Best ad of the season:

I don't know why the Dems are afraid to run stuff like this for real. I am getting afraid that we're going to blow it again, by letting the GOP dictate the terms of the last week and of election day. If there was ever a time for Dems to be on offense, this is certainly it. A little bloodlust might not even be a bad thing. But if we sit on our asses and try to coast to victory, it'll be a long dark Tuesday night 8 days from now. I for one don't want to feel that feeling I had on E-day '04, where everything was good until it slipped away, like one of those kid's toys that you can't keep in your hand.

Daily Kos: Congressman, call me!

BTW: You can absolutely expect at least one bomb from Rove on Wed-Fri. The sort of thing like his bugging his own office back in Texas to blame and sink his opponent. It will be big, ballsy, and just to late in the game to get verified by the 7th. Think Terror in Omaha, Bush makes a surprise visit somewhere, a Democratic Memo about a state visit for Osama, Cheney on death's door asking for prayers for his recovery and votes for his cronies, declaring victory in Iraq, something along those lines. And you can rest assured that whatever it is will be utter crap, and also rest assured that it will work. Keep your eyes peeled.

Incredible

Literally, as in, this story is hard to give any credibility to:

See It Now

Police in riot gear stormed a middle school and threw students up against the wall, as a drill. Lawsuit time in Michigan.

Generals want oversight of executive power

When you have to turn to the men in uniform to be the ones warning against abuse of military power, things have reached a pretty sorry state in the republic:

U.S. generals call for Democratic takeover | Salon News

Note that the comment above should not be read as a slight against the military, it's not. It's just that the standard order of things is for the military to be champing at the bit to go into action and the civilian command structure restraining them, and when that is flipped upside down, Mr. Secretary Rumsfeld, then you are counting on the uniforms to be your last line of restraint as well as your last line of defense, and that's a terrible position to put anyone in. It's akin to asking Bernard Hopkins to be the referee and the fight doctor at his own next bout.

It's Our 200th Post!!!

This is our 200th post (doo-dah, doo-dah,)
Less than some blogs, more than most (oh, doo-dah day)

Bush and Cheney suck,
But we're out of luck.
'Cause they're gonna be here for two more years,
Man, we're really [MEMORY HOLE]

(And by the way our 1 year anniversary is this Saturday, so it's 200 in just under a year. We accept your congratulations in advance.)

The Nexus of Politics and YouTube

This is quite amusing, even if you don't understand the intricacies of British politics, which I don't:

Joe Strummer Spins In His Grave - Wonkette

Newsflash: Democracy in Trouble!!!

Ken Blackwell, the guy who kept lots of democrats from voting in Ohio in '04, now may keep everyone from voting in Ohio in '06, and declare himself the winner of the gubernatorial election:

And the Winner Is ... Me - New York Times

Well, he's definitely a goober.

Republican corruption is just 21 isolated incidents

And that's lumping all the "little abramoffs" (Burns, Doolittle, Shelby, Reed, etc.) into one incident. This list is literally mind-boggling. My mind is at this moment boggled. I think.

The Crook List - Wonkette

And on the blue side: Harry Reid failed to report that he did pay taxes on a land deal. Maybe.

Cross the Kubler-Ross and burn your bridges behind you

It's not often that a reader of TPM is both accurate and funny, usually they're one or the other:

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall October 17, 2006 09:45 AM

AP late to the party

So the AP finally "reported" what Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and the rest of the reality-based community have been observing for years:

Bush keeps revising war justification - Yahoo! News

Trendsetters say that by the time a hip new trend is mentioned in the New York Times, the trend is already dead among the original trendsetters. I feel that way about this news and the AP. Next they'll tell us that the internet is changing the way the newsmedia works, then they'll break the big 'Man Walks on Moon' story, then they'll have an exclusive on the invention of movable type. In other words, you're way way behind the curve AP. It's called "news" for a reason.

