NO KIDDING: Germans, French Object to Saddam Execution
If you don't want to see a guy fired from his job, obviously you don't want him executed.

WHERE ARE ALL THE COMMUNISTS?
Just curious, but why does Russian airline Aeroflot still use the hammer and sickle in its logo?

THE GOOD AND THE BAD
Keep an eye on this site to see what amazing feats mankind and science can accomplish to see the wonders of the universe, as the spaceship Cassini orbits Saturn. Wow.

Keep on eye on the news to see what horrors one man and his fascists enforcers can inflict on his people.

KERRY / CLINTON 04?
Drudge is reporting that Hillary will be on the ticket.

Oh please let it be true.

I don't say that (a) because I want her to be VP, (b) because I think it makes the ticket more beatable (it doesn't), (c) because I want to relive the glorious attack-Clinton years (I don't), or (d) because I think she'd be a better Veep than the other choices (though she may be). I want it to happen because I'm a political junkie and it would make the race more interesting.

RIP ROARING ECONOMY
The Bush economy is speeding along so well that the Fed applied some breaks today to keep it from careening into inflation, raising rates by 25 basis points. Rapidly growing economies and increasing employment tend to put upward pressure on prices and the Fed has traditionally (at least since Volcker) used its rates to restrain prices.

Now, what was it that James Carville said about the economy?

CELSIUS 9/11 - CAN YOU TAKE ON HITCHENS?
Christopher Hitchens, probably the only man on earth who is a fan of George W. Bush yet despises Ronald Reagan, has dropped a bunker busting MOAB on Michael Moore's propaganda piece Fahrenheit 9/11. But rather than simply attack it's artistry or point of view, Hitch goes after the substance of the film, the factual inconsistencies and outright lies that Moore uses to back up his arguments. Hitch's final conclusion - that the film simply is not a serious piece of work. Though it is being taken seriously by many on the left.

So, I challenge any left wing blogger, editorialist or even movie fan to post the entire Hitchens piece on his website, with a point by point rebuttal.

If you think that Fahrenheit 9/11 is a serious contribution to political discourse and that it "is worth seeing, debating and thinking about, regardless of your political allegiances", then you must deal with Hitchens' argument that the film is not serious.

If you think that this film "signals [Moore's] transition from political entertainer to political thinker, from propagandist to idiosyncratic journalist, from colorful gadfly to patriot", then you must dispense with Hitchens arguments.

If you think that Moore's "biggest accomplishment here is putting the factual pieces into (a frightening) perspective", then you must refute Hitchens charges of fabricated facts, lies and logical contradictions.

So, give it a shot and drop me a line to let me know and I'll make a note of it here.

And a side note. At least Harry, despite his glowing review (heck, he cried at Armageddon), understands it is propaganda. But I really enjoyed one of the comments at the Aint-it-cool message board:

Now you have Moore editing FAHRENHEIT to make it look like Bush does nothing but play golf juxtaposed against war footage. As if f***ing Clinton never played golf...or worse, how about Michael Moore editing the footage of Clinton getting his d**k s*cked by Monica and juxtaposing THAT with the arrivals in the country (and under Clinton's nose) of the actual 9/11 conspirators...or we can juxtapose Clinton shooting his load on Monica's blue dress with shots of the hijackers taking their piloting lessons (also done under Clinton's nose). Gee, this "documentary" filmmaking stuff is pretty f***ing easy when you do it the Michael Moore way...

Would that move have to be seen and discussed? Will the same people quoted above have to see a documentary that tells the truth about a great nation, Michael Moore Hates America?

We'll see.

"MOORE" LIES

The Smoking Gun finds out that Moore lied about his party affiliation:

Prior to last week's Washington, D.C. premiere of "Fahrenheit 9/11," Michael Moore denied that the new documentary represents his de facto endorsement of John Kerry. "I am an Independent," the filmmaker told reporters. "I'm not a member of the Democratic party."

Which is not exactly correct.

New York City Board of Elections records show that Moore, 50, registered to vote in Gotham in 1992, checking off "Democratic" as his party affiliation. He listed his address as the swanky Upper West Side building where he owns a multimillion dollar condominium (Moore's office is on West 57th Street). The filmmaker's New York registration remains active...

But, wait, there's more (pun intended). He may have committed a crime also:

Moore is simultaneously registered to vote in Michigan....We're sure this is some kind of innocent mix-up, that Moore forgot to cancel his New York registration before signing up in Michigan. Though, as a New York City voter, TSG can tell you it's hard not to realize you are registered, since a voter's mailbox is regularly bombarded with candidate mail, official voter guides, and Board of Election notices about upcoming elections and reminders about the location of your polling place.

Be a real "shame" if they charged him. Maybe they can get the prosecutor from Florida that's always after Rush.

NEW FEDERAL REVIEW COMPOSITE POLL™

BUSH LEADS (FOR NOW)
Bush 50.1% - 271| Kerry 47.7% - 267

You're right. We just posted our last update on Friday (but the analysis only included numbers through Monday the 22nd). Last week we asked if a trend was forming in favor of Bush. Well, he maintains his lead in the Composite poll, actually adding another 1 point to it. But, he lost a little ground in the Electoral College as Ohio (20 EV) switched to Kerry, and Wisconsin (10 EV) switched to Bush.

This week's results include the results of 11 polls in 8 states, most notably showing Bush up 10 or down 1 in Florida, up 5 or down 1 in Pennsylvania, and up 4 or down 6 in Ohio. Rather disparate results, but that's why we have this impartial analysis to help make sense of things.

Before we get to this week's polling data, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the polling data we have seen since March of this year to see who is more Bush favorable and who is most Kerry favorable. So, I compared the results of each polling organization to the mean results for all polling organization for each particular week. I then averaged each pollster's results to see how far off each pollster is from the average values of contemporary polls.

The most pro Kerry poll is CBS, and the most pro-Bush is Investor's Business Daily / TIPP, but the disparities are minor. On average, CBS is 2 points more favorable for Kerry. Thus, if the average of all polls for a week shows a Bush lead of 3, then CBS is likely to show a Bush lead of only 1. Investor's Business Daily has been 2 points more favorable to Bush on average. In the below list, I have not included results for Harris (which showed a 10 point lead for Bush just last week) because I only have 2 Harris polls included so far. Similarly, I have not included LA Times (2 polls), Quinnipiac (2 polls), AP/Ipsos (1 poll) or NBC (1 poll).

Poll	Diff from    Mean	No. Polls
CBS	-1.7	5
ABC Washington Post	-0.9	4
Zogby	-0.7	5
Rasmussen	-0.4	13*
Newsweek	-0.3	4
CNN/USAToday/Gallup	0.0	8
FoxNews	0.9	8
IBD/CSM/TIPP	2.1	5

* Rasmussen polls daily, and we average the polls weekly, so 13 weeks are included and analyzed.

Now to the data and the maps and the graphs.