Economist Endorses Kerry

The Economist, one of my personal favorite magazines, has announced its endorsement of John Kerry for President. By no means a liberal magazine, the Economist endorsed Bush in 2000, but has decidedly contemplated that a change of course is needed for the country.

In the end, the choice relies on a judgment about who will be better suited to meet the challenges America is likely to face during the next four years. Those challenges must include the probability of another big terrorist attack, in America or western Europe. They must include the need for a period of discipline in economic policy and for compromise on social policy, lest the nation become weak or divided in the face of danger. Above all, though, they include the need to make a success of the rebuilding of Iraq, as the key part of a broader effort to stabilise, modernise and, yes, democratise the Middle East.

The endorsement is not as wholehearted as some would have liked, but it still a valuable endorsement considering the respect and range of the Economist.

More here, but beware, the Economist also had this to say:

Invading Iraq was not a mistake.

But hey, you take what you can get.

Kerry Already Forming Cabinet

Although a bit Senate heavy, John Kerry has already begun compiling members for his future cabinet, the most important being Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware as the new Secretary of State. Richard Holbrooke, the former UN ambassador under Clinton, is another possibility, although Biden seems to be the favorite. Here are some other positions and possible candidates:

National Security Adviser - Rand Beers or Wesley Clark (!!!!!)
Secretary of Defense - John McCain or Chuch Hegel
Head of CIA - Bob Graham

Although McCain is constantly talked about, it appears that he is apprehensive for a number of reasons. One, he is already known as a maverick in the party, this could be the tipping point. Second, although a friend of Kerry's, McCain has obviously been active in helping Bush's campaign. Third, if the Republicans keep hold of the Senate, he will be chair of the Armed Services Committee. Forth and most important, McCain's political future is still quite up in the air, more specifically, he might run for president again.

More on Appointments

Kristof on Bush

Kristof says it so well.

The current president's hyped version of the incident reflects his casual relationship with truth. Like President Ronald Reagan, reality to him is not about facts, but about higher meta-truths: Mom and Dad are loving grandparents, Saddam Hussein is an evil man, and so on. To clarify those overarching realities, Mr. Bush harnesses "facts," both true and false.

We all do this to some extent, of course, discounting data points that don't fit our preconceptions. My Times colleague John Tierney wrote a few days ago of a new report suggesting, based on their scores on military intelligence tests taken in the 1960's, that Mr. Bush had an I.Q. in the 95th percentile of the population and that John Kerry's was in the 91st percentile. Yet most liberals have not revised their view that Mr. Bush is a nitwit.

This is somewhat similar to the what Jon Stewart was talking about on Crossfire. Here is what he had to say:

I think they believe President Bush would do a better job.

And I believe the Kerry guys believe President Kerry would do a better job. But what I believe is, they're not making honest arguments. So what they're doing is, in their mind, the ends justify the means.


Perhaps all politicians do it, but Bush seems to be the exemplar.

Political Expression Reaches New Forms

Katherine Harris Is Almost Hit By A Car

Not much else to say there.

377 Tons ... (continued)

Alright, so this issue is going to be debated at least until the election, if not past it. What we do know, is that nobody is completely certain what happened to these weapons. An excuse has been made that the looting of the Al Qaqaa was probably done before U.S. troops arrived. This is still not certain. However, a number of blunders did occur. First of all, the US forces who arrived at the weapons depot did not search for the explosives. Second, the area wasn't even secured after forces got there. Third, it seems that the Pentagon didn't tell the people on the ground that this was a highly dangerous site. Forth, the Iraqis deny that anything got out before the invasion. So, um, this story will be around for a while.

It Doesn't Have to Be This Way

Yesterday, Dominique Green was executed in Texas. Convicted of killing Andrew Lastrapes Jr. in 1993, he was one of four men involved in the murder, though he denied up until yesterday that he was the shooter. The family of Lastrapes, his two sons and wife, have made pleas to everybody possible to stop the murder of Green, a man they have forgiven and seen enormously change since he entered prison 11 years ago. But, as Texas justice seems to always go, there is no room for rehabilitation and forgiveness, only revenge and hate.

Read on about Green

With regards to capital punishment, things will change one day. In California, I believe that day is fast approaching with the public seeing that the Death Penalty is hopelessly flawed and certainly inhumane. As evident by previous posts, the Death Penalty is an issue that haunts me deeply. It is a remnant of past systemic racism and injustice that is subject to great misperception and myth. For some of the facts, take a look at this PDF. The truth speaks for itself.

