Catholics Confess: You're Cooperating With Evil Child-Molester Protectors

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Vote and Be Damned: "In an interview with The Times's David Kirkpatrick, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver said a knowing vote for a candidate like Mr. Kerry who supports abortion rights or embryonic stem cell research would be a sin that would have to be confessed before receiving communion. 'If you vote this way, are you cooperating in evil?' the archbishop asked. 'Now, if you know you are cooperating in evil, should you go to confession? The answer is yes.'"

And if you put money in the basket every week that goes to the Chancery that pays off lawsuit settlements which protect priests who molest children from criminal prosecution, are you cooperating in evil? The answer is yes. Now if you know you are cooperating in evil, should you go to confession? The answer is yes. Should you consider whether the institution which your weekly contributions support is corrupt beyond salvation or at least in need of radical reformation? The answer is yes. If the Chancery closes down your parish because the financial costs of thirty years of quiet deals to protect child-molesters has finally caught up with them, should you consider visiting the church of some other denomination in your town which manages to serve the Lord without protecting child-molesters? That's a question of conscience and faith.

There Is No Excuse

Election to Be Scrutinized for Irregularities: "Mounting concerns about voter registration foul-ups, election machine defects and other problems that might undermine the presidential election have spurred dozens of organizations to plan extraordinary efforts to scrutinize the polls on Nov. 2. "

If, as some experts predict, a deluge of lawsuits and post-facto disclosures of technical and equipment failures accompany a close election in November, there will be no acceptable excuse. Election officials (of all parties) and state and congressional representatives and the media have had four years to observe and fix what we have known is a terrible problem. If we have a repeat of the system failure of 2000, then, as Mr. Bush likes to say, heads should roll. If it's Jeb Bush attempting to illegally purge African-American voters in Florida or Richie Daley attempting to double count Irish-American voters in Chicago, heads should roll.

This is simply outrageous. If the system is still broken, we need to determine whose interests are served by undermining the infrastructure of democracy in America. Then we should jail them.

Nicely Put

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Opinion / Op-ed / President in search of a character: "Toward the end, both men were asked what they have learned from the women in their lives. For Bush the lesson was 'To stand up straight and not scowl.' For Kerry, the lesson from his mother was 'integrity, integrity, integrity.' One man remembered stage instructions; the other man remembered the call to character."

How Can We Nominate Jon Stewart For The Medal of Freedom?

Stewart on Crossfire

Michael Bérubé is Pudentilla's Newest Personal Hero

Michael Bérubé Online: "When the GOP gets around to embracing the ideal of universal human rights, when it decides to start spreading “liberty and freedom” right here in the U.S. of A., let me know. Until then, I’ll think of ‘em as the party of homophobes, hypocrites and reprobates."

We Interrupt This Blog To Bring You A Message From Autumn

Gentle Reader, if you lived in Maine you'd be home by now - as the sign of the interstate says - and you would see a touch of God's grandeur today. The storm system that made yesterday rather relentlessly damp is moving east. The eastern sky, therefore, remains thunder and steel, blue and gray. The clouds in the west are dense and white, giving way here and there to patches of blue. This overcast sky is broken in spots by brilliant shafts of light playing off the colors of the trees. The range of reds you can see from Pudentilla's windows (pomegranite to claret) is punctuated by brilliant oranges and yellows. There is still some green undereath, not yet giving way, clinging to summer in vain. Such riches we are given as gifts.

Thank You, Mary Cheney

Gay folks and Democrats owe a lot to Mary Cheney. She's the woman who single handedly broke up the Republican coalition. This, Pudentilla suspects is the reason why the Cheneys are so peeved with John Kerry, who responded to the question, "is homosexuality a choice?" by saying:

"We're all God's children. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as. I think if you talk to anybody, it's not a choice."

Pudentilla doubts that the Cheneys are annoyed that Sen. Kerry suggested that Mary Cheney is God's child. They can scarcely claim that Sen. Kerry "outed" Mary Cheney. In a 1999 interview with the lesbian magazine Girlfriends, Mary said, ""The reason I came to work here [Coors' Brewing Co.] is because I knew several other lesbians who were very happy here." (source)

Perhaps they are angry because Mr. Kerry presumed to speak for Mary Cheney. But Mary Cheney, the well-paid director of vice presidential operations for the Bush-Cheney campaign, refused requests for interviews to speak for herself, so she's hardly in a position to complain. (story).

Pudentilla thinks they are angry because Sen. Kerry suggested that their daughter's homosexuality is not a choice, but a God-given gift and a natural aspect of her personal identity. Certainly Republican Alan Keyes, whose own daughter is a lesbian (story), appears to believe that homosexuality is a choice and that homosexuals like Mary Cheney are selfish hedonists (story). Mary Cheney, herself, did not respond to Mr. Keyes' remarks, and the response of the Cheney family (no "angry father" when a fellow Republican insults his daughter) to his charge was a tad underwhelming.

And Elizabeth Cheney Perry, the vice president's other daughter, said on CNN: “It doesn't deserve a comment.” Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said simply that the comments were out of line.

Why would the Cheneys totally lose it when John Kerry suggests that Mary Cheney's homosexuality was a part of her natural identity, a gift from the God who made her, and hardly raise an eyebrow when Alan Keyes called Mary a "self-hedonist" for being gay, implying that her homosexuality was a matter of choice?

Because the Republicans rather desperately need homosexuality to be the choice of selfish hedonists who willfully embrace their sinful lifestyle. The hateful Christians believe this (check out the quotes from Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell on the Matthew Shepard Online Resources page, or Jerry Falwell's "Open Letter to Mel White" if you have the stomach for it). And the Republicans rather desperately need the votes of hateful Christians to maintain their control of Congress and the White House. By one survey's estimate 86% of evangelicals support Mr. Bush. (story). Pudentilla doubts that such folks would ever vote for Mr. Kerry, but in a very close race, the decision of such a secure voting bloc to stay at home would be devastating to Republicans. And the price for this voting bloc is hating homos because they choose their sinful lifestyle.

The problem for Republicans is that Dick Cheney's daughter is a dyke. And thanks to Mary Cheney (thanks, Mary!) the two-step Messrs. Bush and Cheney have been forced to take in talking about homos has radically transformed political discourse about the roles and rights of queers in American society. Think about the discussion of homosexuality that has taken place in this year's debates.

Four positions have emerged. Mr. Bush took the most conservative stance: he'll amend the Constitution to make sure queers can't marry. On the other hand, he felt constrained to say the following:

I do know that we have a choice to make in America and that is to treat people with tolerance and respect and dignity. It's important that we do that.

And I also know in a free society people, consenting adults can live the way they want to live.

And that's to be honored. (transcript)

For Mr. Bush, queers at least have the legal right to live the way the want to and other people (including hateful Christians) have to treat their choice "with tolerance and respect and dignity." Mr. Edwards announced the next most conservative position on the issue.

And I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, and so does John Kerry.

I also believe that there should be partnership benefits for gay and lesbian couples in long-term, committed relationships.

But we should not use the Constitution to divide this country.

No state for the last 200 years has ever had to recognize another state's marriage.

This is using the Constitution as a political tool, and it's wrong. (transcript)

Mr. Edwards wouldn't amend the constitution to prevent states from recognizing gay marriages. He wouldn't recognize them himself, however. And he can't explain how he would prevent states from recognizing gay marriages. Perhaps he assumes all the hateful Christians will leave states that do and it will sort it out as a federalism solution. Edwards, moreover, would give queers marriage by another name - "partnership benefits." It's hard to make the words "civil union" scan in a sonnet, but from a legal and political point of view this is revolutionary.


Mr. Cheney, took a different position than that of his boss and ultimately more "liberal" than Mr. Edwards.

And I said then and I believe today that freedom does mean freedom for everybody. People ought to be free to choose any arrangement they want. It's really no one else's business.

That's a separate question from the issue of whether or not government should sanction or approve or give some sort of authorization, if you will, to these relationships.

Traditionally, that's been an issue for the states. States have regulated marriage, if you will. That would be my preference. (transcript)

For Mr. Cheney, like Mr. Bush, queers have the right to choose any arrangement they want and it sure isn't a hateful Christian's business. Cheney, however, goes farther than Bush and Edwards. If a state should choose to recognize these arrangements as a marriage equal to that entered into by straight folks, the state may.

But Mr. Kerry took the position with the most radical of consequences. He suggested that God made queer folks queer. Now if you sincerely believe this, it will be hard to argue that their is any reason in law or religion to deny queer folks marriage or any other rights afforded to straight people - equal protection and human decency would forbid it. Sure Mr. Kerry is a Catholic and the skirted child-molester-protectors who define moral theology for his church insist that acting queer is a sin and that marriage is between a man and a woman. But Mr. Kerry won't legislate his articles of faith on citizens who don't share that faith. And even Catholics will have a hard time theologically defending Church teaching on homosexuality if scientists prove the existence of a gay gene.

