Quote of the Day

From, of all people, Andrew Sullivan!

"This is not an election anymore, it's an intervention."

Ba-Da-Boom!

Great Prophet Two

Much saber-rattling and flexing of muscles in the Persian Gulf area. From Al Jazeera:

Iran has started military exercises in the Arabian gulf just days after six other nations, including the United States, held a series of exercises in the same area.

The television station said that the military manoeuvres, named Great Prophet Two, would last until November 11 and include drills in the gulf and Sea of Oman, and would be a show of defensive strength.

General Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander of the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying: "The war games are aimed at demonstrating the deterrent power of the [Iranian Revolutionary] guards against possible threats."

Safavi said the drills were not a threat to Iran's neighbours.

"Our neighbours are our friends," he said. "The guards just want to prove that they ready to resist in any threatening situation."

The announcement came two days after US-led warships finished a two days of exercises in the gulf which were described by Iran as "adventurist".

Iran said the drills involving Australia, Bahrain, Britain, France, Italy and the US would not improve security in the waters of the gulf, through which about 20 per cent of the world's oil passes. It also called on gulf nations to set up their own regional security arrangements.

"Regional security arrangements" sounds to me like a warning to those gulf states allied with the U.S.

These are the country's third war games this year.

In August, Iranian armed forces held a cross country military exercise called Zolfaghar Blow to test new weapons and tactics against a potential enemy. The first stage of the Great Prophet war games was held in April.

"Potential enemy"? Who could that be?

"Cross-country military exercise"? Gee, what country could they possibly want to cross? I guess they want to make to make sure all their tanks and trucks run good in case they have to make a dash to Baghdad.

Read what a few experts have to say about "military options in Iran". You'll know more than Bush on the subject if you don't already.

Dare a crazy motherfucker like Ahmadinejad to do crazy shit, say by bombing his country, and we're likely to find out just how crazy he really is.

The Iranian army isn't very big, best guess about 350,000 troops and mostly draftees, but double that by combining them with Iraqi Shiite militias and all the Iraqi troops and police we've trained, who will turn on us in a minute because they have to live there after we're gone, and we may get to fight the kind of war we thought we would have with Saddam's army.

Only this time we'll get to do it with worn-out troops and equipment, and a 300 klick contested overland supply route from Kuwait to Baghdad, let alone to Anbar, etc. I think it will be all we can do to get our guys out of there. Read up on Dunkirk. Better yet, the German retreat from Russia, or the fighting withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir. Those are all about defeated armies GTFO of places.

"Number Two" does not begin to describe what our "Great Prophet" Bush has gotten us into.

Not Better Late Than Never

Matt Taibbi climbs the News Establishment's frame over their part in Bush's Failed War and their current shift against it. Read this one.

Mass culture turns on the Republicans -- but why?

What's happening is that these talk-radio pit-vipers who for a decade or so had us all wondering, "How the fuck do these guys get away with this stuff?" are now no longer getting away with it -- there's now a mechanism in place in the national media that is poised to savage these guys for the same kinds of tactics that for the last ten years were mostly left to the likes of FAIR and Eric Alterman to bitch about.

Look, there's nothing mysterious about any of this. It's pretty obvious what's going on. We saw this same kind of cultural shift in 1968, after the Tet offensive (an analogy so obvious that even Tom Friedman saw it recently), when the American political establishment soured on the Vietnam War. Despite the conservative propaganda that for decades has insisted that it was the media that lost the war for us in Vietnam, in fact the media didn't turn on the Vietnam war effort until the war was already lost. And the reason the media soured on that war had nothing to do with it being wrong; it had to do with the post-Tet realization that the war was expensive, unwinnable and politically costly. America is reaching the same conclusion now about Iraq, and so, like Dave Letterman, a whole host of people who just a few years ago thought we "had to do something" are now backing off and repositioning themselves in an antiwar stance.

Well, that's putting it pretty fucking mildly, wouldn't you say? It's not that Iraq didn't make "as much sense" as Afghanistan -- it didn't make any sense, and anyone with half a brain could have seen that. And Letterman's subsequent reasoning -- that seeing one death turn into dozens and then hundreds and thousands made him reconsider the whole thing -- all that tells you is that this is a person who makes life-and-death decisions without considering the consequences. If the Iraq war was not ever going to be worth 3,000 American lives (and countless more Iraqi lives), then why the hell did we go in in the first place? If you make a decision to fight, you had better not be scared of blood. And if you're suddenly changing your mind about things after you lose a few teenage lives, you're a hundred times more guilty than the guys like Bush who are actually sticking to their guns about this war.

