Reminder: "NY Hates W" T-Shirts

The first batch is almost gone, so if you want to receive your "New York Hates Dubya" Ted Rall-designed T-shirt parodies of the old "I Love NY" shirt, now's the time to order.

Go to www.agitproperties.com

RNC Miscellany

Security is one thing, intimidation another.On the C train on my way downtown to the Air America appearance this morning, the subway doors opened up at 34th Street-Pennsylvania Station to an unusual sight: large cops in riot gear, smacking their billy clubs into their open palms at each door of every car. Hmm. Maybe it's better to get off at 23rd Street.

The gruesome parade of 9/11 widows at last night's RNC deserves comment. Americans should "do something," one of them said. Though she harkened to the United 93 passengers who supposedly rebelled against the hijackers--still zero proof to that tale, of course--she meant we should all "do something"--vote Republican this fall. The politization of 9/11 continued with Rudy Giuliani's bizarre assertion that we owe it to the victims to vote for Bush.

Ed Koch's endorsement of the Bush-Cheney ticket retroactively belied his pleas, supposedly as a Democrat, to New Yorkers of liberal stripe to "make nice" to the Republican delegates. One is as one votes, and Ed Koch is as much of a Democrat as Michael Bloomberg is a Republican. Thanks, Ed, for finally outting yourself.

As the cameras scanned the sea of Caucasian faces across the convention hall, I was struck by something I'd never noticed before. Republicans, or at least Republican delegates, have no sparkle in their eyes. Like sharks, sheep and other braindead species, GOP adherents have a blank stare. Odd, and a little scary.

"Crash the Party" This Thursday Night in NYC

"Crash the Party"
A fundraiser to benefit the Kerry-Edwards campaign
Thursday, September 2, 2004
New York City

Between orange alerts and heartlanders in straw hats, there are loads of reasons to blow town during the Republican National Convention. But here's an incentive to stick around ...

On Thursday, September 2nd on the East Side of Manhattan, we are inviting supporters of regime change in the U.S.A. and their friends to join us for cocktails, conversation, and controversy in support of the team that wants to lead America in a new direction -- John Kerry and John Edwards.

By any measure, the highlight of the evening will be George W. Bush's acceptance of the Grand Old Party nomination, carried live on 25 screens through the miracle of television. Listen respectfully as our president recites his accomplishments on the economy, world peace and the environment ... or, you could express your true feelings. (The conventioneers at the Garden will wonder what that dull roar coming from the East could be.)

Fueling our enthusiasm will be open bar (beer, wine, and liquor) and light hors d'oeuvres, accelerated by the soon-to-be-infamous Bushisms drinking game!

Attendance is limited, so reserve immediately!

CRASH THE PARTY
At
Proof
239 Third Avenue between 19th and 20th Streets
Manhattan

8 p.m. The party starts
10 p.m. W takes the podium

Admission:
$85 at the door
$75 in advance (Paypal to crashtheparty@mindspring.com)
All proceeds of this event go to support the Kerry-Edwards election campaign!

Presented with the support of the New York State Democratic Committee. Contributions to this event are not tax-deductible. RSVP and further information, please email crashtheparty@mindspring.com.

Air America Appearance

I'll be on Air America Radio's "Unfiltered" at 10:30 am East Coast time (I think it's the same time in other time zones though I'm not 100% certain) to discuss the Republican National Convention and the way New Yorkers are reacting to it.

The People, Divided

"They're all over the island!" the police captain at New York's Union Square screamed in a panic into his walkie talkie. "They're doing stuff!" But in reality, yesterday's anti-RNC march suffered more from low turnout and the usual leftie wimpiness than anarchist violence.

After polls of New Yorkers indicated that 14 percent of the population--a million people--planned to protest the Republican National Convention, estimates of merely 100,000 had to be a disappointment to protest organizers. I suspect the lack of a rally at the end, coupled with fears of police-led violence--which marred the February 15, 2003 anti-Iraq war march here--contributed to that low number. Certainly by the march's denouement at Union Square, the crowd was much thinner than in February 2003.

