Kerry Wins

"Kerry Wins" by Nancy Snow at Common Dreams.

"'Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100,000 excess deaths or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq,' researchers from Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, said in a report published online by The Lancet medical journal on Thursday. From "Over 100,000 Iraqi deaths since war."

"Bush gave terrorists more weapons than Saddam ever would have..." at OfficialWire.

"A Few Good Words" by Christina Waters at AlterNet.

"Sometimes I think about who will own some of my books after I am gone, and I write short notes to them in the margins."

From "My Own Private Library" by obsessive and pseudonymous college professor Thomas H. Benton at the Chronicle of Higher Education's website.

"While taped messages from Al Qaeda have often heralded terrorist attacks, the Homeland Security Department did not raise its threat rating."

So Osama bin Laden is still at large and trying to run his game on the world. But there's nothing to worry about, even if he's threatening more attacks on America--no, nothing to worry about--we got Saddam! We've made sure he can't use any of those nasty Weapons of Mass Destruction on us. Of course, we found out Saddam didn't have any--but hey, neither does bin Laden, and look what he did with a bunch of suicidal religious fanatics and four hijacked jumbo jets! Um . . . no there's nothing to worry about, nothing at all.

"The Other Shoe Drops: bin Laden Weighs in" at AlterNet and "Osama rants in pre-election tape" at the New York Daily News' website.

"Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' available online Nov. 1", at the San Jose Mercury News' website.

More on Eminem at AlterNet.

"Eminem Aims at Bush" by Sam Graham-Felsen at The Nation.

Poem of the Day Dept.:

From Tennyson's "Ulysses:"

"Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

ActNow!

ActNow! at The Nation's website.

Poem(s) of the Day Dept.:

"To a Friend Travelling" and "To the Story" by W. S. Merwin, at the American Poetry Review's site.

"The 3 Most Important Things in Life" by Harlan Ellison.

"We, the People of the United States, call for the immediate creation of a Bi-Partisan Presidential Recount Commission to serve as a binding arbitrator to resolve all disputes related to the election of the President of the United States in 2004 - IF the winner is in serious dispute when the polls close on Election Day." Bi-Partisan Presidential Recount Commission.

Poem of the Day Dept.:

"Couplets" by David Lehman, at Pif.

The Only Poll That Matters

They've been right more often than anyone else. "Kids Pick Kerry to Be the Next President."

Bush Relatives for Kerry

". . . please don't vote for our cousin!" Yeah. That's right. His own relatives don't want him in the White House: Bush Relatives for Kerry.

Poem of the Day Dept.:

"The silly old man with the young thai girl in the texas lone star saloon" by Dean Barrett, at evergreenreview.com.

Crunchy Food for Thought Dept.:

"The European Dream" is an excerpt from Jeremy Rifkin's latest, at Utne.com. Rifkin only mentions in passing that America's great and dangerous experiment with democracy began as the actualization of European Enlightenment thought, that historically America's idealistic legacy--along with a whole lot else--is in fact of European origin . . . but I do not think that the American Experiment has much to do with what people, whether cynically or optimistically, whether American or not, have come to think of as the American Dream. Is America still a great country? Well we may all have a chance to find out in a week.