In America, you can't just get up early on Election
Day in November and choose between candidates of who
have spent a few months struggling with each other's
ideas and lives in public debate. No, those days are
long gone. The presidential campaign now is a massive
PsyOps campaign, waged by the Corporatist News Media
as a full partner to the Greedy Plutocrat Party (GOP),
driven (at least for a few more weeks) by the Bush
cabal...That's right. If you want to come to an
understanding of what is happening in this campaign,
you have to dispense with naive notions that the "US
regimestream news media" (formerly known as the "US
mainstream news media") has any intention at all of
informing you. No, indeed, it is hell-bent on
disinforming you. Unless you wake-up to this painful
but at this point irrefutable truth, you will lose
this Republic in all but name on Election Day 2004.
This struggle is not a struggle between the Left and
the Right. Those who stand against the Triad, i.e., 1)
the Bush cabal itself, 2) its wholly licensed
subsidiary, the
political-entity-formerly-known-as-the-Republican-Party,
and 3) its sponsors in the "US regimestream news
media," then you are standing up for common sense,
human decency and the principles articulated in the US
Constitution (e.g, free speech, freedom of the press,
freedom of assembly, separation of church and state,
equal protection under the law, presumption of
innocence, and the separate but equal roles of the
three branches of the US federal government, etc.)
>From today until Election Day, the LNS will post one
daily news digest. Please read it and share it with
your friends. Please vote. Please encourage all those
within your influence to vote. And remember that the
US regimestream news media, in particular, the network
news organizations, are intent on DISINFORMING you,
and breaking your will, short-circuiting your common
sense, confounding your understanding of freedom and
compromising your sense of human decency...There is
still an opportunity to restore the Timeline, and the
Balance, if the _resident is defeated at the ballot
box (and the Constitutional process is not aborted, as
it was in 2000), but if the _resident gets another
four years, the rest of our lives will probably be
altered irrevocably for the worse...Sen. John F. Kerry
(D-Mekong Delta is ahead, in the nation as a whole,
and in enough of the "Battleground States" to win an
Electoral College victory. That's the truth.
Defeat the Triad!
LNS Countdown to the Day of Reckoning (11/2/04): 53
Days until the Electoral Uprising...
Here are seven pithy excerpts from the real campaign
news of the day.
1. Cooked Polls Warped Your Mind
From Ruy Teixeira...
If you assume that Democrats, Republicans, and
independents in their LV sample voted about the same
way as Dems, Reps, and indies in their RV sample (see
their "dissecting the vote" analysis on the Gallup
website), which was 90-7 Kerry for Dems, 49-46 Kerry
for indies, and 90-7 Bush for Reps, in order to have
the overall result come out 52-45 Bush there would
have to be about a TEN point Republican advantage in
party id among LVs. (If you assume 30 percent Dems, 40
percent Reps, and 30 percent indies, for example, with
those Bush and Kerry percentages, you end up with
almost exactly a 52-45 Bush lead.) Now that is
ridiculous. Does anyone really believe that
Republicans are going to have a 10 point advantage
among 2004 voters?
I sure don't and you shouldn't either. In 2000, the
Democrats had a 4 point advantage over the
Republicans. That advantage, in my view, is likely to
remain stable in 2004, though it's certainly possible
that it might diminish some (or increase!). But turn
into a 10 point GOP advantage? No way. The fact must
be faced: Gallup likely voters look pretty darn
unlikely and give a distorted picture of political
reality.
Perhaps it's time for a re-think on this one over at
Gallup headquarters.
2. Why are Bin Laden and al-Zawahri still free to spew
hate and the organize slaughter of innocents? Because
the _resident chose to expend our resources rolling up
Saddam Hussein and his chimerical WMD...
From Al Jazeera...
al-Zawahri: “The defeat of America in Iraq and
Afghanistan has become a matter of time, with God’s
help,” Ayman al-Zawahri said on the tape, which was
broadcast by the pan-Arab television station
Al-Jazeera. “The Americans in both countries are
between two fires, if they continue they bleed to
death and if they withdraw they lose everything.”
3. Tomorrow is September 11th…
REPORT CARD from John Podesta's Center for American
Progress...
The Bush administration receives a "D+" on Homeland
Security. Though it has spent billions to deal with an
imaginary threat in Iraq, it has not sufficiently
funded, nor has it put forth realistic strategies to
deal with, threats to America's ports, railways,
chemical plants and other infrastructure. It has also
failed to secure America's borders or establish
effective terrorist watch lists. The Department of
Homeland Security remains "grossly underfunded" and
the color-coded alert system is dysfunctional.
Fundamentally, the administration seems to think it
can defeat terrorism by "taking the fight to the
enemy," but as Homeland Security expert Stephen Flynn
warns, "Targeting terrorism at its source is an
appealing notion. Unfortunately, the enemy is not
cooperating."
The greatest danger facing the United States today is
the threat of terrorists armed with nuclear weapons. A
new report by the Center for American Progress titled
"Failing Grades: America's Security Three Years After
9/11" gives the Bush administration an "F" for efforts
to stop the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons and materials. In fact, the report shows the
Bush White House has actually gone backward in
attempts to control access to weapons-grade nuclear
materials worldwide. Instead of aggressively curbing
the spread of nuclear weapons, the administration's
policies have "encouraged other countries to take up
the challenge of a new nuclear arms race" while
increasing the likelihood that terrorists and rogue
nations will access nuclear materials. As Harvard's
Graham Allison says: "If we just keep doing what we
are doing, a nuclear terrorist attack is inevitable."
(American Progress has an in-depth look at how the
lack of leadership from the White House is impeding
global nonproliferation efforts.)
4. The Emperor has no uniform, and his nakedness is
not pleasant to the eye
REPORT CARD from John Podesta’s Center for American
Progress…
Four previously unseen memos obtained by 60 Minutes
from the personnel file of President Bush's squadron
commander, Col. Jerry Killian, "suggest that Bush
received favored treatment during a time in the early
1970s when many young men were being drafted and sent
to fight in Vietnam." The memos, which include reports
of Bush's dereliction of duty during his time in the
Texas Air National Guard and allege pressure from
superiors to "sugar coat" evaluations, "appear to be
the most damaging revelations in long-running
accusations by his critics that he had received
special treatment."
4a. And concerning the accusations that the documents
are faked...consider the source...Tom Brokaw and Jim
Lehrer probably won't...
