So Bush met with his national security cronies in Crawford Texas to discuss a so-called new strategy for Iraq after only a three 1/2 hour meeting...not. This so-called meeting was intended to discuss using Saddam's execution as a means to take the focus off of Bush's failures in Iraq, to re-inforce his stay the course objectives...that have never really changed, to use the new threats that will be made because of Saddam's execution to gain support from a fearful/compliant US population, and to ensure our puppets in Iraq are the ones held responsible for what happens in Iraq eventhough we the US caused this castastrophe. Saddam was kept in US custody until the very last minute to prevent him from singing like a canary about US involvement in his crimes against humanity. Many individuals in the current Bush Administration were complicit in these crimes. We after all gave Saddam the know how to use chemical weapons against the Kurds and against Iran in the 1980s; and we also provided Saddam with the intelligence to attack Iran in the 1980s.

The following NY Times article has interesting historical data on XMAS in America.  The Puritans, the christian right of their day, for instance did not celebrate XMAS.

This Season's War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else
By ADAM COHEN
Published: December 4, 2005
Religious conservatives have a cause this holiday season: the commercialization of Christmas. They're for it.
The American Family Association is leading a boycott of Target for not using the words "Merry Christmas" in its advertising. (Target denies it has an anti-Merry-Christmas policy.) The Catholic League boycotted Wal-Mart in part over the way its Web site treated searches for "Christmas." Bill O'Reilly, the Fox anchor who last year started a "Christmas Under Siege" campaign, has a chart on his Web site of stores that use the phrase "Happy Holidays," along with a poll that asks, "Will you shop at stores that do not say 'Merry Christmas'?"

GOP Pulls Fast One...
Tells Dems: Pull Troops Now? Okay, then let's vote!!!!!
Tonight. 7 p.m.
Ultimate showdown

I have been reviewing the majority of the main liberal blogs and have come to the conclusion that they all have fallen prey to the Republican bait and switch tactics. This over emphasis on Gannon is nothing more than a Republican coup. Karl Rove should be congratulated.  

You all have forgotten about the debacle in Iraq, the assasination in Lebanon which is fueling debate about war in Syria, Saber rattling against Iran, Social Security, the massive deficit, and the installation of the new torture quadrapartite (Gonzales,Rice,Chertoff and now Negroponte.  

This over focus on Gannon has taken over analysis of these new and worsening trends in the Bush quasi dictatorship. It's time to get focus on what truly matters, unless this is the liberal bloggers aim to assist this administration in the attainment of its goals.  I think not...move on please and fight the real fight

Where oh where are our pro-War volunteers? Your President needs you. Why not show some real support to the troops by joining the war brigade in Iraq and Afghanistan? Make your yellow ribbons actionable. Walk the talk and live out your values in the desert sun.  

USA Today
November 24, 2004
Pg. 1
Army Guard Misses Recruiting Goal
Extended active-duty missions behind dip
By Dave Moniz, USA Today

WASHINGTON - The Army National Guard has fallen significantly behind its recruiting goal one month into the military's new fiscal year, continuing a downward slide that began in 2003 and could make it harder for the Pentagon to find enough troops for the war in Iraq.

In October, the Army Guard recruited 2,546 enlistees, more than 30% below its target of 3,675.

The numbers do not bode well for the Army Guard, which missed its 2004 recruiting target of 56,000 enlistees by nearly 7,000. This year, the 350,000-member Guard has an even larger goal of 65,000, in part to make up for last year.

Religious "centrists" may decide the election
by Jim Wallis
Moderate Catholics and Evangelicals may help decide this election. They are what widely respected University of Akron researcher John Green calls "centrist" Catholic and Evangelical voters who comprise 19% of the electorate and are concentrated in some of the most important swing states.

I just finished a 15-city bus tour in those very states, trying to raise poverty as a "religious issue." After almost two weeks of grassroots dialogue with faith-based community leaders, I am convinced that the election may hang on what those "centrist" religious voters ultimately decide the most important "religious issues" are in this campaign.

This is what the Right Wing News Max Magazine sent me today...its tone is sinister...
Billionaires Secretly Met in Aspen to Defeat Bush

In the days following the Democratic National Convention in Boston this past August, several billionaire Democratic activists secretly met at the famed Aspen Institute in Colorado.

The purpose of their clandestine meeting was "to use their fortunes to engineer the defeat of President George W. Bush," The New Yorker magazine reports in its most recent edition.

