Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Pat Robertson says Bush told him prior to the Iraq war "We're not going to have any casualties." In the same article Robertson says about Iraq, "the Lord told me it was going to be A, a disaster, and B, messy." I don't remember God using that outline form for prophecy in the Bible, but maybe She now uses PowerPoint. Or is that Higher PowerPoint? Robertson also says "the blessing of heaven is on Bush." UPDATE: Atrios reports that Bush spokesman Scott McClellan says Bush never said it. No word from McClellan on whether God actually told Robertson that Iraq would be a messy disaster. I bet they keep the blessing of heaven, though. UPDATED UPDATE: Evidence that Robertson and Bush were at least talking about this stuff at the time. Still no word on those quotes from God. 4:53:46 PM    comment []

Enjoy the draft! Spring Break, Fallujah 2005. The Bush twins do look nice in camo. 4:46:16 PM    comment []

The AP is contributing $1,000 to BloggerCon. Dave Winer: "We need the money, but also it's great that AP wants to help the bloggers. We have another $1000 donation in process from a big tech company...Another cool thing is that we're getting these sponsorships without making editorial concessions." 4:42:49 PM    comment []

I meant to post a link to the obit for my grandfather, Sydney M. Cone Jr, on his 100th birthday yesterday. But I'm doing it now. 4:34:23 PM    comment []

The Flatiron, a popular drinking establishment in downtown Greensboro, will offer a free screening of Fahrenheit 911, Thursday, Oct. 21 at 9:00 p.m. 221 Summit Ave (Free parking across the street) 2:59:38 PM    comment []

I see a lot of polls. My unscientific observation is that there are some saying Bush has a lead, some saying the race is about even, and a smaller number saying Kerry has the lead. So, if I were betting based on the polls in aggregate, I would bet on Bush, as I would have all along. But I think the surge in voter registration and the swing-state races and the electoral college make this even harder than usual to predict. Bush may win, and he may win big, but I don't think the pollsters will be able to say they told us so if he does. 2:55:31 PM    comment []

CNET: "Dell will announce within weeks a plan to build a new manufacturing plant in the United States." "Asked about reports that the plant could be located in North Carolina, [CEO Kevin] Rollins said rumors about the expansion were, in general, 'more accurate than not.'" Cross your fingers, Greensboro. 2:49:36 PM    comment []

The Bowles campaign is mounting another bus tour of the state. Erskine will be in Greensboro on Wednesday Oct. 27. Burr is on a "barnstorming" tour of his own. 2:46:07 PM    comment []

P2P Politics is a site that lets you forward political ad clips via email. Here's how Larry Lessig describes it in an email: "The idea of the site is to enable people to send clips -- both video and audio -- about the candidate they support to people they know, asking them to listen to or watch the ads sent before they vote. These ads can come from the campaigns, or from anyone who wants to make an ad for a campaign. And as this email does, the site permits people to ad text to the message. We were very successful in collecting ads supporting Kerry. Moveon.org had a bunch licensed under a Creative Commons license we we could get automatically. And the Kerry campaign then gave us a few more to include. But despite our repeated requests, through many channels, we've not yet been able to get a reply from the Bush campaign. So here's the request. If you go to the site...and think it worthwhile, can you send a brief email to the Bush campaign (there's a link on the site) or the Nader campaign (if that's your persuasion)." 8:24:50 AM    comment []

The ACC will operate two divisions, oddly named the Atlantic and the Coastal. Expansion in action: Carolina plays Wake once this year in basketball, at Wake. Fun, huh? 8:08:30 AM    comment []

Lots of new voters registered in NC and Guilford County between January 1 and October 16 -- more Dems than Repubs registering in both the state and the county. Alert reader The Oracle breaks out the numbers: New voter registrations since Jan. 01, 2004 (as of October 16, 2004) ------------------------------------------- 167,965 new Ds 156,875 new Rs 119,095 new UAs New Dem advantage: 670,457 (as of October 16, 2004) Old dem advantage: 659,367 (on Jan. 01, 2004) Net increase in advantage: 11,090 Guilford County -------------- 12,738 new Ds 6,489 new Rs 6,022 new UAs New Dem advantage: 45,194 Old Dem advantage: 38,945 Net increase in advantage: 6,249 8:03:20 AM    comment []

DeLay outlay: a list of Tom DeLay's PAC contributions to other GOP congressional campaigns. 7:53:50 AM    comment []

Robert Scheer: "The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names." (link via ISOU) 7:51:37 AM    comment []