Shakesville

Al QaQaa for Brains

I know I've been lax in not posting anything about this unfolding missing explosives story, but it seems to be a constantly moving target; by the time I'm ready to nail down a post, the facts (or at least the assumptions) have already changed. I'm not certain that we're done sorting through the whole mess yet.

At this point, however, it looks like a big mess for Furious George & Friends. The just-finished press conference does not sound like it went well (I wasn't able to watch). Atrios says it was a disaster, and under the headline "IT'S ALIVE, IT'S ALIVE - OUR MEDIA, IT'S ALIVE!!!" John Aravosis of AMERICAblog writes:

I'm watching the Pentagon's live press conference about Qaqaa-gate and the media is ripping them to shreds. It's amazing. They actually know their facts and are catching the Pentagon briefers in all sorts of mix-ups.

And more evidence that the Big Mo is truly going our way: I just ran out for lunch and tuned in to Rush Limbaugh's show for a few minutes of amusement. Oh, and it was amusing. He's spinning like a whirling dervish, invoking everything from Kerry's "not released" military records to the "global test." It's unreal. He's freaking out, and saying how the whole al QaQaa thing is going to totally implode the Kerry campaign. In the continuing game of Projection Politics, we all know what THAT really means.

Poll-a-Rama

This evening before leaving work, I caught a call that was a pre-recorded message. We get lots of those, and I was about to hang up when I realized it was a solicitation to participate in a CBS election poll. Being landline-less, I jumped at the only chance I would have to take part, and so I spent the 5 minutes or so touch-toning my answers. I was especially interested as the questions were geared toward Indiana voters, rather than Illinois voters (being in NW Indiana, we get Chicago stations, and end up knowing a lot more about Barack Obama than Evan Bayh).

The survey ended with a message that the poll results would appear on the evening newscast, which I did not watch, opting for my nightly dose of Jon Stewart instead, especially as I knew Zogby would be making an appearance. I looked for the results online, but CBS' Chicago affiliate site that did the polling yielded nothing.

I did, however, see in their Indiana news section that there has been much interest in the election and increased voter registration across college campuses throughout the state. Knowing the voter trends of younger voters, my dream of the ever-purplish Hoosiers turning into a battleground state in '08 might just yet be realized.

Wired

Salon has more on the Bush bulge. This time, a NASA image specialist weighs in.

Zogrageous!

John Zogby just appeared on The Daily Show and called it for Kerry, without hesitation. My heart's a-pumpin'!

Power of the People

A lot of discussion this election cycle has been dedicated to questioning if Kerry has adequately appealed to minority voters, and whether Bush is going to end up with double the minority voters he did in 2000. I’ve read lots of articles and opinions on the subject, but the one that seems to be the most honest comes from a Salon reader who admonishes the journal for not giving a voice to those who really know. I don’t think Salon is unique in its tendency to raise lots of questions about particular voter groups without actually talking to any members.

This is a sister issue to the one I raised recently regarding the Left’s regard (or lack thereof) for Middle America, and is therefore of great interest to me. So much of the chatter from Lefty publications is airily theoretical, espousing assumptions and raising questions about regional, social, or ethnic groups without ever getting into the trenches and mingling with the hoi polloi that compose these factions, thereby leaving their own questions unanswered. I was buoyed by the letter published in Salon, which gave a rational and matter-of-fact voice to the very voters whose votes have been the subject of so much hang-wringing debate.

The author of the letter, Kevin Criss, speaks for two groups that have been much discussed recently – African Americans and younger voters, to whom he refers as “young'ns.” He begins:

I am a 21-year-old African-American/loyal Salon reader/ frequent writer to you. Although I love you all a lot and, like you (assuming so), I am a liberal, I just feel I have to scream at you for a bit. Almost two weeks ago, I sent a letter to you guys telling you how the new Eminem song "Mosh" has many young'ns riled up, angry, motivated and against Bush. Now 10 days or so later, not only you guys but many publications are up on it. My point? Maybe you guys should listen more to us young'ns, maybe have a young person consultant of sorts. After all, we will decide this election […]

Lest one assume that his last claim is hyperbole, he goes on to explain:

