Daily Kos

Email: charles@rebelbase.nospam.com

I'm a Computer Programmer in Oklahoma City. On June 7th I turned 34. I voted for Dean, who was the first politician I've contributed to.

Howard Stern phones in to Michael Powell radio interview

by ckerr

Wed Oct 27, 2004 at 08:51:58 AM PDT

I saw this on Slashdot and thought I'd pass it along to the dKos audience.

Stern: The commissioner has fined me millions of dollars for things that I've said, and consistently avoids me, and avoids answering my questions, and I'm wondering how long he'll stay on the phone with me.

... the first question being, how did you get your job?  It is apparent to most of us in broadcasting that your father got you your job ...

Twelve-minute mp3 is here, and a CNN article is here.

Sending Sinclair advertiser info to advocacy groups in local affiliates' areas

by ckerr

Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 03:34:41 PM PDT

I live in Oklahoma City, where Sinclair owns two stations, KOCB and KOKH.  Since it's likely that many local progressives don't check dKos daily, I assembled a Sinclair summary from AlterNet, dKos, TPM, and boycottsbg, and sent it out the local progressive mailing lists I'm on, and the contact points for other lists I'm not on.

The letter is after the jump.

Feel free to replace the Oklahoma City contact information with local information for your area and let a thousand flowers bloom.

Jan 2000: Coburn Endorses Keyes for President

by ckerr

Mon Oct 11, 2004 at 07:32:33 PM PDT

It's ancient history, but I just stumbled across this news article regarding two of dKos' most loved Republicans, Tom Coburn (OK) and Alan Keyes (MD^H^HIL), so I thought I'd pass it on for humor value.  Don't miss the part where Coburn compares Keyes to Lincoln...

MANCHESTER, N.H., Jan. 28 PRNewswire -- U.S. Rep. Tom A. Coburn (R-OK) today endorsed Ambassador Alan Keyes for the Republican nomination for President, calling him "the one candidate for President who actually understands what is wrong with our country and who has the vision, the courage, and the clarity of principle to put it right."

Coburn is a practicing physician who has earned a reputation as a leading budget hawk during his three terms in Congress.

More after the jump.

Newsmax: GoT urban V = Stealing the Election

by ckerr

Fri Oct 08, 2004 at 12:10:38 PM PDT

If you can stomach the source, check out this Newsmax article for a laugh.

NewsMax's Insider Report has been warning our readers that Democrats and their supporters may be laying the groundwork for a massive effort to "steal" the election come Election Day.

And how, you may ask, are they going to "steal" the election?  By -- gasp! -- registering new voters.  Great for democracy, right?  Wrong.

Money quote after the jump.

Why is this not on every cable "Swift Boat" Story?

by ckerr

Sat Aug 21, 2004 at 08:29:54 PM PDT

This Bush quote is reportedly from the Feb 25, 1990 Dallas Morning News:

I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes.  -- George W. Bush

Kerry Went to Vietnam to avoid serving in Alabama National Guard

by ckerr

Fri Aug 13, 2004 at 02:03:00 PM PDT

Got this in my inbox today.  Usually I ignore these kinds of letters, but this one gave me a chuckle, so I'm passing it along.

GOP: KERRY WENT TO VIETNAM TO AVOID SERVING IN ALABAMA NATIONAL GUARD

Guard-Dodging Charges Haunt Campaign.

Must-See TV? Fishing With Dubya

by ckerr

Sat Aug 07, 2004 at 08:03:49 AM PDT

Damn, I missed last night's Very Special Episode of Fishing With Dubya.  If only I'd read my BushCheney04 inbox sooner.

If Bush is this hard up for a chance to get his message out to the people, I'm sure Dean would've been happy to give him time during the Tina Brown show...

From: "GeorgeWBush.com"  <BushCheney04@GeorgeWBush.com>

DON'T MISS IT!!

President George W. Bush will appear tonight on the Outdoor Life Network in a very special episode of Fishing with Roland Martin.

Tonight, the Outdoor Life Network will air a special episode of Fishing with Roland Martin, where the award-winning professional bass fisherman will take you on a bass fishing trip with President George W. Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

When - TONIGHT -- Friday, August 6th
Time - 8:00 p.m. EDT and again at 11:00 p.m.
Channel - Outdoor Life Network

Is georgewbush.com run by stealth BFA'ers?

by ckerr

Thu Jul 29, 2004 at 11:37:18 AM PDT

Who is georgewbush.com aimed at?  It might throw red meat to people already voting for Bush, but looks to me like it does more to scare away undecideds -- it's basically a hi-res newsmax.


