News dump
My traditional whizz around the Sundays
For the last few weeks, the press (on both sides of the Atlantic) is being dominated by the U.S mid terms.
As is always the case, in any election, in any country, mudslinging is all part and parcel of the whole thing :
-snip-
There has been no let-up in the stream of sexually themed attacks. Late last week, in a fierce Senate race in Virginia, campaigners for embattled Republican George Allen issued lengthy excerpts from novels penned by their Democratic opponent Jim Webb. They contained graphic scenes of sex, child abuse and prostitution. 'Webb's writings are disturbing for a candidate hoping to represent the families of Virginians,' an Allen spokesman said.
Webb's campaign retorted that Allen was simply launching 'smear after smear'. Webb's books are historical novels, often set in Vietnam, and the candidate is himself a decorated war veteran.
Many other examples of sex-themed attack ads have sprung up. In New York a Republican group ran an advert accusing Democrat Michael Arcuri of using taxpayers' money to ring sex lines.
-snip-
But the negative adverts are not just attacking on the issue of real or perceived sexual indiscretions. They are also attacking on the issue of race. In Tennessee, the black Democrat Harold Ford has been the target of an attack ad that was so controversial that even the opposing Republican candidate tried to distance himself from it. The ad listed a long line of personal attacks on Ford before showing a blonde white woman who reminisces about meeting Ford at a Playboy party and then winks at the camera, saying 'Harold - call me!'
The advert outraged many because it plays to an old racial/sexual stereotype that still has a powerful resonance in southern states such as Tennessee: accusations of sexual relationships between black men and white women were often used as excuses for lynchings in the Deep South. The ad also comes at a time when some senior Republicans have publicly disavowed a previous 'Southern strategy' of deliberately courting whites.
-snip-
I just love this last little tidbit :
But some politicians definitely have clean hands
US politicians are keeping it clean for the midterm elections. At least germwise.
Democrats and Republicans alike are routinely rubbing their hands with sanitiser Purell after shaking hands with thousands of likely voters.
'Many people in politics have become obsessive about using hand sanitiser,' the New York Times reported yesterday.
Out of the public gaze, high-profile politicians like Vice-President Dick Cheney rub their hands with antiseptic gel provided by an aide. Avoiding the germs of the public has become so common that now aides ensure people who greet their favourite candidate use Purell too.
Even President George Bush is reported to use the antiseptic, which claims to kill '99.99 per cent of most common germs that may cause illness'. 'Good stuff, keeps you from getting colds,' Bush told Senator Barack Obama, at a White House encounter last year, after which Obama too started using Purell. Other prominent figures spotted using the gel include former US President Bill Clinton (during his 1992 presidential campaign after eating a pie with dirty hands); and Arizona's Republican Senator John McCain, (after observing former presidential hopeful Bob Dole's excessive use of it).
But not every US politician is happy about the practice. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said it was 'condescending to the voters'.
Read the whole thing here
Newsweek tries it's best to reassure us that all will be right with the world come the 8th - the Dems are still in the lead :
-snip -
if the midterm elections were held today, 53 percent of those likely to go to the polls would vote for the Democratic candidate in their Congressional district versus just 39 percent who would vote for the Republican.
-snip-
On Iraqinam :
-snip-
A solid majority still believes the United States is losing ground, but their ranks have decreased from 65 percent to 60 percent. The biggest change is among Republicans. Last week, 50 percent of Republicans said America was making progress in Iraq (35 percent said we were losing ground). This week 65 percent of Republicans say we’re making progress and only 22 percent say we’re losing ground.
-snip-
When all Americans were asked which they would rather see happen: the GOP retain control of Congress or the Democrats win enough seats to take over one or both houses, 50 percent of adults said they want a Democratic takeover while 35 percent said they wanted the Republicans to hold tight the reigns of power; in last week’s poll, 55 percent wanted the Democrats to take over and 32 wanted the Republicans to retain power.
More at the Link
But wait a minute, hold your horses, let's not get carried away here ... over at the L.A Times there's an interesting little article about Rove's involvement in helping out - Gop at a loss ? Rove has an 11th hour plan
-Snip-
But the most significant element of Rove's effort to help four-term Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds keep his job may have occurred behind closed doors, when the White House strategist met with a federal disaster relief official contemplating how to respond to the storm. Four days later, Reynolds announced that President Bush would authorize millions of dollars in federal disaster aid for the area.
The timing was perfect: Reynolds broke the news hours after testifying before the House Ethics Committee about his role in the Mark Foley sex scandal — knocking reports on the scandal out of the spotlight.
