DAMFA

"Of course we're after Saddam Hussein -- I mean bin Laden. He's isolated."

"I don't think we want to get to how he's going to pay for all these [homeland security] promises. It's like a huge tax gap."

"We've got 100,000 trained now, 125,000 by the end of this year, 200,000 by the end of next year."

"We're being challenged like never before."

"First of all, of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us. I know that."

"We tried diplomacy. We did our best. [Saddam] was hoping to turn a blind eye."

"And so if Kim Jong Il decides again to not honor an agreement, he's not only doing injustice to America, he'd be doing injustice to China, as well."

"I appreciate the fact that his daughters have been so kind to my daughters in what has been a pretty hard experience for, I guess, young girls, seeing their dads out there campaigning."

"proliferation is one of the centerpieces of a multi-prong strategy"

Note: this is from the Washington Post transcript, some of it may be incorrect. UPDATE: some corrections.

Fox News Channel, whose turn it is under a rotation system to operate the "pool" cameras for all the networks in the first debate on Thursday in Coral Gables, Florida, said it would follow its own editorial judgment in operating its cameras.

"They don't want reaction shots," said Fox News spokesman Paul Schur told Reuters. "We're not going to bow to outside pressure. We're not going to follow these restrictions."

His comments were echoed by executives of cable news rival CNN and the Big Three commercial broadcasters -- ABC, CBS and NBC -- all of which plan to mix their own production from the feeds supplied by Fox News.

Declaring that personal security is as important as national security, a judge Wednesday blocked the government from conducting secret, unchallengeable searches of Internet and telephone records as part of its fight against terrorism.

A 90-year-old Quaker was among half a dozen people who decided Wednesday to spend seven days in jail rather than pay a $250 fine for blocking the entrance to a federal courthouse during an anti-war protest last year.

Lillian Willoughby, of Deptford, N.J., sat in a wheelchair in court as she spoke for about five minutes about the war in Iraq, which she said had recently claimed the son of a good friend. ...

... "I've been arrested before but never spent time in jail,'' Willoughby said. "This is the start of a great adventure.''

The document, signed a year after Bush left the Texas Air National Guard, said he was leaving the military because of "inadequate time to fulfill possible future commitments.'' ...

... "The president was transferring to Alabama to perform equivalent duty in a non-flying capacity, making a flight physical unnecessary,'' the White House said.

The White House did not answer whether Bush disobeyed a direct order to take the exam. Bush won final approval to train for three months with an Alabama unit a month after he had already been suspended as a pilot.

"We should not have gone to war knowing the information that we know today," Kerry told ABC. "Knowing there was no imminent threat to America, knowing there were no weapons of mass destruction, knowing there was no connection of Saddam Hussein to Al Qaida, I would not have gone to war. That's plain and simple."

The Bush administration violated the law by allowing private insurers to limit choices of some patients in a small trial program of managed health care under Medicare, congressional investigators said.

Dr. Mark McClellan, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the government will comply with GAO's recommendations.

A Fast Finisher's Reputation Now Faces the Ultimate Test

Suzuki led off the game with a double to right-center, then singled to start the fifth. He finished 2-for-5 and needs four hits in Seattle's final five games to break George Sisler's 84-year-old record of 257 hits in a season.

The lawsuit said the Justice Department has advised the Times that it plans to obtain records of all telephone calls by Shenon and Miller for 20 days in the months immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Newsday has a little more info - as in, any information at all. We root for the Justice Dept., because this is Fitzgerald at work, not Crisco:

The New York Times sued Attorney General John Ashcroft yesterday to block federal efforts to obtain two veteran reporters' phone records in a probe of who leaked information about Islamic charities tied to terrorists.

The suit seeks to be part of a sweeping "leak" probe being conducted by Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago who also is trying to determine who disclosed the identity of Central Intelligence Agency agent Valerie Plame. In addition to the Plame case, Fitzgerald is investigating whether Times reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon were tipped off about developments in his investigation of charities accused of having ties to terrorists after Sept. 11.