John Byrne and Jesse Kanson-Benanav, Raw Story: Internet ‘journalist’ Matt Drudge has posted an claim which suggests that the new documents that indict
President Bush’s failures in the National Guard are actually fakes.
The source of his story, Cybercast News Service, is a
well-known conservative ‘news’ machine headed by L.
Brent Bozell III, who also serves as the head of the
Conservative Victory Committee. CNS News was founded
in 1988 to combat the “[clear] liberal bias in many
news outlets”.
Unlike Rupert Murdoch, whose empire includes the
conservative television outlet Fox News, Bozell is not
simply to be the leader of a conservative media
company (the Media Research Center is also under his
control); he has campaigned aggressively for
conservative candidates, including Pat Buchanan. He is
the nephew of conservative columnist William Buckley,
and the son of Brent Bozell, Jr., who assisted Barry
Goldwater with the writing of Conscience of a
Conservative.
5. NY Daily News headline: More blow-by-blow over W
coke tale
Yes, just leave the wet work up to New York’s best
newspaper…
Sharon Bush tried to back away yesterday from quotes
Kitty Kelley attributes to her in her new
slice-and-dice book on the Bush family - but she may
have backed into a smoking gun.
But Sharon has one small problem: There was a third
party at the lunch, an unimpeachable source who agreed
to speak with us on condition of anonymity, who says
Kelley's quotes are accurate.
"We met at the Chelsea Bistro on April 1, 2003," says
our insider. "It was a very long lunch. Sharon was
talking about affairs in the Bush family ... [that
they are] very dysfunctional. She said they talk about
family values, but they don't practice what they
preach.
"Then Kitty raised the drug issue," our source
continues. "Kitty, who can make a rock talk, said: 'I
know about the drugs. I know that W did drugs at Camp
David during his father's presidency.'
"Sharon agreed. She said, 'Absolutely. That's all
true.'"
Meanwhile, Kelley's associate publisher Suzanne Herz
said: "Doubleday stands fully behind the accuracy of
Ms. Kelley's reporting, and believes that everything
she attributes to Sharon Bush in her book is an
accurate account of their discussions."
And, from the NYTwits…
DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, New York Times: A representative of the White House recently called Neal Shapiro, president of NBC News, to discourage
that network from broadcasting interviews with Ms.
Kelley about the book on its "Today'' program and on
its MSNBC cable program "Hardball With Chris
Matthews,'' a network executive said.
The Republican Party distributed a memorandum this
week to conservative radio talk show hosts listing
tawdry, unproved assertions in Ms. Kelley's previous
books, especially her biography of Nancy Reagan. And
Ed Gillespie, the party chairman, sent a letter to
supporters portraying her book as a tool of the
Democrats' campaign.
Lou Colasuonno, a former publicist for Ms. Bush,
confirmed that he was the third party at the lunch and
contradicted her denial. "I have not seen the book, I
have only seen news reports," Mr. Colasuonno said.
"According to what I have seen, what has been
reported, I would not dispute that."
Through a spokeswoman, Stephen Rubin, the publisher of
Doubleday, called Ms. Kelley "a dogged journalist who
is unafraid to take on some of the most powerful
personalities of our time."
"Kitty has never had to retract anything published in
any of her books nor has she ever lost a lawsuit," Mr.
Rubin added. "She is a brave, insightful and
persistent investigative reporter."
6. Al Gore rampages in Pittsburgh on the “failed
record” of Bush-Halliburton and accuses the VICE _resident of "blackmail"
When the history of this ugly interlude in American
political life is written, the speeches that Al Gore
(the man elected President of the US in 2000) has made
over the last two years will shine resplendently and
be revealed to have opened gaping wounds in the
public’s perception of the Bush cabal motives and
competency.
Joe Mandak, Associated Press: Vice President Dick
Cheney's remark that "the wrong choice" by voters
could result in another terrorist attack was "a sleazy
and despicable effort to blackmail voters with fear,"
Al Gore said Thursday.
The former vice president criticized the Bush-Cheney
administration — which he repeatedly called the
Bush-Halliburton administration — for their "failed
record" on the economy, health care and the war in
Iraq during a speech before about 200 supporters at
the headquarters of the United Steelworkers of
America.
"The claim by Bush and Cheney that the American people
must give them four more years in office or else be
'hit hard' by another terrorist attack is a sleazy and
despicable effort to blackmail voters with fear," Gore
said.
"They're not even really trying to convince you to
vote for George Bush. Their only hope, they've
decided, is to try and make you too afraid to vote for
John Kerry. It's the lowest sort of politics
imaginable. It is not worthy of a presidential
candidate."
Gore also criticized Bush over Labor Department
statistics showing the country has a net loss of
913,000 jobs since he took office.
"It takes real work doing the wrong things in order to
counter the natural momentum of the U.S. economy," he
said. "But this president is now, along with Herbert
Hoover, the only one to end up giving our country a
net loss of jobs" since the Great Depression.
7. In New Orleans, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mekong Delta)
baits the _resident
Nedra Pickler, Associated Press: Sen. John Kerry
accused President Bush Thursday of failing the
Biblical test set by the Good Samaritan, saying, "He's
seen people in need, but he's crossed over to the
other side of the street."
In a speech that blended political rhetoric with
Biblical references, the Democratic presidential
candidate also branded Supreme Court Justices Antonin
Scalia and Clarence Thomas as out of the mainstream
and said Bush will appoint more like them if he wins
re-election.
"We have fought too hard and come too far to let
George W. Bush roll back generations of progress,"
Kerry said in remarks prepared for delivery to the
National Baptist Convention, the country's largest
predominantly black denomination. "John Edwards and I
know that the whole future of civil rights and
affirmative action may hinge on a single Supreme Court
vote."
"Four years ago, George Bush (news - web sites) came
to office calling himself a `compassionate
conservative,'" Kerry said. "Well, in the story of the
Good Samaritan we are told of two men who pass by or
cross to the other side of the street when they come
upon a robbed and beaten man.
Kerry added: "It is clear. For four years, George W.
Bush may have talked about compassion, but he's walked
right by. He's seen people in need, but he's crossed
to the other side of the street."
He said that black Americans have paid a particularly
high price during Bush's term. Their unemployment rate
is nearly 10 percent, double the rate for whites, he
said. Nearly one-third of all black children live in
poverty, he said, half the black men living in New
York City are out of work and 400,000 blacks have lost
their health insurance.