Because Bush and the rest of that crew sent young men to die for something they believed in, fucked-up as their reasoning might be and have been. But these shitheads in the political middle who are flip-flopping right now sentenced teenagers to death for the cause of expediency and careerism. There are young men coming home now without arms and legs because the Wolf Blitzers of the world were too afraid to lose their jobs or piss off advertisers bucking the war hysteria of the times. Remember, CNN and the rest of the networks did great business in the run-up to the war. They had artists cooking up fancy new "America's New War" graphics and they were selling lawn fertilizer and soda and male-enhancement drugs by the metric ton right up to the time when the Saddam statue came down. But the war isn't selling anymore; the war is a bummer. And so these guys are changing their minds.

This assault on the Republicans that's taking place in the national media right now is partially a reflection of national attitudes, but mostly a matter of internal housecleaning. The members of the Bush administration have proven to be incompetent managers of the American system, and so they are being removed. It's that simple. They screwed up a war that all of these people wanted, turned public opinion against the dumbed-down militarist politics that until recently was good business for everybody. And so they have to go. Mistake any of this for ideology or principle at your peril (my em).

I have no particular point to make other than "What's good for Big Business is good for Big Business".

I wonder how they're going to make money over the impending coverage they're going to have to do of our troops getting kicked out of Baghdad and having their asses handed to them all the way to Kuwait?

I'm sure they'll find a way. Everybody'll want to watch that.

Late ...

I'm running late, putting the finishing touches on some prepared remarks, just in case Dave decides I should say something this afternoon at the press conference with Ambassador Wilson. I'll be back afterward. Remember:

Learn about the candidate and volunteer - Dave for America

Contribute - Dave's ActBlue page.

Vote for Dave Mejias. Do you live in NY-03?

IT'S NOVEMBER!

Related morning reading.

Load 'em up, move 'em out ...

This sickens me:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force is asking the Pentagon's leadership for a staggering $50 billion in emergency funding for fiscal 2007 -- an amount equal to nearly half its annual budget, defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute said on Tuesday.

...

Another source familiar with the Air Force plans said the extra funds would help pay to transport growing numbers of U.S. soldiers being killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. [my em]

...

What to say?

Tip o' the Brain to Maru.

Dave

First. Now I can tell you that Ambassador Joe Wilson will be campaigning with Dave Mejias tomorrow. I'll be attending a press conference with them in the afternoon in Farmingdale and of course I'll have details.

Next, Newsday gave their endorsement to Dave this morning. Listen to me: Two papers (NYT endorsement here) who share the highest circulation in the NY Metro Area endorsed Dave Mejias over a fourteen year incumbent. Got that?

...

Mejias supports a more pragmatic policy that would include tougher border security and employer sanctions, a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country. Mejias is the son of Hispanic immigrants. He overcame economic hardship to become a lawyer and a Nassau County legislator. He's been effective, for instance, by passing a tough county registration-and-notification law for sex offenders and a domestic worker bill of rights.

Mejias promises pragmatic solutions to the nation's problems, a refreshing change. Newsday endorses Mejias.

We're on the downhill run, ladies and germs. IT'S NOVEMBER.

Learn about the candidate and volunteer - Dave for America

Contribute - Dave's ActBlue page.

Vote for Dave Mejias. Do you live in NY-03?

Dead Elephant

Go see Dead Elephant's click-and-print instant bumper stickers. You can make your own. I'd make one for Nov. 8th if I knew how. Mine would just say "GOT HIM!"

Election Night

Tentative as of now, but I'll probably be blogging from the Mejias party on Election Night. Stay tuned.

And another 'stay tuned'. They're trying to set up press conference for this week. Details are embargoed until it firms up, but knowing the particpants (yours truly included) it should be excellent. I'll let you all know where and when as soon as I can.

Kerry to Noise Machine: "F*CK YOU!"

Well, we're in the midst of a big brouhaha over Senator Kerry's remarks on Tuesday. Some Dems are saying he should STFU, some are saying it's his finest hour. My feeling is that he screwed up his lines a little and the Repugs jumped all over it. Fuck them. He made it good.

Here's what he was supposed to say:

A Kerry spokeswoman, Amy Brundage, said Kerry's prepared text had called for him to say: "Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush."

Makes perfect sense.