It is not looking like this investigation will wrap up anytime soon - maybe on November 3rd.

Reflect on this for a moment: thousands of Christians who spent a lifetime under Saddam Hussein now find conditions in Iraq unendurable. Since passports are still "difficult to obtain legally", the exodus is not merely the result of eased travel strictures.

Apparently these Iraqi Christians disagree with the Good News proclaimed by Messrs. Bush and Allawi. Don't these doubting Thomases know that the Almighty's gift of freedom reigns?! And shouldn't neocons be criticizing these Iraqi families for deciding to "cut and run", precisely when democracy is blooming?

"He didn't use political influence to get into the Air National Guard," Staudt said, adding, "I don't know how they would know that, because I was the one who did it and I was the one who was there and I didn't talk to any of them." ... "No one called me about taking George Bush into the Air National Guard," he said. "It was my decision. I swore him in. I never heard anything from anybody."

The speaker, Ben Barnes, intervened on Bush's behalf sometime in late 1967 or early 1968 at the request of a good friend of Bush's father, then a Republican congressman from Houston, the sources said. The friend, Sidney A. Adger, was a prominent Houston business executive who died in 1996. The Guard official contacted at his behest, Brig. Gen. James M. Rose, died in 1993.

Bush has said that he met Staudt in late 1967, during Christmas vacation of his senior year at Yale, called him later, and by Bush's account, "found out what it took to apply."

Bush was sworn in as an airman on May 27, 1968, in the office of another Guard official, then-Col. Walter B. "Buck" Staudt, commander of the 147th Fighter Group. His pilot trainee application was then sent to Austin and Rose initialed his approval around June 5.

Bush was sworn in as an airman the same day he applied. His commander, Col. Walter B. "Buck" Staudt, was apparently so pleased to have a VIP's son in his unit that he later staged a special ceremony so he could have his picture taken administering the oath, instead of the captain who actually had sworn Bush in. Later, when Bush was commissioned a second lieutenant by another subordinate, Staudt again staged a special ceremony for the cameras, this time with Bush's father the congressman - a supporter of the Vietnam War - standing proudly in the background.

A top aide to Barnes, Nick Kralj, simultaneously served as aide to the head of the Texas Air National Guard, the late Brig. Gen. James M. Rose. ... In a deposition for the suit, Kralj confirmed that he would get calls from Barnes or his chief of staff, Robert Spelling, "saying so-and-so is interested in getting in the Guard." Kralj said he would then forward the names to Gen. Rose. ... Kralj, in his deposition, said he could not recall any of the names he gave to Gen. Rose.

O'REILLY: Well what about the guys who died in the first Gulf War, when you sign a cease-fire that he disobeyed seventeen times ...

BUSH: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: We're supposed to let those guys just be buried in the sand and not do anything?

Deep in my heart I know the man is on the run, if he's alive at all. Who knows if he's hiding in some cave or not; we haven't heard from him in a long time. And the idea of focusing on one person is -- really indicates to me people don't understand the scope of the mission. Terror is bigger than one person. And he's just -- he's a person who's now been marginalized. His network, his host government has been destroyed. He's the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match.

Oakland held Ichiro Suzuki to one hit, leaving him five shy of George Sisler's 84-year-old record of 257. The Mariners have six games remaining.

... I didn't grow up in a very political household. The only politics I heard was from my mother. I came home from grade school, where someone asked me if I was Republican or Democrat, and I asked my mom, "Well, what are we?" She said, "We're Democrats, 'cause Democrats are for the working people." ...

... One of the most disturbing aspects of this election is that the machinery for taking something that is a lie and making it feel true, or taking something that is true and making it feel like a lie -- the selling machinery has become very powerful. Senator Kerry has to make people pay attention to the man behind the curtain. He has to take the risk and rip the veil off the administration's deceptions. They are a hall of mirrors and a house of cards...

