states. There was no reason to expect otherwise, but she did not deviate from the misleading contentions on U.S. foreign policy that the Bush-Cheney ticket put forth in the four recent debates.

The speech, hosted 12 days before the election by the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, approximated a campaign event. The turnout was good nonetheless, reflecting the fact that Pittsburgh's foreign policy audience had been seeking a visit from Ms. Rice for the four years of the Bush administration.

BUSH IS EVERYWHERE, INCLUDING YOUR POCKET

Don't you love it when George W. Bush talks about putting more money back into our pockets? In fact, his administration has robbed an estimated six million Americans of overtime pay. This story is at www.commondreams.org:

With the message "Give back our hard-earned money! Take back your overtime pay cut!," several thousand workers on Wednesday, October 5, delivered hundreds of thousands of postcards to the Bush/Cheney office headquarters in 17 battleground cities against the Bush overtime pay cut, even taking over their offices in several cities. These workers are enraged about the fact that the Bush Administration’s overtime pay cut strips up to six million workers of their right to receive overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week.

With this new rule, President Bush has given his corporate friends the green light to stop paying overtime to hardworking Americans. It’s a corporate welfare handout at workers’ expense, and it’s just plain wrong. Many of the workers that participated in Wednesday’s actions talked about how they will personally be impacted by these cuts, saying that they will now be forced to work longer hours for less and that this is the last thing they need right now when they’re already struggling in this tough economy.

BUSH IS A FAUX CHRISTIAN

To believe George W. Bush is a "man of faith" I think you have to be having serious side effects from something. The guy is the very antithesis of Christianity. This article at makethemaccountable.com discusses Bush's "faith":

Late in the summer, at the Republican national convention in New York, a movie billed as the conservative alternative to Fahrenheit 9/11 debuted for the party faithful. The film, George W. Bush: Faith in the White House, opens with a montage of a billowing American flag, a softly lit portrait of Jesus in Gethsemane, and a shot of the tawny profile of our 43rd president with his eyes gazing heavenward. Myriad times throughout the film Bush is referred to reverently as a man of faith.

Like no president in recent memory, George W. Bush wields his Christian righteousness like a flaming sword. Indeed, hundreds of news stories and nearly half a dozen books have evinced a White House that, according to BBC Washington correspondent Justin Webb, "hums to the sound of prayer." Yet for the past four years the mainstream press has trod lightly, rarely venturing beyond the biographical to probe the depth, or sincerity, of Bush's Christian beliefs. Bush has no doubt benefited from the media’s reluctance…

TEN REASONS BUSH NEEDS TO GO

Ted Rall delineates ten reasons Bush has to go. You could probably come up with a lot more reasons, but this is a good start. This article can be found at www.smirkingchimp.com:

George W. Bush has been a busy boy these past four years. Because his Administration's policies are so radical and his attempts to change our country so far-reaching, it is sometimes difficult to remember them all. Here's a summary of why Bush and his gang of bloodthirsty corporate goons must go; voters may take them along to the polls to help them cast their ballots.

PERSONAL TAX CHICANERY FROM BUSH

We know the scam that Bush and his administration have run with their tax cuts for the rich. But it seems Mr. Bush also committed personal tax chicanery in his sweetheart deal with the Texas Rangers baseball club. This article can be found at www.onlinejournal.com:

As if Bush's sale of his $606,000 share of Texas Rangers stock to owner Tom Hicks for $15 million wasn't enough, there's more from deep in the heart of Texas to nail the good old boy, namely the possibility of tax evasion. That is, Bush declared the proceeds as a long-term capital gain, which it wasn't, as opposed to ordinary income, which it was. This means Bush paid at the capital gains' rate of 20 percent as opposed to the ordinary income rate of 39.6 percent. Beating the IRS out of nearly 20 percent in additional taxes. But the fun doesn't stop there.

NY TIMES: BUSH HYPING TERROR IS IRRESPONSIBLE

George W. Bush has no record to run on, so he tried to create a big boogeyman in the form of terrorists. Only he, the Mighty Bush, can protect us from those evil terrorists. The fact is Bush has been a miserable failure in combating terrorism. His administration failed to heed warnings that would have prevented the attacks on September 11. Money that could have been used to make us safer at home was used to give tax cuts to his rich friends. He didn't go after Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, but instead wasted our resources on Iraq, a country not a threat to us. This editorial is at www.nytimes.com:

Politicians like to tell scary tales about their opponents; the Republicans have been complaining that Mr. Kerry keeps accusing Mr. Bush of secretly planning to reinstate the draft. But what the Bush campaign is doing is far more serious and can't be dismissed as a particularly ridiculous bit of political theater. 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.

