Rebuilding officials said yesterday that they hoped to complete a review of the environmental impact of the proposed construction at the World Trade Center site by next April. This would allow them to lay the cornerstone of a 1,776-foot tower in August 2004, during the Republican National Convention.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Delegates to the Republican National Convention found a new way to take a jab at Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's Vietnam service record: by sporting adhesive bandages with small purple hearts on them.

Morton Blackwell, a prominent Virginia delegate, has been handing out the heart-covered bandages to delegates, who've worn them on their chins, cheeks, the backs of their hands and other places.

Blackwell is president of the Leadership Institute, a nonpartisan educational foundation he founded in 1979. According to its Web site, the institute prepares conservatives for success in politics, government and the news media.

""In recent weeks, allegations have surfaced that have called into question my ability to represent the citizens of Virginia's Second Congressional District," Shrock said in a press release."

What were those allegations? That the Congressman, who had a 92% approval rating from The Christian Coalition, a co-sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment, was reportedly cruising for men on phone sex lines. According to BlogActive:

"Congressman Ed Schrock has made a habit of rendezvousing with gay men via the MegaMates/ MegaPhone Line, an interactive telephone service on which men place ads and respond to those ads to meet each other."

The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous.

Making up stories is tricky business. On the plus side, you can pretty much say anything you want, which is a definite advantage. On the minus side, you have to be careful that your story sounds like it's true. "Verisimilitude" is what the pointy-headed intellectuals call it, and even the producers of Spiderman 2 have to keep it in mind.

Anyway, it turns out that John O'Neill had a few verisimilitude problems with the first draft of Unfit for Command. Investigative reporter Art Levine has the scoop, exclusively for the Washington Monthly.

Among the stoutest defenders of "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," the best-selling book arguing that Mr. Kerry lied about his record of service in Vietnam, is the columnist Robert Novak.

In his syndicated columns and on the CNN program "Crossfire," Mr. Novak has lauded the book and referred to veterans who criticize Mr. Kerry - most notably John E. O'Neill, the book's co-author - as "real patriots."

Unmentioned in Mr. Novak's columns and television appearances, however, is a personal connection he has to the book: his son, Alex Novak, is the director of marketing for its publisher, the conservative publishing house Regnery.

In a telephone interview, Robert Novak said he saw no need to disclose the link.

"I don't think it's relevant," he said. [Emphasis added.]

I was also trying to gauge how many people were marching. I am not an expert on these matters but...I hate to say this but I must be honest...I do not believe that 400,000 came, as Leslie Cagan claims. Yes, it was a large demonstration, but a few blocks away from the main action and you didn't know it was going on. That's just not the way I remember the enormous anti-war demonstrations of my childhood, although I could be exaggerating their impact. But I don't think that this demonstration was as big as they were.

Practically everyone that I know left Manhattan. They are the sort of people who went to those antiwar demonstrations a generation ago.

After we marched past Madison Square Garden we turned on 34th Street towards Fifth (west) and then downtown. I bailed out on 28th and went up to 59th Street. I wanted to see if anything imaginative was going on at the Plaza. Nothing. (It was around 2:30 p.m. at this point). I walked through the park and recovered at my apartment. Then I took a walk through Central Park before coming here, where I have internet access.

Leslie Cagan held court at the entrance to the Delacorte Theater. I asked her how many people came. She said, "400,000." (As I said, I don't think so.) Then I walked to The Great Lawn, which was the scene of a wonderful impromptu People's Demonstration, like a huge Hyde Park. I walked around the lawn, which is a large oval shape. There were tables set up by various extremist organizations, people dressed in anti-Bush paraphernalia. On the shady, east side of the lawn cops lined up for drinks or lazed around, looking at the lawn unconcernedly. A soccer game and a softball game proceeded on the north part of the lawn. Everything was mellow and friendly.

Violence. None, nada, not a bit. Sorry to disappoint the rabid right-wing, but I didn't see even a spark of anger. A few cops were grumpy and chilly, counterbalanced by those who were friendly and cooperative.

Macing the kids will also create memories that linger. In fact, any number of chemical weapons make great disciplinary aids, in that they require much less physical exertion on the parent's part than do old-fashioned beatings.

The Post reports that Lisa says that she knows that the technique can be "abused." Which is good of her to concede, since a Google search of "hot sauce" "child abuse" and "murder" comes up with 145 hits.

-le snip-

While Gail is trying for a light, Harvey-esque quality, I think our attitude about drunks who talk to hallucinations has changed over the years. And anyway, Elwood P. Dowd wasn't intrusted with minor children. So, I hope the socialist Canadian authorities finally take note of Gail's obvious pleas for help, and have a social worker do a home evaluation.

When a foreign army invades a country about which it knows virtually nothing, there is plenty of deliberate brutality, but there is also the unintended barbarism of blind ignorance. It starts with cultural and religious slights: soldiers storming into a home without giving women a chance to cover their heads; army boots traipsing through mosques that have never been touched by the soles of shoes; a misunderstood hand signal at a checkpoint with deadly consequences.

And now Najaf. It's not just that sacred burial sites are being desecrated with fresh blood; it's that Americans appear unaware of the depths of this offense, and the repercussions it will have for decades to come. The Imam Ali Shrine is not a run-of-the-mill holy site; it's the Shiite equivalent of the Sistine Chapel. Najaf is not just another Iraqi city; it is the city of the dead, where the cemeteries go on forever, a place so sacred that every devout Shiite dreams of being buried there. And Muqtada al-Sadr and his followers are not just another group of generic terrorists out to kill Americans; their opposition to the occupation represents the overwhelmingly mainstream sentiment in Iraq. Yes, if elected Sadr would try to turn Iraq into a theocracy like Iran, but for now his demands are for direct elections and an end to foreign occupation.

Organizers estimated 400,000 people turned out for the march, which led to more than 100 arrests and yielded at least one skirmish between self-styled anarchists and police. More than 400 people have been arrested in protests since Thursday.

Chanting "Hey Ho, Bush Has Got to Go," the largely peaceful crowd marched past the Madison Square Garden convention site as Republicans and visitors arrived in the city for a four-day event where Bush will be nominated for another four-year term.

Police declined to estimate the size of the crowd but it stretched out more than a mile down one of the city's main thoroughfares. Thousands of police -- many clad in riot gear, some on bicycles and others on horseback -- turned out to control the crowd, who carried signs saying "Osama Loves Bush," "Bush Lies Who Dies?" and "Hate is not a Family Value."

A small group of masked anarchists set fire to a float just one block from the convention site and hurled bottles at police in riot gear who rushed them and made 11 arrests, police said.

March organizer Leslie Cagan told Reuters that despite some minor clashes, "The march has gone very, very well."

"People have come to protest the Bush administration on very many issues, but today we were united in speaking out against the Bush agenda," she said.

The trip to New York by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California to address the Republican National Convention is being financed by a variety of major corporations.

Mr. Schwarzenegger, who is scheduled to speak in a prime-time slot on Tuesday night, came to office promising to rid Sacramento of "special interests." But he has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from companies and interest groups with business before state government. [...]

Among the corporate sponsors of Mr. Schwarzenegger's trip, according to a list provided by the governor's office, are Fox Entertainment, NBC Universal, News Corporation, Paramount, TimeWarner, the Walt Disney Company and Viacom. Other donors include Abbott Laboratories, Amgen and Pfizer, ChevronTexaco and Conoco Phillips, and Outback Steakhouse, SBC and Visa.

Two important entertainment trade groups, the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America, also contributed toward the trip. The two groups are also sponsoring a tribute to Mr. Schwarzenegger in New York after his speech.

War and occupation will never bring liberation!
Bullshit! Get off it! This war is for profit!

Reuters


CNN

With streets blocked off and police blimps flying overhead, rifle-toting National Guardsmen striding through Grand Central Terminal and radiation detectors in place, this city all but bristles with security and anti-terrorist armament.

Police have doubled the number of undercover officers riding the buses and subways, and video cameras provide 24-hour feeds from bridges and tunnels. The federal government has cleared a seven-mile-radius airspace "frozen zone" over Madison Square Garden -- site of the Republican National Convention -- and a high-tech, 2,000-square-foot nerve center at police headquarters will hold representatives from 66 federal, state and city law enforcement agencies. [...]

New York may have never been so well guarded. But some New Yorkers find the buildup to the GOP convention unsettling. In interviews, several dozen spoke of the disruptions caused by the phalanxes of police and National Guard troops, by protesters bent on civil disobedience, and by the roving security details assigned to Republican VIPs. Many residents, particularly immigrants, worry that they will spend a week as suspects in their city.

"People are afraid now," said Mohammad Razvi, an auxiliary police officer and executive director of a respected community group that serves Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants. "Whenever these terror warnings go up, they are like: 'Oh, no, are they going to pick on us again?' "

Small and large Quicktime videos available here.

The billboard features a constantly updated clock counting the cost of the Iraq war, similar to the former national debt clock.

The clock starts at $134.5 billion and increases at a rate of $177 million per day, $7.4 million per hour and $122,820 per minute.

Organisers plan to feature the clock in a full page ad in the New York Times on 30 August.

A fascinating discovery by a team of chemical engineers based at Leeds University has determined that with the use of two catalysts, made of nickel and carbon, they can produce incredibly pure hydrogen from vegetable oils without using any fossil fuels. The byproducts are only oxygen (which can be fed back around to power the device), carbon dioxide, and methane. They used sunflower oil, but said that any vegetable oil could be used.

I read this, and being incredibly excited about the very real possibility of having a hydrogen station on my corner someday rather than a gas station, I started to daydream. This could be a godsend for developing countries, which are often energy-poor but agriculturally productive. It could also entirely upset the current balance of energy power: the most sunflowers I've ever seen growing commercially was in Northern France - could France become the new Saudi Arabia? The US could easily become self sustaining for fuel and energy, and it could revitalize farms in the mid-west and other economically depressed agricultural areas.

Graphically the game is astounding. Carved watermelons shatter under gunfire, the Eggs Benedict have just the right amount of Hollandaise, and the concussion from a fragmentation grenade can send thermal coffee pots sailing across the room - leaving you to decide which is regular and which is decaf.

Attorney General John Ashcroft today revealed that the Justice Department has credible intelligence that protesters at next week’s Republican National Convention are actively plotting to speak and assemble.

“These evildoers may speak or assemble without warning,” Mr. Ashcroft told reporters. “We are preparing for the worst.”

To foil the protesters’ plot to speak and assemble, the Attorney General said that the Justice Department has established a special Anti-Speech and Assembly Task Force in New York City.

“This task force has its ears to the ground on a twenty-four-hour basis,” Mr. Ashcroft said. “If they get wind of a plot to speak or assemble, they will pounce.”

The Attorney General said that New York’s Central Park would be off-limits to protesters for the duration of the Convention, but said that space for the protesters to speak and assemble was being reserved in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Gitmo location was chosen, Mr. Ashcroft said, to facilitate military tribunals for the protesters immediately after they are done speaking and assembling. [...]

Finally, President Bush’s daughters Barbara and Jenna cancelled their convention speech scheduled for next Wednesday, citing a conflict with Ladies’ Night.

"Well, at the time that the Marines showed up, I was working. And I knew my husband called me immediately and was crying and screaming in the phone that Alexander had been killed, that his son had been killed. And I went to pieces and my husband, as you know, went to pieces and basically tried to accompany his son," Melida Arredondo said.

According to witnesses, Carlos Arredondo, 44, climbed into the Marine Corps van parked outside his home after smashing in the windows and setting it on fire using a propane tank, a can of gasoline and a blowtorch from his garage.

The three Marines, reservists who are members of a military Casualty Assistance Calls Officer team, pulled Carlos Arredondo from the burning vehicle and extinguished the flames, but more than 50 percent of his body had been burned. Carlos Arredondo's wife said he was in stable condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital Thursday night.

