I'll let you determine the reliability of Republican pollster Frank Luntz. But this is what he said in his editorial yesterday entitled "Its time for Bush to get worried":
  w/ Brad & Desi
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MORE BRAD BLOG 'SPECIAL COVERAGE' PAGES... |
I'll let you determine the reliability of Republican pollster Frank Luntz. But this is what he said in his editorial yesterday entitled "Its time for Bush to get worried":
Did ya hear the really funny one about the WMD's?! Check out the hysterical video!
Oh, I'm still crackin' up it's so incredibly funny!
Asshole.
Wow. I told you this thing was gonna get ugly. John O'Neill implodes on live TV on Thursday, and on Friday, live on CNN, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart blows up Tucker Carlson, CNN and Crossfire. Finally!
Watch it, or read the highlights below. It's funny, sad, true and incredible LIVE television!:
I don't usually like to quote this much text, but if you missed the show, you've got to read some of this that I pulled from the full transcript...
BEGALA: We have noticed.
STEWART: And I wanted to --- I felt that that wasn't fair and I should come here and tell you that I don't --- it's not so much that it's bad, as it's hurting America. (LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: But in its defense...
STEWART: So I wanted to come here today and say...Here's just what I wanted to tell you guys.
CARLSON: Yes.
STEWART: Stop. (LAUGHTER) Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America.
...
STEWART: See, the thing is, we need your help. Right now, you're helping the politicians and the corporations. And we're left out there to mow our lawns.
BEGALA: By beating up on them? You just said we're too rough on them when they make mistakes.
STEWART: No, no, no, you're not too rough on them. You're part of their strategies. You are partisan, what do you call it, hacks. (LAUGHTER)
...
CARLSON: And I'll tell you. When politicians come on...
STEWART: Yes.
CARLSON: It's nice to get them to try and answer the question. And in order to do that, we try and ask them pointed questions. I want to contrast our questions with some questions you asked John Kerry recently.
STEWART: If you want to compare your show to a comedy show, you're more than welcome to. (LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: No, no, no, here's the point.
STEWART: If that's your goal.
CARLSON: It's not.
STEWART: I wouldn't aim for us. I'd aim for "Seinfeld." That's a very good show.
...
STEWART: You know, it's interesting to hear you talk about my responsibility. I didn't realize that --- and maybe this explains quite a bit...that the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity. (LAUGHTER) So what I would suggest is, when you talk about you're holding politicians' feet to fire, I think that's disingenuous.
...
STEWART: But my point is this. If your idea of confronting me is that I don't ask hard-hitting enough news questions, we're in bad shape, fellows. (LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: We're here to love you, not confront you...We're here to be nice.
STEWART: No, no, no, but what I'm saying is this. I'm not. I'm here to confront you, because we need help from the media and they're hurting us. And it's --- the idea is... (APPLAUSE)
BEGALA: Let me get this straight. If the indictment is --- if the indictment is --- and I have seen you say this --- that...
STEWART: Yes.
BEGALA: ... that CROSSFIRE reduces everything, as I said in the intro, to left, right, black, white.
STEWART: Yes.
BEGALA: Well, it's because, see, we're a debate show.
STEWART: No, no, no, no, that would be great.
BEGALA: It's like saying The Weather Channel reduces everything to a storm front.
STEWART: I would love to see a debate show.
BEGALA: We're 30 minutes in a 24-hour day where we have each side on, as best we can get them, and have them fight it out.
STEWART: No, no, no, no, that would be great. To do a debate would be great. But that's like saying pro wrestling is a show about athletic competition. (LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: Jon, Jon, Jon, I'm sorry. I think you're a good comedian. I think your lectures are boring.
STEWART: Yes.
CARLSON: Let me ask you a question on the news.
STEWART: Now, this is theater. It's obvious. How old are you?
CARLSON: Thirty-five.
STEWART: And you wear a bow tie. (LAUGHTER) (APPLAUSE)
CARLSON: Yes, I do. I do.
STEWART: So this is...
CARLSON: I know. I know. I know. You're a...
STEWART: So this is theater.
CARLSON: Now, let me just...
STEWART: Now, listen, I'm not suggesting that you're not a smart guy, because those are not easy to tie...But the thing is that this --- you're doing theater, when you should be doing debate, which would be great.
