FT.com / Arts & Weekend: "Would you take advice on how to vote from the Beastie Boys? The veteran rappers hope so: their new album To the Five Boroughs is full of grammatically challenged but politically unambiguous statements like 'George W's got nothing on me, we got to take the power from he'.

The bad news for Bush is that this album is the new number one in the US charts, having been purchased by 360,000 Americans last week - many of them potential voters"
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Number one music - Antibush, Number one movie - Antibush
Too many folks are onto the scam - Dixiechickin' is on the lamb.

The Founding Fathers Meet George Bush - Maureen Farrell at BuzzFlash.com: "Charles S. Beard noted that, 'You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.' "
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Touche'.

Daily Kos :: Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.: "Washington Post: Despite the end of the occupation

Knight Ridder: Iraqis see hope in end of U.S.-led occupation

Los Angeles Times: end of a deeply divisive American-led occupation

San Francisco Chronicle: the U.S.-led military occupation had formally ended

Miami Herald: ended its occupation of Iraq

Associated Press: the end of the American occupation

Arizona Republic:: the 160,000 foreign troops in Iraq were transformed from occupiers into guests of a U.S.-backed government. "
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Anybody but me think this is just another 'Mission Accomplished' moment?

The Washington Monthly: "What to say? The argument over the film mostly seems to revolve around whether it's factually accurate and presents a logical case, a conversation so pointless as to be laughable. I mean, it's a polemical film from Michael Moore, not a Brookings Institution white paper. It's like complaining that editorial cartoons are unfair because they don't portray the nuance of serious policy discussions."

AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth: "Cheney just got booed at the Yankees game

(I was thinking of retitling this: 'Yankee fans tell Cheney 'go fuck yourself.'')

I just got a live phone-in from the Yankees vs. Boston game in NYC taking place right now. Dick Cheney just got booed by the crowd!

Even as my friend Michael called me from his seats at the game, God Bless America was still playing in the background. During the 7th inning stretch at Yankees Stadium, they play God Bless America and show on the big screen pictures of anyone famous who's in the audience that night. Dick Cheney is apparently in the audience, and as soon as his face went up, the entire crowd started booing! As my friend Michael tells it, this is the blue-collar Bronx we're talking about, and Cheney is still getting booed - not a good sign for the Bush-Cheney ticket. As soon as the camera guys realized Cheney was getting booed, they quickly switched the picture on the screen to someone else.

Michael's read of the situation, as a die-hard Yankees fan: The election is over."
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One has to wonder how much national exposure this will receive. Story has apparantly
been confirmed by ESPN.

Eschaton: "WASHINGTON -- The government needs to establish guidelines for canceling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again, says the chairman of a new federal voting commission.

Such guidelines do not currently exist, said DeForest B. Soaries, head of the voting panel.

Soaries was appointed to the federal Election Assistance Commission last year by President Bush. Soaries said he wrote to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in April to raise the concerns"
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Here's what I've been waiting for. They know they can't win again.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Who Lost Iraq?: "Plans for privatization were eventually put on hold. But as he prepared to leave Iraq, Mr. Bremer listed reduced tax rates, reduced tariffs and the liberalization of foreign-investment laws as among his major accomplishments. Insurgents are blowing up pipelines and police stations, geysers of sewage are erupting from the streets, and the electricity is off most of the time but we've given Iraq the gift of supply-side economics.
If the occupiers often seemed oblivious to reality, one reason was that many jobs at the C.P.A. went to people whose qualifications seemed to lie mainly in their personal and political connections people like Simone Ledeen, whose father, Michael Ledeen, a prominent neoconservative, told a forum that 'the level of casualties is secondary' because 'we are a warlike people' and 'we love war.'"

Hullabaloo: "How interesting for SCLM fans that the alleged inaccuracies in Moore's movie (which I've not yet seen) appear to be considerably more upsetting to the mainstream than say, those in the president's State of the Union messages, press conferences and requests to Congress for the power to go to war with Iraq."
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Very interesting indeed.

