Bin Laden sharply criticized President Bush for his behavior on the morning of September 11, 2001, when the president was reading "My Pet Goat" to a group of schoolchildren in Florida at the time he was informed of the attacks.

"It never occurred that the highest leader of the military armed forces would leave 50,000 people to face the horror that they faced all by themselves when they needed him most," bin Laden said.

"He was more interested in listening to the child's story about the goat rather than worry about what was happening to the towers. So, that gave us double the time for us to execute our attacks."

Kerry told reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida: "Let me make it clear -- crystal clear: as Americans, we are absolutely united in our determination to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden and the terrorists."

He added: "They are barbarians. And I will stop at absolutely nothing to hunt down, capture or kill the terrorists wherever they are, whatever it takes. Period."

Dear VoteNoWar Member,

In a medical study being published today, scientists have concluded that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has resulted in the deaths of at least 100,000 Iraqis, "and may be much higher." It further revealed that most of the 100,000 Iraqis who died were killed in violent deaths, primarily carried out by U.S. forces' airstrikes. "Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children," according to the study. The study was designed and conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and the Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad (The Lancet, October 29, 2004).

The population of Iraq is approximately 25 million people. Were this slaughter carried out on an equivalent scale in the United States, it would be comparable to a death toll of one million people. Even the youngest and most vulnerable have not been spared: as a consequence of the U.S. war against the people of Iraq, infant mortality rose from 29 deaths per 1,000 live births before the war to 57 deaths per 1,000 afterward.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 78 U.N.T.S. 277, executed in 1948, and ratified by the United States, and which carries the binding force of the law of nations, prohibits genocide or complicity in genocide. See, also, 18 U.S.C. 1091.
"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting upon the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part..."

This is a criminal war just as the Vietnam war was a criminal war. It isn't enough to advocate that replacing Bush with Kerry should be the goal of anti-war advocates. The Pentagon is preparing to rain down their favored "shock and awe" violence on the devastated people of Fallujah who have already been subject to terrorizing bombing raids and the killings of entire families night after night for months. By demanding the unconditional withdrawal from Iraq we are sending a message to the Iraq people that we respect their right to determine their own destiny and we send a message to the U.S. soldiers that their lives and dignity are too important to be used in the commission of war crimes or to serve as cannon fodder in a war that only benefits the corporate and banking elite.

Bush and Kerry have pledged to continue this violent occupation in order to "win" in Iraq. The people of Iraq are desperately trying to regain their sovereignty and right to determine their own futures without outside intervention. While some feel that the "final stretch" is in these next few days culminating at the polls, for the people of Iraq and all those around the world who stand in solidarity with them, the "final stretch" is from now until the U.S. troops and all occupation forces are removed from that sovereign land.

We must deepen the fight in the United States to bring this war to an end unconditionally. It is completely bogus to insist the intervention must continue based on some humanitarian argument that since U.S. intervention wrought so much devastation, the U.S. must now stay the course in order to prevent "civil war," "chaos," or "a blood bath." These were the same arguments that were used to justify the prolongation of the U.S. war in Vietnam. The only thing that happened when the U.S. finally left Vietnam was that the real blood bath ended.

This flyer is being distributed around Milwaukee's African American communities.

Found and scanned by this Sierra Club blogger.

Singer-songwriter Billy Bragg said Peel had "defined independent music". He said: "Although he became an institution at the BBC, he was, in effect, running his own pirate radio station from within the corporation."

Radio 1 controller Andy Parfitt said yesterday: "Hopeful bands all over the world sent their demo tapes to John knowing that he really cared. His commitment and passion for new music only grew stronger over the years."

Her amateurish reaction was to jump up and down in a self-described "hoedown" dance step. She then slipped off camera in front of millions of TV viewers.

"If she were a more seasoned performer, then I think that she would have taken charge and said, 'No, let's start this over again.' " SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels tells the Associated Press.

[...]

On Monday night, she was trying to laugh everything off during a live appearance at the "Radio Music Awards." She went on to give a performance of "Autobiography" so awful that it was certainly not a case of lip synching.

The hoedown continued Tuesday on NBC's "Today. She blamed her drummer for pressing the wrong button, said her dad pretty much forced her to use a vocal track and swore it was the first time she'd done such a thing.

"I've never done it once," she told Katie Couric. "I'm always, always singing on every show I've ever done."

Putting $50,000 into your kitchen leads to a better kitchen. Putting $50,000 into your face does not necessarily lead to a better face. This is because your face is not a kitchen.

