Bird flu, Republicans, Democrats, terrorists, pervasive impotence, irrevocably private and impossible-to-articulate anxiety, digestive disfunction, television, the corruption of every word in the language, the widespread belief that Jesus Christ was and is a bloodthirsty Hitlerite fascist, the opening of one's eyes again and again every morning, the seemingly indefatigable functioning of the respiratory system, Joseph Biden, the fact of birth...

And yet God is with us.

From the Washington Post:

Aretha Franklin was teary-eyed, Carol Burnett was teasing, Alan Greenspan was reliably taciturn, and "The Greatest of All Time" stole the show when President Bush bestowed the Medal of Freedom on them and 10 others in a White House ceremony yesterday.

Bush, who appeared almost playful, fastened the heavy medal around Muhammad Ali's neck and whispered something in the heavyweight champion's ear. Then, as if to say "bring it on," the president put up his dukes in a mock challenge. Ali, 63, who has Parkinson's disease and moves slowly, looked the president in the eye -- and, finger to head, did the "crazy" twirl for a couple of seconds.

The room of about 200, including Cabinet secretaries, tittered with laughter. Ali, who was then escorted back to his chair, made the twirl again while sitting down. And the president looked visibly taken aback, laughing nervously.

From a website called Capitol Hill Blue:

GOP memo touts new terror attack as way to reverse party's decline

A confidential memo circulating among senior Republican leaders suggests that a new attack by terrorists on U.S. soil could reverse the sagging fortunes of President George W. Bush as well as the GOP and "restore his image as a leader of the American people."

The closely-guarded memo lays out a list of scenarios to bring the Republican party back from the political brink, including a devastating attack by terrorists that could “validate” the President’s war on terror and allow Bush to “unite the country” in a “time of national shock and sorrow.”

The memo says such a reversal in the President's fortunes could keep the party from losing control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections.

GOP insiders who have seen the memo admit it’s a risky strategy and point out that such scenarios are “blue sky thinking” that often occurs in political planning sessions.

“The President’s popularity was at an all-time high following the 9/11 attacks,” admits one aide. “Americans band together at a time of crisis.”

It takes a reminder like this to force me back into the proper perspective. Republicans are terrorists--they're killers. And Democrats are the abettors of terrorists. Remember:

1. Bush lost an election and usurped power through a judicial coup, abetted by Democrats.

2. Bush--having no source of authority whatsoever--permitted a series of terrorist attacks on the United States, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans.

3. Bush--abetted by Democrats--was declared a hero for having permitted the attacks.

4. Bush--abetted by Democrats--used the attacks, as well as a propaganda conspiracy involving forged intelligence, to bully/sucker the country into a war in Iraq.

And now, Democrats retain the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey, and a bunch of creationist whackos get kicked off a schoolboard in PA, and we're supposed to be dancing in the streets?

What does it matter that Bush's approval rating is at 36% ? What does it matter if his approval rating is 1%, so long as the opposition party refuses to acknowledge the horrible, criminal truth at the root of all "approval" he's had since 9/11/01?

What does any of this matter, so long as the country is being controlled by a party of violent terrorists and no Democrat--for FOUR YEARS now--has been willing to step up and call Bush out on it? Not only not call Bush out on it, but STILL praise Bush for his "leadership" through the "9/11" "crisis"?

Oh, my God. We really are done for.

Whew! We can all breathe a sigh of relief...

Hunkered down for almost all of October while a grand jury considered his fate, Karl Rove has rebounded as a visible presence at the White House over the last two weeks, according to administration officials and Republican colleagues. He is running meetings and pursuing candidates for the 2006 elections - and, associates say, devising long-term political plans that suggest he does not believe he will face future legal trouble despite the C.I.A. leak investigation in which he has been involved.
...
"I've noticed a big difference," said one Republican in regular contact with Mr. Rove who declined to speak for attribution because the White House did not authorize it. "There's a spring in his step, more focus, more - something. Some sort of weight off his shoulders."
...
A senior administration official said Mr. Rove was back "in a good mood," sending off rapid-fire e-mail, sticking his head into meetings uninvited and acting in a familiar, mischievous manner.

"He's Karl," the official said.

As many of you may have heard, there have been some unsettling developments tonight.

In Virginia, voters have rejected the messianic truth of the Osama-Christ in favor of One World Government and forced abortions for children.

"We have a Republican president we all love, and the media will spin this into another anti-Bush thing," [John Hager, former Republican lieutenant governor] lamented.

Q: Why are Virginians being prevented from practising their love on Bush?

Bush made his first and only campaign appearance for Kilgore Monday night after a trip to Latin America, joining the GOP candidate for a get-out-the-vote rally at Richmond International Airport. Bush praised Kilgore as "a down-to-earth person" who grew up on a farm and "doesn't have a lot of fancy airs."

Oh, the irony of Bush dragging out the hoary old "no fancy airs" chestnut at this late stage of the game--did he even realize he was speaking about a candidate whose overtly effeminate speech and mannerisms have actually been an issue in the campaign?

In other news, the citizens of New Jersey have rejected integrity and accountability in favor of mandatory homosexual instruction in all public schools.

NYT:

Mr. Bush cannot fire Mr. Cheney, but he could do what other presidents have done to vice presidents: keep him too busy attending funerals and acting as the chairman of studies to do more harm. Mr. Bush would still have to turn his administration around, but it would at least send a signal to the nation and the world that he was in charge, and the next three years might not be as dreadful as they threaten to be right now.