Florida

Voter Intimidation is going full force once again in Florida, and who is the targeted group? You guessed it, African-Americans. A list of 1886 names and addresses of mostly African-American voters was part of an e-mail to the Executive Director of Bush's campaign in Florida and to the Campaign's National Research Director in DC. Republican State Campaign Spokeswoman Mindy Tucker Fletcher contended that the list was not compiled to challenge voters, but didn't explicitly rule out that it may be used in that way. Fletcher did admit that Republican poll workers will challenge voters, "where it's stated in the law", leaving everyone's imagination to decide what exactly that will mean...

BBC News Article

Reports of intimidation seem to be growing, so if anybody out there finds any news, please e-mail me or add it to the comments. Thanks.
ajsthind@yahoo.com

377 Tons of Explosives...

Are missing from stockpiles in Iraq. Now, a ton isn't a measurement that I'm familiar with, so, in case you didn't know, a ton is about 2,000 pounds. And 2,000 times 377 = 754,000 pounds of explosives are missing in chaotic and insecure Iraq, possibly fueling an endless amount of car bombs.
I am no genius here, but this robbery would take a lot of manpower. For instance, the Daily Kos reports that an average freight container, "can carry ~46,100 pounds when loaded and packed appropriately, riding on roads that are rated for such loads (bridges, tunnels, and roadway that can handle such loads without collapsing...that means no dirt roads, no bad bridges, etc)." In essence, twenty freight trucks would be needed to carry out this operation, if conditions permitted.
Now, we know that the insurgents don't have a bunch of freight trucks handy, so let's be a little more realistic. What if, now just play along with me here, they had a bunch of 2004 Toyota Tundras at hand. The max payload for the truck, according to Vehix, is 1,710 pounds or slightly less than a ton. Altogether, they would need about 440 Tundras to make this happen.
And mind you this is Iraq, where we already have thousands of troops and thankfully only conventional explosives. Imagine some of the former Soviet countries where nuclear materials are just floating around without any sort of security. If people there became as organized as Iraqi insurgents... wow... this could get really really bad.

Bush Supporters Vastly Misinformed

Bush supporters seriously have know idea what is going on. 75% believe Iraq had WMDs and Saddam was involved in 9/11 and most also believe that Bush supports the Kyoto Treaty. As the saying goes, ignorance is bliss....

Full Article here.

The Real Slim Shady Stands Up

Describing Bush as a "dog chasing his tail", the rapper Eminem has jumped into the political season with some criticism of the current president. Although he has yet to commit to Kerry completely, he admits that he would like to see Bush out of office. "Whatever my decision, I would like to see Bush out of office." The Detroit native will vote for the first time this year, a telling fact of the disgust he has towards this administration.

Article.

Bush Receives An Interesting Endorsement

Tuesday, President Bush received the endorsement of Iran's Security Council. Hasan Rowhani, the head of the Supreme National Security Council, was quite frank about the backing of Bush. "We do not desire to see Democrats take over." Rowhani also added, "And we should not forget that during Bush's era — despite his hard-line and baseless rhetoric against Iran — he didn't take, in practical terms, any dangerous action against Iran." The baseless rhetoric points to Bush's labeling of Iran as a part of the Axis of Evil, also including Iraq and North Korea. Unlike Iraq, virtually nothing has been done to contain Iran or North Korea, and there are no signs that a second Bush term will create any meaningful progress. Luckily, the ineptitude of the Iraq War has likely drowned any ideas of possibly invading its eastern neighbor; a war with Iran would surely hold more consequences than this one.

More on the endorsement.

Cheney Touts Lack of Profits for Vaccine Shortage

Speaking to a group of West Virginians today, the robotic Vice President pointed to the apparent lack of profits as one of the problems leading to this season's flu vaccine shortage. "The problem we have run into, producing vaccine is not a very profitable business," said the man who once voted against a Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday. So would Cheney's solution be to charge more for flu vaccines? Or should we outsource drug companies to places where they can save on labor and construction costs? Or how about we lower the taxes for all drug companies?
He pointed to a few other reasons, including the threat of lawsuits which has been a constant claim from the Republicans during the campaign. Of course, he failed to mention that the Bush Administration has known about this shortage since 2001, when they ignored all warnings.

Overall, it is very difficult to solve problems when you have an administration that won't recognize their own faults and think in different ways. In fifteen days, we will hopefully have some less stubborn leaders.

Article on Cheney's remarks.

Death Penalty Crumbling

In another blow to California's archaic capital punishment system, the California Bar Association has joined a growing number of groups in calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. The group, which represents attorneys of all types, is urging the governor and legislature to impose a two-year ban on executions to investigate the multiple flaws of the death penalty. A committee will be set up to look at all of the issues, and undoubtedly, will find that the system is simply too flawed to fix. Many other states that have had a similar commission have ruled in favor of abolishing the death penalty in its entirety. This is just one of many factors hinting towards an end to capital punishment in California and beyond.
Article here.

