Bad news for Kerry! DRUDGE has the scoop! Right on the top of his page, you can still click on this headline: "Kerry Argued Case For Unilateral Preemptive Action In Iraq On CNN's CROSSFIRE In 1997..."

The link is to a new Washington Times piece by John McCaslin quoting Kerry on CNN's Crossfire in 1997, when we are told Kerry said: "We know we can't count on the French. We know we can't count on the Russians. ... We know that Iraq is a danger to the United States, and we reserve the right to take pre-emptive action whenever we feel it's in our national interest." McCaslin also said that "no 'Crossfire' transcripts from 1997 are available" but that he recieved a tape of the show.

Only problem? Kerry never said it.

Media Matters has the full story of what Kerry actually said...along with the transcript!

In the wake of "Rather-Gate" has anyone yet heard the cries for McCaslin and Drudge to resign? McCaslin had the actual tape of the show, so why would he put quotes around what he knows full well that John Kerry didn't say? I think you know the answer.

John McCaslin - jmccaslin@washingtontimes.com
Mng. Editor, Francis B. Coombs Jr. - fcoombs@washingtontimes.com

What Bush actually said yesterday was:
"I saw a poll that said, uh, uh...the right trong, ri...right track, wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America."

Still trying to decipher what message he thinks he was actually sending with that quote, but in the meantime, the Kerry Campaign has responded --- and quickly! --- with another new ad. Good rapid response. Good to see.

As I've received so much Email of late on the topic of the Jimmy Swaggart video ad I released recently, I've been pondering a few of the related ideas.

Swaggart, as many "Christian" homophobes enjoy mentioning, said in his sermon after announcing that he'd kill a gay man who looked at him the wrong way and then "tell God he died", that the bible says homosexuality is "an abomination". He reminded us of that just before he endorsed George W. Bush from his pulpit.

Swaggart is right, of course, on the bible calling homosexuality "an abomination" in Leviticus 18:22. Subsequently, God also is quoted as suggesting in Romans 1:32 that those "who commit such things are worthy of death".

This got me pondering about which of the bible thumpers out there (and I know we have one or two who read this Blog regularly) might agree that gays should be put to death as the bible would seem to advocate? Any of you Theo-Cons willing to ring in on that? You know where the Comment button is.

So I started looking around for more information on what else Leviticus has to say about things, and I came again across this letter to Dr. Laura that has made it's way around the Internet starting sometime in 2000, not long after Dr. Laura informed her listeners that homosexuality was a "mistake of nature", "a biological error" and that gays are in fact "deviants".

I don't know if Laura (not an actual medical or psychological or sociological Doctor, by the way) still feels that way as she seems to flip-flop on her opinions quite a bit. For example, she had years ago converted to Orthodox Judiasm, only to then renounce her religion on the air in July of 2003.

In any case, if you haven't seen this letter, or even if you have, it seems timely in this day and age to reprint it here again, along with a picture of the good "Doctor" (pictured upper-right, I'm sorry, it was amongst the least pornographic shots that I felt it proper to display on the front page here as it was one of the few without visible pubic hair from the series of photos it seems she posed for during one of her extra-marital affairs) to remind folks who Dr. Laura is, in case they're not familiar with her work. It's interesting to "heathens" like myself, what else the bible, including Leviticus and other chapters, has to say about a few other things:

No word yet, four years after this letter was sent, on Dr. Laura's reply.

A day or so ago, Josh Marshall said: "Every so often you just have to sit back and marvel at the Twilight Zone we're living in at the moment."

Indeed...Here's one of those Twilight Zone moments from Wednesday, as reported by NY Times:

Untwist that logic while you stir yourself up another pitcher.

(via Josh Marshall)

After a couple of days of hemming and hawing and "Who us?"-ing, the Republicans have come "clean" on the story we mentioned here and then here a couple of days ago, wherein we predicted this came from the same filthy bag of dirty tricks that the Republicans used to slime their own John McCain in 2000.

As reported in tomorrow's NY Times:

In case you missed it the first time, here's the thoughtful mailing being sent out in Arkansas and West Virginia to help voters understand the "issues" at stake this year:

Just wait though. There's plenty more to come, I predict, from their filthy bag of tricks. So hold your nose and stay tuned. That rancid smell is the boyz just getting warmed up in the pig pen. These things get easier and easier, you know, when there's no troubling moral compass by which one needs to measure ones self.