At several points overzealous police carried off protesters who dared raise their voices by yelling at them. A few people tried to heckle them, but most of the crowd was clearly scared.

The people met the police state yesterday. The people lost.

Pre-Convention: Live, From the War Zone

Nervous New York City cops have prohibited parking throughout neighborhoods up to three miles away from the Madison Square Garden convention site. Today all along 11th Avenue as far north as 57th Street, orange cones and notices informed motorists that they wouldn't be allowed to park there. Homeless people, driven by rough NYPD tactics away from midtown, are streaming uptown into Riverside Park.

Meanwhile the exodus of ordinary New Yorkers continues apace. This afternoon at noon one could have somewhat safely taken a snooze in the street at Times Square. Police were everywhere--on horses, in golf carts, on foot. I've lived here since 1981, but I never knew we had so many cops on the payroll. Hey, how about using them to stop crime sometime? That would be a welcome change from whatever it is these guys normally do.

There are more pro-Kerry and anti-Bush buttons on shirts in the subway. Obvious Republican delegates are shuffling nervously through the streets.

Republicans are smart enough to know they're hated by New Yorkers. As a secret email went out to Young Republicans said, "We will also require you to have a YR Credential for many of our events. With the mass number of protesters expected in NYC, we are working hard to ensure that nobody disturbs the great time we have planned. Please remember you will need a photo ID for all convention events!"

To top it all off, tomorrow's big protest march will occur during one of the hottest days of a relatively cool summer so far. The forecast is for highs in the 90s, with humidity and haze--and that's in the shade, not on the hot asphalt where the protest will occur. United for Peace and Justice, it turns out, was wise to walk away from the West Side Highway deal. That area's going to be a frying pan tomorrow.

Snow Job

Former Texas Governor George W. Bush claims that the U.S. economy has created 1.5 million new jobs during the last 12 months. Senator John Kerry counters that, during the previous period beginning with Bush's seizure of power in January 2001, we lost 1.8 million jobs. But as the Bureau of Labor Statistics says, the U.S. economy must create 1.8 million jobs annually just to keep even with the growth of the U.S. population and thus the workforce.

In other words, John Kerry is--in order to avoid stirring up controversy, one presumes, using the GOP's stunted figures of job loss during the Bush years. Things are actually far worse.

During the Clinton years, 22 million jobs were created. Subtract the 12 million jobs that should be accounted for merely by population growth during those eight years and you've still got a net, robust, gain of 10 million.

Bush lost 1.8 million (not accounting for population growth), then gained 1.5 million. That's a net loss of 300,000 jobs. But when you factor in the three years and seven months since the seizure of power, during which some 4.2 million jobs ought to have been created, he's down a net loss of 3.9 million jobs. That's the worst performance by any American leader since Herbert Hoover's reign over the start of the Great Depression.

Want to be even more depressed? To match Bill Clinton, he would need to create 5 milliion more net jobs, plus 3.9 million population increase jobs, for a total of 8.9 million, by Election Day.

Why don't the Democrats tell the truth? When Bush created 32,000 jobs during July, they said it wasn't enough. The truth is, that's a net loss of 118,000 jobs for that month alone, and they should say so.

I suspect that they allow the Republicans to fib because they would like to fib the same way after Kerry takes control over a lousy economy. But it's dishonest and it isn't smart. For when the Dems try to spin the jobs figures, you can be damned sure that Republicans won't hesitate to call them on it.

Bush Flips, Flops on Foreign Control of U.S. Troops

During his 2004 State of the Union Address, former Texas Governor George W. Bush stridently refused to place U.S. troops under the control of foreign entities such as the United Nations. "America will never seek a permission slip," he said in a clear reference to France and other members of the Security Council, "to defend the security of our people."

Somehow no one seems to have noticed that Bush has not only ceded control of U.S. forces to a foreign nation, but one led by one of the world's most unstable nations. That's right: we're talking about Iraq.

