Good Lord!

OK. We try not to get "peeved" and "steamed" over here at littleboxes but Good Lord! So there is a nice little column in the Washingon Post called White Housing Briefing. It is online every weekday and goes through the major news concerning the president in a somewhat satirical way. The article provides many links to what other major news organizations are writing or saying about the president and politics.

Today, Dan Froomkin (the author) links to an article in (wouldn't you know it) the Washington Post. The article is about fact-checking the debates before they happen. Which sounds weird until you realize we are just going to hear the same old tired soundbites tonight anyway. The article falls prey to the "balanced but incredibly stupid" (for lack of a better word) thing that keeps bedeviling our media. They fact check a Bush assertion and then must, of course, fact check a Kerry assertion. What do they come up with?
-------------------
"At first glance, a candidate's assertion may have the ring of truth. But on close examination, many of their pronouncements turn out to be exaggerated, lacking in context or wrong."

For instance, Kessler and Connolly write, while "Bush emphasizes his efforts to avert war," the facts suggest otherwise:

"[T]he White House very quickly gave up on the inspection process and assumed a war footing several months before the March 2003 invasion, according to administration officials. The administration rejected several compromise proposals from other nations that would have delayed an invasion and allowed inspectors to continue searching for weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were found after the invasion, and much of the prewar intelligence the administration used to justify the invasion was later found to be wrong."

As for Kerry, "In a recent line of attack, Kerry has said the cost of Bush's 'go-it-alone policy in Iraq is now $200 billion.' This is an exaggeration, because it combines the amount already spent -- about $120 billion -- with money that is expected to be spent in the coming year or requested by the administration."

What the hell? How can we even compare the two? Isn't it even possible that Kerry is not in fact being untruthful? $200 billion is the cost, it is not as if we aren't going to spend that money. Kerry's figure might even be the correct figure to cite. But Bush's crap about inspectors? It's a flat out lie! A lie we say, a lie.

Why the endless need to just be shitty? That question was directed to you, dear Media. What the hell?

Flip Wilson

Kerry is a flip-flopper. Can't you get that through your sick skull, you god damn crazy liberal?!

Bush's Top 10 Flip Flops. Is it too late for Kerry to attack this issue? Will it only serve to give more attention to Bush's attacks on him and just end up focusing the entire campaign on flip-flopping? If we only knew.

Weapons of Mass Destruction
Announcing the invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, Mr. Bush said, “Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.”

Two months into the war, on May 29, 2003, Mr. Bush said weapons of mass destruction had been found.

“We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories,” Mr. Bush told Polish television. “For those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them."

On Sept. 9, 2004, in Pennsylvania, Mr. Bush said: “I recognize we didn't find the stockpiles [of weapons] we all thought were there.”

Ellsberg is the Man

The Pentagon Papers.

the Man who photocopies them all! (Think Tom Cruise and Holly Hunter in "the Firm")

Has an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times.

(LINK)

On a tape recording made in the Oval Office on June 14, 1971, H. R. Haldeman, Richard Nixon's chief of staff, can be heard citing Donald Rumsfeld, then a White House aide, on the effect of the Pentagon Papers, news of which had been published on the front page of that morning's newspaper:

"Rumsfeld was making this point this morning,'' Haldeman says. "To the ordinary guy, all this is a bunch of gobbledygook. But out of the gobbledygook comes a very clear thing: you can't trust the government; you can't believe what they say, and you can't rely on their judgment. And the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because it shows that people do things the president wants to do even though it's wrong, and the president can be wrong."

He got it exactly right. But it's a lesson that each generation of voters and each new set of leaders have to learn for themselves. (see link for more)

Hippy Q. McFreakinton

Washington Post on why Bush still leads in polls despite at least 50% of Americans disapproving of his job performance.
-------------------------
Bush's relentless attacks on Kerry have badly damaged the Democratic nominee, the survey and interviews showed. Voters routinely describe Kerry as wishy-washy, as a flip-flopper and as a candidate they are not sure they can trust, almost as if they are reading from Bush campaign ad scripts. (link)
-------------------------

So, we say again, it does not matter what Hippy Q. McFreakinton thinks. It's possible that the Dems need swing voters. These are the voters who apparently have no idea who they want to vote for yet? Who are these people? They are your neighbors.
We thank The Daily Show for the term "Hippy Q. McFreakinton."

Ground Beef and Ground Rules

This Modern World has a nice post today about the ground rules for the presidential debates.
----------------------
The candidates are forbidden from asking each other any direct questions of any kind, nor can they challenge each other with proposed pledges. Thus, much of the skill used in actual debating is explicitly forbidden. Point for Monkey.

No pre-written notes of any kind will be allowed, nor can candidates use any props or have anyone in the audience to point to (like, say, Allawi) to examplify their rhetoric. Point for Kerry.

(more)


As promised, also some stuff on beef, cow cannabilism and mad cow. (link)

Home Sweet Home

Many of us here at littleboxes watch CNN from time to time. As many of our readers know Bill Schneider is not one of our favorite media personalities. An informal poll of our staff suggests that 73% of us have an unfavorable opinion of Mr. Schneider. Constrasting this with our recent poll result indicating that only 10% of us dislike american cheese really allows that 73% figure to sink in.

