The most dangerous domestic terror cell

"These men hate our freedoms and want to terrify us into surrendering them."

Mark Kleiman exposes the danger that lurks among us. (Not to give him too much credit. These guys are also very adept at exposing themselves.)

Joe Sestak takes on Swiftboating Weldon

Learning is possible. Even among Democrats. Kerry fell to dishonorable attacks by the swiftboaters in 2004. Max Cleland fell to a Saxby Chambliss ad that featured Osama and Saddam in 2002.

Joe Sestak is standing up with one of the strongest ads of this cycle.

The GOP Hail Mary Pass: "Vote Dem and Die"

We knew this was coming didn't we? Big scary ad with Bin Laden threatening to kill us all. Aided and abetted by the soft, terrorist-coddling Democrats.

The only thing they have to sell is fear itself. Oooh. Scary. Just in time or Halloween.

The only thing the ad was missing is the shot where Bin Laden morphs into Willie Horton.

By the way Mr. Bush, you had the boogey man surrounded at Tora Bora. How come you let him go? I don't suppose it was because you knew you could count on his help election cycle after election cycle. Sorry, guys, your game is old and it doesn't work anymore.

Fool me once, shame on... Why, I think you almost remember how that old saying goes, don't you, Mr. Bush.

We have your number now. And it's in the low 30's. You, Cheney, Rove, Mehlman, Hastert, Ney, Abramoff, DeLay, Foley... oh, why go on?... the list is endless and each character on it is more depressing than the last.

Trying one last shot at rousing the base? Guess what? It's working, but you're rousing the wrong base. Our base. We are going to give more, volunteer more, and work our very hard to take back this country from your filthy, indecent corrupt contempt for our our intelligence, our values, our faith, and our Constitution.

Blumenthal on the Republican implosion

Not much news value here. But a well-written bit of Schadenfreude.

Mickeleh's Take: Read it and gloat. But then get out and work for a Democratic victory. Donate and volunteer. Find the nearest close Congressional race, and help them canvass voters. It's not a random door-to-door canvass anymore. You'll get a targetted list of people who vote Democratic in presidential elections, but tend to skip the mid-terms. You don't have to persuade them--just get them to vote.

If you can spare a few hours on election day (Nov 7), sign up and show up.

Ken Mehlman isn't sitting this one out. We shouldn't either.

Kos Diary: Five Decades of Republican Torture

The Torture is OK law, otherwise known as "The Military Commissions Act" never came up in yesterday's debate for the Washington Senate race. Maybe one reason that public reaction to it is so low key is that there's nothing new here except for the attempt to make it legal.

A Kos Diarist named kidneystones chronicles five decades of U.S.-sponsored torture under Republican administrations, beginning with Eisenhower ordering the CIA to train the Iranian secret police (SAVAK) in torture. We're still choking on the bitter fruit from those seeds.

Mickeleh's Take: The sign on the front of the table where Bush sat to sign the bill proclaimed the Rovian meme for torture and the death of habeas corpus: "Protecting America" The guy's job is to "Defend the Constitution." What's the correct meme?

(tags:Bush, Terrorism, Torture, Constitution)

Bush assumes "Despotic Powers," Dems mum; America yawns

The president, today, signed a bill into law giving himself the power to make anyone--including U.S. citizens disappear. With no recourse, no appeal, no habeas corpus, no nothin.

This is the most devastating, drastic, and shameful assault on our system of law in my lifetime.

On Keith Olbermann's show tonight, Prof. Jonathan Turley, said, "What the Congress did and what the President signed today essentially revokes over 200 years of American principles and values. It couldn't be more significant. And the strange thing is we've become sort of constitutional couch potatoes. The Congress just gave the President despotic powers and you could hear the yawn across the country as people turned to, you know, Dancing with the Stars."

The right, of course, has framed this as strength vs. weakness. Hastert's press release headlined, "Democrats Choose to Pamper Terrorists and Defend Their Rights." The right wing blogosphere and talkshows are taking up the cry in unison. And for the most part, the Democrats seem paralyzed by that framing.

I looked for some statement about this moment of national shame at the website of the Democratic National Committee. Nothing. I looked at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Nothing. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Nothing.

