download DNC speeches for free

Something I just posted to my other site: The speeches held at the Democratic Convention in Boston this week are finding their way onto the iTunes Music Store. The first two days worth of speeches are available here: link

Steve Jobs could be member of Kerry cabinet

The Hill is speculating about who could be a cabinet member in a Kerry/Edwards administration, focusing on IT. They have this nugget: “Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs is an adviser to Kerry and could well hold a Cabinet post in a Kerry administration.” link

vacation

Just in case your wondering why there are no updates: I am officially on vacation. Originally I planned to use my time off to read a lot of political books in order to be prepared for the coming months, but then I changed my mind. Now I am simply enjoying having nothing to do for a change, which, after the last two semesters, is a completely new way of life.

Berger leak timing

A lot of people, including Joshua Marshall of talkingpointsmemosay there is something fishy about the timing of the FBI investigation being leaked to the press.

“… Berger has apparently been under investigation by the Justice Department) since last October,” MArshall writes. How odd then that they leak it to the public the same week the 9/11 Commission reveals their findings. You’d almost think they’d want to shift the blame to Clinton by associating his National Security Adviser with the attacks.

But then there is this statement from Commission member Gorelick on Lou Dobbs Tonight:

GORTON: Well, we can’t shed any light on exactly what happened there and on Sandy Berger’s troubles with the Justice Department and the Archives. What we can say unequivocally is we had all of that information. We have every one of those documents. All of them have — are infused in and are a part of our report.

DOBBS: So the commission was denied no information as a result of whatever Sandy Berger did or did not do at the National Archives?

GORTON: That’s precisely correct.

GORELICK: And we have been so assured by the Justice Department. (transcript link here link) (also via TPM

Bearing in mind that Bush’s National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice literally had to be dragged in front of the Commission (editorial) only to reveal that Arthur Clarke had written a memo and if she relalled the title of this particular memom. The most shaking moment of the entire Comission hearings probably was when Rice responded to a question “I believe the title was ‘Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.’ ”

So to sum up: Berger never withheld information. Rice didn’t want to testify in the first place, then did so to reveal information that had been previoously withheld, only for the entire Bush administration to change their stance afterwards (column).

I’d say while Berger clearly did something he shouldn’t have done, withholding information from the Commission is a far greater offense.

Bush’s responsibility

I wrote an edit last week that called for President Bush to accept repsonsibility that at least the initial information and decision on going into Iraq were wrong. (link) Since then British Prime Minster Tony Blair accepted full responsibility but Bush keeps changing the reason for going to war, even claiming it “made America safer.”

White House press veteran Helen Thomas asked some tough question on this issue Monday, but Press Secretary McClellen brushed her off. Transcript inside.
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Clinton did it!

“After their briefing, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and other House Republican leaders held a news conference at which they suggested that the report, which is scheduled to be made public on Thursday, would show that intelligence and law enforcement failures before the Sept. 11 attacks were more the responsibility of the Clinton administration than of the Bush administration.” link

Can’t say I am surprised. The war president cast’s the blame on “the other guy.” How mature. The marks of a true leader.

Berger & Cheney

Now here’s an interesting twist: You may have read that Sandy Berger, former National Security Adviser to Clinton, is under FBI investigation for “stealing” papers that had to do with Clinton era Iran intelligence, as well as information on terrorist attacks foiled while CLinton was in office. ( AP article) Apart from my inkling that this was an honest mistake as he clearly knew better and did not take any documents that did not exist in a copy elsewhere, as well as immediately returning those he still had, the important thing about this is that he was said to have a sure seat in the Kerry cabinet (Secretary of State, some say) and was one of his key advisers. I say was because he left the campaign last weekend, most likely because of the controversy surrounding him.

Moving over to the Bush campaign. Several subpoenas have been issues to attain documents that would give a better idea just what involvement Halliburton had with Iran. Considering new intel that Iran may have aided some of the 9/11 hijackers, be it officially or not, this could yield some new information. Of course Vice President Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton, may also be indicted to some part if shady deals (and all signs point to it that) indeed took place.

Two big scandals, one in each campaign. Let the mudslinging begin.

Ask President Bush

While reading a New York Times article I came across a photo caption that read like this: “President Bush greeted supporters Tuesday after an “Ask President Bush'’ event at the Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.” link

An “Ask President Bush” event. How quaint. Maybe he can have one of those for the press some time. You know, and actually answer questions like “did you make any mistakes?”

Isreaeli ’security wall’

I share the belief that we have to get Israel and Palestine to coexist peacefully in order to achieve any positive standing in the eyes of the Arab world. But instead of trying to make the two people live side by side in peace we are now taking sides with the Israelis almost exclusively.

Both sides have bombed and killed the other side. It’s impossible to argue one is exclusively in the right while the other is not. But I truly believe that the conflict can be solved. Clinton came really close, but then the matter was not pursued, in part because we had other priorities.