Details of the meeting remain sketchy, but the magazine described the Aspen conference this way: "Five billionaires joined half a dozen liberal leaders in a lengthy conversation about the future of progressive politics in America."

For sure, there were differences of opinion in the group, but they all shared one goal: to get George Bush this November.

The Aspen meeting was supposed to have been a top secret within Democratic Party circles.

Electoral College Update
by Chris Bowers

There might be a trend here:
Electoral-Vote.com Kerry 284, Bush 247, 7 tied (October 19)
2.004k.com Kerry 289, Bush 232, 17 tied (October 19)
Race 2004.com Kerry 218, Bush 205, 115 too close to call (October 19)
Sam Wang: Kerry 300, Bush 238 (October 19)
Rassmussen 16-State Kerry 48.8, Bush 46.1 (October 19)
Slate Kerry 284, Bush 254 (October 19)
Mine Kerry 316, Bush 222 (October 19)

This is going to make it a little more difficult for Republicans to whine about the Zogby Battleground tracking tonight. My numbers are better for Kerry because I factor in the pro-challenger undecided break. As of 2:40 p.m., Kerry also leads 47.34-46.10 in a national poll constructed from the latest polls from every state.

Is it too late for an October surprise?

General 2004 :: Tue Oct 19th, 2004 at 02:26:10 PM EST :: 15 Comments

Doctors call flu season `potential catastrophe'

By Barbara Feder Ostrov

Mercury News

Emergency room doctors meeting in San Francisco warned Monday of patient deaths and packed emergency rooms if hospitals do not gear up fast for a winter marked by the worst flu vaccine shortage the country has ever seen.

On the same day, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told seniors to ``relax'' and stop waiting in long lines for flu shots. He assured them that the vaccine will be redirected to regions where it is most needed.

The conflicting messages came as seven states, including California, began reporting sporadic cases of influenza, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Doctors at the American College of Emergency Physicians annual convention in San Francisco painted a bleak picture, calling this year's flu season ``a potential catastrophe'' even though it is unclear how serious it will be.

``I worry that they are trying to avoid panic rather than leveling with the American public,'' said Dr. Ellen Weber, referring to the federal government. The medical director of the emergency department at University of California-San Francisco Medical Center said emergency staffers have been asked to find flu shots on their own because the center only has enough flu vaccine to immunize its highest-risk patients.

The emergency doctors group called for hospitals to add emergency room doctors and nurses, make sure they receive flu shots, and even postpone elective admissions if they are inundated with flu patients, among other measures. They also called for more federal and state money for emergency room care, and urged federal health officials to hold a flu crisis summit to plan for the worst.

Sinclair Spokesperson Discusses His Former CIA Job and Whether He Will Air Anti-Kerry Special

.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We speak with Mark Hyman, Vice President for Corporate Relations at Sinclair Broadcast Group, which created an uproar last week when plans surfaced it ordered its 62 TV stations to pre-empt regular prime-time programming in favor of airing what many call an anti-Kerry film. Before working for Sinclair, Hyman served as an officer in Naval Intelligence and did work for the Central Intelligence Agency. [includes rush transcript]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Sinclair Broadcasting Group created an uproar last week when plans surfaced it ordered its 62 TV stations to pre-empt regular prime-time programming in favor of airing the film "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal." The documentary was produced by Carlton Sherwood, a former Washington Times reporter who used to work for Department of Homeland Security director Tom Ridge while he was governor of Pennsylvania.
In response, 18 Democratic Senators urged the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Sinclair"s decision to air what they view as an unpaid 90-minute attack ad against Kerry. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps released a statement calling Sinclair's decision to air the program a "abuse of public trust." And some groups complied databases of all of Sinclai"r advertisers so individuals could contact these companies and directly threaten to boycott their businesses if they did not pull their ads.

Well last Friday, I had a chance to speak with the Vice President for Corporate Relations for Sinclair, Mark Hyman. He joined me on the air in Canada while I was guest-hosting a radio show for CBC, Canada"s national public broadcaster.

Mark Hyman, Vice President for Corporate Relations for Sinclair Broadcast Group.

.
AMY GOODMAN: I began by asking Sinclair's Mark Hyman why he decided to air the documentary two weeks before the election.

