IT MAY NOT BE LINEAR, BUT AT LEAST THIS POST IS COLORFUL

Yesterday afternoon, after I hung up my blogging hat for the day (it's a special hat which only I can see), I walked around with my crappy Sanyo cell phone camera taking pictures of things. Now, I bring you some of those things.

As I've sort of mentioned before, the 200,000 square foot building I'm sitting in is called the Farley Post Office on days when Republicans are not convening across the street. On days when they are, it's known as the Farley Media Center or Farley Building. But that doesn't mean you can't still tell it's a post office. First, there are signs that say "Post Office." But there's also fun signs like this one:


If you can't read that, it says:

INSTRUCTIONS on USE of RING TYPE KNIFE

1. Wear only when actually engaged in work that requires cutting of string.
2. Never wear knife on palm side.
3. Return to desk whenever turning to other work not requiring cutting.
4. Never leave loose in pocket.

Interesting. Less interesting but appearing here nonetheless is something that may be called Newspaper Alley:


So far as I know, it's not called anything. This is only about half of it; every newspaper, magazine and newsletter here distributes their wares along this row of bins.

Here's a very inadequte picture of the restaurant:


It's run by someone named Mitchel London, the chef at the Fairway Steakhouse on the Upper West Side, about whom I know next to nothing except the food available here tends toward Frenchiness (come on, this is the GOP convention! The host committee would have done better to bring in barbecue). What I do know is that his promotions department has positioned him as cleverer-than-thou, and it's annoying. Here's the partial text from a coupon for a free glass of wine:

"Generous" is not the first word that springs to mind when one is asked to describe the irascible food genius Mitchel London. All we can figure is maybe he's concerned about his place in history, "curmudgeon", [sic] is not how he'd like to be remembered. Whatever, here's the deal:

Blah blah, free wine. I should note, the phrase "irascible food genius" appears on a sign in the restaurant area as well. I don't care how smart he is, I just don't understand what he's got against minorites.

Let's move along:

I'm not kidding about the 200,000 square feet -- this place is huge, and with all the makeshift work spaces divided by eight foot curtains, it has the feel of a teenage giant's rat maze. Considering the city and profession at hand, that's fitting. Down in the basement is a rather large room just off the loading docks where all of the networks feed their, er, feeds through before slicing and dicing on expensive equipment and throwing it at your cable provider's satellite. And this does all look fairly expensive:


I saw all this while looking for the security entrance to Madison Square Garden itself. When I found it, I found out my press pass was of the wrong type for admission to the MSG itself. Supposedly I can get in after 4 p.m. today, and you can be sure I'll try. My hopes of seeing where Godzilla supposedly gave birth to velociraptors in 1998 dashed for now, I went streetside.

This was clearly a mistake.


24 hours before this shot was taken, the intersection pictured was overrun by angry left rabblerousers who torched a dragon float (the symbolism escapes me too) and landed at least one NYPD officer in the hospital. Eventually, obviously, the police reasserted control and were carefully (read: tediously) managing traffics of both the axle/wheel and biped/foot variety. They achieved this in part by trapping passersby on the corners every few minutes to allow cars through.


Here's that orange net. You can't tell from here, but I'm behind another orange net. I think I waited here about five minutes here; at least the protesters actually moved.

After relaxing at the hotel for awhile, I decided to find out what would happen if I hopped on the subway and just started riding it. The experiment didn't last too long, because the first stop was Union Square, where I had heard protests would be taking place (Mayor Bloomberg was afraid they'd mess up the Great Lawn). Yet when I came up topside, there really weren't that many people. Mostly they were taking turns standing on a small platform (possibly a soapbox, but I didn't look closely) and reciting typical frustrated leftist pap. 'I'm so scared to death of living in this police state run by a fascist Republican racist homophobic unelected boy king idiot thief...' To my knowledge that's not an exact quote, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.


So I watched a bit more, grabbed a turkey sandwich at a nearby bodega, then hopped a cab to the Strand. I can proudly report, something like eight Strands could fit into Powell's back in Portland. The one thing we still have on the West Coast is extra space. I bought a few books while there, including a used first edition of Jacques Barzun's "From Dawn to Decadence." For the uninitiated, Barzun is a historian and possibly the only Frenchman conservatives like. The book is a detailed history/polemic on the last 500 years of Western civilization; he sees plenty of decadence. So did I, while wandering around town:


This is not one of the larger piles of trash bags and cardboard boxes I saw in the East Village, but it should give you the general idea. Nothing could really top this, so I decided it was time to head back. The good news is I can expense unlimited taxis. But the bad news is it's physically impossible for me to ride in "unlimited taxis." Maybe tomorrow I'll just hop in a taxi around noon and take in the tri-state area.

The rest of the evening was spent at the hotel bar with my co-workers, soaking in whiskey and schadenfreude. Then it was upstairs to see McCain and Giuliani speak, about which more later. But right now, I need a nap. (For the record: 2 hours sleep last night plus a one-hour nap on a not-as-comfortable-as-it-looks sofa in front of the TVs in my company's work space.)

Besides, this post was really getting out of hand.

COMMUNISTS FOR KERRY?