Person 1: Knock knock.
Person 2: Who's there?
Person 1: Control freak.
Person 1: Now you say "control freak who?"

Q: Why can't engineers tell jokes timing?

How many kids with ADD does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
LET'S RIDE BIKES!

Twenty-six percent of adult internet users in the U.S. have rated a product, service, or person using an online rating system. That amounts to more than 33 million people. These systems, also referred to as “reputation systems,” are interactive word-of-mouth networks that assist people in making decisions about which users to trust, or to compare their opinions with the opinions expressed by others. Many Web sites utilize some form of this application, including eBay, Amazon, Moviefone and Amihot.

UPDATE
From f.u.b.a.r....
"I'm totally against [lip-synching] and offended by it. I'm going out to let my real talent show, not to just stand there and dance around. Personally, I'd never lip-synch. It's just not me."

The chip is called BrachySil.

The spokeswoman says clinical trials on eight patients at the government-run Singapore General Hospital have shown its is capable of killing malignant cells within a 1.5 centimetre radius.

She says five of eight patients involved in the trials have seen their tumours shrink by between 11 and 60 per cent.

[...]

Dr Anthony Goh, a nuclear medicine consultant and the trial's principal investigator, told the newspaper the chips proved extremely safe.

He says they are able to "lock" in place, sparing non-malignant cells from radiation.

There are now plans for a six-month trial involving 30-40 patients from Asia and New Zealand next year.

If successful, BrachySil could be on the market by 2007 and developed to treat other inoperable solid cancers.

Among Bush supporters:

– 75% believe Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda.

– 74% believe Bush favors including labor and environmental standards in agreements on trade.

– 72% believe Iraq had WMD or a program to develop them.

– 72% believe Bush supports the treaty banning landmines.

– 69% believe Bush supports the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

– 61% believe if Bush knew there were no WMD he would not have gone to war.

– 60% believe most experts believe Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda.

– 58% believe the Duelfer report concluded that Iraq had either WMD or a major program to develop them.

– 57% believe that the majority of people in the world would prefer to see Bush reelected.

– 56% believe most experts think Iraq had WMD.

– 55% believe the 9/11 report concluded Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda.

– 51% believe Bush supports the Kyoto treaty.

– 20% believe Iraq was directly involved in 9/11.

(Polling from The Program on International Policy Attitudes, summary from The Winning Argument, found at DailyKos).

It is apparently widely believed within the US government that those looted explosives are what in many, perhaps most, cases is being used in car bombs and suicide attacks against US troops. That is, according to TPM sources and sources quoted in this evening's Nelson Report, where the story first broke.

One administration official told Nelson, "This is the stuff the bad guys have been using to kill our troops, so you can’t ignore the political implications of this, and you would be correct to suspect that politics, or the fear of politics, played a major role in delaying the release of this information."

As I've noted, the White House and the Pentagon have known for more than a year that this stuff had gone missing. But the White House, according to TPM sources, has known that this story was coming for at least ten days. Again, not just the underlying facts -- that the stuff had been stolen and was being used against American troops (they've known that for more than a year) -- but the fact that this story was going to break in the not too distant future. And they've been hoping it could be pushed back until after the election.

As another administration source told Nelson, "What the hell were WE doing in the year and a half from the time we knew the stuff was gone, is obviously a huge question, and you can imagine why no one [in the Administration] wants to face up to it, certainly not before the election."

UPDATE:
TPM Assignment Desk: a list of questions reporters might do well to get to the bottom of in this looted explosives story.

Ronnie Earle has clearly set his gunsights on DeLay, but apparently determined early on that a pre-election indictment could be easily dismissed as partisanship. Earle doesn't give a shit if DeLay wins on November 2nd, he wants an indictment that will stick. Corruption must be punished.

So the first round of indictments hit two of DeLay's closest aides and a host of corporations. The aids are being threatened with 99-year prison terms. The corporations are being threatened with criminal sanctions.

The strategy is as old as the criminal system -- go after the underlings, and offer a more lenient sentence if they turn on the kingpins. No bond of loyalty can survive the threat of 99 years in prison. And the corporations likely have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to minimize the damage of their criminal trespass. They'll do whatever it takes to get Earle off their backs.

The current grand jury has its sights set on Texas House speaker Tom Craddick (R) and an allied organization. Word is, the Earle's third grand jury on the case will take on DeLay. Earle is slowly working his way up the chain.

DeLay has been reprimanded by the House ethics committee three times in just a few short weeks. A fourth ethics charge was set aside pending Earle's investigation. On top of that, DeLay looks electorally vulnerable in his reelection race. And even if he survives November 2nd, he still faces a criminal indictment.

