DAMFA

Aaron Brown, CNN Newsnight 10:00 pm
Keith Olbermann, Countdown MSNBC 8:00 pm
Jon Stewart, Daily Show Comedy Central 11:00 pm
Bill Moyers, NOW PBS, 8:30 pm, Fridays
Jim Lehrer, PBS, 7:00 pm

During remarks in Derry, N.H., Bush said the late terrorist Abu Nidal killed Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old Jewish American who died after being tossed - along with his wheelchair - off a hijacked cruise liner named Achille Lauro in 1985.

``Do you remember Abu Nidal?'' Bush asked the crowd. ``He's the guy that killed Leon Klinghoffer. Leon Klinghoffer was murdered because of his religion. Abu Nidal was in Baghdad, as was his organization.''

He repeated the mistake Monday evening at a campaign event in New York City: ``Abu Nidal was a cold-blooded terrorist killer who killed Leon Klinghoffer.''

Actually, it was Abul Abbas, the leader of a violent Palestinian group, who killed Klinghoffer.

Kerry said Monday, "Is he really saying to Americans that if we had known there were no imminent threat, no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to al-Qaida, the United States should have invaded Iraq? My answer is resoundingly no because a commander in chief's first responsibility is to make a wise and responsible decision to keep America safe."

"Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place in hell," Kerry said. "But that was not, in itself, a reason to go to war. The satisfaction we take in his downfall does not hide this fact: We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure."

Well-placed sources in the administration are confident Bush's decision will be to get out. They believe that is the recommendation of his national security team and would be the recommendation of second-term officials. An informed guess might have Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state, Paul Wolfowitz as defense secretary and Stephen Hadley as national security adviser. According to my sources, all would opt for a withdrawal.

Getting out now would not end expensive U.S. reconstruction of Iraq, and certainly would not stop the fighting. Without U.S. troops, the civil war cited as the worst-case outcome by the recently leaked National Intelligence Estimate would be a reality. It would then take a resolute president to stand aside while Iraqis battle it out.

SCHNEIDER: Well, I can guarantee you, they don't like George Bush. Do they think there's a difference? I think Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda network, who I am certain follow American politics, look at the messages coming out on their tapes. They seem to follow politics very closely. They would very much like to defeat President Bush. But the question is: Can they pull off the same trick that they pulled off in Spain? What Dennis Hastert said is, "They'd better not try that. It won't work here." And my guess is, he's right about that.

Mr. Bush, while missing months of the Guard duty that allowed him to avoid Vietnam, was the political director of the Blount campaign, which accused Mr. Sparkman - a hawk on the war - and the national Democrats of supporting "amnesty for all draft dodgers" and of showing "more concern for coddling deserters than for patriotic American young men who have lost their lives in Vietnam." In the last week of the race, the Blount campaign ran a radio advertisement using an edited recording of Mr. Sparkman that made him appear to support forced busing of schoolchildren, which he opposed.

Although campaign records list Mr. Bush as third in command, people who worked in the race said he was not involved in those tactics or with the overall agenda.

While in public, Bush appears to interact amiably with the media, in the center of government -- away from public observation -- he is disconnected, like an unplugged machine. At a January 30, 2001, meeting with the National Security Council, O'Neill remembers, "the president said little. He just nodded, with that same flat, unquestioning demeanor that O'Neill was familiar with." Behind closed doors, Bush no longer connects or exists. His principal function has been lost. In this respect he is like an expensive, hand-waxed automobile, gleaming in the darkness of a garage. The car is intended for rapid motion and for public display. When its owner-driver is at the dinner table, he has no need of the car. "The celebrity displays personality," explains Michael Rogin. "He pleases others; intimate before the mass audience, he plays at privacy in public. Neither a repressed interior nor an intractable reality exercise claims over the celebrity for he exists in the eye of the beholder." If Bush "plays at privacy" in public, he cannot act "for real" in private, because he is now in a realm where substance and depth, rather than sheer surface, are called upon.

The group gave grades of F to several states - including Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware and Tennessee - based on their degree of reliance on paperless electronic voting. Florida, whose results will almost certainly receive intense scrutiny, received an F-plus, while Georgia was given an F-minus. New Mexico, a swing state that will rely heavily on touch-screen voting on Nov. 2, received a D-minus. ...

... While it is too late in the game to make it possible to produce a paper record for each vote on every machine already deployed, Mr. Miller said that vendors would be willing to include that feature in the future if the market demanded it. Most of the major vendors have models that can supply a printed record, but in most cases, Mr. Miller said, election officials have not required it.

Paper receipts are not automatically required because no such universal guideline has ever existed. Mechanical lever machines, for instance, which have been in widespread use since the 1930's - and will still be used by millions of voters this year - have never produced a paper record of each vote. And states have traditionally established their own definitions of what constitutes a ballot.

Thank you for using Focus on the Family Mail System Message sent to the following recipients: Robert StoreyA.G. LafleyErnesto Zedillo Message text follows:

Stockton Tweed

September 17, 2004[

Stand by your guns and don't let these assholes intimidate you. I'm changing to Tide and Crest.

