Mark Green, in conjunction with Air America is sponsoring a contest: What will be Bush's October Surprise?

The goal is to anticipate particular 'surprises' in the hope, however small, that Bushies may shy away from what's widely anticipated because it reeks of a political ploy. Is this contest cynical? No, just realistic. A governing elite which seems to embody Mark Twain's axiom that "a lie gets halfway around the world before truth puts on her boots" should be presumed capable of saying or doing almost anything to hold onto power."

We will catalog the responses and post the results on our site -- and periodically go on Air America and other networks and stations to give progress reports. Further, we will award the winning entry (or entries) with a free book and a chance to be a guest on a Air America broadcast.

Mark Green isco-author, with Eric Alterman,of The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America. He was New York City's elected public advocate (1994-2002) and Democratic candidate for mayor in 2001. He is the president of the New Democracy Project .

So what do you think? Will Osama miraculously appear in chains? Will he be found dead?

The Guardian refers to the Guantanamo military proceedings against Britons held prisoner there as 'backdoor trials':

...documents reveal the Britons will be presumed to be enemy combatants by the handpicked US military officers hearing their cases before they start, have limited rights to call witnesses, have no lawyer, and that hearsay evidence can be used against them.

The documents reveal that prisoners have no right to a lawyer, only to a US military representative, who can inform his superiors of what the prisoner tells him. Furthermore the tribunal will start with the assumption that the US government case against the Britons is correct, the documents reveal: "There is a rebuttable presumption that the government evidence ... is genuine and accurate."

This is the land of the free and home of the brave?

If you're an Eagles fan, or a Don Henley, Glenn Frey or Timothy B. Schmidt fan, or a Big Head Todd and the Monsters fan, or even a Leo Kottke fan, the place to be Tuesday night is a benefit for Democratic senate candidate Ken Salazar in Denver. It's at the Fillmore, tickets are $100 each, no assigned seating (actually it's stand-up except for a few mega-donors who are paying $1,000 a ticket.)

I just picked up my tickets, there are still some left. There were some massive trucks the size of houses outside the Fillmore with shiny, new red cabs attached that were imprinted with the name of a theatrical lighting and equipment company in Chicago. It's a fun venue and probably one of the smallest they've played recently.

Here's an interview with Don Henley from Sunday's Denver Post on why he's doing the fundraiser for Salazar.

A few days ago we reported on murder charges brought against two U.S. soldiers over the deaths of three Iraqis. Today, two soldiers were charged with murder of an Iraqi civilian in an unrelated case.

A military statement identified the soldiers as Staff Sgt. Johnny Horne Jr. and Staff Sgt. Cardenas Alban, both from Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment from Fort Riley, Kansas. The military declined to provide details about the case, saying an investigation is ongoing.

That makes three sets of U.S. soldiers charged with murder in the past two weeks. Here's the first case, which did not involve the murder of Iraqis:

On Sept. 15, prosecutors charged Sgts. Eric J. Colvin, 23, of Pappilion, Nebraska, and Aaron R. Stanley, 22, of Bismarck, North Dakota, with the shooting death of Staff Sgt. Matthew H. Werner, 30, of Oxnard, California, at a home in rural Clay County, about 48 kilometers (30 miles) from Fort Riley. A second soldier, Spec. Christopher D. Hymer, 23, of Nevada, Missouri, was wounded in the incident and died Saturday in a Wichita, Kansas, hospital. Prosecutors had charged Colvin and Stanley with attempted first-degree murder in his shooting and expect to upgrade the charges.

Here it comes. Just in time for the looming election. Republicans are attempting to pass significant additions to the Patriot Act via hurried proceedings in the Senate, including provisions from last year's Patriot Act II. The chances are good they will succeed. Their goal is to have the legislation, S. 2679, the "Tools to Fight Terrorism Act of 2004, signed by Bush before November 2. For more, and for what you can do to protest, visit here:

ACLU: here and here.

"Instead of considering new laws to further erode our privacy and freedoms, the Senate should be reviewing the Patriot Act to bring it in line with the Constitution."

The opposition to that point of view is organizing. Read about the letter from law enforcement types in today's Washington Times supporting The Patriot Act. The names on the list alone are frightening--Ted Olson, Rudy Giuiliani. And they've formed a new group--"Coalition for Security, Liberty and the Law."

Let's not let Congress pass another law without adequate time for relection and open debate. Act in haste, repent at leisure.

Don't miss out viewing Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties, a one hour documentary that:

tells the gut-wrenching stories of those affected by the USA PATRIOT Act -- from law-abiding store clerks to U.S. Olympians unable to travel. Sponsored by the ACLU, the final chapter in Robert Greenwald's "UN" trilogy is available now....We created Unconstitutional to show Americans the extent to which our civil liberties and our freedoms have been trampled upon by our government since 9/11," said Robert Greenwald, the film's executive producer. "The more Americans understand what is at stake, and what has already been lost, the more determined we become to protect our rights."

