DEBATE NIGHT, 2004

MY short take on the debates, as i'm in too much trouble right now to type anymore!:

2 thumbs up!

bush looked like a kid struggling to explain himself after (clearly) gettting caught doing something wrong.

the split screen of him and kerry wasn't helping when kerry was talking.

best of all, bush tried to use the flip flop business and it went over weakly. bush would use it as a whole answer to a question. calling kerry a flip flopper, kerry aptly brushed it away and gave a real answer leaving you feeling like bush didn't have much to say on the topic other than the name calling.

all in all, a revealingly weak performance for bush. you know, surrounding yourself with people in "townhall meetings" that must take loyalty oaths to get in the door isn't the best way to get yourself sharp for a debate

here's a sketch from 4 years ago! hope you all watch the debates tonite... 

Deja Vu?

When the Iraqi Priminister Iyad Allawi gave his speech to Congress last week, it sounded remarkably upbeat for a nation that is killing 3 servicemen a day and will likely hold elections for a select few of its people in january. actually it sounded a lot like the rosey veiw the president has had amid all of the chaos on the ground over there.

know why?

The Bush Administration wrote his speech for him.

REPUBLiCANS HATE DEMOCRACY

You have to understand a few things about elections before you read on. the more people vote, the better Democrats do. Now this is not to say that the GOP won't register plenty of folks in their home base areas. but as a whole,when more of the populace votes more you bring in more people that don't tend to vote and they tend to be democrats. How big a deal is this? Just has to look at the list of supression tactics the GOP has used. they don't want you to get to the poll if you're not the right sort of american. take a look:

*In 2002 the Louisiana GOP admitted to paying black kids $75 to hold up signs to
discourage people in black neighborhoods from voting. They promoted the 'fact' that if bad weather came you could vote on another day and widely published incorrect absentee voter deadlines among the elderly and poor minority neighborhoods.

*In South Dakota the GOP widely publicized the wrong polling places in the native american community to insure voters were unable to get to the correct polling places.

*In Baltimore in 2002 (and Georgia in 2003) black voters were sent fliers saying anyone w/ outstanding parking tickets, rent, or utility bills would be arrested at polling stations.

*In Mississippi this has been done by phone in the form of 'public service' recorded
telephone messages.

Now the Ohio GOP has a new one. Ohio is a MUST win for the GOP. both parties have done an incredible amount of voter registration. the problem is that the Dems have outdone the GOP by leaps and bounds.

but don't worry my GOP pals, the Ohio Secretary of State (Republican) J. Keneth Blackwell is here to help! see he's a republican and he's got a special rule. he won't take any application to register that's not on a card printed on 0 pound stock paper. the local papers had been publishing forms in their papers to encourage registering. too bad. the paper's too thin to allow those people to vote! but to be fair the Sec. of State will mail you out a new 'correct' form to use...only their being sent too late to be used.

when you think about the parties. think about what i means to support a party that must do this to win. think about the fact that i didn't even mention Florida.

LESS JACkED

seems jack daniels is lowering its alcohol content from 86 to 80 proof! anyone remember new coke?

TIME.com: Inside The Debate Strategies

The debates are coming!

I am a bit nervous about these. nevermind that the 32page contract drawn up favors the things for which Bushco asked. Nevermind that the format is so watered down and sterile that it forbids interaction (ahem...if i were Kerry, i'd break one of those rules about not talking to the opponent just to throw him off and start up the GOP whine machine. that will be guaranteed to be talked about in the spin cycle after the debates. just do it well. bah...won't ever happen).

Everyone in the news is antsy about the debate, trying to get every possible take from everyone that ever had an experience or an idea about these two. I'm antsy too. I'm not that familiar with Kerry's debates in the past, but i do know this: the video about how he 'turned the tables' on a capital punishment attack doesn't do him any favors. it highlights him being (then at least) against capital punishment (not helping) and turning the issue into his time in Vietnam (the public is tired of that...well, not if done correctly).

