Transcript of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Speech

He really knows how to work a crowd into a frenzy.

——

Thank you.

What a greeting! This is like winning an Oscar! … As if I would know!

Speaking of acting, one of my movies was called “True Lies.” It’s what the Democrats should have called their convention.

My fellow Americans, this is an amazing moment for me. To think that a once-scrawny boy from Austria could grow up to become Governor of California and stand in Madison Square Garden to speak on behalf of the President of the United States that is an immigrant’s dream. It is the American dream.

I was born in Europe … and I’ve traveled all over the world. I can tell you that there is no place, no country, more compassionate, more generous, more accepting, and more welcoming than the United States of America.

As long as I live, I will never forget that day 21 years ago — when I raised my hand and took the oath of citizenship.

Do you know how proud I was? I was so proud that I walked around with an American flag around my shoulders all day long.

Tonight, I want to talk about why I’m even more proud to be an American — why I’m proud to be a Republican — and why I believe this country is in good hands.

When I was a boy, the Soviets occupied part of Austria. I saw their tanks in the streets. I saw communism with my own eyes. I remember the fear we had when we had to cross into the Soviet sector. Growing up, we were told, “Don’t look the soldiers in the eye. Look straight ahead.” It was a common belief that Soviet soldiers could take a man out of his own car and ship him off to the Soviet Union as slave labor.

My family didn’t have a car — but one day we were in my uncle’s car. It was near dark as we came to a Soviet checkpoint. I was a little boy, I wasn’t an action hero back then, and I remember how scared I was that the soldiers would pull my father or my uncle out of the car, and I’d never see him again. My family and so many others lived in fear of the Soviet boot. Today, the world no longer fears the Soviet Union — and it is because of the United States of America!

As a kid I saw the socialist country that Austria became after the Soviets left. I love Austria and I love the Austrian people — but I always knew America was the place for me. In school, when the teacher would talk about America, I would daydream about coming here. I would sit for hours watching American movies — transfixed by my heroes like John Wayne. Everything about America seemed so big to me — so open, so possible.

I finally arrived here in 1968.I had empty pockets, but I was full of dreams. The presidential campaign was in full swing. I remember watching the Nixon and Humphrey presidential race on TV. A friend who spoke German and English, translated for me. I heard Humphrey saying things that sounded like socialism — which is what I had just left. But then I heard Nixon speak. He was talking about free enterprise, getting government off your back, lowering taxes, and strengthening the military. Listening to Nixon speak sounded more like a breath of fresh air.

I said to my friend, “What party is he?” My friend said, “He’s a Republican.” I said, “Then I am a Republican!” And I’ve been a Republican ever since! And trust me, in my wife’s family, that’s no small achievement! I’m proud to belong to the party of Abraham Lincoln, the party of Teddy Roosevelt, the party of Ronald Reagan - and the party of George W. Bush.

To my fellow immigrants listening tonight, I want you to know how welcome you are in this party. We Republicans admire your ambition. We encourage your dreams. We believe in your future. One thing I learned about America is that if you work hard and play by the rules, this country is truly open to you. You can achieve anything.

Everything I have — my career — my success — my family — I owe to America. In this country, it doesn’t make any difference where you were born. It doesn’t make any difference who your parents were. It doesn’t make any difference if, like me, you couldn’t even speak English until you were in your twenties.

America gave me opportunities, and my immigrant dreams came true. I want other people to get the same chances I did, the same opportunities. And I believe they can. That’s why I believe in this country, that’s why I believe in this party — and that’s why I believe in this President.

Now, many of you out there tonight are “Republican” like me in your hearts and in your beliefs. Maybe you’re from Guatemala. Maybe you’re from the Philippines. Maybe Europe or the Ivory Coast. Maybe you live in Ohio, Pennsylvania or New Mexico. And maybe — just maybe — you don’t agree with this party on every single issue. I say to you tonight I believe that’s not only okay — that’s what’s great about this country. Here we can respectfully disagree and still be patriotic — still be American — and still be good Republicans.

My fellow immigrants, my fellow Americans how do you know if you are a Republican? I’ll tell you how.

If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government … then you are a Republican! If you believe a person should be treated as an individual, not as a member of an interest group … then you are a Republican! If you believe your family knows how to spend your money better than the government does … then you are a Republican! If you believe our educational system should be held accountable for the progress of our children … then you are a Republican! If you believe this country, not the United Nations, is the best hope of democracy in the world … then you are a Republican! And, ladies and gentlemen … if you believe we must be fierce and relentless and terminate terrorism … then you are a Republican!

There is another way you can tell you’re a Republican. You have faith in free enterprise, faith in the resourcefulness of the American people … and faith in the U.S. economy. To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: Don’t be economic girlie men!

The U.S. economy remains the envy of the world. We have the highest economic growth of any of the world’s major industrialized nations. Don’t you remember the pessimism of twenty years ago - when the critics said Japan and Germany were overtaking the U.S.? Ridiculous!

Now they say India and China are overtaking us. Don’t you believe it! We may hit a few BUMPS — but America always moves ahead! That’s what Americans do!

We move prosperity ahead. We move freedom ahead. We move people ahead. Under President Bush, and Vice President Cheney, America’s economy is moving ahead in spite of a recession they inherited and in spite of the attack on our homeland.

Now, the other party says there are two Americas. Don’t believe that either. I’ve visited our troops in Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia, Germany, and all over the world. I’ve visited our troops in California, where they train before they go overseas. And I’ve visited our military hospitals. And I can tell you this: Our young men and women in uniform do not believe there are two Americas!

They believe we are one America — and they are fighting for it! We are one America — and President Bush is defending it with all his heart and soul!

That’s what I admire most about the President. He’s a man of perseverance. He’s a man of inner strength. He is a leader who doesn’t flinch, doesn’t waiver, does not back down. My fellow Americans, make no mistake about it - terrorism is more insidious than communism, because it yearns to destroy not just the individual but the entire international order.

The President didn’t go into Iraq because the polls told him it was popular. As a matter of fact, the polls said just the opposite. But leadership isn’t about polls. It’s about making decisions you think are right and then standing behind those decisions. That’s why America is safer with George W. Bush as President.

He knows you don’t reason with terrorists. You defeat them. He knows you can’t reason with people blinded by hate. They hate the power of the individual. They hate the progress of women. They hate the religious freedom of others. They hate the liberating breeze of democracy. But, ladies and gentlemen, their hate is no match for America’s decency.

We’re the America that sends out Peace Corps volunteers to teach village children.

We’re the America that sends out missionaries and doctors to raise up the poor and the sick. We’re the America that gives more than any other country, to fight aids in Africa and the developing world. And we’re the America that fights not for imperialism but for human rights and democracy.

You know, When the Germans brought down the Berlin Wall — America’s determination helped wield the sledgehammers. When that lone, young Chinese man stood in front of those tanks in Tiananmen Square — America’s hopes stood with him. And when Nelson Mandela smiled in election victory after all those years in prison America celebrated, too.

We are still the lamp lighting the world — especially for those who struggle. No matter in what labor camp they slave — no matter in what injustice they’re trapped — they hear our call … they see our light … and they feel the pull of our freedom. They come here — as I did — because they believe. They believe in US.

They come because their hearts say to them, as mine did, “If only I can get to America.” Someone once wrote — “There are those who say that freedom is nothing but a dream.” They are right. It’s the American dream.

No matter the nationality, no matter the religion, no matter the ethnic background, America brings out the best in people. And as Governor of the great state of California — I see the best in Americans every day … our police, our firefighters — our nurses, doctors and teachers — our parents.

And what about the extraordinary men and women who have volunteered to fight — for the United States of America! I have such great respect for them and their heroic families.

Let me tell you about the sacrifice and commitment I’ve seen firsthand. In one of the military hospitals I visited, I met a young guy who was in bad shape. He’d lost a leg — had a hole in his stomach … his shoulder had been shot through.

I could tell there was no way he could ever return to combat. But when I asked him, “When do you think you’ll get out of the hospital?” He said, “Sir, in three weeks.” And do you know what he said to me then? He said he was going to get a new leg … and get some therapy … and then he was going back to Iraq to serve alongside his buddies! He grinned at me and said, “Arnold … I’ll be back!”

Ladies and gentlemen, America is back! — back from the attack on our homeland- back from the attack on our economy — back from the attack on our way of life. We’re back because of the perseverance, character and leadership of the 43rd President of the United States — George W. Bush.

My fellow Americans … I want you to know that I believe with all my heart that America remains “the great idea” that inspires the world. It’s a privilege to be born here. It’s an honor to become a citizen here. It’s a gift to raise your family here — to vote here — and to live here.

Our president George W. Bush has worked hard to protect and preserve the American dream for all of us. That’s why I say … send - him - back to Washington for four more years!

Thank you, America — and God bless you all!

—-

Remarks of George P. Bush

—-

No matter how often I visit New York, I never tire of looking at the Statue of Liberty.

I can’t help but reflect upon the impression she must have made on our weary but hopeful ancestors whose first glimpse of America was that inspiring silhouette.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Although many immigrants could not read the words, the outstretched arm that pierced the heavens was clear affirmation that they had found what they were seeking — the land of freedom and opportunity.

In return, these immigrants, and those who followed them, made this country stronger through their labor; safer through their sacrifice in defending its shores; and richer through diversity.

Our Party has always represented the interests of all people seeking opportunity.

We are the home of entrepreneurs.

—-

Text of Elizabeth Dole's Speech

————

Thank you ladies and gentlemen for your warm welcome. And folks, this time I promise to stay behind the podium! For giving me the privilege and honor of representing them in the United State Senate, let me say thank you to the folks of the great state of North Carolina. For giving America courageous leadership in times of trial, decisive leadership in times of crisis, we thank you, Mr. President. You have restored honor and dignity to the White House.

The Presidency tests all who have been there. It has tested you, sir. Your road has not been easy; your burden has not been light; yet you have displayed the peace that surpasses all understanding. We salute you.

We live in a time of stark contrasts. Four years ago America was about to tumble into recession. Today our economy is recovering. Four years ago, 911 was just an emergency phone number. Today, it is a call to arms. For Republicans, through these changes and challenges, who we are and what we believe has never wavered.

The party of Abraham Lincoln has not wandered in a desert of disbelief or uncertainty. Led now by President Bush, this Grand Old Party is still guided by a moral compass, its roots deep in the firm soil of timeless truths. We still believe that character is king. We saw that lived out in the life of Ronald … Wilson … Reagan.

Ronald Reagan, who called an empire evil and won the Cold War.

We still believe that liberty is the birthright of every soul. That’s why in Afghanistan women were freed from virtual slavery and given access to books and education and a future. That’s why in Afghanistan and Iraq the dark clouds of oppression have parted for 50 million people. And until they can clearly see the blue skies of freedom, we are standing by them!

Yet we know our true strength is not in our weapons. We are a great nation because we are a good people. And we are a good people because of what we believe.

We believe in the dignity of every life, the possibility of every mind, the divinity of every soul. This is our true north - we believe in life. The new life of a man and woman joined together under God.

Marriage is important not because it is a convenient invention or the latest reality show — marriage is important because it is the cornerstone of civilization, and the foundation of the family. Marriage between a man and a woman isn’t something Republicans invented, but it is something Republicans will defend.

We value the sacred life of every man, woman, and child. We believe in a culture that respects all human life - including the most vulnerable in our society, the frail elderly, the infirm, and those not yet born. Protecting life isn’t something Republicans invented, but it is something Republicans will defend. We believe in the treasured life of faith.

Two thousand years ago a man said, ” … I have come to give life and to give it in full.” In America I have the freedom to call that man Lord, and I do. In the United States of America we are free to worship without discrimination, without intervention and even without activist judges trying to strip the name of God from the Pledge of Allegiance; from the money in our pockets; and from the walls of our courthouses. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. The right to worship God isn’t something Republicans invented, but it is something Republicans will defend.

We believe in the compassionate life of service. Our enemies in this war on terror say that America is selfish, self-centered, self-obsessed. They do not know America. As the President said, “If you want to help in the war on terror, love your neighbor. Love your neighbor.” Americans will cross town or cross the globe to help people they’ve never met and will never see again. So yes, if neighbors are hungry, we feed them; if a storm named Charley or Francis strikes, we help them. Serving others isn’t something Americans invented, but it is a calling we’ll always accept.

These are just some of the principles that guide our party. Some may call them values. Others may call them virtues. I like to think of them simply as the truths my parents and grandparents taught me. Despite what you might hear on the news, they are the shared truths of the American people. They are true from sea to shining sea - from my hometown of Salisbury, North Carolina to the South Side of Chicago, from Little Havana to Bob Dole’s Russell, Kansas, from Madison Square Garden to the Space Needle, from Crawford, Texas to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The last century was known as the “American Century.” In a single lifetime, I have seen Americans split the atom, abolish Jim Crow, eliminate the scourge of polio, win the Cold War, plant our flag on the surface of the moon, map the human genetic code and belatedly recognize the talents of women, minorities, the disabled and others once relegated to the shadows. We are now in the earliest years of a new century … writing another chapter in American history.

And if we reaffirm these timeless and unchangeable truths, if we choose life and liberty, compassion and service, character and faith, we will honor those who came before us, and inspire the children of tomorrow. It will be said of us that we lived in a time of great challenge, and great hopes. And let it also be said that we loved our country … and served her well … and chose leaders wisely. That is what brings us to this convention, ladies and gentlemen.

I am honored to stand with you in support of a great American: our nominee … our President … George W. Bush!

————

RNC: Protest Updates (UPDATED)

It’s going to be a busy night in Manhattan. The group called A31 has several “actions” lined up.

They Got started at 4pm in Union Square where, according to Indymedia:

As many as 1000 people are at Union Square. Police appear to be encircling Union Square. 100 cops are marching around perimeter, two dozen mopeds approaching.

An update says that as of right now, a few hundred people are marching up Church Street.

At 6:00, they are slated to gather at Madison Square Park and at 7:00, there is a call for a “mass convergence” on Madison Square Garden.

So far today:

Police arrested at least two dozen activists on Tuesday in an all-day wave of acts of civil disobedience and other demonstrations to protest against the Republican convention in New York.

Seventeen protesters were arrested for illegally blocking traffic on foot or on bicycles in the Wall Street financial district and six were taken into custody for illegally wearing masks at a Harlem subway station, police said.

One man was arrested by about 10 police officers after he climbed a tree to obtain a better view of a rally by fellow immigration activists outside US government offices, eyewitnesses said.

It looks like the marching protesters are ready to gather at a Hummer dealer in a few minutes. What they are going to do there is anyone’s guess, but we’ll assume that “no blood for oil” is on the agenda.

Update:

Ryan Sager is blogging the protests. He also has photos from last night’s activities.

Update:

If the protests against Bush/Republicans/America/Name Your Poison aren’t enough for you, how about this one?

WED., Sept. 1, 10:00AM - Protest Appalling Detention Conditions for RNC Arrestees At Pier 57, “Guantanamo on the Hudson” (West Side Highway @ 15th Street)

The mind boggles.

Update 2:

This in from Indymedia:

bq. 05:28 PM After several hundred war resisters left ground zero to march north, 100-200 remained within pens. They will all be arrested one by one.

That would be the same Ground Zero that those protesting have said should not be used as a political tool.

Update 3:

Give my regard to Broadway, remember me to Herald Square.

According to sources on the left, things are heating up over there with plenty of arrests and some “aggressive” police action.

Update:

Drudge is reporting that someone tried to attack MSNBC’s Chris Matthews (no, it wasn’t Michelle Malkin). And Al Franken was doing a little Kung-Fu fighting of his own.

Here’s what Franken was fighting about.

[click image for larger size. Photo courtesy RNC]

Preview of Governor Schwarzenegger's Speech

Excerpts from the speech Arnold will give tonight (made available by the GOP)

• On the Republican Party:

“I’m proud to belong to the party of Abraham Lincoln, the party of Teddy Roosevelt, the party of Ronald Reagan - and the party of George W. Bush. To my fellow immigrants listening tonight, I want you to know how welcome you are in this party. We Republicans admire your ambition. We encourage your dreams. We believe in your future.”

• On the American Dream:

“In this country, it doesn’t make any difference where you were born. It doesn’t make any difference who your parents were. It doesn’t make any difference if, like me, you couldn’t even speak English until you were in your twenties. America gave me opportunities, and my immigrant dreams came true. I want other people to get the same chances I did, the same opportunities. And I believe they can. That’s why I believe in this country, that’s why I believe in this Party - and that’s why I believe in this President.”

• On the compassion of the American people:
  
  “We’re the America that sends out Peace Corps volunteers to teach
  village children. We’re the America that sends out missionaries and
  doctors to raise up the poor and the sick. We’re the America that gives more than any other country, to fight AIDS in Africa and the developing world. And we’re the America that fights not for imperialism but for human rights and democracy.”

• On the compassion and perseverance of the American people:

“Ladies and gentlemen, America is back. Back from the attack on our
homeland - back from the attack on our economy - back from the attack on our way of life. We’re back because of the perseverance, character and leadership of Americans, I want you to know that I believe with all my heart that America remains ‘the great idea’ that inspires the world.”

Kerry Loses Edge on Issues of Security

WaPo:

President Bush holds clear advantages over John F. Kerry on national security issues and leadership in the war on terrorism, largely erasing the broad gains Kerry made at his party’s Boston convention last month, but voters continue to give the president negative marks on the economy and his handling of Iraq, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

[…]

The new poll confirms the suggestion by other recent surveys that, despite clear dissatisfaction about the direction of the country, Bush has regained ground lost to Kerry on national security issues.

You can view the poll graphics here, demographics here.

Students fight to register in college towns

AP: Students fight to register in college towns

With so much emphasis on getting young people to the polls this election, the issue of where college students can register to vote is getting more attention. And some students — who believe they should have the right to vote where they live most of the year — are getting organized.

“We plan to push this issue,” says Han, a 21-year old junior at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, who’s originally from a Seattle suburb. “Students are being disenfranchised.”

Han spent the summer interning in Washington, D.C., where he met Lowe and other students who share his cause. They formed the grass-roots Student Voting Rights Campaign.

Now the group is calling for a “day of action” on Sept. 23, urging students to register en masse — even if they meet with resistance.

What do you think?

Rounding-Up the First Night of the RNC

PoliBlog’s Bite-Sized Toast is available, it contains an evaluation of last night and links o’ plenty. Enjoy.

RNC: Zainab al-Suwaij

Zainab al-Suwaij is the executive director of the American Islamic Congress.

Text of Ms. al-Sawaij’s speech:

Thank you for your kind welcome.

From my heart, I offer you the traditional Muslim greeting: As Salam Alaikum— Peace be upon you.

I am honored to stand here tonight. When I came to the United States from Iraq 12 years ago, I would never have imagined myself speaking to a group like this.

Living under Saddam Hussein, we could not gather as we do now to discuss things like democracy and freedom. We could only dream of a day when we could speak freely, and worship God in ways of our own choosing.

Instead, we lived under a murderer who used every weapon in his arsenal against us— from tanks to torture chambers to poison gas.

When people talk about the war in Iraq — I want to remind them that there has been a war raging in Iraq for the last 3 decades.

A war waged by Saddam against his own people.

I lived through it. I saw it brutalize my friends and my family.

But today, I come to tell you that Iraq enjoys a new day.

Yes, there is still bloodshed and uncertainty — but America, under the strong, compassionate leadership of President Bush, has given Iraqis the most precious gift any nation has ever given another —- the gift of democracy and the freedom to determine its own future.

Already, the seeds of democracy are bearing fruit —- with popular elections recently held for local officials. And we know our children face a brighter future.

So as I grieve for the courageous Americans and Iraqis who were killed and injured during Iraq’s liberation, I tell you proudly that their noble sacrifice was not in vain.

As Iraqis assume full sovereignty, they embrace the American people in friendship and gratitude.

I promise you: we will never forget what your sons and daughters did for us.

Thank you.

RNC: Ron Silver Speaks

Actor Ron Silver took a little dig at his fellow entertainers with this line:

Even though I am a well-recognized liberal on many issues confronting our society today, I find it ironic that many human rights advocates and outspoken members of my own entertainment community are often on the front lines to protest repression, for which I applaud them but they are usually the first ones to oppose any use of force to take care of these horrors that they catalogue repeatedly.

Read the rest of his speech here.

RNC: Today's Schedule

Today’s theme is People of Compassion.

Speakers will include:

• Senator Elizabeth Dole (NC)

• Representative Anne Northup (KY)

• George P. Bush, Dallas, TX

• Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D. (TN)

• The Honorable Rod Paige

• Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA)

• Mrs. Laura Bush

Noonan & Pataki

Something to look for on Thursday night: A talking head on Charlie Rose just said that Peggy Noonan is writing Pataki’s speech.

The 2008 lineup gets bigger and bigger …

RNC: Giuliani's Speech

[Text of prepared statement, made available by the GOP.]

Remarks by the Honorable Rudy Giuliani Former Mayor of the City of New York

Welcome to the capital of the World.

New York was the first capital of our great nation. It was here in 1789 in lower Manhattan that George Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States. It was here in 2001 in lower Manhattan that President George W. Bush stood amid the fallen towers of the World Trade Center and said to the barbaric terrorists who attacked us, “They will hear from us.”

They have heard from us! They heard from us in Afghanistan and we removed the Taliban. They heard from us in Iraq and we ended Saddam Hussein’s reign of terror. They heard from us in Libya and without firing a shot Qadhafi abandoned weapons of mass destruction.
They are hearing from us in nations that are now more reluctant to sponsor terrorists. So long as George Bush is President, is there any doubt they will continue to hear from us until we defeat global terrorism.

We owe that much and more to those loved ones and heroes we lost on September 11th. The families of some of those we lost on September 11th are here with us. To them, and all those families affected by September 11th, we recognize the sacrifices your loved ones and you have made. You are in our prayers and we are in your debt.

This is the first Republican Convention ever held in New York City.
It makes a statement that New York City and America are open for business and stronger than ever. We’re not going to let the threat of terrorism stop us from leading our lives. From the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, to President George W. Bush our party’s
great contribution is to expand freedom in our own land and all over the world. And our party is at its best when it makes certain that we have a powerful national defense in a still very dangerous world.

I don’t believe we’re right about everything and Democrats are wrong about everything. Neither party has a monopoly on virtue. But I do believe that there are times in our history when our ideas are more necessary and important for what we are facing. There are times when leadership is the most important.

