Tuesday, October 12, 2004

The Return of Zell Miller



Click here for Amazon!Two more notes from Zell Miller that remind me why he's my favorite Democrat (outside of a few members of my family of course, but they'll be Hannitized shortly). Hat tip: Powerline.

NRO: Who will win the presidential election?

MILLER: Bush is going to win and it will be wider than we think right now. As more and more people turn on this election, George W. Bush is going to look better and better and his opponent is going to look weaker and weaker. Who is it we feel more secure with in the White House? The answer to that is President Bush. I have never been more proud to support a president. I admire his leadership and character. I'm glad to have lived long enough to vote for a person like him.


And Zell Miller's op-ed: Iwo Jima, if covered by media today.

Dereliction of Duty: Redux



Click here for AmazonJohn Kerry as Arthur Andersen? (courtesy of Oak Leaf with a hat tip to PoliPundit). This post is dedicated to B.

One day before the presidential debate, the media was aflutter with the Duelfer Report, and Senator Kerry stated “Bush led the nation into war under false pretenses.”

However, no one has yet to ask Senator Kerry the following important question. “Senator Kerry, in a post 9-11 environment, based on the same intelligence that the President had, would you have gone to war?” My personal opinion as a citizen and soldier, is that it would have been derelict not to go to war in a post 9-11 environment based on the information that was known.

On September 15, 2004, Senator Kerry stated at the Detroit Economic Club, “President Bush’s desk isn’t where the buck stops - it’s where the blame begins.”

Based on that comment it is reasonable to ask, who was responsible to assure that the appropriate departments and agencies of the United States provide informed and timely intelligence necessary for the executive branch to make sound decisions affecting the security of the Nation ?

In May 1976, Senate Resolution 400 was passed and the 94th Congress established the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The Resolution states, “the Select Committee on Intelligence shall make every effort to assure that the appropriate departments and agencies of the United States provide informed and timely intelligence necessary for the executive and legislative branches to make sound decisions affecting the security and vital interests of the Nation.”

In all of the investigations and studies concerning both the liberation of Iraq and September 11, 2001, there is one group of people that have not submitted to any inquiry. I am referring specifically to the past and present members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

If Senator Kerry is correct that "Bush led the nation into war under false pretenses", then Senator Kerry, by his own admission, and eight year membership on the Select Committee, has failed the American people no differently than the accounting firm Arthur Andersen failed the investing public in its auditing of publicly traded companies. If he is “correct now”, based on his words, then he is guilty of the greatest possible act of “political malpractice” and should suffer the same fate as the once great accounting firm Arthur Andersen.


Oak Leaf via PoliPundit

Due Diligence



Click here for AmazonThe Washington Post has an interesting article about the on-the-ground support engendered by the two campaigns.

The Republican faithful love their candidate; the Democratic faithful have less such enthusiasm for Kerry but know he is their vessel for defeating Bush -- about which they are passionate.

The difference explains why crowds at Bush rallies, though similar in size to those at Kerry events, have been more energetic. The reception for Kerry is warm at Democratic events; the reception for Bush at GOP events is akin to that of a rock star.


And that is exactly why John Kerry will lose the election come November and, with it, their best chance at slowing the two-decade momentum swing towards Conservatism. The Democrats have nominated a candidate that is a proxy, an empty suit, that represents their desire to defeat President Bush. And represents absolutely nothing else.

The heart of Bush's speech is its second half -- terrorism and the threat to Americans. "We are striking the terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here at home," the president says... Kerry, putting relatively little emphasis on terrorism, typically begins with Iraq...


Furthermore, if there's one thing we've learned in the last few years, it's that national security is frequently cited as the top issue among registered voters. Kerry's nuanced approach to terrorism strikes fear in the hearts of many, and certainly doesn't resonate with the vast majority of voters, all of whom remember that heart-stopping day in September when the United States changed forever.

Is, as Kerry says, terrorism primarily a "law enforcement" problem and not a military issue? Can we, as Kerry says, return to the pre-9/11 days when terrorism was a "nuisance" akin to prostitution and gambling?

Most voters I know aren't willing to find out.

The next day in Philadelphia, Kerry delivered his usual message to a group of black ministers, who reacted politely but not enthusiastically, sitting quietly through his talk. When Kerry finished, Jesse L. Jackson, coaxed the crowd gradually into a standing ovation.


Put simply: John Kerry is unelectable.

Some voters could probably forgive John Kerry's meandering track record on terrorism.

Some voters could probably forgive John Kerry's consistent record of making poor decisions and ending up on the wrong side of history... opposing Ronald Reagan's arms buildup that ended the Cold War without a shot. Backing the Communist Sandanistas in Nicaragua with offers of appeasement and negotiation. Objecting to the raid on Libya after American servicemen were killed in the disco bombing. Voting against the first Gulf War though a "global test" had been passed: the UN had approved military action and a massive coalition had been assembled. Voting against literally every important defense system since he came to office (and unlike Dick Cheney, voting against these systems before the Cold War had ended). Striving to reduce intelligence funding while the threat of global terrorism grew.

Some voters could probably forgive John Kerry's Most Liberal Senator Award from the National Journal. It takes hard work to get to the "#1 Most Liberal Senator" award: a history of raising taxes, raising government spending, advocating gun control, increasing bureacracy, and hamstringing efforts at privatization, though, usually does the trick.

Some voters could probably forgive John Kerry's "I have a plan" pandering: Kerry's plans total over $2.2 trillion in new spending with less than a quarter of that accounted for by higher taxes -- on those making over $200K, he claims -- which, by the way, impacts approximately 900,000 subchapter-S corporations. Those are the same small businesses that create more about 90% of all new jobs.

Some voters could probably forgive John Kerry's troubled past vis a vis Vietnam, even though he has never apologized (unlike Jane Fonda) for tarring all Vietnam Veterans with the same broad brush. ""They had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads," "randomly shot at civilians," and "razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Kahn." And that's without even dealing with the other various charges leveled by the Swiftboat Veterans or the POW/MIA Families against Kerry.

Some voters could probably forgive John Kerry's abysmal record as a Senator: sponsoring literally no legislation of impact over two decades and attending only about 20% of public meetings in his role on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (and some have indicated his attedance at the private meetings was even less).

But when you add all of these factors up? We can come to only one conclusion: John Kerry is unelectable. That, in a nutshell, pins the tail on the donkey.

Next time, my Democratic friends, you might want to perform a tad more due diligence on your prospective candidate before nominating him.

WaPo: Diverse Tactics

Monday, October 11, 2004

Nuclear "Nuisance"



Click here for Amazon!The hits just keep on coming for John Kerry. So we hope to treat terrorism as a "nuisance" someday, kinda like prostitution or gambling? When the stakes are nuclear holocaust in our cities, one would hope that a candidate for president would consider his words more carefully. Rudy Guiliani weighs in.

...The idea that you can have an acceptable level of terrorism is frightening. How do you explain that to the people who are beheaded or the innocent people that are killed, that we’re going to tolerate a certain acceptable [level] of terrorism, and that acceptable level will exist and then we’ll stop thinking about it? This is an extraordinary statement. I think it is not a statement that in any way is ancillary. I think this is the core of John Kerry’s thinking. This does create some consistency in his thinking.