Last night an old friend who recently moved here to the city sent me an e-mail, drawing my attention to a particular line in this Washington Post story about the protests. He and some friends attended with a specific purpose -- and apparently they bought his story about being a ... well, read on:

"Kerry might prefer to eschew the four-member 'Communists for Kerry' contingent, whose placards advocated a 'France First!' foreign policy."

Hilarious. Meanwhile, it turns out there really is a Communists for Kerry website, and it's based out of White Plains, which isn't too far north of here. Whether the same people are involved I know not, but they've definitely got the same idea.

YAWN. TOO LATE TO TAKE A NAP, NOW

Hmmm. So I'm just sitting here in the press center watching the Gallery of Doomed Candidates -- George Nethercutt and Bill Jones (not to be confused with the twice-damned Bill Simon), just to name the most prominent -- speechify in the Garden, on C-SPAN. Just like the Boston convention -- with its own Assembly of the Damned -- only then I was sitting in my apartment. Also like Boston, I had to get up in the middle of the night to get over here and start work. Now it's the mid-afternoon and I'm waiting to leave but can't. Is today the day I walk walk from one side of the island to the other? Perhaps not. First of all, behind the restaurant here in the temporarily-converted Farley Post Office Building there's a spa sponsored by Barneys (no apostrophe, sort of like AC/DC's The Razors Edge). Barneys is a clothing store where shirts cost half my paycheck, which means they can afford to provide "a lounge, billiards, and complimentary grooming services for reporters," including "haircuts, manicures, makeovers, mini-facials and waxing." I may steer clear of the waxing and manicures, but I could use a drink and a massage. I'm also curious to check out The Strand, maybe to buy a used book but mostly to compare it with my beloved Powell's (note reassuring presence of apostrophe). Before that, I'll make my first attempt to get on the convention floor. I'll definitely take pictures while I'm in there. If I get in there.

[Time passes. I do some stuff, walk around aimlessly, stand purposelessly, then return to my workspace.]

Good news! I've been released, and this time before the sun goes down. I'm heading out onto the streets, just as soon as this goes up. Later.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

I don't expect coverage here to be perfect, but I do at least want events already televised to be treated as if they actually happened. Let's start three days ago, when the Washington Post -- which I am still reading daily, even here in New York -- sought to debunk fears about left-wing violence at the convention:

The New York Daily News reported this week that unnamed "police intelligence sources" had warned that "50 of the country's leading anarchists" are coming to New York and that some had "histories of violent and disruptive tactics." The newspaper ran a fuzzy photo of one such man on its front cover, treatment usually reserved for al Qaeda suspects.

The man, Richard Picariello, is an antiwar organizer but is not affiliated with any anarchist group. Nor has any public official presented any evidence that anarchists plan more than sustained civil disobedience.

First of all, anarchists never allow that they belong to any organization when talking to outsiders. The ELF, Black Bloc and others claim no membership and no leadership, and though the groups operate in loosely-connected cells with similar objectives ... well, at least members of al Qaeda will own up to the fact. (Cheap shot? Only if you take it seriously.) The Post, acting as a fact-checker, obviously doesn't know enough about the far, far left to do so adequately. But it gets worse. Flash forward back to today, aaaaand here is the Post this morning:

There were scattered arrests at the edges of the protest, but police reported no violence.

Oh, really? Instead of rebutting this myself, allow me to do something somewhat unusual and quote the New York Times' news pages favorably:

At a news conference last night, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said there had been about 200 arrests, mostly for disorderly conduct, though nine people were charged with felony assaults on officers who were seizing a 10th suspect for setting a small fire outside the Garden, and 15 members of an anarchist group called Black Block [sic] were arrested after they knocked down police barriers and hurled bottles at police lines at 34th Street and Avenue of the Americas.

Shhhh! The Washington Post doesn't want to hear about it. They've already got their story, and they're sticking to it.

THE BIG BOARD

While reviewing the public displays of attention-getting by the cable news channels yesterday, I failed to note the two giant TV screens at the Macy's on West 34th and Seventh Ave, which play Fox News around the clock.



See that oblong luminescence on the corner of that building? You can't tell from this picture, but trust me, it's Brit Hume. Two of him, actually. Does this bump my A rating up to an A+? No, for at least two reasons that come to mind at the moment. One, I'm expecting their convention coverage to be at least as weak as it was in Boston, though the lack of audio might be an improvement. (Once again, Bill O'Reilly thinks he's doing the audience a favor by talking over the convention speeches.) Two, I'm pretty sure this is a permanent fixture. And if they really had gone all out to put up those screens just for this week, well, as the whole thing smacks of effort, man.

BUSHIT?

One of the more common but less comprehensible anti-Bush slogans of the past few months is "Bushit." (It's almost everywhere here.) Whatever it means, it doesn't seem to be in the dictionary. Perhaps its an anagram -- "Hub Sit"? Well, that would have made more sense if this convention was in Boston. Or "Hi Bust"? Could be a friendly salutation to a failed president; that or they have sex on the brain Maybe I'm looking too hard -- it could be "Bus Hit." Which is a tad worrisome -- maybe the protesters really are on the side of the terrorists. Or maybe it's like "Push It"? Like, out of office? Or maybe they mean "Bush is it," like The Strokes album.

