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Historic Preservation Review Board Meets

The Mississippi Historic Preservation Professional Review Board will meet on Thursday, Sept. 16, at 1 p.m. in the boardroom on the third floor of the William F. Winter Archives and History Building in

Ron Reagan's ‘Honest Guy's Critique of George W. Bush'

Here's the text of Ron Reagan's piece in the September issue of Esquire—and he seems more willing to speak his mind than he was at the Democratic National Convention: "The far-right wing of the country—nearly one third of us by some estimates—continues to regard all who refuse to drink the Kool-Aid (liberals, rationalists, Europeans, et cetera) as agents of Satan. Bush could show up on video canoodling with Paris Hilton and still bank their vote. Right-wing talking heads continue painting anyone who fails to genuflect deeply enough as a 'hater,' and therefore a nut job, probably a crypto-Islamist car bomber. But these protestations have taken on a hysterical, almost comically desperate tone. It's one thing to get trashed by Michael Moore. But when Nobel laureates, a vast majority of the scientific community, and a host of current and former diplomats, intelligence operatives, and military officials line up against you, it becomes increasingly difficult to characterize the opposition as fringe wackos."

International Organization to Observe U.S. Election

CNN is reporting that, for the first time, the U.S. presidential election will have international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The request for observation came after 13 Democratic members of Congress petitioned the State Department to request election monitors from the United Nations. According to the story, OSCE is the "largest regional security organization" in the world and it has sent monitors to 150 elections in 30 countries.

Slam Poets Organize Against Bush

[Verbatim] Coming off the heels of the their hugely successful Rhyme Night showcase series, Contrabandit.com has been recruited by Slam Bush PAC and the Indy Voter PAC to organize Slam Bush, a nationwide MC battle and poetry slam series created to empower the hip-hop generation to take a stand against President George W. Bush. Starting in August, Slam Bush events will be taking place in important battle ground states to set the stage for political organizers to register thousands of Hip-Hop fans for the November 2nd election.

AP: Bush's Record Has Him in Tough Spot

AP is reporting: "Bad news for President Bush: Americans are anxious about the economy and unhappy about the Iraq war. The number of soldiers killed will probably hit the psychologically important 1,000 mark before the November election. And in the political horse race, he is tied or worse with Democratic rival John Kerry. There's a strong market for change at the White House, lifting Democrats' hopes.

Dean Warns about Draft at ‘Rock the Vote' Party

CBS News reports: "As people wondered if former President Bill Clinton was here yet, and college-age guys scanned the chatting celebrities in the VIP area for actress Natalie Portman, the packed club of young Democrats cheered wildly. Former Gov. Howard Dean was on stage, chopping his arm, yelling passionately. The 2,000-person crowd roars. Dean avows: 'If you want a draft, vote for George Bush!'"

Blogging the Convention

List of and links to credentialed bloggers:

Forget boring corporate news accounts of the Dems' big party in Boston. The most entertaining way to follow the action is through the blogging coming out of Beantown. Following are a sampling of blogs that delegates are posting directly from inside. We'll post more as we find them. Enjoy.

Judge Blocks New Mississippi Anti-Abortion Law

Clarion-Ledger is reporting: "Mississippi's new abortion law infringes on a woman's 14th Amendment right to have an abortion early in the second trimester, a federal judge has ruled. In a ruling made public today, U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee kept in place a preminary injunction he issued July 2 that prevented the law from going into affect. The law would have limited abortions after the 13th week of pregnancy to hospitals and ambulatory surgical clinics."

Bush Tries to Lure Black Voters

The New York Times is reporting: "President Bush tried on Friday to sow doubts about Democrats' commitment to black Americans and told black voters 'there is an alternative this year' -- him. At the same time, Bush acknowledged, "Listen, the Republican Party has got a lot of work to do. I understand that.'''

Fahrenheit 9/11 Worrying GOP

AP is reporting: "Republicans initially dismissed 'Fahrenheit 9/11' as a cinematic screed that would play mostly to inveterate Bush bashers. Four weeks and $94 million later, the film is still pulling in moviegoers at 2,000 theaters around the country, making Republicans nervous as it settles into the American mainstream. 'I'm not sure if it moves voters,' GOP consultant Scott Reed said, 'but if it moves 3 or 4 percent it's been a success.'"

Wayne Dowdy Will Worry State GOP

Clarion-Ledger columnist Sid Salter writes that new Mississippi Democratic Party head Wayne Dowdy will worry the state Republicans: "Dowdy is a formidable opponent in every sense of the term. He's smart. He's tough. Dowdy has the demonstrated skills to repair some of the fundamental weaknesses of the Democratic Party in Mississippi — money and organization. But Dowdy's greatest weapon is the Medicaid debacle — Haley Barbour's size 13EEE political Achilles heel — and he'll use it."

Minor: Miss. GOP Lying About ‘Highest-Taxed State'

Columnist Bill Minor writes this week: "Bad enough that the chief propagandist for the Mississippi Republican Party is a turncoat Democrat, but worse that he lies to make taxpayers believe they can't afford health care for 65,000 of the state's neediest. State GOP chairman Jim Herring on Mississippi Public Broadcasting's 'Statewide Live' the other night kept repeating the fallacious party line that Mississippi is 'the highest taxed state in the nation.' Absolute hogwash. The facts are that Mississippians are among the nation's most lightly taxed.

Poll: Dems Lead on Most Issues; Kerry and Bush Tied

AP is reporting: "John Kerry is heading to his party's national convention with Democrats faring better with the public on both domestic and international issues, according to a poll released Wednesday. But Kerry remains locked in a tie in the presidential race. When people are asked which party would do a better job of handling a given issue, Democrats are now 12 points up on handling the economy and have an even larger lead on issues from education to health care and the environment, according to the poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

State GOP Offended that Hood Supporting Kerry

"Kedwards"? Are they guys for real? They sound like a bunch of fourth-graders.

The state GOP party is all bent up like a pretzel over the fact that a DEMOCRATIC attorney general is supporting the DEMOCRATIC candidate for president. They whine on their Web site: "Jim Hood (D - Houston) ran for Attorney General as a mainstream, small-town Mississippian, but yesterday he came out for the gun-grabbing, anti-Mississippi, anti-family agenda of the Kerry/Edwards - 'Kedwards' - ticket. What is he thinking? Are Hood's true beliefs coming out now that the election is over? One thing is certain, Hood's endorsement of Kedwards is a long way from mainstream Mississippi values. Do we really want him issuing legal opinions on our behalf?"

Mississippi Dems ‘Ready to Rumble'?

Bill Minor writes: "Barbour, the guy who won the governor's job with supposedly unmatched political smarts, made a colossal blunder by pushing through legislation that left thousands of recipients - many of whom voted for him - panicky over losing their present medicine benefits under Medicare. His administration has failed to convince those cut from the state program that they would keep similar medical benefits under his plan. It switches them in September into the federally run Medicare program. They would otherwise be forced to go there in January 2006 if the Medicare reform law is not revised by Congress.

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