John Kerry Purple Hearts

Now this is funny. Somebody at the Republican National Convention was handing out bandaids with purple hearts on them.

Morton Blackwell, a GOP activist from Virginia, was distributing bandages with purple hearts on them over the message: "It was just a self-inflicted scratch, but you see I got a Purple Heart for it."

Charlie Rangel went ballistic, so the RNC chairman put a stop to the fun. Too bad. I'd like one.

Moderation In Resolve No Virtue

Leftist LA Times reporter Ronald Brownstein is disappointed that the Republicans did not present a more moderate face at the opening day of their convention.

When former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) were named to headline the Republican National Convention's opening night, most analysts in both parties took it as evidence that President Bush's campaign wanted the gathering to project a message of moderation.

But in their speeches Monday night, Giuliani and McCain signaled that the real mission for the Bush campaign this week was to send a message of strength.


I've got a question for Brownstein and his fellow weanies. How can one be moderately resolute in the face of a foe that is committed to our annihilation?

The Canine Gap

Here's a new demographic for the Washington Post to focus on. George W. Bush holds a commanding lead over John Kerry among dog owners.

"Asked which candidate they'd trust to walk Fido, dog owners favored Mr. Bush 51% to 37%."

Even the dogs themselves preferred Bush, although their's was only a proxy vote cast by their owners.

Beyond being just good fun, the poll results hint at a more serious political issue: trust and likablity. And while this is the first year the American Kennel Club conducted the poll, dogs have a long pedigree in American politics. Desperate to bolster his family credentials after the Monica-sex-scandal, Bill Clinton ran out and got Buddy, a chocolate Lab--the breed that polls indicated was the most beloved family dog. In 1952 vice presidential nominee Richard Nixon faced accusations of improperly accepting money for political expenses. Nixon defused the issue in a nationally televised speech by claiming the only improper gift he received was a puppy: "We did get something, a gift, after the election. . . . It was a little cocker spaniel. . . . Our little girl, Tricia, the 6-year-old, named it Checkers. . . . I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we're gonna keep it."
Politicians have probably always known the value of reaching voters through their pets, so nearly every president has kept an animal in the White House. Some were not so lovable, such as the Hardings' opossums or William Howard Taft's Pauline, the last cow to live in the White House. For his part, Mr. Bush is clearly a dog lover and is confident enough in his manhood to be seen carrying Barney, his Scottish terrier. He also had a springer spaniel named Spot, who died recently at age 15 and was the only dog to live in the White House during two different administrations.

A Pox On All Their Houses

The first in the nation primary gave the Democrats a candidate with a 16% approval rating.

"Zogby has polled undecided voters. They don't like Bush's performance in office (disapproving by a 77-23 margin). But then they were asked "Do you or don't you like John Kerry as a person?" The results? Dislike--52%. Like--16%. It's almost as if uninformed Iowa voters in a front-loaded primary system anointed the one candidate who might through sheer force of his own unappealing personality lose the race to a vulnerable incumbent! Only time will tell. ... 7:04 P.M."

Cigarette Taxes and Working Moms Create Obeisty?

Only Jonah Goldberg could have made the connection that feminism causes obesity, but he has.

The entry of millions of women into the workforce has left less time for mothers to cook nutritious meals at home. Instead, these harried super-moms pop Hot Pockets (mmm, Hot Pockets) into the microwave - or they just go out to McDonald's (mmm, Mickey Ds). One study finds that an increase in the hours worked by mothers can result in up to "one-third of the growth in obesity among children in certain families."

Oh, and by the way, he makes the much more obvious point that McCain - Feingold created the 527's. Well, duh! the first part was more enlightening.

But, What If The French Say "No"

Under Kerry and Edwards, Iran would be promoted from the "Axis of Evil" to the "Axis of the not yet coooperative who will be seduced by Kerry's infinite warmth and charm."

If Iran fails to agree to the Kerry-Edwards make nice solution, then they'll call on France and jointly fart in Iran's general directions, I suppose.

Insincerity?

Jonathan Alter (above)condemns the supposedly insincere criticism of the Swift Boat veterans by George Bush, but will undoubtedly forgive the Democratic party for the deplorable behavior of leftist protestors at the Republican Convention this week.

The New York Times is careful not to call the Democratic protestors, just "anti-Republican."

Even though most protests are aimed squarely at the Bush administration, there is little evidence that Democratic Party officials are at the helm. Indeed, Democratic leaders have been worrying that angry images of demonstrators shouting, clashing with the police or damaging property will be used to tar their party, as historians say occurred after the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, when violent antiwar protests were seen as hurting the party's cause. As a result, party officials say, a focus of the spin operation they set up last week about 10 blocks from the convention site at Madison Square Garden will be to counter Republican efforts to link them to protest mishaps or violence.

"We have no connection to any of the protesters," the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, said on Thursday in announcing the party's war room. "I have implored everyone to make sure that the Republicans have a peaceful convention."


But, the fact is that all these wierdos are the energetic core of the party, something that the Clinton Administration fully understood when he let them have their own way when he was president.

Democrats Are Nicer?

Now this really is news! Did you know that the problem with Democrats is that they're too nice?

Usually the toughness gap is the Democrats' own fault. Because liberals are temperamentally self-critical, they tend to see more grays than black-and-whites. Republicans are better at closing ranks. If Kerry were the GOP candidate this year, hardly anyone in his party would be trashing him privately or predicting defeat, as some Democrats are doing.

A related contrast comes in the way the parties address their own constituencies. Republicans offer "red meat," a sense that they share the resentments of their audience. Democrats, schooled in political correctness, tiptoe around their friends, ever anxious not to offend. This conditions them to be more defensive and reactive toward their enemies.

Do the Republicans have anyone like James Carville? Has a Republican president's press secretary ever said the Democrats would prefer that old people die in the streets?

As a Republican myself, I'm a little tired of being called a racist, a sexist, a bigot and a homophobe on a daily basis.

A Faked Citation?

Not only does it appear that the combat V on John Kerry's Silver Star a result of fraud, but one of the citations was forged.

Former Navy Secretary John Lehman says that he never signed the citation posted on Kerry's website.

This is significant because this third citation (and the existance of more than one is quite irregular) contains language not found in the first two.

The additional language varied from the two previous citations, signed first by Adm. Elmo Zumwalt and then Adm. John Hyland, which themselves differ. The new material added in the Lehman citation reads in part: "By his brave actions, bold initiative, and unwavering devotion to duty, Lieutenant (jg) Kerry reflected great credit upon himself...."

It just gets curiouser and curiouser.

What? He's Not A Republican Stooge?

The New York Times has actually taken a little time to learn a bit about Kerry critic John O'Neill and guess what? The Times was wrong all along. He is not an instrument of the Bush campaign.

Not bad for the Times to get it right after only three weeks of getting it wrong.

Stolen Valor, Fraudulent Anyway

“Is it wrong? Yes, it is very wrong. Sufficient to question his leadership position? The answer is yes, which he clearly understood,” so said Senator John Kerry, a Navy combat veteran who, by the way, served in Vietnam. He was speaking about Admiral Boorda, who had just committed suicide over the shame he felt when it was learned that he was wearing a silver star with a combat "V" on it. He had not earned that combat V.

In fact, the Navy has never issued a Silver Star with a combat V to anyone.

So, why does John Kerry wear a Silver Star with a combat V?

Backing Away From Previous Statements = Confessing To A Lie

The Washington Post has a nice, sterile way of saying Kerry lied.

Kerry has already backed away from some of his more inflammatory antiwar statements and an earlier claim that he was not present at a meeting that debated a proposal to assassinate government officials and take over the Statue of Liberty

But, none of this bothers his former dope-smoking buddies from Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

"He doesn't have the same courage of his convictions he had back then," said Musgrave, referring to Kerry's appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "When he gave that speech, he spoke for all of us. He should either stand up for it, or explain why he no longer agrees with it. He is doing neither, as far as I can see."