Here's what he said (same link as above):

He then said: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Did he bungle it? Hell, yes. The first time I heard it I had a flashback to the '60s: Stay in school and keep your 2S deferment or you're goin' to Vietnam. I didn't believe he said it, but then I heard it a bunch more times, and realized what he said wasn't exactly what he meant. It just came out of his mouth all wrong, terribly ambiguous.

Bush and his Repugs were all over it in a heartbeat. The media and the gasbags were too.

It might turn out to be a blessing in disguise that Kerry couldn't tell a joke if his life depended on it.

Here's Hoffmania:

The wingnut network has worked themselves into a lather over Kerry's remark. Again, they're trying to claim the mantle of being the true spokespeople for the troops. Make no mistake - they've glommed onto this like a pit bull. It's good to see Kerry not rolling over (even though he called it a "botched joke" - it was indeed a rap on Bush's policies, not the military). Someone must have grabbed him by the collar, slapped him silly and told him to stop being a pussy. Fortunately, he listened this time.

The bottom line: Most of America would absolutely agree with Kerry's observation. What the noise machine would like to do is to blur that fact by questioning a combat veteran's loyalty to the troops (SwiftBoating Part II, if you will). Coming to Kerry's defense is the other warhorse with a little experience in the matter, Max Cleland:

"John Kerry is a patriot who has fought tooth and nail for veterans ever since he came home from Vietnam. He has stood with his brothers in arms unlike this administration, which exploits our troops to make a political point and divide America," Cleland said in a statment.

The biggest saboteurs are right here in our own party, not having the guts to give their names:

"He has already cost us one election. The guy just needs to keep his mouth shut until after the election," a top Democratic strategist said Tuesday.

How about the geniuses on our side keep THEIR mouths shut if they can't muster up enough balls to agree with most of America on Iraq? Dear God, if the so-called strategists in our party are going to let the crackheads in the White House define what our people say and run with it as gospel truth, then hand in your goddamn voter registration cards and hit the bricks. We have no use for you.

Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld sent the troops in there without proper armor, with contaminated water, with expired food, with endless redeployments, and INITIALLY, sending them face-first into what was thought to be a pit of gasses, nukes and other WMDs - and they have the brass nutsacks to say KERRY don't support the troops?

Let's talk about THAT, Mr. Bush and Mr. Snow. Let's start saying THAT, Democratic "strategists." You useless dismal pricks.

UPDATE: Go here. See the transcript of today's press conference held by Kerry. You'll see EVERYTHING that the media will resolutely ignore in favor of Bush's prissy fake outrage.

If anyone thinks that a veteran, someone like me, who's been fighting my entire career to provide for veterans, to fight for their benefits, to help honor what their service is, if anybody thinks that a veteran would somehow criticize more than 140,000 troops serving in Iraq and not the president and his people who put them there, they're crazy.

It's just wrong. This is a classic GOP textbook Republican campaign tactic.

I'm sick and tired of a bunch of despicable Republicans who will not debate real policy, who won't take responsibility for their own mistakes, standing up and trying to make other people the butt of those mistakes.

I'm sick and tired of a whole bunch of Republican attacks, most of which come from people who never wore the uniform and never had the courage to stand up and go to war themselves.

Enough is enough. We're not going to stand for this. This policy is broken. And this president and his administration didn't do their homework. They didn't study what would happen in Iraq. They didn't study and listen to the people who were the experts and would have told them.

And they know that's what I was talking about yesterday. I'm not going to be lectured by a White House or by the likes of Rush Limbaugh who's taking a day off from mimicking and attacking Michael J. Fox, who's now going to try to attack me and lie about me and distort me.

No way. It disgusts me that a bunch of these Republican hacks who've never worn the uniform of our country are willing to lie about those who did.

It's over.

Powerful stuff. Too bad no one will have the balls to run it in their "liberal" newscasts.

I'm with Kerry on this one. He fucked up - just a little, nothing even really substantive - but when the Repugs got on him, he didn't play nice like they probably figured he would and show himself, and thus all Dems, as weak. They'da loved that. He did what he should have done two years ago. He hit back. Clinton showed us the way with Cwissy Wallace and now Kerry has done the same to Bush and his whole goddam bunch. It's about fuckin' time somebody did.

Get some, John! Ya done good. Maybe it'll help stiffen some Democratic spines that really need it.

It's even helpin' me! I feel like I'm almost ready to come out of my shell with an opinion once in a while.

First Lady is stump broke...

Sierra Sun

First Lady to stump for Doolittle

First Lady Laura Bush will visit Northern California later this week to campaign for two GOP incumbents in hot re-election races, John Doolittle and Richard Pombo.