Scott Dadich's welcome analysis of the typography of the two presidential campaign logos jumps to a conclusion that has a black and white simplicity ("What You See Is What You Get," Op-Ed, Oct. 9). The sans-serif, all-caps typography of George W. Bush may well be "brash" and "aggressive" and thereby an accurate depiction of the Bush administration, but it does not follow that the serif type of John Kerry projects the candidate as a "wimp."

Serif types are the original typographic forms of the Roman alphabet. Sans-serif types are derivative letter forms that have been stripped of their serifs (as the name implies, if you know a little French!), a simplification that lends itself to short, simple messages.

Sans-serif type is the medium of corporate graphics and sound bites; it is associated with selling and spin. Serif type is the medium of books, editorial and content; it is associated with learning and knowledge.

Today, the Bush-Cheney campaign unveils a major new ad it calls, simply, "Wolves." It may become the most talked about spot of the 2004 race -- especially if Bush wins. Moody and ominous, the 30-second ad mines the shadowy light-and-dark world of a mysterious forest, with an occasional nano-second flash of danger, before showing the large pack (sleeper cell?) of wolves ready to attack at the first sign of weakness. At the end, the pack is rousing, ready to pounce on....the election of President Kerry?

Special Late-Breaking Bush Slime Update: After having watched this ad, as opposed to the still shots, I have to say that I didn't find it all that effective. I can't point to any one thing; it's just not that scary, not even that effective by the special standards used to evaluate lying right-wing slime and scare-mongering, a whole artform worthy of careful critical study.

In some ways actually, the piece typifies the administration. The entire ad is built around an entirely intentional and fairly transparent attempt to deceive viewers.

In March 2003, days before the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, American war planners and intelligence officials met at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina to review the Bush administration's plans to oust Saddam Hussein and implant democracy in Iraq.

Near the end of his presentation, an Army lieutenant colonel who was giving a briefing showed a slide describing the Pentagon's plans for rebuilding Iraq after the war, known in the planners' parlance as Phase 4-C. He was uncomfortable with his material - and for good reason.

The slide said: "To Be Provided."

A Knight Ridder review of the administration's Iraq policy and decisions has found that it invaded Iraq without a comprehensive plan in place to secure and rebuild the country. The administration also failed to provide some 100,000 additional U.S. troops that American military commanders originally wanted to help restore order and reconstruct a country shattered by war, a brutal dictatorship and economic sanctions.

"anyway, I am new tonight... as you may not have seen me before in here.. just a FYI that I am deaf here and can read lips okay..

at the end of debate where Kerry and Bush shook hands.. Bush was asking Kerry, Can I talk to you later tonight? Kerry said sure then Bush said where would you be? I missed what Kerry said.

I wondered what Bush wanted to talk to Kerry about??

... not good. Not. Good. At all.
I watched them talk after, and it seemed like Kerry was surprised... something was off. I was wondering what was said...

When the president asks to talk to you, you don't not meet with him...

Whatever Bush says, whatever it sounds like, I wouldn't trust it worth a damn.

But Kerry's a senator... he knows the game."

October 10, 2004

David D. Smith
President and Chief Executive Officer
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
10706 Beaver Dam Road
Hunt Valley, Maryland 21030

Dear Mr. Smith:

I'm writing to ask you to cancel plans, reported in the October 9 edition of the Los Angeles Times, to force Sinclair Broadcasting Group stations to preempt regular programming and broadcast a film attacking Senator John Kerry between now and the November 2 presidential election.

According to the Times, the film, Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, "features former POWs accusing Kerry -- a decorated Navy veteran turned war protester -- of worsening their ordeal by prolonging the war." The Times reported that the maker of the film, former Washington Times reporter (and former Bush administration official) Carlton Sherwood, tells viewers on the film's website: "Intended or not, Lt. Kerry painted a depraved portrait of Vietnam veterans, literally creating the images of those who served in combat as deranged, drug-addicted psychopaths, baby killers" that has endured for 30 years.

I don't have to remind you, as the Times pointed out, that "Sinclair stations are spread throughout the country, in major markets that include Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Las Vegas. ... Fourteen of the 62 stations the company either owns or programs are in the key political swing stations of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where the presidential election is being closely fought."