That leaves us with just one option: the word is a combination of "Bush" and "shit" and while meaningless, it's good enough just to associate the president's word with a vulgarity often read as to mean "feces." In which case it may be intended to sound like "bullshit" -- that is, if you can't hear the "L" sound. If you ask me, that's the dumbest of all. And so long as Bush's supporters avoid using "Kerryouasshole" and "Edwardsuckmydick," I think they'll come out ahead.

THE PRESS, CENTERED

A few blocks away signs are being waved, fires are being set and the Bush administration is being denounced by thousands. So why would I be here in the press center when all the real news is out in the streets? Easy -- I have to work today. And working I am, at least intermittently. But I've been here all day, under fluorescents, drinking water cooler water, watching people from my company whom I've never seen before walk by, sorting through stacks of papers, reading to pass the time. And, nursing a hangover.

Obiter Dictum: The name of this building is Farley. Just like a character from a series of Judy Blume novels, better known as Fudge. Yesterday there was fudge at a nearby table. Today there is only beverages. Also, I have the hiccups for maybe the third time in 12 hours.

I started writing this post at about 2 p.m. It's now after 9. It's been a wasted day.

I. Now, because the press covered the blogs in Boston, incessantly, I will turn the tables and blog about the press. (Note to self: Don't I mostly write about the political media anyway? Shhhh. This will be fun.) Yesterday I walked the circumference of the Penn Station/Madison Square Garden (neither square nor a garden -- discuss, as Linda Richman would say) to check out the billboards the cable news networks ("news cablers," if you speak Variety) have plastered around midtown. There are more than a few, and they are not equally prominent nor appealing. Allow me to criticize:

• CNN -- C -- I've seen two so far. Neither are very inspiring, one just says "America's Campaign Headquarters on a white background with sporadic blue stars. Yet they've put it right on the corner so no one can miss it.


• FOX -- A -- Big, bright, colorful, brash, cartoonish and everywhere, including an especially large curved billboard that will make you do a double-take and think (for a moment, anyway) that someone's moved NASDAQ sign about 10 blocks over.
  


• MSNBC -- D+ -- The D grade is because you would never know it's there unless you look for it, halfway up the side of one building on an outer wall facing another building (as opposed to Seventh Ave, which is where it's visible). The + is because it's not half bad. Shiny and pleasing to the eye like Fox's, though a bit crowded. But it still gets a D.
  


• "Daily Show" -- A -- First, I have to say I'm getting fairly irritated with the show. Jon Stewart didn't so much interview Kerry last week, rather he slobbered all over him. But they still have the best slogans, including "1 Anchor. 4 Correspondents. Zero Credibility" and "Welcome to New York. That Smell? Freedom." They also look almost exactly like the Fox News posters -- no accident.


• ABC, NBC, CBS -- I'm not going to grade them, because none of them are out there. I should probably give them an F simply for that, not to mention they've only consented to surrender a measly three hours of prime time this week to cover the goings on. Weak!

II. Last night was the big media party, which by the way one could be forgiven for believing it was titled "MEDIA WELCOME," because that's what the passes said. In keeping with the media themes, the tickets were attached to a lanyard. Press passes, basically. I didn't know this, but the first five floors of the Time Warner Center is a mall. Imagine walking into a crowded mall at night with music and exotic lighting, plus free food and booze at tables literally spaced every ten feet or so, for five floors. I've definitely been to worse parties. Even better, for once we ran into people actually more famous than the "famous for DC" I usually come face to face with (i.e. I saw Howard Kurtz in the Farley restaurant). For example, I know you can't tell, but the partially obscured man in the center of this group is Sean Hannity.



Hannity was the only actual big media person I saw, though. Earlier in the evening I asked a friend if this one guy nearby was Roger Friedman, Fox News' gossip columnist. As soon as I said the words "Roger" and "Friedman," the possible Roger Friedman started turning, so I stepped away. Hannity? He was just sorta standing around talking to people. I'd better wrap this up -- he would probably denounce me as a Communist just for posting this. But not so the other mega-celeb I crossed paths with:



Don King! Don King has repeatedly gone on the record as a "Republocrat," often while dressed head to toe in the stars and stripes and waving miniature American flags in both hands, but this year he's for Bush. It seemed he was there to give an interview (and wave his flag), but we missed it. By the time I arrived it was just him sitting there. And everyone else taking pictures. So then there's this guy:



Who? He was one of three other models hired to wear magazines and move around like an animatronic creature. He seemed to be having a good time, too. Plus, free magazines!

III. I guess that's it. It's late. I need to finish my beer, head out and find something a bit harder than Samuel Adams before calling it a night.

Tomorrow, the convention begins.

IT'S A HELL OF A TOWN

This would be my third trip to New York City in as many years, and so far it's shaping up to be like the others: crowded, sweltering, pungent and distracting. DC may be a full-fledged major metropolis with everything but the baseball team (don't remind them) but five minutes in Manhattan will make Dupont Circle feel like 17th century Jamestown.

