They’re trying to move polling places in Philly — out of African American neighborhoods. We’re sure this about “safety” and not at all about reducing the turnout in historically democratic areas. We’re also sure monkeys are going to fly out of our butt any minute now.

The Feds want to know every bit of travel data the airlines have from June of 2004 as a pilot (heh) for a new program called “secure flight.” Think of it as Son of CAPPS II. While the government may even believe this is to fight terrorism, it goes without saying that eventually, it’ll get abused and warped into something else.

Needless to say, we feel this is a very, very bad idea. We continue to fear creeping government intrusion into private life far more than we fear random terrorist attacks, particularly when 9/11 itself may well have been prevented if so many folks hadn’t been asleep at the switch or too partisan to pay attention to warnings from the prior administration.

Pirates and Emperors is a short film done in perfect homage to the old Schoolhouse Rock animations, except instead of being about our nation’s origins, it’s about our bad behavior for the last 30 years or so. Required viewing.

A week or so ago, John Kerry mentioned that Dick Cheney’s daughter was a lesbian. As we and others have noted, this is in no way news; Mary Cheney has been very open about her sexuality for years, even serving in official and unofficial gay & lesbian outreach roles. Kerry, for his part, said nothing negative at all about this; he merely noted that the VP’s daughter was gay, and that he didn’t think she had any choice in the matter:

We’re all God’s children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was, she’s being who she was born as.

Well, you’d never know the context from the shitstorm the right side of the press has stirred up; they’ve spent an awful lot of ink describing this as somehow akin to pointing out that someone was unfaithful, or had an abortion, with all the assumed moral equivalency that implies. Clearly, the reasoning goes, Kerry was hitting below the belt here.

Er, what? How’s that again? Kerry notes Mary’s orientation — in a pretty fair and basic statement, with no value judgements attached — and in doing so calls attention, subtly, to the GOP’s position on All Things Gay. The GOP, in response, goes into a frenzy of weird accusations, and in doing so say (or imply) all sorts of nasty things about gay people. And yet somehow Kerry mentioning Mary’s orientation is the problem. Wow.

Have a look at the Media Matters roundup for more.

Another scary passage from Suskind’s faith-based presidency article:

In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn’t like about Bush’s former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House’s displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn’t fully comprehend — but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency. The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

Jesus.

The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart went on Crossfire (big-ass file) to spank Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson. The audience was with him; the hacks were a bit taken aback. The best part may be this exchange (transcript here):

STEWART: But the thing is that this — you’re doing theater, when you should be doing debate, which would be great. BEGALA: We do, do… (CROSSTALK) STEWART: It’s not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. And I will tell you why I know it. CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you’re accusing us of partisan hackery? STEWART: Absolutely. CARLSON: You’ve got to be kidding me. He comes on and you… (CROSSTALK) STEWART: You’re on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls. (LAUGHTER) STEWART: What is wrong with you? (APPLAUSE) CARLSON: Well, I’m just saying, there’s no reason for you — when you have this marvelous opportunity not to be the guy’s butt boy, to go ahead and be his butt boy. Come on. It’s embarrassing. STEWART: I was absolutely his butt boy. I was so far — you would not believe what he ate two weeks ago. (LAUGHTER) (CROSSTALK) STEWART: You know, the interesting thing I have is, you have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably. CARLSON: You need to get a job at a journalism school, I think. STEWART: You need to go to one.

As it happens, ol’ Tucker didn’t quite like getting called on the bullshit state of TV news, eh?

A Knight Ridder review of the administration’s Iraq policy and decisions has found that it invaded Iraq without a comprehensive plan in place to secure and rebuild the country. The administration also failed to provide some 100,000 additional U.S. troops that American military commanders originally wanted to help restore order and reconstruct a country shattered by war, a brutal dictatorship and economic sanctions. cite

“Mission Accomplished” indeed.

A NYT article about the faith-based presidency Bush has given us includes the following passage:

[an introducing supporter] said he ”looked to God” and said what was in his heart. ”The United States is the greatest country in the world,” he told the rally. ”President Bush is the greatest president I have ever known. I love my president. I love my country. And more important, I love Jesus Christ.” The crowd went wild, and they went wild again when the president finally arrived and gave his stump speech. There were Bush’s periodic stumbles and gaffes, but for the followers of the faith-based president, that was just fine. They got it — and ”it” was the faith. And for those who don’t get it? That was explained to me in late 2002 by Mark McKinnon, a longtime senior media adviser to Bush, who now runs his own consulting firm and helps the president. He started by challenging me. ”You think he’s an idiot, don’t you?” I said, no, I didn’t. ”No, you do, all of you do, up and down the West Coast, the East Coast, a few blocks in southern Manhattan called Wall Street. Let me clue you in. We don’t care. You see, you’re outnumbered 2 to 1 by folks in the big, wide middle of America, busy working people who don’t read The New York Times or Washington Post or The L.A. Times. And you know what they like? They like the way he walks and the way he points, the way he exudes confidence. They have faith in him. And when you attack him for his malaprops, his jumbled syntax, it’s good for us. Because you know what those folks don’t like? They don’t like you!” In this instance, the final ”you,” of course, meant the entire reality-based community.