As described by the Times, Sinclair's plan to air the film raises questions about whether Sinclair would be running afoul of federal regulations "requiring broadcasters to provide equal time to major candidates in an election campaign ..." Provisions of the McCain-Feingold law would also appear to be at issue in your decision. The reported effort by Sinclair executives to instruct station managers to classify the film as "news," thus skirting these political broadcasting regulations, would be a charade given its blatant anti-Kerry slant.

I trust that in light of these concerns, you will reconsider your company's apparent decision to air "Stolen Honor."

Sincerely,

David Brock
President and CEO
Media Matters for America

David D. Smith
President and Chief Executive Officer
E-mail: dsmith@sbgi.net

The big story - "a striking decline in his sentence-by-sentence speaking skills." The reason? One doctor says "presenile dementia" a catch-all term for earlier-than-normal cognitive declines (probably "dry-drunk syndrome"). This video intercuts footage from 10 years ago with recent footage - the difference is dramatic and disturbing. And obvious.

Mine Bush and Kerry speeches for the message behind the spin. One example is from when Bush spoke at D-Day ceremonies in France last June. As the site notes, "viewers watching on CNN, Fox and MSNBC's were startled to hear another voice speaking Bush's words as if to prompt him." Some said this continued into the question-and-answer period.

Here's another example: when Bush appeared on television to address the nation on 9/11, some viewers of television stations in Quincy, Massachusetts and New York City say they heard another voice speaking, slowly and carefully, a few words at a time -- words which were then recited by the president. As one Quincy resident reported, "The voice was nondescript, male, definitely not the president's voice." Link

Haven't commented on this yet as plenty of others have. But, none of the reporters who have look into this have bothered to address the really interesting question. It would be simple to do -- just request the videotapes from CNN or MSNBC of Bush's D-Day speech, verify something that many commented on at the time and are now bringing up again --- that a strange voice was heard feeding Bush his lines. I didn't hear this live, but I remember people commenting on it at the time, such as Danny Shecter. And, there's this video which of course could be doctored but seems to mirror pretty well what people described at the time.

But, it's simple -- roll the tapes... Go reporters go!

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration will delay major assaults on rebel-held cities in Iraq until after U.S. elections in November, say administration officials, mindful that large-scale military offensives could affect the U.S. presidential race.

Although American commanders in Iraq have been buoyed by recent successes in insurgent-held towns such as Samarra and Tall Afar, administration and Pentagon officials say they will not try to retake cities such as Fallujah and Ramadi -- where insurgents' grip is strongest and U.S. military casualties could be the greatest -- until after Americans vote in what is likely to be a close election.

"When this election's over, you'll see us move very vigorously," said one senior administration official involved in strategic planning, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Once you're past the election, it changes the political ramifications" of a large-scale offensive, the official said. "We're not on hold right now. We're just not as aggressive."

Q: Who do you think will win the election?
A: I'm a numbers geek at heart, so I watch four quantitative factors that have had a strong historical correlation with incumbent electoral victory, regardless of party. The first is job creation, second is Presidential approval rating, third is percentage saying the country is going in the right or wrong direction, and the fourth is the Dow Jones industrial average performance in the first half of the election year.

The polls are saying this is a very close race, but all four of the above data points suggest the incumbent is in deep trouble. Over a four-year term, when job creation is less than 5%, studies have shown it's a huge negative for the occupant in the White House. As of last month, we were at a negative 0.8%.

We see recent surveys showing the incumbent polling less than a 50% job-approval rating, and for the "right/wrong direction" question, only 36% are answering "right direction." These are big negatives. The Dow started the year at 10,450. It has come up off the lows but is still down for the year. It's a minor negative.

Let's let Mr. Bush have the last word:

The truth of the matter is if you listen carefully Saddam would still be in power if he [Kerry] were the president of the United States. And the world would be a lot better off.

Bush's mystery bulge
The rumor is flying around the globe. Was the president wired during
the first debate?
By Dave Lindorff

Oct. 8, 2004 | Was President Bush literally channeling Karl Rove in his first debate with John Kerry? That's the latest rumor flooding the Internet, unleashed last week in the wake of an image caught by a television camera during the Miami debate. The image shows a large solid object between Bush's shoulder blades as he leans over the lectern and faces moderator Jim Lehrer.

The president is not known to wear a back brace, and it's safe to say he wasn't packing. So was the bulge under his well-tailored jacket a hidden receiver, picking up transmissions from someone offstage feeding the president answers through a hidden earpiece? Did the device explain why the normally ramrod-straight president seemed hunched over during much of the debate?