"The John Kerry of 2004 is not the same as the John Kerry of 1971," said David Cline, a southern VVAW organizer. "I think he was more truthful in 1971. Having said that, I know who I want to be president. The sad reality of American politics is that any candidate has to go for the center."

Another Evasion From Kerry

Kerry has refused to release his personal Vietnam diaries, among other things, claiming that he signed an exclusivity agreement with popular historian Douglas Brinkley.

Not so says Binkley.


The Kerry campaign has refused to release Kerry's personal Vietnam archive, including his journals and letters, saying that the senator is contractually bound to grant Brinkley exclusive access to the material. But Brinkley said this week the papers are the property of the senator and in his full control.

"I don't mind if John Kerry shows anybody anything," he said. "If he wants to let anybody in, that's his business. Go bug John Kerry, and leave me alone." The exclusivity agreement, he said, simply requires "that anybody quoting any of the material needs to cite my book."

And even though Brinkley still fawns over Kerry, he concludes that Kerry lied about that trip into Cambodia that is "seared" into his memory.

"I'm under the impression that they were near the Cambodian border," said Brinkley, in the interview. So Kerry's statement about being in Cambodia at Christmas "is obviously wrong," he said. "It's a mongrel phrase he should never have uttered. I stick to my story."

Photo Op Phony

"When I heard about this event going on, I just had to come out here," he told thousands of onlookers who had come to watch a marching-band competition between historically black colleges and now suddenly were in the middle of a political rally.

Then, after posing for a couple of picture with negroes, he left - mission accomplished. The newspapers will run pictures proving that he's close to the darkies.

src="http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/images/I40239-2004Aug27L"

Why Edwards "had to come out here" was left unexplained. He did not watch even a minute of the performances. But the symbolism was clear: The stop was a quick and easy way to get face time with a large number of African Americans in his home state, where his campaign faces an uphill climb.

But, sadly for the Democrats, African-Americans are getting too sophisticed for this tripe anymore.

Edwards made a similar visit to a black church. "See, he's just trying to show that he went to a black church," Toni Paul, 35, a nurse, told her three children as Edwards shook hands outside a Charlotte church. Asked about her comments by a reporter, Paul, who is black, said she was "unimpressed" that Edwards had stopped by "because I want to see what he will actually do for us, what he will do for the African American community in Charlotte."

Women In The Arena

I don’t care if the New York Yankees could beat the tar out of the United States Olympic women’s softball team 100 times out of 100 tries, those women play a better game. The same goes for the women’s Olympic basketball team. I’d much rather watch the women’s crisp, unselfish team game than the self centered, me first men’s game. And I won’t feel deprived if I never see a woman execute a 360 degree, reverse slam dunk. In fact, I’d rather not see a slam dunk in a women’s game.
We need the women’s game to remind us that there is more to sports than posturing, strutting, and mouthing off at opponents. There is even more to sports than athleticism. The most important element of sports is the fun. After all, I’ve never heard an umpire open a baseball game by shouting, “work ball!” The women clearly have more fun playing their sports, and their enjoyment is contagious. When I watched the United States women’s Olympic softball team, I found myself smiling, even grinning unconsciously.
And if the women’s joy at playing the game is infectious, the sullenness of the United States men’s Olympic basketball team is definitely a contagion. I watched the United States men’s basketball team barely sneak past an athletically inferior Spanish team, and neither side seemed to enjoy a minute of the contest. The game was suffused with a grimness and even a desperation. Afterwards, the United States men’s team seemed relieved to have escaped a loss rather than joyous for having squeezed out a win. Even their victories are depressing.
Ask yourself. Who would you rather watch, the exuberant Lisa Lesley or the brooding Allen Iverson? Allen Iverson is far quicker, can jump much higher, and can rain three point baskets all night. But he never seems to be enjoying the game. To him, and to too many other American superstars, the game is but an instrument for inflicting humiliation on other men. Each basket is treated, not as a two point contribution to the team, but rather a teensy-weensy single combat victory over an opponent. To the male basketball star, a slam dunk isn’t two points, it’s a demonstration of territorial dominance.
In women’s basketball, it’s obvious that those wearing the same uniforms are partners and friends working toward a common goal. Have you ever heard of two women squabbling like Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant over whose team it is? In the men’s game, teammates are competing with each other for possession of the ball. And those who don’t get to dribble or shoot the ball as often as they want will pout or complain to the first sportswriter they can convince to turn an ear in their direction.
I even like women’s soccer – and not just because there’s always a possibility that one of them might strip off her top in celebration. I like watching women’s soccer, even though I really don’t like soccer. I like the women’s game because I like watching people having fun.
Have you ever seen anyone enjoy themselves more than the American beach volleyball team of Misty May and Kerri Walsh? Perhaps the men’s team enjoyed themselves too, but they were entirely too busy putting on their cool act to show it.
I was a Title 9 skeptic. But I can learn. Sport is about building character and women deserve the opportunity.
After all, as Teddy Roosevelt once said, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
The arena is now open for women, too.

Eye Witness To A Self-Inflicted Wound

Retired Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr. was in the boat with John Kerry when Kerry received the "finger nail scratch" that got him one step closer to escaping Vietnam.

"Kerry nicked himself with a M-79 (grenade launcher)," Schachte said in a telephone interview from his home in Charleston, S.C. He said, "Kerry requested a Purple Heart."

At about 3 a.m. on Dec. 2, Schachte said, the skimmer -- code-named "Batman" -- fired a hand-held flare. He said that after Kerry's M-16 rifle jammed, the new officer picked up the M-79 and "I heard a 'thunk.' There was no fire from the enemy."

Kerry's "wound" came from scrapnel from the grenade Kerry launched, because he incompetently fired at a target too close to the boat.

And Speaking Moral Vanity

Charles Krauthammer nicely sums up why the Democratic party has grown so shrill in recent years.

The Democrats' current disdain for George Bush reminds me of another chess master, Efim Bogoljubov, who once said, ``When I am White, I win because I am White'' -- White moves first and therefore has a distinct advantage -- ``when I am Black, I win because I am Bogoljubov.'' John Kerry is a man of similar vanity -- intellectual and moral -- and that spirit thoroughly permeates the Democratic Party.

Democrats feel a mixture of horror and contempt for the huddled masses -- so bovine, so benighted, so besotted with talk radio -- who made a king of an empty-headed movie star (Reagan, long before Arnold) and inexplicably want the Republicans' current nitwit leader to have a second term.

So what has this vanity and hatred yielded?

It is not often that a losing presidential candidate (Al Gore) compares the man who defeated him to both Hitler and Stalin. It is not often that a senior party leader (Edward Kennedy) accuses a sitting president of starting a war (``cooked up in Texas'') in order to gain political advantage for his re-election.

John Kerry Peacemaker?

John Kerry says that he's going to reestablish peace with America's natural allies in te world. Can anybody find any trace of that capacity in Kerry's dealings with his fellow veterans?

One reason Kerry can't make peace with John O'Neill is his moral vanity.

Liberals for years have argued that the ideas, policies and beliefs of their opposition were, whatever else, morally wanting. The basis for this claim was their domestic achievements inside government during the 1960s and--the twin pillar--their opposition in the streets to the Vietnam war. Both live on, and are used today, as the triumph of simple public morality over the soulless details of public policy. No challenge is ever permitted to either claim. Tax policy, for instance, is now argued almost wholly in terms of moral fairness. Judicial nominees are opposed as threats to some presumed moral consensus on rights and justice.

If John Kerry loses this election over Vietnam, and he just may, one of the pillars that has propped up the Democratic church for more than 30 years will crack.

Meanwhile, John O'Neill Refuses to Shut Up

John O'Neill tell George W. Bush that he's not going away and tells Kerry to come clean.

Are we controlled by the Bush-Cheney campaign? Absolutely not. The Swift boat veterans who joined our group come in all political flavors: independents, Republicans, Democrats and other more subtle variations. Had another person been the presidential candidate of the Democrats, our group never would have formed. Had Mr. Kerry been the Republican candidate, each of us would still be here.