Gentle Reader, the idea that these four perspectives would be the range of positions offered in political debates about the roles and rights of gay people in American society is extraordinary. Only a dozen years ago, Pat Buchanan demonized gays at the Republican National Convention. The idea that only twelve years later national politicians would feel compelled to speak about queers at all, much less with such respect and tolerance is extraordinary. The idea that a candidate for President would espouse the position that God made gay people queer is extraordinary.

What the debates did was elimate the political possibility of asserting that homosexuality was a sinful choice. And the hateful Christians have nowhere to go politically. The Republicans will not amend the Constitution to "protect marriage." The votes will fail and when the Falwells of the world come calling, Mr. Bush and his friends will answer, "sorry, there's nothing we can do. The country's moved too far on this one. We had to treat Mary Cheney decently for Dick's sake and things got out of hand." The hateful Christians will stay home, or they will split, but they won't be trusting establishment Republicans anytime soon. If not this election, then the next. But it's over. Mary Cheney (thank you, Mary!) broke the devil's bargain between the Republicans and the hateful Christians.

Civil unions and gay marriage are a coming. As John Kerry pointed out, we too are God's children, and our sexualities, as much as the sexual identity of straight people, are gifts from God to each of us. Pudentilla would like to thank you, Senator Kerry. But, Mary Cheney, Pudentilla - and all queers and Democrats should join her - would really like to say,

Thank you, Mary!

The Osama Gaffe: The Truth That A Lie Can Tell

Pudentilla worked many years ago for a curious man who loved the following, tasteless joke:

Q: Why does a dog lick his balls?
A: Because he can.

She wonders if Mr. Bush (DODO*) lies because he can. Kevin Drum, we note, believes that the lie tells how sheltered Mr. Bush (DODO*) is. He told the "Osama lie" because no one on his staff told him how badly he had spoken when he retreated from his "dead or alive" claim about Osama to this:

I don’t know where he is. Nor — you know, I just don’t spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you. I....I truly am not that concerned about him.

Many people noted that comment and the retreat it reflected from his original High Noon rhetoric. Kevin thinks that as a consequence Mr. Bush (DODO*) has come to sincerely believe he never said it. This sincere if mistaken [ed. note: "mistaken" is Republican for mendacious] belief explains why Mr. Bush (DODO*) turned with such vehemence against Mr. Kerry.

Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those ex-a-gger-ations.

We think that Kevin's explanation is a good beginning, but that Mr. Bush (DODO*)'s lie tells us an even more chilling truth than Kevin allows. Mr. Bush lied about his remarks about Osama for the same reason that Mr. Cheney (FOAL**) lied about ever meeting Mr. Edwards. Because he could. The Osama lie (like the lie about "most of the tax benefit going to the middle class") tells us the truth about the arrogance that characterizes this administration. So committed are they to what they believe is the fundamental truth of their possession of power that all other truth is diminished in significance.

The media has been remarkably ineffective in reporting Mr. Bush's indifference to facts. To be fair, Republicans have been manipulating the press effectively on the issue of indifference to factual inaccuracy since Regan's "teflon presidency." It is no wonder that Republicans, who believe in truths, if not facts, have long believed that they could not be held accountable to any standard of factual accuracy. Mr. Bush (DODO*) lied, as Mr. Cheney (FOAL**)lied, because he believed that he could. He has been lying for years and no one has called him on it.

His problem with the Osama lie is that it could be revealed as such in precisely the way, indeed the only way, the SCLM can actually cover a politician's lie: film at 11:00. We will be treated today to the quick succession of video tape showing Mr. Bush (DODO*)'s lie, and then the footage that proves he is lying.

The idealists among us may hope that the SCLM will learn from this experience and begin to report effectively on the indifference of this administration and its Congressional allies to factual accuracy. The realists may doubt the media will ever report a lie story without "caught in the act" footage. Both may wonder, however, whetherthe Republicans have been so corrupted by the power they hold and the license that the media has granted them that they are no longer able to help themselves from telling such telling lies.


*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders
**FOAL: Father of a Lesbian

Sinclair "Stolen Honor [sic]" Summary


Sinclair's Republican Bias

Sinclair donates gives 98%of its political donations to Republicans. David Smith, the President and CEO of Sinclair gave the maximum allowable contribution to the Bush 2004 campaign. [source: ]. When asked about criticism of SBG’s decision to compel its stations to run “Stolen Honor [sic]”, Mark Hyman, the company’s spokesperson, compared the critics to ‘holocaust deniers.” [Kevin Drumm at Washington Monthly:]

Film producer Sherwood's history as a Republican activist and right wing hack

Carlton Sherwood, the filmmaker behind “Stolen Honor [sic]” shares the address and phone number of a firm run by Republican activist Charles Garow [source:]

Sherwood has been a reporter for the conservative Washington Times, owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and quondam spokesman for Rev. Moon’s Unification Church. (catch) He’s a personal friend of Tom Ridge, Secretary of Homeland Security, who directed Ridge’s media operations in Harrisburg, PA when Ridge was the governor of Pennsylvania. Sherwood is also the executive vice president of a company which received a federal government contract to create and maintain a first responder web site. The site, which was supposed to go live by March 04, has yet to be launched. Roger Ailes (no, not that one) has the ink on Sherwood's misguided (and expensive to his employers) attack on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

How Sinclair's "son of Enron" sub won the thanks of a grateful Whitehouse, if not nation

Jadoo Power Systems: Sinclair Ventures, a wholly owned sub of SBG owns half of Jadoo. Jadoo announced on 9/28/04 it had received a major war on terror contract to supply its product to the military. via The American Street [source] Blue Lemur/Raw story reports that Jadoo’s CEO personally briefed Bush on their product before getting the contract. Digby notes that Jadoo’s management has an Enron-rich pedigree. Another Sinclair affiliated company (a trailer park) has, Atrios reports, just been sued for race discrimination.



In addition to this financial reason to help Mr. Bush's efforts to finally be elected, Sinclair's tottering business model depends on a Bush victory [heaven forefend it]. USA Today reports that Sinclair has a strong financial incentive to support Mr. Bush’s bid to finally win the presidency. Bush supports consolidation efforts in the telecom industry. Sinclair’s financial future rests on its ability to continue buying up mid market stations. Without expansion, Sinclair’s business model fails. Via Americablog [source: ] PGL at the Angry Bear notes that the folks who control Sinclair do not appear to be conducting the financial operations of the company in a way that is fair to its minority shareholders. Steve Gilliard has more on the conduct of majority shareholders and a list of the institutional minority investors. Media Matters for America has a list of the mutual funds which hold stock in Sinclair.


The farmer at corrente notes that Sinclair’s business model involves firing significant portions of the news staff of the television stations they buy. The station then uses material (including weather – go figure) pre canned for all its outlets at the company headquarters.

What you can do

The DNC is going to the FEC to try and stop SBG (TalkLeft). Salon reports that Paul Alexander, maker of the pro-Kerry "Brothers In Arms" has offered SBG his film free of charge. Those who wish to contact SBG’s advertisers to express their objection to financial support for Sinclair in light of its conduct can check a database of Sinclair advertisers.

Report: Bush (DODO*) Lies Increase As Poll Numbers Decline

Bush Attack Ad Is Questioned: "But some analysts warned Monday that his campaign was playing loose with the facts .

The new ad, which began appearing late Sunday on national cable stations, has drawn protests from the Kerry campaign and other critics, who say the Bush camp took a line out of context from a recent newspaper interview with the Massachusetts senator.

Some critics said the ad followed a pattern of the president distorting his rival's record on taxes, healthcare and other matters in an attempt to portray him as too liberal and unfit to lead the fight against terrorism.

They said the pattern began after polls showed the race tightening and after Bush stumbled during his first debate with Kerry.

"Stolen Honor [sic]" Promoter a Partisan Hack and Liar

Democrats Attack Plan for Anti-Kerry Broadcast: "Sherwood's film shares several sources with the anti-Kerry campaign of the Swift Boat Vets and POWs for Truth, a group of Vietnam veterans who have accused the Democratic nominee of distorting his war record for political purposes. And Sherwood worked for nearly eight years for former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, now secretary of Homeland Security for the Bush administration.

In a phone interview Monday, Sherwood said he's a political independent who's just happy to get the story out."

How DOJ Is Losing The War on Terror At Home

Terrorism Case Shows U.S. Flaws in Strategy: "When federal agents went through the apartment door just before sunrise on Sept. 17, 2001, Glock automatics at the ready, what they found caused government officials all the way to the top of the Justice Department to snap to attention."

