My apologies for the somewhat skimpy postings these past couple of weeks; I’ve been trying to figure out how to fit daytime grad school classes into a fulltime day job - a task worthy of those old analytic reasoning questions that used to be on the GRE (I hated them, when I first took the test 20 some years ago; now I buy magazines full of them for entertainment — and they’re no longer on the test?!). Anyway, I’m embarking on a masters program in environmental ethics. Time will undoubtedly get even tighter, but it will get settled and predictable.

Speaking of ethics, or the glaring absence of them —

Ralph Reed, founder of the Christian Coalition, has found a way to earn millions of dollars from organized gambling while still proclaiming his moral opposition to it. How? He helps to prevent some Indian tribes from opening casinos, taking payments from lobbyists for the competing tribes (who are, of course, trying to open - or limit competition for - their own casinos) - for his “consulting” work.

And the same conservative “journalist” who told us all what Valerie Plame does for a living –

Has been defending and promoting “Unfit for Command” - the Swift Boat Liars’ book, without mentioning that his son published it. “I don’t think it’s relevant,” he says. Nope; it just amounts to pages and airwaves of free publicity for the book and the publisher.

Call me a nattering nabob of negativism –

But does anyone really think Bush cares that the leader of the Log Cabin Republicans might withhold his endorsement of the president? (That reminds me of another Bush flip-flop: he initially refused to meet with LCR during his 2000 campaign, then decided it would be OK… sort of.)

Every time you think the Republican party can’t possibly find a lower, slimier road –

they prove you wrong. Leading the intrepid pack of mud burrowers this week: Dennis Hastert suggesting that George Soros got his money from drug dealing.

Pandering to swing voters –

In Robert Reich’s Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America (which does not really present a basis for the grand vision suggested by the subtitle, but perhaps I’ll get back to that later), he writes (pg 199) “If I hear another pundit say the real action is with the 20 percent upscale suburban ’swing’ in the middle who have no strong political commitments, I’m going to scream.” With upwards of 90% of the electorate already “decided,” and virtually evenly split between Kerry and Bush, the election - which Arianna Huffington calls “nothing less than a referendum on the soul of our country” - could turn on the whims of the least politically committed individuals. And as Arianna says:

The problem is, this fixation with all things undecided is threatening to turn a campaign that should be about big ideas, big decisions and the very, very big differences between the worldviews of John Kerry and George Bush into a narrow trench war fought over ludicrous charges.

As a group, undecided voters long to be soothed and reassured. And the danger in playing to this fickle crowd is that the message is tailored not to offend rather than to challenge and inspire.

Timing is everything –

The FBI says the disclosure of their case against Lawrence Franklin has jeopardized their investigation. Juan Cole says that’s exactly what the Pentagon intended. He has other good background here.

Why Bush Can’t Run On His Record, continued –

Daily Kos has the details encapsulated. Let’s see — fewer jobs, lower median household incomes, higher poverty, and more Americans without health insurance. How’s that War On Terror coming along?

Here’s a good piece by Jane Brody on children and guns; she sites a study that found gun owners with children at home were less likely to keep guns locked than were gun owners with no children! That just leaves me speechless.

And just in time to commemorate Bush’s planned cave-in to the NRA on the expiring Assault Weapons Ban —

A friend in NY asked me to pass along this New Yorkers Against Gun Violence Media Advisory:

“President Bush is Out to Lunch” Press Conference

30,000 Americans Die from Guns Each Year and Bush is Reneging on Pledge to Renew Assault Weapons Ban

Republican National Convention Protest Photo Opportunity: SEPT 1ST*

WHAT: A rare National Press Conference with President Bush. As is typically the case, there will be obfuscation and no real answers provided to questions regarding the safety of all Americans and New Yorkers in particular given the Al Qaeda threat. Terrorists, mass murderers and other criminals know that America provides cheap and easy access to assault weapons. Bush will make it even easier to acquire these guns by allowing the assault weapons ban to expire on September 13th. These issues will be raised during a mock press conference with five eight foot tall Bush puppets (often contradicting one another) hosted by New Yorkers Against Gun Violence (NYAGV). In addition, the event will include a number of different speakers throughout the program.

