Many Soldiers, Same Letter

Many soldiers, same letter: Newspapers around U.S. get identical missives from Iraq

Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours.

And all the letters are the same.

...

"When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he said: 'What letter?'

I've used the word 'reprehensible' too often the past couple of years. This is simply immoral. Worse than that, it's nearly impossible to recover from.

All the people who'll read letters to the editor in their local paper and get a permanent warm fuzzy feeling from one of these faux epistles are not the same people who hang out online scarfing up international news sources, and not the same people who'll see the debunking of these letters. Yet, that warm fuzzy feeling will stick around and be used by the Bush administration as they try to convince the public that

Iraq is working!
Re-elect Bush!
Everything is All Right!
Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain!

Try reading something not produced by the US Government:

Baghdad Burning
Justin Alexander Be sure to go to his Future of Iraq portal.

CA recall

I'm going to make a voting-precinct-specific comment that is

1. purely, and I mean purely anecdotal (and therefore perhaps wildly inaccurate);
2. not scientific in any way - my impression only (and therefore perhaps wildly inaccurate).

More republicans voted then democrats in the CA recall election. This is strictly my sense upon processing their sign-ins in one precinct. And let me be clear:

1. I processed 98.95% of those San Diego registered voters who came in to vote in the precinct where I worked yesterday (this includes the small group of people who voted out-of-precinct). I went to the bathroom once. (It's easy to tell because there are 4 righthander checkmarks on the street index instead of my own southpaw checkmarks).

2. I have a funny memory for ordered data. Sometimes it's almost eidetic. With other stuff it's more like a steel sieve. YMMV -- the gods know mine does.

3. Having said the above, I'm not sure if my precinct is republican-heavy or not.

4. I am left with an impression (remember: not scientific or reliable in any way).

5. That precinct was not necessarily representative in any way -- by percentage voted, or distribution of party affiliations, for example -- of San Diego county or the state of California.

More republicans came out and voted yesterday then democrats.

If you're a citizen in CA and you failed to vote yesterday, you should be ashamed of yourself, regardless of your affiliation. And I have nothing further to say to you except this: get off your ass and participate in this country's democracy, before it doesn't exist any more.

Flatly. False.

"CONCORD, NH-- Yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg News, Comptroller General David M. Walker, head of the General Accounting Office, disputed as "flat false" President Bush's assertion that economic growth resulting from tax cuts will help shrink the federal deficit."

"Flatly False". This should be Bush's motto for his re-election campaign, don't you think?!

link via blogforamerica.