For your viewing pleasure - Schedule of protests at the RNC

For all you protest watchers, check out the People's Guide to the Republican National Convention and Counter Convention. Both feature an absolutely amazing list of protests. It is going to be some kind of show.

I hope it's all peaceful. But the chicken-little rag, New York Daily News has scared the beejeesus out me of with this headline:

Anarchists hot for mayhem

Katy bar the door! There's an anarchist at my door! And he's HOT FOR MAYHEM!

Bush's Poverty Machine

Cross post alert: I have a long post about the recent Census Bureau report up at DFLers.org.

Pew explores Religion and politics

This Christian Science Monitor article is an excellent analysis of a fascinating Pew poll that seeks to understand the role of religion in politics today.

Is he dumb, or is he IQ challenged?

Howell Raines speculates on what it means to have a dumb president. I am not saying Bush is dumb. I don't think he is. Raines isn't either. He's just saying that, you know, the world is kind of complex and sometimes it's better to have the wits to face it. I guess I am saying the same thing.

GOP divides, won't conquer

It's going to be interesting to watch republican divisions spill over into prime time during their convention. The GOP has created a platform that strongly opposes gay marriage and abortion. There are those in the GOP who are pro-choice and, if not pro-gay marriage, at least anti constitutional amendment.

The Republicans for Choice and Log Cabin Republicans were rebuffed in efforts to include a "unity plank" that says the party welcomes people of opposing views on abortion, family planning and gay rights.Instead, the platform writers included vague language saying that Republicans "respect and accept that members of our party can have deeply held and sometimes differing views."

Are the Log Cabin Repubs and the Repubs for choice actually surprised? News flash: The leadership of the GOP does not like you.

Honestly, the only reason to join the GOP is to stand fast with other social conservatives and Theocons. If you are a socially moderate, constitutional fundamentalist, fiscal conservative, small government, strong military, pro-business type of Republican, you really need to join the Democrats. From me to you, you can go ahead and put down that cross. You will be much happier for it.

Chris Albritton bears witness in Najaf

There's quite a post at Back to Iraq about the fighting in Najaf.

Swift Boat Veterans open door to re-examine Bush's boozy past

Part of the reason the Swift Boat veterans for Truth will work against the President is that they pried the lid off of lines of questioning left for dead. They have effectively lowered the bar for all of us, and with Bush, the bar goes pretty low.

I'd expect some pretty serious (though fact-based) counter attacks on Bush. For example, here's a story about how the President once claimed he was in the Air Force. Um, not quite.

Milktoast McPaper, USA Today, picks at the scab of the unresolved issues concerning the gaps in Bush's service record. But the thing that is most devastating to the President is the most obvious. While Kerry was getting shot at, Bush was drinking it up on a low-level campaign in Alabama.

As Juan Cole writes,"He gave no service to anyone, risked nothing, and did not even slack off efficiently." Cole makes that charge, in part, on the basis of a March 30 MPR interview with some of the workers on the campaign. George was all about the booze back then. Comparisons will naturally arise. Questions about Bush's past that have been uneasily put to bed will peek out from the covers. George, are you an alcoholic? How much coke did you do? Where were you really during the unaccounted time during your service in the Guard?

It's all fair game again.

Cheney finally out of the closet: He loves his daughter

Dick Cheney finally found the guts to affirm his own daughter:

"Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue our family is very familiar with," Cheney said. "With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone ... People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.

It's about time. I always wondered how he could look her in the eye.

Doubtless the Theocons from the Christian Right, including Bush, will try to take a big chunk out of his hide. Can you really blame them? I mean he said his piece on the same day the President reaffirmed his support for his pet amendment.

It's either a tear in the fabric of the campaign or a clumsy attempt to reconnect with the Log Cabin Republicans. Either way it's an affirmation for all who opposse republican homophobic lunacy.

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth will help Kerry

This last week has been a trip to a buffet of the bizarre. Maybe we could just start asking the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth how they feel about gay marriage. They probably know more about it than they do about Kerry's service in Vietnam.

