Jump

And about those WMDs:
"A political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief."
--President Bush

Its a Loot

Remember when dissenters were made fun of when they complained about something so silly as looting? C'mon, are we really so worried about museum artifacts?

Rumsfeld set them straight:

"The task we've got ahead of us now is an awkward one ... It's untidy. And freedom's untidy. And free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here," Rumsfeld said.

"And for suddenly the biggest problem in the world to be looting is really notable."

Well. Looks like, now, that untidiness is blowing up. From the Times:

Looters stormed the weapons site at Al Qaqaa in the days after American troops swept through the area in early April 2003 on their way to Baghdad, gutting office buildings, carrying off munitions and even dismantling heavy machinery, three Iraqi witnesses and a regional security chief said Wednesday.

The Iraqis described an orgy of theft so extensive that enterprising residents rented their trucks to looters. But some looting was clearly indiscriminate, with people grabbing anything they could find and later heaving unwanted items off the trucks.
...
[T]he accounts make clear that what set off much if not all of the looting was the arrival and swift departure of American troops, who did not secure the site after inducing the Iraqi forces to abandon it.

"The looting started after the collapse of the regime," said Wathiq al-Dulaimi, a regional security chief, who was based nearby in Latifiya. But once it had begun, he said, the booty streamed toward Baghdad.

Prez and the Court

The President and the Courts. Professor Lazarus has a column in FindLaw expressing some disappointment in both candiates' routes to talking about the Courts and the types of Justices they would appoint. To be fair, he finds much more fault in Bush than Kerry, whom, says Lazarus, is merely holding back too much in order to avoid more liberal name-callings.

In many respects, the article is a critique of current rhetorical use of 'activist judges' and 'strict construction.' Worth a quick read.

damn lies

For those of you interested in the difference between lies and damn lies. Read this.

wash yer brains

Amazing. I just returned to my home away in SD. Looks like I missed this little piece of the bizarre. Republican readers, please ease my mind and confirm my sense of your good judgements--and tell me you think this Sinclair business is ridiculous. Apply the old test, swap the candidates. If this were an anti-Bush piece aired by a major license holder, I would be duly troubled at the appearance of true liberal bias.

As it turns out, I find the old myth of liberal bias in the media quite squashed. Thank you, Sinclair, for putting to bed that beast.

Further, a little pre-thinking: this will be good for Kerry. Sinclair's move in airing this propaganda is so blatantly Rovian, I think it will really push voters the other way. The other networks will furl their eyebrows, and the whole thing will be the republican version of (the republican conceived public perception of) Wellstone's memorial service.

More, as I learn more about this. Just now got to my computer.

misleader

Important report from the Times putting together in coherent form the Bush teams knowing reliance on weak intel. If you maintain the dream that Bush was forthcoming in the lead up to was in Iraq, read this, and attempt, for a fleeting moment, to understand the frustration of those who have kicked and screamed about this issue.

The fact, in our minds, is this: With regard to going to war in Iraq, Bush intentionally sold the immediacy of Hussein's threat. Clinton had the policy, and Kerry approved, that Hussein needed to be removed from power. Bush sold us on the idea that the threat was not simply real, but immediate...remember Dr. Rice threatening the mushroom cloud smoking gun? I believe Bush was not convinced of this immediate threat. I believe he wanted to get on with the war (perhaps strategy, perhaps because he knew the American population wouldn't buy the neo-con idea of reforming the mid-east). If Bush had believed the threat was imminent, he would not have shushed the nuclear experts that said the alluminum tubes were not for nuclear weapons. But he hushed them. Read the article.

For this reason, I simply don't trust Bush. I don't think he's evil, but I don't trust him. I already didn't like his policies. I feared, a'la Diulio, that he put politics before policy. But trust, that basic belief that he gave us, basically, a fair telling of the way things were, has eroded to a small dirt pile after these four years.

fox

You think Fox news will be on the cover of the major weeklies with a story of its bias and fake journalism? Don't hold your breath. Do, though, read TPM's posts on this little piece of stupidity. The reporter from Fox News assigned to cover the Kerry campaign wrote up a bunch of fake quotes making some kind of fun of John Kerry.

Rallying supporters in Tampa Friday, Kerry played up his performance in Thursday night's debate, in which many observers agreed the Massachusetts senator outperformed the president.

"Didn't my nails and cuticles look great? What a good debate!" Kerry said Friday.

With the foreign-policy debate in the history books, Kerry hopes to keep the pressure on and the sense of traction going.

Aides say he will step up attacks on the president in the next few days, and pivot somewhat to the domestic agenda, with a focus on women and abortion rights.

"It's about the Supreme Court. Women should like me! I do manicures," Kerry said.

Pretty damn professional of Fox News, eh? Nice to have more proof of the liberal bias out there in media land.