Restore the Timeline, Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat the Traid,
Defeat Bush (again!)
Full texts and URLs follow below…
\\http://www.emergingdemocraticmajorityweblog.com/donkeyrising/
September 10, 2004
More on Those (Un)likely Gallup Voters
Another nugget from Alan Abramowitz:
If you assume that Democrats, Republicans, and
independents in their LV sample voted about the same
way as Dems, Reps, and indies in their RV sample (see
their "dissecting the vote" analysis on the Gallup
website), which was 90-7 Kerry for Dems, 49-46 Kerry
for indies, and 90-7 Bush for Reps, in order to have
the overall result come out 52-45 Bush there would
have to be about a TEN point Republican advantage in
party id among LVs. (If you assume 30 percent Dems, 40
percent Reps, and 30 percent indies, for example, with
those Bush and Kerry percentages, you end up with
almost exactly a 52-45 Bush lead.) Now that is
ridiculous. Does anyone really believe that
Republicans are going to have a 10 point advantage
among 2004 voters?
I sure don't and you shouldn't either. In 2000, the
Democrats had a 4 point advantage over the
Republicans. That advantage, in my view, is likely to
remain stable in 2004, though it's certainly possible
that it might diminish some (or increase!). But turn
into a 10 point GOP advantage? No way. The fact must
be faced: Gallup likely voters look pretty darn
unlikely and give a distorted picture of political
reality.
Perhaps it's time for a re-think on this one over at
Gallup headquarters.
Posted by Ruy Teixeira at 12:23 AM | link | Comments
(7)
September 9, 2004
Maybe September 6 Was a Really Good Day for Bush
OK, horse race fans, when last we picked up the story
(September 3-5 Gallup poll), Bush had a one point lead
on Kerry among RVs.
Today we have three different polls released covering
about the same period with three pretty different
horse race results.
1. CBS News, polling September 6-8 among RVs, gives
Bush an 8 point lead.
2. ABC News/Washington Post, polling September 6-8
among RVs, gives Bush an estimated 4 point lead. Why
do I say "estimated"? Because, now that Nader is
becoming an ever-less-viable candidate, the WP poll
has decided only to ask the three-way horse race
question and not the followup for Nader voters that
allows you to construct a 2-way race. Makes a lot of
sense, right?
Since, in their last poll, the 2 way race knocked 2
points off Bush's lead, I do the same thing in this
poll and estimate that Bush's 6 point lead in the 3
way race translates into a 4 point lead in the 2-way
race.
3. Finally, Fox News, polling September 7-8 among LVs
(no RV data available), gives Bush a 2 point lead.
Kinda confusing, huh? Why would September 6-8 be a
better period for Bush than September 3-5, right after
the convention? And could Fox's polling period, which
does not include September 6, mean they missed Bush's
best day and he was starting to go downhill a bit?
Stay tuned! There'll be more polls coming at us
shortly, I'm sure.
Posted by Ruy Teixeira at 07:46 PM | link | Comments
(35)
Watch Out for Those Gallup LVs in Ohio
As Alan Abramowitz has pointed out to me in another
missive:
Gallup's new poll in Ohio appears to have the same
problem as their latest national poll--there is again
a huge discrepancy between their results for
registered voters (Bush 48, Kerry 47) and their
results for likely voters (Bush 52, Kerry 44). Based
on the numbers of registered and likely voters in the
Gallup sample, this means that they are projecting
that 90 percent of Bush supporters will vote but only
78 percent of Kerry supporters will vote. Again, this
seems way out of line with evidence from previous
elections and with other polls. In contrast, in
Pennsylvania and Washington, Gallup's results for
registered and likely voters are much more similar,
and in line with other recent polls.
Posted by Ruy Teixeira at 02:15 PM | link | Comments
(19)
New Gallup State Polls
The CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll of Washington state
conducted September 3-7, 2004 has Kerry at 51 percent,
Bush at 43 percent, Nader at 2 percent, and
neither/unsure at 4 percent.
The CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll of Pennsylvania RV's
conducted Sept. 4-7, 2004 shows a tie, with 47 percent
each for John Kerry and George Bush, with 6 percent
neither/unsure.
The CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll of Ohio RV's conducted
Sept. 4-7, 2004 has Bush at 48 percent, Kerry at 47
percent and neither/unsure at 5 percent.
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll of Missouri RV's conducted
Sept. 3-6, 2004 reports Bush leads with 53 percent,
Kerry 42 percent with 5 percent neither/unsure.
Posted by EDM Staff at 01:27 PM | link | Comments (21)
Guess They Skipped the Apples-to-Apples Thing in
Gallup Training School
This is really unbelievable. Gallup posted an analysis
on their site yesterday about estimating election
probabilities based on labor day poll data that is
almost completely worthless. The reason is that they
focus on Kerry's 7 point deficit among LVs on labor
day (can he overcome it?), while basing their analysis
almost entirely on data about RVs on labor day.
How do I know their labor day poll data is almost
entirely (prior to 1996) based on RVs? Because they
published these data, clearly marked as being from RVs
prior to that date, in an analysis on their own site
just 6 days ago (September 3)!
Don't they read their own stuff? Clearly it makes no
sense to analyze a lead among LVs this labor day, and
its possible relation to the final outcome this year,
on the basis of historical data about RV leads on
labor day and how much they changed by election day.
Thus, the question Gallup should have been asking is:
can Kerry overcome his 1 point deficit among RVs by
election day, based on historical patterns? Turns out
the answer to this question--really, the only question
that their data can properly answer--looks pretty darn
good for Kerry.
In 17 of 17 cases, going back to 1936, the labor day
margin between the candidates changed enough for Kerry
to tie or surpass Bush in the popular vote and, in 12
of 17 of those cases, the change was in Kerry's
direction (i.e., that is, in the direction of the
candidate who was behind among RVs on labor day).
Moreover, if you compare Bush's position to the
position of incumbent presidents who won their
campaigns for re-election, it doesn't look auspicious.
In 9 cases, going back to 1936, winning incumbent
presidents on labor day had an average lead of 12
points and a median lead of 11 points among RVs. The
only winning incumbent president who was in a worse
position than Bush is this year was Harry Truman in
1948.
Maybe I'm biased, but I have a really hard time seeing
George W. Bush as Harry Truman.