MPs are planning to impeach Tony Blair for "high crimes and misdemeanours" in taking Britain to war against Iraq, reviving an ancient practice last used against Lord Palmerston more than 150 years ago. <>

Eleven MPs led by Adam Price, Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, are to table a motion when parliament returns that will force the prime minister to appear before the Commons to defend his record in the run-up to the war. [...]<>

The MPs' decision follows the commissioning of a 100-page report which lays out the case for impeaching Mr Blair and the precedents for action, including arguments laid down in Erskine May, the parliamentary bible, on impeachments dating back to medieval times. [...]<>

Mr Price said he believed the case was compelling. "To dust off Victorian constitutional histories and examine precedents from the time of Charles I and Chaucer may seem bizarre. But the conduct of the prime minister has left people and parliament with no alternative if we are to preserve the very basis of democracy."

Jack Winter
July 25, 1994 New Yorker magazine.

It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very
chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate.

I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her
standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a
state of total array. Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and
she moved in a gainly way.

I wanted desperately to meet her, but I knew I'd have to make bones
about it since I was travelling cognito. Beknownst to me, the hostess,
whom I could see both hide and hair of, was very proper, so it would be
skin off my nose if anything bad happened. And even though I had only
swerving loyalty to her, my manners couldn't be peccable. Only toward
and heard-of behavior would do.

Fortunately, the embarrassment that my maculate appearance might cause
was evitable. There were two ways about it, but the chances that someone
as flappable as I would be ept enough to become persona grata or a sung
hero were slim. I was, after all, something to sneeze at, someone you
could easily hold a candle to, someone who usually aroused bridled
passion.

So I decided not to risk it. But then, all at once, for some apparent
reason, she looked in my direction and smiled in a way that I could make
heads or tails of.

I was plussed. It was concerting to see that she was communicado, and it
nerved me that she was interested in a pareil like me, sight seen.
Normally, I had a domitable spirit, but, being corrigible, I felt
capacitated--as if this were something I was great shakes at--and forgot
that I had succeeded in situations like this only a told number of
times. So, after a terminable delay, I acted with mitigated gall and
made my way through the ruly crowd with strong givings.

Nevertheless, since this was all new hat to me and I had no time to
prepare a promptu speech, I was petuous. Wanting to make only called-for
remarks, I started talking about the hors d'oeuvres, trying to abuse her
of the notion that I was sipid, and perhaps even bunk a few myths about
myself.

She responded well, and I was mayed that she considered me a savory
character who was up to some good. She told me who she was. "What a
perfect nomer," I said, advertently. The conversation became more and
more choate, and we spoke at length to much avail. But I was
defatigable, so I had to leave at a godly hour. I asked if she wanted to
come with me. To my delight, she was committal. We left the party
together and have been together ever since. I have given her my love,
and she has requited it.

Republicans endorsed an uncompromising position against gay unions Wednesday in a manifesto that contrasts with Vice President Dick Cheney's supportive comments about gay rights and the moderate face the party will show at next week's national convention.

A panel made up largely of conservative delegates approved platform language that calls for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and opposes legal recognition of any sort for gay civil unions. [...]

But some activists sharply criticized their party for adopting a hard line in advance of a convention that will seek support from swing voters and more liberal Republicans.

Christopher Barron of the Log Cabin Republicans, a GOP gay-rights group, was livid after the panel endorsed the first-ever call for a constitutional gay-marriage ban in a GOP platform and went beyond that to oppose legal recognition of any same-sex unions.

"You can't craft a vicious, mean-spirited platform and then try to put lipstick on the pig by putting Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger on in prime time," he said in an interview. [...]

Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition advised the network of conservative churches not to worry about the religious right's exclusion from prime time next week, given the advances against gay rights.

"Don't be distracted by Schwarzenegger or Giuliani or even the vice president," she said. "It is what George Bush says that counts and he has been faithful and fearless on this important issue."

While it is tempting to make use of the billboard as a public delivery system for art projects, and there have been some impressive examples, we know by now that these incursions are unlikely to change anything and it may be that all they accomplish is to endorse the legitimacy of the medium. The most radical course of action would be to follow adman David Ogilvy’s advice, take up arms against the billboard and lobby for their removal from our streets.

Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt dismisses MoveOn as "quite an extremist organization" and scoffs at the effort, saying: "All the showbiz in the world isn't going to get John Kerry elected president."

STEWART: Here's what puzzles me most, Rob. John Kerry's record in Vietnam is pretty much right there in the official records of the US military, and haven't been disputed for 35 years?

CORDDRY: That's right, Jon, and that's certainly the spin you'll be hearing coming from the Kerry campaign over the next few days.

STEWART: Th-that's not a spin thing, that's a fact. That's established.

CORDDRY: Exactly, Jon, and that established, incontravertible fact is one side of the story.

STEWART: But that should be -- isn't that the end of the story? I mean, you've seen the records, haven't you? What's your opinion?

CORDDRY: I'm sorry, my *opinion*? No, I don't have 'o-pin-i-ons'. I'm a reporter, Jon, and my job is to spend half the time repeating what one side says, and half the time repeating the other. Little thing called 'objectivity' -- might wanna look it up some day.

STEWART: Doesn't objectivity mean objectively weighing the evidence, and calling out what's credible and what isn't?

CORDDRY: Whoa-ho! Well, well, well -- sounds like someone wants the media to act as a filter! [high-pitched, effeminate] 'Ooh, this allegation is spurious! Upon investigation this claim lacks any basis in reality! Mmm, mmm, mmm.' Listen buddy: not my job to stand between the people talking to me and the people listening to me.

STEWART: So, basically, you're saying that this back-and-forth is never going to end.

CORDDRY: No, Jon -- in fact a new group has emerged, this one composed of former Bush colleages, challenging the president's activities during the Vietnam era. That group: Drunken Stateside Sons of Privilege for Plausible Deniability. They've apparently got some things to say about a certain Halloween party in '71 that involved trashcan punch and a sodomized piñata. Jon -- they just want to set the record straight. That's all they're out for.

STEWART: Well, thank you Rob, good luck out there. We'll be right back.

Well, this isn’t the way to go about it, my friend. If your dream version of America is Hillary in the White House, then beating Bush in 2004 is not going to move you closer to your goal. It’s time for you to put the overpowering emotion of hatred aside and try to think a few years ahead. If this 2004 Kerry of yours takes this race you’re probably going to be stuck with him for eight years. During those eight years they’re going to be polishing up a 2012 Edwards to take his place. All the while your Hillary is going to be collecting rust in the Senate.

LOL. So, what Neal is saying is that he believes that Kerry is going to win the election and the one after that -- and then in 2012, Edwards will have a good shot at the presidency. But because all Democrats really want Hillary for President, not Kerry, they need to vote for Bush this year, in order to give Hillary a shot in 2008. And Neal is just telling us this to help us out.

I have to admire the creativity of this desperate ploy of Neal's to get people to vote for Bush, even though it's pretty hilarious.

Stupid Old Fart: Do you have that book about what a liar Kerry is?

Me: *deep breath* *fake smile* We have a lot of books about Senator Kerry. What book would that be, sir?

Stupid Old Fart: Oh you know. The one by them swift boaters.

Me: Unfit for Command? No, sir. We are currently sold out of that.

Stupid Old Fart: *amused chuckle* Of course, of course. That's great.

Me: Uh huh. Your total is blah blah blah.

Stupid Old Fart: *keeps yammering* It's number one on Amazon, you know! I heard that it sold the most copies ever in a day. People gotta know.

Me: *twitch* Sign here please.

Stupid Old Fart: Can you believe he tried to get away with it?

Me: Here's your reciept sir. Have a good afternoon.

Stupid Old Fart: Can't hide from the truth! Can't hide, I tell ya.

Me: Uh huh. Right. Buh bye!

So many people ask for the stupid book, we had to put a sign out. Of course, they aren't very smart, so they miss the sign and I have to explain the situation to them. Then, I have to smile sweetly and resist copying down their order information so I can sign them up for a subscription to Hustler.

...for the reporters who are slow:


All ads are not the same.

Not all negative ads are unfair.

Not all negative ads contain explicit lies or are designed to be explicitly misleading.

No matter what your general belief about campaign finance laws, Bush has apparently adopted the extreme position which would deny any "outside group" the right to make any political ads, in contrast to his previous positions on this subject.

Many "outside groups," such as the MoveOn PAC, are subject to stringent disclosure rules.

Bush has also admitted that he didn't read and/or understand the recent campaign finance law, which he signed.

Experts said the paintings were probably stolen for ransom or as a “trophy” robbery to impress other criminals, since it would be virtually impossible to sell them anywhere because they are so well known.

Your eagerness in celebrating the loss of this intelligence source prompted me to think that you'd make a fine senator. After all, respected Republican senators like Orrin Hatch and Jeff Sessions have also betrayed important intelligence methods to the enemy. It does not matter that Al Qaeda changed their communications strategy after Hatch announced that we were listening to their cell phones and Sessions leaked the content of phone intercepts. The senators did it to further the Republican Party's political aims. That's a part of the war that is just as important as ensuring Halliburton's funding.

1. Drink whenever Bill O'Reilly says "shut-up."
2. Drink whenever Bill O'R accuses someone of "dodging" the factor or of otherwise being afraid of the factor.
3. Drink whenever Bill O'reilly claims that he is non-partisan.
4. Drink when Sean Hannity questions someone's patriotism
5. Drink when Sean Hannity says something demonstrably false
6. Drink then Brit Hume editorializes a straight news piece.
7. Drink whenever Walter Cronkite is on the screen.
8. Whenever Neil Cavuto comes on screen, do something crazy.

Three U.S. senators have called on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to account for 8.8 billion dollars entrusted to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq earlier this year but now gone missing. [...]

"We are requesting a full, written account of the 8.8 billion dollars transferred earlier this year from the CPA to the Iraqi ministries, including the amount each ministry received and the way in which the ministry spent the money," said the letter.

The senators also requested that the Pentagon designate a date by which it will install adequate oversight and financial and contractual controls over money it spends in Iraq.

They accused the CPA of transferring the "staggering sum of money" with no written rules or guidelines to ensure adequate control over it. [...]

The report says that in one case some 8,000 guards were listed on a payroll but only 603 real individuals could be counted.

"Such enormous discrepancies raise very serous questions about potential fraud, waste and abuse," added the letter.

A man who heckled President Bush at a political rally was fired from his job at an advertising and design company for offending a client who provided tickets to the event.

The fired graphic designer said Saturday he won't try to get his job back.

"I'm mad less about losing the job - I'm more mad about the reasons," said Glen Hiller, 35, of Berkeley Springs. "All I did was show up and voice my opinion."

Hiller was ushered out of Hedgesville High School on Tuesday after shouting his disagreement with Bush's comments about the war in Iraq war and the search for weapons of mass destruction. The crowd had easily drowned out Hiller with its chant: "Four more years."

"He surrounds himself with people who support him," Hiller said of Bush. "Your opinion ... is viewed as right or wrong."

When he showed up for work at Octavo Designs of Frederick, Md., the following morning, he said he was told he'd embarrassed and offended a client who provided tickets to the event - and that he was fired.

The client was a public relations worker who represents the Berkeley County school district, he said. "It's just bizarre that you disagree with them and it all turns evil," Hiller said.

The White House claimed a major victory in the war on terror today as al-Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden revealed that he no longer knows where he is.

Mr. bin Laden, appearing on a tape broadcast by the Arabic-language al-Jazeera network, said that he had not known his location for months and blamed his current predicament on the Internet mapping site Mapquest.com.

“Those Mapquest fools provided me with a map that is next to useless,” a visibly angry bin Laden says on the tape. “All it tells me is where the nearest Applebee’s is.”

Over the last week or so, a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has been attacking me. Of course, this group isn’t interested in the truth – and they’re not telling the truth. They didn’t even exist until I won the nomination for president.

But here’s what you really need to know about them. They’re funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor out of Texas. They’re a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the President won’t denounce what they’re up to tells you everything you need to know—he wants them to do his dirty work.

Thirty years ago, official Navy reports documented my service in Vietnam and awarded me the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. Thirty years ago, this was the plain truth. It still is. And I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam.

As firefighters you risk your lives everyday. You know what it’s like to see the truth in the moment. You’re proud of what you’ve done—and so am I.

Of course, the President keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: “Bring it on.”