AWOL around his heart

Sorry for the pun, but this:

A Soldier Hoped to Do Good, but Was Changed by War - New York Times

Is a wonderful piece from the Times about one soldier's story that must be just as true for a significant percentage of his comrades. And while it will make you sad and angry at Bush and Cheney, it will make you proud that we have young men of conscience over there doing Cheney's dirty work. Or at least we did have, before they all felt compelled to go AWOL and the Army lowered it's recruiting standards to include criminals and the mentally ill.

It's hard for me, stateside, to believe that any soldier should have to be told, "I said to him, you're not crazy or a heretic for having difficulty reconciling Jesus' teachings with what's going on in Iraq." But even after hearing it repeatedly, it was hard for this soldier (the subject of the article,) to accept. And by the way, he had to go outside the Army to hear that. His army chaplain "showed him in the Bible where God sent his people to war." Then an army shrink "said he could get out of the military by claiming he was crazy or gay."

Before Bush/Cheney, vets and the military used to admit, "war is hell." On their watch that little slogan seems to have been replaced by "War is a hell of a good investment."

Psycho Analyzed

For historians and psychologists to evaluate Bush based on 6 years of public presidential statements is akin to Michael Phelps swimming laps in the kiddie pool, but nonetheless, some interesting observations here:

Bush Confounded by the 'Unacceptable' - washingtonpost.com

The telling detail:

In the first nine months of this year, Bush declared more than twice as many events or outcomes "unacceptable" or "not acceptable" as he did in all of 2005, and nearly four times as many as he did in 2004. He is, in fact, at a presidential career high in denouncing events he considers intolerable. They number 37 so far this year, as opposed to five in 2003, 18 in 2002 and 14 in 2001.

Yikes Alert

W hasn't said anything this dumb since he asked "is our children learning?"

Political Wire: Poker Face

By the way, not that we're poker experts, but when, "there's more people playing your same cards," the best result is a split pot, which eats into your profits considerably. And for all the things Bush doesn't know, he definitely knows about profits. At least the concept of profit, since while none of his own businesses was too profitable, he has certainly helped Haliburton, Lockheed and Chevron on that score.

Brace Yourself, Republicans may have tried dirty tricks

If this mailing doesn't sink the Duckworth campaign, the NRCC is planning to send all the voters in that district an envelope full of white powder with Duckworth's return address on it.

IL-06: NRCC Mailer Against Duckworth Simulates Official Social Security Mailing | TPMCafe

In other shocking political news: George Bush isn't too bright, Democrats are wimps, and the Iraq thing isn't going very well. I know, we couldn't believe it either.

Paging Doctor Irony, Doctor Sickening Irony to the ER, STAT.

On his best day O. Henry could never have come up with this story. Granted, he would never have tried.

See It Now

(If you're having trouble spotting the irony to which we refer, we suggest you check wikipedia for the name "Mengele," it's in there near "mangle." You'll find it. And keep a bucket nearby, just in case.)

Bush screws up, and this time it's important:

N. Korea Claims Nuclear Test - washingtonpost.com:

Make no mistake, the developments in North Korea that will eat up most of our news cycles this week and push Foley and probably Iraq off the front pages are the direct result of Bush Administration failures:

"The Bush administration rebuffed North Korea's calls for bilateral talks to solve the crisis, instead pushing for an international framework that forced the North to the bargaining table with the United States, but also China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

Monday's test, analysts said, provided unmistakable evidence that the six-party framework had failed, leaving Washington and its partners in the region now facing the profoundly more difficult task of disarming a state that has already fulfilled its nuclear ambitions. No nation that has successfully conducted a nuclear test has ever been persuaded to give up the weapons through diplomacy, sanctions or other means."

So when you hear wingnut talking heads saying that this is good for the 'daddy party' as far as November, know that those people are lying to you. Don't be taken in. If anything this should add to the perfect storm that Repubs are currently facing. Tell your friends. And keep talking about Iraq and Foley. A dem takeback, however unlikely, is our best hope to get the country back on track, and being on track is our best and maybe only way to get to the future.

Best News Yet

For dems in congress:

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall October 7, 2006 09:04 AM

Now that you've got'em on the run, DCCC, don't let up. Fight the heck back. This "sit back and watch them destroy themselves," strategy has played itself out and it is time for you, Dean, Emmanuel and Pelosi, to get in the game.