NRA MAY BE BEHIND FILM SMEARING KERRY

The right-wing Sinclair Broadcasting group has been planning to air a smear against John Kerry called "Stolen Honor." It's another chapter of the Swift Boat Liars spiel. Now we learn that the NRA, which has become the organization of right-wing gun wackos, may be behind the funding of "Stolen Honor." This story is at atrios.blogspot.com:

We have been told by a source inside the NRA (whom we cannot identify to protect him and his family) that the NRA is a significant funder of Stolen Honor. The producers of Stolen Honor, Red, White and Blue Productions, a for-profit company, brag on their website that they have received funding from "individuals and entities nationwide" and are actively soliciting contributions. Since when do for-profit companies or news organizations solicit donations?

JOHN DEAN RIPS BUSH

John Dean saw presidential scandal up close when he served in the Nixon administration. Now Dean says that the Bush administration has committed crimes far worse than any committed by Richard M. Nixon and his cronies back in the 70s. This article is at www.motherjones.com:

So I began looking at the Bush speeches. Then I looked at one where I deconstructed virtually every line of his case to go to war, which he gave in his January 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. He built his entire case knowing exactly what he was doing and apparently deciding to play the American people for fools, [assuming] that nobody would ever check and look at the information.

BEN BRADLEE THINKS BUSH IS A LIAR

Ben Bradlee was another major participant in the Nixon Watergate scandal. As editor of The Washington Post, Bradlee was up close and personal as his paper broke the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's resignation. Bradlee thinks Bush is a liar. This story is linked at www.buzzflash.com:

Exclusive: Bush, a Liar?

Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, the man who helped bring down the Nixon White House, thinks so. He says US President George W. Bush is a liar. Journalists should stop dancing around the issue and name Bush for what he is, the ever surly Bradlee says in a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview. Bradlee also bemoans a worsening Washington climate in which politicians regularly hide behind lies - his favorite being that they can't discuss an issue "on the grounds of national security."

POLLS DON'T CONSIDER CELL PHONE USERS

The mainstream media love to hype the "horse race." There's a new poll from somewhere everyday showing Kerry with a slight lead, Bush with a slight lead, or a dead heat. Here Jimmy Breslin writes about how you should be skeptical of polls. For one thing, millions and millions of cell phone users never get called by the major pollsters. Those cell phone users could be a major factor in this election. This story is at www.commondreams.org:

Everybody maintains that the two candidates are in a statistical dead heat. Nobody knows that. With a huge number of new registered voters, overwhelmingly of color, and young, and with 40 million using cell phones, the only thing going on in this election is how many times George Bush goes under before he drowns on Election Day. As he should. He is the worst president we have had, maybe ever.

LIBERALS NEED TO RECAPTURE THE LANGUAGE

The right wing has been very skilled at turning white to black, greed to virtue, obscenity into something holy. They've coined phrases such as "tax relief" to justify massive giveaways to their wealthy friends, "death tax" to describe the estate tax that affected just a few wealthy Americans, "war on terror" to rationalize an attack against a country not a threat to us, "partial birth abortion" for a late term abortion that has been used to save the lives of women. It goes on and on. This article talks about how the left can recapture the language. The linguist is George Lakoff and the article is at www.motherjones.com:

Last Thursday evening, about 150 people packed into the back of a Berkeley bookstore to watch the third and final presidential debate. As Kerry smacked Bush around onscreen, they munched on baguettes and brie and issued an occasional collective groan. But the night’s main attraction was the post-debate commentator, linguist and cognitive scientist George Lakoff. Lakoff, a professor at the University of California --Berkeley and a founder of the Rockridge Institute, has emerged as the left’s message guru, the go-to guy for anyone interested in understanding why conservatives are winning the language wars and how liberals can retool their message. Sure, Kerry won a debate or two, but as Lakoff reminds his fellow liberals, "We have to get ourselves together."

