Surfette

THREE DAYS UNTIL SEX, PART I.5

Like I said, Maria Shriver's not alone, and neither are you: "Democrats And Republicans Are Kicking Each Other Out Of Bed"

Tune in tomorrow for Part II: Spending and Taxes.

Coming Monday is Part III: Civil Liberties.

OCT SURPRISE: BIN LADEN'S VOTE

It's really him, says the CIA. Here's what bloggers think of the tape:

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire: Bin Laden Video Warns America

INDC Journal: New Bin Laden Tape (Speaking of "Ringing Endorsements") (NOTE: Photo)

Slant Point: Here's your October Surprise (NOTE: Don't miss the links)

The Command Post: Bin Laden Accuses Bush of Deceiving Americans (NOTE: Reuters outtake)

ABCNEWS RUNS TAPE UNAUTHENTICATED

ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings aired the tape I mentioned earlier today.

The tape was not authenticated, according to this story by Investigative Reporter Brian Ross (who previously earned my kudos for delaying the story in order to seek authentication):

Alleged American Al Qaeda Warns of U.S. Attacks Azzam the American: 'Streets of America Will Run Red With Blood'

While CIA officials say they have not been able to authenticate the 75-minute tape, an agency spokesman says it "appears to have been produced by al Qaeda's media organization, al Sahab productions." The tape is marked with the same logo and graphics seen on previous videos released by al Qaeda.

Now Instapundit blogs that they received this tip:

"A CIA spokesperson whom I spoke to mere moments ago was very adamant in saying the ABC terror tape has ``not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not yet been authenticated.'' Thought you might like to know because, thanks to Drudge, a lot of people are getting this wrong."

Thanks to Running Scared, who posted that link and some very interesting commentary before ABC's broadcast. Here's what some other articulate bloggers said before the tape was aired:

Atrios, as previously noted
Captain's Quarters
Roger L. Simon

...and after ABC aired the tape:

California Yankee
The Centrist Coalition

Earlier in the day, Mr. Ross told The Washington Post, ""It's either a well-done hoax or a tremendous news story. We're not going to get stampeded." The Post's Howard Kurtz also reported that Ross and his team believed "that a Bush administration official leaked the story to Internet gossip Matt Drudge as a way of pressuring the network into airing the tape, which would heighten concerns about terrorism in the final week of the president's reelection campaign."

What do you think? Did ABC do the right thing by broadcasting this tape tonight? Does it matter that it's five days before the election?

Actually, don't tell me, tell ABC's World News Tonight.

HELP BRIAN ROSS AND ABC DO THEIR JOBS

Brian Ross, investigative reporter for ABC News, needs to hear our thanks for doing his job.

Here's what happened:

1. An ABC News producer received a tape from an intermediary in Pakistan

2. ABC, mindful of CBS' recent error, enlisted the aid of the FBI and CIA but still can't authenticate the 75-minute videotape.

3. ABC hasn't run the videotape, despite massive pressure inside and outside the Beltway.

4. Here's why: Mr. Ross apparently became concerned, according to The Washington Post:

Ross and other ABC staffers say they believe that a Bush administration official leaked the story to Internet gossip Matt Drudge as a way of pressuring the network into airing the tape, which would heighten concerns about terrorism in the final week of the president's reelection campaign. They note that whoever gave the information to Drudge had a transcript of the tape.

Now Mr. Ross--and doubtless his boss and his boss' boss--is being hounded to air the story rather than fully research it. See this Drudge Report story: "ABC News Holds Terror Warning Tape" from yesterday, and Drudge's allegation today that the tape has now been authenticated.

Almost no one in the major media is touching this story, save San Francisco's KRON 4, which says Drudge is wrong--the tape hasn't been authenticated.

In bloggerdom, Atrios says, "now we have someone involved with our national security leaking this stuff to an online gossip in order to put pressure on a major broadcaster. That's a story." Ann Althouse comes at the story from a different angle.

Let's email ABC right now to thank the network and Brian Ross for showing a cool head under incredible pressure.

VOTERGASM

Take the pledge here.

Don't forget to read the fine print, dorkwad.

MRS. HASSAN, TAPE 2

Kidnapped Iraqi-British aid worker Margaret Hassan is still alive, according to a second videotape.

In the images aired on Arabic television station Al Jazeera, Mrs. Hassan again pleads for British Prime Minister Tony Blair not to station British troops in Baghdad. She also requests that Iraqi women prisoners be released from prisons. This request was previously made by kidnappers of two Americans and a Briton. When the request was not granted, followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi beheaded all three men.

It is the first word from Mrs. Hassan since late last week, when she made her first tearful appeal. Over the weekend, hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated for the release of "Mama Margaret", and Muslims debated her fate on Web sites.

Since then, Mrs. Hassan has all but disappeared from the Western news media, including Web sites and blogs. Gail Walker of the Belfast Telegraph wonders why.

Surfette does too.

SIX DAYS UNTIL SEX, PART I

Six days shy of Election Day, Surfette is experiencing, third-hand, the angst of dear friends who find their conjugal union--how shall we put it?--less than blissful. The cause: Presidential politics.

In other words, Maria Shriver isn't a crowd of one.

Surfette is amazed by the number of friends she has who know how they're voting, but are tortured because their honeys haven't decided (or haven't admitted) who gets their vote Nov. 2--George W. Bush or John Kerry.

It's a touchy subject.

