Quote of the Day

"If we're one of the richest nations in the world, our soldiers shouldn't be sent out looking like the Beverly Hillbillies," said the mother of one soldier in the unit, who, like many parents, asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions for their children.

Read the entire New York Times article: Along With Prayers, Families Send Armor

It's not a mistake unless you admit it happened.

Once again the Bush Administration is hiding behind "national security" to protect itself from criticism regarding 9/11. Read Part of 9/11 Report Remains Unreleased; An Inquiry Is Begun By JIM DWYER in today's New York Times.

And another Quote:

This one from Paul Krugman in the New York Times It's Not Just Al Qaqaa


"The story of Al Qaqaa has brought out the worst in a campaign dedicated to the proposition that the president is infallible - and that it's always someone else's fault when things go wrong. Here's what Rudy Giuliani said yesterday: "No matter how you try to blame it on the president, the actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Did they search carefully enough?" Support the troops!"

Support the Troops?? Sure unless faulting them will save the President's butt.!

Quote for Today
from Letting Down the Troops
By BOB HERBERT

"This has been a war run by amateurs and incompetents. Whatever anyone has felt about the merits of the war, there is no excuse for preparing so poorly and for failing to see, at a minimum, that the troops were properly trained and equipped."

Quote for Today and my thoughts about it

New York Times OP-ED Columnist write today in his piece "The More Things Change...

"It just so happens that America is evenly divided about what sort of leader we need: the Republican who leads with his soul or the Democrat who leads with his judgment. Even the events of the past four years have not altered that disagreement."

Since Mr. Brooks supports the re-election of Geo. W. Bush, it seems odd that anyone intelligent enough to write for a national newspaper would prefer a leader who acts out of ideology rather than reason. When I assess a leader's decisions made from reason, I at least am able to assess the decision as being supported by careful thought that considers the facts available. When a leader's decisons are based on ideology rather than consideration of facts I have no assurance that reality has been part of the decision. This is frightening enough when I hold the same ideology. It is absolutely terrifying when I think the ideology is flawed.

Quote of the Day

From Maureen Dowd in the New York Times
Casualties of Faith
By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: October 21, 2004

"J.F.K. had to fight the anti-papist expectation that his Oval Office would take orders from heaven. For W., it's a selling point. Some right-wing Catholics want John Kerry excommunicated, while evangelicals call the president a messenger of God. 'God's blessing is on him," the TV evangelist Pat Robertson says, adding, "It's the blessing of heaven on the emperor.'"

Another Good Quote for the Day

"[John Kerry] ought to ask Bush if he wants to rethink his answer to Schieffer's question. (Is homosexuality a choice?) Homosexuality may not be a matter of choice -- but willful ignorance sure is."

From The Mary Cheney Flap: a Gaffe vs. Ignorance

By Richard Cohen
The Washington Post
Tuesday, October 19, 2004; Page A23

Quote of the Day
On Friday's "Crossfire," Jon Stewart said what many viewers feel helpless to correct: that news programs have become echo chambers for political attacks.

Mr. Carlson (of "Crossfire") took the offense, charging that Mr. Stewart had no right to complain since he had asked Senator John Kerry softball questions on "The Daily Show," Mr. Stewart looked genuinely appalled. "I didn't realize - and maybe this explains quite a bit - that the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity." When Mr. Carlson continued to argue, Mr. Stewart shut him down hard. "You are on CNN," he said. "The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls."

Quote of the Day
from the NY Times article: The Strategy to Secure Iraq Did Not Foresee a 2nd War By MICHAEL R. GORDON, Published: October 19, 2004

General Garner said the administration's mistakes had made it easier for the insurgency [in Iraq] to take hold.

"John Abizaid was the only one who really had his head in the postwar game," General Garner said, referring to the general who served as General Franks's deputy and eventually his successor. "The Bush administration did not. Condi Rice did not. Doug Feith didn't. You could go brief them, but you never saw any initiative come of them. You just kind of got a north and south nod. And so it ends with so many tragic things."

Still More about "Outing" Mary Cheney to those like NY Times' Wm. Safire who have been living in a Cave in the Woods.

This from Christian Gratham's blog at Outlet Radio (October 15, 2004):

"Republican U.S. Senatorial candidate from Illinois via Maryland, Alan Keyes, will be in Washington, D.C. today to speak at an anti-gay marriage rally of Christian conservatives titled Mayday For Marriage. Keyes, whose daughter is a lesbian, is an outspoken opponent of equal rights for gays. Recently, Keyes called Dick and Lynne Cheney's daughter a "sexual hedonist."

"Joining Keyes are a host of conservatives who view Dick and Lynne Cheney's position on equal marriage rights with public disdain. Many conservatives have scurrilously used their daughter Mary Cheney's "lesbianism" for their political agenda over the past four years. Curiously, the Cheney's have never defended their daughter from conservative attacks."