A few brave voices:
Sen. Russell Feingold says, "we will look back on this day as a stain in our nation's history.

And from the left blogosphere:
TBogg
digby

I'm off to Drinking Liberally to watch the Cantwell-McGavick debate. No doubt the issue will come up. I'll let you know how it's framed.

Why do you suppose the end of Habeas Corpus is meeting so little resistance?

My Shared Google Reader Page

Just dipped my toe into the new Google RSS reader. It has features very comparable to stand-alone blog readers,plus this cool kicker:

As I cruise along reading blog entries, if I find something I'd like to share, I press shift-S and it's added to my shared page.

I'm adding the top five most recent articles to the sidebar. Including (until it gets pushed out of view out of view) the link to the entry from Robert Scoble that turned me on to this cool bit of RSS mischief.

Proof that Bush knew Saddam didn't have WMD

If anyone has any lingering doubts about whether Bush really thought that Saddam had--or could develop nukes, the North Korean test (dud or not) should put those doubts to rest.

Against Saddam, he sent an invasion force. Against Kim, he sends bluster and a high-dudgeon harumph.

Paper threats get shredded. Real threats get, "Please don't do that again, sir."

Robert Greenwald: Happy Birthday Fox News

Happy to give Robert Greenwald a viral plug.

Olbermann & Turley on the Bush Crime Family

"The Constitution is just a piece of paper." —George W. Bush

This one dates back to May 11, 2006, but it hasn't lost its bite, relevance, or chill. Keith Olbermann interviews Jonathan Turley on the consistent pattern of contempt that Bush has for the Constitution he swore to uphold. "The Constitution is just a piece of paper," said Bush. He must have been thinking toilet paper. Turley recounts the Bush penchant for hiring criminals as he drags us down the slippery slope to Tyranny.

Keith called Bush a liar last night. What if he's wrong?

Keith Olbermann had another in his chilling and devastating series of Special Comments. Please click through to read it or watch the video clip.

Topic: Bush's rhetorical gambit of throwing in "some say" or "Democrats think" followed by a completely fictitious statement of a position that no Demcrat ever held. Keith says Bush is lying when he does that. Example:

“If you listen closely to some of the leaders of the Democratic Party, it sounds like they think the best way to protect the American people is — wait until we’re attacked again.”

None of the leaders of the Democratic Party say that or think that or sound like they think that. So Keith says that Bush is lying. He says it eloquently, passionately, and clearly. It's about time someone used plain language to criticize Bush. I love that Keith said "lie." (Although, Al Franken got there first with Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them.)

But my fear is that Bush is not lying. That he actually believes what he's saying. That he's so locked in to his own delusional vision of the world that for him it's not a rhetorical ploy to invent straw positions for his opponents, but rather his actual perception of what they're thinking.

People who have met with Bush describe him has calm, assured, and steadfast in his vision of how the world works and what his mission is. He sees himself as a warrior in an epic, ages long war. If Iraq is devastated and drenched in blood and terror, that, to Bush, is just a comma in history. Dissent and debate have no place in his world view. He knows the only true path. Anyone who does not follow it is lost.

Mickeleh's Take: If Bush is a liar, we have a chance. If Bush is delusional, we're all cooked. And I fear that Bush is delusional.

Now, go read or watch Keith.

Tipping point?

Republican rule is dangerous and damaging. That should be clear by now. Maybe it is. This morning, for the first time in this campaign, the polls followed by electoral-vote.com show Democrats leading Republicans in both House and Senate races. It's still a squeeker. And the Dems don't have a majority in the Senate (yet). But the polling results are very heartening and I'm going to add top-line results from electoral-vote.com to my blog-roll. Click through for details, methodology, and the latest poll data.

Mickeleh's Take: This is encouraging, but we still have to make it through vote suppression, Diebold hacking, and a declaration of martial law accompanied by the roundup of all the "disloyal" before we can start issuing subpoenas. I put nothing, nothing past this power-drunk gang of thugs.

$20 million for a Victory in Iraq celebration

Atrios spotted this gem in the New York Times:

Tucked away in fine print in the military spending bill for this past year was a lump sum of $20 million to pay for a celebration in the nation’s capital “for commemoration of success” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Not surprisingly, the money was not spent.

