Real talking points below the fold:

G.O.P. Senators Balk at Tax Cuts in Bush's Budget

Now with the dollar dropping precipitously, oil prices flying through the roof in response and interests rates slowly rising because of the twin deficits that the US is running, I was sure upon reading this headline that perhaps reality was finally casting a lurid glow on the vile state of the economic affairs of the United States; one that even Republicans must be starting to discern through the drunken haze of their current ideological spring break adventure.

Why even the heretofore pollyannaish Japanese are waking up to the dagger aimed at the heart of the world economy that is the weak dollar, their Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said this morning that his country ``in general'' needs to consider diversifying its foreign currency reserves, in other words, Japan is going to decrease its consumption of US treasury bills.

Imagine my surprise when I actually started reading the article:

From the Guardian:

What's worse is that from the Nation's version of events it is clear that the Kuwaitis were not willing to be left out in the cold in the event of a Bush defeat in November so they brought on board Madeleine Albright and her Albright Group:

For those of you who are a little squeamish about taking on a high-level Democrat caught up in a sleaze scandal of the worst kind, it's gut check time.  If we fail to blow the whistle on this one, we can pretty much just give up on the idea of ever having any semblance of honest government.  If Albright wants to get down in the mud and fornicate with the Bushies in this way then she is just going to have to pay the consequences.

The Republican-leaning media are falling all over themselves to be the first to point out how much better Bush performed in last night's debate.  He went from a F to a D, big deal.  The real story is once again the forceful--yet articulate--presence that Kerry is bringing to the podium, night after night.  If Americans were pleasantly surprised last Thursday by Kerry's out commanding the current Commander-in-Chief, tonight they once again saw John Kerry bring home the presidential bacon and fry it all over Bush's sizzling forehead.  America now has two choices concerning Kerry; they can believe what their eyes and ears are seeing and hearing, or what Bush and the media are telling them to believe.  

Kerry's biggest achievement this October, IMHO, has been to turn the ABB's (anybody but Bush) into NBK's (nobody but Kerry).  After all the damage and humiliation that Bush has dragged us through during these last four years, John Kerry is building momentum towards a mandate to turn this huge tanker ship of a nation onto a course towards security and prosperity.  There is new life on the left side of the politcal spectrum, the internet has helped us much more than it has helped them.  I can see a nice 12-16 year run of Democratic Presidents coming from this victory--it will be a long time before America feels safe again in the hands of a Republican.

We were told, during the 2000 election campaign, to not worry, that although George Bush was in fact inexperienced in foreign affairs and military matters, seasoned hands would surround him and guide him through any troubled waters.  So how did it happen that a clearly incompetent person of below average intelligence like Bush was giving orders on how to run post-war Iraq?  This smacks of the worse cases of Vietnam-era political interference into matters better left to generals.  At least back then it was the "Best and the Brightest", now we have the "Dense and the Dullest" ordering our military around.

Kerry's attack strategy should leap directly over the question of whether Bush actually did order the disbandment of the Iraqi Army, and instead strike right at the heart of the matter; why was an inexperienced politician in Washington making such a crucial decision? Bush will not know whether to deny the charges or defend his right to make such a call.  We win in either case; anyone who knows anything about the Bush administration understands the control-freak nature of their operation.  They never delegate any important decisions.  A Bush denial would be quickly shown to be a lie and the issue will continue to haunt him the rest of the campaign.  If Bush defends his competence to decide to disband the Iraqi Army, he then admits to ownership of the decision that launched the Iraqi insurgency--killing over 1000 American soldiers along the way.  Either way he is toast in November.

However, Bush vs. Cheney should be the battle that Democratic spinmeisters emphasis after the debate.  No matter how bad Cheney performs tonight--he is a very experienced politician so it is not likely to be that bad--it will be head and shoulder above the Bush performance in Coral Gables.  He will speak in complete sentences and will not repeat mindless talking points over and over again.  We need to keep pushing the image of an angry and incompetent Bush during his debate debacle into the public's mind.

Something like "Well John Edwards was masterful tonight, but what really surprised me was how much more eloquent Cheney is than George Bush, how much more in command of facts and ideas, even if they are completely wrong, he is still able to articulate his position.  In addition, he didn't seem to lose his temper when attacked like the President did."  In fact, quite paradoxically, the better Cheney performs tonight, the sharper the contrast we will be able to portray between the VP's and Bush's capabilities.

Some of the graffiti from the US Marines toilet stalls in the Al-Asad Airbase in Western Iraq:

If you are a retard, vote Bush. He is too!

Here I sit cheeks a-flexin'. Bout to make another Texan.

You're not fighting for America. You're fighting for fucked-up politics. End of story Cinderella.

I will leave it to others to decide whether Josh Marshall is just a naïve moderate stooge or an undercover GOP operator.  Kenneth Pollack, the CBS memos, and now the Faux quotes; to me he is too often pushing things the GOP way.  Whatever the case, one thing is sure, he took obscure quotes that only the Fox website reading, Bush loving, Neanderthals would have seen, and he put these destructive quotes into the mainstream where they will now influence moderate voters.   We are seeing here a slight twist on the case of the fundamentalist preacher who protests a film and ends up helping to promote it, increasing ticket sales with his hysterical condemnations of smut.  Marshall didn't help matters either by needing to call the Kerry campaign to see if the quotes were real, adding to the meme that Kerry is a little limp in the wrist.

Two can play this game; if the ReThugs want to get dirty so can we.  Kerry was clearly the dominant male in the debate, even W's wife was drawn by Kerry's animal magnetic attraction as documented by the picture of Laura Bush and Theresa Heinz Kerry, in their matching white outfits, struggling to stand closest to Kerry.  Bush's grimaces and sighs during the debate can certainly be called less than manly, as is his tendency to tire easily.  I mean, come on now, this guy is in his mid-fifties but has the stamina of an eighty-year-old woman.  He also sure does seem to come unglued at the slightest criticism, what's up with that?  Weak, fragile, emotionally delicate are all adjectives that fit Bush to a T.