Less than a week after Islamic extremists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, here were three North African Muslim men caught in a barren apartment with airport security passes, forged passports, videotapes of American landmarks and a crude sketch labeled in Arabic an "American base in Turkey."[--snip--]

Today, the terrorism convictions have been dismissed because the government withheld evidence that could have helped the defense. The Justice Department is investigating its chief prosecutor in the case, Richard G. Convertino. He, meanwhile, is suing the department. [--snip--]

"In its best light," Morford told Rosen, "the record would show that the prosecution committed a pattern of mistakes and oversights that deprived the defendants of discoverable evidence."

Feeling Safer?

The Threat of Intentions

Pudentilla blames the Powerball Lottery. The state of Maine started selling tickets for it at the end of July and when the jackpot went north of $200 million, even folks in the small town in central Maine where Pudentilla is fortunate enough to live began to indulge in the distinctly un-Yankee habit of imagining what they would do with money they didn't have. Judy, Bob's wife, on the other hand, says it's all her fault. If she had never bought the tiger lily at her youngest granddaughter's school craft fair all those years ago, then Bob wouldn't have gotten started on lilies and none of this would ever have happened. But Bob just shakes his head and says he has nobody to blame but himself for all the trouble he's been having with Mr. Dodo, the fellow from away who moved to our town almost four years ago.

To understand the controversy, you have to understand that while Maine is blessed with as many type-A personalities as any other state in the union, we are not burdened with urban jungles of office skyscrapers, trendy cafes and after hour bars in which type-A personalities can expend the extraordinary resources of their personalities in ways that do not overly offend their neighbors. In Maine, the type of person who would bill 300 hours a month in a Wall Street law firm has to find a hobby. As a consequence, Pudentilla suspects that Mainers spend more per capita of their discretionary income on gardening, weaving, woodworking, quilting and god knows what else than New Yorkers and other kinds of people from away.

Now Pudentilla's neighbor Bob is a type-A personality if there ever was one. He built his own home, put a deck and a wood-stove fired hot tub on the back, did all the kitchen cabinetry and when that was done made the baby cribs, and later the bedroom sets for each of his grandchildren in his woodshop. He's a focused kind of guy. For men like Bob, that period when the grandchildren are in the bedroom sets that will carry them through highschool, but are too still to young to have Gramps teach them how to build their own sailboat, is a dangerous period indeed. Bob had been looking around for something to do with his spare time and nervous energy when Judy came home from the craft fair with a tiger lily. "Ten bucks for that?" he asked, when Judy showed it to him? "Hell I could grow a prettier one for half the price." Judy did not bother to explain to Bob that value-for-money is not much of a consideration at the crafts fair at your granddaughter's school. She recognized the gleam in his eye and she knew if he took to the tiger lilies he'd be out of her hair for an endless number of Saturdays.

Well Bob started reading around on tiger lily cultivation. He had quite a lovely garden set up already (the fact that he grows eggplant successfully in central Maine says quite a bit). Then Mr. Dodo moved into the neighborhood. He started asking folks questions at the True Value. "Why does Bob have all those lights on in his basement at night?" We explained that those were the grow lights for his seedlings. To grow his eggplant (and tomatoes and peppers) Bob starts the seedlings quite early and just keeps potting them up. By the time he puts them in the garden at the beginning of June they're well enough along to produce some very fine vegetables in August.

Mr. Dodo would have none of it. He was convinced that Bob was growing pot and called the DEA office up in Bangor to complain. Well that was a seven days wonder in February as you can imagine. The sight of all those agents in their blue jackets with big bold letters on the back marching down the stairs to the finished cellar where Bob grows his seedlings had folks talking for days. They subpoenaed his electric bills, which indeed showed that Bob used more electricity than one would expect in February, but eventually the botanists in the field office opined that rather than marijuana, Bob was growing some mighty fine eggplant. Bob swears that they kept the plants for their own gardens.

You'd think Mr. Dodo would have backed off after that, but things only went from bad to worse. When Bob put in a couple of extra beds in his garden to test out various types of lilies, Mr. Dodo insisted on a town meeting. Bob, he claimed, was violating zoning ordinances that precluded commercial agriculture on the road where he lived. Bob had, it is true, a lot of lilies on his hands that he didn't think good enough for his own garden. But, as Judy pointed out, that didn't mean people from away wouldn't like them. So Bob put out a table at the county fair and charged $2 a lily to get rid of all the lilies he didn't like. Mr. Dodo's complaint had the town in an uproar. Gardening is almost a religion in central Maine. Indeed, the mere act of looking at a seed catalogue in February should be regarded as an act of faith in this climate. The idea that Mr. Dodo would threaten our right to expand our gardens outraged many of the neighbors. Furthermore, Mr. Dodo was challenging the long established principle that every Mainer has a God-given constitutional right to relieve the tourists of a buck or two so long as no one's hurt and no overt fraud's involved.

The problem was, Mr. Dodo could quote Bob's own words against him. Which is where the Powerball lottery comes in. The Saturday before the town meeting, Bob was down buying his ticket at the gas station. Patsy, who works the weekend shifts there asked him, as she asks everyone who buys a ticket, "and what are you going to do with your millions, Bob?"

"Patsy," Bob replied with the enthusiasm of a highschool boy talking about rebuilding his father's Monte Carlo, "If I won the lottery, I'd get the plans for the deluxe greenhouse from the Gardener's Supply catalogue. Can you imagine the lilies I could grow with that set up? Heck, I'd make a fortune if I wanted to."

Of course Mr. Dodo happened to over hear the conversation and reported it word for word at the town meeting. "Don't you see," Mr. Dodo insisted passionately, "if he had the resources, he would go commercial. It's clearly his intent. If he wins the lottery we'll have a major business on that road." Judy was furious, and Bob did seem a bit chagrined to have his gardening fantasies broadcast to the town meeting. Needless to say, it didn't impress folks much. The town manager explained to Mr. Dodo that having intentions and desires is one thing, but having the means to realize them is another. We all felt vindicated when the fellow from Delaware won the Powerball.

Things have settled down a bit. Bob, however, is taking steps to protect himself from Mr. Dodo. He's going to install a solar power get up to the room where he grows his seedlings so no one will bother him about his electric bills again. And he got our local lawyer to set up a non-profit organization for his lily operation. "Turn you into a god-dang liberal, he would," Bob complained to Judy. But she didn't mind. She figures the solar power thing will keep him busy for another couple of years.

In Which Pudentilla's Middle-Aged Virtue Is Again Rewarded

Rather than spending the perfect fall day that was yesterday playing out of doors, Pudentilla dutifully drove down to the city to phone bank for Sen. Kerry. One of the first things she noticed was that the KE04 headquarters was quite crowded. "What's up?" she asked Randy, the young staffer who organizes the phone banking effort? "Oh, Carole King's in town today. She canvassed and she's coming into hq to thank volunteers."

"The Carole King?" Pudentilla squeaked.

"Yeah," said Randy. "Do you like her music?"

Randy is too young to realize that for a demographic group of significant size, which happens to include Pudentilla, Carole King provided the sound track for their adolescence. We decided to spare the young man the embarrassing sight of watching a middle age lady melt into a pool of teenage excitement. Taking our phone list we took up our station and waited just a few minutes for Carole to arrive.

She is remarkably petite. She sounds in person just like you imagine she would. She thanked us all, told us to be polite to Republicans, because many of them don't want to vote for Bush (DODO*) and we won't move them to vote for Kerry by being rude. She reminded us that the Maine 2nd Congressional District was very important for the Kerry campaign. And then she led us in a chorus of "You've Got A Friend" in honor of Mr. Kerry. Gentle Reader, I was standing next to her the whole time. Then she shook my hand.

Although we hate phone banking, we phoned until Randy kicked us out of the office. We, had, after all, been properly rewarded.

Cracks in the Facade? Coors Backs Away From Bush (DODO*) on Iraq War

GOP Hopeful Raises War Doubts (washingtonpost.com): "The Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Colorado suggested yesterday that Congress would not have voted to authorize a war in Iraq if the members had known 'what we know today.' GOP candidate Pete Coors went on to say that, 'based on weapons of mass destruction,' the United States should be more concerned about Iran and North Korea than Iraq."

We suppose it is always possible that Mr. Coors simply gave his honest opinion. We also wonder what the internals of Republican polls in Colorado suggest, if Mr. Coors believes such a stance will help his electoral effforts.

Bush (DODO*) Efforts In Iraq Threatening Promised Democracy
The New York Times > International > Middle East > Muslim Divide: Iraqis Fearing a Sunni Boycott of the Election: "- Leaders of Iraq's crucial Sunni Arab minority say they have failed to generate any enthusiasm for nationwide elections scheduled for January, and are so fearful of insurgent violence and threats that they can meet only in private to talk about how - or even whether - to take part.

