My favorite one line review of Kerry's acceptance speech

From a friend who prefers to remain anonymous:

"Dang! If this guy had been in the primaries, I'd have voted for him!"

*heh*

Seriously, what a good speech! I hope he continues to write his own
material if this is what it produces!

*gryn*

Speak for yourself, John!

Peggy Noonan, in the WSJ Opinion Journal, muses on the transformative possibilities of John F. Kerry's acceptance speech next Thursday.

Greg Palast speaks hopefully of Kerry/Edwards campaign

If you're not familiar with Greg Palast's work on the theft of the 2000 election, go study up. And then read this article where my favorite US ex-pat British journalist speaks hopefully of the Kerry/Edwards campaign's future with the black community:

The man who would be President is first trying out the 'D' word in front of the friendly natives at the NAACP. But still, it's a step: mentioning out loud the massive, systematic Disenfranchisement of the Black vote.

But the real change won't come until Kerry can say the 'D' word in front of say, a gathering of the members of his wife's country club, and until he confronts the boys holding the electoral lynching ropes in both parties.

I have a dream. I imagine John Kerry taking this message to the floor of the convention next week, proclaiming, "Three decades after Martin Luther King's murder, one million African-Americans cast ballots never counted. This will not stand!" Imagine it: at that moment, for the first time in a generation, the Democratic Party will have nominated a democrat.

Say "amen" somebody!

Play Contractopoly!

Play Contractopoly at the Center for American Progress.

Contractopoly is the new interactive game that lets you win billions in sweetheart deals from the Bush Administration as you rebuild Iraq.

Collect information about the top private contractors in Iraq as you advance around the game board. Learn how Halliburton's political connections earned it billions of dollars. Find out the latest about the Administration's attempts to turn sovereignty over to the Iraqi people. Journey with Iraqi-exile Ahmed Chalabi as he flees Jordan to escape prison, passes fake intelligence to the Pentagon, and trades secrets with Iran.

"We put more hours of research and hard work into producing Contractopoly than the Administration did in planning for post-war Iraq," said Robert O. Boorstin, Senior Vice President for National Security. "Then again, that's not saying much."

Here are some of the exciting things that you will be able to experience:

• Visit the No-Bid Zone and watch Halliburton receive billions in taxpayer money!
• Pass the Oval Office and make a required $2000 donation!
• Go to Corporate Ethics School with Professor Henry Waxman!
• Land on CPA Pot Luck and try your hand at winning hearts and minds!
• Join Northrop Grumman and train the new Iraqi army!
• Shell Baghdad and then mount a beautification campaign!

Happy Birthday, Georgie boy!

With the help of the folks that brought you Republican Survivor, here's a special birthday card just for you. I hope it's your last in the White House!

Independence Day -- via Barbara Ehrenreich in the NYTimes

"...Today, those who believe that the war on terror requires the
sacrifice of our liberties like to argue that 'the Constitution
is not a suicide pact.' In a sense, however, the Declaration of
Independence was precisely that.

"By signing Jefferson's text, the signers of the declaration were
putting their lives on the line. England was then the world's
greatest military power, against which a bunch of provincial
farmers had little chance of prevailing. Benjamin Franklin wasn't
kidding around with his quip about hanging together or hanging
separately. If the rebel American militias were beaten on the
battlefield, their ringleaders could expect to be hanged as
traitors.

"They signed anyway, thereby stating to the world that there is
something worth more than life, and that is liberty. Thanks to
their courage, we do not have to risk death to preserve the
liberties they bequeathed us. All we have to do is vote."


-- Barbara Ehrenreich, in an op/ed "Their George and Ours"

Kerry on college opportunity

One of the things that's most excited me, as a single mother scraping by, is John Kerry's plans for service for college. In this program, two years of VISTA-like service would get you free four-year tuition at a state school.

However, the National Review claims that the number of kids prepared for college is slightly less (!) than the number of kids currently being admitted, so this program is moot.

Now, the NR is William F. Buckley's baby, and most of the folks who work there probably are paying full tuition at Yale, since they don't qualify for any need-based aid.

So I suppose they've never talked to the kids I have, in our public schools, who don't DREAM of going into a college prep track, because they KNOW they can't afford to go. Instead they take a light load, and many of them work 20, 30 or 40 or more hours helping their families.

Now for any of you who are saying "Kids aren't allowed to work that many hours," I have to point you to the laws about family businesses and farms, and the stats on black market labor -- it's not just for unregistered aliens anymore... Kids who can, in this economy, are working under the table. They are working long hours for their family's business without any compensation. They are working and reporting LEGAL hours, and working unpaid overtime to keep their jobs.

A lot of these same kids are smart and obviously disciplined workers, but know they can't hope to pay tuition because all their labor is required to help their families, or maybe get them to a position where they can support their own new or upcoming family.

Service for college is the answer to build a modern workforce for the US, and the conservatives need to get off their butts and into the schools in poor and blue-collar neighborhoods and start doing some damn mentorship programs if they want better prep for college from our "hoi polloi."

Bush is no liar...he just can't tell the truth consistently...

I love this retort of Kristoff's Bush-isn't-quite-a-liar apology in the NYTimes.

American Muslims favor Kerry, 56%, Nader 26%, Bush 2%

In an article entitled Nader: White House is Israel's puppet in the Jerusalem Post, today, we learn:

Nader spoke Tuesday in Washington at the release of a survey of American Muslim voter opinion, commissioned by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The survey of 1,161 voters this month showed that the majority of voters, 56 percent, supported the presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry, and 26% favored Nader, more than five times the percentage Nader has received in nationwide and statewide polls.

Strikingly, only 2% said they would vote for President George W. Bush, even though 55% of those polled said they had cast their vote for him in 2000. Fourteen percent remained undecided. CAIR said it had no estimate of the number of Muslim voters nationwide.

Kerry in his own words: 'Next economy' skills -- math/science/higher ed/lifelong learning

Read the policies too long to find in the broadcast or print media, from the candidate himself:


John Kerry Unveils His Plan for 'Next Economy' Skills; Math and Science, Higher Education, and Lifelong Learning for All Americans