Bush says he's best protection from draft

"The best way to avoid the draft is to vote for me." The most amazing thing about this statement is not only how irrational it is, as Josh Marshall points out, but how much of a flip-flop it represents from the campaign's earlier responses.

Less than a week ago, Ed Gillespie, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, sent a legal-type threatening letter to a small nonprofit for daring to point out that a draft is possible and should be a consideration in the election. According to the letter, such advocacy amounted to malicious speculation and reckless disregard for the truth. "As a 'non-partisan' organization that enjoys the benefits of being formed under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, you have an obligation to immediately cease and desist from promoting or conducting your 'draft' campaign."

That was then. Now, I guess, the facts on the ground in Iraq or elsewhere in the world have changed their minds, and they think that a draft is a distinct possibility. Though for some unarticulated reason it is somewhat more likely if Kerry is elected. Breathtaking.

NY Times Endorsement of Kerry for President

"We look back on the past four years with hearts nearly breaking, both for the lives unnecessarily lost and for the opportunities so casually wasted." It is amazing how overwhelming the case is for Kerry over Bush this year.

NPR : Ray Salazar: What the Debates Might Have Been

NPR : Ray Salazar: What the Debates Might Have Been (citing Delores Huerta): “Activists deal with immediate issues, a school closing, or a referendum. Organizers, on the other hand, deal with long term change, like ending discrimination or ensuring basic rights.”

Salazar points out that the 140 audience members at last week’s the “town hall meeting” in St. Louis were overwhelmingly white, even though only 43 percent of that city’s population are white while 51 percent are black, so issues like the DREAM Act—which addresses the future of our immigrant youth—were never brought up.

“Senator Kerry and President Bush are activists, who want us to address the immediate issue of the election. But the country needs to choose the organizer: that candidate concerned with our country’s inequalities beyond his days in office."

George Bush, The Worst Mexican President Ever

George Bush, The Worst Mexican President Ever: This comes to us from Rafael Barajas (El Fisgón), the prizewinning political cartoonist for La Jornada, Mexico's premier intellectual newspaper.

Mexican political culture has very defined features and the President of the United States has absorbed them all: The classical Mexican political boss usually inherits his power from his father. The typical Mexican cacique has a love for guns as well as an inclination toward violence and cruelty; he despises legality and intellectual activity, has a personal history of alcoholism and dissipation, lies systematically, and declares himself a faithful servant of God. (Did we miss anything?)

According to Mexican tradition, politicians always reach their positions thanks to a fraudulent electoral process and then surround themselves with a clique which uses its power to conduct 'business' on a staggering scale while in office. The Florida electoral thievery and Halliburton's Iraq contract are classic examples of Mexican corruption.

Based on a complex pyramid of political bosses, a totalitarian presidential regime flourished in Mexico. It was organized around a political party whose name remains a monument to paradox: the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI). Names aside, the PRI model was so efficient (for the PRI, of course) that the party was able to hold power for more than seventy years. The Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa called it 'the perfect dictatorship.'

This dictatorship was a mark of shame for all Mexicans. Only Mexico's political cartoonists were able to benefit from it. The profuse manifestations of cynicism and obsequiousness it produced were a delight for us.

Barajas continues on an even darker note:

The only visible advantage Mexican politicians ever offered the rest of us was their limited ability to damage the world. George Bush has overcome this obstacle. After all, he has access to the sort of technology and to an arsenal that Mexico's local tyrants could only dream of. When he says he's blessed, it's because we're damned.

Under the nuclear umbrella of his free-trade empire and incipient world government, his clique of petty political bosses can dictate the economic agendas of dozens of third-world countries. In recent years, the priorities of the Mexican economy have been defined by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Wall Street, and Washington; they establish our oil quota, the levels of our external debt payments, and the minimum wages we can offer. Vincente Fox acts as what he's always been: a Coca Cola CEO, a multinational middleman, while the true president of Mexico is George Bush, that cacique of caciques.

According to Mexican tradition, politicians are judged depending on how they take care of their people and how they make them prosper… and by such standards, George Bush is the worst Mexican President ever.

the Mysterious Bush Bulge

This cartoon perfectly captures the grain of truth behind the Bush bulge mystery.

John Stewart on Crossfire

This is probably the best Crossfire segment in the show's history. Let's hope that on reflection the hosts come to understand why that is.

Electoral Vote Predictor

Here are the latest state polls and electoral vote predictions from Electoral-Vote.com. This one, courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, allows you to make your own predictions and play out alternative scenarios. And this is the Los Angeles Times Senate poll tracker.

Countries I Have Visited

Where this is from...