Why We Cannot Endorse President Bush For Re-Election: From The Tampa Tribune: "As stewards of the Tribune's editorial voice, we find it unimaginable to not be lending our voice to the chorus of conservative-leaning newspapers endorsing the president's re- election. We had fully expected to stand with Bush, whom we endorsed in 2000 because his politics generally reflected ours: a strong military, fiscal conservatism, personal responsibility and small government. We knew him to be a popular governor of Texas who fought for lower taxes, less government and a pro-business constitution.

But we are unable to endorse President Bush for re- election because of his mishandling of the war in Iraq, his record deficit spending, his assault on open government and his failed promise to be a ``uniter not a divider'' within the United States and the world."

Michael Bérubé Online: "There’s a weird new science-fiction piece by Ron Suskind in today’s New York Times Magazine.  In it, a Messianic madman takes over the United States in a disputed election after a hapless time traveller accidentally crushes a butterfly ballot while hunting for dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period.  Unable to distinguish Sweden from Switzerland (insisting, to one stunned congressman, that Sweden is “the neutral one” that “has no army'), the madman gradually consolidates his power, banishes all those who doubt or question him, and dispatches “senior advisers” to inform the populace that he can bend all of spacetime to his will."

We Hold This Dirt to Be Self-Evident (washingtonpost.com)

We Hold This Dirt to Be Self-Evident (washingtonpost.com): "The people running the Bush campaign are political alchemists: They can take anything and turn it into dirt."

Yowza.

washingtonpost.com: Up to 86 Vehicles Collide on I-95 in Md.: "As many as 86 cars and trucks collided on Interstate 95 east of Baltimore yesterday in a series of crashes during a sudden, blinding storm.


Estimates of injuries were as high as 18, and authorities said as many as 11 crashes might have occurred.


At least four people, apparently the most seriously injured, were taken by helicopter to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore after the crashes, one of which involved as many as 20 vehicles.


The conditions of those taken to hospitals were not immediately known, but one state official said it appeared possible that none had suffered life-threatening injuries.


The collisions occurred about 4:30 p.m. along a 10-mile stretch, in an area northeast of Interstate 695, the Baltimore Beltway, and southwest of the Susquehanna River bridge."

A clear-eyed discussion of Felafel Bill.

Steve Gilliard's News Blog : Settle this, Bill O' Moron: "Bill O'Reilly is a pervert who's biggest sexual turn on is bullying women into submission. It is the thing he loves the most. Fear and potential violence are his tools.

He acts more like a Saudi prince than an American businessman.

Here's a hint Bill: firing someone who sues your for oh, workplace misconduct is like admitting guilt. You're more pissed that she stood up to you than anything else. Now, you're going to bully her into submission. It's pretty much like legal wife beating"

New BBC documentary challenges "GWOT" conventional wisdom.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The making of the terror myth: "During the three years in which the 'war on terror' has been waged, high-profile challenges to its assumptions have been rare. The sheer number of incidents and warnings connected or attributed to the war has left little room, it seems, for heretical thoughts. In this context, the central theme of The Power of Nightmares is riskily counter-intuitive and provocative. Much of the currently perceived threat from international terrorism, the series argues, 'is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media.' The series' explanation for this is even bolder: 'In an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility, fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain their power.'"

New BBC documentary challenges "GWOT" conventional wisdom.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The making of the terror myth: "During the three years in which the 'war on terror' has been waged, high-profile challenges to its assumptions have been rare. The sheer number of incidents and warnings connected or attributed to the war has left little room, it seems, for heretical thoughts. In this context, the central theme of The Power of Nightmares is riskily counter-intuitive and provocative. Much of the currently perceived threat from international terrorism, the series argues, 'is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media.' The series' explanation for this is even bolder: 'In an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility, fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain their power.'"

There is a difference.

Informed Comment : "The visions for the American future laid out by George W. Bush and John Kerry differ starkly on matters of war and peace, and the shape of American power in the Middle East.

Bush has put enormous resources into the Iraq war compared to those he has committed to fighting al-Qaeda. Kerry pledges to concentrate on stamping out al-Qaeda. The American public has a clear choice between a continued US push into the Middle East, with bases and very likely further wars, and between a calmer, more patient foreign policy that makes room to address the problem of practically fighting terrorism.
"

A conservative denounces the Bush administration.

The New Republic Online: Conscientious Objector: "Ultimately, on both foreign and domestic policy, the public's trust has been betrayed. Why should the public trust its leaders with future policy if those leaders deceive and manipulate the people's elected representatives to get a favored policy passed? If the American public and the world at large now react skeptically to future presidential claims that the United States faces a foreign threat, who can blame them? "

Dude, where's her car?

My friend Dayana Yochim just had her car stolen. As she writes fro the Motle Fool, she put out a plea to the world to help her find it. I figure the least I can do is link to her article.

Fool.com: Dude, Where's My Car? Seriously. [Motley Fool Take] October 13, 2004: "Have you seen a light-blue 1994 four-door Honda Accord with VA YGD 3719 tags and a Motley Fool sticker on the driver's side back window? It's mine, and I want it back.

