CRONKITE DOWN ON THE WAR
"Veteran newsman Walter Cronkite said Americans aren't any safer because of the U.S.-led war on Iraq. 'The problem, quite clearly, is we have excited the Arab world, the Muslim world, to take up arms against us,' Cronkite said Saturday, adding that this excitement far exceeds the anger that existed among terrorist groups prior to the war."
(FINDLAW)

HOW UNCONVENTIONAL
"A new legal opinion by the Bush administration has concluded for the first time that some non-Iraqi prisoners captured by American forces in Iraq are not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions, administration officials said Monday. The opinion, reached in recent months, establishes an important exception to public assertions by the Bush administration since March 2003 that the Geneva Conventions applied comprehensively to prisoners taken in the conflict in Iraq, the officials said. But, as recently as May 2004, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reiterated in public testimony the administration's view that "everyone in Iraq who was a military person" as well as "the civilians or criminal elements" who were detained by the American authorities would be "treated subject to the Geneva Conventions." "
(NYT)

THE REAL ISSUE IN MIDDLE EAST IS SUPPORT FOR MODERATES
"President Bush's 'global war on terror' is a politically expedient slogan without real substance, serving to distort rather than define. It obscures the central fact that a civil war within Islam is pitting zealous fanatics against increasingly intimidated moderates. The undiscriminating American rhetoric and actions increase the likelihood that the moderates will eventually unite with the jihadists in outraged anger and unite the world of Islam in a head-on collision with America."
(NYT OP-ED)

WHERE HAS THE GRAND OLD PARTY GONE?
"The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brown shirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong's moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, N.M., little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt's evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we're deaf, dumb and dangerous. "
(SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER, unearthed by Jim Sturdevant)

BUSH'S BLINDERS
"There are consequences, often powerful consequences, to turning one's back on reality. The president may believe that freedom's on the march, and that freedom is God's gift to every man and woman in the world, and perhaps even that he is the vessel through which that gift is transmitted. But when he is crafting policy decisions that put people by the hundreds of thousands into harm's way, he needs to rely on more than the perceived good wishes of the Almighty. He needs to submit those policy decisions to a good hard reality check."
(NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED)

STOP, STOP, STOP HURTING AMERICA
"JON STEWART ON CNN'S CROSSFIRE: Here's just what I wanted to tell you guys.
CARLSON: Yes.
STEWART: Stop.
STEWART: Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America. "
(MEDIA MATTERS)

WIRED LOVE
According to a September report on Wired.com, a computer gadget that is equipped with wireless a receiver, can be activated remotely at different speeds and force by one person who uses the device's password at Sinulator's Web site, and that manipulation can be done not only by keyboard and mouse, but by a male placing the Sinulator's transmitting sleeve ('Interactive Fleshlight') over his penis and thrusting at his (or the recipient's) preferred speed and force. 'Thus, a man can be thrusting in Cleveland while a woman is penetrated in Seattle.' [Wired.com, 9-24-04] "
(CHUCK SHEPHER'S NEWS OF THE WEIRD)

HOW CAN WE GO WRONG? GOD TALKS TO OUR PRESIDENT
"a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a treasury official for the first President Bush, told me recently that ''if Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3.'' The nature of that conflict, as Bartlett sees it? Essentially, the same as the one raging across much of the world: a battle between modernists and fundamentalists, pragmatists and true believers, reason and religion. " What makes Bush's presidency so radical — even to some Republicans — is his preternatural, faith-infused certainty in uncertain times.
(NYT MAGAZINE, unearthed by Illruminations and Boing, Boing)

SHRIMP IMPORT TARIFFS TOUTED
TREY BRYANT HAS THIS TO SAY: To all of my friends who may or may not be aware of the massive dumping of foreign shrimp into the U.S. market I am forwarding this message which I received from a friend this morning. PLEASE read it and support your U.S. Congressmen in the imposition of the tariffs on these countries. There are two reasons. First, the U.S. domestic shrimp tastes MUCH BETTER; Second, and much more importantly, the plight of the American shrimping industry is in dire need of our support. While wholesale (and I emphasize the term wholesale) shrimp prices have dropped to levels below those of some twenty years ago, the price of fuel and the other necessities to operate our shrimp boats has risen drastically. Also important to note is that your prices at the market or restaurants has not noticeably changed. The tariffs ARE working! Take a look and help our domestic shrimp markets from the local shrimpers to the processors. ORDER DOMESTIC SHRIMP AND SUPPORT THESE TARIFFS! The prices you will pay at the store or restaurant will NOT differ signifigantly, as it is the wholsale food brokers who are making the killing on the margins. You will be saving an American way of life!
(SEAFOODBUSINESS.COM)

DEMS EYE 8 KEY SENATE SEATS
"With Republican senators retiring in Oklahoma and Colorado and a third battling for her seat in Alaska, Democrats have a chance to pick up three seats on Nov. 2. That would be enough to control the chamber, where there are 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and one independent who sides with the Democrats. "
(WASHINGTON POST)

BEST OF NEW YORK 2004
Each year the Village Voice presents The Best of New York, a supplent offering inside information—essays, characters, leisure, drinks, shopping, food, music, bodily pleasures, and politics—you just won't find anywhere else.
(VILLAGE VOICE)

EXPEDITED REMOVAL LAW SOUGHT
Here's a review of a new bill, introduced last week in Congress by House Speaker Dennis Hastert and others, that would allow the U.S. government to transfer prisoners under its control to the security forces of countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt for questioning. In these countries, prisoners are likely to face torture. This practice is called "rendering." The new legislation would serve to annul U.S. treaty obligations under the U.N. Convention Against Torture; the U.S. is a party this treaty.
(HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST)

ARCHIVE OF POLITICAL ADS
The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2004 is an innovative online exhibition presenting more than 250 television commercials from every election year beginning in 1952, when the first campaign ads aired, and including ads from this year’s campaign. Users can watch nearly four hours of TV commercials and explore the expanding world of Web-based political advertising. The site includes a searchable database and features commentary, historical background, election results, and navigation organized by both year and theme.
(Suggested by Vote 121, see below)

TWO VIEWS ON WORLD STABILITY
"One of the sharpest differences between the U.S. and its longtime allies is over the issue of when to use force. A June poll conducted in part by the German Marshall Fund of the United States found that 54% of the Americans surveyed, compared with 28% of the Europeans, believed that military strength would ensure peace. Among Europeans, 73% said the war in Iraq had increased the threat of terrorism.
The disparity represents two dynamics: The world has yet to understand how Sept. 11, 2001, jolted America's sense of security, and the U.S. has underestimated how much international credibility it sacrificed in the Iraq war. "
(LA TIMES, unearthed by Common Dreams)

PATIENT DIES DURING TELEVISED OPERATION
"Hundreds of doctors watched on live video as Italian surgeons replaced a man's heart valve without cutting open his chest. Then something went wrong. The valve was in place, but his heart was failing as the live telecast to Washington ended. Two hours later, the 77-year-old died in a Milan hospital."
(FINDLAW/AP)