Bloggers are burning up their keyboards with speculation. Check out the president's peculiar behavior during the debate, they say. On several occasions, the president simply stopped speaking for an uncomfortably long time and stared ahead with an odd expression on his face. Was he listening to someone helping him with his response to a question? Even weirder was the president's strange outburst. In a peeved rejoinder to Kerry, he said, "As the politics change, his positions change. And that's not how a commander in chief acts. I, I, uh -- Let me finish -- The intelligence I looked at was the same intelligence my opponent looked at." It must be said that Bush pointed toward Lehrer as he declared "Let me finish." The green warning light was lit, signaling he had 30 seconds to, well, finish.

Hot on the conspiracy trail, I tried to track down the source of the photo. None of the Bush-is-wired bloggers, however, seemed to know where the photo came from. Was it possible the bulge had been Photoshopped onto Bush's back by a lone conspiracy buff? It turns out that all of the video of the debate was recorded and sent out by Fox
News, the pool broadcaster for the event. Fox sent feeds from multiple cameras to the other networks, which did their own on-air presentations and editing.

To watch the debate again, I ventured to the Web site of the most sober network I could think of: C-SPAN. And sure enough, at minute 23 on the video of the debate, you can clearly see the bulge between the president's shoulder blades.

Bloggers stoke the conspiracy with the claim that the Bush administration insisted on a condition that no cameras be placed behind the candidates. An official for the Commission on Presidential Debates, which set up the lecterns and microphones on the Miami stage, said the condition was indeed real, the result of negotiations by both
campaigns. Yet that didn't stop Fox from setting up cameras behind Bush and Kerry. The official said that "microphones were mounted on lecterns, and the commission put no electronic devices on the president or Senator Kerry." When asked about the bulge on Bush's back, the official said, "I don't know what that was."

So what was it? Jacob McKenna, a spyware expert and the owner of the Spy Store, a high-tech surveillance shop in Spokane, Wash., looked at the Bush image on his computer monitor. "There's certainly something on his back, and it appears to be electronic," he said. McKenna said that, given its shape, the bulge could be the inductor portion of a two-way push-to-talk system. McKenna noted that such a system makes use of a tiny microchip-based earplug radio that is pushed way down into the ear canal, where it is virtually invisible. He also said a weak signal could be scrambled and be undetected by another broadcaster.

Mystery-bulge bloggers argue that the president may have begun using such technology earlier in his term. Because Bush is famously prone to malapropisms and reportedly dyslexic, which could make successful use of a teleprompter problematic, they say the president and his handlers may have turned to a technique often used by television reporters on remote stand-ups. A reporter tapes a story and, while on camera, plays
it back into an earpiece, repeating lines just after hearing them, managing to sound spontaneous and error free.

Suggestions that Bush may have using this technique stem from a D-day event in France, when a CNN broadcast appeared to pick up -- and broadcast to surprised viewers -- the sound of another voice seemingly reading Bush his lines, after which Bush repeated them. Danny Schechter, who operates the news site MediaChannel.org, and who has been doing some investigating into the wired-Bush rumors himself, said the Bush campaign has been worried of late about others picking up their radio frequencies -- notably during the Republican Convention on the day of Bush's appearance. "They had a frequency specialist stop me and ask about the frequency of my camera," Schechter said. "The Democrats weren't doing that at their convention."

Repeated calls to the White House and the Bush national campaign office over a period of three days, inquiring about what the president may have been wearing on his back during the debate, and whether he had used an audio device at other events, went unreturned. So far the Kerry campaign is staying clear of this story. When called for a comment, a press officer at the Democratic National Committee claimed on Tuesday that it was "the first time" they'd ever heard of the issue. A spokeswoman at the press office of Kerry headquarters refused to permit me to talk with anyone in the campaign's research office. Several other requests for comment to the Kerry ampaign's press office went unanswered.

As for whether we really do have a Milli Vanilli president, the answer at this point has to be, God only knows.

Boyd was charged with criminal possession of a weapon but was able to continue on to Raleigh, N.C., in time for the concert, said a spokeswoman for the band's label, Epic Records.

Boyd admitted he accidentally left the knife in his bag and called the incident "my bad," spokeswoman Lois Najarian said.

The latest feature film from the creators of South Park is facing the box office kiss of death NC-17 rating because of a scene showing simulated oral sex between marionettes.

The makers of Team America: World Police have reportedly gone to great lengths, modifying the offending scene nine times for submission to the Motion Picture Association of America, the US film classification authority. They are keen to secure an R rating, which would allow under-18s to see the film when accompanied by an adult.

