Cleanin’ out the old link closet tonight. Here’s a list of the stuff you should have been reading over the past few weeks.

• One word: Awesome! (Slashdot)
• Mind Hacks looks like a cool book. So does the blog. (BoingBoing)
• Ariana Huffington posts the November 3 Theses.
• The Poor Man has written quite eloquently and effectively about science, especially the wingers’ disdain for it. See here and here for a couple good examples. Also see him demolish Kaye Grogan’s inability to read the Constitution.
• CJR also has an article on crappy science reporting.
• The Daou Report is a rundown of the latest buzz from the blogs.
• James Wolcott watches Iraq go down the drain. He also notes the slippage of Brand America.
• The Talent Show spots the Specter of fascism.
• Damn. Thomas Friedman goes off. (NYT, reg. req.)
• Congressman John Hostettler (R-IN) suggests anarchy. He hates the courts, and he’s not the only one. The right wing continues to assault one of the three pillars of our Republic. One question: are they insane? (First Draft and Steve Gilliard)
• The courts aren’t finished yet, though. (First Draft)
• Bob Novak: Douchebag. (Washington Monthly) Update: Major Douchebag.

Just a few things before I hit the hay…

• At Sisyphus Shrugged, we get a sense of some of the court challenges we could face before it’s all over. Whatever happens, we’re going to need to get this voting thing figured out.
• Michael Bérubé is serene, and I tend to agree with him. I’m hopeful that John Kerry can pull it out, but I’m prepared to let George Bush clean up his own mess.
• Brad DeLong suggests that the Republicans may take home a few lessons from this campaign.
• I believed you, Jimmy Breslin. (Newsday)
• The Rhetorica Network has an interesting piece about the shift taking place in media.

More stuff you should be reading, especially if you’re not sure about voting for Kerry…

• This piece by Ezra Klein is the one must-read piece before you go to the polls tomorrow: My Affirmative Case for John Kerry. (via Hullabaloo)
• Juan Cole—who, as an expert on the Middle East, knows of what he speaks—explains what’s at stake in this election.
• Charlie Pierce gives us just one good reason to vote for Kerry. (Sid’s Fishbowl)
• Digby adds some more good reasons to vote for Kerry. He also thinks we’re gonna crush ‘em tomorrow.
• Josh Marshall compares the two campaigns response to dissenters in their midst.
• As 60 Minutes reports, Bush talks big about supporting the troops, but doesn’t put up. This ain’t funny, folks. When are our soldiers going to get the equipment they need and we’ve paid for?
• Speaking of big talk, things in Iraq have been getting worse, not better. (Eschaton)
• If all of that fails to move you, can you at least, please, please, see your way clear to get the hell rid of John Ashcroft?
• Though I like the news that early voters are breaking big for Kerry, I’m not sure I’m happy to know that. If we’re going to have early voting, couldn’t we keep a lid on the exit polls? (The Regular)
• This is bizarre: (via The Agitator)

  The Bush Administration has decided that it will stand by its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, according to internal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

  24 more hours, folks. It’ll all be over bar the shouting. Sleep well and vote early.

I’m a Kerry man and I tend to visit way more left-leaning sites than right-leaning ones, so you can take this with a grain of salt, but I’m just getting a stronger feeling as the days go on that we’re about to see a Kerry landslide. I know everyone’s saying this is a tight race, but I can’t help feeling like things are shifting. Call it a combination of portents, intuition, and an abiding optimism in the strength America’s democratic tradition. I don’t think our pride will let us re-elect George Bush. We’ll see, I suppose.

Now, here’s more stuff you should be reading…

• First of all, there’s actually some great conversation going on in the comments section of this very blog! I’m completely chuffed. (That’s a good thing, for those of you not hep to Brit slang.) If you haven’t already, make sure to check out what Graham and Johnny Walker Red have been talking about, vis a vis my last post. You guys are going to blow my whole “Nothing to See Here” tag, but, hey, I can live with that.