BEGALA: We do, do...
STEWART: It's not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. And I will tell you why I know it.
CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you're accusing us of partisan hackery?
STEWART: Absolutely.
CARLSON: You've got to be kidding me. He comes on and you...
STEWART: You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls. (LAUGHTER) What is wrong with you? (APPLAUSE)
CARLSON: Well, I'm just saying, there's no reason for you --- when you have this marvelous opportunity not to be the guy's butt boy, to go ahead and be his butt boy. Come on. It's embarrassing.
STEWART: You know, the interesting thing I have is, you have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.
CARLSON: You need to get a job at a journalism school, I think.
STEWART: You need to go to one.
...
STEWART: The thing that I want to say is, when you have people on for just knee-jerk, reactionary talk...
CARLSON: Wait. I thought you were going to be funny. Come on. Be funny.
STEWART: No. No. I'm not going to be your monkey. (LAUGHTER)
BEGALA: Go ahead. Go ahead.
STEWART: I watch your show every day. And it kills me.
CARLSON: I can tell you love it.
STEWART: It's so --- oh, it's so painful to watch. (LAUGHTER)
STEWART: You know, because we need what you do. This is such a great opportunity you have here to actually get politicians off of their marketing and strategy.
CARLSON: Is this really Jon Stewart? What is this, anyway?
STEWART: Yes, it's someone who watches your show and cannot take it anymore. (LAUGHTER) I just can't.
CARLSON: What's it like to have dinner with you? It must be excruciating. Do you like lecture people like this or do you come over to their house and sit and lecture them; they're not doing the right thing, that they're missing their opportunities, evading their responsibilities?
STEWART: If I think they are. (LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: I wouldn't want to eat with you, man. That's horrible.
STEWART: I know. And you won't.
...
STEWART: But let me ask you guys, again, a question, because we talked a little bit about, you're actually doing honest debate and all that. But, after the debates, where do you guys head to right afterwards?
CARLSON: The men's room.
STEWART: Right after that?
BEGALA: Home.
STEWART: Spin alley.
BEGALA: Home.
STEWART: No, spin alley.
BEGALA: What are you talking about? You mean at these debates?
STEWART: Yes. You go to spin alley, the place called spin alley. Now, don't you think that, for people watching at home, that's kind of a drag, that you're literally walking to a place called deception lane? (LAUGHTER) Like, it's spin alley. It's --- don't you see, that's the issue I'm trying to talk to you guys...
...
CARLSON: I do think you're more fun on your show. Just my opinion.
STEWART: You know what's interesting, though? You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show. (LAUGHTER)
Wow. And bravo, Mr. Stewart.
Holy-moly, don't know how many of you saw Nightline last night, but after months of whining that Swift Vet Master Shill, John O'Neill was not getting the network exposure that he thought he somehow deserved (how anyone could suggest that group didn't get enough exposure is beyond me, but anyway)...O'Neill finally got his chance last night. And, man, was it one for the record books!
O'Neill had a complete meltdown on live TV! The Nightline report began with a difficult trip up river into Vietnam to the very location of the disputed Kerry Silver Star incident to speak to the eyewitnesses in the village from that day. They remembered it well. Every witness that Nightline spoke to, none of whom seemed to know who the hell John Kerry was, corroborated every bit of the Navy's original account of the event.
The report completely destroyed O'Neill's thesis on this one particular event (the only one this Nightline report focused on), and his charge that there was no enemy fire on that day, and that Kerry shot some lone little 12 year old kid in the back as he was running away.
O'Neill was interviewed by Koppel after the report and he simply imploded with an incoherent rambling explanation of how Nightline had it all wrong, was trusting in those evil Commie's who love John Kerry (never mind that this village was hours up river into the middle of nowhere, and none of those interviewed had even heard of the man!), and how the accounts of the eye-witnesses had to be wrong because they were at odds with the Boston Globe's story on the matter.
It was amazing. O'Neill kept holding up the opened pages from the Boston Globe book, Kerry's autobiography a Kerry Biography (ed: correction made. O'Neill called it a Kerry autobiography, but he was misleading there.) and his own anti-Kerry polemic. Switching back and forth between the books (at least 5 times each!) flashing the unintelligable-on-television pages that he wanted people to read. No matter what Koppel did, he couldn't bring this guy back to his senses. It was an extraordinary thing to watch! O'Neill, in the bargain, blew any and all credibility he might have had left in a single network interview.