The Rude Pundit: "Better then to avert one's gaze from Big Tony and over to Uncle Tom. Once again, proving that no Negro is as loyal as a house Negro (see Condi, Colin, etc.), Clarence Thomas, in the lone vote against the majority opinion, does what so many slaves have done for time immemorial: he embraces the way of his master. His dissent is a frightening look at the abiding deference to power that is the hallmark of the servant beaten down to believe that he has no opinions of his own or, to put it simply, he is not worthy: 'The plurality utterly fails to account for the Government's compelling interests and for our own institutional inability to weigh competing concerns correctly.' As for the reasons behind the executive's decision to name Hamdi an 'enemy combatant,' Thomas opines, 'We lack the capacity and responsibility to second-guess this determination.' Massa's always right, as Thomas bows and scrapes, 'Undeniably, Hamdi has been deprived of a serious interest, one actually protected by the Due Process Clause. Against this, however, is the Government's overriding interest in protecting the Nation"
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How far out of the 'norm' do you have to be to think the President ought to have unlimited powers with no oversight? As far as Uncle Tom I guess.

House blocks refunds in Enron case: "WASHINGTON -- The House, after a blistering face-off in which Democrats accused the White House of coddling Enron Corp., yesterday refused to order refunds for millions of Western consumers who were victimized by an artificial energy crisis in 2000 and 2001.
Republicans refused to allow the measure to come to a vote, insisting that Democrats were only attempting to embarrass President Bush and Republicans for their once-close ties to Enron. Moreover, they said that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is working hard to build a case against Enron and that Democrats should allow the agency to complete its mission."
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Republicans looking out for your best interests? Perhaps they're unaware of the Enron Trader Tapes? To Wit:

Officials with the Snohomish Public Utility District near Seattle received the tapes from the Justice Department.

"This is the evidence we've all been waiting for. This proves they manipulated the market," said Eric Christensen, a spokesman for the utility.

That utility, like many others, is trying to get its money back from Enron.

"They're f------g taking all the money back from you guys?" complains an Enron employee on the tapes. "All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?"

"Yeah, grandma Millie, man"

"Yeah, now she wants her f------g money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her a------ for f------g $250 a megawatt hour."

And the tapes appear to link top Enron officials Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling to schemes that fueled the crisis.

"Government Affairs has to prove how valuable it is to Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling," says one trader.

"Ok."

"Do you know when you started over-scheduling load and making buckets of money on that?

Before the 2000 election, Enron employees pondered the possibilities of a Bush win.

"It'd be great. I'd love to see Ken Lay Secretary of Energy," says one Enron worker.

That didn't happen, but they were sure President Bush would fight any limits on sky-high energy prices.
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Eschaton: "Verbatim from Chris Myers (Fox Sports announcer) on today's race at Pomona pre-race program..

'You think you know Dale Earnhardt Jr.? He advised his crew to go see the Michael Moore movie Farenheit 911. He said hey, it'll be a good bonding experience no matter what your political belief. It's a good thing as an American to go see... and it just shows you that Dale Earnhardt Jr. can reach far beyond the steering wheel.'"
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Nascar Fans Take Note

Hullabaloo: "Medicare is planning a lottery later this year for people with cancer, multiple sclerosis and several other diseases. For the 50,000 winners, the government will start helping pay for their medicine, but more than 450,000 others must wait until 2006.

However, the law limits the new program to 50,000 people and $500 million, at least $200 million of which must be spent on cancer drugs. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson estimated 500,000 to 600,000 Medicare recipients without prescription drug coverage are eligible.

'There'll be a lottery to be chosen as one of 50,000 lucky individuals,' Thompson said.

Medicare will accept applications for the lottery from July 6 to Sept. 30, and will randomly select 25,000 cancer patients and 25,000 people with the other illnesses."
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Finally, A NATIONAL LOTTERY!! Bill Bennett would be proud.

FOXNews.com - You Decide 2004 - Bush Campaign Ad Contains Hitler Footage: "Bush Campaign Ad Contains Hitler Footage
Saturday, June 26, 2004

WASHINGTON Adolf Hitler's (search) image has surfaced again in the White House race. President Bush's campaign contains online video, removed from a liberal group's Web site months ago and disavowed, that features the Nazi dictator. "
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Real bad move on the Thug's part. As if we need to be reminded what kind of Nazi thugs THEY ARE? This will backfire Karl.

Hullabaloo: "Apparently, the NY Times just got its reporters brand new calculators/vanity mirrors because they seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time doing price checks on the Kerry campaign expenditures, barely able to contain their disgust at such conspicuous consumption:


John Kerry may be only a candidate for president, but he and his entourage travel like kings. A month ago, his campaign began chartering a gleaming 757, packed with first-class seats, fine food, sleeping accommodations - even a stand-up bar. They hardly shy away from fancy hotels, like the Four Seasons in Palm Beach and the St. Regis in Los Angeles.


