October 15, 2004

The BuzzFlash Mailbag

The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. Read the BuzzFlash FAQ for info on submitting to the Mailbag.

THIS IS PART 2 OF THE OCTOBER 15, 2004 BUZZFLASH MAILBAG. CLICK HERE FOR PART 1.

Subject: Don't forget Sinclair

BuzzFlash friends,

I know Kerry did great in the debates but don't forget Rove's words. "We've got a couple of surprises for Kerry." AND Don't forget Sinclair. Keep the pressure on them. Boycott Boycott Boycott their sponsors and call Sinclair affiliates to express outrage.

A BuzzFlash Fan

Subject: it hurts so much I have to laugh

When Schieffer asked Bush at one point about the problem of health care for America's seniors, Bush burst into a fit of laughter. If there was ever a moment, in any of these three debates, that let people know exactly where Bush's head and heart and priorities lay, that was it. He laughed. --William Rivers Pitt

Game. Set. Match. (truthout.org)

John E.

Subject: trying to make a sad situation funny

Back in 2000, a Republican friend of mine warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we'd lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched. You know what? I did vote for Al Gore, he did win, and I'll be damned if all those things didn't come true. --James Carville, Democratic strategist

John E.

Subject: Re: The Hunchback Editorial

Right on, once again. BTW, at the very end of last night's debate, as the families came up on stage, Bush walked across the stage from the lower left to the upper right and, there was once again the visible "tailored pucker" visible for an instant. If you have a tape to look at, it came during the family group hugs. Clearly visible once again.

Another topic: Garrison Keillor, of Prairie Home Companion fame, is working his butt off for Democratic candidates all over Minnesota. My wife and I are fortunate in that he is coming to our home on 10/18 to help with a fundraiser to help knock off a Wingnut State Representative.

http://www.dflers.org/story/2004/9/19/175039/231

Also his latest book, Homegrown Democrat, is a great read. It might be another nice addition to BuzzFlash's library of offerings. You just keep doing a great job.

Jim Kubiak
Minneapolis, MN

[BuzzFlash Note: Tell your guests they can get Keillor's Homegrown Democrat from BuzzFlash. Yes, it is a great read.]

Subject: Washington Post's debate analysis

The Washington Post offers a "Debate Referee" after each of the presidential debates. In the body of the complete debate transcript, they provide occasional analysis of specific points of contention for which they compare candidate statements against the facts. The [link above provides] a compilation of the individual WA Post "Debate referee" comments....

Read as a single document, it represents a direct and often devastating critique of the Bush regime's politics of distortion.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Another republican stunt...

Hello:

As a result of this, my wife and I may not be able to get absentee ballots, and we have been registered voters for over 35 years, at the same address:

City, county spar over ballot supply: Walker cites fraud concerns; Barrett cries foul (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Walker is a real lap-dog, and is using every opportunity to set up a run for governor in 2006.

Regards,

Dan Kroeger
Milwaukee, WI

Subject: the hump

Dear BuzzFlash,

I wasn't particularly looking for signs of a receiver on the president during Wednesday's debate. However, I could swear that two or three times, he paused at the most unlikely spots in a sentence, seemed to look down or "inward," then inappropriately exploded with the last word or so of the sentence, as if he had just heard it from some other realm. It was weird and unnerving. Anybody else notice this?

Larry Gaylord

Subject: the mysterious bulge on Bush's back

Buzz,

I think that what we're seeing on Bush's back is the place where Rove puts the key to wind him up every morning.

Mel in MO

Subject: What does W stand for?

Now that all three debates are over and Kerry has come out on top, I would like to say one thing...

"W stands for Whupped!"

Cathy

Subject: news on FCC and Sinclair -- Major update on Sinclair and FCC

Okay folks, listen up! I just received a call from an FCC spokesperson (surprisingly) and I will report to you as closely and as simply as I can what he told me is going on, and how and what he explained regarding the process involved. First there is some bad news, then maybe good if action is taken quickly. Please repost this to as many other boards as you can, especially Kerry's.

