According to this PIPA study, Bush supporters typically misunderstand many of his policy positions, while Kerry supporters’ understanding of their candidate’s positions tend to be more accurate.

Fred Clark shows us why James Fallows would make a better president than Bush.

An Army Reservist who wrote an essay for a conservative antiwar site called “Why We Cannot Win” now faces official charges of disloyalty which may carry up to a 20 year sentence. While it’s true that members of the military are bound by some rules that do not apply to the public at large, it also seems likely that simply expressing an opinion contrary to official US doctrine should remain protected speech. Even if he’s acquitted, it’s a sure bet they’ve ruined his career.

Nice. Way to encourage democracy and freedom!

MAD Magazine has a lovely parody of Bush’s advertisements.

In some swing states, Democratic voter registration efforts are absolutely trouncing similar efforts across the aisle. So in Ohio, the Republican Secretary of State is attempting to invalidate many of the new registrations based on the weight of the paper they’re printed on (the blog’s PDF link is also here; it’s a reprint from a Dayton paper).

Atrios has an image of the wildly inflammatory and downright untruthful mass mailing the RNC sent out in two battleground states.

The Republican Party acknowledged yesterday sending mass mailings to residents of two states warning that “liberals” seek to ban the Bible. It said the mailings were part of its effort to mobilize religious voters for President Bush. The mailings include images of the Bible labeled “banned” and of a gay marriage proposal labeled “allowed.” A mailing to Arkansas residents warns: “This will be Arkansas if you don’t vote.” A similar mailing was sent to West Virginians.

A vote for GWB is an endorsement of tactics like these.

The whole GOP campaign in a single editorial cartoon.

Proposing blatently unconstitutional bills to force Democrats to vote against them, on the theory that “under God” is important enough to mock the Constitutional notions of “checks and balances” and “judicial review.”

Christ.

At a school in Eden Prairie, a teacher arranged for a “mock election” at a parent/teacher/student meeting:

He read where each of the candidates stood on the main issues of the campaign. He didnÕt say who was who… just “this is what candidate one says, this is what candidate two says”. The kids made tally marks about each thing they agreed with from each candidate. Then the kids voted on the issues. Four kids voted for Bush. 26 kids voted for Kerry. … most of the kids who voted for John Kerry were greatly upset by it. They booed the results of their vote. They were upset that they had voted for the “wrong guy”. The teacher went on to say that he assured the kids that the election was not yet over, and that there still might be many issues where they would agree with George W. Bush, and maybe when they tried again later, they would end up voting for him. The parents looked relieved as well. . . The gears that had begun to grind uncomfortably in their heads smoothed out and they relaxed. We moved on to talk about other things, and everyone was happy.

Yeah, best not to actually THINK about what your candidate might do. Just vote. Right, George?

Wired News has more. Remember, people will use these things to vote in November. And they’re not secure. If I, as a tech-savvy person, wanted to create a way to rig an election, I’d start with tools like Diebold’s.

No, really.

Fred Clark elaborates on the notion that journalism is dead, and Bush knows it and takes advantage of it.

John Ashcroft has run roughshod over the Bill of Rights for three years now, claiming all the while he was chasing legitimate criminal convictions. Guess how many he’s gotten.

Yup. Zero. Here we were thinking the debate was liberty vs. security, and here we discover no actual convictions have happened — i.e., not one of those detained, lawfully or unlawfully, by the DoJ has been found guilty of anything. Kinda makes you wonder about that particular trade-off, doesn’t it?

Slate gives us the rundown on how they’re using an obscure law to abrogate free speech in arbitrary zones, thereby keeping protestors far, far away from the President in the name of “security.”

The Pentagon is apparently blocking access to a government web site designed to help American expats get and use absentee ballots.

I keep posting “how much lower can the GOP go?” and, well, they keep showing me. I mean, damn.

Once again, I could write this, but it’s more efficient just to send you over to Fred at Slacktivist, or this discussion with military experts over at Salon. Sigh.

Iraqi insurgents are only attacking because they want to influence the election in Kerry’s favor, or so says Dick Armitage.

Jesus.

If you clicked through, you may remember that the fired worker’s boss said something along the lines of “you can either work for me, or work for John Kerry.” In the wake of the publicity about the firing, two intersting things happened. First, the boss tried to re-hire her; second, John Kerry actually did.

Original post here.

Slacktivist has two fine posts this morning:

• No DD-214, no job. A DD-214 documents the circumstances under which an individual left the military. Fred notes “I am not interested in the typographical capabilities of the IBM Executive Model D typewriter . . . I want to see the man’s DD-214.”
• Careless committees. Here Mr. Clark notes the sad state of environmental legislation in general — and the Endangered Species Act in particular — under this administration, but also includes this gem: “The British scientist J.B.S. Haldane, the story goes, was asked by a clergyman what we might learn about God from studying the creation. Haldane replied that, ‘He has an inordinate fondness for beetles.'” Gotta love that.