I don't have a lot to say here except to ask the Daily Kos community to keep an eye on the volume of ads they see for both Obama and McCain during Olympic coverage.  I'm in Seattle and watching the Olympics quite a bit on NBC, MSNBC, and CBC (Canadian). So I bounce around a bit, depending on who is showing what, but prefer the HD picture of NBC.

During the first three days (including Opening Ceremony) I wasn't keeping close track but seem to RECALL about five McCain ads and maybe three from Obama.  That surprised me a bit, given how excited the Kos community was at the announcement of Obama's buy (later muted a bit when McCain announced a bigger buy).  What I'm not able to tell is how many of these ads I'm looking at are national as opposed to local.  (Suspect most are national, but there are a lot of local ads around the gubernatorial election in Washington State.)

I'm going to start keeping track for the next two weeks. I ask the Kos community to do the same. When it's all over, I'll put up a poll and we'll see how the political coverage shook out, according to the members of the Kos community who cared to watch.

I consider myself to be reasonably literate.  If I don't understand something, there's a good chance that it's either a specialist's language or I'm being deliberately buffaloed.

So, I was doubly disadvantaged when Fox News ran an in-your-face visual that called Michelle Obama "Obama's baby mama" and then apologized for using this chyron.

What's with the baby mama insult?  What does it mean?  And a chyron?  What's that?  A figure of speech?

Hmmmm...  we've had a lot of attention paid to charges of plagiarism during presidential campaigns.  Let's see.  

White House aides fired.  Presidential candidacies abandoned.  Tough charges of plagiarism by Hillary about Obama.

This plagiarism business is clearly serious stuff, unless a Republican is involved.  In that case, it can be safely ignored. More below.

British prime minister Gordon Brown confirmed to reporters today that large numbers of English troops now in Iraq will be brought home shortly.  An official announcement is expected in Parliament early next week.

The news developed during the first visit Brown has made to Iraq since he became prime minister. During the visit he plans meetings with political leaders from the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish communities, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shia. During the meetings, aides say he  will discuss the security situation in the country.

News accounts differ on the extent of the English withdrawal.  One report describes plans to withdraw nearly 20% of British forces by Christmas. Another suggests withdrawals approaching 40% by early Spring. Compared to the number of American boots on the ground, the English numbers are relatively small; but the proportions speak volumes.  More below.

I've never been a big fan of Alan Greenspan's views.  Despite his claim of disappointment in Bush's economic policies, Greenspan blessed Bush's tax cuts in the first months of the new administration, paving the way for the orgy of national debt, wealth transfer and looting of the Federal treasury that followed.

I see that almost all the attention to Mr. Greenspan's new memoir, "The Age of Turbulence" (for which he received an $8 million advance) focuses on his gossip about Dubya and Clinton, whom Greenspan apparently admired.

Forget that. Here's the money quote from Bob Woodward's advance piece about the book:  "Without elaborating [Greenspan] writes, 'I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows:  The Iraq was is largely about oil.'"  It's about time someone the MSM takes seriously said that.  Let's hope it's not ignored.  That was $8 million well spent just to get that single sentence.

Damn.  Now that deserves a big headline; it's some news. Karl Rove resigns as Bush’s consigliere.  

Equally amazing, he gives two weeks notice and goes on vacation.  Must be that working class background of his.  Two weeks notice is all you get, according to the union, and I’m entitled to use up my leave time.

What on earth prompted this?  More below.

What a great day!  The English army has lowered its flag and pulled out of Ireland after a 38-year occupation of the northern six counties.  Wonderful news that democrats (small d) and anti-imperialists everywhere should celebrate.  In many ways, 38 years understates it.  England first invaded Ireland in the 12th Century, under an army led by Strongbow.  Raleigh and then Cromwell brutally suppressed the country in the 16th and 17th centuries, around the time England was colonizing the Americas.  The little six-county statelet in the north of Ireland is all that remains of those imperial ambitions. Sooner or later the statelet will disappear too. But I digress.

The English army has apparently developed some lessons from the Irish occupation that it is applying in Afghanistan and Iraq and, it believes, could be helpful to the US as it blunders around the Middle East.  The lessons are clearly relevant.

More below the fold, along with a link to a discussion of the lessons from the Manchester Guardian.

Well, wouldn't you know it?  Facing the catastrophic consequences of his bullheadedness in Iraq, President Bush is pulling in his horns in terms of what he can deliver.  Lowering the expectations bar is the only way to understand this.

According to a front-page story in today's Washington Post by Karen DeYoung and Thomas E. Ricks, the administration is "shaving the yardstick for Iraq gains" and expects to promote "smaller gains" as signs of success.

Just how small are these gains?  Elementary school "show and tell" sessions sound about right.  More below the jump.

Hmmmm... in all the fuss about the Edwards/Coulter/Matthews imbroglio, I haven't seen a post on this.

According to Howard Kurtz in Tuesday's Washington Post, Anne Coulter referred to George W. Bush as a "nincompoop" on "Good Morning America."