-The FCC have been in frequent talks with attorneys on both sides (Sinclair and Kerry campaign)

- Complaints regarding the proposed Sinclair Broadcast as an illegal corporate donation to Bush have to go to the FEC -- The FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION. It is under their jurisdiction, and unfortunately most of us activists have not targeted this direction yet.

- According to the FCC, Sinclair has a legal right under the First Amendment to force all of their stations to air this film, no matter how slanderous. Repercussions can come afterwards from this decision through a slander suit filed via civil court.

- The standard Equal Time rule applies only to positive depiction of a candidate where the candidate appears in the broadcast. If the broadcast is positive to Bush, but Bush does not appear in it, then Kerry does not get equal time. --However--there is a parallel FCC regulation that MAY apply here:

-The parallel rule is called the Zapple Doctrine (regulation), named after a regulation proposed by a man (Zapple) who was a counsel to the congressional communication committee. The FCC Zapple Doctrine states that if supporters of Candidate A air a broadcast that is beneficial to Candidate A before an election, then supporters of Candidate B are entitled to the equal amount of time on the same stations.

- Under the Zapple Doctrine, the offer by Sinclair to have Kerry appear on a panel after the broadcast is not considered equal time, but just an expanded opportunity to further rip Kerry to shreds. Equal Time would be airing a film or similar pro-Kerry broadcast of same length as the offending film.

- In order to rule under the Zapple Doctrine, the Kerry Campaign has to file a request for equal time under the Zapple Doctrine. As of 10:00 am est [Oct 14], they have NOT yet done so. Time is getting short and the FCC has only days left to act. They are wondering what is holding up the Kerry campaign from doing so.

- The Zapple Doctrine does not apply if the broadcast in question is deemed "news." Sinclair is trying to get around this Doctrine by claiming that this film is "news." However, according to the FCC, just claiming that this broadcast is news doesn't make it so. They would have to view the film immediately in order to rule on that. They have not viewed this film yet because the Kerry campaign has not yet filed a request for equal time, allowing Sinclair to rebut with their defense of 'news,' which will allow the FCC to rule (in favor of Kerry) on this. The FCC will demand to see the film immediately, if action by the Kerry campaign is taken in time. Time is running out folks. The Kerry campaign must file their request today in order to receive the best possible outcome--which is equal prime time on the same stations, before the election, for a Pro-Kerry or anti Bush film of their choosing.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=38218

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Election Bulge -- The Propped Up President

Dear Editor,

The presidency of George W. Bush is epitomized by the story circulating on the internet regarding the rectangular bulge exposed on the president's back in the three debates. Ignore the evidence in front of us and then send out an expert (Georges de Paris) to cover up for him with an implausible story that hurts the expert's reputation. There may well be a reasonable explanation for it, but the bulge could expose a weakness of the president be it physical, intellectual or judgmental. This president seems to need an army (volunteer or conscripted ) to cover his backside from his front side.

Henry L. Wostenberg
Red Deer, Alberta

Subject: CBC TV's expose on Dick Cheney - like Mr. Moore did to the Administration in his latest documentary

Just in case you or your friends might have missed it, you've got to see CBC TV's expose on Dick Cheney - like Mr. Moore did to the Administration in his latest documentary. The unauthorized biography of Dick Cheney by CBC Canada investigative program, The Fifth Estate, was originally aired October 6, 2004.

See following link info for print version and see the contact info...

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/dickcheney/

(Here are some print excerpts:)

"Cheney was the driving force behind an orchestrated presentation to the American public of a different version of reality than the reality we saw." - Greg Thielman, who says his State Department Office was receiving information that was different from what the White House was saying.

"When I heard those (President Bush's) speeches I recognized many of the anecdotes. Having seen the intelligence I knew this was a manipulation of the information. It was cherry picked information, out of context information. It bothered me a great deal because I saw it to be conscious manipulation. Not an oversight but consciously done." - Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski [in the first Gulf War, convincing Saudis that Saddam's tanks were on their border.]

"It's what it (the photos) didn't show that's more important. What you expected to see were tanks on the border. There was none that we could see. I said, look, if you can prove to me that our story isn't true, we won't run it. And they just ignored it. They have never shown those (U.S. satellite images) photos. Not then and not since." - Reporter Jean Heller

P.S. Why is Bush still standing? Answer: see Fog Of Fear at www.alternet.org/columnists/story/20168/

Good luck to all.