... The press has let the country down. It's taken a very amoral stand, in that essential issues are often portrayed as simply one side says this and the other side says that. I think that Fox News and the Republican right have intimidated the press into an incredible self-consciousness about appearing objective and backed them into a corner of sorts where they have ceded some of their responsibility and righteous power. ...

... I don't know if it began with the Iraq War, but shortly thereafter there was an enormous amount of Fox impersonators among what you previously thought were relatively sane media outlets across the cable channels. It was very disheartening. The job of the press is to tell the truth without fear or favor. We have to get back to that standard. ...

... The free press is supposed to be the lifeline and the blood of democracy. That is the position of responsibility that those institutions have. Those things are distorted by ratings and by money to where you're getting one hour of the political conventions. ...

...Real news is the news we need to protect our freedoms. You get tabloid news, you get blood-and-guts news, you get news shot through with a self-glorifying facade of patriotism, but people have to sift too much for the news that we need to protect our freedoms. It should be gloriously presented to the people on a nightly basis. The loss of some of the soberness and seriousness of those institutions has had a devastating effect upon people's ability to respond to the events of the day ...

... The fact that the administration refused to allow photographs of the flag-draped coffins of returning dead, that the president hasn't shown up at a single military funeral for the young people who gave their lives for his policies, is disgraceful ...

[The ever-rosy Portal Iraq says "Electricity production in the country averages approximately 5,000 MW, a total that services an estimated 15 million Iraqi homes and exceeds the pre-war level of 4,400 Megawatts."

The British Embassy says: "Power generation now averages 4, 750, compared with pre-conflict level of 4, 400 . The Interim Iraqi Government has set a target of 6,000 by the end of 2004."

US AID once claimed that the pre-conflict level was 5,500 MW but then claimed that it "generated a peak of 4,518 MW on October 6, 2003, exceeding the capacity generated before the conflict."

The Pentagram military paper said on Sep 10th, 2004: " boosted electricity production here to more than 5,300 MW, enough to service 27 million more Iraqi homes than were fueled under the former regime."(echoed by Portal here)

Iraq Reconstruction, an industry site, said "A goal of 7500 MW with a reduction in load shedding has been set for the summer of 2004"

P.S. This "Iraq Pipeline Watch" has an overwhelming list of setbacks.]

MR. RUSSERT: And legend has it that Robert Kennedy turned up the thermostat in order to make it warmer and cause Nixon to sweat. Do you believe that?

MS. GOODWIN: I wouldn't be surprised.

MR. SAFIRE: I wouldn't be surprised at all.

"He voted for the use of force in Iraq and then didn't vote to fund the troops, he complained that we're not spending enough money to help reconstruction in Iraq, now he says we're spending too much," Bush said. "He said it was the right decision to go into Iraq, now he calls it the wrong war."

In October 2002, Kerry voted for the congressional resolution giving Bush the authority to oust Saddam Hussein but has argued that the president rushed to war without assembling sufficient support from allies and failed to draw up a clear plan for post-war Iraq.

Last year, Kerry voted against an $87 billion aid package for Iraq and Afghanistan, backing an alternative that would have reduced tax cuts to pay for the assistance. Bush had threatened to veto the aid package because he opposed some elements.

A federal appeals court on Monday revived a lawsuit seeking a paper trail for Florida's new touchscreen voting machines with only five weeks left before the presidential election.

The court told a federal judge to reopen the case affecting the 15 Florida counties that use voting machines that don't create paper copies.

Three judges from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that the judge improperly decided not to get involved in the lawsuit filed by Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat.

Officials to Publicize Increased Disruption Efforts for Nov. 2 Vote

James M. Loy, the deputy secretary of Homeland Security, said in an interview Friday that even if there is no attack between now and the inauguration, officials will be just as worried about other events well into 2005 and beyond.