MARK HYMAN: Well, I want to make certain I set the record straight. We probably all remember that telephone game we played in primary school where someone starts a story at one end of the class and it ends up being changed at the end, except in this particular instance, this all came about, at least the controversy, if you will, based on a very deeply flawed article that appeared in The Los Angeles Times. I think their adage must be, "We want to get the story first, instead of getting it right." Which sadly, kind of started a lot of the brouhaha, as we've made it clear on many, many, many, many, many media outlets here in the last several days. We have not finalized plans for this. What we want to do is investigate specific allegations that arose in this particular documentary. We don't know what we're going to -- what the finished product is going to look like. What we do know is that we wanted Senator John Kerry to be a part of it. That's why we quietly had invited him probably close to two weeks ago now to participate in this process, because we wanted to examine what certainly were new revelations, new claims made by people who previously had not come forward.

AMY GOODMAN: Your argument, when you told ABC affiliates not to air Nightline's program when they named the soldiers who died in Iraq was that it was too partisan. What is your response to those who are saying that what you're doing right now. to say the least, is partisan?

MARK HYMAN: Well, obviously, that's an absurd comment. If you recall the Nightline issue it was George Stefanopolis on April 25 who made the announcement that Ted Koppel was going to do the tribute to coincide with President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech. He didn't say it was a memorial to recognize the fallen men. It was meant to embarrass the president, which is fine. When we first heard that comment, we called ABC News and we said, "We'd like you to clarify what the intention is, because if you want to run a commentary, fine, just say it's a commentary. We're okay with that. If you want to tell people it's news, well then, we have concerns, because Stefanopolis just told us the day before, told America, that it wasn't a newsworthy event." We further told ABC, "Look, if you want to run it on the anniversary of the war, that makes absolute sense."

AMY GOODMAN: And do you consider--

MARK HYMAN: [inaudible] thought. Or we said, "If you want to run it on Memorial Day, we will support this and we will definitely promote it, but to try to run it during the second night of the television sweeps rating period, and as Stefanopolis mentioned it was meant to coincide with the `Mission Accomplished' statement, that does not sound correct to us. Call it a commentary, we're okay with it, but don't call it news."

AMY GOODMAN: Do you not consider the deaths of 700 U.S. soldiers news?

MARK HYMAN: Absolutely, it's news. But this wasn't a surprise to anyone. We know each and every day that people are dying in all of those. We reported those each and every day. So, the question was, why did Ted Koppel pick out the anniversary of the president's "Mission Accomplished" speech as the one day to announce this, when he could have done it five weeks earlier on the anniversary of the start of the war. He could do it a month following on Memorial Day, which certainly is the sort of the period in our country that we say we always recognize our people. Of course, Koppel dismissed Memorial Day as a weekend of keg parties and picnics. As a veteran, I kind of take exception to that characterization, but that's his view.

According to Paul Waldman Kerry is defining Bush "Bush is living in a "fantasy world," that he's "in denial," and that he "can't tell the truth." This is a great article from the GadFlyer

A Theme! An Actual Theme!
Paul Waldman (11:31AM) link

For months, I (along with others) have been saying that the fundamental divide between the Bush campaign and the Kerry campaign is over thematic unity: anyone could tell you the one thing the Bush campaign wants you to think about both candidates, but nobody could tell you the one thing the Kerry campaign wants you to think about them.

But now we may actually see the emergence of a Kerry theme about Bush. It's not because of their new-found focus so much as it is the result of real-world events and Bush's reaction to them. Its only weakness is that it's gone by a few different names already. In the last week, Kerry has told us that Bush is living in a "fantasy world," that he's "in denial," and that he "can't tell the truth."

They need to pick one and stick with it, but this has what a good theme does - it can be applied to almost any issue, and it speaks not just to whether you agree with Bush about this or that, but to his character.

60% of Young Male Voters Say War in Iraq, "Not the Right Decision"; 59% Say President Bush Misled America and Executive Branch- Highly Responsible for the Problems that US faces Today, New Zogby/Williams Identity Poll Reveals
Most political pundits believe that the final month of the 2004 presidential campaign will center around the war in Iraq.  If so, then young men are likely to cast a vote of "no confidence" in George W. Bush. These are the findings of a new Zogby/Williams Identity poll conducted by Zogby Interactive from September 3 through September 7, 2004.  The interactive survey was conducted online among 850 males between the ages of eighteen and thirty years old.