More from the Swift vets

Our actions have consequences, things we say and do in the past can often come back to haunt us. John Kerry is learning this lesson the hard way again. The Swiftboat Vets are releasing a new add and are using Kerry's own words to condemn him. On several occasions Kerry said in interviews he threw away his medals he received from Vietnam. Later he said he only threw away the service ribbons and not the medals themselves.

This is old news and normally wouldn't be a very effective add. However, one block of votes Kerry is targeting is the veteran's vote. In the early 1970s, it wasn't popular to be a veteran and many vets did protest the war once they got back. However, Kerry is trying to run as a war hero and they don't throw away something as precious as their medals. Now the focus of the adds is not whether Kerry threw away his ribbons or medals.

To the vets, if he threw away EITHER, he said what those metals represented was not worth anything. The question of should we have been in Vietnam is still open, but the actions of those who served honorably there is not open. They were asked by their country to go and they went and served to the best of their abilities. Their sacrifices were not in vain and their metals were and are honorable. By replaying Kerry's audio clip where he proudly claimed to throw away his medals, the Swift Vets are reminding Vietnam vets what Kerry thought of their own service back then. Again this normally would not be a big issue. After all, President Clinton didn't go to Vietnam at all. But Kerry is running as a war hero and hero's don't throw away their medals.

Free speech for me but not for thee

That seems to be attitude of some, or rather many, of the protestors in NY to those attending the Republican convention. The protestors demand the right to assemble, march and speak. Rights that are guaranteed by the US Constitution. However, they do not seem to want to allow others who hold views different from themselves to be able to utilize the same rights. At least without massive police protection.

Some of the delegates personal information has been posted on the web and the post urges "protesters should use the information "in whatever way they see fit.""

NY Daily News reporter spent time with some of the protestors before the convention started and all said that today 31 August will be a "big day" of direct action. Expect more confrontations with the police.

And finally, where are the Democrats? Where is the ACLU? Why are they not denouncing the protestors who are trying to prevent the Republicans from peaceably assemble and use their constitutional rights of free expression? Hillary Clinton, who is in charge of the Democratic Truth squad and is representing New York in the Senate hasn't said anything yet about the policeman who was attacked by the protestors, not because of his politics (which is unknown at this time), not because he was attacking the protestors (he wasn't), but because he was there. His crime was breathing and living and doing his job watching folks on the street. Shouldn't Hillary be denouncing those who attack the first responders?

It will be an interesting week.

Not So Loyal Opposition

Just hooligans and anarchists.

When marchers approached the Garden, a police officer was kicked repeatedly in the head by at least one male demonstrator and was listed in serious condition at an unidentified hospital, the police said. There was no immediate word of an arrest in the assault, the police said. As of 9 p.m., the police said there had been eight protest-related arrests.

Apparently, some think that intimidation is an acceptable form of dissent:

. . .delegates to the Republican National Convention were swarmed by protesters dressed in black and swearing at them. Blocks away, delegates engaged in shoving matches with protesters seeking to spoil their night at the theater. And outside "The Lion King" on 42nd Street, a delegate was punched by a protester who ran by.

What a bunch of #$&(@. I suspect that such behavior, odious as it is, will do Sen. Kerry's bid for President no favors.

Like This Ever Works

Sen. Kerry is offering a deal so that Iran will stop making nuclear weapons. Wait a moment, is this the same deal that Clinton offered North Korea? The same North Korea that is building ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons? The same North Korea that is also threatening to export nuclear weapons if the U.S. doesn't negotiate with it?

Four words to Sen. Kerry: Ain't. Going. To. Work.

Iraq Update

Well, OpinionJournal.com has another installment of the good news in Iraq that the news media may have overlooked in the last two weeks. Check it out and remember that the media likes to print the bad news and the blood and guts because it will sell papers and commercials. There is good news as well and while Iraq has lots of problems we should remember things are not as bad as the press would like us to think it is.

How much storage space do you want???

I have a 20 gig hard drive on my 2 year old computer and its still mostly empty.

May 2004 Forbs :

"In a keynote speech to the [recent World Wide Web conference in New York],
Microsoft's head of research Rick Rashid described what consumers might do
with a terabyte of data storage that costs around $1,000, and is capable of
holding more than 1 trillion bytes of computer data.

What's fascinating to note is that we can, just three months later, ALREADY purchase Rashid's terabyte of storage for LESS than his "$1,000." As we recently found out www.theharrowgroup.com/articles/20040510/20040510.htm#_Toc71429047),
a terabyte of storage can already be yours for $840 or less!

So now instead of not filling up much of a 20 gig drive, I'll be able to have 1,000 gigs (terabyte) with the same data or here is what we may be able to expect in 5 years.

Because if patents owned by the president of Colossal Storage Corporation,
Michael E. Thomas, pan out, we may have not one, but 100 terabytes (that's 100
TERAbytes!, or ten-thousand gigabytes!) on a $45 removable 3.5-inch disk! The
drive will cost about $650. In five years.

Ok, who is saying were likely to have so much storage space that even Bill Clinton will finish his speech before he can fill the hard drive (see the 1988 Democratic Convention where Clinton almost sunk his chance to be President before the race even started)? Well Jeff Harrow at the Harrow Report is one. His news letter has been a pretty good heads up on storage and computer power at least for non-science folks. He takes some pretty cutting edge technology stuff and writes it in a way that even for folks with out a hard science degree (like me) can understand what's going on in the lab.

I'm not sure what I would do with all the storage space that is likely to becoming down the pipeline, but with the explosion of phone camera's, PDA camera's and likely camera's in car and everywhere else, we are going to be a very watched world. I can just see it now, we will have cameras recording where we are going, as well as looking out the sides and rear so in an accident, there will be a video recording of what was happening and who is at fault.

