The Terror Alert Smackdown Julius Blog has created a great graph illustrating the relationship between the Administration's terror alerts and the president's approval ratings. I highly recommend it. Even though Sen. John McCain has discredited the shadowy neocon "Swifboat Veterans for Truth" fringe group, the news channels can't seem to talk about anything else regarding the Democratic challenger. It would be so much easier to be a republican...Because low voter turnout always favours republicans, all the president's campaign managers have to do is make John Kerry look like the lesser of two evils, and they win the election because many undecideds will be too demoralized to take the time off from work to go to the polls. If the Democrats are going to win, they need to make sure they get a positive message out, and make sure that there is actual debate prior to the election, not some mamby-pamby scripted affair. http://juliusblog.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_juliusblog_archive.html#109156476570482138

Yes, Sir, That's My Baby While he was governor of Texas, George W. Bush fought tooth and nail to prevent passage of a patient's bill of rights, and then, two years later, claimed credit for passage of the bill while running for president. Putting aside the fact that any brainchild of the president would most likely be stillborn, voters swallowed this claim, as well as the president's attempt to portray himself as a moderate, compassionate conservative. President Bush fought against the very creation of the 9/11 commission, and then stonewalled them for months, according to commission chairmen Keane and Hamilton. He refused to testify before them under oath, and when he did, he had to have Dick Cheney with him. Now, like Bobby Buchet's deadbeat dad in Adam Sandler's Waterboy, Bush has returned to claim a "success" that he had nothing to do with. When it comes to the 9/11 commission's report, we're seeing Bush wrap select commission conclusions in swaddling clothes. He proudly holds up the committee's ludicrous conclusion that we're "Safer but not safe", for example. The truth that really matters is the truth you don't hear on T.V. Here are some other commission conclusions the President gave up for adoption... Bush failed to have even one meeting to discuss the threat of terrorism with his head of counterterrorism Richard Clarke. Confirmed, Commission Report at p. 201. Bush failed to react to the August 6, 2001 security briefing, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” Confirmed, Commission Report at pp. 260-262. 142 Saudis, including 24 members of the bin Laden family, were allowed to leave the country after September 13. Confirmed, Commission Report at p. 556, n. 25 [Note that Fahrenheit 9/11 understates the number of Saudis who left.] Read It

Blowing Smoke Up Your Tailpipe Yesterday, Tom Ridge, our illustrious Homeland Security Czar, appeared in a press conference raising the terror alert for specific targets in New York's financial district. The St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox all prominently featured images of heavily armed security at Wall Street and other venues. There must be some heavy duty new intelligence, right? Wrong, say 6--count 'em 6 government officials interviewed yesterday. The intelligence was THREE YEARS OLD! More than half a dozen government officials interviewed yesterday, who declined to be identified because classified information is involved, said that most, if not all, of the information about the buildings seized by authorities in a raid in Pakistan last week was about three years old, and possibly older. "There is nothing right now that we're hearing that is new," said one senior law enforcement official who was briefed on the alert. "Why did we go to this level? . . . I still don't know that." Lieberman's response: "I don't think anybody who has any fairness or is in their right mind would think the president or the secretary of homeland security would raise an alert level and scare people for political reasons," Lieberman said. "That's outrageous." What's outrageous, Joe, is that you still claim to be a Democrat. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35466-2004Aug2.html