On September 11, this city and our nation faced the worst attack in our history. On that day, we had to confront reality. For me, standing below the north tower and looking up and seeing the flames of hell and then realizing that I was actually seeing a man – a human being –
jumping from the 101st or 102nd floor drove home to me that we were facing something beyond anything we had ever faced before. We had to concentrate all of our energy, faith and hope to get through those first hours and days. And I will always remember that moment as we escaped the building we were trapped in at 75 Barclay Street and realized that things outside might be even worse than they were inside the building.

We did the best we could to communicate a message of calm and hope, as we stood on the pavement seeing a massive cloud rushing through the cavernous streets of lower Manhattan. Our people were so brave in their response. At the time, we believed we would be attacked many more times that day and in the days that followed. Spontaneously, I grabbed the arm of then Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and said
to Bernie, “Thank God George Bush is our President.” And I say it again tonight, “Thank God George Bush is our President.”

On September 11, George W. Bush had been President less than eight months. This new President, Vice President, and new administration were faced with the worst crisis in our history. President Bush’s response in keeping us unified and in turning the ship of state around from being solely on defense against terrorism to being on offense as well and for his holding us together. For that and then his determined effort to defeat global terrorism, no matter what happens in this
election, President George W. Bush already has earned a place in our history as a great American President.

But let’s not wait for history to present the correct view of our President. Let us write our own history.

We need George Bush now more than ever.

The horror, the shock and the devastation of those attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and over the skies of Pennsylvania lifted a cloud from our eyes. We stood face to face with those people and forces who hijacked not just airplanes but a religion
and turned it into a creed of terrorism dedicated to eradicating us and our way of life. Terrorism did not start on September 11, 2001. It had been festering for many years. And the world had created a response to it that allowed it to succeed. The attack on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics was in 1972. And the pattern had already begun. The three surviving terrorists were arrested and within two months released by the German government. Action like this became the rule, not the exception. Terrorists came to learn they could attack and often not face consequences.

In 1985, terrorists attacked the Achille Lauro and murdered an American citizen who was in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer. They marked him for murder solely because he was Jewish. Some of those terrorist were released and some of the remaining terrorists allowed to escape by the Italian government because of fear of reprisals.
So terrorists learned they could intimidate the world community and too often the response, particularly in Europe, was “accommodation, appeasement and compromise.” And worse the terrorists also learned that their cause would be taken more seriously, almost in direct proportion to the barbarity of the attack.

Terrorist acts became a ticket to the international bargaining table.
How else to explain Yasser Arafat winning the Nobel Peace Prize when he was supporting a terrorist plague in the Middle East that undermined any chance of peace?

Before September 11, we were living with an unrealistic view of the world much like our observing Europe appease Hitler or trying to accommodate ourselves to peaceful co-existence with the Soviet
Union through mutually assured destruction.

President Bush decided that we could no longer be just on defense against global terrorism but we must also be on offense. On September 20, 2001, President Bush stood before a joint session of Congress, a still grieving and shocked nation and a confused world and he did change the direction of our ship of state. He dedicated America under his leadership to destroying global terrorism. The President announced the Bush Doctrine when he said: “Our war on terror begins with Al
Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.
“Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.” And since September 11th President Bush has remained rock solid.

It doesn’t matter how he is demonized. It doesn’t matter what the media does to ridicule him or misinterpret him or defeat him.
They ridiculed Winston Churchill. They belittled Ronald Reagan.
But like President Bush, they were optimists; leaders must be optimists. Their vision was beyond the present and set on a future of real peace and true freedom.Some call it stubbornness. I call it principled leadership. President Bush has the courage of his convictions.

In choosing a President, we really don’t choose a Republican or Democrat, a conservative or liberal. We choose a leader. And in times of danger, as we are now in, Americans should put leadership at the core of their decision.

There are many qualities that make a great leader but having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader.
Winston Churchill saw the dangers of Hitler while his opponents characterized him as a war-mongering gadfly. Ronald Reagan saw and described the Soviet Union as “the evil empire” while world opinion
accepted it as inevitable and belittled Ronald Reagan’s intelligence.
President Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that it is. John Kerry has no such clear, precise and consistent vision. This is not a personal criticism of John Kerry. I respect him for his service to our nation.But it is important to see the contrast in approach between the two men; President Bush, a leader who is willing to stick with difficult decisions even as public opinion shifts, and John Kerry, whose record in elected office suggests a man who changes his position
often even on important issues.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, John Kerry voted against the Persian Gulf War. Later he said he actually supported the war.
Then in 2002, as he was calculating his run for President, he voted for the war in Iraq. And then just 9 months later, he voted against an $87 billion supplemental budget to fund the war and support our troops. He even, at one point, declared himself an anti-war candidate. Now, he says he’s pro-war. At this rate, with 64 days left, he still has time to change his position at least three or four more times.
My point about John Kerry being inconsistent is best described in his own words when he said, “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.”

Maybe this explains John Edwards’ need for two Americas - - one where John Kerry can vote for something and another where he can vote against the same thing.

Yes, people in public office at times do change their minds, I’ve done that, or they realize they are wrong or circumstances change. But John Kerry has made it the rule to change his position, rather than the exception. In October, 2003, he told an Arab-American Institute in Detroit that a security barrier separating Israel from the
Palestinian Territories was a “barrier to peace.” A few months later, he took exactly the opposite position. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post he said, “Israel’s security fence is a legitimate act of self defense.”

The contrasts are dramatic. They involve very different views of how to deal with terrorism. President Bush will make certain that we are combatting terrorism at the source, beyond our shores, so we can reduce the risk of having to confront it in the streets of New York.
John Kerry’s record of inconsistent positions on combatting terrorism gives us no confidence he’ll pursue such a determined course.
President Bush will not allow countries that appear to have ignored the lessons of history and failed for over thirty years to stand up to terrorists, to dissuade us from what is necessary for our defense.
He will not let them set our agenda. Under President Bush, America will lead rather than follow.

John Kerry’s claim that certain foreign leaders who opposed our removal of Saddam Hussein prefer him, raises the risk that he would accommodate his position to their viewpoint. It would hardly be the first time he changed his position on matters of war and peace.
I remember the days following September 11th when we were no longer Democrats or Republicans, but Americans determined to do all we could to help the victims, to rebuild our city and nation and
to disable our enemies.

I remember President Bush coming here on September 14, 2001 and lifting the morale of our rescue workers by talking with them and embracing them and staying with them much longer than originally planned.

In fact, if you promise to keep it just between us so I don’t get in trouble it was my opinion that the Secret Service was concerned about the President remaining so long in that area. With buildings still unstable, with fires raging below ground of 2000 degrees or more, there was good reason for concern. Well the President remained there and talked to everyone, the firefighters, the police officers, the
healthcare workers, the clergy, but the people who spent the most time with him were our construction workers.

Now New York construction workers are very special people. I’m sure this is true all over but I know the ones here the best. They were real heroes along with many others that day, volunteering
immediately. And they’re big, real big. Their arms are bigger than my legs and their opinions are even bigger than their arms. Now each one of them would engage the President and I imagine like his cabinet give him advice. They were advising him in their own words on exactly what he should do with the terrorists. Of course I can’t repeat their exact language. But one of them really went into great detail and upon conclusion of his remarks President Bush said in a rather loud voice, “I agree.” At this point the guy just beamed and all his buddies turned toward him in amazement. The guy just lost it. So he reached over, embraced the President and began hugging him enthusiastically.
A Secret Service agent standing next to me looked at the President and the guy and instead of extracting the President from this bear hug, he turned toward me and put his finger in my face and said, “If this guy hurts the President, Giuliani you’re finished.” Meekly, and this is the moral of the story, I responded, “but it would be out of love.”

I also remember the heart wrenching visit President Bush made to the families of our firefighters and police officers at the Javits Center.
I remember receiving all the help, assistance and support from the President and even more than we asked. For that I will be eternally grateful to President Bush. And I remember the support being bi-partisan and actually standing hand in hand Republicans and
Democrats, here in New York and all over the nation. During a Boston Red Sox game there was a sign held up saying Boston loves New York.
I saw a Chicago police officer sent here by Mayor Daley directing traffic in Manhattan. I’m not sure where he sent the cars, they are probably still riding around the Bronx, but it was very reassuring to know how much support we had.

And as we look beyond this election – and elections do accentuate differences – let’s make sure we rekindle that spirit that we are one – one America – united to end the threat of global terrorism.
Certainly President Bush will keep us focused on that goal. When President Bush announced his commitment to ending global terrorism, he understood - - I understood, we all understood - - it was critical to remove the pillars of support for the global terrorist movement.
In any plan to destroy global terrorism, removing Saddam Hussein needed to be accomplished. Frankly, I believed then and I believe now that Saddam Hussein, who supported global terrorism, slaughtered hundreds of thousands of his own people, permitted horrific atrocities against women, and used weapons of mass destruction, was himself a weapon of mass destruction.

But the reasons for removing Saddam Hussein were based on issues even broader than just the presence of weapons of mass destruction. To liberate people, give them a chance for accountable, decent government and rid the world of a pillar of support for global terrorism is something for which all those involved from President Bush to the brave men and women of our armed forces should be proud.

President Bush has also focused on the correct long-term answer for the violence and hatred emerging from the Middle East. The hatred and anger in the Middle East arises from the lack of accountable governments. Rather than trying to grant more freedom, create more income, improve education and basic health care, these governments deflect their own failures by pointing to America and Israel and other
external scapegoats.

But blaming these scapegoats does not improve the life of a single person in the Arab world. It does not relieve the plight of even one woman in Iran. It does not give a decent living to a single soul in Syria. It certainly does not stop the slaughter of African Christians in the Sudan.The changes necessary in the Middle East involve encouraging accountable, lawful governments that can be role models.
This has also been an important part of the Bush Doctrine and the President’s vision for the future. Have faith in the power of freedom.

People who live in freedom always prevail over people who live in oppression. That’s the story of the Old Testament. That’s the story of World War II and the Cold War. That’s the story of the firefighters and police officers and rescue workers who courageously saved
thousands of lives on September 11, 2001.

President Bush is the leader we need for the next four years because he sees beyond today and tomorrow. He has a vision of a peaceful Middle East and, therefore, a safer world. We will see an end to global terrorism. I can see it. I believe it. I know it will happen.
It may seem a long way off. It may even seem idealistic. But it may not be as far away and idealistic as it seems. Look how quickly the Berlin Wall was torn down, the Iron Curtain ripped open and the Soviet
Union disintegrated because of the power of the pent-up demand for freedom. When it catches hold there is nothing more powerful than freedom. Give it some hope, and it will overwhelm dictators, and even defeat terrorists. That is what we have done and must continue to do
in Iraq. That is what the Republican Party does best – when we are at our best, we extend freedom.

It’s our mission. And it’s the long-term answer to ending global terrorism. Governments that are free and accountable.

We have won many battles at home and abroad but as President Bush told us on September 20, 2001 it will take a long-term determined effort to prevail.

The war on terrorism will not be won in a single battle. There will be no dramatic surrender. There will be no crumbling of a massive wall.

But we will know it. We’ll know it as accountable governments continue to develop in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

We’ll know it as terrorist attacks throughout the world decrease and then end.

And then, God willing, we’ll all be able on a future anniversary of September 11th.

To say to our fallen brothers and sisters. To our heroes of the worst attack in our history and to our heroes who have sacrificed their lives in the war on terror.

We will say to them we have done all that we could with our lives that were spared to make your sacrifices build a world of real peace and true freedom.

We will make certain in the words of President Bush that they have heard from us.

That they have heard from us a message of peace through free, accountable, lawful and decent governments giving people hope for a future for themselves and their children.

God bless each one we have lost, here and abroad, and their families.

God bless all those defending our freedom.

God bless America.

RNC: McCain's Speech

[Prepared text of John McCain’s speech, made available by the GOP]

Remarks by Senator John McCain (AZ)

Thank you, Lindsey, and, thank you, my fellow Republicans. I’m truly grateful for the privilege of addressing you. This week, millions of Americans, not all Republicans, weigh our claim on their support for the two men who have led our country in these challenging times with moral courage and firm resolve.

So I begin with the words of a great American from the other party, given at his party’s convention in the year I was born. My purpose is not imitation, for I can’t match his eloquence, but respect for
the relevance in our time of his rousing summons to greatness of an earlier generation of Americans.

In a time of deep distress at home, as tyranny strangled the aspirations to liberty of millions, and as war clouds gathered in the West and East, Franklin Delano Roosevelt accepted his party’s
nomination by observing:
“There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.”

The awful events of September 11, 2001 declared a war we were vaguely aware of, but hadn’t really comprehended how near the threat was, and how terrible were the plans of our enemies.

It’s a big thing, this war. It’s a fight between a just regard for human dignity and a malevolent force that defiles an honorable
religion by disputing God’s love for every soul on earth. It’s a fight between right and wrong, good and evil.

And should our enemies acquire for their arsenal the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons they seek, this war will become a much bigger thing. So it is, whether we wished it or not, that we have
come to the test of our generation, to our rendezvous with destiny.
And much is expected of us.

We are engaged in a hard struggle against a cruel and determined adversary. Our enemies have made clear the danger they pose to our security and to the very essence of our culture…liberty.
Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war.

Like all wars, this one will have its ups and downs. But we must fight. We must. The sacrifices borne in our defense are not shared equally by all Americans. But all Americans must share a resolve to see this war through to a just end. We must not be complacent at moments of success, and we must not despair over setbacks. We
must learn from our mistakes, improve on our successes, and vanquish this unpardonable enemy. If we do less, we will fail the one mission no American generation has ever failed…to provide to our children a stronger, better country than the one we were blessed to inherit.

Remember how we felt when the serenity of a bright September morning was destroyed by a savage atrocity so hostile to all human virtue we could scarcely imagine any human being capable of it. We were united.
First, in sorrow and anger. Then in recognition we were attacked not for a wrong we had done, but for who we are – a people united in a kinship of ideals, committed to the notion that the people are sovereign, not governments, not armies, not a pitiless, inhumane theocracy, not kings, mullahs or tyrants, but the people.

In that moment, we were not different races. We were not poor or rich. We were not Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. We were
not two countries. We were Americans. All of us, despite the differences that enliven our politics, are united in the one big idea that freedom is our birthright and its defense is always our first responsibility. All other responsibilities come second. We must not lose sight of that as we debate who among us should bear the greatest responsibility for keeping us safe and free. We must, whatever our disagreements, stick together in this great challenge of our time.
My friends in the Democratic Party – and I’m fortunate to call many of them my friends – assure us they share the conviction that winning the war against terrorism is our government’s most important obligation.
I don’t doubt their sincerity. They emphasize that military action alone won’t protect us, that this war has many fronts: in courts,
financial institutions, in the shadowy world of intelligence, and in diplomacy. They stress that America needs the help of her friends to combat an evil that threatens us all, that our alliances are as
important to victory as are our armies.We agree. And, as we’ve been a good friend to other countries in moments of shared perils, so we have good reason to expect their solidarity with us in this struggle.
That is what the President believes. And, thanks to his efforts we have received valuable assistance from many good friends around the
globe, even if we have, at times, been disappointed with the reactions of some.

I don’t doubt the sincerity of my Democratic friends. And they should not doubt ours. Our President will work with all nations willing to help us defeat this scourge that afflicts us all.

War is an awful business. The lives of a nation’s finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer. Commerce is disrupted, economies are damaged. Strategic interests shielded by years of statecraft are endangered as the demands of war and diplomacy conflict.

However just the cause, we should shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us. But there is no avoiding this war. We tried that, and our reluctance cost us dearly. And while this
war has many components, we can’t make victory on the battlefield harder to achieve so that our diplomacy is easier to conduct.
That is not just an expression of our strength. It’s a measure of our wisdom.

That’s why I commend to my country the re-election of President Bush, and the steady, experienced, public-spirited man who serves as our Vice-President, Dick Cheney.

Four years ago, in Philadelphia, I spoke of my confidence that President Bush would accept the responsibilities that come with America’s distinction as the world’s only superpower. I promised he would not let America “retreat behind empty threats, false promises and uncertain diplomacy;” that he would “confidently defend our interests and values wherever they are threatened.” I knew my confidence was well placed when I watched him stand on the rubble of the World Trade Center, with his arm around a hero of September 11th, and in our moment of mourning and anger, strengthen our unity and summon our resolve by promising to right this terrible wrong, and to stand up and fight for the values we hold dear. He promised our enemies would soon hear from us. And so they did. So they did.
He ordered American forces to Afghanistan and took the fight to our enemies, and away from our shores, seriously injuring al Qaeda and destroying the regime that gave them safe haven. He worked effectively to secure the cooperation of Pakistan, a relationship that’s critical to our success against al Qaeda.

He encouraged other friends to recognize the peril that terrorism posed for them, and won their help in apprehending many of those who would attack us again, and in helping to freeze the assets they
used to fund their bloody work.

After years of failed diplomacy and limited military pressure to restrain Saddam Hussein, President Bush made the difficult decision to liberate Iraq. Those who criticize that decision would have us believe that the choice was between a status quo that was well enough left alone and war. But there was no status quo to be left alone. The years of keeping Saddam in a box were coming to a close. The international consensus that he be kept isolated and unarmed had eroded to the point that many critics of military action had decided the time had come again to do business with Saddam, despite his near daily attacks on our pilots, and his refusal, until his last day in power, to allow the unrestricted inspection of his arsenal. Our choice wasn’t between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war. It was between war and a graver threat. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Not our critics abroad. Not our political opponents. And certainly not a disingenuous film maker who would have us believe that Saddam’s Iraq was an
oasis of peace when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children held inside their walls.

Whether or not Saddam possessed the terrible weapons he once had and used, freed from international pressure and the threat of military action, he would have acquired them again. The central security concern of our time is to keep such devastating weapons beyond the reach of terrorists who can’t be dissuaded from using them by the threat of mutual destruction. We couldn’t afford the risk posed by an unconstrained Saddam in these dangerous times. By destroying his regime we gave hope to people long oppressed that if they have the courage to fight for it, they may live in peace and freedom.
Most importantly, our efforts may encourage the people of a region that has never known peace or freedom or lasting stability that they may someday possess these rights.

I believe as strongly today as ever, the mission was necessary, achievable and noble. For his determination to undertake it, and for his unflagging resolve to see it through to a just end, President Bush deserves not only our support, but our admiration. As the President rightly reminds us, we are safer than we were on September 11th, but we’re not yet safe. We are still closer to the beginning than the end of this fight. We need a leader with the experience to make the tough decisions and the resolve to stick with them; a leader who will keep us moving forward even if it is easier to rest.And this President will not rest until America is stronger and safer still, and this hateful iniquity is vanquished. He has been tested and has risen to the most important challenge of our time, and I salute him.

I salute his determination to make this world a better, safer, freer place. He has not wavered. He has not flinched from the hard choices. He will not yield. And neither will we.

I said earlier that the sacrifices in this war will not be shared equally by all Americans. The President is the first to observe, most of the sacrifices fall, as they have before, to the brave men and
women of our Armed Forces. We may be good citizens, but make no mistake, they are the very best of us.

It’s an honor to live in a country that is so well and so bravely defended by such patriots. May God bless them, the living and the fallen, as He has blessed us with their service. For their families, for their friends, for America, for mankind they sacrifice to affirm that right makes might; that good triumphs over evil; that freedom is stronger than tyranny; that love is greater than hate. It is left to us to keep their generous benefaction alive, and our blessed, beautiful country worthy of their courage. We should be thankful — for the privilege.

Our country’s security doesn’t depend on the heroism of every citizen. But we have to be worthy of the sacrifices made on our behalf.
We have to love our freedom, not just for the material benefits it provides, not just for the autonomy it guarantees us, but for the goodness it makes possible. We have to love it as much, if not as
heroically, as the brave Americans who defend us at the risk, and often the cost of their lives. No American alive today will ever forget what happened on the morning of September 11th. That
day was the moment when the pendulum of history swung toward a new era. The opening chapter was tinged with great sadness and uncertainty. It shook us from our complacency in the belief that
the Cold War’s end had ushered in a time of global tranquility.
But an absence of complacency should not provoke an absence of confidence. What our enemies have sought to destroy is beyond their reach. It cannot be taken from us. It can only be surrendered.
My friends, we are again met on the field of political competition with our fellow countrymen.

It is more than appropriate, it is necessary that even in times of crisis we have these contests, and engage in spirited disagreement over the shape and course of our government. We have nothing to fear from each other. We are arguing over the means to better secure our
freedom, and promote the general welfare. But it should remain an argument among friends who share an unshaken belief in our great cause, and in the goodness of each other.

We are Americans first, Americans last, Americans always.
Let us argue our differences.

But remember we are not enemies, but comrades in a war against a real enemy, and take courage from the knowledge that our military superiority is matched only by the superiority of our ideals, and our unconquerable love for them. Our adversaries are weaker than us in arms and men, but weaker still in causes. They fight to express a hatred for all that is good in humanity. We fight for love of freedom and justice, a love that is invincible. Keep that faith. Keep your
courage. Stick together. Stay strong. Do not yield. Do not flinch. Stand up. Stand up with our President and fight.

We’re Americans.

We’re Americans, and we’ll never surrender.

They will.

In Case You're Wondering ...

… why I’m not in NYC: as with the DNC, my real (and paying) job requires that I be in Minneapolis today and tomorrow. Think of it as an “undisclosed location,” except that it’s just been disclosed. But Michele’s on the scene, as are many other CP contributors, and I’ll be in the hall bright and early Wednesday morning.

Until then, keep reading.

The National Journal

National Journal Magazine, which is read by every politico in the United States and typically available only for a stiff subscription fee, is providing full access to its site during the RNC.

It’s crack for political junkies … use wisely.

EP Has Bush Gaining The EV Lead

Election Projection - 2004 Edition has crunched the latest pre-RNC data and now has Bush leading with 284 electoral votes (to Kerry’s 254). Wisconsin, Florida, and Ohio have slid to Bush, New Hampshire to Kerry. All remain more purple than red or blue.

RNC: Here and There

Well, it’s only the first day and there’s nothing all that exciting going on, but we are determined to bring you more coverage than the Big Three networks. Which won’t be hard.

[click for bigger]As in Boston, Al Jazeera is broadcasting live from the convention. Unlike in Boston, AJ gets their name in lights at MSG. Not everyone likes that idea, however:

An Al-Jazeera camera crew sidled up to South Dakota Senate candidate John Thune on Monday and tried to ask some questions after he finished a live shot on MSNBC. But Thune kept walking after his campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, realized the crew was from the Arab-language satellite TV network, which many U.S. conservatives say is biased against the United States.

