BUSH'S TOXIC CAMPAIGN MIX: GOD, COUNTRY AND PERPETUAL FEAR By Arianna Huffington Leave no sucker punch unthrown. That seems to be the scorched earth mantra of the GOP campaign as it heads into the final rounds. But if you're thinking these guys can't go any lower, guess again. George Bush doesn't just have his head buried in the sand — he's let his integrity sink below sea level, as well. The latest dirty blows are a contemptible one-two combination with which Team Bush has portrayed John Kerry as both the enemy of God and, if not exactly the ally of al-Qaida, then at least the terrorists' candidate of choice. To hear them tell it, a vote for Kerry is a vote against God and Country. Talk about hitting way, way below the belt. Let's start with God. It was revealed last week that the Republican Party has sent out an incendiary mass mailing warning that, if elected, "liberals" (and I'll give you one guess which presidential candidate that includes) will try to — I kid you not — ban the Bible. The full-color flyer features a picture of the Bible with the word "Banned" stamped across it, and a photo of a man, on bended knee, placing a wedding band on the hand of another man, accompanied by the word "Allowed." Clearly, Bush and the GOP have taken their Bible-thumping ways to a whole new level: Now they're using the Good Book to try to bash in the skulls of their opponents. This "God is on our side" attack is all the more outrageous because it's not coming from some shadowy 527 committee that Bush can publicly — albeit disingenuously — distance himself from but, rather, from deep in the heart of the Bush-run Republican National Committee. The president's team has undoubtedly "approved this message." They've also used the official Georgewbush.com campaign website to attack Kerry, a Catholic, as being "Wrong for Catholics", while an RNC website, KerryWrongForCatholics.com, slams him for not being loyal enough to the Pope. We've certainly come a long way since another JFK had to assure voters in 1960 that he wouldn't take orders from the Vatican. The idea that Kerry and the Democrats are anti-Bible and that Bush has a hot line to The Man Upstairs is both offensive and patently absurd. One look at the latest statistics showing the rise in the number of Americans living in poverty proves that Republicans — who, contrary to their claims, do not hold a copyright on the Bible — have grotesquely perverted its core teachings. As Rev. Jim Wallis, the editor of Sojourners magazine, told me: "It's a bitter irony: these people accuse Democrats of wanting to ban the Bible, then proceed to utterly ignore the vast majority of its contents when it comes to questions of social justice, war and peace, and protecting the environment." Perhaps the holy rollers in the Bush camp should crack open a Bible and see what it has to say about caring for the poor (Matthew 25:40), caring for the Earth (Genesis 2:15), and caring for human rights (Genesis 1:27). I've got a hunch Jesus wouldn't be too thrilled with Bush's first term. And while they're acquainting themselves with the Book they purport to defend, the Bushies might also want to have a look at John 8:32 to see what it has to say about the moral imperative of telling the truth. Instead, they are doing everything in their power to convince nervous voters that a vote for John Kerry is a vote for another 9/11. It's the latest vile twist in the Bush-Cheney "all fear, all the time" campaign strategy, and the last desperate gasp of an administration utterly clueless about how to actually win the war on terror. The fear-mongering has been relentless and revolting — bottoming out with a sewer-level attack ad put together by a 527 largely financed by a pair of longtime Bush-backers. The TV spot shows pictures of Osama bin Laden, 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta, the Chechen school murderers, and the Madrid train bombings and asks: "These people want to kill us. Would you trust Kerry up against these fanatic killers?" Somewhere — and I don't think it's heaven — Lee Atwater is smiling. And lest you think this line of attack doesn't have the Karl Rove seal of approval, just look at the long line of Bush surrogates lining up to parrot the "al-Qaida wants Kerry to win" talking point — including Sen. Orrin Hatch, the increasingly embarrassing House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and the hatchet-man-in-chief, Dick Cheney. They've all been echoing Hatch's claim that terrorists "are going to throw everything they can between now and the election to try and elect Kerry." What's next, a photo of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi sporting a Kerry-Edwards campaign button? This "terrorists for Kerry" routine is as laughable as it is loathsome. Why in the world would the terrorists want to get rid of George Bush? He is their dream president, after all: a man who has alienated our allies, isolated us and united the Muslim world against us. The president's preemptive invasion of Iraq has been such a boon to al-Qaida that the British ambassador to Italy called him the terrorist organization's "best recruiting sergeant." Even Bush's good buddy, Pakistani President Musharraf (a guy who can't afford to share W's delusions when it comes to matters of security), said last week that the war in Iraq has made the world "more dangerous" and "further complicated" the war on terror. Of course, the spinmeisters in the Bush camp would rather you never hear any of this, which is why they've been so quick to smear as unpatriotic anyone painting a less than rosy picture of Iraq — going so far as to imply that Kerry, by merely questioning the president's policies, has given aid and comfort to our enemies. What a load of gutless garbage. As Thomas Jefferson made clear, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." But Bush can't seem to grasp that this country is too strong to be endangered by the truth — and that, indeed, hiding the truth, the hallmark of his administration, is what is making us weaker and less secure. I know the president hates to read, but with the debates looming, maybe he should dust off his library card and brush up on his American history. And on the Bible. © 2004 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

Books         Columns         Blog        Upcoming Events

Watch the debates tonight!