I'm going to make a bold prediction. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth will help elect John Kerry. The lies and ethical contortions the Swifites use to spin Kerry's military service as a messianic medal-fest get stuck in the throat mighty quick. You'd have to use the Hubble telescope to spot the microbe of truth in their allegations.

The truth will out. Most of the vets in the first ad are have been caught lying, woefully short of evidence, or in blatant acts of hypocrisy. Not one single Swift Boat story holds water. In order of appearance:

Al French says, "I served with John Kerry...He is lying about his record." Well, not really. The district attorney signed an affadavit that says in part that "Kerry has wildly exaggerated and lied about his record in Vietnam" and that he received his Purple Heart medals "in the absence of hostile fire." Now, you'd think a district attorney would know the difference between hearsay and real evidence. Naah. Turns out Mr. French wasn't even there. He formed his opinion based on the stories of others.

George Elliott, who says "John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam," Adrian Lonsdale who claims that Kerry "...lacks the capacity to lead," and Admiral Hoffman, who maintains that "John Kerry has not been honest," have all served up gigantic flip-flops for partisan purposes. From the New York Times expose on the Swift Vets:

"In an unpublished interview in March 2003 with Mr. Kerry's authorized biographer, Douglas Brinkley, provided by Mr. Brinkley to The New York Times, Roy F. Hoffmann, a retired rear admiral and a leader of the group, allowed that he had disagreed with Mr. Kerry's antiwar positions but said, "I am not going to say anything negative about him." He added, "He's a good man."

In a profile of the candidate that ran in The Boston Globe in June 2003, Mr. Hoffmann approvingly recalled the actions that led to Mr. Kerry's Silver Star: "It took guts, and I admire that."

George Elliott, one of the Vietnam veterans in the group, flew from his home in Delaware to Boston in 1996 to stand up for Mr. Kerry during a tough re-election fight, declaring at a news conference that the action that won Mr. Kerry a Silver Star was "an act of courage." At that same event, Adrian L. Lonsdale, another Vietnam veteran now speaking out against Mr. Kerry, supported him with a statement about the "bravado and courage of the young officers that ran the Swift boats."

"Senator Kerry was no exception," Mr. Lonsdale told the reporters and cameras assembled at the Charlestown Navy Yard. "He was among the finest of those Swift boat drivers."

Those comments echoed the official record. In an evaluation of Mr. Kerry in 1969, Mr. Elliott, who was one of his commanders, ranked him as "not exceeded" in 11 categories, including moral courage, judgment and decisiveness, and "one of the top few" - the second-highest distinction - in the remaining five. In written comments, he called Mr. Kerry "unsurpassed," "beyond reproach" and "the acknowledged leader in his peer group."

There's Louis Letson, who claims, "I know John Kerry is lying about his first Purple Heart because I treated him for that injury." Yet Letson's name isn't anywhere on any medical record relating to Kerry.


Van O'Dell: "John Kerry lied to get his bronze star ... I know, I was there, I saw what happened." O'Dell must have had his eyes closed. He admits he doesn't have any evidence save for the fact that he wasn't wounded. Say what? There far more eyewitnesses that weren't wounded supporting Kerry.

Larry Thurlow also claims there was no shooting that day. Yet he accepted a Bronze Star for the same incident. Thurlow's citations contain several references to "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire."

It goes on. The Swft Boat Veterans' stories are beginning to fall apart on every level. It was revealed today that Bush campaign lawyer is advising the Swift Boat Vets. William Rood, unequivocally and eloquently supports Kerry's version of the events that led to Kerry's Silver Star. Steve Gartner, the only member of Kerry's boat not to join his campaign and star "eyewitness," wasn't present at any of the incidents in which Kerry was wounded.

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and Bush by his smirking almost-repudiation, have shat into the fan. Blowback will hurt. Paul Krugman tells it true:

Through innuendo and direct attacks by surrogates, men who assiduously avoided service in Vietnam, like Dick Cheney (five deferments), John Ashcroft (seven deferments) and George Bush (a comfy spot in the National Guard, and a mysterious gap in his records), have questioned the patriotism of men who risked their lives and suffered for their country: John McCain, Max Cleland and now John Kerry.

