Flip Flop!
Townhall.com reports Bush's latest self-contradiction:

In a speech to minority journalists in Washington on Friday, President Bush said he'd rather not be a "war president."

"This is a dangerous time," Bush told the Unity convention. "I wish it wasn't this way. I wish I wasn't the war president. Who in heck wants to be a war president? I don't. But this is what came our way. And this is our duty -- to protect our people. And I'll continue to do that to the best of my ability."

Heartbroken Governor
Fox 9 News Minneapolis:

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty says he's "heartbroken" that Bruce Springsteen is planning to rock against President Bush.

On his weekly radio show, Pawlenty called Springsteen one of his musical idols. And while the Republican governor says rock stars are entitled to their opinions, he wishes Springsteen wouldn't interject his music with politics.

Pawlenty co-chairs Bush's re-election campaign in Minnesota -- and says he's "going to have to miss" that concert.

Yeah, who would have thought a singer who is known primarily for representing the working man and Blue Collar America would support Kerry? Frankly, I'm surprised he's managed to keep his political attitudes out of his career this long. At work, my supervisor had Rush on the other day and he was criticizing Springsteen for doing this as well. He claimed that Bruce would permanently alienate most of his fans. At this point, does Bruce Springsteen really need to worry about that?

Kerry's attackers falling apart
The "swift boat liars" are having their distortions torn apart as time goes on. DKos discovered that Larry Thurlow, a Kerry-bashing crewmate who appeared on Inside Politics, claims Kerry doesn't deserve a Bronze Star for the same mission that it turns out he received one for. Ouch.

Keyes v. Obama
The Illinois Leader has reported that Alan Keyes will be running against Barack Obama for the Illinois Senate race in November. This comes shortly after their former candidate, Jack Ryan, was caught up in a sex scandal and had to resign. Not letting the Dems' new rising star get in without a fight, the GOP has played an interesting card, running another black candidate. Interestingly, Keyes is from Maryland, not Illinois, which would probably play into Obama's rhetoric if he actually thought he had a shot in hell of losing this election.

Terror Threat Not So Threatening

Newsday:

Authorities on Wednesday confirmed they are monitoring possible terror suspects in the New York City area but added they have no evidence that any was involved in threats against financial institutions.

Their investigations, which began well before the recent terrorism alerts, have focused on individuals who may have links to al-Qaida or the terror groups Ansar al Islam or the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, said Jim Margolin, spokesman for the FBI's New York office. He declined to give more details.

So they are watching terror alerts around the NYC area (which they would have presumably been doing since 9/11 anyway), but they are not based on any new intelligence, nor are the terrorists actually planning attacks against financial institutions. If this is the case, I think it'd be safe to knock Newark, NJ out of their top three most likely to be attacked cities...

Employee fired for eating pork
Why are really religious people such whiney bastards?

Deutsche predicts $100/barrel
Link:

OIL prices could potentially hit $100 per barrel, analysts at Deutsche Bank warned yesterday - as the cost of US light crude hit a 21-year record of almost $44.

Adam Sieminski, Deutsche’s global energy strategist, claimed that oil supplies have become so tight in recent weeks that a serious disruption in the Middle East could send prices rocketing to unprecedented heights.

He said: "It is worth asking ourselves - ‘what would happen tomorrow if we lost four million barrels a day, due to some accident?’ Or let’s say Iraq’s two million barrels a day became unavailable. OPEC’s got no spare capacity. And that could be it - $100 per barrel."

Sorry - no. OPEC is at capacity, yes, but they're a cartel, not regulated by the market, and may be willing to compromise. And of course, Sieminski's gem of an assumption - the "let's pretend we lost 4 million barrelys a day" - is just unlikely. What kind of accident would cause this? It's not specified because it's not really possible. The same thing applies to Iraq - how would we lose their entire supply, outside of the country imploding on itself (literally...it already happened figuratively)? On top of that, we do have emergency reserves - notably the strategic reserve located in Lousiana, which is ready to dish out one million barrels a day - compensating for a loss of even half of Iraq's supply (assuming, of course, we ever came close to losing that much). In other words, don't listen to ridiculous theories from nutcase economists in Europe.

Michael Powell Strikes Again
Hey, what ever happened to that old war on censorship? Looks like it's still going on.

A couple returning home from a Costa Rican vacation was ejected from an American Airlines flight because the man was wearing a T-shirt depicting a bare breast. Oscar Arela and his girlfriend were removed from Flight 952 on Saturday after he refused to change the shirt or turn it inside out at Miami International Airport.
The couple, who were making a connecting flight, said nobody on their earlier flight objected to the shirt and claimed the airline violated their constitutional right to free speech.
"It's a picture of a man and woman, and the woman's breast is showing," said his girlfriend, Tala Tow. "The flight attendant basically walked up to us and yelled, 'You have to take off that shirt right now.'"

So now pictures of breasts are unacceptable for people to see? That's interesting though, because they still sell porn magazines in airports. Are passengers not allowed to read these on the airplane? What about reading Maxim? That could be offensive to some. Can one read a book if the word "fuck" is in it? Suppose someone looks over the passenger's shoulder and sees that offensive word. That would just be horrendous!

July Surprise Letdown
After TNR had reported a July Surprise, that Osama would be found during the DNC, the convention is now over and we are still without Osama. Maybe the Republicans thought it would be too risky. Or maybe, even with all the money and pressure they had reportedly given to Pakistan to turn up with the guy, they were still unable to do so. The Washington Post reports.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 30 -- Pakistan has captured Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who is sought by the United States as a suspect in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, officials said Friday.

Ghailani, a Tanzanian citizen said to be in his early thirties, was seized early Sunday, along with his wife and five other African or Pakistani al Qaeda suspects, following a joint Pakistani-U.S. intelligence operation, senior Pakistani police and intelligence officials said. The capture followed a 10-hour shootout in the industrial city of Gujrat, 125 miles south of Islamabad.

"This is a big success," Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said in an unusual late-night announcement on Pakistan's Geo television network. "More importantly, we are certain of gathering some latest intelligence on al Qaeda from him," Hayat said in an interview later.

Talk about coming up short. Not only did they produce another "top al Queda guys with valuable information," but additionally, it was two days too late and didn't even receive mainstream media coverage. I guess that's what happens when you entrust Pakistan with the disruption of a convention.

By the way, due to a strange internet glitch, the most recent two posts were mine, not Pete's. Sorry for the confusion.