• 10:58 p.m. ET

Points Scoring: The Scorer's Table unenthusiastically reports this bout as going to Senator John Kerry by 12 rounds to 4, with 5 rounds even. On individual points, Senator Kerry is awarded a net total of 19 points, and President Bush a net of 2, having undermined his own effort with no less than eight points subtracted, three of them in a disastrous 12th Round in which the President had to be told time was up, answered a question with, in essence, 'all of the above,' and stumbled by inadvertently criticizing himself by claiming the borders of Texas were tighter than they'd been when he was Governor there. He also lost points for having twice invoked the 2000 election, and for once having given back at least a minute of time when the question hadn't really been answered.

California Gov. ArnoldSchwarzenegger announced Wednesday night that he will veto legislation allowingsame-sex couples to marry.The announcement,made through his press secretary, Margita Thompson, said that the bill is inconflict with Proposition 22 a ballot initiative passed in 2000 to preventCalifornia from recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere...

via Kevin Drum

The Bush administration is now blackballing the attendance of technical experts at a telecom standards meeting this week if they contributed money to John Kerry's campaign. A telecom standards meeting!

Just to give you a flavor of what we're talking about, here's an excerpt from the agenda for the Working Party on Terrestrial Fixed and Mobile Radiocommunication Services:

Recommendation for 400 MHz bands
RLAN in the 5 GHz band
Recommendation on harmonized frequencies for property protection
Revision to Recommendation PCC.II/REC. 67 (XIX-01) on Low Power Radiocommunication devices,
Radio frequency identification devices (RFID)
Broadband Power Line Communications (BPL)
Refarming of 700 MHz band
Answer to Market questionnaire on IMT 2000 and systems beyond
Results of the video conference on wireless broadband

Atrios is right: this is completely insane. The paranoid lengths to which the Bushies will go to punish their perceived enemies is simply stunning.

Corporations Have Higher Profits During Liberal Presidencies Liberal Truths

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2003 the years where a Republican President was in office show that Corporations have lower Profits Before Tax than when a Democratic President was in office.

Republican President George Herbert Walker Bush:
In 1990 Corporate Profits Before Tax was $236,000,000,000.

Democratic President William Jefferson Clinton:
Started his Presidency in 1993 with Corporate Profits Before Tax increasing to $305,000,000,000.
Ended his Presidency in 2000 with Corporate Profits Before Tax further increasing to $436,000,000,000.

Republican President George Walker Bush:
Started his Presidency in 2001 with Corporate Profits Before Tax reducing to $327,000,000,000.
By the end of 2002 Corporate Profits Before Tax were further reduced to $316,000,000,000.

The highest rate of Corporate Profits Before Tax between 1990 and 2002 was in 1997 with $494,000,000,000 when William Jefferson Clinton was President.

Source: 15-business.pdf No. 737

Yucca data allegedly falsified

WASHINGTON -- Employees of the U.S. Geological Survey who were revisiting scientific study on the key issue of water flow at Yucca Mountain allegedly falsified research documents, an Energy Department review of employee e-mails revealed.

Department officials discovered the e-mails as part of a massive review of millions of program document pages in preparation for submitting an application for a license to construct Yucca. "Multiple" e-mails written between May 1998 and March 2000 indicate that a U.S. Geological Survey employee fabricated documentation of his work, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Wednesday. read on

John McCain on Meet the Press!

I think he definitely will run for president in 2008.

Video

His response to the Bob Jones letter sent mixed messages. He didn't agree that all liberals are evil, but he kowtowed to the notion that all Americans were uneasy about what they see on TV.

He grilled Pat Robertson, and Bob Jones in the 2000 race, and his response underscores the power he feels that the religious right has now.

More on Ashcroft:

Antonin Scalia Is an Enemy of the State!

So says John Ashcroft. Jeffrey Dubner reports

GET YOUR ROBES OUT OF OUR PRISONS! I just watched John Ashcroft's address to the Federalist Society. It's a gripping speech, and quite frightening. He devotes the greatest portion of it to challenging the Supreme Court's decisions in Rasul v. Bush, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, and the other "enemy combatant" cases. A taste:

...intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas of treaties can put at risk the very security of our nation at a time of war.

It's very much in the vein of "the ability to set aside the laws is inherent in the president." There's no transcript available just yet, and I expect there'll be analyses and critiques up by more qualified legal folks than I by the time we get back from the weekend. But I wonder how confined this constitutional theory is to Ashcroft, and whether it will in any way leave office with him. I highly doubt it.

UPDATE: Tonight's keynote speaker is, of course, Federalist Society member and Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. He's as like as not to agree with Ashcroft on this, although it's hard to be sure.

I do think that this is, in part, fallout from Bush v. Gore. Everybody knows that Scalia and company don't believe the equal protection rationale they set forward for their decision. And if what the Supremes are doing is expressing their political preferences rather than setting forth judicial principles--well, why should their will get to override Bush's and Ashcroft's? Just because Scalia, Rehnquist, and company ruled in favor of Bush in 2000 doesn't mean that Bush and company respect them for it.

I love Asian Yakuza movies. Heck, I love a lot of the J-horror flicks too, but I never thought I'd see this in real life. Hello, DHS---where the hell were you?

UCLA Medical Center and its most accomplished liver surgeon provided a life-saving transplant to one of Japan's most powerful gang bosses, law enforcement sources told The Times.

In addition, the surgeon performed liver transplants at UCLA on three other men who are now barred from entering the United States because of their criminal records or suspected affiliation with Japanese organized crime groups, said a knowledgeable law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The four surgeries were done between 2000 and 2004 at a time of pronounced organ scarcity. In each of those years, more than 100 patients died awaiting liver transplants in the Greater Los Angeles region...read on

You have got to read this story. It's a Pulitzer Prize winner....I have used the UCLA medical group in the past. Damn, if I would have produced a samurai sword when I checked in---who knows what kind of treatment I might have received.

Happy 5th Anniversary to Living Liberally!

Another reminder, author Mark Crispin Miller will be here tomorrow to discuss his new book, Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000 - 2008, starting at 11:00 am Pacific/2:00 pm Eastern. He has plenty of cautionary tales that we need to take heed of as we head into the general election race. This is not a conversation to be missed. See you there!

Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington appeared on The Colbert Report to promote her latest book, The Right is Wrong and speak to the particular metamorphosis of John McCain’s candidacy.

Download | play Download | play (h/t Bill W)

Colbert: So (McCain) changed his opinions from 2000 to 2008. People do that.

Huffington: He has not changed his opinions. He has replaced his mind with George Bush’s mind. I wouldn’t be surprised if right now, he’s somewhere at the Texas ranch, clearing brush, like George Bush.

Colbert: Perhaps he knows that that’s what he has to do to get elected. He was ”The Maverick” in 2000; that did not get him elected. But if he toes the party line in 2008, maybe that…he’s just doing what he needs to do to get elected. What’s so wrong with that?

Huffington: You mean selling his soul in order to get elected?

Huffington: He was a real reformer. And now, he’s basically completely surrendered on everything. He wants us all to stay in Iraq of course indefinitely. And here’s the one little problem: that he has this kind of passion for Iraq. [..] Because he has this passion for Iraq, that’s his Viagra.

Colbert: He has…I guess the warning on that should be, if your erection last more than a hundred years, pull out.