A BuzzFlash Reader

[BuzzFlash Note: Our understanding is that the program isn't available on dvd.]

Subject: Was Bush drooling during the debate last night????

Chatting with my friend while watching the debate last night, we simultaneously noticed a sizable amount of white, foamy drool in the right corner of President Bush's mouth (left side of the screen). People who are nervous during a public speaking occasion tend to get "dry mouth" which causes them to basically foam at the mouth. I believe this is what we saw.

NO NEWS ORGANIZATION has mentioned this. I'd love to see someone hone in on this and show the clip and the stills on their website.

Foaming at the mouth at a public appearance? How unpresidential can one get? And the humor in all of this is the pundits declaring earlier this month that as long as W doesn't drool, he'll be ok in the debates.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE post his drool so I can forward it to everyone I know.

thank you,

Janet

Subject: Lie Fatigue

Did I hear this right, "75 % of Al Qaeda's leadership have been given Pell Grants?"

Turk Meister

Subject: commentary on editorial [Oct. 13th]

Dear BuzzFlash,

You ask "What was the bulge under the back of Bush's coat"............

Very simply put, it is the little box that Rove puts the digital cartridge in that 'runs' Bush.

I'm 83 and have lived through a lot of election campaigns, but this one has been one of the dirtiest ever. Sad to say, I'm afraid if we're not very alert, the Republican cabal will win again. They want this so badly they will go to any lengths to achieve it........legally or not.

Ginny Manning, who cast her 1st vote for FDR

Subject: Could the bulge be a wearable defibrillator?

Hey--

This fits the observed facts, although I have low confidence that it is the "right answer." If you consider that bulge, which Salon shows appearing in the third debate as well, plus the skipped physical, it could be one of these: http://www.lifecor.com/about_lifevest/when_to_use.asp

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Lynn Cheney

With the right wing so irrational about Kerry's remarks concerning Mary Cheney, which remarks were very generous and supportive, maybe it's time that someone bring to the media attention the very homo-erotic novel that Lynn Cheney wrote and published in Canada. It has some extremely homo-erotic language in it. Maybe the right wing ought to know about the VP's wife writing homo-erotic literature.

Douglas Holley
Seattle, Washington

Subject: How to Know if Bush is Lying

Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations. -- G.W. Bush, 10/13/04

So I don't know where he is. Nor - you know, I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you. I...I truly am not that concerned about him. -- G.W. Bush talking about Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 911 mass murder, on 03/13/02

After the Tempe debate ABC News cited a fact check organization. Here's an easier fact check. Having written a book related to GW Bush's record and the 2004 election, I can state with assurance, if Bush is speaking, it's highly likely he is lying, misleading, dissembling, shading, misstating, or deceiving. He has a nodding acquaintance with the truth. Met it once, didn't like it very much.

Suzanne St. Jeanne
www.miraculousspirit.com
San Francisco

Subject: The Draft, the President, and the Truth

It is the same people who told us that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11; the same people who told us Saddam Hussein had something to do with weapons of mass destruction; the same people who told us we would be able to use the oil for reconstruction money; the same people who told us we would be greeted as liberators, not occupiers; the same people, the same President who told us the Taliban is gone; the same President who told us that Poland is our ally 2 days before they pull out; the same President who tells us Iraq is going just great; the same President who tells us the economy is going just great; the same people who told us the tax cuts were going to create millions of jobs; the same people who told us that the Medicare program only cost $400 billion when it really cost $540 billion.... -- Rep. Tim Ryan (OH), October 5, 2004

Sharon A.

Subject: More Bush lies

In last night's debate, the current occupant of the White House, when asked yet another ground ball question by the biased Bob Schieffer, responded to a question about how to get vaccine makers to produce more products.

Bush's stock answer is to get a smirk on his face and you can just see the words "trial lawyers" flashing across his eyes. Sure enough, that's in there somewhere, but first this idiot has to disparage the company as a British-owned concern that allowed some of the flu vaccine to get contaminated.