IRAN ENDORSES BUSH

Bush's supporters have tried to suggest that al-Qaeda wanted John Kerry to win. It seems poetic justice that Bush has now been endorsed by Iran, one of the "axis of evil" countries. The story is at news.yahoo.com:

The head of Iran's security council said Tuesday that the re-election of President Bush was in Tehran's best interests, despite the administration's axis of evil label, accusations that Iran harbors al-Qaida terrorists and threats of sanctions over the country's nuclear ambitions.

THE ANTI-SCIENCE ADMINISTRATION

Maybe it's all you expect from a guy who claims God talks personally to him, but George W. Bush and his administration have a view of science more fitting for the 18th century than for the 21st century. The only science acceptable to Bush is whatever makes money for his corporate pals. This story is at www.nytimes.com:

Yet complaints about the administration's approach to scientific information are coming even from within the government. Many career scientists and officials have expressed frustration and anger privately but were unwilling to be identified for fear of losing their jobs. But a few have stepped forward, including Dr. Hansen at NASA, who has been researching global warming and conveying its implications to Congress and the White House for two decades.

Dr. Hansen, who was invited to brief the Bush cabinet twice on climate and whose work has been cited by Mr. Bush, said he had decided to speak publicly about the situation because he was convinced global warming posed a serious threat and that further delays in addressing it would add to the risks.

BUSH: WE WOULDN'T HAVE IRAQ CASUALTIES

Pat Robertson, someone I don't particularly like, reported an interesting conversation with George W. Bush in which he says Bush claimed there would be no American casualties in the Iraq war. If Bush was getting information from God, something got lost in translation. This story is at www.commondreams.org:

The founder of the U.S. Christian Coalition said Tuesday he told President George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq that he should prepare Americans for the likelihood of casualties, but the president told him, "We're not going to have any casualties."
Pat Robertson, an ardent Bush supporter, said he had that conversation with the president in Nashville, Tennessee, before the March 2003 invasion U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. He described Bush in the meeting as "the most self-assured man I've ever met in my life."

BUSH IS LYING ABOUT THE DRAFT

Recently, George W. Bush said there wouldn't be a military draft. This guy has lied so often and on such a wide variety of topics you can't believe him on this issue either. Our military has been stretched thin by this unnecessary war in Iraq and we keep hearing hints of other wars in the Middle East. Gotta get that oil and control of the region, you know. This column by Paul Krugman is at www.nytimes.com:

There were two reasons some of us never believed Mr. Bush's budget promises. First, his claims that his tax cuts were affordable rested on patently unrealistic budget projections. Second, his broader policy goals, including the partial privatization of Social Security - which is clearly on his agenda for a second term - would involve large costs that were not included even in those unrealistic projections. This led to the justified suspicion that his election-year promises notwithstanding, Mr. Bush would preside over a return to budget deficits.

It's exactly the same when it comes to the draft. Mr. Bush's claim that we don't need any expansion in our military is patently unrealistic; it ignores the severe stress our Army is already under. And the experience in Iraq shows that pursuing his broader foreign policy doctrine - the "Bush doctrine" of pre-emptive war - would require much larger military forces than we now have.

BUSH IS HIDING DAMNING REPORT ABOUT 9/11

The administration of George W. Bush has been called one of the most secretive in history, and there is a good reason why. If you're doing all kinds of illegal acts, lying to the country, getting innocent people killed, and personally profiting, it's a good reason to keep secrets. In this column Robert Scheer talks about a CIA report the administration hasn't released. The column is at www.latimes.com:

It is shocking: 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.

"It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "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."

LOW INCOME PEOPLE ARE CRAZY TO SUPPORT BUSH

I think even rich people supporting George W. Bush probably need therapy. Yeah, they might get some tax cuts. But what good are tax cuts when the world is going straight to hell thanks to this guy? Low income people supporting any Republican, especially George Bush, is frankly insane. This guy has done nothing to make our lives better, and plenty to make our lives worse. This story is at www.commondreams.org:

Many people noticed that President Bush refused to say in the last debate that he opposes an increase in the minimum wage, offering some vague words about a proposal by Senator Mitch McConnell that Bush has never done anything to support and has never come to a vote. The proposal would have increased the minimum wage only if states could opt out, making for no increase at all.

