Author: N.Z. Bear

The much-rumored Washington Times piece on Kerry is out:
Council members deny meeting Kerry
U.N. ambassadors from several nations are disputing assertions by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry that he met for hours with all members of the U.N. Security Council just a week before voting in October 2002 to authorize the use of force in Iraq…
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.
Inital reactions from those opposing Kerry in the blogosphere seem muted, such as this from Kevin at Wizbang: “I must say I’m underwhelmed at this juncture as well. It rings of the “imaginary foreign leaders” flap. With the media in his corner Kerry is like Teflon.”
Without lapsing into blogger triumphalism, countering the mainstream media’s tendency to ignore Kerry’s flaws is, after all, what we’re here for, isn’t it? (Or Bush’s flaws, for that matter, but others have that beat covered pretty well.)
I’ll admit, my first reaction was a bit of a yawn myself. But then I thought about why that was, and I think it comes down to the fact that I expect Kerry to exaggerate and outright lie when it serves his political purpose of the moment. But the fact that he’s a serial exaggerator is exactly why this story should receive attention, not why it should be shrugged off.
So let’s not treat Mr. Kerry with the “soft bigotry of low expectations” that I’m sure his squishly little liberal heart would find so offensive. The standard is a simple one: tell the damned truth. It would appear he didn’t in a crucial discussion of one of the most critical policy decisions made in years.
So let’s make sure that everyone we possibly can reach knows that. And let’s not conclude that Teflon John is going to get away with this one just yet — because the one thing that is true is that if the blogosphere doesn’t light a fire under this one, he will walk…
More from:
Matt Margolis, who shares Kevin’s disappointment.
Bill, who — bless his heart — seems to feel more as I do: “These aren’t exaggerations. This isn’t a case of lying about sex. It’s a story about a man that’s pathological enough to look a nationally televised audience of 55 million people in the eye and tell them a manufactured story that has no basis in either subjective analysis, wishful interpretation or fact, and then use it to propose a conclusion about a deadly serious matter of foreign policy.”
Bill Quick is not impressed.
But Captain Ed thinks it could cost Kerry a few points
Not much from the PowerLine crew as yet… must be bedtime in Minnesota!
Roger Simon asks: “Is John Kerry a sociopath?”. Good question!
Spoons yawns. For the record, I agree with him that the pre-story rumors on this piece were a dumb idea, and have proved extremely counterproductive…
And on the other side of the blogosphere, Kos, not surprisingly, downplays the story. (Note to my erstwhile colleagues on the right who don’t think this story is worthwhile: you’re agreeing with Kos. Might want to consider that a bit of a warning sign…) But more interestingly, he makes a rather bold statement:
But there is a punchline — The story is wrong. Kerry did meet with everyone…
Update: I know I haven’t sourced the assertion that Kerry met with everyone. When we see the story, with the names of the ambassadors who claim not to have met with Kerry, then it’ll be easy enough to refute the allegations.
Well, the story is out, and names three ambassadors:
Ambassador Andres Franco, Columbia
Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, Mexico
Stefan Tafrov, Bulgaria
If there’s a refutation to be had, I’m listening. The floor is yours, Kos…

Folks:
I’ve been hinting at a new self-service interface for a long while now, and tonight the first piece of it is finally ready.
The challenge that I have faced is that I wanted to develop a system that would accomplish two major goals:
– It would not require manual intervention on my part (slow, tedious, unreliable)
– It would prevent abuse and ensure that only a blog’s true owner could make a change
I think I’ve settled on a system that works on both counts. The first feature to be implemented and operational is the ability to change a weblog’s URL — tonight, in certain limited cases, later, in all.
Tonight’s functionality allows you to change your weblog’s URL in the Ecosystem if you have not added a duplicate entry in the Ecosystem for your new blog’s URL. If you’ve already done that, and therefore have two URL’s in the Ecosystem, fear not: I will be implementing the code to handle that, and ‘merge’ the history of your two URLs. Just, er, not tonight.
So: the way to tell the Ecosystem about your new URL depends on whether or not you have ‘gone live’ with your new URL or not.
If you have turned on your new URL, and are automatically redirecting traffic to it from your old URL, then add the following tags to your new URL’s front page in the header section:
&lt link rel=”DCTERMS.replaces” href=”http://www.myoldblogurl.com” /&gt
&lt meta name=”DC.Identifier” content=”http://www.mynewblogurl.com”&gt
Make sure that ‘http://www.myoldblogurl.com’ matches the old URL that the Ecosystem is tracking exactly.
If you have not turned on your new URL, or are not automatically redirecting traffic from your old URL, you can simply add the following tag to your old URL’s front page in the header section:
&lt link rel=”DCTERMS.isreplacedby” href=”http://www.mynewblogurl.com/” /&gt
The tags will be picked up on the next evening’s nightly scan, so check back the following morning and you should see your URL updated all nice and neat. And if you don’t, please let me know.
Once the URL swap has occurred, you can remove the tags. But I have tried to create the tags based on proper Core metadata standards, which means that any other application that understands Dublin Core could also understand them. So you can also leave them there, if you like.
Anyway: enough for tonight. Coming soon, I’ll get the ‘merge’ code implemented, as I know many of the URL switches that need to happen already have duplicate entries…
PS: I’ve also started cleaning out a lot of the obvious duplicates blogs that show up on the Traffic Ranking pages. Only got through the top 250 tonight, but it’s a start…

