AddieStan

It looks as though the Red Sox are about to win the World Series, which would be a good thing, thinks your blogstress. Those poor people in Boston have suffered long enough, and besides, your cybertrix is still holding a torch for the Mets--which means the Yankees are bad, bad, very bad. Your cyberscribe's blogger colleague, Kurt Gallagher, posits that a Red Sox victory would signal a cosmic shift of a positive nature , while the Internationalist, a die-hard Yankees fan, will be sobbing in his beer for the human race, doomed, obviously, by the coming apocalypse. Which leads us to the topic at hand: will New Jersey tip the scales toward the apocalypse by delivering 15 unexpected electoral votes to Geroge W. Bush? A new Quinnipiac poll calls the race a tie, with 46 points apiece. Bush, Kerry In Dead Heat In New Jersey, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Terrorism Concerns, Campaign Visit Help President President George W. Bush has closed a four-point gap with Democratic c...

From our trumpet-playing pal, Lips Buzz, comes this fascinating BBC News tidbit about the Bush campaign's control-freak tendencies run amok: Bush website blocked outside US Access to the site is blocked Surfers outside the US have been unable to visit the official re-election site of President George W Bush. The blocking of browsers sited outside the US began in the early hours of Monday morning. Since then people outside the US trying to browse the site get a message saying they are not authorised to view it. The blocking does not appear to be due to an attack by vandals or malicious hackers, but as a result of a policy decision by the Bush camp. Read the full story...

Seems that while we in the reality-based community can't get enough on the topic of Bush and religion, neither can those in the faith-based community. On the heels of Ron Susskind's masterful piece in the New York Times Magazine two Sundays ago comes Laurie Goodstein's assessment , in today's Times , of the president's church preferences, which she finds at odds with his political expressions of faith (such as queer-baiting and stem-cell shenanigans). For the faith-based contingent, the Philadelphia Inquirer offers this exposé on the role local churches are playing in distributing a video that all but lauds W as the Second Coming. (Well, he his the second coming--of a President Bush, that is.) For more reverent and thoughtful discussions of the presidential religion thing, your blogstress directs her readers to fellow bloggers Nathan Paxon and Josh Rhoderick, of Nate Knows Nada and Turnspit Daily , respectively.

"What to believe?!" writes Sallie SixToes from South Jersey, urging us to check out the latest Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers Poll of likely New Jersey voters. The poll, reported last Tuesday, shows Kerry ahead by double digits: A Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers Poll estimated Senator Kerry is supported by 51 percent of likely voters compared to 38 percent for the President--a 13-point margin that would, if accurate, mark Kerry's largest lead this month in New Jersey. The survey was conducted by telephone with 805 registered voters from October 14 to 17, 2004--after the final debate but before President Bush’s October 18 campaign stop in the state . [Emphasis added by cybertrix.] In the meantime, Quinnipiac reports, in a survey conducted over the same period, only a four-point margin--which is practically a tie when one considers the margin of error. And The Record of Hackensack reports Kerry as being seven points up. Says SixToes: I can tell you everyone in Monmouth Cou...

Phillip Coons, creator of the indispensible DelusionalDuck.com , is the winner of an autographed photo of your blogstress in her bustier for his correct answer to the question posed in the endnote to the AddieStan post titled, "Whenever the blues become my favorite song..." The song is "I Concentrate on You" by Cole Porter. (Despite the quiz's obvious appeal to the gay male contingent of the AddieStan readership, your Webwench somehow expected that a straight man would get there first.) Speaking of straight men getting there first, it should be said that one Mallemoraking actually was the first to report the correct answer, but was disqualified for already having seen your cybertrix in her bustier, oh, so many moons ago. Your blogstress does, nonetheless, bid him a happy birthday. Late out of the box was a very handsome queer woman with a penchant for parody, who came in third with the correct answer. In the banquet of your blogstress's life, it see...