My car was stolen last night between 8:35 and 11:10 p.m. from in front of a friend's house on Woodland Avenue in Takoma Park, Md. If you happen to see it -- say, at the side of the road or pulling into a chop shop in the DC-Virginia-Maryland vicinity -- please call the cops. For those troubled by the use of my employer's public forum to put out an all-points bulletin on my vehicle... like you wouldn't do the same thing? (If you're the punk who took it -- park it in front of Fool HQ [full tank, please], and no questions will be asked.)"

Best comment on the debate.

Wonkette: "10:17PM: Bush can 'feel' when people pray for him. It's like frottage."

Was Bush wired? I don't know, but it's fun to talk about.

Salon.com News | Technical expert: Bush was wired: "Despite the official denials, the bulge brouhaha is still ballooning. On Tuesday, the New York Daily News produced a master tailor named Frank Shattuck who, after viewing photos from both debates, confirmed, 'There's definitely something there, in between the shoulder blades. I can't say what it is, but it's not hidden very well. They should have come to me. I can hide a pistol under the breast.'"

New poll results -- we've go the Johnmentum

ABCNEWS.com : AP Poll: Kerry Holds Small Lead Over Bush: "Among 944 likely voters, the Democratic ticket of Kerry and Sen. John Edwards led Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney 50 percent to 46 percent. The Oct. 4-6 survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.


The race was tied 47-47 percent among all voters. Others polls show the race just as tight."

Wow -- Judith Miller in Jail

Reporter Held in Contempt in CIA Probe (washingtonpost.com): "A federal judge held a reporter in contempt Thursday for refusing to divulge confidential sources to prosecutors investigating the leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity.


U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan ordered New York Times reporter Judith Miller jailed until she agrees to testify about her sources before a grand jury, but said she could remain free while pursuing an appeal. Miller could be jailed up to 18 months."

Salon.com | Dissecting Cheney

Salon.com | Dissecting Cheney: "Although the 'global war on terror' was rooted in a real event, it was conducted in a way fundamentally oriented to the political opportunities this event created rather than the actual dangers it revealed. Thus the administration's neglect of port security, the squeeze on first responders, the negligence at Tora Bora in Afghanistan, the flippant attitude toward the nuclear risks in Russian stockpiles and Pakistani labs. Thus the pathetic system of colored alerts and the roundup and detention of irrelevant people, not a single one of whom has been convicted of a terrorism-related offense in the three years since.


Rule through fear remains an essential part of Cheney's message; he reiterates it every day on the stump. But three years after Sept. 11, the message no longer resonates. It has come to sound, to most Americans, like an excuse for failure in every other sphere. And overseas, the clash of civilizations has never worked as a cry for the mobilization of the West. The major European states are not conned, and neither is Japan. They have much more experience of political terror than we do -- and they realize that the job of rolling up the terror networks belongs, for the most part, to the national and international police. For this reason, the global bargain that held up the dollar through the Cold War is imperiled. You can be sure that Cheney has no idea how to restore it."

Sure...

Tucker Carlson is looking for Cheney to show his sense of humor tonight. Yeah, me too.

Where are the Dems?

The CNN pre-debate special is being anchored live from Cleveland. It looks like the Republican Convention -- all of the spectators are Bush-Cheney signs. They are right behind ol' Wolf -- so he's speaking against a background of BCO4 signs. Where are the Dems? Are they just not organized enough to show up? How were tickets distributed?

Surprise -- Bush, Rumsfeld lie about value of intel from Gitmo.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Guantanamo has 'failed to prevent terror attacks': "Prisoner interrogations at Guantánamo Bay, the controversial US military detention centre where guards have been accused of brutality and torture, have not prevented a single terrorist attack, according to a senior Pentagon intelligence officer who worked at the heart of the US war on terror.

Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Christino, who retired last June after 20 years in military intelligence, says that President George W Bush and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have 'wildly exaggerated' their intelligence value.

Christino's revelations, to be published this week in Guantánamo: America's War on Human Rights, by British journalist David Rose, are supported by three further intelligence officials. Christino also disclosed that the 'screening' process in Afghanistan which determined whether detainees were sent to Guantánamo was 'hopelessly flawed from the get-go'."

Goss pick for CIA #3 post resigned in disgrace from CIA in '80s.

washingtonpost.com: Goss Choice Quit CIA In 1982 Under Fire: "Michael V. Kostiw, chosen by CIA Director Porter J. Goss to be the agency's new executive director, resigned under pressure from the CIA more than 20 years ago, according to past and current agency officials.


While Kostiw, a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, longtime lobbyist for ChevronTexaco Corp. and more recently staff director of the terrorism subcommittee of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has been through the CIA security vetting procedure, final clearance to take the job has not been completed pending review of the allegations. The job is the third-ranking post at the CIA.


In late 1981, after he had been a case officer for 10 years, Kostiw was caught shoplifting in Langley, sources said. During a subsequent CIA polygraph test, Kostiw's responses to questions about the incident led agency officials to place him on administrative leave for several weeks, according to four sources who were familiar with the past events but who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the information."

Good news -- new Newsweek poll shows small Kerry lead

MSNBC - The Race is On: "With a solid majority of voters concluding that John Kerry outperformed George W. Bush in the first presidential debate on Thursday, the president’s lead in the race for the White House has vanished, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. In the first national telephone poll using a fresh sample, NEWSWEEK found the race now statistically tied among all registered voters, 47 percent of whom say they would vote for Kerry and 45 percent for George W. Bush in a three-way race."