From Media Matters:

From the September 19 edition of CNN Live Sunday:

SCHNEIDER: Well, I can guarantee you, they don't like George Bush. Do they think there's a difference? I think Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda network, who I am certain follow American politics, look at the messages coming out on their tapes. They seem to follow politics very closely. They would very much like to defeat President Bush. But the question is: Can they pull off the same trick that they pulled off in Spain? What Dennis Hastert said is, "They'd better not try that. It won't work here." And my guess is, he's right about that.

[entire article]


Apparently as the election gets closer the insurgents in Iraq are making a more pronounced effort to hand this election to John Kerry. The question is, if Kerry wins do the attacks in Iraq stop?
Washington Post:
Attacks over the past two weeks have killed more than 250 Iraqis and 29 U.S. military personnel, according to figures released by Iraq's Health Ministry and the Pentagon. A sampling of daily reports produced during that period by Kroll Security International for the U.S. Agency for International Development shows that such attacks typically number about 70 each day. In contrast, 40 to 50 hostile incidents occurred daily during the weeks preceding the handover of political authority to an interim Iraqi government on June 28, according to military officials. (article)

First Time For Everything

We sponsored our first event ever on Saturday evening. Andreas Duus Pape, a musician from Ann Arbor, MI, played a show to celebrate the release of his first album "The Big Hit." Although we had no staff at the gig we did hear reports that it went well! Go check out Andreas's mix of love and politics and see if you can dig it.

The presidential debate is this week. Just thought we'd let you know.
-----
"In the final analysis, there's a very small percentage of people who haven't made up their minds by now," Tate said. "And they make their decision based on who they like, who they think they can trust -- and it's a very amorphous, very emotional decision."
(link)
--------------------------------
You know, we read that "in this post-ideological age, anti-Americanism fills the void left by defunct belief systems."

Oh my, good lord! We just read that Cat Stevens deportation was caused by a spelling error!
---------
An incident this week in which British former pop star Cat Stevens was deported from the United States to London as a "no-fly" terrorist risk was caused by a spelling error.
--snip--
Time magazine, in its on-line edition, quoted aviation sources with access to the "no-fly" list as saying there is no entry on the list under the name "Yusuf Islam," but that there is a "Youssouf Islam" on the list. They said the incorrect name was added to the list this summer.
---------------------
What the hell? This is days after Asa Hutchinson (who is NOT related to anyone here at littleboxes, although we do have several homosexual staff memebers, but these two things really have nothing to do with each other) claimed that Stevens's actual boarding of the plane was a sign that the "no-fly" list needed to be aggresively expanded.


We also saw this: (link)
-------
An expert on weapons of mass destruction warned Prime Minister John Howard last year against going to war with Iraq (news - web sites), arguing it would make Australia a bigger terrorist target, a press report says.

The Sydney Morning Herald said Bob Mathews, a 35-year veteran of the Defence Science and Technology Organistion, also told Howard three days before his decision to join the war that his case for war was based on falsehoods.
-------------------

Yet we feel that americans do not want to believe that their children have died for lie. Is it possible to tell a parent something like that? Can John Kerry say "American children have died for a lie?" Was Bush really lying? Can you prove it?

What about 3/4 of an election?

First off, more and more people are commenting on David Brooks's tendency to divide society into two groups. McSweeney's takes a swipe and it is hilarious.

Also, we've learned from Donny Rumsfeld that 4/5 of an election is better than no election at all. He has also informed us that "nothing is perfect in life." Except of course for this.

"Let's say you tried to have an election and you could have it in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country. But in some places you couldn't because the violence was too great," Rumsfeld said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

"Well, so be it. Nothing's perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet," he said. (full story)


Is 4/5 of an election better than 3/4 of an election? Well, a quick math check says that yes 3/4 is less than 4/5. However, are two elections better than one?

Allawi -ant for Christmas is my two front teeth

So Allawi is in the U.S. today talking about Iraq. When asked about how things were going in Iraq, Allawi flashed a quick smile and said "In the words of your Tony the Tiger, `They're great!'" We choose to believe him!

So, is it possible that Cat Stevens is a terrorist? Yes. Note the Bush adminstration spin on his deportation:

A gap in the airline passenger-check system permitted the former Cat Stevens to board a London-to-Washington flight despite being on a no-fly list for suspected ties to terrorists, a Bush administration official said Thursday.

The incident involving Yusuf Islam, formerly known as singer Cat Stevens, dramatizes a need for changes to tighten the system, said Asa Hutchinson, under secretary for homeland security.
--snip--
"There's a gap there, so obviously the rules have to be changed" governing the comparison of passenger names with a watch list of people suspected of terrorist links, Hutchinson acknowledged in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Appearing on NBC's "Today" show, he said, "Someone on the watch list should not be on the airplane flying. The responsibility falls on the airline under our current system."

----------------

Here we were assuming that everyone was more like "Why the hell are we deporting Cat Stevens?" As opposed to "God Damn it! How could they let Cat Stevens on the fucking plane? If our government cannot protect us from 1970s singer-songwriters who can they protect us against?"

