The New York Post:

Osama bin Laden’s newest tape may have thrust him to the forefront of the presidential election, but what was not seen was the cave-dwelling terror lord talking about the setbacks al Qaeda has faced in recent months. Officials said that in the 18-minute long tape — of which only six minutes were aired on the al-Jazeera Arab television network in the Middle East on Friday — bin Laden bemoans the recent democratic elections in Afghanistan and the lack of violence involved with it.

On the tape, bin Laden also says his terror organization has been hurt by the U.S. military’s unrelenting manhunt for him and his cohorts on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

A portion of the left-out footage includes a tirade aimed at President Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, claiming the war in Iraq is purely over oil.

What really astounds me is that there are unhinged lefties out there who actually find themselves grudgingly admitting that a) OBL is much more articulate than our president, or b) that OBL agrees with them, or the other way around.

It’s not really that hard to reexamine oneself once America’s most wanted terrorist is spouting off your party’s talking points. Unless, of course, you want to award him honorary membership into your equine party. I mean, he does have a taste for sodomizing quadripeds…

(Provenance: Wizbang » Volokh » NYPost)

Wretchard has the definitive transcript of OBL’s “I envy the girl in My Pet Goat because she has a goat and I don’t have one” video. He offers the following analysis:

It is important to notice what he has stopped saying in this speech. He has stopped talking about the restoration of the Global Caliphate. There is no more mention of the return of Andalusia. There is no more anticipation that Islam will sweep the world. He is no longer boasting that Americans run at the slightest wounds; that they are more cowardly than the Russians. He is not talking about future operations to swathe the world in fire but dwelling on past glories. He is basically saying if you leave us alone we will leave you alone. Though it is couched in his customary orbicular phraseology he is basically asking for time out.

This is hudna, dear friends. It’s an armistice that allows the army of Osama’s goat admirers to regroup, recoup losses, and plot moves while they lull the enemy to complacency. Usually, the ones who ask for hudna are the ones who break it first, once they are ready to strike again. We have grown quite familiar with this, and we have learned to break the hudna first.

Should we accept OBL’s offer, when they do decide to break the silence we may see one of our cities erased by the bright light on the horizon, or our entire nation consumed by the silent wildfire. Maybe Professor Ann Althouse’s advice is best: My advice to Americans: Vote for whoever you would have voted for anyway! Not that I don’t wish that the better of the choices (you-know-who) is supported by more people. Let us ply forward to victory.

Apropos of this photo courtesy of the AP on Yahoo:

ES (11:59:31 PM): [link].
ES (11:59:39 PM): despite what I think of Kerry, that’s a very nice shot
OFJ (12:00:08 AM): that it is
OFJ (12:00:14 AM): in fact it captures his essence quite well
OFJ (12:00:21 AM): “defined by his surroundings.”
ES (12:00:28 AM): hehe
ES (12:00:29 AM): ouch
OFJ (12:00:40 AM): i should blog that
OFJ (12:00:46 AM): including our conversation.
ES (12:00:55 AM): go ahead

Osama bin Laden has a new tape wherein he expresses envy over the fact that the President of the United States was being read a story about a little girl and her pet goat.

Before Bush and his administration would pay attention and we never thought that the high commander of the US armies would leave 50 thousand of his citizens in both towers to face the horrors by themselves when they most needed him because it seemed to distract his attention from listening to the girl telling him about her goat butting was more important than paying attention to airplanes butting the towers which gave us three times the time to execute the operation thank god.

A good goat is just so hard to find.

Megan McArdles gives libertarian Randbots a reason to faint in her presidential endorsement.

Are you an undecided voter? Well Miss Venomous Kate has a spanking for you!

I don’t believe in this “undecided” voter crap. By now, if not long before now, I think most folks know who they’re voting for. When people claim they’re “undecided”, I smirk. Fine. Whatever.

[...]

Pretty typically, the majority of both candidates’ efforts at this stage of the election are directed toward these “undecided” voters. Wooing them. Trying to suss out their real concerns. (“By golly, we’ve talked about the economy, homeland security, the war on terrorism, jobs, welfare, immigration, taxes… What the hell do these people want?!”)

I think they like that, these “undecided” voters. It makes them feel special. [...]