“We don’t need to be talking to people who defend terrorists,” Wadhams told other campaign aides. The crew followed Thune around on the floor for a few minutes before giving up and leaving.

And what about celebrity sightings? Rumor has it that “the Repub celebrity quotient is decidedly lower than the Democrat.” Then again, the depends on what your idea of a celebrity is. For some, foreign policy adviser Tucker Eskew passes the celeb test.

Well, there’s always Don King.

[photos courtesy of Command Post roving reporter, Faith]

RNC: Delegates Officially Submit Names

Delegates officially submitted the names of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney Monday for nomination to second terms as the Republican National Convention (search) got into full swing.

An alphabetical state-by-state roll call began that will be spread out over several nights, though only some states will cast their delegate votes.

Read more..

Tancredo to fight over immigration

From The Hill:

RNC: The Day in Quotes, So Far

• Former NY Mayor and Democrat Ed Koch: “This year, I’m voting for the re-election of President George W. Bush.”

• RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie: “We are going to honor the courage of our nation, the compassion of our people and the promise of our future.”

• Hon. Marc Racicot (Former Governor of Montana and Bush-Cheney ‘04 Campaign Chairman): “In this city, America finally awoke to the reality of a world at war,” Racicot said. “In this city, vibrant and better than ever, we find confirmation that America, though bruised, can never be shattered.”

• Filmmaker Michael Moore (at a protest march): “The majority never voted for the Bush administration, and the majority are here to say, ‘It’s time to have our country back in our hands.”

• Former President Bill Clinton, speaking in New York yesterday (in reference to the Swift Boat ads): “Sometimes I think our friends on the other side have become the people of the Nine Commandments,” Mr. Clinton said. “It is wrong to bear false witness.”

RNC Convention: Text of Mayor Bloomberg's Speech

[Courtesy of GOPconvention.org]

Remarks by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to the Republican National Convention

Thank you, Mayor Koch, for serving this town so well over so many years and, especially, for helping us mobilize, not only the 8,000 volunteers you sought, but the more than 20,000 you got for this amazing event. Your success is a mark of how excited New Yorkers are to have the Convention here.

It’s also our way of saying “thank you” to the Republicans for your tremendous vote of confidence in our city. We should remember, it wasn’t so long ago that confidence in New York was in short supply. When I took the oath of office nearly three years ago, we were a city in mourning a city that had, in a few dreadful hours, lost almost 3,000 of our own husbands, wives, sons, and daughters from every part of the nation, and every corner of the globe.

There were those who doubted then whether this city could hold onto the gains made during the 90s under Mayor Giuliani. A lot of people were wondering what the future held for New York City, or whether we even had a future.

But neither America nor President Bush ever stopped believing in us. Nearly two years ago, with the city’s fate still a question mark in many minds, our President decided that this Convention would come to New York. This was a show of faith that required courage and vision one that all New Yorkers will not forget.

And today it fills me with enormous pride and gratitude to tell everyone that New York City is back! Our economy is growing, with 45,000 private sector jobs created in the last 12 months alone. Our neighborhoods are humming, with a level of public and private construction not seen since the end of World War II. Our streets are bustling, with a three-year, 15% reduction in crime that has defied the odds and made the nation’s safest city even safer. Our schools are reviving. Our streets are cleaner. Our quality of life is better. And our future is brighter than ever.

And New York City has been given the high honor of representing all America in the competition to host the world’s greatest athletic event: the 2012 Olympics.

It’s only fitting, because from our earliest days, when Peter Stuyvesant was the governor of a small, multi-lingual frontier outpost, right up to today, when 170 languages are spoken on our streets and in our homes, New York City has been, and always will be, an Olympic Village.

We’ve showed the world that New York can never be defeated, because of its dynamic and diverse population…because it embodies the spirit of enterprise and the love of liberty…and because, no matter who you are, if you believe in yourself and your dream, New York will always be the place for you.

This is the city of dreamers. And time and again, it’s the place where the greatest dream of all the American Dream has been tested and has triumphed.

It’s where, in his first major national speech in 1860, Abraham Lincoln challenged this party, and our nation, to face the moral evil of slavery with “the faith that right makes might.”

And later that year, it was New York’s delegation to the Republican National Convention that moved to make Abraham Lincoln’s nomination for the Presidency of the United States unanimous. I’m proud to say that, framed on a wall of my home, is the flag those New York Republicans carried during that convention. It’s a constant reminder to me of the proud role New York played at a pivotal moment in our nation’s history.

Four score and seven years later, New York City is where Jackie Robinson erased the color barrier in our national pastime with his bat and glove and gallant spirit. A monument to this trailblazer is under construction in Brooklyn to remind us all: America is for everyone.

And our city is also where, on Independence Day, Governor Pataki and I laid the cornerstone for the Freedom Tower at the site of the World Trade Center. The terrorists hit us there. Our knees buckled. But we stayed on our feet. And we showed that our dreams, like our liberties, will never be lost to violence or hate.

No place epitomizes the American Experience and the American Spirit more than New York City. Ironically, it is exactly because we are a city that embraces freedom that welcomes everyone and encourages their dreams that New York remains on the frontlines in the war on terror.

I want to thank President Bush for supporting New York City in changing the Homeland Security Funding formula and for leading the global war on terrorism. The President deserves our support. We are here to support him. I am here to support him.

We all must recognize that Homeland Security funds should be allocated by threat and no other reason. I will repeat this message to my fellow Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, as many times as it takes, so we can keep New York safe and secure.

New Yorkers will go forward, doing our duty for our city, our nation, and our families. And we know that you will, too. Because in our hour of greatest trial, you all our fellow Americans, from every corner of this land were there for us.

And we owe you more than we can ever say. Your Police Officers and Firefighters volunteered for duty at Ground Zero. Your houses of worship sent blankets, food, and prayers. Your school children mailed us pictures and poems. That’s another reason that this Convention is our chance to say “thank you.” It’s why we’re making our town your town for the week.

We’re the World’s Second Home the place where every religion is practiced and every culture is celebrated. It’s all there for you from Brooklyn Heights to Bayside, and from Coney Island to Chelsea. Take it all in: The world’s greatest museums; Broadway; the Yankees and the Mets; high-fashion shopping and bargain-hunting specials; and more than 18,000 restaurants in all five boroughs, eager to please any palate and fit any budget.

And let me give you an insider’s tip my own personal favorite thing to do in this city. At least one morning while you’re here, begin the day with a ride on the ferry to Staten Island. Out there in the harbor, you’ll glide past the Statue of Liberty, the beacon of freedom that America holds out to people everywhere. It’s guaranteed to bring a lump to your throat, because you’ll be looking at New York the way generations of new Americans have:

As the place to make all your dreams come true.

Thank you, and have a great convention.

McCain: Kerry's Anti-War Activities Fair Game

John McCain says Kerry’s after war activities are part of a legitimate debate:

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called advertisements run against John Kerry by pro-Republican Vietnam War veterans “dishonest and dishonorable” but said Monday it’s legitimate to question the Democratic presidential candidate’s anti-war efforts following his service.

A group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, made up of men who served on the same vessels as Kerry in Vietnam, has been running harshly critical ads questioning the Massachusetts senator’s leadership qualities and claiming he embellished his record to receive military awards.

“I think these ads are dishonest and dishonorable,” McCain said.

However, he said Kerry’s prominent role in the anti-war movement after he returned from Vietnam should be questioned. Kerry led a veterans’ group opposed to the war and, during Capitol Hill testimony, said U.S. soldiers committed atrocities with heir commanders’ approval.

“What John Kerry did after the war is very legitimate political discussion,” McCain said.

RNC Convention: Today's Schedule

Highlights of today’s schedule (entire schedule can be found here).

Daytime:

• Ed Gillespie - Chairman, Republican National Committee
• The Honorable Michael Bloomberg(NY)- Mayor of the City of New York
• The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert(IL) - Permanent Convention Chairman, 2004 Republican National Convention
• Submission of President Bush as Candidate for Presidential Nomination
• Submission of Vice President Cheney as Candidate for Vice Presidential Nomination

Evening (7:45 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. EDT):

• Tribute to President Ford
• Senator John McCain (AZ)
• The Honorable Rudy Giuliani - Former Mayor of the City of New York

RNC Convention: Excerpts of Prepared Remarks (Monday)

[Excerpts made available by GOP]

Today’s theme: “A Nation of Courage”

Senator John McCain (AZ) Excerpts from Remarks to the 2004 Republican National Convention

On President Bush:

• “He has been tested and has risen to the most important challenge of our time, and I salute him. I salute his determination to make this world a better, safer freer place. He has not wavered. He has not flinched from the hard choices. He will not yield. And neither will we.”

On the courage of the men and women of our military:

• “[T]he sacrifices in this war will not be shared equally by all Americans. The President is the first to observe, most of the sacrifices fall, as they have before, to the brave men and women of our Armed Forces. We may be good citizens, but make no mistake, they are the very best of us. It’s an honor to live in a country that is so well and so bravely defended by such patriots. May God bless them, the living and the fallen, as He has blessed us with their service.”

On September 11th:

• “No American alive today will ever forget what happened on the morning of September 11th. That day was the moment when the hinge of history swung toward a new era. The opening chapter was tinged with great sadness and uncertainty. It shook us from our complacency in the belief that the Cold War’s end had ushered in a time of global tranquility. But an absence of complacency should not provoke an absence of confidence. What our enemies have sought to destroy is beyond their reach. It cannot be taken from us. It can only be surrendered.”

The Honorable Rudy Giuliani Excerpts from Remarks to the 2004 Republican National Convention

“In choosing a President, we really don’t choose a Republican or Democrat, a conservative or liberal. We choose a leader. And in times of danger, as we are now in, Americans should put leadership at the core of their decision. There are many qualities that make a great leader but having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader.

Winston Churchill saw the dangers of Hitler when his opponents and much of the press characterized him as a war-mongering gadfly.

Ronald Reagan saw and described the Soviet Union as ‘the evil empire’ when world opinion accepted it as inevitable and belittled Ronald Reagan’s intelligence.

“George W. Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that it is and he will remain consistent to the purpose of defeating it while working to make us ever safer at home.”

Protesters Hit the Streets of NYC

Getting a jump start on the convention, anti-war/Bush/capitalism/fill-in-the-blank protesters took the streets of New York yesterday. Crowd estimates range 120,000 (NYPD estimate) to upwards of 450,000 (United for Peace and Justice estimate).

The protests, for the most part, were peaceful:

While often loud in denouncing President Bush, the protesters were mostly peaceful, a fact acknowledged by Mayor Bloomberg, who said, “United for Peace and Justice has behaved responsibly, as have virtually all the marchers.”

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly also commended the protesters “for keeping their word they pledged that [they] would follow the march route.

However, there were quite a few incidents which may make a bit uneasy as to how the next four days will unfold.

Protesters threw urine-filled balloons at cops, knocked down barricades and are planning to throw eggs at delegates who venture into the theater district. And:

In addition, there are groups that are passing out baskets of wirecutters and razor blades to cut the plastic Flexicuffs the police use to handcuff suspects under arrest.

Yes, there are dozens of protesters now walking around with razor blades.

A few bloggers are live-blogging the protests:

Ryan Sager, Jason Calacanis have some photos up while Matt Margolis has been audio blogging (scroll down).

[Thanks to A.Pundit - who has extensive protest coverage - for most of the links]

Democratic Senator Zell Miller Tells Fox News Sunday Why He Supports President Bush

Georgia’s Democratic Senator Zell Miller tells “FOX News Sunday.” why he will vote for President Bush:

Because of the time that we live in, is one reason. In this dangerous time, we need a strong commander in chief, and I think that George Bush is one of the strongest that you could possibly have. I have admired and respected the way that he has grabbed terrorism by the throat. And I think he’s the commander in chief that we need these next four years.

[. . .]

We’re at war. 9/11 changed everything, as far as I’m concerned. It changed the way that we have got to look at how we do things.

[. . .]

I’m voting for George Bush. I’m voting for a commander in chief who has the strength to lead this country in a time of war.

And I cannot support Senator Kerry, because I think he’s weak on defense. And I think that his liberal voting record in the Senate is so far to the left that it’s off the charts. He’s not in the mainstream of this country. He’s way to the left of this country.

From California Yankee.

DU Bush Ribbon Controversy Erupts into Mainstream

From the Telegraph :

After weeks of denigration of the Democratic challenger’s Vietnam war record, Mr Kerry’s backers have responded with allegations against the President - including the claim that he was once photographed in uniform wearing a medal ribbon he had not earned.

As polls showed that Mr Bush had edged ahead of Mr Kerry for the first time, a pro-Kerry organisation labelled the President an “impostor” over the photograph, taken in 1970 and discovered in his father’s Presidential Library in Houston, Texas.

The ribbon is an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award - which was not awarded to the 111th Fighter Intercept Squadron in which Mr Bush served until 1975, five years after the photograph was taken, according to the group US War Report.

“Why is this fraud important? Because it betrays the Honour Code that every officer learns and carries throughout his or her career,” said Walt Starr who investigated the medals for the group.

Mr Starr is also on record as stating about President Reagan :

No reason to feel sympathy. The evil f*** is gone.

From the Democratic Underground ( where Walt Starr is a frequent poster (1000+ posts) and the Primary Source for the story :

Lower Left Hand Corner, it says, and I quote:

“Bush, George W., 2LT”

On his AF11 dated May 16, 1971, Bush is listed as a First Lieutenent. That document also only lists his awards as the SAEMR. The AFOUA is NOT listed.

This means, without a doubt, that this photograph had to be taken after September 4, 1968 and before November 7, 1970.

This is damning. - Walt Starr

Also

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award

In 1966, the 147th Combat Support Group earned it’s first Air Force Outstanding Unit Award when it was proclaimed, “The most combat ready of all Air Guard Units”. He was assigned to this unit,He was required to wear the award. - Carene

But also :

Sorry, show me anything in writing, that’s all I ask

Even it written down as being the “custom”.

The Army has regulations covering the temporary wear of Unit Awards.

The California Air National Guard SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITS the temporary wear of ANY Unit Award in CA ANGI 36-2803 Chapter 1, Section 1.4 Definitions, Paragraph 1.14.21 and I quote:

“1.14.21. Temporary Wear. Individuals who were not assigned during the period cited but were subsequently assigned to a unit recognized by a unit award may wear the award only for the duration of his or her assignment. ANG personnel are not eligible for temporary wear.”

I’m still hunting down any regulations regarding this in Texas.

I won’t hold my breath waiting on a regulation citation from those who are offering anecdotal evidence. - Walt Starr

And interestingly,

I’m unsure about when the Texas Service Medal was created
That’s the one for three years.

The Texas Faithful Service Medal has defintily been around since WWII at least as in the Texas law, the Federal Service Medal is newer code than the Faithful Service Medal and specifically mentions dates in 1940.

Bush served officially, according to his ANG22, 5 years, 0 months, and 28 days. If he served faithfully, he should have received that award. - Walt Starr

Unlike most threads on DU, this one contains a lot of exceedingly well-researched facts by Mr Starr on exact regulations (though not neccessarily ones in force at the time), and has many relevant URLs. To decide whether the ribbon (one of three in the 35-year-old picture) was technically worn improperly, you have to go into the finest of details.

Whether this is ‘Damning’ as Mr Starr claims, and even reason for Impeachment (as some DUers are suggesting) is also up to the reader to decide. The controversy itself is worthy of recording though.

Testing, Testing

I plan to do some mobile photoblogging from the convention, and I’m just testing the funtionality.



—

Sent from my Treo

Kerry On Foreign Policy, In His Own Words

Foreign Policy has a piece by John Kerry titled If I Were President-Addressing the Democratic Deficit:

Democrats must resist a new orthodoxy within our party—a politically stagnating shift that does a disservice to more than 75 years of history. That is the new conventional wisdom of consultants, pollsters, and strategists who argue that Democrats should be the party of domestic issues alone.

They are wrong. As a party, Democrats need to talk about all the things that strengthen and protect the United States. We need to have a vision that extends to the world around us, and we should remember that this vision is as old as our party. Woodrow Wilson was elected president during a time of peace, but he led during a time of war. Franklin Roosevelt was elected to tackle the Great Depression, create Social Security, and put the United States back to work. But no one should forget that he did those things even as he responded to Pearl Harbor and marshaled the nation’s troops from Normandy to Iwo Jima. And John F. Kennedy didn’t try to change the subject of the debate when Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s vice president brought up foreign policy. Kennedy challenged the United States globally, insisting that the country do more and better, not because these things are easy but because they are hard.

FP Grades The President

Foreign Policy grades the President:

Will the world learn to love President George W. Bush? As he enters the second half of his term in office, FOREIGN POLICY continues our long-standing tradition of asking noted contributors to grade the president and interpret the prevailing mood in their respective corners of the globe. Together, these commentaries—from nine regions and countries—form a mosaic far more nuanced than the familiar global caricature of Bush as a shoot-from-the-hip cowboy.

McCain Says Kerry's Anti-War Protests Open for Debate

Senator John McCain said Kerry’s anti-war activities after he returned from Vietnam are an appropriate subject for political debate. Bloomberg reports:

McCain, 68, of Arizona, said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation,” that he disagreed with Kerry throwing his ribbons from his medals on the steps of the U.S. Capitol when he returned from the war.

“Every American is entitled to protest,” McCain said. “Whether he did that appropriately” is a legitimate subject for debate, he said.

From California Yankee.

Kerry Pledged to be Tough on Castro

From the Miami Herald :

“I’m pretty tough on Castro, because I think he’s running one of the last vestiges of a Stalinist secret police government in the world,” Kerry told WPLG-ABC 10 reporter Michael Putney in an interview to be aired at 11:30 this morning.

Then, reaching back eight years to one of the more significant efforts to toughen sanctions on the communist island, Kerry volunteered: “And I voted for the Helms-Burton legislation to be tough on companies that deal with him.”
[…]
Kerry aides said the senator cast one of the 22 nays that day in 1996 because he disagreed with some of the final technical aspects. But, said spokesman David Wade, Kerry supported the legislation in its purer form — and voted for it months earlier.

Note that this is another story that didn’t get much publicity at the time, dated March 14.

Bush : Kerry's Service "More Heroic"

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

US President George W Bush has described his Democrat opponent John Kerry’s tour of duty in Vietnam as more heroic than his own service in the Air National Guard.

Debate over Senator Kerry’s Vietnam war service has been running high in the lead up to the November presidential election, with a pro-Rebublican group criticising his record.

Mr Bush has told US television Senator Kerry was in harm’s way in Vietnam but also said if his own unit had been called to go to Vietnam, he would have gone.

From the ABC (not the Australian Broadcasting Corporation this time) :

With his decorated combat record in question, Kerry said, “I’m in a fighting mood,” and a campaign ally chided Bush for serving stateside in the Texas Air National Guard while others fought in Vietnam.

In an interview, Bush told NBC’s “Today” that Kerry “going to Vietnam was more heroic than my flying fighter jets. He was in harm’s way and I wasn’t. On the other hand, I served my country. Had my unit been called up, I would have gone.”

President Bush Gains In Connecticut

A recent poll shows Kerry’s lead over President Bush in Connecticut has shrunk to only seven points. According to the Greenwich Time:

Connecticut, which voted overwhelmingly for Al Gore in 2000, had been considered a lock for Kerry. But, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, conducted Aug. 11-17 among 1,079 registered voters, Kerry leads Bush by seven points — 45 percent to 38 percent — with independent candidate Ralph Nader, a Connecticut native, taking six percent of the vote. Bush leads Kerry 43 percent to 36 percent in Fairfield County, according to the same poll.

Less than two months earlier, in a Quinnipiac poll conducted June 27-28 among 979 registered voters, Kerry held an 18-point lead over Bush in the state, 50 percent to 32 percent, with nine percent of voters favoring Nader.

From California Yankee.

Rounding up the Race

PoliBlog’s pre-RNC Toast-O-Meter is up.

RNC Welcome "Signs Aren't Good"

According to the New York Daily News, “the signs aren’t good” for Republicans arriving in New York for the Republican National Convention:

In fact, neither are the buttons, pins, magnets, T-shirts, bumper stickers and even underwear.
The past few weeks have brought a slew of pro-Kerry - or more frequently, anti-Bush - paraphernalia to the streets and shops of New York, just in time for the four-day convention.

From California Yankee.

Edwards' Legal and Political Record

From FindLaw comes a list of all high-profile cases Democratic VP candidate John Edwards has been involved in.

More valuably to the layperson and average voter, there are links to various legal analysis articles about the cases, some praising him, others not, and political articles likewise.

Hat Tip : Overlawyered

Poll: Many Democrats in Florida may vote for Bush

the Tallahassee Democrat reports that a new poll found 11 percent of Democrats willing to vote for Bush on Nov. 2, compared to just 5 percent of Republicans who said they would cross over for Kerry. According to the Tallahassee Democrat:

And while only 18 percent of Democrats consider themselves conservative, more than one-third of conservative Democrats said they will vote for Bush.

From California Yankee.

250 Arrested In NYC Bike Protest

CNN reports that NYC police arrested 250 in a N.Y. cycle protest. For the record, I plan to walk, not bike, the streets.

For what it’s worth, the RNC bloggers email list recieved this Friday afternoon:

The Critical Mass bicycle ride tonight will be the first real demonstration of NYPD tactics during the RNC. Critical Mass was going to have a post-ride party, but the cops and the Coast Guard intimidated the owners of the space into cancelling it.

Furthermore, the police hand-delivered a lovely letter threatening the riders with mass arrests — for a ride that has gone on every month for the last 10 years without incident.

If you to be involved or monitor the proceedings, you should head over to the Time’s Up space at 49 East Houston Street (btw Mott and Mulberry) during the day or go to Union Square at 7 pm.

The letter: http://www.times-up.org/images/nypd-to-ta-re-cm.jpg
Posts on this: http://the-cunctator.dailykos.com/story/2004/8/27/121244/624, http://nyc.indymedia.org/feature/display/103268/index.php

FBI Investigating Possible Israeli Spy in Pentagon [UPDATE 3]

Just breaking tonight…

CNN:

The FBI has evidence that a person who has been working at high levels in the Pentagon may be a spy for Israel, a senior official confirmed to CNN on Friday.

The suspect could have been in a position to influence Bush administration policy toward Iran and Iraq, the senior official said.