It’s a long article, but it’s worth reading.

We’re so fucking doomed. People are idiots.

Fafblog, of course, does it better than we could:

Dick and Lynne Cheney are right to be outraged [. . . ]. And this outrage comes not because they feel that homosexuality is shameful or icky or full of cooties. It is because they know that the greatest shame one can bring to a lesbian is to note their existence. Before John Kerry’s terrible words, Mary Cheney only had to be gay to her family, her friends, the Coors Corporation, the staff of Bush/Cheney Re-Elect, and the gay community at large to whom she acted as a liason. But John Kerry made her gay to the entire world, effectively making her more gay than ever before. (Emph. in original)

Our quote-of-the-day mailing list sent us this gem, from the CNN crawl earlier today:

“PUBLIC SPLIT ON WHETHER BUSH IS A DIVIDER”

Sinclair’s so hot to get this on the air, so MMfA decided to review the film and document a few of its lies. “Facts are stupid things,” Reagan famously said; if only the media and the public would pay more attention to them.

The Justice Department has intervened to delay the discovery and despositions in a 2002 New Hampshire felony election fraud case until after the election. Said discovery is almost certain to be embarrassing to the GOP, since it’s likely to involve the actions of one Jim Tobin, a so far unindicted co-conspirator in the case (two others have already entered guilty pleas, and their statements name Tobin). Tobin is New England regional chair for BC’04.

Josh Marshall has more, including cites to local paper coverage.

If you vote for Bush, remember what you’re voting for.

Presumably, everyone who reads Heathen is just as puzzled as we are about the right-wing response to Kerry mentioning that Mary Cheney is gay. I mean, the woman’s been out for years, and did outreach work into the gay/lesbian community for Coors. Being gay is part of her resume. She’s also got a high-profile job with BC’04, so it’s not like she’s not political.

It occurs to us that perhaps they only reason they’re (pretending to be) pissed off about this is because the GOP thinks being gay is something to be ashamed of.

As always, Josh Marshall has more, and there’s a fairly even-handed treatment from the wires over at Salon.

UNITED NATIONS – The United States has refused to join 85 other heads of state and government in signing a statement that endorsed a 10-year-old U.N. plan to ensure every woman’s right to education, health care, and choice about having children. President Bush (news – web sites)’s administration withheld its signature because the statement included a reference to “sexual rights.” cite

The title quote is Bush, speaking about Osama bin Laden. This is what Kerry was talking about in the debate. Of course, around the same time, Bush was doing his level best to get us to attack someone who hadn’t actually threatened us. Some might call this a lack of focus.

Josh Marshall, of course, has more, as does Atrios, who references a Washington Post story worth noting for its unusual focus on the degree to which Bush has simply ignored bin Laden in favor of his hard-on for Saddam.

A bit more: MediaMatters notes the bizarro-world spin some major media outlets put on the obvious falsehood. What’s that about the “liberal media” again?

Operation Truth has a fine ad worth watching. (Link to host page; Quicktime and Windows Media available.)

Prof. Felton gives us two examples of how brutally, stupidly broken and insecure Diebold’s smartcard voting systems are. The level of goatfuckery involved here would get your license pulled in any trade with professional oversight; it’s mindboggling.

IScrewRepublicans is just plain rude, but damn if we’re not laughint. Where else will you find Ann Coulter’s lady parts are dirty“, not to mention other hits headlines like “Senator Zell Miller turns his back on more than just his party” and “Man-Whore Pony Rides for Ralph Reed“? Heh.

CNet is reporting that the DOJ has requested sweeping new powers to prosecute piracy. Not the “Arrr!” kind, but the kind where you copy a CD or a movie. Heretofore, these pursuits have been the responsibility of the rightsholder; now, that powerful lobby is trying to get the government to stack the deck in their favor even more.

This is a profoundly bad idea, but so was copyright extension, and Congress bent over for the RIAA/MPAA cabal then, too — this time, it’s even more attractive to the Feds, since it means more power for them. Remember, once governments get power, they’re loathe to give it up — which is why laws like RICO, PATRIOT, and provisions like these are such bad ideas.

Dred Fucking Scott? What the Hell?

From the Well, we discover two interesting points:

1. Michael Moore is offering free underware to people who promise to register and vote; and
2. Republicans want him prosecuted for this

You just can’t make this shit up.