Sincerely,

Stockton & Tweed

Rebecca Dixen, a St. Paul reference librarian and a Kerry supporter, said she had come to the fair hoping to get into the vice president's town hall event and ask him a question, unaware that it was by invitation only and there are never, ever any rude or discomfiting questions. "You can't even get in unless you already support him," she said. "I don't know what kind of democracy that is. To tell you the truth, it's a little bit disappointing."

"Bush was peppy when he popped into the Brick House Deli in Anoka, mugged for cameras with owner Angel Howell's 8-month-old daughter, Kate Lynn, and ordered an egg salad sandwich. 'Fire one up,' he said. He settled for chicken salad when he was told egg salad wasn't on the menu."

These people are indiscriminately killing because they want to cause us to leave, and they want the Iraqis to grow weary of trying to be a free society. Listen to Allawi. He'll talk about what it means to be free.

Once we get these folks trained and get them on the path to stability and democracy, our troops are coming home, with the honor they earned.

[A GOP spokeman] said the most recent private polls he saw showed that the initiative had majority support, but he added that was the situation before Owens and others began mounting an active campaign against it.

Proponents cite recent Colorado Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court decisions that found that the people have the right to draw new legislative districts, even though the Constitution specifically gives that power to the state legislature, because the legislature ceded part of its authority to the people by allowing direct voter initiatives.

Video of the area where North Korea said a huge explosion had occurred last week showed dozens of workers swarming around a construction site resembling a large dam project, while a foreign diplomat who visited the site said Friday that he had found no sign that the blast was nuclear.

In addition to the letter from Bush's father, the latest documents contain news releases that the Texas Air National Guard sent to Houston newspapers in 1970 about young Bush, then a second lieutenant and new pilot. "George Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed," the news release said. "Oh, he gets high, all right, but not from narcotics."

THE DUMBING OF AMERICA: Want to know why George W. Bush is even close to John Kerry in the polls, let alone leading? Because about 40% of the American people are ignorant dumbasses.

Newsweek poll: "Do you think Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was DIRECTLY involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, or not?"

Taken Sept. 2-4. "Yes"=42% "No"=44% "Unsure"=14%

That "DIRECTLY" was capitalized by the pollsters...not me. And they STILL got that disturbing result. I can't think of a bigger indictment of the irresponsible, incompetent whore media than this poll.

"These obstacles discourage public participation in elections by denying voters the right to vote for their preferred candidate. Keeping Nader off the ballot in the hope that his voters will be forced to support another candidate is patently unfair to those Floridians who, for whatever reason, have decided he's their man," McCain said.

JON SOLTZ: If John Kerry is a traitor, then so am I. John Kerry fought for his right to come home and question his war in Vietnam; 12,000 Americans died after he testified in the senate. And I fought for my right to question this president's policies in Iraq.

It was a dark day for me when I had to go to the hospital in Germany to see one of my soldiers who was blown up. For the first time in my life, you know, I cried in uniform. I had to look at this guy and I had to say to him, you know, "I hope that this is worth it."

The fact of the matter is this administration is not being truthful with the war in Iraq. They've continually tried to tie it to al-Qaida. We've committed 85 percent of our ground army. Soldiers like me have died for weapons we can't find.

And they let Osama bin Laden run around in Afghanistan with zero of our ten military divisions not allocated to that. They failed us. They failed our soldiers. They failed our men and women in uniform.

In particular, Bush's blueprint would give the new director authority to coordinate the budgets of the nation's 15 intelligence agencies, as the current director has, but not the final say on how much they receive or how they spend it.

"In this city, if you have a fancy title, but you're not in the chain of command, and you don't control the budget, you're a figurehead," Kerrey said in arguing for giving the director budget powers. (Aug 4)

An administration official said Bush will discuss with congressional leaders his support of "a single appropriation for the entire intelligence budget directed at the NID level." (Sep. 8)

The intelligence director would control agencies under the National Foreign Intelligence Program but would only "participate" in setting military agency budgets.

The director also would lack complete control over the nonmilitary agencies, holding only "guidance for developing the NFIP budgets," the White House bill proposes.

The legislation also says the director would have to get White House approval to transfer money. The intelligence director would "have the authority to transfer or reprogram NFIP funds among appropriations available for the NFIP, as necessary, with the approval of the director of the Office of Management and Budget," the bill said.

ZAHN: (To Gov. Dean) But do you not concede that John Kerry bears some of the responsibility for these numbers because of all of the flip-flops that have been pointed out by the Republicans and even some Democrats concur with?

LIDDY: Secondly, with respect to the lovely 86-year-old woman, she is an anti-Bush partisan who has said, "Bush was selected, not elected." I hardly think that she is a credible witness on this.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 16 -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped an apparent assassination attempt Thursday when a rocket was fired at his helicopter as he was about to land in a provincial capital. The [Taliban acredited] attack caused no injuries or damage, but forced Karzai to cancel his first trip outside of Kabul since he began campaigning for presidential elections to be held Oct. 9.

Officials and witnesses said the rocket flew over a crowd of several hundred people waiting to greet Karzai near the town of Gardez, about 80 miles south of Kabul. The president's helicopter was about to land, but instead immediately returned to Kabul without touching the ground.

California Representative Chris Cox wrote to Michigan's Fred Upton, the chair of the House subcommittee on telecommunications asking him to, quote, "commence a subcommittee investigation into the continued use by CBS News of apparently forged documents concerning the service record of President George W. Bush intended to unfairly damage his reputation and influence the outcome of the 2004 presidential election." ...