The responsibility that comes with the privelege of suffrage is that one needs to get out and find the candidate that he thinks would follow his agenda, represent his views, work in his self interest, or work against the interests of those he opposes. Professor James Joyner also has an opinion of these “undecided” voters:

I still maintain that anyone who honestly doesn’t know whether they prefer Bush or Kerry at this point is highly unlikely to vote and is too stupid to vote. Further, I believe the overwhelming number of so-called undecided voters know damned well who they prefer.

Shepard Smith calls these “undecideds” liars, and I believe him. I think these so-called undecideds fall into two camps.

Members of the first camp believe that they, in their high intellectual standards, philosophical ethos, and such impeccable mental abilities, cannot be tainted by the disgrace of voting for someone who is too human to actually live up to what they want. We can expect these “undecideds” to sit the election out in their collegiate coffee houses, reading aloud angsty philosophical treatises on the failings of American civilization because they are not represented in the government. Some of these first-camp members would be libertarians for who Badnarik was not a choice in the phone polls. We can expect many of the first camp to treat the rest of the electorate with disdain for being “sheeple,” and for voting in the lines of game theory and for sacrificing their political and ideological integrity in exchange for someone they like, to win. We can expect these people to never be convinced to vote for anyone except for themselves.

Members of the second camp are much less complex. They are the ones who are too stupid, or apathetic, to vote for anyone.

Listen up folks. No one in this current race is wooing undecideds anymore. It just costs too much time, energy, and effort to change the minds of a handful of people who are either too smart or too stupid to vote for one or the other. This election is about getting the vote out and about energizing the base enough to bring out a winning majority. Not all members of “the base” are gun-toting fascist robotniks who say “Amen” after every word that Bush says nor are they dirty, unwashed, smelly hippies who dance and sing a chorus of “Salam” every time John Kerry snipes at the president. We are the ones who have weighed our options and have, for better or worse, decided to choose one over the other. Not just to sit things out, nor to be perpetually undecided—and unconvincible—but that we have chosen to choose.

And so here is my unsurprising endorsement for the incumbent president of the United States of America:

In an America disillusioned by the horrors of 9/11, the goal is not to go back to the way we were before we were rudely awakened by the narcolepetic hysteria that the Clinton years brought upon us. The goal is to win against the ideology that yearns to destroy us by bringing light into the darkness.

I know that George W. Bush aims for victory in the war against Islamofascism. Failure in an attempt to aim for the skies lands us on the roof. Failure in an attempt to aim for the roof lands us on the floor.

Perhaps the rationale for my endorsement may be the least intelligent and intellectual of most of the thousand-or-more-word-columns that have been released. But, after all the words, it’s the votes that count. I am a blogger for Bush. That is what matters. May he win on November 2nd.

It’s pretty amazing how fast the news cycle is now, thanks to bloggers. Now, of course John Dvorak may think we’re a venomous nation of spiteful, hateful retarded idiots that have ruined the Internet According To Dvorak, but then again, you know how jealous media autocrats can be. Just ask Dan Rather.

I have been following quite closely the coverage on the missing explosives report that the NYT (thankfully, as I have noted before) and if there is a plot thicker than this, it sure would be rendered incomprihensible even by snooty collegiate indie film standards.

Here’s what I’ve gathered so far. Brace yourselves, y’all. The NYT decides to run this article in the name of, well, whatever’s name it is the NYT worships. It sure isn’t the truth, I can tell you that much. Only, they beat CBS to it, because CBS wanted to hold its cards face down so that there wouldn’t be time for us vile and spiteful pajama-wearing anklebiters to counter the accusation that may very well have affected the election in their favor. Then, NBC news’ embedded reporter claims that he was with the 101ID and that they did an inspection. So the shit shifted towards the 3ID, which by this time Richard Holbrooke, on FOX News today, shifted the shit about how the 3ID didn’t do enough of the inspection, and decides to lay it on Bush. Because as we all know from John Kerry’s campaign speech (seen on TV this afternoon) it doesn’t really matter when these explosives disappeared, what matters is that the Bush administration failed to ensure their being secured.

So if a tree falls in a forest and Bush is not there to catch it, does that mean that he is an enemy of the environment?