Posted by Ruy Teixeira at 12:42 AM | link | Comments
(32)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5953611/
Al-Qaida deputy says U.S. faces defeat in Iraq,
Afghanistan
Taped message may be rallying call for terrorists
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 8:56 p.m. ET Sept. 9, 2004Osama bin Laden’s
chief deputy proclaimed the United States will
ultimately be defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan in a
videotape broadcast Thursday that appeared to be a
rallying call for al-Qaida ahead of the anniversary of
the Sept. 11 attacks.
advertisement
“The defeat of America in Iraq and Afghanistan has
become a matter of time, with God’s help,” Ayman
al-Zawahri said on the tape, which was broadcast by
the pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera. “The
Americans in both countries are between two fires, if
they continue they bleed to death and if they withdraw
they lose everything.”
A bearded al-Zawahri, wearing eyeglasses, a white
turban and a black vest over a white shirt, spoke
looking into the camera. An assault weapon was leaning
on the wall behind him.
U.S. forces face fierce resistance in parts of
Afghanistan and across Iraq, but military commanders
insist they maintain the upper hand against insurgents
in both countries.
Experts analyze tape, message
Al-Qaida has issued a bin Laden audiotape in the two
previous years on Sept. 10, so Thursday’s video fits a
pattern leading up to the attack anniversary, a U.S.
intelligence official said. Intelligence officials
were working to confirm the speaker was al-Zawahri.
If it is al-Zawahri, it would be the first time since
December 2001 that bin Laden’s No. 2 has appeared in a
video in which he is speaking and delivering a
message, the official said, although he was purported
to have made a statement in an audiotape on June 11.
Al-Zawahri also was shown making a limited statement
on a videotape on April 15, 2002, but Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said at the time that the
material appeared to be outdated.
Experts were investigating what message the video
released Thursday might be seeking to convey and
whether the videotape is actually an older audiotape,
now joined with its images.
U.S. officials have noted that some tape releases have
preceded terrorist attacks. In April 2003, a taped
voice thought to be bin Laden’s exhorted Muslims to
rise up against Saudi Arabia and called for suicide
attacks against U.S. and British interests. Suicide
bombers struck Western housing compounds in the Saudi
capital on May 12, killing 26 people.
An expert on Islamic militants said al-Qaida’s “annual
message” is meant to show the terror network has “no
problems and, as al-Zawahri said, they see themselves
as winning.”
“The message every year has a different meaning, but
always makes the point to prove their existence and
the ability to continue,” said Dia’a Rashwan of Cairo.
“... They are saying they can still make tapes and
videotapes and say whatever they want.”
Al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout said his station
received the al-Zawahri tape exclusively on Thursday,
but he refused to say how it was obtained. The station
will broadcast less than two minutes of a 12-minute
recording, “taking out of it what we deemed
newsworthy,” Ballout told The Associated Press.
Ballout refused to comment on the contents of the
un-aired portions of the tape, including whether or
not they contained any threats.
Message for morale
Pakistani army spokesman Gen. Shaukat Sultan, whose
forces staged an offensive against al-Qaida and
Taliban remnants in the border region with Afghanistan
this week, said the tape was likely aimed at “boosting
the morale of the terrorists who have suffered heavy
casualties.”
Pakistani warplanes pummeled a suspected al-Qaida
training facility near the border with Afghanistan on
Thursday, flattening a vast mud-brick compound and
killing at least 50 fighters, the military said, in
one of the fiercest assaults in months of fighting in
the area.
Bin Laden and al-Zawahri are believed hiding along the
Afghan-Pakistan border.
In a videotape released on Sept. 10, 2003, Bin Laden
and al-Zawahri were shown walking through rocky
terrain. Two audiotaped messages accompanied that
video, including one in which bin Laden praised the
“great damage to the enemy” done on Sept. 11.
In this year’s anniversary tape, al-Zawahri makes a
rare appearance without bin Laden, proclaiming that
the era of security for Americans is over and they
will never enjoy it again unless their government
stops what he described as crimes against Muslims in
Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.
He also warned of plans to tear apart the Arab and
Islamic worlds, saying that includes the Arabian
Peninsula, Egypt and Sudan, particularly the troubled
Darfur region where conflict has raged for 19 months.
Al-Jazeera’s presenter said the reference to Darfur,
which has drawn recent international attention with
criticism of the Sudanese government’s handling of the
crisis, indicates the tape is new.
Al-Qaida carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on
New York and Washington, prompting Washington to move
against Afghanistan’s Taliban regime, which had
sheltered bin Laden. The Taliban were driven from
power in late 2001 by a U.S.-led military campaign.
U.S. forces ‘huddled in their trenches’
“Southern and eastern Afghanistan have completely
become an open field for the mujahedeen,” or holy
fighters, al-Zawahri said in excerpts of the tape
aired by the Qatar-based station.
“The Americans are huddled in their trenches, refusing
to come out to confront the holy warriors despite the
holy warriors’ provoking them by shelling, shooting
and cutting the routes around them and their defense
concentrates on strikes from the air which wastes
America’s money in kicking up dust,” he added.
In recent months, southern and eastern Afghanistan
have been wracked by violence against U.S. military
forces and Afghan election workers preparing for an
Oct. 9 presidential vote.
U.S. military officials in Afghanistan couldn’t be
reached for comment, but U.S. commanders and their
Pakistani allies have said they have Taliban remnants
and al-Qaida on the defensive.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai also said recently that
he considers infighting among pro-government warlords
a larger threat to his nation’s stability than that
posed by the remnants of the Taliban regime.
Still, U.S. and Afghan officials are on edge after a
Kabul car bombing two weeks ago killed about 10
people, including three Americans, concede that
militant attacks could increase in the run-up to next
month’s elections.
Attack on Kabul
In continued fighting, up to five rockets landed in a
residential area of Kabul near the city’s airport on
Thursday, wounding at least three people, residents
and peacekeepers said.
The rockets struck near the Charqali Wazirabad
residential area between the city center and the
airport.
A Swedish officer with NATO-led peacekeepers said four
or five rockets had landed. One struck a house,
slightly wounding a man, and a second one landed near
another house, injuring a child and woman.
“We are trying to work out if there was a grid
pattern; that way we will be able to tell what the
target might have been,” said the officer, who spoke
on condition of anonymity.
