Dean's World

Will this strange statistical correlation during election years old true again?

Take DEEP BREATH before you click on this link to see this costume that will make parents and children scream and run down the street.

Is it just me or are there fewer trick-or-treaters these days?

Next time steal some of your kids Halloween candy when he not looking and pop the candy into your mouth, you might want to think about this.

The Chinese government has had enough of on-line porn so it's moving to reduce the number of potential outlets:

BEIJING: China shut 1600 internet cafes between February and August and imposed 100 million yuan ($NZ18 million) worth of fines for allowing children to play violent or adult-only games and other violations, state media say.

Of 1.8 million internet bars inspected, 18,000 were ordered "to stop operation for rectification", Xinhua news agency quoted Zhang Xinjian, deputy director of the Culture Ministry's market department, as saying.

"Porn, gambling, violence and similar problems have adversely affected the healthy development of the internet in China," Zhang was quoted as saying.

The crackdown comes amid a nationwide push to limit violence and pornography on the internet that has seen the government shut down hundreds of websites it deemed unsavoury.

China has some 87 million internet users, over 50 per cent of whom are under 24 and approximately 18 per cent are minors.

Yeah, but Chinese computer users still get spam about enlargements...

Mega-terrorist Osama bin Laden's latest tape raises NEW concerns that he is spinning himself of into a kind of corporate brand for smaller groups — and trying to transform himself into a political figure.

Those are some of the concerns sited in a Los Angeles Times article. It notes that experts say the tape is unwelcome news for whoever wins on Tuesday "but not for the reasons one might expect."

Al Qaeda watchers had concluded long ago that the elusive Saudi exile had relinquished much of the day-to-day leadership of the terrorist organization he founded more than a decade ago. But the latest videotape has caused concern at the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies about Bin Laden's potential new role, as an elder statesman for aggrieved Muslims worldwide.

The 18-minute videotape....contains no overt threats of an attack on U.S. interests, particularly the kind of strike on American soil that authorities have been warning about. In the footage, Bin Laden's first videotaped comments in three years, he lacks any of his usual trappings of warfare, including camouflage clothing, a dagger or a rifle, said a U.S. official familiar with the tape.

In fact, what has caught the attention of the U.S. intelligence community is the strangely conciliatory nature of Bin Laden's new message, said some government officials and outside experts.

These experts said Bin Laden appeared to be intensifying his campaign to "re-brand" himself in the minds of Muslims worldwide, and become known more as a political voice than a global terrorist.

"In some ways the tone of the message is as intriguing, and alarming, as the timing," said a U.S. official familiar with the tape, and the intelligence community's analysis of it. "The absence of an explicit threat does represent a different point of emphasis for this guy.

"Is he still an enemy? Absolutely. Is he still focused on terrorism? Yes," continued the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But the tone of this is something we're looking at very closely to see where this guy is placing his emphasis."

The official said "a political spinoff [of Al Qaeda] is one of the greatest fears" of U.S. counter-terrorism authorities, with Bin Laden and his network following the path of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hezbollah and the Irish Republican Army. Over the years, those organizations evolved from violent militant groups into broader organizations with influential, widely accepted political wings.

So if his intent is to go a bit more "legitimate,' he will have problems, as the LAT story also notes:

Bin Laden faces significant obstacles in any attempt to appeal to a wider audience. For one, he is the world's most wanted man, responsible for attacks across the globe and will always have to operate from hiding. U.S. officials also were skeptical that Al Qaeda would ever halt its terrorist activities, saying that the group was plotting attacks even now.

But, some former U.S. intelligence officials said Saturday, Bin Laden's efforts already have met with some success among a broad spectrum of the global population, Muslims in particular.

John Brennan, director of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, appeared with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Saturday to discuss the tape. Brennan said various intelligence agencies were scrutinizing it to look for larger messages beyond possible hints of an attack.

"I think what he's trying to do is to show, or to try to demonstrate, that Al Qaeda, as an organization, is still effective, even though they have not, in fact, been able to do something here in the States," Brennan said of Bin Laden. "Now, are there other aspects of it that we have to better understand? That's what we're trying to do right now."

To be sure, the most striking thing about this tape's message was that it was more political than terrorist-threat-military:

On the tape, Bin Laden offers a harsh critique of U.S. foreign policy over the last few decades, especially during the administrations of President Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush. He says both administrations propped up corrupt Mideast regimes at the expense of the region's Muslims.

Bin Laden has criticized U.S. leaders in the past. But the new tape, experts said, marks a departure in that he suggests to Americans that they have the power to stop Al Qaeda attacks by rejecting candidates who attack the terrorist organization or who cause harm to Muslims here and overseas.

"Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al Qaeda," Bin Laden said, addressing Americans. "Your security is in your own hands."

Note that statement: since there is indeed (and has been) a basic consensus on the part of the elites of both major parties on the essential policy towards bin Laden — that he must be wiped out.

But this shift, experts say, started before the video was unleashed and threw a new monkey wrench into an already painfully close election:

Roger W. Cressey, a senior counter-terrorism official in the Bush and Clinton administrations, said Bin Laden began his shift this year, when he tried to drive a wedge between the United States and its allies over the invasion of Iraq.

Al Qaeda criticism of Spain's role in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq is believed to have contributed to the Madrid train bombings in March, in which at least 191 people were killed.

Then, in mid-April, Bin Laden offered a cease-fire to other European nations with a presence in Iraq, saying Al Qaeda would not attack them if they withdrew their troops. The offer was rejected, but authorities said the success of the Madrid bombings emboldened Bin Laden into believing that Muslims worldwide would actively support such efforts.