Most Americans don't know the issues.

http://www.debates.org

Kerry campaign: http://www.johnkerry.com

High School Politics 101
by David Corn, TomPaine.com Exclusive
     The Bush team is doing a simply marvelous job of infantilizing the campaign.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/high_school_politics_101.php

Dear Mitch Kellam, Our mission right now -- yours and mine -- is to make sure John Kerry, John Edwards, and all our Democratic candidates have the support they need to win on November 2. That's why we need you to flood Democratic Party headquarters with a history-making outpouring of financial support between now and our critical September 30th deadline. Act before our deadline arrives. Contribute now: https://www.democrats.org/support/kerry Are you sick of seeing the Republicans tell bold-faced lies about John Kerry's military record? Are you angry at Cheney, Hastert, and all the rest who keep implying that voting for Kerry leaves America more open to terrorist attacks? Have you had it up to here with Bush turning a blind eye to the reality in Iraq? Does your blood boil when you see Bush and his administration ignore the hardship caused by the jobs they've lost and the health care crisis they haven't lifted a finger to solve? Well this is it. It's our moment to give John Kerry, John Edwards, and all our Democratic candidates the all-out, no-holds-barred support they need to drive on to victory. Let the Republicans know that we're not going to take it anymore. Contribute by our urgent September 30 fundraising deadline: https://www.democrats.org/support/kerry Have you heard all the talk about how "relentless" our Republican opponents are? Well, they don't know the meaning of the word. We'll show them what happens when a slew of right-thinking Democrats fight back. And don't forget to join Paul Begala and James Carville on September 30th at 8 p.m. ET as they host the National Debate Watch House Party conference call. They'll tell you how to push back against Karl Rove's spin and how you can help win the debate for John Kerry. It all comes down to you and what you do to help John Kerry. Sign up now so you have a spot to hear the call: http://www.democrats.org/events Let's tell them to get out of our way. October's almost here and we've come to take our country back. Act now to make these last three days of September a turning point in this campaign. Send the biggest donation you've ever sent -- and send it right now. Let's go get 'em. Terry McAuliffe Chairman

Swagger vs. Substance
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Let's hope the press won't let President Bush steal the debate with his Clint Eastwood imitation.

Jimmy Carter: Still Seeking a Fair Florida Vote 9/27

by Molly Ivins

AUSTIN -- Thomas Frank, author of "What's the Matter With Kansas?" is a subscriber to the theory that so-called "values politics" and lifestyle issues are just sophisticated versions of that old carnival con the shell game, in which the object is to keep the rube's eye off the shell with the pea under it.

"The trick never ages: The illusion never wears off. Vote to stop abortion; receive a rollback in capital gains taxes. Vote to make our country strong again; receive deindustrialization. Vote to screw those politically correct college professors; receive electricity deregulation. ... Vote to stand tall against terrorists; receive Social Security privatization."

As a result of this gussied up and newly sophisticated political con job, Franks sees the country as "a panorama of madness and delusion ... of sturdy blue-collar patriots reciting the Pledge while they strangle their own life chances; of small farmers proudly voting themselves off the land; of devoted family men carefully seeing to it that their children will never be able to afford college or proper health care; of working-class guys ... delivering up a landslide for a candidate whose policies will end their way of life and transform their region into a 'rustbelt,' and strike people like them blows from which they will never recover."

So here we are at the ultimate level of the con game -- if you don't support Bush's misbegotten war or you object to how this administration has fouled up in carrying it out, you're unpatriotic.

I'd like to draw your attention to another example of how you're being suckered that's common as dirt these days, but is in the headlines here in Texas because three top fund-raising lieutenants to Rep. Tom DeLay got indicted on Tuesday, along with eight corporations. They are charged on the unlikely grounds of having broken Texas campaign finance law. Actually, we don't have much in the way of campaign finance law in this state -- anybody can give any amount of any money to anybody, except, of course, for corporations and labor unions. Oops.

This was really a beautiful play, kind of a triple bank shot, according to the indictment. Corporate money was passed through DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, back to an affiliate Texans for a Republican Majority, where it was funneled into 17 statehouse races that would give Republicans a majority in the Ledge and allow the election of Tom Craddick as speaker.

Then, Craddick used the new majority to force an unprecedented, out-of-turn redrawing of the Texas congressional districts at the instruction and tutelage of DeLay's aides and DeLay himself. Republicans are predicted to pick up five new seats under the Craddick-DeLay plan, thus helping ensure their party's lock on the U.S. House. Neat, huh?

It's kind of hard to hide all this under one shell, especially since Republicans went around bragging about breaking the law after the 2002 election, but I was interested in the corporate indictments because I found a couple of familiar names there.

Westar Energy of Wichita, Kansas -- imagine that. Two Westar executives are under already under indictment on 40 federal criminal charges NOT including bribery charges stemming from the $60,000 Westar contributed to DeLay and three other players in order, according to company memos, to buy legislation to excuse the company from federal investment regulations.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas introduced the provision that Westar wanted into the energy bill, and DeLay, the majority leader, and Billy Tauzin, on the energy conference committee, both voted for it. The Westar exemption was dropped from the bill only when papers reported a federal investigation of the company.

Another favorite of mine, also named in the Texas indictment, is the Bacardi USA rum company. The company is actually Bacardi Ltd., headquartered in Bermuda, and has been involved for years in a lawsuit with another rum company over a trademark issue. DeLay first tried to change language in the defense appropriations bill in November 2003 to fix a section of the bill to Bacardi's specifications.

Bacardi has contributed tens of thousands not only to DeLay's political action committees but also to DeLay's "charitable causes." DeLay, a born-again Christian, set up a tax-exempt corporation, Celebrations for Children, to solicit "donor packages" of up to $500,000 to pay for Broadway shows, cruises, golf tournaments and private dinners with DeLay and other members of Congress during the Republican Convention. The rest of the money was to go to homes for foster children in his district. After complaints to the IRS, DeLay cancelled the plans.

