This week’s visit to our friends at Pravda gives us this somewhat disjointed piece (I have no idea who does Pravda’s Russian to English translations… but I LIKE them!) about various nasty effects from global climate change, including a lengthy discussion about shifting magnetic poles that borders on the stuff of the National Examiner, culminating in a discussion of the well understood global changes (all, to this day, still denied by the Bush Administration). This being Pravda (part of why you get your weekly dose) the payoff comes in the form of a punchline: global warming will doubtless be good...

We got trouble right here in Tigris River City. Margaret Hassan, the director of CARE International in Iraq, kidnapped by militants believed to be associated with Al Zarqawi’s terrorist movement, was seen on a videotape shown on Al Jazeera television, pleading for, among other things, her life, and for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq (and certainly not moved into the Baghdad area, which PM Blair has just agreed to do). The stakes of our adventure, which is no longer being managed for military or strategic or even geo-political advantage but entirely for domestic political reasons is that more...

Kudos to the Boston Red Sox, who overcome their reputation as the worst chokers in the history of sport and ably handed that mantle over to the former home of Mickey Mantle (on the late slugger’s birthday no less) in an inconceivable 10-3 win capping the only comeback from being down 3 games to none in a playoff series. We’ll let Sox fans themselves (such as our own Unseen Editor) decide if this lifts– finally– over 80 years after the “Babe Ruth curse”… the curse. Some say the BoSox must win the World Series. After the Inconceivable Comeback against the...

Oy gevalt. There’s nothing else to say in light of the revelations that a Bush-affiliated “independent 527 group” is disseminating a t.v. commercial for use in swing states of course showing the President hugging “and consoling” one Ashley Faulkner, whose mother died on 9-11 because of the President’s own incompetence and spending over a month on vacation and demagoguing about nonsense like missile defense instead of working to defend this nation from terrorism. Wowzers. We have an established Republican family– supposedly the late Wendy Faulkner of Mason, Ohio took her daughter Ashley to a Bush rally in Ohio four years...

Florida joins a number of states today in opening up “early” in person voting some 15 days ahead of Election Day. Note that besides solid red Texas, and leaning red Colorado and Arkansas, the other key states this year have already begun in-person voting, include battlegrounds Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Oregon has begun mail in ballotting. That doesn’t leave too many swing states following the usual tradition (like good old New York) of having people actually vote ON Election Day (off the top of my head, I think that pretty much leaves New Hampshire; West...

We learn more about the 18 or so reservists from the 343rd Quartermasters based in South Carolina who refused to drive their trucks, which had been used in largely “tranquil” southern Iraq, through good old Baghdad. It seems that their trucks were not only not armored, but were also in frequent disrepair. In some sense, I think the point is that the $87 billion extorted from Congress by the Bush Administration to pay for this adventure (supplemented by what even Dick Cheney admits is another $50 billion or so, and is actually well over $100 billion) was nowhere near sufficient...

This week’s visit to Pravda (I think we missed a visit or two back there) gives us a mini-treasure trove. We’ll start with a venue whose “free and fair elections” are under attack, warranting hundreds of OSCE observers (and thousands of local ones) who, it is feared, the local regime, which uses its control of a biased state media in its own favor, will not allow near polling stations, or especially vote counting. It does trouble one that the Ukraine may prove to be as corrupt a third-world style banana republic, as, say, Florida, but so sayeth our State Department...

Maverick pollster John Zogby tells us that in a Zogby/Reuters three day tracking poll, with John Kerry having safely creamed the President in three out of three debates, the President has opened up a four point national lead on Senator Kerry. In particular, more undecideds are breaking towards the President– which is, of course, good news for him (and bad news for everyone else). This latest tracking poll puts third-party spoiler Ralph Nader at a comfortable 1.1%, more than enough to swing the balance in any number of neck and neck states, especially Florida redux (though honestly, anyone who doesn’t...

In a comment below, reader Sarah asks whay sort of October surprise/dirty trick Karl Rove has up his sleeve now that the debates are over. Well, as usual, Palm Beach County tells us pretty much all we need to know: Florida’s electronic voting machines just don’t work under conditions of heat or humidity (or frequently, at all). Got that? A state famous for its heat and humidity has installed a balloting system that malfunctions… under conditions of heat and humidity. After 2000, many Americans lost confidence in our electoral system. Let’s just say, a lot of indications like this are...

I must say, showing up as a “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robot” in the first two or three rounds cost Kid Kerry some points, although based on scoring by the fifth and sixth round, your talking dog would have ultimately awarded a split decision to Kid Kerry over No Gentleman George in last night’s presidential debate in Tempe, AZ. Frankly, I resent having to listen to Kerry at all (thank you Iowa), but making me hear his stump speech bullshit in response to an easy question that presented big-time scoring opportunities made me want to puke. Worse, Bush came right...