Ever since Paul Bremer fled in the dark of night and the Coalition Provision Authority was dissolved, the interim, unelected regime of President Allawi has--according to U.S. officials--been in charge of military activities against the rising resistance throughout Iraq.

On August 24, the Washington Post reported:

Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. forces began patrolling the streets of Najaf on Tuesday, establishing their presence as part of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's pledge that the new Iraqi army would take the lead in defeating militiamen loyal to a rebellious Shiite cleric.
Iraqi officers described their operations as having a more prominent role than was described by local U.S. commanders.
"We are not supporting the U.S. Army, we are here to evacuate the shrine of the outlaws," said Lt. Haider Hussein, a platoon commander of an Iraqi army anti-riot battalion operating in the area, as is an Iraqi commando battalion training for a possible final assault on the mosque.
"The U.S. Army is supporting us," Hussein said, "because we don't have new weapons to use in this battle."

One could argue, if one were an unrepentent defender of Gov. Bush, that since the Iraqi regime is nothing more than a puppet dictatorship installed by the CIA, that the U.S. is merely commanding its own troops via Allawi's Iraqi middlemen. The trouble with that is that, as Bush claimed on August 9, "Prime Minister Allawi is now in charge of the country."

Bush Sues to Stop All 527s? Not Really

Even devoted news junkies couldn't be faulted for falling for the delusion that former Texas Governor George W. Bush plans to join Senator John McCain in lawsuits meant to bring an end to all Section 527-related political lobbying organizations.

Yesterday's USA Today, for example, wrote this:

President Bush (news - web sites) plans to join Arizona Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) in a court battle aimed at stopping political ads by outside groups, which have attacked Bush as well as John Kerry (news - web sites)'s Vietnam War record.

The New York Times put it this way:

President Bush [sic] said yesterday that he would team with Senator John McCain to force a crackdown on independent groups that run political attack advertisements.

You would have to dig quite a bit to find out, however, that Bush has no intention of suing ALL 527s. In fact, as the Times buried the real story down in paragraph 8:

Lawyers for Mr. Bush said Thursday that they were drafting two lawsuits. One, they said, is intended to expedite their complaint before the Federal Election Commission that Moveon.org, the Media Fund and America Coming Together, liberal groups running ads against the president, were illegally coordinating with Mr. Kerry. The other lawsuit, they said, would seek tighter restrictions on the groups' activities.

In other words, Bush and McCain are ONLY planning to sue liberal 527s. They have complained about (in Bush's case) all 527s and (in McCain's case) the notorious Kerry-bashing Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads, but when it comes to putting their legal fees where their mouths are--well, that's just not happening.

Once again, the Bushies' shuck-and-jive act is playing the media for fools.

USA Today joined most other organizations in failing to note the fact that ONLY MoveOn.org and America Coming Together were to be targeted by Bush and Senator McCain.

Cops Gone Wild, NYC

So I'm waiting for the light to change so I can cross the street. Three women are standing next to me gossipping. A NYPD van screeches up to the curb and a female cop yells out the window with a tone of panic: "Clear the corner! You can't block the corner!"

This went down at the corner of West 125th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. It's Harlem's Main Street, and there is a vibrant street scene there. People are constantly hanging out, hawking stuff, wolfwhistling, what have you. Blocking the corner? Who the hell ever heard of such a concept before?

Pre-RNC, the NYPD is spinning its wheels, fingering triggers itchily, worried sick because there are no plans whatsoever for dealing with whatever may go down.

Pre-Convention Blog

After an inexcusable period of slackerdom, I'm firing up the Rallblog for the upcoming Necropublican National Convention here in New York. I'll be attending all the festivities, inside and outside Madison Square Garden, and will post here regularly to describe what's going on.