First, let me just say prepare for the death of polls, as that will be the dominant story coming out of election night. First blacks. […] Those polls saying how Bush will get 16 to 18 percent of the black vote are just wrong. To quote ODB, "Nigga please." Since black people aren't really polled, here is a bit of insight. Although we aren't that excited about Kerry, he has nothing to worry about with the African-American community. We as a whole don't like Bush, period. Yes, Democrats take us for granted and regardless of which party, we are at the bottom of the totem poll, but we realize that Democrats talk to us, try with us, are down with us, and give us a seat at the table. We are gamed to what the GOP do, or rather don't do for us. […]
Plus, we are highly motivated. You just don't realize how pissed we are from Florida last time. Bringing out Clinton won't hurt, but Kerry shouldn't worry about us African-Americans.
Next, us young'ns. We aren't as stupid as people think. Simply put, we are in Iraq fighting or we know someone there, we have no health insurance, no jobs, and are generally pro-human rights (not for the gay marriage amendment, PATRIOT Act, etc.). We aren't going to vote for Bush, period. Kerry will take about 70 percent of the young vote. I am predicting, collectively there will at least 20 million more voters from these two groups, young'ns and blacks. You maybe think "yeah the fuck right" -- but trust me. On average 30 percent of African-Americans vote. Expect a minimum of 50 percent this time, maybe close to double. That is anywhere between 7 to 9 million more blacks voting. Young'ns will have a similar margin. Again, we at most vote at a 40 percent rate. Young'ns will easily double their numbers, going from 18 million to about 36 million.

I know some reading this are dubious; some will chalk up such claims to youthful exuberance—the idealism of the young. But let’s give some context to this issue:

The polls are screwed; everyone knows about the cell phone exclusion issue.

Harvard has found that college students prefer Kerry to Bush by a wide margin.

Nickelodeon’s kid poll declared Kerry the winner. Sure, they’re not old enough to vote, but it’s indicative of a youth trend favoring Kerry over Bush, and they’ve called it right the last four presidential elections.

The popularity of media like “Mosh,” The Daily Show, and Conan O’Brien (whose Triumph the Insult Comic Dog might be the second best political commentator after Jon Stewart this election cycle) all of which appeals primarily to the under-35 crowd. In fact, if you check out iFilm’s Top 100 Viral Videos, it’s rife with Lefty goodness: Triumph: Poop Valhalla (#1), Ann Coulter Pelted with Pies (#2), Bush: Draft! Wait...No Draft! (#11), Hard Working George (#17), Seriously. (#22), George Bush Stumbles over Sovereignty (#29), Reeve Stem Cell PSA (#31), and on and on and on…and they only get more plentiful as the list goes on.

Bush is drawing far fewer supporters to his rallies than Kerry is to his. While one may argue that disparity is due to Bush & Co.’s insistence that attendees sign loyalty oaths, I don’t believe that’s the main issue. When Bush is drawing 1,000 to Kerry’s 10,000, loyalty oaths isn’t all that’s at work. (If you figure that half of those attending Kerry rallies are actually Bush supporters—an unlikely scenario, but let’s assume it for the sake of the hypothetical—then why would Bush still only be getting 1,000 in the same area, instead of 5,000? Say all of those weren’t willing to sign loyalty oaths—cut that number in half again, and Bush should still be getting 2,500 instead of 1,000, especially when he’s a sitting president.) My guess is that the loyalty oaths were a way to diffuse attention from the disproportionate turnouts—a built-in excuse to explain away why the president’s crowds were smaller. It was just a convenient benefit that those who were willing to sign would also be unlikely to confront him. Insularity is clearly a hallmark of this administration, but red herrings are totally their style.

Criss ends his letter with the following appeal:

I ask that in the future that you at least take in more opinions from us young'ns and Afro Americans.

I think that if, as I fully expect, the “young’ns and Afro Americans” deliver this election to us in landslide style, taking in more of their opinions is the least we can do in return.

After that, jobs, healthcare, and a country they can be proud of, where criticism isn’t inextricably linked to treason and hope replaces fear as our guiding tone, would be a good start.

The Power of Persuasion

Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O’Reilly International reports:

FOX News Channel’s highest-rated personality, Bill O’Reilly, selectively avoided statistics relating to his own powerful influence over the upcoming Presidential election.

The statistic was dodged by Mr. O’Reilly when he interviewed Glenn Pere, President of The Pere Partnership, on FOX News’ The O’Reilly Factor broadcast on Tuesday, October 26th.

Upon review of the results of the same national survey obtained from The Pere Partnership and Jericho Communications, sweetjesusihatebilloreilly.com discovered O’Reilly’s little sin of omission.