Here's the full address of the British company which is identified as publicly owned:

Chiron Corporation
4560 Horton Street
Emeryville, California 94608-2916
U.S.A.
Phone: 510-655-8730

Hmmm, looks like there was a British invasion of the West Coast of the US under this president's watch in addition to the political manna from heaven, the attacks on the World Trade Center. He then takes the bait offered by Schieffer, who sat in for Karl Rove as Bush's handler during Wednesday night's debate, and said that, in light of the shortage of flu vaccine, only those at high risk of getting the flu and dying, should consider getting the shot. Like old people.

Does anyone remember the great Swine Flu Scare of 1978? The year that the government scared so many fragile people into getting the flu shot because the greatest threat to their health since the pandemic Spanish Flu of 1918 was heading their way? More people died from complications of the vaccine that year than were made ill by the actual virus.

And then came Bush's greatest disingenuous answer. He smirked widely and got that cocky jaunt to his movements as he asked which vaccine manufacturer would want to make a product when there was the chance of getting sued if something went wrong with it. What Bush failed to tell the American people is that vaccine manufacturers face no such liability thanks to a law signed by the president that EXEMPTS VACCINE MANUFACTURERS FROM ALL LIABILILTY ARISING FROM DEFECTS IN THEIR PRODUCTS.

Got it?? This criminal administration has removed safeguards that would ensure that the American people aren't exposed to ineffective and dangerous vaccines, at the same time that it has pushed legislation, the Model Emergency Public Health Act (MEPHA), that allows state and federal authorities to force people to receive vaccines if the governor of the state or federal authorities deem such vaccination is warranted. Failure to acquiesce to such coercion is a federal felony and opens the person up to arrest and forced vaccination. This is America?

Barney Frank said, in 1995, that when the Republicans talked about family values, they were talking about Addams Family Values. Well, the new American health care icon is Dr. Mengele, the infamous Nazi doctor who performed experiments on children and others WHILE THEY WERE STILL ALIVE. His natural descendants are alive and well in the American government and the administration of George W. "My Grandpa Helped the Nazis" Bush.

More scary still is a story in today's New York Times with a picture of a microchip that is being touted as a solution to the "lack of technology in the medical area" that the idiot brought up in the answer to the same question last night. No technological advances in medicine? Buggy and horse era? No, that's where the Republicans want to return medical practice to, a time when women had to slink around in dark alleys for medical care and had to obtain their husbands' permission before taking care of their own bodies. Hasn't this idiot kept up with science and its advances? Oh, I forgot, we're talking about George W. Bush here, the man who disparages scientific evidence of global warming, the man who actually advanced the notion of using CLEAN COAL as an alternative energy source, the man who, if he had his way, would burn any book mentioning Gregor Mendel or Charles Darwin, the chimp who is actually showing us and the world every day, that the missing link never served as a transition between chimpanzee and man, but remained extant in the gene pool of the Bush/Walker families, with a little help from the genes of an undistinguished US president's family, the line of Franklin Pierce.

I watched last night's debate hoping that George would suffer a meltdown, with the anticipation of a crash at a NASCAR event, hoping against hope that this idiot would show his yahoo base his true colors.

But no, Kerry didn't press the attack, didn't say anything that would have pushed Bush over the edge. Who knows what drugs were coursing through his body to keep the moron calm. Certainly not enough to restrain his arrogant disregard for the truth. The lies that spewed from that man's mouth last night were incredible. The middle class got most of the tax cuts??!! Oh yeah, the middle class that makes between $250,000 and $5,000,000,000 a year, that middle class. Because that's the only middle class this president knows anything about. Everyone else is just a walking medical experiment subject for some new biotech startup or pharmaceutical company. Even kids.

It's no mistake that the history of the Bush family is tangled up in eugenics and population control. Wars, tainted vaccines, and unchecked outbreaks of disease have a remarkable way of thinning the herd, so to speak. With Bush's Malthusian vision of the world, having a few billion people die in Africa because the developed world refuses to fund drug programs to stop the ravages of AIDS doesn't represent a problem. Similarly, if a few thousand people die in the United States from a lack of sufficient flu vaccine or from faulty vaccines, so much the better. There's more oil and unleaded gas left for the rest of us.