I’m not going to let anyone question my commitment to defending America—then, now, or ever. And I’m not going to let anyone attack the sacrifice and courage of the men who saw battle with me.

Hudson has been an influential adviser to President Bush and a close friend of the White House political strategist Karl Rove since the late 1990s. Hudson first caught Rove's attention by publishing a study in Crisis in 1998 arguing that Republican candidates could make inroads among traditionally Democratic-leaning Catholic voters by focusing on regular churchgoers, a strategy that dovetailed with Bush's emphasis on "compassionate conservatism."

Hudson signed on as an adviser to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. For the last four years, he has been a prominent participant in a weekly conference call held by the Republican National Committee each Thursday with influential Catholic supporters.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said Hudson has played an almost indispensable role reaching out to Catholics for the White House.

Donohue said Hudson's resignation will inevitably set back the Bush campaign's efforts with Catholic voters. "He was the ultimate networker," Donohue said. "I think it will be hurt because of the ties that Deal had."

TRANSCRIPT OF FLIPPITY-FLOPPITY SEGMENT

George W. Bush has a funny way of flip-flopping on the issues.

He was against a Homeland Security Department. FLIP

Then he was for it. FLOP
He was against the McCain Feingold campaign finance bill. FLIP
But then he was for it. FLIP-FLOP
Bush said he was for free trade. FLIPPITY

But then he put on steel tariffs. FLOP

Then he was against the tariffs again. FLIPPITY FLOP

Bush said the states should decide about gay marriage. FLIPPITY

Then he was for changing the Constitution. FLIPPITY FLOP, OR IS IT FLOPPITY FLIP?

Bush said he would put mandatory caps on Carbon Dioxide. FLOOPITY

Then he said he wouldn’t. FLOOPPITY-FLEE

Bush said he’d leave no child behind. FLOPITTY

But refused to fund it, leaving millions of children of behind. BYE BYE POOR CHILDREN, WE’RE LEAVING YOU BEHIND, SORRY. OH, I CAN’T SEE YOU NOW, YOU’RE SO FAR BEHIND. I’VE FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOU.

Bush said he against an independent 9/11 commission. FLIIIIIIIIIIIIIP

But then reluctantly agreed to one. FLOPPITY FLOOP

Bush said we were going to war in Iraq to disarm Saddam Hussein. FLIPPITY

But when it turned out there weren’t any WMD’s, he said the war was to fight al Qaeda. FLIPPITY-FLOPPITY

But then he admitted there was no evidence of ties between Saddam and al Qaeda FLIPPITY-FLOOPITY-FLOOP

So then he said the war was to bring Western style democracy to the entire Middle East. FLIPPITY-FLOOPITY-FLOP, FLOP FLOP FLOP FLOP

He said he wouldn’t invade Iraq without a vote in the UN. FLIP

But then he invaded without a vote. FLOPPITY FLOOP

But now he wants to UN to save his butt. (to tune of: Off to See the Wizard) FLIPPITY FLOPITTY FLOOP. FLIPPITY FLOPPITY FLOOP, FLIPPITY FLOPPITY, FLIPPITY FLOPPITY. FLIPPITY FLOPPITY FLOOP

He said he was ushering in an era of personal responsibility. FLIPPITY

But refuses to take responsibility for all his flip-flops. FLIPPITY BYE BYE BUSH. SEE YOU IN FLIPPITY FLOPPITY LAND – THAT’S RIGHT – CRAWFORD FLIPPITY FLOOP TEXAS. FLOOP FLOOP!

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, already under fire for his tough stance against anti-GOP protest groups, Monday suggested that First Amendment rights of free speech and free assembly are "privileges" that could be lost if abused.

Bloomberg, speaking to Republican National Convention volunteers in Manhattan, was trying to downplay concerns that protesters will disrupt this month's convention -- when he began articulating a broader constitutional vision.

"People who avail themselves of the opportunity to express themselves ... they will not abuse that privilege," he said at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "Because if we start to abuse our privileges, then we lose them, and nobody wants that." [...]

"The right to protest is not nor has it ever been a privilege -- it is a constitutionally protected right that everybody in this country enjoys," said Leslie Cagan, head of United for Peace and Justice, which has locked horns with the city over its attempt to stage a 250,000-person protest in Central Park. "I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm completely flabbergasted." [...]

The online dictionary, Law.com, defines a privilege as a "special benefit, exemption from a duty, or immunity from penalty, given to a particular person, a group or a class of people."

A right, on the other hand, is defined as a "an entitlement to something, such as ... freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition," according to the online law dictionary.

And now I ask: Is it time to repeal the First Amendment? Have partisan journalists finally forfeited their right to free speech? I'm starting to think so.

Iraqi police have threatened to kill every journalist working in the holy city of Najaf, where US forces are locked in a tense stand-off with Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army.

After a series of veiled warnings to leave on Sunday, two marked police cars pulled up at dusk outside the Sea of Najaf hotel on the outskirts of town, where Arab and Western journalists are staying.

Ten uniformed policemen walked into the hotel and demanded that the al-Arabiya, Reuters and AP correspondents go with them.

Journalists told them they were not there, but the policemen found and arrested Ahmed al-Salahih, the al-Arabiya correspondent, who the day before had been given a special exemption from the earlier eviction orders.

A uniformed lieutenant then told the assembled journalists and hotel staff: "We are going to open fire on this hotel. I'm going to smash it all, kill you all, and I'm going to put four snipers to target anybody who goes out of the hotel. You have brought it upon yourselves."

After pushing and shoving in the foyer, another policeman pointed his gun towards a member of the staff, but was disarmed by an Arab television journalist.

The police left, taking the al-Arabiya correspondent with them, drove 300m and fired warning shots. [...]

In the streets outside the shrine, terrified Iraqis hid inside their homes, with intermittent fire between the US tanks and Mehdi Army guerillas, who have planted huge booby traps on almost every street. Few ordinary Najafis will now stray beyond their doorsteps.

The McDonald's global marketing vision goes well beyond Olympic sponsorship, Light said. There are plans to raise global brand awareness through music, fashion and entertainment, too. The fast-food chain recently unveiled a partnership with Sony that enables customers to download songs from the Internet. It has created a line of children's clothes called "McKids" and has opened 15 children's stores in China that sell McDonald's-themed books, videos, toys and outfits. Electronic games are in production.

Says Light: "Our strategy is to develop McDonald's as a lifestyle brand -- not just as a food brand."

Brace yourself. A lifestyle brand is my least favorite kind of brand. The more the term "lifestyle" is used to describe a brand, the less quality is inherent in said brand.

Me: in order to view olympic highlights on the nbc site you have to be a visa cardholder, and enter your number

Friend: uhh....
Friend: that's weird
Friend: why's that?

Me: because the olympics are now run by Corpotron

Friend: hmm
Friend: I don't much care for that [...]

Me: i have a visa card, but i value my privacy enough to just watch the rerun at 2
Me: they may not have that much information about me

Friend: yeah

Me: i mean fuck, why even have a firewall?

Friend: that's why they ask nicely... and your reward is seeing sporting events you should be allowed to see anyway

Me: i think i'm gonna go put flyers with my credit card number on them in people's mailboxes

Friend: send me one

Me: sure!
Me: why not?

Friend: there are a few things I'd like to buy and some popups I'd like to send you

Me: not a problem. i'm already watching the olympic highlights after all. i practically ASKED for it. next thing you know, i'll be raped while wearing jeans. i'm interminable.

Friend: haha

Me: i can't believe nbc is resorting to porn site tactics

With evidence mounting of plans for widespread vote-rigging in Afghanistan's upcoming elections, U.S. experts say the controversy could emerge as a serious liability for U.S. President George W. Bush's re-election campaign.

After voter registration centers closed across Afghanistan on the weekend, election officials acknowledged the number of voting cards issued far exceeded the estimated number of eligible voters — and that the illegal practice of multiple registrations is widespread.

"An Afghan election marred by allegations of fraud would be bad for President Bush's overall claim of promoting democracy in the Muslim world," said Husain Haqqani, an Afghanistan expert at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "In the absence of good news from Iraq, the Bush administration needs Afghanistan as its success story." [...]

In separate interviews, two Afghans told the Star it was easy to obtain more than one card. One man who registered six times, using his real name and photograph, said U.N. election workers asked him only once if he had previously registered. A woman said her nephew had been approached at school numerous times to sell his laminated voting card and that she knows a woman who obtained 40 cards while cloaked in a burqa.

The blatant violation of election rules has prompted two presidential candidates — Latif Pedram, leader of the Congress Mili Afghanistan Party and independent candidate, Ahmad Shah Amadzai — to call for an investigation.

Overall, the registration process has been rife with many problems: 12 election workers were killed; Afghans confused their voter ID cards for food rations and prescriptions; men forbade wives, sisters and daughters from getting voting cards; and many uneducated people simply don't understand what their first election is about. Originally scheduled for last June, the election has twice been postponed — first due to low registration turnout and later because of security concerns.

So it's no surprise that hardened electronic activists are planning to jam up the servers of georgewbush.com, rnc.org, and related websites, once the Republican National Convention gets underway on August 29. "We want to bombard (the Republican sites) with so much traffic that nobody can get in," said CrimethInc, a member of the so-called Black Hat Hackers Bloc.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Kids throwing rocks stirred up more trouble than they bargained for when they dislodged a swarm of bees from an enormous hive built in the wall of a Southern California apartment building, authorities said on Friday.

An estimated 120,000 bees held residents of the apartment building and nearby homes hostage in Santa Ana, California after the children pelted their 500 pound (227 kg) hive with rocks on Thursday, Santa Ana Fire Captain Steve Horner said. [...]

Firefighters cordoned off a four-block area to allow the bees to calm down and return to their hive. An exterminator later fogged the hive and vacuumed out 40,000 dead bees, then set a trap for returning worker bees, of which about 80,000 were captured, Horner said.

The quarter-ton honeycomb, which may have accumulated inside the apartment wall for years, was so big it was threatening the structural integrity of the two-story building, Horner said.

Meet Ann Coulter. In her opinion, "liberals are racists", the French are "a bunch of faggots", only property owners should be allowed to vote, and anyone who disagrees with her is a "fatuous idiot" or "evil". [...]

Her next book, due out in October, is called How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must). And even this relatively emollient title is a concession. "They pushed this title on me," Coulter says when we meet at Orsay, a brasserie on the Upper East Side of New York. "All my titles were much more vicious. What I didn't like about How to Talk to a Liberal is that I really think the best way to talk to one is to hit them in the head with a baseball bat. So I threw in the parenthetical If You Must." [...]

Within minutes of our sitting down, the conversation turns to the position of expat Pakistanis in the social hierarchies of the Middle East. "They're never very high in anyone's caste system, are they," Ann volunteers. "Poor little Pakis." The photographer and I look at each other. Did she really say that? But it's just an amuse-bouche to prepare us for what is to come.

We move on to education. "To get into university without achievement or grades, you wanna have a name like Shafiqua, Jeffrika or Leroy," says Ann, who is not a fan of racial quotas. Learning difficulties are a cover for "rich parents with dumb kids". "That's why 'Pinch' Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times, is alleged to have dyslexia - because he's retarded. Do you guys even have dyslexia?" [...]

Yes, it's those pesky liberals again. "They're not only fascist where they live, they're expanding their fascism to the rest of America." Wouldn't this case be a constitutional issue (to do with the separation of church and state)? "That's what liberals say about everything, including sucking the brains out of little babies."

One thing can be said for Coulter: she does not worry about causing offence. When we talk about the "war on terror", she sounds almost nostalgic for the Cold War. "When we were fighting communism, OK, they had mass murderers and gulags, but they were white men and they were sane. Now we're up against absolutely insane savages." The insouciance with which she drops race into the mix is so astonishing that it's disarming. [...]

Why can't she say extremist Muslims rather than just Muslims? "If that'll make you happy. They slaughtered 3,000 people and I'm making unfair generalisations. I think we're even." Well, no, I don't think we're even, I begin to reply - and at this point I see a side of Ann Coulter that goes beyond the ludicrous opinions. I see someone who is not afraid to twist, distort, bully and lie in order to "win" her argument.