Strangely, they weren't so appalled back in 2000 when the Bush campaign feted them in high style on the Enron jet. In fact, as Bob Sommerby incomparably pointed out, Margaret Carlson wrote in her book that it was the gorging on imported chocolates and expensive entres (as compared to the cold box lunches provided by that lying Philistine Al Gore) that created the positive brown nosing that passed for coverage of candidate Bush:


"There were Dove bars and designer water on demand, she recalls, and a bathroom stocked like Martha Stewart's guest suite. Dinner at seven featured lobster ravioli."
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Don't expect the 'left wing' media to save us from the fascists. When the top rated movie in the nation makes it to ONE Mississippi theater.....be afraid.

Salon.com Politics: "Iacocca ditches Bush for Kerry


Lee Iacocca, the executive and pitchman credited with saving Chrysler, has a new project: saving America from another Bush presidency. The retired businessman endorsed Senator Kerry today at a campaign event in San Jose, California. "
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Lee is getting in early on the exodus so he won't be trampled by the upcoming stampede. Congrats.

Moore?s Magic: 9/11 Electrifies: "Now that the merde has hit the oscillator, so to speak, Mr. Moore charges that the Bush administration is still trying to hide evidence of its own stupidity by censoring 28 pages of the independent report by the 9/11 commission. If you don?t gasp at the sight of Mr. Bush dining with the Saudi ambassador with part of the Pentagon in flames in the background, this movie is not for you. No need to talk about the President welcoming the Taliban to the State Department, knowing they were harboring the man who bombed the U.S.S. Cole. No need to go into the plans to build an underground pipeline through Afghanistan pumping money into a company owned by Vice President Dick Cheney. Alarmingly, it?s all gone unreported by an irresponsible press corps. With $860 billion currently invested by the Saudis in American business, no wonder our tax money pays for a six-man detail to protect the Saudi ambassador in Washington. But why does it take Michael Moore to tell us? This is all very dispiriting. But unless you?ve lost your sense of humor completely, you?ve just gotta laugh when Mr. Moore intercuts Mr. Bush?s tough talk from cowboy movies with actual footage of the corny cowboys in those movies saying exactly the same things."
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Bush Dines with Saudi ambassador while the Pentagon burns in the background? Now there's a scene worth the price of admission alone!

EditorandPublisher.com - Information Authority for the Newspaper Industry: "NEW YORK The Associated Press has sued the Pentagon and Air Force, seeking access to all records of President George W. Bush's military service, but the news agency wonders why it has come to this.

'It seems a little curious because the president made a pretty forceful presentation that he had nothing to hide,' said AP General Counsel Dave Tomlin, when asked for his reaction to what the AP considers government stonewalling. 'But we are not surprised.'"
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None of us should be surprised. I watched Bush on television one Sunday morning promise he would release all his records. I knew he was lying at the time because his lips were moving.

AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth: "Our soldiers are bogged down in two different foreign countries. We're at war fighting terrorism and crippled internationally by the shame of our human rights abuses in Iraq. The White House just admitted they screwed up and, no, we're NOT winning the war on terror -- terrorist acts continue to rise. And in the midst of all this, some partisan Republicans want to waste our time by putting up for vote a Constitutional amendment that poll after poll shows most Americans don't support? Bring it on."

NRSC: "Cheney stumps for Ryan in quick visit
Excerpted from the Chicago Sun-Times; June 5, 2004
Vice President Dick Cheney flew into Chicago on Friday just to attend a dinner honoring Republican Senate nominee Jack Ryan...
...The No. 2 man in the Bush administration helped fatten Ryan's campaign coffers by nearly $500,000 at the fund-raiser at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. "
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Birds of a feather.

Kerry finds gold, slams Bush in Bay Area visit / Exasperated senator calls GOP 'so petty': "If Kerry interrupts his campaigning for the vote, he is hoping the trip back to Washington is more productive than a similar one Tuesday. After calling off a campaign swing to New Mexico to vote on a veterans' health measure, he found himself cooling his heels in the Capitol for hours before the GOP leadership finally canceled the scheduled vote.
An exasperated Kerry called it a typical example of the partisanship that drives President Bush and the congressional leadership.
'These people are so petty, so sad, so political that all they could do was spend the whole day finding a way to not let John Kerry vote,'' he said during a speech to the Service Employees International Union convention at the Moscone Convention Center on Wednesday. "
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Excellent example of the kind of divisive politics the Thugs are known for.