We do not take direction from the White House or the president's re-election committee, and our efforts would continue even if President Bush were to ask us directly to stop.

Why have we come forward? As explained in "Unfit For Command," Mr. Kerry grossly exaggerated and lied about his abbreviated four-month tour in Vietnam. He disgraced all legitimate Vietnam War heroes when he falsely testified to Congress that we were war criminals, daily engaged in atrocities that had the full approval of all levels in the chain of command. So, once Mr. Kerry decided to apply for the commander in chief's job with a war-hero résumé, we felt compelled to come forward to explain why he is "unfit for command."

Free Speech And Its Enemies

It's no surprise that the Democrats oppose free speech. It's no surprise that John McCain is anti-free speech. It's very disappointing that George W. Bush is chiming in though.

President Bush yesterday joined forces with Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, to mount legal and legislative challenges to third-party attack ads, including those that question Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam record.


One Democratic party is more than enough.

Meet John O'Neill

There is the caricature of John O'Neill created by the smear artists Democratic National Committee. Then, there is the real John O'Neill.

Mr. O'Neill said his recent call to political action again occurred in a hospital room. He said he was recovering from surgery after donating a kidney to his wife of 28 years, Anne, when he saw Mr. Kerry on TV in February.
"I was in the recovery room at Methodist Hospital and saw John Kerry on television, laying claim to his Vietnam War record. I just couldn't believe it," he said.
It was then he helped form the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose primary projects have included its Web site, a book "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry," and campaign ads challenging Mr. Kerry's military record and anti-Vietnam War activities.
He said Mr. Kerry "grossly and knowingly" distorted the conduct of U.S. military personnel in Vietnam, calling his anti-war statements a "betrayal" that put soldiers and sailors still in Vietnam in harm's way.

MASH Veterans For Truth

Frank Burns runs for president.

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to HARDBALL. Tonight we have Democratic Presidential Candidate Dr. Frank Burns and the leader of M*A*S*H Doctor Veterans for Truth - Dr. Benjamin Pierce.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: I'm Chris Matthews let's play Hardball.

MATTHEWS: This half-hour on HARDBALL, Korean Veteran Dr. Ben Pierce, Frank Burn's longtime nemesis, on his contested new book, "Frank Burns Eats Worms." Dr. Pierce is here to debate Dr. Frank Burns, the Democratic nominee for President.

Dr. Burns and Dr. Pierce served together in the same unit in Korea but while Dr. Burns returned home to a successful practice and political career - Dr. Pierce suffered a mental breakdown and is now making a living as an author attacking the beloved Frank Burns and his politics reportedly at the behest of the Republican Party.

Let me ask you gentlemen about these questions. But let's start with the central notion that a lot of us have of Frank Burns. Whatever you think of his politics, he was a war hero. Is that true?

DR. BENJAMIN "HAWKEYE" PIERCE, M*A*S*H DOCTOR VETERANS FOR TRUTH: That's not true at all.

MATTHEWS: Why isn't it true?

PIERCE: Well first off he fabricated the citation for his Purple Heart, I think conclusively, based on the documentation in my book.

MATTHEWS: But according to the Army - Dr. Burns received the medal for getting a shell fragment in his eye as the result of an enemy attack on your hospital unit. Are you saying the Army is wrong and you are right?

PIERCE: It was an egg shell fragment. Frank was having breakfast at the time of the attack. Frank put himself up for the medal. The medal is a fraud. Tell him Frank.

The First Oil-For-Food Charges

While we're all still waiting for the UN to seriously invstigate its own corruption in the Oil-For-Food scandal, criminal charges have been announced against two crooked banks.

The Treasury Department dubbed the banks "primary money laundering concerns" for their failure to combat problems with the oil-for-food scheme.

Stuart Levey, Treasury undersecretary, said: "Today's designation alerts the global financial community of the threat posed by these entities. It also serves notice to others that there will be significant consequences for institutions that launder tainted money or engage in similar corruption: we will cut you off from the US financial system."

The US claims Infobank was central to Saddam Hussein's scheme to divert more than $10 billion from the oil-for-food deal to the Iraq government. It is not claiming that either bank was directly aware of the plot to deceive the UN, however.

What Liberal Media?

About two-thirds of the way through a New York Times article about the unnecessary resignation of Benjamin Ginsburg from the Bush campaign, the Times squeakily mentions that the Kerry campaign's ties to 527 groups is far more extensive.

The Republicans, in an e-mail message to reporters, listed several Democrats who they said showed connections between Democratic 527 groups, Mr. Kerry's campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Among them were Zack Exley, the former organizing director for MoveOn.org's political action committee who now works for Mr. Kerry's campaign; Jim Jordan, the former campaign manager for Mr. Kerry who now works as a consultant for the liberal groups America Coming Together and the Media Fund; and Joe Sandler, who is a lawyer for both the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org.

But of course, the Times can't be bothered with investigating Democratic coordination.

Then the Times has this remarkable retort from Democrats:

Democrats said all of their activities were legal and that the groups are not leveling similarly personal and unsubstantiated charges against the president.

What? Unsubstantiated? John Kerry has had to admit that he lied about his secret mission to Cambodia. John Kerry has had to admit that, unlike his original version of the story, his was the only boat that fled the scene after another boat in his patrol hit a mine. John Kerry claims that, after returning to the scene, all boats were under heavy fire. But none of the thin skinned boats suffered so much as a bullet hole. John Kerry has admitted that he earned his silver star by shoot a wounded, fleeing Vietnamese in the back. John Kerry has admitted that at least one of his "wounds" was unintentionally self inflicted. It sounds to me that the Swift Boat Veterans charges are not just substantiated, but are substantiated by John Kerry himself.

What Happened The Last Time Kerry Got His Way

By resurrecting Vietnam as a campaign issue, Kerry didn't just bring his own conduct in that theater under the lights, he stirred up lots of old memories. And, it's worth noting that Kerry did not recently come to be on the wrong side of history.

In the decade following our ignominious withdrawal, communists would fertilize Cambodia's rice fields with the bones of millions of human skeletons. Of the millions desperately fleeing the daily terrors of communist rule, countless thousands would perish in the Gulf of Thailand or the South China Sea when their pathetically rickety boats capsized under their own weight. If those millions of deaths weren't enough to convince you that fighting communism in Southeast Asia was a truly righteous cause, then mere words could never persuade you.

Links

Yes there are links between 527 advocacy groups and presidential campaigns. They form quite a web within the Kerry campaign.

Jim Jordan, Mr. Kerry's former campaign manager, is the chief spokesman for both the Media Fund and American Coming Together (ACT), two pro-Kerry 527s that have a combined total receipt of $54.1 million. Moreover, the Media Fund is run by Harold Ickes, former Clinton deputy chief of staff, who also sits on the Democratic National Committee's executive board and was in attendance at the Democratic Convention last month. ACT's CEO, Steve Rosenthal, spent three years in the Clinton administration as an associate deputy secretary of the Department of Labor and before that was deputy political director for the DNC. And, finally, Sam Kaplan, an honorary co-chairman of the Minnesota branch of the Kerry-Edwards campaign, is a fund-raiser for ACT.
What does any of this prove? Just this: If the Kerry campaign would like to make an issue of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's "connections" to the Bush campaign, perhaps they should reconsider their own ranks.


John Ashcroft should take John Kerry's demand for an investigation of such links seriously, and investigate both campaigns.

Tough Guy Matthews

Ann Coulter dissects Chris Matthews rude treatment of conservative guests, especially women.

Let's review the transcript!

Total words by book author John O'Neill: approximately 1,150. (Complete sentences devoid of Matthews interruptions: about 2.)

Total words by paid Kerry flack Hurley: approximately 950.

Total words by Matthews, excluding host prattle ("Welcome back to 'Hardball'!"): approximately 2,290.

