The Bushies Have to Be Regretting Keeping Tenet Now

After balking in his designated scapegoat role, Tenet (the lone Clinton holdover) is now saying that Cheney is making shit up with regards to Iraqi WMDs. Note: we already knew this, but an administration official is saying it as well. This Knight-Ridder piece sounds very un-sheeplike, particularly in the last 7 paragraphs.

Uncover the deception related program activities! "Doesn't uniquely comport"... hee!

Americans: Not As Hate-filled as Bush/Rove Presumed

According to the latest WaPo poll, Americans now support gay marriage 51-46. See, ignorance and bigotry can be defeated!

Yet another blunder by Bush/Rove. What to do about same-sex marriage is one of those issues that, given any serious thoughts, becomes blindingly clear. It seems as if more people are giving it thought than Bush/Rove wanted them to. Awesome, my people.

Bush Hypocrisy pt. 54021: Biggest Campaign Donors Rewarded with Sleepovers at White House

Remember how the GOPpers attacked Clinton for "selling" sleepovers in the Lincoln bedroom to the Hollywood elite (among others)? Well, Bush is doing the same thing (and the number of invitees is over 540!). I've always thought this was a bullshit issue (big donors receive special attention, news at 11), but if the GOP is going to use it then hoist meet petard, by god.

You know, I really should stop being surprised at the administration's constant hypocrisy, but I can't. Not learning from past experience is a sign of dementia, you know.

Support a Moore Candidacy

Roy Moore, that is. Because if that wingnut actually runs it'll be the best thing to happen to Kerry this whole election cycle. While I'm talking about 3rd party candidates: FU, Nader!

Jack White Pleads Guilty

to assault and battery. Behold, the power of a cocaine- and meth-fueled life!

Want to Know Why Bush is So Worried?

The Dismal Scientist tells all. Basically, it's the economy, stupid.

The jobs situation under the current President Bush is looking more like it did under his father, who failed in his reelection bid in 1992, than in the successful reelection campaigns of Presidents Clinton (1996) and Reagan (1984).

Also note the refutation of the handwaving of the poll numbers by the GOPpers:

According to Gallup, every incumbent since Truman has been ahead of his eventual challenger at this point in the cycle -- all except Gerald Ford, who lost.

Also, according to Gallup, Kerry has the Gore states, the swing states, and is within the MOE in most of the red states. Fuck yeah! Regime change, baby!

BoSox Prove They're Ahead of the Curve, Again

By becoming the second team to try out a combo bench player/bullpen arm guy, in the form of Dave McCarty. In the days of a 12 person pitching staff (phooey!), a guy like this is especially valuable. A bit of pop and some good OBP off the bench... lefty off the mound. It's a low-risk, high-reward kind of move for the 25th guy on your team. Right on.

Your Privacy More at Risk Today Than It Was Yesterday

Because Wisconsin has started using the Matrix. In case you were unaware, the Matrix is a controversial interstate antiterrorism database that holds billions of records of ordinary Americans' activities. Cops can't resist the temptation of this database, only your government can help, and boy, is that a scary thought.

The Paranoid Style of the Wingnuts (AKA Kerry Smear pt. 4)

First making its appearance in the Goldwater days, the paranoid mentality of the far right is nothing new. It is, however, rearing it's ugly head again in the current smear campaign trying to paint Kerry as a Manchurian candidate (for the North Koreans).

Also, do the Bushies seriously think that mischaracterizing a Kerry-sponsored bill from 1995 is going to be a winner?

I'm continually surprised at my continuing surprise of the GOPper idiocy.

Stern's Target Number 1: Bush

Howard Stern, after becoming a post-Janet Jackson victim of the Bush prudery has made Bush enemy #1. Here he talks about the Bush ads that grotesquely use 9/11 in an attempt to bolster his reelection.

You can download the 4 minute audio mp3 from cmoore.com. If you wish, you may also rate the file and provide commentary or feedback.

Today is International Women's Day

In honor of that, MADRE has an analysis of women's rights in post-invasion Iraq. In short, it's not a pretty picture. I don't cover group-specific politics as much as I should, but today we'll make up for that somewhat.

Since the “end of hostilities” in May, ongoing military violence and a spike in violence against women in Iraq has curtailed all aspects of women’s lives, preventing many from leaving home, even for food, water or medical treatment or to go to work or school. Conditions of daily life are deteriorating, rather than improving, with most of Iraq still experiencing power outages for an average of 16 hours a day. Children sleep in the streets between rising piles of uncollected garbage. Drinking water is contaminated and there are 12-hour waits to buy gasoline or cooking fuel. In most of the country, there is no telephone or postal service. As those primarily responsible for meeting the basic needs of the population, Iraqi women have been forced to intensify their work hauling water, preparing food and caring for children traumatized by bombing, disease and malnutrition.

Bush & Co.'s WMD Lies

Here's another good repository.

GOP Threatens, Intimidates Upstarts

In an act I consider systemic behavior rather than an exceptional circumstance, head honchos of the RNC tried to threaten a neophyt politician into abandoning his grassroots campaign for the GOP TX4 seat.