It is consistent with his views on Vietnam: that we should have left and abandoned Vietnam. It is consistent with his view of Nicaragua and the Sandinistas. It is consistent with his view of opposing Ronald Reagan at every step of the way in the arms buildup that was necessary to destroy communism. It is consistent with his view of not supporting the Persian Gulf War, which was another extraordinary step. Whatever John Kerry’s global test is, the Persian Gulf War certainly would pass anyone’s global test. If it were up to John Kerry, Saddam Hussein would not only still be in power, but he’d still be controlling Kuwait...


Powerline covers Rudy Guiliani

Someone had it 'all wrong', alright



Click here for Amazon!Ahhh, you've got to love the mainstream media's continual attempts to spin the truth towards the Left. A rude awakening is in store for the Gray Lady and the Post as the abandonment of the old guard continues apace... and scores of independent, new media outlets attract raucous hordes of disenfranchised truth-seekers.

A front-page Washington Post story on the Senate testimony of chief Weapons Inspector Charles Duelfer this week has a headline saying, "U.S. 'Almost All Wrong' on Weapons." And the story, by Post reporters Dana Priest and Walter Pincus, quoted Duelfer as telling a Senate panel, "We were almost all wrong' on Iraq."

But Duelfer never said that.

The Post has now published a correction, with the explanation — if it can be called that — that former weapons inspector David Kay did use those words in Senate testimony last January.

The paper offered no explanation of how Kay's eight month-old quote ended up in Charles Duelfer's mouth.


Brit Hume: Upon Further Review

Sunday, October 10, 2004

The Wrong Man



Click here for Amazon!Jay Carson, a spokesman for the Dean campaign, said: ''When it was popular to be a Massachusetts liberal, (John Kerry's) voting record was that. When it was popular to be for the Iraq war, he was for it. Now it's popular to be against it, and he's against it.''

Vice President Dick Cheney said: "(F)irst, they voted to commit the troops, to send them to war, John Edwards and John Kerry, then they came back and when the question was whether or not you provide them with the resources they needed--body armor, spare parts, ammunition--they voted against it. I couldn't figure out why that happened initially. And then I looked and figured out that what was happening was Howard Dean was making major progress in the Democratic primaries, running away with the primaries based on an anti-war record. So they, in effect, decided they would cast an anti-war vote and they voted against the troops. Now if they couldn't stand up to the pressures that Howard Dean represented, how can we expect them to stand up to Al Qaida?''

John Kerry's waffling on the war on terrorism is almost entirely based on politics. Quite frankly, that should scare the living hell out of anybody who cares about the safety and security of the American people. In an age when a failure in the war on terrorism may literally lead to nuclear bombs going off in American cities, can we afford to have a man in office whose first consideration is politics, not protecting our country?

If John Kerry had been in the Oval Office after 9/11, would he have had the guts to pass the Patriot Act over the objections of his base? Would he have allowed John Ashcroft to go after illegal aliens from terrorist sponsoring countries?

Vladimir Putin said: "I can confirm that after the events of September 11, 2001, and up to the military operation in Iraq, Russian special services and Russian intelligence several times received... information that... Saddam's regime [was] preparing terrorist acts on the territory of the United States and beyond its borders, at U.S. military and civilian locations.'

...Now think back to great American war leaders like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. Were they dovish flip-floppers who based their decisions around telling people what they wanted to hear or men who made decisions and tried to lead people towards what they believed was the right direction?


John Kerry: Wrong Man, Wrong Time, Wrong Message

Iran welcome's Kerry's proposal to give them nuclear fuel



Click here for Amazon!TEHRAN - Iran would welcome a proposal by U.S. presidential candidate Senator John Kerry’s running mate for a “great bargain” to solve the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday.

Vice presidential candidate Senator John Edwards has said that Kerry, a Democrat, would be willing to supply Iran with nuclear fuel for power generation if Tehran abandons its own fuel-making capability - if Iran did not accept this offer, it would confirm Iran wanted to make an atom bomb.

Iran earlier rejected the proposal, saying it would be “irrational” for Iran to jeopardize what it says is its purely civilian nuclear program by relying on supplies from abroad.

But in an apparent policy shift, Hossein Mousavian, head of the foreign policy committee at Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Iran would review the proposal.

"Iran welcomes any constructive proposal from any American candidate," Mousavian told Reuters in an interview. “We are willing to consider constructive proposals from Americans,” he added...


Tehran welcomes Kerry's nuclear proposal

Is the Jihad getting hot enough for you?



Click here for Amazon!An Iraqi man was arrested yesterday in Nashville after purchasing machine guns, hand grenades, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from an undercover FBI agent-with the stated intention of “going jihad" ...


Nashville, TN Jihad Watch

10 million degrees Celsius



Click here for AmazonWhile John Kerry enjoys botox, spray-on tans and manicures, Osama bin Laden, Zarqawi, Al Sadr and their ilk are talking about multiple nuclear attacks in our comfortable cul-de-sacs.

And they’re just a little more determined than some caricature of an immoral, lazy, stupid, fat American. Matter of fact, according to terrorist experts, there is a high probability that they already have nukes with our names on them in our neighborhoods. What would it mean for a nuclear suitcase bomb to go off in one of our cities? One terrorism expert, Paul Williams... writes in his book Osama’s Revenge,

[A] nuclear explosion is much more than a simple bomb blast. It consists of four deadly components: an air pressure shock wave, both thermal and nuclear radiation, and radioactive fallout. The effects of such a disaster in a city such as New York, Los Angeles, or D.C. would be cataclysmic. The air pressure wave from [one] suitcase bomb would destroy everything in its path, even heavily reinforced steel-and-concrete buildings.

Such an explosion would also emit intense thermal radiation, creating a fireball with a diameter that would expand to 460 feet. The core fireball would reach a maximum temperature of 10 million degrees Celsius. The enormity of this heat can only be realized when one notes that the heat within the World Trade Center towers never exceeded 5,000 degrees Celsius. Metallic objects within 450 feet of ground zero would vaporize. 1,400 feet from the blast, rubber and plastic objects would ignite and melt, and wooden structures would erupt into flames.

The bomb would expend 35 percent of its energy in the form of radiated heat. An additional 50 percent would be absorbed into the atmosphere to become a juggernaut blast -- a wave ripping through the city at 670 miles per hour. The buildings that survived the melting heat would be twisted like pretzels by the force of the incredible wind. No one within 740 feet of the blast could hope to survive; within minutes everything within three square miles would be destroyed. Over 300 thousand people would die instantly. Half a million or more would suffer severe burns and permanent blindness. Two to three hundred thousand people would be killed or injured by the deadly hail of debris and shattered glass.

