Yearly Archives: 2004

Look up who your favorite celebrities are endorsing for president. Chekc out who in your zip code is supporting your candidate. Or just search for everyone with your last name.
Hmmm. Something’s not quite right here, because I made contributions that should be showing up here.

The wingnuts of Team Bush (1,2) were out in force last week trying to knock down John Kerry’s selection of John Edwards as his running mate – to very little avail. Ken Lay (3) was indicted, which was exciting, and George Bush pretended not to know him (again). Meanwhile it was revealed that the Bush Administration (4) are already in the process of organizing an October Surprise – or a “July Surprise” if they get really lucky. And if just in case anyone started asking awkward questions, along came Tom Ridge (5) to scare the pants of everyone with another terror alert – well, more of a terror reminder really. Elsewhere, the Boston Herald (6) are really stretching it by pretending that there’s a link between John Kerry and Enron, Jeb Bush’s Banana Republic of Florida (8) is doing what it can to win the election for Dubya, and the Pentagon (9) has mysteriously mislaid Our Great Leader’s military records. How peculiar.

I have a copy of this great documentary on DVD:

”Outfoxed” has been made in secret. The film is an obsessively researched expose of the ways in which Fox News, as Greenwald sees it, distorts its coverage to serve the conservative political agenda of its owner, the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. It features interviews with former Fox employees, leaked policy memos written by Fox executives and extensive footage from Fox News, which Greenwald is using without the network’s permission. The result is an unwavering argument against Fox News that combines the leftist partisan vigor of a Michael Moore film with the sober tone and delivery of a PBS special. A large portion of the film’s $300,000 budget came in the form of contributions in the range of $80,000 from both MoveOn and the Center for American Progress, the liberal policy organization founded by John Podesta, the former chief of staff for Bill Clinton; Greenwald, who is not looking to earn any money from the project, provided the rest. […]
”Outfoxed” was made in an unusually collaborative fashion. In January, Greenwald rigged up a dozen DVD recorders and programmed them to record Fox News 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for about six months. After scrutinizing the initial footage, Greenwald and a team of researchers compiled a list of what they saw as Fox’s telltale themes and techniques: stories questioning the patriotism of liberals; relentlessly upbeat reports on Iraq; belligerent hosts who scream at noncompliant guests. Greenwald planned for the list’s categories eventually to become organizing sections of the film. As he envisioned it, the film clips grouped by theme, together with voice-overs and commentary, would lay bare Fox’s tactics, frame by frame.

It’s even on CNN — so fucking wake up and pay attention, for pete’s sake:

U.S. officials have discussed the idea of postponing Election Day in the event of a terrorist attack on or about that day, a Homeland Security Department spokesman said Sunday.
The department wants to know about the possibility of granting emergency power to the newly created U.S. Election Assistance Commission, authority that [DoJ spokesman Brian] Roehrkasse said was requested by DeForest B. Soaries Jr., the commission’s chairman.
Soaries, who was appointed by President Bush, is a former New Jersey secretary of state and senior pastor of the 7,000-member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey.

ALSO — If that weren’t enough… Pakistan is being ordered by the Bush administration to produce Osama bin Laden during the Democratic National Convention, which is July 26-29th. Don’t call me during the convention, I’ll be glued to the TV set.

German reporters are investigating International Red Cross reports that more than 100 children are imprisoned at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and there are some reports of torture and abuse of the children.

Electoral Vote Predictor 2004 is an interesting political site that analyzes poll data and produces a map illustrating what the current status in the presidential race is. A great visual overview of the race.