Now Israel is building a wall. Tuesday the General Assembly of the United Nations ruled the barrier which is currently built in part through Palestinian territory, is illegal. “The vote was passed with 150 in favour, 6 opposed and 10 abstentions.” (link) Of course the U.S. was one of the countries that opposed the ruling, essentially condoning building of the wall. Recently the International Court also ruled the so called barrier was illegal. Of course the U.S. is one of the few countries that is not member of the International Court.

It seems the U.S. has an identify crisis and is trying to have it both ways. We cannot say to the arab world “we come in peace,” yet support countries like Israel and invade others like Iraq (both against world opinion). Time to decide what we want, I guess.

good news, bad news

Here’s the good news: I got to Germany fine even though I almost missed my connecting flight in Newark yesterday.

The bad news: My luggage didn’t make it but I was promised that it would be delivered to my door tomorrow evening.

But hey, in a world where SebiMeyer.com makes number one in Google hits when you search for “feed on dead” link I guess that would be seen as normal.

campaign photographer

The New York Times has a flash slide show with truly amazing campaign photography up. Definitely worth a look: link

arnie

Arnold Schwarzenegger at a rally Saturday: “If they don’t have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, ‘I don’t want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers … if they don’t have the guts, I call them girlie men,” link

How mature. What’s next? Arm wrestling? Tape measure?

new iPod

A shamless plug for my other site: Apparently there is a new iPod in town.

Check out details at www.ipodhead.com

Apparently smaller in physical size, bigger in capacity, better clickwheel and slightly changed navigation. And in an iPod first: rumored to be slightly cheaper than before.

Just in time for me to sell my old one on eBay while it’s still under warranty. We’ll see…

Iran

Sigh. Time Magazine has this article: “Next week’s much anticipated final report by a bipartisan commission on the origins of the 9/11 attacks will contain new evidence of contacts between al-Qaeda and Iran?just weeks after the Administration has come under fire for overstating its claims of contacts between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.” link

So if we go by the completely unenforceable Bush doctrine we now have to go after Iran.

Great.

But here’s the kicker: “The senior official also told TIME that the report will note that Iranian officials approached the al-Qaeda leadership after the bombing of the USS Cole and proposed a collaborative relationship in future attacks on the U.S., but the offer was turned down by bin Laden because he did not want to alienate his supporters in Saudi Arabia.”

Saudi Arabia it is then. Who would have thought. Any bets on what explanation we will use to totally ignore these new findings?

Bush jam

St. Pete Times Web site has this to say about President Bush’s visit to Tampa today (nope, not going myself): “President Bush will address a conference on human trafficking. His visit could lead to midday traffic jams, police say.”

Just thought that was funny, that’s all.

An interesting side note though: According to the article itself says this is Bush’s 23rd visit to Florida since he took office. link I bet he can close to double that till the election comes around.

Bush must accept responsibility and stop passing the buck

Casting the blame for the War in Iraq on the CIA and Congress is wrong since only Bush bears responsibility.
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Church of the Painted Breast

If you get as much spam emails on a daily basis as I do, you’ll get a huge kick out of this BBC story: Turning the tables on Nigeria’s e-mail conmen

As a rule though, never respond to spam. That only lets them know your address is actually working and will probably garner you even more junk in the future.

Bin Laden timetable

My apologies to The New Republic. Apparently I attributed the news that the White House is putting pressure on Pakistan to find bin Laden wrongly to Newsweek. It appears they got it from TNR:

What it all boils down to is this: The White House would not only like to find bin Laden before the election, they even gave a date:

“But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that “it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT (High Value Target) were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July”–the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.” link

But there’s more: “But Powell conspicuously did not commit the United States to selling F-16s to Pakistan, which it desperately wants in order to tilt the regional balance of power against India. And the Pakistanis fear that, if they don’t produce an HVT, they won’t get the planes.”

So we are arming Pakistan, a country whose leader put himself into place through a coup, which then threatens India, the worlds largest democracy. Never mind the fact that both Pakistan and India are nuclear powers, does this strike anybody as a bad idea?

A preview of coming attractions

?… here is a list of things to look out for over the coming weeks, specifically those that may affect the presidential election.?
My last Opinion Column for a couple of weeks.
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Dismissal of voter list necessary precaution, others needed

A list designed to purge convicts from Florida voting rolls proved highly questionable and was thrown out entirely. It showed that problems that need to be fixed before the presidential election still occur.
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Satire

Just in case your wondering, yes Sinking Bush Poll Numbers Increase Likelihood of Terrorist Attack, Says Ridge

Kerry and Edwards, two Johns come to St. Petersburg

It all happened Wednesday night and it was the most fun, chaos and excitement I have seen on the campaign trails yet. in my humble opinion, this campaign has begun to run on full steam.
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Re-evaluation of corporate America needed

The indictment concerning ex-Enron CEO Ken Lay shows that a re-evaluation of corporate status in American society is needed.
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Bush continues outlandish campaign tactics

?Now he parades out McCain to speak on his behalf, even though no cheap shot was too low in the dirty primary campaign Bush fought in 2000.?
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