... Congressman Upton's group is a subcommittee in the House energy and commerce committee which is now chaired by Texas Republican Joe Barton who is not happy. After a response that amounted to telling Cox to mind his own committee, Barton added, "a news organization's responsibility is to fact and truth but the oversight of network news generally is a matter best sorted out by the viewing public and the news media. It seems clear that the press and the two presidential campaigns are properly dealing with that issue."

"There will be no draft when John Kerry is president," Edwards said, a statement that drew a standing ovation.

"You deserve a president who will not play politics with national security, who will not ignore his own intelligence while living in a fantasy world of spin, and who will give the American people the truth about the challenge our brave men and women face on the front lines," the Democratic senator said.

DN: Dr. Gray, let me start with you first. Are there more hurricanes this season than usual?

DR. WILLIAM GRAY, CLIMATE RESEARCHER: Sure. There's more this year, but we've had other years with nearly this number, too. And look, for instance 1995 had as many early season storms at this time, and other years, 1950, 1955 did. The most of the seasons, eight of the nine, ten seasons since 1995 have been very active, including this one. Now, it's not the activity this year, although it's much above average.

But in keeping with the typical year since 1995, what's different about this year, it's an active year and the surrounding storm steering currents are driving these storms to the coastline.

So, there are more hurricanes, yes, but what is unusual is that they are on a merry-go-round with the U.S. in the path. Global warming? Oh no, no, no, no, let's not get silly, he volunteers:

Now, I want to emphasize, we've had a lot of storms this year. But there have been other years that have had almost as many and this is natural changes.

Natural changes. Ah. Without even being asked. Well, that's a relief ...? In case you missed the message:

GRAY: Now, one other comment I would like to make very much, there will be a lot of people thinking, oh, gee, there's all these land-falling storms this year. Does that mean humans are changing the climate, and we're the cause of it? And the answer is undoubtedly no.

NORVILLE: All right. I'm going to let that be the final word.

So did MSNBC pick this guy because his mind is open about global warming? Let's see:

1990: "The historical data imply that such an increase in intense hurricane activity should be viewed as a natural change and not as a result of man's influence on his climate."- Gray

Oct., 1998: Global Warming/Hurricane Link Debunked -- The Cooler Heads coalition sponsored a science briefing for media and congressional staff on October 9, featuring Dr. William Gray, professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University. Gray, the foremost expert on hurricanes in the U.S., spoke about the link between global warming and hurricanes.

Nov. 1999: "Researchers pound the global-warming drum because they know there is politics and, therefore, money behind it. . . I've been critical of global warming and am persona non grata." - Gray

1999: "However, Gray isn't committed to the notion that the global warming trend necessarily spawns more hurricanes."

July, 2000: While [Gray's] views are not always politically popular (he is hardly convinced that global warming presents long term dangers) its hard not to admire his passion and commitment to the changing field of meteorology.

Nov., 2000: "Human kind has little or nothing to do with the recent temperature changes. We are not that influential." - Gray

Sep 10, 2004, Fox News: "It's been a disappointing summer for global warming alarmists. ... private expert William Gray and others found distinct patterns of low-activity hurricane periods and high-activity periods, each of which endured for decades. These patterns, unrelated to the current concern over global warming, are caused by regular cycles of oceanic and atmospheric phenomena, such as unusually warm water in hurricane breeding grounds."

Can you spot any more examples of human climate change denial by this man? Google lists ... hmmm ... 74,000 search results ...

We have had now for weeks and weeks and weeks, an awful, dirty, thugish debate about the two candidates for president. And there are some very simple facts. One is, that one candidate was a hero. He went to war. He volunteered. He went to war. He served bravely. He got shot. He came home.

The other candidate was a shirker. And there's nothing wrong with that. You know, there were millions and millions of American young men who were shirkers. I was in the guard myself. I didn't to go Vietnam. I didn't want to go to Vietnam. But he was a shirker, and that's clear.

IMUS: Wouldn't it have been funny if he'd've showed up for that speech yesterday, that National Guard speech— the president went up there and gave that dopey salute like you did and said, "Reporting for duty, finally"? (LAUGHTER)

KERRY: Yes, actually it would have been funny.

IMUS: Or just not shown up at all, that would actually have been more amusing. But those guys don't have a sense of humor.

This part, on the Swifty book, was really clear:

KERRY: Look, it's a pack of lies. It's an absolute pack of lies. It's been proven to be a pack of lies, and I have no interest in reading it. ...

On his anti-war testimony, solid, with an apology, in a way:

KERRY: I had the courage to stand up -- look, I went, I did my duty, I came back, I saw what I saw, and I told the truth. If some people have trouble with that still, I'm sorry about it.

Approval - From 56 to 44
Economy Disapproval - From 54 to 63
Approval Iraq - 42 to 34
Has Clear Iraq Plan - 30 to 17
Out of Touch - 35 to 48
Stubborn - 47 to 61

Newsweek - 11 point lead to 5 point lead

One poll, from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, showed Democrat John Kerry leading Bush in the state, 47 percent to 41 percent, with independent Ralph Nader at 4 percent. But that was narrowed from a pre-Republican National Convention poll from Quinnipiac released Aug. 13 that had Kerry leading Bush, 53 percent to 35 percent, with Nader also at 4 percent. ...