The alarm keeps going off and we keep hitting the snooze button for ten more minutes when we're already too late to turn back the clock.

Matt Carmody

Subject: Letter to the editor -- "I don't know..."

In the third presidential debate, the moderator Bob Schieffer asked President Bush whether or not he thinks homosexuality is a choice? To my absolute amazement the president responded "I don't know." That was not an answer I expected from a president who is seeking to change our Constitution to restrict homosexual citizens from ever marrying each other.

By answering "I don't know" the President admitted a fact: he doesn't have enough information on the subject. Talk about slippery slopes, because if the President doesn't have the answer to that question, then how can he have the deep conviction in his beliefs that all Americans want our president to have before he starts making changes to the constitution that will alter one aspect of the American dream for millions of Americans? What if he manages to change the Constitution and then finds out he was wrong?

President Bush claims to be a conservative Christian. His particular faith teaches that homosexuality is a sin, and therefore a choice. Because if God created people already gay, then homosexuality can't be a sin because God doesn't make mistakes, right? No choice, no sin. That is apparently their litmus test for sin. After all, it's not a sin to be born different. However, if homosexuality is a choice, then President Bush and his fellow conservative Christians believe gay and lesbian men and women are sinning directly against God. That's a serious charge. Shouldn't the president be certain of the answer to Bob Schieffer's question before he starts changing laws to exempt a segment of the American citizenry from even one of their civil rights?

Doing anything else just might look like President Bush is pandering to Jerry Falwell's crowd.

Taylor White
Lake Worth, FL

Subject: Sinclair

Hello BuzzFlash,

So, Sinclair stations are going to air a program to dishonor John Kerry!

I want everyone to try and remember how many of their children were reaching the age to serve their country at the time John Kerry, with courage, was in front of congress telling them to stop the killing in Vietnam (our troops and the innocent).

At that time my two sons were reaching the age to go to that dreadful war. This was one very, worried Mom. I'm sure many parents felt like me.

Because of John Kerry, and others like him, my sons and many, many lives of America's children, were saved, and did not have to go to this war. Thus preventing our children from being a name on the WALL!

Today, I have four wonderful Grandchildren. John Kerry did not let my young men go to Vietnam to die, as so many did before them. Yet, HE almost lost his life, for America.

How many Americans have beautiful Grandchildren because John Kerry spoke up against all odds, to stop a horrible situation? How many young men came home from Vietnam, alive because of John Kerry's courage to plead for that war to end?

Since Sinclair is going to do this dirty deed, please remember, because of John Kerry, our children are not names on the WALL. They grew to be healthy, productive young people. Their future undisturbed, and were able to enjoyed peace with their own children. That is until now. Again, we have to worry if the lies that produced the Iraqi war may now take our Grandchildren.

We have John Kerry again to speak out against this disaster George Bush lied to get us into.

John Kerry is the HERO, to whom I owe my children's lives. He forever has my heartfelt thanks, and is in my prayers.

Sinclair crew is looking to bring John Kerry down. We can't let them do it!

Our family is voting for John Kerry. As President he will put his heart into saving our Grandchildren, by

doing his best in correcting this injustice called the Iraqi war.

Sinclair, we will not let you win!

John Kerry and John Edwards, I trust them with our lives.

Angela....Phila

Subject: tell them this about Mary Cheney

Mary Cheney has been out for years. Now the GOP women are trying to pretend they are offended by Kerry merely mentioning Mary Cheney's name, and in a very complimentary way, to boot. That is strange, considering that the only time Cheney thanked Edwards was when John Edwards mentioned Mary Cheney.

Now when Kerry mentions Mary Cheney, the GOP trots its females out there to trash Kerry. "This is not a good man," says anti-democracy, book burner Lynne Cheney. For crying out loud, first Mary Cheney's dad thanks Edwards for mentioning their daughter, and then Mary Cheney's mom trashes Kerry for doing the same. No wonder the GOP has people confused. No wonder nobody can figure out where they are coming from.