Getting in was easier than I'd thought. As of 8 p.m. last night the secure zone seemed still to be under construction -- barriers were strewn all across the street, but mostly just to keep vehicles (that is: semi trucks packed with C4) from passing through (read: ramming it into Madison Square Garden. A thought that doesn't really fit in anywhere else: MSG is not very garden-like). We did see the Critical Mass bicyclists bleating themselves into a fury of cycling, about which I have this to say: yawn. So far none of the protests I've seen involve nudity or mountaineering equipment. I'll let you know when I do.


There are bars in this town. So many I don't see how anyone could even speak of a "bar scene." Every block in the East Village is a scene. The same is true with diners, but with a slightly lower chance of being hit on the head with a chair. I went to a number of places, including Julep in Alphabet City with about a dozen people representing maybe four or five distinct social groups. If you think it's easy to keep all these people together for more than a bar or so, you would be wrong. Later we hit an Asian dance club (pictures exist of me atop a table, contorted) and a bar seemingly built in an English basement. Eventually I got tired of it all and caught a cab back to midtown.

My hotel room is on the corner of the ninth floor, which means I've got a terrific view of the street below. The room itself is small but not claustrophobic. The only real letdown is that the mini bar is out of service -- even though I can very clearly see the cans of soda, beer and nuts plus candy bars and liquor through the plexiglass front. This is annoying enough, but more so when you find this out upon returning to the hotel at 3 a.m. this morning.

By now you've heard about the arrests of two New York men plotting to blow up a subway station in midtown Manhattan. In case you were wondering, yes, that is the subway station underneath my hotel.

The press center, where I am typing from, is a three-story warehouse attached to the old Post Office, directly across the street from MSG. We've got laptops and printers in our area, not to mention bags of chips, cookies, coffee, water and two refrigerators stocked with bottled water and soda pop. Somewhere in the building they're offering free manicures, facials and massages. I've got a TV next to my desk, where I just saw the men's basketball team avoid abject humiliation by holding on for the Bronze.

Tonight is the "media party" at the (still under construction?) AOL Time Warner building. Until then I've got a few hours to kill. I may get that massage. I will surely help myself to another Dr. Pepper. I've always wanted to walk across Manhattan from the East River to the Hudson. So have I also wanted to walk the circumference of Central Park. But the chances are good I'll just wander around the neighborhood here. If I can soak up some culture without taking any shrapnel, I'll be a happy journalist.

ARMED PROPHET @ THE CONVENTION

Am I back from vacation already? No! But the good news is that I will be back from hiatus a bit sooner than I first thought. As I understand it now, I will have Internet access inside the secure zone in New York City, so blogging from the convention will be possible. Assuming that's correct, I would be failing in my obligations as a reporter/blogger by not bringing you, dear reader, along with me. (As if I'm not already shirking my blog duties right now.)

So. Assuming all goes according to plan -- at this point it's too soon to be sure my train won't explode as it pulls into Penn Station -- my next post will be on Saturday.

But in the meantime, I've got to get out at least one rant I've been saving up, and it's about the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads (shortented to SBVT for those of us who must type it out several times a day). First, my original (and until now lone) post on the SBVT campaign holds up pretty well -- it's a big deal, and both campaigns are struggling with it (Kerry more so, of course). But I've been away from the whole thing for a few weeks. So allow me to comment by way of urgent messages to all involved.

• Note to SBVT: I really hope you're being honest about your recollections from late 1968 through early 1969.


• Note to print media, esp. New York Times, Boston Globe and USA Today's Mark Memmott specifically: Just because you don't like the story doesn't mean you have to report the rebuttal first.


• Note to Chris Matthews: Well, you've pretty much blown your shot at ever hosting Meet the Press by now, haven't you?


• Note to television media: At least some of you have had the temerity to acknowledge your own slowness to cover the story.


• Note to Kerry campaign: Don't you think it's a tad ill-advised to be arguing process right at this point? Especially when it's a process that's helped you out a lot for going on six months?


• Note to MoveOn, Americans Coming Together, Media Fund, etc.: You know how good you've got it, right? (See above.)


• Note to Kerry's "Band of Brothers": I hope you've got a sincere answer ready when a reporter asks what you think of Kerry's Senate testimony to the Fulbright committee.


• Note to Bush campaign: Lucky you, for now -- but do you have your shit together by now, or what?


• Note to self: Yes, you would rather debate the candidates' approach to foreign policy, but admit it -- this is good summer fun.

We'll see how this stands up. You'll see more in this space on Saturday.

JUST CHECKING IN

Really, how does this site manage to get 60 hits or so a day, weeks after my last posting? Must be those of you who surf in via Google or from another blog. Well, thanks for stopping in. I'm back in the District again now, albeit not for too long. I still plan to be busy throughout the rest of August, which means blogging will keep up its current pace of one post every two weeks -- if I have the time. And I don't. But if anything changes, you know where to find me.

ON LEAVE

By which I mean I'm leaving shortly. I'll be flying north, with my younger brother, to Howard Dean's home state for a concert of arguably historic proportions. The week after will be said brother's first week as a 21-year-old. My duties here are self-evident. Another friend flies in the same week. When they fly back to the West Coast, I'll be on my way to New York to cover the convention for work.