At least Matthews didn't physically throw O'Neill off his set as he did Michelle Malkin a few nights later while she tried in vain to discuss her new book. The lion-hearted Matthews reserves that level of rudeness only for girls. (Now that I think about it, compared to the average Democrat male, maybe John Kerry IS manly.)

Selective Scrutiny

Kerry's real band of brothers, the mainstream press, has kept the Swift Boat Vets under the microscope for weeks now. But, leftist advocacy groups have been operating longer, spending far more money, and have been genuinely venemous. So why haven't they suffered scrutiny?

According to a Lexis-Nexis search, major U.S. newspapers, magazines and television networks filed nearly 400 stories in the past 10 days about the anti-Kerry ads put forward by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Meanwhile,

Research by The Washington Times revealed only 34 stories this month that mentioned the liberal 527 group MoveOn.org, which has been attacking Mr. Bush on television and the Internet since the spring, posting on its Web site an ad that compared the president to Adolf Hitler.
Of those 34 stories, 27 concerned MoveOn.org's new ad countering the Swift Boat veterans and accusing Mr. Bush of shirking his duty in the National Guard during the Vietnam War -- a charge that the White House refuted by releasing his military records and noting his honorable discharge.

The New Soldier, Online

The book that John Kerry has been trying to suppress even more vigorously than "Unfit for Command" is his own book, The New Soldier.

He's been fairly sucessful, but now there's an online version. Plus, I've added it to my links.

Love Fest, From The Ever Vigilant And Unbiased Media

Do you think any of these people will say anthing like this at the Republican convention?

I was standing next to the young speechwriter who worked with Kerry on this speech. . . . The look on his face: rhapsody throughout. I don't know how this was perceived at home. But here in the Massachusetts delegation, where I was standing, it was perceived very well.
- ABC's Dan Harris, following John Kerry's speech to the Democratic convention.

People who served with him in Vietnam said, You can't believe what he's like in battle. He just changes. He gets this look over him. And when I saw him walking down the aisle tonight on the way into the speech, I said, `Oh yeah, there's that look.' And I just knew at that point that he's going to nail this, and he did. I have never seen the man speak so well.
- Time magazine's Joe Klein on CNN.

Much more here.

John Kerry working himself literally into a sweat. Or as my high school English teacher would prefer, into a high state of perspiration. An almost literal thunder inside the hall, shaking the Fleet Center in a way that it seldom shakes, if ever, even during a Celtics basketball playoff game or a Bruins hockey playoff game. These Democrats, as the speech built, having what amounted to maybe a three-thousand-gallon attack about every three minutes, united in a way the Democratic Party has not been for about half a century.
- CBS anchor Dan Rather.

For those who doubted John Kerry could pull off a stirring speech, doubts dispelled. For those who doubted John Kerry could unite a traditionally fractious party, doubts dispelled.
- ABC's Charles Gibson on ``Good Morning America.''

The personality that Edwards exudes when he comes to these events is something that's pretty infectious with these delegates. And I talked to one delegate yesterday who says, `You know, I'm coming to like John Kerry, but I haven't yet fallen in love with him. But I will tell you this, I have fallen in love with John Edwards.' It's obvious the charisma out there gets to everybody here in the Fleet Center.
- CBS's John Roberts, after John Edwards finished his convention speech.

People talk about John Edwards being the sexiest politician in America. I think Teresa Heinz may be the sexiest spouse of a national candidate in my memory. She comes across pretty strong, soulful, tender even, in a way. So I think she had an effective performance.
- Wall Street Journal reporter John Harwood on CNN.

What? There Are Democratic Independent Advocacy Groups?

The New York Times has suddenly discovered that Democrats have their own independent advocacy groups. After pretending for a couple of weeks that the Swift Boat Vets were the only rogues in town, the Times has not that there is another conservative group that has raised money to counter similar leftist 527's.

The organization, the Progress for America Voter Fund, is the first Republican group to announce that it had raised a substantial amount of money to compete with Democratic-leaning groups that have collected tens of millions of dollars to attack the Bush-Cheney campaign on television.

And then, all the way down, at the bottom of the article, we learn that the Democrats have raised and spent a whole lot more money than Republicans.

Groups that support Democrats are continuing to raise money for advertisements that attack Mr. Bush. Democrats embraced fund-raising through the 527 committees last year and, in contrast to the Republicans, never wavered while the election commission was weighing whether to restrict the committees.

The organizations have drawn on a list of well-known Democrats to lead them. Harold M. Ickes, former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton, runs the Media Fund. Steve Rosenthal, former political director for the A.F.L.-C.I.O., is in charge of the ground operation for ACT. And Ellen Malcolm, who runs Emily's List, the largest political action committee in the country, raises money for both organizations.

Together, ACT, the Media Fund and another committee that raises money for both gathered almost $62 million through June, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks campaign finance. The groups also have pledges from others, and Mr. Ickes said the total was closer to twice that.

Mr. Ickes said the money raised by the Progress for America Voter Fund is enough to mount a credible campaign in battleground states, depending on the types of advertisements and their schedule. He said Democrats would hold their own.

Were You Or Were You Not In Cambodia?

John Kerry's first interview didn't go terribly well. He couldn't even take Jon Stewart's "heat."

As Kerry launched into one of his lengthy monologues about why President Bush avoids talking about issues like the economy, jobs and the environment, the comedian interrupted.

"I'm sorry," Stewart said. "Were you or were you not in Cambodia?"

Stewart and Kerry then lean in and stare each other down over the comedian's desk before Stewart asks about some of the other things Kerry's opponents are saying about him.

Tell Me Again - Who's Lying Now?

John Kerry's claim that he was wounded in combat on December 2, 1968 is contradicted by his own diary.

A journal entry Mr. Kerry wrote Dec. 11, however, raises questions about what really happened nine days earlier.
"A cocky feeling of invincibility accompanied us up the Long Tau shipping channel because we hadn't been shot at yet, and Americans at war who haven't been shot at are allowed to be cocky," wrote Mr. Kerry, according the book "Tour of Duty" by friendly biographer Douglas Brinkley.

Let's see now, how many times has Kerry been caught lying?

John Kerry was not in Cambodia on a "secret mission," even though he claimed that the experience was "seared, seared" into his memory.
He still claims that he and his boat was under heavy fire during the subsequent rescue, even though none of the boats received so much as a bullet hole.
After claiming otherwise, he has now had to admit that his was the only boat the fled the scene when one of the boats he was on patrol with struck a mine.

The Truth Only Cuts One Way

The Washington Post has sunk right to the bottom of the political analysis barrel by speculating upon who will suffer most from the Swift Boat Veterans affair. The truth will decide that, if the Post would ever search for it.

Gee, Ya Think?

Russians suspect terrorism in the simultaneous crashes of two jet liners.

Mr. Kerry, Halt These Smears

Give credit where credit is due. One candidate is indeed smearing the service record of the other candidate. And candidate doing the smearing is John Kerry.

Bush Has Said He Used No Special Treatment To Get Into The Guard. How Does He Explain The Fact That He Jumped Ahead Of 150 Applicants Despite Low Pilot Aptitude Scores?

Col. Albert Lloyd Said A Report From Alabama To Ellington Should Have Been Filed. Where Is That Report?

Why Did Bush Miss His Medical Exam In 1972?

Where Are The Complete Results Of The Required Investigation Into Bush’s Absence From The Exam?

Why Did Bush Specifically Request To NOT Be Sent Overseas For Duty?

Why Does The White House Say Bush Was On Base When Bush’s Superiors Had Filed A Report Saying He Was Gone For A Whole Year?

Why Is The Pentagon Under Orders To Not Discuss Bush’s Record With Reporters?

Where Are Bush’s Flight Logs?

Why Hasn’t Bush Himself Demonstrated That He Showed Up For Service in Alabama?

Howie Kurtz Get It Right!

In today's Washington Post of all places, it is noted that the press and the Democrats are partners in hypocrisy.

