$134,741,108,554

That was the total cost of the Iraq war (so far) just a few seconds ago, at projectbillboard.org. Their billboard went up in NYC today, not far from Madison Square Garden, which will be living up to it's name while it's full of squares for the RNC.

Paranoid Republican warnings for all the squares in the Garden: Greg Palast reports that on this right wing paranoia blog, the GOP was claiming

"Republican-haters plan on dressing up as RNC volunteers, and giving false directions to little blue hair ladies from Kansas, sending them into the sectors of New York City that are unfit for human habitation.

"They plan on throwing pies and Lord knows what else at Republican visitors to the city. Prostitutes with AIDS plan to seduce Republican visitors, and discourage the use of condoms ...."

Love the way they start the paragraph with "They," referring to the "Republican-haters" and wound up, in the second and last sentence of the paragraph, making the subject of the sentence "Prostitutes." So, they never actually accuse "Republican haters" of wanting to give them AIDS. But, if they'd thought it through, they could have, because I doubt if there are many Republican prostitutes (single women skew apathetic liberal), but I bet there are plenty of prostitutes who have been screwed by Republicans.

But here's the way the Republican inuendo machine works. Their website has a link to a Union Leader story when you click on "protesters supporting John Kerry." You get this page, by some hack for the right-wing puppy-training supply The Union Leader named Bernadette Malone who twisted a Ted Rall comment from one of his opinion columns.

Ms. Malone said this:

Prostitutes with AIDS plan to seduce Republican visitors, and discourage the use of condoms, according to liberal journalist Ted Rall.

Here's what cartoonist/columnist/journalist Ted Rall said in the opinion column to which she is referring: "Rumor has it that prostitutes suffering from sexually transmitted diseases will discourage the use of condoms with Republican customers."

If Ms. Malone really needed to shorten "sexually transmitted diseases," she could have said STDs. But why not make it AIDS? Gets that required dose of homophobia in their paranoia. And Rall didn't say seducing either. Makes it sound like the GOP delegates wouldn't go out looking for hookers on their own accord, some aids ridden whore would have to seduce them into it.

The GOP thinks they can safely repeat this garbage, you know, like prefacing the Niger Uranium story with a "Tony Blair says..." And for their squares, who don't want to know the truth anyway, it smells just fine.

We love New York

After a month on the East Coast, and meeting all kinds of liberals, I'm convinced Kerry's going to win. The only concern I have is my wife's biggest concern, and that's the cheating the Republicans will resort to. There is one other nagging concern Robin has, and that's Ralph Nader, who is polling well enough in some states (like Nevada and Arkansas) to make a big difference.

So, Robin has written a song parody: Song for Ralph Nader.

We also found out that the state of New York has a great health care program for small business owners.

We'll have some pictures and videos of the trip posted soon.