When the survey respondents were asked which celebrities participation swayed a vote towards the opposing candidate, O’Reilly showcased statistics indicating that Michael Moore actually drives six times as many people to Bush than Kerry. However, O’Reilly failed to mention that he himself inadvertently drives more than 18 times as many potential voters to John Kerry than he does to George Bush.

While fewer than 1% of respondents said that O’Reilly convinced them to vote Republican, a whopping 18% said they were more likely to support Democrats after listening to O’Reilly’s nightly criticism of liberal politicians.

The same study showed that respondents were 8 times as likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by Jon Stewart of The Daily Show than Bill O’Reilly.

Grody to the Max

From WaPo, via Atrios:

The rally was a love-fest in the conservative, rural Florida community. Three busloads of schoolchildren from the Heritage Christian School waited for an hour and a half to see Cheney and clap for the man they said speaks to the issues important to their lives.
Asked to name the country's biggest problem, 12-year-old Vivian Resto said, "Homosexuals. I think it's kind of gross, and my mom and I believe it should be a man and a woman."

That’s funny, Vivian. I think Dick Cheney is kind of gross.

It must be fun for Dick to get to talk to 12-year-olds who think his adult daughter and her adult decisions are part of the country’s biggest problem. There’s nothing quite as special as the derisive condescension of sniveling, self-righteous pre-teens.

Any thoughts on what might actually be the country’s biggest problem? I’m going to start with parents who teach their kids that homosexuals are gross. It might not strictly be the country’s biggest problem, but with so many troubling us these days, it’s a good place to start.

Reality Bytes

Check this out.

Preemptive Pout

James Wolcott has been doing a good job of noting the rightwing media's budding attemps to lay the groundwork in anticipation of a Bush defeat. (See here and here.) It will be, of course, because of the mainstream media's bias toward Kerry.

Announcing from Cloud Cuckoo Land that "they will pay for it more than they could imagine," Roger L. Simon tells his minions:

And it will be the blogosphere and you, our own supporters, who will make them pay. Our strength will grow incrementally with a Kerry victory in terms of influence and even economic power. And both will be at the expense of the mainstream media. Yes, we too have 'plans.'

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put a lid on it, Sauron.

And might I remind you that two can play at that game these days. You've heard of a little company called Sinclair, right, Rog? My dream is that the Left and the Right so voraciously harass the media over the next four years that they stop listening to everyone and start doing the actual work of broadcasting objective news (which is, let's face it, what the Left really wants anyway, being members of the reality-based community and all).

Salute (Continued)

In case you haven't seen the entire video of Furious George captured in all his uncensored glory, you can follow the trail back through AMERICAblog here.

It's not really an indictment on his character - I've been known to issue the one-finger salute myself. I just find the whole thing amusing.

[Update: In case the above link doesn't work for you, it can also now be viewed here at iFilm.]

The Ol' One-Fingered Salute

How did he know what I do every time I see his smug, smarmy, smirky face on my TV?!

(I snagged this from BobHarris.com. Thanks, Bob.)

Wednesday's Highlights

Slate has a round-up of staff endorsements, from editors to contributors to illustrators to interns. By far, their votes are going to Kerry, although it’s interesting to read their varied reasons why.

Ananova reports that Arnold Schwartenegger’s Austrian home town has scrapped plans to build a statue in his honor after his endorsement of Bush and the Iraq war.

Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) issues a report detailing the exaggeration and manipulation of intelligence leading up to the war. The examination of this information should have played a major role in this election, as it’s a key component of the referendum on whether to re(s)elect the incumbent. Despite the media’s reluctance to engage the topic, I encourage you to read the report and see just how hoodwinked we all really were.

The Rude Pundit has a great post about Kerry’s status as superhero extraordinaire. If you are unfamiliar with Kerry’s greatest accomplishments as a Senator, this will serve as a nice introduction.

Salon’s War Room reports on Moby’s truce-calling endorsement of Eminem’s screed, “Mosh.”

And for all you country music-lovin’ Lefties out there, this song’s for you.

Mosh

Mr. Shakespeare's Sister and I just watched Eminem's new video, "Mosh." See it here. It is truly an astounding piece of work - I was literally left with goosebumps.

Watch it, and then tell everyone you know about it.

Below are the lyrics, which I snagged from one of those online lyric emporiums; I'm not totally convinced they're accurate, but I think they're pretty close. I tried to go to Eminem's site, but it has been taken temporarily offline for exceeding its bandwidth - lots of people checking out Mosh, I suspect.