I hate having to go on hiatus as so much is going on in the presidential campaigns, but I can't get around this schedule and I don't have a BlackBerry. Yet. I also happen to have a number of not-quite-finished, almost timeless posts I've been working on for awhile, that I may get around to posting before I start paying attention to current events again. And there is a chance that I will be able to post from New York, so start checking back in late August. But if not, I'll be back in early September.

Consider the comments below an open thread. Maybe I'll jump in if I find a spare moment.

THE FEDERALIST

Delete that "prospective" adjective, because later this weekend Alan Keyes will announce his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. If you ask me, it's a bonehead move for the Illinois Republicans. Keyes can give a hell of a speech, all right; a friend of mine once described seeing him speak and agreeing, "Yes, yes, yes!" during it but afterward thinking, "No, no, no!" But he doesn't stand a chance in that ever more Democratic-leaning state. Is Keyes the kind of Republican that can bring the state party back together? I seriously doubt it. In another cycle or two, Mike Ditka could be that kind of guy. He's no Schwarzenegger, but for what it's worth, Alan Keyes has written that Schwarzenegger "is on the evil side" for being a social moderate. If at any point between now and November he calls Barack Obama "evil," I predict a spike in the polls -- for Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, Democrats are gleefully circulating this 2000 quote from Keyes, on Hillary Clinton's carpetbag candidacy for the Senate:

"I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton’s willingness to go into a state she doesn’t even live in and pretend to represent people there. So I certainly wouldn’t imitate it."

Criticizing his flip-flop on district-shopping is fair, but it's not what grabs my attention. Rather, I wonder about his grasp on the concept of federalism. Obviously, New York and Illinois get to set eligibility requirements for their own officeholders; both Keyes now and Clinton in 2000 are and were eligible to run as per the laws of each state. So, different states have different laws ... isn't that a key feature of federalism?

P.S. According to ArchPundit, Keyes asked New York's Libertarian Party for their nomination for a Senate bid in 1998, but they turned him down. Ouch. When the Libertarians tell you no, that's really saying something.

THE TELEVISION WILL NOT BE REVOLUTIONIZED

Howard Dean is guest hosting "Topic A with Tina Brown" this weekend. Dean has reportedly been in talks to host his own television talk show, and this could be the first step. With John McEnroe's viewership merely a rumor, can it be long before "Dean for CNBC" is following Dennis Miller at 10 p.m.? Maybe that explains why Miller recently jettisoned his "Dean scream" button…

TAKE A MEMO

1. To the Washington Post: I hope I can trust your "sources close to the probe" on this report.


2. To all Washington officials: Take this opportunity to learn what Richard Shelby had to learn the hard way -- do not leak information to Carl Cameron that you wouldn't want traced back to you.


3. To Fox News attorneys: Did you tell Carl Cameron he had to comply with federal investigators? Don't do that.


4. To Fox News management: Do not let him talk to CNN reporters, either.


5. To Dana Bash: A fellow reporter does not count as a "congressional source."


6. To actual congressional sources: Please do not leak intercepted terrorist communications to the press.


7. To Richard Shelby: This means you, too.

THE WAR AT HOME

First several major overseas al-Qaeda arrests in the past week, now this report, breaking this hour:

Federal agents arrested a Chicago man Thursday on charges of plotting to use a fertilizer truck bomb to blow up a federal courthouse, but prosecutors said he never actually had dangerous materials to make a bomb. ... Prosecutors said Gale William Nettles, 66, ... was not working with any other groups but had asked cooperating witnesses about contacting Al-Qaida and Hamas.

And this one, earlier today:

Two leaders of an Albany, New York, mosque were arrested in a sting operation and accused by the U.S. of plotting to buy shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles with an FBI informant posing as a terrorist. ... The Albany suspects are linked to Ansar al-Islam, a group with ties to al-Qaeda, the AP reported, citing unnamed law enforcement officials. Ansar al-Islam is thought to be affiliated with Abu al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant, the wire service said.

Does Howard Dean also think the Bush campaign is directing John Ashcroft to catch terrorists for electoral gain?

A DAY LATE AND A FLOPPER SHORT

Richard Cohen comes very, very late to the game of trying to peg George W. Bush as a flip-flopper. The left half of the blogosphere has been pushing this for months, Josh Marshall especially, and to little effect. The notion is so old there's even a website, flipfloppingbush.com, that looks like it was authored in 1998. Now here's Cohen, rehashing the lamest of the lame examples:

Bush has flipped and flopped with the best of them. As a presidential candidate, he declared himself implacably opposed to nation-building. Now we are engaged in building Iraq and Afghanistan.

Did Richard Cohen call in sick on September 11, 2001? The column does not acknowledge that this event changed Bush's entire presidency, let alone his foreign policy. While it's possible Cohen disagrees that 9/11 was a transformational moment, he doesn't mention the attacks in this section at all. More likely it overestimated the value of this shot.

And on the use of troops abroad, I don't think Bush's mind changed nearly as much as some think. Let's go back to the transcript from the second debate in 2000, to the line everyone quotes:

I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war. I think our troops ought to be used to help overthrow the dictator when it's in our best interests.

Key phrase: "our best interests." He didn't see Somalia as being in the United States' national interest, but he certainly sees Iraq that way. If it's a flip-flop, he flipped at the right time.