WaPo:

The FBI is investigating whether an aide to the Pentagon’s No. 3 official acted as a spy for Israel, giving the Jewish state classified materials about secret White House deliberations on Iran, two federal law enforcement officials said Friday.

No arrests have been made, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

The officials refused to identify the Pentagon employee who is under investigation, but said the person works in the office of Douglas J. Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon.

Updates:

Bloomberg News: Israel Denies Receiving Information From Pentagon Official:

“We categorically deny these allegations,” Israeli embassy spokesman David Siegel said in an interview. “They are completely false and outrageous.”

It looks like Lesely Stahl at CBS is the one who broke the story and has the most detailed report:

60 Minutes Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports the FBI believes it has “solid” evidence that the suspected mole supplied Israel with classified materials that include secret White House policy deliberations on Iran.

At the heart of the investigation are two people who work at The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington.

The FBI investigation, headed up by Dave Szady, has involved wiretaps, undercover surveillance and photography that CBS News was told document the passing of classified information from the mole, to the men at AIPAC, and on to the Israelis.

A reader just sent me these points transcribed from Stahl’s report:

• The alleged spy works within the office of the Secretary of Defense.

• He/she supplied Israel with classified materials that include secret White House policy deliberations on Iran.

• He/she passed classified information to two men who work at AIPAC who passed it to Israel.

• Is described as a trusted analyst at the Pentagon.

• Turned over a Presidential directive on US policy towards Iran while it was in the draft phase when US policy makers were still debating the policy.

• The analyst had ties to top Pentagopn officials Wolfowitz and Feith, and was assigned to a unit with the Defense Dept, wher he was helping develop the Pentagon’s Iraq policy.

Apparently this happened a while ago, but it’s just being reported today.

(AM Update)

From the NY Times:

In a statement released Friday night, the Pentagon said that the Department of Defense “has been cooperating fully with the Department of Justice on this matter for an extended period of time.”

“The investigation involves a single individual at D.O.D. at the desk officer level, who was not in a position to have significant influence over U.S. policy,” the statement continued. “Nor could a foreign power be in a position to influence U.S. policy through this individual. To the best of D.O.D.’s knowledge, the investigation does not target any other D.O.D. individuals.”

One United States official said that he did not know why the desk officer would have passed on the information and that he could not assess the potential damage. “He had a certain expertise and had access to things, but he wasn’t a policymaker,” the official said.

So far, there is no report as to who leaked the information, nor has anyone yet questioned the timing of the leak.

Kerry Campaign To Pull Ad Featuring McCain

Bloomberg reports that the Kerry campaign is pulling an ad featuring footage of Senator McCain rebuking President Bush during the 2000 primary campaign:

McCain said in an interview with the New York Times that he would ask the Kerry campaign to stop running the ad.

[. . .]

“John McCain asked us to take down the ad,” Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter told reporters on a conference call. “We respected those wishes.”

The Seattle Times Endorses Kerry

The Seattle Times, the largest paper in Washington State, endorsed Kerry over President Bush, whom the paper endorsed in 2000:

Four years ago, this page endorsed George W. Bush for president. We cannot do so again — because of an ill-conceived war and its aftermath, undisciplined spending, a shrinkage of constitutional rights and an intrusive social agenda.

From California Yankee.

A Collection of This Week's Economic News

From the New York Times and the L.A. Times:

U.S. Economy Grows at Slower Pace Than Expected

The U.S. economy, struggling under the weight of a bloated trade deficit, grew at a relatively modest 2.8 percent annual rate in the second quarter, a slower pace of expansion than previously thought. The new reading on gross domestic product (GDP) issued by the Commerce Department Friday furnished fresh evidence that the business recovery hit a rut in the spring and early summer. The growth rate was weaker than the 3 percent figure first estimated a month ago and showed that the economy, which had been moving along at a decent clip, lost considerable momentum in the April-to-June quarter. The economy had grown at a brisk 4.5 percent pace in the first three months of 2004. Gross domestic product measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States and is considered the broadest barometer of the economy’s fitness.
The revised GDP figure for the second quarter, however, is slightly better than the 2.7 percent growth rate that some economists had forecast. The latest snapshot of the economic activity comes as President Bush gets geared up for the Republican convention, and the presidential election is just over two months away.

More Americans Were Uninsured and Poor in 2003, Census Finds

The ranks of the poor and those without health insurance grew in 2003 for the third straight year, the government reported on Thursday, in a sign of the lingering pain being caused by a long slump in the job markets. Those trends, spelled out by the United States Census Bureau, signaled a clear shift in the way the 2001 recession and its aftermath have spread across the country. The economy’s troubles, which first affected high-income families even more than the middle class and poor, have recently hurt families at the bottom and in the middle significantly more than those at the top. Median household income rose at about the same rate as inflation last year after three years of relative declines, according to the report. But the disparity in incomes between the rich and poor grew after having fallen in 2002. Pay did not keep pace with inflation in the South, already the nation’s poorest region, in cities, or among immigrants. And the wage gap between men and women widened for the first time in four years. Poverty rose most sharply among single-parent families last year. Health-insurance coverage fell only for families with annual income of less than $75,000.

Healthcare Costs Expected to Rise

Workers will probably pay more for benefits as employers budget less than the likely increase.

Employers are facing continued double-digit increases in healthcare costs in 2005 and probably will require their workers to pay a greater share of the bill, according to a survey of more than 900 firms. The survey, released Thursday by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, found that employers expected healthcare costs to rise 12.9% on average next year if they left benefits unchanged. But companies that participated in the survey, both those that buy insurance and firms that are self-insured, are budgeting an average increase of only 9.6% in their healthcare spending. The firms are likely to shift much of the difference to employees in the form of higher required contributions and co-payments, or by limiting their choice of insurance plans, the report said. That would mark the third consecutive year that employers have shifted a portion of healthcare costs to workers in an effort to keep pace with rapidly rising expenses. Mercer said employers forecast a 13% increase in health costs in 2004 and ended up paying about 10% more, chiefly because employees were asked to pick up more of the tab. Past cost shifting, though, has done little to solve the underlying problems driving up the price of healthcare, said Blaine Bos, a Minneapolis-based healthcare consultant for Mercer.

Greenspan Warns on Baby Boomer Benefits

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday that the country will face “abrupt and painful” choices if Congress does not move quickly to trim the Social Security and Medicare benefits that have been promised to the baby boom generation. Returning to a politically explosive issue that he has addressed a number of times this year, Greenspan said that it was wrong for the government to hold out the promise of more retirement benefits than it is capable of providing. He said this issue was particularly critical given the impending retirement of 77 million baby boomers born in the two decades after World War II. “As a nation, we owe it to our retirees to promise only the benefits that can be delivered,” Greenspan said in opening remarks to a two-day conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City on the challenges posed by aging populations. “If we have promised more than our economy has the ability to deliver, as I fear we may have, we must recalibrate our public programs so that pending retirees have time to adjust through other channels,” Greenspan said. “If we delay, the adjustments could be abrupt and painful.” Greenspan, as he has done previously, suggested that possible changes would be raising the retirement age to receive full Social Security benefits, which currently is gradually increasing from 65 to 67.

Oil Rebounds After Iraq Pipeline Attack

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Friday as a sabotage attack on Iraqi oil infrastructure reignited concern about the reliability of crude exports from the country despite a peace deal to end an uprising in Najaf. U.S. crude climbed 37 cents to $43.47 a barrel, but remained around $6 below a record peak struck last Friday at $49.40 after a week of heavy losses. London’s Brent crude gained 37 cents to $40.70 a barrel. Prices have fallen 12 percent from last week’s peak as speculators took profits after the U.S. market failed to breach the $50 mark. Crude is still up nearly 40 percent since the turn of the year.

The Smart Money

From Iowa Electronic Markets :

The IEM 2004 US Presidential Winner Takes All Market is a real-money futures market where contract payoffs will be determined by the popular vote cast in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election. Please see the market prospectus for specific details of this market.

The market is open to all traders world-wide. Consult our on-line trader’s manual for additional information.

The Traders’ Manual, Prospectus and graph of daily prices are available online.

(Today’s Quote : Republicans 53c, Democrats 46c, but last week they were neck-and-neck at 48c each.)

“Those who gamble are either Fools or Knaves: Fools because they don’t know who’s going to win, or Knaves because they do.”

A Marine In Iraq's Opinion

For those who have not seen it before, Brian Palmer has been with the 24th Marine Expeditionary unit for about seven weeks and has documented the time with a weekly digital diary including prose and photos. The final installment of the six week project is now online. For a good insight on what our Marines in the 24th have been going through over the past couple of months, you can read the whole thing.

Although anecdotal, here’s a taste of what U.S. Marines in Iraq are feeling about the 2004 Presidential election.

…plenty of rah-rah triumphalism and USA-first hyperpatriotism but found only a little, not a lot. There were a few folks who hooted at John Kerry when he appeared on the chow hall’s TV screen, and then cheered when Bush came on. “John Kerry is a f—-ing communist” for tossing his Vietnam War ribbons, asserted a cocky young Marine from Arkansas, Corporal Michael Euler, a soon-to-be father who knows what he knows and will tell you so in a heartbeat.

Yes, I confess, Mike and his wife are close friends of mine. Whether you agree with his sentiments or not, please keep them in your prayers.

Cross posted at SSG and in the Iraq section.

"GOP Platform Draft Turns Left"

From the 8/27/04 NYT’s “Committee Adopts Draft; Some Grumble”

From the 8/26/04 NYT report “Conservatives Grumble on Planks Reflecting Bush Agenda”:

See also the 8/26/04 Washington Times report “Bush team keeps conservative agenda in check.”

The 8/24/04 Washington Times has excerpts from the section dealing with immigration:

See also “Splintered Plank: The White House spins and misses on immigration” and this article about Zell Miller.

You can provide the GOP feedback on the platform using this form.

UPDATE: Yes, as spotted by keen-eyed commentator dsmtoday, the original first excerpt that was here was from the NewsMax article “GOP Platform Draft Turns Left” and that article was from 2000. And, no, that was not intentional. So, I added the two more up-to-date NYT articles in place of the NewsMax article.

Democrats' Theme: Mission Not Accomplished

WASHINGTON [AP]- Democrats say they will have a rapid and simple response to the Republican National Convention that starts next week: Mission not accomplished.

It’s a play on President Bush’s flight in May 2003 to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, where he addressed U.S. troops standing beneath a banner that said “Mission Accomplished” and declared an end to major combat in Iraq. The banner has been criticized as the fighting in Iraq continues and the U.S. death toll approaches 1,000.

Matt Bennett, a spokesman for the Democratic “rapid response” effort, said Bush has forgotten about the middle class and has pursued a narrow agenda benefiting powerful special interests.

“We’re sending the message that George Bush simply hasn’t accomplished the mission,” he said.

Bush Asks McCain to Help Block 527s

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (CNN) — President Bush wants to work with Sen. John McCain to take legal action against “shadowy” outside groups that have been spending millions of dollars on ads criticizing the president and Democratic rival Sen. John Kerry, the White House said Thursday.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush called the GOP senator from Arizona on Thursday morning and said that, if legal action does not work, he wants to pursue legislative action against the groups.

McClellan said McCain told Bush that he thought it was a good idea that the two men work together.

Bush Overtakes Kerry in Latest L.A. Times Poll

The Los Angeles Times reports that its latest poll has found President Bush leading Kerry for the first time this year. The result 49 to 46 among registered voters is within the poll’s margin of error.

According to the Times:

With independent voters splitting evenly in the survey between the two men, one key to Bush’s tentative new advantage was his greater success at consolidating his base. While just 3 percent of voters who called themselves Republicans said they would vote for Kerry, Bush drew 15 percent of all Democrats, and 20 percent of Democrats who consider themselves moderate or conservative, the poll found.

From California Yankee.

Another Democrat Backs Bush

The Associated Press reports that Youngstown’s Democratic mayor is endorsing President Bush:

Mayor George M. McKelvey, in his second term, planned to pledge his support for Bush at a news conference scheduled for Monday afternoon, Bush campaign spokesman Kevin Madden said.

“He believes the president is providing the leadership the country needs with regard to growing the economy and making the country safer,” Madden said.

From California Yankee.

Kerry Takes Fight to Bush Ranch

Vietnam veteran and former Sen. Max Cleland said Wednesday that attack ads questioning Sen. John Kerry’s combat record in Vietnam were “scurrilous” and “dishonest and dishonorable” and called on President Bush to come out against them.

Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in the war, told reporters gathered at a school near Bush’s Texas ranch that the commercials run by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth were false and that “George Bush is behind it.”

“The question is, where is George Bush’s honor? The question is where is his shame?” Cleland asked. “To attack a fellow veteran who has distinguished himself … in combat, regardless of the political combat involved, is disgraceful.”

He said he was unsuccessful in trying to deliver a letter to President Bush urging him to condemn the ads.

As were Bush supporters trying to get a letter to Kerry:

After Cleland’s statement, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, also a Vietnam veteran, said he was instructed by a Bush campaign aide to take Cleland’s letter, but the former senator refused to give it to him.
Patterson also tried to give Cleland a letter addressed to Kerry and signed by a number of pro-Bush Vietnam veterans, including several GOP congressmen.

• Text of letter to President Bush

• Text of letter to Senator Kerry

Harper's Writer Covers Convention - Weeks Before it Happens

Lewis Lapham on the speeches that haven’t happened yet:

The speeches in Madison Square Garden affirmed the great truths now routinely preached from the pulpits of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal—government the problem, not the solution; the social contract a dead letter; the free market the answer to every maiden’s prayer—and while listening to the hollow rattle of the rhetorical brass and tin, I remembered the question that [Richard] Hofstadter didn’t stay to answer. How did a set of ideas both archaic and bizarre make its way into the center ring of the American political circus?

Jacob Scollum at Reason deals with Lapham’s foresight.

Cheney Opposes Gay Marriage Ban

AP: VP Cheney has come out in opposition to a federal ban on gay marriage.

The US vice president, Dick Cheney, yesterday spoke supportively about gay relationships, saying: “Freedom means freedom for everyone.”

Mr Cheney made the remarks at a campaign rally in the Mississippi river town of Davenport, Iowa, where he was speaking to an audience that included his lesbian daughter, Mary.

He said that, while he did not personally support a constitutional amendment against gay marriage, he accepted the decision of the US president, George Bush, to pursue it as administration policy.

“[My wife] Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it’s an issue our family is very familiar with,” Mr Cheney said.

“With respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone … people ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to,” he added.

10 Nobel Laureates Endorse Kerry

According to Reuters (vi Yahoo!News) 10 Nobel Laureates have signed a letter of support for John Kerry.

George Akerlof and Daniel McFadden of the University of California at Berkeley, Kenneth Arrow and William Sharpe of Stanford University, Daniel Kahneman of Princeton University, Lawrence Klein of the University of Pennsylvania, Douglass North of Washington University, Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow of MIT and Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University

Bush Campaign's Top Outside Lawyer Resigns

From the New York Times:

The Bush campaign’s top outside lawyer, who said on Tuesday that he had given legal advice to the group of veterans attacking Senator John Kerry’s Vietnam War record, today said he was resigning from the campaign because his activities were becoming a “distraction” to Mr. Bush’ re-election efforts.
The lawyer, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, said that the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, called him last month to ask for his help and that he agreed. The group has criticized Mr. Kerry’s war record and his and antiwar activism in a book, television commercials and appearances on cable news programs.
“I cannot begin to express my sadness that my legal representations have become a distraction from the critical issues at hand in this election,” Mr. Ginsberg said in a letter distributed today by the Bush-Cheney campaign. “I feel I cannot let that continue, so I have decided to resign as National Counsel to your campaign to ensure that the giving of legal advice to decorated military veterans, which was entirely within the boundaries of the law, doesn’t distract from the real issues upon which you and the country should be focusing.”
Mr. Ginsberg, the chief outside counsel to the Bush-Cheney re-election effort, agreed to an interview Tuesday after several telephone calls to him and the campaign’s asking that he explain his role. He said that he was helping the group comply with campaign finance rules and that his work was entirely separate from his work for the president. President Bush has called for an end to advertising by all groups like that of the Swift boat veterans, called 527’s for the section of the tax code that created them.

The Times continues to track the connections between the Bush campaign and the SBVT.

Kerry Vet Confirms Cambodia Story

From the Patriot-News :

The [SwiftVet] ads were denounced yesterday at a rally in the Pennsylvania Capitol Rotunda by a former Kerry boat mate, Del Sandusky of Clearwater, Fla., who evoked cheers from about 100 onlookers when he said, “I served with John Kerry [in Vietnam]. All the rest of those guys in that commercial two weeks ago were full of doo-doo. … I am here today to validate John Kerry’s medals.”
[…]
“He deserved every one of his medals,” said Sandusky, a retired computer repairman who drove Kerry’s Navy swift boat for nearly three months.

Sandusky also labeled “ridiculous” a forthcoming ad’s claims that Kerry lied about being in Cambodia on a day when records show he was not.

“So what if he forgot the date? Our boat went up and down the river, and he was in Cambodia. And so was I, a lot,” Sandusky said.
[…]
Former Sen. Bob Dole, a wounded World War II veteran and 1996 Republican presidential nominee, suggested Sunday that Kerry apologize for his 1971 testimony to Congress about atrocities U.S. soldiers allegedly committed in Vietnam. Dole said Kerry received an early exit from combat for “superficial wounds.”

Kerry crew mate Sandusky rebutted, “I was there when he got wounded. I saw the blood. I don’t care what Dole said.”

Hat Tip : reader bananas

Kerry on Daily Show

Kerrywatch: John Kerry will be appearing on Comedy Central - Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

AP: Stewart Probes Kerry on Military Service

After weeks of charge and countercharge in the presidential campaign, comedian Jon Stewart tried Tuesday to get to the bottom of the debate over Democrat John Kerry’s military service in Vietnam.

“I watch a lot of the cable news shows, so I understand that you were never in Vietnam,” asked Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”

“That’s what I understand, too, but I’m trying to find out what happened,” Kerry joked.

Check your local listings for dates and times.

Dem Mailing Warns Vote or Be Drafted

According to the Associated Press via Fox News, a South Carolina Democratic party mailing warns recipients to vote or be drafted:

The first page of the mailing shows a draft notice with orders to report to a military induction center. The next shows a helicopter with troops in the foreground beneath a headline that says “Officials in Washington are calling for more troops in Iraq.” Below, the mailing asks “Which form would you rather fill out?”

Republicans say the mailing is off-base.

“That’s the worst of all political worlds — when you have a deceptive, despicable tactic of saying you are going to be drafted to go to war if you don’t register to vote,” said Katon Dawson, state Republican Party chairman. “In a time of war, to use that piece of mail, I think speaks volumes of where they are as a party.”

From California Yankee.

Swift Boat Vets Refuse to Pull Ads

From the Washington Times :

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth will not pull television ads attacking John Kerry’s service despite President Bush’s wishes, sources said Monday.

Sources close to the Swift Boat Veterans said the issue of Kerry’s military service is too important to drop.

”It is not a Republican or Democratic issue. If John Kerry was a Republican, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth would still run this ad.”

Hat Tip: Reader Forrest

Suggest questions for the RNC bloggers!

If you were going to the RNC, what questions would you ask of the delegates, politicians, locals, and those working at the convention?

Please post your questions or suggested coverage below.

Bush Asks For End to Swift Boat Ads

President Bush said Monday that a veterans’ group should stop airing television ads criticizing John Kerry’s war record.

Bush said ads from Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a 527 group named after its status in the tax code, should be pulled. The call from Bush could open him up to charges that the Bush-Cheney campaign is coordinating with an unregulated political organization.

“That means that ad and every other ad. I don’t believe we ought to have 527s. I think they’re bad for the system,” Bush said on Monday in Crawford, Texas. “I frankly thought we’d gotten rid of it when I signed McCain-Feingold” campaign finance reform.

Bush said that he thought Kerry “served admirably and he ought to be proud of his record,” but it remains undecided whether that will extinguish the political firefight that has built over Kerry’s service in Vietnam.

Read more…

Judicial Watch Files Formal Complaint against Kerry

According to their website,

Judicial Watch, Inc. (hereinafter “Judicial Watch”) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption. Judicial Watch, in the interests of the American public, hereby files this formal complaint and request for investigation, determination and final disposition of awards granted to Lieutenant (junior grade) John Forbes Kerry, U.S. Naval Reserve, (hereinafter “Senator Kerry”) under the provision of Paragraph 116 (Requirement for Honorable Service), SECNAV Instruction 1650.1G (Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual) dated 7 January 2002.

Amongst the complaints are controversial accusations about Senator Kerry’s medals, an issue that has (finally) gotten into the press. But there is a rather less controversial issue, more serious and not reliant on subjective eyewitness accounts. The allegations continue :

According to publicly available records, Senator Kerry was released from Active Duty and transferred to the Naval Reserve (inactive) on 3 January 1970. On 1 July 1972 he was transferred to the Standby Reserve (inactive). While a commissioned officer in the inactive Naval Reserve, Senator Kerry traveled to Paris, France and met with official delegations from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Provisional Revolutionary Government (the Viet Cong). The Vietnamese Communists eagerly met Senator Kerry and benefited directly from the obvious propaganda victory (See Exhibit 2, page 126 - 129).

These acts are clear violations of the legal prohibitions on individual citizens negotiating with foreign powers (18 U.S.C. ’ 953) and the constitutional prohibition against giving support to our nation’s enemies in wartime (Article III, Section 3). Additionally, as a commissioned officer of the Naval Reserve, Senator Kerry was subject to the UCMJ, and likely violated Article 104 (“Aiding the Enemy”) through his actions with the North Vietnamese/Viet Cong delegation.

Senator Kerry returned from his private negotiations with the Vietnamese Communists to Washington, DC and held a press conference. At that press event, Senator Kerry advocated a Vietnamese Communist “peace proposal” calling for a U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and payment of war damage reparations to the Communist government. Senator Kerry engaged in this advocacy on behalf of a foreign power with who we were at war while continuing to hold a commission as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve.

Thousands Registered to Vote in 2 States-Report

REUTERS: Thousands Registered to Vote in 2 States-Report

About 46,000 people are registered to vote in two states, New York and Florida, a violation of both states’ laws that could affect the outcome of the November presidential election, according to an investigation by the Daily News.

Many New Yorkers spend the winter months in sunny Florida, which played a pivotal role in the 2000 election after George W. Bush narrowly won the state in a contested ballot recount. Florida could be a crucial state in the November presidential election.