There is, however, a tinge of hypocrisy in the media demands that Bush blast away at the swift boat vets to show they're not his puppets. Kerry also has plenty of ties to the liberal organizations that have been spending tens of millions on anti-Bush ads, some of them quite harsh, and I haven't read too many pieces saying he needs to disassociate himself from these outfits.

An Interviewer John Kerry Doesn't Fear

Since the Swift Boat Vet advertisements hit the air, John Kerry has avoided questions, choosing to hide behind surrogates - until today.
John Kerry sat down for a brief interview, with Jon Stewart, of the Daily Show - a comidian, who hosts a fake news show.

[Y]ou have to wonder why Kerry's camp chose Stewart's show for his TV interview as opposed to, you know, an actual news show -- not that there's anything wrong with that. So we asked Kerry's campaign:

"Jon Stewart understands perfectly all the important issues facing this country right now," a Kerry spokeswoman snapped at The TV Column late yesterday, after engaging in a couple of rounds of the Answer-the-Question-With-a-Question Game.

I was a hero, but I was surrounded by war criminals."

Mackubin Thomas Owens has a nice summation of John Kerry. In 1971 Kerry accused his fellow soldiers of atrocities. He now glorifies himself as a sparkling war hero.

As a correspondent pointed out to me in an e-mail, each episode of the HBO series Band of Brothers, begins with a voiceover in which the narrator says of the World War II soldiers portrayed in the program: "I was not a hero, but I was surrounded by heroes." In contrast, what John Kerry is saying in essence about his "band of brothers" is that "in Vietnam, I was a hero, but I was surrounded by war criminals."

Oh, THAT Liberal Media

I keep wondering. When President Bush mentioned Iraqi liberation in his campaign advertisements, the press immediately ran to the Iraqi soccer team to ask if they approved.

John Kerry has been using John McCain in his campaign advertisements. And the press has not asked if he approves.

Be Careful What You Ask For

John Kerry started the fight. Now he's crying for the teacher to save him.

The issue here, as I have heard it raised, is was he present and active on duty in Alabama at the times he was supposed to be. . . . Just because you get an honorable discharge does not in fact answer that question.

--John Kerry, questioning President Bush's
military-service record, February 8, 2004.

Another Foreign Leader for Kerry

Kim Jong Il of North Korea called George W. Bush an "imbicile" and "a tyrant that puts Hitler into the shade" - languge earily similar to that used by the Democratic Party and their affiliated 527 organizations.

The Real Dream Teams.

I'd rather watch women's softball anyway. Or, women's beach volleyball. The competitors are more enthusiastic and less egotistical.

Still The Dream Team

In Angola anyway.

Stem Cell Bullshit

If only George W. Bush were not so resrictive on stem cell research, then Ronald Reagan would be alive today. Or so goes the story. Nevermind that Democrats are glad he's dead and only regret that he hadn't been aborted in the womb. Reagan has become a symbol for the Democrats, so much so that they had his unintelligably inarticulate son speak at their convention.

But, to the best of my knowledge, Bush can only influence stem cell research in this country and can only restrict federal funding. If stem cells could do what liberals claim, then wouldn't the French or the Germans, or the big drug companies have done something?

Overlooking all this, the Washington Post has published another dreary column promoting embryonic stem cell research, ridiculing the notion that a "clump of cells" deserves consideration as a human being.

You know, Joseph Mengele generated a great body of potentially useful body scientific information by conducting experiments on Jews in concentration camps. But, the scientific community decided that the information was soiled by the method of its discovery and chose to bury it. If only we were as principled today.

Now This Is Real Chutzpah

Perhaps the most remarkable element of the Kerry campaign's whiney response to the Swiftboat advertisements is its hypocrisy. The Swiftboat Veterans has raised about a million dollar. Similar Democratic groups have spent over $60 million. And, there are all those Bush-bashing books and the movie Fahrenheit 911. Michael Moore sat in the VIP box during the Democratic National Convention. The chairman of the Democratic Naitonal Committee called Bush AWOL during the Vietnam War.

In all, well over $100 million has been spent by group openly allied with the Kerry campaign attacking President Bush. I'm not just saying that they're allied, you can find links to these groups at the DNC website. They actually boast about the connections. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll find. this: "The Democratic Party is partnering with MoveOn.org, People for the American Way, Campaign for America's Future, and dozens of other groups representing millions of Americans to organize a massive public mobilization. On Wednesday, May 14, join us by calling and emailing your representatives in Congress to let them know that the majority of Americans oppose more irresponsible tax cuts that go overwhelmingly to the wealthiest sliver of Americans."

And, although much has been made of the appearance of an unpaid Bush volunteer in a Swiftboat ad, nothing has been made of the Kerry campaign's many connection with leftist 527 groups.

And not at all remarkably, not one big shot media outlet has asked Kerry to renounce these groups, or the wackos who underwrite them.

Kerry Did Shoot The Kid In The Back

My source is John Kerry, here in this Boston Globe story.

"This guy could have dispatched us in a second, but for ... I'll never be able to explain, we were literally face to face, he with his B-40 rocket and us in our boat, and he didn't pull the trigger. I would not be here today talking to you if he had," Kerry recalled. "And Tommy clipped him, and he started going [down.] I thought it was over."

Instead, the guerrilla got up and started running. "We've got to get him, make sure he doesn't get behind the hut, and then we're in trouble," Kerry recalled.

So Kerry shot and killed the guerrilla. "I don't have a second's question about that, nor does anybody who was with me," he said. "He was running away with a live B-40, and, I thought, poised to turn around and fire it." Asked whether that meant Kerry shot the guerrilla in the back, Kerry said, "No, absolutely not. He was hurt, other guys were shooting from back, side, back. There is no, there is not a scintilla of question in any person's mind who was there [that] this guy was dangerous, he was a combatant, he had an armed weapon."

Notice how Kerry evades the question, but clearly he did shoot the VC in the back. He only says that the description that the VC was fleeing did not necessarily mean that Kerry shot him in the back.

Interestingly, John O'Neil, author of "Unfit for Duty," has not criticized Kerry for shooting the VC in the back, but does doubt that the event warranted a silver star.

So, the big news of the day is that a Chicago Tribune editor who was also at the fight in question weighs in on Kerry's side, without really adding new details.

Kerry Worship

Not just Vietnam, every bit of John Kerry's life is open for scrutiny because he promotes himself as the emobodiment of perfection.

Just look at his website, JohnKerry.com. Why, he’s squeaky clean; he’s a truth telling war hero and good guy, with an impeccable public record who should replace that terrible rascal George W. Bush. Kerry, according to the Dems, is the savior of these United States.

A Republican Front Group?

Hmmm. It seems that one of the veterans featured in the latest Swiftboat Veterans ad was a prominent supporter of Mark Warner, a Democrat, in the recent Virginia governor's race.

Will the New York Times notice?

Stabbed In The Back

John Kerry has a lot of nerve trying to deny the men he slandered the right to reply to his smears. They're still bitter about what he said about them. They have a right to be.

William Ferris was confined to a bed in a military hospital, his severed sciatic nerve reminding him of the attack on his Navy Swift boat in a Vietnamese river. A shot from a recoilless rifle had pierced the boat's pilothouse and then Ferris's body, leaving him in constant agony.

But it was what appeared on Ferris's television that really pained him. John F. Kerry, a decorated fellow Swift boat driver, was testifying before Congress about atrocities in Vietnam, throwing his medals away, speaking at antiwar rallies. Ferris, who was trying to rehabilitate himself back to active duty, felt betrayed.

"I was livid," Ferris, 57, of Long Island, N.Y., said yesterday, recalling how his dislike for the presidential candidate began in the early 1970s. "I said to myself at the time, this is someone who is using his experience for his own purposes, and this was long before he ever ran for office. I thought he was using, actually manipulating, what he had done in Vietnam. Just like he's doing now."

Note that this man suffered a bit more than a fingernail scratch. And, he was trying to get himself back into the action, not back to the states.