It's easy to take the media for a ride with lies and half truths, by playing the "he said/she said" game, by feeding meat to the attack poodles. But there is something so unseemly about a bunch of once honorable men shredding their integrity in order to murder Kerry's reputation it is almost pornographic - pornographic and sad and vicious. It will be a moniker that will stick to Bush in a losing effort to retain his creepy presidency.

Ah well. Bush can always console himself with his service-era buddies. You know, the same ones that have formed Swift Yachts for Bush

Bob Dole talks trash, can't back it up

Bob Dole opens his mouth and inserts his foot. On Sunday he said:

Dole added: "And here's, you know, a good guy, a good friend. I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds. Three Purple Hearts and you're out."

And then there's this bit from a 1996 Nation article that excerpts his autobiography:

It was in the first of these night patrols that Dole received the wound for which he was awarded his first Purple Heart. He ruefully confesses in his 1988 autobiography that his wound was self-inflicted: "As we approached the enemy, there was a brief exchange of gunfire. I took a grenade in hand, pulled the pin, and tossed it in the direction of the farmhouse. It wasn't a very good pitch (remember, I was used to catching passes, not throwing them). In the darkness, the grenade must have struck a tree and bounced off. It exploded nearby, sending a sliver of metal into my leg -- the sort of injury the Army patched up with Mercurochrome and a Purple Heart."

Media gears up to cover protests

Media coverage of the Republican National Convention will be interesting on several counts. The first is, if you recall, that network coverage during the Democratic Convention amounted to about three hours across four nights. Will they cover the Republicans more?

The second is more interesting and more subtle. How much coverage will be given to the protests? If you remember,coverage of protests prior to the invasion of Iraq were undercounted and under reported even by supposedly liberal publications like the New York Times. The RNC looks to be a different story, so to speak. Media Info is reporting that many national news organizations are gearing up to give extensive coverage to the protests.

That's encouraging. If the protests turn out to be huge, creative and peaceful, they could act as a positive voice of dissent against an administration known for its aggressive attempts to silence the voice of the common man.

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth: What a fake movement looks like

Now the real men, the men who sat quietly by until they couldn't stand the lies any more, are coming forward to support John Kerry's service in Vietnam.

An Ohio factory worker who accompanied Kerry on his first mission in 1968 is confirming the events that lead to Kerry's first medal. Chicago Tribune editor William Rood has broken a 35-year silence to back Kerry. Why? He's sick of the lies. Another Republican is crossing party lines to decry the Swift Boat Veterans' allegations.

Swift Boater Larry Thurlow presented an extremly weak case on Hardball this week in support of the most scurrilous of charges: That Kerry arrived in Vietnam with a plan to manipulate the system, then executed it by inflicting his own wounds, trumping up his exploits, winning medals and going home. Thurlow asks us to believe this slander "because he felt it." He doesn't bother to supply evidence.

All of the Swift Boat attacks on Kerry are like Thurlow's. They do everything they can to cast doubts, to allude, to imply but at the last minute, at the point where it's neccessary to pony up a direct charge, they pull back. They have to stop talking when they have to supply evidence. That's because no evidence exists to support their claims. It's all hearsay - All of it.

They know it's hearsay. But the brain trust behind the Swifties isn't stupid. They are experts at building ugly rumors into full-blown smear campaigns. They have a couple hundred veterans who are seriously offended, still, after 35 years, by Kerry's high profile anti-war activites, especially his testimony regarding war crimes. They know feelings of betrayal and anger stemming from a difference of opinion are neither debatable nor inflammatory. So they manufacture stronger stuff. They take the hearsay of a few, combine it with the general fury of the group and bang you have what appears to be a movement. It is an illusion - all of it except the sense of betrayal and anger - that's real and a real legacy of the Vietnam War.