... "The president's approval rating has gone from terrible (37) to just bad (43)," Carroll added.

LUFKIN, Texas (AP) -- Two young men face felony charges after one of them allegedly spat in a drink he was serving to an East Texas police officer.

Brian Strban, 19, and Nathaniel Allen Baker, 22, were workers at a Lufkin Sonic Drive-In where the incident allegedly happened Sept. 3, according to a police affidavit.

Both were arrested last week and charged with second-degree felony tampering with a consumer product. If convicted, both could be sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined up to $10,000 ...

... According to the affidavit, the officer ordered a soft drink, but when he received the beverage he noticed several workers inside the kitchen laughing. The police officer, who was not identified, opened the drink and noticed what appeared to be phlegm floating on the surface.

"His is the excuse presidency -- never wrong, never responsible, never to blame ... no, it's not our fault; no, there's nothing wrong; no, we can't do better; no, we haven't made a single mistake," Kerry said. (thru Bflash)

And today, when I called Republicans on capitol hill to read them the quote, several of them suggested, "he (Cheney) couldn't possibly have said that." Well, we've double checked the transcripts... and he did.

Talking about European nations and the war on terror, Cheney said, and I quote: "I think some have hoped that if they kept their heads down and stayed out of the line of fire, they wouldn't get hit. I think what happened in Russia now demonstrates pretty conclusively that everybody is a target. That Russia, of course, didn't support us in Iraq, they didn't get involved in sending troops there, they've gotten hit anyway."

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening and welcome. Thanks so much for being with us tonight on PRIME TIME POLITICS. Who represents African-Americans better, George W. Bush or John Kerry? It's turning into a hot debate.

ZAHN: That is a whole 'another subject that we'll get off on another time.

In one of the creepier passages of the book, a family gathering from hell at Kennebunkport, Maine, Barbara is shown mercilessly baiting her dry-drunk son, then governor of Texas, as a teetotalling 'Chosen One', while he keeps pleading to skip the cocktails and put on the feed bag, and his elderly father "drools over [TV newswoman] Paula Zahn's legs".

One of the major themes in Kelley's book is the family's weakness for liquor and drugs. Alcoholism, she writes, runs deeply in the family and among its victims, according to one Bush family friend, was Prescott, a "major-league alcoholic", who was in the habit of checking himself into his men's club and country club to go on benders. And Kelley writes that George W Bush is not the only one in the first family who enjoyed illegal substances. While a student at Southern Methodist University in the 1960s, first lady Laura Bush was known "as a go-to girl for dime bags of marijuana". ...

... [S:] And you believe the Bushes are capable of doing something like that - of threatening a woman who is shooting her mouth off like that? You think the family really operates that way?

[KK:] I know the family operates that way. I wish you could see the stuff that's on the cutting room floor, that got left out of the book. There are other people who will tell you stories like that, but they won't go on the record. And you can't blame them.

Dante Zappala said, "My brother died trying to make an honest man of George Bush, hoping to find those illusive weapons of mass destruction. I don't blame George Bush for his death. But I do believe that our President was careless with his responsibility to our troops. He has not supported our troops, but has used them to satisfy a very reckless agenda."

Zappala said that people have tried to comfort him by saying that his brother was trying to make the world a safer place. But he says instead Sergeant Sherwood Baker died in vain.

The National Guard families also said that their loved ones were told to buy their own radios, GPS systems and often their own flak jackets before going to Iraq. There are 1,700 members of the group Military Guard Families Speak Out . They say they are all supported by their National Guard family members, but say the soldiers cannot speak out against the war without facing retribution.

So that's the question. Would anybody really have the guts, Democrats, Republicans, whoever, to create a news story that would on the face of it, damage their own candidate just so that the story could be knocked down and would the knocking down of the story actually help in this case, the Bush campaign?

"You know, (the documents) probably are altered and they probably are forgeries and I think that's terrible, really," Mrs. Bush said, adding that this latest campaign flap is not that surprising. "That's actually one of the risks you take when you run for public office or when you're in the public eye for any reason and that's that obviously a lot of things are said about you that aren't true and that' the drawback, that's the one thing that's not great about serving in public office."

It's also the wrong message. The right message is something like this: Yo, swing voters Yo, swing voters, you entrusted the American government to compassionate conservatives and instead got reckless extremists. Bush has lost jobs, harmed the environment, tricked us into war, taken away basic liberties, enriched cronies, antagonized the world and stretched the military too thin to battle Al Qaeda -- only to create vast safe havens for new terrorists in "liberated" Iraq. And these bunglers want four more years?

KING: But who now? Who in America would you like to see president of the United States?

MAHER: You know I've always been a fan of Colin Powell. You know that. I think he's a terrific choice but I don't think that's ever going to happen.

BRANCACCIO: I've seen it five times. I'm still getting choked up by this one.

By Thursday, the vice president was ready to get into domestic policy. In an economy that's shown a drop in jobs, an increase in poverty and a reduction in average real income, he told an audience in Cincinnati, the government statistics missed all those Americans dealing on eBay. "Four hundred thousand people," vaunted Cheney, "make some money trading on eBay."

As Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards said in a quick statement, "If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking."

The system's key vulnerability is that county election workers or others with access to the machines could type in a two-digit code and create a second set of results that would then be forwarded to the state as the county's official tally, said Bev Harris, one of the activists who filed the case. She said the Diebold vote-tabulating equipment at the center of the lawsuit is used in 19 California counties, including Los Angeles County.

... no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction ...

Knowing that Saddam Hussein does not have large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction ...

So even though he knows there are no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction ...

In recent weeks and months, as an uncensored voice for the Democratic cause, Gore has skewered President Bush's team for moral cowardice, the "lowest sort of politics imaginable," aligning itself with "digital brownshirts" who intimidate the press, and political tactics as craven as those of Richard Nixon.

JOHN MADDEN: It's what you call a flip flop!

AL MICHAELS: You're in the right state for that!

No reason to get excited
The thief he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke

But you and I we've been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us not talk softly now
The hour is getting late.

where a party fails to introduce in evidence documents that are relevant to the matter in question and within his control . . . there is a presumption, or at least an inference that the evidence withheld, if forthcoming, would injure his case.

MR. RUSSERT: Pat Buchanan, we are now hearing on the wires that Mr. al-Douri, the number-two to Saddam Hussein, has been captured. So we now--and there he is on the screen. We now have a situation where Saddam Hussein and his number two are in captivity. Is the world not safer without them presiding over the country of Iraq?

U.S. Maj. Neal O'Brien of the Tikrit-based 1st Infantry Division said he could not confirm the report and U.S.-led forces issued a statement saying he was not in U.S. custody. A senior U.S. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Americans had no information to indicate that al-Douri had been arrested.

Downing Street has admitted to The Observer that repeated claims by Tony Blair that '400,000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves' is untrue, and only about 5,000 corpses have so far been uncovered.

The claims by Blair in November and December of last year, were given widespread credence, quoted by MPs and widely published, including in the introduction to a US government pamphlet on Iraq's mass graves.

"What I tell people, I would be surprised but not necessarily shocked if we wake up tomorrow and he's been caught along with all his lieutenants. That can happen because of the programs and infrastructure in place," [Joseph Cofer Black, the U.S. State Department coordinator for counterterrorism] told Geo.

About half an hour earlier, security workers spotted a passenger bypassing security at United Airlines' Terminal 8 by running up a down escalator, TSA spokeswoman Jennifer Marty said. Security officials ordered the evacuation of the terminal and two connected terminals in order to re-screen passengers.

After about 40 minutes, security officials gave up searching for the passenger, who had gotten off a plane and went back into a secure area, said Larry Fetters, the airport's TSA security director.

"He probably remembered that he forgot his sunglasses in the area and went back to get it," said Fetters, adding that such incidents were not unusual nationwide.

Using the odds of dying in a terrorist related attack during your lifetime as noted below from the CDC, let's compare them to the odds of dying from a long list of real, everyday dangers.

1 in 88,000 of a terrorist attack

1 in 1,500,000 of a terrorist-caused shopping mall disaster assuming one such incident a week and you shop two hours a week

1 in 55,000,000 in a terrorist-caused plane disaster assuming one such incident a month and you fly once a month

[Kerry] predicted voters would reject cynical politics when they went to the polls on Nov. 2. "All this negative advertising, blah blah blah," Kerry said. "It turns people off."

The US Code, Title 18, Part I, Chapter 33, Section. 713, says:

(a) Whoever knowingly displays any ... likeness of the great seal of the United States, ... in, or in connection with, any ... public meeting, ... telecast, or other production, or on any building, monument, ... for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States or by any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Some 129 hostages and 41 rebels died when Putin sent troops to overpower Chechen rebels who had seized a Moscow theater in 2002. But the violence in the region and elsewhere in Russia has continued.

A state judge in Manhattan yesterday angrily ordered the city to release more than 550 protesters who had been detained without seeing a judge - some for as long as 60 hours - after they were arrested at demonstrations against the Republican National Convention. When not all the protesters had been released by 6 p.m., he held the city in contempt and ordered a fine of $1,000 for each person still held, without setting a time frame.

The judge, John Cataldo of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, demanded during a noon hearing that the city immediately process the demonstrators. Throughout the afternoon, knots of exhausted but relieved-looking protesters with disheveled clothing and grime-covered hands and arms emerged onto Centre Street from the Criminal Courts Building.

The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself -- anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called. ----- George Orwell, 1984

In a democracy, the commander in chief works for you. You hire him when you elect him. You watch him do the job. If he makes good decisions and serves your interests, you rehire him. If he doesn't, you fire him by voting for his opponent in the next election.

Not every country works this way. In some countries, the commander in chief builds a propaganda apparatus that equates him with the military and the nation. If you object that he's making bad decisions and disserving the national interest, you're accused of weakening the nation, undermining its security, sabotaging the commander in chief, and serving a foreign power - the very charges Miller leveled tonight against Bush's critics.

Are you prepared to become one of those countries?

Theresa LePore, the official whose confusing butterfly ballot design contributed to the turmoil of the 2000 presidential election and became the butt of jokes on late-night talk shows, lost her bid for re-election Tuesday.