"He has injected a political element into his work and has tried to appeal almost on an intellectual level," said Cressey, now a counter-terrorism consultant. "He's saying, 'I'm here and you better factor me into your calculations, political and otherwise.' "

"If people are concerned that he is evolving into more of a political figure, to a certain extent he already has," Cressey said. U.S. authorities, he added, "should be concerned if [Bin Laden's] message resonates with a broader portion of the Muslim world than his narrower messages of the past, in that he was declaring war. And only time will tell if that's the case."

And that's the problem: his messages may be ostensibly aimed at the American people, but a key target is clearly the Muslim masses. This is akin to when American politicians address a powder-keg issue in a kind of code, not going as far as they would like to so they don't votes, but making sure the message is getting across to their core constituency. It's an American political technique used for many years. It works — and experts say bin Laden is already finding that out:

Lee Strickland, who recently retired after 30 years at the CIA, said Bin Laden already had made inroads in some respects.

"He and his organization have matured and become more subtle and more effective in delivering their message and their policy," Strickland said. In his most recent tape, Bin Laden "shows a great sophistication in thinking, in planning and in communication. It makes him much more dangerous," Strickland said.

So, in a way, he is evolving into an even more dangerous enemy.

Rob at Say Anything has a way you can fight breast cancer. For free. You have to do it today, though, once Halloween's over, it's over.

He's got a neat classic Halloween story you can read, too.

There are now tons of news stories and links on it. Rather than do a zillion, here are some of the more notable ones. This will be UPDATED throughout the day:

--KERRY DIDN'T TAKE OUR ADVICE ON DUCT TAPE and probably wished he did now that his stepson came down with foot-in-mouth disease (is it genetic?):

October 31, 2004 — THIS campaign is ending just in time before someone gets hurt. John Kerry's stepson, Chris Heinz, 31, displayed his mother Teresa's famous lack of rhetorical restraint at a recent campaign event with a group of Wharton students. Philadelphia magazine reports: "Heinz accused Kerry's opponents - 'our enemies' - of making the race dirty. 'We didn't start out with negative ads calling George Bush a cokehead,' he said, before adding, 'I'll do it now.' Asked later about it, Heinz said, 'I have no evidence. He never sold me anything.'

--A Mason-Dixon Polling poll for MSNBC-Knight Ridder has good news for George Bush: he's ahead in some key battleground states.

--But a newspaper poll shows Kerry opening up a substantial lead in Minnesota.

--And the new emphasis on absentee or early balloting seems to have boosted Kerry in Iowa, where a Des Moines Register poll gives him the lead.

--Nationally, a Fox News poll now places the race at dead heat — yet another indication that the Get Out The Vote drives of both parties will determine the next President.

The presidential race is dead even among likely voters — 46 percent back both President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry, a new FOX News poll conducted Friday and Saturday finds. Independent candidate Ralph Nader receives one percent.

The Democratic challenger has a two-point edge among registered voters, receiving 47 percent to Bush's 45 percent (Nader receives one percent). The poll's margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.

In mid-October, Bush held a seven-point lead over Kerry among likely voters overall. Since then, independent voters have shifted from giving an 18-point lead Bush to giving a slim five-point edge to Kerry today.

In addition, Democrats are now backing Kerry at the same level of intensity as Republicans have backed Bush for the past several weeks. Previous surveys showed that Republicans were more likely to support Bush than the Democrats were to back Kerry.

--The GOP has demanded IDS of 37,000 voters in Milwakuee, Wisconsin — an early sign that election day this year could be unprecedented in the degree of partisan bitterness, mobilization and challenges.

--President Bush is being criticized by two famous Britsh figures.

(1) British Prime Minster Tony Blair may be out looking for duct tape after his wife issued a fairly broad-ranging critique on some of George Bush's policies:

CHERIE Blair has criticised the policies of the US President George W Bush, attacking his stance on terrorist prisoners and gay rights.

The Prime Minister's wife was condemned by supporters of the US President, after a speech to Harvard law students which contained a stinging rebuke to Bush, while on a lecture tour of the United States.

She attacked the manner in which the White House has dealt with the human rights of UK citizens detained at the US-run Camp X-Ray prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Blair said the decision by the US Supreme Court, fiercely opposed by Bush's government, to give legal protection to two of the Britons detained at the camp was "profoundly important" and a "significant victory for human rights and the international rule of law".

She took a sideswipe at Bush's record on gay rights, condemning the arrest of a homosexual couple in the President's home state of Texas, for defying a ban on gay sex. The US Supreme Court's decision to throw out the law, which had been backed by Bush, was a "model of judicial reasoning". Blair also called the US legal code an "outdated grandfather clock".

The controversial speech was seen as flying in the face of long-held tradition that British political figures, and those close to them, do not criticise other countries during foreign visits.

(2) The Queen is getting directly involved in pressing the White House to change an environmental policy due to personal observations.

The Queen has made a rare intervention in world politics to warn Tony Blair of her grave concerns over the White House's stance on global warming.

She is understood to have asked Downing Street to lobby the US after observing the alarming impact of Britain's changing weather on her estates at Balmoral in Scotland and Sandringham in Norfolk. The revelation gives an unusual glimpse into the mind of the monarch, who normally strives to stay above politics.

Further evidence of the Queen's views on global warming will be seen this week when she opens one of the most high-profile conferences ever staged in Europe on the issue. She is keen for this to be interpreted as a symbolic and political statement.

--At Halloween the winner of every election since 1980 has been predicted by which mask of the candidate sells the most. It's a close race even there — but Bush is ahead.

--GWB and John Kerry are now tied in a various polls, including Zogby's.