Kerry on Iraq

John Kerry:
He [President Bush] hitched his wagon to the ideologues who surround him, filtering out those who disagreed, including leaders of his own party and the uniformed military. The result is a long litany of misjudgments with terrible consequences. The administration told us we’d be greeted as liberators. They were wrong. They told us not to worry about looting or the sorry state of Iraq’s infrastructure. They were wrong. They told us we had enough troops to provide security and stability, defeat the insurgents, guard the borders and secure the arms depots. They were wrong. They told us we could rely on exiles like Ahmed Chalabi to build political legitimacy. They were wrong. They told us we would quickly restore an Iraqi civil service to run the country and a police force and army to secure it. They were wrong.

If you agree, give to the DNC.

If you disagree, consider rethinking your opinion. If you still disagree, you can give to the RNC.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

and we've got a list for you today!
First, Bush speaks to the UN. Kofi also speaks. Kofi talks about human rights abuses and violations of international law. I don't think Mr. Bush was too happy with Kofi Annan. Unless that is the "I respect and admire you" look that has become so rare now days. Thank you, George W. Bush, for bringing back the "I respect and admire you" look to international diplomacy!




Democrats thinking about framing issues? We can't be serious! Oh, but we are serious.

TAPPED had this to say:

The Dems who've been working on this for months are apparently very, very interested in improving the party's effectiveness in framing issues and packaging positions in ways that resonate with voters. They've studied a lot of what Republicans have done over the last two decades and are making a conscious initial effort here to present a coherent, simple, bold agenda -- just six points, I hear -- that the caucus can get behind and promote and try to hammer into voters' minds (it's also a handy platform for congressional candidates to run on in November, just as Gingrich's army of GOP freshmen did with the Contract in 1994).

(link)

This article from USA Today managed to talk about the political issues of the six core positions, but of course, does not list them or discuss them. Good Lord!

More insanity? More problems with voting machines.
----------------------------
Many New Orleans voters were unable to cast ballots for hours Saturday on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage because voting machines had not been delivered to polling places, a state official said.
-----------------------------
Of course, many of us, won't get the chance to vote anyway, so who cares if the machines are there or not? (article)
------------------------
Millions of U.S. citizens, including a disproportionate number of black voters, will be blocked from voting in the Nov. 2 presidential election because of legal barriers, faulty procedures or dirty tricks, according to civil rights and legal experts.
--snip--
Vicky Beasley, a field officer for People for the American Way, listed some of the ways voters have been "discouraged" from voting.

"In elections in Baltimore in 2002 and in Georgia last year, black voters were sent fliers saying anyone who hadn't paid utility bills or had outstanding parking tickets or were behind on their rent would be arrested at polling stations. It happens in every election cycle," she said.

No Groups for You!

In an informal poll, 70% of the staff at littleboxes thinks "David Brooks is obviously an ass."

Josh Marshall commments on Brooks's latest column, in all its poopiness.

Read David Brooks.

from Josh Marshall:

His column in tomorrow's Times is a classic Brooks' 'faint praiser' in which he structures the column as an attempt to give his quarry his due while actually distorting what the person in question actually said.

--snip--

To read Brooks' column, Kerry came out foursquare for a rapid withdrawal from Iraq. But read the actual speech. That's not what he said at all. Brooks hangs the claim on a passage toward the end of the speech in which Kerry says that if the president does all the right things now we could begin withdrawing troops a year from now -- next summer -- and "realistically aim" to have all of our troops out in four years.

That, to Brooks, is rapid withdrawal and retreat: the possibility of any end in sight, ever.

---------------------------------------
We here at littleboxes feel this is just another example of Dave dividing the world into two distinct groups again. It's either stay in Iraq or pull out of Iraq, that is the only relevant decision. To quote John Kerry (we think): "How can he possibly be serious?"

Then What?

"We will be standing with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq until their hopes for freedom and liberty are fulfilled," Bush said.

After that we will be sworn enemies who fight to dominate the middle east.

(link)

My Life as an Autocrat

So, the communists running the Minneapolis Star-Tribune still force us to sign in before we read the damn on-line version of the paper. So annoying to those of us (at least 60% in an informal poll) who have no desire to read that fish rag every day, let alone once a week. The paper chooses to punish us by making us recall some inane password and username we selected months ago that for some reason was not one of our "usual" usernames or passwords. So we are left with no access to the assuredly mind-altering journalism locked inside. That is, we are denied admittance into the hallowed halls of the press for which our soldiers have fought so hard to protect. That is, we are denied our right as Americans to...but then we pick a new password and username that we will most likely forget and we read the damn story.

Anyway, we are going to link to a Minneapolis Star-Tribune article.
But here are the good bits from John Kerry's speech today. Of course, at least 90% of us aren't swing voters over half of the time, so who cares what we think...but we thought it rocked!

--------------------------------
"Yet today, President Bush tells us that he would do everything all over again, the same way. How can he possibly be serious?'' the Democratic presidential candidate said at New York University.

Kerry said Monday, ``Is he really saying to Americans that if we had known there were no imminent threat, no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to al-Qaida, the United States should have invaded Iraq? My answer is resoundingly no because a commander in chief's first responsibility is to make a wise and responsible decision to keep America safe.''

``Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place in hell,'' Kerry said. ``But that was not, in itself, a reason to go to war. The satisfaction we take in his downfall does not hide this fact: We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure.''

"In Iraq, this administration has consistently over-promised and underperformed. This policy has been plagued by a lack of planning, an absence of candor, arrogance and outright incompetence. And the President has held no one accountable, including himself,'' Kerry said in remarks prepared for delivery.