The New York tabloid examined computer records to ferret out duplicate registrations in New York City and Florida.

The Daily News said it could not provide an exact count of how many people vote in both places, because millions of names are purged between elections. But the newspaper found that between 400 and 1,000 registered voters voted twice in at least one election, a federal offense punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Of the 46,000 registered in both states, 68 percent are Democrats, 12 percent are Republicans and 16 percent didn’t align themselves with a party, the newspaper reported on Sunday.

Bush Adviser Quits After Appearing in Swift Boat Ad

A volunteer adviser has quit President Bush’s re-election campaign after appearing in a veterans group’s television commercial blasting Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s involvement in the Vietnam-era antiwar movement.

A Bush campaign statement said it did not know that retired Air Force Col. Ken Cordier had appeared in an ad by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The Kerry campaign has accused the group of illegally working with the Bush campaign.

Read more…

How a Philosophy Professor With a Checkered Past Became the Most Influential Catholic Layman in George W. Bush's Washington

From the National Catholic Reporter, regarding the Deal Hudson affair:

This past March 17, having paid tribute to the saint who drove the snakes from Ireland, George W. Bush — first lady to his left, Irish prime minister to his right — bounded off the Roosevelt Room podium. As he began to work the crowd of Irish Americans and Gaelic-wannabees, the president noticed a familiar face, a fellow Texan, among those assembled at the annual St. Patrick’s Day White House gathering.

“Immediately after George Bush spoke,” recalled former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican Ray Flynn, “the first person he greeted was Deal Hudson.”

Heady stuff, perhaps, to be the first among the gathered Catholic glitterati to be singled out by the most powerful man in the world. But by now Hudson — publisher of the conservative Catholic monthly Crisis, Bush political operative, and one-time philosophy professor — was accustomed to the treatment.

Hudson, a 54-year-old, thrice-married former Baptist minister, is a regular White House visitor, a leading Bush campaign Catholic proxy, and a widely quoted partisan unafraid to use his pen to serve the Bush cause.

In more than two dozen interviews conducted by NCR over a four-and-a-half-month period, mostly with former friends and Hudson’s ideological kin, a complicated portrait emerged. Though few of those interviewed would speak on the record, many of them painted a far less flattering picture of Hudson than his public moralizing would suggest, and several raised questions about the allegations that ended his academic career.

Also check out The Revealer, which generally turns out good criticism of reporting at mainstream and niche press, left and right.

UPDATE: The National Catholic Reporter has just posted the article that sparked the Deal Hudson affair — even before it was published. Joe Feuerherd’s expose is what religion reporting should be: tough, theologically and politically informed, empathetic, and attuned to the intersections of faith and the world. Here’s why it matters to everyone, religious or not: “The perception that [Deal] Hudson controls Catholic access to the White House is widespread [and] largely accurate.”

This isn’t attack journalism. Writes Feuerherd: “In my 20 years as a writer and journalist I’ve written what could fairly be termed “favorable stories” about such conservative Catholics as Cardinal John O’Connor, Opus Dei’s Fr. C. John McCloskey, Patrick J. Buchanan, and Jim Towey, director of the Bush Administration Office of Faith Based Initiatives. The notion that this story was somehow politically motivated is incorrect. I went where the story led me. “

Cross posted at my blog.

Kerry Campaign Contributions Lack Disclosure

OpenSecrets.org shows that the Kerry-Edwards campaign has a 76% compliance rate with FEC disclosure provisions for campaign contributions, compared to 91% on average for congressional campaigns, and 93% for the Bush-Cheney campaign. The OpenSecrets folks track the “quality of disclosure” associated with campaign contributions, described as follows:

“BEST EFFORTS” RULES: When making solicitations, candidates, PACs and party committees must make “best efforts” to obtain and report the name, address, occupation and employer of each contributor who gives more than $200 in a calendar year. In order to show that the committee has made “best efforts,” solicitations must specifically request that information and inform contributors that the committee is required by law to use its best efforts to collect and report it.

Most members of Congress fully identify the great majority of their donors’ occupations and employers — an important point, if voters are to see the economic interests giving to their representative’s campaign.

In the 2000 elections, the average member of Congress fully identified 91% of their contributors’ occupations and employers. Seven percent of the occupations were left blank, and the rest were incomplete.

According to the current OpenSecrets data, Bush’s stats are:

Full Disclosure: $156,147,934 (93.0%)
Incomplete: $2,378,738 (1.4%)
No Disclosure: $9,309,250(5.5%)

Kerry’s, on the other hand, are:

Full Disclosure: $85,533,842 (76.4%)
Incomplete: $762,427 (0.7%)
No Disclosure: $25,619,547 (22.9%)

Bush’s 93% compliance seems quite in line with OpenSecrets’ 91% average from past Congressional campaigns, but Kerry’s number, at 76%, is wildly out of wack.

Here are the ‘Full Disclosure’ stats for the other candidates in this year’s race:

Dennis Kucinich: 91.2 %
Lyndon H. Larouche Jr: 91.0 %
Ralph Nader: 90.3 %
Al Sharpton: 91.2 %
Carol Moseley Braun: 92.5 %
Wesley Clark: 70.8 %
Howard Dean: 92.6 %
John Edwards: 87.8 %
Dick Gephardt: 89.2 %
Bob Graham: 87.1 %
Joe Lieberman: 92.5 %

(You can see a single page which compares each candidate’s disclosure statistics here.)

So other than Wes Clark, Kerry’s campaign is significantly below (by over 10%) any other candidate (even the less-than-serious-ones) in this year’s race.

I’m not a campaign finance expert, so I don’t really know what to make of this. Since the data comes from contributors themselves it isn’t clear to me whether you can really fault the Kerry campaign for the deficiency —- unless they are supposed to refuse contributions that don’t provide adequate disclosure. Campaign finance experts, please chime in here anytime…

Originally posted at The Truth Laid Bear.

Kerry Website Revised

From the Boston Globe :

The Kerry campaign removed a 20-page batch of documents yesterday from its website after The Boston Globe quoted a Navy officer who said the documents wrongly portrayed Kerry’s service. Edward Peck had said he — not Kerry — was the skipper of Navy boat No. 94 at a time when the Kerry campaign website credited the senator with serving on the boat. The website had described Kerry’s boat as being hit by rockets and said a crewmate was injured in an attack. But Peck said those events happened when he was the skipper. The campaign did not respond to a request to explain why the records were removed.

UPDATE : Note the date of the article, April. I apologise for missing this.

Ex-Bush Supporter Endorses Kerry

The State News:

Battling attacks on presidential candidate John Kerry’s war record, Democrats today will begin running a television ad in Oregon and 20 other states featuring former Republican and retired Air Force Gen. Merrill McPeak of Oregon.

Republicans responded to the new ads and Kerry’s increased criticism of President Bush by accusing the Massachusetts senator of “losing his cool” regarding claims that Kerry lied to win military medals in Vietnam.

McPeak, who lives in Lake Oswego, said that Kerry has a “real strategy to make America safer” and would be a better leader than President Bush.

The Democratic ad starts airing today on national cable networks and local media markets in states the Democratic National Committee thinks are competitive. The independent expenditure arm of the DNC is paying for the ad but by law cannot coordinate such actions with the Kerry campaign.

In the ad, which was filmed Thursday, McPeak says that he endorsed Bush in 2000 but is backing Kerry now.

Kerry Files FEC Complaint Against Swift Vet Group

The Kerry presidential campaign filed a complaint Friday with the Federal Election Commission, alleging that ads from an anti-Kerry veterans’ group are inaccurate and “illegally coordinated” with Republicans and the Bush-Cheney campaign.

The complaint — filed against Swift Boat Veterans for Truth — states that “… there is overwhelming evidence that SBVT is coordinating its expenditures on advertising and other activities designed to influence the presidential election with the Bush-Cheney campaign.”

Read more…

Swift Boat, The Sequel

CNN reports that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth released a new TV ad:

If you liked the original, you’ll love “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 2,” the new TV ad released this morning that responds to enemy fire the anti-Kerry group has drawn this week.

The ad will go up in “selected states” next week, presumably in the same three battleground states where they launched their first 30-second spot August 5 — Wisconsin, Ohio and West Virginia.

From California Yankee.

Gatlin Bros. to Perform at GOP Convention

AP: Gatlin Bros. to Perform at GOP Convention

Contemporary Christian musician Michael W. Smith and country music performers the Gatlin Brothers will entertain delegates at the Republican National Convention in New York City that starts Aug. 30, party officials said.

More than a half-dozen musical acts announced by the party range from country to classical to blues.

Bill Harris, chief executive of the Republican National Convention, described the group as the first to join the convention. Republicans say they will announce more performers in the coming days.

I hope Michele isn’t heartbroken over missing the object of her secret ambition, Michael W. Smith.

(You know, I once got roped into seeing him in a concert at Houston’s Astroworld… a cranky drunk Jew at a contemporary Christian “Rock” concert? Yeah, that went over well, although it was amusing sticking out my leg and tripping the long running chain on glow-stick wearing larvals.)

NYPD Readies For GOP Convention

The AP reports on NYPD preparations for the Republican convention

At the Brooklyn training site on Thursday, police practiced disarming a truck bomb at a checkpoint. Scores of officers also made mock arrests of police academy cadets who posed as protesters.

Chanting “no justice, no peace,” the cadets surrounded a bus full of “delegates” before officers in riot gear raced in, slapped on plastic “flex cuffs” and led them away to vans.

The demonstration was intended to show how the nation’s largest police department hopes “to put a comprehensive security net over Madison Square Garden and the rest of the city,” said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

The NYPD plans to unveil its two recently-purchased Long Range Acoustic Devices, crowd-control devices which will be mounted on humvees to issue orders (or any other sound, for that matter) at 150 decibels.

The military, which has used the machines in Iraq, bills them as a “non-lethal weapon” designed to disperse hostile crowds or ward off potential foreign combatants by delivering prerecorded warnings in several languages and, if needed, an earsplitting screeching noise. But police insist the latter feature won’t be used at the convention.

“It’s only to communicate in large crowds,” Inspector Thomas Graham of the department’s crowd control unit said Thursday.

Graham said police had tried out the device in Times Square, and found it delivered clear, even sound over four blocks. Decibel readers will be used to keep the volume at a safe level, he added.

Still, Bill Dobbs of United for Peace and Justice, which has planned a massive anti-war demonstration on the eve of the convention, called the sound system “a potential Big Brother nightmare.”

Police “are trying to use technology and machinery to control every aspect of life on the street, rather than relax a little and let a part of democratic society unfold,” he said.

Other devices in the arsenal being tested includes motor scooters, hand-held radiation detectors, and mechanical barriers strong enough to stop moving vehicles.

Vets To Stage Anti-Kerry Protest

United Press International reports that Vietnam Vets for the Truth is planning a Capitol Hill protest next month focusing on Kerry’s allegations that U.S. forces committed atrocities in Vietnam:

Former Capt. Larry Boyle, a Navy Seal in Vietnam, said the demonstration was “to force the media to address the issue of those lies. We aren’t even going to utter the name Bush or tell people not to vote for Kerry, just purely focus on the eight or nine lies he told about the baby killers, the torturers, etc.”

From California Yankee.

The Perils Of Casting Bush As A Bumbling Child

I was going to pull a quote or two from this Straits Times commentary piece, but instead I’ll think I’ll post the entire thing. [Note: Remember that my posting the commentary is not the same as my endorsing the commentary.]

MAYBE it is just that I am having too many long talks with my 16-month-old these days, but I find myself sensitive to the language of ‘daddies’ and ‘dummies’. This is the language of toddlerhood; it is not how we should be framing a national conversation about the President of the United States.

It cannot have escaped anyone’s notice that much of the current Bush-bashing aims to infantilise him. The most devastating segment in director Michael Moore’s film, Fahrenheit 9/11, for instance, features President George W. Bush - just after he learnt of the second attack on the World Trade Centre - perched on a chair in a Florida classroom, looking glazed and confused as he listens to a reading of The Pet Goat. Mr Bush’s aide might well have whispered the news to one of the students to greater effect, and the implication is inescapable: For seven long minutes, the President was not a man.

A glance at the top 150 advertisements selected by MoveOn.org for its recent political advertising contest, Bush In 30 Seconds, similarly reveals the extent to which childishness is woven into the current Bush-bashing. While kids have long been used in political advertisements to represent the future, many of the MoveOn entries use them to satirise the actual candidate.

Several of the proposed anti-Bush commercials use kids to condemn the President for unsophisticated thinking, for an infantile world view, for the fact that his daddy purchased his every big break and for the fact that he is beholden to the wealthy and powerful grown-ups around him. The clear message is Mr Bush is more a child than an adult.

What is wrong with continuing efforts to characterise Mr Bush as a not-particularly-smart third-grader? For one thing, it plays to every stereotype of liberals as snotty know-it-alls who think everyone in a red state is anti-intellectual or simple-minded. It answers name-calling from the right with name-calling from the left. These assertions also insult anyone who voted for Mr Bush in 2000.

Rather than offering an argument for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, they merely disparage voters who may be tempted to defect to the Democrats over the Iraq war or the economy, by sneering that they voted for a kid - and a dumb kid at that.

One of the most enduring memories from the Bush-Gore debates in 2000 was then vice-president Al Gore trapped in what must have felt like the middle-school playground fight from hell instead of a presidential debate. Everything about Mr Gore’s demeanour signalled that he felt he was giving a punk kid a much-needed scolding.

Which missed the point: A lot of very smart people voted for Mr Bush in 2000 because, to them, he represented a return to honesty and morality. Dismissing him as a stupid child, and these voters as stupid-children-by-association, is no way to win them back.

Furthermore, the campaign to cast Mr Bush as a bumbling child ignores the very grown-up machine that stands behind him. Infantilising the President shifts the focus away from the Cheneys, Rumsfelds, Ashcrofts and Wolfowitzes.

These are the men who promised us short, easy wars and painless little suspensions of the Geneva Conventions. These are the men of the secret energy-policy meetings. They are not a bunch of rowdy juveniles. They represent one of the most secretive, powerful administrations in recent memory.

Finally, there is a psychological consequence to labelling the President an incurious frat boy. With each attempt to cast him as a baby, we craft excuses for his childish behaviours. If Mr Bush misled us into a war in Iraq, it is because children have trouble telling the truth. If he sees the world in too-stark terms, it is because nuanced reasoning is not easy for children. With each comparison between the President and a youngster, we subtly lower national expectations and exonerate bad behaviour.

This presidential election is not a choice between adults and children, and it will not be won or lost with jokes about whether Mrs Laura Bush ties the President’s shoes each morning before she points him towards the Oval Office. Nothing is gained by offering Mr Bush even a metaphorical second childhood. Much may be gained by offering our real children a safe and just first one.

Bush & Clinton Share Same Keynote Speaker

7Online reminds us that Clinton and G. W. Bush will, in fact, have one thing in common besides being President of the United States: They will both have had Zell Miller as their convention keynote speaker:

[Miller notes] “But the world has changed as far as I’m concerned by 9/11. And I want a president now that’s got a little grit in his craw.”

According to Miller, John Kerry just doesn’t have that grit, and so he’s backing Bush.

Bush Begins Preparing Acceptance Speech

Xinhuanet, via the Chicago Tribune, reports the President—who is spending a week in Crawford—has begun to prepare his RNC acceptance speech.

Kerry To Bush: "Bring it on!"

Kerry, via CNN:

“Of course, the president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: Bring it on!”

Gov. Bush may skip GOP Convention

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Gov. Jeb Bush may skip or cut short his time at the Republican Convention due to ongoing recovery efforts from Hurricane Charley.

“I don’t know yet. My inclination is to certainly shorten my trip,” Bush said Wednesday. “Really, I want to see how the process goes. My first responsibility is to do my job. So I’m not sure…. I think I’ve probably got enough work to do.”

Bush Campaign Adviser Quits as Sexual Misconduct Case Is Recalled

From the New York Times:

Deal W. Hudson, the publisher of the conservative Roman Catholic journal Crisis and the architect of a Republican effort to court Catholic voters, says he is resigning as an adviser to the Bush campaign because of a Catholic newspaper’s investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct involving a female student at a college where he once taught.

“No one regrets my past mistakes more than I do,” Mr. Hudson wrote in a column posted yesterday on the online edition of National Review announcing his resignation.

“At the time, I dealt with this in an upright manner, and the matter was satisfactorily resolved long ago,” he wrote, without specifying the accusations. Mr. Hudson, 54, said he had been happily married to his current wife for 17 years. Called for comment, he declined.

UPDATE — 21 August 2004, 5.33 PM: See the entry above for the NCR piece on Hudson.

Critic's own military record casts doubts on claims

In making the case against John Kerry’s record in Vietnam, Swift boat vet John Thurlow has claimed that Kerry’s Bronze Star citation as “totally fabricated,” saying “I never heard a shot.” However, the AP is reporting in the Boston Globe and elsewhere that Thurlow’s own Bronze Star citation came in the same engagement and that he came under “constant small arms fire.”

Thurlow, also like Kerry, commanded a Navy Swift boat during the war. Thurlow swore in an affidavit last month that Kerry was “not under fire” when he rescued Lt. James Rassmann from the Bay Hap River.

Thurlow’s records, obtained by the Post under the Freedom of Information Act, include references to “enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire” directed at all five boats in the flotilla that day. In his Bronze Star citation, Thurlow is praised for helping a damaged Swift boat “despite enemy bullets flying about him.”

Kerry Wins Off Script?

The Washington Post reports that Kerry’s been increasingly going “off-script” during his stump speeches, and that it’s proof that he’s making progress in connecting to voters.

No Child Left Behind

The New York Times profiles the current state of No Child Left Behind, focusing on the response of an elementary school in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Instead of the Bush administration’s formula, Thomas D. Watkins Jr., the state superintendent, will try something less drastic: dispatching coaches to advise teachers and principals, importing new curriculums and monitoring school progress. Mr. Watkins likens state takeover of troubled schools to a dog chasing a bus. “What do you do with it once you get it?” he asked.

As events in Michigan and many other states suggest, all is not going as planned with the administration’s goal.

Real accountability or an unfunded mandate? I’m sure we’ll hear more in the comments.

Bush Hopes To Open Markets For Farmers

The News-Leader reports that during a visit to Michigan, the President said if re-elected he would try to open markets for farmers. No details, though. The Kerry camp response:

“George Bush must think there’s a sucker born every minute if he thinks he can trick the public into thinking he’s got an agenda for working families,” said Kerry spokesman Phil Singer. He said Bush’s “tax policies shifted the tax burden onto middle class Americans.”

More On Expats

We’ve posted here several times about the increasingly important role expat Americans will likely play in the 2004 cycle. Here’s more on the topic from the AP:

When decision time comes this fall, the real swing votes in the presidential election may not come from Pennsylvania, Ohio or Florida. The ultimate Bush-Kerry battleground may turn out to be somewhere more far-flung and unexpected — Israel, Britain, even Indonesia.

Revisit my conversation at the DNC with Donkeys In the Desert here.

Kerry Disputes Cambodian Allegations

The Boston Globe, reports that “Kerry is disputing an allegation made by a group of veterans opposed to his presidential candidacy that he never operated inside Cambodia during the Vietnam War:”

“During John Kerry’s service in Vietnam, many times he was on or near the Cambodian border and on one occasion crossed into Cambodia at the request of members of a special operations group operating out of Ha Tien,” Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said in a statement. The statement did not say when the cross-border mission took place.

[. . .]

James Wasser, who accompanied Kerry on that mission aboard patrol boat No. 44 and who supports Kerry’s candidacy, said that while he believes they were “very, very close” to Cambodia, he did not think they entered Cambodia on that mission. Yet he added: “It is very hard to tell. There are no signs.”

Another crewmate who said he was with Kerry on Christmas Eve, Steven Gardner — who is a member of the veterans group opposing Kerry’s candidacy — said Kerry was 50 miles from Cambodia at the time. He accused Kerry of lying about being in Cambodia or by the border. “Never happened,” Gardner said.

Separately, according to Meehan’s statement, Kerry crossed into Cambodia on a covert mission to drop off special operations forces. In an interview, Meehan said there was no paperwork for such missions and he could not supply a date. That makes it hard to ascertain or confirm what happened. Kerry served on two swift boats, the No. 44 in December 1968 and January 1969, and the No. 94, from February to March 1969.

Michael Medeiros, who served aboard the No. 94 with Kerry and appeared with him at the Democratic National Convention, vividly recalled an occasion on which Kerry and the crew chased an enemy to the Cambodian border but did not go beyond the border. Yet Medeiros said he could not recall dropping off special forces in Cambodia or going inside Cambodia with Kerry.

Fresh Readings from the Toast-O-Meter

The latest Toast-O-Meter is up.

Poll: 75 percent of U.S. Jews say will vote for Kerry

HAARETZ: Poll: 75 percent of U.S. Jews say will vote for Kerry

75 percent of Jewish American voters will vote for Democratic candidate John Kerry in the upcoming November elections, a survey revealed on Monday.

According to the study summoned by the National Jewish Democratic Council and published on Monday, 75 percent of Jews polled said they would vote for Kerry while only 22 percent said they would re-elect President George W. Bush.

The results contradict Republicans’ claims that American Jewry is facing an historic change in voting habits, leading to mass support of Bush in the upcoming elections.

Mass. Republicans Eye Kerry's Senate Seat

AP: Mass. Republicans Eye Kerry’s Senate Seat

Massachusetts Republicans, while supportive of President Bush (news - web sites)’s re-election, are mindful of the opportunity created should John Kerry (news - web sites) beat him in November’s election: the state’s first Senate vacancy in two decades and a chance to break the Democratic monopoly on its 12-member delegation in Congress.

“We don’t think there’s going to be a race because we all feel that President Bush has the right agenda and the right message and he’s going to win in November,” said Timothy O’Brien, executive director of the state Republican Party.

Still, “in the case there is a race, we’re going to recruit the best candidate,” he said.

In the small universe of Massachusetts Republicans, the options are limited but strong, GOP insiders say.

Among the names mentioned are: Gov. Mitt Romney and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey; White House chief of staff Andy Card, a former state lawmaker; former U.S. Attorney Wayne Budd; former Suffolk County District Attorney Ralph Martin; Bush fund-raiser Chris Egan, and GOP activist and attorney Gloria Larson.

Reports that former Gov. William Weld, who nearly unseated Kerry in 1996, is house-hunting in the state has fueled speculation that he’s interested in running again. Weld, who lives in New York City, did not return calls for comment.

