Salon.com | Girls gone riled: "Single women are fed up and desperately want change. Now it's up to John Kerry to empower these Girls Gone Riled and convince them to kick George Bush to the curb. "

Salon.com Politics: "'Stay calm'


The headline blazing across yesterday's USA Today said: Majority Supports Bush on Terrorism. That's what millions of Americans saw on the newsstands as they dashed through airports or opened their hotel room doors to see the complimentary newspaper -- and most probably didn't bother to read the fine print. But that's what Ruy Teixeira does, thankfully, and he provides this analysis on his Donkey Rising blog of the latest Gallup poll data -- a much different story than the USA Today told in its headline. "

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2004 WHEN:


1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail your mate who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for  not staying in touch with friends is that they do not have e-mail addresses.

6. When you go home after a long day at work you still answer the phone in a business manner.

7. When you make phone calls from home, you accidentally dial "0" or "9"to get an outside line.

8. You've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies.

10. You learn about your redundancy on the 10 o'clock news.

11. Your boss doesn't have the ability to do your job.

12.  Contractors out number permanent staff and are more likely to get long-service awards.

AND THE REAL CLINCHERS ARE...

13. You read this entire list, and kept nodding and smiling.

14. As you read this list, you think about forwarding it to your "friends."

15. You got this  e-mail from a friend that never talks to you anymore, except to send you jokes from the net.

16. You are too busy to notice there was no 9.

17. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a No. 9.

18. AND NOW YOU ARE  LAUGHING AT YOUR STUPIDITY AND THINKING OF WHO YOU CAN SEND IT ON TO!

Very interesting article. Scares me though.

---

The Village Voice: Nation: Mondo Washington: The Meaning of Clarke by James Ridgeway: "WASHINGTON, D.C. - It's not just because Richard Clarke turned on Bush that conservatives detest him. They especially despise him because Clarke is a career federal civil servant, a species the right-wingers loathe above all. Clarke has served on the National Security Council staffs of Bush, father and son, along with Clinton. He began federal service in 1973 in the Defense Department as an analyst on nuclear weapons, and he served as an assistant secretary of state under both Reagan and Bush senior. "

Salon.com Politics

Salon.com Politics: "The Times story starts: 'Vice President Dick Cheney took the lead in a coordinated Republican attack Monday, charging that John F. Kerry has voted 'at least 350 times for higher taxes' during his Senate career. But the claim was disputed by nonpartisan watchdog groups as being based on an inaccurate interpretation of Kerry's record. Cheney, speaking before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, called Kerry a 'senator who will speak out against higher taxes when it suits the political moment but is one of the most reliable pro-tax votes in the United States Senate.' In addition, a 60-second national radio ad launched Monday by the Bush campaign featured a Boston law enforcement officer declaring that the Massachusetts senator 'likes to raise taxes. So much so he's voted for higher taxes 350 times.' Some independent organizations say the claim about Kerry's 350 votes for tax increases is misleading.' "

How Things Work in Real Life



Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.



After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.



Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.



Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.



Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.



After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here.



And that, my friends, is how a company policy begins.

Salon.com | I'd like a tuna on white -- hold the mercury!

Salon.com | I'd like a tuna on white -- hold the mercury!: "To the list of Campaign 2004's make-or-break issues -- Iraq, homeland security, lost jobs, tax cuts -- we can now add tuna fish sandwiches. "

Compassionate Conservatism at work

The Village Voice: Nation: Mondo Washington: Wounded Soldiers May Be Billed Again for Hospital Meals by James Ridgeway: "ard as it is to believe, Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon is once more getting set to charge soldiers $8.10 every day for meals while they are in military hospitals recovering from combat injuries. Last year, after an uproar, Congress inserted a special provision into the $87.5 billion supplemental appropriation for Iraq and Afghanistan to make sure wounded soldiers didn't have to pay for their meals while laid up. But because the Pentagon has been so inept at putting the special provision into practice, numerous wounded vets have been paying for their food anyway. And now the special provision covering the $8.10 fee is about to run out."

Arianna Huffington

Salon.com | Progress vs. products: "But that doesn't seem to faze the White House. Last month, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao said that when it comes to the state of the U.S. economy, 'the stock market is, after all, the final arbiter.' You know working stiffs are in trouble when the secretary of labor believes that the stock market is the end-all of our country's economic health. "

The Spokesman-Review.com - Bush's partial history

The Spokesman-Review.com - Bush's partial history: "Military rules used in 1974 to ground two Washington Air National Guard airmen with access to nuclear weapons also applied to a Texas Air National Guard unit where Lt. George W. Bush was a fighter pilot.
Some military researchers and a former Texas Guard lieutenant colonel believe the stringent regulations -- known as the Human Reliability Program -- may have been invoked to stop Bush from flying Texas Air National Guard jets in 1972."

Bush's flip flops
So Bush has a site somewhere that tracks Kerry's "flip-flops". Reader TK probably spent three seconds coming up with this list of Bush flip flops. It's not like they're hard to find:

Bush is against campaign finance reform; then he's for it.

Bush is against a Homeland Security Department; then he's for it.

Bush is against a 9/11 commission; then he's for it.

Bush is against an Iraq WMD investigation; then he's for it.

Bush is against nation building; then he's for it.

Bush is against deficits; then he's for them.

Bush is for free trade; then he's for tariffs on steel; then he's against them again.

Bush is against the U.S. taking a role in the Israeli Palestinian conflict; then he pushes for a "road map" and a Palestinian State.

Bush is for states right to decide on gay marriage, then he is for changing the constitution.

Bush first says he'll provide money for first responders (fire, police, emergency), then he doesn't.

Bush first says that 'help is on the way' to the military ... then he cuts benefits

Bush-"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. Bush-"I don't know where he is. I have no idea and I really don't care.

Bush claims to be in favor of the environment and then secretly starts drilling on Padre Island.

Bush talks about helping education and increases mandates while cutting funding.

Bush first says the U.S. won't negotiate with North Korea. Now he will

Bush goes to Bob Jones University. Then say's he shouldn't have.

Bush said he would demand a U.N. Security Council vote on whether to sanction military action against Iraq. Later Bush announced he would not call for a vote

Bush said the "mission accomplished" banner was put up by the sailors.  Bush later admits it was his advance team.

Bush was for fingerprinting and photographing Mexicans who enter the US. Bush after meeting with Pres. Fox, he's against it.