  I promised I’d post this link on the front page, though. It’s a lay analysis of the Lancet journal numbers by Jeanne over at Body and Soul, a response to Fred Kaplan’s article at Slate. I think Jeanne rightly points out that the thrust of the study is what’s important to acknowledge, and the thrust of the study is that violent deaths in Iraq are up—probably way up—since the start of the war. The US is responsible for many of these deaths and we have to come to terms with this as a country and decide whether this is acceptable for a nation committed to justice. ‘Cause it’s only likely to get worse. (Washington Monthly)

• Juan Cole recommends this al Jazeera translation of the Osama video as fairly accurate. Worth reading for the fascinating glimpse it offers of Osama’s mind. Interestingly, Kuro5hin notes that there are some significant omissions from the CNN translation. (Or are they significant additions in the al Jazeera version? Did I just blow your mind?)
• William Gibson has the shorter OBL:

  “Hi. 9-11 was all my idea. And you haven’t been able to catch me, so I’ll do it all over again if I decide to. I know you’re having an election now, but that won’t make any difference either way. In order to make a difference, you’ll have to get your government to stop doing the things they’re doing that keep me wanting to attack you again. ‘Bye.”

• Josh Marshall compares Kerry’s and Bush’s responses to the Osama bin Laden video.
• Of all the responses the the OBL video, this one is incredibly cynical. (The Poor Man) It’s also, as Brad DeLong points out, Orwellian. Which raises this question: “Are people who think this way likely to improve, or degrade the personal safety of the American people?” (Sid’s Fishbowl)
• Josh Marshall has the text of the Bush Pledge that the lefties are a little creeped out by. I’d like to be creeped out by it, too, but I want to see it in context. I wonder if there’s a video of it? The guy’s a Florida state senator; not the brightest species on the planet. Maybe he just got a little over-creative while he was writing his speech.
• The Medium Lobster, once again, sets us straight on the whole voter fraud issue:

  The purpose of democracy is not, after all, to select leaders whose policies carry the support and sanction of the public. The purpose of democracy is to select the right leaders – regardless of public intent.

• Greg at The Talent Show makes a key point: fighting al Qaeda cannot be done by declaring war on nations. What’s disturbing to me is that Donald Rumsfeld rightly backs 4G warfare principles of smaller, lighter, highly trained autonomous forces, but apparently fails to understand the core reason for implementing these forces: we’re not fighting our fathers’ wars.
• Greg also transcribes an NPR piece about the Bush administration’s obsession with secrecy.
• R.I.P. Vaughn Meader. I used to listen to my parents’ “The First Family” albums when I was a kid. Brilliant, funny stuff. I probably still copy Vaughn Meader when I do my Kennedy impressions.
• This blogging-related cartoon made me laugh. (Loic Le Meur)
• I caught a little of Josh Rushing’s interview on Fresh Aire the other day. (NPR) Rushing is a former Marine spokesman in Iraq and was featured in the documentary Control Room. Crooked Timber has a rundown of the interview. (via Shrillblog)

I apologize for my absence the last couple of days. I’ve been collecting links, but finding it difficult to post on this new schedule. I’ll sort it out soon. In the meantime, here’s a few days worth of things you should be reading if you know what’s good for you…

• The medical journal Lancet has published a peer-reviewed study of Iraqi civilian casualties (Kuro5hin has a link and password) and estimates that 100,000 Iraqis have died since the start of the US invasion. I hesitated to link to this at first, since the number is an acknowledged guess, but after reading a bit more about how this study was published, it seems to me that the only thing for certain is that the exact number of Iraqi dead is both unknown and very high. The study was heavily peer-reviewed and so it’s not likely to be far too high.

  I’m having trouble dealing with this number. Does anyone think this is an appropriate response to the threat we faced prior to the war? Do you feel more secure now that the blood of 100,000 Iraqis is on our hands, not to mention over 1,100 US troops? If not, what number of dead will satiate your bloodlust? 200,000? 1,000,000? Where does it end?