Before I can elaborate or finish my sentence, she's off again. "Oh no, you're right, a generalisation is so much worse than slaughtering 3,000 people." I'm not saying that, I say. "I can't go beyond that, an ethnic generalisation is worse than slaughter. That is the essence of liberalism, you really do believe that. You get a glass of wine in you and you spit it out. You heard it. Making an un-PC generalisation is worse than the attack of 9/11." I'm not saying that, I repeat. "Yes, you are, you just said it." Of course I don't think that, I start, before I'm cut off again. "Liar!" [...]

There's no one like her in Britain, I say, not even on the crazy fringes of the Tory party. "I know," she agrees, "it's horrifying what the Conservatives are in England. You make clear that I'm not one of them."

Is Ann Coulter a nutcase? If she is, she's one listened to and approved of by a frightening number of Americans. Surely, I say, hoping she will concede that she sometimes provokes to amuse, she doesn't believe everything she comes out with. "This is the shocking thing for your readers," she replies. "I believe everything I say."

Republican National Convention

Monday

(not televised by networks)

John McCain -- target of vicious Bush attacks in SC in 2000, gay, er, tolerant, war hero
Rudy Giuliani -- serial adulturer, pro choice, gay friendly, did not serve
Michael Bloomberg -- unpopular NYC mayor, pro choice, gay friendly, did not serve

Tuesday

Arnold Schwarzenegger -- sexual harrasser, pro choice, gay friendly
Rod Paige -- secretary of education, did not serve
Laura Bush

Wednesday

Zell Miller -- GA senator, turncoat, vet
Dick Cheney -- War coward. Eats babies. Shouldn't he headline the evening?
Lynne Cheney -- author of steamy anti-men lesbian romance novels.

Thursday

George Bush -- GOP prez nominee, hid in TX ANG during Vietnam, went AWOL, falls off bicycles.
George Pataki -- NY governor. Pro choice (at least rhetorically), gay friendly, did not serve

6:00pm - Opening prayer
6:15pm - Supplementary opening prayer
6:30pm - Prayer in thanks of first two prayers
6:45pm - New energy policy presented by Exxon
7:00pm - Canonization of Reagan
7:15pm - Additional prayers
7:30pm - Opening remarks by Halliburton
8:00pm - Prayer for the safety and well-being of Ken "Kenny-boy" Lay
8:15pm - Additional remarks by Halliburton
8:30pm - Stoning of the first homosexual
8:45pm - New healthcare polices presented by HMO leader, Kaiser Permanente
9:00pm - Invasion of Iran or North Korea (TBA)
9:15pm - Halliburton contributes 1.4 billion to Republican party
9:30pm - Reagan elevated to savior, Holy Trinity now referred to as "the quads"
9:45pm - Bush undergoes plastic surgery to look more like Reagan
10:00pm - Chaney runs into Ron Reagan, Jr. Tells him to go fuck himself
10:15pm - Recall of troops from accidental invasion of South Korea (Bush: "Damn, the SOUTH is our ally. My bad.")
10:30pm - Burning at the stake of 16 year-old Jenny Williams, who had an illegal abortion after being raped by her cousin
10:45pm - Dancing around the golden calf
11:00pm - Stoning of the partner of the first homosexual
11:15pm - New forestry policy presented by Weyerhaeuser
11:45pm - Thanking God for his wisdom in choosing Bush as president
12:00pm - Closing prayers (lasting until 2:00am)
2:00 am - Hookers arrive for all delegates

Best of all? Bush knows it. While Kerry has unleashed a message designed to rally a country, Bush has embarked on a campaign designed to motivate a Party. From appearances on fishing shows to ads in red states to wedge issues and testaments aimed at the churchgoers, this is a scared party. The loyalty oaths and clothing police only further the impression that they're barely able to speak to their own and totally unable to speak beyond them. Bush's plan for this election was to allow his success in the War on Terror to sweep over the land and carry him to victory; now that he's been battered and weakened by his own incompetency on the subject, he's flailing, hoping his general geniality and (again) professions of deep concern and courage will convince America. But, unlike his first run where he based his campaign on values and bipartisanship, this time, he's not speaking to America, he's only speaking to those cowering and aching to lash out.

His first, tentative steps into the wider ideological pool come in a couple weeks, when the Republicans hold a convention in a city that hates them, parading keynoters who don't represent them and trading on the memory of the attacks to forge a bond with voters. But, for better or worse, Americans are past that stage. We've mourned, we want a competent security apparatus and a president capable of strength, but we don't want to live in eternal terror. That's what he's offering and I see few buyers.

That sense of the race has hardly settled in among pundits or daily newspaper reporters, or if it has, it hasn't shown through in their copy. And yet here you have David Broder writing a column which, though it says many things, says mainly that President Bush is likely to be thrown out of office -- not because John Kerry is lighting the hustings on fire, but simply because President Bush's fundamental policy decisions have failed and voters are going to hold him accountable.

That perception, that conventional wisdom, once it takes hold, can have a poisonous effect on the efforts of the perceived loser. And when that perception begins to take hold among Republicans, if it does, it will set off a vicious internal dynamic within the party.

And so this, I think, will be the key issue over the next three weeks, as we build up to and then come out of the Republican convention: when does the CW defined by Broder -- the veritable pontiff of beltway CW -- start registering? If the polls change it may never, of course. But if not, when does the president start moving ahead in the polls? Can the GOP convention fundamentally shift the dynamic of the race? And, if not, when do the first signs of panic begin to appear within the president's ranks?

The GOP convention now seems like it'll be a much more high-stakes affair than the DNC.

The big story out of Florida over the weekend was the tragic devastation caused by Hurricane Charley. But there's another story from Florida that deserves our attention.

State police officers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando and interrogated them as part of an odd "investigation" that has frightened many voters, intimidated elderly volunteers and thrown a chill over efforts to get out the black vote in November.

The officers, from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which reports to Gov. Jeb Bush, say they are investigating allegations of voter fraud that came up during the Orlando mayoral election in March. [...]

I asked Mr. Morales in a telephone conversation to tell me what criminal activity had taken place.

"I can't talk about that," he said.

I asked if all the people interrogated were black.

"Well, mainly it was a black neighborhood we were looking at - yes,'' he said.

He also said, "Most of them were elderly."

When I asked why, he said, "That's just the people we selected out of a random sample to interview."

Back in the bad old days, some decades ago, when Southern whites used every imaginable form of chicanery to prevent blacks from voting, blacks often fought back by creating voters leagues, which were organizations that helped to register, educate and encourage black voters. It became a tradition that continues in many places, including Florida, today.

Not surprisingly, many of the elderly black voters who found themselves face to face with state police officers in Orlando are members of the Orlando League of Voters, which has been very successful in mobilizing the city's black vote.

Standing beneath the Olympic flame, Tiesto will perform nearly two hours of dance music -- a mix of original songs, electronically reworked classical tunes and Greek favorites -- as the world's athletes enter the Olympic Stadium for the start of the games Friday night.

It will be the first time a disc jockey will have such a role at an Olympics. And it may seem ironic that a purveyor of this kind of music -- which can have a stimulating effect on the people dancing to it, if they're in the proper chemically altered state of mind -- would have such a prominent place at these just-say-no games.

The Arizona Daily Sun characterized John Kerry's Sunday night rally in Heritage Square as "practically the second coming" and devoted its entire Monday front page to the blessed event.

Stories examined the opinions of undecided voters in the crowd, Teresa Heinz Kerry's speech, Indian issues and, for balance, protesters supporting President Bush.

You can't buy that kind of publicity. And that, in large measure, was the point of the Democratic presidential nominee's 4,971-mile trip from Boston to Oregon by bus and train, which ended on Friday.

A recent study by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University found that, on a cost-per-vote basis, it's more effective to send a presidential candidate into smaller media markets than to buy advertising in major television markets. While millions of eyeballs see 30-second spots, local visits are better at moving voters, the research found.

The city has not agreed to address any of our needs in a positive way. The major issues that have always been with us are 1) the city's planned use of metal barricades to pin people in. We have strongly objected to that, and we have not heard from the city that they will not use those barricades to create pins; the lack of water in that area, in an area that has virtually no shade and no facilities to access water; the need for free shuttle buses to transfer people back from that area to subway stations. And, of course, the much higher cost for a sound system along the Westside Highway. We have received no commitments from the city to help with any of these or other important issues. In the last few weeks, we have also gathered other new information. Our medical people have advised us against taking people into this area. The costs for a sound system are even higher than we initially thought making it virtually prohibitive to have a rally there. Press reports have indicated that the great lawn renovations were done, in fact, with the intention of making that space usable for large numbers. And a public opinion poll recently done indicated that 75% of New Yorkers believe that demonstrations should be allowed to take place in Central Park during the Republican Convention.

The California Supreme Court on Thursday voided the nearly 4,000 same-sex marriages sanctioned in San Francisco this year and ruled unanimously that the mayor overstepped his authority by issuing licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

The court said the city illegally issued the certificates and performed the ceremonies, since state law defined marriage as a union between a man and woman.

The justices separately decided with a 5-2 vote to nullify the 3,995 marriages peformed between Feb. 12 and March 11, when the court halted the weddings. Their legality, Justice Joyce Kennard wrote, must wait until courts resolve the constitutionality of state laws that restrict marriages to opposite-sex couples.

The same-sex marriages had virtually no legal value, but powerful symbolic value. Their nullification by the high court dismayed Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in San Francisco.

Want to talk to your President but turned off by loyalty oaths and dress codes? Tonight's your big night. He'll be on Larry King Live and, we can only assume, taking questions. Head on over to Kerry's Media Corps. for the skinny. And put your best question for the President in the comments.

1. Don't be a Dick
This is basically true in all things you do (as Jesus often said), but especially so when the world is watching... and extremely so when The Man is just waiting for you to slip up and toss a soft pretzel at a cop on a horse or something. Resist the temptation. You could get us all killed.

2. Police Yourselves
Yes, this means that when that kid sidles up next to you wearing a baseball cap, Che tee shirt, sunglasses and a bandana over his face, you should tell him or her to see rule #1. Likewise, if this is the uniform that you were planning on wearing... think about staying home and playing Neverwinter Nights instead. If you see a gang of thugs trying to tear down the temporary cyclone fencing that might be the only thing between you and a can of tear gas, politely ask them to knock it off.

3. Speaking of Attire...
Be yourself. If nipple rings, a codpiece, a thong and leather chaps is the way you usually dress, go for it (I'm still looking for a place to stay, by the way.) However, if you normally dress sorta preppy, don't show up wearing your "Grim Reaper" costume from two Halloweens ago. (Zeke L gets a special permit from me to dress like Jesus and reenact the Passion as he makes his way toward MSG... shouldering a Styrofoam® crucifix and being pelted with Gummi Bears® and/or whipped with Gummi Worms® by the members of his congregation.)

In a stunning declaration, Gov. James E. McGreevey announced his resignation Thursday and acknowledged that he had an extramarital affair with another man. "My truth is that I am a gay American," he said.

"Shamefully, I engaged in adult consensual affairs with another man, which violates my bonds of matrimony," the married father of two said at a news conference. "It was wrong, it was foolish, it was inexcusable."

The Democrat said his resignation would be effective Nov. 15.

McGreevey, 47, said that "it makes little difference that as governor I am gay," but added that staying in office and keeping the affair and his sexual orientation secret will leave the governor's office "vulnerable to rumors, false allegations and threats of disclosure."

"Given the circumstances surrounding the affair and its likely impact upon my family and my ability to govern, I have decided the right course of action is to resign," he said.

The head of Iraq's nuclear programme under Saddam Hussein has said Iraq destroyed its nuclear weapons programme in 1991 and never restarted it.

Jafar Dhia Jafar told the BBC sanctions and inspections worked in stopping the reconstitution of the programme.

He also said Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programmes were destroyed after the first Gulf War and never reactivated.

Mr Jafar ran Iraq's nuclear programme for nearly 25 years.

One of the most powerful arguments in the case for war on Iraq was the US and UK's claim Saddam Hussein was trying to restart his nuclear programme.

For his part, Mr. Kyriakou believes that the enormous horse could enhance viewership of the Olympics and has even recommended wheeling the mysterious wooden structure into the stadium itself.