Nader Supporters' Secret Shame

The New York Times explains why Nader failed to collect enough signatures to qualify for the California ballot.

This month, Mr. Nader failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the California ballot, and Ms. Taylor, 39, a kindergarten teacher here, said she knows why. As one of those who volunteered to collect signatures at shopping centers and street festivals, she said she was cursed, scolded, threatened and called “naïve” and “stupid” by Democrats who blamed her for ruining Al Gore’s chances to win the White House in 2000 — and for what they see as the resulting wars, tax cuts and other assorted actions of the Bush administration.

Even paid workers quit after a few days because “they were getting yelled at and they weren’t making any money,” said Forrest Hill, a Nader campaign coordinator in Northern California.

[. . .]

It’s almost like a liberal type of McCarthyism right now.

From California Yankee.

U.S. Trade Gap Widens in June

From The Financial Times:

Weakening exports and surging imports pushed the US trade deficit to a record in June, according to data on Friday that led to warnings that growth estimates could be revised lower.
The Commerce Department reported that the gap widened by $8.9bn (€7.3bn, £4.9bn) a record shift for a single month to $55.8bn as exports slumped to their lowest in nearly three years while imports pushed to a new record high, helped by a jump in the volume of oil imports.
“It was a perfect storm everything that could happen to push the deficit wider, did,” said Henry Willmore, US economist at Barclays Capital. Imports jumped 3.3 per cent in June to $148.6bn while exports fell by 4.3 per cent to $92.8bn the biggest one-month drop since September 2001. Economists said a fall-off in capital goods exports large items such as aircraft and supercomputers may have been responsible for the decline and could rebound next month.
“If two or three items that usually get shipped got delayed, it can have a marked effect on the figures,” added Mr Willmore.
Economists expected the deficit in July to have narrowed from the June record, but warned the trend towards wider trade gaps was still in place.
“It should be clear that the US is experiencing a real and accelerating deterioration in its international accounts,” said Rebecca Patterson, strategist at JP Morgan, who described the trade deficit as an “Achilles heel” for the dollar. The US currency fell to three-week lows against the euro at $1.235 after the report as traders worried that the widening gap would add to US dependence on foreign inflows into its financial markets to balance payments.
“Even if the deficit does narrow, we could still be looking at a gap around $50bn for the next few months. This is going to a be a bigger drag going into the third quarter than we had expected,” said Ian Morris, US economist at HSBC.
The report was also expected to prompt downwards revisions to second-quarter growth estimates from the original 3 per cent estimate to about 2.5 per cent.

The report sent the dollar lower.

CBO Report Finds Tax Cuts Heavily Favor the Wealthy

The New York Times has an article discussing report released today from the Congressional Budget Office confirming what has been widely alleged:

Fully one-third of President Bush’s tax cuts in the last three years have gone to people with the top 1 percent of income, who have earned an average of $1.2 million annually, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to be published Friday.
The report calculated that households with incomes in that top 1 percent were receiving an average tax cut of $78,460 this year, while households in the middle 20 percent of earnings - averaging about $57,000 a year - were getting an average cut of only $1,090.
The new estimates confirm what independent tax analysts have long said: that Mr. Bush’s tax cuts have been heavily skewed to the very wealthiest taxpayers. Those are also the people, however, who pay a disproportionate share of federal income taxes.
The calculations, which were requested by Congressional Democrats, are all but certain to intensify a central debate between Mr. Bush and Senator John F. Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee.
Mr. Bush has argued that the tax cuts provided crucial support to the economy at a time when it was mired in a recession and reeling from the effects of a stock market collapse, terrorist attacks and corporate scandals.
Mr. Kerry has argued that the cuts were tilted so much in favor of the wealthy that they provided relatively little stimulus to the economy and set the stage for record budget deficits. Since 2001, the federal budget has deteriorated from a surplus of more than $100 billion to a deficit expected to exceed $400 billion in 2004.

You can view the report in .pdf format here.

If not Bush or Kerry, vote Barbie

REUTERS: If not Bush or Kerry, vote Barbie

Look out Bush and Kerry, Barbie’s making a run for the White House.

No. 1 toy manufacturer Mattel Inc. launched a presidential campaign for its popular fashion doll at the flagship Toys R Us store in Manhattan’s Times Square on Thursday.

The promotion is being conducted in partnership with the White House Project, a group that encourages women to run for public office.

Dozens of girls aged 3 to 12 attended the “press conference” wearing shirts emblazoned with slogans like “Future Frontrunner” and carrying signs that said “Go Vote. Go Run. Go Lead. Go Girl.”

The event comes months after Mattel announced a “break-up” of longtime doll couple Barbie and Ken. The company is working to capitalize on its best-known product, which has been losing its appeal to older kids. The move is less a money-making initiative for Mattel, and more a labor of love, Mattel spokeswoman Julia Jensen told Reuters.

“This educates girls and also engages them with the Barbie brand in a new way,” Jensen said. “It also gets parents involved.” Mattel and the White House Project are also encouraging parents to bring daughters to the voting booth.

(Apparently, Mattel has never heard of Ralph Nader.)

Debate Moderators Announced

Via Drudge:

• First Presidential Debate: Jim Lehrer (PBS)

• Second Presidential Debate: Charlie Gibson (ABC)

• Third Presidential Debate: Bob Schieffer (CBS)

• Vice Presidential Debate: Gwen Ifill (PBS)

Official announcement will come this afternoon.

Bush Moving To The Middle

It’s sort of like the Shock and Awe of the Iraq war: we knew it was going to happen, we just didn’t know when. Is the Bush campaign finally making its swing to the center? The Boston Globe thinks so, and the shift is taking place first in the Southwest.

Kerry Gains In Several Polls

The LA Times also summarizes a series of polls which suggest Kerry has slight leads in a number of purple states, even as the Bush campaign becomes increasingly aggressive.

Stumping L.A.

The LA Times reports that both Bush and Kerry were stumping in LA yesterday, doing their best to generate SoCal support. And yes, GW spent time with The Governator.

Al-Jazeerah: Bush Accused Of Politicising Terror

From Al-Jazeerah:

Our enemies never stop thinking of new ways to harm our country and our people and neither do we,” said the United States President last week, totally unaware of his audience’s muffled titter in response. This latest in a long series of amusing Bushisms smacks of reality for more and more Americans railing at the growing McCarthy type ambience within the country fuelled by the politics of fear.

Purple State Direct Mail Blogging

An undecided Ohio mom blogs about the direct mail she gets from both campaings, here at Ohio Countdown 2004.

Gallup Poll: Bush Approval at 51%

A new Gallup Poll shows a slight improvement in President Bush’s overall job approval rating:

The current poll also shows that 51% of Americans approve, and 46% disapprove, of the way Bush is handling his job as president. For the last three months, Bush has averaged 48% approval and 49% disapproval. The current figures are a slight improvement for Bush and represent the first time he has been above the symbolically important 50% level since mid-April.

[. . .]

The slight improvement in Bush’s overall job rating could result from slightly more positive assessments of his handling of the terrorism and Iraq issues. While a majority of Americans continue to disapprove of Bush’s handling of the situation in Iraq (45% approve, 52% disapprove), this rating has improved slightly from a 42% approval to 56% disapproval rating in a June 21-23 poll.

From California Yankee.

Blogmocracy In Action, V 2.0

Just received this via email:

Dear Alan,

My name is [name removed], I am an 11 year old conservative Republican living in the Boston area and editor of a new conservative Republican newsletter called Republican Voices, www.republicanvoices.org. I visited your site and enjoyed it very much.

What I am doing right now is contacting the owners of popular conservative Republican blogs [Ed note: You know the drill … Michele and I don’t intend to produce a “conservative Republican blog,” although many of our readers and contributors are clearly conservatives and Republicans] and asking them to link to my site and possibly write about it with an ad that I wrote included. Please contact me at [number removed].

If you wish to write my name on your site please use my pseudonym, Emil Levitin, as I am hiding my political activities from my hostage takers, the public school liberal establishment.

Thanks,
[name removed]
[number removed]

In Philly we call that moxie. Visit the site here.

As with all our links, make your own judgements about credibility, etc.

McGreevy Transcript

Soucre: CNN.

Throughout my life, I have grappled with my own identity, who I am. As a young child, I often felt ambivalent about myself, in fact, confused.

By virtue of my traditions, and my community, I worked hard to ensure that I was accepted as part of the traditional family of America. I married my first wife, Kari, out of respect and love. And together, we have a wonderful, extraordinary daughter. Kari then chose to return to British Columbia.

I then had the blessing of marrying Dina, whose love and joy for life has been an incredible source of strength for me. And together, we have the most beautiful daughter.

Yet, from my early days in school, until the present day, I acknowledged some feelings, a certain sense that separated me from others. But because of my resolve, and also thinking that I was doing the right thing, I forced what I thought was an acceptable reality onto myself, a reality which is layered and layered with all the, quote, “good things,” and all the, quote, “right things” of typical adolescent and adult behavior.

Yet, at my most reflective, maybe even spiritual level, there were points in my life when I began to question what an acceptable reality really meant for me. Were there realities from which I was running? Which master was I trying to serve?

I do not believe that God tortures any person simply for its own sake. I believe that God enables all things to work for the greater good. And this, the 47th year of my life, is arguably too late to have this discussion. But it is here, and it is now.

At a point in every person’s life, one has to look deeply into the mirror of one’s soul and decide one’s unique truth in the world, not as we may want to see it or hope to see it, but as it is.

And so my truth is that I am a gay American. And I am blessed to live in the greatest nation with the tradition of civil liberties, the greatest tradition of civil liberties in the world, in a country which provides so much to its people.

Yet because of the pain and suffering and anguish that I have caused to my beloved family, my parents, my wife, my friends, I would almost rather have this moment pass.

For this is an intensely personal decision, and not one typically for the public domain. Yet, it cannot and should not pass.

I am also here today because, shamefully, I engaged in adult consensual affair with another man, which violates my bonds of matrimony. It was wrong. It was foolish. It was inexcusable.

And for this, I ask the forgiveness and the grace of my wife.

She has been extraordinary throughout this ordeal, and I am blessed by virtue of her love and strength.

I realize the fact of this affair and my own sexuality if kept secret leaves me, and most importantly the governor’s office, vulnerable to rumors, false allegations and threats of disclosure.

So I am removing these threats by telling you directly about my sexuality.

Let me be clear, I accept total and full responsibility for my actions. However, I’m required to do now, to do what is right to correct the consequences of my actions and to be truthful to my loved ones, to my friends and my family and also to myself.

It makes little difference that as governor I am gay. In fact, having the ability to truthfully set forth my identity might have enabled me to be more forthright in fulfilling and discharging my constitutional obligations.

Given the circumstances surrounding the affair and its likely impact upon my family and my ability to govern, I have decided the right course of action is to resign.

To facilitate a responsible transition, my resignation will be effective on November 15 of this year.

I’m very proud of the things we have accomplished during my administration. And I want to thank humbly the citizens of the state of New Jersey for the privilege to govern.

McGreevey: "I am a gay American"

Philadelphia Inquirer: McGreevey, saying secret extramarital affair with man would make continuing as N.J. governor untenable, resigns.

“My truth is that I am a gay American,” McGreevey, 47, said in a slow, measured voice, as his with Dina stood at his side in the outer room of the governor’s office in Trenton.

He admitted to engaging “shamefully in an adult consensual affair with another man” and apologized for the harm that did to his marriage and to his family.

While saying he believed that a gay person could be a governor, he added that he felt his extra-martial affair put him and his office in a vulnerable situation.

By resigning in November, McGreevey negates the need for a special election to fill the remainder of his term which expires in January 2006. The resignation would take place approximately two weeks after the presidential election.

Breaking: NJ Gov Jim McGreevey to Resign?

So an unnamed “longtime friend and political adviser” tells the AP. The AP report notes that the McGreevey - a Democrat whose sinking popularity has given some Republicans hope that President Bush could reclaim a state Al Gore won by 15 points - “has been dogged by several scandals involving fund-raising.”

Still more concern over touch-screen voting

Obviously partisan, Ronnie Dugger’s lengthy article in The Nation entitled How They Could Steal the Election This Time still presents a troubling picture of how this year’s election could overshadow all the fun we had in 2000.

In November 2 millions of Americans will cast their votes for President in computerized voting systems that can be rigged by corporate or local-election insiders. Some 98 million citizens, five out of every six of the roughly 115 million who will go to the polls, will consign their votes into computers that unidentified computer programmers, working in the main for four private corporations and the officials of 10,500 election jurisdictions, could program to invisibly falsify the outcomes.

The result could be the failure of an American presidential election and its collapse into suspicions, accusations and a civic fury that will make Florida 2000 seem like a family spat in the kitchen.

The biggest concern is the lack of a paper trail for re-counts, especially in Florida where the President’s brother is actively blocking attempts to prepare for a vote verification.

Not surprisingly, the starkest resistance to the voter-verified paper trail comes from Florida, where more than half the citizens will have to vote on touch-screen systems in November. The President’s brother, Governor Jeb Bush, and Jeb’s Secretary of State, Glenda Hood, express unqualified confidence in the trustworthiness of the DRE systems and militantly oppose providing a paper-ballot trail for them. Hood has denied that the electronic voting machines can be tampered with in the software, saying: “The touch-screen machines are not computers. You’d have to go machine by machine, all over the state.” A spokeswoman for her says flatly that “a manual recount is unnecessary.”

This past spring a powerful state senator proposed to make it illegal to recount votes in the DRE systems, but she backed down when called on it by activists. Then Ed Kast, director of Hood’s division of elections, who has since resigned, sought to achieve the same purpose by diktat, issuing a formal ruling that, despite the extant state law requiring recounts under certain circumstances, supervisors of elections do not need to recount DRE ballots. The ACLU and other groups have sued to invalidate that ruling; a spokesperson for the state Republican Party excoriates the suit as a left-wingers’ “ploy to undermine voters’ confidence.”

Ralph Nader's Curious New Allies

From the JewishPress.com:

Ralph Nader’s latest run for president has been much more negatively received than his 2000 attempt. A prominent criticism in the anti-Bush fever-swamps is that the damage Nader could cause this time by draining Democratic votes would not only be epic, but inversely proportional to the value of his political career. Certainly his critics are on to something with this last bit — Nader, once an impressive and prolific activist, seems to have been transformed into an oblivious gadfly bent on undermining the movement he ostensibly cares about.

Few people realize, though, just how precipitous Nader’s fall has been. Driven into a corner by both his lousy political gamesmanship and the tectonic redefinition by 9/11 of the ideological playing field, Nader has begun to flirt with something that has been embraced by so many on the Left: anti-Semitism.

Wow. Them’s fightn’ words.

Blogmocracy In Action

I find it fascinating that blogs now recieve things like this … oh, and it’s a nice example of the democratic process as well.

My name is Mark A. Goldman and I am announcing my candidacy for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. This seat is currently held by Jim McDermott, a Democrat, representing citizens of the 7th Congressional District in the State of Washington.. This announcement is for the election to be held in November 2004. I am an independent candidate and have no party affiliation.

My purpose in running for office is to offer the citizens in my district the opportunity to be represented by someone who will faithfully preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

I am making this announcement too late for my name to be included on the ballot, but not too late to be elected. It is not too late for me to become a write-in candidate.

If you want to vote for me, here’s exactly what you should write on your ballot: Mark Goldman, US Congress 7th Dist, Independent.

In the state of Washington, each individual may legally contribute up to $625 towards my campaign. You can also purchase one or both of the books I recently published, one of which is available in paperback, both of which are available for download as an e-book at my web site. Income received
from these publications will help me personally and allow me to continue in this effort.

If you would like to learn more about me and what I stand for, you can visit my web site at www.gpln.com . I believe that George W. Bush and other members of the current administration have violated their oath of office by undermining the Constitution, and I have written about this
extensively. I have communicated to Congressman McDermott and other members of Congress requesting that they file Articles of Impeachment to remove George W. Bush and other members of his administration from office. Every member of Congress that I asked has refused. I believe this
is negligence or cowardice on their part. I will not hesitate to file such articles if, as a member of the House, I come to believe, as I do now, that the sitting President or any in his administration has betrayed his or her oath of office.

My writings include sample Articles of Impeachment with respect to members of this administration… one was prepared by a former Attorney General of the United States, another was prepared by an internationally respected attorney, legal scholar, and authority on Constitutional and International
law. And in layman’s terms, I prepared articles of my own. These references and my writings provide an excellent outline of why the current President and members of his administration should have been and currently should be removed from office… not by election, but by the operation of law as provided under the legal framework of our Constitution. In addition, if elected, I will do what I can to see to it that anyone who has committed a crime while in office is not only removed from office, but is also prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and brought to justice. I believe representatives in Congress have an obligation to tell the truth of their experience, even when it isn’t politically convenient to do so. If you want to know where I stand on other specific issues, please feel free to write to me and/or visit my web site. I will post my answers to questions there along with other relevant information so that you can make an informed decision about the kind of person you would like to represent you in Congress.

Let me say that I did not ask myself whether or not I have a good chance of winning this election. This is not something that I set out to do; it is something that I feel I now must do to serve my country… because I do not see anyone else in Congress carrying out their duty as I think it should be done. There are many fine and capable people serving in Congress, I am sure, but no one there is willing to tell the truth as I see it and act accordingly… i.e., to defend the rule of law as it should be defended. I only asked myself if I was willing to serve and if I believe that I could
serve honorably if elected. My answer is, I am willing to serve and I believe I can do so honorably. For me to be elected will require that citizens to do more than just check a box. If you want to live if a free and just society, you will have to stand up and say so and take action that indicates that this is important to you. The opportunity is there if you are willing to make the choice.

If you are afraid that voting for me will support someone who you would not like to see get elected, let me say this: an election system that guarantees that by voting for someone you really believe in will result in the election of someone you most certainly do not believe in—is a system that is seriously flawed and needs to be changed. Neither Jim McDermott, nor the party he belongs to, is dedicated to making the necessary changes in support of our Democracy. If elected to office, I will work for Instant Runoff Voting… but this cannot happen unless you are able to muster enough courage and heart to take a chance on yourself to make things better. I am not asking how many people will vote for me… I am only asking if you will.

If you would like to help me get elected, let me just make this one suggestion: do not ask who else has received this email. If you think others should know about my candidacy and your support for it, then forward this email to them. Don’t be concerned that they might have already seen it.

If you’ve ever asked, “…but what can I do?” I’m offering you this. I’m giving you a choice.

Mark A. Goldman
P.O. Box 1865
Vashon, WA 98070
206 463-2019
mark@gpln.com
www.gpln.com

Whatever you might think of his positions, you have to admire the man for taking a stand and a risk. Good for you, Mark.

Rasmussen Poll Of Veterans

A new Rasmussen Reports Election 2004 Veterans Vote poll:

A Rasmussen Reports survey shows that military veterans prefer George W. Bush over John Kerry by a 58% to 35% margin. Those with no military service favor Kerry by ten percentage points, 51% to 41%.

The potential grassroots impact of the war issue is highlighted by the fact that 48% of Americans say they know someone who is currently serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. Among these voters, Bush currently has a ten-point advantage in the poll. Fifty-four percent (54%) of veterans know someone serving in these war zones.

London Telegraph Picks Up "Christmas in Cambodia" Story

Following a by-now familiar pattern, charges that John Kerry has for years been repeating a false story about spending Christmas of 1968 on an illegal mission inside Cambodia (at a time when the United States was officially denying having troops inside Cambodia) have now spread from the blogosphere, the Drudge Report, conservative opinion sites and the New York Post and FOX News to the London Telegraph. The Telegraph also picks up the broader story of the charges made by the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.” It remains to be seen if the U.S. print media will follow suit, although the broader “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” story has already been covered on TV by Nightline and The Daily Show.

Developing . . .

Kerry: "I Have Been Consistent All Along"

Bloomberg reports that Kerry, responding to criticism from President Bush that Kerry has changed position on Iraq, told supporters he’s been “consistent:”

“The Bush folks are trying to say that we’ve changed positions, this and that,” Kerry told a rally at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas yesterday. “I have been consistent all along, ladies and gentlemen.”

From California Yankee.

Coors Wins Senate Primary Race in Colo.

AP: Coors Wins Senate Primary Race in Colo.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday, Peter Coors, on leave as chairman of Coors Brewing Co., had 200,051 votes, or 61 percent, and former Rep. Bob Schaffer had 130,103 votes, or 39 percent.

On the Democratic side, Attorney General Ken Salazar had 169,457 votes, or 73 percent, and educator Mike Miles had 61,914 votes, or 27 percent. Salazar, who toured the state with a cowboy hat and a populist message, said his victory proves he has statewide support.

“People recognize that I care about every single county, every single community, no matter how large or small. I look forward to a dynamic campaign with Pete Coors,” Salazar said.

Coors, 57, a political novice, said the Senate has 57 lawyers and does not need another one. “I’ve said all along the Senate needs more people with business experience,” he said.

Coors aims to replace Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who retires this year.

Rep. Majette Wins Georgia Senate Primary

AP: Rep. Majette Wins Georgia Senate Primary

U.S. Rep. Denise Majette became the first black candidate ever nominated to the U.S. Senate in the state Tuesday as she defeated white businessman Cliff Oxford in one of two racially-mixed pairings on the Georgia ballot.

With 91 percent of the precincts counted in a runoff that appeared to have sparked little voter interest, Majette led by 35,000 votes.

“I’m just very honored that the people of Georgia are giving me the opportunity to run this next phase of the race. We’ve worked very hard. That hard work is paying off,” Majette said.

Because Denise Majette is running for the Senate, she will be leaving her Georgia Fourth District House seat open for the highly controversial former Representative Cynthia McKinney to return to Washington.

Reform Party Coup D'etat

Apparently without the blessing of other party officials, the Reform party’s treasurer told federal election officials that the party should be terminated because it only has $18.18 in the bank. The Associated Press reports:

William D. Chapman said in a telephone interview Tuesday that he sent the Federal Election Commission a “request for termination based on guidelines the FEC had established for the Reform Party.”

According to the Associated Press Reform party leaders suspended Chapman as treasurer;

Reform Party Chairman Shawn O’Hara accused Chapman of leading a “minor coup.”

“I love him and he’s my friend, but he did wrong,” O’Hara said in a telephone interview. While the national party’s bank account was small, “we are in the process of rebuilding and raising money,” O’Hara said.

from California Yankee.