``By one count, the president offered 23 different rationales for this war,'' Kerry said. ``If his purpose was to confuse and mislead the American people, he succeeded.''

Kerry said Bush's two main rationales - weapons of mass destruction and a connection between al-Qaida and the Sept. 11 attacks - have been proven false by weapons inspectors and the bipartisan commission investigating the attacks.

``This president was in denial,'' Kerry said. ``He hitched his wagon to the ideologues who surround him, filtering out those who disagreed, including leaders of his own party and the uniformed military. The result is a long litany of misjudgments with terrible consequences.''

Flashback

Man, is it just us, or does it smell like some one shit their pants? Mr. President!

A Frog Scorned

We here at littleboxes are amazed at the lengths a frog will go to get revenge on his ex female mates.

Frog. Spanish zoologists have discovered that male frogs who are losers in love get their revenge by spreading their sperm over eggs that have been left by a pair of romancing amphibians.(AFP/DPA/File/Kay Nietfeld)

However, we really didn't need the picture! Do we want to know what that is trailing the frog? Also does this sperm strategy accomplish anything or it is only symbolic? You know, when we look at the expression on his face, we can feel his pain. He does look like a frog who has been scorned.

Che Bush

As many of you already know campaign events for your president are tightly screened so that only hard core supporters are able to ask questions. In addition, the president has often faced softball questions from the media as well. We like to remember the "how has your faith helped you through this" question he answered before the Iraq war. Doonesbury was good today. (see larger version)

Yester-me, yester-you, yesterday

Seems about right:

Bush holds a commanding lead over Kerry among veterans and their families. An AP-Ipsos poll last week found he was the choice of 58 percent and Kerry 38 percent. In the poll, veterans and their families said Bush was stronger and more honest than Kerry.

(link)

So Kerry Strikes Back:

Kerry said Bush was being dishonest about the real cost of the Medicare old-age health insurance program. He cited new reports that showed America's seniors could expect to pay 37 percent of their Social Security benefits on Medicare expenses by 2006, and he accused the administration of withholding the figures.

"Once again, this administration hides the truth from the American people," he said.

Kerry also charged that Bush was unable "to tell the truth" about health care. The president called Kerry's plan "a government takeover of health care with an enormous price tag," after the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank, estimated its cost at more than $1.5 trillion.

(LINK)

How to Write Like David Brooks

For those of you who are aspiring editorial writers, have we got a deal for you! For this post only, we are offering a free class on how to write like David Brooks. Mr. Brooks is an Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times and he has also...ah who cares, he's an op-ed columnist for the New York Times for god's sake!

Now starting off the correct was is the key. Here are 3 simple steps that will turn you into a famous NYT columnist in no time.

Step 1. Arbitrarily divide society into two distinct groups with catchy names. Examples: gradualists vs. confrontationalists or spreadsheet people vs. paragraph people.

Step 2. Choose an Issue to write about.

Step 3. Casually make some sweeping generalizations that allow you to discuss your chosen issue only through referring to your two arbitrary groups.

You're Done!! Now, go home and try this out!

Here are a few examples:


#1: There are two sorts of people in the information-age elite, spreadsheet people and paragraph people. Spreadsheet people work with numbers, wear loafers and support Republicans. Paragraph people work with prose, don't shine their shoes as often as they should and back Democrats.

#2: The debate on how to proceed in Iraq is not between the hawks and the doves: it's within the hawk community, and it's between the gradualists and the confrontationalists.

Wrong Headline or Prince Loves Freedom

The headline for this story is:

"Edwards: Bush Implied Saddam-9/11 Link"

it should read

"Bush Incorrectly Implied Saddam-9/11 Link"

or

"Bush Implied Saddam-9/11 Link, Edwards Criticizes"

The actual headline implies that this is only John Edwards's opinion, not an actual fact. It is a fact!

from the article:
Bush said last Sept. 17 that "there's no question that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaida ties." But at the same time the president said, "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th."

Some of our staff suggest that Bush has not explicitly stated that Saddam helped perpetrate the events of 9/11. Although this is probably true, it strikes most of us as, well, a really stupid point to make. It is like saying Clinton didn't really lie about the Monica thing because in his mind "sexual relations" didn't include oral sex. Apparently, in Bush's mind "al-Qaida ties" implies Saddam and al-Qaida did not like each other but they had spoken before and decided that yes, they did hate each other. Or maybe he means that Saddam actually had a few neck ties that were emblazened with the al-Qaida logo. Which if you haven't seen it, is very similar to the symbol once employed by Prince when he was no longer Prince. But now Prince is Prince again. Maybe he changed his name back to Prince because al-Qaida started using his symbol and it was on all these neck ties and well, Prince just didn't want any confusion. Why didn't Prince want any confusion? Because Prince loves freedom.


What do the republicans say of Edwards's criticism?
"This attack by John Edwards is typically baseless and flailing and there is no contradiction," Schmidt said. "The reason for the attack is that John Kerry took his eighth distinct position on the war in Iraq this week and their position has receded into complete incoherence."

What is so god damn difficult to understand about the president falsely implying a connection between Saddam and al-Qaida.

p.s. Can we please agree on the spelling of al-Qaida!!

