Worried As Heck

Despite all the cheerleading coming from the media, despite all the early victory laps, despite all the busy chicken counting going on at the moment, some Democrats are, I suspect, very worried indeed about the projections of Democratic victory in November and are getting nervous. Harold Ickes is forming a last minute 527 group to try to rescue things. That, frankly, is exactly what this sounds like despite the spin the New York Times is trying to impart on the story.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 — Sensing both political danger and opportunity, a top Democratic operative and a group of major party donors have banded together to deliver a barrage of late advertising and on-the-ground action to secure Democratic victories in November.

The operative, Harold M. Ickes, a top aide to former President Bill Clinton and informal adviser to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and a group of allies are soliciting money for a new organization called the September Fund.

They hope to raise and spend as much as $25 million to influence not only crucial Congressional races but also other campaigns and ballot initiatives at the federal and state level.

Mr. Ickes was among the chief organizers of several groups that raised more than $200 million from wealthy liberals and labor unions in 2004 to try to defeat President Bush.

After months in which Democrats have fretted about how much support they would get from those sources this time around, Mr. Ickes is turning to many of the same donors in hopes that a surge of spending in the fall campaign’s final weeks will cement Democratic gains against a president and a Republican-led Congress whose approval ratings are sagging.

The sure sign that this is the action of someone getting very nervous is toward the end of the article:

America Coming Together and the Media Fund evaporated after the 2004 election, with many of their donors dispirited and apparently unwilling to participate in this year’s election. But Mr. Ickes, an aide said, became alarmed in late August about what he saw as a growing Republican financial advantage and feared a late salvo of negative advertising that could overwhelm Democrats in close races.

There is a lot happening right now. The real problem for Democrats is not the money per se, it is the way they are getting beaten on the ground where it really counts.

Tin Pot Dictator Update

Venezuela announced at the Non-Aligned Movement conference that it has tied up enough pledges of support to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Determining whether or not that is true will have to wait for the actual voting, of course. However the press continues to report the sickening conspiracy theories that Hugo Chavez has embraced.

In Caracas, Chavez — who in the past has accused the US government of trying to kill him and trying to topple his elected leftist-populist government — said "the hypothesis that is gaining strength is that it was the US imperial power itself that planned and carried out this terrible terrorist deed against its own people and against citizens of the entire world."

"What for? To justify its aggressions that promptly ensued against Afghanistan, Iraq and the threats against all of us, against Venezuela," Chavez in an address carried live on Venezuelan state television.

"The towers fell in nine seconds, so the hypothesis that the towers were blown up, that there were groups of explosives, is not so outlandish," Chavez told a group of women supporters.

The events gave "the excuse to the US empire to lash out with more wrath and fury against the world, to bomb cities to threaten the entire world," Chavez charged in remarks unlikely to ease tensions between the two countries.

I've mentioned before how very happy I am with the 9/11 "truthers" and their virulent bag of lies, distortions and half truths. Between Steven Jones and his "super thermite" and the rigorous scientific methodology the "truthers" use, they are endangering every person in this nation. When someone like Chavez embraces your theories, maybe it is time for you to wake up to the fact that you have been lying to yourselves.

Two Things To Watch For On Friday

Will Air America radio declare bankruptcy and will Fidel Castro show up at a dinner marking the end of the Non-Aligned Movement conference? Apparently, a schedule that was sent to international media said Fidel would host the dinner. But an official schedule handed to the press accredited to Cuba later made no mention of Castro at the dinner.

A dinner hosted by Castro for dignitaries attending this week's Nonaligned Movement summit was mentioned in a schedule sent Sunday by the government to international media.

But Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said he could not confirm the leader's participation in the Friday event. "Fidel is recovering satisfactorily, the worst has been left behind," Perez Roque said at a news conference.

"I cannot yet confirm his presence at the dinner," Perez Roque said. "I can confirm that the head of the Cuban delegation at that moment will be offering those dignitaries that dinner."

The 80-year-old leader announced July 31 he had undergone emergency surgery for an undisclosed intestinal ailment and provisionally handed over power as Cuba's president and Communist Party head to his younger brother, 75-year-old Defense Minister Raul Castro.

"If Fidel is not there, then Raul will act as host at the dinner," Perez Roque said.

"Logically, the physical absence of Fidel in all of the summit work constitutes a notable loss," Perez Roque said. "All of us would like him to head the delegation and be there all the time. If that does not occur, we have made great preparations under his personal direction."

After the news conference, a different version of the Nonaligned schedule was sent to international journalists permanently accredited in Cuba, with a note saying it was the "valid" version. Although the Friday night dinner was still listed, any mention of Castro hosting it had been removed.