Leading into this, bush has an edge. i'm not talking about polls. i'm not talking about concessions in the debate formats. i'm talking about the way bush answers questions. he has a short, feel good answer and no matter what you ask him, he's not going to get off of that. the press is notoriously bad at giving him a followup question when he gives vague platitudes. don't expect a moderator to do any different. moreover, Kerry is forbidden from asking direct questions to call him on it. that's not to say that he cannot do it. the problem is that kerry (rightfully) sees complex issues for what they are and he's not as good at distilling that down to a soundbite.

that certainly doesn't make bush a better leader, and we've seen MANY times where his one liners are invitations to disaster or at least show a profound lack of understanding when it comes to the issue at hand....and you know...this debate isn't being scored by a judge. its scored by the comfort of the people watching.

moreover, it will be scored by the people who DID NOT watch.

This is my biggest concern. the week AFTER the debates. the GOP are FAR better at having their surrogates out there to spin this thing into whatever direction they want. the only way to avoid this is for Kerry to go in for the kill. now he can do it with class, but he has to make the conservative media echo-chamber sound like their grasping at straws. he can do it, but i won't tell you he's my first pick to pull the job off.

Consider this: A study by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center found non-viewers' opinions of Gore eroding as the coverage of his manner grew more negative. this was a DIRECT result of the successful post debate spin, not the reality. the GOP didn't forget about this. all to often the Democrats do forget these things.

James Carville needs to draft the talking points for after the debate and deliver them w/ a threat to the surrogates. Neither Mr. Mooch or I are anxious about this as we feel this shapes up everything leading to the events of the last week before the election.

I can't Make this Up!

but I wish I could see this sort of GOP candidate elsewhere! Its Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and he’s running for Senate.

WORST of the year. He was in the lead by a mile but he keeps shooting himself in the foo...hell in the chest! First he decided to call the people of the state’s largest city a bunch of ‘crapheads’. Next he sent his love to the Cherokee Nation claiming most of them `aren't even Indians,' and called our treaties with them `primitive agreements' and `a joke.'

Well this PR whirlwind just does not stop! Now it seems that Mr. Coburn is a doctor and he...OOOPS...decided to do a little extra surgery on a 20 year old girl. For some reason he just decided that as a bonus he’d sterilize her with a tubal ligation. Turns out, to cap off that raging bit of malpractice, he falsely filed the claim with Medicaid to get the government to get a paycheck for his deed. The worst part is that the procedure wasn’t some sort of slip or accident. He deliberately sterilized this young girl against her will.

To think, this was the BEST the GOP could find in a state that’s pretty strong for Republicans. Sounds about right.

In a somewhat comical turn, he just fired his old campaign manager and hired the guy that was running Mr. Ryan’s campaign up in Illinois (as you may recall, Mr. Ryan dropped out after a sex scandal).

A Quick Note on the Coming Iraqi Elections

Donald Rumsfeld recently said Iraq’s January elections "May not be perfect".

The problem is, this isn’t imperfect as in a poll opens a little late because someone overslept. He’s talking about electing a representative body for Iraq but excluding those in the regions where there are hostilities.

Think about that. They want an American established government to exclude entire regions (that are hostile to the US) from the entire democratic process. If you want these people to see this government as legitimate, you can’t exclude them from the process.

I am left wondering if some of these regions actually just have people that we don’t like as the likely winners? What happens to the Bush Doctrine if, in January, they elect the terrorists?

SI.com - College Football Mississippi St. Bulldogs - Team Page

i hear MSU lost to LSU today. Tulane is currently down by 6 in the 1st quarter, but there's time against tough rival Univ. of Southern Miss. At least Ole Miss lost!

Google Trick.

OK. go to Google.com (you can click above) and type in "miserable failure."

Next click: I FEEL LUCKY--tah dah!

(Thanks to the Wand)

HONESTLY

tonite i realized i'm one of those guys. i don't look like i did when i was young. i'm the guy that you seen now and have to take a second to realize who the hell i am. though i certainly could stand some improvement...i'm not overly fat or skinny compared to the past. i just don't look the same. i wonder what people that knew me in HS think now.

Hell...i'm not a bad looking guy and i was not adonis before but i'm different. don't know what it is but i'm not the same guy. luckily its not been for the worse...tho not for the best either. just different.

not bad.