700 Club

An informal poll of our staff shows that 100% of us believe that Pat Robertson is an asshole.

But we didn't come here today to talk about that 700 club. We want to discuss the 700 homerun club because it is about to have a new member. This new member will bring the total number of members to three. Any club that has only three members is either incredibly lame (just like our website has about 3 readers) or incredibly difficult to join. Only two (soon to be three) baseball players have every hit 700 homeruns in the careers. They are

Hank Aaron...755 HRs
Babe Ruth... 714 HRs

Bonds now has 699 career HRs.
The next closest active player is Sammy Sosa with 539 HRs. So this 700 home run thing is a big deal.

link

Ichiro update! Ichiro now has 231 hits this season. The all-time record for hits in a single season is held by George Sisler who had 257 hits in 1920. Ichiro needs (mental math...) 26 more hits in 20 games to tie the record.

Again, we all feel this stuff is super cool even if you don't like or follow baseball. This kind of thing doesn't happen every day in any sport or any other thing that humans keep track of and all that stuff.

Good To You

Quote from parents after their son set a new world record for consectutive hours of television watching:

“He has to be good at something, this is just as well,” Gordon Dean said. “He set a goal and reached it.”

(via snapculture)

You Own Leather?

An informal poll of our staff shows that at least 40% of us are confused about this whole "partial birth abortion" thing. Also, at least 90% of us resent the use of the word "thing" in the discussion of this issue, but hell, only one person can type at one time.

Respectful of Otters has a nice post about the effects of the partial birth abortion ban that was passed recently (we want to say last year). This was the one bill that got signed with all the old white dudes around the president...while people were puzzled that an abortion law can be signed without one woman beside the president.

here's a bit of the post:
It's a first-person account by a journalist who discovered, at 19 weeks' gestation, that her much-wanted baby had died in utero. By far the safest option for removing the dead baby while preserving the mother's health and her fertility was the procedure called "dilation and extraction," known in political circles as "partial-birth abortion." The D&E had a 4% risk of serious complications, the alternative procedure 29%. The problem, in the wake of Bush's 2003 "partial-birth abortion" ban, was finding someone to do the procedure.

(link to more)

p.s. respectful once commented on this blog. The event was so amazing that we only talk about it in hushed whispers.

national guard

Bush Pilots

We keep hearing a lot about George W. Bush and is national guard service. Some argue that since George W. Bush received an honorable discharge the issue of him fulfilling his service is STUPID. These people are, of course, incorrect.

Media Matters For America [MMFA](which as far as we can tell is non-partisan, but according to Bill O'Reilly is like, pure evil, and also left-leaning) had this fact to point out:


CNN host Wolf Blitzer joined his colleague Judy Woodruff in once again falling for the irrelevant Bush-Cheney '04 campaign spin that George W. Bush's honorable discharge means he fulfilled his duties. During an interview with Democratic strategist Howard Wolfson, Blitzer repeatedly interrupted Wolfson to diminish Bush's documented failure to perform his duty and to advance the long-discredited canard that his honorable discharge proves something.

In fact, as MMFA has noted, many people have received honorable discharges despite dishonorable service, including Washington, DC-area sniper John Allen Muhammad, who was charged with striking an officer, stealing a tape measure, and going AWOL, then sentenced to seven days in the brig -- and still received an honorable discharge from the Louisiana National Guard.

(more)

Airport Security

Packed my bags
feeling all alone
I've been traveling
Now I am going home

Show you my passport
Show you my I.D.
Did I say Something wrong?
Airport Security

Security, Security
Airport Security, Security (x2)

...help us finish this song

(link)

Loyalty Day

One of the crew here at littleboxes told us all about this band Loyalty Day. We really like them.

listen to a song.


Also, this new Kitty Kelley book about the Bush family is causing a little bit of controversy. It is an unauthorized biography so it is very possible that she is full of crap.

I'm not sure she makes this allegation, but the rumor that George W. Bush is a pedophile has apparently spread unto the internet. This seems unlikely at best and hopefully there are facts to back this up if someone is actually making these allegations. Apparently there are also allegations against the first Bush president as well.[can't find link to old washington times story, help?]

Nut Job

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!

If we were into profanity we'd use some here. (yes, there is a band called profanity)

But check this out:
Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had a support network in the United States that included agents of the Saudi government, and the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship, Sen. Bob Graham wrote in a book to be released Tuesday.

want more? (click here)


Those crazy liberals!! With their stretchy skin!!

Yes, this is the man with the world's stretchiest skin. Anyone with a deviant talent such as this one has to be a crazy liberal.

p.s. We think it's John Turturro.



And...Let's here it for Broccoli!

Drug problem?

Josh Marshall always has great posts. With all the national guard controversy you can turn to his site for some breaking news and good analysis of the news. Here's a link to a recent discussion of the Bush guard stuff.

LINK


oh, and the drug problem.

And the dope problem you ask? Well there are just too many dopes. [paraphrasing horribly from George Carlin.

And from the Blogs of Blogs can things get any worse for George W. Bush's America?

More on Rick Fox

We here at littleboxes just held an informal poll of our staff and none of us like Rick Fox.