The Greatest Episode of Crossfire Ever

In the most impressive and surprising episode ever of CNN's "debate" show Crossfire, Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's the Daily Show, completely destroyed the mainstream media for its apparent embrace of infotainment rather than its lost role of providing actual news. With Jon Stewart given the opportunity to promote his new book and show in front of a demographic he rarely sees, the celebrated host instead decided to bash the political pundits Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala as being "partisan hacks". He continually refused segways into more comedic topics in hopes of actually forcing the two hosts into a debate on the merits of media and journalism. Stewart ended the show by calling Carlson a "dick" before sarcastically remarking "That went great" when the credits began to role.
The hosts were quite uncomfortable with Stewart's repeated references to their missed opportunities and lack of debate that actually hurt the American people. It was obvious that they expected Stewart to be a funny man like on his late night show, but were dumbfounded by Stewart's opinion and resolve to force CNN to a higher standard than his own show.

Bravo, Bravo.

Video.
Transcript.
New York Daily News Article.

No Executions This Year?

It appears that there may not be a single execution in California this year. Although there have been many years in the past without a killing, few have been quite like this one. With the victory in the race to save Kevin Cooper's life in February, the state Capital Punishment system was dealt a severe blow. In an attempt to reconcile that loss, California moved on to the apparently more open-shut case of Donald Beardslee. Yesterday, Friday, was supposed to be the day where the 60-year-old man was to receive his execution date; the date would have to be between Nov. 15th and Dec. 15th, thirty to sixty days from yesterday. But in a last minute surprise, Beardslee's own lawyer decided to step down in the face of daunting clemency proceedings before the possible execution. In effect, the lawyer bought the inmate anywhere between a few months and a year before an execution date, making 2004 an execution-free year in California. Word.
Read the full article here.

Army Dissent

In Iraq, a supply unit refused a fuel supply mission because of the poor condition of their vehicles and due to the possibility of ambush. Although the military has downplayed the event as "isolated", it is quite clear that the troops are finding increasing resistance, and now even the Green Zone has been penetrated.
More on the Refusal

The Sudan Situation

Sudan is the next test for America. Despite all of the hype and controversy surrounding Iran and South Korea, I believe that the next stage for American action will and must be Darfur. The situation continues to grow grimmer and the inaction of the President is a bit haunting. Although Bush has certainly talked about the situation, he has done little to remedy the situation, caring about the upcoming election instead. Regardless of the outcome of the election, something must be done and the U.S. will have to get involved. Unfortunately, the stupidity of the Iraq War has only gained us increased suspicion from the rest of the world. Little does it help that oil is a factor in Sudan as well.
Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times writes on his bleak experiences.

New Poll on Iraq War

An AP-Ipsos telephone poll of eight countries has shown that people around the world agree that the Iraq War has increased the threat of terrorism. In the U.S., 52% believe there is an increased threat, while only 30% believe it has decreased. Other countries show a greater spread, including key allies in the war.
More at CNN

Top Business Professors slam Bush

169 Professors from B-Schools all over the nation have come together for a now very common and familiar reason: to expose the Bush Administration's failures. In an open letter to the president, the professors sound off on Bush for ignoring basic economic rules and letting the deficit run wild. Most striking for the President is that the letter originated in Harvard Business School, his own alma mater. The professors cite "long-term tax cuts" as a poor strategy for dealing with the economy, as higher interest rates will follow from the deepening deficit. Similarly, the letter also expresses concern over the widening inequality in America.

More signatures are expected before the election.
Read the article here.

Bush Needed Help in Debate?

Around the Internet a rumor is circulating that President Bush was wired during the first debate. As a journalist who cares for objectivity and being above politics, which I am not, I would probably want to get to the bottom of this. Instead, I will just spread the rumor to all of you.
BUSH CHEATED....maybe

Perhaps the most concerning thing about the allegation is that if it is true, and indeed the President did get some help from Rove and the buddies, what would the President have been like without their help? The President's performance was already lackluster and uninspiring, but if he had to do it all by himself... wow.