The leaders among the Sunni Arabs, which had dominated Iraqi politics since the nation's birth in 1920, also said in interviews here that many prospective Sunni voters were so suspicious of the American enterprise in Iraq, and so infuriated by the chaotic security situation in the Sunni-dominated areas, that they were likely to stay away from the polls in large numbers.

Sunni participation is crucial to the election. While a Sunni boycott remains far from certain and some Sunni leaders still hold out hope for a turnaround, American officials fear that if large numbers of Sunnis do not vote, the election will be regarded as illegitimate and may even feed the insurgency that has gripped much of the country."

While American military commanders say they intend to open up many predominantly Sunni areas now under the control of insurgents, some Sunni tribal and religious leaders say that so far the campaign appears to be having the opposite effect, alienating the people it is supposed to liberate.

*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders

Iraq Survey Group: Bush (DODO*) Easily Fell Into Saddam's Trap - No End In Sight For Coalition Troops

Boston.com / News / World / Study ties Hussein, guerrilla strategy: "The report last week of the Iraq Survey Group, based partly on interviews with captured leaders of the secretive Iraqi regime, said Hussein planned to have his troops and loyalists pull back after an initial US thrust and engage the Americans under terms more favorable to the Iraqis." [--snip--]

Indeed, intelligence officials said that instead of reading up on tank warfare, Hussein and some of his top generals are believed to have been boning up on books penned by Vietnamese communists on guerrilla warfare tactics. [--snip--]

''All the after-action reports are pointing to the fact that we were postured for the wrong type of adversary," said Loren Thompson, a defense expert at the conservative Lexington Institution in Arlington, Va. ''We were looking for nuclear weapons and conventional formations, and the enemy was planning for elusive and unconventional operations."

He added: ''What looked initially like a big conventional victory looks like a military challenge for which we have no good response. This is really a serious problem because the whole world can see the pattern of Vietnam and Somalia in Iraq now."

Feeling safer?

*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders

How Bush (DODO*) Helped To Bring WMD To Iraq

The Other Weapons Threat in Iraq: "Insurgent networks across Iraq are increasingly trying to acquire and use toxic nerve gases, blister agents and germ weapons against U.S. and coalition forces, according to a CIA report. Investigators said one group recruited scientists and sought to prepare poisons over seven months before it was dismantled in June. " [--snip--]

An exhaustive report released last week by Charles A. Duelfer, the CIA's chief weapons investigator in Iraq, concluded that Saddam Hussein destroyed his stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the early 1990s and never tried to rebuild them. But a little-noticed section of the 960-page report says the risk of a "devastating" attack with unconventional weapons has grown since the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq last year.

A Lie of Cheneyesque Magnitude From Mr. Bush (DODO*)

Kevin Drum points out that while his aWol-ness claimed last night to have reduced non-homeland security, non-defense spending to a 1% rate of annual increase, in fact, his actual performance is over 8%. Pudentilla also believes that the term "non-homeland security" creates a whole large enough for a mack truck to drive through in terms of the analytical usefulness of the point even if it wasn't extraordinarily mendacious. But it was.

*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders

A Meme the Democrats Should Develop This Week

How bad is Mr. Bush's job-creation record. So bad that fifty years from now, when pundits comment on their contemporary political scene, they will use it as a gold standard of failure. As in, "while President Jones' job creation record is disappointing, Sue, it surely is not in the same league as George W. Bush's dismissal performance at the beginning of the century."

Base Enthusiasm Index

We all know the quickvote online polls are not scientifically accurate. We also know that Kerry supporters have killed Bush supporters in freeping the polls. (TalkLeft has the results.)

Why are the hippy dippy liberal slacker stoners staying up late to work in a systemized fashion to freep these polls while the hateful christian wingnuts just turn off their tvs and computers and go to bed? Could it be because Mr. Kerry's base is highly motivated and very enthusiastic, while Mr. Bush (DODO*)'s base suffers from a malaise of discontentment and defeatism? If this is true, does it suggest that at leas the wired portion of Mr. Kerry's base will turn out to vote in very high numbers? Perhaps it is a druggie thing. Perhaps the quickvote polls are like methadone, which the hippy dippy liberal slacker stoners are using until they can get the real thing on November 2nd.

If Mr. Kerry's supporters continue to be successful in freeping the polls, Pudentilla predicts the SCLM will switch to questions like, "which candidate had a better tailor."


*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders

Best Blogger Analysis So Far

Steve Gilliard's News Blog: "
Not drooling is not winning. "

Lynne Cheney, The Marie Antoinette of the 21st Century

via Lambert at corrente

Booklet That Upset Mrs. Cheney Is History: "
'That's a pretty god-awful example of spending the taxpayers' money and also a pretty god-awful example of interference "

Debate Observations

If the question is who does America want for their "daddy," Bush is the answer for folks whose old man use to yell at them alot when they were kids.

How did Gallup manage to come up with such a white folks sample in a city as culturally diverse as St. Louis, Mo.?

Mr. Bush (DODO*)'s Timber Farm

Pudentilla don't have passive investments like Mr. Bush (DODO*)'s timber farm. She has her social security and her TIAA CREF account. So perhaps she doesn't all the hard work it takes a rich person to remember where he gets his money from. And perhaps she doesn't really understand why someone would keep an investment that only returned $84. Unless that investment made one eligible for a tax cut valued at far more than $84. Pudentilla that such investment schemes require a significant investment, one that only rich people can afford.

For people whose income is derived from their paycheck, it seems to Pudentilla that the choice is clear. Don't vote for someone who has so many investments he can't keep them straight - especially if he wants you to believe he's an ordinary joe, just like you.

*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders

Pundit Roundup

ecoast in Atrios' comments has done the work. [Ooops, Kos did it and ecoast cut and pasted. Sue me, I read my blogs in alphabetical order.]

third party at the daily kos has pundits on Bush (DODO*)'s anger management issues

Small Town Librarians Fend Off Another Ashcroft Attack On Constitution

via The Raw Story

komo 4 news | Small Town Library Takes On The Feds: "WHATCOM COUNTY - The FBI wants to know who checked out a book from a small library about Osama Bin Laden. But the library isn't giving out names, saying the government has no business knowing what their patrons read."

Newsweek: Cheney (FOAL*) Lied

MSNBC - Rewriting History: "With virtually all of the administration’s original case for war in Iraq in tatters, Vice President Dick Cheney provided shifting and sometimes misleading arguments in last night’s debate with John Edwards about Saddam Hussein’s ties to terrorists and his access to weapons of mass destruction."

*FOAL: Father of a Lesbian

Dionne's On Fire

Switching Stories (washingtonpost.com): "If the Cheney-Edwards debate made nothing else clear, it is that the central issue in this presidential election is becoming the administration's lack of credibility and its tendency to say whatever is convenient to make whatever case it is trying to make.

Day by day, we learn more and more about how the administration led the nation into war by distorting intelligence and twisting facts. A president who once condemned a mentality that declared 'if it feels good, do it' has now embraced a related principle: 'If it sounds good, say it.'"

Bush (DODO*) Compromises US Defense Against Terrorism - Corporate Donors Wrath Appeased


A Terror Attack, Coming Soon to a Plant Near You: "George W. Bush likes to boast of his record on homeland security, but the truth is that corporate and political favoritism by the White House has badly compromised our capacity to defend ourselves against a terrorist attack."

*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders

House Ethics Committee: DeLay Unethical - Again and Again and Again

DeLay Is Again Rebuked on Ethics: "House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was unanimously rebuked by the ethics committee Wednesday for involving a federal agency in a Texas partisan matter and staging a fundraiser in a way that appeared to link access to the congressman with political donations."

Oliphant: Cheney is a Mendacious Bag of Excrement
Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Opinion / Op-ed / Cheney's fading credibility: "I am always diligent about disclosing the fact that my daughter works for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, but for five years before she made that career move I had noticed something about John Edwards that is much more relevant to Tuesday evening's debate. In all my dealings with him since he ran for the Senate in 1998, I have never once had to begin a paragraph with those damning words: Edwards later explained.

As he was famously while a lawyer, he is fanatically meticulous in his preparation and research into issues. That, much more than his sunny disposition, is why he so clearly belonged on that stage here."

Republicans Divided On Assessment of Kerry

Boston.com / News / Politics / Presidential candidates / In sharply worded speech, Bush paints Kerry as weak: "'Senator Kerry is proposing policies and doctrines that would weaken America and make the world more dangerous. Senator Kerry approaches the world with a September the 10th mind-set.'

SF Examiner (3/19/04) WASHINGTON -- Arizona Sen. John McCain, arguably the Democrats' favorite Republican, managed to step all over the GOP's carefully honed message of the week Thursday by rejecting the notion that John Kerry is weak on defense.

