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We've had precious little for which to thank Dick Cheney over the past four years, but I am sincerely grateful for the following, as reported by the Associated Press:
Cheney: economic stats miss EBay salesSept. 10, 2004 -- Indicators measure the nation's unemployment rate, consumer spending and other economic milestones, but Vice President Dick Cheney says it misses the hundreds of thousands who make money selling on eBay.
"That's a source that didn't even exist 10 years ago," Cheney told an audience in Cincinnati on Thursday. "Four hundred thousand people make some money trading on eBay."
San Jose, Calif.-based EBay Inc. is an Internet auction site where anyone can sell just about anything, including clothing, cell phones, jewelry, memorabilia, trinkets and automobiles.
Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards responded that Cheney's comments show how "out of touch" he and President Bush are with the economy.
"If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking," Edwards said in a statement.
It doesn't get better than that. Thanks for the laugh, Dick.
Once again, Krugman is keeping it real:
The Dishonesty Thing
By Paul KrugmanIt's the dishonesty, stupid. The real issue in the National Guard story isn't what George W. Bush did three decades ago. It's the recent pattern of lies: his assertions that he fulfilled his obligations when he obviously didn't, the White House's repeated claims that it had released all of the relevant documents when it hadn't.
It's the same pattern of dishonesty, this time involving personal matters that the public can easily understand, that some of us have long seen on policy issues, from global warming to the war in Iraq. On budget matters, which is where I came in, serious analysts now take administration dishonesty for granted.
It wasn't always that way. Three years ago, those of us who accused the administration of cooking the budget books were ourselves accused, by moderates as well as by Bush loyalists, of being "shrill." These days the coalition of the shrill has widened to include almost every independent budget expert....
He goes on to spell out how Bush, Inc., spreads lies that make lousy economic news sound almost hopeful.
These tactics are despicable but hardly surprising. They've been at this bait-and-switch game since Day One.
That was pretty damning evidence against Dubya's spin of his years in the Air National Guard tonight on 60 Minutes. Not that it came as a great surprise to anyone who doesn't have a Kool-Aid mustache, of course.
I have no particular bone to pick with anyone who tried to avoid Vietnam -- even those who pulled strings and used Daddy's influence to do it. I don't have kids, but if the draft were reinstated and I had the influence, I can't promise I wouldn't use it to keep my nieces and nephews safe or even the children of my friends to whom I'm something of an honorary uncle. I wouldn't be proud of having resorted to it, but I can imagine that I might, motivated by my affection for and devotion to the these young people, do everything I could to keep them out of harm's way.
So while the string-pulling is regrettable, it's not the key issue, as far as I'm concerned (except insofar as it reveals Dubya to be the spoiled Richie Rich he truly is, not the common man of the people he plays on TV).
No, the issue of import, to my mind, is the many lies Dubya has told regarding his "service" over the years, and, most heinous of all, the serial smearing of men who did serve honorably -- John McCain, Max Cleland, Al Gore, and John Kerry. It's these acts that are indefensible. It's this behavior that should shame George Dubya and his chickenhawk henchmen (ah, if only they were capable of feeling shame).
They've got nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Absolutely nothing.
Except fear. That's their calling card, their sole weapon, their only tactic: flaming our fears.
"It's absolutely essential," Dick Cheney insisted yesterday, "that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States."
So don't come crying to Dick Cheney if the terrorists attack again; you can't say he didn't warn you. Vote for Kerry, and you deserve you get.
But Cheney's not alone in the fear-mongering. As Josh Marshall of TalkingPointsMemo.com pointed out yesterday, just thirteen minutes after it was announced that the casualty rate among American servicemen and women in Iraq had reached the one thousand mark, Tom Ridge was paraded out to announce once again that we're all in grave danger.
Mind you, his warning was not based on new evidence; there was no uptick in "chatter" among terrorist groups. No,as he so often does when news that reflects badly on Bush, Inc. (is there any news that doesn't?) is issued, he just wanted to distract us by citing the ever-present danger of another terrorist attack.
If it weren't so appalling, it'd be almost laughable at this point.
They have nothing else to campaign on. Smearing John Kerry and ratcheting up our collective fear -- that's the full extent of their campaign strategy.
Josh Marshall of TalkingPointsMemo.com shares a letter sent from Jimmy Carter, our greatest ex-President, to that slimeball Zell Miller:
The text of a letter former President Carter sent to Zell Miller over the weekend ...You seem to have forgotten that loyal Democrats elected you as mayor and as state senator. Loyal Democrats, including members of my family and me, elected you as lieutenant governor and as governor. It was a loyal Democrat, Lester Maddox, who assigned you to high positions in the state government when you were out of office. It was a loyal Democrat, Roy Barnes, who appointed you as U.S. Senator when you were out of office. By your historically unprecedented disloyalty, you have betrayed our trust....
...there are many of us loyal Democrats who feel uncomfortable in seeing that you have chosen the rich over the poor, unilateral preemptive war over a strong nation united with others for peace, lies and obfuscation over the truth, and the political technique of personal character assassination as a way to win elections or to garner a few moments of applause. These are not the characteristics of great Democrats whose legacy you and I have inherited.
That only just the beginning -- there's much more here,
Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:
An Associated Press count of Iraq casualties shows U.S. military deaths there have passed 1,000.
Think this video will get as much play as the Swift Boat Liars?
Of course not, though it certainly should.
It's that darned "liberal" media again -- keeping the truth from us.
If you'd like to chip in a little to get this spot some air time, go here.