The Gamut

I just got home from work. While I was gone yesterday, I received a long-awaited recognition of my FOIA request. It reads as follows:

Dear Mr. XXXX

This is to acknowledge receipt of your August 27, 2004, Freedom of Information Act request for a copy of Lt George W. Bush DD Form 258, DD Form 256 and Undeleted Separation Document.

Every effort will be made to respond in twenty business days. If we should need additional time, you will be notified in writing.

Please direct your questions to Brian xxxxx (703) 696-xxxx and reference case #04-xxxx.

The letter is dated September 22, which means it was written nine days ago. The post-mark is September 27, five days later. Twenty business days from Sept. 22 is October 21, accounting for Columbus Day. Unless there are legal holidays in October that I am not taking into account. If they wait another five days to send it, that will put in the mail on October 26. Of course I asked for electronic copies, but who says they won't mail those? This response was mailed on a Monday, and I received it on Friday. If they mail it on the 26th, that will be a Tuesday. I should then receive it on the following Saturday, which will be October 30th. The earliest I could hope to get media attention, if it proves lucrative, is Monday, November 1, the day before election day.

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ONN. Ohio News Now: Blackwell Rules Nader Will Not Appear On Ohio Ballot

Independent candidate Ralph Nader will not appear on Ohio's presidential ballot because forged signatures on petition forms and on petitions circulated by non-Ohioans left him short of the 5,000 required to qualify, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell ruled Tuesday.
...
Blackwell, a Republican, said Nader's backers wound up with 3,708 valid signatures.

So Nader and the repugs submitted over 14000 signatures and when the dust finally settled - all but 3,708 of them were fraudulent!

From this point on, we can ignore all of the three way polls. It is a two-way race in Ohio.

Heads up courtesy of Ezra at Pandagon.

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Weekend Box Office September 24-26, 2004

I recently learned that the right is using the page linked above to "prove" that F9/11 is doing poorly. They say that the "re-release" failed to make it into the top 20.

In the first place, so what?

In the second place, I don't think this really counts as a re-release as the movie has never stopped playing since its release.

In the third place, going with the premise that how successful this movie is has any meaning, the only movie on the list that has made more than F9/11 is [u]The Bourne Supremecy[/u]. And Bourne cost $64m more to make than F9/11 but is only ahead in sales by $54m. So F/911 is the most profitable movie on the whole list. But like I said about the right wing's "point" - so what?

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Pandagon: What Was That, Two-Face?

Everyone in the left blogosphere (a term I hate, by the way) is using this new image in their Bush flip-flop posts:



I've seen it on Atrios as well as Democratic Underground where it is a whole campaign. But two-face, in my opinion is not going to catch on like flip-flopper. The point is not to counter their meme with a new meme that is different without being distinct, but to show that Bush accuses Kerry of doing what he himself does while giving the illusory impression of being resolute.

Often when Bush flip-flops he is actually moving in a direction I like. Such as in the case of the Pandagon link at the top of this post. In August, Bush was against giving the new Intelligence director budgetary control, now he says he's for it. That's a step in the right direction, but it is also a complete reversal - a flip-flop in the truest sense.

Meanwhile, they accuse Kerry of flip-flopping for supporting the authorization of force but saying that he reserved the right to criticize Bush if Bush didn't live up to his end of the bargain. That's what Kery said, and that's what Kerry did, but they say he was for the war and then against it - which simply isn't true.

So go with the flip-flop.



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