Her trip comes on the heels of a fundraising swing President Bush made for the two candidates at the beginning of October.

The first lady will appear at a get-out-the-vote rally for Doolittle on Thursday evening in Rocklin. She'll do a rally for Pombo in Pleasanton Friday morning.

The plans were confirmed Monday by the Doolittle and Pombo campaigns.

Doolittle is facing Democrat Charlie Brown and Pombo's opponent is Democrat Jerry McNerney. Both races have grown more competitive than expected as the national political environment shifts in Democrats' favor.

Both Pombo and Doolittle are stunk up by Abramoff's taint. I think those are the only two races in California that have been blessed by appearances from Bush, and now Laura.

"More competitive than expected" must mean Pombo and Doolittle are scared shitless enough to let the Bushes come to support them. Desperate men do desperate things. Heh.

Transparent Grid is keeping tabs on the races in CA-04 and CA-11.

Charlie Brown for Congress

Jerry McNerney for Congress

Say No To Pombo

Dump Doolittle

Benchmarks, deadlines, and ultimatums

Kreetcha sends us to this LA Times report:

WASHINGTON -- Growing numbers of American military officers have begun to privately question a key tenet of U.S. strategy in Iraq - that setting a hard deadline for troop reductions would strengthen the insurgency and undermine efforts to create a stable state.

The Iraqi government's refusal to take certain measures to reduce sectarian tensions between Sunni Arabs and the nation's Shiite Muslim majority has led these officers to conclude that Iraqis will not make difficult decisions unless they are pushed.

...

Din't the War Preznit say he listened to the commanders in the field?

Update:

At Steve Soto's:

... "I wouldn't let half of them feed my dog," 1st Lt. Floyd D. Estes Jr., a former head of the police transition team, said of the Iraqi police. "I just don't trust them." ...

A little fun Wolcott

James Wolcott's on a roll. His site is part of Vanity Fair now. From a coupla different posts, just for fun.

On Twin Peaks, Sherilyn Fenn suggested a pleasure trove of erotic possibilities by using her tongue to twist a cherry stem into a nifty knot. For the last week conservative pundits have been putting their tongues to similar agile use, sucking up to Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld as if wanting to get a few last gymnastic licks in before Speaker Pelosi is sworn in. [...]

Josh Marshall asks: What's Bob Corker's deal with Harold Ford's sex life?"

I believe I can answer that, having seen a few Douglas Sirk movies in my time.

Bob Corker is gay. He may not know it yet, he may never know it, he may go to his sarcophagus wrapped in denial, but his fascination with Ford's prowess and good looks gives him away, as does his political affiliation. All Republican political figures are gay, especially the men. When President Bush insists on kissing one bald head after another, the psychosexual symbolism speaks for itself. He's planting his lips on big uncircumcised Kojak peckers. When Rush Limbaugh packs his Viagra and jets off on a tropical jaunt with the guys, it's assumed there are saucy wenches awaiting him under the sultry palms, but I wonder--I wonder if it's cabana boys making the hammock sway under the moonlight. Republican women--those masochistic saints--are more like Joan Allen playing Pat Nixon under layers of frosting, their rigid smiles forged by years of living a lie with a man infatuated with other men and too timid to take out a subscription to Details magazine, lest he be exposed. The closet in which he dwells doubles as a panic room with a convenient minibar, so that if he ever stumbles or strays, he can blame it on the creme de menthe, not the burning yearning of his heart. Perhaps Corker has a special thing for black men, and can't get enough of that smooth and creamy Blair Underwood. There's no shame in that. Many a significant look has been exchanged in the locker room at half-time.

The only shame is that Harold Ford can't run for office without his Republican opponent, Karl Rove, and Ken Mehlman leching on him and taking turns at the keyhole. The South has made such progress, yet in affairs of the groin, it still has so far to go.

When I write stuff like that, Fixer says I need to get to town a little more often. Wolcott's in one of them fancy Manhattan neighborhoods already, so I guess it doesn't help!

Obligatory Halloween post/QotD

Shakes:

Wow-lucky kids. I never got any religious tracts when I was trick-or-treating. When we built our Halloween bonfires around which to dance in Satanic rituals, sometimes it took hours to find all the kindling.

Used to be the Jesus freaks were scared of 'Pagan holidays'. Now they feel they have the right to fuck them up too.

Update:

Related.

Dead Heat!