For more delicious and amazing stories about how DeLay conducts "bidness as usual" while the Republicans get people all worked up over the menace of gay marriage, get the new book "The Hammer" by Lou Dubose and Jan Reid. I'd recommend it even if they weren't friends of mine, which they are.

To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

9-11 happened on Bush's watch,

this bunch got us in the Iraq mess,

but the lies and deceit are getting

through to the gullable American voter.

An Un-American Way to Campaign
The Bush campaign is entering dangerous territory with its organized effort to paint the Democratic candidate as a friend to terrorists.

CAMPAIGN 2004: WILL THE WORLD'S MOST EXCLUSIVE CLUB GET A MUCH NEEDED INFUSION OF NEW BLOOD?

By Arianna Huffington

The passion invested by the Democratic faithful in taking back the White House has meant that not enough has been said about the imperative of taking back control of the place John Kerry will hopefully be leaving — the United States Senate.

If Kerry is the next occupant of the Oval Office, he will need legislative muscle to undo the disastrous policies of the Bush administration, which have damaged our economy, degraded our environment, added millions to the roll of America's uninsured, and seriously undermined our national security. No executive order can reverse all that.

And if — close your ears, kids — Bush is actually able to scare his way to re-election, a Democratic Senate will be the only thing standing in the way of a second term all-out assault on America's working families, and the implementation of a radical right-wing social agenda. Don't forget, the next president will probably end up appointing at least a couple of Supreme Court justices — and Bush has made it clear that he'd fill any vacancies with clones of Antonin Scalia. See ya later, Roe vs. Wade; nice knowing ya, civil liberties. Don't forget to turn your clocks back a hundred years.

The good news is that the Democrats actually have a pretty good shot at turning Bill Frist into the Senate Minority Leader. (Don't you love the ring of that?)

In looking at the Senate races Democrats can win, I focused on the three open seats currently held by retiring Republicans in Illinois, Colorado and Oklahoma. In each of these states, the Democrats are putting forth a candidate — Barack Obama in Illinois, Ken Salazar in Colorado, and Brad Carson in Oklahoma — capable of bringing a new type of leadership to Washington.

Just for starters, Obama is black, Salazar is Hispanic, and Carson is a member of the Cherokee Nation — no small matter when you consider that despite making up over 25 percent of the U.S. population (accounting for more than 71 million Americans), there are currently no blacks, no Hispanics, and just one Native American in the Senate. The World's Most Exclusive Club, indeed.

But what separates and elevates these candidates goes far beyond race and ethnicity. It's their ability to focus on the Other America — the millions struggling to make ends meet — while retaining the ability to draw supporters from across the political spectrum.

As an added bonus, the three are running against some of the most troubling opponents ever to come down the political pike. Even if Obama, Salazar, and Carson weren't so appealing, their opponents — Alan Keyes in Illinois, Pete Coors in Colorado, and Tom Coburn in Oklahoma — are so repellent that their resounding defeat should be a priority for all sentient Americans. More on these bozos as we go along.

The nation saw firsthand the reasons for Obama's widespread appeal when he delivered his headline-making keynote speech at the Democratic convention: He is brilliant (a former president of the Harvard Law Review), charismatic, an eloquent speaker, and in possession of a life story that embodies the American dream. And thanks to his suddenly sky-high national profile, he'll arrive in Washington with the kind of clout most freshmen senators can only dream of — unless, of course, they're married to a former president of the United States.

More important, he has a passionate vision of what he wants to do with that clout: "George Bush," he told me, "clearly believes that the role of government is to protect the powerful from the powerless. We need to dramatically change our priorities."

Obama is currently way out in front of Keyes, the arch-conservative commentator-cum-carpetbagger who, since belatedly entering the race, has helped dig his own political grave with a series of outrageous comments, including equating Obama with slave owners, labeling Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter a "selfish hedonist," and claiming that, if he were around and living in Chicago, "Christ would not vote for Barack Obama."

Colorado's Salazar faces a tougher challenge: There are 193,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats in his state. Nevertheless, the popular two-time state attorney general has been able to open a lead by combining a two-fisted attack on President Bush's mishandling of Iraq, domestic security, the economy, and the environment with a down-home, folksy style. His pickup truck persona (complete with blue jeans and cowboy hat) has won him the support of a majority of the state's rural voters.

And when I heard him speak in Los Angeles last month, it was clear that his authenticity touched just as deep a chord with urban sophisticates. His commitment to closing the growing disparities between the opportunities available to the Two Americas is unmistakable.

He speaks movingly of how this division has affected his home state: "While the folks living in the densely populated counties along Colorado's Front Range have prospered over the last decade, those living in the state's 50 rural counties are struggling to survive. Their schools are not getting the attention they deserve, they are losing health care providers and access, they have been losing agricultural jobs, and no manufacturing jobs are locating there."

Salazar's opponent is Pete Coors, a political greenhorn. So far, this brewery heir's main contribution to the national dialogue has been his full-throated advocacy for lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, arguing that such a move would encourage more sensible teenage drinking. Just the kind of altruistic leadership we need more of in Washington.