Reynolds' fate Nov. 7 could be a bellwether for Republicans in the Northeast — in the midterm election as well as the long term. And his poll numbers crashed after revelations that he had known about suspicious e-mails the former Florida congressman had sent to male congressional pages. In the wake of the announcement about federal aid, a survey by a Buffalo television station showed Reynolds regaining a narrow lead over Democrat Jack Davis.
The White House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will provide the funds, say Rove exerted no influence on the decision to grant relief or on the timing of the announcement.
- Big snip-
This week, Rove and his staff will turn to their endgame.
They will oversee a mobilization of political employees from Cabinet agencies, Capitol Hill and lobbying firms — many of them skilled campaign veterans — to more than a dozen battleground states. Many will act as "marshals," supervising the "72-hour plan" developed by Rove in 2001 with Ken Mehlman, the former White House political director who now heads the Republican National Committee.
-snip-
For example, Interior Department employees describe regular visits from Rove's staff during Bush's first term. On one occasion, Rove visited a retreat for the 50 top Interior Department managers. The lights dimmed in an agency conference room as Rove went through a PowerPoint presentation showing battleground races in the 2002 midterm election, and occasionally made oblique but clearly understood references to Interior Department decisions that could affect these races.
By stopping short of explicitly calling on the Interior Department officials to take action, Rove stayed within the rules against exerting improper political influence.
Muuch more here
So Rove is using the White house offices as the nerve center for the GOP campaign ? Is he using public funds too ?
That's just so cooooool- using taxpayer funds to make sure your party stays in power and there was me thinking that it was only corrupt, french politicians that pulled off that kind of stunt ..
Mind you, there's one thing we haven't imported over here (yet) and that's Diebold style voting machines - which is just as well having read about what's already happening in Miami and early voting glitches.
Y'know, them there pesky little vote switching bug problems.
It's a bit strange that it always seems to be errors against the Democrat candidate...
There's other things happening in the world though, a part from the elections.
There's also Iraqinam and another tipping point has been reached.
-snip-
Plans to stabilize Baghdad collided with a surge in violence during the holy month of Ramadan. Sectarian revenge killings spread, consuming a town 50 miles from the capital.
U.S. officials spoke of setting benchmarks for the Iraqi government to take on more responsibility, only to have the Iraqi prime minister call that suggestion election-year grandstanding. Bush compared the situation to the 1968 Tet Offensive -- often seen as a turning point in the Vietnam War -- and urged Americans not to become disillusioned
-snip
If October does prove to be a turning point for the Iraq war, historians are likely to point to two events, one in domestic U.S. politics and the other in Iraq.
The first was Warner's visit to Baghdad. As the chairman of Armed Services, a stalwart Bush supporter and a pillar of the Republican establishment, he rattled much of Washington with his dour assessment Oct. 5. If events have not improved in 60 to 90 days, he said, the Bush administration should find a new course. While still opposed to a precipitous troop withdrawal, Warner made clear that staying the course is no longer a viable option.
-snip-
In Iraq, meanwhile, the key moment was the realization by top commanders in mid-October that sending 12,000 U.S. troops back into Baghdad did not have the calming effect that had been hoped for. As Shiite-Sunni tensions erupted in the city, civilian casualties doubled in a matter of months, with 2,660 deaths in September alone.
"Operation Together Forward has made a difference in the focus areas, but has not met our overall expectations of sustaining a reduction in the levels of violence," Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV said Oct. 19, using the U.S. military name for the Baghdad operation. In other words, the U.S. military had played its ace in the hole -- it had asserted itself in Iraq's most important city -- yet had not been able to improve deteriorating security in the capital
-snip-
Much more at the linky
How can the Bush administration face savingly extricate itself from the mother of all cock-ups ?
It's been said before by other, more qualified people than i, that this whole 'advenutre' really must go down in history books as the biggest blunder of all time.
Even if we ignore the fact that the whole thing was based on lies and falsehoods from the outset, the point is that US policy is now hamstrung for years to come : no-one trusts US intentions anymore, the US is not seen as an honest broker (not that it has ever been) and the US public has been sold down the river for generations to come by a half-wit.
It's just so bad.
More happy tidings coming out of Afghaninam too, where Taliban commanders are getting ready to dig in for the winter season and are threatening to cut off Kabul by gradually tightening it's grip on the surrounding provinces.
Meanwhile, General the Lord Guthrie tells us that the whole thing is going pear shaped or "cuckoo" as he would have it.
So, In which country will we see a 'Saigon moment' first ? All bets are off, i think.
Finally, to end on a high note for the anti-frenchies ... it's the winter of miscontent and so .. so ... yesssss: the long awaited for story about the new round of french riots burning cars, burning busses people almost being burnt to death ...