No Mullah Left Behind

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is renowned for his incredible storytelling and ability to come with succinct and powerful phrases. Although his overbearing belief in free trade as the global solution will annoy many, his ability to convey a message captures the essence of what an Op-Ed columnist should be. After his recent hiatus, he is back with some thoughts on the Bush Administration's most successful policy, No Mullah Left Behind. Unlike some other Bush policies, this one has adequate funding.
More at New York Times

Bush Admits Error

Today, in a rather stunning turnaround, President Bush has finally accepted the fact that Iraq did not have any WMDs. Instead of continuing to ignore the truth and deny that Hussein wasn't a nuclear threat, both the Vice President and the President finally conceded that the Iraqi leader indeed didn't possess the weapons - and the fault lies with intelligence agencies... not themselves for hyping allegations. Similarly, in an effort to find some new rationale for the war, the President decided to mention Hussein's abuse of the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food Program as a good reason to take out the dictator. Well, at least he is showing some creativity...
Bush, Cheney Concede Saddam Had No WMDs

Death-row inmate freed after 17 years

The Death Penalty is beyond flawed. This is just another case where so much was wrong: Withholding of evidence, Drugging of the Defendent(!), and No Motive. After 17 years of his life basically wasted, Ernest Willis walked out free on Wednesday and what was his compensation?

Willis, who at one point brushed aside a tear as his voice choked with emotion, was given a plaid shirt, green pants and white running shoes, along with 10 days worth of medication, legal documents and $100, the standard amount given to released inmates.

$100 for 17 years!?

Apparently that's how it works in Texas.
Read more here.

Michael Moore Responds to Republicans

If you thought that you cared a lot about clean underwear, guess what? You are not the only one. In response to Michael Moore’s reward of Fruit of the Loom and Ramen for lazy college students to actually go out and vote, the Michigan Republican Party has asked four county prosecutors to file charges against the filmmaker. Moore had this to say

One of my favorite sites

This is by far the best site at keeping track of all the polls around the nation. It is centered on the presidential election and keeps a running total of the electoral college, but has information on the Senate races as well. The webmaster has very interesting and insightful commentary on all things electoral. He updates everyday, as there is always a new poll.
www.electoral-vote.com

What!? NO WMD!?

So, uh, all that stuff about Iraq having Weapons of Mass Destruction or Saddam Hussein trying to obtain the materials to make them, was, well, false.
U.S. Report Finds No Evidence of Iraq WMD
But you know, he was a pretty mean guy and he definitely had some links to Al Qaeda and 9-11.
Rumsfeld: Al-Qaeda-Saddam link is weak
Oh wait, I guess that wasn't exactly true either, but um, we brought peace and democracy to Iraq, so it all worked out in the end, right? And now America is safer, since a man that had no capability of striking us with a nuclear weapon or had any clear connections to Al Qaeda has been replaced by an ultra-fragile state with beheadings, suicide bombings, and terrorists everywhere... Let Freedom Ring.

First Post

Well, here we go, I have succumbed to the temptation of others being able to read my thoughts. Actually, I wanted to set this up mainly as a way of posting a lot of interesting articles that I find online, although I may end up divulging personal stuff as well. Hopefully I can keep this more scholarly than your average Xanga, but more personal than a simple set of links. We'll see.

First off, the Vice Presidential Debate was last night. I only had a chance to see the first half, as I had to go to the Campaign to End the Death Penalty meeting, but from what I saw, it seemed like a near toss-up. Mind you, I am a devoted Kerry-Edwards supporter, but it appeared that neither Edwards or Cheney had blown the other away. By far, the most interesting exchange was when the Vice President commented on the Senator's voting record:

You've missed a lot of key votes: on tax policy, on energy, on Medicare reform.

Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you "Senator Gone." You've got one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate.

Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session.

The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.

When Cheney said that, I couldn't help but laugh. It was a great shot in a debate. Of course, it could have been a memorable line, but we quickly learned that it wasn't the truth. The two had met at least three times in the past, and Elizabeth Edwards reminded Cheney after the debate.
Meeting Was Not First for Cheney, Edwards

Of course there were a number of other great moments in the debate as well, such as the gay marriage questions, where I couldn't help but feel bad for Cheney, who was clearly in an awkward position. Here is a link to the transcript. You can also watch the whole debate on C-SPAN.
Transcript from the Commission on Presidential Debates

Lastly, Cheney made a plug during the debate for everyone at home to check out the University of Pennsylvania's non-partisan website, www.factcheck.org , in response to all of the allegations of his continued connections to Halliburton. Unfortunately (or fortunately), he mispoke and said www.factcheck.com, which turned out to be a rather different website. It was in fact an advertising site that had nothing to do with the election or politics. In response to the unusual amount of hits to the site, 100 per second, the owner redirected web surfers to George Soros's personal website. Not exactly what Cheney had in mind.
Cheney Slip Sends Surfers to Wrong Site

More on the debate later...