Given Oklahoma's unabashedly conservative bent — Bush carried the state by 22 percent in 2000, and currently leads Kerry by even more — it's nothing short of a miracle that Carson, a 37-year old, two-term Congressman, is running neck-and-neck with his Republican rival. Carson, a sixth-generation Oklahoman who turned down an opportunity to go to law school at Yale in favor of the University of Oklahoma, then devoted a third of his practice to providing free legal services to impoverished clients, has attracted the small town support essential to pulling off a major upset in this decidedly red state.

"Too many working Americans," Carson told me, "are seeing their jobs shipped overseas without enough of our elected officials in Washington fighting on their behalf. We've got to stop pursuing policies that leave behind middle class families — such as stripping workers of overtime pay, the pay that often makes the difference between a family having groceries for the last week of the month or doing without."

And it doesn't hurt that Carson's opponent, former Rep. Tom Coburn, is a shoot-from-the-lip extremist who favors "the death penalty for abortionists," supports the right to buy and use a bazooka, has called state lawmakers "crapheads," disparaged Indian treaties as "primitive" agreements, and claimed — in the midst of the war on terror — that the "gay agenda" is "the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today." Nothing like having your priorities in order.

Most experts agree that, in the end, the balance of power in the Senate will turn on what happens in the presidential race — particularly on the effectiveness of the key messages being put out by the Democratic nominee. So I asked Sen. Jon Corzine, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, what Kerry should be emphasizing to help Democrats win their races.

"Kerry should hammer away at 'the middle class squeeze,'" he told me, "the crisis of economic security brought on by Bush's domestic policies. He needs to keep pointing out how the president has failed the American people when it comes to jobs, health care, education and the environment. Millions of people are suffering — and it's because of Bush and the Republican Congress. That's a winning argument — for Kerry and for our Senate candidates."

And it could also turn out to be the recipe for an Election Night Democratic two-fer — taking back both the White House and the Senate.

© 2004 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON.
DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

1039 U.S. Military Fatalities, 7032 Wounded in Bush's War on Iraq
http://icasualties.org/oif/

Bush Attacks Kerry While Cozying Up To Dictators 9/23
http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df09222004.html

Talking Points: President Ignored Reality at UN Address 9/23
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=83323

ARROGANCE SQUANDERS SUPPORT: President Bush went out of his way to denigrate and alienate the United Nations and its member states in the lead-up to the war in Iraq. ("International law?" joked Bush about the preemptive invasion of Iraq. "I better call my lawyer. He didn't bring that up to me.") Addressing the United Nations two years ago on 9/12/02, he taunted, "Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?" On 2/13/03, Bush warned the United Nations was in danger of becoming "an ineffective, irrelevant debating society." On 2/18/03, Bush questioned the U.N.'s "backbone and courage."

ALIENATING ALLIES IN IRAQ: The White House angered and alienated much of the world with its single-minded push to invade Iraq. Showing the depth of the alienation, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned the war last week as "illegal." The international community, deterred by the ongoing violence and lack of support for the war at home, declined to send support troops for the U.N. team helping to prepare for elections, meaning the team has been confined to the heavily fortified "Green Zone" in Baghdad, unable to reach many Iraqis. Even staunch supporters of the war in Iraq are beginning to withdraw support: Great Britain "is to start pulling troops out of Iraq next month despite the deteriorating security situation in much of the country." Embracing the United Nations from the start would have prevented the problems of legitimacy that have plagued the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Interim Governing Council. Instead, the United States is stuck with few allies and nearly 90 percent of the cost.

IRAN IGNORED: President Bush is expected to urge the UN and its agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to take a hard line on the growing nuclear challenge from Iran. What he won't say: after famously labeling Iran as a member of the Axis of Evil, the White House did nothing to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions. By threatening Iran, in fact, he emboldened Iranian hardliners and fed their desire to develop the ability to produce weapons-grade nuclear material as quickly as possible. He abdicated all responsibility, leaving the hard work to the Europeans; today the U.S. lacks almost any influence to keep the Iranian nuclear genie in the bottle.

The Dreyfuss Report: Kerry's 40 Days
by Bob Dreyfuss
      Yesterday's speech by John Kerry was a watershed event. Kerry now has just a few weeks left to make it stick. But the candidate has taken a huge step toward finally putting President Bush on the defensive about Iraq.
http://www.tompaine.com/archives/the_dreyfuss_report.php

Finally Kerry is speaking out about Iraq

The deception of the American people

continues, as more than 50% claim to

believe we are safer. Is this real?

I think the polls are wrong or fake.

PollingReport.com - Public Opinion Online

7 Steps to a Better Candidate
By CHRIS MARCIL
Advice to John Kerry: First, be yourself. Second, don't be yourself.

POLITICS
Kerry Sharpens Attack on Bush and Iraq War
The Massachusetts senator on Monday accused President Bush of deception in taking the country to war in Iraq and historic miscalculations since the invasion ended.
(By Dan Balz, The Washington Post)

Kerry Does 'Top Ten' on Letterman Show

Every Vote Counts

A collection of Mother Jones articles on our voting system -- from electronic voting, to get-out-the-vote drives, to the work of outside "527" groups in this election year.

