Rain Storm -- an online journal of opinion and culture

During the September 10 edition of FOX News Channel's Special Report with Brit Hume, retired Colonel William Campenni, who claims to have served with President George W. Bush in the Texas Air National Guard, suggested that Bush did not avoid a physical for fear of failing a drug test because the Air Force did not conduct drug tests at that time. "The formal Air Force drug-testing program -- and they can check this in the record -- I believe began in 1981," Campenni claimed.

This is, in fact, false. Drug testing in the Air Force actually began in the spring and summer of 1972; then-Lieutenant Bush was officially grounded from flying in September 1972 due to his failure to take a required physical by the end of July of that year.

Officially, the Secret Service does not concern itself with unarmed, peaceful demonstrators who pose no danger to the commander in chief. But that policy was inoperative here Thursday when seven AIDS activists who heckled President Bush during a campaign appearance were shoved and pulled from the room -- some by their hair, one by her bra straps -- and then arrested for disorderly conduct and detained for an hour.

After Bush campaign bouncers handled the evictions, Secret Service agents, accompanied by Bush's personal aide, supervised the arrests and detention of the activists and blocked the news media from access to the hecklers.

[. . .]

One uniformed Secret Service agent complained to a colleague that "the press is having a field day" with the disruption -- and the agents quickly clamped down. Journalists were told that if they sought to approach the demonstrators, they would not be allowed to return to the event site -- even though their colleagues were free to come and go. An agent, who did not give his name, told one journalist who was blocked from returning to the speech that this was punishment for approaching the demonstrators and that there was a "different set of rules" for reporters who did not seek out the activists (emphasis added).

Using the new laws of journalism and truth, this is all that's needed as proof that this was a Rovian operation from the get-go. This guy is no expert on typography, and he's an extremely well connected Republican operative who has worked at the highest level of GOP legal circles. That's good enough for GOP government work.

This was a Republican dirty trick.

I have learned through conversations with officials at the Pentagon that at the beginning of November, 2004, the Bush Administration plans to call up large numbers of the military guard and reserves, to include plans that they previously put off to call up the Individual Ready Reserve.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Democratic Sen. John Kerry on Friday accused the Bush administration of hiding a plan to mobilize more National Guard and reserve troops after the election while glossing over a worsening conflict in Iraq.

"He won't tell us what congressional leaders are now saying, that this administration is planning yet another substantial call-up of reservists and guard units immediately after the election," Kerry said. "Hide it from people through the election, then make the move."

I don't know how each of you feels about this proposed legislation to institute the draft but it scares me. I have 4 teenagers, and it effects each one of them in a negative way. I don't want my children being drafted to fight a senseless, poorly planned war such as Iraq. What about you?

If we look at the three last Presidential elections, the spread was 34% Democrats, 34% Republicans and 33% Independents (in 1992 with Ross Perot in the race); 39% Democrats, 34% Republicans, and 27% Independents in 1996; and 39% Democrats, 35% Republicans and 26% Independents in 2000. While party identification can indeed change within the electorate, there is no evidence anywhere to suggest that Democrats will only represent 31% of the total vote this year. In fact, other competitors have gone in the opposite direction. The Los Angeles Times released a poll in June of this year with 38% Democrats and only 25% Republicans.

Bush is only one point ahead in Colorado (46-45, according to This ARG poll), even after his convention.

Kerry can win the Gore states. I don't see MN or NM going to Bush, while IA, PA and WI remain in contention. That gives Kerry 264 from the Gore states, plus 3 from NH, or 267, three short of a victory. Colorado's 9 electoral votes would give him 276 (of course if the EV's are split as per the proposed referendum, Kerry would still get a minimum of 4, which would bring him to 271).

Colorado and Florida, at this point, seem to be the only remaining Bush 2000 states that remain winnable in a close national race, far more so than West Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas or Ohio.

Ken Salazar's presence on the ballot, furthermore, may also increase turnout among Hispanics, who in the Southwest are backing Kerry by a 2-1 margin.

Note that Nader is at 3, while "don't know" is at 6. Kerry should be able to make inroads among these voters as well.