Lyrics:

[I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. one nation under God Indivisible - It feels so good to be back...]

Scrutinize every word, memorize every line
I spit it once, refuel, reenergize, and rewind
I give sight to the blind, mind sight through the mind
I ostracize my right to express when I feel it's time
It's just all in your mind, what you interpret it as
I say to fight you take it as I'm gonna whip someone's ass
If you don't understand don't even bother to ask
A father who has grown up with a fatherless past
Who has blown up now to rap phenomenon that has
Or at least shows no difficulty multi task
And juggling both, perhaps mastered his craft slash
Entrepreneur who has held long too few more rap acts
Who has had a few obstacles thrown his way through the last half
Of his career typical manure moving past that
Mister kiss his ass crack, he's a class act
Rubber band man, yea he just snaps back
Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't steer you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors
To the people up top, on the side and the middle,
Come together, let's all bomb and swamp just a little
Just let it gradually build, from the front to the back
All you can see is a sea of people, some white and some black
Don't matter what color, all that matters is we gathered together
To celebrate for the same cause, no matter the weather
If it rains let it rain, yea the wetter the better
They ain't gonna stop us, they can't, we're stronger now more then ever,
They tell us no we say yea, they tell us stop we say go,
Rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell we gonna let em know
Stomp, push up, mush, fuck Bush, until they bring our troops home come on just . . .
Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't steer you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors, come on
Imagine it pouring, it's raining down on us,
Mosh pits outside the oval office
Someone's trying to tell us something, maybe this is God just saying we're responsible for this monster, this coward, that we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head nodding,
How could we allow something like this,
Without pumping our fist
Now this is our, final hour
Let me be the voice, and your strength, and your choice
Let me simplify the rhyme, just to amplify the noise
Try to amplify the times it, and multiply it by six
Teen million people are equal of this high pitch
Maybe we can reach Al Qaida through my speech
Let the President answer our anarchy
Strap him with AK-47, let him go
Fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our soil
No more psychological warfare to trick us to think that we ain't loyal
If we don't serve our own country we're patronizing a hero
Look in his eyes, it's all lies, the stars and stripes
They've been swiped, washed out and wiped,
And replaced with his own face, mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you'll know why, because I told you to fight
So come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won't steer you wrong
Put your faith and your trust as I guide us through the fog
Till the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors

[Eminem speaking angrily] And as we proceed, to mosh through this desert storm, in these closing statements, if they should argue, let us beg to differ, as we set aside our differences, and assemble our own army, to disarm this weapon of mass destruction that we call our president, for the present, and mosh for the future of our next generation, to speak and be heard, Mr. President, Mr. Senator

Flippty-Floppity-Floo

So Bush has decided that civil unions aren’t such a bad idea after all and that his party’s platform is wrong. Now, aside from revealing the gaping vacuum in his campaign spawned by the absence of a little thing called integrity, this incident begs the question: Why does anyone buy any of this bullshit about what a strong, steady, resolute leader this guy is?

He isn’t strong enough to admit mistakes; he isn’t strong enough to hold anyone in his administration accountable for any of their multitude of both domestic and foreign policy failures; he wasn’t strong enough to stand up to the energy industry in defense of our environment; he wasn’t strong enough to curtail (or even criticize) Congress’ irresponsible discretionary spending as it spiraled out of control in the middle of a major fiscal crisis; he wasn’t strong enough to secure an extension of the assault weapons ban from a Republican-controlled Congress; and now he reveals himself as not strong enough to have had a modicum of influence over a key plank in his own party’s platform.

(The alternative explanation being, of course, that he is simply not strong enough to resist sacrificing his own beliefs in equal rights to the altar of ideology when it seemed convenient. Either way, equally spineless.)

It takes some kind of unbelievable brass ones for someone with such an appalling record to question whether Kerry is strong enough to defend this country. Sir, you aren’t strong enough to control the people whose careers depend on their allegiance to you. Until you can exhibit even the slightest degree of authority over your own partisan supporters, I don’t want to hear anything else that even begins to approximate questioning the strength or consistency of your opponent.

Burning Bush

Well...his pants are on fire again, anyway.

Apparently someone asked Bush about the bulge on his back during the debates and he replied (I just heard this on the radio, so I'm paraphrasing): "Gee, I don't know what that is. I guess, I'm embarrassed to say, it's a badly tailored shirt."