The survivors of the initial blast would be exposed to intense bursts of ionizing radiation that would devastate their immune system. Those exposed would die in a matter of days. Then comes the fallout … the contaminants … which would then expose those in the area to deadly radiation poisoning, with 50 percent dying in the subsequent weeks and months. If this happened in a place like New York City, it would be an uninhabitable wasteland for hundreds of years. Then comes the other stuff such as the end of our culture, the crippling of our economy, the loss of millions of jobs, and an unprecedented health care crisis. Within days, Americans and much of the world would be tossed into a depression from which it would take hundreds of years to recover...


This description of the potential apocalyptic effects of a nuclear bomb going off in one of our major cities is not the hokey ravings of a doom and gloom prophet but a real description of a real threat which we really face from Muslim terrorists. OBL and his apprentices will, as he has proven, attempt to slay us with anything he can get his hands on and according to intelligence sources, he has his hands on anywhere from a half a dozen to three dozen of these compact nuclear death dealers and they are earmarked for us...


Believable Bush, Questionable Kerry

No Free Pass



Click here for Amazon!Email conversation between B (blue) and I (red). Portions excerpted for clarity.

What's missing from Bush's vocabulary?

"I made a decision based upon poor intelligence (or I lied)."

""The problem is: I can apologize for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can't, sincerely at least, apologize for removing Saddam," Bush said, adding, "The world is a better place with Saddam in prison, not in power.""

Those statements would have earned him my vote. His Texan swagger and inability to even consider that he has erred scares me more than Kerry's 20 year record.

I thought it was telling that Bush couldn't answer the last question in the debate. For some reason I respect someone that can admit a mistake and tell me what they are doing to correct it. Bush is incapable of either.


Sorry, but you know very well he no more lied than every other world leader, intelligence agency and pundit that said the same thing he did. Have you heard Edwards' quotes from 2002? Should he apologize for that? Of course not. And neither should Bush. That's what every intelligence agency in the West reported.

Bottom line: on September 14, 2001 George W. Bush promised the American people that we would pursue terrorists and those who harbor them to the ends of the Earth. In destroying Hussein's regime, he followed through on that promise. Of that, there is no doubt.


This isn't about Edwards. Stop changing the topic. Edward's isn't the president of the United States that lead this nation into an unnecessary war against a foe that wasn't an immediate threat. This isn't a point about Edwards or Kerry. It's a point about Bush. Stop changing the topic and try to focus. Talk about Bush. I haven't seen a single comment on your blog that critically evaluates Bush, his cabinet, or his decisions. You seem to be perfectly happy to jump to the 6 year old's excuse of "all the other kids are doing it" or "he did it first". Have you ever heard of groupthink? That's exactly what happened with the pre-war Iraq intelligence and those that requested the intelligence are as culpable as the intelligence agencies. Fact: Bush's administration was planning for the invasion of Iraq before 9/11. Fact: intelligence was sought to support that position.

Even your musings lately show that Saddam was years away from having any capability to theaten Isreal, let alone the U.S. and my family (not that I care about threats to Israell, since I'm an AMERICAN and I care about the U.S., not some sandtrap in the middle of a desert on the other side of the planet).

Bush wants to justify the war in Iraq after the fact and it won't succeed. The ends do not justify the means. The reasons for entering into the engagement cannot be rewritten after the fact, even if there is some newly identified benefit. Even the average American can understand that.

Bottom line: on September 14, 2001 George W. Bush promised the American people that we would pursue terrorists and those who harbor them to the ends of the Earth. In destroying Hussein's regime, he followed through on that promise. Of that, there is no doubt.


First, a faulty policy, so I don't agree with the fundamentals of your bottom line. Further, the policy has been inappropriately applied making it doubly in error. I'm suprised that mature adults in this nation buy the simplisitic statements of a simpleton. Likes attract I suppose. Unfunded mandates like no child left behind (better named no child left ntested) will enable another generation of people ill-equipped to participate in our democracy. That's a good thing if you're an oligarch.

Look, "terrorists" aren't a threat to us. Specific terrorists are. They should be called out and held accountable. Iraq wasn't in that class. They may have had the ability years later, but not when we invaded them. Others have it today! The priorities were misplaced after Afghanistan. Iraq was not an immediate threat and we were put there based upon faulty intelligence at best, lies at worst. It will continue to sap our strength and attention. Its only value to the U.S. is that it may perhaps redirect the islamic fundamentalist away from the homeland.

Either way my government owes its people an apology. Don't even get me started on the apology that is owed this nation for 9/11. Heads should roll but they won't because of the bureaucracy and oligarchy. This is the shame of both parties. How about a few comments on that in your blog? Oh, no, don't speak the real truth as it might tarnish your glorious leader!

...Context: That appears to be biggest difference between the two camps. Kerry seems to understand that the world is not a black and white place where decisions can be made in an instant based upon simple policy statements. The context of the decision is important and needs to be considered. Bush apparently lacks the ability to think beyond the simple set of axioms that govern his worldview. This is why he gets pissed off when people say things that are counter to his viewpoint. If you share his simple-minded axioms and have a modicum of logic, you have to think as he does...as long as you discount context and reality. Policies are a model for the real world. They are an approximation, not reality itself. They need to be evaluated in the context of their application and discarded from time to time if they don't fit. They didn't fit with Iraq at the time. They may have in a future that will not exist. They do fit in other places TODAY, but can't be applied because our attention and resources have been diverted. If I hold as true certain axioms that are absent any evaluation of context, simple logic will lead me to decisions that are erroneous in a given situation. Bush's implementation of policy is a glaring example of this.

...A hidden (or not so hidden) agenda does not remove the fact that Bush needs to take responsibility for his actions. This is a discussion about Bush, not the media, not Kerry, not Edward, not you, and not me. Bush. He's the president and should be able to admit his errors. Even Nixon, Blaire and Clinton did that when they were finally cornered. Admission of error is the sign of true maturity and would earn my vote. Without that I'll be voting against him.


I am going to loop back to Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards for a moment and I will explain why. You are, for whatever reason, willing to blithely ignore their role in the march to war. Let's examine Messrs. Kerry and Edwards in context.

These gentlemen were both members of an exclusive, one-hundred person club that helps set the direction of the United States government called the Senate. Furthermore, both were members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). Not only were they among the most important decision-makers in the land, but they were also privy to highly classified intelligence reports on Iraq to which only the top echelon of government officials had access.

Furthermore, in these positions of leadership, both Kerry and Edwards were beating the drums of war.

"Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction ... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real..." - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003

"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force -- if necessary -- to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." - Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002

"I think Iraq is the most serious and imminent threat to our country, and I think Iraq and Saddam Hussein present the most serious and most imminent threat." - Sen. John Edwards (D, NC), 2002, CNN

Cite: Democrats on Iraq


In their positions as Senators and members of the SSCI, they were among the leaders of an overwhelming groundswell of bi-partisan support for military action against Iraq.

Did, as you seem to imply, some malevolent neocon cabal furtively plan and execute the war on Iraq? No. The entire government -- both parties -- constructed the case based upon wide-ranging evidence collected over decades from thousands of sources.