--NEW ZOGBY CELL PHONE POLL OF YOUNGER VOTERS: The theory is that polls don't get preferences of younger voters who use cell phones so John Zogby and Rock the Vote did a cell-phone poll finding a 15 percent edge for Kerry:

Polling firm Zogby International and partner Rock the Vote found Massachusetts Senator John Kerry leading President Bush 55% to 40% among 18-29 year-old likely voters in their first joint Rock the Vote Mobile political poll, conducted exclusively on mobile phones October 27 through 30, 2004. Independent Ralph Nader received 1.6%, while 4% remain undecided in the survey of 6,039 likely voters. The poll is centered on subscribers to the Rock the Vote Mobile (RTVMO) platform, a joint initiative of Rock the Vote and Motorola Inc. (for more information: http://www.rtvmo.com). The poll has margin of error of +/-1.2 percentage points.

The poll also found that only 2.3% of 18-29 year-old respondents said they did not plan to vote, and another .5% who were not sure if they would. The results of the survey are weighted for region, gender, and political party.

--The Washington Post reports a deluge of dirty tricks, a sign of our (sadly) changing political culture where the ONLY thing that matters is winning. Two quick excerpts:

As if things weren't complicated enough, here comes the dirt.

Registered voters who have been somehow unregistered. Democrats who suddenly find they've been re-registered as Republicans. A flier announcing that Election Day has been extended through Wednesday....

Dirty tricks are a staple of campaigns, but election officials say this year's could achieve new highs in numbers and new lows in scope, especially in key battleground states such as Florida and Ohio, where special-interest groups have poured in to influence the neck-and-neck race between President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry.

"In my 16 years as an election administrator, I've never seen anything like this," said Ion Sancho, supervisor of elections in Leon County, Fla. "I see it as an expression of a political culture that has evolved in the United States of win at any cost. It's not partisan, but it's just lie, cheat and steal, and ethics be damned."

Read the whole thing and weep (unless you believe any tactic is valid to elect a candidate of either party).

When Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks, people listen.

And he has spoken bluntly:

LAWRENCE, Kan. — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Thursday he would prefer not to face another election-related lawsuit, but defended the high court's decision to get involved in the contentious dispute over the 2000 presidential vote in Florida.

''What are you supposed to do when somebody brings a lawsuit?'' Thomas asked University of Kansas law students. ''You hear people say the Supreme Court jumped into the last election. I find it very ironic that the very people saying judges are interfering are bringing lawsuits.

''What do you think? Donald Duck is going to decide it?''

(That's a classic set-up line, folks. I will NOT lower myself to do a joke about a "Mickey Mouse decision." NO! I just won't!!")

When asked about the prospect of more litigation over the 2004 vote, Thomas said, ''I would prefer not to have to decide it, but that joins a long list of things,'' adding: ''It's my job.''

Appointed to the court in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush, Thomas was part of a 5-4 Supreme Court majority that ended a recount in Florida in 2000.

What do you do when you have two generally sympathetic Los Angeles talk show hosts who adamantly differ with the UNOFFICIAL party line on immigration (the official party position is stronger than actual enforcement)?

What do you do when these two generally sympathetic hosts have been uncompromising on demanding that Washington impliment tough, no-nonsense immigration enforcement but otherwise are with you on many other issues? In fact, their station is known all over the country for its strong line-up of conservative talk show hosts, including Rush Limbaugh..

What if these two broadcasters had used their radio waves extensively to help your party dump California Governor Grey Davis by urging listeners to sign petitions, giving out websites where they could get the petitions signed — even emceeing rallies at which then-candidate-and-eventual Arnold Schwarzenneger appeared? What do you do about them if some news stories actually credited these talk shows with helping Schwarzenegger win?

What if they then broke on one issue — the need to have immigration policy enforced without any winks and turning the other way — and decided to make a "human political sacrifice" by picking (via a long series of progams, candidate interviews and website voting) a Republican for their listeners to help defeat — to send a message to party bigwigs to take as tough a stance on immigration in practice as is taken in campaign promises and campaign platforms?

What do you do if these two independent-minded, mega-rated talk show hosts generally backed your Presidential candidate on many issues and blasted the Democratic candidate?

And, especially, what do you do when what they're saying on the air in coming out against a Republican — a party that on many issues they support -- is exactly what talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Reagan say about John Kerry or what Al Franken and Randy Rhodes says about George Bush?

Easy decision: You go to the Federal Elections Commission and file a complaint against them — to basically shut them down.

And since it's a felony, if the talk show hosts are prosecuted and convicted, they can go to jail for being critical on the air.

(And you make sure the candidate who is impacted is not the one formally making the complaint so he can come back and say he isn't the one who did it).

Read about it all on this post here (make sure you go to the primary source the talk show host links).

Then read the latest news update here.

Read this follow post from a second blog here.

PS: This talk show was flooded with phone calls on Friday by Republican listeners furious at their party and many are re-registering as independents. The two talk show hosts plan a big rally at the targetted Congressman's offices on Monday.(You can probably listen to it online) In the end, the targetted Republican will most certainly be re-elected but the party has hurt itself in the state. You'll note that the GOP candidate's opponent is enjoying this. She is GETTING this press due to the GOP's action. And she, unlike her opponent, has constantly accepted their invitations to appear in their show. KFI has monster listenership and is the country's top talk show station (Dr. Laura Schlesinger and Phil Hendrie spun their L.A. shows off into syndication from KFI, which also had a huge role in the Golden Age of Radio since it broadcast the Jack Benny Program). A B-I-G mistake since it'll just help boost station ratings and get tons of attention for the Democratic congressional candidate.

Clearly, if the FEC clamps down on them there will be a move to do the same by some in the cases of Rush, Sean, Hannity, Al and Randy....And, if laws are to be applied universally, rightfully so...

