Category: Politics

This was probably not the kind of October Surprise the Bushies wanted to see.

Call it poor planning, call it arrogance, call it stupidity — all or the above of none of the above. The long and the short of it is, there was a particularly large cache of very high-end explosives in Iraq that the US government left unguarded after the invasion. 370+ TONS of explosives have vanished.

The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives – used to demolish buildings, produce missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons – are missing from one of Iraq’s most sensitive former military installations.

The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no-man’s land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished after the American invasion last year.

How much damage can that much explosive do?

The bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 used less than a pound of the material of the type stolen from Al Qaqaa

There’s much more. Go read it.

This is so good that I am also going to email it out to all my friends and family. How to make sure your vote counts:

1. If you are newly registered or if you have moved recently, call ahead of Nov. 2 and make sure that you are on the list of registered voters and make sure that you know where you are to vote.

2. Get a sample ballot. Call your county or state election official to request it. Or, check your state’s election website to print one out – especially if your ballot is going to be complex (many referenda) or if you will be using a new voting technology/machine. Study the sample ballot beforehand. Complete the sample ballot with your choices – slowly, quietly and carefully in the privacy of your home or office.

3. Take your sample ballot with you to the polling place. You may bring it with you. This will help you assure that you are voting for whom/what you think you want to vote.

4. Do not vote early morning or evening hours at your polling place. Avoid long lines and crowds — especially in battleground states. Vote mid-day: 10 AM – 4 PM.

5. Know your rights. Every state is required to provide a list of voter’s rights on the sample ballot and at the polling place. If you need help with your voting machine or ballot at your polling place, ask for it You must be given help if you request it. If you have a paper ballot and you make a mistake, call for help immediately from a poll official. You have the right to receive another ballot and to destroy the ballot with the mistake.

6. If your name is not found on the registered voters list at your poll on Election Day or if anything else comes up that prevents you from being able to step into the voting booth, demand a Provisional Ballot. Demand it! You have this right! Your Provisional Ballot may be counted after your registration problem/voter challenge has been cleared up.

7. Take the time to check your ballot before completing your vote. Give a second reading to your ballot before you cast the ballot. If you spot a mistake, call for a poll official.

8. Carry this telephone number with you to the polls: (866) OUR-VOTE [(866) 687-8683]. If you have any problems at the polling place, call the Election Protection hotline at (866) 687-8683. Election Protection is a nationwide program to safeguard your right to cast a ballot on Election Day.

9. Mail or deliver your ballot personally. If you are voting by mail or using an absentee ballot, mail it yourself or hand it in yourself. Don’t, under any circumstances, give it to someone else.

10. Bring valid photo ID with you.

UPDATE: added #10, which was suggested by a respondant after I e-mailed this list out to all and sundry.

You know things are seriously messed up when even Pat Robertson is telling President Bush “I told you so” about Iraq:

“I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, ‘Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties.’ ”

Robertson said the president then told him, “Oh, no, we’re not going to have any casualties.”

[snip]

“I mean, the Lord told me it was going to be A, a disaster, and B, messy,” Robertson said. “I warned him about casualties.”

But I thought God talked to Bush too? I guess he got the message garbled.

UPDATE: WH spokesman Scott McClellan called Robertson a liar. Heh.

The man who should have been President, Al Gore, gave a good speech recently about the problems with the Bush crew. Given the recent Suskind article this is worth a read.

There are many people in both political parties who worry that there is something deeply troubling about President Bush’s relationship to reason, about his disdain for facts, his incuriosity about new information that might produce a deeper understanding of the problems and policies that he wrestles with on behalf of the country.

One group mistakenly maligns the president as not being smart enough to have a normal active curiosity about separating fact from myth. A second group seems to be convinced that his personal religious conversion experience was so profound that he relies on religious faith in place of logical analysis. But I disagree with both of those groups and reject both of those cartoon images. I know President Bush is plenty smart, and while I have no doubt that his religious belief is genuine, and it’s an important motivation for many things that he does in life, as it is for me, and for most of you, I’m convinced that most of the president’s frequent departures from fact based analysis have much more to do with right-wing political and economic ideology than with the Bible. And it is crucially important to be precise in describing exactly what it is he believes in so strongly, and then insulates from any logical challenge or even debate. It is ideology, and not his religious faith that is the source of this troubling inflexibility.

Most of the problems President Bush has caused for this country stemmed not from his belief in God but his belief in the infallibility of the right-wing Republican ideology that exalts the interest of the wealthy, and of large corporations over and above the interests of the American people. It is love of power for its own sake that is the original sin of this presidency.

Good stuff.

Good News: The US Supreme Court told Tom Delay today that his redistricting scheme in Texas need to be reconsidered.

Bad News: By not summarily affirming the lower court’s ruling and issuing their ruling two weeks before an election, chaos ensues.