Paul Ryan v the truth

Because facts are tiresome.

Because Karl Rove was involved...

It's not a conspiracy theory... New Court Filing Reveals How the 2004 Ohio Presidential Election Was Hacked

A new filing in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case includes a copy of the Ohio Secretary of State election production system configuration that was in use in Ohio's 2004 presidential election when there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush. The filing also includes the revealing deposition of the late Michael Connell. Connell served as the IT guru for the Bush family and Karl Rove. Connell ran the private IT firm GovTech that created the controversial system that transferred Ohio's vote count late on election night 2004 to a partisan Republican server site in Chattanooga, Tennessee owned by SmarTech. That is when the vote shift happened, not predicted by the exit polls, that led to Bush's unexpected victory. Connell died a month and a half after giving this deposition in a suspicious small plane crash.

It's amazing how Republicans yell about non-existent voter fraud and point fingers when they are doing weird shenanigans to block Ron Paul supporters from getting delegates in some states and a voice at the convention. Projection anyone?

Bounce this.

The Republican National Convention in... um... pictures as you've never seen it before!

Barbara Boxer, full of fight

Over what McCain said in his acceptance speech:

Last night at the Republican National Convention, John McCain used the word "fight" more than 40 times in his speech.

In the 16 years that we have served together in the Senate, I have seen John McCain fight.

I have seen him fight against raising the federal minimum wage 14 times.

I have seen him fight against making sure that women earn equal pay for equal work.

I have seen him fight against a women's right to choose so consistently that he received a zero percent vote rating from pro-choice organizations.

I have seen him fight against helping families gain access to birth control.

I have seen him fight against Social Security, even going so far as to call its current funding system "an absolute disgrace."

And I saw him fight against the new GI Bill of Rights until it became politically untenable for him to do so.

John McCain voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time in 2007 and 100 percent of the time in 2008 -- that's no maverick.

We do have two real fighters for change in this election -- their names are Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Link found via Cookie Jill at skippy the bush kangaroo.

And stay off!

We're not talking to the press neither!

He was against it before he was for it before he was in it!

Up to his neck:

After watching two political conclaves the last two weeks, it would be easy to be confused about which was really the gathering of the opposition. As Senator John McCain accepted the Republican nomination for president, he and his supporters sounded the call of insurgents seeking to topple the establishment, even though their party heads the establishment.

“When the president of the United States is from your own party, to present yourself as a change agent is not the easiest thing to pull off,” said Joe Trippi, a Democratic strategist. Referring to Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, Mr. Trippi added, “All Obama has to do is say, ‘Bush-McCain, Bush-McCain.’ ”

Bush-McCain Bush-McCain Bush-McCain:

Thank you for apologizing, Keith

But you had nothing to do with the astonishingly crass video of 9/11 that made the crowd at the RNC cheer.

9/11? Osama bin Laden to attack within the US? Covering your ass? Sitting stunned in a second grade classroom shows leadership? Running away? Inept pursuit of bin Laden?

Just who was in charge that day? Republicans. Who diverted troops to an unnecessary and ineptly run war with Iraq when we could have stayed in Afghanistan and actually helped the country? Why is Osama alive right now? Who has been in control of all three branches of government for most of Bush's eight years? How are our two wars on terror going? How's the economy? How's the housing market? The job market? How's the environment? How's our 'freedoms': freedom of the press, freedom of and from religion, privacy, habeas corpus? Warrantless wiretaps?

(And by the way, while they were in power, why didn't the Republicans jam through legislation outlawing abortion and jail time for those women who have them, prayer and religion in schools, and the teaching of intelligent design,if these are so important to them?)

McCain is no maverick. He has voted with Bush more than 90% of the time. Supported Bush and his actions. Bush, who mishandled the intel on al-Qaeda and thus allowed 9/11 happen.

So why would crowd at the Republican National Convention stand up and cheer?

The Republicans own the failure of 9/11 outright.

C'mon down!

Putting Georgie out on an ice floe

And letting him drift away...

President George W. Bush's address, made via satellite from the White House, was widely recognized as an attempt by McCain to distance himself from an unpopular administration he is seeking to change as a maverick Republican. Bush became the first sitting president in four decades to miss his own party's convention.