The conclusions of the comprehensive bi-partisan review (Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq) indicated the following, "the [CIA] reasonably and objectively assessed in Iraqi Support for Terrorism that the most problematic area of contact between Iraq and al-Qaida were the reports of training in the use of non-conventional weapons, specifically chemical and biological weapons. [Other portions redacted]".

Yes, you heard that right. The July 2004 after-action report, by a bi-partisan committee, indicates that not only was it a major concern that al-Qaida and Iraq were cooperating, but -- even more ominously -- the major topics of their intercourse were WMD's.

And along the road to war in Iraq, John Kerry and John Edwards stood together, beating the drums of war, until Howard Dean's poll numbers reached their zenith.

Clinton-appointee George Tenet? Janet Reno? Louis Freeh? If we are seeking apologies from our officials, I'd want to start with them, not George W. Bush. Bush inherited nothing less than a viper's nest of terror cells (including one in Columbus, Ohio - is that close enough to home for you?) that were methodically planning the execution of 3,000 American civilians for over half a decade.

You'll get no apology from George W. Bush. He has done exactly what he promised to do on September 14, 2001. John Kerry and John Edwards stood with him then, applauding. They get no free pass on this war from me. Nor should they from you.

Saturday, October 09, 2004

What's Missing From Kerry's Vocabulary?



Click here for Amazon!...FFor about 9 months, I've been listening to Kerry. I've been trying to put my finger on something thats been bothering me about Kerrys vocabulary and I think I finally figured it out what it was.

Earlier this evening I noticed a parallel between Kerry's Senate testimony in 1971 and something he said today.

In 1971, he said this:

We cannot fight communism all over the world, and I think we should have learned that lesson by now.

Now, bear in mind that when he said this, this was the prevailing world opinion. Communism was something to be tolerated. We had to maintain the status quo.

A great many learned men believed that this was so. It took one man of faith and another of conviction to free the world of the foolish idea that Communism was something that should be tolerated. Today we accept it as a given that Communism has as much relevance in the world as does zoroastianism, but it wasn't always that way.

Today, Kerry said this:

There are 60 countries around the world with al-queda cells in them. Many of these countries have clearer ties to alqueda than did Iraq. Did we invade Russia? Did we Invade China?

Now, to my mind what Kerry was trying to say was obvious. What Kerry said in that little line was the 2004 version of his 1971 defeatist statement.

To paraphrase:

We can't fight Terrorists, and I would have thought we would have learned that by now

Kerry went on to say that sanctions were working and that they did not have to be lifted if we had used the "good diplomacy".

"Good Diplomacy", who talks like that?

And then it hit me, the little nagging thing that had been bothering me for 9 months. It was the word I never heard Kerry use in the context of the Jihadi War.

Kerry does not talk about Victory.

Oh sure, He uses it it terms of himself prevailing over "the evil Bush", but Kerry never discusses the word or the concept of Victory by the Western Democracies. Kerry has said that he would "fight the Terrorists", but Kerry does not use the word "Victory". He has given up before he has started.

Kerry - doesn't believe in Victory. Kerry doesn't believe in us!

...Kerry believes only in Kerry and says so with his every breath. To Kerry, There's no enemy of America worth fighting and no virtue in America worth defending.

From now till election day, We need to buck up our spirits by playing the first few notes of "Beethovens fifth" we need to flash the "V for Victory". We need to remind everyone what our goal is, and that is Victory. It is only by being victorious over the Jihadis that can we have peace. There is no co-existance possible with these murdering parasites. Senator Kerry has said his strategy is to have a "Summit". I say the only "summit" we should have is on the deck of the USS New York after the last Islamic country has had a free election.

Then, and only then, can we have peace...

I need to find some paratooper crickets, I'm getting a real "Longest Day " vibe going here. Bumper stickers? I want to go into a grocery store and hear paratrooper crickets from every corner, and know what it means while the democrat defeatists shake their heads and wonder what that sound means...


What's missing from John Kerry's Vocabulary?

NYT: The Report that Nails Saddam



Click here for Amazon!Today's New York Times op-ed is well worth a read. Even the "Gray Lady" makes a compelling case that taking out Hussein's government was exactly the right thing to do. Any questions?

Saddam Hussein saw his life as an unfolding epic narrative, with retreats and advances, but always the same ending. He would go down in history as the glorious Arab leader, as the Saladin of his day. One thousand years from now, schoolchildren would look back and marvel at the life of The Struggler, the great leader whose life was one of incessant strife, but who restored the greatness of the Arab nation.

They would look back and see the man who lived by his saying: "We will never lower our heads as long as we live, even if we have to destroy everybody." Charles Duelfer opened his report on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction with those words. For a humiliated people, Saddam would restore pride by any means.

Saddam knew the tools he would need to reshape history and establish his glory: weapons of mass destruction... With these weapons, Saddam had defeated the evil Persians. With these weapons he had crushed his internal opponents. With these weapons he would deter... both Israel and America.

But in the 1990's, the world was arrayed against him to deprive him of these weapons. So Saddam, the clever one, The Struggler, undertook a tactical retreat. He would destroy the weapons while preserving his capacities to make them later. He would foil the inspectors and divide the international community. He would induce it to end the sanctions it had imposed to pen him in. Then, when the sanctions were lifted, he would reconstitute his weapons and emerge greater and mightier than before.

The world lacked what Saddam had: the long perspective. Saddam understood that what others see as a defeat or a setback can really be a glorious victory if it is seen in the context of the longer epic.

Saddam worked patiently to undermine the sanctions...

Saddam personally made up a list of officials at the U.N., in France, in Russia and elsewhere who would be bribed. He sent out his oil ministers to curry favor with China, France, Turkey and Russia. He established illicit trading relations with Ukraine, Syria, North Korea and other nations to rebuild his arsenal.

It was all working. He acquired about $11 billion through illicit trading. He used the oil-for-food billions to build palaces. His oil minister was treated as a "rock star," as the report put it, at international events, so thick was the lust to trade with Iraq.

France, Russia, China and other nations lobbied to lift sanctions. Saddam was, as the Duelfer report noted, "palpably close" to ending sanctions.

With sanctions weakening and money flowing, he rebuilt his strength. He contacted W.M.D. scientists in Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria and elsewhere to enhance his technical knowledge base. He increased the funds for his nuclear scientists. He increased his military-industrial-complex's budget 40-fold between 1996 and 2002. He increased the number of technical research projects to 3,200 from 40. As Duelfer reports, "Prohibited goods and weapons were being shipped into Iraq with virtually no problem."

And that is where Duelfer's story ends. Duelfer makes clear on the very first page of his report that it is a story. It is a mistake and a distortion, he writes, to pick out a single frame of the movie and isolate it from the rest of the tale.

But that is exactly what has happened. I have never in my life seen a government report so distorted by partisan passions. The fact that Saddam had no W.M.D. in 2001 has been amply reported, but it's been isolated from the more important and complicated fact of Saddam's nature and intent.

But we know where things were headed. Sanctions would have been lifted. Saddam, rich, triumphant and unbalanced, would have reconstituted his W.M.D. Perhaps he would have joined a nuclear arms race with Iran. Perhaps he would have left it all to his pathological heir Qusay.

