Friday, October 29, 2004

The Economist Endorses Kerry


John Kerry | George BushThe Economist, bastion of conservative British thought, has finally weighed in on the US presidential elections and admitted, "We think American readers should vote for John Kerry on November 2nd... On balance, our instinct is towards change rather than continuity: Mr. Kerry, not Mr. Bush." After that, they spell out "the case against George Bush."

(Click here to read the full article.)

Monday, October 25, 2004

Clinton For Kerry: Join Us in Comeback Country


Clinton with KerryBill Clinton joined Democratic candidate for president John Kerry in Philadelphia today and spoke before a rowdy crowd of 10,000 supporters. "If this isn't good for my heart, I don't know what is," he said.

"From time to time, I've been called the Comeback Kid," Clinton said. "In eight days, John Kerry is going to make America the comeback country.

Kerry followed with thunder in the wake of the New York Times report that American forces had lost 380 tons of highly explosive weapons in Iraq. "George W Bush has failed the test as commander-in-chief," he thundered. He told the crowd that he was impatient to relieve the president as commander-in-chief.

"Comeback" and "relief" -- these are sports terms appropriate to Team America's concept and terminology. It's time for Team America to vote in their relief coach, John Kerry.

Sunday, October 24, 2004

Kerry Scores Big on Newspaper Super Sunday


Editor & PublisherAccording to Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor & Publisher" industry magazine, Democratic candidate John Kerry made "huge gains" in endorsements from newspapers around the country, including 23 papers that supported Republican opponent George W. Bush. In all, that leaves Kerry ahead of Bush 85-68 endorsements according to Editor & Publisher, with circulations of 12.8 million to 8.5 million.

Bush kept ahold of Ohio's Columbus Dispatch, but Kerry has now won all major Florida newspapers including the taking of The Orlando Sentinel, which supported Bush in 2000. The Detroit News, always a Republican endorsers, is sitting out this election, as is the The New Orleans Times-Picayune. Other defectors for Kerry from the 2000 Bush camp include The Chicago Sun-Times and The Los Angeles Daily News. Even the Columbus Dispatch, while backing Bush, wrote that they were "less than enthused about the choices." Another loss for Kerry was The Denver Post, which supported Gore in 2000.

Click here to read further details, including the names of many newspapers.

Boston Globe Endorses Kerry


Boston GlobeLast Sunday, The Boston Globe endorsed Democratic candidate John Kerry for president. They quoted him from 1997 saying prophetically, "We should be the natural leaders of a world coalition against crime, but we have yet to recognize the `new crime's' scale and sophistication." They cited also his support for the environment and energy independence as their three main points to highlight Kerry's core strengths: "an ability to see complex problems in new, often prescient, ways and a willingness to seek collaborative solutions."

Click here to read the full editorial.

New York Times Endorses Kerry


New York TimesLast Sunday, The New York Times Magazine stated that "we enthusiastically endorse John Kerry for president."

First, they ran Ron Suskind's commentary entitled "Without a Doubt," which details to the public "what Bush's top deputies -- from cabinet members like Paul O'Neill, Christine Todd Whitman and Colin Powell to generals fighting in Iraq -- have been told for years when they requested explanations for many of the president's decisions, policies that often seemed to collide with accepted facts. The president would say that he relied on his 'gut' or his 'instinct' to guide the ship of state, and then he 'prayed over it'..."

On the one hand there is an inherent conflict. Suskind continues, "This is one key feature of the faith-based presidency: open dialogue, based on facts, is not seen as something of inherent value. It may, in fact, create doubt, which undercuts faith. It could result in a loss of confidence in the decision-maker and, just as important, by the decision-maker... The circle around Bush is the tightest around any president in the modern era, and 'it's both exclusive and exclusionary,' Christopher DeMuth, president of the American Enterprise Institute, the neoconservative policy group, told me. 'It's a too tightly managed decision-making process. When they make decisions, a very small number of people are in the room, and it has a certain effect of constricting the range of alternatives being offered.'

Suskind delved even deeper into the heart of the matter and heard from a White House Communications officer about the Bush White House calls "the reality-based community'' who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality... That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

Sojourners MagazineJim Wallis of the Sojourners told Suskind that when faith is used to "certify our righteousness -- that can be a dangerous thing. Then it pushes self-criticism aside. There's no reflection... Real faith, you see, leads us to deeper reflection and not -- not ever -- to the thing we as humans so very much want. Easy certainty."

Where even Suskind will not go is the further degree that loyal subject will go: to cheat on their analytical homework by finding facts to support desired, predetermined conclusions -- such as the special information closed pipeline of information around the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). He does not delve into the advantages Bush loyalists are taking. He does not delve into Iraq reconstruction contracts, lack of adequate protection or services for regular and reservist soldiers, or tax cuts for the rich. Nor does he enter the realm where PBS went in The Choice 2004. (Click here to videostream.) In particular, New Yorker political columnist Nicholas Lehman address the "dirty campaigning", also discussed in Part IV and V of the show.

Second, in an Editorial endorsing John Kerry, the Times said, "There is no denying that this race is mainly about Mr. Bush's disastrous tenure" despite the fact that lately, particularly during the presidential debates, "we have come to know Mr. Kerry as more than just an alternative to the status quo. We like what we've seen. He has qualities that could be the basis for a great chief executive, not just a modest improvement on the incumbent." They praise him for his bi-partisan abilities, his strong defense of human rights, his support for stem cell research, his upholding of the separation of church and state, and his national health coverage plan. They applaud his ideas on energy, global warming, and oil dependency.

Although the phrase is still absent in these as so many other supporters, they praise him for his "good neighbor" policy.

Superman Endorses Kerry


Christopher Reeve with DanaJust days after her husband's death on October 10, Dana Reeve, wife of Superman star Christopher Reeve, came out of private mourning at a campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio, to endores Democratic candidate John Kerry for president, AP reported.

"My inclination would be to remain private for a good long while,'' Dana Reeve said, "but I came here today in support of John Kerry because this is so important. This is what Chris wanted." (Read Dana Reeve's full speech online.)

Christopher Reeves as SupermanThe Reeves have advocated embryonic stem cells ever since Christopher Reeve was rendered paraplegic after a horse-riding accident in 1995. (Read bios for Christopher online by the BBC, The New York Times, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN.

"His heart was full of hope, and he imagined living in a world where politics would never get in the way of hope,'' Dana said.

Reeve called and left John Kerry a phone message the day before his death in which he thanked him for his support of medical research.

At the rally, John Kerry reaffirmed his support for scientific innovation, which George W. Bush rejects on behalf of special interests. "He has an extreme political agenda that slows instead of advances science," according to Kerry.

Washington Post Endorses Kerry


Washington PostThe Washington Post formally endorsed Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry for president in their lead editorial today.

While the Post confessed that they do not share the passion or confidence of the much of our divided nation in either candidate, "On balance, though, we believe Mr. Kerry, with his promise of resoluteness tempered by wisdom and open-mindedness, has staked a stronger claim on the nation's trust to lead for the next four years."

Click here to read the full editorial.

Saturday, October 16, 2004

The "N" Word: "N" is for "Neo-Con"


Lenny BruceBack in the 1960s, Lenny Bruce scoffed at US President Lyndon Baines Johnson for his "n" word. "It's 'KNEE-grow,' Lyndon. Come on, try it again - 'KNEE-grow'."

John KerryFour decades later, I have an "n" word which Democratic candidate for president Senator John F. Kerry needs to say: knee-oh-con. Come on, try it, John -- time is running short: KNEE-oh-con.

NEO-CONSERVATIVE -- definition: to believe in denial, plausible or not.