WHERE: Washington Square Park (Manhattan) Teen Plaza (between fountain & Garibaldi Statue)

WHEN: Wednesday, September 1, 2004, 11:30am – 3:00pm (Press conferences to be held at 12 noon, 1pm & 2pm)

WHO: President Bush (five puppets); Gun Violence Survivors; Dr. Sheldon Teperman, Trauma Surgeon, Jacobi Medical Center; Andy Pelosi & Jackie Kuhls (Executive Director & public policy directors of NYAGV); Ellen Freudenheim, Co-Founder, The Silent March; Edie Smith, Pres., NY State Council, Million Mom March; Carole Stiller, Pres., NJ State Council, Million Mom March

WHY: The Bush administration has squandered lives by not addressing a major public health crisis. 30,000 Americans die at the end of a gun each year. Instead of tackling or even acknowledging the problem, Bush and the Republican Congress are making it worse by allowing the federal assault weapons ban to expire on September 13th, rather than working to renew and strengthening the ban. One in five law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty between 1998 – 2001 was killed with an assault weapon. Some of America’s most heinous recent crimes such as the Washington DC sniper murders and the Columbine High School massacre were committed with assault weapons.

VISUALS: Five 8-foot puppets resembling President Bush sitting around a dinner table – out to lunch. Posters displaying assault weapons.

*Individual photo opportunities can be arranged before Sept. 1st by contacting Andy Pelosi.

Friday smattering –

(1) Bush’s brain (no, not this one*) is the subject of this Howell Gaines piece, which begins:

POCONO SUMMIT, Pa. — It was here in the parking lot of Cramer’s Home Center, less than seven miles from a NASCAR track, in a pivotal battleground state, on the back of a battered work van, that we saw the first one.

“Somewhere in Texas,” the bumper sticker said, “A Village Is Missing Its Idiot.” The next showed up at the Home Depot on the back of an equally battered pickup driven by s tough-looking kid dressed for construction work. It said: “Bush,” and then, “Like a Rock Only Dumber.”

These are signs of the fierce conviction of some voters — and the secret fear of a quieter and perhaps larger group — that George W. Bush is not smart enough to continue as president. Indeed, if an unscientific survey of bumper stickers, graffiti and letters to the editor in this conservative mountain region is an indicator, doubts are spreading.

Read more. (*Update: link fixed)

(2) “I understand how Senator Kerry feels - I’ve been attacked by 527’s too” Bush tells the Times. Someone help him with this, please. There’s a world of difference between “attacking” with the irrefutable facts of an administration’s dubious accomplishments (Moveon.org ads) and attacking with outright fabrications (Swift Boat Veterans for Slander and Deception ad). One (Moveon.org ads) is “negative” advertising, the other (SBVSD [sic]) is a smear. This is pretty nuanced, I guess.

(3) Make of it what you will: a story in Intervention magazine says:

The report last week from the small Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper is jarring. A “flood of middle-eastern males” has been caught entering the country illegally east of Douglas, Arizona, according to the paper, and this recent “flood” is actually part of an increasing trend of “OTMs” (“other than Mexicans”) entering the country illegally somewhere east of the Chiricahua Mountains.

Read the rest. I wonder what, if anything, it has to do with the “sweeping new powers” given border patrol agents earlier this month (I blogged that earlier).

Seeking an even lower road –

Bob Dole went on Scarborough Country yesterday. He found it and took it. Truly pathetic. (He clearly didn’t read the stories in the Times or the Post, which he sites as evidence of liberal bias against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (sic).) Here’s a telling editorial by Noel Koch who tries gamely to convince us that Bob Dole once had a sense of decency. As Josh Marshall says, “Bush sullies everyone around him.” But I don’t think he had to work very hard with Dole.

Late Night Humor –

Perhaps you’ve seen these, since it’s currently making the email rounds (Thanks, A):

A new poll says that if the election were held today, John Kerry would beat President Bush by a double digit margin. The White House is so worried about this, they’re now thinking of moving up the capture of Osama Bin Laden to next month.” — Jay Leno

President Bush has unveiled his first campaign commercial, highlighting all of his accomplishments in office. That’s why it’s a 10-second spot.” — Jay Leno

“President Bush says he has just one question for the American voter ‘Is the rich person you’re working for better off now than they were four years ago?’” — Jay Leno

“There was a scare in Washington when a man climbed over the White House wall and was arrested. This marks the first time a person has gotten into The White House unlawfully since President Bush.” — David Letterman