Awarding Medals

Guess what? Those who award Olympic medals are just as fallible as those who award bronze stars.

No One Has Accused Him of Lying About This One

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has scrounged up a veteran who confirms John Kerry received an actual booboo in Vietnam.

"Lt. Kerry said, 'I'm going to pop a flare, and when I do, I want that engine started,' " Runyon said. But the outboard would not crank. Meanwhile, the sampan's crew steered it to the riverbank, and people started running on the shore. Runyon said shooting broke out.

Somehow, Kerry's weapon stopped firing. Runyon thinks he ran out of ammunition. He said Kerry bent down to pick up another gun and got hit in the arm.

But, the Swiftboat Vets have not challenged Kerry's story about that wound.

As I Recall, This Is Exactly What Happened

Tom Brokaw is angry that presidential debate organizers have decided not to have big shot television news anchormen as moderators, fearing that they would try to take over the show. According to Brokaw, the snub, "leaves the undeniable impression that you believe if we were moderators, we'd be preening, egocentric performers," the anchor wrote in a scorching letter to Brown. "I deeply resent that implication."

Well, that's precisely what does happen. Recall the recent Democratic debates when Peter Jennings' questions were occasionally longer than the candidates' responses.

Banned In Boston

First, the Kerry campaign tried to intimidate television stations into not running the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth Ad. Now, they're trying to ban the book.

Who Has More Moral Authority to Challenge Kerry?

If anybody has the moral right to question John Kerry’s war record, it would be the Vietnam veterans whose war record was besmirched by John Kerry. That narrows the field to all of them. An organization of slandered veterans who have elected to confront Kerry calls themselves the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth. And they have launched an independent anti-Kerry campaign refuting much of the self-congratulatory combat autobiography that Kerry claims qualifies him to be president. How dare they? I say, how dare anybody ignore them?
They have the right to speak out because the United States Constitution gives them that right. But, they also deserve the right to be listened to, because their own service was besmirched by John Kerry. Kerry now claims that his valor is above reexamination. But he never hesitated to throw mud on the service of those who also fought with distinction in that same war.
Like many others of that era, John Kerry returned from Vietnam an embittered man. There is nothing wrong with that. He should have been bitter. Lyndon Johnson fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin incident as a pretext for launching a full-scale war against North Vietnam and communist South Vietnamese guerillas. Johnson then hobbled the military and made victory impossible. By the hundreds of thousands, young Americans were asked to kill and be killed, but were not allowed to succeed.
When Kerry got back, he lashed out, not just at the politicians who sent him there, but, at his fellow servicemen by calling them all war criminals. On April 22, 1971, before the United States Senate, John Kerry accused his fellow veterans of war crimes. He claimed that they had “raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and particular ravaging that is done by the applied bombing of this country.”
It seems that, at the very least, those who were slandered by John Kerry should be permitted to call him a liar without themselves being savaged.
For the most part, the mainstream press has ignored veterans who have come forth to tell a story that contradicts Kerry’s, and have chosen instead to devote their full attention to veterans handpicked by Kerry to extol his virtues.
The press has dutifully reported every tale that Kerry has chosen to tell about himself. But, they have largely ignored the fact that the Swift Boat Veterans have already forced Kerry to admit that two of his favorite stories about himself were apocryphal at best. John Kerry was not in Cambodia on a secret mission as he claimed that he was, and John Kerry was the only boat commander who fled the scene after one of the swift boats he was patrolling with struck a mine. Kerry has always maintained that all boats fled, and that it was he who returned to rescue crewmen and Marines from the disabled boat. He now admits that only he ran. Does that matter to anyone? It should, according to Kerry’s own standards.
These two critical historical revisions from John Kerry should inspire a little skeptical inquiry by the press regarding the remainder of Kerry’s tales. But so far, it is only the Swift Boat Veterans who are experiencing media examination. Rather than examine the man who would be president, the press prefers to circle the wagons around him.
And it’s not out of respect for his status as a veteran. They sure didn’t protect the first president Bush from Democrats who accused him of cowardice for failing to rescue his crewman when their plane was shot down by the Japanese over the Pacific Ocean.
As yet, the worst that the press has managed to learn about the Swift Boat Veterans is that Republicans have contributed a couple of hundred thousand dollars to their cause. How shocking! What are the chances that those who have donated tens of millions to anti-Bush organizations like Moveon.org were Democrats?
And so far, the Swift Boat Veterans have a better record of telling the truth than John Kerry does.

Nature Imitating Life

A black bear knows what he likes - Rainier Beer. A black bear in Washington learned to break into campers' ice chest and steal beer, but only Ranier beer.

"He drank the Rainier and wouldn't drink the Busch beer," said Lisa Broxson, bookkeeper at the campground and cabins resort east of Mount Baker.

And, he was darned good at it. So good, in fact, he overdid it somewhat.

When state Fish and Wildlife agents recently found a black bear passed out on the lawn of Baker Lake Resort, there were some clues scattered nearby - dozens of empty cans of Rainier Beer.

They were only able to trap the bear after baiting the trap with Raineer beer.

Agents then used a large, humane trap to capture it for relocation, baiting the trap with the usual: doughnuts, honey and, in this case, two open cans of Rainier. That did the trick.

New York Times Versus The First Amendment

At last, the New York Times has come out of the closet. As most of of already knew, the proponents of "campaign finance reform" were really against free speech. Now, the New York Times comes right out and says it, demanding that the FEC shut such groups up.

A Parade Of Free Athletes

Does John Kerry approve of all that freedom on display?

Daniel Henninger counts all the countries and athletes that marched in the Olympic Opening Ceremonies as free people, thanks to American unilateralism.

Mr. Kerry draws attention to his vote against "Ronald Reagan's illegal war in Central America." But the athletes who strode into the opening ceremony from Nicaragua, representing a constitutional democracy, looked happy with the result of the Reagan intervention, which thwarted both a dictatorship and a Soviet beachhead in Central America.

Afghanistan's flagbearer was Nina Suratger. Is she displeased that the United States twice involved itself in her formerly godforsaken country--during its war with the Soviet Union and more recently to drive out the Taliban? Ms. Suratger herself wouldn't be carrying that flag had not Americans fought to liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban.

Who's The Liar?

John Effing Kerry is accusing the Swiftboat Veterans For Truth of lying about his record in Vietnam.

"They're a front for the Bush campaign, and the fact that the president won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything you need to know," the Massachusetts senator said. "He wants them to do his dirty work."

Well, he has already been forced to revise and extend a couple of his tales of heroism to conform the their version.
He did not spend Christmas on a secret mission to Cambodia, as he had claimed, and his was the only boat that turned and ran during the incident in which he "earned" a purple heart.

Tell me again. Who's lying?

Gray Ladyism Spreads North

The Boston Globe stands by its largely discredited story about a swift boat veteran taking back his criticism of John Kerry.

Globe Editor Martin Baron released a statement saying "the Globe stands by the article. The quotes attributed to Mr. Elliott were on the record and absolutely accurate."

The man in question, George Elliot stands by his assertion that the Globe story was inaccurate.

"Captain George Elliott describes an article appearing in today’s edition of the Boston Globe by Mike Kranish as extremely inaccurate and highly misstating his actual views. He reaffirms his statement in the current advertisement paid for by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Captain Elliott reaffirms his affidavit in support of that advertisement, and he reaffirms his request that the ad be played.

“Additional documentation will follow. The article by Mr. Kranish is particularly surprising given page 102 of Mr. Kranish’s own book quoting John Kerry as acknowledging that he killed a single, wounded, fleeing Viet Cong soldier whom he was afraid would turn around.

“Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has more than 250 supporters who are revealing first hand, eyewitness accounts of numerous incidents concerning John Kerry’s military service record. The organization will continue to discuss much of what John Kerry has reported as fact concerning his four-month tour of duty in Vietnam.”


To tell you the truth, I'm a little surprised that the Globe even acknowledged that it had been accused of liberal bias and dishonesty.

