Bush and Kerry meet in first of three debates with Kerry needing to make up ground North County Times - North San Diego and Southwest Riverside County News - Celebrations:

tip from wonkette:

It's now 2 hours till the debate starts, and the AP past-tense, the debate already happened story is already filed. check the timestamp below, which preceeds the first 3 grafs.....

"Last modified Thursday, September 30, 2004 2:10 PM PDT"

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) -- After a deluge of campaign speeches and hostile television ads, President Bush and challenger John Kerry got their chance to face each other directly Thursday night before an audience of tens of millions of voters in a high-stakes debate about terrorism, the Iraq war and the bloody aftermath.

The 90-minute encounter was particularly crucial for Kerry, trailing slightly in the polls and struggling for momentum less than five weeks before the election. The Democratic candidate faced the challenge of presenting himself as a credible commander in chief after a torrent of Republican criticism that he was prone to changing his positions.

Bush was expected to confront questions about leading the nation into war on the still-unproven premise that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He also has faced accusations that he lacked a strategy to deal with the violence and chaos that have left more than 1,000 Americans dead and that the Iraq war has diverted U.S. attention from al-Qaida and other terrorists.

ABCNEWS.com : Noted Now: ABC News' Political News Digest

some of my constituants have been asking about real-time debate blogging. I'll leave that to others, whose job it is to blog debates instead of enjoying debates, coctails, and snide comments in real life with real people.

that said, I will be taking lots of pictures as the Wash U debate goes down next friday and will generally be stepping it up around here as a service to those of you who can't actually go and ask those stoners on the 'hot rock' how they feel about the increasing cost of prescription drugs, &c.

but that's next week, and this week is Florida, and a sort-of fifth hurricane to hit the state, and so just watch it yourself and make up your own mind and if you need to doing something with your wi-fi while the debate's going down then just download porn or click on the link above and let the professionals take care of you and just leave me out of it, dun.

Vermin Supreme '04. word.

DrudgeReportArchives.com ? 2004

I mean, come on, drudge. Is this really the best you can do? $50 a barrel oil for the first time in the history of the world and you bump into a 72-point font the fact that John Kerry got a tan??? "Skin transition???" Thanks for the blue dress, dude, but you gotta do better than this.

MyDD :: Holy F---ing Jim Crow

Ohio Secretary of State makes two decisions to limit citizens ability to vote. See also recent moves by MO Sec. of State/ Gubenatorial Candidate Matt Blunt.

Vietnam ain't the only thing in this election giving off the old funk of the 60's....Some of these elections officials are rocking Malcolm X's "By Any Means Necessary" theory.....like, whoa.

Rivals Once More (washingtonpost.com):

"'You don't want to get on the wrong side of both of them. They can crack the whip,' said Henning, 62, who coached under Gibbs in Super Bowl XVII and XXII and under Parcells with the New York Jets. 'People might see Bill that way because he's more confrontational with the press. I've seen Bill charm the balls off a pool table. The beauty of both of them is that they know when to push the buttons.'"

Bugel said, "Behind closed doors, he [Gibbs] can rip your shirt off, and knock your teeth out."

There is nothing like Redskins-Cowboys. Nothing. Here's to football.

Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda

note the source, and see if there aren't any countries conspicuously absent from the list.

MSNBC - Political Humor

via Talking Points Memo

No Joke: Daily Show Viewers Follow Presidential Race

Army Floats a Trial Balloon (washingtonpost.com)

These stunning arial shots brought to you by blimpie, the homeland security blimp: wherever you are, we'e watching you.....

alis volat propriis

a blog by a 1L at Northwestern. anyone know of any other 1L blogs, other than sixo's?

what if america was like iraq?

Happy Anniversary, misguided statement.

Federer for Congress

this link goes to Federers endorsements. Unlike Carnahan, he provides quotes, and some are amazing to read. Look for the ones from Chuck Norris and Alan Keyes......this should be fun.

Whoa.

make no mistake
strong and getting stronger

I'm sitting in the auditorium of Washington University's Business School, waiting for a debate between candidates for Dick Gephardht's congressional district, MO 3rd. There are only seven of us in the audience right now, but I am an hour early. I am what they call a civics dork.

Actually, I thought I might get some homework done while waiting for this thing to start. I still might.

The Washington Post has a copy of all the stipulated rules for the Presidential Debates. They regulate everything from temperature to camera angles. It's pretty interesting how absolutely stage managed these things are. The link's right here:

debate rules agreement