meta-roj

bush had good prep in 2000, but i guess we’re slacking on the prep since then….

The Second Gore-Bush Presidential Debate, October 11, 2000 [commission on presidential debates]

… I think one way for us to end up being viewed as the ugly American is for us to go around the world saying, we do it this way, so should you. Now, we trust freedom. We know freedom is a powerful, powerful, powerful force, much bigger than the United States of America, as we saw recently in the Balkans. But maybe I misunderstand where you’re coming from, Mr. Vice President, but I think the United States must be humble and must be proud and confident of our values, but humble in how we treat nations that are figuring out how to chart their own course.

so, tell me again how we should treat nations?

senator lamar alexander (r – tn), september 15, 2004, fox news interview

no one likes to be occupied. no one likes to be blown up

ah, sweet irony. the most secretive, restrictive us administration in memory calls on the russians to be open and transparent in their war on terror….

i guess this is another example of “do as we say, not as we do” and the burdens of being a world leader which other countries look to for examples…

U.S. Demands Transparency in Russia Terror Fight [reuters, september 15, 2004]

“We will try to support the Russian Federation where we understand their policies and (where) we understand their strategies,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said while on a visit to Prague.

“We are a little disappointed that recently it seems that the Russian Federation has got a little bit more secretive about their strategies, has restricted the media somewhat so we don’t have full access to this information,” he told reporters after meeting the Czech foreign minister.

i am a little disappointed that recently it seems that the bush administration has restricted the media so i don’t have full access to this information…

seems to me, on the surface anyway, that the russians are just emulating the great democracy of the united states. and what better example to follow?

the high court of maryland has affirmed [pdf] the lower court ruling that asserts that maryland election officials have done everything necessary to provide secure and accurate election counts for the coming general election.

i disagree, so i “may be absent” on election day.

bluebell

banging on skins

in a followup to the , for which we’ve gotten an official apology from the state, we get two bits of information…

first, some details on the t-shirts – “Love America, Hate Bush” and “Regime change starts at home” – all very nice, but of course i was hoping it was this one… 🙂

and second, the ranks (that jeff and nicole rank, not the veterans playing with the truth) have filed suit against the director of the secret service and the director of the white house office of presidential advance seeking monetary damages and end to the policies that led to their arrest.

maryland senator mikulski had an experience with diebold recently, which might explain some of the things coming out of congress lately….

Mikulski has voting machine mishap [ap via the herald-mail, september 14, 2004]

Mikulski was at the Takoma Park Folk Festival Sunday when she came across a booth demonstrating the AccuVote TS touchscreen machines manufactured by Diebold Election Systems. As she sampled the new machines, the senator apparently inadvertently brushed against the sensitive screens so that when she tried to vote “no” on a sample ballot, the machine displayed her vote as a “yes.”

so it seems that even with years of voting experience (she was elected to a city council seat in 1971), senator mikulski had a little trouble getting her intentions registered.

yeah. i’m confident in my election.

the hubble eye

i like some of the things the republican party once worked toward. no longer.

the words remain [largely] the same, but the deeds show us a different picture entirely. for the modern american republican party, i apologize to the great republicans of the past. and for eloquence beyond my own, i turn to garrison keillor, with whom i take this stand.

Here’s what happened to the Republican Party [seattle pi, september 12, 2004]

This is a great country, and it wasn’t made so by angry people. We have a sacred duty to bequeath it to our grandchildren in better shape than however we found it. We have a long way to go and we’re not getting any younger.