From Nancy the New York Artist comes this chilling mass-generated missive, which she received from the suburban public high school attended by one of her very creative offspring: Dear Parent/Guardian of [name of New York Artist's child]: Pursuant to the No Child Left Behind Act, N. Public School District must disclose to military recruiters and institutions of higher learning, upon request, the names, addresses and telephone numbers of high school students. The District must also notify parents of their right and the right of their child to request that the District not release such information without prior written parental consent. Parents wishing to exercise their option to withhold their consent to the release of the above information to military recruiters and institutions of higher learning must sign and return the attached form to the Principal by October 25, 2004. Sincerely, [principal's name] Principal Thank goodness, says Nancy, that this innocuous-look...

As the vice president evokes images of bombs falling on American cities, and billions earmarked for reconstruction lay untouched in Iraq, US military installations are living on austerity budgets that could affect the nation's ability to defend itself from attack. An AddieStan exclusive. An item on today's Military.com , making note of the fiscal 2005 defense authorization bill awaiting the president's signature, offers this plea: "It is hoped that the President will soon sign this bill into law." It's difficult not to read this as an understatement when one considers that military installations throughout the U.S. have been essentially out of money since early May. Two memoranda-- one from an Army general , and another, obtained by AddieStan.com , by an unnamed Navy chief petty officer--express hope for relief at the end of the 2004 fiscal year, which concludes on October 30th. Ship out of luck At Norfolk Naval Station, the world's largest naval ...

Noting your blogstress's fixation on electoral vote-counting (and no doubt her recent linkage to that novel site, ElectoralVote.com , your cybertrix's partner in musical crimes, the fabulous Frankie G., sends along this soothing visual , instructing us all to relax. Om... *Readers who can cite the title and composer of the song from whence this lyric comes will receive an autographed picture of your blogstress in her bustier.

One of your blogstress's favorite cyberscribes takes issue with her dire warnings about Bush make a play for the Garden State. Josh Rhoderick of Turnspit makes this fascinating observation : In 2000, Karl Rove pumped funds and advertising into an almost hopeless California to give the impression that the campaign was confident. The idea was to generate good headlines throughout the media: "Bush Confident," "Bush Strong," etc. Well... it didn't work, but now he's trying it again with a minor shift in strategy. This time, Rove isn't wasting any valuable assets on New Jersey. Point taken, but your Webwench is still less sanguine on account of that dark hole of undecided voters in her beloved Garden State--all 12 percent of them. And the president's despicable speech delivered today in Burlington County was, alas, very effective.

A recent Farleigh Dickenson poll puts New Jersey back in the Kerry column , but by a mere two points--which is really a tie if you factor in the margin of error. The outcome of the toss-up rests with an unusually wide swath of undecided voters, calculated at some 12 percent of likely voters. As noted in yesterday's post, President Bush will grace New Jersey with his presence tomorrow, to deliver what is billed as a major homeland security address. One can only hope that the voters have the good sense to see beyond the posturing to take note of the austerity budgets on which the enforcers of border protection and immigration law have been placed for nearly a year. One also hopes that the Dems and the unions get off the denial train about what's going on west of the Hudson River, and stop sending Jersey's foot soldiers to Pennsylvania. We're talkin' 15 electoral votes, folks, that are virtually up for grabs east of the Delaware River. And yeah, Pennsylvania...

Much to your blogstress's dismay, she finds that the denizens of her beloved homeland have thrown the typically Democratic Garden State into play as a battleground. It appears to be a homeland security thing. The largest number of undecided voters live in North Jersey which, in many ways, is a sort of the sixth boro of New York City. There many people saw the World Trade Center fall with their own eyes, and some 700 New Jerseyans lost their lives that day in the attacks. Somehow that trauma has drawn ordinarily Democratic voters to President Bush, on the premise that he is somehow better able to protect them and the homeland from the schemes of the terrorists. And this perception could cost Sen. John Kerry the election, since it's hard to imagine how he can win without Jersey's 15 electoral votes. On Monday, the president will make a rare visit to New Jersey to deliver what is being billed as a major address on homeland security. At this stage in the campaign, ...