Worst Case Scenario: A Tie

The bad news is, it’s just not that implausible. This is pretty close to the way the state polling looks right now. Missouri has the President leading 50% to 46%, so it’s not unreasonable to put it in the Bush column right now. Florida is more complex; Kerry is polling very well among registered Democrats under 30, but the actual ballots in Florida are always skewed toward the older end of the age curve; retirees always vote in record numbers. So if the polls break the way it looks like they could break, we could be looking at an Electoral College tie.

Click on the map to read the full article.

You're Gonna Do What?

A New York play titled: “I’m Gonna Kill the President!”?? Judge for yourself …

Fed Raises Interest Rates by 25 b.p.

The Federal Reserve announced today that it would continue with its heavily hinted at policy of incrementally rasing interest rates. The federal funds rate and the discount rate were increased a quarter percent each to 1.50% and 2.5% respectively.

In its statement, the Fed shrugged off slow job growth, crediting it to rising energy costs and forcasted stronger growth for the economy overall:

The Committee believes that, even after this action, the stance of monetary policy remains accommodative and, coupled with robust underlying growth in productivity, is providing ongoing support to economic activity. In recent months, output growth has moderated and the pace of improvement in labor market conditions has slowed. This softness likely owes importantly to the substantial rise in energy prices. The economy nevertheless appears poised to resume a stronger pace of expansion going forward. Inflation has been somewhat elevated this year, though a portion of the rise in prices seems to reflect transitory factors.

The Committee perceives the upside and downside risks to the attainment of both sustainable growth and price stability for the next few quarters are roughly equal. With underlying inflation still expected to be relatively low, the Committee believes that policy accommodation can be removed at a pace that is likely to be measured. Nonetheless, the Committee will respond to changes in economic prospects as needed to fulfill its obligation to maintain price stability.

Complaint Filed Over Swift Boat Vets' Ad

The Associated Press reports that a complaint has been filed accusing the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth of violating the campaign finance law by airing an ad that challenges Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s military record:

Democracy 21, the Center for Responsive Politics and the Campaign Legal Center argue that the ad by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth violates a federal ban on the use of unlimited donations, often referred to as “soft money,” to influence federal elections.

[. . .]

In the complaint to the Federal Election Commission, the watchdog groups argued that Swift Boat Veterans for Truth should have used only limited contributions from individuals known as hard money on the ad and should disclose its donations and spending in reports to the FEC.

[. . .]

Mike Russell, a spokesman for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said the ad is legal because it does not tell viewers which candidate they should vote for in the presidential race.

“The ads are not meant to influence the presidential election. The ads are meant to tell the truth about John Kerry’s service record so people can make their own decisions,” Russell said.

From California Yankee.

International Monitors to Observe Election

This November’s presidential election will be observed by international monitors amid growing concerns that faulty machines and the manipulation of voter registration lists could lead to a repeat of the Florida fiasco of 2000.

For the first time, experts from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will observe the presidential election, after a formal invitation from the State Department. “We will come to observe, not to oversee the elections,” an OSCE spokeswoman, Urdur Gunnarsdottir, said. The presence of OSCE teams is a victory for campaigners who have raised the possibility that civil rights violations - which they say happened in the 2000 election - could be repeated. In July, 13 Democrats in the House of Representatives wrote to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, asking him to send observers.

Read more…

Bush Radio Address: A 'Nation in Danger'

Text of President Bush’s latest radio address:

My most solemn duty as President is to protect our country. In the three years since our country was attacked, we have taken important steps to overcome terrorist threats to this nation. We have pursued terrorists across the world, destroying their leadership and denying them sanctuaries.

This week, I asked Congress to create the position of a national intelligence director. The person in that office will be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The director will serve as the President’s principal intelligence advisor and will oversee the foreign and domestic intelligence community.

The CIA will be managed by a separate director. The national intelligence director will assume the broader responsibility of leading the intelligence community across our government, and he or she will have the resources and authority to meet that responsibility.

In the coming days, I will issue a series of directives to various departments on essential steps for the government on the war on terror. As we take these steps, our nation is grateful to the dedicated, hardworking men and women of our intelligence community who are working day and night to keep our country safe.

We’re a nation in danger. We’re doing everything we can in our power to confront the danger. We’re making good progress in protecting our people and bringing our enemies to account. But one thing is certain: We’ll keep our focus, we’ll keep our resolve, and we will do our duty to best secure our country.

[Source: The Independent]

Laura Bush Enters Stem Cell Row

Speaking at a meeting in Pennsylvania, Mrs Bush defended her husband’s policy, which she said “makes it possible for researchers to explore the potential of stem cells while respecting the ethical and moral implications associated with this research”.

She said the science is “very preliminary right now, and the implication that cures for Alzheimer’s are around the corner is just not right”.

President’s Bush’s election opponent, Sen. Kerry, wants to remove restrictions on stem cell research.

Shipmates: Kerry's Cambodia "Mission" Never Happened

The New York Post reports on the charge, in “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,” that Kerry’s claim that he was ordered to conduct an illegal combat mission in Cambodia on Christmas Day in 1968 never happened.

From California Yankee.

Administration Proposes "Incentives" For Illegal Aliens

The Washington Times reports that millions of illegal aliens in the United States would be free from arrest and deportation, have access to tax-deferred savings accounts and Social Security credits, and get unrestricted travel to and from their home countries under President Bush’s guest-worker program:

According to previously undisclosed details of the president’s plan, which some critics have described as a limited amnesty, the proposal offers numerous “incentives” for the 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens to come “out of the shadows,” Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, the nation’s border and transportation security czar, told a Senate panel.

Mr. Hutchinson, in a written response to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the Bush plan would help eliminate sleepless nights for illegal aliens worried that a simple misstep, such as a traffic ticket or accident, “could result in bringing them to the attention of federal authorities and their subsequent deportation.”

“Eliminating the fear of deportation will be an incentive,” Mr. Hutchinson said in the 13-page response. “Undocumented aliens will tell you they often have trouble sleeping at night, and leaving for work each day, not knowing if they will make it home at the end of the day.”

Mr. Hutchinson said the president’s guest-worker plan recognizes that some aliens working illegally in this country who decide to pursue citizenship should be “allowed to apply for lawful permanent residence in the normal way.”

But, he said, in order not to give an “unfair advantage” to illegal aliens over those immigrants “who have followed legal procedures from the start,” the Bush plan would seek “a reasonable annual increase in legal migrants.”

From California Yankee.

GOP Platform Issues

The Washington Times reports that immigration and homosexual “marriage” are shaping up to be the most contentious issues facing Republican platform writers.

“Obviously, immigration is one of the issues we’ll be discussing,” said platform spokeswoman Ginny Wolfe.

Asked whether there was an effort to keep immigration and same-sex “marriage” off the committee’s plate, she said, “Historically, our platform delegates always have spirited debates, but I’m not going to predict what they’re going to be about this time.”

However, one Republican who is close to the platform process but asked not to be identified said Bush representatives working with the platform writers “will try to prevent extremism in language on gay rights by some evangelical groups and on immigration by some of our conservatives.”

[. . .]

Several Republicans associated with the platform-committee activities who requested anonymity described an effort by the Bush forces to head off any language that might seem “unwelcoming” to immigrants or intolerant of homosexuals.

From California Yankee.

Russert, Time Reporter Ordered To Name Plame Sources

Latest on a still-simmering scandal that’s been off the campaign radar lately: The US District Court for the District of Columbia today released an opinion (dated July 20, 2004; link opens as PDF file) ordering Tim Russert and Time Magazine reporter Matthew Cooper to disclose information provided to them by confidential sources (presumably, the identities of individuals within the Bush Administration) in the Valerie Plame investigation. (The Washington Post has more here).

Kerry’s NH story lacks key details

The Manchester Union Leader reports:

Sen. John Kerry often tells a story about John and Mary Ann Knowles. The Democratic Presidential nominee points to this local couple’s difficulties as evidence of the failure of the Bush administration’s health care policies.

Kerry gave the story big play throughout the primary and caucus races in New Hampshire and Iowa, the influential early states that launched him to the Democratic nomination. At the time, the Hudson couple appeared in Kerry campaign commercials, and their names cropped up often in the candidate’s speeches.

Continue Reading

Allies Not in Formation on Kerry's Troops Plan

LA Times reports that Kerry’s plan for bringing foreign troops to replace American troops in Iraq is unrealistic:

…Kerry’s plan, which promises to effectively shift much of the Iraq war burden from America to its allies, so far is failing to receive the international support the proposal must have to succeed.

At this point, he said, many of the allies think it would be better to concentrate on providing help directly to the new Iraqi government to improve its chances of creating a stable democracy.

TCP Wiki & 2004

We’ve created a Wiki as an encyclopedic resource on the topics we cover … but here’s the fun part: anyone, not just our posting contributors, can contribute to our wiki.

What’s a wiki? Sort of an online encyclopedia, but one that people all around the world populate and edit, so you actually get to write the articles and contribute to the content.

Do you know everything there is to know about the Democratic platform? Put your knowledge on the wiki. Do you have a killer list of polling references? Create a Polls page on the wiki. Are you a total geek when it comes to the Electoral College? Create an Electoral College page on the wiki.

With the number of experts that read this page, I think the TCPWiki could become a pretty good resource.

Oh … and we have sections in the wiki for Iraq, GWOT, and Global Recon as well.

To learn more, read this Publisher’s Desk post, or visit the TCPWiki right away (the link is over in the left column, under “Navigate The Post” on the main Iraq page).

It's Not Just the Jobs Lost, but the Pay in the New Ones

The New York Times today has an interesting article taking a closer look at the status of job growth in the U.S. economy in the wake of last week’s disappointing jobs news. The core premise of the article is stated here:

Even now, at a time when a disproportionate number of new jobs appear to be lower-paying ones, there has been growth in some high-income occupations like accounting, architecture and software.
Yet the earnings gap between the highest-paid employees and the rest of the work force is still widening, as it has over most of the last 30 years. The trend is most striking in factories, which accounted for the bulk of job losses in the last three years and tended to pay above-average wages.
In contrast to previous recoveries, when companies rehired a large proportion of laid-off workers, manufacturers have added only 91,000 jobs this year, having eliminated more than two million jobs in the previous three years.
The largely permanent decline in manufacturing employment, which has been more acute after this recession than in previous ones, spans all levels from blue-collar workers through senior management. It has coincided with a bulge in the number of jobs in low-paying fields that are comparatively easy to enter: retail sales, hotel services and clerical work.

Fresh Toast

The latest Toast-O-Meter tracking the Presidential campaign is up.

Nader Doesn't Get Spot on California Ballot

REUTERS: Nader Doesn’t Get Spot on California Ballot

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader did not collect enough signatures to make the ballot in California as an independent presidential candidate but his spokesman said on Sunday the campaign would keep trying.

Nader had gathered about 85,000 signatures by Friday’s deadline and had clearly failed to accumulate the 153,035 signatures needed to place him on the ballot, California Secretary of State spokesman Doug Stone said. Final tallies were not immediately available.

Nader campaign spokesman Kevin Zeese said the campaign would keep trying to get Nader’s name before the state’s voters. “We have four or five other options to get his name on the ballot, none of which I can disclose… We expect to be on the ballot in November,” Zeese said.

Zeese said Nader’s campaign was trying to convince Green Party members in California to replace their presidential nominee with Nader, who was their candidate in 2000. A spokesman for the Green Party was not immediately available.

Analyst: Bush Needs "Miracle" to Win

A political analyst says President Bush would need a “miracle” to win the presidential election as the war in Iraq becomes increasingly unpopular.

The director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, Larry Sabato, made the comments yesterday at a meeting of the Business Council of Alabama.

Sabato says if the election was held now, Democratic nominee John Kerry would win easily.

More here:

Sabato, whose forecast sent murmurs rippling through the mid-morning audience, said Bush’s best hope is to reverse declines in a couple of key states, naming Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri as critical battlegrounds.

“He needs luck — and a lot of it — if he’s going to somehow turn this thing around,” Sabato said. “The American people are in a sour mood, and they’re unhappy. That does not bode well for the incumbent.”

Apparently, Sabato consulted his crystal ball to determine this.

Pakistani Man Tied To Plot To Disrupt U.S. Election

The New York Times reports:

A Pakistani man whose arrest provided information about the reconnaissance of financial institutions in New York, Newark and Washington was also communicating with Qaeda operatives who the authorities say are plotting to carry out an attack intended to disrupt the fall elections, a senior intelligence official said Saturday.

Senior intelligence and counterterrorism officials said it was not clear whether the people behind the surveillance of the financial institutions and the people involved in the election threat were part of the same group, or belonged to overlapping or separate ones.

The arrest last month of the Pakistani, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, had already prompted a search in the United States, Britain and other countries to locate the people behind the surveillance, which took place three or four years ago. Now the authorities say Mr. Khan’s arrest is also helping them unravel a threat to carry out an attack this year inside the United States.

From California Yankee.

Kerry's Goal of Independence From Middle East Oil Divides Advisers

The New York Times reports that Kerry’s goal of independence from middle east oil has divided his most experienced energy advisers:

Some advisers say they worry that Mr. Kerry’s focus on freeing the United States from reliance on oil from the Persian Gulf, the linchpin of the energy plan he released on Thursday, is unrealistic and misleading and that hammering away at it would erode Mr. Kerry’s credibility with business, the news media and other countries.

The advisers, who include independent analysts, former staff members from Congress and the Clinton administration, and a few industry executives, contend that Mr. Kerry’s regular jabs at Saudi Arabia in particular could be construed by many in the Middle East as anti-Arab, at a time when the United States may need the help of other Arab nations to improve the situation in Iraq.

“It goes down well in Omaha, so they use it,” said one expert from the oil sector who advises the campaign and who, like other advisers, spoke on condition of anonymity. “Though there are people who say that this is irresponsible, asinine so don’t use it.”

Bush, Kerry receive different reax from Unity Conference

From the Chicago Tribune (reg. req’d) Bush urges fairness in college entry:

One day earlier, Kerry received standing ovations at the Unity conference of black, Asian, Hispanic and Native American journalists. Initially, Bush faced skeptical laughter, and a lone heckler in the audience interrupted the president’s opening remarks, shouting, “Shame on you, Mr. Bush. Liar.” By the conclusion, the audience applauded graciously.

From Reuters’ Bush Defends Terror Alert:

Journalists attending the Unity conference in Washington gave Kerry loud applause when he appeared before them on Thursday, so Bush had little doubt about the group’s political leanings when he agreed to talk to them.

Still, the derision that greeted some of his answers to their questions was a stark contrast to the fawning crowds Bush usually faces on the campaign trail.

Many in the crowd laughed when Bush struggled to answer a question about what tribal sovereignty means for Native American tribes in the 21st century.

“Tribal sovereignty means that; it’s sovereign. I mean, you’re a — you’ve been given sovereignty, and you’re viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities,” Bush replied.

The crowd applauded a questioner for asking Bush about his views on whether race and ethnic background should be used in college admissions and hiring. Bush has already stated his opposition to racial quotas in schools and hiring.

From the Houston Chronicle’s Bush: Colleges should end ‘legacy’ admissions:

During his hour-long appearance at the convention, Bush’s comments were greeted with skepticism and, at times, derisive laughter and a smattering of jeers at his rambling answers to questions about government relations with Indian tribes and guaranteeing voters’ rights in Florida.

A day earlier, the conference of mostly black, Hispanic, Asian-American and Native American journalists, public relations officials and academics loudly applauded Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, greeting him with a standing ovation.

Unity President Ernest Sotomayor, Long Island editor of Newsday.com, pointed out that conference members “extended the same courtesy (to President Bush) at the beginning and the end, but they were certainly less enthusiastic.”

While some audience members found the open disdain of the president off-putting, especially from a crowd mostly of journalists, Sotomayor defended the group’s behavior.

“They are individual voters and when they go back (to their newsrooms) they will be professional in their jobs as working journalists,” he said. “They have the same rights to free speech that we are advocating.”

Kerry Biographer in Swift Vet Controversy

Updating and correcting a previous post, from Human Events Online :

Captain George Elliott describes an article appearing in today’s edition of the Boston Globe by Mike Kranish as extremely inaccurate and highly misstating his actual views. He reaffirms his statement in the current advertisement paid for by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Captain Elliott reaffirms his affidavit in support of that advertisement, and he reaffirms his request that the ad be played.

“Additional documentation will follow. The article by Mr. Kranish is particularly surprising given page 102 of Mr. Kranish’s own book quoting John Kerry as acknowledging that he killed a single, wounded, fleeing Viet Cong soldier whom he was afraid would turn around.

The Swift Boat Vets should not have been surprised, but they didn’t know one crucial fact, because the Boston Globe didn’t mention it.

The author of the “retraction” story was not only Kerry’s official biographer, but according to Drudge also is currently authoring the forward to the Kerry-Edwards campaign book, as well as “objectively” reporting the Presidential race.

Whether Captain Elliot was or was not misquoted is no doubt a matter for debate by reasonable people. The fact that the Boston Globe didn’t reveal the status of their “reporter” is not.

UPDATE :
From the Boston Globe :

Globe Editor Martin Baron released a statement saying “the Globe stands by the article. The quotes attributed to Mr. Elliott were on the record and absolutely accurate.”
[…]
In fact, Baron said, Kranish had no connection to the Kerry campaign book and did not write its introduction.
[…]
“When PublicAffairs subsequently struck an agreement with the Kerry campaign to do an official campaign book, Kranish’s relationship with the project immediately ended,” Baron said.
[…]
The Globe book, “John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography,” is an unauthorized biography. The work draws on extensive interviews with the candidate, all conducted before 2004. After he emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Kerry declined to cooperate with further interviews.

Amazon, the online bookseller, apparently contributed to the confusion with a listing for the Kerry-approved campaign book indicating Kranish as the author. PublicAffairs’ officials said yesterday that Amazon had agreed to revise the listing immediately.

Kerry campaign spokesman Michael Meehan said Kranish had no connection to the campaign.

As I used the Amazon site to cross-check, I’ve changed the original headline, which read “Kerry Shill Outed on Boston Globe”.

“To Err is Human, to Forgive… is not policy.”

For anyone interested in what Elliot actually said, I suggest readers go and view the original source documents, available at Human Events Online and then compare with what Kranich reported.( Hat Tip : Just One Minute )

Congressman Switches To GOP

The Associated Press reports:
Congressman Rodney Alexander switched his party affiliation to Republican on Friday:

After announcing his new affiliation Friday afternoon, Alexander said he had been struggling with his conservative votes for his entire term - backing the Bush tax cuts as well as the war in Iraq - and noted they had brought him criticism from Democrats.

“I just decided it would be best for me to switch parties, that I would be more effective in the 5th District in the state of Louisiana as a Republican,” he said.

From California Yankee.

Kerry Outlines Energy Plan

Detroit Free Press:

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry rolled out new details Friday of a $30-billion, 10-year plan to steer America toward energy independence with tax breaks and incentives for carmakers and buyers, coal producers and alternative fuels research.

Some highlights:

• Auto companies: Incentives for retooling plants to make more fuel-efficient vehicles. Cost, $10 billion

• Research: Developing less-polluting fuels, including ethanol, bio-diesel and hydrogen. Cost, $5 billion.

• Consumers: Credits up to $5,000 for purchases of efficient vehicles, up from $1,500 this year. (Bush has proposed $4,000 credits.) Cost, $5 billion

• Coal industry: 10 years of financial aid, including loan guarantees and tax credits, to help build less-polluting coal-fueled plants using technology such as coal gasification. Cost, $10 billion.

The GOP said that the proposals are similar to ones that have already been proposed to Congress.

Read more…

Democrats' Religious Coordinator Resigns

The Associated Press reports that “the director of religious outreach for the Democratic Party says she resigned this week because of criticism over her support for removing the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.”

According to the Washington Times “the Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson is the second Democratic official to resign under pressure from the New York-based Catholic League.”

From California Yankee.

Note To Contributors

I notice the addition of emphases in several posts below … this is just a reminder to contributors to be careful not to editorialize on the news pages, even through added emphasis. Make your points in the comments.

(And this isn’t just to Todd … I’ve noticed this as an increasing trend over the past week across several posts and contributors.)

Thanks.

Veteran retracts criticism of Kerry

The Boston Globe is reporting:

A week after Senator John F. Kerry heralded his wartime experience by surrounding himself at the Democratic convention with his Vietnam ”Band of Brothers,” a separate group of veterans has launched a television ad campaign and a book that questions the basis for some of Kerry’s combat medals.

But yesterday, a key figure in the anti-Kerry campaign, Kerry’s former commanding officer, backed off one of the key contentions. Lieutenant Commander George Elliott said in an interview that he had made a ”terrible mistake” in signing an affidavit that suggests Kerry did not deserve the Silver Star — one of the main allegations in the book. The affidavit was given to The Boston Globe by the anti-Kerry group to justify assertions in their ad and book.

Elliott is quoted as saying that Kerry ”lied about what occurred in Vietnam . . . for example, in connection with his Silver Star, I was never informed that he had simply shot a wounded, fleeing Viet Cong in the back.”

The statement refers to an episode in which Kerry killed a Viet Cong soldier who had been carrying a rocket launcher, part of a chain of events that formed the basis of his Silver Star. Over time, some Kerry critics have questioned whether the soldier posed a danger to Kerry’s crew. Crew members have said Kerry’s actions saved their lives.
Yesterday, reached at his home, Elliott said he regretted signing the affidavit and said he still thinks Kerry deserved the Silver Star.
“I still don’t think he shot the guy in the back,” Elliott said. “It was a terrible mistake probably for me to sign the affidavit with those words. I’m the one in trouble here.”

Elliott said he was no under personal or political pressure to sign the statement, but he did feel “time pressure” from those involved in the book. “That’s no excuse,” Elliott said. “I knew it was wrong . . . In a hurry I signed it and faxed it back. That was a mistake.”
The affidavit also contradicted earlier statements by Elliott, who came to Boston during Kerry’s 1996 Senate campaign to defend Kerry on similar charges, saying that Kerry acted properly and deserved the Silver Star.

The book, “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,” is to be published next week. Yesterday it reached number one on the bestseller list on Amazon.com, based on advance orders, in part because of publicity about it on the Drudge Report.

UPDATE : [AEBrain] The “retraction” is now reported as being bogus. See succeeding post for details.

UPDATE 2: [TCP Alan] I’ve removed the emphases from the story segment above as they were not in the original.