We can argue about what would have been the best way to depose Saddam, but this report makes it crystal clear that this insatiable tyrant needed to be deposed. He was the menace, and, as the world dithered, he was winning his struggle. He was on the verge of greatness. We would all now be living in his nightmare.


The Report That Nails Saddam

Rating the Moderators



Click here for Amazon!I had some friends over last night to watch the second presidential debate. If we were drinking men -- and were playing one of those drinking games where you downed a shot of tequila every time John Kerry said "I have a plan" -- well, I might be dead of alcohol poisoning, T would be passed out on the lawn, and M would be in a coma at Bethesda Hospital.

John Kerry said, "I have a plan" (or equivalent) seventeen times during last night's debate, including six times in one answer. That's a lot of plans, especially for a twenty year senator with a track record of non-accomplishment. A lot of plans for a Senator who ended upon on the wrong side of history during the Cold War, the battles with the Sandanistas, Libya, the first Gulf War, and the rise of global terrorism.

In spite of the fact that Hugh Hewitt retired his most recent symposium question (rating the moderators of the first three debates), I plowed ahead just out of casual interest. How did the questions stack up?

I rate each question from 1 to 9, with 1 being skewed towards the challenger and 9 being biased towards the president. An average score of around 5 would indicate a centrist agenda on the part of the moderator. Here are the debates with the most recent one listed first:

Second presidential debate - Gibson

[9] Question 1: Sen. Kerry, Are you wishy-washy?
[1] Question 2: Mr. President, do you sincerely believe you had a reasonable justification for invading Iraq?
[5] Question 3: Sen. Kerry, would you have a different plan than the president for Iraq?
[1] Question 4: President Bush, what is your plan to repair diplomatic relations with other countries?
[5] Question 5: Sen. Kerry, what will you do about Iran if the United Nations doesn't take any action?
[5] Question 6 : President Bush, how will you maintain our military strength without a draft?
[9] Question 7: Sen. Kerry, why haven't we been attacked since September 11 and how do you propose to assure our safety?
[1] Question 8: President Bush, why did you block the importation of drugs from Canada?
[9] Question 9: Sen. Kerry, you're concerned about the rising cost of health care -- why did you chose a running mater who has made millions suing medical professionals?
[5] Question 10: President Bush, please explain why your spending plans are superior to Sen. Kerry's.
[7] Question 11: Sen. Kerry, will you pledge not to raise taxes on families making less than $200,000 during your first term?
[3] Question 12: President Bush, how would you rate yourself as an environmentalist?
[5] Question 13: Sen. Kerry, how can the U.S. be competitive in manufacturing and still pay the wages Americans have come to expect?
[1] Question 14: President Bush, why are our rights being weakened by the Patriot Act, and what was the justification for it?
[7] Question 15: Sen. Kerry, wouldn't it be wise to use stem cells obtained without destroying an embryo?
Question 16: President Bush, who would be your next choice for the Supreme Court?
[7] Question 17: Sen. Kerry, how can you assure a voter who believes abortion is murder that their tax dollars would not support abortion?
[1] Question 18: President Bush, please give three instances when you think you made a bad decision, and what you did to correct it.

Average: 4.5, skewed towards the challenger, total 81

Vice-presidential debate - Ifill

[1] Question 1 -- The report you requested said there was no link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.
[9] Question 2 -- Would a Kerry-Edwards administration have left Saddam Hussein in power?
[1] Question 3 -- Your plan for bin Laden and other terrorists?
[9] Question 4 -- What did Kerry say about "global test"?
[7] Question 5 -- Is Cheney saying a Kerry presidency would be dangerous?
[3] Question 6 -- Is it naive to try to internationalize Iraq effort?
[5] Question 7- Can any administration get accurate intelligence on terrorism?
[1] Question 8 -- Should sanctions be lifted against Iran?
[5] Question 9 -- What should be done to end Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
[5] Question 10 - What will your administration do to ease joblessness and poverty?
[7] Question 11 - Can Kerry guarantee not to raise taxes and cut the deficit?
[3] Question 12 - How can Cheney support Bush administration's ban on same-sex unions?
[7] Question 13 - What is Kerry and Edwards' stance on gay marriage?
[9] Question 14 -- Has John Edwards, a former trial lawyer, been part of the problem of higher medical costs?
[3] Question 15 -- Is Edwards being personally attacked when Cheney talks about legal reform and the president talks about a trial lawyer?
[3] Question 16 -- What can the government do about AIDS?
[7] Question 17 -- What qualifies Edwards to be vice president?
[5] Question 18 -- Without mentioning [the presidential candidates] by name, how are you different from the other vice presidential candidate?
[7] Question 19 -- Is changing positions bad?
[3] Question 20 -- How can the divisions in the United States be bridged?

Average: 5, right down the middle, total 100

First presidential debate - Lehrer

[5] Question 1 -- Who could best prevent another 9/11?
[7] Question 2 -- Would a Kerry win increase risk of terror?
[1] Question 3 -- What 'colossal misjudgments' has Bush made?
[3] Question 4 -- Who's top target, bin Laden or Saddam?
[3] Question 5 -- How would you improve homeland security?
[4] Question 6 -- Criteria to bring troops home?
[6] Question 7 -- Are U.S. soldiers dying for a mistake?
[3] Question 8 -- What was the 'miscalculation' in Iraq?
[1] Question 9 -- When has Bush misled the public?
[3] Question 10 -- Has the war been worth the loss of life?
[3] Question 11 -- When will the war in Iraq end?
[4] Question 12 -- Would Bush lead another pre-emptive war?
[5] Question 13 -- What is Kerry's position on pre-emptive war?
[5] Question 14 -- Are diplomacy, sanctions effective?
[5] Question 15 -- Why not send troops to Sudan?
[7] Question 16 -- Does Bush see Kerry character flaws?
[5] Question 17 -- What is the most serious threat to national security?
[2] Question 18 -- Did Bush misjudge Putin?

Average: 4, heavily tilted towards challenger, total 72

To answer Hugh's question:

First place: Ifill
Second place: Gibson
Last place: Lehrer


Nice photo



There's a funny photo caption contest over at Captain's Quarters. The challenger is caught in a somewaht compromising position... and hopefully the French are not involved.

Thursday, October 07, 2004

Mainstream Media Polling Dissonance



Click here for Amazon!Don't miss this excellent recap from PoliPundit on the election cycle, the mainstream media, and track record of their pollsters.

When George W. Bush won the White House, in year 2000, he became the first GOP President in generations to begin a term with control over Congress. And that catastrophic blow to the left wing of our political spectrum followed a ten-year period in which the country experienced an astonishing political realignment away from liberalism and towards GOP dominance.

As recently as January 1991, the Democratic Party had 267 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Now, they have under 210 seats, and the GOP has won five consecutive House elections. And there are so many more conservative Democrats than liberal Republicans (and the re-election cycle is so short), even arch-conservative measures often pass the House by overwhelming margins (fifth and sixth grafs).