For the last few weeks, the press (on both sides of the Atlantic) is being dominated by the U.S mid terms.
As is always the case, in any election, in any country, mudslinging is all part and parcel of the whole thing :
-snip-
There has been no let-up in the stream of sexually themed attacks. Late last week, in a fierce Senate race in Virginia, campaigners for embattled Republican George Allen issued lengthy excerpts from novels penned by their Democratic opponent Jim Webb. They contained graphic scenes of sex, child abuse and prostitution. 'Webb's writings are disturbing for a candidate hoping to represent the families of Virginians,' an Allen spokesman said.
Webb's campaign retorted that Allen was simply launching 'smear after smear'. Webb's books are historical novels, often set in Vietnam, and the candidate is himself a decorated war veteran.
Many other examples of sex-themed attack ads have sprung up. In New York a Republican group ran an advert accusing Democrat Michael Arcuri of using taxpayers' money to ring sex lines.
-snip-
But the negative adverts are not just attacking on the issue of real or perceived sexual indiscretions. They are also attacking on the issue of race. In Tennessee, the black Democrat Harold Ford has been the target of an attack ad that was so controversial that even the opposing Republican candidate tried to distance himself from it. The ad listed a long line of personal attacks on Ford before showing a blonde white woman who reminisces about meeting Ford at a Playboy party and then winks at the camera, saying 'Harold - call me!'
The advert outraged many because it plays to an old racial/sexual stereotype that still has a powerful resonance in southern states such as Tennessee: accusations of sexual relationships between black men and white women were often used as excuses for lynchings in the Deep South. The ad also comes at a time when some senior Republicans have publicly disavowed a previous 'Southern strategy' of deliberately courting whites.
-snip-
I just love this last little tidbit :
But some politicians definitely have clean hands
US politicians are keeping it clean for the midterm elections. At least germwise.
Democrats and Republicans alike are routinely rubbing their hands with sanitiser Purell after shaking hands with thousands of likely voters.
'Many people in politics have become obsessive about using hand sanitiser,' the New York Times reported yesterday.
Out of the public gaze, high-profile politicians like Vice-President Dick Cheney rub their hands with antiseptic gel provided by an aide. Avoiding the germs of the public has become so common that now aides ensure people who greet their favourite candidate use Purell too.
Even President George Bush is reported to use the antiseptic, which claims to kill '99.99 per cent of most common germs that may cause illness'. 'Good stuff, keeps you from getting colds,' Bush told Senator Barack Obama, at a White House encounter last year, after which Obama too started using Purell. Other prominent figures spotted using the gel include former US President Bill Clinton (during his 1992 presidential campaign after eating a pie with dirty hands); and Arizona's Republican Senator John McCain, (after observing former presidential hopeful Bob Dole's excessive use of it).
But not every US politician is happy about the practice. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said it was 'condescending to the voters'.
Read the whole thing here
Newsweek tries it's best to reassure us that all will be right with the world come the 8th - the Dems are still in the lead :
-snip -
if the midterm elections were held today, 53 percent of those likely to go to the polls would vote for the Democratic candidate in their Congressional district versus just 39 percent who would vote for the Republican.
-snip-
On Iraqinam :
-snip-
A solid majority still believes the United States is losing ground, but their ranks have decreased from 65 percent to 60 percent. The biggest change is among Republicans. Last week, 50 percent of Republicans said America was making progress in Iraq (35 percent said we were losing ground). This week 65 percent of Republicans say we’re making progress and only 22 percent say we’re losing ground.
-snip-
When all Americans were asked which they would rather see happen: the GOP retain control of Congress or the Democrats win enough seats to take over one or both houses, 50 percent of adults said they want a Democratic takeover while 35 percent said they wanted the Republicans to hold tight the reigns of power; in last week’s poll, 55 percent wanted the Democrats to take over and 32 wanted the Republicans to retain power.
More at the Link
But wait a minute, hold your horses, let's not get carried away here ... over at the L.A Times there's an interesting little article about Rove's involvement in helping out - Gop at a loss ? Rove has an 11th hour plan
-Snip-
But the most significant element of Rove's effort to help four-term Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds keep his job may have occurred behind closed doors, when the White House strategist met with a federal disaster relief official contemplating how to respond to the storm. Four days later, Reynolds announced that President Bush would authorize millions of dollars in federal disaster aid for the area.
The timing was perfect: Reynolds broke the news hours after testifying before the House Ethics Committee about his role in the Mark Foley sex scandal — knocking reports on the scandal out of the spotlight.