“The White House is now backtracking from its prediction that 2 million new jobs will be created in the U.S. this year. They say they were off by roughly 2.6 million jobs.” — Jay Leno

“In Louisiana, President Bush met with over 15,000 National Guard troops. Here’s the weird part, nobody remembers seeing him there.” — Craig Kilborn

“President Bush said he was ‘troubled’ by gay people getting married in San Francisco. He said on important issues like this the people should make the decision, not judges. Unless of course we’re choosing a president, then he prefers judges.” — Jay Leno

“This week, John Kerry was making campaign appearance with the guys whose lives he saved in Vietnam. Meanwhile, President Bush is campaigning with a guy that once took a math test for him.” — Conan O’Brien

“President Bush released his new $2.4 trillion federal budget. It has two parts: smoke and mirrors.” — Jay Leno

“Bush admitted that his pre-war intelligence wasn’t what it should have been. We knew that when we elected him!” — Jay Leno

“President Bush said that American workers will need new skills to get the new jobs in the 21st century. Some of the skills they’re going to need are Spanish, Chinese, and Korean, because that’s where the jobs went.” — Jay Leno

“The new Prime Minister of Spain has called the war in Iraq a disaster, and plans to bring his troops home as soon as possible. In fact, President Bush is so upset at Spain that he is now threatening to close down the border between Spain and the US.” — Jay Leno

Stuff that probably didn’t make it into Bush/Cheney 04 campaign literature –

A Failed Presidency (the Nation, Sept. 13, 2004)

An Attack on Democracy (Dr. Robert Abele, Yubanet.com)

Missions Accomplished? Lowlights of the Bush Administration (Craig Aaron, Dissent Magazine, Summer 2004) (I’ve linked to this one before)

A very sad fact here.

Let them eat cake –

This is shameful:

“The number of people living in poverty rose by 1.3 million to 35.9 million people, or 12.5 percent of the population, up from 12.1 percent in 2002.

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

Maybe Bush could consult the teachings of his favorite philosopher, who had quite a few words on the subject. (This is kinda funny: “Bush seeks new favorite philosopher”)

Bushies admit one more eensy teensy tiny connection between the Administration and Swift Boat Veterans for Slander and Deception –

Bush campaign advisor Kenneth Cordier was fired last weekend, and now the Bush campaign’s top outside lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg resigns.

“Yet more proof” –

As if to demonstrate the LA Times’ contention that media coverage of the SVBT ad controversy is conservatively biased: this story on MSNBC, when I first saw it this morning, was headlined “Yet More Proof” of Kerry’s side of the story. Now the headline reads, “Navy records appear to support Kerry’s version.”

If you need a little laugh –

Don’t miss Charles Pierce on “start value” of George Bush’s presidential “routine.”

Fun video (Part 1) –

Sojourners has produced a fun video spoofing the Religious Right’s insistence that God is a Republican. Help them put their “God is not a Republican” ad in the NYT!

Dick Cheney exhibits a momentary flicker of humanity –

Ever so briefly parting ways with the president:

“[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.

But before you take his picture off your dartboard, reflect upon his more characteristic habits and traits.

Fun video (Part 2) –

See Bush get fired.

Some good northern California environmental news. A Bush judicial appointee actually ruled against the administration and invalidated a timber sale that would have slashed into “one of the two largest, unfragmented groves of old-growth forest in the Tahoe National Forest.” The area, Duncan Canyon in Tahoe, would be protected under a bill introduced last year by Senator Boxer (the California Wild Heritage Act, S.1555), but the bill - surprise, surprise - doesn’t appear to be moving.

Ooo, a delectable “turnabout is fair play”-type Swift Boat retort from the paper once known as McNews! (via Truthout) (How’s this for insuring message discipline: “Since February, the White House has banned all Guard and military commanders outside the Pentagon from commenting on Bush’s records or service. Requests for information must go to the Pentagon’s Freedom of Information Act office.”)

Speaking of cowardice –

Josh Marshall has choice and elegant words on the president’s character issues:

“The real issue isn’t physical bravery but moral cowardice. President Bush is an examplar of that quality in spades. And it cuts directly to his failures as president. Forget about thirty years ago, just think about the last three years.

[...]

The same sort of moral cowardice that led him to support the Vietnam war but decide it wasn’t for him, run companies into the ground and let others pay the bill, play gutter politics but run for the hills when someone asks him to say it to their face, those are the same qualities that led the president to lie the country into war, fail to prepare for the aftermath and then refuse to take responsibility for any of it when the bill started to come due.