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=100480
REPORT CARD
An Indefensible Homeland Security Record
The Bush administration receives a "D+" on Homeland
Security. Though it has spent billions to deal with an
imaginary threat in Iraq, it has not sufficiently
funded, nor has it put forth realistic strategies to
deal with, threats to America's ports, railways,
chemical plants and other infrastructure. It has also
failed to secure America's borders or establish
effective terrorist watch lists. The Department of
Homeland Security remains "grossly underfunded" and
the color-coded alert system is dysfunctional.
Fundamentally, the administration seems to think it
can defeat terrorism by "taking the fight to the
enemy," but as Homeland Security expert Stephen Flynn
warns, "Targeting terrorism at its source is an
appealing notion. Unfortunately, the enemy is not
cooperating."
PORTS AND RAILWAYS: The administration has severely
underfunded maritime security, imperiling the safety
of hundreds of thousands of people who live near
ports. The Coast Guard has projected the cost of
implementing safety regulations laid out by Congress
at $7.3 billion over the next ten years, but the
administration has distributed just $441 million so
far, and the president's 2005 budget proposes to spend
only $46 million. Stephen Flynn, a retired U.S. Coast
Guard Commander, points out, "For the cost of two F-22
fighter jets and three days of combat in Iraq…the
nation's ports could be secured against terror."
Meanwhile, millions of train passengers also remain
unprotected and the administration has not forced the
rail industry to safeguard shipments of hazardous
materials. Bush's 2005 budget allocation for train
security is $100 million, equal to what the U.S.
spends on eight typical hours in Iraq.
BORDERS: The 9/11 Commission concluded that the Bush
administration had failed to adequately secure
America's borders and track new visitors. Commission
Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton said, "We need secure
borders with heightened and uniform standards of
identification for those entering and exiting the
country, and an immigration system able to be
efficient, allowing good people in while keeping the
terrorists out." The Department of Homeland Security
currently has no strategy for tracking down and
deporting people who remain beyond the conditions of
their stay.
LAW ENFORCEMENT: Remarkably, Bush administration
homeland security cutbacks have meant fewer cops and
first responders on the streets today than there were
on 9/11. And despite a supposedly high level of
domestic alert, the Bush administration's 2005 budget
calls for a 31.9 percent decrease in law enforcement
funding from levels approved by Congress in FY2004.
Foreign Affairs reports that on average, "U.S. fire
departments have only enough radios to equip half
their firefighters on a shift, and breathing apparatus
for only a third. Police departments in cities across
the country do not have the protective gear to safely
secure a site following a WMD attack. And most
emergency medical technicians lack the tools to
determine which chemical or biological agent may have
been used."
ASSIGNMENT FOR ACTION: The Center recommends that
President Bush give new funding and priority to port
and railway security and require the chemical industry
to adopt tighter security guidelines. The president
should also eliminate the color-coded threat alert
system and order Homeland Security to come up with a
more focused and complete mechanism for communicating
threats to Americans. Finally, he should order the
Office of Management and Budget to draw up a national
security budget that includes appropriations for
defense, intelligence, homeland security, diplomacy
and foreign assistance. The Belfer Center at Harvard
has developed solutions to "key gaps" in the
administration's current policy, including better
funding for first responders in areas most likely to
be affected by terrorism and more widespread
vaccinations.
REPORT CARD
Failing Nonproliferation Efforts
The greatest danger facing the United States today is
the threat of terrorists armed with nuclear weapons. A
new report by the Center for American Progress titled
"Failing Grades: America's Security Three Years After
9/11" gives the Bush administration an "F" for efforts
to stop the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons and materials. In fact, the report shows the
Bush White House has actually gone backward in
attempts to control access to weapons-grade nuclear
materials worldwide. Instead of aggressively curbing
the spread of nuclear weapons, the administration's
policies have "encouraged other countries to take up
the challenge of a new nuclear arms race" while
increasing the likelihood that terrorists and rogue
nations will access nuclear materials. As Harvard's
Graham Allison says: "If we just keep doing what we
are doing, a nuclear terrorist attack is inevitable."
(American Progress has an in-depth look at how the
lack of leadership from the White House is impeding
global nonproliferation efforts.)
THE RECORD: According to a recent Harvard University
report titled "Securing the Bomb: An Agenda for
Action," "less fissile materials were secured in the
two years after Sept 11 than in the two years before."
In addition, the Carnegie Endowment for Peace warns,
"since the invasion of Iraq, we have spent $200
billion on the war, but only $2 billion on securing
the nuclear bomb materials we know al Qaeda has sought
and may still seek."
SHORTCHANGING GLOBAL EFFORTS: Two years ago, the
United States joined other G-8 countries in creating
an international effort to fight the threat of WMD.
The White House pledged $10 billion, to be matched by
the other seven nations. Since then, only a fraction
of the pledged funds have been allocated. As chair of
the group in 2003, President Bush failed to advance
this program. President Bush actually proposed cutting
funds for the so-called Nunn-Lugar program – a proven
success that to date has deactivated "6,312 nuclear
warheads; 537 ICBMs; 459 ICBM silos; 11 ICBM mobile
missile launchers; 128 bombers; 708 nuclear
air-to-surface missiles; 408 submarine missile
launchers; 496 submarine launched missiles; 27 nuclear
submarines; and 194 nuclear test tunnels." Also,
Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan are nuclear
weapons-free as a result of cooperative efforts under
the Nunn-Lugar program.
IGNORED AXIS: President Bush pushed the nation into
war in Iraq by claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of
mass destruction that posed a serious and immediate
threat to the United States. Although the White House
has since spent over $600 million to look for weapons,
no evidence of usable weapons has been found.
Meanwhile, the expensive war in Iraq distracted
attention from the other spokes in the "Axis of Evil,"
allowing increasingly aggressive North Korea and Iran
to continue to develop their own nuclear programs. The
president's cabinet is divided over what to do about
North Korea and Iran, which has resulted in policy
gridlock—enabling North Korea to quadruple its
suspected nuclear arsenal from two to as many as eight
weapons and allowing Iran to proceed in building
infrastructure that could be used to build a nuclear
weapon on short notice.
SACRIFICING CREDIBILITY: The Bush administration has
been trying to develop new, deadlier nuclear weapons,
a move the director general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed El Baradei, likened to
having a cigarette dangling from your lips while
admonishing other nations not to smoke. The White
House has sought funding for "bunker busters," nuclear
weapons that could penetrate deep into the earth, and
"mini-nukes," for smaller nuclear attacks. Both of
these are considered "usable," first-use weapons,
increasing the likelihood of preemptive nuclear
strikes, which in turn goads other nations into
accelerating their nuclear programs.