Furthermore, since 1990, the Democratic Party has lost eight U.S. Senate seats. The Republicans have gained seven U.S. Senate seats during that period.

Since 1990, the Democratic Party has lost eight state governorships. The GOP has gained ten governor’s chairs in that time frame. And the GOP controls the governorships of five of the seven largest states in the country: California (for 17 of the past 22 years), Texas (since 1994), New York (since 1994), Florida (since 1998), and Ohio...


Mainstream Media Polling Dissonance - Read the entire article!

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I'd like a Liberal to Defend this Behavior



Click here for AmazonFrustration and desperation. That's the only way I can explain the behavior we're seeing from the Left. With tactics borrowed from the National Socialist German Worker's Party circa 1930, there's no other explanation that comes to mind. How else could you explain multiple shootings at campaign offices, reports of rampant vandalism, "tongue-in-cheek" offers to pay for votes, ransacking of campaign offices, storming campaign offices in an effort to intimidate volunteers, stealing computer systems from campaign offices, even burning swastikas in GOP supporters' lawns.

That -- truly -- is today's Left in action.

Why not just declare another Kristallnacht and burn down the campaign offices, Lefties?

Well done, junior Nazis. These actions only serve to clarify and amplify the choice in next month's election. And when the Democratic party is sent to another series of resounding defeats -- losing more seats in the House, in the Senate and, of course, the Presidency -- then perhaps its leadership will reorganize around centrists that actually seem to care more about the United States than corrupt global organizations. Ed Koch, Zell Miller and a host of other disenfranchised Democrats are waiting.

There is no defense for this kind of behavior in America.

Duelfer Report: Saddam Bribed Jacques Chirac To Veto War



Click here for AmazonFrom Captain's Quarters... yup, these are just the guys who I'd want signing off on a Kerry "Global Test".

In yet another revelation that the French conspired to undermine US and global security, the Duelfer report from the Iraq Survey Group provides evidence that Saddam Hussein had bribed the French to not just sit out the war but to actively undermine any attempts to enforce the UNSC resolutions against Iraq:

SADDAM HUSSEIN believed he could avoid the Iraq war with a bribery strategy targeting Jacques Chirac, the President of France, according to devastating documents released last night.

Memos from Iraqi intelligence officials, recovered by American and British inspectors, show the dictator was told as early as May 2002 that France - having been granted oil contracts - would veto any American plans for war.


The Scotsman also reports what the American media is blaring to the exclusion of everything else in the ISG final report: Iraq had no stockpiles of WMD. Most mainstream outlets are playing down the finding that Saddam fully intended on restarting his WMD programs as soon as sanctions were removed, making the entire exercise a waste of time:

Saddam was convinced that the UN sanctions - which stopped him acquiring weapons - were on the brink of collapse and he bankrolled several foreign activists who were campaigning for their abolition. He personally approved every one.

To keep America at bay, he focusing on Russia, France and China - three of the five UN Security Council members with the power to veto war. Politicians, journalists and diplomats were all given lavish gifts and oil-for-food vouchers.

Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, told the ISG that the "primary motive for French co-operation" was to secure lucrative oil deals when UN sanctions were lifted. Total, the French oil giant, had been promised exploration rights.

Iraqi intelligence officials then "targeted a number of French individuals that Iraq thought had a close relationship to French President Chirac," it said, including two of his "counsellors" and spokesman for his re-election campaign.


The list of the bribed, if not coerced, is long and distinguished. ABC News published an early list of the major players, but the CIA has added a few eye-opening names...

...As I wrote earlier today, the evidence clearly shows that the UN has become hopelessly corrupt and the "global community" consists of a pack of bribed sell-outs who chose to feed their avarice rather than stand up to a madman. Had we allowed them to continue their efforts, sanctions would have been dropped and Saddam would be ramping up his WMD programs as I write this. Putting our national security in their hands is not just poor judgement, it's a recipe for suicide.


Duelfer Report: Saddam Bribed Jacques Chirac To Veto War

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Johnny Kerry's Tall Tale, as seen in True Windsurfing Magazine



Click here for Amazon!My entry in the Kerry Tall Tales contest, as published in True Windsurfing magazine:

You’ve heard about Paul Bunyan, the greatest lumberjack of all time. And you’ve heard about Pecos Bill, the greatest cowboy. Now let me tell you about Johnny Kerry, the world’s biggest, fastest, bestest wind surfer you've ever heard of.

You’d better believe Johnny was biggest! Why, he was six feet four inches tall with shoulders to match, and he weighed two hundred and five pounds, even without his board.

And fastest? Just give him a pond and a few seconds. Flip! Flop! He'd be sailing away, tacking back and forth with the greatest of ease.

And you bet Johnny was bestest! That was on account of his spandex. No one else ever cut through the wind the way Johnny did.

In fact, some folks said he was a little too good.

Johnny’s trouble started with the big storm up in Lowell, Massachussetts.

“Johnny, the sky's turning dark!” said Mizz Theresa, the owner of the local Windsurfing club. “Why, it'd be near suicide to windsurf on the lake in this storm!”

"Never you mind, Mizz Theresa," boomed Johnny, "a little wind never hurt no one." And sure enough, Johnny sailed right through that storm even though he got his board going so fast you could hardly see him.

The story got around, but most folks just laughed, figuring Johnny had just gotten lucky, tacking back and forth with the shifting winds.

“Amazing!” said Mr. Blather, the local newsman, “He changed positions on that thing so fast, I couldn't hardly even see him!".

But a couple of days later, Johnny got news of a really big storm headed in.

Mizz Theresa didn't let up. “Johnny, do not go out there! I hear there's tornados done sprung up out of this storm!”

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about it," guffawed Johnny with an ear-to-ear grin, "I've got my lucky spandex on!"

And, sure enough, he went out to face the most wicked storm anyone around those parts remembers.

Lo and behold if a tornado didn't touch down! And it was right at the edge of the lake right when Johnny was criss-crossing it, full speed. The tornado was moving lickety split... right at Johnny Kerry!

The townspeople, what few of them were there, remember what happened next like it was yesterday. Johnny went back and forth, faster and faster, shifting positions faster than the eye could see... until he unwound that darn tornado and sent it back up into the sky, where it was never heard from again!

Johnny's been moving fast ever since. Of course, if you can't see him, it might because he's changed positions out there. Because whenever there's a little bit of wind, Flip! Flop! Johnny's windsurfing away, without a care in the world.


Kerry's Tall Tales Contest

TKO: VP Debate Highlights



Click here for AmazonHere are some highlights of the VP debate with my smart-ass remarks interspersed throughout.

We heard Senator Kerry say the other night that there ought to be some kind of global test before U.S. troops are deployed preemptively to protect the United States. That's part of a track record that goes back to the 1970s when he ran for Congress the first time and said troops should not be deployed without U.N. approval. Then, in the mid-'80s, he ran on the basis of cutting most of our major defense programs. In 1991, he voted against Desert Storm.

It's a consistent pattern over time of always being on the wrong side of defense issues...

A little tough talk in the midst of a campaign or as part of a presidential debate cannot obscure a record of 30 years of being on the wrong side of defense issues.

