Every day, Kerry needs to do this. It's simple and effective.

If you like the way things are going, vote for Bush. If you want more, if you think America can do better, vote for Kerry. That's an easy choice. And one that he needs to hit home Every Damn Day.

I like fighting Kerry. Especially about such easy issues as the assault weapons ban. It's a softball. Overtime is another easy target. And health care, of course.

werkz advice: skip it.

So I saw that Lindsay Lohan movie, "Confessions of a Teenage Actor Post Implants" movie yesterday.

I remember, back in the day, I used to have a debate with Brad about the worst movie ever made. He would always claim Batman and Robin and I would counter with The Peacemaker. However, I think neither zany hijinks or poor acting alone properly describes the main problems with CTDQ.

Simply put, there was nothing good about this movie. I laughed at one moment in the entire film, when someone drunk demanded onion rings. That was it. I'm still trying to get the bad taste out of my mouth. Want to know why?

Characters were introduced for no reason. People lied for no reason. Outfits were stolen/replaced/worn for no reason. Mindless dream sequences were shown for no reason. The main character had breast implants for no reason. Morals were introduced for no reason.

Somewhere, John Hughes is annoyed...

Again, I think that the documents are relevant, forgeries, or no, because the White House hasn't refuted them.

But take a look at this document I snagged from this site detailing Bush's service records. There's a clearly superscripted "th" in the first reference to 111th.

Again, the real issue should be why the White House isn't saying that they know, declaratively, that these documents are fakes. Why aren't they? Because Bush was skipping out...

This is priceless.

Damn, he's good.

Let's do a little thought exercise, based on today's Post article discussing whether the CBS memos were forgeries.

1. Say someone asks me to see my grades from high school. I say "the report is missing because it's so long ago" but that I received high marks and had good attendance, otherwise I would've have gotten into such a good college.

2. Someone provides a document to me that says I received poor marks and had poor attendance. I don't deny the document is real but insist because I got into college, the document is meaningless.

3. Someone else suggests the documents are forgeries, but notes that "If demonstrated to be authentic, the documents would contradict several long-standing claims" by me.

4. I continue to suggest the document is meaningless (on the record) but do nothing to squelch the forgery rumor.

In this exercise, there are a only two scenarios:

1. I know I received poor marks in high school and had poor attendance, so I've been lying all along and I just have to hope the documents end up being forged.

2. I know I received good marks in high school and had good attendance, so I've been telling the truth all along and therefore I know the documents are forged.

Simple, eh? If Bush actually did pressure people to get out of duty, then the documents are meaningless. If Bush didn't, then the documents aren't meaningless, and the White House must assume they are forgeries!

So, one must ask, why doesn't the White House simply deny the documents are real? Why not say, right off the bat, that these are forgeries? This omission proves, regardless of the document's authenticity, that Bush tried to get out of his agreed to service. And, ironically, the story the Post ran today has actually helped this cause, as I'll explain below.

Journalists often wait for particular moments to introduce "news", because they lack certain evidence for their claims. Case in point: everyone knows Bush tried to get out of going to Vietnam (the undisputed Ben Barnes testimony confirms this) but also that he can't admit this. Therefore, the only real "news" according to the media is when he tries to explain away what he did. (Unlike Clinton, Bush has gone on the record saying the Vietnam War was "worth it"...) These documents provide a crucial crutch for the mainstream journalists to begin writing stories they feel that they felt they knew all along.

And this is the key point of the WaPo article: the assertion that, if true, the documents would blow apart the administration's claims about Bush's service. The line is casually tucked in, deep within the article, but it is a very important one. It marks a turning point.

Essentially, journalists are now able to say "the Bush administration is lying about this and has been since the beginning" if the documents prove to be true. If the documents end up being forgeries, then the same meme has already entered the media-sphere regardless. Journalists have been waiting to push this storyline, of Bush using connections to get ahead, for sometime, with a variety of different evidence.

Remember the "Dean Scream"? I do. I was there. It reinforced the media's pre-written storyline that Dean was crazy. Even after evidence emerged that Dean's microphone had only picked up his voice and that he was trying to talk over the crowd, the media never backed down or altered their storyline. They merely pointed at the video and said "look there...Dean must be crazy!" So even though the video had already been shown to be false, the media used it. Likewise, in this instance, even if the documents prove to be forgeries, the meme of Bush using his connections to get ahead has now been branded acceptable, because that's what the pre-written storyline said.

And in elevating the papers story to the front page for the second day in a row, the WaPo has also given it legs. Look for other papers to follow suit, moving the papers story into the weekend.