That’s the argument John Kerry needs to be making. And he needs to make it right now.”

(It’s worth reading his whole entry.)

I have never liked Bob Dole –

Not even his cuddly new Diet Pepsi-shilling, Brittany-lusting, Viagra-touting, self-effacing, wise-cracking late night TV persona. Somehow, New Bob never really disguised Ineffectual, Mean-Spirited Obstructionist Old Bob - the bitter war hero who went to Washington to block progressive reforms at every turn without ever, ever offering constructive alternatives. So I part with Matt Yglesias on that introductory point in this column, but couldn’t agree more with the rest of it.

For an encore –

The White House line is that the president will unveil his shiny new second term agenda at the Convention. Until then, it’s all a closely guarded secret. Could it be that he’s still trying to figure out what to do with the next four years, in the unthinkable event that he is either legitimately elected or rigged into office? Recall that he was deeply mired and uninspired in his first year, doing nothing but taking vacations until September 11. September 11 gave him an agenda, all right — a gift-wrapped opportunity to undermine or eliminate all those pesky aspects of democracy that bother Republicans so. But now, even conservatives are getting nervous about the deafening silence from the Bushies. Golly… what do we think George W. Bush will do with a second term in office? If you didn’t read Robert Reich’s thoughts on the second term agenda when I linked to his article last April, by all means, read the piece now.

OK, I’m just plain tired of the lame Swift Boat analyses -

especially those that pretend both “sides” of the story have merit. But I am delighted to see how “swiftly” Joshua Marshall dispenses with Bob Dole’s sorry appearances this weekend. Think anybody in the news business will care to pick up on these discrepancies and hypocrisies? Doubt it.

Remind me: what were Cheney and Bush doing when Kerry was on that Swift Boat? –

Oh, now I remember… So does the typically above-the-fray Middle East Historian Juan Cole: “What was Bush doing with his youth? He was drinking. He was drinking like a fish, every night, into the wee hours. For decades. He gave no service to anyone, risked nothing, and did not even slack off efficiently.” If you spend anytime on Juan Cole’s site, you know he does not typically traffic in baseless internet rumor, so his speculations here are (not new, but) notable:

“The history of alcoholism and possibly other drug use is a key issue because it not only speaks to Bush’s character as an addictive personality, but may tell us something about his erratic and alarming actions as president. His explosive temper probably provoked the disastrous siege of Fallujah last spring, killing 600 Iraqis, most of them women and children, in revenge for the deaths of 4 civilian mercenaries, one of them a South African. (Newsweek reported that Bush commanded his cabinet, “Let heads roll!”) That temper is only one problem. Bush has a sadistic streak. He clearly enjoyed, as governor, watching executions. His delight in killing people became a campaign issue in 2000 when he seemed, in one debate, to enjoy the prospect of executing wrong-doers a little too much. He has clearly gone on enjoying killing people on a large scale in Iraq. Drug abuse can affect the ability of the person to feel deep emotions like empathy. Two decades of pickling his nervous system in various highly toxic substances have left Bush damaged goods. Even for those who later abstain, “visual-spatial abilities, abstraction, problem solving, and short-term memory, are the slowest to recover.” That he managed to get on the wagon (though with that pretzel incident, you wonder how firmly) is laudable. But he suffers the severe effects of the aftermath, and we are all suffering along with him now, since he is the most powerful man in the world.”

Another gem from Josh Marshall –

Reminding us of Karl Rove’s intellectual and philosophical mentor.

FBI: Waging the War on Domestic Protestors –Jeff Cohen agrees with me that tracking protestors is a ridiculous use of apparently limited resources (ok, we probably arrived at the insight independently).

Oh, come on! –

Are journalists and headline writers this stupid? Deliberately obtuse? Or deliberately playing along with the Bushies? Headlines like this - and the oodles like it - serve a very specific purpose: To get the folks who don’t read all those little words under the headline to believe that Bush was a mensch and condemned the ads. Bush did not specifically call for an end to the Swift Boat ad! — he called for an end to 527-financed “attack ads”! He said — apparently forgetting how many 527s are supporting him — that all such ads should stop, and claimed - confirming long-held suspicions that he reads nothing, least of all those long bills he signs — that he thought the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill stopped them. He said, “I think they’re bad for the system.” No, what’s bad for the system are the blatant lies; educational ads, ads that accurately reflect a candidate’s record, for better or worse, are good for the system. Ads that — oh, say — pluck a phrase out of the middle of a lengthy quote so that it no longer means what the speaker intended are bad for the system. Republican tactics in general are bad for the system. But Bush — with his aversion to free speech, full disclosure, and veracity — is really, really bad for the system. Atrios has some useful exercises for make-believe journalists to try.