And they give absolutely no indication, based on that record, of being wiling to go forward and aggressively pursue the war on terror with a kind of strategy that will work, that will defeat our enemies and will guarantee that the United States doesn't again get attacked by the likes of Al Qaida.


Oouchh... that's a stiff, backhanded b*tchslap.

John Edwards, two and a half years ago, six months after we went into Afghanistan announced that it was chaotic, the situation was deteriorating, the warlords were about to take over. Here we are, two and a half years later, we're four days away from a democratic election, the first one in history in Afghanistan. We've got 10 million voters who have registered to vote, nearly half of them women...

...We've made enormous progress in Afghanistan, in exactly the right direction, in spite of what John Edwards said two and a half years ago. He just got it wrong.


Why the sour expression, Mr. Edwards?

With respect to the cost, it wasn't $200 billion. You probably weren't there to vote for that...


Okay... that's gonna leave a bruise.

It's awfully hard to convey a sense of credibility to allies when you voted for the war and then you declared: Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time. You voted for the war, and then you voted against supporting the troops when they needed the equipment...


Just repeat after me: Halliburton, Halliburton, Halliburton.

Your rhetoric, Senator, would be a lot more credible if there was a record to back it up. There isn't. And you cannot use "talk tough" during the course of a 90-minute debate in a presidential campaign to obscure a 30-year record in the United States Senate and, prior to that by John Kerry, who has consistently come down on the wrong side of all the major defense issues that he's faced as a public official..


Well, that look is just downright crestfallen, Mr. Edwards. John Kerry's record... who'da thought folks would investigate that?

We've never criticized [John Kerry's] patriotism. What we've questioned is his judgment. And his judgment's flawed, and the record's there for anybody who wants to look at it. In 1984, when he ran for the Senate he opposed, or called for the elimination of a great many major weapons systems that were crucial to winning the Cold War and are important today to our overall forces.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and occupied it in 1990 and '91, he stood up on the floor of the Senate and voted against going in to liberate Kuwait and push Saddam Hussein back to Iraq. The problem we have is that, if you look at his record, he doesn't display the qualities of somebody who has conviction.

And with respect to this particular operation, we've seen a situation in which, first, they voted to commit the troops, to send them to war, John Edwards and John Kerry, then they came back and when the question was whether or not you provide them with the resources they needed -- body armor, spare parts, ammunition -- they voted against it.

I couldn't figure out why that happened initially. And then I looked and figured out that what was happening was Howard Dean was making major progress in the Democratic primaries, running away with the primaries based on an anti-war record. So they, in effect, decided they would cast an anti-war vote and they voted against the troops.

Now if they couldn't stand up to the pressures that Howard Dean represented, how can we expect them to stand up to Al Qaida
?


Knockdown! Someone get the smelling salts for Mr. Edwards!

I think the record speaks for itself. These are two individuals who have been for the war when the headlines were good and against it when their poll ratings were bad... ...If we want to win the war on terror, it seems to me it's pretty clear the choice is George Bush, not John Kerry.


Body blow!

It's hard, after John Kerry referred to our allies as a coalition of the coerced and the bribed, to go out and persuade people to send troops and to participate in this process.

You end up with a situation in which -- talk about demeaning. In effect, you demean the sacrifice of our allies when you say it's the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, and oh, by the way, send troops...

Our most important ally in the war on terror, in Iraq specifically, is Prime Minister Allawi. He came recently and addressed a joint session of Congress that I presided over with the speaker of the House... And John Kerry rushed out immediately after his speech was over with, where he came and he thanked America for our contributions and our sacrifice and pledged to hold those elections in January, went out and demeaned him, criticized him, challenged his credibility.

That is not the way to win friends and allies. You're never going to add to the coalition with that kind of attitude.


Oh, Mommy that hurts!

We dealt with Iran differently than we have Iraq partly because Iran has not yet, as Iraq did, violated 12 years of resolutions by the U.N. Security Council.

...One of the great by-products, for example, of what we did in Iraq and Afghanistan is that five days after we captured Saddam Hussein, Moammar Gadhafi in Libya came forward and announced that he was going to surrender all of his nuclear materials to the United States, which he has done.

This was one of the biggest sources of proliferation in the world today in terms of the threat that was represented by that. The suppliers network that provided that, headed by Mr. A.Q. Khan, has been shut down...


You see, Mr. Edwards, there's this whole nuclear threat that you've been ignoring. I know it's probably not a big deal for you "Continuity of Government" types, but it is for most Americans.

Edwards' story about his visit to Israel: We left in the morning, headed to the airport to leave, and later in the day I found out that that same day, not far from where we were staying, the Sbarro Pizzeria was hit by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. Fifteen people were killed. Six children were killed... What are the Israeli people supposed to do? How can they continue to watch Israeli children killed by suicide bombers, killed by terrorists?... They have not only the right to the obligation to defend themselves.


...Senator, frankly, you have a record in the Senate that's not very distinguished. You've missed 33 out of 36 meetings in the Judiciary Committee, almost 70 percent of the meetings of the Intelligence Committee... Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you "Senator Gone." You've got one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate.

Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session... The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.


Ohhhh, that's gonna leave a mark. Better put some ice on that, Mr. Edwards.

In respect to Israel and Palestine, Gwen, the suicide bombers, in part, were generated by Saddam Hussein, who paid $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers. I personally think one of the reasons that we don't have as many suicide attacks today in Israel as we've had in the past is because Saddam is no longer in business.


Mr. Edwards is now officially sorry he brought up the Sbarro Pizzeria. Ouchie!

...They talk about the top [tax] bracket and going after only those people in the top bracket. Well, the fact of the matter is a great many of our small businesses pay taxes under the personal income taxes rather than the corporate rate. And about 900,000 small businesses will be hit if you do, in fact, do what they want to do with the top bracket. That's not smart because seven out of 10 new jobs in America are created by small businesses.


Oooomph! Another body blow landed by Cheney. Did I hear the word "Halliburton" escape Mr. Edward's lips?

Yesterday, the president signed an extension of middle- class tax cuts, the 10 percent bracket, the marriage penalty relief and the increase in the child tax credit. Senators Kerry and Edwards weren't even there to vote for it when it came to final passage.


Gwen, why is Mr. Edwards twitching?

(Addressing gay marriage issue)
EDWARDS: ...Now, as to this question, let me say first that I think the vice president and his wife love their daughter. I think they love her very much. And you can't have anything but respect for the fact that they're willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter, the fact that they embrace her. It's a wonderful thing. And there are millions of parents like that who love their children, who want their children to be happy...
IFILL: Mr. Vice President, you have 90 seconds.
CHENEY: Well, Gwen, let me simply thank the senator for the kind words he said about my family and our daughter. I appreciate that very much.
IFILL: That's it?
CHENEY: That's it.
IFILL: OK, then we'll move on to the next question.


That's didn't go over well, Mr. Edwards. Never talk about someone's family. Even Leftie Don Imus is hammering you on that gaffe.