With all 692 precincts reporting, a challenger for her post as Palm Beach County elections supervisor, Arthur Anderson, had 91,134 votes, or 52 percent, while Ms. LePore had 85,601, or 48 percent.

"It is almost easier to explain what you are not getting here," said Ted Koppel, anchor and managing editor of ABC's "Nightline," when he was asked why news organizations have given little time to the protests. "What you are not getting here is a replay of 1968 in Chicago."

Dear Hardball,

Your panel discussion about Dick Cheney, including the so-called historian, was perhaps the most transparent apologist routine I have ever witnessed, and I have watched your program way more than I should. You have disgraced yourself and revealed how ridiculous you have allowed your journalistic "ethics" to become.
Andrea Mitchell declaring that Cheney "believed " this or that about nukes? It is common knowledge that Cheney spread lies that even his own administration had
abandoned.

DISGRACE
SHAME

Damfa

In a late Tuesday night court filing, the [Justice] department told U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen it supports the Detroit defendants' request for a new trial and would no longer pursue terrorism charges against them. The defendants at most would only face fraud charges at a new trial. ...

... In a June 2003 jury verdict hailed by the administration as the breakup of a terror cell, Koubriti, 26, and Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi, 38, were convicted on terrorism and fraud charges and Ahmed Hannan, 36, was convicted of fraud. A fourth defendant, Farouk Ali-Haimoud, 24, was acquitted.

... each and every person there had something to say, but the protest as such didn't have much of a message, so it's hard to know what to say about it (Matt)

... making the product a muddled mass of bodies assembled for...things, rather than a uniform group advocating an [sic] single policy (Ezra)

On the eve of a Republican National Convention invoking 9/11 symbols, sound bytes and imagery, half (49.3%) of New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens overall say that some of our leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act," according to the poll conducted by Zogby International. The poll of New York residents was conducted from Tuesday August 24 through Thursday August 26, 2004. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/-3.5.

The poll is the first of its kind conducted in America that surveys attitudes regarding US government complicity in the 9/11 tragedy. Despite the acute legal and political implications of this accusation, nearly 30% of registered Republicans and over 38% of those who described themselves as "very conservative" supported the claim.

The protest organizer, United for Peace and Justice, estimated the crowd at 500,000, rivaling a 1982 antinuclear rally in Central Park, and double the number it had predicted. It was, at best, a rough estimate. The Police Department, as is customary, offered no official estimate, but one officer in touch with the police command center at Madison Square Garden agreed that the crowd appeared to be close to a half-million.

To put a number on it, Zogby says just the blue and red states right now would make it Kerry 286, Bush 214 in the electoral college, so much of a margin that even if both remaining yellow states, Missouri and Florida, went to Mr. Bush, it wouldn't matter. Still, Kerry by 34 votes; 16 more than needed for electoral certification. Tim Russert would not even have time to get out his grease board.

He called the swift military offensive that led to the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 "a catastrophic success" even though fighting continues despite the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government.

Mr Bush raised eyebrows in his latest defence of the Iraq war, referring in an interview to the "catastrophic success" of the initial invasion, which he said created problems further down the line.

"Had we to do it over again, we would look at the consequences of catastrophic success, being so successful so fast that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done in escaped and lived to fight another day," he said.

The U.S. general [Tommy Franks] who routed Saddam Hussein's army in three weeks warned before the invasion that a quick victory could lead to a "catastrophic success" because the United States was not prepared for postwar anarchy in Iraq.

Rumsfeld (April 11, 2003): This is fascinating. This is just fascinating. We did... recognize that there was at least a chance of catastrophic success, if you will, to reverse the phrase ... and that we needed to be ready for that; we needed to be ready with medicine, with food, with water.

The full-mooners fixated on a think tank called the Project for the New American Century, which has a staff of five and issues memos on foreign policy. To hear these people describe it, PNAC is sort of a Yiddish Trilateral Commission, the nexus of the sprawling neocon tentacles.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Near the home of the world famous New Year's Eve bash, Democrats have invaded Time Square to send a message. They're here to crash the Republicans' party. Al Sharpton happened to be driving down 42nd Street. He hopped out of his Cadillac to give the new billboard a thumbs up.

WOODRUFF: But I interviewed John Glenn, the former senator today. I asked him if John Kerry had brought this on himself to some degree by talking so much at his convention about his Vietnam War experience. He said he agreed that that had happened, that to some extent he did bring it on himself. Was that a mistake?

WOODRUFF: I spoke with Senator Glenn a little while ago and I asked him if Kerry brought this issue on himself by focusing so much attention on his own war record.

SEN. JOHN GLENN (D), FMR. U.S. SENATOR: Well, possibly to some extent...

... WOODRUFF: But don't you think John Kerry could have avoided this to a large extent by focusing himself on the future at the Democratic convention?

GLENN: He probably could have said more about that at the convention. I wouldn't disagree with that. I think he was proud of his military record, as he should be. ... Maybe he invited it, I wouldn't even make a judgment on that.

The two-hour ride began about 7:15 p.m. in Union Square with a cacophony of bells, whistles, hooting and howling, and the police seemed to tolerate it.

An hour and a half into the ride, the police patience appeared to grow thin, as helmeted officers dragged netting across Seventh Avenue and 14th Street to block the ride.