Manhattan, always empty of wealthy white people who flee to the Hamptons in late August, is even ghostlier than usual. The city transportation infrastructure has become an armed camp. Every subway platform harbors small men with huge automatic rifles. Third World-style military police checkpoints have sprung up on the Triborough Bridge and other crossings. Republican delegates who traveled here early to do a little shopping and sightseeing have started to appear on streets and buses. Yesterday a cute blonde with a Bush button smiled at me on the subway, perhaps hoping to explore urbanized sexuality. In the spirit of the anti-RNC resistance, I said: "Bush? Ewwwwww!" and left the train. Yes, things are already turning ugly.

Incredibly, there will be march on Sunday, beginning at noon. Protesters are being instructed to turn up on lower Seventh Avenue near 14th Street in the West Village. The march will proceed north on 7th (which is just wrong to me, as a former taxi driver--traffic goes south only) past the convention site--which will not have opened for business until the next day. Where they go from there, nobody knows. Many marchers will likely head into the logical debouchement point, Central Park. But the city Parks Department has refused to issue a permit for a rally there and police are promising arrests if anyone attempts one. With luck Sunday's march will be a peaceful one, but Mayor Bloomberg's pigheadedness may prevent that laudable goal from coming to pass. Even if turnout is modest--say 100,000--where will all of those people go afterwards? Worst of all, there are literally no provisions for officially-sanctioned rallies and marches during the RNC itself. Since the police will have no idea where trouble might begin, they'll be nervous and jittery--and the opportunity for chaos will be infinite.

The "NY Hates W" T-Shirts Are Here!

Mine arrived in the mail yesterday, and they look awesome. Any self-respecting New Yorker needs this parody of the famous "I Love NY" shirt of the 1970s. Go to www.agitproperties.com to get yours in time for the RNC.

"Crash the Party" Update

If you're planning to attend the hottest party in New York on the last night of the RNC (Thursday, Sept. 2), the fun won't be at Madison Square Garden, where Piehole will be accepting his party's nomination to run for the office he stole in the first place. The fabulous $75-per-person Kerry fundraiser "Crash the Party" will be THE place to be, and you can be there, and hang out with yours truly in the bargain (not to mention pick up a copy or two of my books). Details are in the original post below, but if you're coming please reserve your ticket NOW. Admission will be cut off when capacity is reached.

Those who cannot attend but wish to be there in spirit (hi out-of-towner Bush haters!) may pay just $25 to attend virtually. Send a 300 dpi full-size photo of yourself (head shot would be best) to chet@rall.com along with your name and a brief message, and you'll go on the Wall of Honor at the bash. And don't worry--we'll tear it all down before HomeSec gets a look.

P.S. I need someone to sit at a table to sell my books at the party. If you're interested in volunteering for a good cause, you'll get free admission, not to mention as many of my books as you can carry home. Email me at chet@rall.com if you're reliable, presentable and cool.

Right-Wing Spin (What a Shocker)

An alert reader sends the following:

I just thought you might be interested to know that you column available
this week is being quoted in a Conservative New Hampshire news letter called
the Union Leader. Their article can also be accessed from the Republican
National Committee website as part of their research information for
delegates. Reporter Bernadette Malone has turned your off-hand refferral to
rumors pf prostitutes attempting to spread STDs into an active part of the
protests and over all conspiracy of Democrates and "Republican-haters."
Instead of saying STDs she says AIDS and then later refers to protesters as
"AIDS-spreaders." I can't wait until this hyphenated neo-con jargon begun by
Bush goes out of style. So yeah, I thought that was nice and that you might
be interested to know how your words are being used.

Indeed, there is a major difference between what I wrote and what the right-wing Manchster Union-Leader (a daily newspaper, not a newsletter) said I wrote:

I wrote:

Rejecting ex-mayor Ed Koch's call to "make nice" with the party that used the deaths of 2,801 New Yorkers--most of them Democrats--for everything from tax cuts for the rich to building concentration camps at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib to invading Iraq (news - web sites) to enrich Dick Cheney (news - web sites) and his fellow Halliburton execs, some groups are encouraging liberal-minded New Yorkers to volunteer for the city's squad of official greeters. Creatively altered maps of streets and subways will be handed out to button-clad stupid white men. Other saboteurs wearing fake RNC T-shirts will direct them to parts of town where Bush's policies have hit hardest. Rumor has it that prostitutes suffering from sexually transmitted diseases will discourage the use of condoms with Republican customers.