September 13, 2004

The New Ward Heelers
An army of volunteers is sweeping swing states to find voters for John Kerry. Just don't call it a campaign.
By Samantha M. Shapiro
September-October 2004 issue

Welcome to the Age of Consumer Politics
Both parties are aggressively applying the techniques of database marketing to electoral politics -- whether people like it or not.
By Kari Lundgren
September 9, 2004

Wild Cards: A Field Guide to the American Swing Voter
A handy guide to swing voters and how they may-- or may not-- tip the scales in November.
By Dave Gilson
September 9, 2004

Driving Votes the Democrats' Way
On the road with Driving Votes, whose volunteers drive from safe states to swing states to get out the vote for Kerry.
By Stephen R. Miller
September 9, 2004

One Woman, One Vote
Single women could swing the presidential election - but, as get-out-the-vote activists are finding, a one-size-fits-all message won't work.
By Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards
July 14, 2004

The Paperless Chase
College sophomores Nelson Pavlosky and Luke Smith rage against the electronic voting machine
By Sabrina Rubin Erdely
May/June 2004 Issue

Diebold's Political Machine
Political insiders suggest Ohio could become as decisive this year as Florida was four years ago. Which is why the state's plan to use paperless touch-screen voting machines has so many up in arms.
By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman March 5, 2004

Chad 2.0
Computer voting was supposed to revolutionize elections. But has it just updated old problems?
November/December 2003 Issue

In Touch Screens We Trust
Welcome to the wonderful world of digital democracy. Please brace for the crash.
Cartoon by Mark Fiore
February 9, 2004

 

George W. Bush is the Hypocrite of the Century, But for Now, He is the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week, Once Again

The Navy's chief investigator concluded Friday that procedures were followed properly in the approval of Sen. John Kerry's Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals, according to an internal Navy memo. Swift Boat Liars Rebuked, Yet Again.

They are stealing campaign signs in Fort Worth!

read recent letters to the editors from The Star Telegram 9-14-04

During the 2000 election sea- son, my husband and.1 brought our Gore-Lieberman yard signs

into the house each evening. We

did this because three or four had been removed, torn and stomped on in the street.

We thought that our freedom of expression would be safe this election season. After all, we've been inundated with tales of compassionate conservatism. We've been told that God is on the side of the GOP and that supporters of President Bush are paragons of virtue and morality who pray and routinely read the Bible.

I guess they missed the com mandment "Thou shalt not steal." Our Kerry-:Edwards sign didn't last one night on our lawn. In fact, every Kerry-Edwards sign has

been stolen from our neighbor hood.

My opinion of the Bush supporters, based on this and the

2000 election season, is simply this: "By their deeds shall ye know them."

Marilynn Leigh, Fort Worth

 

To the person who stole my

J Kerry-Edwards yard sign, defaced  it and put it back in my yard: Do you think that President Bush would approve of such behavior?

I And if you do think he'd approve,  why would you want to vote for someone like that?

 The local Democratic Party

 headquarters was out of yard signs

when I went to replace the stolen ones, so I had my own sign made. It said: 'America the Beautiful! One Constitution, many freedoms, onecountry, many beliefs. Vote in November!"

Now that sign has been stolen, too. curious: What part of that sign made someone mad enough to steal it? '

Bonnie Frederick, Fort Worth

.

When I got off work Saturday night, 1. found my "John Kerry for President" bumper sticker crumpled up and on the ground in front of my car. This act, despicable as it was, reminded me of other Repu lican misdeeds aimed at stifling dissent on the local and national level.

Just last week, the Tarrant County Democratic Party office received word that residents in one neighborhood had their Kerry-Edwards yard signs stolen and replaced with Bush-Cheney

signs.

on a national level, actions by Florida state police this year point to scare tactics aimed at suppress ing the black vote there, as was done in the 2000 election.

The downtrodden must stand up against these injustices, no matter how great or small. As Martin Luther King)r. stated some

40 years ago, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere~"

Cameron Rhoads, Fort Worth

 

 

The first time that a Kerry sign was stolen from my yard, {

thought it was a high school

prank. The second time, I began to wonder about the Republicans and how much power they feel enti tled to in expressing zeal for their candidate.

. The third time, I anchored the sign to a concrete block and chained.it to the bumper of my

car, only to find the sign and the bumper missing when I awoke the next morning.. This time I poured concrete, put the s.ign into the concrete, chained my dog to the sign and set up an alarm system of. lights and sounds to catch the sign thief.

The next morning my entire front yard and dog were missing. I've discovered that several other houses displaymg Kerry signs m the area have had the same thmg happen. Many of the houses on my street now have huge holes instead of front yards.

Take heart, Kerry supporters! We don't need signs! Just dig a huge hole your front yard! But watch out for dump trucks filled with dirt driymg through your neighborhoods.

Wayne McKinzie, Fort Worth

SPECIAL DELIVERY: A HOGWARTS HOWLER FOR THE AMERICAN VOTER

By Arianna Huffington

Oh, how I wish this column were capable of special effects. If it were, the newspaper or computer screen you’re reading it on would suddenly morph into a Howler, one of those bright red envelopes in the Harry Potter books that, when opened, begin to shout at the recipient in the sender’s voice. In this case, my Greek-accented cry would fill the air:

WAKE UP! WAKE UP!! WAKE UP!!!

The reason for my distress is simple: I’ve just seen another round of polls showing that, by a hefty 23-point spread, voters think George W. Bush will make the country safer and more secure than John Kerry. Karl Rove’s VBD (Vote for Bush or Die) strategy is clearly working.

And I’m left Howlering:

SAFER AND MORE SECURE? IN WHAT UNIVERSE???

For the public to be so dead wrong on this central issue of the campaign, two things had to happen: The GOP had to relentlessly hammer home their lies, and the other side had to let them get away with it.

Last month, John Kerry said: “More than 30 years ago, I learned an important lesson. When you’re under attack, the best thing to do is turn your boat into the attack.”

The good news is that once he turns his boat into this attack, he will absolutely never run out of ammunition. The facts that prove that George Bush’s prosecution of the War on Terror has been an unmitigated disaster are profuse and irrefutable.