He used to play for the L.A. Lakers of the NBA. A recent article discussed why so many
NBA fans (except Laker fans, obviously) hated the Lakers. One of the suspected reasons was their annoying bench players (Derek Fisher, Ron Harper, Robert Horry and Rick Fox). Here's what the article had to say about Rick's game and his style:

And then there was Rick Fox. The chippy play was bad enough, but who was grooming this guy? He looked like he was just playing hoops to pass the time while he waited for Color Me Badd's reunion tour.


OUCH!

IYI: Here is a link to the story

Go Get One

It's the late shift here at littleboxes. We are here groovin' out to some Prince. The song is "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World." good stuff.

We noticed this and well, don't forget to go and purchase your own assualt weapon!!

With the federal ban on assault weapons set to expire next Monday, gun manufacturers are marketing military-style firearms and are ready to sell them as soon as Sept. 14, a consumer group said Tuesday. "The gun industry is champing at the bit for the ban to expire," said Susan Peschin, firearms project director at the Consumer Federation of America, a nonprofit association of 300 consumer groups that released the study.

--snip--

For example, ArmaLite Inc., a gun manufacturer in Geneseo, Ill., is advertising a "Post-PostBan Rifle Program," offering consumers attachments to convert their firearms to their pre-ban configuration, with shipping available Sept. 14. The company is offering a nonrefundable prepayment option to those who wish to get a jump-start.

---------------------------
Because you can wait for a cheeseburger, you can wait for a your drivers license, you can wait in line to vote, but you can't wait for your assualt weapon with special attachments!


link


After watching blogger to try publish this bad boy for about 10 minutes, we've decided to give up and let the morning shift take care of it. We're gonna send Ralph to get some donuts and watch some good late night TV.

For A Good Time

Looking for a few guidelines for your life? Maybe a new book to read?

Check it out.

McSweeney's Recommends

here's a sneak peak:

Avoiding intersections
Because, if there's ever a problem, it's at an intersection. We're mostly smart adults, right? We can find the back alleys, the side streets. We don't even need the freakin' intersections.

Small pads of paper, maybe 4 inches by 4 inches
Lots of times, there are things we want to write down. These do the trick.

Not moving
Because have you ever had to pack your stuff? As if there were ever a more obvious recommendation. We're embarrassed we had to say it.

A Ghost Is Born by Wilco
Sure, no risk here, recommending Wilco. It’s cool to recommend Wilco, right? Wait, maybe it’s uncool to recommend Wilco. Is it time to break bad on Wilco? You’ll let us know, right? We’ve heard this album described as “weird,” that some of the songs are “indulgent.” Whatever. Listen to the album. It’s a motherfucker, beginning to end.

The sound a large book makes when snapped shut
Satisfying to those who know it’s coming, scary to those who do not.

Body Blow

Krugman has another column in the New York Times today. It's not his best...but he delivers a few good lines. We liked this one:

And I'd point out that while Mr. Bush spared no effort preparing for his carrier landing - he even received underwater survival training in the White House pool - he didn't prepare for things that actually mattered, like securing and rebuilding Iraq after Baghdad fell.


Here's the link, but you need to be registered (it's free) with the NYT to read the article.

Star Tribune Editorial (organized labor)

So, the Minneapolis Star Tribune requires a name and password to read their articles. Although it is free, it is still annoying if you don't plan on regularly reading.
We loved their editorial today so we are posting it here in its entirety, but we'll also provide a link in case you do want to register and become a regular reader.
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Sometime in the last several decades, Americans decided that organized labor would cease to play a pivotal role in the nation's economic affairs. It might have been the day that President Ronald Reagan fired 11,000 air-traffic controllers and signaled that employers could get tough with unions. It might have been the tenure of President Jimmy Carter, who deregulated the airline and trucking industries and devastated the mighty Teamsters and Machinists organizations. It might have been the steady creep of foreign competition, which humbled America's automakers and steel companies, and the blue-collar aristocrats who toiled for them.

The causes are complicated but the results are clear: Union membership has fallen from 30 percent of the workforce in the 1950s to scarcely 14 percent last year.

So today many Americans will observe Labor Day by asking why workers ever joined unions in the first place. For an answer they should turn to the latest Census Bureau report on employment and income for 2003. The number of Americans without health insurance rose to a record 45 million, and the share with employer-sponsored coverage fell to the lowest level in more than a decade. The share of workers with pensions fell again, continuing a slide that began in the 1980s. The earnings of low-wage workers lagged well behind inflation, widening the gap between rich and poor. In other words, the economic expansion that began three years ago is leaving millions of workers behind.

A weakened labor movement isn't the only cause of these trends, but a stronger labor movement would have buffered them. In the middle of the last century labor unions brought pensions, health insurance and job security to Middle America. They sat across the bargaining table from management and played tug of war for a share of American profits. They narrowed the gap between rich and poor, and provided a ticket from the humblest of neighborhoods to the prosperous middle class. Jared Bernstein, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., estimates that 80 percent of the growth in corporate income went to worker compensation in most economic recoveries after World War II, while 20 percent went to corporate profits. In the current expansion, that ratio is almost exactly reversed.

We'll let historians decide whether the decline of labor ultimately made the United States a more or less prosperous nation. But free markets, for all their ingenuity and advantages, need mediating forces so that they don't utterly trample the least advantaged. Economic inequality in the United States now stands at its highest level since World War II, a trend that caused a task force of the American Political Science Association to observe recently: "Disparities of income, wealth and access to opportunity are growing more sharply in the United States than in many other nations. Progress toward realizing American ideals of democracy may have stalled, and in some arenas reversed."