Bernadette Malone of the Union-Leader said I wrote:

They plan on throwing pies and Lord knows what else at Republican visitors to the city. Prostitutes with AIDS plan to seduce Republican visitors, and discourage the use of condoms, according to liberal journalist Ted Rall.

Of course, they could have simply quoted me. But that wouldn't have been quite so incendiary.

Air America, 8:30 am

I'll be on Morning Sedition on Air America tomorrow morning, Thursday August 26th, at 8:30 am East Coast time. Check your local listings or stream it online.

NYC Fundraiser for John Kerry

I'll be there with bells on, toons on the video monitor and books and T-shirts to sell!

"Crash the Party"
A fundraiser to benefit the Kerry-Edwards campaign
Thursday, September 2, 2004
New York City

Between orange alerts and heartlanders in straw hats, there are loads
of reasons to blow town during the Republican National Convention.
But here's an incentive to stick around ...

On Thursday, September 2nd on the East Side of Manhattan, we are
inviting supporters of regime change in the U.S.A. and their friends
to join us for cocktails, conversation, and controversy in support of
the team that wants to lead America in a new direction -- John Kerry
and John Edwards.

By any measure, the highlight of the evening will be George W. Bush's
acceptance of the Grand Old Party nomination, carried live on 25
screens through the miracle of television. Listen respectfully as our
president recites his accomplishments on the economy, world peace and
the environment ... or, you could express your true feelings. (The
conventioneers at the Garden will wonder what that dull roar coming
from the East could be.)

Fueling our enthusiasm will be open bar (beer, wine, and liquor) and
light hors d'oeuvres, accelerated by the soon-to-be-infamous Bushisms
drinking game!

Attendance is limited, so reserve immediately!

CRASH THE PARTY
At
Proof
239 Third Avenue between 19th and 20th Streets
Manhattan

8 p.m. The party starts
10 p.m. W takes the podium

Admission:
$85 at the door
$75 in advance (Paypal to crashtheparty@mindspring.com)
All proceeds of this event go to support the Kerry-Edwards election
campaign!

Presented with the support of the New York State Democratic Committee.
Contributions to this event are not tax-deductible.
RSVP and further information, please email
crashtheparty@mindspring.com.

"N Y Hates W" T-Shirts Available Now!

The invasion is coming! Be prepared!

By popular demand the Ted Rall-designed "N Y Hates W" T-shirts are available for ordering! If you already contacted me via email, you will hear from Agitproperties regarding payment and shipping information.

Everyone else should click on Agitproperties.com. If you get your order in within the next few days, you'll receive your shirts in time for next week's RNC festivities.

The shirt is high quality and available in all the usual sizes. Order yours today and greet the Republicans in style!

It's That Time Again

That's right...it's even more right-wing extremist hate mail from the Bushists! This time they're angry about this week's column, wherein I posit that the GOP may well get the trouble they were asking for when they decided to exploit the Democratic dead of 9/11 by holding their Necropublican National Convention to coincide with the 3rd anniversary of 9/11. As usual, they're pissed off, annoyed and just plain shocked at the thought that they aren't beloved here in the capital of liberal America, the home of Ground Zero. And as usual, the righties are obscene, illiterate and violent.

Of course, obscene, illiterate and violent is a synonym for today's psychotic GOP.

Here we go:

From rfdrj@netscape.net:

You are a goddamned leftwing piece of shit loser asshole..............

From lonesomevow@hotmail.com:

You sir are a traitor-North Korea, I am sure, would welcome you.