  • Kerry gets more landscape on the front page than Bush does.
  • All kinds of lies, distortions, and half-truths on the front page -- "Convention wrap: Irresponsible and proud of it.' ... 'most out of the mainstream' ... 'kerry can't makeover weak national security record.'
  • They run the laughably innefective Kerry 'clean suit' picture on the main page.
  • They cite to factcheck.org stories that give Kerry at least as much ammo as Bush.  
  • Their blog has... no comments allowed?!  BWA ha ha!

Anyone got an mp3 of the Gore speech?

by ckerr

Fri May 28, 2004 at 01:21:03 PM PDT

I heard part of it on O'Franken today, and was impressed with how much better it comes through with Gore's voice than from moveon's transcript.

Apologies in advance for the one-liner Diary entry...

Chris Vlasto's co-byline on Kerry Medal Story

by ckerr

Mon Apr 26, 2004 at 03:26:13 PM PDT

ABC's story on Kerry's medals got a raised eyebrow by Josh  Marshall:

And yes, I noticed Chris Vlasto's name too.

I didn't know who Vlasto was, but a little Google-monkeying turned up some interesting results:

Troll Rating Rampage from S in Mich

by ckerr

Sat Apr 17, 2004 at 08:27:27 AM PDT

I logged on this morning and noticed that yesterday S in Mich scanned through all the comments I posted last week and marked them as trolls even though they weren't.  WTF?

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I thought I'd post a diary entry in the hopes of (a) learning the right Scoop etiquette for responding to this, and (b) embarassing S in Mich to not pull this kind of cheap crap again.

Bush Did a Good Job at the Press Conference

by ckerr

Wed Apr 14, 2004 at 10:06:05 AM PDT

This entry is embarassing to admit to, but since some Kossacks are asking how anyone could support Bush after last night, I'll post it on dKos anyway.

Last night I started listening to Bush's press conference on my kitchen radio.  Every time he was asked a question he would dodge it and retreat to a jumble of words from his 2003 phrasebook.  He was so bad that I turned on the TV to see if he would come across better there.  It was worse on TV: his darting eyes, his weaving body language (and his tie, but let's overlook that). My wife was convinced that Bush was on something.  It was literally the worst presidential press conference I've ever seen.

In short, it was the same conference that everyone in last night's dKos threads saw.

But then...

Bush Press Conference Drinking Game

by ckerr

Tue Apr 13, 2004 at 11:16:04 AM PDT

This is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules, so feel free to add your own items. :)

One Sip

  • says the word "thugs"
  • says the phrase "seventy field investigations"
  • says the phrase "decisive action"
  • says the phrase "democratic process" (bonus shot if `derail' is used in the same sentence)
  • says the phrase "freedom-loving"
  • ducks a question by redirecting the questioner to ask {CIA, FBI, DOJ, DOD} instead of himself
More...

Here's the Aug 6 PDB

by ckerr

Sat Apr 10, 2004 at 03:45:02 PM PDT

The following is a redacted text of the presidential daily briefing from August 6, 2001:

Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladensince 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the U.S. Bin Laden implied in U.S. television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bringthe fighting to America."

Newsmax Selectively Quotes My dKos Diary

by ckerr

Sat Apr 03, 2004 at 12:19:41 PM PDT

A few days ago I transcribed the Ralph Nader / Randi Rhodes interview for a dKos diary entry.  Newsmax read it and snipped pieces of it for an article called "Nader Blasts Hot Air America". Though I'm just a transcriber, rather than Nader or Rhodes, I was amused enough with vicarious misquoting that I thought I'd point out their distortions.

Here's the Newsmax story:

Some selected highlights, as transcribed by the Web site "The Daily Kos":

On Clinton

RHODES: You know the Democrats' policy, you know when the Republicans talk about regime change was the Clinton administration's policy, but it was regime change from within. It was never military action on our part on Iraq. That was not the policy ...

NADER: ... You know, Clinton was a draft-dodger so he wasn't willing to take on the Pentagon. And he wasn't willing to take on the Congress on many huge military expenditures and that starved many of the necessities back home among the American people. ...