But this Howler has to come in John Kerry’s voice — and the message has to be delivered not just now and then but pounded home, Rove-style, day after day, week after week, until it sinks in.

Kerry simply cannot, as some are advising, look at the poll numbers, cede national security to the other side, and hope to win by going after Bush on health care and jobs.

He needs to hit the president — again and again and again — right smack in the middle of his supposed strength: Bush’s “strong,” “steadfast, “unwavering,” “decisive” leadership in the War on Terror. This frontal assault on Bush’s terror strategy centers on all the ways this president has failed us. So, let me review them:

For starters, there is his disastrous decision to invade — for all intents and purposes unilaterally — Iraq, an operation Bush termed a “catastrophic success.” More like a catastrophic diversion — of troops and money and focus that would have been better spent, oh, I don’t know, going after the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11.

Right after those attacks, Bush said that capturing Osama bin Laden was “our number one priority.” But three years later, bin Laden is still on the loose and plotting to attack us again, a fact that Bush and Cheney keep trying to make us forget — first by turning him into He Who Must Not Be Named, and second by continuing to trot out the lies connecting Saddam Hussein to 9/11. Lies so thoroughly discredited that even loyal soldier Colin Powell felt compelled last Sunday to shoot them down.

Yet, hard though it is to believe, a Newsweek poll last week found that 42 percent of Americans still think Saddam was “directly involved in planning, financing or carrying out the terrorist attacks.”

I feel another Hogwarts Howler coming on: REPEAT AFTER ME: THERE WAS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN SADDAM AND 9/11. NONE! ZERO! ZIP! AAAAAH!

Bush’s lust for Iraq kept us from securing Afghanistan, most of which is now under the rule of barbaric warlords, with the Taliban and the country’s drug trade — a major source of funding for terrorist efforts worldwide — making a comeback.

What’s more, Bush’s Baghdad folly has allowed the terrorists to regroup. At his convention, the president had the gall to claim that “more than three-quarters of al-Qaida’s key members and associates have been detained or killed,” which makes it sound like the war on terror is all but won: “75 percent down; just a measly 25 percent to go!”

In truth, according to a study by the respected International Institute for Strategic Studies: “Al-Qaida has fully reconstituted and set its sights firmly on the USA.” The report also found that the war on Iraq had “helped al-Qaida recruit more members.”

Still feeling safer? Then let’s take a trip down nerve-racking memory lane, back to October 2001, when President Bush held a photo op at FBI headquarters and announced a list of America’s 22 Most Wanted Terrorists — a terrifying lineup he called “the first 22” in a long-term struggle, “leaders and key supporters … planners and strategists.” Three years later, just three of these Most Wanted have been captured or killed. The other 19 are still on the loose.

So is it really any surprise that the number of people killed and wounded in worldwide terrorist attacks is on the rise?

Bush has also failed to stem the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and materials. Take North Korea and Iran. The president’s all-consuming focus on Iraq has allowed the other two spokes on the Axis of Evil to push forward with their nuclear programs. While we were spending billions looking for Saddam’s nonexistent WMD, Kim Jong Il was building more nukes and the mullahs in Tehran were racing to do the same.

As if that weren’t bad enough, Bush has dragged his feet on efforts to keep loose nukes in the former Soviet Union from falling into the wrong hands.

Still thinking Bush is the man to keep us safe and secure? Then consider just a few of the ways he has robbed our Homeland Security Peter to pay his foreign occupation Paul:

Our ports are still woefully unprotected and underfunded. Since 9/11, Bush has allocated just $441 million of the $7.5 billion the Coast Guard says it will cost to protect our ports from terrorist attacks. And, obviously not having learned the lessons of Madrid, he’s earmarked just $100 million for rail security — about what we spend on eight typical hours in Iraq. The president has likewise shortchanged airport security: Only eight of America’s 440 airports have state-of-the-art baggage screening machines.

And how’s this for a kick in the teeth? The president’s cutbacks have actually left fewer police and first responders on the streets today than were there on 9/11. That’s right: Bush has responded to the worst attack on American soil by making us less prepared to deal with another one.

So let’s recap: Under George Bush, the guy who is going to keep us safer, Osama has gone free; al-Qaida has reloaded; terrorist attacks continue unabated; nukes keep on spreading; the Muslim world is ferociously united against us (and the rest of the world isn’t too crazy about us either); our ports, railways, roads and borders remain unsecured; our police, firefighters and first responders remain underequipped; and our armed forces have been stretched perilously thin.

I’m all for having the election be a referendum on which candidate will make the country safe and secure — but only after Kerry’s inner Howler has had his say.

Said Howler is on cinematic display in a powerful new documentary coming to a theater near you the day after the first — and only? — presidential debate. For me, the highlight of George Butler’s “Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry” is the story of Kerry’s courageous and inspiring efforts as a leader of the Vietnam veterans’ antiwar movement.

If Kerry can make the case against Bush’s tragic failures in Iraq and the War on Terror with half as much urgency and moral clarity as he did against Nixon’s failures in Vietnam, the American people will be able to enter the voting booth on Election Day with their eyes wide open.

© 2004 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON.
DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

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W IS FOR WUSS
Paul Waldman, Gadflyer
George W. Bush is the true coward in this presidential race.
http://www.alternet.org/election04/19860/

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Taking On the Myth
By PAUL KRUGMAN
John Kerry needs to point out how George W. Bush has put America at risk by politicizing the "war on terror."