• Another shout out to Josh Marshall for the great work he’s been doing lately. The man’s been on fi-yah. See this on Bush’s failure to keep his campaign promise on troop readiness. And this on the missing explosives spin. And this on CNN’s impossible standards.
• The Poor Man also has a thing on the al Qaqaa thing. Especially helpful is the explanation of the Four Pillars of Shrillness: mendacity, malevolence, incompetence, and disconnection from reality.
• Michael Bérubé (who really needs to get rid of those snobby, elitist diacriticals) has a couple worth reading. First, he quotes from and comments on a reality-based assessment of the situation in Iraq. Second, he has a good sum-up of something the left-wing blogosphere in general has been talking about: Slate’s feeble endorsements for Kerry. Michael’s assessment of how the progressives and liberals habitually—almost reflexively—trash their own candidates is worth a read.
• Even if liberals can’t seem to muster reasons to vote for Kerry, conservatives can. (Shrillblog) So can this guy.
• Adam Felber pretty much nails the “WTF?!” Question of the Decade.
• Dr. Cline at Rhetorica notes that the press is a little shaken that bloggers are upsetting their journalistic apple carts. Like all intelligent folk, journalists will try to rationalize their position, to defend the status quo. Over at Jay Rosen’s PressThink, Doug McGill mounts a defense that sounds a little like, “It’s not that wife-beating is wrong, per se, but perhaps beating your wife with a closed fist as opposed to an open palm is wrong.”
• First Draft notes the civil suit brought by four former inmates of Guantanamo. Go get ‘em boys. It’s embarrassing that this is what it takes to get some justice. Where has our government been? Where are our values, fer the love of Pete?
• Love this “Simple Answers to Stupid Questions” from the National Geographic, via The Talent Show.
• The Daily Show hit this theme very well last night, but Wesley Clark got there first.
• Kevin Drum admires the chutzpah.
• There’s an interview with Seymour Hersh over at AlterNet. He pretty much hits on the same themes has has other interviews lately, but they’re vitally important to be aware of, so if you haven’t caught his stuff recently, read this. What he has to say about the war, Abu Ghraib, the NeoCons, and the press is worthy of your attention.

More stuff you should be reading instead of staying up ‘til 2 am like some bloggers I could mention…

• Athenae posts an open letter from overseas.
• More here about the sorry spectacle of Abu Ghraib. I’m not sure what’s more outrageous: that we let this happen in the first place, or that there hasn’t been more of a scandal. I mean, whatever Clinton did on his worst day makes him look like an altar boy next to this mess. (Washington Monthly)
• I just don’t understand how our great democracy, that prides itself on its free and orderly democratic process, could let that process get completely haywire. (The Poor Man)
• Orcinus notes what I have long considered the central weak point in the rational for Bush’s War on Terror: there’s no end to it. There are no parameters. How many grieving relatives do Bush and Cheney think they can brush aside with platitudes and non-answers before even the will of their base starts to drain away?
• And Kevin Drum echoes my concern that the US is starting to act more and more like Stalinist Russia.
• Good timing, then, that the ACLU is advocating for a Civil Liberties Board. (via Brown Equals Terrorist)
• The staff at Pat Buchanan’s American Conservative was split enough that they published a dissenting endorsement for Kerry. The Regular has the money quote:

  “Bush has behaved like a caricature of what a right-wing president is supposed to be, and his continuation in office will discredit any sort of conservatism for generations.”

  In my darkest hours, I take comfort from this thought. A Bush win would be disastrous, but it would force him to sit in the mess he’s made and we could look forward to 30 years of Democratic presidents starting in 2008.

• Speaking of endorsements, The Poor Man has the best endorsement yet.
• More on Digital Rights Management. Tim Oren notes that if you have to implement DRM, you’ve already lost the game.
• Interesting formula for successful blogging by Seth Godin. What do you think?

I’ve changed up my schedule lately so that I can get more work done on my real money project during the day. The result is that I’m waiting ‘til later to post here, and that means I’m tired and not as inclined to spend gobs of time on my blog. It’s probably best in the long run, but it doesn’t quite support what I mentioned a few days ago about wanting to polish the writing here. I’ll see if I can’t find a way to do both.

