If this is true, I think the person who said it is likely standing in the unemployment line this morning.

According to a senior GOP-strategist as reported by Thomas DeFrank for the New York Daily News:

“We want people to think ‘terrorism’ for the last four days,” said a Bush-Cheney campaign official. “And anything that raises the issue in people’s minds is good for us.”

A senior GOP strategist added, “anything that makes people nervous about their personal safety helps Bush.”

He called it “a little gift,” saying it helps the President but doesn’t guarantee his reelection.

via AMERICAblog

And if Osama’s tape is a fake who turned it out?

The Republicans or the Democrats?

According to Aljazeera:

The tape was dropped off at the gate of the station’s office in an envelope on Friday, just hours before it aired, said Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Pakistan.

“The Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera said today that it received the latest video taped message from Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at its offices in the Pakistani capital.

We received it in Pakistan . . . Somebody dropped it yesterday at the gate,” Zaidan told The Associated Press. “The guard brought it to me along with other mail. It was in an envelope, I opened it and it was a big scoop.”

Zaidan said he transmitted the tape to Al-Jazeera’s headquarters in the Gulf country of Qatar immediately.

Eric Margolis was interviewed by CBC last night. I agree with him that bin Laden intended to assert his political authourity and this was a conciliatory gesture on his part towards the American people.

And I agree with him that bin Laden prefers George, who has been good for the terrorism business, but I don’t exactly concur this was an endorsement for his re-election. Beyond spinning it either way as “we shouldn’t change horses in midstream”, or bin Laden alive and taping is a negative for Bush, after all is said and done, bin Laden tricked them both out.

“President Bush vowed on Friday the United States will not be intimidated by a pre-election warning from Osama Bin Laden…”

I think “bring it on” is an extremely weak response. Even though it reaffirms bin Laden’s reclamation of his position as the number one fear factor in this election, taking the focus off Iraq and putting it back on George’s terms, Bush could lose the upper hand if Kerry goes beyond attacking him for letting bin Laden escape and rips apart the fallacy “they attacked us for our freedom.” bin Laden’s finally claiming responsibilty for the attacks is akin to rubbing George’s nose in it but pointing out that both candidates’ plans will bring more attacks on America is rubbing Kerry’s nose in it. Kerry’s people must be banging their heads against the wall over that because it’s true; Kerry’s plans don’t address the root cause of terrorism. If he could manage to address that, albeit an incredible task to undertake at this late stage of the game, he would prevail as the stronger candidate.

So much for the “October Surprise” AEI predicted, i.e., the trial of Saddam, the capture of bin Laden, another attack? It seemed to me bin Laden wanted to convey there will be no attack until after the election. Hopefully, the administration doesn’t take this seriously.

As for the intelligence reform bill’s collapse I think if the changes are in line with the appointment of a partisan loyalist like Porter Goss to position of chief filterer then it should die a quick death.

What I find gloomy is that knowledge of the deliberate efforts to skew intelligence and coordinated by the WH in order to carry out war crimes in Iraq hasn’t resulted in a nationwide demand for heads to roll.

But they’re rolling in Fallujah.

Oh. My. Gawd.

via American Leftist

updated @3:57 10/29/04: Move over Karl, Ari & whomever. Make room for daddy.

Go to heaven, go to hell. While you’re on this planet keep your religion out of our politics.

Christopher Manion and Norman Singleton comment on this Liberty Forum post that links to a freeper-produced video which hails George as the Messiah by using Johnny Cash’s The Man Comes Around and carefully selected pictures that leave nothing to the imagination.

You can hear Johnny Cash’s original version here.

Here are some parts edited out by the plagiarising hack:

And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder:
One of the four beasts saying: “Come and see.”
And I saw. And behold, a white horse.

The hairs on your arm will stand up
At the terror in each sip and in each sup
Will you partake of that last offered cup
Or disappear into the potter’s ground
When the man comes around

Till Armageddon no shalam no shalom

Then the father hen will call his chicken’s home
The wise men will bow down before the throne
And at his feet will cast their golden crowns
When the man comes around

Close (Spoken part)
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts
And I looked and behold, a pale horse
And it’s name it said on him was Death
And Hell followed with him.

I wonder what contingency plans Sharon or Netanyahu will implement when they are told to cast golden crowns at the feet of George the Messiah and welcome evangelical proselytisers into the settlements or be sent to the burning fires of hell.