OP-ED COLUMNIST
The Dishonesty Thing
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Nobody knows what Bush would really do about taxes and spending in a second term. What we do know is that on this, as on many matters, he won't tell the truth.

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of the

terrorist attacks on the U.S.A..

Our government was not doing anything

to prevent this. George W. Bush and

his administration are to blame.

Senator Bob Graham Accuses Bush of 9/11 Saudi Cover-up

"The Bush administration has bungled the war on terrorism, doing little to provide security at home while breeding legions of new enemies abroad, the government's former anti-terrorism chief, Richard Clarke" Said

Boston Globe Revisits Bush's Guard Records and Find His Service Record Suspect: "Bush's commanding officer wrote that Bush had not been seen at his unit for the previous 12 months." 9/8

Cheney Goes Nuclear: Threatens Americans that a Kerry Administration Will Mean More Terrorism. Whoa! Terrorism Has INCREASED Since Bush and Cheney Failed to Prevent 9/11! 9/8

A Daily Look at U.S. Iraq Military Deaths - 1003 9/8

HEROES AND VILLAINS:  REFRAMING THE 2004 RACE

By Arianna Huffington

John Kerry is suddenly being bombarded with more advice than an obese,
alcoholic, unwed teenage mother seated between Dr. Laura and Dr. Phil
on a
cross-country bus trip.

Spurred by Bush's convention bounce, jittery Democrats of every stripe
--
including a hospital-bound Bill Clinton -- are urging him to "throw
caution to the wind," "start smacking back," "hammer home jobs, the
economy, health care and education," and concentrate on domestic
issues.

So the party faithful have gone from expecting John Kerry to beat
George
Bush by outmachoing the counterfeit cowboy from Crawford to expecting
him
to win by offering a better Medicare plan.

The truth is neither of these strategies addresses the greatest
challenge
facing the Kerry camp: the need to change the frame in which the
campaign
is conducted -- a frame thus far constructed by Karl Rove and the
Bush/Cheney brain trust.

A new poll by CNN/USA Today/Gallup makes it clear that, unlike 2000,
issues are not driving this year's election.  Voters are more concerned
with leadership skills than the candidates' issue-by-issue positions.

There is no doubt that Kerry wins on the issues.  Indeed, among the
minority of voters making their decision based on the issues, Kerry has
a
20-point lead.  But Bush has opened a 20-point lead among the majority
that's focused on leadership.

Of course, leadership is about more than "a spine of tempered steel".
It's about character, values, priorities, and a clear vision of where
the
country should be heading.  So Kerry needs to offer a compelling,
overarching narrative tying his strength -- and Bush's weakness -- on
issues like jobs, the economy, the environment, and health care to his
vision for America's future.

Thankfully -- and ironically -- during its convention, the Bush/Cheney
team delivered the very narrative that can defeat it.  It was offered
to
Kerry on a platter in Madison Square Garden when speaker after speaker
relentlessly and shamelessly ridiculed the undeniable reality that we
are
two Americas, separated by an ever-widening gulf -- not just in income
but
in educational opportunities, access to health care, and the ability to
realize the American Dream.

Rudy Giuliani and Dick Cheney even went so far as to use the notion of
two
Americas as the set up for jokes.

"Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas," said Cheney.  "It makes the
whole thing mutual.  America sees two John Kerrys."  And according to
Giuliani, Democrats need "two Americas -- one where John Kerry can vote
for something and another where he can vote against the same thing."
Hardee-har-har.

It's worth noting that this frivolity at the expense of the Other
America
came just days after the release of a devastating report from the
Census
Bureau showing that over 12 percent of the American people -- 35.9
million, 12.9 million of them children -- now live below the poverty
line,
and that the number of Americans with no health insurance has increased
by
5.8 million under Bush, bringing the total to 45 million.  Pretty
funny,
eh boys?

And the growing chasm between the Two Americas is chillingly documented
in
a report released this week by the Economic Policy Institute which
shows
how over the last few years "income shifted extremely rapidly and
extensively from labor compensation to capital income (profits and
interest)."  As Jared Bernstein, co-author of the report, put it:  "The
economic pie is growing gangbusters and the typical household is
falling
behind."

And yet Arnold Schwarzenegger had the gall to tell us at the convention
that "America is back!"  The fact that the Republicans chose not only
to
render the increasing pain of increasing millions invisible but to use
it
as a punchline tells you all you need to know about the current mindset
of
the Grand Old Party.  And, even more importantly, it offers an
unparalleled opportunity for the Kerry campaign to stop defending
itself
against the flip-flopping caricature of Kerry that Rove has created and
start defining who George Bush really is -- a callous leader whose
regressive policies have made America a crueler and more dangerous
place.

The Two Americas narrative shows that, far from providing strong
leadership, Bush has turned his back on the traditional American values
of
fairness, opportunity, and responsibility.

What's more, it's impossible to talk about the reality of the Two
Americas
without talking about Bush's miserable failures in Iraq, as Kerry did
on
Labor Day, pointing out to a crowd in Cleveland that this "wrong war in
the wrong place at the wrong time… cost all of you $200 billion that
could
have gone to schools, could have gone to health care, could have gone
to
prescription drugs, could have gone to our Social Security."

It's the Other America that's paying this cost in forgone opportunities
and investments.  And it's the Other America that's also paying the
highest price of all in lost lives and maimed bodies.  There are
precious
few denizens of Bush's America slogging through the bloody streets of
Najaf and Fallujah -- other than the occasional Halliburton executive,
there to check on the company's investment in democracy.