Sean Kinsell, an American living in Japan, has a truly excellent (I'd almost say must-read) analysis of how the press generally views America and her Presidents--and how the foreign press and those in other nations are likely to view America after our elections are over. The difference between a Kerry victory and a Bush victory that he predicts, based on what he's seen over the years, will probably surprise a lot of Americans. And he's got the history to back it up.

Will it help George Bush? Will it hurt George Bush? Was it a wash for the candidates?

Here's one opinion here -- plus a ton of other opinions for you to read, ponder, and comment on in the comment box. Make sure you keep scrolling down...

A young Afghani woman returns to her homeland to cover reconstruction -- a homeland were many of the Taliban taboos against women were supposed to have been shattered.

She return...and she was surprised by what she found.

Flying Space Monkey is having an online exit poll. You can tell it's very scientific, Kerry's taken North Carolina by one vote!

Heh.

Baseball Crank is accepting nominations now for the Bedfellow Awards, the "late hit" political story of the year. Mind is the utterly stupid Al QaQaa nonsense. If you have your own nominations, give them to Baseball Crank.

I'll be appearing on Pundit Review radio this afternoon at slightly after noon Eastern. You can tune in and listen if you're in the Boston area on AM 1060. If you'd like to listen over the Internet, you can listen at right here.

Feel free to call in and razz me if you want. 877.711.1060. Just remember I'm not on until about 10 after noon Eastern. :-)

Anyone who has researched Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11 knows that it is full of horrible lies and distortions.

You don't really have to see the film to know that this is true. Why? Because enough responsible people from all sides of the political spectrum--Democrats, Republicans, independents, George Bush fans, George Bush critics, Iraq war advocates, Iraq war detractors--have documented, repeatedly and in great detail, just how dishonest this film is, and how much it uses the techniques of the great Stalinist and Nazi propagandists. If you've researched this film, you realize it's not much different from the forgeries known as The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

However, if you really feel you must see it, bear in mind that if you pay to see it, you will be giving money to a hate merchant. Furthermore, it's money you're giving to a hate merchant who has coordinated with terrorist groups like Hezbollah. Thus, if you pay for it, then in a very real sense you have the blood of innocents on your hands.

However, if you want to see it in a way that gives no money to hate merchants, you can download it and watch it over the Internet right here. Moore, because he wishes to spread his Stalinist vision to as many people as possible, has allowed it to be distributed free of charge over the Internet. So if you must see this hate-film, go see it that way.

After you do see it though, you owe it to yourself to immediately see FahrenHYPE 9/11, a documentary which deconstructs Moore's film, and shows time after time how Moore deliberately lies, deliberately fabricates and--in scenes that will make almost any decent human being weep--interviews many of the very same people Moore used in his film. The most heartrending interviews are those of the wounded veterans and the families of veterans who were killed, who were outraged and often in tears at how their images and words were so cynically and dishonestly manipulated by Moore.

Bear that in mind if you watch Moore's film, too: almost any time an injured soldier is shown in Moore's movie, or the family of a dead soldier is shown, in all but one or two cases those images were deliberatly skewed and without those people's permission, and to say things that most of them absolutely did not believe and found utterly shameful. Pay particular attention to the interview with the soldier Moore showed who lost both his arms, who was absolutely outraged when he found out Moore had used his image and what Moore's film had said about him, about America, and about the liberation of Iraq. He's interviewed extensively in FahrenHYPE 9/11. Also pay close attention to how, in Moore's hate-film, he uses footage of a weeping family at a military funeral. They, too, are interviewed in FahrenHYPE 9/11, and speak of how outraged and violated they feel by Moore, and how ashamed they are of the vile things Moore's film says.

Even if you haven't seen Moore's film, you owe it to yourself to see Fahrenhype 9/11. You also need to read Dave Kopel's Fifty-Nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11. Because you need to realize that Moore's film is not only a terrorist propaganda film, and an anti-American film, but things straight out of Michael Moore's film are now being parroted by Osama bin Laden and his followers. Moore's film is, literally, an Islamo-fascist recruitment and propaganda film, and it will be killing Americans and other innocents around the world for decades to come. You need to be aware of it, because all of us are going to be paying the price for Moore's perfidy for quite possibly the rest of our lives.

And finally, if you know anyone who believes the things in Michael Moore's film, you genuinely owe it to your country to try to get them to see how they've fallen for a Nazi-style propagandist. Show them FahrenHYPE 9/11, if they're open-minded enough to look. Talk to them about what's in Fifty-Nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11, and about the horrible viciousness and blatant distortions and lies in Moore's film.

Some will smirk at you and laugh and roll their eyes. But some will listen. It's important to reach the people who will listen.

And might I also suggest that you donate to Truth for Troops?

Thanks.

The must-see campaign video of the season was put together by Protein Wisdom, INDC Journal, and the Daily Recycler. Check it out here, it's a scream.

Well, surprise surprise. Bin Laden appears to be alive and stumping for Kerry. From the content of his speech, it also appears that he's working with Michael Moore.

I'm so utterly bemused by this that I can't think what else to say, but INDC JOurnal has a great roundup of reactions.

If you like to cook, you'll probably like the latest Carnival of the Recipes.

Because I'm not really sure what it is.

My Blog-Niece Maddy is hosting the latest Carnival of the Vanities. If you're looking for some reading this Friday evening, you will probably find much there to amuse and distract you.

Ah, the wonders of the early 21st Century.

Kitty in free fall. Heheh. Cool.

(Requires QuickTime. Via Improbable Research.)

If you have friends who are wavering or uncertain about what's really going on in Iraq and the general War on Terror, you really should point them to Kevin Aylward's Where We Stand.

I highly recommend printing it out and showing it to any of your friends who really don't understand why what we're doing over there is so necessary. Especially anyone who doesn't understand that terrorists are intentionally manipulating the news media, and how the media are going along with it willingly.