Moving on. Wretchard of course tries to put some perspective by describing what could be War Plan Orange by Saddam Hussein. Very smart analysis, but you know how the true cynics are. Since Wretchard’s write-up really can’t bring much in the way of postulated facts, it’s worthless to the true cynics. Not that postulates would actually work on these folks, mind you. If a Republican bonks them on the head with a dead fish they wouldn’t believe the fish was dead nor that it was a fish at all. As long as the Republican is doing the bonking. Maybe that’s why when unhinged liberals shoot people they don’t like they will claim that they’re only throwing pies and missed the difference somewhere along the way. Or maybe they’ll just run people over. Or perform ideological genocide. But I digress. John Cole also tries to place some perspective, not that it would matter to folks who believe in the Kerry camp who would say something like “it’s still 380 tons! When is 380 tons not 380 tons?” No one said it isn’t 380 tons despite it being a fraction of one percent of the explosives we have detonated or captured and slated for detonation.

So after what we on the Right have been throwing at these folks for who cognitive dissonance is more the rule than is the exception, more news has come out that CBS may really have gotten away with the second worst fraud in their illustrious career if not for the New York Times. The contemporaneous report from their own reporter contradicts the accusation of Richard Holbrooke that the 3ID didn’t do its job well. That in itself is so much fun to consider. I love to gloat.

Now there’s news that the Russians may have helped Saddam Hussein clear out the Al Kaka weapons depot so that there would be no proof of their illegal deals with Hussein. That and the IAEA chief inspector, by some name I cannot spell while on six beers, willfully ignored Saddam’s Al Kaka weapons reserve because the Butcher Of Baghdad said that he wasn’t going to use them to build nuclear weapons. You know, because with all those explosives in play, he can actually perform the ethnic cleansing of the Shia and still have enough left over to make enough money on the black market to fund his government a couple more decades. Besides, with that IAEA guy around, and the Russians too, he can always come back for more. Right? Right?

And you know what any die-hard liberal would say to all this? That Bush, and all his apologists, are making excuses.

Now here’s where the really juicy schadenfreude part comes in. The NYT has, in their attempt to release their hit piece on Bush ahead of —driven by the capitalistic greed that they of course they’ll deny they have in their darkest of hearts—revealed their cards before the betting has been done. Now this information is blowing back into Kerry’s face and it’s really given me the impression that the Senator gets his intel info from the news. But even worse than that, those explosives… are they not proof that Saddam wanted to develop atomic weapons? Are those explosives not illegal under the terms of his disarmament, under which even one violation was enough reason for us to march in and disarm him ourselves?

All because, as the NYT’s excuse makers are saying, “the story they had been jointly pursuing on missing Iraqi ammunition was starting to leak on the Internet.” So. Left-wing shills were going to break the story before the NYt did and they wanted their money and they wanted Bush gone so they released the story at a time when damage control could have been done, and now, well, as far as backfires go, this one is sweet.

Welcome to the internet, NYT and CBS. It’s been so much fun hanging around with y’all.

Heard from a FOX News guest this afternoon (paraphrased): “For someone who sits on the Senate intelligence committee, Senator Kerry seems to be getting a lot of his intelligence from the New York Times and CBS News.” Life imitates satire in a sick, sad way:

“[Bush] won’t acknowledge the mess in Iraq,” said Mr. Edwards. “All you have to do is turn your television on.”

At a Rose Garden signing ceremony, Mr. Bush thanked Mr. Edwards for the suggestion.

“As president, I have daily briefings with intelligence and national security officials,” said Mr. Bush. “And yet with all those bright people in my office every day, not one of them has proposed that we just turn on the television to get an accurate picture of the situation on the ground in Iraq. Brilliant.”

As far as October surprises go, this latest attempt at letting out the context-free truth by CBS and the NYT (the latter of which should be thanked for its brash decision to pre-empt CBS’ nefarious attempt to wait until a day before the election before releasing this) is lame by my standards. Sure, John Kerry’s treasonous activities as being a Communist operative may be seen as lame and desperate by people on the Left but these concerns are quite legitimate. As legitimate as having a lifelong record of undermining the security of the nation, of being a tried-and-true internationalist, and then pulling a chimeric (if predictable by the poll-driven Democrat standard mentality) attempt at being the opposite, as Meryl Yourish makes very clear:

I think Kerry is a liar and a poseur. You cannot have a career of pacifism and voting against military issues and suddenly turn around and declare yourself a fit commander-in-chief. It takes more than a campy salute and a “reporting for duty” at the DNC to make me believe Kerry is fit for command. I believe he is more unfit for command than any other candidate who ran against him, with the possible exception of Howard Dean. And may I say that the Democratic party may lose me forever if they can’t give me a candidate I can respect and believe in.