Says It All

Boston.com / News / World / Probe finds no illicit Iraq arms: "Iraq did not maintain an active program to develop weapons of mass destruction after the 1991 Persian Gulf War and had no chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons when the United States invaded last year, the chief US weapons inspector in Iraq concluded yesterday."

What Cheney's "Attendance Record" Lie Tells Us and Why It is Important

In last night's debate the Vice President attacked Mr. Edward's for Mr. Edward's poor attendance record in the Senate. Mr. Cheney claimed to have personal knowledge of Mr. Edward's attendance record by virtue of his constitutional role as President of the Senate. Indeed, the Vice President asserted,

The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight. (WaPo transcript)

Now as readers of today's DailyKos (which provides pictures and videos of meetings between Messrs. Cheney and Edwards know, the Vice President's assertion was a lie. Indeed, Mark Kleiman characterizes Mr. Cheney's assertion as "a lie so pointless and so shameless as to defy belief."

A note on terminology: Pudentilla is using the word "lie" here to mean a deliberate assertion which the teller knows to be false. She is sure that Republicans today will claim Mr. Cheney's lie was not a lie, just a blunder, a misstatement (Republican for lie), a gaffe. But the evidence suggests that Mr. Cheney deliberately, if stupidly, lied. His assertion was made as part of an attack on Mr. Edward's character and record. Indeed, Mr. Cheney did not answer the question on Israel Ms. Ifill put to him when he offered this attack.

CHENEY: Gwen, I want to go back to the last comment, and then I'll come back to Israel-Palestine.

The reason they keep trying to attack Halliburton is because they want to obscure their own record.

And Senator, frankly, you have a record in the Senate that's not very distinguished. You've missed 33 out of 36 meetings in the Judiciary Committee, almost 70 percent of the meetings of the Intelligence Committee.

You've missed a lot of key votes: on tax policy, on energy, on Medicare reform.

Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you "Senator Gone." You've got one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate.

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.

Clearly the Vice President had prepared a canned answer about Mr. Edward's Senate record and chose to use it in the debate in response to a Halliburton charge Mr. Edwards had raised in the previous round of questioning. Edwards got the last word in on that question. Ifill signaled that she was asking her last foreign policy question and put a question about Israel to Edwards. Edwards answered and in his response to Edward's Israel answer, the Vice President backed up to the previous question to make his attendance record charge. It was a deliberate move and it was obviously prepared in advance (not that there's anything wrong with that).

The Vice President's attack on Mr. Edwards' record rested, in rhetorical terms on an "appeal to authority" and an "ethical argument." He was, in short, offering his own experience as evidence for his argument that Mr. Edwards was a bad Senator. And he lied about it.

Now his aides will surely argue that he just forgot having met Sen. Edwards, which is surely true. The Vice President's forgetting, however, took place in the middle of a prepared argument. His staff had time to check. He had time to think. Someone could have googled. But no one, the Vice President included, took any of these steps.

We are entitled to and in fact we should conclude, accordingly, that Mr. Cheney will happily lie to further an attack on his opponent. Since much of Mr. Cheney's appeal lies in the "experience" he is purported to represent, this should disturb supporters of the Republican ticket. You want to vote for him because he has the experience, but he's quite happy to lie about that experience. Do you you know what you're voting for?

We also should conclude that Mr. Cheney has nothing but contempt for the electorate that he is trying to persuade and the press that is covering the event. He believes either that folks already know he is a liar and have, in a market sense, discounted his mendacity. Or, he believes that the press will, exhausted from shedding gallons on the flip-flopping meme, fail to infer anything about Mr. Cheney's moral character from this particular instance of mendacity. Neither conclusion should hearten those who have a preference for democratic (small "d" deliberate) politics in this country.

Survey Says: EDWARDS!

Boston Globe: Oliphant:

THE COUNTRY doesn't need Dick Cheney any more. After his 90 minutes on the stage last night, it is clear he is no longer an essential person in politics and government. What he brings to the table are liabilities.

In debate against an opponent with the dangerously attractive attribute of freshness, Cheney paled -- literally. He's not special, it turns out. He doesn't know anything special, he hasn't done anything special, and for the future he doesn't offer anything special.

Chicago Tribune: Madigan

The decision is in. Another debate victory for the Democrats.

North Carolina Sen. John Edward's courtroom skills, honed as a successful trial attorney, gave him a victory over Vice President Dick Cheney in Cleveland Tuesday night.

LA Times Editorial

The Edwards victory was more lopsided when the debate turned to domestic policy. The Bush administration, Edwards noted, is the first since Herbert Hoover's to preside over a net loss of jobs. Beyond an irrelevant paean to education, the vice president had no response. He seemed similarly at a loss when Edwards proceeded, with Clintonian specificity, to eviscerate President Bush's record on other domestic fronts.

Pudentilla notes that the L.A. Times begins with the very odd assertion that Mr. Edwards's rhetorical skills will not be necessary in the governance of the country. It is our understanding that the ability of politicians to persuade citizens to support their policies is a fundamental requirement of an effective democracy. That has been the case since Demosthenes' day, at the very least. Still, it has been some years since the LA Times Editorial writers have had the opportunity to watch politicians govern in a democratic manner, so perhaps they have simply forgotten.

NY Times: Nagourney

But on Tuesday evening, Mr. Kerry clearly had the advocate he was looking for when he chose this young-looking and relatively inexperienced lawyer from North Carolina to join his ticket; and that is something that Democrats are apt to remember for a long time.

CSM: Marlantes

Cheney was 'serious, sober, even-keeled' but Edwards more than held his own and scored some points as well.

Jabba Lives!


In light of this evening's debated, Pudentilla considers a question that has been troubling her for several years now. Almost four years.

Is Dick Cheney (FOAL*) (pix) Jabba the Hut (pix)? Their physical resemblence, while not dispositive, is unnerving. Each has been endowed by his creator with a jubilence of jowls. Each bears a schnoz of Roman proportion. Both men prefer to sit, rather than stand, perhaps because of shared waistline issues.

Cheney (FOAL*) and Jabba share similar approaches to governance. As the Washington Post headline suggests, Cheney (FOAL*) likes to make an "Impact from the Shadows." Just as Jabba sent his minions out to deal with Han Solo, Cheney (FOAL*)'s preferred mode is to deal through staff or behind closed doors. However, just as Jabba exercised his influence directly, so to Cheney (FOAL*) will go down to Capitol Hill and knocked some sense in recalcitrant members of his caucus, when the situation demands such extreme measures.

Cheney (FOAL*), just like Jabba, is a "master of the politics of fear," according to today's Chicago Tribune. Moreover, just as Jabba offered appeared coated in a slime to which all dirt stuck, so too, according to the Trib, Cheney (FOAL*) has a "Velcro" quality. "He's been hurt over the last four years," said Light. "Practically every negative issue out there has stuck to him." According to Newsday, moreover, like Jabba, Cheney (FOAL*) reacts negatively he feels his integrity is challenged.

One important difference between Cheney (FOAL*) and Jabba the Hut, however, is that Jabba is a fictional character and Cheney (FOAL*) is a real person, who creates fiction for political consumption. For example, Cheney (FOAL*), as Dick Poleman of Knight Ridder today notes, has "repeatedly claimed that there was "overwhelming evidence" of an important link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, when, in reality, there was no demonstrable evidence." Similarly, Cheney (FOAL*) opined that US forces would be greeted as liberators in Iraq. And he said that Saddam had WMD.

Some people might call "creating fictions for political consumption" lying. A lot of Iraqis and Americans and coalition forces have died proving that Mr. Cheney is a liar. Pudentilla notes that Jabba, as offensive as he was, doesn't appear to have been a liar.


Pudentilla is grateful to Froomkin's column today which led her to all these wonderful links.

*FOAL: Father of a Lesbian

A New Generation Of Leaders Replenishes Ranks of Al-Quaeda - Numbers Swell After US Invasion of Iraq

Next wave of Al Qaeda leadership | csmonitor.com: "'It is a new generation of Al Qaeda,' says Riffat Hussain, a leading defense and security analyst based in Islamabad, Pakistan. 'These are new converts to Al Qaeda. They may have no links with Al Qaeda in the past, but now they are willing to sacrifice their lives for the cause as they feel Al Qaeda is the name of defiance to the West. They are young and angry, and their number has swelled in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq.'"

Once again the facts offer the Ministry of Excuses* an interesting choice - whether to lie or deny.

*Ministry of Excuses: What Republicans have made of the White House.

Gitmo Detainees Provide No Good Intel - Bush (DODO*) Shredded Constitution For Bupkis

Terrorism & Security | csmonitor.com: "The Guardian reported Sunday that Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Christino, 'a senior Pentagon intelligence officer who worked at the heart of the US war on terror,' said that prisoner interrogations at Guant�namo Bay - the US military facility in Cuba which currently houses Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees - has not produced any intelligence that resulted in preventing 'a single terrorist attack.' Lt. Col. Christino also said that the reports of the value of these interrogations had been 'wildly exaggerated' by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. [--snip--]

Rose also alleges that Mjr. Gen. Miller, who is now in charge of the Abu Gharaib prison outside Baghdad, Iraq, "deliberately misled" the Red Cross about conditions and interrogation methods at the camp."

What profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? The whole world. But for Gitmo?


UPDATE:

Financial Times via TalkLeft: The reason the US can't get decent intel from the Gitmo detainess is because the detainees didn't have any intel to give.

"Of the 550 that we have, I would say most of them, the majority of them, will either be released or transferred to their own countries," he told the FT.

"Most of these guys weren't fighting. They were running. Even if somebody has been found to be an enemy combatant, many of them will be released because they will be of low intelligence value and low threat status.

So most of the 550 were deprived of due process for serveral years for no good reason.

Feeling safer?

*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders

House Republicans Battle To Save Corporate Tax Shelters

The New York Times > Business > Republicans Try to Dilute Provisions in Tax Bill: "WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 - Despite widespread agreement that abusive tax shelters are costing the federal government billions of dollars a year, House Republicans are working to eliminate or dilute provisions in a new corporate tax bill aimed at cracking down on illegal shelters." [--snip--]

A study prepared last year for the Internal Revenue Service estimated that abuse of tax shelters cost the federal government $12 billion to $18 billion a year.

A study last week by Citizens for Tax Justice, a liberal research organization, reported that 82 of the nation's most profitable companies paid no corporate taxes in at least one of the last three years

It's nice to know they have their priorities straight.

Bremer Blames Bush (DODO*) For Iraq Mess

Bremer: U.S. Paid Price for Lack of Troops: "The United States did not have enough troops in Iraq after ousting Saddam Hussein and 'paid a big price' for it, says the former head of the U.S. occupation there."

But why, and why now? Options:

Sincere self-reflective criticism? don't hold your breath. Closing quote in the article: "Could it have been done better? Frankly, I didn't spend a lot of time looking back."

Jockying to replace Colin Powell at State? Is the quondam pro-consul offering himself as the non-neocon candidate? But what if Bush (DODO*), famously thin-skinned, takes this as a sign of disloyalty?

Distancing himself from Bush (DODO*) as his aWol-ness's re-election efforts seem to stumble? If/when Kerry is elected, he'll still need people who know something about what's going on in Iraq. Could Bremer be selling himself to Kerry et al. as someone with practical Iraq experience who hasn't drunk the Rovian koolaid? Hard to believe it's goining to work.

*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders

The Neighborhood Test

Almost four years ago, a fellow bought a house around the corner from us, in the small town in Central Maine where Pudentilla is fortunate enough to live. We’ll call him Mr. Dodo. Like most places in New England, this is a friendly, but reserved town. In a jam, anyone will help you, but day-to-day it’s a smile and a wave. You get to know folks at town meetings, church and the hardware store, when parents bring the kids on bottle drive, cookie sales and Halloween.

We hoped to get to know Mr. Dodo at church, but it turns out, he doesn’t go to any of the churches in town. We have churches for conservative Baptists and New England Unitarians. The Catholics, it’s true, have to go to a parish just over the town line, but it’s a small town. There are a lot of folks in town who choose not to go to any church at all, and we don’t recall anyone ever even commenting on the fact until Mr. Dodo moved into the neighborhood. Folks found it odd that he talked so much about God whenever they chatted with him, but they never saw him in a pew. They found it really odd they way he blasted politicians as godless, when he couldn’t get his own knees to a kneeler a few weekends a month. Now when Mr. Dodo goes godly on us, if we happen to find ourselves in conversation with him in a line at the grocery store, we just smile politely and nod. (story)

We hoped to get to know Mr. Dodo at the bottle drive and fund raisers for our volunteer fire department. But he never showed up. Folks thought that this was odd, because, when the shed on his property caught fire when he was burning leaves one autumn, the fire department showed up and put the fire out. Saved his barn and house, too. But, Mr. Dodo doesn’t think he needs to support the first responders in our little town. (story).

What has everyone alarmed, however, was the way Mr. Dodo has responded to a problem our town has been confronting. Some of the local kids, for reasons that make sense only to post-pubescent males, took to riding their all terrain vehicles pretty recklessly on the roads in town and across meadows and lawns that belong to people other than themselves. We have a pretty tight ordinance regulating where you can drive these things, and these kids were obviously violating it. At a town meeting, Mr. Dodo complained loudly, and we all agreed to ask the local sheriff to talk to the kids and straighten them out. Well before the town manager could even call the sheriff, Mr. Dodo decided he had enough. “I hear they’re a drug gang,” he told everyone he saw. Then he went on to the property of every body in town who owned an ATV and slashed the tires of the potentially offending vehicles. You can’t imagine the uproar, especially when it turned out that none of the kids in question had anything to do with drugs. (story).


Last week, things got really bad. The local kids were furious about their ATVs. Mr. Dodo had forgotten that kids who own ATVs also tend to own pickup trucks and motorcycles. The kids, in a fearsome mood, spent the week tearing down the roads in town, leaving a trail of rubber and smoke, and setting every dog in every house (including Pudentilla’s) barking like banshees when they passed. Folks were angry and furious and the town manager called an emergency town meeting for Tuesday evening. On Monday, matters only escalated. Mr. Dodo declared that he knew who the ringleader of rubber trail brigade was, and that he couldn’t afford to wait for any sheriff or town manager to protect him. He made a molotov cocktail and threw it into the house of the fellow he claimed was causing all the trouble. Fortunately, a neighbor saw the flames and called the volunteer fire brigade, who managed to put the fire out before it could take down the house or let it spread to any neighbor’s property. It turned out that the fellow who Mr. Dodo thought was causing all the trouble wasn’t even home. He’s in the Guard in Iraq and his tour’s been extended again.

Well, we had the town meeting on Tuesday, and as you might imagine, everyone’s anger had shifted to Mr. Dodo. The oddest thing was how furious Mr. Dodo was with the rest of us. “I did what I thought was best!” he shouted. “Was I supposed to wait until I had your approval to go on to that miscreant’s property? Do I have to pass some “neighborhood test” before I can protect myself?” Well the town manager tried to explain that the “neighborhood test” came after the fact. The question was, could Mr. Dodo explain now why he had broken the law and put people’s lives in danger. The town rather felt that if Mr. Dodo’s information turned out to be as bad as rotting pumpkins, then he flunked the “neighborhood test.”

Mr. Dodo appears to think that he should have passed the “neighborhood test” because he was so sure he was right before he took action. Indeed, he appears to think that because his certainty was so strong, he should have to face no “neighborhood test” at all. Indeed, he appears to think that the strength of his certainty before the fact should absolve him from any responsibility for the fact that he was completely wrong. The only good news in all of this mess is the rumor that Mr. Dodo may be losing his job this fall. Something about outsourcing. Folks are trying to be Christian about it, but secretly we're all hoping it's true, because from the point of view of folks in town, Mr. Dodo, has flunked the neighborhood test.

More Bombs in Heart of Bush (DODO)'s Baghdad

Two Blasts Rip Through Baghdad, Killing 21: "Two car bombs ripped through crowded Baghdad streets on Monday, killing at least 21 people and wounding 96, as insurgents step up their campaign to undermine the country's U.S.-backed interim government and drive the United States and its allies out of Iraq."

Congressional Republicans Destroying Legislative Process - Parallels to Flavian Principate Striking

Boston.com / News / Nation / Back-room dealing a Capitol trend: "With one party controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, and having little fear of retaliation by the opposing party, the House leadership is changing the way laws are made in America, favoring secrecy and speed over open debate and negotiation. Longstanding rules and practices are ignored. Committees more often meet in secret. Members are less able to make changes to legislation on the House floor. Bills come up for votes so quickly that elected officials frequently don't know what's in them. And there is less time to discuss proposed laws before they come up for a vote."<.blockquote>

Miriam Griffin, "The Flavians," Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge, 2000), p. 1-2

Again, Vespasian might appear more fortunate than Augustus in that he did not have to devise a new political system. But the old one had exhibited tensions that had contributed to Nero's fall, and his short=lived successors had not resolved them or found new ways of maintaining equilibirum. What was the corrrect image for the princeps who was in fact, but not in theory, a monarchy?...How was the Senate to be given importance without power?....

Why is John Kerry Smiling?

"Will you walk into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly;
"'Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you may spy.

People forget that Kerry was an assistant D.A. for seven years. That's a lot of cases, a lot of trials, a lot of witnesses. Most criminal cases settle, it is true, but most ADA's try a heck of a lot more cases than civil litigator - unless you're talking about plaintiffs' tort lawyers, like John Edwards.