“I say let the horse in,” he said. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

INTERVIEWER: [Y]ou come from intelligence. This is what you did, this is what you know.

REP. GOSS: Uh, that was, uh, 35 years ago.

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

REP. GOSS: It is true I was in CIA from approximately the late 50’s to approximately the early 70’s. And it's true I was a case officer, clandestine services officer and yes, I do understand the core mission of the business. I couldn't get a job with CIA today. I am not qualified. I don't have the language skills. I, you know, my language skills were romance languages and stuff. We're looking for Arabists today. I don't have the cultural background probably. And uh, as my children remind me every day, 'Dad you got to get better on your computer.’ Uh, so, the things that you need to have, I don't have.

– Rep. Porter Goss, March 3, 2004, Washington, DC

The workers, mostly women, in the supply factories of sportswear giants Fila, Kappa, Umbro, Lotto, Mizuno, Puma and Asics producing the gear and clothing needed for the upcoming Olympic Games suffer appalling and exploitative working conditions, have few rights and even less hope of improving their lives. An Oxfam investigation found that workers in official Olympic manufacturer Fila's factories endure forced overtime or risk losing their jobs, get fined for mistakes they make, and are intimidated out of joining trade unions.

But it's a highly competitive industry; manufacturers compete for a slice of the profits in Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Central America. That means they often accept last-minute orders and force workers to stay until they have finished; knock down costs by squeezing wages; employ workers on short-term contracts so that they can hire and fire at will; and threaten workers with dismissal or actually fire them for joining a trade union.

In a shocking incident at Auschwitz, a group of French tourists unleashed a string of anti-Semitic slurs at Jewish university students visiting the former death camp in Poland, officials reported yesterday.

The verbal assault occurred as the Jewish students, from the United States, Israel and Poland, were being guided through a model gas chamber and crematorium Sunday.

Angry that one of the students had an Israeli flag around his shoulders, one of the Frenchmen ran toward the group and began cursing and shouting anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli insults.

"He told us to go back to Israel and said that we were stupid and should be ashamed to walk around with an Israeli flag," Maya Ober, 21, a Polish student, told The Jerusalem Post.

Ober, who lost several ancestors at Auschwitz, said that after the initial flurry of slurs, a second Frenchman grabbed her arm.

"One of the guys held me by the arm and wouldn't let go," she said. "I was afraid. I couldn't move and I didn't know what he was going to do."

"I was shocked," she added. "Although I have met anti-Semitism many times, I never expected to meet it at Auschwitz, where so many of my relatives were killed."

And all of the big-money players get to choose from a menu of upper-crust optional activities. There's a $350 round of golf at Trump National Golf Club in Westchester and a $175 brunch and fashion show at Barneys, where "the gift bag alone will be the talk of the convention." And while President Bush has been known to sneer about folks "swilling white wine" in Martha's Vineyard and enjoying "brie and cheese" in California, that doesn't mean the RNC can't offer its guests a $125-per-person wine and cheese tasting. Patriots will be pleased to hear that the wine is domestic. The "artisan-produced food" is imported however, and there's speaker who is identified as a maitre fromager.

We can't be sure, but we think that's French.

Establish good relations between the departments of Defense and State, the National Security Council, CIA and the Office of Management and Budget.

Don't divide the world into 'them' and 'us.' Avoid infatuation with or resentment of the press, the Congress, rivals, or opponents. Accept them as facts. They have their jobs and you have yours.

Don't do or say things you would not like to see on the front page of the Washington Post.

If you foul up, tell the president and correct it fast. Delay only compounds mistakes.

Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the president and do wonders for your performance.

Your performance depends on your people. Select the best, train them, and back them. When errors occur, give sharper guidance. If errors persist or if the fit feels wrong, help them move on.

It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.

In a June securities filing Halliburton said a move by the Pentagon to withhold substantial payments or demand refunds could "materially and adversely affect our liquidity."

Costco also has the sort of labor policy that would bring a smile to Barbara Ehrenreich's face. Pay starts at $10 an hour. About one in six employees is represented by a union, and workers receive nice health benefits. Sinegal has a non-zero-sum view of employee relations. Give people good jobs at good wages, and they'll be more likely to work harder, less likely to leave, and less likely to steal. As Helyar reported, Costco's turnover "is a third of the retail industry average of 64%," and "shrinkage"—the amount of inventory lost to theft—"is about 13% of the industry norm."

-snip-

[Walmart]'s labor policies are state-of-the-art, for the 1890s. It has been investigated for hiring contractors who allegedly hired illegal aliens to clean Wal-Mart stores and for locking them inside overnight. (One wonders if the Wal-Mart employees who in April were bused in to hear Vice President Dick Cheney sing the company's praises at Wal-Mart's headquarters were similarly confined.) In June, a federal judge certified a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of female Wal-Mart employees who claimed discrimination. The average wage at Wal-Mart, which has no unions and bitterly opposes raising the minimum wage, is lower than Costco's lowest wage. Turnover at Wal-Mart, according to the Economist, is 44 percent, meaning it "has to hire an astonishing 600,000 people every year simply to stay at its current size."

Incidentally, while rugby is a contact sport, every player knows that tackling above the shoulders is a foul. So is leaving your feet during a tackle. Either of these is serious enough that the other team is immediately awarded a penalty kick, often directly resulting in points for the other team.

So even without throwing a punch, Bush is already well outside fair play.

Grasping an opponent by the back of the head and punching him in the face is beyond the pale -- I've watched rugby avidly for years, and I've never seen it during an open-field tackle like this, honest -- and will typically result in a player being immediately sent off.

Corsi on Islam: "a worthless, dangerous Satanic religion"

Corsi on Catholicism: "Boy buggering in both Islam and Catholicism is okay with the Pope as long as it isn't reported by the liberal press"

Corsi on Muslims: "RAGHEADS are Boy-Bumpers as clearly as they are Women-Haters -- it all goes together"

Corsi on "John F*ing Commie Kerry": "After he married TerRAHsa, didn't John Kerry begin practicing Judiasm? He also has paternal grandparents that were Jewish. What religion is John Kerry?"

Corsi on Senator "FAT HOG" Clinton: "Anybody ask why HELLary couldn't keep BJ Bill satisfied? Not lesbo or anything, is she?"

On the Media

CORSI: Time to FREEP Chris Matthews of MSNBC. MSNBC is beginning to stand for "More Sh*t, Nothing But Communism." (05/16/2002)

CORSI: I didn't realize Little Katie Communist of the NBC Today Show knew how to hack a website. Finally something impressive from the little wimp. [responding to news that USA Today's website had been hacked and that the hackers were mocking President George W. Bush's Christianity] (07/12/2002)

CORSI: COMMUNISM -- it's simple NBC = NOTHING BUT COMMUNISM. (04/19/2004)

CORSI: Susan Estrogen -- even the voice grates. But then with supporters like her and Ted Kennedy, who needs enemies. Let Susan BLAH BLAH screatch -- only Chrissy Matthews whines better. (04/13/2004)

John Kerry, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Katie Couric, CBS, NBC are all communists. Hillary Clinton is a lesbian fat hog with fake hair. Al and Tipper Gore are terrorists who are part of the Taliban. The pope is senile. And pedophilia is fine with him as long as it's not reported in the liberal press. If you think all this sounds nutty, well, it is.

According to the organization Media Matters For America, all this has been written by Jerome Corsi. Why do we care what Jerome Corsi says? Well, we don't. But as co-author of the book "Unfit for Command" about John Kerry and his service in Vietnam, some people are making the mistake of taking him seriously. In the world of putrid right-wing pond scum, Corsi is one of the biggest bottom-feeders of them all.

"This is the worst appointment that's ever been made to the office of director of central intelligence because that's an office that needs to be kept above partisan politics," said retired Adm. Stansfield Turner, who headed the CIA in the Carter administration. Turner, who supports the presidential candidacy of Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, said Goss was chosen "to help George Bush win votes in Florida" in the November election, the Associated Press reported.

Sen. Jon S. Corzine (D-N.J.) said he was "disappointed" by the choice, arguing that "this position should be filled by a nonpartisan individual of unquestioned independence."

Rep. Porter Goss said Thursday that the uproar over allegations that White House officials purposely identified a covert CIA agent appears largely political and doesn't yet merit an investigation by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which he chairs.

Goss, who was a CIA agent himself from the early 1960s to 1971, said he takes such leaks seriously, but he distinguished between a willful violation of federal law and an inadvertent disclosure.

Goss also said no one from the intelligence agencies has raised the issue with him since syndicated columnist Robert Novak identified the agent in a column July 14.

"I would say there's a much larger dose of partisan politics going on right now than there is worry about national security," said Goss, R-Sanibel. "But I would never take lightly a serious allegation backed up by evidence that there was a willful -- and I emphasize willful, inadvertent is something else -- willful disclosure, and I haven't seen any evidence."

Goss said he would act if he did have evidence of that sort.

"Somebody sends me a blue dress and some DNA, I'll have an investigation," Goss said.

Kerry cannot have someone like this working for him in such a sensitive job. I would assume that the Republicans are very well aware of this fact. This may be only the first of numerous landmines that are being laid in case of a Kerry victory.

Of course, it is completely idiotic to think that the American people will ever allow this to happen. The idea of taxing all consumption sounds nice in theory until you realize just how broad the definition of “consumption” would be under Linder’s plan.

Economist Evan Koenig of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas makes the point that any new sales tax is going to raise prices by that amount. If the Federal Reserve accommodates it, we are going to have 30 percent inflation the year the tax is introduced. If it is not accommodated, then producer prices are going to have to fall by 30 percent, which will cause a severe recession and greatly reduce the tax yield.

Somehow or other, Mr. Linder has gotten 54 House members to cosponsor his proposal. They should all pray that their opponents overlook their poor judgment. When last the national retail sales tax was a major campaign issue—in the 1996 senate race in Louisiana—the Republican sales tax supporter was crushed by his anti-sales tax Democratic opponent. That may explain why only two senators support Linder’s plan, one of whom is retiring this year.

With all due respect to Speaker Hastert, trying to eliminate the IRS by adopting a national retail sales tax is a very dumb idea.

The restrictions, which have drawn criticism from Amnesty International, are even harsher for the thousands of stewards and volunteers working at Athens 2004 who have been supplied with uniforms but no shoes.

"We have to provide our own shoes and we were told that we shouldn't wear trainers with a bright logo from a sports brand which is not an official sponsor like Adidas," said one.

The main sponsors of the games have paid more than $1 billion in total for exclusive advertising rights and privileges, including the use of the Olympic logo under their brand names. It is not even possible to buy a ticket to the Olympics using a credit card other than Visa, which paid more than $30 million for its exclusive rights.

Other brands can display small logos if they are sponsoring a national team or an individual athlete, but official sponsors have turned some of the games' most famous names into walking billboards.

The image of Michael Phelps, the American swimmer aiming to win seven gold medals, has even appeared on Visa cards. All American medal winners are required to wear an Adidas outfit on the podium, according to the company's sponsorship contract with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Kostas Giannis, a Greek sports fan, said: "I don't see why, after all the money that Greek taxpayers will end up paying to host the games, McDonald's should dictate what I can eat in my own city."

The United States has asked Israel to check the possibility of pumping oil from Iraq to the oil refineries in Haifa. The request came in a telegram last week from a senior Pentagon official to a top Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem.

The Prime Minister's Office, which views the pipeline to Haifa as a "bonus" the U.S. could give to Israel in return for its unequivocal support for the American-led campaign in Iraq, had asked the Americans for the official telegram.

Lie #1: "[H]e predicted the Bush tax cuts would lead to a deeper recession"

Lie #2: States are overwhelmed with federal education dollars

Lie #3: Bush won Florida "no matter what"

Lie #4: "We put more liberal voices on the air than conservatives"

Bonus Radio Factor Lie: "He's just -- he's not strong enough to stand up to me"

Responding to President Bush's challenge to clarify his position, Sen. John F. Kerry said Monday that he still would have voted to authorize the war in Iraq even if he had known then that U.S. and allied forces would not find weapons of mass destruction.