Just a thought here: if you wanted to really gain enormous attention for a death announcement, wouldn't it be a wise move to do it while other heads of state are in your capitol? We can but hope.

It's a left wing death watch extravaganza!

Was The Air America Bankruptcy Story A Hoax?

The Radio Equalizer thinks this may well have been factional infighting. It is possible that a group inside Air America leaked this to liberal blog Think Progress to depress the value of the flailing network. They may have succeeded too well and destroyed their chances of playing white knight.

From the first moment your Radio Equalizer heard about the report from lefty blog site Think Progress that the network would announce this move on Friday, it just didn't smell right. Three independent sources are really claiming this to be true?

They must know little about Air America: it's not easy to get three people in there to agree on the time of day, much less something of this importance. All of them gave the same details on the network's next move?

After consulting with those in the know and considering all of the facts at hand, your Radio Equalizer has come to this conclusion, which can fairly be called an educated guess: an internal faction that is attempting to gain (or regain) control of the network "leaked" this "news" to a major liberal blog site (knowing it would be taken seriously there) so as to immediately depress Air America's value.

With the liberal radio network now worth mere pennies, this shady group can ride to the rescue, immediately imposing its will on what remains of the operation and locking out potential outside buyers.

The plan would have worked, except for the fact that Air America's "bankruptcy" generated so much attention that creditors and potential advertisers are now very, very spooked. Did it destroy what was left of the business?

While reporting on Air America's troubles over the past year or so, the Radio Equalizer has come to realize that most of the network's outside cheerleaders know little or nothing about the way the firm is really run. That made Think Progress an easy target: they bought it outright, while conservatives assumed that liberals wouldn't lie about Air America declaring bankruptcy.

Interesting. I am frankly amazed that anyone is still pumping money into this mess. Rational investors would have long since realized it was a turkey. Oh well, back to the death watch!

Taking Action On Real Problems!

The city council of Bristol, England has stepped up to the plate and taken firm action against the largest problem facing their community! All hail the Bristol city council for their bold initiative. They have not bothered with those minor worries like crime or emergency services or health care or terrorism. No, they have discovered the real threat to Western civilization!

Door mats!

LONDON (AFP) - Residents in government-funded housing in Bristol, western England, are up in arms over a decision by their local city council to ban doormats because they pose a "tripping hazard" for anyone escaping a fire, The Guardian reported.

Bristol city council has set a deadline of September 18 for tenants in communal dwellings to comply with the request, in a letter addressed to the residents living in the council's 32,000 properties.

"During a routine health and safety inspection of the block, it was noted that loose mats were present in hallways or corridors outside people's flats," the newspaper quoted the letter to tenants as saying.

"These represent a 'tripping hazard' and should be removed immediately. By all means have your own mats inside your front door, but please do not leave them outside, creating a risk to others."

If the doormats are not removed by the September 18 deadline, the letter says: "Any mat remaining … will be removed and subsequently disposed of."

It's good to see elected officials focus like a laser beam on the really important issues of the day, isn't it? At last the home invaders and burglars will be safe from tripping!

Well, It’s A Start, Anyway

Amnesty International has issued a report condemning Hezbollah for committing war crimes during the recently concluded war in Lebanon. You read that right, they condemned Hezbollah.

The London-based human rights group said the guerillas fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel, killing 43 civilians, seriously injuring 33 others and forcing hundreds of thousands to take refuge or flee.

About a quarter of all rockets — some packed with thousands of metal ball bearings — were fired directly into urban areas, it added in a document called "Under fire — Hezbollah's attacks on northern Israel".

It was only because Israeli civilians fled their homes or took shelter in bunkers that prevented a higher death toll, it said.

"The scale of Hezbollah's attacks on Israeli cities, towns and villages, the indiscriminate nature of the weapons used and statements from the leadership confirming their intent to target civilians make it all too clear that Hezbollah violated the laws of war," said Amnesty's secretary-general Irene Khan.

"The fact that Israel has also committed serious violations in no way justifies violations by Hezbollah. Civilians must not be made to pay the price for unlawful conduct on either side."

Amnesty's claims come less than a month after it called for both sides to be investigated for "grave violations" of human rights law, accusing Israel of "indiscriminate and disproportionate" attacks on civilian infrastructure and war crimes.

It is at least a start toward holding terror groups to the same standards that others are routinely held to. I think Amnesty International has a long way to go to be truly neutral in its judgments, but this is a hopeful sign.

UPDATE: Jules Crittenden from the Boston Herald hopes it is a good start, too.