Good trial lawyers - and the evidence suggests that both Kerry and Edwards were very good - know the record cold. They know everything every witness has said. They know their witness so well that they know whether or not the witness will lie in response to a question, even before the witness does, and they know the lie the witness will tell. As importantly, good trial lawyers know exactly how they will respond to any answer the witness gives long before they walk into court. They play the chess game six or seven moves deep.

CEO's, in contrast, - the good ones, and there is no evidence to suggest that Mr. Bush (DODO*) and Mr. Cheney (FOAL**) were particularly good CEOs - ask very good questions. They know they don't know the answers. They hire people to find out the answers. Then they ask those people smart questions to make sure the experts haven't made false assumptions in their analysis. Then they go with the experts' advice. CEOs don't answer questions. (This indeed, is how Karen Hughes portrays Mr. Bush (DODO*) in her book). Good CEOs, however, don't defend their record. And they don't often make good witnesses. They tend to take depositions as gun-fights at the OK corral. They turn them into pissing matches: the ego of the executive vs. the ego of the lawyer. And they usually lose (which is why corporations invented D&O insurance, but that's another story).

This is why Kerry was smiling on Thursday night and why that smile is giving Rove nightmares. They can prepare Messrs. Bush (DODO*) and Cheney (FOAL**) all they want. They can refine and adjust their performances to hell freezes over. It doesn't matter. Kerry and Edwards have already thought of every thing each of them can do, and they have their responses planned and ready to execute. So when Kerry (or Edwards smile) it is the smile of the master. "Ah, I see he's trying that gambit. Foolish man." Perhaps the very great wouldn't smile. But that smile is a human foible.

Some worry that Cheney (FOAL**) will present more of a challenge to Mr. Edwards than (DODO*) but not to a degree that is measurable. Mr. Edwards has made millions by eating CEO's far more successful than the likes of Dick Cheney (FOAL**) for lunch. Moreover, he is famous for taking his witnesses apart in a non-confrontational way that doesn't alienate the jury.

Never has the institution of presidential debates so inherently favored one party over another. Kerry's insistence on three debates was a stroke of genius. Whatever happens in the town hall (the debate format Bush was weakest in 2000), people will tune in to see the last debate, regardless of party affiliation, just the way no one can help from watching a train wreck. And then no matter what the media mavens and the GOP spin-meisters say, everyone will understand why Kerry smiles.

(updated with style edits)



*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders
**FOAL: Father of a Lesbian

What We Would Like To Hear The Democrats Say On the Sunday Talk Shows Tomorrow

Bush clearly lost. Polls, media types uniformly agree. Both on style - the twitching, slouching and faces, and on substance - all he could do was repeat bullet points, sometimes in not obvious response to the challenges Kerry made to his record. An interesting question is why he was so unprepared. Didn't he take the debate seriously? If not why not?

Bush campaign tactics since Thursday reflect how serious this loss was. They have had to go back to securing their base (hence the red meat, but obviously false charges about Kerry's French veto). They wouldn't be doing stuff like this if the didn't think their base was dispirited and disheartened. They're obviously doing repair work rather than reaching out to independents and swing voters who would be turned off by the stump speech nonsense they're resorting to.

It will be interesting to see how Bush adjusts his performance. Can he get control of his physical presentation? Can he prepare enough so that he actually can fill the 90 and 120 second slots allotted to him. Can he concentrate enough so that his talking points are actually related to the questions posed? Of course, the risk is that he over compensates and seems to stiff and uptight. But voters obviously didn't like his slouching Texan approach on Thursday.

It's unnerving to see how out of touch Bush is on Iraq. People see the war on TV every night. They know if the military is launching an offensive to retake Samara 16 months after Mr. Bush declared the "end of major combat operations" while standing beneath a "Mission Accomplished" sign, that things have gone seriously wrong in Iraq. When he claims that any statement by Mr. Kerry to this effect undermines the morale of troops, our allies or Iraqi citizens, then the troops, our allies, Iraqi citizens, and any US parent with children of military age must wonder what happens at Mr. Bush's military briefings. When he claims that Mr. Kerry's criticism that Iraq is the wrong war at the wrong time in the wrong place - an assertion which most Americans believe is true - undermines morale, parents with children of military age must shudder.

But perhaps the most disturbing statement Mr. Bush made during the debate was his claim that he couldn't provide for Homeland Security programs to secure chemical plants and inspect containers shipped through US ports because it would create a tax gap. A tax gap? A man who has given $78K in tax cuts to citizens making over $200K a year, is telling us that our safety will cost too much? Is he for real?

And indeed, Pudentilla believes this should be the commercial coming out of the Thursday debate. We know they can't use footage from the debate. May we suggest the following?:

George Bush inherited the largest budget surplus in American history. He turned it into the largest deficit.

George Bush, even as he took America to war in Iraq, gave the wealthiest citizens in the US the largest tax cut in history. Citizens who made more than $200,000, got almost $80K in tax cuts.

pictures of chemical plants and ports

John Kerry wants to make America safe from terrorist threats. Since 9/11, the President has done little or nothing to secure America's vulnerable system of shipping through US ports, or its chemical plants.

George Bush says he can't keep American chemical plants and ports secure, because it would increase the deficit. For George Bush, your safety is just too expensive.

scene from F9/11 where Bush in white tie is talking to his base: the haves and the have mores

America deserves better. America deserves a president who will value the nation's safety more than he values his friends' tax cuts.

Support the Troops? - Bush (DODO*) Pentagon Spikes JAG Investigation of Insurance Rip-Off of Enlisted Air Force Personnel

The New York Times > Business > Inquiry Stymied on Company With Air Force Ties: "The New York Times has found that within three weeks of the legal office's posting, the Air Force issued a retraction, which it had allowed the company to edit. It gave the company a letter of exoneration, signed by the Air Force's top legal officer, after letting the company edit that, too. The Air Force legal staff stopped cooperating with a securities industry investigation into the company's practices and products. And the Air Force effectively abandoned a broad inquiry of its own, letting local base authorities handle complaints." [--snip--]

NASD has nevertheless pursued its inquiry, which has been joined by the Securities and Exchange Commission and should be concluded soon, Congressional aides say.

Since The Times first examined First Command's practices in a two-part series in July, the company has come under scrutiny in Congress. Lawmakers are considering legislation to abolish the type of mutual funds the company sells and require the military to coordinate more closely with civilian regulators.

There was one small coda. In January, First Command notified the Air Force that it would no longer provide $150,000 a year to sponsor Tops in Blue. The company said the decision was based on "marketing considerations." But one Air Force executive attributed the loss directly to the JAG office's initial newsletter query about First Command. In an e-mail message to General Fiscus last Jan. 30, the executive wrote: "This is 'water under the bridge' but wanted you to know the consequences of the article."

Report: Ridge Leadership of Homeland Security Department a Disaster - Offers of Resignation Not Expected

Boston.com / News / Nation / Washington / Report faults Homeland Security: "The government's effort to consolidate federal agencies' 12 terrorist watch-lists into one has all but failed, partly because the Department of Homeland Security has abandoned its responsibility to take the lead on the project, according to a report released yesterday by the department's internal watchdog." [--snip--]

Yesterday's report by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin, said the government's botching of the watch-list assignment follows a disturbing pattern in the war on terrorism.

"In the years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, just as in the past, the government has continued to implement solutions in an uncoordinated manner," the report said. "The manner through which the watch-list consolidation has unfolded has not helped the nation break from its pattern."

Wrong choices, wrong policies, disastrous consequences.

Feeling safer?

George W. Bush (DODO*): The Worst Father in America?


Actually, Pudentilla is quite fortunate in that she knows nothing of the Bush family's domestic life. She believes, however, that Mr. Bush (DODO*)'s throw away joke line that he would like to put a leash on his daughters was one of the most disturbing moments of the debate.

No father in his right mind would say such a thing to his daughter in private, even in jest.

No father in his right mind would say such a thing about his daughter at the family dinner table, even in jest.

No father in his right mind would say such a thing about his daughter at a large family reunion, even in jest.

No father in his right mind would say such a thing about his daughter in a public venue (while she was watching), even in jest.

No father in his right mind would say such a thing about his daughter on national television with 60 million people watching.

God, how self-involved and screwed up do you have to be to forget not to humilate your own child while the whole world is watching.


It was a sick, sick thing to say (even in jest), and reveals a cruel and selfish aspect of Mr. Bush (DODO*)'s character that is appalling. We will not even begin to consider the Abu Gharib implications of the remark. We are content to say that any man who would say such a thing about his own children, even in jest, cannot possibly give a rat's ass about ordinary citizens, whom he has never met. Henceforth, we declare the twins sacrosanct. We apologize for calling them chicklets**. They can smoke and drink and party as much as they want to. They have already paid dues we can't even begin to imagine.