It was a great relief to hear Kerry slam Bush on Iraq, and ignore the
siren song of those advising him to cede the foreign policy front to
the
president and stick to domestic issues.  This, of course, is the same
strategy Democrats followed in 2002, when they went along with Bush on
Iraq in the hope they could take it off the table as a campaign issue
and
win on the economy.  And we all remember how well that turned out.  For
the GOP.

The storyline of this campaign is really about heroes and villains. 
John
Kerry and John Edwards are running because they are committed to the
most
important and heroic task facing our country: the building of one
indivisible nation.  They desperately want to make us one America. 
Bush
and Cheney are running so they can continue to make life easier,
plusher,
and more privileged for the only America they choose to see.  To
succeed,
they have to convince enough people between now and Election Day that
the
Other America is somehow a pessimistic figment of the Democratic
imagination.

The people who flock to John Kerry's rallies know the truth.  People
like
Lori Sheldon, a 45-year old mother of two who approached Kerry at a
Labor
Day rally in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania where he spoke of the struggle of
middle-class Americans no longer even trying to get ahead but just to
hang
on.

"You told our story," she said, sobbing.  Sheldon's husband is a
baggage
handler for financially strapped US Airways and faces being laid off
this
fall.  So her story is the story of one more family the Republican
convention had no time for, living paycheck to paycheck, in fear of
losing
it all.

This is the voice of the Other America.  And no matter how vehemently
and
blithely the president and his surrogates insist that it doesn't exist,
it
does.  And if John Kerry continues to tell its story, amplify its
voice,
and give the Other America a reason to turn out in November, he'll win
in
a landslide.

© 2004 ARIANNA HUFFINGTON.
http://www.ariannaonline.com/blog/

OP-ED COLUMNIST

A Mythic Reality

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: September 7, 2004

ARTICLE TOOLS E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Format Most E-Mailed Articles Columnist Page: Paul Krugman Forum: Discuss This Column E-mail: krugman@nytimes.com RELATED Book Review: 'War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning' TIMES NEWS TRACKER   Topics Alerts Bush, George W Iraq Hedges, Chris

he best book I've read about America after 9/11 isn't about either America or 9/11. It's "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning," an essay on the psychology of war by Chris Hedges, a veteran war correspondent. Better than any poll analysis or focus group, it explains why President Bush, despite policy failures at home and abroad, is ahead in the polls.

War, Mr. Hedges says, plays to some fundamental urges. "Lurking beneath the surface of every society, including ours," he says, "is the passionate yearning for a nationalist cause that exalts us, the kind that war alone is able to deliver." When war psychology takes hold, the public believes, temporarily, in a "mythic reality" in which our nation is purely good, our enemies are purely evil, and anyone who isn't our ally is our enemy.

This state of mind works greatly to the benefit of those in power.

One striking part of the book describes Argentina's reaction to the 1982 Falklands war. Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri, the leader of the country's military junta, cynically launched that war to distract the public from the failure of his economic policies. It worked: "The junta, which had been on the verge of collapse" just before the war, "instantly became the saviors of the country."

The point is that once war psychology takes hold, the public desperately wants to believe in its leadership, and ascribes heroic qualities to even the least deserving ruler. National adulation for the junta ended only after a humiliating military defeat.

George W. Bush isn't General Galtieri: America really was attacked on 9/11, and any president would have followed up with a counterstrike against the Taliban. Yet the Bush administration, like the Argentine junta, derived enormous political benefit from the impulse of a nation at war to rally around its leader.

Another president might have refrained from exploiting that surge of support for partisan gain; Mr. Bush didn't.

And his administration has sought to perpetuate the war psychology that makes such exploitation possible.

Step by step, the fight against Al Qaeda became a universal "war on terror," then a confrontation with the "axis of evil," then a war against all evil everywhere. Nobody knows where it all ends.

What is clear is that whenever political debate turns to Mr. Bush's actual record in office, his popularity sinks. Only by doing whatever it takes to change the subject to the war on terror - not to what he's actually doing about terrorist threats, but to his "leadership," whatever that means - can he get a bump in the polls.

Last week's convention made it clear that Mr. Bush intends to use what's left of his heroic image to win the election, and early polls suggest that the strategy may be working. What can John Kerry do?

Campaigning exclusively on domestic issues won't work. Mr. Bush must be held to account for his dismal record on jobs, health care and the environment. But as Mr. Hedges writes, when war psychology makes a public yearn to believe in its leaders, "there is little that logic or fact or truth can do to alter the experience."

To win, the Kerry campaign has to convince a significant number of voters that the self-proclaimed "war president" isn't an effective war leader - he only plays one on TV.

This charge has the virtue of being true. It's hard to find a nonpartisan national security analyst with a good word for the Bush administration's foreign policy. Iraq, in particular, is a slow-motion disaster brought on by wishful thinking, cronyism and epic incompetence.

If I were running the Kerry campaign, I'd remind people frequently about Mr. Bush's flight-suit photo-op, when he declared the end of major combat. In fact, the war goes on unabated. News coverage of Iraq dropped off sharply after the supposed transfer of sovereignty on June 28, but as many American soldiers have died since the transfer as in the original invasion.

And I'd point out that while Mr. Bush spared no effort preparing for his carrier landing - he even received underwater survival training in the White House pool - he didn't prepare for things that actually mattered, like securing and rebuilding Iraq after Baghdad fell.

Will it work? I don't know. But to win, Mr. Kerry must try to puncture the myth that Mr. Bush's handlers have so assiduously created.