The makers, directors Matt Stone and Trey Parker and producer Scott Rudin, are contesting the MPAA classification, saying that the film doesn't show anything that's not been seen before in other R-rated movies. And besides, Rudin told the Hollywood Reporter, "our characters are made of wood and have no genitalia. If the puppets did to each other what we show them doing, all they'd get is splinters."

A resolution to this dispute is particularly urgent because the film-makers are contractually obliged to deliver an R-rated film for release by October 15, but the film is scheduled for sneak previews this coming weekend.

"Team America: World Police" received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America after producers made several changes to the film to avoid the more restrictive NC-17 label, officials from the MPAA and distributor Paramount Pictures confirmed. Link

B(E) infuses beer with caffeine, guarana and ginseng, along with berry aromas for a sweeter, yet more tart taste at 6.6 percent alcohol by volume, said company brewmaster Nathaniel Davis.

Anheuser-Busch designed the new brew for 21- to 27-year-old drinkers who seek novel beverages and switch drinks more frequently according to mood and occasion, the company said.

"It's indicative of how seriously Anheuser-Busch is taking this challenge from the liquor folks ... who are growing faster than beer," said Eric Shepard, executive editor of industry newsletter Beer Marketer's Insights, citing the popularity of flavored spirits and energy drinks, such as Red Bull.

B(E) will be priced slightly higher than the company's flagship Budweiser beer and packaged in slimmer 10-ounce cans.

Dear Friends,

Thanks so much for your help over this past year... We're heading into the final stretch before the election and hopefully prepared for whatever fresh hell may follow. On October 13th, activists in all fifty states will be putting up handpainted signs expressing their political beliefs on the freeways and highways of this nation. So far there are just over 400 of us signed in from 160+ cities and suburbs in 40 states. At the rate people are signing up there's no doubt there'll be over a thousand of us come the 13th, and I truly hope you'll ask your readers to join in. The rules are simple: paint a sign and put it where people will see it. Let me know the city/suburb/township where you'll be doing it and how many of you there'll be. I'm putting together one hell of a press release.

http://www.freewayblogger.com/freewayfreespeechday.htm

Signs can be any size, large or small, and can say whatever you want them to. When the Founders of this nation gave us the right to free and unfettered political speech, that meant we had the right to speak out and make our feelings known to as many of our fellow citizens as possible if we chose to do so, and on October 13th, that's just what we're going to do.

This event is being covered by Air America, MTV, Pacifica Radio and will be receiving national and international media attention, so do what you can to spread the word. I don't know what, if any effect this'll have on the election, but I do know this - people are going to know how to express themselves when they see it being stolen again.

Thanks Again,
Scarlet P.

Latest research from market analysts Mintel highlights a day in the life of the global consumer. In the future, British shoppers could be using curry flavoured toothpaste, feasting on collagen soup, banana mayonnaise or green tea cereal.

Donna sez, "People are really upset about the FBI's proposal to extend a phone-tapping law called CALEA to the Internet by requiring that broadband Internet and VoIP providers build in a 'backdoor' for government surveillance. But they'd be even more upset if they understood what this means. EFF's Annalee Newitz explains what will happen if this proposal is adopted:"

If the FCC adopts the proposal, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and nearly all VoIP companies will have to design their systems to be tappable. This isn't nearly as tidy as it sounds. The law distinguishes between two kinds of information that can be gleaned via telephone surveillance: "call identifying information" or CII (numbers dialed and when), and "content" (actual conversations taking place). Telephone network technology allows a law enforcement agent to gather these two kinds of information separately, in isolation from one another. There is no danger that an agent seeking CII will accidentally get to listen to the content of his target's conversations. Or that he will accidentally hear the conversations of everybody on the same block as his target.

Link

All throughout the debate, Bush was seen taking notes on a piece of paper at his podium. At great risk to life and limb, we were able to smuggle out the notes and present them so that they are available for everyone to see. Many Bothans died to bring you this information ...

Immediately after the vice presidential debate, Media Matters for America documented the media's reactions on cable and network television. While the clear majority of commentators described the debate as a draw, MSNBC pundits expressed a dramatically different view, declaring Vice President Dick Cheney the undisputed victor. NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell claimed Cheney "steamroll[ed] over Edwards on foreign policy points"; Hardball host Chris Matthews said Cheney "was out on a hunting trip. ... And he found squirrel"; and Scarborough Country host Joe Scarborough proclaimed: "Edwards got obliterated by Dick Cheney." By contrast, conservative Washington Post columnist George Will said, on ABC, "I think both these men did a superior job."