For something a lot shorter, you might want to read this short John Weidner essay. Summation: you have to be either badly misinformed or nakedly dishonest to say that the Iraq or Afghanistan operations are a disaster. Unfortunately, misinformation and/or dishonesty pervades the press coverage we see these days.

I'm working at the moment on editing and cleaning up my interview with Steve Gardner, and just as I'm working on it The Queen yelled at me to come look at the TV. Tabby and her dad were on the news and they were showing her, her dad (with his face thankfully blurred out) and the doctors working on her and talking about the treatments she's going to need but also how optimistic they are that they're going to be able to help her.

I love this country. God I love this country. Thank you so much. Thank you all of you, thank you.

Yeah. Me neither.

(Click on image to see enlarged version. By Dave Munger.)

You can now watch Stolen Honor for free. The full-sized version, made free now by special arrangement with the veterans who served personally with John Kerry in Vietnam. See the full version here.

I'm going to hope to be talking to Steve Gardner this morning. I did try to contact the Kerry campaign in Washington to see if I could get an interview with one of the tiny handful of vets who served with Kerry who support him, but alas, I could not get through to anyone who would talk to me.

Oh man. The greatest animated feature of the 1990s is getting the deluxe DVD treatment.

God I loved that movie.

(Via Gerund.)

It appears that Senator Kerry is likely to reinstate the draft if he is elected next week.

Well, he's obviously far more likely to do it than Bush, anyway. Well-known experts on the history of the draft confirm it.

John F. Kerry has recently compared the Iraq operation to the disastrous Bay of Pigs fiasco of 1961. Those who knew the men who were abandoned by JFK to die on those beaches are just a little peeved.

You can read the latest on John Kerry's reckless charges of incompetence by the U.S. military, and how the New York Times and CBS appear to have colluded in this sickening display of naked partisanship, right here on Powerline and on Captain's Quarters. I suggest you also check out the top of Powerline and the top of Captain's Quarters periodically throughout the next few days to get the latest updates on this embarassment for the news media. (I'd say it's also an embarassment for Senator Kerry, but he's beyond embarassment at this point.)

* Update * The Washington Times this morning has photos showing flatbed trucks all over the site just before the invasion. I just gets worse and worse, doesn't it? Do either CBS or the New York Times have any idea how much their credibility has tanked? And do the Kerry people have any shame at all? I mean, have they no shame whatsoever?

(Cartoon by the lovely E-Claire.)

Bush is doing surprisingly well at the last minute here in Michigan, in part thanks to the efforts of Jews for George.

In the meantime, a Michigan blogger is calling you Buckeyes. He's claiming you can't possibly do as well helping Bush get elected in your pathetic little state as the Bush supporters can here in Michigan. Just like you could never possibly beat Michigan in a fair game of football.

He's calling you out, you wimpy Buckeyes!

I enjoy the BBC's world coverage but I usually chuckle at their coverage of the U.S. and anything involving it. Once in a while they get things right but sometimes, well... California Yankee notes just how blatantly silly their latest election coverage is.

The New York Times begins backpedaling, and the Kerry campaign has already begun to try to change the subject.

Meanwhile, the New York Times is also talking about how big mean bloggers are scaring poor innocent reporters.

Yeah, a "chill wind blows" when you report something false and you get caught at it.

The mainstream media will eventually learn that webloggers are a great free resource that they can put to good use. Until they figure that out, though, they're just going to keep showing their butt cracks like this.

(My that Powerline really is a good blog, isn't it?)

Did you ever get the feeling that some people just go out of their way to antagonize traditionalists?

As an outsider to these affairs, I can only laugh at the absurdity.

(Via Andrea.)

Powerline notes that the New York Times is still deceiving by omission. Unbelievably careless reporting that's being recklessly repeated by the Kerry campaign.

A year or two ago I ran a "BlogSpot Exodus" to get people to leave BlogSpot (or LiveJournal) for a better solution. Actually I never formally stopped. I still set people up, free of charge, with their own domain and an installation of much better blog software than Blogger or BlogSpot. It's much, much better than BlogSpot or LiveJournal, and I've done it for well over a hundred people. All you have to pay is the monthly hosting fees to a third party, usually $5 a month.

I'll still do that on request to anyone who wants me to, but it looks like there's a better deal out there. The folks at Blogs About Hosting will do all that for you, and provide direct tech support to boot.

If you're currently stuck on BlogSpot or LiveJournal, or just think you'd like your own blog, you ought to check them out.

We can only hope so.

Don't miss the transcript of John Hinderocker and Jeff Jarvis from CNBS, on QaQaaGate, the ginned-up, partisan-hack New York Times/CBS story on "missing" explosives in Iraq.

Oh, and, uh, don't miss how 3 seems to equal 380.

Heh.

The Bush campaign has a nice new ad, "Whatever It Takes," that's worth seeing. You can view it on the Bush campaign web site.

Also, a few hundred family members of people who perished in 9/11 have endorsed Bush's re-election. You know, very little annoyed me this last year more than the cynical people who who formed a group called "The 9/11 Families" who said all kinds of vicious things about the President, Mayor Guiliani, and other leaders who stepped forward that day.

Yes, of course some of the family members of those killed in 9/11 don't like Bush. That's normal out of a group of thousands of people. It never bothered me that those folks wanted to speak against Bush. But it did bother me that they named themselves "The 9/11 Families" and that they were treated as if they were somehow representative of those who lost people on 9/11--and when they acted as if they had the moral authority to tell the rest of the country how to react to 9/11. That group's behavior at the 9/11 commission was especially abominable. (But then if you ask me the whole commission was abominable anyway.)