So perhaps some of the more legal-minded folks of the blogosphere can help me understand something.
Point 1: Currently, the US has in place on Syria which impose a “Prohibition on the export to Syria of products of the United States, other than food and medicine” .
Point 2: Michael Moore’s film, Farenheit 9/11, a product of the United States, is being distributed in Syria (and elsewhere) by the UAE based company Front Row Entertainment, which has obtained international distribution rights to the film.
So: Is the fact that F9/11 isn’t being directly exported to Syria (but is being routed through a UAE-based company) enough to avoid violating the sanctions?
And if not…?

Some of you might remember The Blogopshere Daily News, a feature on TTLB a ways back which I eventually put on hiatus.
Well, guess what: it’s back!
On the News page, you’ll find a roundup of the most popular weblog posts in the blogosphere, updated each morning.
The page is currently a work in progress, but I think it is stable enough to do a ‘soft launch’ and let folks start playing with it. Feedback, as always, is most welcome…

Happened to notice the following quote from Shelly Powers pop up on my random-quote-thingy on the top of my pages today:
“NZ, you’ve over the bounds…”- Shelley Powers
Here’s what Shelly was upset about:

The Quality of Mercy
March 26, 2003 10:01 AM
Thought for the night (it’s a dark one — the night, and the thought):
Clearly, there are some Iraqis who are willing to sacrifice their own lives to defend the Hussein regime.
I submit the following proposition, then: to ensure a safe and stable future for Iraq’s soon-to-be-emerging democracy, is it not wise for Coalition forces to ensure that those willing to make such an ultimate sacrifice, do so?
Accepting surrender from those who fought (or didn’t) under threat of their own lives is mercy, and builds a stable foundation for Iraq’s future. But is not the converse true: that accepting the surrender of those who truly wish for the preservation of Hussein’s tyranny undermines that same future?
Put another way: will the inevitable mercy we will see in the short-term — as Coalition forces accept the late, but unavoidable, surrender of Republican Guard units worn down over days and weeks of punishment — breed long-term suffering as those die-hards slink into the night, only to emerge later as guerillas, terrorists, or worse?
Would it be best for Iraq’s future if those units we know to be stacked with loyalists somehow are never presented with the opportunity to lay down their arms?
And would it be moral for Coalition forces to ensure they never did get that chance?
Discuss.
In light of the events of the past year, I think my logic holds up pretty well.