The most perplexing of all is to hear them claim that a person is out of bounds to even mention a politician's child. Why didn't the righteous (don't talk about a politician's child) women go after Rush Limbaugh when he attacked, battered, and spewed his demonic venom all over Chelsea Clinton when she was only a child, even proposing that people harm her? Where were the righteous GOP women then?

mev

Subject: Cheney's daughter

Buzz:

Whatever the controversy, Kerry was brilliant here. This topic came up in the midst of how religious W is, allowing W to go into code speak to rev up the religious right wing. These religious crack-pots that Bush appeals to would be quite happy to send people like Mary Cheney to prison. (You know, "Throw her in jail with a bunch of women - that'll fix her!") Kerry deftly gave the pResident a choice. "Tell the religious right wing that you want to stamp out Mary Cheney's civil rights and to reject Cheney's daughter, thereby putting off sane Americans, or tell the religious right wing that the White House loves and embraces one who commits evil sin before God!"

Well played, Big John! Well played.

James Higdon

Subject: keep Sinclair story up front. it is working!!!

This story has energized thousands of people to action and it is having an effect on one of our greatest foes. I am helping to organize the local Madison Wisc. boycott of Fox 47. Everyday this builds by a factor of ten. Already they have lost some advertisers and more are sure to follow. This weekend at Michael Moore's appearance we will give out thousands of lists of sponsors to call and let the feelings of Kerry supporters be known. This is a very progressive area and the majority of all the customers of these businesses are motivated and will join the boycott. Sinclair is going to commit economic suicide in this city. Keep pumping this story. Thank you.

Jef Hinds
Madison Wisc.

Subject: Almost No Mention Of George W Bush At GOP.com

Dear BuzzFlash,

I captured the GOP's home page today and posted it.

Can you find the names of their candidate on the page?...I had to use the google toolbar to find the word Bush near the bottom of the page...But John Kerry, was in 4 pictures, and too many links to count.

Good Day,

Jon Barnes
http://www.ultimatetaxi.com/board/messages/11251.html

Subject: Bill O'reilly

While questioning a guest about the possibilities of election fraud in the 2004 presidential election on the O'Reilly Factor, I just saw Bill O'Reilly say at 8:27 PM EST on 10/14/04, "Yeah but what are the republicans going to do? We have to....." and then he caught himself.

Is that normal for a "fair and balanced no spin zone journalist"?

Michael Barry
Reston, VA.

Subject: sick and tired 2

Buzz,

forgive the addendum, but here is one more grunt on the media's inane debate coverage (aka spin): The fact that Bush is able to pronounce most of his words correctly and limits his smirks to only 75% of debate time, and that he does not jump at the moderator or interrupt angrily, and that he manages to put a grammatically, though not necessarily factually correct sentence together, makes the pundits and anchors alike drool in awe over his performance. Please. It's unspeakably pitiful, I'd say -- and shameful to all of us. After all, this is the leader of the world talking -- and they pronounce him a winner just because he manages to show the occasional capability to rise to the level of a junior high debater... It's like cheering and gloating over the unexpected signs of reasoning skills shown by an intellectually handicapped child -- an understandable joy and pride for the parents and teachers, to be sure; but a disturbing sight when witnessed over the US president's inferior performance.

A Buzzer

Subject: Feeling Safer??

Are we really supposed to feel safe in the US with our reserves & national guard in Iraqi establishing an Islamic Republic - which did not exist when Saddam was in power? I agree he was bad, but at least he held the Islamic Radicals, who are worse than he was, in check. Wonder how safe the nearly 1100 military men and women who died felt as they lay dying? How safe do the thousands of Iraqi children whose home has been destroyed feel? At least they had a roof over their head when Saddam was in power.

Ben Bowlen
Knoxville, TN

Subject: Bush's availability to the Press

The day after the 3rd Debate, CBS Reporter John Roberts, riding on Air Force One, showing Bush with his arm almost around John McCain the whole interview, reported that Bush came to the back of the plane to talk to reporters "for the first time in over 3 years..." Pathetic.

Betsy

Subject: Feigned Outrage as Diversion

Why are Lynne & Dick Cheney so outraged by Kerry's comments about their gay daughter? The truth is they're not, it's a diversion and they're using her in a way far worse than any inconsequential comments by John Kerry.