Converting the Jews seems to be on the lord’s agenda:

Getting New Terms (via Eric Umansky)

Keeping up with well-known area folks getting recent appointments . . . President Bush over the summer named Madeleine C. Will, former assistant secretary of education for special education and rehabilitative services and former spouse of columnist George Will, to another term as chairman of the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. Bush reappointed to that committee the Rev. Lon N. Solomon, senior pastor of the McLean Bible Church, which has planned an $18.5 million center for disabled children. Solomon also serves as chairman of the board of the executive committee of Jews for Jesus.

Jews for Jesus has a lively presentation for those of you wondering why the religious need to bother at all with politics. Because, you silly fools, we need a theocracy! “Now that’s a system that can’t be beat!”

On October 31, TRIO will be airing this doc again which I saw last night. Excellent film.

They say genius is never appreciated in its own time, or however that saying goes, but Hicks was widely appreciated elsewhere. It was his own country that couldn’t accept him unedited, above ground.

If you can appreciate yet another explanation for why George Bush is still in the running instead of behind bars and John Kerry is his so-called opposition then this is a film to study. It deftly chronicles how doggedly devoted Americans can be to their own slick packaging and contrived sense of exceptionalism and if you doubt how little we’ve evolved since Hicks’ time you haven’t been reading Operation Clark County in the Guardian.

Hicks’ genius was giving legitimacy to those nagging suspicions that something just ain’t right; the thoughts people keep to themselves or be treated to ridicule and contempt because the mainstream doesn’t spoon-feed them affirmation of their conclusions. He put the spotlight on corporate America and he devoted his life and career to waking people up to its methods. Violent resistance energised him.

His trials and tribulations are an indictment not only of the times he lived in but of the current state of affairs. Bill Hicks had it in for anyone who was busily baa-ing their life away in a barn lot.

He was brilliant and brave and funnier than hell. His legacy will live on.

By Vanessa German

thank u
for makin it easier for me
to get a tech9 or AR14
than a pap smear & a good education

thank u
from the first boy i kissed
who u sent off to fight your war in iraq
he returned home only by telegram
& in a box

thank u
from me
from my body
from the woman i love
that i want to marry & call my wife
without u bible thumpin daggers
& demanding constitutional amendments
to prevent us from loving this revolutionary love
(az tho we cud soil the sanctitiy of marriage)
u cud nevah touch my love or fuck with my love
its just the right u seek to deny us
so we must fight for it in the end it’s all a matter of
voice
of excercising choice & flexing the muscle of democracy
which shudn’t be pigeon holed marginalized
or constitutionaly compromised
under the pretense that who i love
kiss fuck hold hands & make family with
iz destructive to the fiber
that quilts the fabric of america
which ironically happens to be
cotton
that notoriously bloody lily white thread
that my grandfather & hiz fathers fathers before
picked by hand in mer rouge louisiana

i hav not forgotton
that i am america
that my blood iz in these rivers
& at the roots of these redwood trees
i know that this country was built on the backs of blacks
that were shackled strapped & stacked
slashed gashed taxed & then cashed in on
like cattle

i hav not forgotton that i am america
& even tho u want me to be quiet & invisible
i will not

i hav decided that if u r not with US
then u r against US

US
the 99% of the population that makes less
than 1.2 million dollars a year
the 43 million people that hav no health care
the 14 million children that got left behind
that go to bed hungry every night

if u r not with US then
u r against US

& we understand
that terror iz not always guns & knives
& otherwise explosive devices of evil
sometimes terror
iz just making no living wage
going day to day pay check to pay check
praying that no one gets sick
terror iz not knowing which of ur sons
will fit the description & die while reaching back pocket
for identification to prove he iz american
but not american enuf to live free
terror iz being 13
having no access
no choice & taking matters
into ur own hands
terror iz being a woman
begging for emergency contraception
when u’ve been raped taken by force & foresaken
just like the constitution
after the presidential election of 2000
which u did not win
u stole like a purse
off the shoulder of an old lady
making america ur bitch
didn’t anyone ever tell u
when u take shit that’s not urs u give it back
& apologize

but no.