"A few days later, Murphy received another phone call, this time from Larry Telford, whom the NRCC calls its "incumbent retention director." Murphy said Telford told him that running would make Murphy an enemy of the White House and ruin his political career....

Just consider what you're doing now. You don't want to have the freakin' president of the United States mad at you for the rest of your life...If you step off this cliff, gravity never goes up, it goes down."

That's a bit much for a no money, no experience grassroots guy, don't you think? Oh, wait, guess not:

Reynolds dropped plenty of big names, including Karl Rove, chief political strategist for the president. Reynolds promised that, should Murphy put his party first, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay would be made aware and that he "wouldn't forget it."

The GOPpers denied it, of course. Too bad for them, Murphy recorded the conversations.

One word: Owned.

Bush Crashing

I hope this keeps up. Dana Milbank and Richard Morin report that "a majority of Americans -- 57 percent -- say they want their next president to steer the country away from the course set by Bush... Bush's standing hit new lows in crucial areas such as the economy (39 percent support him), Iraq (46 percent) and the budget deficit (30 percent)."

They've got to be shaken up there on Pennsylvania Ave. Remember, the ABC/Post poll has been the one most consistently favorable toward the president. Milbank also notes in a separate article what I consider proof that Bush & co. are running scared: he mentioned Senator Kerry by name. In March. That's unprecedented.

What really makes me want to go kick some fuckers in the nuts is that Nader's still, still!, polling around 3%. You idiots. As if you needed any more proof:

In a bit of good news for Bush, Nader is drawing essentially all of his support from Kerry, who leads Bush by 9 percentage points in a two-way matchup with the president -- an indication Nader could play the spoiler for Democrats in 2004 as he did four years ago. Underscoring that potential, nearly two-thirds of Democrats opposed Nader's decision to run, while nearly half of all Republicans supported his move.

Who are these assholes supporting the megalomaniac Nader? Nader has got to know he's the catspaw of the GOP, but he just doesn't care because he's a narcissist of the highest order. FU, Nader! You überrich, do-nothing-in-the-past-30-years douchebag!

Adventures With Idiots pt. 1

Every morning, I go get my coffee. For the past three or four months it's been from the same place, this little coffee shop downstairs from where I work. For the past three or four months, the same two people work there at the same time that I get my morning coffee, let's call them Cool and Idiot. For the past three or four months, I order the same thing.

You would think that after three or four months Idiot would remember my drink. 'Em remembers who I am, but only gets the drink right about 20% of the time (it's just a goddamn tall drip, medium roast, with extra room). I'm used to this, but today was something special.

I'm watching 'em get my drink before I paid, filling the cup with the wrong blend. Brings the drink back to the counter, I say "wrong blend" and am greeted with confused stare. Goes back to make my drink (that is, to open the nozzle from the coffeepot into the cup) with the right blend but grabs a different size. So now I've got the right blend, smaller cup. It took three tries to pour me the same coffee I've ordered for the past three or four months, and the third time today had to be done by the manager because Idiot had wandered off before I noticed that 'em had changed the size on me.

My experiences with idiot are not atypical of the standard customer experience, by the way.

Amazing.

Krugman Strikes Again

Exposing the lies of the administration's job creation propaganda. Check out this graph:


That's some major league wishcasting. Interesting how the slope of every forecast is quite similar, it's just the intercept that changes.

Krugman, in a three-paragraph essay, let's the graph do the talking for him. He closes with:

Economic forecasting isn't an exact science, but wishful thinking on this scale is unprecedented. Nor can the administration use its all-purpose excuse: all of these forecasts date from after 9/11. What you see in this chart is the signature of a corrupted policy process, in which political propaganda takes the place of professional analysis.

Note that the Bush administration predicted 2.6M new jobs this year, with an unemployment rate of 5.6%. The current reported rate of unemployment is ... 5.6%. So somehow we gain the entirety of the lost jobs with no change in unemployment rate. I'm not understanding the math, here. Maybe you can explain it to me.

SEC Taking an Interest in MS-SCO

It's all unofficial right now, but it's still a development. Microsoft, your days are numbered!

Der Gropenführer Is Losing Interest Already

Like Jesse Ventura before him, Schwarzenegger is losing interest as he discovers that governing is actually hard work. How's he shirking his duties? by agreeing to become editor in chief of Muscle & Fitness and Flex magazines.

Hell, at least Ventura tried for a year or two before giving up. I guess Ah-nold is looking to the President "most vacation days in presidential history" Bush for inspiration.

Bush's 'Homeland' Security Department

Yes, the same department that he resisted, then relented but gutted. TNR has a great piece on just what a fucked up mess the whole backwater, dead-end department is. I sure am glad they're the ones in charge of our nation's security from unconventional attacks.

Even allowing for inevitable transition problems, DHS has been a disaster: underfunded, undermanned, disorganized, and unforgivably slow-moving.

Indeed.

Need Another Reason to Hate Wal-Mart?

Why is the company that offers little to no healthcare for its workers (and is thus reliant on Medicare/Medicaid) giving such huge contributions to the (evil, GOP) side that wants to slash these safety nets even more? Oh wait, I forgot, they hate people. The people that work for them, the people that buy from them. Workers are fungible! The Walmartistas are just evil automatons, really. FU, Walton family!