Now, 380 tons of missing explosives, the volume of which requires a week’s worth of round the clock, corporate-level management of machinations to make vanish using a fleet of forty unmarked trucks that can easily be made to disappear across the Iraqi border, was a legitimate concern at the time. Amusingly enough, the media shill known as CBS has already shot itself in the foot, dug the bullet out and salted the wound with its own reports during the more relevant time period.

In the run-up to the election John Kerry still cannot make head or tail of himself: he can continue to critique the President ad nauseam, and all he can do is make people sit the election out. I doubt this is a tactic that could work this time. Too many people know the stakes are too high, and even Republicans I know in the sure-to-be-Kerry state of Maryland are mobilizing to go out and vote. They want to show the Democrats that though every vote counts, every vote must be won, and that no state is safe. If Maryland Republicans can show that even this deep blue state, like any blue state, is no safe haven, if they can show that there is solidarity among themselves, it would keep the Democrats on their toes.

This campaign phase is now quite officially, immune from scandals. People have made up their minds and I think—like Shepard Smith does—that the “unsure” answers in the phone polls are mostly the answers of liars. I think that this election is not as close as even FOX News tries to present it to be, and save for a major disaster on either side, nothing will shock people out of their preconceived, and predecided votes that they will take to them on the second of November.

(Provenance of links: Smiling Kevin » Scrappleface. Instapundit » Captain’s Quarters.)

UPDATE: A quick link that I forgot to find context into my post above, is John Cole’s contextual perspective of the 380-ton elephant that really isn’t in the room.

Lost in my fevered clicking fray last night over the news that Kerry never met with the UNSC reprersentatives in their entirety was some blogger’s idea that John Kerry was reminiscent of a high school student who constantly brags about sexual escapades that never happened.

Roger Simon may have expressed regret over using “sociopath” to describe the man who wants to be president; I really don’t care. I think he’s right. The consistent lying and bragging isn’t just a matter of being glib, or trying to be slick and be everything to everyone. He’s a habitual bullshitter, and I don’t want this man being the chief executive of the nation.

In a game of poker he’d be the guy who bluffs constantly whether it’s good for him or not, and even lets the players who have folded see his cards to share in the abject, juvenile glee in knowing that he may win without any basis for victory.

Is he… as Lynne Cheney calls “not a good man?” At first I thought that the Second Wife may have been right. Now I have my doubts. I think he is an ill man, a sick man, one to be pitied while never given leeway over matters of responsibility. If not for the dangerous times we live in now, if not for the rude awakening that 9/11 dealt to us, I wouldn’t mind having four years of President Kerry to make fun of everytime he lies about doing something. I wouldn’t mind having Madame TeRAYza as well. But not now. Not yet. Not ever, any longer.

So as the newest Kerry lie comes out—one where he claims to have been in the Game 6 of the 1986 World Series—I need to take issue with Kevin Aylward’s assertion that Kerry wants to be like Forrest Gump in that he was in the middle of historic events. Maybe Kerry needs to be, but Forrest was definitely an accidental presence. No, Kerry will never be Forrest Gump. He’ll always be the Sherminator, and the only problem is that when the time comes that he figuratively pisses his pants at the prom, the American people will be paying the price.

Tim Blair notes an Australian editorial where the writer quivers in fear:

The other day John Kerry, as part of his campaigning, took a gun, dressed in camouflage, and went off to shoot some geese. His aides said this was to give voters “a better sense of . . . the guy”.

To foreign eyes, this gratuitous violence had to be the most extraordinary moment of a larger-than-life US presidential campaign.

I’m sure the Foreign Leaders that Kerry didn’t really meet must be so afraid by now that John Kerry, in an effort to give America and the Islamic world “a better sense… of the guy” as being “tough on terror,” would have a neutron bomb planted under the Kaaba stone to be set off during the Hajj.