Oh God

One of the funniest Bush gaffes to date. Visually, at least.

http://homepage.mac.com/njenson/movies/confetti.html

What you are looking at is, Bush said the cue words "God bless" four minutes before the end of the speech, when "God Bless America" was supposed to be given a little extra punch with a shower of confetti.

Important Videos

With the Internet, many feature-length films can be streamed (watch live, without loading). Some must see streaming videos are,

Fahrenheit 9/11
http://www.bush-flipflop.com/f911.html

Eminem's Mosh Music Video
http://www.gnn.tv/content/eminem_mosh.html

Jon Stewart on 60 Minutes
http://homepage.mac.com/njenson/movies/stewart60min.html

Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry
http://www.thekerrymovie.com

Al Gore at Georgetown

"We also know from documents obtained in discovery proceedings against that Cheney task force, by the odd combination of Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club that one of the documents that was receiving scrutiny by the task force during that same time period was a highly detailed map of Iraq -- showing none of the cities, none of the places where people lived, but showing in great detail the location of every single oil deposit known to exist in the country, with dotted lines demarking blocks for promising exploration -- a map which in the words of a Canadian journalists resembled a butcher's drawing of a steer with the prime cuts delineated by dotted lines. "

http://www.algoredemocrats.com/

http://www.algore04.com/news/gnn/EpAlEukuZEoWoQliyA.shtml

Dose Of Reality

STEWART: And I wanted to -- I felt that that wasn't fair and I should come here and tell you that I don't -- it's not so much that it's bad, as it's hurting America.

...

STEWART: Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America.

...

CARLSON: I do think you're more fun on your show. Just my opinion.

CARLSON: OK, up next, Jon Stewart goes one on one with his fans...

STEWART: You know what's interesting, though? You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0410/15/cf.01.html

Update: VIDEO!

http://homepage.mac.com/njenson/movies/jonstewartcrossfire.html

The Return of Karen Ryan

THE RETURN OF "KAREN RYAN"

HOW THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS TRYING TO CONTROL TV AND PRINT MEDIA

AP Enterprise: Bush ads surface as TV news again, this time in education

BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer

Sunday, October 10, 2004

09:39 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

The Bush administration has promoted its education law with a video that comes across as a news story but fails to make clear the reporter involved was paid with taxpayer money.

The government used a similar approach this year in promoting the new Medicare law and drew a rebuke from the investigative arm of Congress, which found the videos amounted to propaganda in violation of federal law.

The Education Department also has paid for rankings of newspaper coverage of the No Child Left Behind law, a centerpiece of the president's domestic agenda. Points are awarded for stories that say President Bush and the Republican Party are strong on education, among other factors.

The news ratings also rank individual reporters on how they cover the law, based on the points system set up by Ketchum, a public relations firm hired by the government.

The video and documents emerged through a Freedom of Information Act request by People for the American Way, a liberal group that contends the department is spending public money on a political agenda. The group sought details on a $700,000 contract Ketchum received in 2003 from the Education Department.

One service the company provided was a video news release geared for television stations. The video includes a news story that features Education Secretary Rod Paige and promotes tutoring now offered under law.

The story ends with the voice of a woman saying, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."

It does not identify the government as the source of the report. It also fails to make clear the person purporting to be a reporter was someone hired for the promotional video.

Those are the same features -- including the voice of Karen Ryan -- that were prominent in videos the Health and Human Services Department used to promote the Medicare law and were judged covert propaganda by the Government Accountability Office in May.

The Education Department's video uses "the same exact mode of operation," said Nancy Keenan, education policy director at People for the American Way. The video encourages students to take advantage of tutoring and says that families give the idea an "A-plus."

"It's basically propaganda, not general information about a program," she said. "And it's portraying to the American public, via a video news release, that it's news."

The Education Department says the video was clearly marked as being a product of the agency when it was given to TV stations. Still, since the GAO report came out, the department has stopped using the narration-styled video news releases, spokeswoman Susan Aspey said.
Aspey defended the video as a way to help people understand the law's offer of tutoring.

"Frankly, one has to wonder about the motives of those who are against informing parents that they have options," she said.

At least one television station in New York used the package in 2003, substituting its own reporter for the voiceover but following the script and video provided by the department. The department, in turn, put the text of that station's story on its Web site.

Government press offices play a key role in sharing information and pitching story ideas, but sending out videos featuring "pretend" news reports is wrong, said Al Tompkins, who teaches broadcast reporting at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists.

"Let the alert be loud and clear: Don't use this stuff," Tompkins said.

The Public Relations Society of America advises its nearly 20,000 members not to use the word "reporting" in its video news releases if the narrator is not a reporter.