In response, Kerry said: "Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it was the right authority for a president to have."

But Kerry has charged that the president and his advisers badly mishandled the war, and in the news conference he posed sharp questions for Bush.

"Why did we rush to war without a plan to win the peace?" he asked. "Why did you rush to war on faulty intelligence and not do the hard work necessary to give America the truth?"

"Why did he mislead America about how he would go to war?" he added. "Why has he not brought other countries to the table in order to support American troops in the way they deserve it and relieve the pressure on the American people?"

A Georgia, USA jury has sentenced a man to life in prison for stabbing a gay man to death, but the story is making headlines for what the county district attorney is saying about the convicted killer's defence.

James Lee Shaw told a court he fatally stabbed Rowland Hardwick in a restaurant restroom in August 2002 because Hardwick had a knife and tried to rape him. Shaw claimed that when he was young he was molested by men, telling jurors he suffered flashbacks.

But prosecutors noted that in the 40 times Hardwick was stabbed, Shaw did not have the defensive wounds expected in a struggle. Prosecutors say Shaw was not defending himself from a rape, but attacking a man who had simply made a pass at him.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard says Shaw's defence amounted to nothing more than a "gay panic" defence and said he is sick of it.

"It is demeaning, outrageous, insulting and downright ridiculous for defendants to believe that the death of any human being is justified because he or she is homosexual," Howard said in a quote published by the Associated Press.

Tumulty in Time:

Bush strategists dismiss those gains by Kerry as a postconvention blip and predict they will soon be erased by what voters see of the Democratic Senator now that he is back in the fray. The real Kerry, they snickered, is the one who asserted last week that he could fight "a more sensitive war on terror" -- a statement that couldn't have sounded more dainty if he had uttered it in French."

Sentient people know that Kerry wasn't calling for an encounter session with Mullah Omar. But, nonetheless, I'm sure that there are many stupid people who believe that the word sensitive translates into sissy. Waddaya gonna do? I don't condemn Tumulty for relaying the GOP operative's quote. It's real and it is one of their talking points. However, most people do not know that the quote is taken out of context and readers would have benefitted from knowing that. Perhaps an editor trimmed it for space. Fine. Shitty journalism, but no surprise.

Here's where she really goes in the tank. She follows with her own words "a statement that couln't have been more dainty if he had uttered it in French." Those exact words could have been written by Tom DeLay. She has just issued a copyrighted GOP bumper sticker in her own voice.

Although it would come as a hell of a surprise to Napoleon, Voltaire and Balzac, the french language is now synonymous with "dainty" and to be "French" now means coward in Republican circles. The press finds this simply hilarious. But, lets not kid ourselves. The "french" appellation is merely a new word for "faggot" and everybody knows it. And that's exactly what Karl Rove wants people to think about John Kerry. In fact, they are planning their convention around this theme.

When the temp agency that hired her told her she would be collecting signatures for independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, Emily Sawka became a little concerned. But she had been unemployed for two months and needed the $12-an-hour the job would pay….

But Sawka threw up her hands altogether upon discovering that Adecco, an international temp agency that has an office in Portsmouth, had hired her out to a consulting firm with Republican ties.

The firm, Sawka learned, was trying to get Nader on the New Hampshire ballot in November, in a roundabout effort to help get President Bush re-elected in November.

Sawka, 25, and six other workers hired through Adecco were directed to show up on Friday morning at Shaw's supermarket in Stratham, near the dairy farm where Bush was to speak to supporters at a picnic that afternoon. She was given a clipboard and a script instructing her to tell those at the rally: 'Without Nader, Bush would not be president.'

Included is information of the sort that could be of use to any traveler: a street map of Manhattan south of 59th Street and addresses of restaurants, bookstores, libraries and places to rent bicycles.

Other elements are specific to the convention: hotels where various state delegations will be staying, sites of official convention events, and times and locations of planned demonstrations. There are also the words of the First Amendment, phone numbers for the New York Civil Liberties Union and information about bail bondsmen.

The three creators said they spent $6,000 of their own money to print the guides, but are distributing them free.

"The main reason we made the guide is so that people have enough information to get in the way or out of the way," Mr. Chan said.

"The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."

-- President Bush, quoted by the AP, on the campaign trail.

In a statement on April 15, 2004, Bush pledged to "make sure that tax cheaters are found, make sure the IRS gets after those who don't pay taxes; make sure that the system is fair for those of us who do pay taxes."

"I respectfully request an explanation to me and any other member of Congress who might wish one of who leaked this Mr. Khan's name, for what reason it was leaked, and whether ... reports that this leak compromised future intelligence activity are accurate," Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, wrote in a letter to White House domestic security adviser Frances Townsend on Aug. 8.

Q The New York Times published the name of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, who was described by intelligence officials as the only deep mole we've ever had within al Qaeda.

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm not sure where it was published, first. Obviously, it was published recently -- the capture of this individual. It is important that we recognize that sometimes there are ongoing operations underway. And as we move forward on capturing or bringing to justice al Qaeda members, we need to keep that in mind. And sometimes we aren't able to go into as much detail we would like to because of those ongoing operations. And I think everybody has a responsibility to keep that in mind.

Q Scott --

MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Terry.

Q Do you think The New York Times shouldn't have published the name?

MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Terry.

Q Senator Kerry has been making light, or making fun of the President saying "we've turned the corner, and we're not going back,"...

Maybe instead of a press secretary they could just put up a talking doll, and reporters could just ask a question, pull the string, and write down whatever bit of unrelated jibberish the doll said.

You have to flip all the way to page A14 of Thursday's Washington Post to find breaking news about Abu Ghraib. During a preliminary court hearing for Pfc. Lynndie England, a prison staffer testified that military intelligence officials had ordered prisoners to be kept out of sight from the Red Cross.

Recall that two months ago, at a press conference, Donald Rumsfeld played dumb when asked about detainees kept away from monitors:

Q: But then why wasn't the -- why wasn't the Red Cross told, and there are other such prisoners being detained without the knowledge of the Red Cross?

SEC. RUMSFELD: There are -- there are instances where that occurs. And a request was made to do that, and we did.

But according to Staff Sgt. Christopher Ward, detainees were willfully kept out of sight when the Red Cross came to visit. That doesn't sound like "instances." That sounds like a systematic problem. Newsweek sounded more bad news for Rumsfeld, after learning that the Defense Secretary's hand-picked investigative panel, headed by James Schlesinger, is expected to blame top Pentagon officials, including Rumsfeld himself, for the conditions at Abu Ghraib. The report, due out on August 18, will likely point out "that Rumsfeld and senior officials failed early on to set up clear, baseline rules for interrogations."

TiVo has changed the way people watch television and added a new word to the vernacular. But that does not mean TiVo, the company, is thriving.

TiVo, which helped introduce the digital video recorder, or DVR, in 1999, now faces an onslaught of competition from cable system and satellite operators, which are quickly eroding TiVo's once-dominant market share. [...]

"TiVo achieved well-known-brand status in record time, but just because everyone knows a brand doesn't mean they're going to buy it," Mr. Lister added. "TiVo is facing a tough road ahead."

To address the challenges, TiVo is poised to make major changes in its strategic, marketing and advertising plans. They include introducing a redesigned TiVo box and lowering its price by $50, to $99, by doubling a rebate offer; selling TiVo at more retail chains and Web sites like Costco, Sam's Club and Target.com; starting a loyalty program, to give incentives to current TiVo customers to recruit newcomers; and even teaming with a bank to offer a TiVo Platinum MasterCard.

These efforts will be promoted in a quirky ad campaign, with a budget estimated at $15 million, that is scheduled to start this week. In the ads, the previous TiVo slogan, "TiVo is TV your way," is replaced by an affirmation: "You have a life. TiVo gets it."

The ambitious - and risky - goal behind the $50 million effort is to significantly broaden TiVo's subscriber base, which was 1.6 million in April, to around 3 million by the end of the year and about 10 million in the next three to four years, by motivating those potential customers who "are still sitting on the fence," said Susan Cashen, vice president for marketing at TiVo in Alviso, Calif.

"We need to give them a reason to move off the fence and buy," Ms. Cashen said.

Real growth averaged 4.09% in Democratic years, 2.75% in Republican years. Unemployment was 6.44%, on average, under Republican presidents, and 5.33% under Democrats. The federal government spent more under Republicans than Democrats (20.87% of GDP, compared with 19.58%), and that remains true even if you exclude defense (13.76% for the Democrats, 14.97% for the Republicans).

What else? Inflation was lower under Democratic presidents (3.81% on average, compared with 4.85%). And annual deficits took more than twice as much of GDP under Republicans than Democrats (2.74% of GDP versus 1.21%). Republicans won by a nose on government revenue (i.e., taxes), taking 18.12% of GDP, compared with 18.39%. That, of course, is why they lost on the size of the deficit.

"The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power. ... That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda.'" - Tom Cobun, republican US Senate candidate from Oklahama, Oklahoma Gazette

Pakistan has given American officials what they regard as credible and specific information indicating that Al Qaeda has considered using tourist helicopters in terror attacks in New York City, domestic security officials said Sunday.

As a result, the officials said, security measures for helicopter operators will be stepped up in a new directive as early as this week. Among the new measures under review is a requirement to screen passengers for suspicious items, said an official with the Department of Homeland Security who had been briefed on the plan. So far, no groundings of helicopter operators are planned. [...]

Separately, a senior American intelligence official said that more than 1,000 computer disks had been seized by British authorities during arrests last week of 12 suspected operatives for Al Qaeda in England.

The seized files are now being subjected to intensive analysis by British and American intelligence, but they appear to contain evidence of previously unknown terrorist planning activities in the United States, the official said. As a result, Bush administration officials are preparing for the possibility of expanded public and private threat alerts. The senior official, who has been briefed on the information from Britain and Pakistan, would not discuss specific operations that were emerging from the new computer data, saying that the evaluation of the material was still under way. [...]

Still, intelligence officials have long pointed out that Al Qaeda has planned for possible attacks over several years only to abandon many of them. It was still unknown whether the group's top leaders had decided whether to carry out any specific plot against the financial companies or tourist helicopters.

An article in the Aug. 8 issue of Time magazine said that after conducting surveillance of the Prudential building in Newark, operatives of Al Qaeda wrote a report suggesting that a limousine carrying enough explosives to destroy the building might be able to enter the parking lot more easily than trucks or vans. A law enforcement official who has received regular briefings on counterterrorism matters in the region confirmed the report on Sunday.

The story of how the Bush administration prematurely outed Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a double agent working for Pakistan against al-Qaeda, has finally hit cable television news. MSNBC picked up the story on Saturday.

On Sunday at around 12:30 pm, Wolf Blitzer's show referred to it. New York Senator Charles Schumer criticized the Bush administration for revealing Khan's name. He noted the annoyance of British Home Minister Blunkett (see below) and Pakistani Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat with the Americans for blowing Khan's cover. He said Hayat complained that if Khan's name had not been reveaeled to the New York Times by the Bush administration, he might well have provided information that would have led to the capture of Usamah Bin Laden himself!

Blitzer then revealed that he had discussed the Khan case with US National Security Adviser Condaleeza Rice on background. He reported that she had admitted that the Bush administration had in fact revealed Khan's name to the press. She said she did not know if Khan was a double agent working for the Pakistani government. (!!!)

The revelation that a mole within al Qaeda was exposed after Washington launched its "orange alert" this month has shocked security experts, who say the outing of the source may have set back the war on terror.

Reuters learned from Pakistani intelligence sources on Friday that computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, arrested secretly in July, was working under cover to help the authorities track down al Qaeda militants in Britain and the United States when his name appeared in U.S. newspapers.

"I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton's willingness to go into a state she doesn't even live in and pretend to represent the people there," Keyes said. "So I certainly wouldn't imitate it."

Alan Keyes, a Maryland resident and former presidential candidate, agreed yesterday to run for Senate in Illinois against Democrat Barack Obama, a state senator who is favored to win the GOP-held seat.

The national guardsman peering through the long-range scope of his rifle was startled by what he saw unfolding in the walled compound below.

