Right on Schedule

So Captain Dickwave's much-touted convention bounce (more like a blip, actually) is gone, and right on cue -- here's a new terror warning, this time from General Garbledsyntax himself.

Standing beside Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim leader, President Bush (news - web sites) contended Thursday that insurgents could "plot and plan attacks elsewhere, in America and other free nations," if the United States pulled out. He said his top commander there has not asked for more troops but if he did, "I'd listen to him."

Then Allawi, who seems to still be deluding himself that he can have elections on time, took the Bullshit Baton from Fearless Leader:

He cautioned, however, that the election may not come off perfectly. But he assured it will be free and fair, "a giant step" in Iraq's political evolution.

I'm assuming that "free and fair" is using the upcoming election in the U.S. as a benchmark, in which most black voters and everyone overseas other than the military has just been disenfranchized, and a chimpanzee can hack the voting machines.



And what would a Bush appearance be without something for the Unintentional Humor file:

While Bush and Allawi spoke, Kerry campaign spokesman Joe Lockhart said Bush must be "unhinged from reality" to cite a poll suggesting that there are more Iraqis who feel their country is on the right track than there are U.S. voters who feel the same about their own.

And this is a guy who's supposedly running on his own record. Think about it. As Lockhart said (and thank GOD he's finally on board, for he is one tough mofo), "He just basically said a country that is dissolving into potential civil war, where terrorists have taken over large section of the country and where American can no longer secure four major cities, that the people over there think better of their country than people here in the United States." So what does that say of the colossal botch that Commander Monkeypants has made of the United States?



Here's where that stands today:



1) The Index of Leading Indicators, issued by the Conference Board , fell 0.3 percent in Aug to 115.7 after a matching 0.3 percent decline in July and a 0.1 percent drop in June



2) The number of applicants for an initial week of jobless aid climbed a sharper-than-expected 14,000 last week to 350,000. The number of people who remained on state unemployment rolls after claiming an initial week of jobless claims edged up to 2.88 million.



3) Oil prices were just over $48 a barrel on Thursday.



4) The Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 70 points, or 0.7 percent, in early afternoon trading.



Yup, we're turning the corner all right....into one nasty neighborhood.