CLEVELAND (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday night that the debate with Democratic Sen. John Edwards marked the first time they had met. In fact, the two had met at least three times previously.

Cheney made the remark while accusing Edwards of frequent absences from Senate votes.

"Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight," Cheney told Edwards during the debate.

On Feb. 1, 2001, the vice president thanked Edwards by name at a Senate prayer breakfast and sat beside him during the event.

On April 8, 2001, Cheney and Edwards shook hands when they met off-camera during a taping of NBC's "Meet the Press," moderator Tim Russert said Wednesday on "Today."

On Jan. 8, 2003, the two met when the first-term North Carolina senator accompanied Elizabeth Dole to her swearing-in by Cheney as a North Carolina senator, Edwards aides also said.

Edwards didn't forget their prayer-breakfast meeting. The Democratic vice presidential candidate noted the discrepancy at a post-debate rally in a Cleveland park, calling it an example of Cheney "still not being straight with the American people."

"The vice president said that the first time I met Senator Edwards was tonight when we walked on the stage. I guess he forgot the time we sat next to each other for a couple hours about three years ago. I guess he forgot the time we met at the swearing in of another senator. So, my wife Elizabeth reminded him on the stage," Edwards said as the crowd roared.

To summarise the problems with current bookmarking systems then, we could say that (1) the process is slow and annoying (2) that it requires us to continually refine and redevelop our taxonomies if we're going to keep track of everything, (3) that URLs can belong in a number of bins and that (4) we can be left with unmanageably large lists. An ideal system would therefore speed the process up of both bookmarking a site and retrieving it later. An ideal system would try to alleviate the problems of categorisation and would work as an a priori assumption that a URL might wish to be stored in multiple bins. An ideal system would not display all the links by default. An ideal system would, in fact, use tags...

Inadvertently or not, the Russian government has sent a terrible message to the Russian people: "We can't protect you from terrorists. And when you do become the victim of a terrorist attack, you have a 20-30 percent chance or worse of being killed by one of our own forces during the rescue."

Since taking office five years ago, Putin has steadily dismantled the system of checks and balances vital to governmental accountability. He has nearly obliterated the independent television and most of the print media, marginalized the political opposition, and jailed or forced into exile businessmen who refused to display loyalty.

The new proposals are the next step in this process, but are unlikely to have much real effect on the fight against terrorism. They coincide with the government’s increasingly aggressive moves against critical nongovernmental organizations and more generally civil society.

If Ms. Rice did her job and told Mr. Bush how ludicrous the case was for an Iraqi nuclear program, then Mr. Bush terribly misled the public. If not, she should have resigned for allowing her boss to start a war on the basis of bad information and an incompetent analysis.

Editor's note [from BotB?]: "Anonymous" is a veteran Foreign Service officer currently serving as a State Department official. The views expressed are personal and not related to his official position.

By Anonymous

Oct. 4, 2004 | Secretary of State Colin Powell is not staying for a second Bush term. When he goes, the last bulwark against complete neoconservative control of U.S. foreign policy goes with him. The implications are enormous, yet the American electorate appears to be blinded by the Bush campaign's deliberate manipulations of 9/11.

[...]

Powell is leaving. We need to repeat that. When this reality sinks in, we will finally understand what we are getting ourselves into in a second Bush term. A handful of conservative columnists, Republican senators and a few other GOP luminaries are trying to reclaim a traditional conservative Republican foreign policy approach. But it is clearly too late.

Recently, when John Kerry brought up the possibility of a return to the draft, SecDef Donald Rumsfeld was quick to respond that Kerry was full of it.

But my take is that Kerry is right on the mark. Not only because Rummy has been flat wrong on every major military call regarding Iraq, but because this is a war that won’t be won by smart weapons or the sledgehammer firepower we see every night on the tube.

Right now – with both our regular and Reserve soldiers stretched beyond the breaking point – our all-volunteer force is tapping out. If our overseas troop commitments continue at the present rate or climb higher, there won’t be enough Army and Marine grunts to do the job. And thin, overworked units, from Special Forces teams to infantry battalions, lose fights.

Clearly, this war against worldwide, hardcore Islamic believers will be a massive military marathon, the longest and most far-flung in our country’s history. By Christmas, more troops could be needed not only in Iraq and Afghanistan, but wherever the radical Islamic movement is growing stronger, from the Horn of Africa to Morocco, Kenya, Somalia, Yemen and across Europe – remember Spain?! – to Asia.