From the Mejias campaign via email:

"We are a week out from Election Day and this race is a statistical dead heat," said Mejias. "It can't be more clear, Peter King and the Republican controlled Congress have taken our country in the wrong direction and the people of New York's Third District want change. This race has picked up an incredible amount of momentum and I am heading into Election Day with a great amount of wind at my back."

The highlights of a Constituent Dynamics poll taken last week:

Dave Mejias leads in Suffolk County, Mejias 49% King 45%

Dave Mejias leads among Independent voters, Mejias 48% King 43%

President Bush received a 35% approval rating

Even my boss Harry, who's a staunch, life-long Republican, listened to Dave the other night and was impressed enough where he'll vote for Mejias instead of just sitting out the election. Harry's words: "I can see why you like this guy. He's got great ideas. Peter King's a fucking asshole." That's about the greatest endorsement Harry has ever given to anything. If Dave can sway the stubborn old man, he has a good chance of winning.

Dave for America

Do you live in NY-03? You do? Good, you'd better have your ass at the polls next Tuesday or I'll come get ya. We're a week out and I'm gonna be harping on this until we put it to bed.

Update

Stolen fully and completely from PKW:

King says his internal polling has him up 23 points and that has been consistant for 7 months.
So what candidate up 23 points in a district gerrymandered for republicans drops half a million dollars on advertising the last two weeks of the campaign?
A candidate who is not confident that the 23 points is a real number.

Just in case...

Molly Ivins plans ahead:

So with the Bushies continuing their tailspin, it might be time to review the rules in case WE WIN in the upcoming midterm elections:

I realize for many Democrats it has been so long since we won, we have completely forgotten the etiquette. And I realize I'm taking a chance here -- there's nothing more dangerous than overconfidence -- but you have to practice for victory as well as defeat.

First rule: No gloating. Actually, there is gloating allowed, but only in the exclusive presence of other Democrats. Gloating in the face of Republicans is rude and unsportsmanlike, and just gives them one more thing to complain about. Also, remember there is a possibility there may be some Republicans on the civil service staff -- I have seen this when the R's win -- and it is really not good manners to watch them wailing around with their eyes brimming with tears.

Sorry, Molly. I for one want to rub their noses in it a little. I may have to buy an Ace bandage to support the elbow on my bird-flippin' arm. And as for laughin' at 'em while they cry - fuck manners. They'll get what they've been giving.

Second, I'm sure we will all be full of grand theories if Republicans lose and we win. Dems will be ready to be helpful, offer advice and sort of try to perk the R's up. I do not recommend this. It somehow never feels to me when R's are dumping truckloads of good advice on the D's that they are, actually, sincere about it.

Third, celebratory jigs, reels and renditions of "Danny Boy" are best limited to Irish bars.

Fourth, try to refrain from insulting Republicans en masse. A good start would be, "You know, it was mostly the ones under indictment that hurt you."

To which I would add: "and the ones who are gonna be".

I love Molly, but she's a party pooper. Let's hope we have a party for her to poop. In fact, let's make it so.

Wild Ride

Sorry, guys, the Mary Carey story was yesterday. David Sirota on what lies in store for the Democrats whether they win or lose next Tuesday. Today's 'must read'. Almost too many good quotes to choose from, but that won't stop me.

The situation is ready to explode. What the late Paul Wellstone called the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" is growing feisty. And progressives are increasingly in a position to flex their muscles thanks to a convergence of factors: the rise of Internet fundraising, the ascendancy of blog and vlog (video blog) media and the crushing economic forces that are radicalizing previously apolitical middle-class constituencies. These developments have exposed the Democratic establishment to the same kind of pressure that conservative grassroots activists have exerted on the Republican Party to great electoral success.

If they win

When the hangover from election night clears, a Democratic-controlled Congress will face a giant faultline between its senior members and its rank-and-file. The chairmen of key committees are among the most progressive lawmakers in Congress. Further, these are senior legislators who have been waiting for a chance at the majority for years--not rookies who will take up their gavels with no ideas about what they want to do. And they will be bolstered by the emerging progressive technological and grassroots infrastructure that provided the keys to mid-term victory.

If they lose

If circular firing squad competitions were an Olympic sport, Democrats' typical post-election behavior would make them gold medal contenders. This is a party that has a lot of practice blaming each other--and in particular, a lot of experience watching the conservative, Big Money wing of the party dishonestly stereotype progressives as the reason for electoral defeat.