The "silly" season or week has started

Well its Monday and now its a contest between the protestors and the Republican Convention to see who will get their message across.

One question though. If the anti-Bush protestors value the 1st Amendment (well the free speech part anyway), why are they so determined to prevent the Republicans from meeting and speaking? I don't seem to remember lots of conservatives protesting the Democratic Convention last month, maybe I missed it.

Shawn Macomber at The American Spectator has a nice write up on the protests from a first person viewpoint (his) and a question.

The catch phrase of the day was, "Dissent is Patriotic." I saw not a hint
of irony on the faces of the mob as they demanded, for hours on end,
"Republicans go home!" and "GOP scum, leave our city!

"Let's think about this for a moment: There are 5,000 Republican delegates in town for the convention. Protest organizers predict the final count will be somewhere around 250,000 and I've no reason to doubt the figure. So protesters will outnumber delegates 50 to one.

At what point exactly, I asked several members of the Question Authority
Brigade, is one group far enough in the minority that they become, well,
dissenters? Sputtering, uncomprehending rage was all I got in response.

Its going to be an interesting week.

A View from the Ground

Roger Simon gets down in NYC with the protests and then talks to some cops:

'It's like fuggin' 9/11 never happened.'

Indeed. Vote Kerry, because Bush and Cheney flew the freakin' airplanes into the tower.

Ken Wheaton is also on the ground with choice pics as well.

Once again, gotta give it up for the city of New York and the NYPD for having to put up with irresponsible dissent.

(big hat tip to Allah and Dean's World)

"Why I'm Moving to Israel"

American intern heads to Israel permanantly.

I was overcome with the realization that there was a country whose land had been promised to me, where millions of my people lived, yet their lives were so different from mine. I wanted to see that land and that life, learn about it, be part of it.

How's that for naming and claiming a promise from God?

Admiral disputes Kerry's 1st Purple Heart

In today's account of the ongoing Kerry in Vietnam scrum, we find the words of Rear Adm. William L. Schachte, Jr.:

'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.'

The whole mess has devolved to name calling and credibility smearing on both sides. Kerry is on the losing end of it. Schachte has declared himself an independent who really didn't want to get involved until he found his integrity attacked. Not a good way to win friends, influence people and get elected.

As I've said before, this kind of attention is not doing Kerry's election campaign any favors. Clearly, they are on the defensive with the voter's attention drawn to his potential shortcomings.

Already, the LA Times is speculating that the flap is wearing down Kerry's polls.

Thought Police

Hum, apparently, you can't use the word, "Olympics", without needing permission first.

Ridiculous.

Olympic Thoughts

I've been following the Olympics on an occasional basis, perhaps watching a total of about 10 hours to date. So far, things have been interesting: gymnastics surprises and controversy, basketball disappointments, and swimming heroics. It's also been successful from the standpoint that there hasn't been a sniff of terrorism, so far.

The Olympics, however, are an excellent stage for political gamesmanship.

I've always wondered about the way the media provides us with the "medal count" or the "medal tracker" which inevitably breaks down the total medals won by country. As if the success of sport can be measured by the number of accolades that can be won for the country. It seems to me that medal counts ensure that the Olympics will not rid itself of the sense that it is a small battle in a struggle of nation against nation.

Are the Olympics a unifying event? I grant that it provides an opportunity for national pride, certainly Americans will not forget the Miracle on Ice, Mary Lou Retton or Mark Spitz. But at what cost? Are the Olympics merely a chance for nations to flaunt their power? Hitler tried in 1936 to make a political statement at the worldwide games, are the nation states of today guilty of a similar crime, albeit smaller in scale?

How do you answer? They leave that part out

How does one answer questions about their youth and mistakes they made when they are asked by their kids? For me, this is an academic question since I do not have any kids, but for parents, its a question they will most likely have to answer at some point.

The Charleston Daily Mail has a story about Karen Cross, who is now the director of the anti-abortion group West Virginians for Life, and when her daughter was 9 years old asked "Mom, have you ever had an abortion?" Karen had has two when she was younger and before becoming a pro-life advocate.

The decisions we make will often come back to re-visit us later, especially those we would rather forget or wish we had not made. Our choices have consequences no matter what society would like us to believe. (hat tip Lucianne.com)

Win the Battle. . .

. . .lose the war? I'm not entirely sure, but I have a feeling that Kerry really shouldn't file an FEC complaint against the swift boat veterans who are putting up anti-Kerry ads. Kerry could be able to suppress the ads and obtain a backlash against the Bush campaign (despite the fact that the swifties are a third party) but I'm of the opinion that Kerry is just drawing more attention to these issues.

Then again, if enough people have seen the ads, and believe them, then he has no choice but to defend himself. Either way, Kerry is losing precious time and expending energy to fight off these veterans.

UPDATE: LaShawn talks about Kerry's attempt to suppress the book, "Unfit for Command" and thinks Kerry is blundering in that as well. . .for the same reasons as I cite here.

New sports for the Olympics

Ok, so its another slow news day or rather I didn't see anything too exciting in the world of politics so you get fluff.

Hat tip to Sgt. Hook for this column or blog entry on new sports the IOC should consider for the 2008 games, especially given the interest in synchronized events (starting with swimming in 1984, now diving and next???

Ok, this isn't what you might call high brow humor but it is work safe.

Have a good weekend.

A Whole New Meaning to Guzzling

Bear passes out after 36 beers. Prefered brew? Rainier.

Slow News Day

Well its 2:15pm on Thursday and no new posts for today. The news didn't seem to change too much from yesterday. So since there doesn't seem to be a lot going on (at least were not writing about it), we'll have time to watch the Olympics and cheer for our favorite teams, USA, Iraq, Israel, Denmark etc. (depending on the sport). See you tomorrow.