If one was to ask Bush about this, he would probably acknowledge that his thinking on the matter has evolved. (This would also deal a blow to the charge that Bush is inflexible in his thinking; indeed, either that is wrong or the flip-flop charge is (or they both are)). It's only a flip-flop if you cannot succinctly explain what changed your mind. Kerry has failed miserably to do so on his war vote, but I'd bet Bush could answer this one in a sentence with no more than one subordinate clause.

OH. MY. GOD.

This may be the most devastating political ad I have ever seen. That's in terms of subject matter, production, and source -- pretty much everything that counts. Not to mention, the Kerry campaign walked right into it with last week's focus on Vietnam and medals, etc. This severly undercuts Kerry's chief selling point, at least the one other than "I'm not Bush." And it uses John Edwards' words to do it. Time will tell how it stacks up against Willie Horton or the "Daisy" ad, but if seen by enough people it could remake this entire race. I don't just mean dissuading undecideds from supporting Kerry -- I dare say it could even move independents and other lukewarm Kerry backers (i.e. everyone save the party loyalists) into Bush's column. And if nothing else, so much for the "Kerry Republicans."

SPEAKING OF WAR, LET'S TALK ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT

You would think the latest column by Brookings scholar/Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne would be 800 or so words of gloating about the Democrats' decision to focus on foreign policy at last week's convention. After all, the title is "Democrats on the Warpath." His lead reinforces that notion:

If Democrats needed any reminding, Sunday's new terror alert underscored why John Kerry's managers made the right choice in turning his convention into an ode to patriotism, toughness and the martial virtues.

You might even think Dionne would be writing about Kerry's tough(-sounding) promises to protect the country, or possibly Kerry's promise only go to war if he must (as I wrote about in this recent post). Based on the following line, you might think Dionne was backing up Kerry on his (unexplained) endorsement of the fight in Vietnam:

The Vietnam War, which nearly destroyed the party in 1968, became the unifying event of 2004. After 36 years, Democrats finally made their peace with Vietnam and with the decade that tore their party apart.

But you would be wrong on all counts. Instead Dionne latches onyo the lines from Kerry's speech most redolent of Hunter Thompson's reminisces in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas":

"It was the beginning of a great journey -- a time to march for civil rights, for voting rights, for the environment, for women and for peace. We believed we could change the world. And you know what? We did."

In the end, Dionne says nothing about Iraq, al-Qaeda, nor looming threats such as North Korea and Iran. While Kerry made pains elsewhere in his speech to demonstrate that his patriotism includes those "martial virtues" -- an admirable goal, even if he doesn't convince -- Dionne just reminds us that dissent is patriotic too, abandoning entirely the talk of war and peace he started out with. And in what I would underline as the thesis sentence, Dionne writes:

It is not surprising that the man who would be the first Vietnam veteran in the White House has taken on the task of binding the wounds inflicted by that war.

So when you come down to it, John Kerry served in Vietnam. Six months into the general election campaign, this is still the only argument the liberal intelligentsia can use to buttress Kerry's credibility on national security? If so, Kerry's in trouble. Or we are.

UM, HA?

You've probably heard about the controversy surrounding the "I Had An Abortion" T-shirt, which Planned Parenthood president Gloria Feldt called "a way to challenge the silence and shame" surrounding the procedure she usually calls "choice." (I guess the fight against that stigma is for others to undertake.) Last night during the "Daily Rorschach" segment of Dennis Miller's CNBC show, he showed a couple of "rejected" T-shirts, with different slogans. Among them: "World's Best Grandma, Almost" and "I Would Have Been A Big Sister" and the putative punchline, "My Girlfriend Went To Get Her Fetus Killed, And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt." The joke wasn't especially funny, let alone after the first two sobering messages. The audience's gut-kicked response -- to say nothing of my own -- was a pretty good indication that Feldt's goal won't be realized anytime soon.

BUENA VISTA SOCIALISTS CLUB II

False alarm, everybody. So says today's Variety:

"Fahrenheit 9/11's" run on Cuban state TV will not affect Michael Moore's eligibility for Oscar's documentary race. ... In a joint statement, Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Lions Gate prexy Tom Ortenberg and IFC chief Jonathan Sehring said, "The Academy's rule of films not being allowed to air on television or the Internet anywhere in the world within nine months of its theatrical run has not been violated because it was a stolen copy and was in no way authorized by its distributors." ... The Academy accepts the distrib's word on the matter.

Sez Prophet: Doc's Best Pic nom odds not nixed, but still short of socko.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS STORY?

A few days ago I linked to this report -- that the late Coalition Provisional Authority cannot account for hundreds of millions of dollars supposedly spent in recent months -- when it ran oh-so-briefly on the Drudge Report, but it's been lost on most every other news outlet that matters. One version of the AP story claims as much as one billion dollars has gone missing. For example:

The former Coalition Provisional Authority paid nearly $200,000 for 15 police trucks without confirming they were delivered, and auditors have not located them, the report from the CPA's Inspector General said.

Hey, at least there's no proof all that money went to waste!

