I. So we have the anti-Bush sign (and t-shirt) slogan:

BUllSHIT.
(or, in some cases the sanitized: BU**SH**.

I must say that the anti-Kerry counterpart is… lame.

JOhnKErry.

II. (leader) “Hey! I’m running for president in 2020. That’s when I become eligible for the first time”
(me): “Hm. Need to get a headstart, I guess. Are you running against Jeanna Bush?”
“Jeanna…?”
(his partner): “George Bush’s daughter.”
(leader): Oh. Clever, but… no, that’s not my gimmick. See… I plan on cleaning up the street personally.
(me): Okay.
(leader): the Irish way. Right out of the pub… See, I’m Irish American, and I’ll just (shows his fist)… get rid of the prisons and roll ’em out like this.
(me): Ah… Move us right to the Law of the Jungle.
(leader): Right. You’re a Scott, right?
(me): Right.
(leader): My running mate, over there, he’s a Scott too.
(partner): Hi.
(me): Ah. So, you’ve got the Scottish vote and the Irish vote cornered.
(leader): Yep! On to victory!
(me): Kind of like how Dukakis had the Greek vote cornered…
(leader): Huh?
(me): Never mind.

Kerry is pablum. But my theory has always been that either nobody is beating Bush or anybody is beating Bush. Thus, I guess, the logical candidate for the Democratic Party is… pablum.

John Kerry arrives in Portland at 1:30 this afternoon. He’ll speak at Pioneer Courthouse Square at 5. Knowing, this isn’t enough to impress even the staunchest democrat, organizers have wisely invited Howard Dean to appear.You reminded to politely applaud windbag Kerry. The idea say democrats is that you’re not just elected Kerry..but getting rid Bush. Don’t think of this as a vote for Kerry. OK, WHATEVER. We’re having some kind of lame election shortly.

A crowd swarms around a coffeehouse a few blocks from the (well-cordoned off) Pioneer Square, and a block from where I’m standing. Yep! There he is, walking out of the limosuine… shaking hands, signing pieces of paper. I half-heartedly fish around my pocket to see if I can get him to sign something, but there’s nothing signable, and I would get no closer than 5 people away from the man’s hand.

Later, I walk around the blocks. I lean in the vicintity of the Pioneer Square Starbucks for a while. You’re close to Howard Dean’s speaking, but there is no view and it is the worst spot for the speakers. So I leave. I laugh at myself while I follow a couple other people who are peering through the empty Starbucks, straining their neck to see Dean — but unsuccessfully– from out the other window of the building.

I spot a group of Young Republicans across the street on the other block, waving Bush/ Cheney signs and some markered-up cardboard signs (“9 out of 10 Terrorists Support John Kerry” is the example de jour). I figure there oughta be some confrontation brewing over there, so I walk over there. It’s relatively embarrassing: they’re saying the Pledge of Allegiance, making sure to emphasize “Under God”, proving their Patriotism I suppose. Then they venture into a chant of “Bush/ Cheney! Bush / Cheney! Bush/ Cheney!” The Kerry supporters join in with a “Sucks!” … “Sucks…” “Sucks…”

Not terribly original, I suppose, but it’ll do.

A woman walks by and yells “I hope you all believe in Reincarnation because HITLER’s in the White House!” A Bush supporter chimes in with “Hey! Naziism is Socialism!” Sheer BRILLIANCE, the both of them! Reminiscent of this moment from the dualing Iraq War Protest / rallies when the two sides converged: into Tim Reilly’s microphone: “These guys need to read their history book. STALIN!”

I walk around the corner. I spot another crowd surrounding what is obviously a car, even though I can’t see the car. “Maybe Dean’s escaped over here”, I think, and rush over. A woman is sitting in the car, with the radio on Kerry’s speech, and that’s what the crowd is listening to… Hm.

I see some cardboard. If I had a marker, I would scribe in “Vote Skull / Bones 2004!!!” Nothing doing, though.

The speech ends. I find myself standing between the Bush supporters and two angry young radicals waving the old Iraqi flag. The Bushites haven’t noticed the radicals yet, and they dive into the National Anthem while the Kerry crowd dissipates past them. Someone invites the crowd to yell stuff into his cell-phone, concerning the Bush supporters. I shout “Kerry IS the Lesser of Two Evils!” The man shrugs “Okay.”

Then the radicals start chanting… “INTIFADA! INTIFADA! PALESTINE! IRAQ! INTIFIDA! INTIFIDA! PALESTINE! IRAQ!”

“Nothing good can come from this”, I think.

The Republicans turn around. “So you’re voting for Kerry, then?”
One of the two radicals says “NO… He’s a Zionist too!”

I walk away, while the Bush supporters tie the two angry young radicals in with Kerry. “Vote Kerry! Vote Kerry!” — pointing at them.

I can’t comment too much on Kerry’s stump speech. I clapped a few times when I was in agreement…

The second Lyndon LaRouche ad strikes me as disjointed.

Analyzing the two ads: the first one had a rhyme and reason to it. “I proposed the LaRouche Doctrine. If we have a commitment toward a world war, which is what Iraq represents, we won’t have the resources to solve the upcoming world economic collapse. Which is why we should build a ‘Zone of Security’… which would mean negotiating with Jordan and Egypt. And ending our policy in Israel. Prominent leaders in Europe and the Arab World are endorsing this plan.”