"I call it the new normalcy," Loy said. "We're immersed [in a war] with the first 'ism' in the 21st century. . . . We must find a way to hold onto the sense of urgency, and hold it potentially for decades." ...

... Paul J. McNulty, the U.S. attorney in Alexandria, said the steps will include urging police to run the names of anyone they stop in coming weeks -- even for a traffic violation -- through the watch list at the FBI's Terrorism Screening Center in Crystal City.

... bulletin will be sent today to the 50 states and the District, containing guidelines to governors and election officials for ... legal powers to order emergency election changes ...

... civil rights leaders have cautioned that security measures should not discourage or intimidate citizens from voting, and state laws and customs historically have insulated election officials from gubernatorial executive powers, which include authority over emergency preparedness and public safety. ...

... Materials circulated to election managers recommend that states plan for possible scenarios including an elevated national terror threat level before Election Day, the possibility of attacks leading up to Nov. 2 requiring higher security and strikes that disrupt balloting. ...

Bush did not use the phrase "Mission Accomplished," but that message was emblazoned on a prominent banner directly behind the president as he declared major combat operations over in Iraq.

"America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished."

Pereira said many people were suffering from diarrhea while others, many of them children, were contracting gangrene. Amputations were being performed under horrendous conditions, he said.

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said Saturday the storm that ravaged Haiti last week killed at least 1,500 people. ...

... Anne Poulsen of the U.N. World Food Program said relief agencies were working around the clock trying to get food to victims, even using donkeys and mules in the effort.

When trucks carrying 8 tons of food from Cap-Haitien - the port to the north - were blocked by mudslides, "we unloaded the food from trucks and put it on to donkeys and mules to reach localities ... where people had not eaten for a week," Poulsen said.

President Bush said he had no regrets about donning a flight suit to give his "Mission Accomplished" speech on Iraq in May 2003 and would do it all over again if he had the chance, according to excerpts from an television interview released on Sunday.

When asked by Fox News if he still would have put on a flight suit to declare major combat operations in Iraq over, Bush replied, "Absolutely."

Ichiro Suzuki collecting another hit, No. 251 ... That moved him into sole possession of fifth place for the most hits in a season and within six of George Sisler's record, 257, set in 1920.

Business is booming at the Baghdad morgue. ...

... Besides doing autopsies, the doctors at the institute specialize in the examinations of women accused by their husbands of not being virgins when they married, a serious charge that can lead to an annulment.

The doctors also examine men accused of homosexuality, a criminal offense in Iraq. They must also approve all marriages of girls 14 or younger, verifying that they have reached puberty and are physically capable of intercourse.

"Warmer water temperatures will promote more intense tropical storms, but not necessarily make the frequency of those storms greater," said Dan Cayan, a research meteorologist at the University of California in San Diego. ... Some members of Congress, scientists and environmental groups contend that global warming is upsetting environmental balances by altering fragile weather patterns in the world.

However, 10 climatologists and scientists sent a letter to Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who heads the committee, saying there is no scientific evidence of a link between severe weather -- such as hurricanes, blizzards and heat waves -- and global warming. They argued that warmer periods of temperatures have actually led to a decline in the number and severity of storms.

"We suggest that natural variability of storminess is the cause of Florida's recent hurricane disasters," they wrote. "In such times there is an emotional tendency to pin blame somewhere."

McCain said during the hearing that human activities are contributing to global warming and require "real reductions" in greenhouse gas emissions. The United States is the world's biggest producer of the gases, which come from automobiles, power plants and other sources.

You don't have to guess which candidate is which here. The guitar-playing Kerry, who once bragged to Vogue magazine that his chocolate chip cookies are special because he uses imported Swiss chocolate, and the frat house wiseguy Bush.

Ichiro Suzuki's two-run single gave him 250 hits, seven shy of George Sisler's 84-year-old major league record with eight games remaining.