MILITARY
New Memos Expose Bush Record
Four previously unseen memos obtained by 60 Minutes
from the personnel file of President Bush's squadron
commander, Col. Jerry Killian, "suggest that Bush
received favored treatment during a time in the early
1970s when many young men were being drafted and sent
to fight in Vietnam." The memos, which include reports
of Bush's dereliction of duty during his time in the
Texas Air National Guard and allege pressure from
superiors to "sugar coat" evaluations, "appear to be
the most damaging revelations in long-running
accusations by his critics that he had received
special treatment."
BUSH FAILS TO MEET STANDARDS: The memos trace a
pattern of Bush failing requirements at the Guard,
then escaping the consequences. In one memo, dated May
1972, Killian writes that Lt. Bush called him to talk
about "how he can get out of coming to drill from now
through November," and expresses concern the
congressman's son is "talking to someone upstairs." On
Aug. 1, 1972, the day Bush was suspended from flying
for failing to take his physical, Killian wrote, "on
this date, I ordered that 1st Lt. Bush be suspended
not just for failing to take a physical….but for
failing to perform to U.S. Air Force/Texas Air
National Guard standards. The officer [then-Lt. Bush]
has made no attempt to meet his training certification
or flight physical." But Killian alleges he was then
pressured not to be too hard on Bush in his
evaluations.
THE HONORABLE DISCHARGE: The White House defends
Bush's performance with the Guard by pointing to his
"honorable discharge," but Killian's memos suggest
Bush's favorable reviews were tainted by preferential
treatment. A memo dated Aug. 18, 1972, seventeen days
after Killian said Bush had failed to meet Guard
standards, complains that Col. Buck Staudt, the man in
charge of the Texas Guard and a longtime supporter of
the Bush family, was putting on pressure to "sugar
coat" the evaluation of Lt. Bush. Killian admits to
"having trouble running interference and doing my
job." Though Bush did receive an honorable discharge
in October 1973, Salon reports that a month later, the
Air Force in Denver, "acting retroactively, in effect
overturned Bush's honorable discharge and placed him
on 'Inactive Status'" upon review of his personnel
file. It was "only last-minute intervention, likely
from Bush's local Houston draft board," which reversed
Bush's inactive status and secured his honorable
discharge.
GETTING INTO THE GUARD: Also on 60 Minutes last night,
former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes explained how he
helped Bush gain entry into the Guard in 1968, just a
few months before Bush was to become eligible for the
Vietnam draft. Barnes recalled a meeting with oilman
Sid Adger, a friend to both Barnes and
then-Congressman George Bush, during which he agreed
to help Bush get into the Guard. "I would describe it
as preferential treatment," Barnes said. "There were
hundreds of names on the list of people wanting to get
into the Air National Guard or the Army National
Guard. I think that would have been a preference to
anybody that didn't want to go to Vietnam or didn't
want to leave…Those that could get in the Reserves, or
those that could get in the National Guard - chances
are they would not have to go to Vietnam." Barnes now
regrets helping Bush, saying he is "very, very sorry"
for what he did.
BUSH'S RESPONSE: Barnes's story conflicts with the
president's recent statements about his Guard service
– Bush has insisted "any allegation that my dad asked
for special favors is simply not true." But in 1988,
the president expressed his true feelings about
preferential treatment: "If you want to go into the
National Guard, I guess sometimes people make calls,"
he said. "I don't see anything wrong with [that]."
Bush also insinuated he would have been ready to serve
in Vietnam with the Guard, saying, "They probably
should have called the National Guard up in those
days. Maybe we would have done better in Vietnam." On
the O'Reilly Factor last night, American Progress'
Larry Korb pointed out, "We now know that [Bush]…would
have been in no position to have been called up [to
Vietnam], because he got out of his flying status and
he didn't show up for his flight physical."
A TACTIC FIRST EXPLOITED BY GEORGE BUSH: Former
President George H. W. Bush has attacked those who
have questioned President George W. Bush's service
record during the Vietnam War. Yet it was George H. W.
Bush who orchestrated a similar attack on his
opponents in 1988. As reported in the 8/23/88 Los
Angeles Times, Bush campaign co-chairman John Sununu
"accused the [Sen. Lloyd Bentsen] of helping his son
get into the National Guard." Bentsen son "served in
the 147th Fighter Group of the Texas National Guard
along with George W. Bush, the vice president's son."
Bush's allies on Capitol Hill at the time also charged
Dukakis with using student deferments to avoid service
during the Korean War.
http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=291
9/9/2004
Source of claims CBS documents faked runs Conservative
Victory Committee
Filed under: General— site admin @ 5:12 pm Email This
By John Byrne and Jesse Kanson-Benanav | Raw Story
Editors
Internet ‘journalist’ Matt Drudge has posted an claim
which suggests that the new documents that indict
President Bush’s failures in the National Guard are
actually fakes.
The source of his story, Cybercast News Service, is a
well-known conservative ‘news’ machine headed by L.
Brent Bozell III, who also serves as the head of the
Conservative Victory Committee. CNS News was founded
in 1988 to combat the “[clear] liberal bias in many
news outlets”.
Unlike Rupert Murdoch, whose empire includes the
conservative television outlet Fox News, Bozell is not
simply to be the leader of a conservative media
company (the Media Research Center is also under his
control); he has campaigned aggressively for
conservative candidates, including Pat Buchanan. He is
the nephew of conservative columnist William Buckley,
and the son of Brent Bozell, Jr., who assisted Barry
Goldwater with the writing of Conscience of a
Conservative.
The Media Research Center, along with Bozell, took
part in the drive to eradicate PBS.
Here’s a quick statement from his online autbiography.
Mr. Bozell also serves as Executive Director of the
Conservative Victory Committee (CVC). An independent
multi-candidate political action committee, the CVC
has helped to elect dozens of conservative candidates
over the past ten years. He has also served as
National Finance Chairman for the Buchanan for
President campaign, and Finance Director and later
President of the National Conservative Political
Action Committee.
His other ‘news source’ is a conservative blogger, who
sits on the board of directors for a conservative
thinktank.