How do you keep the media from focusing on the numerous, blatant lies of gwb? Well, you've got to get them to talk about something else. Has any major media outlet dealt with gwb's comment that he never said OBL wasn't a concern when he clearly said just that? Not one that I've seen. Has any major media outlet dealt with the drool coming out of the right side of gwb's mouth early on in the debate suggesting a health problem or the presence of medication? Not one that I've seen. Did major media elect to not show the candidates from the back? Well, it was pretty obvious that ABC was not showing them from that viewpoint. Has any major media dealt with gwb's grotesque fairy tale about Afghanistan, the Taliban and elections? Again, not one that I've seen.

Dick and Lynne Cheney are vile and disgusting for using their daughter to make political hay and their willing accomplices in the SCLM are equally to blame.

Turk Meister

Subject: Bush's Ear Bug

Buzz --

There's been much speculation about the possibility that the PResident was wearing an ear bug with a transmitter attached to his back during the debates. Now here's something my very observant wife noted: we watched the debates on C-SPAN with the split screen -- something the networks didn't carry -- but each time Senator Kerry responded to a question, Bush -- from the split screen -- only showed the right side of his face and appeared to be listening intently. He appeared to be listening intently but then he would write something down on a pad...almost as if someone was whispering a response in his ear...Check the video...These people are so corrupt, so crooked...Both these men went to Yale, a prestigious Ivy League school...you tell me...which one received the education and which one was partying all the time?

Tony M.

Subject: Lynne Cheney's whining

Hi:

I guess it's ok to call Kerry names because of his nationality and his heritage and to impugn his patriotism by comparing him with those goddamn French but God forbid anyone should say anything about the Cheney Family Draft Exemption walking around for all to see as she undermines the rights and hopes of her own people.

Give me a goddamn break would ya? Here we are at the end of an election cycle that, once again, has spent more time and money on attack and defense ads than ever before, the tried and true Bush Family method of campaigning, and all these bastards can do is bring up this nonsense? Kerry must really have them worried. I mean it isn't like they came out to defend the stupid lies that Bush spewed out during that debate on Wednesday. They didn't rise up and show everyone how the No Child Left Behind act is really helping anyone.

And was that Bush standing up there saying that he wants to extend Pell grants so that American families can send their kids to community colleges because that's where they'll get the education they need for 21st century jobs? What the hell does this administration have in mind for our kids? Seen anyone driving around lately with a community college decal on their back window? Is that what we're supposed to want for our kids? As the federal government expands into different departments dealing with "homeland" nonsense, the vital areas of our lives are being ignored, especially our kids' education needs and rights.

My kids want to go to a university where they can learn and get a degree, possibly do graduate work, and become educated. They don't want to be trained in how to type or how to make bookshelves. I don't mean to sound elitist here, but who the fuck is this man trying to kid? Where the hell did his kids go to school? One of them went to Yale, didn't she? If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us and that's what everyone has to start demanding from these thieves.

If you're gonna loot the Treasury and HUD, the least you can do is make college affordable to a wider group of people. But that isn't in the cards. Why? Because in college you take basic courses in things like how to look behind that curtain over there, or how to realize that when the dummy's lips are moving someone else is manipulating the strings and mouth. We saw the dummy on three different nights and I bet if someone had doused him with water he'd have been electrocuted from the wires he was outfitted with under that suit.

As Molly Ivins asked recently, "How dumb do they think we are?"

Pretty damn dumb if we accept the rhetoric that an increase in the minimum wage is going to drive businesses into bankruptcy while accepting that we need some idiotic thing like a "Willing Workers Card." What kind of mumbo jumbo is that? Like the Coalition of the Willing? Mexican workers forced to come to work for peanuts in America because the IMF and other world institutions are keeping their country mired in debt repayments? Because the transnational corporations ran away from the maquiladoras when they found cheaper labor elsewhere, after fouling the water and ruining the environment around where they were located?

How dumb do they think we are?

Unfortunately, Molly, as dumb as the lowest common denominator has proven to be.

Matt Carmody