You know, you'd think someone who lies so much would be better at it.

Bush 101

The Nation's Judd Legum makes "The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush Administration" here. (There is also an option to download and distribute a .pdf version.) Offering up 100 reasons to vote against Bush (and 1 opinion) with sources, the article is a handy reference guide for anyone who finds a persuadable voter in their midst. And for those who have already made up their minds, it's a poignant reminder of why Furious George needs to go.

Search Me

One week to go and the top 5 searches on MSN during this most ferociously contested election are:

1. spice house
2. nascar news
3. world series
4. petra nemcova
5. cindy Margolis

Sad but true. Meanwhile, Bush wants $70 billion more for his wars (just weeks after Kerry was lambasted for suggesting the war cost $200 billion—and now we will exceed that number); Iraqi soldiers are getting killed by the (literal) busload; Rehnquist is on death’s door, leaving the Court split 4-4 with an imminent election that might hinge on its decision; there’s bickering over the timing of the theft of the explosives in Iraq (a likely useless diversionary tactic to distract attention away from the big question of how they got stolen at all); consumer confidence has fallen for the third consecutive month; voter fraud is the new black; media owners are going totally haywire; the polls are dubious at best; and on and on and on.

Come on, people. Can you forget porn and sports for one fucking day and find out what the hell is going on in your country?!

Deep Thoughts

The New York Review of Books has compiled thoughts from many of their contributors on “The Election and America’s Future.” A lot of great stuff there, which I hope you will read, and which I will summarize with this efficient little quote from Garry Wills:

Most elections are referendums on the people in place, and that should be the overwhelming criterion this time. What will four more Bush years do to our relations abroad, our armed forces, our environment, our economy, our civil rights, our separation of church and state? Were it not so tragic in its toll of the dead and maimed on both sides of the conflict, our war in Iraq would seem a comedy of endless errors, featuring such Keystone Kops as George (Bring 'Em On) Bush, Karl (Mission Accomplished) Rove, Condi (Mushroom Cloud) Rice, Tony (Forty-Five Minutes) Blair, Dick (Prague Meeting) Cheney, Don (Stuff Happens) Rumsfeld, George (Slam Dunk) Tenet, Paul (Shinseki Is Wild) Wolfowitz, Colin (Mobile Labs) Powell, Ahmed (Iraqis Love Me) Chalabi, Doug (Oil Will Rebuild It) Feith, Ken (Cakewalk) Adelman, Richard (Ahmed Told Me) Perle, and other supporting players. What will the future say of us if we continue to reward this crew?

The Big Dog Speaks

"I asked President Clinton today if 'there's anything you have in common with George W. Bush?' He thought for a moment and he said, 'In eight days and 12 hours, we will both be former presidents.'"

--John Kerry recounting a talk with President Clinton (via Salon)

Sister Loses Her Shit

Slate’s headlines today were as follows:

1. Good Pop, Bad Pop: Why Democrats—not Republicans—are the hard-line parents.
2. Who’s Worse? The French or the Saudis?
3. Are Republicans Nicer Than Democrats?

What the hell is going on over there? All three stories were complete crap, and while I fully intended while reading them to dissect them and point out the obvious flaws and ludicrous assumptions populating each article, I now simply can’t be bothered. In fact, I feel like there are better things to be talking about one week before the election, and frankly, I think Slate should feel the same. I don’t really give a rat’s ass who’s nicer to someone in a t-shirt featuring the opposing party’s candidate, nor do I give a flying fuck who’s a better dad, as long as he knows how to run the friggin’ country.

It’s no wonder we’re about the plunge off the edge of a cliff, with stories like these making headlines 8 days before the most highly contested presidential election in my lifetime. And meanwhile, I see more headlines today about Ashlee Simpsons’s lip-synching mishap than about the 380 tons of explosives in Iraq that are now missing because we chose to guard the Iraqi Oil Ministry instead.

What has HAPPENED to this country? Slate, get it together, and the rest of you media fucks out there, you get it together, too. When there are a hundred thousand people turning out to see John Kerry speak, I don’t want to hear reports that it’s a few hundred, and that they’re still not inspired by Kerry—they just want Anybody But Bush. Fuck that; we want Kerry, you pricks, and by the way, it doesn’t matter whether it’s “ABB” or JFK when whoever it is pulls in people by the truckloads without requiring them to sign loyalty oaths. How about reporting reality for a change? Assholes.