(Addressing healthcare costs and malpractice insurance costs) The rates for a general practitioner have gone from $40,000 a year to $100,000 a year for an insurance policy... We've lost one out of eleven OB/GYN practitioners in the country. We think it can be fixed, needs to be fixed...

We passed medical liability reform through the House of Representatives. It's been blocked in the Senate. Senator Kerry's voted 10 times against medical liability reform, and I don't believe Senator Edwards supports it, either, not the kind that would be meaningful.


Maybe you could tell us about your 'channeling' days, Mr Edwards?

...I think it allows the president to know that my only agenda is his agenda. I'm not worried about what some precinct committeemen in Iowa were thinking of me with respect to the next round of caucuses of 2008...


Someone call 9-1-1! Edwards is getting assaulted!

I don't talk about myself very much, but I've heard Senator Edwards, and as I listen to him, I find some similarities.

I come from relatively modest circumstances. My grandfather never even went to high school. I'm the first in my family to graduate from college.

I carried a ticket in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for six years. I've been laid off, been hospitalized without health insurance. So I have some idea of the problems that people encounter...

...

I'm absolutely convinced that the threat we face now, the idea of a terrorist in the middle of one of our cities with a nuclear weapon, is very real and that we have to use extraordinary measures to deal with it. I feel very strongly that the significance of 9/11 cannot be underestimated. It forces us to think in new ways about strategy, about national security, about how we structure our forces and about how we use U.S. military power. Some people say we should wait until we are attacked before we use force. I would argue we've already been attacked. We lost more people on 9/11 than we lost at Pearl Harbor. And I'm a very strong advocate of a very aggressive policy of going after the terrorists and those who support terror.


Did someone call 9-1-1 yet, dammit?

IFILL: Mr. Vice President, picking up on that, you both just sang the praises of the tops of your ticket. Without mentioning them by name at all, explain to us why you are different from your opponent...

IFILL: Senator Edwards, you have 90 seconds.

EDWARDS: Mr. Vice President, we were attacked. But we weren't attacked by Saddam Hussein. And one thing that John Kerry and I would agree with you about is that it is...

IFILL: You just used John Kerry's name.

EDWARDS: Oh, I'm sorry. I broke the rule.


Wait for it... wait for it... the suspense is building...

EDWARDS: OK. John Kerry has been, as have I, been completely consistent about Iraq.


BWWWAAAHHAHHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHHAHAHAHHA!!!

...the most important and significant change in health care in the last several years was the Medicare reform bill this year. It's the most sweeping change in 40 years. Medicare used to pay for heart bypass surgery but didn't pay for the prescription drugs that might allow you to avoid it. The fact is that when that came up, Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards voted against it.


We've got a bleeder!

Now we find ourselves in the midst of a conflict unlike any we've ever known, faced with the possibility that terrorists could smuggle a deadly biological agent or a nuclear weapon into the middle of one of our own cities. That threat -- and the presidential leadership needed to deal with it -- is placing a special responsibility on all of you who will decide on November 2nd who will be our commander in chief.

The only viable option for winning the war on terrorism is the one the president has chosen, to use the power of the United States to aggressively go after the terrorists wherever we find them and also to hold to account states that sponsor terror.

Now that we've captured or killed thousands of Al Qaida and taken down the regimes of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, it's important that we stand up democratically elected governments as the only guarantee that they'll never again revert to terrorism or the production of deadly weapons.

This is the task of our generation. And I know firsthand the strength the president brings to it.


Someone get a stretcher! Hurry, dammit! We're losing him!

Best recaps of the debate



If I ever need to sue somebody, I'll call John Edwards. If I ever need somebody killed - like, you know, terrorists trying to kill my family - I'll call Dick Cheney.

Tonight's vice presidential debate featured two superb performances. Unfortunately for John Edwards, they were delivered by the incumbent and by moderator Gwen Ifill.

Chris Matthews said: it was a battle between a guy with a water pistol and a guy with a machine gun.

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Questions John Edwards should have been asked, but wasn't



Click here for Amazon!From PoliPundit...

- You have served only one term in the Senate and many in your state... would cite your poor voting attendance... You are currently running behind in your home state... Why should the people of the U.S. vote for you, if those in your home state don’t appear ready to do so?

- How do you think the attacks you and Senator Kerry, and your surrogates, have made on the President calling him a liar who misled the country into an "unnecessary war" (your exact words) help attract more countries to the coalitions in Afghanistan and Iraq?

- Why do you think it is that all polls show that an overwhelming majority of those in the armed forces support Bush-Cheney over Kerry-Edwards?

- When you declare things in Iraq and Afghanistan a mess, aren’t you, in effect, criticizing or at least belittling the job our troops are doing there? Why don’t you and Senator Kerry spend any time applauding the good things that America is doing in those countries? Do you not believe that our troops are doing some good things there?


Some questions for Senator Edwards

Giving dirty tricks a bad name



Click here for Amazon!I'm detecting... a... pattern.

Was Iraq part of the Global War on Terror?



Click here for AmazonThe World Trade Center. Bali. Madrid. Beslan. These names are synonymous with devastating attacks by terrorists targeting innocent civilians. There is little doubt we are engaged in a global war on terror. There are disagreements, however, with the methods used to defeat terrorists.

A major area of dispute lies with Iraq's role in the war on terror. General Tommy Franks, the former commander of the U.S. Military's Central Command, is on record as saying, "There is no question that Saddam Hussein had intent to do harm to the… United States of America... that a regime has intent to do harm to this country, and if we have something beyond a reasonable doubt that this particular regime may have the wherewithal with which to execute the intent, what are our actions and orders as leaders in this country?"

The 9/11 Commission couched its report delicately, perhaps due to political considerations, claiming that Al Qaeda and Iraq had no "operational" links. That statement, however, masks Iraq's involvement with not only Al Qaeda associates, but its longstanding support for extremists.

Terror heavyweights Abu Abbas, Abu Nidal, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were all present in Iraq prior to the war. A terrorist training center at Salman Pak featured a Boeing 707, which was used to train hijackers. The Al Qaeda affiliate Ansar al Islam operated in Iraq. And Hussein’s government provided official support and funds for numerous terror groups including Hamas and Hezbollah.

Furthermore, details of Iraq's nuclear weapons program are only now emerging thanks to Mahdi Obeidi, its former head of uranium enrichment. In the aftermath of the war, Obeidi disclosed to American officials that his backyard contained uranium-enriching gas centrifuges. He described the hide-and-seek games Iraq played with UN weapons inspectors. We now know that Iraq was fully prepared to resume its nuclear weapons program as sanctions eased.

In addition, recently disclosed Iraqi intelligence documents -- confiscated by U.S. forces -- confirm that Iraq possessed both anthrax and mustard gas prior to the war.

Iraq was, quite literally, a major terrorist way station in the Middle East. The current fight to bring Democracy to Iraq is an important step in combating global terrorism. If the end of Cold War is any indication, freedom will spread its wings. A Democratic Iraq will bring enlightenment, economic prosperity, tolerance and, hopefully, a repeatable formula to end state-sponsored terror throughout the world.