A Man Of Conscience Leaves The Asses

The Democrats complain about timing a lot. The capture of a top Al Qaida operative was timed to coincide with their convention. The annoucement of a hightened alert was timed to take the steam out of Kerry's convention bounce (hee heee).

But this is a real trick of timing. A Democratic congressman timed his switch to the Republican party to prevent any Democratic challenger from getting on the ballot.

The Democratic challenger calls herself a "domestic engineer."

Yuk, yuk!

Vacation

Okay, if Andrew Sullivan can take a vacation, so can I. I'll be spending about two weeks on the Oregon coast and will only have computer access when I get to the libary to check e-mails and such. So, there won't be much in my corner of the blogosphere for a while.

I'm Sure Howard Dean Is Very Suspicious About The Timing

Once again, the Bush Administration has released news clearly timed to undermine the Kerry campaign. This time, it's about a huge victory of a fat rebel cleric in Iraq.

More than 1,200 militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr surrendered following fierce clashes with US and Iraqi forces in Najaf, the police general directorate said.

"Over 1,200 criminals have surrendered to Iraqi forces," it said in a statement, adding that the holy city of Najaf had been "secured."

I'll Bet France Would Take Him

Bobby Fischer renounces his American citizenship. Good riddance.

Allah's Gonna Run Out of Virgins

The fat Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr exhorted his troops to revolution yesterday. He has 300 fewer today.

Coalition forces battled militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in several Iraqi cities Friday, saying they killed about 300 militants in Najaf over two days of fighting. Battles in other Shiite areas of the country have killed dozens more, according to Iraqi authorities.

This Is News?

Well duh! People who donated money to put that anti-Kerry ad on the air are Republican. I'm one of them.

And who do you suppose has paid all those tens of millions of dollars to underwrite anti-Bush ads?

Of course, if you read all the way to the very bottom of the CNN "investigative report" you'll read that "Perry's support for the veterans group comes as Republicans search for major donors to help counter the efforts of wealthy Democrats such as George Soros and Peter Lewis. Each has given more than $12 million to anti-Bush groups running ads and get-out-the-vote efforts."

What liberal media?

Aren't The French Smarter?

The New York Times, without coming right out and saying so, seems to be admitting that Howard Dean is indeed full of shit, just as Joe Lieberman said he was, and that last week's terror alert was not political theater after all.

But, the French don't worry about terror. Shouldn't we emulate them?

In a measure of how little the latest alerts raised concern in Europe, the European Union's counterterrorism director, Gijs de Vries, remained on vacation.

What About Protecting America?

John Kerry declared that he would "respond" to any terrorist attack on America. But, the 9/11 commission argued for preemption.

"Once the danger has fully materialized, evident to all, mobilizing action is easier--but then it may be too late," the report says. Those last words are the new conventional wisdom: Waiting is deadly.

Gee, doesn't that sound a lot like Bush's argument for invading Iraq?

Did You Know That John Kerry Was A Vietnam Veteran?

Maybe the reason that Kerry's convention klunked was that all he did was boast of being a Vietnam veteran. And everyone already knew that.

Charles Krauthammer takes a deeper look.

The problem is that the association of fitness for the presidency with military experience does not withstand five minutes of reflection. If that were the case, Lincoln would have failed as commander in chief in the Civil War, and FDR would have failed as commander in chief in World War II. By that logic, Ulysses S. Grant should have been -- as Douglas MacArthur would have been -- a great president.

And, for that matter, Bob Dole. The most cynical moment of the four days was provided, naturally, by Bill Clinton, who reproached himself for having sat out the Vietnam War, a smug self-congratulatory way of attacking Bush and Cheney for sharing his dishonor. It was sheer Clintonian shamelessness. After all, in the 1992 campaign, he adamantly denied that he dodged the draft. And according to what Clinton says now about the centrality of military service, the 1996 election should have logically and honorably gone to Bob Dole, the Max Cleland of his time.

Howard Dean Is Not In His Right Mind

Joe Lieberman says so.

Thank Your John McCain

The typical Democratic contempt for the law is on display.

August has brought a spate of what seemed to be Kerry advertisements every day. To a voter's eye, the senator's campaign marches on seamlessly - and usually on message. And the campaign is not a penny poorer for it.

The advertisements introduced this week were not paid for by Mr. Kerry's campaign, but from a newly formed arm of the Democratic Party, which is running a $6.5 million advertising campaign in Missouri and 19 others this week, and The Media Fund, which is running a $2.5 million campaign in five swing states, and the New Democratic Network, which is spending $500,000 on Spanish-language commercials in 11 cities. The advertisements from the campaign and the party are in many ways similar, emphasizing words like "win,'' "strength" and "alliances."

For the second time this campaign season outside groups that are not legally allowed to coordinate with Mr. Kerry's campaign are riding to its rescue at a crucial time in its advertising campaign against President Bush - the most expensive on record. The spots hit just when Mr. Kerry ceased advertising and when Mr. Bush increased his with commercials reminding the nation of what it has been through, the dangers that lie ahead and, in one released Tuesday, declaring it is "rising to the challenge.''


I laughed when I read that McCain-Feingold would impact Democrats more than Republicans. Such anaylysis assumed that Democrats would observe the law.

A Nixonian Kerry

The Washington Post dissects Kerry's acceptance speech looking for an Iraq policy, and finds nothing.

Return Of The Living Dead, Again

Ann Coulter, (banned by USA Today) is amazed at how the Clinton scandal machine manages to stay alive, 3 and a half years after clinton left office.

And, she marvels at the New York Times attempts to minimize the story.

Someday we'll be reading about Clinton officials causing incidents in nursing homes. (Which Clinton administration official do you imagine that might involve?)

Meanwhile, the front-page story on the scandal itself – well, actually, that didn't make the front page. That story was demurely reported on page A-16 of the Times.

The Times' defense brief for Berger consisted of the information that Berger's friends say Berger would never do anything to harm his country. It's always good to hear Democrats assure us that one of them isn't a traitor. With the Democrats, you need constant assurances we're not dealing with another Alger Hiss. David Gergen, the Tariq Aziz for the Democrats, says the incident is "more innocent than it looks." Well, it sure couldn't be any less innocent than it looks.

Larry Elder, House Negro

Liberals can't be racist - right?

Larry Elder had a remarkable experience with Janeane Garogalo on the left wing Air America radio network. It seems that he didn't fit into liberalism's prejudices about how a good negro should behave.

At the Democratic National Convention, Janeane Garofalo -- comedienne, talk show host and liberal pundit -- called me a "house Negro" and a "fascist." Well!

For four days, the Democratic Party put on its quadrennial scare-old-people-and-minorities party. Democrats, of course, rely on the 90-plus percent monolithic black vote. Thus, a black "non-liberal" poses a direct threat to the party's national prospects. When Garofalo agreed to a sit-down, she clearly knew nothing about me. When I defended the administration on the War on Terror, a frustrated Garofalo started to get up and leave, muttering, "This show sucks."
After I called her a coward, however, she sat back down and finished the segment.

After our interview, Garofalo began broadcasting her radio show on "Air America." Several of my callers -- I was still on the air at the time -- said that Garofalo called me a "house Negro" and a "fascist." Then something interesting happened. Garofalo's people asked me to appear on her show. Would I agree?

I promptly said yes, after which I was informed that, no, they really had no time for an interview. What? After all, they asked me to appear, and when I promptly accepted, Garofalo's people suddenly decided they could not fit me into their schedule! Here's my speculation: Garofalo assumed that I feared appearing on her show. She extended an invitation in hopes that I would refuse. She then would go on the air, call me a coward and accuse me of fear in the face of hostility. Well, I called her bluff, and somebody backed down.

Hear No Evil, See No Evil

Thanks to civil libertarians, we are now less vigilant than we were before the September 11, 2001 attacks.