From Pirate2159@aol.com:

Mr. Rall,

You brainless shitdick. In response to your overt call for violence and antisocial behavior toward the Republican guests to NYC, including the amazing call for "children to yell obscenities at you," I can only hope that if the terrorists who hate us as much as you do come to kill Americans again, and if some must die, that you are among the first. I pray that only those of your ill will are harmed.
Jerry Hurtubise
Homewood, IL

From jmjohn109@yahoo.com:

"the hapless saps"
You my friend are a steaming pile of pile of dog shit
unworthy of the seconds necessary to draft this note.
Your brethren exposed your attitudes to the center who
decide our elections with the Paul Wellstone RALLY
funeral and continue to alienate with each thought &
action. Please continue. You are correct GW is not a
great choice. However, I would rather vote for a
chimp than align myself with the vermin that populate
your idealogical village. You my friend are the GOP's
best friend.

From frank.brady@sbcglobal.net:

What's your slogan, you putrid little faggot?
Ass-lickers of the world, Unite?

From livorine@comcast.net:

Dear Mr. Rall:

I agree with you regarding the NY welcome of Republicans. I didn't want the convention there anyway. Why go to a place where the people live like insects? A New Yorker's idea of a model society is an ant farm. The only thing more repulsive than the city, are the people. Whenever I leave there, after I get home, I can never get quite clean for a time. New York clings to a person like the discharge of a skunk. No wonder you're all mostly unhappy and bitter. You have to look around you every day.
I could carve better people out of bananas.
R. Richard Livorine

From rtait@cox-internet.com:

Fuck you Ted..........

From fuller30@mac.com:

Fuck you
I like to meet you in the streets of new york.
go live in cuba.
Fuller Family
Portland, OR 97219

From ancaudill@earthlink.net:

Do you know what being a "neo fascist" means?
It's stupid little dickless fucks like you that would be the first killed if the Islamic terrorists got their way. Did you forget the fact that they declared war on is in the '90's and that crooked dick bitch did nothing but the hired help.
Go to hell you little commie bastard....
Best wishes
ALEX

From Patriot502003@adelphia.net:

Thank god that the New Yorkers are more followers of Rudy Giuliani than your ilk. You are a true piece of garbage that should be thrown out with the Sharptons and that prick on the City Council that believes in reparations for blacks.
Gary Darby

From dxrinc@houston.rr.com:

TURD BLOSSOM>.....lowsey sack of shit

Ted here: True Bush trivia: Bush's nickname for Karl Rove is turdblossom.

From jkutyla1@san.rr.com:

You are freak

From newsaudio@kidk.com:

Dear Ted,
Eat a bag of shit. You suck.
Cory Bauer

From mywifegripesalot@hotmail.com:

Dear Ted, Just read your story on the rnc in New York. If this is really the way that most New Yorkers feel, then I can only pray every day that you pieces of garbage get slammed by terrorists again. Hopefully 30,000 or maybe 300,000 of you pathetic, liberal, democraps will die instead of just 3000+. I actually felt sorry for your city after 9/11, but not anymore. I only feel sorry for the intelligent New Yorkers who are forced to live amongst the scum like you.

From svdbygrc98@comcast.net:

It's going to kill you when he gets re-elected isn't it?

Ted here: You have to get elected in the first place in order to get re-elected.

From Nurse@LENOXHILL.NET:

u suk

From cenbucks10@yahoo.com:

GO FUCK YOURSELF
MOVE TO FRANCE CUNT
From dbstooge@earthlink.net:

I pray for the day I hear about your worthless life coming to an end. You are a communist fascist piece of shit and I will celebrate the day your soul enters Hell. I piss on your filthy corpse and wait for the day to desecrate your gravesite. Die of AIDS cunt.

From Joetrombly@aol.com:

You are a disgusting  human being
I will be looking for you when I come to NY...

And to all those who noted that I misspelled "Mayberry": Yes, it's true. I did.

T-Shirt Poll

My T-shirt publisher and I are trying to determine whether to print, and if so how many, the above T-shirt. The perfect outfit for protesting the Necropublication National Convention or just for living in New York this fall, the New York Hates Dubya T-shirt is just $14.95 and available in all sizes. If you want one, you'll definitely have it on time for the RNC.