It’s nuts — (who are these prominent leaders? And what exactly is a “zone of security” in that land?), but it is at least a storyline.

The second ad is scattershot, and breaks off into rambling sentence fragments.

“80% of citizens are not in the process. We need to engage them. Tax policy and like that. Not working. Health concerns healed. Like that.”

Why am I discussing Lyndon LaRouche advertisements?

Because John Kerry isn’t making much news right now… Not that he should. Election processes in these states are long enough to disaffect everyone… maybe we should reinvent the process so that politicos aren’t allowed to campaign directly until August…

………….
One last note: I want to thank my brother for hosting this. If he wants to pull the plug on this, I would oblige him.

Should be relinking to the MTP transcript when it gets there… in the meantime: Drudge It:

TIM RUSSERT: Finally, Mr. Secretary, in February of 2003, you placed your enormous personal credibility before the United Nations and laid out a case against Saddam Hussein, citing.

(Camera moved off of interview subject)

EMILY MILLER, STATE DEPARTMENT PRESS AIDE: You’re off.

SECRETARY POWELL: I am not off.

EMILY MILLER, PRESS AIDE: No. They can’t use it, they’re editing it.

SECRETARY POWELL: He’s still asking the questions.

EMILY MILLER, PRESS AIDE: He was not …

SECRETARY POWELL: Tim, I am sorry I lost you.

MR. RUSSERT: I am right here Mr. Secretary. I would hope they would put you back on camera. I don’t know who did that.

EMILY MILLER, PRESS AIDE: He was going to go for another five minutes.

SECRETARY POWELL: We’ve really scre…

MR. RUSSERT: I think that was one of your staff Mr. Secretary. I don’t think that’s appropriate.

SECRETARY POWELL: Emily, get out of the way. Bring the camera back please. (Camera returns to the interview subject) I think we’re back on Tim, go ahead with your last question.

MR. RUSSERT: Thank you very much, sir.

In February of 2003, you put your enormous personal reputation on the line before the United Nations and said that you had solid sources for the case against Saddam Hussein. It now appears that an agent called “Curve Ball” had misled the CIA by suggesting that Saddam had trucks and trains that were delivering biological chemical weapons.

How concerned are you that some of the information you shared with the world is now inaccurate and discredited?

SECRETARY POWELL: I’m very concerned. When I made that presentation in February 2003, it was based on the best information that the Central Intelligence Agency made available to me. We studied it carefully. We looked at the sourcing and the case of the mobile trucks and trains. There was multiple sourcing for that. Unfortunately, that multiple sourcing over time has turned out to be not accurate, and so I’m deeply disappointed.

But I’m also comfortable that at the time that I made the presentation it reflected the collective judgment, the sound judgment, of the intelligence community, but it turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading. And for that I’m disappointed, and I regret it.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Secretary, we thank you very much for joining us again and sharing your views with us today.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thanks, Tim.

………………….

Uh. Er…

Have we walked into a Philip K Dick novel by mistake?

I can’t find the lyrics to the Negativland song “Bottom Line” online.

Which is probably just as well…

I had the album playing, and I had to turn it off. I suppose I’ll stick to anything other than social commentary for the moment.

Torture. That’s the bottom line these days.
….
Even teenagers are killing themselves these days. So the ante has been raised.
….
How did it get to be here in the United States, the Home of the Free and the Home of the Brave? I mean, in some Banana Republic.
…
Apple Pie. Joe DiMaggio
….
But it was all a mirage, wasn’t it?
……
Like a decaying tooth.
……..

KBOO is likely playing it sometime in the overnight. I recall hearing them play it, alongside Freedom’s Waiting and The National Anthem.

There are two ways I can look at this.

#1: As a partisan hack: the Democratic Party ought just to plargarize the most ironic elements. (And keep the parts from the Democratic Platform that look great in retrospect.)

#2: As a cynic: they will. John Kerry will win in 2004. And in 2008, the Republican backlash to Kerry Interventionalist foreign policy, Intelligence abuses, and civil liberty abuses will have the RNC re-creating the same damned platform yet again. So… the 2000 RNC platform, the 2004 DNC platform, and the 2008 RNC platform will look identical, as we all run around in circles…

William Kristol– leading neo-conservative hawk, spokesperson for the Project for a New American Century, and editor of the Weekly Standard– was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night.

A fascinating interview. Kristol looked dazed, off-kilter, and defeated.

Two weeks of unimaginable bad news undercutting your stance will do that to you.

At one point, this was nearly the exchange:
Stewart: But… how can we re-elect a man who’s driven us into a ditch, you know?
Kristol: Well, he’s driven us into a ditch… well, maybe not a ditch but…
(audience applause)

You will notice, too, that just a few days ago George Will used the word “Empire”, in his forlorn column of disappointment:

David Byrne, from his latest album “Grown Backward”… the song is “Empire”:

In national elections
In songs raised on high
With stirring emotions
As tears fill your eyes

In democratic fever
For national defense
I am a mountain [3x]
Like birds upon a fence [2x]

Young artists and writers
Please heed the call
What’s good for business
Is good for us all

And as it is in Nature
So it is in life
The weak among us with perish [3x]
The strong alone will survive [2x]

Voices like thunder
Decisions like steel
The past and the future
They belong to us all

From every mountain
The water and the air
The world that we’ve created [3x]
By working hand in hand [2x]