Carpetbloggers

I apologize for the formatting wierdness, but it would appear that Blogspot's inclusion of the danged blogger bar at the top of the window is causing the problems. I'll try to work on it next week as this week I'm pretty swamped with work and things.

(sigh)

I guess I shouldn't expect anything for free.

This won't go over well with the "troops"

That is the other Palestinians who are on the hunger strike.

The terrorists' hunger strike continues for its fourth day - although some leading terrorists feel that they need not starve as "intensively" as their underlings. Marwan Barghouti, head of the Tanzim terrorist group who considers himself a potential candidate to succeed Yasser Arafat, was photographed yesterday sneaking a well-balanced meal in his prison cell, while his fellow terrorists have not had a bite since Saturday night.

When the leaders are not leading honorably, the "troops" will find out (you can be sure the Israelis will tell them) and their morale will decline and basically decide if the leaders are not willing to suffer in the cause, maybe they should not bother either.

More on Kerry and Vietnam

Boston Globe has a story with the following lead:

Senator John F. Kerry is disputing an allegation made by a group of veterans opposed to his presidential candidacy that he never operated inside Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

Meanwhile, the Minneapolis Star Tribute has another story critical of Kerry and basically calling his claim to be in Cambodia during the Vietnam War a lie.

If Kerry would release ALL of his military records, this story will end. Either Kerry will be shown to be a liar or his critics will be. By his refusal to release the records, it is making Kerry look like he has something to hide.

News Roundup for Tuesday

Lot of things going on today and since will be a busy day at work, here are some interesting articles I've found this morning and want to share. My comments will be limited so no novel today. (Hat tip to Lucianne.com where I found all these articles)

New York City is gearing up for the demonstrations that will be held during the Republican Convention. I always keep hearing the Left is for free speech . . . . why are many groups trying to disrupt the convention and prevent the Republicans from having their say?

Some in the Kerry campaign are upset with President Bush's announcement about relocating US troops from Europe and Asia back to the US. The New York Post has a good write up on this and looks at it from the political angle.

The editorial board at the Boston Herald is actually impressed with the latest attack add by Bush against Kerry. That a candidate would officially sanction an attack add in this political climate is unique. The normal routine is to have one's 527's air the add. It also helps that the add is backed up with facts that are easily checked.

Russ Smith at the New York Press has a story about many of the pundits and polling groups seem to have decided that Kerry will win the election and that it is over in all but name. Very interesting especially since Gallop still shows Bush ahead of Kerry.

Finally Patterico's Pontification blog has a long article about the LA Times story on Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia. Well worth reading before, after or instead of the LA Times story. Full disclosure, Patterico also writes for the CaliforniaRepublican.org website so he isn't unbiased but then again he never claims to be (unlike the LA Times).

If true, amazing

Associated Press: Group Discovers John the Baptist Cave

If the cave they found is truly the one used by John the Baptist, then suddenly a major part of the Gospel story is now fact according to the non-religious world. It makes it much harder to simply dismiss the Gospel story if a major portion is corroborated by archaeologists.

But how can someone prove any cave was used by a man who lived 2000 years ago and didn't leave any of his own writings and didn't start a movement of his own? If one believes John the Baptist lived, then its easy to see how this cave could have been his base in the desert. If one does not believe John was a real person or the Gospel anything else then a good story, then other explanations will be found.

Gen Tommy Franks - American Soldier

The Washington Post has a detail review about General Tommy Franks' new book American Soldier. I have not read this book yet, but expect I will purchase it in my next round of book purchases. If you are interested in the book give the review a glance as it will confirm your decision to buy or not buy the book.

Good news from Iraq

I know, I know, good news is the norm so it isn't news. After all, we wouldn't buy too many news papers or watch too much TV news if they reported on all the safe plane landings at LAX or your local airport for that matter.

However, when the media does cover an airline crash, they often if not always make sure to include the statistics on how safe air travel is. By giving some good news (air travel is safer then driving statistically), the media gives balance so the views can put the story into context (an airline crash is bad but air travel is still safe).

With Iraq, we only seem to hear the bad news and never hear the good news. If one was only relying on the media for news in Iraq, one would think everything was wrong and nothing good could ever happen there again. Well a large number of blogs (including some listed on the right side of this page) do talk about the success stories in Iraq. The OpinionJournal.com also has a column about the good news out of Iraq over the last two weeks.

This does not mean that everything is wonderful in Iraq, but the nation is being rebuilt and things are not as bad as they might appear.

Kerry's Campaign Can't Read a Map?

Or is it just spin? The quote in question:

On the Senate floor on March 27, 1986 (Congressional Record, page 6422), Sen. Kerry said:
I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what is was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khme Rouge and Cambodians, and have the President of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; The troops were not in Cambodia…I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me....

Glenn Reynolds summarizes the recent flap over Kerry's claim, a claim that is refuted by the Swift Boat Vets for Truth in several different ways.

Kerry later retracts, but did we hear about it?

. . .on Fox News' "Fox and Friends," Kerry Campaign Advisor Jeh Johnson had this to say to the show's co-host Brian Kilmeade:

JOHNSON: John Kerry has said on the record that he had a mistaken recollection earlier. He talked about a combat situation on Christmas Eve 1968 which at one point he said occurred in Cambodia. He has since corrected the recorded to say it was some place on a river near Cambodia and he is certain that at some point subsequent to that he was in Cambodia. My understanding is that he is not certain about that date.

KILMEADE: I think the term was he had a searing memory of spending Christmas - back in 1986 in the senate floor in Cambodia.

JOHNSON: I believe he has corrected the record to say it was some place near Cambodia he is not certain whether it was in Cambodia but he is certain there was some point subsequent to that that he was in Cambodia.

Where is the media? In full cover up mode, says Reynolds. I agree.