Without further delay, we present the Heroes for Bush blogburst.
The blogburst is now complete, with over 50 heroes declaring for Bush! Thanks to all who participated, and if you haven’t done so already, please link directly to this roundup post to spread the visibility. Thanks again!
Latest
OK, one more: Jim Geraghty of emails: Indiana Jones: “(sigh) al-Qaeda. I hate these guys.” And Professor Henry Jones: “The quest in Iraq is not nation-building, it’s a race against evil. If it is captured by the Islamists, the armies of darkness will march all over the face of the earth. Do you understand me? ”
Via Terriorists, Mr. Peabody takes Sherman on a tour of Kerry’s past, leading him to exclaim: “Make it stop, Mr. Peabody. It’s giving me a headache.”
Via Carniverous Conservative, General Patton: “…we have the finest food and laptops, the best looking women, and the best lawyers in the world. You know, by god, I actually pity those poor bastards we’re goin’ up against. ”
Via Minion of the Great Satan, Paul Kersey: “…from one reformed bleeding heart liberal to another, take my advice. Vote for George W. Bush for President.” Bonus: Sargeant Schultz endorses Kerry!
Via Right Wing Canadian, Don Cherey: “I hope Bush is reelected because we don’t want those European and French guys calling the shots on this war. We need to win, and to do that we need to take out all those bastards that want to take our guys out.”
Posted Earlier
Via Sine Qua Non, John McClane: “”Yippee-ki-yay, motherf****r.” Bonus: Tracy Flick! Magnum Force! Marathon Man! High Noon! Casablanca!
Via Abraca-Pocus, Spike: “Let’s annihilate those terrorists, for justice, and for… the safety of puppies… and Christmas, right?”
Via Urthshu, Bonnie & Clyde: “We’re votin’ Bush. After we rob a bank.”
Via Editors in Pajamas, Alf: “I’m standing as tall as I can beside the President. My home, planet Melmac, has been a strong ally of the President’s offensive plan to combat this terror threat…”
Via The Laughing Wolf, Robert Mitchum: “Men, soon only going to be one type of person left on this beach, those that voted for Kerry. The rest of us are going to vote for Bush and take this fight to the enemy.”
Via Ghost of a Flea, Buffy: “That Whedon has reached a different conclusion about how this is to be expressed beyond the world of Sunnydale, California does not change this fact: the Hellmouth has opened and there are demons to be dispatched.”
Via Ranten N. Ravens, Xander explains voting to Buffy: “There’s a nest of human terrorist “vamps” that want to kill us all. Just like you go and hunt down vamps here, we need guys like Riley who hunt down the terrorists in there nests over there….”
Via Muledriver, A very confused John Kerry: “The bottom line is that we need a Texas cowboy in the White House! I mean, seriously, can you imagine if the country elected, say, some uber-liberal, UN-ass-kissing, elitist politician from…I don’t know, Massachusetts?”
Via One Stack Mind, Angel: “”If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.” Bonus: Captain Mackenzie Calhoun & Batman
Via Mountaineer Musings, Sydney Bristow & friends: “…while President Bush has been in power, I have never once been asked to work for a “French” part of the agency, I have only been asked to shoot French terrorists. So vote for Dubya, or work for the French.”
Via Dagney’s Rant, Buck Ramsey: “There are too many “gray shades” to the left. That is what they are afraid of our President. He sees a job that needs to get done, and he does it. ..”
Via Frank J, Jayne Cobb: “I like that Bush fella; he speaks my language. When he sees trouble, he doesn’t waste time talking; he just runs in there shooting. That’s the way it’s done…”
Via Protein Wisdom, Alfred E. Newman: “What, me worry? You’re goddamn right…”
Via An Elephant in My Pajamas, a little Gilbert and Sullivan: “He is the very model of the modern chief executive / His leadership has shown me that his terms should be consecutive…”
Via Shining Full Plate and a Good Broadsword, Lt. Jean Rasczak: “There IS NO negotiating on my team! And there IS NO negotiating on Bush

Brief break from the for Bush leadup.
I just love this:
Rock stars back new Band Aid song
A new version of the Band Aid charity single is being recorded with current stars, according to Midge Ure, one of the singers behind the original song.
Coldplay, Travis, The Darkness and Keane have backed the project, Midge Ure said on his website on Thursday.
The original Band Aid song, Do They Know It’s Christmas?, released in 1984, featured artists including Duran Duran, U2, Bananarama and George Michael.
…Midge Ure, former singer with Ultravox, said there were still big problems in Africa that needed urgent attention.
“The famine doesn’t go away,” he told the ITV News Channel.
“This song still stands up, that’s the important part. Re-record the song, get the new guys on board and it will focus the attention and raise the money for the problems out there.”
In recent years, I’ve always found the idea of recording a pop song about Christmas to support efforts to help a largely non-Christian population to be remarkably politically incorrect. Isn’t it a rather rude disregard for local customs, culture, etc.?
But I guess when liberal pop stars talk about Christianity, it is by definition politically correct. The rules keep changing on me, I can’t keep up.
But as a thought experiment, let’s pretend for a second that the original Band Aid never happened, and that a group of Bush-supporting red-state country singers came up with the idea to help Africans with a song titled “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” How well received do you think that would be by the left? Think they’d even make it out of the studio before the squawking started?
PS: Remember, I’m agnostic (at least I think I am, but I’m not sure…) so I don’t have a dog in this fight…
More from:
Wizbang