It would be naive to think that organized labor will ever return to the era embodied by Walter Reuther and George Meany, union leaders who could intimidate presidents and bring the economy to a standstill. But it would be sad to think that the United States cannot devise other mediating institutions to guarantee that the nation's great prosperity is widely and fairly shared.

LINK

Historic Hits Record To Fall?

Everyone here at littleboxes (excluding Bjorn over in the Product Placement Division) loves baseball. But, even if you don't love baseball, you should be able to appreciate the fact that an 84 year old record may be broken.

In 1920, George Sisler, of the then St. Louis Browns had 257 hits in a single season. No one has ever had more hits in a single season since then. This record has lasted longer than the home run record, the all-time hits records, the walks record, the runs record, the strike outs record, even the hitting streak record of 56 games by Joe Dimaggio has not lasted as long.

This year, Ichiro Suzuki, of the Seattle Mariners, has a chance to break this record. Ichiro has 223 hits, 34 short of the record. Ichiro had 5 hits in 5 At bats last night in Chicago. In the fifth inning the Chicago crowd game him a standing ovation as he came to the plate.

To give an ovation to an opposing player, I think they really love the game," Suzuki said. "It really made me feel good to see that."

The opposing pitcher also made some comments.

"You pitch the guy wide, inside, up or down and it doesn't matter," said Buehrle, who allowed four of Suzuki's five singles.

If you have even a passing interest in baseball we here at littleboxes recommend that you try to see Ichiro play. Even without the single-season hits record he may be one of the greatest hitters of all time. If he breaks the record, he'll go down as one of the best players of all time.

Bush Wins,Bush Wins!

Wanna See The Future? See the electoral vote counter.

Know Nothings

Some intersting stuff about voters and how they might think about voting.

The most widely known fact about George H. W Bush in the 1992 election was that he hated broccoli. Eighty-six per cent of likely voters in that election knew that the Bushes’ dog’s name was Millie; only fifteen per cent knew that Bush and Clinton both favored the death penalty.
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Also from the article, surveys indicate that:

Seventy per cent of Americans cannot name their senators or their congressman. Forty-nine per cent believe that the President has the power to suspend the Constitution. Only about thirty per cent name an issue when they explain why they voted the way they did, and only a fifth hold consistent opinions on issues over time.

(see article)

Second Hand Store

We just a found nice little letter that a young lady wrote to the U.S. government.

An Open Letter To Officials of the United States Government Regarding What's New In My Reproductive Area


Dear Officials of the United States Government,

I thought I would just get in touch and let you know what is going on in my reproductive system and general private area lately. You seem really interested, and I wouldn't want to put you to the trouble of subpoenaing my medical records just to find out what's happening in my uterus.

It's summer, so I'm getting my bikini line waxed more frequently. (Ouch!) I had a little urinary-tract infection a while ago, but that seems to have cleared up. Cranberry juice is really something, especially when you're uninsured and can't see the doctor to check out every little searing, stabbing pain. And did you know that yogurt cures yeast infections? If only it cured AIDS, we could patent it and then withhold it from Third World nations.

MORE

Protestors

wow...they are actually interrupting his speech fairly effectively. If this keeps up it will be very interesting. Will it keep up?

UPDATE: They did not keep it up. It would have been pretty damn impressive if they would have infiltrated the convention with about 20 people who attended the entire time only to slowly, one at a time, interrupt Bush's speech. Have a distraction every 5 minutes from different parts of MSG. If these protestors truly loved America, they would have done something super cool like that.

Yes, yes, more, more

If you liked George W. Bush last night...give him some money.

If you didn't like him, give John Kerry some money.

If you don't feel like voting for either of these Yales graduates, unfortunately you really have no viable option.

But according to President Bush, over 3/4 of Al Qaeda's leaders have been captured or killed, so we only have the last 1/4 to go and the war is over. Hopefully it won't be as difficult as eliminating that last calorie from Diet Coke.

Passenger Pigeons

I can't believe how easily a billion birds can disappear.--The Handsome Family

Probably the most terrible example of mass slaughter in the history of wildlife was not the bison but the passenger pigeon - a story that almost defies belief. The early Europeans in North America frequently commented on the huge numbers of blue, long-tailed, fast and graceful pigeons in the country. One of the first settlers in Virginia wrote that, `There are wild pigeons in winter beyond number or imagination, myself have seen three or four hours together flocks in the air, so thick that even have they shadowed the sky from us.'

--snip--

The notable decrease of passenger pigeons started when professional hunters began netting and shooting the birds to sell in the city markets. Although the birds always had been used as food to some extent, even by the Indians, the real slaughter began in the 1800s.

There were no laws restricting the number of pigeons killed or the way they were taken. Because the birds were communal in habit, they were easily netted by using baited traps and decoys. The birds were shot at the nesting sites, young squabs were knocked out of nests with long sticks, and pots of burning sulphur were placed under the roosting trees so the fumes would daze the birds and they would fall to the ground. Hundreds of thousands of passenger pigeons were killed for private consumption and for sale on the market, where they often sold for as little as fifty cents a dozen.