I have a couple of posts I’m working on and hope to put up here in the next day or two, but for now I’m going to try to keep the “Nothings” brief and get some shuteye.

• Josh Marshall has been on it lately. “It,” in this case, is the story about the 350 tons – and that’s TONS – of high-grade explosives that we left unguarded in Iraq at the start of the war and which have since disappeared. Read here, here, and especially here, or just go to Talking Points Memo and keep scrolling. And Athenae at First Draft zeroes in on the really telling question in all this.
• Speaking of excellent work, Michael Bérubé serves up a primo smackdown of Camille Paglia’s dumbass doubletalk.
• Sid the Fish reads between the lines of Bush’s appearance on Good Morning America
• A big WTF!? to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, via Catch.

  Three from Boing Boing:

• More Jon Stewart video available at C-SPAN. This is from an October 14th discussion at Syracuse University (though I think the video was broadcast on the 23rd). I think people really underestimate Stewart’s acuity. You can’t dismiss him as just an uninformed clown, and he’s not taking himself so seriously that he can’t laugh at himself. To me, he comes off as a caring citizen with a strong point of view.
• This is just too weird. I’ll rip the entire post from Boing Boing:

  When a Douglasville, Georgia woman returned home from a 2 1/2 week holiday to Greece, she found that a total stranger had moved into her house, ripped up the carpet, changed the photos on the walls, and was wearing clothes from her closet. The squatter also switched the utilities over to her own name and installed a washer and dryer.

• Also from Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow notes why market-forces can’t correct for stupid Digital Rights Management schemes.

  A couple from First Draft:

• Holden is obsessed with the gaggle, and why not? Scottie McClellan is a better contortionist than anyone Cirque du Soliel has to offer.
• Athenae quotes from The New Yorker’s endorsement of Kerry and notes that the magazine has not previously endorsed a presidential candidate in its entire 80-year history.

Here’s more stuff you should be reading after you watch the Jon Stewart interview on 60 Minutes:

• When will we get rid of John Ashcroft and that miserable anti-American Patriot Act? We’re raiding romance novelists, fer chrissakes. What a colossal waste of resources. Haven’t we learned this lesson time and again in our history? There’s a reason why our founding fathers gave us the Fourth Amendment, and it was to prevent crap like this. (Hullabaloo)
• Josh Marshall is all over the administration’s revisionist history of our failure to capture bin Laden at Tora Bora. Visit Talking Points Memo and scroll.
• Josh also details how the US let 350 tons of high explosives just disappear from an Iraqi storage facility. And Sisyphus Shrugged is rightly appalled that we knew about this for a year and a half and actively worked to keep the IAEA from finding out about it.
• Brad DeLong links to Eric Umansky, who is distressed at how poorly we’ve prepared and outfitted our military.
• The new RNC “Wolves” ad has just been getting mocked mercilessly. Adam Felber notes that maybe the campaign picked an unfortunate metaphor. The Poor Man has a great sendup, and there’s nice takedown at Catch, too.
• James Wolcott pops a couple of overblown windbags.
• As Election Day draws near, the bloggers are circling the wagons. The Shrillblog reminds us that we have a simple choice this election, and ponders the Cult of Bush. Meanwhile, Brad DeLong can’t believe that some can remain unconvinced of John Kerry’s ability to do the job, and he reminds us of the major benefit in Kerry’s favor: that he will bring grownups back to Washington.
• On the same topic, Athenae at First Draft – who is my girlfriend even though she doesn’t know it – hammers the point home: We need to fire George Bush and his entire incompetent staff.

