] "We're talking about dozens of sites being dismantled," a
] diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "Large numbers
] of buildings taken down, warehouses were emptied and
] removed. This would require heavy machinery, demolition
] equipment. This is not something that you'd do
] overnight."
]
] Diplomats in Vienna say the IAEA is worried that these
] facilities, which belonged to Saddam's pre-1991 covert
] nuclear weapons program, could have been packed up and
] sold to a country or militants interested in nuclear
] weapons.

How many of us will die a firey death because of our mistakes in Iraq?

[ Be fair. It'll probly be more of a "coughing, sputtering, radiation sickness death" from the dirty bombs. -k]

CNN.com - Iraqi N-sites 'stripped carefully' - Oct 14, 2004

] "Bush talks and thinks like Milosevic. He will lose, but
] the most disheartening thing is the prospect of his
] religio-nationalist reality-deniers clinging fiercely to
] the sacred glory of their Lost Cause for the next hundred
] years. We live under the Confederacy. We're a podunk
] bunch of swaggering pious hicks."
]
]
] --Bruce Sterling, via email

[ Damn, bruce. -k]

William Gibson is blogging again...

] 9:36 p.m. Bush says that we aren't using "high
] technology" in health care, and that we're "in the buggy
] and horse days." That would explain my Amish HMO.

[ heh. not exactly the peak of political comentary, but funny. -k]

MTV.com - Choose or Lose - Headlines

] If this year stays true to past form, the campaign will
] get nastier in the closing weeks, and without anyone's
] quite registering it, Rove will be right back in his
] element. He seems to understand -- indeed, to count
] on -- the media's unwillingness or inability, whether
] from squeamishness, laziness, or professional caution,
] ever to give a full estimate of him or his work. It is
] ultimately not just Rove's skill but his character that
] allows him to perform on an entirely different plane.
] Along with remarkable strategic skills, he has both an
] understanding of the media's unstated self-limitations
] and a willingness to fight in territory where conscience
] forbids most others.
]
]
] Rove isn't bracing for a close race. He's depending on
] it.

[ A must read on the unconcionable Karl Rove... -k]

The Atlantic Online | November 2004 | Karl Rove in a Corner | Joshua Green

Acidus turns 24 on Friday. Party time!

Happy Birthday Acidus!

] "The FBI can't pull the plug on more than 20 news
] websites -- our modern printing presses -- based on a
] secret proceeding at the request of a foreign government.
] This is a flagrant violation of the First Amendment,"
] said Kevin Bankston, EFF attorney and Equal Justice
] Works/Bruce J. Ennis Fellow. "As far as the Constitution
] is concerned, Indymedia has the same rights as any other
] news publisher. The government can't shut down the New
] York Times, and it can't shut down Indymedia."

[ A story to keep your eyes on... -k]

EFF: EFF Challenges Secret Government Order to Shut Down Media Websites

] Found the following links which all seem to point to the
] same company that is suspected of tearing up Democratic
] voter registration forms in Las Vegas. It has set up
] registration drives in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan,
] Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Nevada and is accused of
] the same things in most if not all of these states.
] Sproul & Associates is a Republican consulting firm run
] by Nathan Sproul, former head of the Arizona Republican
] party and Arizona Christian Coalition.

[ The DKOS headline is inflamatory, but that doesn't negate the increasing amount of circumstantial evidence pointing to unethical behavior on the part of this particular outfit, and possibly the RNC, who funds them.

At the very least, even the rumor of a company tearing up voter registrations, for any reason, demands investigation. If these guys are doing even half of what they appear to be doing, serious jail time is in order. -k]

Daily Kos :: RNC funds voter supression efforts

] Voting for president used to be so easy, at least for a
] conservative. There was the Republican candidate. You
] knew he generally stood for lower taxes, less government
] spending, giving fewer powers to the government, lower
] deficits and a zealous regard for individual privacy.
]
] Then, there was the Democrat. You knew he generally stood
] for higher taxes, more government and deficit spending,
] and a zealous regard for civil liberties.
]
] ...
]
] Now we have the election of 2004. For the first time in
] my voting life, the choice in the race for president
] isn't so clear And, among true conservatives, I'm not
] alone.

[ Bob Barr takes the president to task. In all the categories that represent the best side of conservatism - fiscal restraint, unintrusive government, privacy, environment and security - W fails the test. Barr points out some of these, paying particular attention to fiscal policies. From large increases in nondefense spending to Homeland Security funds misdirected into Iraq, any true conservative is without a candidate, just as any true progressive is.

Kerry certainly doesn't offer much for conservatives, and I wouldn't suggest that he does. I can only hope that Bush's mistreatment of what should be his base ends up lending some support to a multiparty system beyond the Red vs. Blue we're stuck with now. -k]

Creative Loafing Atlanta | NEWS & VIEWS | AN AGONIZING CHOICE

] Repeating a tactic he used against his Republican primary
] opponent this year, Floyd bought three Internet domain
] names with Van Hollen's name and turned them into Web
] sites carrying unflattering comments about the freshman
] congressman's record.

[ Floyd grabbed vanhollen.com/net/org and filled them classic policy positions, noting how vanhollen wants "the U.S. to be more like France".

Says the Honorable Mr. Floyd : "I feel if the congressman doesn't have the foresight to buy up certain domain names with his name, does he deserve to be in Congress?" asked Floyd, a retired military officer and State Department employee. "It was up for grabs, so I bought it."

Thoughts? -k]

Van Hollen Is Caught Off Guard; Name Is Used by Foe's Web Sites (washingtonpost.com)

] The documentary by Pennsylvania-based Carlton Sherwood, a
] former journalist and Vietnam veteran, chronicles Kerry's
] 1971 testimony before Congress and links him to activist
] and actress Jane Fonda. It includes interviews with
] Vietnam prisoners of war and their wives who claim that
] Kerry's testimony -- filled with "lurid fantasies of
] butchery in Vietnam" on the part of U.S. troops --
] demeaned them and led their captors to hold them longer.

[ Sinclair Media Group has ordered it's affiliates to carry this program, which appears to be, essentially, a rehash of the Swift Boat allegations, presented as a documentary, without pretense of objectivity.

Sinclair, you might recall, is the operator who was on the recieving end of John McCain's wrath a few months ago, who refused to broadcast Ted Koppel's reading of the names of our soldiers killed in Iraq and whose executives are substantial contributors to BC'04.

The left side of the netroots community has taken to complaining directly to Sinclair's advertisers, and the Democratic party is challenging the broadcast as a violation of FEC law. The latter seems a somewhat tenuous argument, but the program does appear to be unfiltered bias, presented as news, and the response on a local level appears to be the most appropriate.

It's not so dissimilar from, say, ABC News deciding to air Farenheit 9/11 during primetime, and calling it a newscast. In other words, completely inappropriate. -k]

Democrats Seek Probe of Anti-Kerry Broadcast (washingtonpost.com)