[T]he Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or Capps II, sought to make sure that air passengers are flying under their own identity and are not wanted as a terror suspect. It would have asked passengers to provide four pieces of information--name, address, phone number and birth date--when they make their reservation. That information would've been run against commercial records, to see if it matches up, then checked against government intelligence files to determine whether a passenger has possible terror connections. Depending on the outcome of those two checks, a passenger could have been screened more closely at the airport, or perhaps--if government intelligence on him raised alarms--not allowed to board.

It Matters That Much

Peggy Noonan is coming out of retirement. Well, she's coming out of one retirement anyway. She's making a brief return to partisan politics. And that's good for the country - and for that matter, the course of history.

Peggy Noonan hasn't always been a brilliant contributing editor to the Wall Street Journal or a best selling author. She was once the best speech writer in the land, serving former presidents Reagan and Bush.

She believes that the country needs another four more years of George Bush and absolutely does not need one minute of President John Kerry. This is a perilous time. And it calls for resolution. John Kerry is actually proud of his lack of resolve.

So, Peggy Noonan is taking a leave of absence from the Wall Street Journal to quietly save the world from weakness. God bless her.

Will The Times And The Post Take It Back?

After essentially accusing the Bush administration of cooking up a terrorist alert for political purposes, we now learn that, in fact, the alert was based upon fresh intelligence that a message had been passed to an Al Qaida operative in this country.

No details yet. Just a blurb on CNN.com

Oh, THAT Liberal Media

The mainstream press might not yet be willing to admit that they're biased in favor of Democrats, Evan Thomas excluded, but the Democratic Party knows who they've been keeping in their pockets all these years.

They Report, We Intimidate

The Boston Democratic convention featured a rich side menu of interesting seminars. One of the most controversial was a workshop for new Democratic campaign press secretaries that sounded like a call to arms in its advice on how to deal with the new media universe.

Lecturers urged press secretaries to confront what one warned was "media that are no longer tilted in your direction." Bullying was openly encouraged. "When it comes to the media," suggested Democratic strategist James Carville, "intimidation works." "Challenge them," added David Brock of Media Matters, a new liberal group set up to criticize conservative media outlets. Democrats used to rail at the likes of Reed Irvine and his conservative group Accuracy in Media, accusing them of nitpicking at media stories and ginning up public complaints against them. No more. It will be interesting to see what, if any, "intimidation" success stories the Democrats will be touting in coming months.

--John Fund

Good News From Iraq

Jeff Jacoby looks past the haze of smoke and finds that yes, progress is being made in Iraq.

The number of weddings in Iraq has soared since the fall of Saddam. "The people I see are not affected by insecurity -- I've had a 75 percent increase," a Baghdad marriage judge told the Christian Science Monitor. "Young people are wishing for a better life, so they come to me and get married." The going rate for a dowry -- paid, in Iraq, by the groom's family -- is down sharply since the war. "Today, the girls' parents aren't asking for as much," the judge explained, "which tells us that their families don't want any barriers to marriage." Sure, people marry for all kinds of reasons. But it's hard not to see the wedding boom as anything but an Iraqi vote of confidence in the future.

Let's Get Dirty

Theresa Heinz-Kerry is full of it. And besides, it only took her a few seconds to descend from her high horse and tell a reporter to "shove it" anyway.
The truth is that "clean," positive campaigns are boring. And, they're less honest anyway.

Terry McAwful Strikes Again

Terry McAwful would like to peel away Christians from the Democratic party. So what does he do? He employs a woman who tried to remove "under God" from the pledge of allegiance.

Is McAwful really a Republican mole?

Rehabilitating Howard Dean

Or, is it the Washington Post that's in danger of losing credibility?

One reason that Howard Dean is not the Democratic nominee from president is his weird paranoid reflex to see a conspiracy behind everything. When the Bush administration annouced a heightened terror alert over the weekend, the delusional Dean went nuts again. Only this time he brought the New York Times and the Washington Post along with him.

Today, the Post wonders if the Bush Administration is credible, but again, it seems that only Howard and the Post are fearful of conpiracies.

Of course, crazy as he is, Howard Dean is essential to the Kerry campaign. He's threir ambassador to the kooky fringe, without whom Kerry doesn't have a prayer.

Update, the New York Times has left the conspiracy theory crowd.

In addition to the surveillance activity, detailed in reports uncovered late last week from computer disks in Pakistan, a senior intelligence official said that "very current and recent activity on the part of Al Qaeda'' has left little doubt that "Al Qaeda is moving toward the execution stage of attacks here in the homeland.''

Lots Of Democrats Are Meeting With Foreign Leaders

It seems that secret negotiations with foreign leaders are more common in the Democratic Party than originally believed.
Originally thought to be the domain of John Kerry, several others claim that they too have met with foreign leaders who want Kerry as president.

"I can't give you the details of any deal, obviously," Sen. Carl Levin D-Mich., said Monday. "You don't negotiate a deal until you have a leader who is there to negotiate a deal."

Kerry also says that Joe Biden has been sniffing the butts of foreign leaders too.
"There is a potential to be able to put a deal together over the course of time," Kerry told The Associated Press in his first interview as the Democratic nominee. "At least, that is the perception that smart people like Joe Biden and, you know, Carl Levin and other leaders who've been there for a long time."

Although Biden distances himself from Kerry, Sen. Joseph BidenD-Del., a top Kerry adviser, thinks Kerry could sway allies better than the president, said spokesman Norm Kurz. But that's only hypothetical — "I don't think there's a guarantee," he said.

It's Too Bad Kerry Wasn't A Senator Or Something

"Sept. 11 was 2001," Kerry shouted to an estimated 10,000 or more lunch-hour spectators who filled a downtown office plaza here. "Sept. 11, 2002, came and went! Sept. 11, 2003, came and went! Sept. 11, 2004, is almost here."

John Kerry wants to know why George Bush has waited until the September 11 commission issued its report before backing the creation of an "intelligence czar."

Should he have acted "unilaterally" before the commission had completed its work?

And, if it was so obvious that we needed an intelligence czar, then why didn't somebody in Congress introduce legislation creating the position?

The Bounceless Speech

John Kerry seems to received no boost from his flacid speech Thursday night.

The likely voters polled favored Bush 50-47, whereas two weeks earlier they had favored Kerry 49-47.

Perhaps that's because he said nothing in as many words as possible.

[T]he very vagueness of Mr. Kerry's promises is what gives the Bush campaign a chance to counterattack. Especially if you re-read his Thursday speech, it is not nearly as muscular as it tried to sound. Its hawkishness was mostly personal, more or less stopping in 1970 in the Mekong Delta. My guess is that this is all by design, since the last thing Mr. Kerry wants is a debate about his own antiterror policies. He wants to compare medals, not philosophies.

Klunk!

When your whole campaign is to encourage hatred of your foe, then your goal is to make yourself a small target for counter fire.
That's why the notoriously cautious Kerry offered nothing new in his acceptance speech, not even a catchy slogan.

Party Of Hate

John Kerry knows he's not lovable. That's why the delegates he selected for the Democratic convention were animated by hate, for George W. Bush.

Will They Hold Their Breath Until They Turn Blue?

The Iranians appreciate what pussies they're dealing with.

"The British and the French tell us Iran insists it will not back down on its right to proceed with enrichment," a senior U.S. official in Washington said Friday.
Another U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters news agency that the Europeans were "not too happy" with the Iranian meeting.

Do you see what happens when the world's security is left in the hands of French and German girly-men?

Save The FA/22

The Czech Air Force has more advanced fighter planes than the US. Should we be bothered?
Liberals, including John McCain, want to keep it that way.

Okay, we're not like to go to war with the Czech Republic anytime soon, but what about North Korea?

It's not that we're in danger of losing our air superiority edge – we've already lost it. With "some foreign aircraft we've been able to test, our best pilots flying their airplanes beat our pilots flying our airplanes every time," Air Force Commander John Jumper told Congress three years ago. When our planes go against the Soviet Su-27 Flanker "our guys 'die' 95 percent of the time," observes Republican Rep. Duke Cunningham of California.