Suzuki went 1-for-5 and is batting .374, best in the majors. He tied Rogers Hornsby (1922) and Chuck Klein (1930) for fifth on the single-season hits list.

A sweeping voter registration campaign in heavily Democratic areas has added tens of thousands of new voters to the rolls in the swing states of Ohio and Florida, a surge that has far exceeded the efforts of Republicans in both states, a review of registration data shows.

The analysis by The New York Times of county-by-county data shows that in Democratic areas of Ohio - primarily low-income and minority neighborhoods - new registrations since January have risen 250 percent over the same period in 2000. In comparison, new registrations have increased just 25 percent in Republican areas. A similar pattern is apparent in Florida: in the strongest Democratic areas, the pace of new registration is 60 percent higher than in 2000, while it has risen just 12 percent in the heaviest Republican areas.

CBS News said yesterday that it had postponed a "60 Minutes" segment that questioned Bush administration rationales for going to war in Iraq. ...

... CBS said last night that the report on the war would not run before Nov. 2.

"We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election," the spokeswoman, Kelli Edwards, said in a statement.

It is fair game for the president to claim that toppling Saddam Hussein was a blow to terrorism, to accuse Mr. Kerry of flip-flopping and to repeat continually that the war in Iraq is going very well, despite all evidence to the contrary. It is absolutely not all right for anyone on his team to suggest that Mr. Kerry is the favored candidate of the terrorists. And at a time when the United States is supposed to be preparing the Iraqi people for a democratic election, it's appalling to hear the chief executive say that loyal opposition gives aid and comfort to the enemy abroad.

The general instinct of Americans is to play fair. That is why, even though terrorists struck the United States during President Bush's watch, the Democrats have not run a campaign that blames him for allowing the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to be attacked. And while the war in Iraq has opened up large swaths of the country to terrorist groups for the first time, any effort by Mr. Kerry to describe the president as the man whom Osama bin Laden wants to keep in power would be instantly denounced by the Republicans as unpatriotic.

Allawi's assurances about the January elections came as Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told Congress the elections must be held throughout the country, including areas gripped by violence.

That contradicted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who said Thursday and again Friday that if insurgents prevent Iraqis from voting in some areas, a partial vote would be better than none at all. He stressed, however, that ``every Iraqi deserves the right to vote.''

2. On more or less troops in Iraq:

"I think we will need more troops than we currently have," Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. troops in the region, said Wednesday. But, he said, Pentagon officials believe the need will be filled by Iraqis or international forces.

Asked about Abizaid's comment, Bush said the general did not mention to him the need for more troops, "but if he were to say that, I'd listen to him," Bush said. But Allawi was firm, saying Iraq needs to train more of its own troops because they ultimately will have to defend their country.

"Any implication that that place has to be peaceful and perfect before we can reduce coalition and US forces would obviously be, I think, unwise because it's never been peaceful and perfect, and it isn't likely to be," Rumsfeld told a press conference

3. On the kidnapper demands (or, on who controls "sovereign" Iraq):

The [Iraqi] official, who asked not to be named, says that Rihab Taha, a biological weapons scientist dubbed "Dr Germ" by US soldiers, could be freed as part of a review of her detention. (Sep 22)

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari has denied that "Dr Germ," a scientist who worked for Saddam Hussein, is about to be released. (Sep 22)

A senior Iraqi official said Wednesday that a decision had been made to release a top female germ-warfare scientist for Saddam Hussein, but Iraq's leader and U.S. officials moved quickly to squelch the idea that she would be freed soon. (Sep 23)

4. On the Saddam trial (or, on who controls Iraq):

Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and 11 other members of his ousted regime will face trial beginning next month, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said. (Sep 18)

The ousted director of the Iraqi war crimes tribunal said that Allawi has taken over the court and could rush forward with "show trials" of Saddam Hussein and other former Iraqi leaders to boost his popularity before presidential elections scheduled for January. (Sep 23)

The war crimes trial of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein won't begin any time soon because deteriorating security is hampering information-gathering in the case, a senior U.S. official said Friday. ... It is also unlikely that any of regime's top 11 officials would face trial in front of the Iraqi Special Tribunal before the end of this year, the official said. (Sep 24)

5. On how many Iraqi forces are fully trained:

With interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi at his side, Bush said on Thursday that nearly 100,000 fully trained and equipped Iraqi soldiers, police officers and other security personnel are already working and this number would rise to 125,000 by the end of this year.