Bush quickly changed the subject – as on a number of issues, he prefers that his actual position remain hidden, since most Americans don’t share it (if you’re among the lucky few who knows that when Bush says he favors a "culture of life" he means Roe v. Wade should be outlawed and all abortions made illegal, you’ve earned your decoder ring). According to a Pew Research Center poll in January, eight out of ten Americans believe that increasing the minimum wage should be either a "top priority" or "important but a lower priority" for the government Similar numbers in other polls – between two-thirds and four-fifths of Americans – support increasing the minimum wage, about as close to a consensus on a public issue as we have. No wonder Bush didn’t want to talk about it.

HUGE ANTI-WAR PROTEST IN BRITAIN

Among the various snotty things said by George W. Bush during the debates, was a claim that John Kerry was disrespecting our allies (such as Poland) by not recognizing their "sacrifice" in Iraq. I would counter that Mr. Bush hasn't bothered to recognize the world-wide condemnation of this war. This demonstration in London is just the latest example. The story is at www.commondreams.org:

Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of central London to protest against the Iraq war as Prime Minister Tony Blair struggled to shake-off fierce criticism of the invasion back home.

Organisers said that between 65,000 and 75,000 protesters had taken to the streets for the peaceful march, which began at Russell Square, close to the British museum. Police put the figure at between 15,000 and 20,000.

U.S. IRAQ COMMANDER REPORTED SUPPLY PROBLEMS

The top U.S. commander in Iraq reported last winter that he was having problems getting adequate supplies for the troops. Bush had the nerve to imply that John Kerry voting against a pork-laden bill in Congress was responsible for the troops lacking adequate armor and other supplies. The truth is that Bush's tax cuts have starved the front-line troops of what they need. This story is at www.washingtonpost.com:

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.

The lack of key spare parts for gear vital to combat operations, such as tanks and helicopters, was causing problems so severe, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez wrote in a letter to top Army officials, that "I cannot continue to support sustained combat operations with rates this low."

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?

If you don't like science in the Bush administration, you just ignore it. The administration is allowing the sale of a book at the Grand Canyon that claims the canyon was created by Noah's Flood. The evidence for the Big Bang theory and for the evolution of life on earth is overwhelming. If George W. Bush and his minions want to believe in fairy tales, that's certainly their right. But our tax dollars shouldn't be used to propagate superstitious nonsense. This story is at www.peer.org:

The Bush Administration has decided that it will stand by its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, according to internal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Despite telling members of Congress and the public that the legality and appropriateness of the National Park Service offering a creationist book for sale at Grand Canyon museums and bookstores was "under review at the national level by several offices," no such review took place, according to materials obtained by PEER under the Freedom of Information Act. Instead, the real agency position was expressed by NPS spokesperson Elaine Sevy as quoted in the Baptist Press News:

BUSH-CHENEY THE REPREHENSIBLE

George W. Bush and "Big Time" Dick Cheney are possibly the most corrupt people to ever hold the offices of president and vice-president of the United States. I agree totally with Carla Binion who writes this piece at www.onlinejournal.com:

Shouldn't we be thinking of impeaching George W. Bush and Dick Cheney instead of running them for political office? These are two of the most corrupt politicians in U.S. history. We have factual proof they're serial liars. They've hoodwinked Congress and the American people into a war based on lies.

John Dean, former counsel to President Richard Nixon, has said, "The evidence is overwhelming, certainly sufficient for a prima facie case, that George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have engaged in deceit and deception over going to war in Iraq. This is an impeachable offense." (Worse Than Watergate, Little, Brown 2004)

TECHNOLOGY'S DARK SIDE

We increasingly live in a world where Big Brother in some manifestation is watching us. As this article points out, almost anywhere we go there's a security camera pointed at us. Our activities on the Internet are tracked by "cookies" or by spyware. GPS is becoming more common and specifies your location on the planet. Now, in what seems a merging of man and machine portrayed in science fiction, a microchip can be implanted under your skin to provide data to medical providers. This story is at www.msnbc.com:

Now comes the news that federal regulators on Wednesday approved the injection of microchips under the skin, enabling physicians with the right gear to know who someone is without having to ask. And yesterday, the omniscient-seeming search engine Google bested itself by announcing a service to probe for information both online and in your own machine. One company official called it a "photographic memory for your computer."