Some have questioned whether this is good for Kerry. I think as long as the GOP is concerned with it, it is good. While the chattering class is going on about this, hundreds of thousands of Dems are traveling to battleground states, registering voters, and getting the word out about Kerry. The polls should start to swing back his way in a week, providing a much needed "comeback-Kerry" media storyline. And that will be far more powerful than any memo about Bush's service. The GOP won't know what hit them.

Hooray!

We won! The new overtime rules now have a short shelf-life. I mean, it's not as if Bush will actually veto this legislation. So far...over 4 years, he has vetoed nothing that passes through the House and Senate.

My favorite Dean line applies here.

Bush lied about his service. He has been doing so for at least 5 years...

Atrios has also been all over this today. Check him out.

The Washington Post has the new memos in pdf format. Yes, one actually is titled "CYA"! Here it is:

In addition, it turns out the Bush administration had the memos all along which may mean they violated FOIA requests...funny how they keep coming up with new documents after the old ones are missing/lost/deleted by accident.

Josh Marshall is already all over this.

After a lengthy fight, I've managed to make Internet Explorer behave properly for the website? My weapons?

• The Holly Hack

• Numerous other CSS modifications

• A special "IE-only" css page.

• An unwillingness to let the still-buggy IE for XP Service Pack 2 die horribly.

Give it a shot. Go run around the site. Tell me if any images look funny. (There are a few vintage images that don't have the softer shadow applied...but I don't want to have to search through all the data to find those few outliers.) More importantly, from now on, the site should look just fine in all browsers.

I hate IE, but according to the usage logs tons of you still use it. Grr. I tested out the new version today (it has pop-up blocking) but was rather unimpressed. I mean, still no tabs! However, it now has the ability to disable those dreaded "browser helper objects" which seem to infest an unpatched system in two minutes. You know, the ones that say "click here to speed up your computer" and end up installing tons of spyware. At least m$ did something right.

On a completely unrelated note, I actually got an article posted on slashdot politics yesterday. Go look for it!

And look for any bugs on IE...

The Poor Man managed to score an advance copy of the book and has highlighted the too-hot-for-tv stories the press hasn't even had a chance to fully digest. Click over there to check them out!

Hmm. So much is going down today it's tough to keep track of it all...let's run down through the big stories.

1. Vice President Cheney said voting for Kerry would result in another terrorist attack.

2. Senator Graham claimed the Bush administration covered up Saudi connections in the 9/11 report.

3. It turns out President Bush skipped out on his National Guard duty years ago. Texans For Truth is on the case.

4. It turns out President Bush did some drugs years ago.

5. Kerry chose today to fight back on the war issue.

6. U.S. forces bombed a city we gave up on in Iraq. We have essentially ceded Fallujah to the insurgency now, at least until the "Iraqi Army" can "deal" with the "problem". Yeah, that's a lot of quotes. The DoD says things are going to get worse in the future.

Whew. Good thing CNN is obsessed with the Genesis capsule, which blew up today. It's not like anything else is more newsworthy...

Oh, one more thing. I have 6 gmail invites, if anyone wants one. Just e-mail me...

A few minor things:

1. Thanks to everyone who signed up at vote or not. I appreciate it. To those who haven't yet, please click on the link above to sign up.

2. Be sure to check out 60 minutes tomorrow night. Word on the street is that it will be very interesting...

3. Guests: keep posting articles. They look great.

4. We're tied for the first time in a week. Yay!

5. Anyone know why the words "dress up games" are being searched for so heavily? My usage logs are going through the roof for them this month.

That's all for now.

We just passed the 1,000 casualty count mark in Iraq. The question needs to be asked: what is our plan for winning the peace? It should've been asked long ago, but before another man dies, it needs to be asked again. And again.

Will bringing in more troops? Will internationalizing the force? What about holding elections? In my mind, all of these are sounds methods, but the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one. This administration continues to insist things are just fine, both here and abroad. They need to wake up. Now.

Want to win $200,000? It's simple. Just go to Vote or Not and sign up. You have to be a registered voter. That's it! A great sweepstakes, in my opinion. Be sure to use my link...for the reason you'll see once you click through.

Slashdot now has a new section: Politics Slashdot. Go check it out today!

I wonder why they didn't think of this before? The usual libertarians will be there, but a surprising number of computer people are dyed-in-the-wool progressives. This can only be a good thing.

The weekend was busy. Friday afternoon, I went to First Friday, which turned out to be a bust. Just like last month, for some reason every gallery was shut down save for two. At least the nice weather made the journey from closed art show to closed art show more enjoyable.