At best, Kerry is in possession of a memory that although was "seared" into his mind, he was mistaken about. A little worse than that, Kerry could be a braggart who stretched the truth--who knows, he might have been in Cambodia, just not on Christmas Day. Absolute worse case, Kerry is simply lying about the whole affair for whatever reason.

Is this germane to the presidential campaign? Only because Kerry has made it germane. He talks about his service in Vietnam and how it has made him fit to be commander in chief. Therefore, if his service is called into question, then we must question his credentials to be commander in cheif.

Weekend Reading

Norman Podhoretz is the editor at large at Commentary Magazine, which is published by The American Jewish Committee. The magazine website is here.

Podhoretz has written a long article, 38 pages titled World War IV, How it Started, What it means and Why We Have to Win. I have not read the article yet, need more time to read it then I have this morning. However, a blurg from the Commnetary Magazine says this as a teaser for the article.

Not to be missed, this essay puts together for the first time the full story of the war and the case for the Bush Doctrine, answers the arguments of the critics, and lays out what is at stake in the struggle ahead. Must reading for the election season.

I hope to have time this weekend to read the article, but may not. If anyone else can read and give comments, please do so. Other contributors can add to this post or start new ones. For everyone else, you can either email (AP1040 at yahoo dot com) me your comments and I will be happy to post them or you can put them into the comments section.

This will hopefully end soon

Tony Blankley at the Washington Times has a very good take on the book "Unfit for Command" and how it is and will affect the Kerry campaign.

Somebody is lying. Either the book is a pack of lies or Kerry is. Both can't be true. If Kerry is telling the truth, he had better tell and release everything he knows to scuttle the book as a lie or he will be hurt. If Kerry says nothing or tries to ridicule the book, it will continue to lend credence that the book is true and Kerry has been lying about his time in Vietnam.

I hope the media will ask the questions to both Kerry and the author of the book to see who is lying and get to the bottom of this.

Minority journalists embarrassed themselves at convention

Dallas Morning News has a story of how the attendees at the Journalists of Color convention managed to shoot themselves in the foot by their actions. Both John Kerry and President Bush spoke at the convention and the reception each got was as expected. The attendees LOVED Kerry while they were not thrilled by Bush.

All week at the conference, I heard minority journalists complain that they're tired of writing about Black History Month and Cinco de Mayo that they want to cover the serious stories.

Well, if the media was honest in its opinion in the US, as it is in the UK (see entry below), they could love Kerry and write the hard news stories with a Kerry twist.

As it is, by openly proclaiming their support for Kerry now, how will these journalists be able to convince their employers and the public of their objectivity?

The same would be true if these journalists LOVED Bush instead of Kerry, how would their employers and the public believe they will be objective in their reporting? It would be nice if the myth of objectivity in the media would be abandoned so honest viewpoints would be shown for all to see and let the public decide if they will support the liberal or conservative viewpoint.

Newspapers

A complaint has been filed with the FTC against the New York Times for false advertising by Jonathan Stein.

"All the news that's fit to print" is false advertising and constitutes a deceptive practice. He claims that the Times' use of "push-polling" is a violation of the FTC Act.

I can't say I'm really happy about this anymore then the

complaint is similar to one filed on July 19, 2004 by MoveOn.org and Common Cause against Fox News' use of the phrase "Fair and Balanced."

In both cases, groups opposed to the editorial view point of the media are trying to silence the media.

I think we would be much better off if we just acknowledge that the media is no objective and never has been. In the US, the media didn't decide to become objective until recently. Want proof? Well, why are there so many papers (especially in the South) that have Democrat or Democratic in their names? They started out giving voice for the Democratic Party. Why do a number of papers in New England have the name Union in their name? They were promoting the viewpoint the US was a Union of states, not separate states.

In the UK, there are papers that have a liberal (Guardian) and conservative (Telegraph) view points. Everyone expects it and it frees the journalists to write the way they want and lets the public know what view point the paper is stressing. Of course the good writers will include opposing view points and by showing both sides of the argument and still concluding their view point is correct gives more credence that they are correct.

Sending the government to attack the media outlet one doesn't agree with is bad news for the US and for the truth.

Surprise of the Day

Like we didn't see a civil lawsuit against Kobe Bryant coming. I'm wondering if the woman in question figures that her civil case would be in jeopardy because of recent setbacks in the criminal case. The thinking may be that it is better to avoid a damaging loss of the criminal case.

Tragic. Tragic that she may have been raped. Tragic that Kobe Bryant, father and husband committed adultary. The indelible image of a reputation destroyed,

"'I shouldn't have to say anything. You know I would never do something like that,' Bryant said in the brief telephone interview."

And then, after charges were filed,

A tearful Bryant, claiming innocence while rupturing the fabric of his family values, said at a Friday night news conference that he was "disgusted at myself for making the mistake of adultery."

Sudan Roundup

When is genocide not genocide? Probably when thecountry isn't politically important, like Sudan. Here, the EU will not label the deaths (estimated at 30,000) genocide. The potential exists for many more to lose their lives in the resulting chaos due to starvation and, presumably, disease as the population seeks shelter in refugee camps.

More than 1 million people were displaced after the pro-government militias, known as janjaweed, attacked villages, burning, raping and killing. Human rights groups say the government is using the janjaweed to drive villagers from the land and give it to tribes loyal to Khartoum.

Despite the fact that the Sudanese government cannot control the state-backed Arab militias, the Arab League rejected any kind of military intervention, in support of the government's position that only Sudan's military will handle the situation. A rather short sighted decision. Earlier, the U.N. blamed the Sudanese government for the situation, although Sudan blames the rebels.

the U.N. investigator on executions, said there was "overwhelming evidence" that killings in Darfur were carried out "in a coordinated manner by the armed forces of the government and government-backed militias."

...

"This war was started by the rebels, not by the government. So the rebels should be held responsible," Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told the BBC.