NEW YORK TIMES ENDORSES KERRY

You can almost hear the howling of the far right about the "liberal media," but I'm glad The New York Times is making the logical choice by endorsing John Kerry for president. George W. Bush has been a disaster everywhere you look. And his wanton disregard for human life, the environment, for ethics, and for civil liberties make him too dangerous to keep in the Oval Office. This editorial appears at www.nytimes.com:

We have been impressed with Mr. Kerry's wide knowledge and clear thinking - something that became more apparent once he was reined in by that two-minute debate light. He is blessedly willing to re-evaluate decisions when conditions change. And while Mr. Kerry's service in Vietnam was first over-promoted and then over-pilloried, his entire life has been devoted to public service, from the war to a series of elected offices. He strikes us, above all, as a man with a strong moral core.

SF CHRONICLE ENDORSES KERRY

It's typical for most major newspapers to endorse the Republican candidate for president. Despite all the right-wing screeching about the "liberal media," the media are owned by big corporations, and big corporations consider Republicans more sympathetic to their interests. So it's interesting that so many major newspapers are now endorsing John Kerry. I think even big corporations are seeing the dangers of keeping George W. Bush in the White House. Business needs a certain amount of stability, a certain amount of trust in the federal government, and that doesn't exist with the Bush administration. The Chronicle editorial can be found at www.sfgate.com:

GEORGE W. BUSH campaigned as a "compassionate conservative" and won the presidency by the narrowest of electoral margins. He promised to unify the nation after the most ferociously contested election in 124 years.

But from the moment he took office, Bush showed neither compassion nor humility. He immediately began to govern as if he had a mandate to steer the country in a sharply rightward direction. The policies of the Bush presidency have only cemented the polarization in this country.

MISTREATMENT OF PRISONERS AT GUANTANAMO

For all his posturing about being a Christian, a lot of unchristian acts have occurred on George W. Bush's watch. We saw the horrific photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Now we're learning that prisoners have also been abused in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Coincidence, or the policy of the Bush administration? This story is at www.nytimes.com:

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.

The people, military guards, intelligence agents and others, described in interviews with The New York Times a range of procedures that included treatment they said was highly abusive occurring over a long period of time, as well as rewards for prisoners who cooperated with interrogators.

ANOTHER DUBIOUS FRESNO CLAIM TO FAME

Fresno is the home of the vilest website on the Internet, freerepublic.com. The Central Valley in California is one of the most right-wing cesspools in the entire country. The leading talk radio station is KMJ, home to Rush Limbaugh and other neo-Nazis. A few years ago a weatherman named Sean Boyd got fired from KMJ for giving a politically incorrect weather forecast. Mr. Boyd dared say the weather wasn't going to be perfect on the day of the annual Rush Limbaugh picnic. The Central Valley ranks highly in all the dubious statistics, things like poverty, teen pregnancy, pollution. Now it seems that Fresno also leads the nation in intravenous drug use. The story is at
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/fresn... :

The nation's capital of intravenous drug use is not New York or Miami, not Chicago or Detroit - but Fresno. It is an unlikely distinction for a city of fewer than 500,000 people in the heart of one of the nation's richest agricultural regions.

Fresno County, where farmworkers get paid rock-bottom, seasonal wages, is one of the poorest counties in the nation. More than 20 percent of its residents - an estimated 165,000 people - live in poverty, according to Census estimates, and the per capita income is just $15,495 a year.

BUSH CAMPAIGN FIGHTS CIVIL LIBERTIES

We've seen it time and time again at Bush campaign events. People get arrested for merely wearing a tee-shirt showing opposition to Bush. Now, apparently, you can get ejected if you support civil liberties. This story is at www.oregonlive.com:

Janet Voorhies said she was curious to see how Republicans would react when she and two other women showed up at President Bush's Central Point rally wearing T-shirts stating "Protect Our Civil Liberties."

She got her answer before the president even spoke. The three women were ejected from the rally and escorted from the Jackson County Fairgrounds by state police officers who warned them they would be arrested if they tried to return.

Republican officials said they weren't exactly sure why a volunteer at the event demanded that the three women leave the rally. But a Bush campaign spokesman, Tracey Schmitt, said: "It is not the position of the campaign that wearing a T-shirt that says protect civil liberties is enough to conclude someone is disruptive."