Folks:
The response to the for Bush blogburst has been great thus far, and it seems to only be growing. Thanks to everyone who has expressed interest and spread the word on the effort.
I will actually be posting the official ’roundup’ post sometime around 9pm PDT this evening. Quite a few folks have already gone ahead and posted their submissions, so I might as well start with the early birds.
If you haven’t posted yet and plan to participate, I’d ask that you try to get your submission to me by 5am PDT on Friday morning. That’s when I’ll do an update with the next batch of submissions; after that I’ll do one or two more throughout the day, but the Day Job will prohibit me from doing continual updates.
Best approach is to TrackBack the roundup post, or add a comment to it, which will get you some visibility while you’re waiting for me to get to adding it to the roundup.
Once again, thanks to all, and I look forward to reading what our greatest heroes have to say about the election!

Speaking of electoral pre-emptive strikes: Brian Scott is gearing up to cover election issues this year. He’s clearly optimistic and cheery about it: to Election Hell.
I’m glad he’s on this beat; not sure I’m going to have the stomach for it…
Hat Tip: Spoonage.

What: A blogburst where bloggers will channel their favorite characters of TV, movies, and fiction showing their support for President Bush’s re-election.
When: Friday, October 22
Where: Here at and across the blogosphere.
Why: Because heroes inspire us, and fantasy shows us what we wish could become reality. And because Joss Whedon started it. And because we can.
How:
– Supporters of the effort are asked to link to this post to spread the word, asap. Also: leave a comment or TrackBack here to let me (and everyone) know you will be participating.
– To participate, simply crank up your creative juices, and imagine what your favorite hero would say about why he, she, or it, is planning on voting for President Bush.
– Creativity counts, but so does realism: putting words in a character’s mouth which don’t fit the character is lame, and no fun. Posts suggesting that Willow is voting Bush will be received with skepticism. Posts suggesting that Evil Willow is voting Bush will be received with approval, and little surprise.
– Submit posts late Thursday night or as early as possible Friday morning via e-mail, or simply by TrackBacking or adding a comment on the roundup post to be created early Friday.
– I will be round up all submissions here at The Truth Laid Bear starting early Friday morning. I’ll also pick my personal favorites, which will be displayed in a place of honor on the Ecosystem.
– Other bloggers, particularly “heavy hitters” (you know who you are) are encouraged to do the same, and highlight their favorite entries to shed some traffic love on the best submissions.
– Anybody with graphic skills who’d like to make a “Heroes for Bush” logo/button would be a hero in their own right.
Any questions?
On Board So Far:
Spoons
Robin Sizemore
Tony at Oriental Redneck
What is Flig?
sisu
Lapsus Calami
Secure Liberty
Right Thoughts
CrankyBeach

OK, I’m coming down from my high, and this is certainly helping to dampen my mood:

High Stakes 2004
Whedon Fans for John Kerry and John Edwards
In every four-year term there is a chosen one. He alone will face the American public, the United Nations, and the forces of darkness. He is the President.
The Kerry/Edwards campaign would like to invite everyone to host or attend parties across the nation to celebrate the genius of Joss Whedon and learn more about John Kerry and John Edwards. Mr. Whedon will calling to tell us about his latest exploits and why he is supporting John Kerry for President and John Edwards for Vice President.