Blue suits, red ties, white shirts and those cute little flag pins The final debate in Tempe

Kerry's on a roll; it's too bad there are no more debates--clearly an arena in which the Democrat excels. Bush was, once again, twitchy, and got himself in trouble by denying his 2002 comments about Osama bin Laden, about whom he claimed to have no worries. (Note, dear reader, that AddieStan had aptly rebutted this claim within minutes of its utterance with a link to the transcript of the March 13, 2002, press conference at which Bush made that assertion. Scroll to item, "Exaggeration? You decide".) Torn between tracking down links and making original analysis or commenting on every question and answer, your Webwench chose the former path. Consequently, a number of consequential issues--Social Security, the minimum wage, abortion rights--escaped the wisdom of her pen. So she will do her best to follow up on those matters tomorrow, with special attention the women whose votes the candidates were wooing. Your cybertrix also received insightful commentary and...

How awful of that John Kerry to mention Vice President Dick Cheney's out lesbian daughter in a discussion of sexual orientation and gay marriage! Just ask MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, or Ben Ginsburg, legal adviser to the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush and late of the Bush Cheney campaign (not that the two have anything to do with each other). According to these two, it was just despicable and depraved for the Democratic presidential candidate to note the vice president's top campaign adviser and beloved daughter as an example of a queer person who apparently knows who she is. Your blogstress concurs with those pundits who suggest, as did MSNBC's Ron Reagan, Jr., that Kerry's mention of Mary Cheney in this context wasn't exactly a smooth move. Indeed, this sort of thing always makes your Webwench squirm. However, a Google search of Scarborough's response to GOP senatorial candidate Alan Keyes' assertion that Ms. Cheney was, by definition, as "a s...

Whoa! Out of the dog house? Schrum sighting on MSNBC for spin. As the Internationalist said, "Who took the sock out of your mouth, Bob?" For those outside the Beltway, Bob Schrum was the the big wheel on the Kerry campaign before he got kicked aside by the Clinton crew when Kerry was lookin' like toast.

The the question that led to the candidates' stating their personal theologies escaped your Webwench's ears, overridden as they were by the Internationalist's exclamations of joy as the Yankees extended their lead over the Red Sox. The answers were, nonetheless, fascinating. Here's the president at his most eloquent: "I received calmness in the storms of the presidency [from prayer]." But then he went on to say that he had "unleashed the armies of compassion," heedless of the hackles once raised elsewhere in the world when he delcared a "crusade" against America's enemies. (Onward Christian soldiers...) "That's part of my foreign policy," the president said of his faith. "I believe that the freedom [in Afghanistan] is a gift from the Almighty." From the peanut gallery came an alarming cry of, "Yes!" The Yankees had just scored. In a poignant rejoinder, Kerry replied,"I believe ...

When asked about the unconscionable cadre of Roman Catholic bishops who are all but instructing their flocks not to vote for Kerry, the Massachusetts took no bait but brooked no bitterness, with the simple response that he did not agree with the bishops' position. What a change in perception from even the last presidential election. It seems that someone seems to have gotten the message--unlike much of the media--that there is no "Catholic vote ," nor has there been one for some time. For at least 15 years, Catholic voters have split about the same as the general population on the subject of abortion, and most other subjects, for that matter. It's all about class and geography--not the ethno-religio thang.

The Internationalist got all excited--alas, not by your blogstress's fetching attire, but by the president's mention of unmanned vehicles tracking illegal immigrants. So that's where the blimp (item: "Big Peep") went, he said. On a more serious note, the administration is starving the Border Patrol for human resources (the entire Department of Homeland Security is under a hiring freeze) while spending big bucks on unmanned surveillance drones. But, as one sage told your blogstress, "A drone never made an arrest."

Our dear friend, the Internationalist, who is wandering between your your blogstress's oppo factory and another television (torn 'twixt the Yankees' contest against the reviled Red Sox and the Arizona presidential slugfest) ambles to his laptop, wine glass in hand, to e-mail your blogstress from the next room: What's so damn great about marriage? Being a single, straight man, he appears flummoxed by Shieffer's question about gay marriage. To this, your ambisexual cybertrix knows not the answer. But she does know the correct answer to Shieffer's main question: Do you think homosexuality is a choice? It doesn't matter, Bob, whether or not it is. What consenting adults do in their own bedrooms matters not to me. As Thomas Jefferson said about those whose religious practice differed from his, "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

Must be a Skull 'n' Bones thing...