More stuff you should be reading instead of this lousy blog… #

• Hmmm… The media actually sees the value of letting bloggers work for them. (via We The Media)
• So Bush threatened to veto the $87 billion for the Iraq war before he approved it? Flipflopper. (The Talent Show)
• Sid the Fish has the proper take on Colin Powell’s turn in the centrifuge.
• More on the Katherine Harris lie-fest from a couple of days ago.
• Speaking of lies, there’s a timeline going around which purports to show that Homeland Security terror alerts are coordinated to distract attention from White House embarrassments or some such. I don’t want to link to it because the authors haven’t provided a list of all terror alerts, so I don’t know if they’re including all terror alerts or not. I couldn’t find such a list myself. (And why not, I wonder? Why is there no terror alert database?) Anyway, I’m inclined to believe there’s a certain amount of political maneuvering taking place with these alerts, but I’d like to see more evidence.

  Still, I gotta say that Ken Layne makes a good point about the timing of the announcement and lockdown being a month in advance of the day the threat info refers to. (via Kevin Drum) And why are Laura, Barbara, and Jenna Bush visiting buildings in New York that are under threat? And you know, whether or not the threats are real, if they don’t believe you in Kenosha, you might need to re-examine your credibility. #

  This is how bad it is: We hope the terror threats are real. We really want for something awful to happen, because that would restore our faith in this government. If there’s a terror attack, we can believe what they’re telling us. If not, it just confirms that our government is led right now by a bunch of lying political bullies. #

• Gary Alan Fine writes in the Washington Post that people don’t hate George W. Bush because of his official acts while President, but because of his privileged upbringing and how his mediocrity has constantly been rewarded with success. No, Gary, that’s just another reason to hate Bush, one I hadn’t thought of before. Thanks for bringing it up. (via Reason Hit & Run)

  Curiously, Fine’s article contains this: ” Bush’s administration is free of scandals. He has not eliminated federal programs, not even the National Endowment for the Arts. The retreats have been strategic and slight.” #

  Huh? Free of scandals? Admittedly, there have been no impeachment proceedings undertaken for Bush’s lying us into war. And sure, using executive orders to roll back environmental regulation doesn’t really qualify as “eliminating” federal programs. And I guess it’s only a slight rhetorical judo move to set a huge projected fantasy budget deficit and “beat it” by a few billion and claim that’s responsible fiscal policy. But, you know, some people actually take these things seriously, and some people actually do hate Bush based on his lousy policies. #

  Moron. #

• Fortunately, Boing Boing comes to the rescue with this link to thrity-eight dishonest rhetorical tricks and how to defeat them. The book referred to is out of print, but here’s the book page on Amazon.

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Friday, August 6th, 2004 @ 11:32 am Nothings
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