Some credit must go to the Washington Post for filing a single report about this. But the New York Times? Nada. The Los Angeles Times? Zilch. Otherwise, the only other American news outfit covering this, believe it or not, is World Net Daily. But don't worry -- Al-Jazeera is on the case.

You'd think the Kerry campaign would have picked up on this. But therein lies a plausible explanation for this story's complete lack of traction: the audit was released last week, when the Democrats were in Boston concentrating as hard as possible on not criticizing the White House. Not that it was necessarily a "Jo Moore Day," as it seems to be the second in a series of reports. But the timing is regrettable -- or fortuitous, depending on how where you stand.

So what's going on? When Halliburton wastes millions it gets a prime slot on the NBC Nightly News, but when it's just a government agency, it doesn't matter? I believe we're supposed to shrug and say, that's the government for you. This reminds me of those infamous $400 hammers from the 1980s. The only difference is, at least we got the hammers.

UPDATE: According to Wednesday's Washington Post, Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root (commonly called KBR)

was the subject of several investigations after allegations surfaced that a subcontractor for Houston-based KBR overcharged by as much as $61 million for the fuel.

An error or fraud in the mid-ten figures -- by the subcontractor of a subsidiary of Halliburton -- warrants a good amount of coverage, but a billion-dollar mistake doesn't? The Post story cited here has the same author as last week's above-linked Post article, Arianna Eunjung Cha, but it only references the missing billion in passing as "paperwork for major contracts [that] could not be found."

BUENA VISTA SOCIALISTS CLUB

Today Variety reports -- here's a link, though it probably won't do you much good -- that Michael Moore could be out of luck in the Best Doc category this year:

"Fahrenheit 9/11" was apparently shown last week on Cuban state-run TV. According to Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences rules, a feature is disqualified for a documentary Oscar if it airs on TV or the Internet anywhere in the world within nine months of its big screen run.

While most documakers would be dismayed at the prospect of an Oscar nix, the backers of the Michael Moore-helmed pic might welcome it: The move could give the pic a stronger push in the best film race.

Reps at French org Wild Bunch, sales agent for the pic overseas, aver that they made no television deal in Cuba.

I have to admit, that's an angle I hadn't thought of: what about Best Picture?. That's because the idea is totally asinine. Then again, it has been reviewed extremely well -- and don't the great ones always have their fierce detractors? On the other hand, the Academy was less than thrilled with his anti-Bush acceptance diatribe last time around. Would they really grant him license to do the same again? ¡Viva Fidel!

Here's a no-brainer guess: If President John Kerry is in the Oval Office next winter, there is no chance -- the movie will be a victim of its own success. Not that the movie will have any substantial impact on the election, but that they just won't care any longer. And if George W. Bush is re-elected? It's still a long shot, but I wouldn't rule out "Fahrenheit 9/11" getting the fifth slot -- the one usually reserved for movies like "Babe," "The Fugitive" and "Gladiator." Wait a minute...

P.S. In related news, Moore is being sued by the Bloomington Pantagraph for doctoring an image of their newspaper in the movie. This is especially satisfying because Moore had threatened to sue anyone who questioned "F9/11"'s veracity. So much for "scrupulousness." Where's Chris Lehane now?

P.P.S. Hey Defamer, Cinemocracy, isn't this your beat? Oh, you're too busy blogging about P. Diddy -- though I guess I've been guilty of that, too.

IF THERE'S VIDEO, HE'S FINISHED

The Associated Press' Nedra Pickler reports from Muskegon, Michigan where Kerry

rode a new high-speed ferry across Lake Michigan to a Milwaukee rally. ... Kerry waved from the top deck as Coast Guard and police boats provided security alongside and a helicopter followed overhead. Out on the open water, Kerry stood at the bow and held his arms wide in the pose made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie "Titanic."

If there was even a still camera nearby, this could be major trouble. Meanwhile, this is bad enough already.

ALAN KEYES IS RUNNING FOR THE SENATE

Is this blog actually about to beat Illinois Senate-watcher ArchPundit to this breaking story? It looks like it. Anyway, it's not like it's my story, as it's just making the rounds in Illinois media circles this hour. Also, it's not confirmed yet -- but who is Alan Keyes to turn down an opportunity like this? In any case, what is the state party thinking? I know the Illinois GOP is going through hard times, but anyone is better than Alan Keyes. In fact, no one would be better than Alan Keyes as well. So the Democrats are running a smart, eloquent, liberal African-American for the Senate in Barack Obama; now the Republicans are running a smart, eloquent, conservative African-American -- who is also a loose cannon and a bit of a paranoid nutcase. To twist around the title of Keyes' short-lived MSNBC show, the Illinois GOP is not making sense.

KERRY'S EMPTY "DOCTRINE"

Here's John Kerry in his acceptance speech last week:

"As president, I will bring back this nation's time-honored tradition: The United States of America never goes to war because we want to; we only go to war because we have to. That is the standard of our nation."

The incomparable Robert Kagan asks, what tradition? From Spain to the Philippines to Kosovo and Haiti, by far the majority of wars the United States fought have been wars of choice.

And what about the war Kerry himself fought in? Kerry cannot believe the Vietnam War was part of his alleged "time-honored tradition," or he would not have thrown his ribbons away ... Or has Kerry now retroactively accepted the Cold War justification for these interventions that he once rejected?