Colorado, not Ohio, may be the key to a Kerry presidency.

Page 253: At Andover, George W. Bush writes a morose essay about his sister's death. Searching for a synonym for "tears," he consults a thesaurus and writes, "And the lacerates ran down my cheeks." A teacher labels the paper "disgraceful."

My view of the "original intent" is that the purpose of the Second Amendment was to insure an armed white militia would be available to put down slave rebellions and kill Indians, purposes that are no longer considered legitimate...

The "Jersey Girls", the five 9/11 widows who effectively pressed for a 9/11 Commission, endorsed Kerry yesterday.

Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband died in the attacks on the World Trade Center, has not flown in a plane since that day three years ago. But yesterday, she stood in front of five television cameras and six American flags and said she was going to try to overcome her anxiety -- to fly to campaign for John Kerry.

Breitweiser, who said she voted for President Bush in 2000, and four other Sept. 11 widows endorsed Kerry at a Washington news conference yesterday, saying they had been bitterly disappointed with the war in Iraq and by the way the White House had "stonewalled" attempts to uncover why the country's intelligence services had failed before the terror attacks.

I am here because I am scared," said Breitweiser, of Middletown, N.J. The nation is not safer today, she contended.

The war with Iraq, said Lorie Van Auken, of East Brunswick, N.J., "has made America more vulnerable to attack, not less," adding, "Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11."

"If Jesus weren't a Jew, he'd be an American."

"As commander in chief, I think he'd respond to it in a robust way."

For some Republicans it is the perfect political storm: a Senate vote on a constitutional amendment to protect the U.S. flag that would put Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, running mate John Edwards and Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle on the spot just a few weeks before the Nov. 2 elections.

The American Flag shall be made only of asbestos. That way, it cannot be burned. And every chickenhawk politician who attempts to drape himself in the flag runs a high risk of getting cancer.

In political rhetoric, coherence and clarity almost always trumps substance. So substance must be rendered very coherent and very clear.

There's a pretty obvious response to the Bush line: Yeah, Saddam sucked. It's great that we're rid of him. But at what cost? A thousand American lives, upwards of half a trillion dollars and blowing up the whole world order?

How many more must die for Bush's Blunder?

Bush's return to drinking is apparently common knowledge in DC, though it seems unlikely anyone will talk on the record.

An Israeli doctor says....."Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him looking for work in six weeks."

A German doctor says........"That is nothing, we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four weeks."

A Russian doctor says......."In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both looking for work in two weeks."

The Texas doctor, not to be outdone, says..."You guys are way behind. We recently took a man with no brain out of Texas, put him in the White House for four years, and now half the country is looking for work."

What if George Bush really did have a coke habit an he is chasin down Osama bin Laden some day an he is closin in on Osama bin Laden an goin "oh I'll get you Osama bin Laden" an Osama bin Laden drops a bag a coke an George Bush is so overpowered by his desire to snort coke that he lets Osama get away?

In the end, Democrats should recognize that there is an irreducible minimum of roughly one percent of American voters who, basically, are crazy people. They've always been there, and God bless 'em, they always will be there. They have every right to their opinions. Some of them will vote for overtly crazy-people candidates, and some will vote for Ralph, who's staked out a position near the gates of delirium. Some won't vote at all, and nobody knows what they'll do if they show up at the polls and don't see a valid crazy-people option.

The Kerry campaign should obviously make every effort to convince voters that this is a high-stakes election with stark differences between the two candidates, in which every vote counts in the actual, two-party choice. But beyond that, Democrats should leave the fringe votes that Nader and others may receive in the hands of the Lord, or whatever other voices fringe voters happen to hear.

A furious row has broken out over claims in a new book by BBC broadcaster James Naughtie that US Secretary of State Colin Powell described neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as 'fucking crazies' during the build-up to war in Iraq.

Powell's extraordinary outburst is alleged to have taken place during a telephone conversation with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The two became close friends during the intense negotiations in the summer of 2002 to build an international coalition for intervention via the United Nations. The 'crazies' are said to be Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.