We are, apparently, seeing a repeat of the Balkans. It is doubtful that the U.N. or any other interested party simply cannot or will not move quickly enough to halt the looming disaster. As Rwanda unfolded, the lack of concern, public outcry and government policy confused me. For that same matter, there was a similar feeling about the events in the country that was once called Yugoslavia. If 30,000 Palestinians were massacred or 1,000,000 Jews displaced, the spotlight would be blinding and action would be swift. It is, regrettably, the result that Africa is not a region with the political importance or influence as the Middle East.

Around the Web

Slow day today. Monday Blues. So, without further ado, the stuff I've found interesting this morning.

Over at the Indepundit, Citizen Smash recounts his recent activities in providing a counterpoint to a radical left protest:

[Smash:] “Hey, they present their message, we present ours, and the public decides – that’s democracy.”

“Democracy?” [the protester] sounds upset. “You’re trying to suppress speech – that’s fascism!”

“Nonsense – we all have freedom of speech in this country. There’s a free marketplace of ideas.”

“You mean, like competition?” He replies, derisively.

“Exactly. And if the people keep buying our ideas instead of yours, maybe it’s time for you to try out some new ones.”

LaShawn Barber summarizes the Kerry-Swift boat bruhaha ("Kerry should be a man and clear up the whole thing"), but Roger L. Simon thinks that Kerry can be impeached for lying about Kerry's involvement in Cambodia, if the senator did, indeed, lie. (tip of the coolie hat to Allah)

No, tell us how you really feel please. . . .

Adam Sparks has a long article on why Kerry will lose the election and Bush will win. Unfortunately, its all conjecture and the polls don't agree with Sparks.

Don't get me wrong, I hope Sparks is correct and Bush wins in a landslide and brings 6 to 10 new Senators with him, but I'm not expecting that in this election.

Still its a nice change from the normal fare one sees in the SF Chronicle.

Michael Moore Hates America

Not a statement about the filmmaker, but the title of a documentary that "tells the truth about a great nation." Hmmm. Any film that is going to interview Penn Jillette is one that has to be on my list of "must sees".

Jesus Wasn't A Liberal

And neither was he a conservative. Clearly, God is bigger and better than the political ideologies that a sinful world promulgates as the "right" worldview. There is no right worldview except God's worldview: all man is fallen and sinful.

In a sense, I would agree with the Democratic ideology that the individual is not capable of being good; therefore, the corporate body must take care of the individual. However, their policies tend to obviate the personal responsibility that God assigns to each person over their own lives. Each person is responsible for themselves, their relationship with God and their dealings with others. Jesus preached over and over that it is what is inside the man that matters; not that a man was Jewish and a member of the Sanhedrian.

God is not a Democrat or a Republican. He isn't even Independent. This is why I'm bugged by Jesse Jackson:

Think about it: A conservative Christian is a contradiction in terms. Christ wasn’t a conservative. He fed the hungry simply because they were hungry. He didn’t require that they go to work first. He healed the sick, simply because they were sick. He didn’t push them into an insurance company, or let the drug companies gouge them on prices. Jesus was a liberal; Herod was the conservative.

LaShawn Barber demonstrates why Jesse Jackson's comment that Jesus is a liberal Democrat is wrong wrong wrong.

Implicit is the common notion that conservatives don’t care about the poor. Liberals think they’ve cornered the market on compassion simply because they advocate bigger government programs to do the caring and feeding. To sum up the difference between liberal compassion and true compassion, I’ll borrow an old saying: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Kerry, learn from Gore

John Kerry should learn something from Al Gore's 2000 campaign. Don't lie and make your lies so easily refutable that it makes you look silly. You loose credibility.

John Kerry says if he had been President on 9-11, he would not have sat there for 7 minutes before acting. No, he would have sat there for 40 minutes, not being able to think.

Not only does Kerry look like a Michael Moore stooge as Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani says by taking a line from Moore's movie, but it also invites comparisons on what Kerry did do. And it wasn't flattering.

July 8, 2004 Kerry gave an interview with Larry King (not 30 days ago) and said

Kerry: "...And as I came in [to a meeting in Sen. Daschle's office], Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon...".

As The Ponderosa and Redstate say (and Hat Tip to both), you cannot see the Pentagon from the Capital building (although if they were in the Senate office building and not on the Hill it might be possible, I don't know the distance well enough) and that the second plane hit the WTC at 9:03 am while the Pentagon wasn't hit until 9:43AM, that's 40 minutes of inaction.

The transcript with Larry King is still up and its towards the end of the interview.

Free advice to John Kerry, stick to the truth, don't invent lies, its less embarrassing when people check up on you and you know they will because you are running for President.

How will it end?

The controversy of John Kerry's medals earned in Vietnam continues.

First from the New York Post saying Kerry received his first purple heart when he should not have and is not flattering.

The second is from The Boston Globe where one of the veterans who originally claimed Kerry lied about his medals is retracting some if not all of his claims.

I would rather give Kerry the benefit of the doubt and say he got his medals and leave it at that. Who cares. What has he done since he got back? After all, if serving in Vietnam and getting medals is the only reason Kerry can think of why he should be president, then there are literally hundreds of thousands of other Vietnam Vets who qualify and should be on the ballot. I'd rather look at what he has done since then. After all, the Democratic Party said in 92 and 96 it wasn't necessary to serve in the military to be a good President.

US on the offensive in Iraq

You were a military commander or a leader and were told your forces were engaged by the enemy for the last two days. After the fighting was over, your forces suffered 300 dead plus more wounded and the other side losses were 3 dead and 12 wounded, what would your reaction be? Well American commanders would be wondering what the heck went wrong and how were they so soundly defeated. Muqtada al-Sadr shouts defiance and is looking for more.

Some people never learn.