In other news, Paul at Wizbang has a primer on the revelation that recent Soviet documents have been unearthed showing that, back in the 1970s, there was direct international communist involvement in John Kerry's Vietnam Vets Against the War group.

Some find this significant. I, unfortunately, do not. Well no, that's a lie, I find it significant, but only in an intellectual way. Why? Because I always assumed it was true.

I am a minor expert on communism, and am quite widely read on the subject. Any time I've seen any of the "Vietnam Vets Against the War" literature from the 1970s (such as The Winter Soldier materials), I can tell I'm reading old communist propaganda. Ditto when reading John Kerry's book from the early 1970s, The New Soldier. I am virtually certain I could show some of it to my mother-in-law from Poland and she'd say the same thing without hesitation: yeah, sure, that's communist propaganda.

It's like reading a Nazi tract from the 1930s. Certain phrases and lines of thinking just jump out at you. It's as obvious as a fingerprint.

Furthermore, if you've read much about what's been unearthed from the Soviet and Comintern archives in the last 10-15 years, you know that countless groups here in the U.S. were Communist front groups in the 1930s through the 1970s. Just like International A.N.S.W.E.R. is a communist front group today.

Therein lies the problem. If Kerry was involved in a communist front group back in the 1970s, few people will care. He did, after all, resign, and it was, after all, 30+ years ago.

Besides, when you say "communist propaganda" most people just smirk. They figure it's a joke or that you must be some far-right wacko. Most people just don't care.

Does it bug me that Kerry was a communist dupe? Some. What bugs me more is that he won't admit it today. But I'm cynical on this: I think Kerry's behavior ever since his fellow Swift Boat Vets came out against him has shown us all a man who refuses to own up to the mistakes of his youth. And anyway, like I said, say "communist dupe" and most people just roll their eyes and say "whatever."

Should people care? Maybe, but you can't make them. It's a standing double-standard this country's always had: If you're tainted with Nazism, like a Leni Riefenstahl or a Charles Lindbergh, you're tained with evil forever. But if you're tainted with communism, most people shrug it off as youthful idealism. Never mind that the communists killed a lot more people than the Nazis. People just don't care.

Still, for whatever it's worth: yes, it does appear to be true: Kerry was a communist dupe. And he does not, apparently, regret that.

Should we care? Well, I care, but I've given up thinking most people will. Anyway, if you do care, you can read about it on Wizbang.

For some time now I've been of the belief that most of Saddam's WMDs were probably moved to either Syria or Russia. I wanted to think Syria, because while we know the Russians were getting huge sums of money under the table from Saddam (hence their opposition to taking out his butcher-regime), I didn't want to think the Russians had gone so far as to directly cover for Saddam and then lie about it for two years. Although I've never thought all that well of Vladimir Putin, I wanted to believe he and his government weren't that treacherous.

Today, the Washington Times is reporting that evidence indicates that Russian special forces moved large quantities of Saddam's weapons into Syria and shredded documents showing contractual arrangements between Saddam and the Soviet government in the weeks leading up to the American invasion.

There is a problem with the story that I'm seeing, namely, that we need corroboration for the Times' story. The main source seems to be undersecretary John Shaw. Still, it's an entirely believable story; many experts have long suspected something like this, and it would certainly explain why most of the world's intelligence agencies were certain Saddam possessed WMDs and yet we haven't been able to find them.

INDC Journal also notes several stories from the historical record involving strange Russian activities during the Iraq invasion.

Ah, and as I write this, I see that Michelle Malkin and Wizbang have a bunch more links on this. You'll want to read their materials. So rather than be a fifth wheel, I'll just tell you to go read them.

I see it's 3-0 at the bottom of the 8th....

* Update * 3 more outs and it's over...

* Update * Score is 3-0 Boston, bottom of the ninth, Cards have 1 out and 1 man on base...

* UPdate * 2 outs....

THE RED SOX HAVE WON THE WORLD SERIES!

Oh man, I already have this on my Christmas list. Check out the preview for Lightning In A Bottle.

I will never for the life of my understand how young black people gave up any interest in the blues. What is wrong with y'all?

(I'm from the south, I'm allowed to talk like that. Link via Casey, by the way.)

Art Chrenkoff looks at the prospects for greater help from the Europeans in Iraq if Kerry should win the Presidency, based on what European leaders are saying.

It, uh, doesn't look promising.

Cabal of Doom notes some rather fascinating poll results from Harris.

But oh, it's not on the elections. It's on people's perceptions of the war in Iraq.

It seems to destroy an awful lot of dogma about public perceptions, doesn't it?

I see I forgot to link these cool pictures of Tabby's arrival here in the U.S..

Thanks again for everything you guys have done to help out on this.

I keep forgetting to mention: The Queen has returned to her old stomping grounds, and is battling this week against Iron Blog Democrat: Bush vs. Kerry. You won't want to miss it.

Her best line so far? "You certainly don't want someone dumber than Bush winning, do you?"

Heh.

In an effort to bring weblogging back from the partisan bickering, Penny Wit has begun a new project called The Carnival of the Solutions. You may want to check it out.

I personally think it's a lost cause until after election day, though. %-)

Wow. According to Wired News, scientists at USC are working on a brain implant to replace the hippocampus, which stores short-term memories.

Wow. You know, this sort of thing raises interesting philosophical questions. Well, actually, they're not new questions, as some authors and ethicists have been asking them for some time. But such questions are becoming increasingly less a matter of speculation and more a matter of a hard reality we have to face. What makes a human being a human being? Presumably if one part of the brain can be replaced, one day other parts will be replaceable too.

(Via Rachel Ann.)

The latest Bonfire of the Vanities is available for your reading pleasure.