From his post several stories above ground level, he watched as men in plainclothes beat blindfolded and bound prisoners in the enclosed grounds of the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

He immediately radioed for help. Soon after, a team of Oregon Army National Guard soldiers swept into the yard and found dozens of Iraqi detainees who said they had been beaten, starved and deprived of water for three days.

In a nearby building, the soldiers counted dozens more prisoners and what appeared to be torture devices -- metal rods, rubber hoses, electrical wires and bottles of chemicals. Many of the Iraqis, including one identified as a 14-year-old boy, had fresh welts and bruises across their back and legs.

The soldiers disarmed the Iraqi jailers, moved the prisoners into the shade, released their handcuffs and administered first aid. Lt. Col. Daniel Hendrickson of Albany, Ore., the highest ranking American at the scene, radioed for instructions.

But in a move that frustrated and infuriated the guardsmen, Hendrickson's superior officers told him to return the prisoners to their abusers and immediately withdraw. It was June 29 -- Iraq's first official day as a sovereign country since the U.S.-led invasion.

The incident, the first known case of human rights abuses in newly sovereign Iraq, is at the heart of the American dilemma here.

A team of international observers will monitor the presidential election in November, according to the U.S. State Department.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was invited to monitor the election by the State Department. The observers will come from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

It will be the first time such a team has been present for a U.S. presidential election.

"The U.S. is obliged to invite us, as all OSCE countries should," spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir said. "It's not legally binding, but it's a political commitment. They signed a document 10 years ago to ask OSCE to observe elections."

Thirteen Democratic members of the House of Representatives, raising the specter of possible civil rights violations that they said took place in Florida and elsewhere in the 2000 election, wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in July, asking him to send observers.

After Annan rejected their request, saying the administration must make the application, the Democrats asked Secretary of State Colin Powell to do so.

The issue was hotly debated in the House, and Republicans got an amendment to a foreign aid bill that barred federal funds from being used for the United Nations to monitor U.S. elections, The Associated Press reported.

In a letter dated July 30 and released last week, Assistant Secretary of State Paul Kelly told the Democrats about the invitation to OSCE, without mentioning the U.N. issue.

"I am pleased that Secretary Powell is as committed as I am to a fair and democratic process," said Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, who spearheaded the effort to get U.N. observers.

"The presence of monitors will assure Americans that America cares about their votes and it cares about its standing in the world," she said in a news release.

A proposed amendment that would lock a same-sex marriage ban into Louisiana's constitution was challenged in state court Friday on grounds it was illegally approved by the Legislature and should be kept off the Sept. 18 ballot.

A proponent of the amendment said the lawsuit was an act of desperation by gay marriage proponents upset over the recent 71 percent approval of a gay marriage ban by Missouri voters.

The amendment includes language that would ban civil unions and still other language that could be interpreted as outlawing the extension of domestic partnership benefits to unmarried couples. That, said attorney Randy Evans, means the legislation is drawn up for more than one purpose — a "multiple objective" forbidden in legislation by the state constitution.

Plaintiffs identified in the suit include a man who opposes government recognition of same-sex marriage but strongly favors government recognition of same-sex civil unions.

"If someone is against gay marriage but favors domestic partnerships or feels that unmarried couples should be given some kind of rights or recognition, they can't divide their vote — say `I'm going to vote for part A or sentence one but not sentences three and four," said Evans, an attorney with Forum for Equality, a civil rights group in New Orleans that is supporting the lawsuit.

Iraq has issued arrest warrants for Ahmad Chalabi, a former Governing Council member with strong U.S. ties, on counterfeiting charges, and for his nephew Salem Chalabi - head of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein - on murder charges, Iraq's chief investigating judge said Sunday.

The warrant was the latest strike against Ahmad Chalabi in his removal from the centers of power. A longtime Iraqi exile opposition leader, he had been a favorite of many in the Pentagon but fell out with the Americans in the weeks before the U.S. occupation ended in June.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader did not collect enough signatures to make the ballot in California as an independent presidential candidate but his spokesman said on Sunday the campaign would keep trying.

Nader had gathered about 85,000 signatures by Friday's deadline and had clearly failed to accumulate the 153,035 signatures needed to place him on the ballot, California Secretary of State spokesman Doug Stone said. Final tallies were not immediately available.

Although the accused soldiers say they received orders, none could recall who gave them. "Initially there was some, 'They told us to do it,' " testified Special Agent Tyler Pieron, an Army investigator. "Never could figure out who 'they' was."

The military judge must still rule over the next few weeks whether Private England, 21, will face a court martial on 19 counts of sexual and other misconduct and prisoner mistreatment, and she left open the possibility that she might hear testimony from other witnesses first. Five other soldiers have been ordered to face courts-martial, and a seventh pleaded guilty in exchange for his testimony and a year in prison.

Private England's lawyer, Richard Hernandez, said he had names of military intelligence soldiers who had given orders to carry out the acts seen in the photographs, but he would not produce them yet because the burden of proof in this hearing, he said, "is on the government."

By the end of the four days of testimony, Private England's legal team has seemed to have embraced an "everyone else was doing it" defense, pushing witnesses to say that higher-ups had not vigorously prosecuted or even investigated abuse by other soldiers, or inappropriate conduct. They argue that Private England, who is pregnant, faces more jail time for her alleged sexual misconduct than for prison abuse, while other sexual misconduct went unpunished.

This strategy reflects a keen GOP awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of their candidate. George W. Bush is not an articulate president by any stretch of the imagination. He's not an empathetic president. He's not a visionary president. He is, first and foremost, a posturing president. He is most comfortable and, in fact, most effectively communicative, when wearing jeans, cowboy boots and bomber jacket. He smirks, he squints, he nods, he points and shoots, he displays an easy grasp of male-bonding shorthand.

By contrast, the Bush campaign points at Kerry's suspiciously cultured airs, his more overtly patrician demeanor, his unseemly displays of affection for the youthful and ever-smiling Edwards, as expressions of an overall decadence, the exposure to exotic and possibly un-American influences -- in one word, a "Frenchiness." And whenever Kerry strikes a manly pose, Republicans sneer at his put-on ruggedness, belied by the droopy slope of the shoulders or the dorky bike helmet. They even go so far as to dispute his military record, suggesting Kerry may be guilty of reckless tactical decisions or may have exaggerated his own wounds. While there's more than a hint of desperation in this particular diatribe, as a whole the Republican attempt to paint the contest in terms of good old-fashioned manliness versus the more effete, Euro-influenced, self-doubting kind represented by Kerry, has been as transparent as it has been effective.

There have been six Code Orange alerts, including the present one. Looking back at why each alert was called and disbanded, as you can in the excerpts below, a picture of U.S. intelligence capabilities and Department of Homeland Security thinking begins to emerge. Each alert appears to have coupled a worrisomely high level of vague background chatter with at least one unique other thing -- be it the launch of the Iraq War, the anniversary of Sept. 11, or newly acquired intelligence about a potential looming threat. Some of the intelligence has later been disproved, and some was of unclear significance even at the time. What is clear is that those who expect an orange alert to be launched only in the event of the discovery of an active plot may be mistaking the threat level needed to issue a Code Orange with what would be, in fact, a Code Red. Implicit within the orange seems to be a high level of uncertainty and confusion.

Except for the phalluses, a cursory observer might be forgiven for mistaking such an assemblage for a Republican rally. With 65 chapters and hundreds of members nationwide, Billionaires for Bush will perhaps be providing the largest costumed contingent at the protests. The tuxedoed and tiaraed Billionaires plan a week of merry pranks, including a croquet game in Central Park, a "vigil for corporate welfare," ballroom dancing in Penn Station, an attempt to privatize the New York Public Library, and a "coronation ball" for George W. Bush.

-snip-

It is that priceless moment that allows the Billionaires and similar groups to hold the attention of the uninitiated long enough to make their point. Boyd cites an example of recent Bush campaign stops in Pennsylvania, where the group was placed in close proximity to actual pro-Bush demonstrators. The Billionaires managed to get the Bush supporters to change their chant of "Four more years!" to "Four more wars!" before the ruse was discovered and the pranksters were shooed away.

-snip-

Perennial provocateur Margaret Cho, who will launch her State of Emergency tour at the Apollo Theater on August 28, agrees. "Everything political is personal right now," says Cho. "This level of upheaval hasn't existed in my lifetime. It's both terrifying and exciting."

But above all, what drives Cho up the wall is the fact that the Republicans were dumb enough to choose New York, a hotbed of protest, for their convention in the first place: "It amazes me! There are no Republicans here! They're going to have to import them all. And all the people here are against it. It's going to look like that movie The Warriors. The Republicans are setting themselves up for a terrible time. And we should bring them one!"

via Wonkette.

Though he has gone (of apparent natural causes, said Los Angeles police, after a caretaker found him dead in his Universal City home yesterday morning), the singer Rick James will always be with us: at class reunions, bar mitzvahs, wedding receptions. He will sing eternally the 1981 R&B dance hit that made him: "Super Freak," a wonderful song about a nymphomaniac backstage groupie who is waiting in Room 714 of a hotel somewhere, "with incense, wine and candles -- it's such a freaky scene."

Blow, daddy.

Happily, many of us have seen our grandmothers and aunts dance to this song, such is its lasting ubiquity among party deejays-for-hire: "She's a very kinky girl," the song goes. "The kind you don't take home to mother. She will never let your spirits down, once you get her off the street. Ow, girl." (Now, everyone, please: a toast to the lovely bride and groom.)

Colorcell is a cell system.
Each cell is composed of four single colors.
The color combination of a cell makes its character.
A cell can either be alive or dead.
If a cell is alive, it lives in the livingspace.
If a cell is dead, it rests in peace on the cemetery.
Simple.

"This is a dangerous time. I wish it wasn't this way. Now, I wish I wasn't the war president. Who in the heck wants to be a war president?"

"Now, there are some questions that a commander in chief needs to answer with a clear yes or no. My opponent hasn't answered the question of whether knowing what we know now, he would have supported going into Iraq," he added. "I have given my answer. We did the right thing, and the world is better off for it."

"Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a ---- you've been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity..."

In some ways this is almost irrelevant. The core issue is that George W. Bush, who campaigned eagerly for Republican pro-war candidates, joined the National Guard, ticking the box to refuse overseas service, at the height of the Tet Offensive, in what Senator Robert Byrd has called the "War of His Generation."

He did so with the aid of nepotistic influence, jumping a long line, despite a 25 percent score on his pilot aptitude test--and despite a series of driving convictions that should have required a special waiver. He was commissioned an officer despite having no pilot experience, no time in the ROTC, and without attending Officer Training School.

And then he went missing for a year, and as a reward was allowed to terminate his service early so he could go to Harvard Business School.

His use of the National Guard to escape Vietnam should have inhibited him and his party from successively attacking the patriotism and martial virtues of triple amputee Senator Max Cleland and John Kerry--having earlier pointed fingers at Bill Clinton. But going AWOL, to the extent of deserting for a year even from this surrogate service, makes him doubly vulnerable. Which may of course account for the seeming fungibility of his paperwork, even though, in truth, these people have no shame.

IGER: It's easy to set up, easy to use, compact, it doesn't take much room, and most importantly it has what's called ContentWatch built in.

VARNEY: Well, you know, I -- exactly. I mean, in June you have "Gay Days" at your theme parks. You got any 'Gay Days' on the Mickey computer?

IGER: Well, this has built into it all kinds of protective devices that protects the kid, or the child from internet sites that a parent wouldn't deem appropriate. Also, the fact --

VARNEY: Well, you don't protect the kids from "Gay Days" at the theme parks, do you? Why do you have to protect them in the computer?

IGER: No, we don't sponsor -- we don't sponsor "Gay Days." You know, we are a company that lets anyone who is willing to pay through our gates.

The trouble with this shift of attention is that if we don't have a clear picture of what's actually happening in Iraq, we can't have a serious discussion of the options that remain for making the best of a very bad situation.

The military reality in Iraq is that there has been no letup in the insurgency, and large parts of the country seem to be effectively under the control of groups hostile to the U.S.-supported government.

Republican Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called an ad criticizing John Kerry's military service "dishonest and dishonorable" and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well.

The White House declined.