The GAO declined comment on the Education Department's video and its similarities to the Medicare video. Both promote laws that the administration has highlighted during Bush's re-election campaign as successes despite debate about how they are being implemented.

In ranking newspaper coverage of No Child Left Behind, Ketchum developed a 100-point scale. Stories got five points each for positive messages, such as mentions that the law gives choices to parents and holds schools accountable.

Five points also went to stories that send a message that "The Bush Administration/the GOP is committed to education."

Stories lost five points for negative messages, including claims that the law is not adequately funded or is too tough on states.

The news review for the department also rated education reporters, giving higher scores to their stories if they were deemed positive.

"The government should spend money that benefits the people. How did this benefit the people?" Tompkins said about the ratings of reporters.

In one period, for example, Ketchum rated reporters at USA Today and at newspapers in Atlanta; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; Harrisburg, Pa.; Louisville, Ky.; Portland, Ore.; Minneapolis; and Salt Lake City.

Asked if the ratings influenced how the department treats certain reporters, Aspey said: "We treat all reporters fairly, because that's our job."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/10/10/national1239EDT0473.DTL

Naked Bush

Too funny for words.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1133075.html

A painting of President Bush in the nude has been taken down from a Washington DC museum.

Artist Kayti Didriksen painted Man of Leisure, King George, which was on display at the City Museum.

It is painted in the style of Edouard Manet's Olympia but Didriksen's version shows a nude Bush on a chaise lounge.

Vice President Dick Cheney stands nearby, holding a cushion with a crown and a miniature oil rig on it.

The painting was part of a show called Funky Furniture that was set up in the museum last week.

But the show, including the Bush painting, was abruptly shut down after some of the artists' themes were considered unsuitable.

Myra Peabody Gossens, a public relations consultant for the museum, said the exhibit was not what had been expected.

"The museum is not an art museum," she explained. "It gets mostly groups of children, with teachers trying to tell them something about history."

Howard Dean at UC Berkeley

To commemorate 40 years of the Free Speech movement, Gov. Howard Dean gave a noon rally speech Friday on the steps of Sproul Plaza at the University of California, Berkeley.

I was there, watching from a nearby balcony, and took some pictures and a short video clip.

These were taken on October 8, 2004, the week of the 40 year anniversary of the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley.Forty years ago, in October 1964, five thousand Berkeley students participated in a sit-in around a police car that had come to arrest a leader of the free speech movement on campus. This act of defiance was the spiritual birth of the free speech movement.

On October 8 2004, Berkeley alumns returned to the steps of Sproul Plaza to deliver speeches, sing songs, and read poems about the struggle for free speech. They introduced the Governor of Vermont, who had awakened the Democratic Party in 2003 and now again in 2004 to take opposition to values that are antithetical to our own as progressives.

Dean emerged from Sproul Hall and strode onto the platform above a mock police car to the cheers of several thousand Berkeley residents and students. He then delivered a fantastic speech about the right to choose, the rights of gay citizens, the importance of funding education and health care, and the need for a sensible foreign policy. He spoke with conviction and urged everyone to help get out the vote for Kerry.

Here is a local newspaper reporting on the event.

http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11268~2456840,00.html

Pictures and video online as soon as I'm able. Watch this space!

Checkmate on Choice

Special thanks to Jim Deedler for sharing this on the JK Blog.

Question 17: Sen. Kerry, how can you assure a voter who believes abortion is murder that their tax dollars would not support abortion?

GIBSON: Going to go to the final two questions now, and the first one will be for Sen. Kerry. And this comes from Sarah Degenhart.

QUESTIONER: Sen. Kerry, suppose you are speaking with a voter who believed abortion is murder and the voter asked for reassurance that his or her tax dollars would not go to support abortion, what would you say to that person?

KERRY: I would say to that person exactly what I will say to you right now.

First of all, I cannot tell you how deeply I respect the belief about life and when it begins. I'm a Catholic, raised a Catholic. I was an altar boy. Religion has been a huge part of my life. It helped lead me through a war, leads me today.

But I can't take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn't share that article of faith, whether they be agnostic, atheist, Jew, Protestant, whatever. I can't do that.

But I can counsel people. I can talk reasonably about life and about responsibility. I can talk to people, as my wife Teresa does, about making other choices, and about abstinence, and about all these other things that we ought to do as a responsible society.

But as a president, I have to represent all the people in the nation. And I have to make that judgment.

Now, I believe that you can take that position and not be pro- abortion, but you have to afford people their constitutional rights. And that means being smart about allowing people to be fully educated, to know what their options are in life, and making certain that you don't deny a poor person the right to be able to have whatever the Constitution affords them if they can't afford it otherwise.