Even better was the appearance of a couple long absent from First Friday, who are merely resting in DC for a couple of weeks before heading back to the other side of the world. In the interim they bought a house, so that when they return they'll be living inside the beltway. Hooray! Post gallery walk, we (the couple, a friend, Brad, Deborah and myself) hit Dupont Grill for some drinks before dinner. Later, when the jetset couple departed, Deborah's sister and her sig o. showed up. We ended up moving to Bistro Du Coin, enjoying a loud dinner, before seeing the sister and the sig o. depart. Deborah, Brad and I then retreated to Saint Ex for post-dinner revelry. The evening ended, late as always, but with the three of us in good spirits despite the childlike ability-level of the DJ at Gate 54. DJ Rock Chasty was rock-awful, spinning the worst transitions I'd ever seen. His musical "stylings" were only so-so, but there were enough crowd faves to swing the needle toward a fun morning.

Saturday dawned foggy and cold. I was set to drive Brad back to the familial estate, using Jill's car, so that he could return to school. We made it to the country just as the sun came out, scarfed down a couple of steaks, shot some hoops and then parted ways. I was supposed to come back to town, drop Jill's car off, then snag some dinner later with her family, who was coming into town.

This particular best laid plan was ganged aft by Jill's sickness, which resulted in her running a fever for several straight days. Dinner took place at the Iron Gate, which I've always wanted to sample. The food was all-right, but the ambiance was terrific, except for Jill's obvious pain. Her mom and brother seemed quite cool, so that went well.

Sunday seemed slightly sunnier than the previous day, so I went outside to garden for the first time in weeks. The path had been completely overgrown with vines. A few bags later, I had made a serious dent in the proceedings with only a slight amount of blood spilt. Later I assisted Jill's move into her new, super-huge, super-cool room. The house was clean and ready for the cookout. I was set to hit Heidi's party in the evening for her man's birthday. I had earlier missed out on obtaining an uber-cool gift for the man in question, but I was excited to see his place, which was rumoured to be quite nice.

A brisk walk from the Ballston Metro brought me to the house in question. Just a mile, not very far at all. Sure enough, the place was amazing. Heidi herself had decorated one of the rooms, which looked incredible, and the rest of the pad , including multiple decks, a entertainment area which blew me away, and several rooms not even tackled yet were all standouts. I saw several people at the party I knew, and met many more cool folks, including a couple of Aussies and someone who worked for CNN. An eclectic mix, but all very conversational. As the evening drew to a close, I bummed a ride back to the Ballston Metro stop and hopped out. It was then that I discovered the Metro was closed. Stupidly, I had assumed that during Labor Day weekend, they would run later. Grr. It was past two in the morning. I was tired, it was lightly raining, and I knew my options were limited.

I began to walk east towards the city, because I didn't really want to call a cab. (There were none around me at the time.) On a whim, I called up Leto, who lived a few minutes away by car. She answered the phone, wide awake, and asked what was up. I explained the situation. She said she'd meet me "on the road". I walked east, she drove west. Ten minutes later she pulled up next to me, I hopped in the car, and was spirited away home. Things couldn't have worked out better had I planned it.

Monday. Labor day. More light rain. More cleaning. More fun food shopping. Armed with beverages and food, we fired up the grill in the afternoon and never looked back. Several friends from various circles joined, which was pleasant. We also got to break out the brand new copper firepit I purchased a couple weeks ago. It works like a charm.

On a sidenote, there was one incident: at one point, late in the evening, I walked into the kitchen to get a drink. I ran into Meat, who was reading a satirical book and eating something. Looking at the counter, I noticed a block of cheese had been opened. This was no ordinary cheese. It was bet cheese. That's right. Brad and Jill bet me that if one were to leave a block of cheese out for a week, that it would get moldy. I said that if the package were to remain shut, it would appear that nothing bad was happening to it. So Brad took the cheese home with him and left it on his counter.

For a month.

Then he brought it back to my house, where it has lived for the past two weeks. Unrefrigerated. Just sitting on the counter. I informed Meat that he wasn't supposed to eat the cheese. He commented that it had tasted "funky". I need to find out if he's sick today...

The good news is, I won the bet. The cheese looked normal enough for me to win whatever I bet. If I could just remember what that was I'd be set.

Read about it here. This should be updated later today, I'd imagine.

The worst part is that even as the death rate slows, the injury rate is increasing, which means that more troops are coming home minus arms and legs and eyes. We've already ceded several cities to the "insurgency". It's not a tenable situation...

I swear.

The backend is currently dog-ugly, but I don't have time to mess with it right now. On the plus side, I have been able to implement the new staff section so you can check out the results.

For all of you who haven't altered your description/image/color, please do so! It takes just a second to do and it will result in a great feeling afterwords. As I mentioned, the author admin page is fairly ugly, but my next project will be to clean it up so that it makes more sense and has less random info lying around.

For those of you who don't have a login yet...if you want one, just ask me. There are still some kinks to work out but I'd like to thank Meat and Kevin for posting and helping me iron out the bugs.

On a political note, check out this article at TNR. And yes, Brad, I've fixed the link so anyone can see it.