Inspired by Liberation Learning's fabulous diary on Scott McClellan as well as the great frameshop series by Jeffrey Feldman, I want to call for a moratorium on Social Security and Tort "Reform."

Instead, we need a new phrase for both of these.  Calling for submissions.

I think we can all admit that the left has a near monopoly on facts.  We saw this at play during the presidential debates, we see this when we look over the websites of Media Matters or FAIR or The Daily Howler.  We know that their side is stuffed people like O'Reilly or Coulter whose standard argumentative technique is to make up 'facts' primarily to create a climate of uncertainty and cynicism.

We haven't been doing enough to counteract that.  Since we're the opposition party, and out of power pretty much everywhere, we need good political theater to get the true facts across, and we need good political theater to make the utter lack of integrity of O'Reilly et al. widely known.

Now, I've never been on TV, so I don't know how well this will work, but it just worked like a charm in an e-mail fight I had with a winger.  The tactic?  If you know they're lying, bet them, bet them real money, that they're lying.

I've been reading the Voice less and less these days, but this morning I decided to check out its debate coverage.  Not as bad as MSNBC last night, but still pretty awful.

Sorry for wasting space in the diaries, but this seemed the simplest way:

Anyone in the Brooklyn Park Slope/South Slope are know of any bar(s) that are showing the debates tonight?  I'm pretty sure, judging by my past debate-watching experiences, drinking with people and yelling at the TV would be the best debate experience . . .

Of course I can't stand what they did this time, now in their article for the Sunday Times, "Kerry as the Boss: Always More Questions."

You could write the article yourself, I'm sure, but one graph in particular got me:

Here's what I wrote:

Bumiller and Wilgoren (boo!) screwed up.  Again.  Here's my letter to the Times, which I sent to the public editor, the editor-in-chief, and the Washington newsdesk.

Here are their graphs:

And here's my letter:

In my ongoing and, frankly, enervating argument with my Fundy Repug Uncle, he now wants me to check out the anti-Kerry movie, Stolen Honor.    I know that its director, Carlton Sherwood, is, as John Gorenfeld reported is a Moonie shill.  What else is wrong?

I've been engaged in an e-mail fight with my Republican Uncle.  I'm cleaning his clock on the SBVT stuff -- pulling out the 'You can prove that your discharge was honorable; why can't Bush?  He's dishonoring the service of you and every other man (and now woman) who served this country honorably' line -- but he's got me stumped this morning on some tax stuff.  The facts are, given their source, almost certainly ipso facto wrong, but I need some help.  His comments are below:

I'm a proud owner of an Arbitron Ratings package for my household for the ensuing week.  I'm meant to track my radio listening habits.  Now, I don't actually listen to the radio.  I do stream Air America when I'm doing chores or fusting around the house, where I work, but that's not really more than 3 hours a week or so.