That's why I think it's important. That's why I think it's important for the United States, for instance, not to have this rigid ideological restriction on helping families around the world to be able to make a smart decision about family planning.

You'll help prevent AIDS.

You'll help prevent unwanted children, unwanted pregnancies.

You'll actually do a better job, I think, of passing on the moral responsibility that is expressed in your question. And I truly respect it.

GIBSON: Mr. President, minute and a half.

BUSH: I'm trying to decipher that.

My answer is, we're not going to spend taxpayers' money on abortion.

This is an issue that divides America, but certainly reasonable people can agree on how to reduce abortions in America.

I signed the partial-birth -- the ban on partial-birth abortion. It's a brutal practice. It's one way to help reduce abortions. My opponent voted against the ban.

I think there ought to be parental notification laws. He's against them.

I signed a bill called the Unborn Victims of Violence Act.

In other words, if you're a mom and you're pregnant and you get killed, the murderer gets tried for two cases, not just one. My opponent was against that.

These are reasonable ways to help promote a culture of life in America. I think it is a worthy goal in America to have every child protected by law and welcomed in life.

I also think we ought to continue to have good adoption law as an alternative to abortion.

And we need to promote maternity group homes, which my administration has done.

Culture of life is really important for a country to have if it's going to be a hospitable society.

Thank you.

GIBSON: Senator, do you want to follow up? Thirty seconds.

KERRY: Well, again, the president just said, categorically, my opponent is against this, my opponent is against that. You know, it's just not that simple. No, I'm not.

I'm against the partial-birth abortion, but you've got to have an exception for the life of the mother and the health of the mother under the strictest test of bodily injury to the mother.

Secondly, with respect to parental notification, I'm not going to require a 16-or 17-year-old kid who's been raped by her father and who's pregnant to have to notify her father. So you got to have a judicial intervention. And because they didn't have a judicial intervention where she could go somewhere and get help, I voted against it. It's never quite as simple as the president wants you to believe.

GIBSON: And 30 seconds, Mr. President.

BUSH: Well, it's pretty simple when they say: Are you for a ban on partial birth abortion? Yes or no?

And he was given a chance to vote, and he voted no. And that's just the way it is. That's a vote. It came right up. It's clear for everybody to see. And as I said: You can run but you can't hide the reality.

Full Transcript
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/08/debate.transcript/index.html

Slate's VP Debate Roundup

Highlights from Slate

Vice Squad
The presidential sidekicks slug it out.
By Dana Stevens
http://slate.msn.com/id/2107246/
Worst Question: Moderator Gwen Ifill asks the combatants to describe their differences without ever mentioning their running mates by name. Now there's a useful skill in a leader. Hop to the mailbox on your left foot, being careful not to touch any cracks in the concrete! Chug a 32-ounce Yoo Hoo without coming up for air! Write a novel that does not contain the letter 'E'! Edwards' foot slipped off this particular Twister board twice in a row as he sullied his lips with the forbidden K-word, prompting a finger-wagging from Ifill. But the no-name game was no stretch for Cheney, since he barely mentioned his boss's name at all during the entire hour-and-half long exchange, choosing instead to stick with the royal "we" (just take a look at the transcript.) There's no doubt that trying to forget who's running the country has been a crucial survival strategy for all of us during the past four years, but isn't it Cheney's job to at least pretend Bush is in charge?

If He Can't Stand Up to Cheney …
Edwards fails to counter the vice president's foreign-policy distortions.
By Fred Kaplan
http://www.slate.com/id/2107825/


Edwards came back slamming: "You are still not being straight with the American people." He recited the latest critiques of the Bush-Cheney war in Iraq with great clarity and wrapped it up with Kerry's strong slogan: "We need a fresh start."

Cheney gained ground, though, a few minutes later, precisely at a moment when he should have lost still more. Edwards charged Cheney with repeatedly drawing a connection between Saddam and 9/11. Cheney replied, "The senator's got his facts wrong. I've never suggested there's a connection." This was a bald lie. Yet Edwards didn't call him on it. He could have quoted Cheney on a dozen occasions wrongly claiming an absolute connection—but he didn't cite even one.

More Trump, Less Grump!
Shrek 1, Breck 1.
By Mickey Kaus
http://www.slate.com/id/2107823

This one is less interesting so I'll leave it to you to read it and consider it on its merits. :)

Bible Banned

Bible Banned

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2004/09/rnc-wingnuts.html

Contains pictures

Kerry mp3

http://www.johnkerry.com/audio/whatitsworth.mp3

Dusty Springfield tune mixed with Kerry and Kennedy audio clips.