BUSH IS A RELIGIOUS WACKO

I've never been certain that George W. Bush believes in any form of Christianity. His actions throughout his life seem contrary to the philosophy of Jesus Christ as I understand it. But when you consider that many people call themselves religious and that the religion can be perverted it makes sense. All you have to remember is the terrorist attack on September 11. The Moslem fanatics who carried out that attack thought themselves religious, but their actions were contrary to the tenets of Islam. So it is with Bush. This article by Ron Suskind in The New York Times shows Bush and his "faith" up close and personal. We should be just as wary of a religious wacko in the White House as we are of the terrorists who call themselves religious as they murder people. This story is at www.nytimes.com:

The disdainful smirks and grimaces that many viewers were surprised to see in the first presidential debate are familiar expressions to those in the administration or in Congress who have simply asked the president to explain his positions. Since 9/11, those requests have grown scarce; Bush's intolerance of doubters has, if anything, increased, and few dare to question him now. A writ of infallibility -- a premise beneath the powerful Bushian certainty that has, in many ways, moved mountains -- is not just for public consumption: it has guided the inner life of the White House. As Whitman told me on the day in May 2003 that she announced her resignation as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency: ''In meetings, I'd ask if there were any facts to support our case. And for that, I was accused of disloyalty!'' (Whitman, whose faith in Bush has since been renewed, denies making these remarks and is now a leader of the president's re-election effort in New Jersey.)

WHERE'S THE MONEY, GEORGE?

Right-wingers have often pontificated on how government should be run like a business. In most businesses you have to keep a good set of books. You have to know where the money is coming from and where it's going. Not so with the Bush administration. An audit by the United Nations shows about $2.5 billion unaccounted for. The story is at www.commondreams.org:

About half of the roughly $5 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds disbursed by the US government in the first half of this year cannot be accounted for, according to an audit commissioned by the United Nations, which could not find records for numerous rebuilding projects and other payments.

TRADE DEFICIT GOES IN THE WRONG DIRECTION

Everywhere you look there's a deficit. A deficit here, a deficit there, a deficit everywhere. Now the trade deficit has gone through the roof, mostly thanks to the gargantuan jump in oil prices. Years ago President Carter tried to lead the country away from a dependence on oil. Along came The Gipper and The Gipper said we didn't need to worry our pretty little heads about things like conservation and alternative energy sources. The so-called energy policies of the Bush administration have almost put us into a position where we have to sacrifice lives to obtain oil, put the planet's environment into a petroleum death grip, and hastened the day we will run out of oil altogether. This story about the trade deficit is at www.forbes.com:

The U.S. trade deficit, propelled by a record foreign oil bill, surged to $54 billion in August, the second highest level in history. The politically sensitive deficit with China hit a new high as American retailers upped their orders for cell phones, toys and televisions.

The Commerce Department said the August trade deficit in goods and services was 6.9 percent higher than a $50.5 billion imbalance in July. A small 0.1 percent rise in exports was dwarfed by a 2.5 percent jump in imports.

Even a notably conservative publication like Forbes magazine goes on to note that the Bush administration has lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs, and any plans to stop the bleeding of our jobs are nebulous. The story goes on:

The administration accuses Kerry of being an "economic isolationist" and argues that its policy of pushing to open foreign markets by negotiating free-trade agreements with other nations represents the best approach to keeping America competitive in a global economy.

However, the nation has lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs over the past four years and some sectors vulnerable to foreign trade such as textiles have been particularly hard hit.

REPUBS ATTEMPTING TO SABOTAGE DEMOCRATIC VOTERS

We keep hearing of attempts by Republicans to sabotage or suppress votes by Democrats. We know about the travesty in Florida in the 2000 presidential election that ranged from confusing butterfly ballots, scrubbing of people from the voter rolls, and disenfranchisement of African-American voters. This time Republicans are blatantly destroying Democratic registrations. Paul Krugman addresses it in his column at www.nytimes.com:

Earlier this week former employees of Sproul & Associates (operating under the name Voters Outreach of America), a firm hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters, told a Nevada TV station that their supervisors systematically tore up Democratic registrations.

The accusations are backed by physical evidence and appear credible. Officials have begun a criminal investigation into reports of similar actions by Sproul in Oregon.