Unfortunately, Nightline doesn't offer free video online (they have it, but it costs money). Their "What They Saw..." report, from the eye-witnesses will have to suffice, if you even care about that story at this point. UPDATE: Full Nightline show from last night available here in Windows Media Player format! O'Neill's implosion is last 10 minutes or so of show.(Thanks, Chuck for the link!)
(Prepare now for the wingnuts to repeat, in comments, the defenses that Rush offered them this morning for last night's embarrassing affair. Ignore them. It's more smoke and mirrors...O'Neill simply blew himself up with a devastating self-inflicted wound. It was a live televised disaster. Period.)
This video, from my buddy, Fin, absolutely kicks ass and should be the rallying cry between now and Election Day for everyone in the world who wants Bush out of office!!!
Send this link around to as many friends, as often as you can between now and November 2nd!
It's crunch time folks, don't count on anyone else other than you to do what's necessary to take your country back, make your world a better, safer place, and put an end to our long national nightmare!
Get angry! Get busy! Let's Start Over!!!
I managed to take my eyes off of this site for a few days, when the U.S. casualties in Iraq were only at 1,067. That was last Thursday. One week ago.
I just checked in to find out the number of dead U.S. troops in Iraq is now up to 1,092.
The Green Zone is now under attack (yes, that's it pictured to the right), yet Bush, Cheney and Rove are more concerned that John Kerry referred to Bush/Cheney '04's openly gay 'Director of Vice-Presidential Operations' as gay.
That is, by the way, no mistake on their part. Cynicism defined.
Two pithy items. One from yesterday's LA Times Letters to the Editor section:
Charles Conyers - Gardena, CA
The other via Email from Johnhp:
"Leave it to Bush!" - Starring George W. Bush and Gary Busey. Funny. Click on it!.
(Tip of the hat to Krup!)
I wondered about this last night, and was going to do some checking on it today. Looks like Kevin Drum has done the heavy lifting for me...
My initial reaction was pretty simple: "Mitch McConnell is a Republican. You're a Republican. The Republican party controls both the House and Senate. So if you supported McConnell's bill, why didn't it pass?"
The answer, of course, is that there was no such plan and no such bill.
Read the rest of the sorry story...As expected though, it's just more smoke and mirrors from an increasingly desperate Administration.
Last night Lynne Cheney claimed to be "outraged". Today, Dick Cheney said he was "a pretty angry father right now".
What a bunch of horseshit. Here's the real tale of the tape, prior to the Cheney's realizing they were about to lose this election and needed to say and do anything to try and win this thing.
From a townhall Q&A session with both Lynne and Dick on Aug. 24, 2004...
From the V.P. Debate on Oct. 5, 2004...
But now he's "angry" and she's "outraged"? Puh-lease. Desperation does funny things to folks, doesn't it?
The one big difference in this year's debates was the crowd control. On each night, the moderator gave stern pre-debate warnings to the crowd (as seen on C-Span) that noise of any type would not be tolerated. And it worked well!
That alone made it rather difficult for either of the candidates to have a "There ya go again" or "You're no President Kennedy" moment that pandered to their supporters in the house.
Debates, after all, shouldn't be a game of trash talk and "gotcha" one-liners, but rather a discussion of the issues at stake. With the pre-debate audience admonishments to shut the hell up, the focus has instead been on the candidates and their positions as opposed to the cleverness of their joke writers. A victory for substance over sillyness.
I'd say this series of debates, therefore, has been quite an upgrade over our previous outtings because of it. Kudos to both the debate planners and all four moderators for job's well done! It was a small victory for both America and Democracy at a time that we could well use one!
Our friend, the conservative (real conservative, not Fake "Bush Conservative") Teddy of the Bull Moose Forum, gets it right again. He starts off with a joke:
Question: Named three things that get smoked.
...And then goes on to compile a devasting summary of some of the top points of interest for Conservatives from last night's debate. Little wonder then, that Teddy is a multi-recipient of the rarely awarded BRAD BLOG "Intellectually Honest Conservative" Award!