Hundred of cyclists at first gathered by the net and then most turned west on 14th Street and south on Greenwich Street and kept riding toward the East Village.

As the ride backed up, the police arrested dozens of people on Seventh Avenue near the Garden on charges of blocking streets, saying some riders had stopped traffic on side streets to let the larger mass through.

More arrests took place at the end of the ride in the East Village, including along Second Avenue outside St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery Church, where cyclists gathered for a celebration of the ride and shouted abuse at the police who were arresting their companions.

"Ninety-five percent of the ride was beautiful,'' said Bill DiPaola, executive director of Time's Up!, an environmental group that participates in and promotes the monthly ride. "People were cheering us on the streets, but at the end it was difficult to funnel
people off and it was very clear the police were upset at how well the ride went.''

BLITZER: Did you tell people at the Bush-Cheney campaign that you were also giving legal advice to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth?

GINSBERG: Not until yesterday with the exception of a conversation on the legalities, a generic conversation of legalities of representing both campaigns and 527 groups. But nobody at the Bush campaign or the White House knew of my dual representation, which is appropriate under the legal ethics rules.

BLITZER: Since you were working for the campaign earlier, wouldn't it have been appropriate first to ask the campaign, do you have a problem if I also give advice to this other Swift Boat group?

GINSBERG: Well, Wolf, I didn't do that for three reasons. The first is that the legal ethics rules really require lawyers not to talk to different clients about the work that they're performing for other clients.

(b) Except as permitted by paragraph (c) below, a lawyer shall not represent a client with respect to a matter if:

2) Such representation will be or is likely to be adversely affected by representation of another client; (3) Representation of another client will be or is likely to be adversely affected by such representation;

(c) A lawyer may represent a client with respect to a matter in the circumstances described in paragraph (b) above if each potentially affected client provides consent to such representation after full disclosure of the existence and nature of the possible conflict and the possible adverse consequences of such representation.

"That is a legitimate question," he said. "There's a lot of my friends who come and bass-fish with me. They don't say it out loud, I know they're thinking it: Why?' And the answer is because the stakes are high.

"It seems my opponent said that going to war with the terrorists is actually improving their recruitment efforts. That logic is upside-down," he said.

In an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters, McCain said that he is grateful for Kerry's action and that he still hopes Bush will condemn the Swift boat veterans' ad attacking Kerry's service. McCain added that he plans to raise the issue when he campaigns with Bush next week.

the poll found that most people, 63%, say they think Kerry is definitely or probably telling the truth about his military service.

Bush did not hesitate when asked about the central charge issued by the Swift Boat veterans' group that has leveled unsubstantiated attacks against Kerry's record in Vietnam. "I think Senator Kerry should be proud of his record," Bush told The Times. "No, I don't think he lied."

So what should happen is that any illegal activity by these protestors should be considered a terrorist act on its face. Putting the lives of New Yorkers in danger by distracting the police is terrorism, period.

There are reports of some anarchists who are going to douse themselves with gun powder to cause security alarms to go crazy. We also hear some of these people may roll marbles underneath the hooves of police horses. Any of that stuff is terrorism and the federal government should take over the prosecution.

Instead of being slapped on the wrist, violent and damage causing protestors should be slapped with federal prison time. Most Americans value protest. I certainly do. But we're fighting a war here. And any act that puts this country in danger is sabotage. Again, a terrorist act.

HUME: Has anybody in the Bush campaign or the White House, to your knowledge, engaged in any consultations, coordinations, cooperation, with the swift boat veterans group?
ROVE: No, absolutely not. Absolutely not.

WASHINGTON - The number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.3 million last year, while the ranks of the uninsured swelled by 1.4 million, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.

It was the third straight annual increase for both categories. While not unexpected, it was a double dose of bad economic news during a tight re-election campaign for President Bush.

Approximately 35.8 million people lived below the poverty line in 2003, or about 12.5 percent of the population, according to the bureau. That was up from 34.5 million, or 12.1 percent in 2002.

The rise was more dramatic for children. There were 12.9 million living in poverty last year, or 17.6 percent of the under-18 population. That was an increase of about 800,000 from 2002, when 16.7 percent of all children were in poverty.

[The letter] steered clear of the Swift boat veterans' charges, saying instead that they are "concerned about the comments you made AFTER you came home from Vietnam," referring to Mr. Kerry's role as an antiwar leader in the early 1970's, after his decorated naval service.

"You accused your fellow veterans of terrible atrocities and, to this day, you have never apologized," they said. "We served honorably in Vietnam and we were deeply hurt and offended by your comments." ...

... "I tried to accept that letter and he would not give it to me," Mr. Patterson told The Associated Press, referring to Mr. Cleland. "He would not face me. He kept rolling away from me. He's quite mobile."

Even though I am not proud of slavery, I can continue to honor symbols of the Confederacy as I honor the American flag. I am as proud an American as they come. I am, however, not proud of what my country did to the American Indian. I have pride in my service as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam, but I am embarrassed at the atrocities that occurred at My Lai. I still wear a small Vietnam service pin on my lapel, knowing that not everything done in Vietnam is worthy of pride.

"Even with careful planning such an effort is likely to meet with failure at this time. Based on everything we know, the U.S. government is simply not a credible messenger," he said. "In present circumstances in the Arab and Muslim world, the need to strengthen and elevate the voices of those within the Islamic faith and culture who oppose radical ideas is a task much more effectively performed by non-government actors than by the government."