Good Bye and don't let the door hit you on the way out

Well, that is what the US Government could be saying to Bobby Fisher if he goes through with his plans on renouncing his US Citizenship. He is currently being held in Japan while the US is asking for his extradition for traveling to Yugoslavia when it was under international sanctions in 1993. While he is a great chess player, he won't be missed by the vast majority of Americans.

Fischer's distaste for the United States is well-known. In a radio interview, he once praised the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying America should be "wiped out."

My only comment is the US should let him go and just insure if he is ever in trouble the 911 call to the US will not be answered.

Axis of Evil re-visited

Foreign policy pundits scoffed when George W. Bush labelled Iran, Iraq and North Korea an "axis of evil" in his 2002 State of the Union address. But since then, Mr. Bush's assessment has proven to be worryingly accurate.
Iran, however, continues unchecked in its drive to become a nuclear power, and still supports international terrorist groups such as Hezbollah. Meanwhile, the last of the trio, the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea, is forging ahead with its own reckless attempts to add to its existing nuclear stockpile.
Pyongyang is thought to have already processed enough plutonium to arm eight nuclear warheads. And Jane's Defence Weekly reported this week that the rogue nation is preparing to deploy nuclear-tipped missiles. According to the reputable publication, the North Korean navy will use scrapped Russian submarines as launching pads.

As reported earlier, we need missile defense. But I wonder if those who scoffed about calling Iran and North Korea as evil as Iraq are becoming more concerned and if they owe an apology to President Bush for drawing attention to these countries and their ambitions.

More on Dem Suppression

Apparently, it's not just the DNP, but also members of congress who are now taking up the cudgel to gag Fox News because of a perception of liberal bias. Despite at least one study that called Fox more mainstream than any of the other major news outlets.

Cripes.

UPDATE: There is a link to the original UPI piece that reports this.

MORE UPDATE: Of course, if the the veterans group is, how shall we say, stretching the truth, then they should be tossed on their legal keister.

Dems Trying to Suppress Truth?

So who's the one squashing the freedom of speech? The Dems are sticking the lawyers on any television station attempting to air the anti-Kerry ad by veterans.

Lessons from the other Warsaw Uprising

Jonathan Tobin at JWR has a very good article on the lessons Europe and the world should remember from the Warsaw uprising. No not the Jewish ghetto uprising, the second one. When the Soviet Army was close to Warsaw, the Polish Government in exile in London radioed the resistance and said to take arms and liberate Warsaw like the French liberated Paris before the Americans got to the city. The Soviet Army would then enter a liberated city and defend it against the inevitable Nazi counter attack. At least that is how it worked in France with the US Army.

Stalin didn't want a bunch of non-communist to be around after he "liberated" Poland so the Red Army halted and let the Germans suppress the uprising and kill all the non-communists. It was after that the Soviet Army went forward and "liberated" Warsaw.

What lessons should Europe and the world take from this event? Well Tobin said it best:

Today, the Jews are again under attack, both by a Palestinian war of terrorism and a propaganda war of anti-Semitism, whereby the State of Israel — the place where the survivors of the Shoah found refuge in their ancient homeland — is deligitimized.

At the same time, the rest of the civilized world is also involved in a war, one against fundamentalist Islamic terrorists who seek to destroy Western freedoms.

But like some in the Europe of the 1930s and 1940s, there are many in the West who would like to pretend that the struggle of the Jews for survival is not one related to their own. Though the terrorists have killed thousands in New York and Madrid — and plot who-knows-what sort of mayhem for the future — many, especially in Europe, think the Jews of Israel are expendable.

So rather than join with the Israelis in a common fight against an Islamic movement that has taken up the cudgels that the Nazis laid down in 1945, they stand aside and seek to hamstring the Jews' efforts to defend themselves. They even condemn a defensive fence that seeks to deter suicide bombers, and have the gall to compare it to the ghetto walls that once encircled Jews. They forget that the same killers who today seek the death of the Jews will someday, if they get the chance, come for them, too.

The memory of both the Jewish and the non-Jewish victims of 1943 and 1944 should serve as a reminder that there is no substitute for collective action against a collective threat.

The war on Islamic terror, like the war against Nazism, cannot be divided between a Jewish war and a non-Jewish conflict.

As Europe learned 60 years ago, the monster will not be satisfied with only Jewish blood.

What was he thinking????

I'd think that a stunt such as this would qualify for a Darwin Award, or may be stupid criminals. Although I'm not sure he is one or just someone who is STUPID.

A man pleaded not guilty Monday to knowingly attempting to board a plane
with a loaded handgun, folding knife, and 10 syringes in his carry-on bag.

I mean how STUPID does one have to be to pack a gun, knife and syringes into the bag one is taking on a flight. If they are to be stored at another place, shouldn't they be put in a SEPARATE bag or box?

His lawyers explanation doesn't seem credible to me.

Defense attorney Ben Wasserman said at "the defendant's" bail hearing last month that his client had forgotten he was carrying the weapons. He said his client was on his way to Virginia to sell some property.

"The defendant" told authorities he had planned to put the gun and knife in his bag to take them to a safe in his garage, but didn't remember. Then he planned to leave them at his son's house, he said, but he was in such a rush that he forgot again.

Amazing. If the defendant is telling the truth, he is too stupid to be allowed to own weapons.

If he is a bad guy, he was too stupid to succeed. The odds of putting a gun and other weapons into luggage and expect to get it through security without getting caught, well that makes the odds on the Lottery look attractive.

Maybe he was to probe the security to see if such weapons could be gotten through or maybe he wanted to engage in his own private war. I just hope they take him out of circulation for a long LONG time.

Swift Boat Veterans on the Offensive

And its against Kerry. A few veterans are running a web ad that is calling Kerry a liar on his Vietnam record. Warning: the link will start running a video. The script of the ad is also online.