Here's what she said, according to Kurtz:  "We're all just waiting for this nincompoop to be gone. I think we're all finally on the same page on that."

Apparently host Chris Cuomo didn't follow up. More Below.

I'm genuinely distressed for Tony Snow to learn that his cancer has recurred, apparently in very serious fashion.  I was just as upset when Elizabeth Edwards reported the same thing about her breast cancer. Terrible news for both of these fine people and their families -- and both seem to be handling it with remarkable courage.

I am, however, appalled at the comment from George W. Bush as reported in this morning's Washington Post:  "I'm looking forward to the day that he comes back to the White House and briefs the press corps on the decisions that I'm making and why I'm making them."

This guy is clueless.  Snow's return has nothing to do with the decisions the President is making and everything to do with Snow's survival.  If he'd cut it off at "return to the White House" I would have applauded it as an appropriate sentiment, but what this statement underscores is what a self-centered child we have in the Oval Office is. In the end, it's all about him.

Dick Cheney's son in law, Richard Perry, is General Counsel of OMB (the most powerful executive agency in government) according to a recent poster.  Cheney's daughter is a deputy secretary of state, responsible for developing policy about weapons of mass destruction and prone to issuing proclamations about Iran. Who knows, Lynne Cheney, who headed the National Endowment for the Humanities in the Reagan years, may be pulling down another public salary these days too.

This isn't a partisan issue.  The wife of Tom Foley (D-WA) ran his Congressional office for years, including the time he served as Speaker of the House.  

Instead of independent thinkers in essential positions such OMB and the Department of State, right now we have mouthpieces for one most reclusive and reactionary public figures in recent American life.  The situation invites abuse, conflict of interest, and repression of policy debate in government agencies.  Isn't it time, in the interests of good government, to put a stop to this nepotism?

Good news on stem cell research in Missouri (for once):  a coalition of patient and medical groups has put a constitutional amendment on the ballot for November that would protect stem cell research in the state, the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative (Amendment #2).

Polls show 60% or more of Missouri residents support stem cell research.  Even former Senator John Danforth (that's right, the guy who gave us Clarence Thomas) supports this initiative: "I'm pro-life. During my entire career, I voted pro-life. I strongly support the Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative because it will save lives and because it respects the sanctity of life."

        
Learn more about the amendment below the fold and at:  http://www.missouricures.com/...

Kossacks might want to consider the possibility that all the ranting and raving about the incompetence of national Democrats is misplaced.  Pelosi, Reid, Hoyer, Dean and the rest of them seem to be doing something right.  More below the fold

From AP:  Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday dismissed suggestions that the Bush White House, hampered by a weak response to Hurricane Katrina and stumbles on policy questions, needs a shake-up.

"I don't think we can pay any attention to that kind of thing," Cheney said on CBS "Face the Nation."  Bush's job approval in March was at 37 percent, which tied for his lowest rating in the AP-Ipsos poll. Cheney told CBS that he heard similar grumbling 30 years ago when he was chief of staff for President Ford.

We all recall how well that turned out.

Below's an e-mail I sent today to Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana urging him to follow the lead of his father, who in 1970 killed two disastrous Supreme Court nominations (Haynesworth & Carswell) almost single-handed.

In both nomination battles, Birch Bayh was belittled by the media for tilting at windmills.  But he prevailed in the Senate.

In light of the massive abuses of power we have seen from this administration, and its breathtaking assertions of executive privilege, Alioto, one of the founding fathers of the theory of "unitary executive privilege," is democracy's worst nighmare.  

1.  Good News:  Wheelchair-bound, legless, Vietnam Veteran, behind door draped with US flag and various fundamentalist Christian slogans, pulled Kitty Kelley's "The Family" from his wheelchair the minute he saw my Kerry/Edwards pin.  This is what he said:  "I've been a Republican all my life.  John Kerry will be the first Democrat to get my vote for any office.  I am disgusted with what I read about George Bush and how he and his father advanced in life because of what their fathers did for them."   Wow, I marvelled.  "You know, when I got to church, they ask me how I can vote for Kerry.  I tell them to look at what's happening to the country and stop worrying about what's going on behind bedroom doors.  Do you have a Kerry bumper sticker?  I'll put it on my wheelchair and drive 'em nuts at the church."

Today's New York Times (Sunday, October 24) carries the first of a three-part series on the unconstitutional manner in which a small group of White House officials, working in almost total secrecy, created a new system of justice for the war on terrorism.  Check it out; this outrage makes the McCarthy years seem benign.

The idea was to get information out of suspected terrorists quickly, without going through the baggage normally associated with courts, evidence, defense attorneys and all the rest of that liberal drivel.  It led to the establishment of the Guantanamo detention center, and, if you connect the dots, to nods and winks encouraging abuse of detainees in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

The plan was so sensitive that, until it was accepted by President Bush, it was hidden from Condoleezza Rice, Colin L. Powell, and the U.S. Congress.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/international/worldspecial2/24gitmo.html