]
] ASHINGTON, Oct. 14 - With less than three weeks before
] the election, Ralph Nader is emerging as just the threat
] that Democrats feared, with a potential to tip the
] balance in up to nine states where President Bush and
] Senator John Kerry are running neck and neck.

Sigh...

Nader Emerging as the Threat Democrats Feared

This is a great test. Where do you fall?
I'm clearly a left libertarian.

Where do you fall on the political compass?

] What did Dem presidential contender John Kerry take out
] of his jacket as he approached the stage [with his back
] to the auditorium's audience]?
]
] What did Kerry place on the podium?

From the people who brought you the CBS news document forgery scandal, here's Jacketgate. Kerry won the debate because he seemed more on message. He didn't flounder around much and he made points his opponent couldn't rebut. Having a cheat sheet when your opponent doesn't could easily produce this effect.

Neither Rathergate nor Swiftboatgate seemed very serious to me, but I must confess to their effect. If it turns out that Kerry did bring a cheat sheet, his campaign is toast.

The mainstream press hasn't picked this up, yet.... The NY Post is claiming that if you look at it from another camera angle its a pen. I never believe anything I read in the NY Post. So, where are the other camera angles? Lets have 'em out on the net!

U Turns out it WAS just a pen.

[ Also turns out, in the video, both men take something out and put it on the podium. So, whatever, mostly. Granted the rules state that no candidate was allowed to bring anything to the podium but seriously, what the fuck. If we can't trust the candidates not to hide some sort of magic crib sheet in their pen, then they shouldn't be there in the first place. It's a dumb rule. -k]

So what if they DID have a cheat sheet? I'd rather someone check the facts than blurt off something they weren't sure about.

Drudge is a nasty little conservative pigman.

DRUDGE REPORT 2004: Did Kerry Cheat?

Thinking about everyone I know - how they are politically and if they fall into numbers or paragraph groups, I can really agree with this.
I really disagree on the "Don't shine their shoes as often as they should"

WHO SAID you had to have shiny shoes? My lackluster shoes walk as good as anyones.
There are two sorts of people in the information-age elite, spreadsheet people and paragraph people.

This is cute, but not particularly rigorous. It's really a set-up for the letters that would surely follow -- and they did.

As expected, the spreadsheet people rush in to nitpick the column, pointing out problems with the data, citing counterexamples, and more. By comparison, the paragraph people argue that the framework itself is flawed, or that blue is really red.

Ruling Class War

The fear of the horror of the terror....
Terror Terror Terror.

] A November win by Democratic presidential candidate John
] Kerry would put the United States at risk of another
] "devastating" terrorist attack, Vice President Dick
] Cheney told supporters Tuesday.

We're not even pretending that we're not playing the fear card anymore.

I was thinking yesterday, the RNC had a basic contradiction that is easy to exploit. The official platform of the republican party was written by, for, and of the fundamentalist Christians. However, Rove did everything in his power to spin things at the RNC so that they would appeal to moderate "swing voters." The platform wasn't discussed. Cheney made scripted comments about his daughter.

All the Dems need to do is make sure that details about the Republican's actual platform gets into the hands of the moderate voters.... "Bush promises to do X if he gets into office." If the Republicans play down the discussion they alienate their base, if they admit it (which is what they'll do) they alienate the center. This tactic is too obvious for the Dems to have missed it. I can't think of a good reason for them not to play it...

CNN.com - Cheney: Kerry win risks terror attack - Sep 7, 2004

] Though the "swift boat" controversy is a convenient foil,
] and can't have helped Kerry, the shift looks to represent
] broader assessments. The Massachusetts senator has lost
] ground on unrelated items ranging from "a vision for the
] future" to trust to handle health care and education.

I think you are right - the press's darling has been chosen. I saw more air time to old mean looking white people waving flip flops last night than to the thousands and thousands on the streets outside protesting.

ABCNEWS.com : Poll: As Convention Opens, Bush Has Edge

If there is a single flaw that I see in the FBI, CIA or indeed most business today - they hire way too many people based on paper degrees- and people are way too often educated beyond their level of competency.
An intelligence agency full of white educated football playing jocks. Just what this country needs when dealing with middle eastern terrorists, cyber criminals and drug dealers. How about an occasional really smart self educated fat cheeto munching keyboard cowboy OCD genius? Now that might be an asset.
By now, almost everyone knows that the CIA is a mess. Almost everyone knows that what it needs is a top-to-bottom overhaul.

Almost everyone is wrong.

Without question, the intelligence community needs fixing. Unfortunately, the debate over reforming the CIA seems to be going off track. Nothing makes Washington's policy wonks more comfortable than rearranging an organization chart.

Reforming the Culture at CIA