Poor Nagourney

He's a little upset with James Wolcott.

4000 MFBs

It's a bit morbid coming up with units of measurement for explosives that are comprehensible and actually mean something. According to Phil Carter, the amount of explosives (stable and easily transportable) floating around out there now are roughly equal to 4000 (there's a range) of the explosions which took down the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Prediction

Kerry wins popular and electoral votes. These Gallup samples are just sillier and sillier...

Hundreds of Supporters

Afternoon Thread

Just got back from seeing Big John and the Big Dog. Great crowd, great rally.

Enormous crowd in Philadelphia waits for Kerry and Clinton

Reports Chris Jansing.

Lockhart Statement

This is about right:

Washington, DC – Kerry-Edwards Senior Advisor Joe Lockhart issued the following statement on reports of missing explosives in Iraq:

“Today, the Bush administration must answer for what may be the most grave and catastrophic mistake in a tragic series of blunders in Iraq. How did they fail to secure nearly 380 tons of known, deadly explosives despite clear warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency to do so? And why was this information unearthed by reporters -- and was it covered up by our national security officials?

“These explosives can be used to blow up airplanes, level buildings, attack our troops and detonate nuclear weapons. The Bush administration knew where this stockpile was, but took no action to secure the site. They were urgently and specifically informed that terrorists could be helping themselves to the most dangerous explosives bonanza in history, but nothing was done to prevent it from happening.

“This material was monitored and controlled by UN inspectors before the invasion of Iraq. Thanks to the stunning incompetence of the Bush administration, we now have no idea where it is.

“We need to know what the administration knew about this and when. We need to know why they failed to safeguard these explosives and keep them out of the hands of our enemies. The National Security Advisor should be at her desk in Washington tomorrow to work this problem and answer these questions, instead of giving speeches in battleground states.”

Twofer

Wolcott takes down Fineman and Nagourney:

First of all, how does Fineman know the crowds aren't pumped up for Kerry? Did he attend these rallies? Did he ask anyone? No, he's assuming, as most of the media elite do, that no one could possibly be "up" for a Kerry event because the media narrative is that Kerry is a stiff hunk of bark.

As reflected in Adam Nagorney telling Charlie Rose that heck he has more charisma than poor Kerry.

Really, Adam? You think you could hold the interest of 12,000 people, as Kerry did at a recent rally in Reno, Nevada?

You're the kind of putz people walk away from at cocktail parties!

(via Ailes)

Stunning

This stuff was looted 18 months ago, and no one told Rice until a month ago? [watching CNN]

Is anyone in charge in this goddamn administration?

Countdown

Before the Bushies start claiming the looted explosives WERE the WMD. We've found them! Oops we lost them again...

Meanwhile, In Important News...

I have to admit I was always a bit confused about where exactly all the explosives were coming from. Sure, some basic devices can be created with a bit of know-how, but some some of the bigger car bombs were a bit more impressive than that. Now we know:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 - The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, produce missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.

The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no-man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished after the American invasion last year.

The White House said President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was informed within the past month that the explosives were missing. It is unclear whether President Bush was informed. American officials have never publicly announced the disappearance, but beginning last week they answered questions about it posed by The New York Times and the CBS News program "60 Minutes."

Administration officials said yesterday that the Iraq Survey Group, the C.I.A. task force that searched for unconventional weapons, has been ordered to investigate the disappearance of the explosives.

American weapons experts say their immediate concern is that the explosives could be used in major bombing attacks against American or Iraqi forces: the explosives, mainly HMX and RDX, could be used to produce bombs strong enough to shatter airplanes or tear apart buildings. The bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 used less than a pound of the material of the type stolen from Al Qaqaa, and somewhat larger amounts were apparently used in the bombing of a housing complex in November 2003 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the blasts in a Moscow apartment complex in September 1999 that killed nearly 300 people.

The explosives could also be used to trigger a nuclear weapon, which was why international nuclear inspectors had kept a watch on the material, and even sealed and locked some of it. But the other components of an atom bomb - the design and the radioactive fuel - are more difficult to obtain. "This is a high explosives risk, but not necessarily a proliferation risk," one senior Bush administration official said.

...and, Josh notes how silly the reporters are for buying into the "I didn't do it" boy administration's spin. God, can these bastards take responsibility for anything?

ARRRRRRGGH

He Forgot Bulgaria!

Washington Times:

Speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York in December 2003, Mr. Kerry explained that he understood the "real readiness" of the United Nations to "take this seriously" because he met "with the entire Security Council, and we spent a couple of hours talking about what they saw as the path to a united front in order to be able to deal with Saddam Hussein."
But of the five ambassadors on the Security Council in 2002 who were reached directly for comment, four said they had never met Mr. Kerry. The four also said that no one who worked for their countries' U.N. missions had met with Mr. Kerry either.
The former ambassadors who said on the record they had never met Mr. Kerry included the representatives of Mexico, Colombia and Bulgaria. The ambassador of a fourth country gave a similar account on the condition that his country not be identified.

What Kerry said was:

So I sat with the French and British, Germans, with the entire Security Council, and we spent a couple of hours talking about what they saw as the path to a united front in order to be able to deal with Saddam Hussein.

Most likely what he meant was that he met with the permanent Security Council, plus who knows who else. Permanent SC=US+French, British, Russians, China.

Greatest Equations

If you managed to get through the NYT article which (no joke) actually cited a Pioneer Fund recipient and another Pioneer Fund cheerleader (I swear, the weekly David Duke column is inevitable), you got to their amusing geeky diversion about great equations. This was always my favorite, and on a good day I can even manage to explain it.

Woof

The wingnuts have been drooling about this "scoop" for days. If Kos is right about what it is... bring it on.

Night Thread

Go Boston!

Looted Explosives

More consequences of post-occupation incompetence.

"Freedom's untidy. And free people are free to commit mistakes, and to commit crimes."
-D. Rumsfeld, on looting in Iraq.

Evening Thread

Enjoy.

Oy

Link:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The bodies of about 50 Iraqi soldiers were found on a remote road in eastern Iraq, apparently the victims of an ambush as they were heading home on leave, Iraqi authorities said Sunday. Also, a State Department security officer was killed during a mortar or rocket attack at a U.S. base near the Baghdad airport.

And, despite Dick Cheney's disingenuous whining at the debate, as far as I can tell these 50 are not included in the official coalition casualty list.

bastard

More Okrent

Cadenhead writes him a letter. And, here's Schwenk's open letter in case anyone's missed it.

As I wrote in comments, given the imbalance of power there's no real equivalent I can think of, but the best I can come up with is this: Putting Schwenk's name and city in his column is roughly equivalent to putting up Okrent's name, cell number, home phone, and address on the screen during the Superbowl in response to his criticisms of the coach.

Okrent's set a new standard for the reader's advocate - say mean things to us and we will try to destroy you. Not since the good old days when Susan Schmidt was contacting people's employers after receiving harsh emails have the guardians of our discourse proven themsleves to such thin-skinned thugs, drunk on power.

The pitiful part is Okrent knows he fucked up, but he'll never admit it, much as the Times will never revisit its Whitewater reporting with any honesty.


Make sure to check out the secret diary of Adam Nagourney!

Lifts

Haha. Bush does wear "height enhancing footwear."