I’m pooped, so it’s a late-night link dump. Enjoy…

• This is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time: Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog roams Spin Alley after the third debate. 15 MB of must-see comedy.
• A new study purports to show that Bush supporters are staggeringly uninformed about their candidate’s policy positions. (Washington Monthly) The question I think is most dangerous for Bush is, what are all these people going to do when they finally see the truth?
• Atrios reminds us of a civics lesson that is easily forgotten: In a democracy, the rights of the minority are preserved.
• This totally makes sense when you hear the explanation: Under Clinton, the number of abortions was decreasing. Under Bush, the number of abortions has been increasing. The reason? Economics, mostly. The Talent Show has more.
• We had multiple chances to take out al-Zarqawi and we didn’t, because it would have hurt the case for war in Iraq. Kevin Drum has your monthly reminder.
• We could have captured Osama bin Laden, and we didn’t. (Talking Points Memo)
• This Visualize Kerry Winning video does give me a lift, I must say. (Needlenose, via First Draft)
• George Bush has been arrested thrice. Bush Arrest Record | The Regular
• Bush doesn’t understand the war on terror.
• RFID tags in passports is about the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. Bruce Schnier explains why.
• Bush has three responsibilities (The Talent Show.)
• Vote for Bush… and die. (The Talent Show)

More stuff you should be reading instead of… this…

• (Warning: Blashpemy) Oy. This is all over the blogscape: Is Pat Robertson a liar, or did George W. really say that God told him there would be no casualties in Iraq? And, of course, since nobody else will, I’ll ask the obvious followup: Is President Bush disappointed in God for lying to him? Or does he think he’s still doing an excellent job? (First Draft)
• Damn. John Le Carré can have my vote. Although, come to think of it it’d be kind of a waste, ‘cause it looks like we’d both be voting for the same person. From the LA Times:

  While Bush was waging his father’s war at your expense, he was also ruining your country. He made your rich richer and your poor and unemployed more numerous. He robbed your war veterans of their due and reduced your children’s access to education. And he deprived more Americans than ever before of healthcare.

  Now he’s busy cooking the books, burying deficits and calling in contingency funds to fight a war that his advisors promised him he could light and put out like a candle.

  Meanwhile, your Patriot Act has swept aside constitutional and civil liberties that took brave Americans 200 years to secure and were once the envy of a world that now looks on in horror, not just at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib but at what you are doing to yourselves.

• I know I link to Sid’s Fishbowl a lot, but damn... m’boy’s all on top of it. You can read his take on the Pat Robertson thing here. Also he points to the alternative to the “Reality-Based Community” slogan, 19th Century Bush. Hmmm… I think we’re on to something.
• Mr. DeLong, Mr. The Poor Man, if I may… Ahem: Bush’s own relatives are shrill:

  Jeanny House (Wisconsin): I’m voting for John Kerry because I’m a Christian. I know that my second cousin, George Bush, claims that he is the anointed leader of the American people and that God told him to run for office. I believe he may even believe that. I don’t.

  My Christian faith leads me to a concern for the poor and the marginalized, yet Bush’s actions in office have repeatedly cut funding for health care, aid to failing schools, jobs programs, after school programs, Head Start, and many more services that provide real help and hope to those living in poverty. Under the Bush administration, over a million additional people have dropped below the poverty line. 1.2 million more have gone into “deep poverty,” which is one-half the $18,810 for a family of four that defines “poverty.”

  Read the rest. It’s brilliant.

• Speaking of shrill, the Shrillblog notes that the WaPo, despite years of throwing in with Bush, can’t take it anymore. They argue that we should – get this! – treat prisoners humanely!
• Very interesting article at Washington Monthly comparing the Jimmy Carter Democrats and the George Bush Republicans. The author argues that the modern GOP is where the Democrats were in 1980 and makes a very persuasive case that the Republicans might be at the apex of their pendulum swing. (via Kevin Drum)
• Damn. Back to Iraq has a quick report and a video of a firefight in Mosul. This is what combat is like over there, folks.
• Bush is outsourcing our security. (Sisyphus Shrugged)
• Finally, The Al Franken Show blog takes apart Bush’s domestic terror-fighting record. If any of you right-wing types drop by, perhaps you can point us to a refutation of this?