A STRING of breathtaking security blunders allowed me to clinch a job as an airport baggage handler — and take a fake bomb on a packed holiday jet.

WOODRUFF: Jill Dougherty in Texas, covering the president and the vice president. Interesting, as you say, on two counts. Number one, because he openly talked about the fact that his daughter is gay. And, secondly, because one of the rare occasions we hear the vice president saying his views are different from the president.

On Sunday, when ABC's Cokie Roberts started to ask the GOP vice presidential nominee's wife about having a daughter who has "declared she's openly gay," an irate Lynne Cheney shot back: "Mary has never declared such a thing." Cheney then blasted the media for its interest in the story, and chided Roberts: "I'm surprised, Cokie, that even you would want to bring it up on this program." (July 2000)

Judge Delays Fake Anthrax Case Sentencing 8:05 p.m. ET PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A judge has delayed the sentencing of an anti-abortion extremist who was convicted of mailing fake anthrax to women's clinics, saying the Supreme Court must first clarify the legality of federal sentencing rules.

Judge Gives Rudolph Lawyers More Prep Time 6:49 p.m. ET BIRMINGHAM, Ala.(AP) -- A federal judge on Monday gave attorneys for alleged serial bomber Eric Rudolph more time to draft a plan for fighting charges in a fatal attack on an abortion clinic. ...

... He is also charged in three bombings in Atlanta, including the one that killed a woman during the 1996 Olympics.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- A federal grand jury indicted a Pakistani man for alleged immigration violations Monday, a month after police spotted him videotaping the Charlotte skyline.

Kamran Akhtar, 35, of New York City, was charged with six counts in the indictment, but none of them involved terrorism.

The indictment charges Akhtar with two immigration violations and four counts of lying to investigators after he was detained by police on July 20. He could face up to 55 years if convicted on all charges.

Bush Says 'That Ad' Attacking Kerry Should Stop

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Under pressure from Democrats and Republican Sen. John McCain, President Bush on Monday called for ads attacking John Kerry's record in Vietnam to be stopped along with others run by independent groups, and said Kerry should be proud of his war service.

"That means that ad and every other ad," Bush said when asked if he wanted to bring a stop to commercials by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which accuse Sen. Kerry of lying about his war record in Vietnam.

If acquitted, they still could be held indefinitely under Bush administration policy that considers them enemy combatants in the ongoing war on terror prompted by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that killed about 3,000 people in the United States.

They could be freed only if a separate military panel finds they are not a danger and have no information that could prevent future attacks, military officials said. "They could still be held, depending on the outcome of the war on terror, or the decision they are no longer a threat or an intelligence [concern]," McWilliams said. ...

... The panel includes a presiding officer who is a lawyer, Army Colonel Pete Brownback, and four military officers who have no legal training. Brownback will run the proceedings, but all decisions, including the final verdict, will be made by a majority vote among the five, McGarvey said. She said the defendants are presumed innocent and must be proved guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt."

But the spectacle of veterans tilting in favor of a slacker regime (Bush & Cheney) and against a combat veteran could not be more ridiculous. And it isn't even the first episode; it's a repeat of the Repug Bush/McCain primary.

MaxSpeak hereby declares that all veterans supporting Bush on the basis of Kerry's service record are completely full of shit. I have lost all respect for them. They have soiled themselves.

"People think Texas is George W. Bush country," Dean told hundreds packed into the Houston International Theatre School on Saturday. "But right now, 40 percent of Texans would vote for a yellow dog before they place a vote for George W. Bush."

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A young couple shot in their heads as they slept on a remote California beach may have been killed because of their evangelical Christian religious beliefs, police said on Saturday.

I think the Democrats are going to have to be careful about not letting the protesters get out of hand," Mr. Gillespie said. "The line between the official Democratic Party and labor protesters, environmental protesters and antiwar protesters is fairly blurry, and I'm not sure they want to have Democrats engaging in violence in New York against our convention. It would seem disrespectful and antidemocratic."

President Bush's Hispanic nephew -- he's the grandson of migrant worker Jose Maria Garnica -- is in Mexico on a week-long visit to drum up support for his uncle among the estimated 1 million Americans living there.

The younger Bush, whose father is Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and mother, Columba, is originally from Mexico, acknowledged at a news conference that the war in Iraq is not popular in Mexico but defended the military action, saying "we're almost done with it.''

Bill Clinton implied two weeks ago that Mr. Kerry was acting sluggish. "Whenever they hit me, I hit 'em back," he told Jon Stewart. "And whenever they came up with a charge I didn't believe was true, I answered back."

GET THE GLOVES OFF QUICKLY - Anyone who thinks that the Swift Boat Liars thing is not going to hurt Kerry is totally wrong. Americans are, in fact, that petty.

The media has played the thing 10,000 times this week and the Dem heads are doing a bad job of deflecting it. McCain's word won't help all that much because everyone knows he will continue to fluff the AWOL Boy's pillow, so how upset can he really be?

We cannot let the GOP set a precedent with this attack by getting away with it. They need a kick in the balls. Grab the most cheap-shot Move On or 527 ad off the cutting room floor and run it. Bare knuckle time.