The Brothers Johnson

I found out that the Mississippi band Brothers Johnson wrote this song. what a soul classic:

"Ev'rybody take it to the top we're gonna Stomp...
all night...
in the neighbourhood...
Don't it feel all right...
gonna Stomp all night...
wanna party Till morning light"

A Tight Squeeze.

we decided to get a new refrigerator. little did i suspect that i'd be cutting away counter tops and baseboards just to fit it in. seems this thing is wider than the normal set up and i had no idea. after some effort we have it in. this may seem all so very silly to you all...but growing up the idea of a side by side fridge was beyond my scope. one w/ a water/ice maker was something rich folks had. i'd maybe seen this thing once.

now this. all of these things...PLUS in STAiNLESS STEEL?? jesus...that's something Richie Rich had on TV. NOBODY i knew ever even SAW one of these. well...i've gone through the looking glass. at a damn reasonable price we got a damn fine machine. this thing was almost big enough to put the entire contents of the old fridge in the door. crimeny. anyway...

well hit the link above to see our stainless steel wonder.

YEAH!!

Thank GOD kerry hired the pros. THiS is how you handle the press on a BS story. neutralized.

DNC News: McAuliffe: Will GOP Answer If They Know Whether Stone, Others Had Involvement With CBS Documents?

Seems that the GOP may have had a role in planting those 'forged documents' in CBS's hands. as you may recall the White House released the same documents around the same time without objection--then let surrogates bring it up. it this is true...it may be the gutsiest counter of a controversy i've ever heard of....

McAuliffe: Will GOP Answer If They Know Whether Stone, Others Had Involvement
With CBS Documents? Washington, D.C. - In response to false Republican accusations regarding the CBS documents, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe issued this statement:

“In today’s New York Post, Roger Stone, who became associated with political ‘dirty tricks’ while working for Nixon, refused to deny that he was the source the CBS documents.

"Will Ed Gillespie or the White House admit today what they know about Mr. Stone’s relationship with these forged documents? Will they unequivocally rule out Mr.
Stone’s involvement? Or for that matter, others with a known history of dirty
tricks, such as Karl Rove or Ralph Reed?”

DNC News: Bush Campaign Gets a Case of Camera Shyness

Washington, DC— Facing questions about President Bush’s Guard Service and its own possible involvement with the disputed National Guard documents, the Republican National Committee has postponed a call scheduled to discuss the
issue this afternoon.

And, in the last several hours, the Bush campaign has also cancelled scheduled appearances by Dan Bartlett on cable networks this evening. These cancellations came as the Bush operatives refused to appear live alongside Kerry campaign official Joe Lockhart.

“It’s clear that even the Bush campaign is having a problem defending the President’s National Guard service,” said Democratic National Committee Spokesman Howard Wolfson. “The Bush campaign has decided to once again duck the tough questions and avoid real debate. Given the President’s National Guard service, I don’t blame them for being camera shy.”

Glorious.

The weather here is ALMOST as nice as it was in August (a phrase never uttered in Mississippi). No need for the AC and lows in the 50s at nite! We always get a little cool weather for the State Fair, and that's about 2-3 weeks away! it was remarked last week that i don't seem as hyped up about the fair this year...don't be deceived. i am utterly giddy at the thought of fair rides, fair food, and the car show that will be forth-coming.

Yahoo! News - Doing hard time in monkey jail

Mr. Mooch reports on the Criminal Justice System in Punjab, India:

The thief threatened children with bricks and ripped the buttons off shirts. He
stole tomatoes from one home and snatched bread from another. Down the street,
he briefly fled with a differential equations book and beat a calculator with
his fist.

He was one bad monkey. And last week he was sentenced to life
in prison for his crimes, inmate No. 13 at the country's only known monkey jail,
where very bad monkeys are sent to live out their remaining years.

Notorious' inmates

The monkey jail in Patiala, about 125 miles north of New Delhi in Punjab state, is in a corner of the zoo called Deer Park of Motibagh forest. In this vast country, someone else might have opened a monkey jail, but if so, officials do not know about it.

The Patiala jail is more like a single cell, about 15 feet wide, 15 feet deep and 12 feet high, with bars, chain-link fencing and wire mesh. A sign in front says: "These monkeys have been caught from various cities of Punjab. They are notorious. Going near them is dangerous."

Indeed. Mr. Mooch says you cross a Spider Monkey at your own peril.