But wait, there's more. They've carried it over to the new bill.

Mickeleh's Take: Any way we could get to spend that on an impeachment celebration?

It's not Foley... it's the Republicans

Watch out for the media getting caught up in the personal tragedy of Mark Foley. Every release of an IM transcript offers more salacious details. (Where do these come from, by the way? And don't say, "ABC.") Today, his lawyer revealed that young Mark was molested by a clergyman. Juicy tabloid fodder. But misdirection from the bigger story of dereliction by the House Republican leadership: What did they know? When did they know it? And what did they do about it?

Patty Wetterling, Democratic challenger for the Minnesota 6th Congressional District has the first spot I've seen that frames the issue. Patty has been an advocate for children's safety. Her son, then 11, was abducted at gunpoint in 1989. Neither the child nor the abductor was ever found.

Mickeleh's Take: The NIE report that the Iraq War has swelled the ranks of Islamic terrorists and the new revelations in the Woodward book are not welcome, but not game changing. The Republican handling of the Foley affair has the potential to impact the GOP base. In support of Patty Wetterling's jumping out with this spot, please contribute to her campaign.

The fundraising page of True Majority Action on Act Blue says.

Patty Wetterling

Child advocate Patty Wetterling is taking her concern for families, education and healthcare to a new level, by vying to replace departing Republican incumbent Mark Kennedy. In a state that is also energized by exciting Governor and Senate races, this house race is a leader on lists to switch parties. The Republican nominee, State Senator Michelle Bachmann, is far more conservative than this suburban Twin Cities district and Wetterling enjoys name recognition in over 90% of the district.

New York Times: Too Cloudy For Newsprint

The NYT, today, has a story about new research into Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. It mentions one of the fine details that new techniques have unveiled and then laments, "The images are too cloudy to be reproduced on newsprint."

Mickeleh's Take: But I'm not reading your low-res newsprint. I have a high resolution computer monitor in front of me. Gimme a break here.

A Brain Dead Thing about Technorati

I love Technorati. I play the tag game. I check my blog rankings. I know some of the folks there. I like them. They're very smart. But...

They sort everything on the blogosphere into one of these five topics:

• Entertainment
• Life
• Sports
• Business
• Tech

Just those five. Nothing on current events, news, or politics. So, under which of the five does politics show up?

If you guessed Entertainment, you are correct.

Technorati home page this morning, under What Everyone is Blogging About (Entertainment): I find:

• "Ted Kennedy: Misguided War in Iraq has..."
• "How Safe is the Capitol With BushCo at the..."
• "Howard Dean, Democrats offer a New D..."

That's Entertainment? I was expecting, maybe, the clown with his pants falling down or the dance that's a dream of romance or the scene where the villain is mean. Wasn't expecting the scene where the screamer is Dean.

Maybe they're making a profound editorial comment on the vacuousness of political discourse. Democrat or Republican? It's just casting. The script is the same and the show must go on. Maybe they're saluting the quip that "politics is show business for ugly people" (which Google tells me is Leno's or Carville's—but whoever came up with it, have your lawyers call these guys, who are trying to make a buck out of it).

MSM is talking about how the bloggers are hijacking political discourse, and the world authority on blogging doesn't have a tab for politics? Hmmm.

Guess what, Technorati? Of your top 20 blogs this morning, six are political blogs. You'll find them at numbers 5 (Huffington Post), 6 (Daily Kos), 10 (Crooks and Liars), 12 (Think Progress), 13 (Michelle Malkin), 17 (Instapundit). Of your 30 hot tags as of this writing, nine are political.

Mickeleh's Take: Maybe they're afraid of alienating righties or lefties. Or maybe its an oversight. But I'm calling them out on it. And I'd like to see an enhancement. Please give us a Current Events tab.

(tags: Technorati, Blogs, Blogging, Politics, Tag)

In Bush's America, We Torture the Innocent

And then there's the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen that the U.S. had whisked off to a Syrian prison for "aggressive" and "alternative" interrogation, or as the reality-based community calls it, torture. A Canadian inquiry just pronounced him kosher. Did he have information about a pending terrorist attack? No. Was he a terrorist? No. But he was brown. He was seen talking to another brown man. That's all we need, really. The blogosphere is full of this case today. (The righties, simply blame Canada).