Damn straight. When Kerry said that he "defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as president," does he now believe our stand in Vietnam was indeed a worthy fight against Communist expansion? That would certainly be the implication of his words. But does anyone really believe that? I don't think so, least of all his supporters.

Kerry's "doctrine of necessity," if seriously intended, would entail a pacifism and an isolationism more thorough than any attempted by a U.S. government since the 1930s. It would rule out all wars fought for humanitarian ends, all interventions to prevent genocide, to defend democracy or even, as in the case of the Persian Gulf War, to uphold international law against aggression. For those are all wars of choice.

For someone who professes to seek better relations with the rest of the world, Kerry's doctrine of necessity would base American foreign policy on narrow, selfish interests far more than the alleged "unilateralism" of the Bush administration.

I'm afraid Kerry's best chance this fall is to be in the right place at the right time, should the U.S. electorate choose to punish George Bush for real or perceived intransigence. I don't know if they're really as angry as it sometimes seems. But those that are should calm down and look at what a Kerry presidency might mean.

Meanwhile, Paul Gigot noticed the same thing at the Wall Street Journal (regis. req.) today, beginning with the same "want to"/"have to":

This would have ruled out Kosovo, Bosnia and Haiti--three military actions the Senator endorsed. Not to mention World War I and Korea. This is a repudiation of pre-emption, but worse it sounds like a return to the pre-9/11 policy of waiting until terrorists hit us, rather than taking the war to the terrorists on their turf. This is a debate Mr. Bush should also want to have.

Agreed. And didn't John Kerry once invite such scruity? I believe he was once rather fond of imploring, "bring it on!"

Lastly, James Lileks made a similar point in his Friday Bleat, but instead I'll quote another bit from that column. He too begins with a quote from Kerry's speech:

"The future doesn't belong to fear; it belongs to freedom."

A passive platitude. Try this: “The future cannot belong to fear. It must belong to freedom.” Because that tells me you intend to shape history, not sit back on the couch and see how it all turns out.

An excellent point, that. John Kerry doesn't just want to take us back to our pre-Iraq foreign policy. He wants to take us back to our pre-9/11 foreign policy, at least. Take him utterly at his word and he wants to take us all the way back to a magical fantasyland where "live and let live" is agreed to by all peoples. And one more bit from Lileks, on a related point:

He said he would respond if America was attacked. Well, duh. I take something else from this distinction: he will not attack if America is provoked.

Would he? I'd certainly like to know. We know well that Bush can, under the right circumstances. Kerry would surely like to avoid this discussion. But at the same time he would also like to believe that however "nuanced" his views, his decisions as commander-in-chief would be clear cut. Or at the very least he wants us to believe it. Do you?

E-ROCKIN' IN A FREER WORLD

If it's been awhile since you've stopped by the E-Rocky-Confidential -- which is understandable, as it had been awhile since Bryan posted to it -- he's got two new items up since the weekend.

PUPPETS, MISINTERPRETED

Up till now Blog has done a good job of keeping me abreast of developments regarding "Team America," the next movie by South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Tonight, while Blog is out running in a mini-thon, Matt Drudge tries his hand:

WHITE HOUSE ANGER AT HOLLYWOOD ELECTION SURPRISE: PARAMOUNT PUPPET MOVIE MOCKS TERROR WAR

Huh? Anyone who's read the on-set reports at Ain't It Cool News knows that the movies chief villain is Kim Jong Il, who is trying to sell missiles to terrorists, and Hollywood leftists such as Alec Baldwin and Michael Moore, who interfere with Team America's fight against Kim, the terrorists, the French, etc. Plus, Parker and Stone are Republicans, or at the very least libertarian conservatives who supported Bush the last time I checked. I'm sure the "senior Bush official" Drudge talked to does not know any of this; politicians have a long history of sounding off on movies and music they know nothing about.

Drudge probably does know all this, but why let a little perspective get in the way of a good outrage? The first version of his report made no mention of this movie's anti-leftist, anti-appeasement themes. You'd think it was just another left-wing Hollywood diatribe. I immediately fired off a handful of IMs to Drudge, pointing out much of what I mentioned above. Within five minutes, the following had been added to his report:

Marionette puppets are used throughout the film to mock terror threats, and media figures who dominate the nation's airwaves. But Parker and Stone save most of the mocking for left-wing pundits and Michael Moore.

I get results, I guess -- so does The Artist Formerly Known As Maxim Basa, who tipped me off about this in the first place and IMed Drudge about this himself. But the same misleading headline remains.

P.S. See the trailer for yourself, but read that AICN essay for more perspective on what this film is about and will be like.

P.P.S. But this is not good.

UPDATE: Stone and Parker ran into the story on Drudge Report a few minutes ago -- while looking for more dumb comments by the likes of Moore -- and decided to call in to his radio show. They're still on at 10:40 or so, as I type this. So far they've disagreed with all of Drudge's suspicions. The movie is making fun of terrorists and, as one just said, the people "who run around shooting their mouth off with no idea what they're talking about." Just like that White House official, but more importantly they stress, the "left-wingers in Hollywood."