Sunday funny: take the Armageddon poll

Well well. Newsweek reported yesterday that Bush's commanding lead in their national poll, around 11 points, has completely evaporated, and now Kerry enjoys about a 2 or 3 point lead. I had a feeling going into the debate that it would shift ten points, one way or the other. Fortunately, Kerry had some damn wits about him! Talking about the now-famous Bush scowl complex. The Dems made a video of it!

Take the Armageddon Books poll immediately: Armageddon Books Prophecy Poll:
Will the Illuminati be the force that brings about Antichrist's one-world government and religion?

• Yes
• No
• Don't Know

I've got a ton of homework and a radio show in two hours so I've got to lay this out quickly.

Keep reading Josh Marshall and the TPM. Lots of interesting stuff coming thru there. Can you believe that we've only fully trained about 8,000 Iraqi police?! Juan Cole always crucial.

The officials in Washington -- CIA, State, Defense -- have rapidly worsening opinions about the situation. Interesting information from a Wall Street Journal reporter, Farnaz Fassihi, who wrote a really hellish email of life in Iraq (also posted here):

It's hard to pinpoint when the 'turning point' exactly began. Was it April when the Fallujah fell out of the grasp of the Americans? Was it when Moqtada and Jish Mahdi declared war on the U.S. military? Was it when Sadr City, home to ten percent of Iraq's population, became a nightly battlefield for the Americans? Or was it when the insurgency began spreading from isolated pockets in the Sunni triangle to include most of Iraq? Despite President Bush's rosy assessments, Iraq remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was a 'potential' threat, under the Americans it has been transformed to 'imminent and active threat,' a foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to come.

Iraqis like to call this mess 'the situation.' When asked 'how are thing?' they reply: 'the situation is very bad."

What they mean by situation is this: the Iraqi government doesn't control most Iraqi cities, there are several car bombs going off each day around the country killing and injuring scores of innocent people, the country's roads are becoming impassable and littered by hundreds of landmines and explosive devices aimed to kill American soldiers, there are assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings. The situation, basically, means a raging barbaric guerilla war. In four days, 110 people died and over 300 got injured in Baghdad alone. The numbers are so shocking that the ministry of health -- which was attempting an exercise of public transparency by releasing the numbers -- has now stopped disclosing them.

Insurgents now attack Americans 87 times a day.

Good Danziger cartoon.

Have to love a good military-industrial conspiracy! "Ex-Pentagon official gets 9 months for conspiring to favor Boeing" in an arms deal. Haha talk about the tip of the iceberg!

"International Observers predict trouble in US vote." ...Alarm bells....

Pentagon Paperer Daniel Ellsberg says "Where are the leakers of the Iraq war?" As in, why aren't more horrible facts coming forward right now?

WaPo says that the government is starting a PR campaign to paper over the hellish disintegration of Iraq.

Interesting issue: Google News frequently gives these links to hard rightwing sites when it seems that more balanced news sources should appear instead. Why is this happening?

Humor: Bush and the yawning boy via Wonkette. Bush vs Jesus political advertising via Atrios. Thanks to Alison on the link.

Random right wing opinion: classic anti-Islamic fear mongering from Daniel Pipes: "The Islamic States of America?" Of course they're trying to Subvert our Way of Life, those Damn Commies IslamoFascists!!!

So these are just a few of the random things I've got for you today... Gotta go!