Oh Joss. We love you, but how you disappoint.
I think this may be one of those ‘friends don’t let friends vote Kerry’ moments. Perhaps we devoted Buffy fans in the ‘sphere could schedule some kind of intervention? Meryl? Stephen?
PS: “He alone will face … the United Nations, and the forces of darkness.” Er, isn’t that redudnant?
Hat Tip: AintItCoolNews
Update: Upon further thought, I think we should do something about this.
Not to try to talk Joss out of his own political views; that’s his business. Nor would I want to interfere in any way with the ‘High Stakes’ Buffy parties — again, that’s his business and that of anybody who wants to participate in them.
But there’s nothing to say that we can’t provide an outlet for all those who love the Buffiverse and other such grand fantasies, but who think that Kerry is the second coming of The Mayor (just with less personality, but better teeth).
So how’s this for an idea: borrowing (ok, stealing) Meryl‘s past ‘Buffy Blogburst‘ concept, let’s plan a blogburst of Buffy- and Firefly- related posts explaining why our favorite characters would support Bush for re-election. Or oppose Kerry; that’s probably far more fun.
And since I’m so jazzed on Farscape this week: no reason not to extend the idea to any fictional characters.
I’ll throw out this Friday, October 22nd for a target date. If you’re interested in particpating, leave a comment here, and spread the word!
PS: And if this turns out to be one of those ideas of mine that goes *thud* on the ground and nobody picks up; well, who cares. I’m going to do a post myself on this theme anyway, so nyah.
P.P.S. You can’t have a Blogburst without a name. So how’s this: the Heroes for Bush Blogburst!

src=”http://www.truthlaidbear.com/pkw.jpg” align=”right”>There are many serious issues which face us now. Fanatics threaten civilization across the globe. A war rages, while some refuse to even acknowledge that anything more than more thorough police action is necessary. And we are confronted an election that, without exaggeration, may well decide the fate of our nation and of the world.
But sometimes, you just have to ignore reality, and indulge in some fantasy.
Tonight, the Sci-Fi channel will broadcast Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. For those unfamiliar with the backstory, Farscape ran four seasons on Sci-Fi before being abruptly cancelled, with the heroes of the story in, to put it mildly, a deeply unsatisfatory situation.
After tremendous fan efforts, led by the folks at SaveFarscape.com, the show has been resurrected with a four-hour miniseries, the first part of which will be shown tonight.
I came late to Farscape. I never watched during its original broadcast run, and dismissed it out of hand the first time I viewed it. But I gave it a second chance, and I am very, very glad I did. Four seasons worth of Netflix DVDs later, I’ve seen every episode, and I’m grateful that tonight, the characters I’ve grown to love will begin their final journey to a proper ending.
And so, The Truth Laid Bear belongs to Farscape today. If you wish to induldge a simple bear: spread the word. Tune in tonight.
“Look upward. And share the wonders I’ve seen.”

In case you care, my most recently discovered favorite song is ‘Such Great Heights’, by Postal Service, which I find absolutely sublime. Catch a snippet of it here (WMA).
PS: Apropos of nothing, Duran Duran’s ‘Ordinary World‘ doesn’t suck either.

Close to Call
With the debates behind them, the contenders in the race for the White House remain locked in a dead heat in the latest NEWSWEEK poll
By Brian Braiker
Newsweek
Updated: 11:02 a.m. ET Oct. 16, 2004
…Results based on likely voters (as opposed to all registered voters) give Bush the edge, with Bush-Cheney pulling 50 percent of the vote and Kerry-Edwards drawing 44 percent in a three-way race (Nader still gets 1 percent)…
“Dead heat”, eh? To paraphrase Inigo Montoya: You keep using those words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.
Note to Mr. Braiker: it is polite to let the Kerry campaign at least have a chance to spin your results. Going ahead and doing it for them is rude; keep it up and you’ll end up putting Lockhart, Cahill, and the rest of the gang out of work…
Update: Curse you, Powerliners, you pajama-clad band of blogging barristers! Beat me to the punch yet again.
Update again: And damn Martin, too!
And more: No need to curse Pejman, but you could read his post.
How much would you pay now? Ack! Updated to correct my horribly embarrassing misattribution of the quote to Vinzinni as opposed to Inigo. Thanks to Enviropundit for pointing out my shame.

If you didn’t catch it, you absolutely must watch Stewart’s appearance on Crossfire.
I disagree with many of Stewart’s positions, and sometimes I think the way he covers Iraq is genuinely and disturbingly harmful.
But he’s probably the funniest, sharpest wit on television today. And in this segment, he demonstrates why you don’t ever want a really funny, sharp guy gunning for you. It’s a rare moment to be cherished when you can see the hyperscripted world of big media actually go off the rails before your very eyes, and that’s exactly what Stewart delivered.
Begala and Carlson were absolutely lost; Stewart jumped out of his little box and they had no clue how to put him back in. They showed up for a nice game of chess; he showed up with boxing gloves and calmly and methodically proceeded to beat the crap out of them.
More from:
Ken Layne
Wizbang
everything you know is wrong
Pajama Pundits