It goes without saying that a Democratic victory in 2006 would be much better for progressives and the country as a whole. The fights and problems that will come with a win are the enviable troubles of political riches, rather than political poverty. But progressives must not be tricked by the usual Democratic Party propaganda that promises a utopia after the election. No matter what the outcome on November 7, a new fight begins on November 8.

Let's just win this fight against the Repugs for now. Once we get those bastards out of power, I hope the Dems can hold the internal mayhem down to a dull roar and actually get something done, like impeaching Bush and Cheney and throwing the current leadership of the DNC out.

I consider the DNC, the way it stands, to be a disruptive money-driven force, external and resistant to progressive politics. The 'Republican wing' of the Democratic Party if you will.

Texas tyrant stiffs autistic families

NY Daily News

It comes down now that a guy named Joe from Texas is blocking the Congress of the United States from helping to combat autism.

Republican Rep. Joe Barton, by dint of his chairmanship of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, has thus far been able to keep from the House floor a bill that unanimously passed the Senate and would deliver $900 million for research into this disease, which afflicts some 1.5 million Americans.

From Verse-Case Scenario by Tony Peyser:

Another reason this specific case
Is one people should keep an eye on?
Barton wouldn't even return calls
To famed reporter Sidney Zion.

Hastert wouldn't talk to Zion either
Which made me go a bit ballistic:
The GOP will protect child predators
But not children who are autistic.

The GOP know their demographics. Since they're the party of choice for child predators, they must figure the 'child predator' vote is more valuable to them than the 'autistic family' one.

It's "all about the children", after all.

Please, Nancy, put Impeachment back on the table

Walter C. Uhler

Were the United States still a shame-based country, as it was even when Henry Stimson wrote about Nuremberg, the criminals in the Bush administration who unleashed this whirlwind would resign and surrender themselves to the proper authorities, or commit suicide. But, America is not Japan and, as we already know, our officials possess neither character nor shame. Instead, they already are plotting to escape justice.

"Justice," for the crime of invading Iraq, already has been splendidly stipulated by the renowned conservative military historian, Martin van Creveld: "For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C. sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president's men. If convicted, they'll have plenty of time to mull over their sins."

But, in order to thwart justice, the Bush administration's "Plan A," is to win at least one house of Congress in November and, thus, stymie and delay investigations and impeachment proceedings. If "Plan A" fails, "Plan B" is to invade Iran.

Thus, the percentages offered by Middle East expert, William R. Polk, seem correct -- "at least a 10% chance of an American attack on Iran before the November 7 Congressional elections and about a 90% chance before the administration's end on 2008" [History News Network, 10/16/06] -- even if scaring Americans in order to ward off impeachment doesn't figure among his reasons.

And, thus, Congresswoman Pelosi, by taking impeachment off the table, you will have given the Bush administration an adequate substitute for "Plan A" while effectively removing any penalty for pursuing "Plan B."

Please, scrap your bad idea of taking impeachment off the table. Although making the Bush administration lame ducks may be good enough for you, America's lost self-esteem and its lost honor around the world require much more - as does the need to prevent additional Bush administration crimes against the peace. It requires that we Americans "repair" to the standard to which we seek to hold everyone else.

What Wally said.

Unseemly Circus

Military.com columnist Joe Galloway has a few thoughts about this administration:

This unseemly circus and its clowns in Congress can't go away fast enough and with enough dishonor and disgrace to suit the circumstances. Their place in America's history is secure: They will go down as the worst administration and the worst Congress we've ever had. Period.

They deserve to lose both the House and the Senate on Nov. 7, and the White House in 2008. They bullied their way into a war that they thought would be a slam-dunk and then so bungled things that the only superpower left in the world has been humbled and hobbled in a world that they've made more dangerous for us.

Thanks, guys. You've done a heckuva job. We won't forget it.

Those are the last three paragraphs. Go read the first twelve.

Florida gets early start on vote flipping. Duh.

Miami Herald

Several South Florida voters say the choices they touched on the electronic screens were not the ones that appeared on the review screen -- the final voting step.

Debra A. Reed voted with her boss on Wednesday at African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale. Her vote went smoothly, but boss Gary Rudolf called her over to look at what was happening on his machine. He touched the screen for gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis, a Democrat, but the review screen repeatedly registered the Republican, Charlie Crist.

That's exactly the kind of problem that sends conspiracy theorists into high gear -- especially in South Florida, where a history of problems at the polls have made voters particularly skittish.

Interesting example, and there's a couple of others like it. I wonder how many times people chose the Repug candidate only to have the Dem come up? My bet is somewhere between zero and none.