(Dean, Emmanuel and Pelosi sounds like a bad personal injury lawfirm that advertises on Saturday afternoon TV and they appear in their own commercials leaning on the desk holding a law book. Probably upside down.)

Poll Positioning, (or Poll Dancing)

Another day, another reason for democrats to get their hopes irrationally high:

Political Wire: Democrats Could Take Senate

Standing Eight still does not believe, even with all that's gone down this week, that Dems will take back either house, but we are shorting our odds once again. The prospect of a one-house takeback, which only a month ago we marked as a 3 to 1 underdog, is sliding up toward even money, we'd call it a safe 3 to 2 dog as of this morning. One more implosion in the GOP could push it to even money. But more likely than an implosion is whatever October Surprise Rove has in his (quite well padded) back pocket. (We're thinking Osama turns up mid-month, or Bush and/or Cheney survives some sort of trumped up health scare or threat just before Halloween, but there are probably more subtle ways for baldy to git'r'done. Not that subtlety is Rove's strong suit.)

And even at even money (ha,) one thing we have to remember is that Dems think the only way to gain seats is to win the elections, while GOPers know that there's a second way: stealing the elections. This gives the edge in any coin toss to the GOP. And plenty of these races will be coin tosses.

Specific predictions: Ford in TN and Whitehouse in RI will win their contests, and McCaskill certainly could, but the NRCC recently spent alot of Mark Foley's dirty dirty money and a lot more than that on a negative advertising blitz against her. Anyone who still questions whether such a blitz could work should ask my friend Max Cleland. So call Claire a toss up for the moment, and Webb still needs help, which does not speak well of his campaign, given all the help Allen's already given him.

Our prescription for Dems: (not that we're a doctor, and not that anyone's listening to us,) Keep talking about Iraq. Never shut up about it, even when the electorate tries to tell you it's 'fatigued' of hearing about it, which will happen if you talk about it enough, at which point the proper strategy would be to continue talking about it. Tell the electorate that no matter how fatigued they get they are not as fatigued as the Army and Marines in the field, and there's only one thing they (the voters,) can do about it: VOTE.

Pacers Petition League for Name Change

To "Pistols" or "Popguns" or "PPKs"

Pacers' Jackson Fires Gun at Strip Club - New York Times

If I were a Detroit Piston this article would scare the crap out of me. I'd for darn sure bring a police escort the next time I entered Conseco Field House.

RIP R.W.

Standing Eight notes with sadness the passing of one of the last great reporters, NYT's R.W. Apple.

And it's not just because he was a huge part of "The Boys on the Bus," the greatest political book ever; and not just because he resolutely maintained that reporters should 'remain amateurs,' representing their readers, rather than pretending to be experts, lecturing the people they cover, (an outlook that is sorely missed in today's shouting-match pundit punchbowl.)

It's also because he managed to attain before his death the one thing all writers want. He was mentioned in passing on The Gilmore Girls last season. Or the season before. Rory was in college, I remember that.

Okay, it's mostly the remaining amateur thing. Like many people I am by turns fascinated by and then repulsed by our national politics, and even when my interest was at it's lowest, (like all of last summer, and recently since pedophilia became more important than war,) R.W. was interesting, inspiring, and irreplaceable. Here's his Times obit:

R. W. Apple Jr., Globe-Trotter for The Times and a Journalist in Full, Dies at 71 - New York Times

If they don't have a good newspaper in heaven, they will soon.

OutFoxed

Check this out:

Fox, in a move I am sure they will say was 'inadvertent,' just happened, by sheer chance, to mislabel the recently outed pedophile as a member of the wrong party.

This misidentification was onscreen for no less than 45 seconds in 3 chunks, most of which during the (unexplainably high-rated,) o'reilly factor. (We can't bring ourselves to capitalize his name or program title. Sorry grammar geeks.)

I am shocked, shocked to find that there is propaganda going on in this establishment.

Of course, the network mislabels itself as 'news' 24/7, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

(Thanks to bradblog for the screengrab.)