Please e-mail chet@rall.com to tell me how many copies you want and in what sizes. Shipping is via priority mail and will be charged accordingly.

If I hear from enough people, I'll email you back with payment instructions.

Covering the RNC

Anyone with a spare media pass to the RNC? If so, please email me at chet@rall.com.

Wussy Protesters

United for Peace and Justice, the organization applying for parade permits to protest the Republican National Convention in New York, originally requested the use of Central Park's Great Lawn for a gathering of about 250,000 protesters. When the city agency in charge of issuing permits declined their request, they UPJ agreed to an absurd solution: being shunted to the narrow strip of asphalt called the West Side Highway more than a mile away from the convention site, in an area devoid of restaurants and restrooms where water could be obtained.

Now UPJ is balking at a deal they shouldn't have cut in the first place, which makes them look doubly wanky.

UPJ should tell the Bloomberg Administration that 250,000-plus people are coming to New York, like it or not. Plane tickets have been purchased, buses chartered. Central Park was never the right spot anyway: protesters should be, and the First Amendment grants the right to be, directly out front of the convention site at Madison Square Garden, right at the corner of Seventh Avenue and West 33rd Street. Who cares about permits? Organizers should instruct everyone to meet at the Great Lawn and march down Seventh to the RNC. Face it: the NYPD cannot and is not inclined to arrest 250,000 peaceful marchers. And if they are, well, all the better for the spirit of civil disobedience.

Nothing is more sickening than the current "left's" excessive penchant for compromise with Constitution-hating neofascists.

Lt. Kerry Cartoon

Last week I drew a cartoon critical of John Kerry's repeated reliance on his service during the Vietnam War in his campaign. In a crusade that proves blinders aren't the exclusive domain of the right, many Democrats have written me to remind me--as if I didn't know!--that defeating George W. Bush is so important that all patriotic Americans must unite to defeat him. And again: duh.

Look, I'm going to vote for Kerry. And I'm urging others to do so. But Kerry's vote for the war in Iraq makes him vulnerable to the charge that he was following the polls more than his principles when he cast that vote. And his continued trumpeting of his bravery during Vietnam--a war he came to oppose later than most other Americans--makes it seem like he doesn't understand one simple fact.

That fact is that there is nothing honorable about having served in Vietnam. The United States murdered more than a million Vietnamese in a harebrained attempt to prop up a corrupt puppet regime fighting a proxy war. U.S. troops, as Kerry testified after the fact, committed countless war crimes and atrocities against innocent people. The war was shit; fighting bravely and gallantly in a shit war doesn't erase that.

It would be far more effective for Kerry to say that Iraq is a mistake similar to Vietnam, and that he was mistaken to support both.

Right-Wing Smear Campaign

The following comes from Editor & Publisher magazine:

Group Complains to Papers and Syndicate About Ted Rall

By E&P Staff

Published: August 10, 2004

NEW YORK A conservative Web-based group has targeted cartoonist Ted Rall with protest letters sent to more than a dozen newspapers that publish his work as well as his syndicate, Universal. Rall has responded by denouncing the "Borglike hive-mind of reactionary Republicans."

The letters e-mailed and faxed were identically worded, according to The Aspen (Colo.) Times, which received about 100 of them, and called for the axing of Rall's work on grounds that it is "melodramatically ideological, simple-headed, snarling, and tasteless." The letters identified the source as laptoplobbyist.com, billed as "America's First and Foremost Online Conservative Community."

Chris Carmouche of Kansas City, Mo., a board member of laptoplobbyist.com, told the Aspen paper that the letters were part of the organization's weekly "action initiative." Each week the organization sends form letters on behalf of its members to policy makers and publications.

Rall commented: "Stuff like this is the result of a point-and-click blogger subculture. It's only something that started when the Bush administration took power. The right is reactionary. They like to indulge in censorship. The First Amendment is not really their friend."