BUSH NOT POPULAR OUTSIDE THE U.S.

I bet the rest of the world wonders why this presidential election is even close. George W. Bush is such a creep and so incompetent this election should be a slam dunk for John Kerry. But the rest of the world has access to media we don't have. And I wonder increasingly about Americans, if we're just too lazy, too apathetic, too self-centered to care much about what goes on in the world. This story is at news.yahoo.com:


America's popularity around the world has taken a beating in recent years, according to a set of coordinated polls conducted in 10 different countries. But the survey also found that despite widespread animosity toward President Bush , huge majorities said they have a good opinion of Americans.

MEMORIES OF WORKING AT DENNY'S

Many years ago, when I struggling to find some kind of occupation, I worked for Denny's for about two months. I bussed dishes from tables and washed dishes. It was one of the most physically demanding jobs I ever had. You really didn't get breaks except maybe fifteen minutes to wolf down "lunch." The rest of the time you were on your feet. I remember working overtime and not getting paid for overtime. This story about Denny's not paying workers for accrued vacation time brings back all those memories. The story is at www.sfgate.com:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday let California use its labor laws to challenge Denny's Corp.'s policy of refusing to pay workers for accrued vacation time if they leave the restaurant company in less than a year.

The court, without comment, denied review of an appeal by the South Carolina restaurant chain, which argued that it is governed by federal law.

LOUSY ECONOMY MEANS NO SPENDING

Consumer confidence continues to erode. Is it any wonder? We have an administration totally out of touch with the reality most working Americans face. We have shrinking paychecks, outrageous health care, no job security, and basic necessities such as gasoline are soaring. This story is at www.csmonitor.com:

But getting Americans to open their wallets will be a challenge: The news is filled with stories about soaring energy prices, and the latest data on the jobs front indicates business is reluctant to hire new workers. It probably doesn't help that Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry is calling attention to the economy's weak spots and introducing yet another element of doubt in some consumers' minds.

IS BUSH FOLLOWING THE NIXON TEMPLATE?

One of my favorite movies is "All the President's Men." Even though you know the outcome, it's still spellbinding as you watch Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein follow the threads that sprung from the Watergate break-in all the way to the resignation of Richard M. Nixon as president. In this column Frank Rich talks about the Bush administration emulating Nixon in so many ways, particularly in trying to intimidate any media organizations trying to investigate Bush machinations. The column is at www.nytimes.com:

SUCH is the power of movies that the first image "Watergate" brings to mind three decades later is not Richard Nixon so much as the golden duo of Redford and Hoffman riding to the nation's rescue in "All the President's Men." But if our current presidency is now showing symptoms of a precancerous Watergate syndrome - as it is, daily - we have not yet reached that denouement immortalized by Hollywood, in which our scrappy heroes finally bring Nixon to heel in his second term. No, we're back instead in the earlier reels of his first term, before the criminality of the Watergate break-in, when no one had heard of Woodward and Bernstein. Back then an arrogant and secretive White House, furious at the bad press fueled by an unpopular and mismanaged war, was still flying high as it kneecapped with impunity any reporter or news organization that challenged its tightly enforced message of victory at hand.

"W" DOESN'T STAND FOR WOMEN

More than 250 world leaders took a stand for women's rights, but George W. Bush was missing. I'm shocked, aren't you? Bush sees women a lot like the way the Taliban sees women, as the means of reproducing the race and not much more. This story is at www.commondreams.org:

With the notable exception of U.S. President George W. Bush, more than 250 global leaders, including former President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, reaffirmed their commitment to a ten-year-old UN plan to ensure the rights of women around the world.

In an unprecedented statement, the former and current leaders, including 85 heads of state and government, also called for the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted by the UN in 2000, that call for greater efforts to sharply reduce global poverty and achieve universal access to education and health by the year 2015.

ANOTHER BIG GIVEAWAY TO BUSINESS BY REPUBS

In an era of frightening deficits, the Republican controlled Congress is pushing through another round of tax cuts for business. You and I get nickels and dimes for tax cuts, but businesses get the entire store. This story is at www.nytimes.com:

Senator Charles E. Grassley needed every possible vote to pass his mammoth corporate tax bill. So he was more than willing to accept Zell Miller's plea on behalf of imported ceiling fans.