"I just don't have the stomach for the hours of conversation that would entail," said a San Francisco friend, when asked who her husband was supporting. "With his family--they're all voting for [Sen.] Kerry--he plays devil's advocate, but I just don't know. Our conversations right now are more along the lines of, 'Did you take out the trash? Okay, I'll bathe the kids.' "

Another friend fantasized aloud about what she could do to keep her husband trapped at home in Maryland so that his vote doesn't cancel hers out. A third woman, a Coloradan campaigning for Mr. Kerry, spat, "After last time? I'll never ask him again."

Thank goodness: Americans finally care enough about an election that they're not only registering to vote in record numbers, they're tying themselves into conjugal knots. So if you're hitched with a Jane Galt and you're willing to take up the challenge, Surfette recommends you cut through the last-gasp campaign rhetoric and try this approach:

1. Sit down with your darling, or your best friend, or whoever, and open a bottle. Unless you're lactating, drink up, both of you.

2. Open the question: Do you want four more years of the current administration's policies on national spending, national security, and civil liberties? Or do you want a different direction?

NOTE: If your beloved or buddy or even you cannot answer a firm yes or no, propose that you two examine the record of (and the best commentary on) the only one of these two guys who has been president--George W. Bush. Why? Because Americans already have a great deal more data on Sen. John Kerry's legislative agenda in 2004 than we ever had about Gov. Bush in 2000, yet half of Americans had faith in his bid for president. This time around we have data on President Bush, too. We have watched George W. Bush lead the United States in a specific direction over the past four years, and, like it or not, Nov. 2 is a referendum on his presidency.

NEXT: Try the questions below.

PART I: NATIONAL SECURITY

- Were we right to go to war against Iraq?

Don't miss what Factcheck.org says about what Mr. Bush says, and what Mr. Kerry says.

Bloggerdom: Wesley Clark says no via Atrios, The Centrist Coalition says America has helped an international jihadist movement coalesce at the price of straining our own resources and capabilities, and Chuck of You Big Mouth You! says we are doing the right thing.

- How well-executed is our military strategy in Iraq?

Case study: Al Qaqaa (timeline).

Here's what the commander on-site at al Qaqaa, Col. Joseph Anderson, of the Second Brigade of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, says. Updated as of Oct. 28: Here's what an embedded ABCNews affiliate camera crew saw, courtesy of DailyKos.

Here's what Mr. Bush says and what Mr. Kerry says.

Don't miss what Talking Points Memo and NRO's Kerry Spot have to say on the subject.

- Are we adequately funding and supporting American troops?

Here's what Factcheck.org says about the statements both presidential candidates made in their first debate. The site also sheds light on Mr. Kerry's Senate votes on funding for troops. The Questing Cat has an opinion on Kerry's vote against body armor, based on his experience in Iraq. (WARNING: Graphic description of live combat). Hat tip to the Mudville Gazette.

COMING THURSDAY: PART II - SPENDING AND TAXES
Warning: You may not like your partner's or pal's answer at the end of all this, but rest assured that (s)he has chosen the right candidate for their vote, whether they 'go with the gut or study' the data (Hat tip: Atrios).

And don't worry -- you can always make up your mind about your partner on (or around) Nov. 3...

PLEAS FOR "MAMA MARGARET"

Visitors to Islamist Web sites debated the kidnapping of Margaret Hassan this weekend, even as hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated
for her release, including Iraqis in wheelchairs and school children wearing hearing aids that she helped provide.

Today in Iraq, commanders of five rebels groups in Falluja told interviewers they were not holding Hassan and did not think members of Al Zarqawi network had kidnapped her, according to KeralaNext.com.

The Gulf Daily News also reported that "hardline clerics" who control Fallujah said yesterday they were not responsible for kidnapping humanitarian worker Margaret Hassan and appealed for her release.

"The Shura Council of Fallujah Mujahideen calls upon the brothers who have kidnapped the British hostage to release her if they had no[t] enough evidence that she deals with the occupation," the group said in a statement.

Emphasis and "[t]" added by Surfette. Related links:

A prayer for women in Iraq
Margaret is not the enemy
Why kidnap Mrs. Margaret Hassan?

MUSLIMS PLEAD FOR MRS. HASSAN

Muslim leaders have added their voices to those of relatives, former colleagues and students who are advocating for the release of kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan.

Joining his voice with others who have born witness to Mrs. Hassan's advocacy for Iraqi children and peace, Sheik Taj el-Din Al Hilaly, identified by The Sydney Morning Herald as "Australia's most prominent Muslim," reportedly sent a written appeal through the Al-Jazeera network to Mrs. Hassan's kidnappers, saying the abduction had "undermined the plight of the Iraqi people".

On a day punctuated by a suicide bombing that killed 22 Iraqis, and a shoot-out that wounded six American troops, Mrs. Hassan's husband a colleagues also made appeals for her release. The CBC reports:

On Saturday, her Iraqi husband, Tahseen Ali Hassan, begged for the kidnappers to free her "in the name of Islam."

"It hurts to watch my wife cry," Tahseen Hassan said on Al-Arabiya television. "This scene has saddened and worried her friends and loved ones. I plead with you, in the name of Islam and Arabism - while we are in the most sacred Islamic month - that my wife and beloved return to me."

The secretary general of CARE International made his own appeal Saturday.

"She is a naturalized Iraqi citizen and always holds the people of Iraq in her heart," Denis Caillaux said. "CARE joins with many of the people whose lives Mrs. Hassan has touched over her decades of service in Iraq in reaching out to her captors to appeal to their humanity."

GOV SMACKDOWN

This bit should really be called, "No, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to endorse anybody. Oh--okay."

Because Minnesota's Jesse Ventura just endorsed Sen. John Kerry for president.

We saw this earlier in Election 2004, when the Governator dragged his heels on when and where to campaign for President George Bush. He now plans a late October surprise in Ohio.