But documents prepared by Defense Department officials and given to lawmakers show that fewer than 100,000 will be trained by the end of this year. The Pentagon also said on Monday that only about 53,000 of the 100,000 Iraqis on duty now have undergone training. The documents, obtained by Reuters, show that of the nearly 90,000 currently in the police force, only 8,169 have had the full eight-week academy training. And it will be July 2006 before the administration's new goal of 135,000 fully trained police is met.

At issue is a National Intelligence Estimate of Iraq's future that spoke of possibilities ranging from tenuous stability to civil war. Asked about the report earlier in the week in New York, Bush had said, "They were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like." ...

... President Bush suggested Thursday that he wanted to clarify two things he had said recently - that just a "handful" of terrorists were at work in Iraq and that a bleak intelligence assessment of Iraq's future involved "guessing" by U.S. intelligence officials.

After "This Week" arranged with Allawi's office for Sunday's interview, the U.S. State Department called ABC to say that the office of U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte in Baghdad had decided that the interview would not happen until this coming Sunday, after Allawi's U.S. visit. This attempt by the U.S. embassy to exercise sovereignty over the prime minister raised interesting questions about just what was actually transferred on June 28 when sovereignty was supposedly given to the Iraqi government. The White House recognized the inconvenience of such questions. The interview occurred. - (George Will)

I think that one of the most frustrating things about Bush's smarmy rejoinder "they world is better off without Saddam in power" is that you have to answer..."well, yes, BUT THERE ARE PRIORITIES, GODDAMIT..."

It is impolitic to say it, (and probably suicidal) but in a very real sense, the answer to the question "is the world better off without Saddam in power?" is no.

"The last thing you want to be seen as is a puppet of the United States, and you can almost see the hand underneath the shirt today moving the lips," said Joe Lockhart, a senior Kerry adviser.

May 19 - The White House has insisted there are no plans to tap the reserve, which was created for emergencies.

"We will not play politics" with the stockpile, Bush said.

"That petroleum reserve is in place in case of major disruptions of energy supplies to the United States," he said. "The idea of emptying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would put America in a dangerous position in the war on terror. We're at war. We face a tough and determined enemy on all fronts, and we must not put ourselves in a worse position in this war, and playing politics with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would do just that."

September 23 - Oil prices held steady above $48 on Friday as the U.S. government said it would lend refiners crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), but traders deemed the loan too small to have a lasting impact.

"Recent intelligence suggest that al-Qaida may still be planning an attack, possibly targeting highly populated public places in large U.S. cities, in the weeks immediately prior to the elections," the FBI said Aug. 27 in a bulletin to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies.

The bulletin did not describe any potential targets or cities, and repeated that the FBI had no specific timing or method of such an attack.

Ridge recently said the attack time frame could extend beyond the campaign season to the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration.

GOP: Reality a forgery

Republican experts doubt the authenticity of reality

Washington - Congressional Republicans turned the heat on reality today, charging that four years of revelations about President Bush's record are based on millions of fake documents and false reports.

"It's very clear that reality has been forged. Somebody has been giving everyone a steady stream of false information for four years now," said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah.

Forty members of the House signed a letter accusing television networks, newspapers, magazines, websites, and private conversations of deception. The letter asked for a whistleblower to step forward to reveal reality's source.

"I think at the very least that the source of George W. Bush's record, and reality as a whole, should step forward," said Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri.