NY TIMES EDITORIAL: "DISMAL" JOB NUMBERS

The New York Times accurately calls job numbers under George W. Bush "dismal." And it's not only that Bush will be the first president since Herbert Hoover to see a net decline in jobs. The jobs that remain increasingly pay lower salaries and offer fewer benefits. We're headed full speed in reverse under Bush. This editorial is at www.nytimes.com:

With the recession long over, Mr. Bush's other excuses for a recovery that is not producing enough jobs - the Enron scandal, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, his own war in Iraq - are unconvincing. The latest dismal job numbers clearly show that this administration's policies have failed to foster a flourishing economy. Worse, the president has failed to make midcourse corrections even as the job market has stalled.

JOHN KERRY NOT A LIBERAL IN TRADITIONAL TERMS

Since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the political spectrum has shifted way right. People who once would have been considered right-wing extremists are now more mainstream. Democrats have shifted right and a "liberal" today would have been pretty conservative a couple of decades ago. In this column Robert Scheer writes about Bush's attempts to denigrate Kerry as a "liberal." Being a liberal is a good thing, a proud thing, and I wish Kerry would embrace it. The column is at www.latimes.com:

I like liberals. They gave us the five-day workweek; ended child labor; invented unemployment insurance, Social Security and Medicare; and led us, despite fierce opposition from "America First" pseudo-patriots on the political right, to victory over fascism in World War II. Liberals also ended racial segregation and gave women the vote.

RIGHT-WINGERS DISREGARD RIGHTS OF PRIVACY
AS STATED BY THE FOUNDERS

Right-wingers frequently like to claim they are "strict constructionists" on the Constitution, saying that the only rights we enjoy are what are stated explicitly in the Constitution. Robert Bork, the first Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court, even took the position that the Bill of Rights didn't apply to the states, but only to the federal government. In his weird reference to the Dred Scott case during the presidential debate, George W. Bush was sending a coded message to his right-wing fundamentalist base that he intends to overturn Roe v. Wade and the right to abortion. This is an interesting essay by Thom Hartmann at www.buzzflash.com:

In an eerie juxtaposition during the second presidential debate, both George W. Bush and Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia - each in their own sort of code - were saying at the same time that if Bush is elected in 2004, women who get abortions will probably face criminal prosecutions, and our rights of privacy will evaporate.

HELPING BUSH REMEMBER HIS MISTAKES

In one of his rare press conferences George W. Bush was asked to name a mistake he had made, and failed to name one. During the presidential debate he was asked to name three mistakes he had made, and failed to name even one. In the interest of being helpful, here's a list of at least 100 mistakes. The list is at www.americanprogress.org:

During a prime time press conference on April 13, President Bush was asked to name a mistake that he has made since taking office and what he has learned from it. Bush, who was unable to answer the question, admitted "maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with [a mistake]." But weeks later, Bush still hasn't answered the question. In the interest of assisting the President with this surprisingly difficult task we've compiled this list of 100 mistakes he has made since taking office

FEDS WANT TO MONITOR CHAT ROOMS

Fighting terrorism is becoming the excuse to invade our privacy wherever we turn. Now the federal government wants to fund a study to monitor chat rooms in the ever compulsive hunt for terrorists. We're letting these nut cases erode our civil liberties at an alarming rate. This story is at www.commondreams.org:

Amid the torrent of jabber in Internet chat rooms - flirting by QTpie and BoogieBoy, arguments about politics and horror flicks - are terrorists plotting their next move?
The government certainly isn't discounting the possibility. It's taking the idea seriously enough to fund a yearlong study on chat room surveillance under an anti-terrorism program.

39 MILLION WORKING AMERICANS ARE POOR

Another major study shows that a quarter of American working families, comprised of about 39 million people, lives in poverty. This, once again, is not an accident. Republican economics are designed to make a very few people very rich and reduce everyone else to subsistence or less. This story is at www.commondreams.org:

More than a quarter of American working families -- or nearly 39 million people -- have trouble making ends meet and can be qualified as poor due to a fast shrinking pool of well-paying jobs, according to a new report.

The study, coming on the eve of the third and final presidential debate between President George W. Bush and his Democratic challenger, John Kerry, was likely to add fuel to the already heated political campaign, during which Kerry has been accusing Bush of outsourcing good American jobs.