UPDATE 3: I object to AEBrain editorializing my post. Yes, some have reported that the retraction is “bogus.” However, the original source of this article, the Boston Globe, states the following:

Globe Editor Martin Baron released a statement saying “the Globe stands by the article. The quotes attributed to Mr. Elliott were on the record and absolutely accurate.”
In 1996, when Kerry was running for Senate reelection and faced questions about the circumstances in which he shot the Viet Cong fighter, Elliott came to Boston and defended Kerry, saying he deserved the Silver Star.

If I were to post a statement on someone else’s post, saying that a different source was reporting something differently, I would be attacked to no end. And rightfully so. I don’t think the proper form here is to cross post editorials on other poster’s sites. Make a post showing that someone else has come out on the other side. I’m sure this is not the last time this will happen before the election.

BTW, I wish to point out that AE Brain was completely upfront and sent me an email saying that he would be adding something to my post. I just think it is a bad precedent.

Bush Speaks out on Terror Threats

From remarks at the UNITY conference:

“The threats we’re dealing with are real and therefore we must do everything we can to ferret out the truth and follow leads,” the president said. “These recent threats, that are becoming more and more enriched, as you’re finding out. There was more than one thread-line, threat-line. People are now seeing there was other reasons why we took the action we took.”

[….]

“This is a dangerous time,” Bush said. “I wish it wasn’t this way. I wish I wasn’t the war president. Who in the heck wants to be a war president? I don’t. But this is what came our way. …”

Read more

US employment growth surprisingly weak in July

From Reuters via the Financial Times:

US employers added a paltry 32,000 workers to payrolls last month, the government said on Friday in a report far weaker than expected that will come as unwelcome news for President George W. Bush ahead of the presidential election.
The Labor Department also cut its tally of job growth for May and June by a combined 61,000.
The unemployment rate, however, fell to 5.5 percent from 5.6 percent in June as a separate government survey of households showed robust employment growth. The department cautioned that the household survey was a less reliable barometer of month-to-month changes in employment than its larger survey of businesses.
Wall Street economists polled last week had looked for a payroll gain of 228,000, although a weak employment reading from a service sector survey on Wednesday had some bracing for a weaker number. Still, the lackluster July figure was certain to surprise.
The Bush administration was likely to look on the bright side as the report showed 1.5 million jobs have been created in 11 straight months of hiring gains. However, Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry could accurately claim that the economy is still down 1.1 million jobs since Bush took office, despite the recent gains.
The report will also raise questions about how successfully the economy shook off a soft patch in June and may lead financial market participants to reassess the pace of rate rises expected over the coming months from the Federal Reserve.
Fed officials gather next Tuesday to plot interest rate strategy and are expected to add to a quarter-point interest-rate increase made in June.

You can read the BLS report here. Wall Street is taking the news hard.

Federal Voting Assistance Program

I just heard a Pentagon breifing on the extraordinary steps the military has taken to ensure that those in uniform stationed oversees will have their votes counted in the November election. As some of you may know, the Pentagon had to scrap plans for a completely online voting process back in February. It sounds like they have implemented the program with true military precision. For those interested, you can listen to the briefing here, read the press release here, or visit the Federal Voting Assistance Program web site here.

The Amish Vote

The Amish, who are concentrated in the swing states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, are being encouraged to get out and vote this year reports the AP.

Amish almost always side with the Republican Party when they do vote — making them an attractive, if unlikely, voting bloc in the neck-and-neck campaign between President Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry. A majority of the nation’s Amish live in key swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.

“Pennsylvania and Ohio are just absolute battleground states, and to think that the Amish could weigh in to the tune of thousands of votes that are clearly going to be Republican — that could be very significant for Bush,” said Chet Beiler, a former Amish who has been dropping off voter registration forms at Amish businesses and farms in hopes of signing up as many as 3,000 new voters.

As pacifists, most Amish avoid political activity that they believe would link them even indirectly with government-sponsored violence. But hot-button social issues, coupled with gentle prompting from people like Beiler, are galvanizing some Amish to register to vote.

“We hate that abortion issue,” said Sam Stoltzfus, 60, an Amish farmer and gazebo maker in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, where an estimated 27,000 Amish live. “We’re totally against it. And as far as gay issues, that’s completely contrary to the Bible.”

The bearded Stoltzfus proudly says the Amish are “sort of swept up with Bush fever.”

Experts believe that no more than 10 percent of the Amish regularly vote.

Kerry's "Band of Brothers"

The DNC’s legal threats weren’t the first shots fired in the battle between John Kerry and those who served alongside him.

From the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth website :

On June 1, 2004, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth sent a cease and desist letter to John Kerry for President, Inc. on behalf of 11 officers shown in the photograph, pointing out that using their images in a campaign advertisement “wrongfully and incorrectly suggests their present endorsement of his candidacy.”

To emphasise the point, the Swift Boat Vets have taken the much-ballyhooed picture and made a ‘before and after’ image showing the real extent of Kerry’s support amongst Swift Boat Commanders. Again, From the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth website :

The Kerry campaign featured the photograph in an advertisement released in May titled Lifetime. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has contacted surviving members of this group to find out how many actually support John Kerry, and discovered that of 19 Swift boat skippers pictured other than Kerry, 12 consider him unfit, 4 are neutral, two have died, and 1 is working with the Kerry campaign. Four other officers were not present for the photo session; all oppose Kerry.

Only 1 of John Kerry’s 23 fellow Swift boat commanders from Coastal Division 11 supports his candidacy today.

And is being paid to do so. However, only about 60% of those in the photo are actively campaigning on an ‘Anybody but Kerry’ basis, not 90%. 10% (including Kerry himself) are campaigning for him.

DNC-Inspired Campaign Gear

While at the DNC in Boston I took a number of photos that I thought Democrat readers might enjoy, and I’ve turned them into campaign swag as a way of offsetting some of our costs from covering said event.

Both are from orignal photos, taken by yours truly.

The first is a 3.5”x5.5” color sticker, appropriate for bumpers or other brandable spaces, with a photo of the post-acceptance celebration at the Fleet Center (to see the original photo, go here):

Swift Boat Battle Hots Up

Updating a previous post, from the New York Times via the International Herald Tribune :

A group of Vietnam veterans has bought television time in three swing states for an advertisement that attacks Senator John Kerry
[…]
The Kerry campaign immediately denounced the group, noting that none of the men had served on the Swift boats that Kerry commanded.

The advertisement […]is the latest tactic of the 200-member group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, one of several independent groups, known as 527s for the provision in the tax code that enables their operation, to run attack advertisements. Tax documents show that from April to June, the group collected $158,750 from 11 people, $100,000 of it from Bob Perry, a Houston developer and major contributor to Republican campaigns.

Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman, tried to distance the president from the advertisement. “The Bush-Cheney campaign has never and will never question John Kerry’s service during Vietnam,” Schmidt said.

Kerry’s aides discredited the veterans group and linked it to Republicans, noting that a public-relations consultant the group paid $27,000 this spring, Merrie Spaeth, was also involved in an advertising campaign attacking Senator John McCain during his tough race against George W. Bush in the 2000 primary in South Carolina.
[…]
The group provided station managers with sworn statements, book excerpts and military records. “We were on the same operations, we were operating within 25-50 yards of him all the time, and for them to suggest we don’t know John Kerry is pure old bull,” Hoffman said. Produced by Stevens, Reed, Curcio Potham, a Republican firm based in Virginia, the advertisement begins with Kerry’s running mate, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, saying that the best way to understand Kerry is to “spend three minutes with the men who served with him.” Then the anti-Kerry veterans speak one by one. Hoffman said the group was spending $500,000 to run the advertisement. A Kerry aide said the buy was far smaller, $156,000 for seven smallish markets, suggesting it was a “vanity buy” intended to attract news coverage.

Interestingly, the media criticism of the Ad is based purely on the source of funds, not how true or false it is. Given Kerry’s running-mate, it’s no surprise that the main thrust against the Ad is via a team of Trained Attack Lawyers. From World Net Daily :

Lawyers for the Democratic National Committee and Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign have faxed a letter to television station managers warning them not to broadcast an ad by Kerry’s Vietnam colleagues which asserts the candidate is lying about his service during the war.

The letter, posted by Human Events Online [Requires PDF viewer], tells the managers if they decide to air the ad they are “responsible for the false and libelous charges” made by the group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

<sarcasm>No chilling of freedom of speech here</sarcasm>. The letter, in addition to containing obvious but minor factual innaccuracies, uses some strong, even intemperate language, describing the navy people as, and I’ll quote the phrase exactly :

the phoney “crewmates” and “doctor”

Please read the whole letter, to put this in context. Still, it’s a good job they have Edwards : they may need a really good legal team after saying something like this in writing.

Electoral Vote Predictor

We have a new underwriter at Command Post, the Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004. It’s an interesting view on how the Electoral College might pan out, based on current polling and gradiations of “Strong Kerry,” “Weak Kerry,” “Barely Kerry,” “Exactly Tied,” “Barely Bush,” “Weak Bush,” and “Strong Bush.” Be sure to check it out.

Conservative Cavalry: Noonan's On The Way

Peggy Noonan is leaving Opinion Journal to aid the Bush campaign full-time:

In the past four years I have written about and given advice to both parties in this column. But a week ago, while watching the Democratic convention, I made a decision.

I am going to take three months’ unpaid leave from The Wall Street Journal and attempt to support the Republican Party in the coming and crucial election. (Every four years everyone says “this is the most important election of my lifetime,” but this year I believe it is true.) I’m going to give whatever advice and encouragement I have in terms of strategy, approach, message—I hate that word—and issues. No one has asked me to do this, and I do it as a volunteer, not for a salary but simply to give my time to help what I think is the more helpful side. This will take a bite out of my finances but I can do it. Actually most of us, when we die, wind up with a few thousand dollars in the bank. We should have spent it! I am going to spend mine now.

The White House does not need my help. They have the best political strategists, communications specialists and speechwriters since the Reagan era, which had the best of all these since the time of JFK. President Bush has his sound, and it’s a good one. He’s getting his sea legs on the stump—it’s hard to go from being-president to being-president-and-running again-for-president, it’s a bit of a shift and is always awkward. But he’s got it together and they’ve got it together.

There are others, however, lower down on the power pole, who might benefit from another hand on deck. I’ve called a few this week and they’ve been welcoming and I’ll see if I can add to their fortunes. If I can’t I’ll at least try not to sink them.

McCain Condemns Anti-Kerry Ad

From the AP via ABC NEWS:

McCain Calls Ad Criticizing Kerry’s Military Service ‘Dishonest and Dishonorable’

Republican Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, called an ad criticizing John Kerry’s military service “dishonest and dishonorable” and urged the White House on Thursday to condemn it as well.
“It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me,” McCain said in an interview with The Associated Press, referring to his bitter Republican primary fight with President Bush.
. . . .
“I wish they hadn’t done it,” McCain said of [the ads producers and]his former advisers. “I don’t know if they knew all the facts.”
. . . .
“I deplore this kind of politics. I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable. As it is, none of these individuals served on the boat (Kerry) commanded. Many of his crew have testified to his courage under fire. I think John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam. I think George Bush served honorably in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.”

Kerry Waves Corn, Bush Eats It Raw

REUTERS: Kerry Waves Corn, Bush Eats It Raw

Competing for votes in corn-growing Iowa, John Kerry waved to crowds with one ear in each hand. Not to be outdone by his Democratic rival, President Bush ate one raw.

Cultivating the corn vote is serious business in the battleground Midwestern state, where the rival presidential candidates converged on Wednesday.

Yes, but seriously, what about Ralph Nader?

Kerry 's Naval Career (By those who served with him)

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of Vietnam Vets some of whom actually served with John Kerry, have just released a damning indictment of him in the form of a Political Ad.

Louis Letson: “I know John Kerry is lying about his first Purple Heart because I treated him for that injury.”

Van O’Dell: “John Kerry lied to get his bronze star … I know, I was there, I saw what happened.”

The SwiftVet.com website has it in Quicktime format and others.

A Streaming Windows media version is also available here.

A critical look at some of the SwiftVet’s sponsors is at the Disinfopedia, but even it notes :

The Swift Boat Vets for Truth include the entire chain of command above Kerry: Lt. Commander Grant Hibbard, Lt. Commander George Elliott, Captain Charles Plumly, Captain Adrian Lonsdale USCG (retired) and Rear Admiral Hoffmann (retired), as well as enlisted men, officers, men who served with Mr. Kerry, men who served in the same group of Swift boats and men intimately familiar with the operations and conduct of Swift boat operations during the war.

Another view of Kerry’s Naval Career is to be found on page 16 of the July 2004 dead-tree edition of the US Naval Institute Proceedings, which I have a subscription to for professional reasons.

From Captain James F. Kelly, USN (retired) :

John Kerry and I were shipmates in the guided-missile cruiser USS Gridley (CG-21) in 1967 and 1968. He served as first lieutenant, the officer in charge of the deck division, and I was executive officer. [ie the 2nd in command of the ship - AEB] I remember him as a serious and intelligent young ensign, seemingly mature beyond his years. The skipper and I were mightiliy impressed with him despite his inexperience.
[…]
..John Kerry’s performance in all aspects of his duty was outstanding. Drafting his fitness report was an exercise in superlatives. In fact, of the 30 or so officers, I counted him in the top half dozen, no mean feat for an ensign.

I tried to interest him in a naval career. Silly me! It was obvious that he had bigger fish to fry. I drafted a favourable endorsement to his request for swift boat duty on the rivers of Vietnam, where he distinguished himself in combat. Before he left, he gave me his bridge coat and several other uniform items, saying that he wouldn’t be needing them in the “brown water” Navy. Aside from a Christmas card and an aborted telephone call, I didn’t hear further from John until I read about his antiwar antics, including his appearance with Jane Fonda and the famous episode of throwing medals onto the steps of the Capitol during a protest. While he was protesting agaisnt the war, many of us were still fighting it. Many of us feel betrayed that one of our own, a decorated hero, would give comfort to the enemy by his actions.

UPDATE : the actual Quicktime File (3.4 MB) address of the SwiftVets Ad is http://www.swiftvets.com/anyquestions.mov if you have any difficulty playing it in your browser - just save, then open it.

UPDATE : More damning comments from naval personnel about Kerry. On the other hand, from the same source there’s also an analysis debunking some of the claims about Kerry’s war medals being bogus. (Hat Tip : Reader Lakhim )

Vote for Change

ACT and MoveOn PAC have teamed up to announce a series of concerts October 1-10 that will include approximately 34 shows in 28 cities in 9 states. Each show will each include multiple artists including Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, Bonnie Raitt, Dave Matthews Band, Dixie Chicks, Jackson Brown, John Mellencamp, Ben Harper, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Pearl Jam, R.E.M and others.

Tickets go on sale August 21.

Electoral Bounce

Zogby is reporting:

Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry remains solidly in the lead after a week in which his party and candidacy grabbed the political spotlight at their national convention in Boston, a new edition of Zogby Interactive polls in 16 battleground states shows.
After a string of good news for the Kerry campaign stretching back to the selection of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards as the vice presidential running mate a month ago, he leads in the Electoral College by a 291-215 margin, the individual state polls shows. Four of the 16 states in the poll collection - with a combined total of 32 electoral votes - were excluded from the calculation because the races there are too close to call.

Those states are Missouri (11 votes), Nevada (5 votes), Tennessee (11 votes), and New Mexico (5 votes). Mr. Bush won all but New Mexico four years ago.

Mr. Kerry picked up ground in Florida, while Mr. Bush made up ground in West Virginia, Tennessee, and Ohio.

Lest anybody is living in a cave, we got ourselves a horse race.

The Boss On Who Should Be The Boss

Bruce Springsteen has an OpEd in the New York Times. It begins:

A nation’s artists and musicians have a particular place in its social and political life. Over the years I’ve tried to think long and hard about what it means to be American: about the distinctive identity and position we have in the world, and how that position is best carried. I’ve tried to write songs that speak to our pride and criticize our failures.

Bush Outnlines Appeal To Catholic Voters

CWN news reports on Bush’s August 3 speech to the Knights of Columbus.

Voting Machine Issues, Volume 203

More on concerns about the use of voting machines in this year’s election cycle from Sojo.net.

The Gearhead demographic

Apparently, the sort of bike you ride may have something to do with the electoral politics you practice:

ONE of the many differences separating John Kerry and George W. Bush is their choice of bicycle - not an especially presidential mode of transport, one might think, except that these are not ordinary bikes.

The original article even contains pictures of each candidate on their really expensive bikes.

Cross-posted at Nate Knows Nada.

Mr. Kerry reportedly pedals an $8,000 Serotta Ottrott, as high-tech and skittish as a sports car. It is made of space-age carbon tubing and comes equipped with the patented ST rear triangle, whatever that is.

Mr. Bush pumps away (often emitting low “hrrr, hrrr, hrrr” grunts, according to an Associated Press article last week) on a $3,000 Trek Fuel 98. It, too, is made of carbon tubing, but unlike the Kerry machine, it has shock absorbers fore and aft. That’s because it’s meant to go off-road. If Mr. Kerry’s bike is a Ferrari, Mr. Bush’s is a Land Rover. Mr. Kerry rides on the flat, more or less, and usually on paved surfaces.

Mr. Bush likes to ride up into the hills of his Texas ranch and then come flying down. To put it another way, Mr. Kerry is more nearly like Greg LeMond, Mr. Bush more like Evel Knievel.

What this says about their political philosophies is best left to the analysts and the pundits. But a study posted recently on a New Zealand biking Web site suggests that downhill mountain-bike riders, like Mr. Bush, score considerably higher than cross-country riders on something called the Sensation Seeking Scale. (Road riders, like Mr. Kerry, are comparative wussies when it comes to sensation seeking.) Downhill riders are also more likely to drive a car too fast, and to have had a brush with the law.

Of course they also get hurt more often. According to Tim Blumenthal, the executive director of the International Mountain Bicycling Association, “minor cuts and scratches are pretty common in our sport.”

As far as we know, Mr. Kerry has fallen only once recently, after skidding on a patch of sand last May. On the other hand, Mr. Bush has tumbled twice in the last two months - and that’s not counting the time in June of last year he fell over the handlebars of his father’s Segway scooter, because he had forgotten to turn it on.

Mr. Blumenthal said that some of the worst mountain bike spills happen at slow speeds and are not necessarily the result of reckless driving. “I believe the president could benefit from an hour or two with a top mountain biker who could give him a few tips,” Mr. Blumenthal added. “They say that once you learn how to ride a bike you never forget, but there are a few little technical things the president could probably learn.”

On his most recent crash, last week, Mr. Bush executed what is known as an “endo” in mountain bike parlance - a sort of reverse wheelie, in which the rear tire lifts in the air and the rider sails over the front. Mr. Bush landed with the bike on top of him but was unhurt except for a cut on his knee. The last time, in May, he scraped his face, hand and both knees.

At least he didn’t hurt his liver, a particularly vulnerable area for mountain bikers, according to The Lancet, the medical journal, which has discovered that during a fall, the handlebars frequently slam into the rider’s right side, causing internal bleeding.

The origins of mountain biking are unrecorded. The sport probably began the first time some nut case took a two-wheeler off the road and went careering down a too-steep hill.

The advent of the balloon tire in the 1930’s made the experience less bone-shaking, but the finer points of mountain bikes and mountain biking were not developed until the mid-1970’s, when cyclists in Marin County, Calif., began racing down Mount Tamalpais.

From the beginning the sport has manifested a certain daredevil quality, and in some circles, it is fashionable for mountain bikers to brag about their mishaps. Many of them are recorded on the Crash ‘N’ Burn message board at the mountain bike Web site www.dirtworld.com - a remarkably upbeat catalog of road rash, concussions, and broken legs, collarbones and teeth.

The more interesting recent posts include ones from a guy who made a wide turn onto a highway and was smacked by a dump truck; from someone whose brakes melted during a 100K race; and from a rider who wiped out while attempting a wheelie drop off of a loading dock.

The palm, however, goes to a fellow who slid off a curve, deposited a lot of skin on some sharp golf ball-sized rocks and then dropped 40 feet into a river, where he found himself in Class IV whitewater rapids. Final E.R. total: broken ankle (requiring two steel screws), broken ribs, cracked skull, fractured wrist and missing fingernail.

Mr. Blumenthal said the crash-and-burn aspect of mountain biking is frequently overemphasized, but admitted that a certain element of surprise is part of the sport’s appeal.

“It clears your head,” he said. “In modern society, there are few opportunities to be spontaneous or adventurous. It’s not like we’re going to be running from a wild boar or anything. But in mountain biking, there’s always the chance to have something go wrong. It’s fun.”

Marketing Revolution In Politics

The Washington Post reports on the increasing role of marketing in politics, noting that “In the 2000 election Americans were showered with 245,743 TV spots for George W. Bush and Al Gore,” and that “spending on TV spots this year will probably be double the 2000 level or higher.”

Don’t forget the $@%&#@ balloons, either.

The Fear Election

Here’s a view from the European Left (at Bellaciao.org):

With the declaration of “code orange” terror alerts in New York City, Washington, DC, and Newark, New Jersey, the Bush administration has set the stage for a national election in which government-inspired fear will be a principal tool in a campaign to coerce American voters.

…

In the final analysis, this turn toward police state measures is bound up with the immense and uninterrupted growth of social inequality within the US over the past three decades. The gulf dividing the fabulously wealthy top 1 percent that controls both major parties and the hundreds of millions of struggling working people has become so great that a genuinely democratic solution to any significant social question has become impossible.

The defense of democratic rights and the eradication of the threat of war and terrorism are possible only through a break with the two-party system. It requires the independent political mobilization of working people based upon a socialist and internationalist program that directly challenges the immense concentration of private wealth, while seeking to unite the struggles of American workers with those of working people in the Middle East and internationally.

The Socialist Equality Party is running in the 2004 election to advance such a program and to lay the foundations for the emergence of such a mass independent movement.

Socialist dyslexics, UNTIE!

The End of Republican Rule

In the Village Voice Rick Perlstein writes:

A visionary party of opposition—you might even say a competent party of opposition—would place fixing inequality and stagnating incomes at the center of its political appeal. For all the talk of swing voters, of NASCAR dads and soccer moms, this is the way to beat George Bush—and to recover the Democrats’ former status as the ruling party in American politics. Instead, the party invites within its folds securities lobbyists who want to repeal the corporate tax. How do the decisions get made that produce this state of affairs? How, in this party of the people, do the corporations become the mainstream and the liberals become the insurgents? In Boston, I hoped to find some clues.

Go here to learn what he found.