we realize that u mr bush
r just the figure head the smoke screen
the sony nike gmc tommyhilfigerbluejeans
brand name
of a regime of evil so vicious & arrogant
u hav the audacity to murder in my name
& call it justice call it liberation long time come
when all it really iz
iz economic imperialism
or occupation
which iz the same thing hitler did
in poland austria & hungry …
if u really wanted to liberate
u cud hav liberated
delbert orr africa
janine holloway africa
micheal sims africa
or
mumia abul jamal

it wasn’t 6 weeks
it waz 17thousand lives
not just american lives
but human lives
how sacred are they
tell me answer me
tell me how sacred are they

stop trying to convince us that justice
iz always this bloody
that liberation costs babies
& mothers & homes & sons
& lovers & fathers & dignity
& truth & purity & hope & democracy

thank u mr bush
for showing us
that we must fight everyday for our freedom
as tho we r fighting for our lives
obviously u r not going to beat a path
of justice to our frontdoors

this is my requiem
for the last four years
my premptive strike
on the next four years
this iz my love poem
to america even tho
he took u by force violated u
forsook u before they eye of god
made u barely recognizable to the rest of us
i still love u baby
he can not shame u before my eyes
u r beautiful
i will fight & die for u r the people
& i am u

this iz my love poem to america

I got your letter today
and I miss you all so much here
I can’t wait to see you all
and I’m counting the days here

I still believe that there’s gold
at the end of the world
And I’ll come home to Illinois
on the day after tomorrow

It is so hard and it’s cold here
and I’m tired of taking orders
And I miss old Rockford town
up by the Wisconsin border

What I miss, you won’t believe
shoveling snow and raking leaves
And my plane will touch down
on the day after tomorrow

I close my eyes every nite
and I dream that I can hold you

They fill us full of lies, everyone buys
’bout what it means to be a soldier
I still don’t know how I’m supposed to feel
’bout all the blood that’s been spilled
Will god on this throne
get me back home
on the day after tomorrow

You can’t deny, the other side
Don’t want to die anymore than we do
What I’m trying to say is don’t they pray
to the same god that we do?

And tell me how does god choose
whose prayers does he refuse?
Who turns the wheel
Who throws the dice
on the day after tomorrow

I’m not fighting, for justice
I am not fighting, for freedom
I am fighting, for my life
and another day in the world here

I just do what I’ve been told
We’re just the gravel on the road
And only the lucky ones come home
on the day after tomorrow

And the summer, it too will fade
and with it brings the winter’s frost dear
And I know we too are made
of all the things that we have lost here

I’ll be 21 today
I been saving all my pay
And my plane will touch down
on the day after tomorrow
And my plane it will touch down
on the day after tomorrow

Tom Waits
Real Gone (2004)

[I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
And to the Republic for which it stands
One nation under God
Indivisible
It feels so good to be back..]

I scrutinise every word, memorise every line
I spit it once, refuel, reenergise, and rewind
I give sight to the blind, my insight through the mind
I exercise my right to express when I feel it’s time
It’s just all in your mind, what you interpret it as
I say to fight you take it as I’m gonna whip someone’s ass
If you don’t understand don’t even bother to ask
A father who has grown up with a fatherless past
Who has blown up now to rap phenomenon that has
Or at least shows no difficulty multi-taskin
And juggling both, perhaps mastered his craft slash
Entrepreneur who has held on to a few more rap acts
Who has had a few obstacles thrown his way through the last half
Of his career typical manure moving past that
Mister kiss his ass crack, he’s a class act
Rubber band man, yea he just snaps back

Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won’t steer you wrong
Put your faith in your trust as I guide us through the fog
To the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors

To the people up top, on the side and the middle,
Come together, let’s all bomb and swamp just a little
Just let it gradually build, from the front to the back
All you can see is a sea of people, some white and some black
Don’t matter what color all that matters we’re gathered together
To celebrate for the same cause, no matter the weather
If it rains let it rain, yea the wetter the better
They ain’t gonna stop us, they can’t, we’re stronger now more than ever,
They tell us no we say yea, they tell us stop we say go,
Rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell we gonna let em know
Stomp, push up, mush, Fuck Bush, until they bring our troops home come on just . . .

Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won’t steer you wrong
Put your faith in your trust as I guide us through the fog
To the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors, c’mon

Imagine it pouring, it’s raining down on us
Mosh pits outside the oval office
Someone’s tryin’ a tell us something,
Maybe this is god just sayin’ we’re responsible
For this monster, this coward,
That we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head noddin’
How could we allow something like this without pumping our fists
Now this is our final hour
Let me be the voice and your strength and your choice
Let me simplify the rhyme just to amplify the noise
Try to amplify it, times it, multiply it by six-
Teen million people, Are equal at this high pitch
Maybe we can reach al Qaeda through my speech
Let the president answer our high anarchy
Strap him with an Ak-47, let him go fight his own war
Let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil
No more psychological warfare, to trick us to thinking that we ain’t loyal
If we don’t serve our own country, we’re patronising a hero
Look in his eyes it’s all lies
The stars and stripes, they’ve been swiped, washed out and wiped
And replaced with his own face, Mosh now or die
If I get sniped tonight you know why,
Cause I told you to fight.