Powerline blog is associated with the Twin Cities
Northern Alliance Radio Network, a loose association
of self-avowed conservative radio shows and blogs
based in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The author, Scott
Johnson is an attorney based in St. Paul who is
associated and has written extensively for the Center
of the American Experiment, “Minnesota’s Conservative
Thinktank.”
He has published such papers as “The Truth about
Income Inequality,” which claims that income
inequality has not increased in America in recent
years. Rather to the contrary, Johnson claims “these
stories have been based, almost universally, on biased
analyses which manipulate and distort the underlying
economic facts.”
Johnson is employed as an attorney for the Claremont
Institute, a conservative institution in Claremont, CA
whose mission is “to restore the principles of the
American Founding to their rightful, preeminent
authority in our national life.”
CBS say they documents have been thoroughly vetted,
are genuine
This from Washington Monthly’s Kevin Drum.
For what it’s worth, I spoke to someone a few minutes
ago who’s familiar with how the documents were vetted,
and the bottom line is that CBS is very, very
confident that the memos are genuine. They believe
that (a) their sources are rock solid, (b) the
provenance of the documents is well established, and ©
the appearance of the documents matches the appearance
of other documents created at the same place and time.
In addition, people who knew Killian well have
confirmed that the memos are genuine.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/230275p-197775c.html
More blow-by-blow over W coke tale
Sharon Bush tried to back away yesterday from quotes
Kitty Kelley attributes to her in her new
slice-and-dice book on the Bush family - but she may
have backed into a smoking gun.
In her book "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush
Dynasty," Kelley claims that the blond beauty told
her: "[George W.] Bush did coke at Camp David when his
father was President, and not just once, either."
Sharon, who was married to President Bush's brother
Neil for 24 years and is the mother of model Lauren
Bush, released a statement through her lawyer, David
Berg:
"I categorically deny that I ever told Kitty Kelley
that George W. Bush used cocaine at Camp David - or
that I ever saw him use cocaine at Camp David. The one
time I met in person with Kitty Kelley, she mentioned
drug use at Camp David. I responded by saying
something along the lines of, 'Who would say such a
thing?'"
Earlier, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan told
us: "We haven't seen the book, but based on reports,
it's obvious that it's filled with garbage that has
been discredited, disavowed and dismissed years ago."
But Sharon has one small problem: There was a third
party at the lunch, an unimpeachable source who agreed
to speak with us on condition of anonymity, who says
Kelley's quotes are accurate.
"We met at the Chelsea Bistro on April 1, 2003," says
our insider. "It was a very long lunch. Sharon was
talking about affairs in the Bush family ... [that
they are] very dysfunctional. She said they talk about
family values, but they don't practice what they
preach.
"Then Kitty raised the drug issue," our source
continues. "Kitty, who can make a rock talk, said: 'I
know about the drugs. I know that W did drugs at Camp
David during his father's presidency.'
"Sharon agreed. She said, 'Absolutely. That's all
true.'"
Meanwhile, Kelley's associate publisher Suzanne Herz
said: "Doubleday stands fully behind the accuracy of
Ms. Kelley's reporting, and believes that everything
she attributes to Sharon Bush in her book is an
accurate account of their discussions."
"The day following this lunch, in the presence of her
editor, Peter Gethers, Ms. Kelley had a subsequent
telephone conversation with Sharon Bush which lasted
approximately 1-1/2 hours. Ms. Kelley has notes to
corroborate both of these conversations."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 9, 2004
Book Unflattering to Bush Draws His Campaign's Fire
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Correction Appended
Anticipating a barrage of unflattering accusations and
innuendo about President Bush's personal life in a
soon-to-be-published book by the celebrity biographer
Kitty Kelley, the Bush campaign has opened a wave of
advance counterstrikes intended to undermine her
credibility.
A representative of the White House recently called
Neal Shapiro, president of NBC News, to discourage
that network from broadcasting interviews with Ms.
Kelley about the book on its "Today'' program and on
its MSNBC cable program "Hardball With Chris
Matthews,'' a network executive said.
The Republican Party distributed a memorandum this
week to conservative radio talk show hosts listing
tawdry, unproved assertions in Ms. Kelley's previous
books, especially her biography of Nancy Reagan. And
Ed Gillespie, the party chairman, sent a letter to
supporters portraying her book as a tool of the
Democrats' campaign.
"This book is fiction and deserves to be treated as
such,'' said Christine Iverson, a Republican
spokeswoman.
The book, "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush
Dynasty," is not scheduled for publication until next
week, but it has already become a subject of intense
interest in Washington as word seeped out that it
could contain salacious disclosures about Mr. Bush and
his father, less than two months before the election.
In a back and forth yesterday, Sharon Bush, the former
wife of the president's brother Neil and a central
source for the book, issued a pre-emptive retraction
after a British newspaper printed an article on the
book, quoting Ms. Bush as saying that Mr. Bush used
cocaine at Camp David while his father was in office.
"I categorically deny that I ever told Kitty Kelley
that George W. Bush used cocaine at Camp David or that
I ever saw him use cocaine at Camp David," Ms. Bush
said in an unsworn statement distributed by her
lawyer, David Berg. "Although there have been tensions
between me and various members of the Bush family, I
cannot allow this falsehood to go unchallenged."
Doubleday, the book's publisher and part of the Random
House division of Bertelsmann, said it stood by Ms.
Kelley's reporting. The publisher said in a statement
that Ms. Kelly met with Ms. Bush for a four-hour lunch
on April 1, 2003, where an unnamed third party heard
the conversation, and that Ms. Kelley's editor, Peter
Gethers, discussed the same material with Ms. Bush
over the phone.
Lou Colasuonno, a former publicist for Ms. Bush,
confirmed that he was the third party at the lunch and
contradicted her denial. "I have not seen the book, I
have only seen news reports," Mr. Colasuonno said.
"According to what I have seen, what has been
reported, I would not dispute that."
A copy of the book was obtained by The New York Times.
Ms. Kelley writes that she spent four years and
interviewed nearly a thousand people in researching
the book, which spans three generations of Bushes.
Little, if any, of its content is flattering to the
family. Ms. Kelley treats subjects as far-flung as the
pranks the younger George Bush played at boarding
school at Andover and his jocular use of obscene
language in the years before taking office. But she
also discusses questions about how he avoided serving
in Vietnam, about excessive drinking and whether he
used illegal drugs and about his business career. It
is a fast-paced, gossipy narrative that relies on
second-hand or unnamed sources for much of its new and
most vivid details.