A rather brilliant piece from Juan Coles...I'll give ya the first few grafs, please drop by to read the rest:

Inform yourself and pay attention.

I just saw an ad on Fox from (I believe) the "Progress for America Voter Fund" that was almost identical to the Bush Campaign's own silly "Windsurfing" ad.

I can't find the PFA's ad online, but if someone out here in the blogosphere has more info on it I'd appreciate it. Along with an explanation of how an almost identical ad was released by a 527 for Bush the day after the Bush campaign themselves released a virtually identical ad when the campaigns and political parties are not supposed to be coordinating with 527's.

Anyone have any info on that? It was during the 5pm PT / 8pm ET O'Reilly show if anyone happens to have it TIVO'd. I'd love to make sure it was from PFA and/or get their website address and/or compare the ads online!

UPDATE: Okay, the ad ran again during Hannity & Colmes and I got the website address. It's from the "Progress for America Voter Fund" at www.pfavoterfund.com. Both ads show Kerry windsurfing, both ads use the text "whichever way the wind blows". Take a look:

+ Bush's "Windsurfing" ad here
+ PFA Voter Funds "Surfer Dude" ad here (Large Version / Small Version)

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1918

Well said by "nostalgic about my future":

The irony, no doubt, is wholly lost on the irony-impaired Rightwing Kool-aid crowd.

The only thing Bush can say for himself is that, aside from the successful Anthrax attacks and the terrorists who perpetrated it who, like Osama bin Laden, run free, there haven't been any "major" terrorist attacks on American soil since 9/11.

It's also a fact that the systematic round-up of hundreds and thousands of "suspected terrorists" have yielded not one successful prosecution that I know of. Yassir Hamdi, who was held for three years in solitary confinement, and considered "too dangerous" to even meet with a lawyer, was freed yesterday without charges.

The military interrogator who was supposedly a muslim spy of some sort, had his charges similarly dropped. Systematically, the Bush/Ashcroft Justice Department has been a failure at catching terrorists in this country, and has shit all over the constitution and "due process" in the bargain of achieving that failure.

But it's not just on that count that they have failed, as the Republican US Congressman from Florida, John Murtha recently pointed out. Murtha, chairman of the House aviation sub-committee, described the screening situation in U.S. Airports as "absolutely horrendous".

The head of Bush's own watchdog group for the Department of Homeland Security, Clark Kent Ervin, called said that "it may take some horrific wake-up call to get attention" on the failures of the Bush Administration to properly screen travellers at U.S. airports for the type of explosives that recently took down two Russian airplanes.

"Some horrific wake-up call?" Pardon me, but didn't we supposedly already get one of those horrific wake-up calls on 9/11? What the hell is still going on here, three years after 9/11?!

And what kind of "horrific wake-up call" are you Bush supporters going to need to figure out how you've been played for chumps?

From USA Today:

And Mica is a Republican! From Florida! In an Election Year!

How many more Americans need to die before you Republican Bush Worshippers realize how you are being played? The messages above are almost precisely like those that came out, and were subsequently ignored by the Bush Administration, in the weeks and month prior to 9/11!

Hello??? Is this thing on???

From Media Matters:

The full clips are even worse. The whole story --- with actual sourcing, audio, explanations and substantive and verifiable background links, instead of tweaked, out-of-context, misleading, lying bullshit --- right here.

Reason #864 to vote against Bush: Demonstrate to that sick, America-hating fuck, Rush Limbaugh what real patriots think of him and his sick, twisted, demented ilk.

If, like me, you don't live in a swing state, you may be unaware of the new TV spots from the Kerry Team. Their new "Juvenile" ad hits back hard at Bush's silly new "Windsurfing" attack ad.

Perhaps it's just me, but I think it might be nice to have a serious person in the White House during some rather serious times.

Most importantly, the Kerry Team got this one out quickly in rapid response! Perhaps they're starting to get it. If I can turn out a video ad in an afternoon with no resources, cheap lifted graphics and a free video editor, I'd think they could do much better! And it looks like they're finally starting to!

After checking out the "Juvenile" spot, be sure to check out some of Kerry's other recent TV spots that you may not have seen! Impressive and lookin' much better!

Special thanks to Alan Colmes (Yes, Alan Colmes!) and Fox News (Yes, Fox News!) for tipping me off to the ad by showing it tonight in immediate response after playing the Bush ad! It's nice to see a bit of actual "Fair and Balance" from Fox! And Colmes delivered some of that tonight!

Though I may have a few things to say about O'Reilly a bit later...