"It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me," McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press, comparing the anti-Kerry ad to tactics in his bitter Republican primary fight with President Bush.

The 60-second ad features Vietnam veterans who accuse the Democratic presidential nominee of lying about his decorated Vietnam War record and betraying his fellow veterans by later opposing the conflict.

"When the chips were down, you could not count on John Kerry," one of the veterans, Larry Thurlow, says in the ad. Thurlow didn't serve on Kerry's swiftboat, but says he witnessed the events that led to Kerry winning a Bronze Star and the last of his three Purple Hearts. Kerry's crewmates support the candidate and call him a hero.

-snip-

The Kerry campaign has denounced the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, saying none of the men in the ad served on the boat that Kerry commanded. Three veterans on Kerry's boat that day - Jim Rassmann, who says Kerry saved his life, Gene Thorson and Del Sandusky, the driver on Kerry's boat, said the group was lying.

They say Kerry was injured, and Rassmann called the group's account "pure fabrication."

The general counsel for the Kerry campaign and the Democratic National Committee sent television stations a letter asking them not to run the ad because it is "an inflammatory, outrageous lie" by people purporting to have served with Kerry.

Hoffmann said none of the 13 veterans in the commercial served on Kerry's boat but rather were in other swiftboats within 50 yards of Kerry's. The group claims that there was no gunfire on the day Kerry pulled Rassmann from a muddy river in the Mekong Delta and that Kerry's arm was not wounded, as he has claimed.

Another long day of speeches and fundraisers. Met with all these phony media company execs. Had to promise them some bill next term and shake a lot of stupid hands, but they did bring in two or three million or so. Whatever. Karl keeps a list. I got big laughs during my speech, so I'm happy.

A superior court judge in Washington state ruled yesterday that same-sex marriage is legal because a state law defining marriage as between a man and a woman is unconstitutional. If the state Supreme Court approves the decision, the ruling will go further than the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage because Washington has no residency requirements for marriage, so out of state couples would be able to travel there to wed.

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.

Yup, if you don't denounce Kerry now, you'll kick yourself when he annexes Austria and invades Poland.

Mentor will debut its first prime-time ads on ABC network's "Extreme Makeover" plastic surgery show this fall, a testimony to a burgeoning market popularized by buxom celebrities.

"It's a first for prime-time and it's the biggest marketing program for Mentor Aesthetics this year," Sara DeRousse, director of global marketing at Mentor, told Reuters.

DeRousse said Mentor would produce six new commercials to market its saline implants once a week during "Extreme Makeover," a reality show in which applicants endure multiple surgeries in a bid for beauty.

Washington, D.C. –The Democratic National Committee announced the members and the mission of the Bush Truth Squad today. The Truth Squad is comprised of members of Congress, a General, a fellow Vietnam skipper, and other experts committed to presenting Bush’s true record of misleadership and setting the record straight when John Kerry is wrongly attacked.

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Bush Truth Squad: Mission Statement

We have joined the Bush Truth Squad because we are dedicated to holding this President accountable for his failed policies and we can not stand idly by as he misleads this country further. We vow no false claim will go unanswered; no attack will go without a response.

The Bush Truth Squad will follow the President into city streets, suburban neighborhoods, and on small town main streets to offer the truth we have witnessed with our own eyes.

When George W. Bush says we have turned the corner we will give the cold facts on outsourcing, job losses, and diminished wages that that have painted the middle class into a corner, rather than helped them turn the corner.

When George W. Bush claims leadership in foreign policy we will ask why he didn’t tell us the true reasons for going to war in Iraq, why he had no plan for securing the peace, and why he misled us about the cost of the war.

When George W. Bush claims to support our troops we will ask why he is cutting veterans benefits, and why he has overextended our troops to the point that we now have a back door draft on our National Guard and Reservists.

The Bush Truth Squad will stand at the ready to defend John Kerry’s lifetime of strength and service against the Bush-Cheney attack machine. We will move into action if anyone dares question the patriotism of John Kerry, a man who put his life on the line for this country.

We will not stand idly by while mischaracterizations of John Kerry’s or John Edwards’ records or characters are lobbed into the political fray in an attempt to steer the discourse away from the real issues in this campaign.

John Kerry has a distinguished record as a prosecutor, Lt. Governor and U.S. Senator of fighting for middle class values and standing up for the principles he believes in. We will make sure America knows the truth about John Kerry’s courageous record from voting for the balanced budget amendment to working with Senator McCain on the full accounting and return of POWs and MIAs from the Vietnam war.

We, the Bush Truth Squad go forth armed with truth and answers and committed to being heard North and South, East and West, and in Red and Blue. We are the Bush Truth Squad, and we are coming to a town near you.

via Buzzflash.

Their effort paid off in the fall of 2002, when a story critical of the administration's case for war generated a small, but encouraging, response. "We got two or three unsolicited calls from people in government saying, 'You're asking the right questions. Keep it up,'" Landay recalls.

With three of Knight Ridder's newspapers in cities with military bases providing a large number of troops for the war — Lexington, Kentucky; Macon, Georgia; and Fort Worth, Texas — Landay says the chain had a special obligation to the story.

At first, Hoyt says, Knight Ridder papers gave Landay and Strobel's stories inconsistent play. But "as time went by, the play got better and better."

And the heat, hotter.

"As the pressure built on the administration and their case got shakier and shakier, there was obviously a lot greater stress, and there was some shouting that was done at us over the telephone," Hoyt says. Some of those calls came from well-known names in high places, Bureau Chief John Walcott adds, declining to drop any names.

Around that time, the White House turned up the pressure, Strobel says, and "tried to freeze us out of briefings."

Landay adds: "I think this administration may have a fairly punitive policy when it comes to journalists who get in their face. And if you talk to some White House reporters, there is a fear of losing access." He says that fear may have played into the relatively uncritical approach of news organizations like the Times.

Another likely factor in that equation were the calls for national unity following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. "Many other news organizations were willing to give the administration the benefit of the doubt, particularly in the post-9/11 environment," Strobel says. "We were not."

The Times' editor's note, which acknowledges Knight Ridder in its seventh paragraph, applauds the chain's efforts to examine "the failings of American and allied intelligence" in Iraq, adding, "it is past time we turn the same light on ourselves."

The note suggests a variety of reasons for the paper's failings, everything from the faults of "individual reporters" (without naming any) to editors "perhaps too intent on rushing scoops into the paper" to a lack of proper follow-ups, especially when key sources for several Times accounts were later found not to be credible.

The Times declined to elaborate on the editor's note.

Via Atrios.

The news from Iraq sounds mostly good to Americans because the American casualty numbers are down sharply from six weeks, or even from a month, ago.

Despite all the folding, spindling and mutilating the newspaper's pollingmeisters can do with the results, The Washington Post's latest public-opinion poll reveals that after four days of nonstop Bush-bashing in Boston the only bounce Monsieur Kerry got for his trouble was a bounce down the basement stairs.

Marc Racicot, the chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign, actually agrees with his Democratic counterpart that these latest poll numbers are "interesting" and not much else because the campaign is volatile, this is only August, and voters are fickle. Nevertheless, for George W., the result is better than a sharp stick in his eye.

But if the war in Iraq is polarizing, the war against the terrorists, shadowy, secretive and lethal, is another matter entirely. Partisans argue about the connections between Iraq and al Qaeda, but not about the peril that the Middle Eastern terrorists pose throughout the world.

The warnings posted over the weekend by Tom Ridge, the director of homeland security, sounded ominous in a way that previous warnings did not. This time, Mr. Ridge was specific. Howard Dean predictably accused the administration of playing terrorism as "the trump card." More serious Democrats were more cautious.

Much of the information that led the authorities to raise the terror alert at several large financial institutions in the New York City and Washington areas was three or four years old, intelligence and law enforcement officials said on Monday. They reported that they had not yet found concrete evidence that a terrorist plot or preparatory surveillance operations were still under way.

-snip-

"You could say that the bulk of this information is old, but we know that Al Qaeda collects, collects, collects until they're comfortable,'' said one senior government official. "Only then do they carry out an operation. And there are signs that some of this may have been updated or may be more recent.''

More than half a dozen government officials interviewed yesterday, who declined to be identified because classified information is involved, said that most, if not all, of the information about the buildings seized by authorities in a raid in Pakistan last week was about three years old, and possibly older.

"There is nothing right now that we're hearing that is new," said one senior law enforcement official who was briefed on the alert. "Why did we go to this level? . . . I still don't know that."

-snip-

Several officials also said that much of the information compiled by terrorist operatives about the buildings in Washington, New York and Newark was obtained through the Internet or other "open sources" available to the general public, including some floor plans.

The Homeland Insecurity Advisory System (HIAS) is a public rating system that allows people from across the globe to determine the US Government's Threat Level by collectively rating RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) feeds from major US news sources. Turning the "Homeland Security" threat level on its head, the HIAS system will allow the people to collaboratively challenge this internally determined (and seemingly arbitrary) threat condition by rating each major US news source according to its support level for or against the US Government's actions. Finally, the citizens of the world have a voice in determining the threat level of the government itself.

All the signs of civic progression and regression going on pale in comparison to the simple fact that the Iraqi people are still actively threatened by a terrorist insurgency operating within their own borders. To make one of the few valid comparisons to WWII possible, the British were incredibly resilient during the bombing raids of the war. But while the war was going on, what would have been more important from a journalistic standpoint and merited more attention - the giant war machine threatening the safety and future of England, or that the English people were still trying to live relatively normal lives under that threat. The latter shouldn't be written off, but the former is obviously far more important.

On my road to Boston, I was ambushed. I was ambushed by the Republican National Committee directed smear campaign based upon lies and distortions. You have seen it in the Wall Street Journal, you have seen it in the right wing blogs. You have seen it in Bill Safire's article. I have been accused of being a traitor to my country and of being a liar. If you take a look at the Senate Select Committee intelligence report, it is hard to see how they conclude that somehow my contribution to this debate and my calling on my country and on my government to account for what it has said and done in our name has been anything less than truthful.

Today, the Sunday Times of London reports that the Italian middle-man who provided the notorious Niger uranium documents to Italian journalist Elizabetta Burba (she later brought them to the US Embassy in Rome, you’ll remember) was himself given the documents by the Italian military intelligence service, SISMI.

I can vouch for the accuracy of this account since I have been working on this story for six months. In fact, I interviewed the Italian middle-man in question two months ago at a restaurant in mid-town Manhattan -- the details of that interview I describe below.

Mr. Bush's advisers plan to cap the month at the Republican convention in New York, which they said would feature Mr. Kerry as an object of humor and calculated derision.

-snip-

Mr. Bush is planning to spend upward of $30 million on television advertising over the next four weeks. Democrats are looking to try to match Mr. Bush's effort with spending by independent Democratic committees not directly linked to the Kerry campaign.

Mr. Bush's aides said they were determined to use the weeks ahead to highlight Mr. Kerry's 20-year record in the Senate, using votes he has cast and what they described as his lack of accomplishments to portray him as ineffective, ideologically out of step, and a slacker for missing crucial votes while campaigning.

"He has 20 lost years," Mr. Dowd said. "It's amazing." Mr. Kerry's voting record - he has cast more than 6,000 votes in all - has long been considered vulnerable by Democrats and Republicans, not just because it can be characterized as liberal, but also because it is so vast and touches on so many complicated and politically fraught issues over so many years. The decision by Mr. Bush to turn on Mr. Kerry's voting record, while hardly a surprise, underlines why members of Congress are sometimes viewed as less than ideal candidates for president.

And Democrats are increasingly trying to seize the moral high ground on the tone of this campaign. Mr. Kerry, on the eve of coming to Boston for his convention, said he did not want it to turn into a week of attacks on Mr. Bush. In his speech, he urged Mr. Bush to take "the high road" and avoid such attacks in the weeks ahead.

-snip-

"I think there's a public appetite for information, for finding out where people stand on issues," said Mr. Bush's campaign manager, Ken Mehlman. "I don't think there's an appetite for public name-calling. An appetite for information is different from an appetite for slogans and name-calling."

During the speech in May, Bush said, "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September 11, 2001, and still goes on."