More on the Cheny Lesbian War

For an enlightening discussion of the issue click on Mary's Silence On Lesbian Squabble 18 October 2004 and read this article from the Rainbow Network.

Quote of the Day from Bob Herbert in the NY Times OpEd article: A War Without Reason

"There should no longer be any doubt that the war in Iraq is an exercise in lunacy. It was launched with a spurious rationale, the weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be a fantasy relentlessly stoked by obsessively hawkish middle-aged men who ran and hid when they were of fighting age and the nation was at war. . . . .There is no way to overstate how profoundly wrong they were."

If you think the Supreme Court erred in 2000 in the selection of "W" for President then read what it will be like if W is gets another term.

In the NY Times OpEd Piece Imagining America if George Bush Chose the Supreme Court
By ADAM COHEN this morning the opening paragraph ought to be enough to scare the living daylights out of anybody who's as yet "undecided" in who to vote for.

"Abortion might be a crime in most states. Gay people could be thrown in prison for having sex in their homes. States might be free to become mini-theocracies, endorsing Christianity and using tax money to help spread the gospel. The Constitution might no longer protect inmates from being brutalized by prison guards. Family and medical leave and environmental protections could disappear."

If you think the Taliban was bad, what do you think the United States will be liked if it is under the moral guidance of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Jimmy 'the shrimper' Swaggert?

Has Bill Safire been living in a cave in the woods?

Where has he been? In his NY Times OpEd piece The Lowest Blow this morning, he says "Until that moment [in the debate], only political junkies knew that a member of the Cheney family serving on the campaign staff was homosexual."

Really, Mr. Safire!! Mary Cheney has been a professional Lesbian for years. She was the official Coors liasion with the Gay public repairing public relations damage of beer company incurred way back in the 70s for homophobic actions and comments that caused them to lose significant business in the Gay world who boycotted Coors beer for a time. In addition, Ms. Cheney's Lesbianism has been public knowledge since the last debates in 2000 when Dick Cheney publically distanced himself from George W. Bush's homophobic pandering to the religious right. Rather than "outing" Ms. Cheney, both Kerry and Edwards, if anything, outed the rank hypocrisy of mom and pop Cheney in claiming love for a daughter then hiding her out of sight so they could condemn [so-called] Defense of Marriage Act, a staple in the GOP attempts to demonize Gay men and Lesbians.

Talk about contorted! I love my gay daughter, but I don't think she and her partner deserve to be treated with the respect due to people in a committed relationship.

Safire once again shows his butt to the world. Come out of the cave, Bill!

We can't all be Stephen King, but then we don't all want to be either.

His new book is reviewed in the NY Times today and the review is another indicator of how big-time publishers are failing the reading (and writing) public.

'The Dark Tower': Pulp Metafiction
By MICHAEL AGGER

Some quotes:

". . . would anyone read these things if they weren't by Stephen King? It's not an idle question. King has built the series into a monument to his ambition."

"At times, the series feels like a dumping ground for his wackier notions (a talking monorail that likes riddles) and for the further explication of ideas from his previous books (the superflu from ''The Stand'')."

The big guys in publishing (in this case Donald M. Grant in association with Scribner) are still pushing the same 'ole, same ole' by their brand name writers whether or not they're still turning out good books. The controversies surrounding Ann Rice's latest mess "Blood Canticles" is a perfect example. Amazon.com was literally swamped by negative reviews, which Ms. Rice answered with the venum of one of her vampire characters essentially accusing her readers of failing to worship her sufficiently. (Full disclosure time: I was one of the reviewers that hated the book.) You can go to the site for Blood Canticles at amazon now and all the bad reviews are gone. Although she still only rates three stars for the book the remaining reviews are glowing (and none of the reviews is from readers, just professional reviewers.)

Big Publishers gripe about who the National Book Award named as the five finalists for the annual prize. I for one am delighted that the heavy hitters in the publishing world are miffed about not having any of their books chosen by the National Book Awards. It's perhaps a warning to them that "bottom line" considerations are not the best way to judge a book.

A couple of interesting quotes:

"We are completely closing ourselves off from the culture at large," said Larry Kirschbaum, the chairman of the Time Warner Book Group, "we are supporting our demise."

and

Esther Newberg, a literary agent at International Creative Management, said, "We are not helping the book business this way, and we're not exactly flourishing already."


Still, many booksellers, and even Barnes & Noble.com and Amazon.com, were caught flat-footed by the National Book Award finalists. Both report waits of four days to two weeks for [two of the books] "Florida" and "Ideas of Heaven."

Click on the following link to read the complete article in the New York Times.

New Novels, Big Awards, No Readers
By EDWARD WYATT

My Favorite Quote of the day is from Maureen Dowd on the NY Times OpEd Page
Referring to the contention of the Roman Catholic Church that voting for Kerry would be a sin, Dowd says: "Like Mr. Bush, these patriarchal bishops want to turn back the clock to the 50's. They don't want separation of church and state - except in Iraq."

Why I'm Voting for Kerry: The New York Times says it best