It would signal that Bush was "in charge"? Bush, "in charge"?

Ahhhhaahahahahah HAAAAAAAAAAAAA

From the Hill:

The FBI and Capitol Police are investigating the vicious attack of a top Senate staffer at her home last week amid concerns that the assault might be related to her work on the Finance Committee.

Emilia DiSanto, chief investigator for committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), arrived at her suburban Virginia home after work Wednesday about 6:30 p.m. As she was unloading belongings from her car, a 6-foot-1-inch white man dressed in black struck her repeatedly with an unidentified object believed to be a baseball bat.

After she screamed to her family inside the house, the assailant fled. DiSanto was transported to Inova Fair Oaks Hospital, where she was treated for significant upper-body injuries. Nine staples were needed to close her head wound.
...
Grassley is known for his aggressive oversight of the public and private sector. Over the past year, he has scrutinized healthcare fraud, organ-donation procedures used by hospitals, drug-safety matters and the use of nonprofit groups related to former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Edited transcript from Amy Goodman's recent discussion, on Democracy Now, with Mark Crispin Miller and Mark Hertsgaard about their recent publications on the stolen election:


MARK CRISPIN MILLER: ....Speaking of John Kerry, I have some news for you. On Friday, this last Friday night, I arranged to meet Senator Kerry at a fundraiser to give him a copy of my book. He told me he now thinks the election was stolen. He said he doesn't believe that he is the person who can go out front on the issue, because of the sour grapes, you know, question. But he said he believes it was stolen. He says he argues about this with his Democratic colleagues on the Hill. He had just had a big fight with Christopher Dodd about it, because he said, you know, ‘There's this stuff about the voting machines; they’re really questionable.’ And Dodd was angry. ‘I don’t want to hear about it,’ you know, ‘I looked into it. There’s nothing there.’

Well, there's plenty there, and let me add one thing: This is not a criminal case, okay? We don't have to prove guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt. This is our election system, right? This is a system based on consent of the governed. If many, many millions of Americans are convinced that they got screwed on Election Day and couldn't vote, or if 3.4 million more Americans claim that they voted than the actual total of voters -- this is what the Census Bureau told us last May – this is grounds alone for serious investigation, and I think Mark would agree with me here. We have to have serious investigation.

AMY GOODMAN: Did Senator Kerry say, when he said on Friday night, according to you, that he does think the election was stolen, did he say why he raced out the next day after, for months, the Democratic candidates had assured the voters that they would make sure every vote was counted? I mean, Mark Hertsgaard says in his own piece in Mother Jones, “It didn't help that Kerry conceded immediately, despite questions about Ohio. The American press is less an independent truth seeker than a transmission belt for opinions of movers and shakers in Washington. If the Democratic candidate wasn’t going to cry foul, the press certainly wasn't going to do it for him.”

MARK CRISPIN MILLER: Well, that’s true. That was a real body blow to the democratic system, and it demoralized a lot of people when Kerry pulled out. It’s hard to forgive him for that. Why did he do it? Well, according to my evidence and I’ve got this in Fooled Again, Kerry was swayed by the brain trust around him. These are people like, you know, Bob Shrum, Mary Beth Cahill – they’re, you know, Democratic Party war horses. I don't think they have a stellar record of winning campaigns, and I don't really understand how it is that they were hired to do this, but they persuaded him up in Martha's Vineyard that he should pull out, otherwise, he told John Edwards in his call, Kerry said, “They say that if I don't pull out, they are going to call us sore losers,” as if there’s –

MARK HERTSGAARD: I think Mark Crispin Miller has given us a major news flash here.... If Kerry thinks that the election was stolen, that is big, big news. And I think that it is very unfortunate that it took him 12 months to come around to that conclusion....

John Conyers, God bless him for pushing his own investigation, but he was stonewalled by Ken Blackwell, the Secretary of State of Ohio and other officials, including the Triad Computer Company, who basically refused to answer his questions. Had he or another agency with subpoena power should go back and get that, because I agree with Mark entirely. Look, this is the essence of our democracy. We deserve to have a persuasive answer to what happened in 2004. We probably would have gotten it if Kerry had shown the courage to say, on Election Day – on the day after Election Day a year ago what he apparently told Mark Crispin Miller the other night. If he had said then that “I suspect this election was stolen,” believe me, even the corporate media would have investigated this. It’s too juicy a story, but because Kerry dropped the ball there, you know, it’s now a year later, and it’s only the outsiders who are talking about it.

AMY GOODMAN: Are you saying, Mark Crispin Miller, that John Edwards didn't want to concede?

MARK CRISPIN MILLER: Absolutely not. I spoke to someone, a relative of his who was with him when the phone call came from Kerry. This is this in the book, Fooled Again. Kerry called him on the cell phone, and don't forget that Edwards himself, four hours before, had just been on national TV promising righteously to count every vote, got a big hand. Now he felt he was being made to look like a fool, and he argued with Kerry vehemently. He said, “It’s too soon, you know. Wait.” Kerry, you know, said this thing about how they will call us sore losers, as if that’s worse than the country, you know, going fascist, whatever. And Edwards said quite understandably, “So what?” You know, “So what if they call us sore losers?” I mean, they are going to call them names in any case. But it’s true, Mark is right, Kerry's caving in like that gave an enormous gift to the right wing. They could now claim, “Well, even their candidate doesn't think it was stolen.” And they left, you know, the American people hanging out to dry there.