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News is the Entertainment Industry. We aren't here to inform, we aren't here to tell some cosmic truth. We are here for ratings. The higher the ratings, the more we can charge for advertising which goes to your pay.

Old news:

To review: news shows are, yes, shows. They do not make money by providing us useful information. They make money by providing us... to the advertisers.

I made it mine.

I'm curious, what do you make of this?

yeah, that's great! except for the part where i did find out what bush was doing before i posted. here's a hint: he wasn't piling sandbags, you fucking idiot. oh, and the part where i knew exactly what you said in your comment, and in fact i explained your stupidity in my comment, which i guess you just didn't understand...?

oh, and here's what he's been doing today: http://www.bobharris.com/content/view/627/1/

at this point in history, if you're defending that evil baboon, you're an honorary republican, whether you believe you are or not. have a nice day!

Some of the liberal blogs (like this one) have stated that www.georgewbush.com is blocked for non-US visitors. They get a simple "Access Denied".

If this is true, why would they do this? While I can certainly think of real reasons (like not wanting non-US traffic to get in the way of US traffic, or avoiding DOS attacks from abroad), there are also ex-pats and travelers who are eligible to vote who might want to access the site from overseas. GWB.com could do like Google and refer you to a local site when you're overseas (when in the Netherlands, google.com automatically redirects to google.nl).

To me, this seems to simply reinforce the image that they couldn't care less about the rest of the world. This attitude will come back to bite us, sooner or later.

While John Kerry was in Vietnam, earning medals for saving his buddies' lives, Bush was illegally punching athletes in the face. Which followed his prepschool career as cheerleader. While Kerry followed his heroic Vietnam tour leading the even more heroic, and successful, Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

"I don't mind being characterized as 'liberal' -- I just don't happen to think it's true." -- Howard Dean, in Salon.

If he is not a liberal, just who is he?

To find out, we have to move past his political machine. Like Bush, Dean is very adept at associating himself with issues and causes that are important for his campaign. Thus for Dean we see his association with Lessig and an apparent concern for "the commons". Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Let's take a look at how Dean compares to Kucinich, a long time liberal Democrat.

Howard Dean, a subset of the comparison points:

Health care plan

Complex 4-prong plan, extending multiple state and federal programs piecemeal, combined with tax credits and incentives, all of which Dean claims is more likely to become law, but still won't cover everyone

Death penalty

Favors for "extreme" crimes like terrorism or the killing of a police officer, although critical of Bush administration's "careless" approach to executions

Roe v. Wade

Pro-life until recently; now the only candidate pledging to make Roe v. Wade a "litmus test" for appointing federal judges. Pro-choice, but refuses to make Roe v. Wade a litmus test for federal judges

Kyoto treaty

Says we must "take another look," but has "concerns" about some provisions

Patriot Act

Would repeal "parts," but also wants to expand intelligence agencies; praises Russ Feingold as only Senator who opposed the act, ignoring Kucinich's vocal House opposition, falsely implying no other candidate opposed the Patriot Act

NAFTA/WTO

Notes problems with "free" trade, suggesting the need for inclusion of human rights, environmental, and labor standards in trade agreements -- but still pro-NAFTA

"Star Wars" ballistic missile system

Would cut only 1/8 of the funding, transferring it to international threat-reduction programs

Pentagon waste

Disagrees with any proposed Pentagon cutbacks, and advocates aggressive expansion of intelligence, police, and special forces

Medical marijuana

Firmly opposed, although promises to abide by a proposed FDA evaluation

War on drugs

Has accepted National Governors Association position: more federal funding for all aspects of the drug war; however, also speaks of drug use as a medical problem, and has called the War on Drugs a failure; website and recent speeches simply do not clarify what policies he would pursue, as far as I can tell

We see that Dean is very much like a "lite" version of Bush. There is very little in Howard Dean that is liberal.

Bush would be delighted to run against Dean who is simply a watered down version of Bush. And Dean comes from Vermont, bringing only 3 electoral votes. Easy campaign, easy victory.

What Bush doesn't want to do is run against a real Democrat who actually represents the tough issues that this country is facing. Or have to deal with a candidate whose home state carries 21 electoral votes.

Howard Dean may look snazzy on paper and in the media, but in reality, he is merely the lite version of Bush and would do little or nothing to actually make America better for Americans. We'd have the same screwed up medical system, giant defense budgets, pollution, and corporatist America that we have with Bush. Voting for Kucinich or for the Greens is change. Dean is status quo, more of the same Bush Doctrine.