In a related development, reality released a statement renewing its defense of itself.

Although, this is not what you see in your media, it is a fact.

I have noticed -- and the media have been neglected and omitted several times -- in the Western media

So, really, I call upon the responsible media -- throughout the world, not only here -- to look at the facts as they are in Iraq and to propagate these facts to the international community.

Although this is not what we see in your media, it is a fact. [to Congress]

The front page is filled with Iraq, terrorism, the deficit, all these giant threats. It's like we've got a bad CEO. Nothing personal, Mr. Bush, but I don't think you're running this country well. I think you're running it into the ground, and it's my personal opinion that we need a regime change. You're fired. That's all. Nothing personal, man. Maybe we'll go out and have a glass of wine sometime and talk about it after the election. He might be a charming guy. But, boy, is he a fucked CEO. - [Hart] ----

Harry Truman said that the one crime more heinous than treason is war profiteering, and yet we have the company that our vice president is still on retainer to - which is illegal - making a huge fortune. Every time the terrorists blow up another pipeline over there, Halliburton makes millions of dollars pasting it back together. They don't even have to be pumping oil to be making money. This is who owns our government now.

Though I've never really endorsed a political candidate before, I'm going to have to this time. I liked the look in Kerry's eye when I met him. He looks like an aware human being and a guy with a sense of humor. So we're just going to have to hope and pray that the debates go well. --- [Weir] ----

"Today, we are better off, you are better off, the world is better off without Saddam Hussein," Allawi said. "Your decision to go into Iraq was not an easy one, but it was the right one."

Those words were met by regular, warm applause and standing ovations from both Republicans and Democrats.

Even though the president has a slight lead in this poll, when voters were asked what they would want in a second term for Bush, 58 percent say they want major changes, compared with only 9 percent who say they want his second term to look a lot like his first term.

[Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas]: There's one other base here, the media. Let's talk a little media bias here. The media, I think, wants Kerry to win and I think they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards I'm talking about the establishment media, not Fox. They're going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistic and there's going to be this glow about them, collective glow, the two of them, that's going to be worth maybe 15 points.

Experts showed ways they could alter vote totals without a password, record a vote for one candidate as a vote for another, or simply erase the vote totals completely.

They also showed a video of a chimpanzee hitting two computer keys -- "delete" and "enter" -- to erase records that vote totals had been altered. ...

... A pale-looking man named John Kenny said he was on a hunger strike until the election to publicize the issue. He said he had lost 12 pounds so far.

Joe Lockhart, a high ranking member of the Kerry campaign team was all over the news yesterday, including on this program, explaining that, yes, he talked to Bill Burkett, the man responsible for giving those phony documents to CBS. ...

... But Lockhart insists they didn't discuss those documents in question. It was just all about the weather and, you know, who was going to win the Orioles series.

One things for sure, there is a lot of damage to go around.

COSTELLO: If you thought you heard the last of the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident, oh, think again. The SEC will issue a final ruling on it today. Some CBS stations are facing some big record-setting fines -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Are we done with that story yet?

ZAHN: Given how heated the tensions are around this issue, can you explain to us tonight why John Kerry has the numbers he has when it comes to the public trust in him vs. the president to control the situation in Iraq? They have much greater faith in the president than they do in John Kerry.

BIDEN: You know, I know this is going to sound corny to you. That's above my pay grade. That's about politics. I'm talking about substance. I don't care what John Kerry's number is.

I care about the kids that we have sitting over there. I don't give a damn whether John Kerry wins or loses or George Bush wins or loses. All I know is, this entire program to try to win the peace in Iraq is, in fact, going down the drain, because the president keeps saying stay the course, instead of change the course. What is the plan, Mr. President? I don't care whether you win or lose. ...

... The secretary of defense said in February on your program, we've trained 210,000 people. I told you then that was malarkey. Last Friday, he said we've trained 95,000 Iraqis. That is malarkey. He said we trained 32,000 Iraqi policemen. Not one single solitary Iraqi policeman has completed the 24-week training program, not one single solitary one.