We suspect that the media will not touch this with a ten foot pole. Perhaps out of sympathy for the twins. Perhaps because if they suggested that Mr. Bush (DODO*)'s remark revealed something unpleasant about his character, the Rove machine would scream that the family was off limits and that it was a joke and that we need to focus on substance. The backlash would unmoor the pundits. But if Gore exaggerated, and Kerry flip-flops, surely it is fair to notice that Bush enjoys sadistic humor at the expense of his loved ones. They won't say it, however, and at least the twins will be spared.

*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders
**Chicklet: Children of Chickenhawks

World Wide Concensus (or at least US & Europe): Kerry Wins Debate

Globe calls Kerry Debate Winner

Boston.com / News / Politics / debates / Senator scores with confidence: "But for most of the first hour, during which Iraq was the prime focus, Bush's repetition seemed insistent rather than firm, and his body language -- sighing, clenching his teeth, rolling his eyes -- suggested a man on the defensive."

Kerry, as had been expected, was more fluid and facile in scoring conventional debating points -- answering Bush's arguments with fresh rebuttals. But his easy manner projected an unexpected confidence that has been missing for most of the general-election campaign, and he leavened his senatorial manner with more-direct answers.

Herald Analysts Picks Kerry:

``Bush's folksy platitudes fell flat,'' said Tobe Berkovitz, associate dean at Boston University's College of Communications. ``His pleading tone lacked power, and staying on message only works if the message works.'' [--snip--]

``George Bush sounds like someone you want to talk to,'' he said. ``I read somewhere people choose a president they'd like to have a beer with. Me, I'd rather choose a president and go out with people I like. I feel bad. He reminds me of Fredo in `The Godfather.' I can hear him saying: `I'm smart. I know things. I'm not stupid.' ''

L.A. Times Says Kerry Does Better Job

The debate came with Bush holding a lead in recent national surveys, but also facing resurfacing doubts about the war amid rising violence in Iraq. Several initial surveys Thursday found that most voters thought Kerry won the encounter.

Those initial reactions suggest the debate may help Kerry regain some of the ground as a potential commander in chief and strong leader that he has lost since his party's convention in July amid withering Republican attack. But the full political effect probably won't be apparent for several days as the arguments between the contenders reverberate through their campaign appearances. [--snip--]

"I think Kerry got in the game," said Norman Ornstein, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. "You could imagine him as president … if you decide that the other guy doesn't deserve four more years."

L.A. Times Critic: Bush Lousy as National "Daddy"

Bush came across as suddenly less qualified to be Daddy than he has been.

Bush did look into the camera as much as he did at moderator Jim Lehrer, which reinforced his personableness in contrast to Kerry's more studied manner.

But words continually fail Bush. Mostly because he doesn't try very many. With the TV cameras trained on the stripped-down debate stage, his bare-bones communication style sometimes played as monotonous rather than resolute. He repeatedly said the situation in Iraq was "hard work." He said it 10 times, until it no longer seemed like anything so much as a network time-killer. He said this: "I wake up every day thinking about how best to protect us. There's a lot of people working hard." [--snip--]

But the networks immediately violated this, posing the two in split screen. When Kerry spoke, Bush appeared tight-mouthed and frustrated that he was being contradicted. Kerry looked in control, taking notes, nodding and listening.

The two campaigns have crystallized their rhetoric about character: Inconsistency versus rigidity.

But on TV, rigidity made for a more revealing visual.

NYT: Kerry Accomplishes His Goals

By the time the debate ended, Mr. Kerry appeared to have accomplished his primary goal for the evening: establishing himself as a plausible commander in chief.

WaPo: Tom Shales: Bush Loses Big Time

John Kerry came off as more presidential than the president last night as the two candidates met for their first face-to-face debate, televised live on all the networks from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. President Bush did not appear to have a firm grasp on the major issues being discussed, opting instead for the repetition of sloganlike remarks and repeated attacks on his Democratic challenger. [--snip--]

But he [Kerry] gave one of his best public performances ever last night, just lively enough, just respectful enough to the president and yet aggressive enough to, at times, make Bush appear confused by his own answers. Bush did more stammering and pausing than Kerry. [--snip--]

But he gave one of his best public performances ever last night, just lively enough, just respectful enough to the president and yet aggressive enough to, at times, make Bush appear confused by his own answers. Bush did more stammering and pausing than Kerry. [--snip--]

One longtime political observer -- among the friends canvassed by this critic -- was more irreverent about the debate and how the two debaters came off: "It was Andy Griffith meets Barney Fife," he said, with Kerry in the Griffith role -- solid, sanguine, sensible -- and Bush as the nervous Fife.

WaPo: Kurz: Media says Kerry Wins

The buzz in the pressroom was that Kerry turned in the stronger performance and may have revived his campaign, but reporters were surprised by the 10- and 15-point margins by which the networks' insta-polls gave the contest to Kerry. Keep in mind, though, that these early snapshots may not mean much, as Gore found out four years ago.

I've scoured the Major Media coverage and haven't found anyone who says Bush won last night. Tim Russert's take on "Today" is typical: "The president was more tentative and more on the defensive than we've seen him in previous debates. John Kerry was the John Kerry that Democrats hoped they were nominating back in Iowa, someone who could give a forceful presentation."

Pudentilla hopes the media will be content to report the news that the public preferred Mr. Kerry's performance by 10-15 points, rather than change it.

Guardian Goes Gaga For Kerry

John Kerry regained the initiative in the US presidential race last night with a forceful performance in his first debate with George Bush, occasionally leaving the president scowling and at a loss for words.

Instant-response polls by three major television networks all showed that a large majority of their viewers thought the challenger had won the 90-minute verbal contest at the University of Miami - the first of three debates in the last month of the campaign.

Le Figaro aime Kerry beaucoup

Il a réussi à faire passer son message, selon des sondages réalisés juste après le débat, qui l'ont désigné comme le vainqueur de la soirée. La presse était du même avis, soulignant, à l'instar de USA Today, que le président avait été mis «sur la défensive» face à un Kerry pugnace.

He succeeded in communicating his message according to polls taken just after the debate, which declared him the victor of the evening. The media agreed, underlining, like USA Today, that the President had been put "on the defensive" in comparison to the pugnacious Kerry.

La Repubblica: Ecco Kerry

John Kerry all'attacco: nel primo dibattito presidenziale della campagna 2004, il dibattito più importante della sua vita, il candidato democratico alla Casa Bianca ha accusato George W. Bush di aver fatto "un errore colossale di giudizio". "L'Iraq non era affatto vicino al centro della guerra al terrorismo prima che il presidente lo invadesse. Invadere l'Iraq è stato come invadere il Messico dopo Pearl Harbour", ha detto Kerry. "Il mondo sta meglio senza Saddam Hussein", ha replicato Bush che però, nei 90 minuti del dibattito, è apparso più volte alle corde, il pugile che incassa e che non riesce a colpire l'avversario alla mascella.

John Kerry on the attack: in the first presidential debate of campaign 2004, the most important debate of its life, the Democratic candidate to the House White has accused George W. Bush of having made "a colossal error of judgment". " Iraq was not at all close to the center of the war to the terrorism before that the president invaded it. To invade the Iraq has been like invading Mexico after Pearl Harbour ", Kerry said . "The world is better without Saddam Hussein", Bush. He appeared many times, however, in the 90 minutes of the debate, to be on the ropes, like the boxer that takes hits but is not able to hit his opponent on the jaw.

[Pudentilla's note: the boxing analogy is highly idiomatic and we will gladly accept corrections and update as we get them]

Sueddeutsche Zeitung Cautiously Optimistic About Kerry

Kerry könnte sein Auftritt dennoch zurück in die Erfolgsspur verholfen haben: Erstmals wurde einem Publikum von 50 Millionen Amerikaner wirklich klar, worin sich seine Politik von der des Präsidenten unterscheidet: Zusammenarbeit mit – europäischen – Verbündeten, ein anderes Konzept für den Irak und die Bereitschaft, aus Fehlern zu lernen. Für einen Kandidaten, der vor allem daran leidet, dass ihn keiner kennt, ist das schon viel.

In dem Rennen, in dem ja noch zwei Rededuelle anstehen, ist seit heute Nacht zumindest die Aufholjagd eröffnet.

His appearance, nevertheless, could have helped Kerry back onto the track to success: For the first time it became really clear to a public of 50 million American where his politics differ from that of the president: Co-operation with Eurpoean allies, another concept for the Iraq and the readiness to learn from errors. For a candidate, who suffers above all from the fact that no one knows him, this is indeed already alot.

In the campaign, in which two debates still reamain, tonight at least the race to catch up is an open field.

[Pudentilla notes that the racing analogy is highly idiomatic and will gladly accept corrections.]

Translations made with help from Systrans.