Time for Leadership

What is inexcusable is the administration's continuing failure to confront the grim reality and remold policies to make the best of this sow's ear. The delay in gearing up to get the trainers, uniforms, weapons and money that Iraqi security forces need has meant that not a single Iraqi police officer is fully trained and street-ready. The Iraqi army was disbanded with nary a thought to the security vacuum this would create. Our NATO "allies" still are haggling over a skeleton force of 300 military trainers that have yet to arrive in Iraq. Scores of willing police recruits continue to die unnecessarily because of the failure to build secure barriers around recruitment centers.

...Then Kerry Moves

Democratic challenger John F. Kerry plans an aggressive attack on President Bush
and his policies in Iraq, seeking to put the president on the defensive over an issue that has plagued Kerry's candidacy for months. Bush has tried to emphasize Iraq's progress toward democracy, but events there have undermined that message in a week that has included car bombs, kidnappings and more U.S. casualties. Kerry advisers said they have concluded that they must engage directly on the issue of Iraq, despite their hopes of shifting attention to the economy, health care and other domestic issues, and say that renewed concerns among the American public about the situation in Iraq provide a fresh opening to challenge Bush more directly.

There's an opening here for Kerry on iraq if he wants it. the press is somewhat bewildered by the near blindman view of the scene from our president.

He has his eyes firmly down the road where Iraq has its first free elections. the only problem is the he hasn't look down to see that the wheel's have shot off the car and its not moving. actually, it is. its rolling backwards down the hill.

Polly Tells you the GOP Talking Points!

I've been toying with this idea for a while. I'd like to do it weekly, but we'll have to see if I can keep it up.

Let me explain how this works. The Bush Campaign, the GOP, and like minded groups work in unison during the week to help the president (or the party) put forth the same general message. it changes every few weeks as needed. Well, I'm gonna fill you in on the week's talking point. i'll do my best to keep this updated as it comes and goes for the next 6 weeks.

This Week's Talking Point?

"Kerry has No Plan for Iraq."

It started last week and you'll see it continue. its a parry and lunge. Iraq is quickly falling apart. this is coming from GOP Senators, most news papers, Any general you can find that's alive and talking, and--of course--from John Kerry. All the while, Bush is talking about how great its going over there. this has gone on for so long it makes one wonder if he's just not being told what's happening? are the man's handlers afraid to let him know? we know he (claims) he relies on them and doesn't read the paper. (you know, its like we have our own 'Baghdad Bob'...as our President).

So how can you keep this up and not take some major lumps? GO ON THE OFFENSIVE. its the Bush Modus Operandi. if bush is weak in some area, attack the dems/kerry for the very same issue and cast off the scrutiny! Bush went AWOL? let's talk about Kerry's AWFUL service! who cares if it makes no sense, by the time the Media Echo-chamber gets done with it, we'll be on the next topic! you're guaranteed. this media doesn't care about HOW the story effects the candidate's chances w/ voters (whatever it is and whomever it effects), NOT the story itself. who CARES if its true or shows some real problems with our leadership??

We don't have reporters, we have bookies and they only care about the spread.

so that's it. i'm sorry this is late in coming as i think this one has just aboult played itself out, but that's your GOP theme for going against kerry. see if you pick up on this when you see a GOP supporter/operative in print, on the TV,or on the radio!

Now, the next time you see GOP talking head on TV or on the Radio, you can catch the spin coming at you before it can have an effect!

Put that in your Iraq and Smoke it...

A few things i learned from John Kerry and Donald Rumsfeld this week:

*Last Week the President's administration revealed that it has spent less than $1 Billion of the $18 Billion alotted for Iraqi reconstruction a year ago.

*2 Weeks ago Donald Rumsfeld revealed that we've trained LESS THAN HALF of the 210,000 Iraqi security forces he claimed we'd trained last February. (Security First with these guys! don't YOU feel safer?).

Finally Bush gives us this gem (or should i say gems?):

In his New Hampshire speech Bush said Kerry's Iraq proposals mirrored his own, claiming Kerry wants to do what he (bush) is already doing

...then his campaign put out a strongly statement which claimed: 'John Kerry's latest position on Iraq is to advocate retreat and defeat in the face of terror.'

HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW!!! So, which is it? hasn't anyone there heard the saying "get your lies straight"?