The Justice Department defends its record. It says its own probe revealed the Detroit errors and that 189 of 357 individuals arrested for terrorism have been convicted. That's a dubious defense. The Detroit probe was indeed thorough, but it occurred only after a federal judge ordered prosecutors to reveal why they had withheld exonerating evidence. ... The conviction record, meanwhile, says little. The Justice Department is unable or unwilling to provide supporting details.

The Detroit case was extremely weak from the outset. The government could never specify exactly what terrorist activity was allegedly being planned and never offered any evidence linking the defendants to Al Qaeda. Its case consisted almost entirely of a pair of sketches and a videotape, described by an FBI agent as "casing materials" for a terrorist plot, and the testimony of a witness of highly dubious reliability seeking a generous plea deal. It now turns out that the prosecution failed to disclose to the defense evidence that other government experts did not consider the sketches and videotape to be terrorist casing materials at all and that the government's key witness had admitted to lying.

Until that reversal, the Detroit case had marked the only terrorist conviction obtained from the Justice Department's detention of more than 5,000 foreign nationals in antiterrorism sweeps since 9/11. So Ashcroft's record is 0 for 5,000.

Suzuki went 5-for-5 to pull within 14 hits of George Sisler's major league record of 257, and the Seattle Mariners (beat the Angels 7-3 Tuesday night. ...

... [Ichiro] Suzuki became the first player with four five-hit games in a season since San Diego's Tony Gwynn in 1993, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. ...

... He has 11 games left to break the record set by Sisler with the 1920 St. Louis Browns. Suzuki raised his batting average to .372, taking over the major league lead from San Francisco's Barry Bonds (.369).

"It's almost like a martial arts-type thing, where he gets into a zone and he finds a way to get on base," said Scott Spiezio

What if, from time to time, the US Army besieged Virginia Beach, killing hundreds of armed members of the Christian Soldiers? What if entire platoons of the Christian Soldiers militia holed up in Arlington National Cemetery, and were bombarded by US Air Force warplanes daily, destroying thousands of graves and pulverizing the Vietnam Memorial? What if the National Council of Churches had to call for a popular march of thousands of believers to converge on the National Cathedral to stop the US Army from demolishing it to get at a rogue band of the Timothy McVeigh Memorial Brigades?

What if there were virtually no commercial air traffic in the country? What if many roads were highly dangerous, especially Interstate 95 from Richmond to Washington, DC, and I-95 and I-91 up to Boston? If you got on I-95 anywhere along that over 500-mile stretch, you would risk being carjacked, kidnapped, or having your car sprayed with machine gun fire. ...

KEN POLLACK, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: I was speaking to some Brits the other day, and the point that they were making is that, you know, the interesting thing about the debate, the difference between the debate in the United States and in Great Britain is that in the U.S., while both candidates continue to say we're committed to rebuilding Iraq, they also do talk about getting out at some point. When might we be able to get out? Will it be in a year? Will it be in five years? Will it be in 10 years?

In Britain, what these Brits pointed out is the Brits never talk about that. They simply talk about getting the job done.

The overwhelming majority of voters - 71% - including Labour supporters want Tony Blair to set a date for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, according to this month's Guardian/ICM opinion poll. ...

... The British Army is to start pulling troops out of Iraq next month despite the deteriorating security situation in much of the country, The Observer has learnt.

The main British combat force in Iraq, about 5,000-strong, will be reduced by around a third by the end of October during a routine rotation of units.

BGE officials said Monday that they weren't sure what caused the fire. This much was certain: Wires exploded, igniting the inferno.The underground pressure blew off at least two 3-foot-diameter manhole covers, tossing them so high into the air that one chipped when it hit the ground, fire officials said. They might have been launched 50 feet up, one estimated.

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.