Atrios, puts it succinctly:

So, in Bush's America it's ok to kidnap a Canadian citizen and send him to Syria to be tortured. Turns out he's not guilty of anything.

Of course, we already knew that because he can't be guilty until... he has a trial.

It's possible that it could've turned out he was actually a bad guy. But they didn't know he was a bad guy. So he didn't have a trial. They just had him tortured.

Freedom. Smell it! Smells like freedom fries.

Mickeleh's Take: Two questions: When is Bush holding his next press conference? Will anyone ask him about torturing the innocent?

(tags: Torture, Bush, Terror, Geneva Convention)

Must Read: Paul Krassner's letter to Katie

I'm on deadline (nay, past deadline). But here's something much better than anything I would have written in the most optimal circumstances.

Paul Krassner on Huffington Post has an Open Letter to Katie Couric.

(tags: Katie, Katie Couric, Krassner, Paul Krassner, Limbaugh, Maher, CBS, CBS Evening News)

Princeton Researchers Create Vote-Rigging Virus

Princeton researchers have uncovered serious vulnerabilities in the widely used Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine. From the abstract to their paper:

"... an attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as one minute could install malicious code; malicious code on a machine could steal votes undetectably, modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates. An attacker could also create malicious code that spreads automatically and silently from machine to machine during normal election activities — a voting-machine virus.

The site includes a ten-minute demo video showing the process in action.

Mickeleh's Take: No reason to suppose that folks who routinely practice vote suppression, push-polling, intelligence cooking, harsh interrogations (not torture), misleading, outright lying, warrentless domestic spying would actually steal elections outright, is there? They believe in Democracy, don't they? Oh, yes, but they also believe that those who question them are aiding the enemy.

Active discussion on Kos in Jules Siegel's diary.

(tags: Politics, Diebold, Voting, Voting Fraud)

Ann Richards Keynote to the Democrats in 1988

Not living in Texas, I don't have many memories of Ann Richards as governor.

But I recall vividly the keynote address she gave at the Democratic convention in 1988. There is, of course her line about the first President Bush, which will be quoted endlessly in her obituaries.

"Poor George. He can't help it - he was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

Digby tells the story of how Karl Rove got revenge for that line with a foul bit gay-bashing that helped the second President Bush defeat Ann Richards to become governor of Texas.

The heart of Richards' 1988 keynote speech was this:

I'm a grandmother now. And I have one nearly perfect granddaughter named Lily. And when I hold that grandbaby, I feel the continuity of life that unites us, that binds generation to generation, that ties us with each other.

And sometimes I spread that Baptist pallet out on the floor and Lily and I roll a ball back and forth.

And I think of all the families like mine, like the one in Lorena, Texas, like the ones that nurture children all across America.

And as I look at Lily, I know that it is within families that we learn both the need to respect individual human dignity and to work together for our common good. Within our families, within our nation, it is the same.

As we sit there, I wonder if she'll ever grasp the changes I've seen in my life. If she'll ever believe that there was a time when blacks could not drink from public water fountains, when Hispanic children were punished for speaking Spanish in the public schools, and women couldn't vote.

I think of all the political fights I've fought, and all the compromises I've had to accept as part payment.

And I think of all the small victories that have added up to national triumphs. And all the things that never would have happened and all the people who would have been left behind if we had not reasoned, and fought, and won those battles together.

And I will tell Lily that those triumphs were Democratic Party triumphs.

I want so much to tell Lily how far we've come. You and I.

And as the ball rolls back and forth, I want to tell her how very lucky she is. That for all our difference, we're still the greatest nation on this good earth.

And our strength lies in the men and women who go to work every day, who struggle to balance their family and their jobs, and who should never, ever be forgotten.

I just hope that - like her grandparents and her great- grandparents before - that Lily goes on to raise her kids with the promise that echoes in homes all across America:

That we can do better.

And that's what this election is all about.

Thank you very much.

Mickeleh's Take: There's another bit in that speech that we should remember this season:

"We want answers and their answer is that something is wrong with you. Well, nothing's wrong with you. Nothing's wrong with you that you can't fix in November."

Let's win one for Ann.

(Tags: Richards, Ann Richards, Rove, Bush)