I've interviewed two of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, as most of you probably know. I have been given the opportunity to do a third interview, one with Steve Gardner, but to be honest I'm not sure I'm up to the task. The sheer level of vitriol and irrationality coming from the left has been soul-crushing for me to watch, and I've taken abuse from some people for just talking to these guys.

I saw this in action on national television with the Lawrence O'Donnell meltdown on MSNBC from late last week. I still find it stunning.

I used to really like and respect O'Donnell. But now there's him, there's Chris Matthews, and a ton of other people who, rather than say, "Wow, what would cause 250 people who served with Kerry, many of them decorated, two of them with Medals of Honor, to speak out so loudly against Kerry?" they seem to just want to screaem "lies! lies!" and occasionally even quote these guys out of context to "prove" that they lie.

So would another interview with any of these guys really matter? What difference can it make? It's so tiring, it really is.

Michelle Malkin published pretty much the definitive overview of the O'Donnell debacle, by the way.

Have you visited The Truth About Iraq web site yet? Have you told your undecided friends about it? If not, you should.

You should especially make sure to watch the ad they're running, and read their editorial in the L.A. Times..

These folks are trying to raise funds to put their ad on the air. If you think you can help 'em out, I encourage you to do so.

The Club for Growth (one of our sponsors, you should visit their site) has a new ad out which claims that we have vaccine shortages because American vaccine manufacturers had $six billion in profits but $thirty billion legal expenses to fight off trial lawyers, and that this is why there are no domestic flu vaccine manufacturers anymore.

Interesting claim.

The New York Times' (probably bogus) story that American forces "lost" 380 tons of explosives lacks a certain important perspective: the 400,000 tons of ordnance that have been secured and/or destroyed. John Cole has a military perspective on that.

Of course, in truth, these reports of "losing" these explosives have been pretty heavily questioned, both by those in Iraq and by other news sources. Probably the best overall roundup on why the story of lost explosives is questionable and is almost certainly just a media hit piece is on Truth Laid Bear.

Indeed, the holes in the story are so huge, some are already calling this another media scandal, and have given it a name. I would have called it QaaqaaGate myself. But it's good to give this scandal a name, because it sure looks like the New York Times and CBS colluded on this thing specifically to damage Bush, and for no other reason.

Somewhere in all this proof of the New York Times' sloppiness and partisanship, though, we seem to have missed an important point: we've rounded up 400,000 tons of ordnance in Iraq. There are 380 tons we're not sure of the location of, although it's now clear that the idea that they were "lost" or are being used by terrorists is highly questionable. But, as Bar Code King notes, isn't it rather ironic that those who are saying Bush "lied" about Weapons of Mass Destruction, what the hell are we supposed to think of Saddam having 400,000 tons of explosives? That's about the equivalent of 100 atomic bombs worth of explosives. Oh never mind. The world would be much better with Saddam in power, we should never have taken him out, never...

Anyway, here's my question: the New York Times and CBS both seem to have trumped up this story as an attempted "October Surprise" to discredit Bush just before the election. We have six days until election day. Can they trump something else up in the next six days? Will there be another attempt at a ginned up fake story? If so, what might it be?

The short story: The New York Times (and the Kerry campaign) claim that the Bush administration "lost" a major WMD stockpile. As NBC and others have documented, it ain't so, and the New York Times has once again proven itself to be a partisan shill organization rather than a news organization.

Jeff Goldstein has the rest of the details.

Political junkies will enjoy reading Steven Taylor's latest Toast-O-Meter.

A couple of readers recently mentioned the following piece in The Village Voice that appeared in January of this year. It's a fascinating look into the hate that's come to define so much of the left in this country. According to Village Voice contributor Michael Feingold:

Republicans don't believe in the imagination, partly because so few of them have one, but mostly because it gets in the way of their chosen work, which is to destroy the human race and the planet. Human beings, who have imaginations, can see a recipe for disaster in the making; Republicans, whose goal in life is to profit from disaster and who don't give a hoot about human beings, either can't or won't. Which is why I personally think they should be exterminated before they cause any more harm.

You can read the rest right here.

Supply your own commentary.

(Thanks to AlexH for the link.)

* Update * Sam in Estonia notes a similarly creepy rant.

Over on my blog, The Glittering Eye, I've written that I thought the blogosphere was inhaling, waiting for the results of the presidential election that's just one week away now. The Iraqi blogosphere seems to be inhaling, too.

Dr. Saif of Iraqi Humanity is having some experiences that I suspect are common to med students everywhere

We took history from her then we presented it to the Doctor & I was astonished for the 1st time bcz she told the doctor she had vomiting also but she didn't said that when I asked her, when I told the doctor he told not make the patient misleading me bcz her in Iraq most of popular people used to tells lies either to make the doctor become sad(very merciful) & try to help them only (extraordinarily) or to take more drugs which they think it is better, & also he told me that they trust illegal medicine (used in country side regions or deserts where no hospital are there by those who pretended the ability to cure patients & they use fire burning or some readings on patients to make the devil out of his/her soul J this bcz of incivilization of those people especially in our hospital bcz most of patients come from regions outside Baghdad ) or what ordinary people said more than what doctor says. I toughed this lesson & I wish I will not doing again J.

Abu Khaleel of A Glimpse of Iraq has an interesting post in which he describes some of the effects of what I believe to be one of the greatest tragedies of the Arab world: tribalism. Check out his post Mischief and Revenge.

The Iraqi bloggers are waiting for the American elections, too. Riverbend of Baghdad Burning is pulling for Kerry.

Several of the Iraqi bloggers were much affected by the recent murders of 49 new Iraqi national guardsmen by insurgents. This got passing mention in the Western media. It's a pretty big deal for the Iraqis. Sam of Hammorabi has some pretty harsh words. Omar of Iraq the Model thinks either that it was an inside job or that Iranian intelligence was involved.

