I watched the VP debate last night. I thought Cheney was boatloads smarter than Bush (but then so is Bush’s teleprompter), and Edwards performed well. Edwards didn’t blow me away, but he didn’t blow up either. I’d have to call this one a draw.

Cheney did get a couple of good ones in, and when he hit Edwards with the line about “The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight” — suggesting that Edwards is routinely absent in the Senate chambers — I thought he’d landed his best blow of the night.

Too bad it wasn’t true.

Oh look, it’s Cheney sitting next to Edwards at a senate prayer breakfast. Three and a half years ago, on February 1, 2001.

They also met on April 8, 2001 during a taping of NBC’s Meet the Press, and again on Jan. 8, 2003, when Cheney presided over Elizabeth Dole’s swearing-in as a North Carolina senator.

Cheney’s reported response after the debate on being “reminded” he’d already met Edwards several times? “Oh yeah.”

Yeah.

And let’s not forget about the Iraq/Al Queda “link.” After touring the country for more than a year and doing all the news shows and leaping at every opportunity to link Iraq to the attacks of September 11th, Cheney has the balls to say that he never suggested there was a link. He’s got some brass ones, I’ll give him that. And the crazy thing about it is that people believe it. People believe it.

It’s incredible how blatantly this administration lies. And how easily they get away with it.

Ba-a-ah! Ba-a-ah! Bu-u-ush!

What a surprise. Rumsfeld is coming clean that, well, heh heh, I guess there really wasn’t all that much of a link between Iraq and Al Queda after all. No link at all, actually. But someone developed a really tortured description of how the non-link really could have maybe possibly kinda sorta been close to being a link, and we used that as our excuse for attacking Iraq in response to the September 11 attacks …. but it really wasn’t a link, not really. Dunno who did that, though. (Picture Rummy peering owlishly around the room, but pointedly not looking at himself.) Oopsie. But, hey, we’re all better off with Saddam in jail now, aren’t we? (And Osama bin Laden says, “Amen, brother!”)

And still the sheep will vote for Bush next month, bleating empty platitudes all the way.

John Kerry: “If I’m about to drive into a brick wall, I will turn the wheel. I recognize that sometimes circumstances demand that you change course.”

George W. Bush: “Once I start drivin’, I don’t turn for nothin’. I’m resolute!”

— This ridiculously oversimplified voter education moment is brought to you by the Remedial Driving Instructors Association.

Dan Rather, CBS News Anchor

• Given documents he thought were true
• Failed to thoroughly investigate the facts
• Reported documents to the American people as true to make his case
• When confronted with the facts, apologized and launched an investigation
• Number of Americans dead: 0
• Should be fired as CBS News Anchor

George W. Bush, President of the United States

• Given documents he thought were true
• Failed to thoroughly investigate the facts
• Reported documents to the American people as true to make his case
• When confronted with the facts, continued to report untruth and stonewalled an investigation
• Number of Americans dead: 1100
• Should be given four more years as President of the United States

Bush’s hometown paper supports Kerry. if the president read newspapers he would be real mad.

— tonypierce.com + busblog

Tony cracks my shit up.

Way to go, Louisiana. You’ve amended your state constitution to ban gay marriage. You’re on a roll now, you’ve got momentum now, you should keep moving forward, keep tackling those important issues.

Maybe next you can keep them niggers from voting.

Floriduh is at it again. There’s a court order in place barring Nader from appearing on Florida’s ballot this year, with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday — in Tallahassee — to issue a final injunction on the matter. So Florida’s Division of Elections director (and apparent part-time weather gal) claimed that Hurricane Ivan raised “a substantial question as to when such a hearing” will be held. Bear in mind that Ivan is not expected to hit Tallahassee.

Based on this prognostication, Florida’s Department of State filed an appeal against the temporary injunction, which automatically lifts the injunction, which allows the counties to put Nader’s name on overseas absentee ballots, which must be mailed by Saturday.

It’s starting to smell like 2000 all over again.

I was in Dallas, at my company’s training center when it happened. The students were straggling in from the hotel next door while we got them set up with nametags and computers and generally squared away for class, when one of them said she’d seen something on TV about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. I had this weird moment of deja vu and flashed on an old story of an Army transport plane hitting the Empire State Building back in WWII, but it somehow seemed current, and then I laughed it off and continued setting up the computer I was working on.

We started the class, going around the room for introductions, talking about what we were going to cover, students talking about what they hoped to learn, etc. Just another class beginning.

The way the training room was set up, the person actually training was at the front of the room while the rest of us were at the back, behind the students, “roaming” to help people who needed assistance. In the first hour of class, one of the other training center staff members came in and quietly told the roamers what was happening in New York, in Washington. Nobody knew the full story yet; it was all disjointed and confusing and unconfirmed.

At the first break we announced to the class what we knew and took an extended break so people could make phone calls and get information and direct activity back at their home sites and … well, whatever they needed to do. We still didn’t know the full impact of what was happening — didn’t know that it was still happening — so we called the class back to order and continued.

Nobody could focus; we were all wondering what was going on, we were all scared. As we continued we roamers worked the internet at the back of the class, gathering any information we could get, and we gave the class frequent updates. It soon became clear that this was not just an accident, not just a freak occurrence; it became clear that this was the worst thing we had ever seen. It became clear that we had to end the class.

So we did — we just stopped. We released the class, told them they were free to go back to their hotel rooms to watch the news and call family and do whatever. We’d try to make arrangements for people to get back home if they needed to. We’d do what we could for them.

And then all of us trainers gathered in the biggest hotel room among us and watched TV all day.

Ever since then, when I’m out on the road the very first thing I do when I get up in the morning is turn on the TV, tune in CNN. I’m always afraid I’m going to see bad news about Los Angeles, and I never quite trust it when I don’t. I’m always sure the bad news is going to start the instant after I turn the TV off.

I still remember the horror of that day. I feel it, I have not forgotten. I will never forget. And to those who scold me to remember, who feel they need to remind me, who suggest I have forgotten because I don’t think Bush is doing it right, I say this:

Fuck you. I remember. Always.

Well, well, well… Now it looks like those new Bush National Guard records are being questioned — they might be fakes. And the White House position is that they don’t know if they’re real or not and they’re not trying to verify their authenticity — and this is after they were distributing these potentially damaging documents while claiming it was a Kerry hatchet job.

Hmm… Just remember, you heard it here first, kids.

New documents have surfaced about Bush’s non-service during Vietnam, and the Bushies are crying foul. Me, I’m calling seafood: something here smells fishy to me.

I wonder if the Bushies themselves are behind this latest round of “discoveries,” trying to keep the focus on Vietnam and thus on Kerry’s service, trying to keep him stuck in the bullshit Swift Boat quicksand he seems to have finally let go of and stopped letting them lead on. Kerry’s trying to focus on actual current day issues now, so what do you know — now more information is coming out to return the focus to Vietnam, where Kerry can’t get any traction.

It’s not Osama Time yet, but they probably hope this’ll do to distract the electorate for another couple of weeks.