Reynolds' fate Nov. 7 could be a bellwether for Republicans in the Northeast — in the midterm election as well as the long term. And his poll numbers crashed after revelations that he had known about suspicious e-mails the former Florida congressman had sent to male congressional pages. In the wake of the announcement about federal aid, a survey by a Buffalo television station showed Reynolds regaining a narrow lead over Democrat Jack Davis.
The White House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will provide the funds, say Rove exerted no influence on the decision to grant relief or on the timing of the announcement.
- Big snip-
This week, Rove and his staff will turn to their endgame.
They will oversee a mobilization of political employees from Cabinet agencies, Capitol Hill and lobbying firms — many of them skilled campaign veterans — to more than a dozen battleground states. Many will act as "marshals," supervising the "72-hour plan" developed by Rove in 2001 with Ken Mehlman, the former White House political director who now heads the Republican National Committee.
-snip-
For example, Interior Department employees describe regular visits from Rove's staff during Bush's first term. On one occasion, Rove visited a retreat for the 50 top Interior Department managers. The lights dimmed in an agency conference room as Rove went through a PowerPoint presentation showing battleground races in the 2002 midterm election, and occasionally made oblique but clearly understood references to Interior Department decisions that could affect these races.
By stopping short of explicitly calling on the Interior Department officials to take action, Rove stayed within the rules against exerting improper political influence.
Muuch more here
So Rove is using the White house offices as the nerve center for the GOP campaign ? Is he using public funds too ?
That's just so cooooool- using taxpayer funds to make sure your party stays in power and there was me thinking that it was only corrupt, french politicians that pulled off that kind of stunt ..
Mind you, there's one thing we haven't imported over here (yet) and that's Diebold style voting machines - which is just as well having read about what's already happening in Miami and early voting glitches.
Y'know, them there pesky little vote switching bug problems.
It's a bit strange that it always seems to be errors against the Democrat candidate...
There's other things happening in the world though, a part from the elections.
There's also Iraqinam and another tipping point has been reached.
-snip-
Plans to stabilize Baghdad collided with a surge in violence during the holy month of Ramadan. Sectarian revenge killings spread, consuming a town 50 miles from the capital.
U.S. officials spoke of setting benchmarks for the Iraqi government to take on more responsibility, only to have the Iraqi prime minister call that suggestion election-year grandstanding. Bush compared the situation to the 1968 Tet Offensive -- often seen as a turning point in the Vietnam War -- and urged Americans not to become disillusioned
-snip
If October does prove to be a turning point for the Iraq war, historians are likely to point to two events, one in domestic U.S. politics and the other in Iraq.
The first was Warner's visit to Baghdad. As the chairman of Armed Services, a stalwart Bush supporter and a pillar of the Republican establishment, he rattled much of Washington with his dour assessment Oct. 5. If events have not improved in 60 to 90 days, he said, the Bush administration should find a new course. While still opposed to a precipitous troop withdrawal, Warner made clear that staying the course is no longer a viable option.
-snip-
In Iraq, meanwhile, the key moment was the realization by top commanders in mid-October that sending 12,000 U.S. troops back into Baghdad did not have the calming effect that had been hoped for. As Shiite-Sunni tensions erupted in the city, civilian casualties doubled in a matter of months, with 2,660 deaths in September alone.
"Operation Together Forward has made a difference in the focus areas, but has not met our overall expectations of sustaining a reduction in the levels of violence," Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV said Oct. 19, using the U.S. military name for the Baghdad operation. In other words, the U.S. military had played its ace in the hole -- it had asserted itself in Iraq's most important city -- yet had not been able to improve deteriorating security in the capital
-snip-
Much more at the linky
How can the Bush administration face savingly extricate itself from the mother of all cock-ups ?
It's been said before by other, more qualified people than i, that this whole 'advenutre' really must go down in history books as the biggest blunder of all time.
Even if we ignore the fact that the whole thing was based on lies and falsehoods from the outset, the point is that US policy is now hamstrung for years to come : no-one trusts US intentions anymore, the US is not seen as an honest broker (not that it has ever been) and the US public has been sold down the river for generations to come by a half-wit.
It's just so bad.
More happy tidings coming out of Afghaninam too, where Taliban commanders are getting ready to dig in for the winter season and are threatening to cut off Kabul by gradually tightening it's grip on the surrounding provinces.
Meanwhile, General the Lord Guthrie tells us that the whole thing is going pear shaped or "cuckoo" as he would have it.
So, In which country will we see a 'Saigon moment' first ? All bets are off, i think.
Finally, to end on a high note for the anti-frenchies ... it's the winter of miscontent and so .. so ... yesssss: the long awaited for story about the new round of french riots burning cars, burning busses people almost being burnt to death ...
posted by Damiel | 1:08 AM
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