Omar of Iraq the Model has an extremely interesting post in which he quotes the participants in a BBC forum on the upcoming American presidential elections. Some of the participants have a really good handle on what's going on over here. Some have no clue. All are interesting. Here are some representative samples:

"John Kerry cannot change the policies of the US in Iraq because the American policy (unlike the countries of the ME) is not monopolized by individuals. And no matter how high the price America is going to pay in Iraq, it will be for the best of the American people. I think that Bush is America's best choice"

Khalid Abdullah-Kuwait.

"The story is clear; Bush and Kerry are two faces for one coin and their goal is to humiliate the Arab countries for Israel's benefit so that the latter can impose her conditions on arab countries and enslave them. It's time to wake up, as we know Americans don't like us and there's no hope that one day they would. They're after their interests using different means including the stick, which they're good at, and which we seem to love already"

Hasan-Beirut.

"Bush is a better choice than Kerry. Regardless of the reasons behind the war in Iraq, I'm hearing news about Iraqis happy with the liberation and frankly speaking, some of the Arab media are very hypocritic when it comes to the situation in Iraq and they exaggerate things greatly. We-the Arabs-are getting to understand many new subjects"

Mohammed Kerim Al Sabti - Oman.

"There won't be a big difference; the American policy has constants and fixed principles and there are institutions that decide America's interests not a group of people (administration) who do whatever they want. It's the congress who plays the major role in the decision making process. America is staying in Iraq whether it was a democratic or a republican man in the white house, besides, we all know that the law of the liberation of Iraq was released in Clinton's days back in 1998. The American interests in Iraq and in the region demand a permanent existence for American forces to protect these interests and also to help and support the Iraqi government which is still weak and depends much on the American forces in managing the security situation in Iraq. We may see only a reduction in the number of troops and this depends on how the security is going to improve in Iraq and on the Iraqi government gaining more control over the country and only then, the troops may be reduced but a total withdrawal is impossible. The American vision about Iraq is that Iraq is the no.1 ally and the most important country for American interests in the region and consequently the American presence will remain strong and active"

Mohammed Al Khafaji-Babylon/Iraq.

Probably my personal favorite of all of the Iraqi bloggers is Ibrahim Khalil of Iraq Today. He doesn't appear to be pro-American. He doesn't appear to be anti-American. I think he's a mature, honest commentator on life in Mosul as he sees it. Last week he commented on fuel shortages and proclamations by insurgent groups in Mosul. This week he tells us the fallout of both of these problems. I've linked to a post of his on the shortcomings of the Arabic language media:

That just shows how the Arabic media interprets the news. This is not the only sample, but most news which appear in most of the Arabian media are malformed and all news are shown as a fabrication and not shown the real truth.

I never trust the Arabian TV channels. These channels are the most famous in Iraq and we have no other choice to see in our TV as we can not get the European or American channels. Also most Iraqis can't understand English well enough to get the news in English.

It's the six month anniversay of neurotic iraqi wife's blog and she seems to be down in the dumps. You might go over there and offer her some encouragement.

Alaa of The Mesopotamian is clearly one very smart guy and equally clearly, IMO, the best essayist in the Iraqi blogosphere. Every so often he pops up with insights that are sharper than any talking head on American TV. Here's an example:

But the logic and "dialectic" of historical evolution does seem to conform to the old "Hegelian" concept of thesis and antithesis. That is to say historical forces will inevitably tend towards the emergence of New Poles (not to be confused with the Polish people) and New rival powers. And it is not difficult to guess the powers and countries who are candidates for this new polarization. I believe, this is already happening in front of our eyes. However, "Religious fanaticism", or if you like this pseudo-Islamic extremism, represented by, for instance, Al-Qaeda or similar groups, do not qualify as serious candidates or serious rivals for the predicted new polarization of the twenty first century. As I see it, this "War on Terror", important as it may be, is nothing but mop up operations of some the side effects and consequences of the "Cold War".

You may wonder: why the above preamble? And what bearing does it have on the present situation? Well, I shall answer you very briefly and concisely. Any concept that there is possibility of a wide alliance that will support U.S. efforts and be amicable to its goals and national interests is a false hope which profoundly misinterprets the logic of historical realism. The battle lines are clearly drawn, and ally, foe, and opportunistic bystander are all quite well defined, and any notion that these can be appreciably changed by diplomacy or otherwise is an illusion.

Are you a sports fan? There's a blog by an ex-pat Iraqi blogger in Johannesburg devoted exclusively to Iraqi sports. It's called, as you might expect, Iraqi Sport. For everything you wanted to know about Iraqi league football and more, check it out.

Writing on Instapundit, Michael Totten has some news about the controversy. The New York Times is taking another drubbing, looks like.

I have been meaning for weeks now to note this and I keep forgetting:

One of Michigan's finest webloggers, Solomon has recently changed his name. In his young punk days he was known as S-Train, and he used that in his blog-name. Now he's left all that behind, and his newly renamed weblog, "Solotude," can be found right here.

Update your bookmarks, and your blogroll if you have one.

Solo is one of my favorite people in the blogosphere. If you read his blog regularly, you'll know why--even though he's always wrong about everything. ;-)

By the way, he just had abominal surgery. Please give him a get-well-soon greeting.

Lovers of short fiction will want to check out the latest Storyblogging Carnival.

The evil Carnival of the Capitalists has infected everything.

It's an article of faith: Bush is not-very-bright but has the common touch. Kerry is the bright aristocrat.

Too bad it turns out that, even according to the New York Times, Bush has a higher I.Q. than Kerry.

No, it couldn't possibly be true, could it?

Must be all rightwing lies.

Via Der Professor, who understands that verbal profic