Asked about the book, Scott McClellan, a spokesman for
the White House, said yesterday: "It is a book filled
with garbage, garbage that was discredited, disavowed
and dismissed years ago. This is not the first time we
have seen such baseless and trashy fabrications from
the author."
Through a spokeswoman, Stephen Rubin, the publisher of
Doubleday, called Ms. Kelley "a dogged journalist who
is unafraid to take on some of the most powerful
personalities of our time."
"Kitty has never had to retract anything published in
any of her books nor has she ever lost a lawsuit," Mr.
Rubin added. "She is a brave, insightful and
persistent investigative reporter."
Yesterday, a Bush-Cheney campaign official confirmed
that "we called NBC and expressed our concern." The
Republican Party sent conservative radio shows an
e-mail message headlined, "New Kelley Book, Same Old
Kelley Slime," listing articles questioning aspects of
her previous biographies.
Mr. Gillespie's memorandum also cited some of the
unseemly, hard-to-prove assertions in Ms. Kelley's
biographies of Mrs. Reagan and Frank Sinatra. Mr.
Gillespie said the description of Mr. Bush's using
drugs at Camp David was "as credible as her story that
then-Governor and Nancy Reagan smoked marijuana with
Jack Benny and George and Gracie Burns."
Jim Rutenberg and Richard W. Stevenson contributed
reporting from Washington for this article.
Correction: Sept. 10, 2004, Friday
An article yesterday about efforts by the Bush
campaign to counter negative accounts in a book by
Kitty Kelley referred incompletely to the media
outlets to which the Republican Party sent an e-mail
message questioning aspects of her previous
biographies. The message was sent to radio shows, not
just to conservative ones.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company | Home |
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040909/ap_on_el_pr/cheney_gore
Gore: Cheney 'Wrong Choice' Remark Sleazy
Thu Sep 9, 2:14 PM ET
By JOE MANDAK, Associated Press Writer
PITTSBURGH - Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web
sites)'s remark that "the wrong choice" by voters
could result in another terrorist attack was "a sleazy
and despicable effort to blackmail voters with fear,"
Al Gore (news - web sites) said Thursday.
The former vice president criticized the Bush-Cheney
administration — which he repeatedly called the
Bush-Halliburton administration — for their "failed
record" on the economy, health care and the war in
Iraq (news - web sites) during a speech before about
200 supporters at the headquarters of the United
Steelworkers of America.
"The claim by Bush and Cheney that the American people
must give them four more years in office or else be
'hit hard' by another terrorist attack is a sleazy and
despicable effort to blackmail voters with fear," Gore
said.
"They are going back to the ugliest page in the
Republican playbook: fear," he said. "They're not even
really trying to convince you to vote for George Bush
(news - web sites). Their only hope, they've decided,
is to try and make you too afraid to vote for John
Kerry (news - web sites). It's the lowest sort of
politics imaginable. It is not worthy of a
presidential candidate."
Cheney told supporters in Des Moines, Iowa, on Tuesday
that, if Kerry were elected, the United States risked
falling back into a "pre-9/11 mind-set" that terrorist
attacks are criminal acts that require a reactive
approach.
"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from
today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if
we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll
get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be
devastating from the standpoint of the United States,"
Cheney said.
Gore joined other Democrats, including Kerry and
running mate John Edwards (news - web sites), in
condemning Cheney's statement. President Bush (news -
web sites) declined to discuss the issue with
reporters on Wednesday. White House spokesman Scott
McClellan said Cheney was talking about differences in
how Bush and Kerry would approach the war on terror.
Gore also criticized Bush over Labor Department (news
- web sites) statistics showing the country has a net
loss of 913,000 jobs since he took office.
"It takes real work doing the wrong things in order to
counter the natural momentum of the U.S. economy," he
said. "But this president is now, along with Herbert
Hoover, the only one to end up giving our country a
net loss of jobs" since the Great Depression.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040909/ap_on_el_pr/kerry_religion_1
Kerry: Bush Is No Good Samaritan
Thu Sep 9, 4:23 PM ET
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS - Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites)
accused President Bush (news - web sites) Thursday of
failing the Biblical test set by the Good Samaritan,
saying, "He's seen people in need, but he's crossed
over to the other side of the street."
In a speech that blended political rhetoric with
Biblical references, the Democratic presidential
candidate also branded Supreme Court Justices Antonin
Scalia (news - web sites) and Clarence Thomas (news -
web sites) as out of the mainstream and said Bush will
appoint more like them if he wins re-election.
"We have fought too hard and come too far to let
George W. Bush roll back generations of progress,"
Kerry said in remarks prepared for delivery to the
National Baptist Convention, the country's largest
predominantly black denomination. "John Edwards (news
- web sites) and I know that the whole future of civil
rights and affirmative action may hinge on a single
Supreme Court vote."
Kerry took a break from a steady diet of campaigning
in battleground states to speak before the convention,
part of an effort to energize black voters whose
commitment he needs this fall.
He made repeated use of a new campaign refrain that
plays on Bush's middle initial.
"That's W," he said, the first letter in "wrong."
"Wrong choices, wrong direction, wrong leadership for
America," he said several times. "As president I will
set a new direction."
"Four years ago, George Bush (news - web sites) came
to office calling himself a `compassionate
conservative,'" Kerry said. "Well, in the story of the
Good Samaritan we are told of two men who pass by or
cross to the other side of the street when they come
upon a robbed and beaten man.
"They felt compassion, but there were no deeds. Then
the Good Samaritan gave both his heart and his help."
Kerry added: "It is clear. For four years, George W.
Bush may have talked about compassion, but he's walked
right by. He's seen people in need, but he's crossed
to the other side of the street."
He said that black Americans have paid a particularly
high price during Bush's term. Their unemployment rate
is nearly 10 percent, double the rate for whites, he
said. Nearly one-third of all black children live in
poverty, he said, half the black men living in New
York City are out of work and 400,000 blacks have lost
their health insurance.
A few hours earlier, Alphonso Jackson, Bush's
secretary of housing and urban development, was booed
when he told the convention that the Republican Party
is committed to helping blacks.
Jackson said later he had expected the boos and was
pleased it wasn't worse. "I have spoken in churches
where I got called names," he said.
___
Associated Press writer Janet McConnaughey contributed
to this report.