Kerry's phony war crimes charges, his exaggerated claims about his own service in Vietnam, and his deliberate misrepresentation of the nature and effectiveness of Swift boat operations compels us to step forward.

Pretty tough body blows to the Dem Presidential candidate.

O-VER-RA-TED

Once again, the true nature of the quality of Team USA is exposed as they are blown out by Italy 95-78.

This, I think, shows that the NBA is just playing a different game than the internationals. I don't mean different strategy, but that the game is simply different. NBA players won't get the calls that they get during a regular season: ticky tac fouls, carryovers, generous two or three steps holding the ball. Internationals play as a team, they actually play defense, and they emphasizes the outside game. Americans favor dunks, can't bust a zone, go one on one all the time and emphasize the individual. Fun to watch, but may not be terribly effective.

Team USA is going to have a rough go at it during the Olympics.

French Decline

A rather interesting piece on a trend among French who feel the tension between participating in increasing globalization and an erosion of their national identity.

Say what you will about France, and there have been some snide remarks made by myself as well, but they have great pride in their country. They are patriots. I admire that.

More on the Bounce

I'm pretty much convinced that Kerry's lack of a bounce fortells a non-bounce for Bush as well. Voters, I think, have been polarized in this election a lot earlier. The comments section at La Shawn Barber's corner runs the numbers on the WaPo poll that shows Kerry over Bush by 6% (+/- margin of error of course).

In the Aftermath of "Shove It"

It would appear that "Shove it" could be the one slogan that America carries away from the Democratic National Convention:

Teresa Heinz Kerry's "shove it" phrase to a Pittsburgh editor was the most cited Kerry campaign message in the press last week — mentioned 381 times in American publications, according to Factiva,

...

Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign mottos did not resonate with the press, according to Factiva. "One America" got 57 mentions, "Hope is on the way," 50 mentions and "America can do better" just 21 by week's end.

Helluva way to begin a campaign.

The most shameful result of this incident is the treatment of the questioner who triggered Heinz-Kerry's outburst:

. . .Mr. McNickle swiftly became the target of partisan ire, inspired by what he termed the "DNC's liberal attack machine."

In hundreds of e-mails and telephone calls to his office and home, and even on the street, Mr. McNickle's life was threatened. He was called a "Nazi" and a variety of obscene names, and had death wished upon him.

Whatever Mr. McNickle's stand on politics, freedom of the press deserves better treatment than others have given him. Such treatment smacks of Stalinist tactics to intimidate the press into submission. The left has there own brownshirts.

Korea War part 2 coming up?

The North Korean government is spending an incredibly large percentage of the entire countries output on the military. Upwards of 40% of the GDP. To put that into perspective, if the US Government spent that much on its military, the yearly budget for the Defense Department would be $4 Trillion a year. Yes, that is trillion with a T.

North Korea knows it cannot win a war against the US and South Korea if it is fought on conventional rules. But if they are able to make the refinements to their nuclear weapons so they can be fitted onto their missiles, then suddenly the North can threaten to attack Japan with nuclear weapons if they get involved (by letting the US use its bases) in a Korea conflict. Their missiles also have the range to hit Hawaii, Taiwan and much of South East Asia. Suddenly there are lots of people who are at risk if war breaks out. North Korea is also working on a sea launched missile which could then hit the US west coast mainland.

We can counter with our own nukes, but then we still lose. Is the US and the rest of Asia willing to risk nuclear war to defend South Korea? Is South Korea willing to risk nuclear war to stay free or will they decide to just fold and surrender to the North?

The need for missile defense is more urgent then ever. Otherwise our next president will face some very unpleasant choices. Abandon South Korea or risk nuclear war in Asia and possibly Hawaii and the Western US.

This isn't an academic choice for me as I live in Los Angeles and would be the target of any NK missile.

Is it 2004 or 1954???

DENVER — Students at the University of Colorado at Boulder can take the popular "School and Society" course on Fridays — as long as they're not students of color.

That particular section is reserved for whites, according to a course description. It is also open to those of any race who are first-generation college students. Other students can take the course, which is a requirement for education majors, but during a different period.

Does the above statement bother you? I hope so. I thought the civil rights laws, as well as the US Constitution prevented discrimination based on skin color.

Well change the words "white" and "student of color" and you have the policy of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Discrimination is wrong. This is not an issue of reverse discrimination, it is just discrimination based on skin color. I hope the students who are protesting will file a lawsuit and the jury awards them lots of money. Then the State of Colorado will have to pay the bill and the residence of that State can ask why their taxes are going up to pay for a settlement for an out of control university.

Only when the voters feel pressure will change happen because they will insure the Legislators will enact the reforms or vote the changes in themselves.

Kerry's Dovish Position Might Not be an Issue

Andrew Sullivan summarizes Kerry's stance on the war gleaned from the senator's presidential nomination acceptance speech:

"No mention of democracy in Iraq or Afghanistan. No mention of the terrorist forces that are amassed there. No reference to the elections scheduled for January. No mention of Iran. And the whole point is about process - about how to wage a war, not whether it should be waged. This is a man who clearly wants the U.S. out of the region where our future is at stake, and who believes that simply by taking office, other powers can somehow pick up the slack. Memo to Kerry: no other powers can pick up the slack. They don't have the troops or the technology or the will. His strategy is pure defense. This sentence is his strongest threat: 'Any attack will be met with a swift and certain response.' So let's wait, shall we? "

Clearly, in the war on terror, Kerry will be reactive, not proactive. He will be waiting, not forcing the issue. In short, Kerry will prove to be weak.

But I think that the Bush Administration is in real trouble.

Why? If an attack were to come about (highly likely), then the Democrats can make the point that the current administration cannot protect America. Bush loses. If no attack comes about (which I really hope for), then Kerry's weakness in defense falls out of the national consciousness and Kerry can try to win with his other policies.