Accordingly, we need to bring our ground-fighting and support units to about the strength they were before the Soviet Union imploded, especially since the proper ratio of counterinsurgent-to-insurgent in places like the Middle East should be around 15 to 1. You don’t have to be a Ph.D. in military personnel to conclude we need more boots on the ground.

The drums are the big draw. They're big and practically demand that you start beating on them the moment you get them out of the box. Nintendo made a wise decision when it included the bongos in the price of the game. To be blunt, without the bongos this game is just Parappa the Rapper without the story line or Dance Dance Revolution with neither the dance nor the revolution. Having to buy the game and then pay extra for the fun would have been too much to ask of even the most beat-starved GameCube owner.

[...]

The game tries its hardest to do everything it can with the bongo set. You can earn alternative sound sets so that you can bark or beep along with the songs instead of hearing bongo sounds. You can play in cooperative mode or competitive mode, using up to four bongo sets at once.

The most distinctive element of the typeface is its enormous lower-case x-height. In theory this improves its legibilty, but only in the same way that dog poop's creamy consistency in theory should make it more edible. Some people dislike ITC Garamond because it's a desecration of the sacred memory of Claude Garamond. That part doesn't bother me. For one thing, despite its name, Garamond as we know it appears to be based on typefaces developed by Jean Jannon, who lived about a century after Garamond, and Garamond based his designs on those of Aldus Manutius: it's hard to say where you'd locate authenticity in this complicated history. And I've been stimulated by Emigre's revivals like Mrs. Eaves and Filosofia, which take inspiration from --and bigger liberties with -- the work of, respectively, John Baskerville and Giambattista Bodoni with great success. But there are good revivals and bad revivals, and ITC Garamond is one of the latter.

Now, I care a lot more about her activism for the city's schools than her sex life. If she wants to sleep with women, that's fine by me. Or not fine, why should anyone care what I think.

But this was the lede story in two major newspapers.

[...]

[I]f she was dating a guy, would anyone care? No. Certainly not to be the lede of a major metropolitan daily. It would be a minor item. The fact that she "switched teams" is quite surprising, but happens. Then she'll switch back again or miss dick or whatever. What this is not is news. Actor has lesbian sex is like saying musician smokes pot.

The Kleptones' A Night at the Hip-Hopera is one of the the best mashup remixes I've ever heard, a fluid blend of classic and modern hip hop with Queen's epic catalog. Please don't miss the last track, Question.mp3. It's like a plunderphonic call to arms against bad copyright law.

Oh, thank god--saved from the spinsanity. Jon Stewart, beacon of common sense.

Colbert picks up on the sportscasting metaphor straightaway.

Kerry’s challenge: concision. Fails in the first question by thanking everyone in sight; Stewart: “Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em--it’s going to be a long night.”

Bush: Iraqis need to protect themselves; Stewart: I think that’s what they’ve been doing--I think that’s kind of the problem.

Bush: Terrorists as a “group of folks”; Stewart: A “group of folks” is what you run into at the Olive Garden.

Kerry: “I’ve had one consistent position”; Stewart: “There he goes again, rambling on...oh, wait, that was kind of clear. I got nothing.”

Stewart: What was Kerry writing while at the podium? [FAKE NOTE] “I am so crushing him.”

Stewart, talking to Wesley Clark: First time I saw Kerry when I thought that Americans might actually want to vote for him instead of voting against Bush.

In a stunning display of raw emotion never before seen on national television, President George W. Bush appeared to suffer a psychological breakdown during last night's square-off with Democratic nominee John Kerry.

Political commentators were quick to agree that Bush won the debate.

Observers first suspected a change in Bush's emotional state when, following a blistering attack from Kerry, a large, apparently wet stain began to appear on the front of the President's pants.

Laying his head upon the podium, Bush began to speak in a soft, high-pitched voice. His microphone was able to pick up questions apparently aimed at his father, former President George H.W. Bush, rather than his opponent. "Daddy. Daddy. Daddy, why don't you love me? " Bush whimpered.

Cokie Roberts, in a post debate roundtable on ABC, stated that such actions "clearly presented a softer, sensitive side" of Bush, "that every man in America will identify with."

Moments later Bush appeared to regain his energy, bolting upright and loudly asking "What's a nigga got to do to get a drink around here?" He then began pounding on the podium while chanting "Jack and Coke, Jack and Coke, Jack and Coke" repeatedly.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews was quick to point out how the alcohol reference would resonate with "Joe Six-pack," while CNN's Wolf Blitzer heralded Bush's use of "the `N' word," as "an appeal to the hippity-hop generation."