"Far from being the kind of unifying sendoff and baton pass engineered for Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, the evening only highlighted Mr. McCain's eagerness to get the president off the stage," the New York Times said.

The president's eight-minute address was burnished with introductory and afterword remarks from the first lady, who served up "some straight talk" to the Obama campaign by citing achievements of her husband's administration in education reform and the fight against AIDS and malaria at home and worldwide. But Laura Bush's comments couldn't hide the fact that, "the GOP showcased an endorsement from Al Gore's 2000 running mate while stuffing their incumbent president into a box. Literally. Bush's only appearance at this convention was on the rectangular screens hanging around the Xcel Arena," as TIME put it.

Wonder how many speeches Bush will be asked to do after he's done prezniting?:

George W Bush has considered life after the White House and is very interested in his legacy, reports of interviews with the author of a new book suggest.

"I'll give some speeches, just to replenish the ol' coffers," Mr Bush told Robert Draper, author of Dead Certain: The Presidency of George Bush.

Mr Bush says he "can just envision getting in the car, getting bored, going down to the ranch" in Texas.

Don't know about the empty coffers, Georgie, but don't worry about your legacy. That's been set in concrete.

Is this actually because McCain despises the telepromter?

The details remains sketchy. But based on a press conference held moments ago by McCain campaign chairman Rick Davis, the Republicans are planning to cancel or radically scale back some or perhaps even all of this year's Republican convention. All that seems certain now is that the convention will be called to order tomorrow afternoon and stay in session for roughly two hours -- between 3 PM and 5 PM local time. They'll do some official business but eschew openly partisan activities.

From there forward it appears they'll wait to see just how protracted and bad the landfall in Louisiana is, and then go from there, deciding on a day by day basis how much of a convention to hold on that day.

Davis still left the question up in the air. But it appears that there is a good chance that McCain will give his acceptance speech not in person in Minnesota but rather by satellite link somewhere in the Gulf region.

And I betcha he won't be caught eating cake, either.

I bet they're wiping the anxious sweat away from their brows

In collective relief:

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Neither President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney will attend the Republic National Convention opening night Monday because of Hurricane Gustav.

The president and vice president will either stay in Washington or visit areas that might be affected by the storm, which is expected to make landfall somewhere on the U.S. Gulf coast around noon Monday.

Now if they can only find an excuse for why everybody else is not showing up:

DAYTON, OHIO -- As Sen. John McCain prepares to accept the Republican presidential nomination this week, his party's four-day convention will be notable in part for who isn't attending.

Compared with past GOP conventions, a surprising number of prominent lawmakers and candidates will stay away from the festivities Sept. 1 to 4 in St. Paul, Minn. -- chiefly citing tough reelection battles, previous commitments or other scheduling conflicts.

We've seen what happens when Republicans are given free reign in the halls of power: mismanagement, cronyism, corruption, arrogance, warmongering, corporatism, imperialism, greed. So it's extremely difficult if not impossible to try and position themselves as the party of competence when we're looking at the people who are the cause of eight years of massive and intentional incompetence.

Bush and Cheney are toxic.

But, unfortunately for those who are running for office, they are the logical and ultimate result of the Republican agenda. The Republicans supported the Bush administration and steamrollered anyone who tried to speak against them.

Even if we never see the faces of George and Dick again, what they did, and what the Republicans allowed them to do will NEVER be erased from the Republican party.

The Republican party owns the last eight years.

Notice anything odd?

P.Z. Myers of Pharyngula has:

Minneapolis is hosting the Republican National Convention this summer, and that means we're seeing an uptick in sleaze (you might want to avoid public restrooms when these guys are in town). The most bizarre part of it all is that the FBI is looking for villains in all the wrong places.

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant--someone to show up at "vegan potlucks" throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort's primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division's website, is to "investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines."

I'm sure the Pentagon is just itching to use this on any dangerous hippies!:



And I will be interested to see if the FBI has as much concern over keeping the peace for the Democratic National Convention....

Look at who the Republicans were afraid of

Before their 2004 National Convention. Holy crap.

I don't think they trusted anybody.