So, Nader was saying that Clinton would've invaded Iraq if only he wasn't a craven draft dodger who wouldn't stand up to the Pentagon?

Randi/Nader Air America Transcript

by ckerr

Thu Apr 01, 2004 at 04:26:00 PM PDT

This deserves to be passed around, so I typed it up.  All typos/errors/inaccuracies are mine.

Audio Clip

President Carter:  [speaking to an audience]: I have a friend named Ralph Nader.  He was trusted enough by my family to have been permitted in Plains, Georgia to umpire a softball game where I pitched on one side and my brother pitched on the other side.  That's a lot of confidence.  When I was president he gave me a lot of advice.  And tonight I want to return the favor by giving him some advice.

[Audience applauds]

President Carter:  Ralph, go back to umpiring softball games or examining the rear end of automobiles, and don't risk costing the Democrats the White House this year as you did four years ago.

[Audience applauds louder]

Randi:  Okay, that's a heavy-duty statement Ralph Nader, and that came from the former President of the United States Jimmy Carter who relied on you for advice.  So what do you make of that?

Nader:  Well, I'd just respond with his motto from 1976 when he ran for president.  His motto throughout the country and the title of his book was, `Why Not the Best?'  Why not the best policies...

Randi: ah ha ha, oh we like ourselves, do we?

I Report. You Decide.

by ckerr

Thu Mar 25, 2004 at 09:40:30 PM PDT

March 25, 2004
"Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to strike America, to attack us, I would have used every resource, every asset, every power of the government, to protect the American people," Bush said.

August 6, 2001

On August 6, President George Bush received an intelligence briefing, titled "Bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S." that warned that bin Laden might attempt to hijack airplanes and that the Saudi millionaire's terrorist organization wanted `to bring the fight to America.'  This information was relayed to Bush after he had previously been supplied with intelligence of a more generalized quality that had indicated that al Qaeda was planning to attack the U.S. or U.S. interests abroad.
...
Incredibly, the New York Times later reports that Bush "broke off from work early and spent most of the day fishing."

Washington Post, 5/18/02
CBS News 5/16/02
CBS News 5/17/02
Independent 5/19/02
Senate Intelligence Committee 9/18/02a

Bush's Flip-Flops: We Just Make Shit Up?

by ckerr

Thu Mar 18, 2004 at 08:26:25 PM PDT

One of the flip-flops that TK listed and Kos posted  has these two quotes:

  • Bush-"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. Bush-"I don't know where he is. I have no idea and I really don't care.

I saw this repeated on tacitus recently, and someone else called bullshit on the quotes.  I thought I'd substantiate the quotes, but my Google-monkeying came up dry: there are lots of hits, but they're all echoes of the flip-flop story.

I couldn't find a source for the second quote, but it's in line with Bush's statements of March 13, 2002  ("I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you.").

I couldn't find a source for the second quote.  More importantly, it's strongly at odds with thing Bush did say after 9/11.  The quote is allegedly from 9/13/01, but the only time Bush mentioned OBL in public on that day was in this Q&A:

Q     Mr. President, how confident are you that Osama bin Laden is behind these attacks?  Do you know what his whereabouts are?  And, secondly, what kind of support are you looking for from Congress, in terms of your willingness to act?

THE PRESIDENT:  We are -- we will not discuss intelligence matters, how we gather intelligence and what we know -- about anybody.  When our government acts, you'll be informed.

One might be tempted to cite the `Wanted, Dead or Alive' comments from 9/17.  But even then, Bush was explicitly looking past OBL:

Q    Do you want bin Laden dead?

THE PRESIDENT:  I want justice.  There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, "Wanted: Dead or Alive."

But if you look at the context of the quote, it's completely opposite of the `flip-flop' quote:


(THE PRESIDENT:)  But as the Vice President said, you know, Osama bin Laden is just one person.  He is representative of networks of people who absolutely have made their cause to defeat the freedoms that we take -- that we understand. And we will not allow them to do so.

Q    Do you want bin Laden dead?

THE PRESIDENT:  I want justice.  There's an old poster out west, as I recall, that said, "Wanted: Dead or Alive."

Q    Do you see this being long-term?  You were saying it's long-term, do you see an end, at all?

THE PRESIDENT:  I think that this is a long-term battle, war.  There will be battles.  But this is long-term.  After all, our mission is not just Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda  organization.  Our mission is to battle terrorism and to join with freedom loving people.



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