Universal Press Syndicate Editor Lee Salem told the Aspen paper that mass postings from online political groups are common and mostly ignored.

Rall's cartoon, however, was dropped by MSNBC.com after Web editors received many form letters criticizing his cartoon about slain NFL star and Army Ranger Pat Tillman. Rall suggested Tillman was an "idiot" for leaving his family and enlisting for the war in Afghanistan.

Salem said none of the papers that received the laptoplobbyist.com letters have decided to drop Rall's work. The Aspen Times said it will continue to publish his cartoon every Tuesday.

Many of you have written to ask what we can do about this. Well, a few sharp-eyed FORs have noted that Laptoplobbyist.com's OWN fax number is:

800-878-6033

That's:

800-878-6033

in case you missed it the first time. As Laptoplobbyist.com says on its own website: "Today's battles are being fought with tomorrow's technology.  A personal letter to a decision maker only has a limited effect.  Thousands of letters flooding a decision maker's fax machine at once makes the decision maker stand up and take notice.  I want to have a REAL IMPACT."

That's a toll-free fax number, folks.

Alan Keyes, Fascist

So "black Republican" (if there's anything sillier than that oxymoron, I have yet to hear it) Alan Keyes is running for Senate. I suppose it's a fine thing that the GOP found someone to run against Obama, but if they wanted to go the black against black route they might have chosen someone who isn't a died-in-the-wool fascist. Keyes, who ran for president in 1992 and 1996, already is suffering from one of those mass emails going around the Internet containing embarrassing quotes, but one important one is missing.

Because Alan Keyes didn't like one of my cartoons in 2002, during the height of the Bushite Two Year Hate Against the Left that followed 9/11, he actually suggested that I be shot, imprisoned or subjected to government censorship:

Should such a cartoonist be punished, arrested? Shot at dawn? Or does any such suggestion violate principles which are themselves crucial to the cause we fight to defend?

To answer these questions, we must first of all retain our confidence in certain moral judgments, in our capacity to make certain basic distinctions. Serious debate about the war and its purpose is crucial, and freedom to conduct this debate, in Congress and elsewhere, must be non-negotiable in all but the most genuinely extreme circumstances.

But this brutal and inhuman comic strip was not debate – it was an assault on the decent national sensibilities crucial to the war effort. Such assaults are a kind of pornography in civic discourse. And like our response to pornographers, our toleration of Mr. Rall, and our means for dealing with him, are matters for prudential consideration.

A free people should normally suppress such activities through private moral judgment and association. Pornographers should be shunned by all, and likewise Mr. Ted Rall should have been fired immediately by those with professional authority over him, or in contractual relations with him. Such action in defense of the decent judgment of this people in regard to 9-11 would be more than sufficient to keep such as Mr. Rall from subverting our national resolve.

But it is worth remembering that when serious and sustained attempts to undermine public opinion on a matter genuinely essential to national life cannot be resisted by other means, governmental action may be necessary.

If Keyes belongs in the Senate, Hitler belongs in the White House.

Clarification on West Coast Book Tour

People have written to ask whether I'll be doing a book signing in their city. In general, the answer depends on whether or not your local newspaper runs my cartoons and/or columns. I've discovered over the years that turnout is far too low in cities where I have a local paper to justify the travel and other expenses associated with setting up an event.

A base paper makes people aware of my work, runs listings or a full-length article and may even kick in money to make the event happen. This is another reason that the Internet is evil; it encourages people to read my work online, where I don't get paid, rather than ask their local paper to carry me.

Don't get me wrong: I'd love to visit every major city. But I don't want to squander my publishers' money for signings where 3 people show up.

The exception to the above: if a group willing to buy substantial newspaper advertising wants to sponsor a speaking event, that can be worthwhile for all concerned. However, I charge an honorarium for appearances unrelated to a book tour.

Book Offer to Expire

The offer for signed copies and sketches expires August 15th.