Now that Labor Day is over, it took stores about 14 seconds to get rid of their "back-to-school" displays and replace them with shelves of Halloween regalia.

And never missing a beat, Karl Rove had George W. Bush take advantage of his Secret Service Platinum Card to get an early start on the pagan celebration by donning the most frightening disguise available and heading out to spook the countryside in a week long variation on the old "trick and treat" trek.

This "fear and smear" tour featured the President digging deep into the pockets of his Pumpkin King costume, tossing seeds of dread and horror to all who watched while in the cross hairs of the media deluge of mourning in America on the 5th anniversary of 9/11.

I know I cowered. But can't figure out if it was a reflex recoil at the sight of the super serious mask Bush uses to hide his condescending smirk; the sheer gall of his distorted reasoning; or the threat that Cheney was going to detach his jaw and swallow Tim Russert whole.   more »

Osama bin Laden is on the move, and Tuesday's terror attack on the US Embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus, could be a tangible result of this.

Exclusive information obtained by Asia Times Online shows that the al-Qaeda leader recently traveled from the South Waziristan tribal area in Pakistan to somewhere in the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nooristan, or possibly Bajour, a s mall tribal agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Area of Pakistan in North-West Frontier Province.

According to a witness, bin Laden traveled in a double-cabin truck with a few armed guards - not in a convoy. Apparently, this is how he now prefers to move around.

Bin Laden, with a US$25 million bounty on his head, has not been sighted for some time, and he has not been seen on any new videotape since late 2004, although audio tapes purporting to be him speaking surfaced this year.

At the same time, a close aide responsible for bin Laden's logistics and media relations told Asia Times Online that bin Laden had recovered from serious kidney-related ailments.   more »

Death of a President, a mock documentary that purports to investigate the events of October 19 2007, when George W Bush is assassinated.

Now, after its first screening, reaction is mixed. "It's dope," said one young Torontonian leaving the theatre in a state of excitement.

Was he advocating the execution of the American president, then? Not at all. It turns out, frankly, that Bush's assassination is not really the focus of this fascinating exercise in image manipulation.

Rather, Range and his co-writer/producer Simon Finch have shown how the news can be refashioned into science fiction.

In the process, they conclusively demonstrate how easily fiction can be re-edited, on a daily basis, to television viewers and web surfers as fact.   more »

Bush, Cheney and the entire Republican election team are scrambling to make their so-called war on terror the focus of the next seven weeks.

As in 2002 and 2004, they’re counting on their ability to scare Americans with the al-Qaida bogeyman.

And while the trauma of 9/11 has begun to dissipate and American voters seem less susceptible than ever to the scare tactics used by the White House, for the past five years the Democrats have been singularly unable to develop an effective counter to the Bush administration on terrorism.

So, for that reason, here are 10 important facts about terrorism that opponents of President Bush should understand.   more »

14 SEPTEMBER

America Loves a Torturer: From Agent Jack Bauer to Gorgeous George Bush

The Shameless Brown-Nosing of NYT Editorials

The Bush Regime: Leaders Diagnosed as Waraholics

Bob Herbert: The Stranger in the Mirror - Look What We've Become

'Terror' and the New Authoritarianism

Bush's Ideology: "Democratic Fundamentalism"