--snip--

One of the last large nestings of passenger pigeons occurred at Petoskey, Michigan, in.1878. Here 50,000 birds per day were killed and this rate continued for nearly five months. When the adult birds that survived this massacre attempted second nestings at new sites, they were soon located by the professional hunters and killed before they had a chance to raise any young.

--snip--

The last known individual of the passenger pigeon species was "Martha" (named after Martha Washington). She died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden, and was donated to the Smithsonian Institution, where her body was once mounted in a display case with this notation:

MARTHA

Last of her species, died at 1 p.m.,
1 September 1914, age 29, in the
Cincinnati Zoological Garden.
EXTINCT

(more information)

The Emperor

Yikes! (you wanna see something really scary?)

Star

Today is dedicated to Star. A great little dog.

F the CC

I used to listen to the radio
And I don’t guess they’re listenin’ to me no more
They talk too much but that’s okay
I don’t understand a single word they say
Piss and moan about the immigrants
But don’t say nothin’ about the president
A democracy don’t work that way
I can say anything I wanna say

So fuck the FCC
Fuck the FBI
Fuck the CIA
Livin’ in the motherfuckin’ USA

People tell me that I’m paranoid
And I admit I’m gettin’ pretty nervous, boy
It just gets tougher everyday
To sit around and watch it while it slips away
Been called a traitor and a patriot
Call me anything you want to but
Just don’t forget your history
Dirty Lenny died so we could all be free
--Steve Earle

Assholes

Santorum and Miller in response to the question, "O.K, guys, honestly, who is the bigger asshole?"

Silver Linings and Purple Hearts

Apparently the conventional wisdom is that John Kerry has been hurt by the Swift Boat ads. Here we are talking about them again...only further feeding the republican machine (it is amazing)...yet, given that our number of readers is just a tad under a million, we feel it's safe to talk about the swift boat crap without spreading the swift boat crap even more.

On the premise that Kerry has been hurt by these ads and that his aura as a heroic veteran has been tarnished or diminished we ask, how can anyone be surprised?

We here at littleboxes were worried when Kerry was annointed the nominee way back in Feb/March of this year. Many were impressed by his biography, espcially his war record. The thought was that the Dems were often vulnerable on defense issues and that the selection of Kerry would take that issue away from the Repubs. We can only say, yeah right.

No matter who was selected the Republicans were going to attack their patriotism and ability to defend the nation. And, given their amazing (yes, it is amazing) ability to do just that, no one, not even a "war hero", would be or could be immune. In fact, one could argue that Kerry was especially vulnerable to these attacks. What could the republicans really say about John Edwards? "He never served, and he voted against some stuff." Big deal...not quite as flashy has "lied to get purple hearts." The Dems in their efforts to defend themselves against attacks on their patriotism and defense policy, may have actually opened themselves up to more attacks! They certainly opened themselves up to more interesting attacks, attacks that are more likely to warrant incessant news coverage. It is possible that John Edwards would have been more able to focus the public's attention on actual issues instead of arguments among veterans of a controversial war. Very few things captivate the American imagination as much as Vietnam (an informal poll of our staff put it at fourth behind sex,food, and knitting?) and the Repubs have done a great job of distracting everyone from actual issues.

But, maybe Kerry can survive these attacks. However, no matter how often Bush's shortcomings as president and as a person are pointed out, borderline or independent voters will not be compelled to vote against him unless they feel a strong reason to vote for Kerry. We here at littleboxes don't think that "doing things differently" qualifies as reasons to be compelled to vote for Kerry. All candidates say they would do things differently. That qualifies as not exciting. People who vote for Bush actually like things about him. What can people like about John Kerry? There are probably many things but, in our view, the Dems are not doing a good job of emphasizing these things.

p.s. It gets even better. Now they are going to run more ads "against the wishes of Pres. Bush" demonstrating that they are not an arm of the campaign. Brilliant. Media takes the bait. Dems cannot attach the Ads to Bush, he accepts no blame.

Working Day and Night

Zell Miller(D-GA) is speaking tonight at the Republican convention. He actually introduced Clinton at the Democratic Convention 12 years ago. Why has he chosen to support the Republican party a short 12 years after he supported Bill Clinton?

In an interview Tuesday with NBC's "Today" show, Miller maintained that he was still a Democrat but said that the party has moved "so far to the left that I can't even recognize it." (CNN.com)

What the hell planet are we on? An informal poll of the littleboxes staffmembers, shows that 100% percent of us think that the Democratic Party has not moved to the left since the 1992 election.

Is the entire political spectrum shifting or are we here at littleboxes just insane? Given that another informal poll of our staff shows 100% support for our sanity we are left to wonder about the spectrum shifting.

In other news, we here at littleboxes are completely aghast at the President's (our President's) comment that the war on terror is not winnable. Given that the GOP and Mr. Rove would never advise Mr. Bush to utter such a statement, its utterance leads us to one of two conclusions:
1. The President was high when he said the war on terror is not winnable
or
2. The President is capable of original thought

An informal poll of the staff indicates 60% for option #2, 30% for #1 and 100% for both are equally likely. The President has since gone on to renounce his own comments. Kerry, in his usual electrifying fashion, has come out flailing...talking about how the war on terror is winnable, yada, yada, yada.



In our ongoing effort to help our readers lead productive lives we ask:
Are you addicted to cocaine?