Come along, follow me as I lead through the darkness
As I provide just enough spark, that we need to proceed
Carry on, give me hope, give me strength,
Come with me, and I won’t steer you wrong
Put your faith in your trust as I guide us through the fog
To the light, at the end, of the tunnel, we gonna fight,
We gonna charge, we gonna stomp, we gonna march through the swamp
We gonna mosh through the marsh, take us right through the doors

[Eminem speaking angrily]

And as we proceed,
To Mosh through this desert storm,
In these closing statements, if they should argue
Let us beg to differ
As we set aside our differences
And assemble our own army
To disarm this Weapon of Mass Destruction
That we call our President, for the present
And Mosh for the future of our next generation
To speak and be heard
Mr. President, Mr. Senator
Do you guys hear us…hear us…[laughing] (Hailie)

DC Green Lantern: : Evil Genius

updated 10/26/04 @ 7:03pm: MOSH the video via Joshuah Bearman.

and from his comment section:

“This page has better QT of the video and a bit of background on how it came about.”

http://www.gnn.tv/videos/video.php?id=27

[JPN Commentary: * Number of Palestinian kids killed in the first two weeks since September 28, 2004 (The Israeli Operation "Days of Penitence" in the Gaza Strip): 30.

* Number of Palestinian kids killed by the Israeli army since the beginning of the Intifada PRIOR to Days of Penitence according to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem: 557.

* Number of kids among them age ten: 42

* Age seven: 20

* Age two: 8

* Number of Israeli kids killed since the beginning of the Intifada: 110.

* Numbers of Palestinian babies who died at checkpoints during birth: 13.

* Age of Iman al Hamas, whose body was "riddled with over 20 bullets before the Israeli commander approached the girl... fired two shots at her head and then empties [sic] his magazine, pumping her body with bullets”: 13.

In Memoriam:

* Mohammed Aaraj, 6. Shot to death by an Israeli soldier from a fairly close range while eating a sandwich in front of his house, the last house before the cemetery of the Balata refugee camp, in Nablus.

* Kristen Saada, 12. Killed in her parents’ car, on the way home from a family visit, when soldiers sprayed the car with bullets.

* Jamil and Ahmed Abu Aziz, brothers, age 13 and 6 respectively. Killed while riding their bicycles in full daylight on their way to buy candy. Both were directly hit by a shell fired by an Israeli tank crew.

* Radir Mohammed, 12, from Khan Yunis refugee camp. Was in a school classroom when soldiers shot her to death.

All items are from the article below, except the quotation about Iman al Hamas’ killing which is from “IDF investigates death of Palestinian girl” By Margot Dudkevitch and Herb Keinon, The Jerusalem Post, 10/17/04.—AK]

Killing children is no longer a big deal

By Gideon Levy

More than 30 Palestinian children were killed in the first two weeks of Operation Days of Penitence in the Gaza Strip. It’s no wonder that many people term such wholesale killing of children “terror.” Whereas in the overall count of all the victims of the Intifada the ratio is three Palestinians killed for every Israeli killed, when it comes to children the ratio is 5:1. According to B’Tselem, the human rights organization, even before the current operation in Gaza, 557 Palestinian minors (below the age of 18) were killed, compared to 110 Israeli minors.

Palestinian human rights groups speak of even higher numbers: 598 Palestinian children killed (up to age 17), according to the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, and 828 killed (up to age 18) according to the Red Crescent. Take note of the ages, too. According to B’Tselem, whose data are updated until about a month ago, 42 of the children who have been killed were 10; 20 were seven; and eight were two years old when they died. The youngest victims are 13 newborn infants who died at checkpoints during birth.
Continue reading →

What is missing from the US elections?

Israel!

Is the US-Israel alliance now a bond between extreme, damaging nationalisms? This week, www.openDemocracy.net hosts the debate on an issue that George W Bush and John Kerry have avoided. Emanuele Ottolenghi and Anatol Lieven exchange polemical, passionate, polarised views. Who is right? Read the articles, and Anatol Lieven’s book extract on Israel and the US, which triggered the argument.

Open the door to DLC-candidate Kerry and this is what you get.