It's easy to win as a dove when there is no need for a hawk.

The Coming Violence In New York

Allah runs through the impending violence that will occur at the Republican National Convention. He cites protest organization material for what appears to be organized rioting. One group's faq:

What is a Black Bloc?

A black bloc is a collection of anarchists and anarchist affinity groups that organize together for a particular protest action.The flavor of the black bloc changes from action to action, but the main goals are to provide solidarity in the face of a repressive police state and to convey an anarchist critique of whatever is being protested that day.

...

Why do black blocs attack the police?

During your typical street demonstration, the police inevitably show up and start causing problems. People might be exercising their rights to march down the street, or they might be hanging out in front of some building, but the cops can be counted on to show up and start causing problems. When you see violence in the streets during protests coming from protesters, most of the time this is in response to police violence. The police have attacked numerous black blocs without provocation and some participants in these black blocs have opted to fight back.

Secondly, because the police are in the way. While most anarchists oppose police brutality and seek an end to policing and prisons, our main targets are the rich and powerful. Since the police are the violent face of capitalism--in other words, the guard dogs for the rich--they are on the frontlines when the anarchists show up to pursue our class war against the rich.

Man, you have to feel for the NYPD who have to not only have to protect the city from what will be most likely the juiciest terrorist target in four years, but also to have to deal with these wahoos. If New York gets away without a car bomb going off, it will be a miracle.

Good news on Iraq

The boss said I'm either feast or famine. I either blog lots or none. Well, I may not be able to blog on Tuesday and there are lots of interesting things in today's media.

OpinionJournal.com has a good column about the good news in Iraq that we never seem to hear about in the US. Better yet, the column links to a large number of stories in non-US media where the stories come from.

If you want to know of some of the success stories in Iraq, read the column. Iraq is not the perfect place, but things there are improving much faster then one might believe from the US media. It would be interesting to compare how things have improved in Iraq in the last year or so and how conditions in Europe improved from May 1945 to December 1946.

More on "Dems the fakes"

Reading Andrew's link to the Ezra Levant piece, I found it to be a highly amusing piece. A good article for a bluesy Monday. The Canadian (presumably) gives us a pretty tight summary of the Dem strategy this year: Trying to appear pro-war when they're not. Winning over non-Democratic Party Americans, convinced that the war in Iraq is right, is the daunting task before the Democrats. The crux of the matter is this:

But the fact is -- according to every poll since 9/11 -- the American public, while concerned about the war on terror and the situation in Iraq, wants to win that war, and that the war remains their most pressing issue.

That is a challenge for the Dems, who have been anti-military since Vietnam. There is not one major military system that John Kerry didn't oppose while in the Senate, from missiles to bombers to infantry fighting vehicles -- the very tools that America now relies on today.

According to a New York Times poll, 93% of delegates to the Democratic convention oppose the war.

But the American people don't, and despite the hysterics of the Democrats' Michael Moore/Howard Dean wing, the kind of anti-Bush, anti-war, anti-military hatred that Democrat activists feel won't work on election day -- it will result in a George McGovern-style blowout at the polls.

This is why we keep hearing about Kerry the "war hero", but not the anti-war protesting Kerry that showed up after his three months. Obviously, I'm convinced that Kerry is not the man for the job. It comes down to this: Would I feel safer with Kerry or Bush?

It sure does irritate me that I'm living in a state that will probably fall into the Kerry column come November 2. Is there any way I can get an absentee for Ohio?

Final on the Democratic convention

Ezra Levant at the Calgary Sun has an interesting column on the Democratic convention. Its interesting to see a Canadian saying this compared to many (if not most) American columnists saying the opposite.

Set phasers on stun captain

The military is testing a laser weapon which would stun people and animals but would keep their hearts and lungs working. If this works, well, Star Trek is closer then we thought. If this works, I will be the second in line to buy one (figure the boss will be first and point it at anyone who dares ask his daughters out on a date in 15 years or so.

Hatch Act violation??

For anyone who has never worked for the Federal Government, the Hatch Act may seem like a very dry bit of federal law. For federal employees (civilian and military) its front and center, especially in election years. To put it simply, federal employees are NOT allowed to engage in political operations and all agencies are not allowed to be political by hosting candidates for campaign rallies.

It also means federal employees cannot work for or against a candidate or a proposition. While a get out the vote drive or registering people to vote would technically be OK, it would be frowned upon because it could easily cross the line. One could help people fill out a voter registration form but if they suggest which party to join, then its a BIG no-no.

So when Kerry went to NASA and held a campaign stop, did he violate the Hatch Act? Its being investigated by the Office of Special Council who handles all Hatch Act violations. From the article, it appears no violation took place but it did come close. NASA employees to attended the "Town Hall" event had to take vacation time from work, and the building the event was held in was a federal auditorium that rents out its space to all who want to use it for what ever lawful purpose. The tour afterwards could be a problem since Kerry wasn't there on official Congressional business.

It will be interesting to see if anything more is written about this or if the matter drops.

Changes have been implemented

One of the biggest failings of US Intelligence agencies before the attack on 9-11 was their lack of cooperation and sharing of information. The correction per the commission is to create a new agency that would merge or manage all the intelligence agencies and insure they worked together without any artificial barriers.

Well, the agencies seem to have learned their lesson and have been and are working together. A re-org of the US intelligence may be necessary but now, the CIA, FBI and Defense are working together and meeting together. And the results have been impressive.

Before 9-11, the agencies and the Justice Department was overly concerned about preventing ANY action that could violate privacy or due process both domestically and overseas. Now there has been a correcting balance so the agencies can work together without having to have the Justice Department sign off on everything. Hopefully the agencies will have learned their lessons and also keep thing in balance to prevent the problems from the 1960's which lead to the over correction of the 1970s and later.