No comment needed –

“The Bushites are using federal, state and local police to conduct an undeclared war against dissent, literally incarcerating Americans who publicly express their disagreements with him and his policies.” Read the rest of Jim Hightower here.

Looking for terrorists in all the wrong places –

The FBI has their priorities in order: they’re fanning across the country, looking for people who might be planning protests at the Republican National Convention. SFGATE has more today.

Why Bush can’t run on his record –

This is fabulous, Missions Accomplished: Lowlights of the Bush Administration, by Craig Aaron. Dubious “achievements” of the Bushies for every single month of this (hopefully) 4-year descent into autocracy. Read it and weep.

Staying on message –

Yes, I know this White House is known for its “on-message discipline,” but there can’t be anyone better than Scott McClellan. Frankly, he strikes me as not terribly sharp - which may be why he’s so good at repeating the same words over and over. But today’s press “gaggle” (via Josh Marshall) shows Scotty at his robotic best, refusing to condemn the Swift Boat Smear campaign. (How many times has he used the word “shadowy” this week alone?) The White House continues to claim no involvement, despite increasingly overwhelming evidence that they are absolutely in on it. Meanwhile, Kerry has launched new ads and filed suit.

Let’s end on a good note –

Celebrating this very classy move by the Boy Wonder, Michael Phelps.

Across the pond –

Andrew Gumbel reflects on American moral hypocrisy in an essay that is, by turns, funny, embarrassing, and spot on:

It has been impossible to ponder the issue of public morality in America these past few months without wondering whether we aren’t living in weird parallel universes. In the first, 2004 has been the year in which the United States was caught torturing prisoners in Iraq, was accused of lying about weapons of mass destruction, and was deemed to be violating the US constitution and international law by holding so-called “enemy combatants” indefinitely without trial.

In the second universe, none of these matters one jot: not as moral issues, anyway. In this universe - the province of cable television, talk radio and the strangely hermetic corridors of power in Washington - there has been only one noteworthy moral outrage in 2004, one thing to offend the consciences of decent citizens and make them despair of the nation’s moral fibre.

We are talking, of course, of Janet Jackson’s prime-time breast exposure during the Super Bowl…

[...]

Is it really plausible that America has been washed by a spontaneous wave of puritan righteousness, or is something trickier going on? Jackson’s real misfortune may not have been what she called a “wardrobe malfunction” so much as the fact that it occurred at the start of the most contentious election year in memory.

From the start, she suspected that the outrage vented against her was deliberately manufactured - by the Republican Party and its more overt supporters in the media - as a distraction from the very damaging news then coming in about Iraq’s clear lack of weapons of mass destruction. That week, President George Bush’s own weapons inspector, David Kay, had reported back that the Iraqi cupboard of chemical, biological and nuclear capabilities was entirely bare. While the Janet débâcle was in full swing, the President took advantage of the breast chatter to announce a politically uncomfortable Congressional investigation into the uses and possible misuses of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Since then, Janet and all she implies have continued to be a convenient distraction from weightier issues. On the one hand, the Republicans can play into the cultural and moral divide their supporters denote by the shorthand word “values”. On the eve of last month’s Democratic National Convention in Boston, pro-Bush protesters held up a sign at a John Kerry campaign stop in Ohio reading: “Who shares your values?” - alongside pictures of Monica Lewinsky, Howard Stern, Whoopi Goldberg (who made genitalia jokes about the President at a fundraiser) and the outspokenly anti-Bush comedian and writer Al Franken.

The implication couldn’t be more clear: America is battling to save its moral soul against a Sodom and Gomorrah of godless Hollywood garishness. In this world, Bill Clinton is an irredeemable sinner and John Kerry is - worse still - French. As long as the political debate is consumed by such nonsense, the chances of Iraq, or the budget deficit, or the lack of affordable healthcare, becoming the topic of the moment are considerably diminished.