If you live in these cities, you can catch a screening. If you're elsewhere, or you want to watch at home, you can purchase the video. The ACLU has more on the film.

TalkLeft is excited the film has placed an ad with us. By visiting here, readers demonstrate that blogs can help spread progressive messages.

Update: Here's a review of the film.

Ten years after former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuiliani decided to clean up New York by ridding it of sex shops and arresting street violators, sex shops have returned to Greenwich Village. How?

The former mayor's restrictions on the industry, passed in 1995 as a centerpiece of his quality-of-life campaign, proved toothless after numerous court challenges, and an intransigent industry has found a way to dodge nearly every regulation imposed upon it. While these stores still dot the western edges of Times Square, the Village, which has always prided itself on being a national symbol of tolerance, has become an example of how loopholes and weak language can undermine a once-celebrated law.

Residents and elected officials from the area estimate that 20 new sex-related stores have opened in the area in the past 18 months, and say that glaring neon confronts them along Christopher Street, Seventh Avenue South and Avenue of the Americas.

The loophole is one that allows stores with more than 60% of their merchandise in non-adult rated goods to operate outside "adult entertainment zones." Cops call this "sham compliance" because to fit into the exception, stores are filling the front with things like "Popeye cartoon videos dubbed in Spanish," instuctional golf and Ozzie and Harriet videos. In the back, are the thousands of adult dvds.

Bloomberg is sympathetic to the residents of the area who don't want the shops in their neighboorhood.

Bump and Update: It's official. The army has announced that PFC Lynndie England will be tried January 17. If convicted on all 19 counts, she could receive up to 38 years in prison, a dishonorable discharge and loss of pay and pension benefits.

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Original Post Sunday, 9/26, 8am

PFC Lynndie England will face a courts martial on 17 counts of abuse and indecent acts arising from the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

It appears her defense may be shifting from one of acting on orders of higher-ups to being "led astray by some of the male reservists charged in the case."

You can read her statements of her despicable conduct here and here, and judge for yourselves if this sounds like someone who was "led astray."

More of the specific acts by England and her merry band of perverts are here. Among the images we shouldn't forget:

Very moving op-ed in Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle on why Vietnam still matters, by Michael Blecker, a former Vietnam infantryman who now is executive director of Swords to Plowshares, a Veteran's help agency in San Francisco.

The shorter version: People get tired of comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam. It may be 35 years later, but many are still feeling the devastation of Vietnam--the Vets. The U.S. has done little to help them. And all indications are the soldiers who return from Iraq will face the same problems and receive even less help from the Government.

Here are some snippets, but you should read the whole thing.

Les Payne writes a mean-spirited column in Newsday charging that George Bush has become a national joke. As much as I've been bashing Bush all weekend, I think that's a stretch, but there is a snippet worth reprinting, about how he was regarded by his buddies at Yale--even though the source is Kitty Kelly's book:

It was, however, Bush's towering lack of intellect that defined him. "That (Bush) coasted on his family name was understandable," said Yale frat brother Tom Wilner. "Lots of guys do that. But Georgie, as we called him then, has absolutely no intellectual curiosity about anything. He wasn't interested in ideas or books or causes. He didn't travel; he didn't read the newspapers; he didn't watch the news ... How he got out of Yale without developing some interest in the world besides booze and sports stuns me."

Chasing down bogus war records and irrelevant cocaine tips, the media have missed the boat on the background of the gloating "war president." It was Wilner who loosed the most salient line in Kelley's book: "Hell, it's not George's substance abuse that bothers me as much as his lack of substance."

Only a true Bush-hater will love this column. I'm not at that point yet...I just don't want him as my President.

Excellent letter to the editor in the New York Times on these opeds:

Both Bob Herbert ("Bush Upbeat as Iraq Burns," column, Sept. 24) and Paul Krugman ("Let's Get Real," column, Sept. 24) refuse to join their fellow journalists as President Bush leads them through the looking glass.

In defiance of evidence and logic, Mr. Bush sticks with the declaration that we are safer because we went to war with Iraq. Who is safer? The more than 1,000 Americans who are dead? The 150,000 troops who are now in harm's way?

Mr. Bush implies that Saddam Hussein might have killed and threatened more Americans than those now dead and now threatened because of this war. This from a country on its knees from 10 years of harsh sanctions, with neither weapons of mass destruction nor the means to deliver them; a country antagonistic to Al Qaeda and overrun with United Nations inspectors, overflown by British and American fighters and overseen by countless spy planes and military satellites.

I can't decide whether it is scarier that Mr. Bush believes this, or that he doesn't.

Richard M. Hendrick
Orford, N.H., Sept. 24, 2004

Wow. Five weeks before the Presidential election and Bob Dylan makes the cover of Newsweek.

Dylan's memoirs, The Book of Bob, are about to be released. You can read an excerpt here. The Newsweek article is here.