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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.'"
Stop the Blaming
Reason magazine's Cathy Young provides perspective on the attempt to place 9-11 blame: "With the 9/11 commission holding its hearings, the blame game is in full swing. It's Bush's fault. No, Clinton's. No, it's everyone's fault. No, it's no one's fault. And so it goes. Attorney General John Ashcroft goes before the panel and gets grilled on his lack of attention to terrorism pre-9/11. Ashcroft turns the tables and points the finger at panel member Jamie Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, for tying law enforcement's hands with guidelines that made cooperation with intelligence agencies virtually impossible. Whether you think Ashcroft or Gorelick ended up in the hot seat generally depends on which one of them you'd like to see squirm. Everyone, it seems, is being confirmed in what they already know."
Cheney Says He's Staying on GOP Ticket
AP is reporting that Vice President Cheney says he's staying on Bush's ticket. Good news for Dems and the ABB crowd?
Democrat Merkley Wins Oregon Senate Seat
It's finally been called.
C-L: Registration Time Running Out for Vote
The Clarion-Ledger reports:
Planet Weekly: [Melton Is] Rep in Dem's Clothing
A Planet Weekly columnist this week endorses Mayor Johnson and rips Frank Melton and some of his supporters:
Voting at Black Colleges Hit Record Levels
This year's surge in youth voting—51 percent of Americans 29 and under voted this year as opposed to 42 percent in 2000—was nowhere more apparent than on black college campuses, reports the Black College Wire:
Republican Party, Remake Thyself (You, Too, Barbour)
Politico's headline today, GOP In Dire Straits, says it all. Don't miss Haley Barbour's take at the end, telling Obama how to be, er, non-partisan:
To Live and Get Around in Oxford
OXFORDWalking from the Square to the university, I had heard that the James Meredith contingent was marching toward the Grove. I had hoped to find them so I could take pictures. I walked up University Avenue and stopped at the concrete baricades 200 yards in front of the Ford Center, where the debate will be. Police stopped me and told me the only way for me to enter would be from Sorority Row, which is across campus. Even my debate credentials couldn't get me through this barricade with about 30 Mississippi state troopers vehicles and a SWAT van lined up. Worried that I wasn't going to make it on time, I talked my way into a Memphis taxicab already hauling a pair of lost journalists. One was a writer from Politico; the other was from a Swedish daily newspaper. I knew my way around campus and talked the cab driver into taking us to the Union and showed him how to get there. I'm still looking for the Meredith group, though.
Bush: Drop ‘Political Posture'
The New York Times editorializes today: "No reasonable American blames Mr. Bush for the terrorist attacks, but that's a long way from thinking there was no other conceivable action he could have taken to prevent them. He could, for instance, have left his vacation in Texas after receiving that briefing memo entitled 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.' and rushed back to the White House, assembled all his top advisers and demanded to know what, in particular, was being done to screen airline passengers to make sure people who fit the airlines' threat profiles were being prevented from boarding American planes. Even that sort of prescient response would probably have been too little to head off the disaster. But those what-if questions should haunt the president as they haunt the nation. In all probability, they do and it is only the demands of his re-election campaign that are guiding Mr. Bush's public stance of utter, uncomplicated self-righteousness.
WLBT: Crime on Hwy. 80 Gets Political
WLBT responded to Frank Melton's press conference on Highway 80 with this story:
Bill Minor: Barbour's Nephew Lobbyist Raising Ire
Mr Minor writes: "Henry Barbour, the nephew who managed Gov. Haley Barbour's recent gubernatorial campaign, and his brother, Austin, have hooked up with Capitol Resources — an influential legislative lobbying group with a number of big corporate, gaming and oil clients. Capitol Resources, headed by two top lobbyists, Clare Hester and John Lundy, lists among its clients Kerr-McGee Corp., Lorillard Tobacco, Northrup Grumman Ship Systems and even the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. What especially got the effusive Holland's attention were quotes from one of the Barbour nephews that 'we're going to assist ... Republican candidates in raising money both nationally and at the state level.'"
E-mail from Howard Dean
This went to his mailing list just now: "John Kerry and I had a very good meeting yesterday. During the campaign we often focused on what divided us, but the truth is we have much more in common beginning with our fervent desire to send George Bush back to Crawford, Texas in November. The future of our country depends on this.
Leland Speed Touts ‘Creative Class'
A Clarion-Ledger story today about a Leland Speed speech talks about the "Creative Class" concept that we started talking about way back in our preview issue: "Other successes are discussed in The Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida, he said. The book says successful locations sold themselves because people sought them first as places to live in, then they searched for a job. That goes against tradition, Speed said."
Barbour Faces Budget Opposition
... especially on education cuts. The Clarion-Ledger reports today: On Tuesday, dozens of lawmakers — mostly GOP allies — gathered with Barbour to pledge support for the changes. "I'm willing to make the tough decisions ... if you'll join me and you'll let me," said Barbour, who distributed small calculators to legislators as symbols of his cost-saving intentions. The Senate has 28 co-sponsors of Barbour's legislation — more than the majority needed for passage.
‘Coon Hounds' Poem Causing Controversy
Read the poem here.
WMC-TV is reporting that a folksy poem by Paul Ott, proposed to the Legislature as the state poem, is causing controversy, with a group of Ole Miss professors and students saying it doesn't exactly make Mississippi look very, well, smart.
CQ: McCain Campaign ‘Dead Wrong' About Ayers-Obama
With the state of the nation, it's sad that we all have to spend time factchecking McCain-Palin lies, but here goes, thanks to CQ Politics:
Families United Supporting Troops at Oxford Debate
The Pontotoc Progress is reporting (in a whole bunch of one-sentence paragraphs):
SOS Announces ‘Voter-Verified Paper Trail'
It seems the secretary of state's office is trying to respond to concerns about the new voting machines such as the JFP reported more than a month ago: