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Thursday, April 29, 2004
Is The Washington Post Now Part of the Republican Attack Machine?
Just last week (April 21st) the Washington Post wote an editorial criticizing John Kerry's flip-flopping on promoting a "stable" Iraq over a Democratic Iraq (meaning "stability" even if its a theocratic dictatorship vs democracy and all of its natural uncertainties). Well, the Washington Post is at it again regarding John Kerry's inadequate responses to very legitimate critiques by the Bush campaign and Vice-President Cheney:
The biggest worry, however, is that relatively insignificant controversies from the candidates' youth will drown out discussion of the momentous issues that will confront the commander in chief in the coming four years. Mr. Bush's precise whereabouts in 1973, and whether Mr. Kerry threw away his medals or his ribbons -- these seem to us to matter somewhat less than how the two men might differ in policy toward Iraq or North Korea.If people like the Washington Post are jumping off the bandwagon (in addition to the other liberal media outlets), maybe this could turn out to be 1984 all over again . . . and wouldn't that just be awesome.
That's why the Kerry campaign's response to Mr. Cheney's speech this week was so inadequate. In his address in Fulton, Mo., Mr. Cheney was unsparing in his criticism of Mr. Kerry, but his line of attack had nothing to do with Vietnam. Rather, Mr. Cheney questioned Mr. Kerry's record on defense and foreign policy, asserting that he "has given us ample grounds to doubt the judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security." Some of his points were unfair; for instance, Mr. Kerry's proposed cuts in the intelligence budget a decade ago aren't evidence, as Mr. Cheney would have it, of a "deeply irresponsible" attitude toward funding the war on terrorism. But the vice president's recitation of what he termed Mr. Kerry's "inconsistencies and changing rationales" on Iraq, from the Persian Gulf War to the present, gets to the heart of what this campaign needs to be about: America's place in the world, the right and wrong times to use force and similar weighty questions. Recalling Mr. Cheney's multiple draft deferments isn't a rebuttal; both campaigns need to engage on the merits.
The Bush Boom Keeps on Booming
In another display of the continuing strength of the Bush economy, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures came in at 4.2%. GDP is the sum of all final sales of goods and services produced in the United States. This is the first time in 10 years the economy had 3 straight quarters of better than 4% growth and the best annual GDP in 20 years. Also labor statistics revealed that unemployment claims keep dropping as companies continue to staff up to meet the needs of this booming economy:
The U.S. economy grew at a 4.2 percent seasonally adjusted annual rate in the first quarter, marking the third straight quarter of strong growth, the Commerce Department estimated Thursday.This is all before tax-payers get their refund checks (which should arrive in May through June). So there is another "pop" left in the Bush tax cuts. Additionally, every analyst on CNBC's "Squawk Box" expects revisions to these numbers to reveal an even stronger economy so hold on to your hats as the Bush Boom continues to ride through the rest of the election cycle and into a 2nd Term for George W. Bush!
The nation's real gross domestic product increased by 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter and by 8.2 percent in the third quarter. It's the first time in 10 years that the economy grew faster than 4 percent for three quarters in a row.
GDP is up 4.9 percent in the past year, the biggest gain in 20 years.
In separate releases Thursday, the Labor Department said employment costs increased 1.1 percent in the first quarter as benefit costs soared 2.4 percent. Meanwhile, the four-week average for first-time jobless claims slipped to 346,500 as weekly claims fell by 18,000 to 338,000.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Campaign Chairman Marc Racicot Stumps in Maine
Pointing out the votes that could have directly impacted jobs in Maine and our liberation efforts against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and the terrorist regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Marc Racicot fires away at John Kerry's attempts to gut the military:
Former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, the national chairman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, questioned Sen. John Kerry's commitment to the Aegis destroyer program Tuesday during a visit to Bath Iron Works territory.Do your part for the campaign by becoming a participating in an Action Item.
Racicot accused the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate of voting against funding for BIW's bread-and-butter warship at least 10 times.
Racicot spent part of the day in Maine at the Arrowsic home of Richard and Alice Higgins to highlight what Republicans claim is Kerry's "troubling record on national security and his inconsistent support for our troops."
"This is not an assault on John Kerry's patriotism. It's on his (voting) record," Racicot said.
He pointed out that the first strikes in Operation Iraqi Freedom were made from Aegis-equipped warships. Aegis-equipped warships were also instrumental in the initial attacks against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Wisconsin On My Mind
The folks in the Badger state will be getting a double-whammy of high powered guests in the coming weeks as President Bush's campaign tour stops in Wisconsin the week of May 3rd (his 10th visit to the state) and Vice-President Cheney will swing through on Friday for a fundraising appearance. If you can't be at either of these visits, do your part and show support for these great leaders and volunteer or join in the local events in your area in support of the President's re-election.
It's Wictory Wednesday
Here is Polipundit's post:
Among John Kerry's laughable attempts to mislead the American voter have been his claims to have voted for and against funding for our troops in Iraq, his claim that he doesn't own an SUV, even though his "family" owns one, and his recent attempt to explain away the 1971 tape where he claimed to have thrown away his medals.
John Kerry as president would make Bill Clinton seem like a model of probity. He is not the sort of leader our country can afford in these times.
Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, dozens of bloggers ask their readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush 2004 campaign.
If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays simply by putting up a post like this one every Wednesday, asking your readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign. And then e-mail wictory@blogsforbush.com so that you'll be added to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll, which will be part of the Wictory Wednesday post on all participating blogs:
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Is John Kerry Participating in Off-Shore Tax Shelters?
The Boston Globe has done some investigative reporting on John Kerry's tax evasions:
An off-shore tax shelterHypocrisy -- the true idology of the Left.
Documents obtained by the Globe detail John Kerry's 1983 investment of between $25,000 and $30,000 in offshore companies registered in the Cayman Islands. The document below, signed by Kerry, shows his pledge to purchase 2,470 shares of Peabody Commodities Trading Corp. through Sytel Traders, registered in the Caymans.
Bush Strong With Young Voters
NEW YORK, April 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Sen. John Kerry, who once held a commanding, double-digit advantage over President George W. Bush among young Americans, now finds himself in a statistical dead heat with the president among voters aged 18-29, according to the latest Newsweek and Newsweek.com GENext poll. While Kerry leads Bush within the margin of error, 45 percent to 42 percent, in February, 56 percent of 18-29 year-olds said they supported the senator versus 42 percent who said they would vote for Bush. The decline for Kerry among young voters comes as the candidate appears to be losing ground overall. An AP/Ipsos poll of registered voters taken at the time of the GENext poll showed Bush leading Kerry within the margin of error, 45 percent to 44 percent. Eight weeks ago, Kerry led Bush 48 percent to 45 percent in a Newsweek Poll.Hat tip Jonah Goldberg.
The Worst of Bill Clinton in the Kerry Campaign
I shudder at the thought of a return to the worst of Bill Clinton in the John Kerry Campaign for President. If you recall Bill Clinton's famous Monica Lewinsky scandal involved Bill Clinton "coaching" Betty Currie that she should testify before the grand jury that Bill Clinton was never alone with Monica Lewinsky and Monica was the agressor in any desire for sexual escapades. As we all know, depite denials this was a scandalous rumor, Bill Clinton had an initmate (most would say sexual) relationship with the then-intern.
Fast forward to today's rumor mill in the press and you will see that John Kerry was most likely at a meeting in 1971 where they discussed assassinating United States Senators:
[S]everal news organizations, including The Kansas City Star and The New York Sun, have recently reported that Mr. Kerry also attended the meeting of the group in Kansas City, Mo., in late 1971 where killing opponents of the war was discussed.But when investigative reporters look into such scandalous activities and uncover witnesses that say Kerry was there, what is the reaction of the Kerry campaign? They bully these witnesses into changing their story:
Mr. Kerry says he still has no memory of being there but does not dispute the F.B.I. files.
When questions were raised last month about whether a 27-year-old John Kerry had attended a Kansas City meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War where the assassination of senators was discussed, the Kerry presidential campaign went into action.In what is an amazing must read from Sunday, David Halbfinger of the New York Times exposes Kerry's antiwar past and reveals the worst tendancies of his campaign. We see Kerry's campaign trying to change the history as the witnesses recollect above. But we also see the Kerry campaign trying to have it both ways where they laud Kerry's Vietnam service, but fail to mention and actively avoid Kerry's 2 years as an agressive anti-war activist even though not everyone is ready to put to rest their extremist activities:
It accepted the resignation of a campaign volunteer in Florida, Scott Camil, the member of the antiwar group who raised the idea in November 1971 of killing politicians who backed the war. The campaign pressed other veterans who were in Kansas City, Mo., 33 years ago to re-examine their hazy memories while assuring them that Mr. Kerry was sure he had not been there.
John Musgrave, a disabled ex-marine from Baldwin City, Kan., who told The Kansas City Star that Mr. Kerry was at the meeting, said he got a call from John Hurley, the Kerry campaign's veterans coordinator.
"He said, `I'd like you to refresh your memory,' " Mr. Musgrave, 55, recounted in an interview, confirming an account he had given to The New York Sun. "He said it twice. `And call that reporter back and say you were mistaken about John Kerry being there.' "
To this day, Vietnam Veterans Against the War remains controversial to some veterans who viewed its dissent as harmful to the troops overseas. The cultural and generational divide, after all, did seem to cross right through the veterans' group. Among the many polarizing images of the period was a photograph of long-haired ex-soldiers simulating the Iwo Jima memorial, but with a flag held upside-down to signal distress; the picture graced the cover of a book that had Mr. Kerry as a co-author.Additionally, we see Kerry at the height of his anti-war celebrity peak arranging a private meeting with North Vietnamese and Vietcong emissaries but he can remember little from the meeting:
He says he does not remember who else was in the room except for Nguyen Thi Binh, the Vietcong spokeswoman in Paris, who was then bedeviling the Nixon administration by issuing peace proposals it considered little more than propaganda.Ya think? Giving comfort to the enemy and he has little recollection? Sounds fishy. And what did Kerry do after his so-called fact-finding mission?
"It's not a big deal," he says now. "People were dropping in. It was a regular sort of deal."...
Asked why the Vietnamese would meet with a 26-year-old, Mr. Kerry suggested it was because he had been on television as a veteran opposed to the war. He acknowledged that they might have been trying to use him to shape American public opinion.
Mr. Kerry came home, and before a Senate hearing 10 months later he criticized President Nixon for not accepting Mrs. Binh's assurances that the Vietnamese would release American prisoners of war if U.S. troops simply left.So the man who wants to be President today was likely at a meeting to assassinate Senators, he gave congressional testimony full of lies about atrocities committed by his fellow Vietnam Veterans and then he comes out supporting the Vitnamese enemy against our President. If this isn't anti-American and deserving of the strictest scrutiny I don't know what is.
More Weapons of Mass Destruction Reportedly Found in Iraq
As Jonah Goldberg cautions: "Don't pop the champagne quite yet" but this is getting interesting:
New evidence out of Iraq suggests that the U.S. effort to track down Saddam Hussein's missing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) is having better success than is being reported. Key assertions by the intelligence community that were widely judged in the media and by critics of President George W. Bush as having been false are turning out to have been true after all. But this stunning news has received little attention from the major media, and the president's critics continue to insist that "no weapons" have been found.And these WMDs seem to keep popping up in the strangest of places, as Glenn Reynolds ponders knowingly, "And I wonder where Syria got them?":
In virtually every case - chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missiles - the United States has found the weapons and the programs that the Iraqi dictator successfully concealed for 12 years from U.N. weapons inspectors.
The Iraq Survey Group (ISG), whose intelligence analysts are managed by Charles Duelfer, a former State Department official and deputy chief of the U.N.-led arms-inspection teams, has found "hundreds of cases of activities that were prohibited" under U.N. Security Council resolutions, a senior administration official tells Insight. "There is a long list of charges made by the U.S. that have been confirmed, but none of this seems to mean anything because the weapons that were unaccounted for by the United Nations remain unaccounted for."
Both Duelfer and his predecessor, David Kay, reported to Congress that the evidence they had found on the ground in Iraq showed Saddam's regime was in "material violation" of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, the last of 17 resolutions that promised "serious consequences" if Iraq did not make a complete disclosure of its weapons programs and dismantle them in a verifiable manner. The United States cited Iraq's refusal to comply with these demands as one justification for going to war.....
Sudan has ordered the removal of Syrian missiles and weapons of mass destruction out of the African country.Indeed.
Arab diplomatic and Sudanese government sources said the regime of Sudanese President Omar Bashir has ordered that Syria remove its Scud C and Scud D medium-range ballistic missiles as well as components for chemical weapons stored in warehouses in Khartoum. The sources said the Sudanese demand was issued after the Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry confirmed a report published earlier this month that Syria has been secretly flying Scud-class missiles and WMD components to Khartoum.
Dick Cheney Takes The Gloves Off
Vice-President Dick Cheney tees off on many of John Kerry's undesirable policy positions for this country:
"From the beginning of his career in the U.S. Senate 20 years ago, Senator Kerry has repeatedly called for major reductions, or outright cancellations, of many of our most important weapons systems," Mr. Cheney said at Westminster College, site of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's famous 1946 "Iron Curtain" speech.After throwing down the gauntlet on Kerry's attempts to gut the military, he takes him to task for his evasiveness on his claim of campaign support from foreign leaders:
"It is irresponsible to vote against vital support for the United States military," he added, drawing applause from 600 students and faculty members.
The vice president also challenged Mr. Kerry to name the New York restaurants in which, he suggested, he was endorsed by foreign leaders.Then Vice-President Cheney does a nice compare and contrast between the President's public service record and Senator Kerry's service in the Senate:
Mr. Cheney mocked the Massachusetts Democrat for saying: "You can go to New York City and you can be in a restaurant and you can meet a foreign leader."
"Maybe next time, he'll narrow it down for us a little more," the vice president said. "Maybe the name of the restaurant. Maybe the leader."
"The president's conduct in leading America through a time of unprecedented danger, his ability to make decisions and to stand by them is a measure that must be applied to the candidate who now opposes him in the election of 2004 the junior senator from Massachusetts," he said.And although Kerry touts himself as a better President with (unnamed) foreign leaders, the Vice-President skewers him for his "condescension" towards our loyal allies:
The vice president pointed out that in 1984, Mr. Kerry called for canceling weapons systems used in fighting the Cold War, the Persian Gulf War and the war on terror, including the MX and Patriot missiles, B-1 bomber, Strategic Defense Initiative, F-14 fighter jet and Apache helicopter.
"At the same time, he proposed reductions in funding for the Tomahawk cruise missile and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle," Mr. Cheney said. "And at numerous times, Senator Kerry has voted against funding weapons systems vital to fighting and winning the war on terror such as the Black Hawk helicopter and the Predator drone."
In his speech, the vice president also hammered Mr. Kerry for disparaging the U.S.-led coalition to overthrow dictator Saddam Hussein.All in all, a withering attack on the "junior Senator from Massachusetts."
"To the many nations that have joined our coalition, Senator Kerry offers only condescension," he said. "Senator Kerry calls these 'window dressing.' They are, in his words, 'a coalition of the coerced and the bribed.'
"I am aware of no other instance in which a presumptive nominee for president of the United States has spoken with such disdain of active, fighting allies of the United States in a time of war," he added. "Senator Kerry's contempt for our good allies is ungrateful to nations that have withstood danger, hardship and insult for standing with America in the cause of freedom."
Monday, April 26, 2004
Kerry Campaign Alters Its Own History
The boys at Power Line Blog caught the Kerry campaign (through screen shots) altering their stated positions on John Kerry's war medals and his disingenuous tossing of the medals over the White House fence. Check out Blogs For Bush's full report.
New Bush Ads Assails Kerry's Votes To Gut The Military
The Bush campaign's latest ad comes out guns ablazing criticizing Senator John Kerry's positions against spending on various weapons systems:
"John Kerry Opposed Weapons Vital to the War on Terror." The scene switches to a desert staging ground filled with troops and battle hardware that disappears: a tank rolls into oblivion, a Stealth fighter, three F-18's and a Patriot missile vanish in midflight. After the screen flashes the words "Kerry Voted Against Body Armor for Our Troops," a lone soldier faces the camera as the words change to, "John Kerry's Record on National Security: Troubling."Check out the full video here. Even the New York Times analysis of the ad doesn't dispute its accuracy -- going out of its way to put the vote against body armor in context -- but not disputing Kerry's vote against it:
ACCURACY Throughout his career Mr. Kerry has either voiced opposition to or voted against appropriations for the weapons mentioned in this spot, though he has said that in light of the climate after Sept. 11, 2001, he regrets some of those positions. In 1984 Mr. Kerry proposed reducing money for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the cancellation of the Patriot missile and B-2 Stealth bomber systems... And Mr. Kerry did not vote specifically against "body armor for our troops." The advertisement is referring to his vote against an $87 billion appropriation last year for reconstruction and military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which included money for body armor."The spot could hinder...Kerry's [credibility] as commander in chief." Could? I think that could be an understatement...
SCORECARD This is one of the toughest spots either campaign has run to date, and with it Mr. Bush's campaign is trying to chip away at a supporting beam of Mr. Kerry's candidacy, his past as a war hero. The spot could hinder Mr. Kerry's efforts to establish himself as a credible commander in chief with some voters.
President Bush Turns Up The Heat in Minnesota
Focusing on the service that makes our community special, President Bush singles out a future leader in Minnesota:
Air Force One touched in the Twin Cities before 9 a.m. Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Vikings football coach Bud Grant were on hand to greet the president, who was accompanied by U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman. Bush then went by motorcade to the convention center.The President's speech focused on education, service and national security and was interrupted 21 times by ovations from an obviously receptive crowd. Keep up with all of the campaign activities with their official calendar of events.
One of the first Minnesotans he spoke to at the airport was Melissa DuBose, 17, a senior at Woodbury High School who also is taking classes at Century College. She was invited to the airport and to the speech because of her years of mission volunteer work in Honduras.
"She’s there because I love to herald soldiers in the army of compassion," Bush said of DuBose as he began his speech shortly after 9:30 a.m. "Our real strength is because we are a compassionate nation where people have heard a universal call to love a neighbor like you’d like to be loved yourself. Melissa DuBose is such a person. She travels to Honduras to help people in orphanages.
"What a lovely spirit that is, isn’t it?" Bush had DuBose stand for an ovation at the speech.
DuBose said she and Bush spoke at the airport about volunteer work and the Peace Corps. "It was very cool," said DuBose, who started doing the mission work through her church, St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie.
Michigan Comes Out Swinging
In one of the tougher states for Republicans to win in recent elections, President Bush's state campaign chair in Michigan assails John Kerry's record for gutting military systems:
Speaking Monday with General Dynamics Land Systems' headquarters in the background, U.S. Rep. Candice Miller said it is essential that the U.S. military remains the best-equipped and best-trained in the world.Do you part today to get the message out about John Kerry and support our President by signing up with the campaign today!
She said Kerry has opposed funding for weapons systems including the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. General Dynamics Land Systems, a unit of defense conglomerate General Dynamics, designs and builds armored vehicles.
"All of these weapons systems are absolutely critical to our troops," Miller, a Republican from Macomb County's Harrison Township, said during a news conference in this northern Detroit suburb.
Miller was joined by retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Joe Repya, a Vietnam and Gulf War veteran who traveled from Minneapolis to discuss the importance of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle to troops on the battlefield...
On Monday, Bush's campaign rolled out "Weapons" television ads accusing Kerry of opposing weapons such as Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Patriot Missiles, B-2 Stealth Bombers and the F-18 Fighter. The ads will run nationally on cable networks, and versions also are tailored to nine states, including Michigan...
Miller's remarks came as part of a kick-off for the Bush campaign's upcoming "Winning the War on Terror" tour. Bush is expected to stop in Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio the week of May 3 to focus on his efforts to help America fight and win the war on terror and improve the economy.
John Kerry Caught in Another Lie
Apparently John Kerry was "on record" claiming he threw his war medals over the White House gates despite the fact that he threw someone else's medals and disingenuously led people to believe he had thrown his own. Well, this morning on Good Morning America, Charlie Gibson (no friend of Republicans) held John Kerry's own words against him and John Kerry didn't like it one bit:
ABC NEWS GOOD MORNING AMERICA'S CHARLIE GIBSON: Now joining us from West Virginia is himself senator John Kerry. He's in the town of Glen Easton, West Virginia, today. Good to have you with us.Those evil Republicans attacking Kerry for what Kerry actually said and did. Don't we know that actions don't matter to the Democrats and lies are fine so long as we agree with them? Can't we all just ignore Kerry's history and just fall in line with whatever lie he is feeding us daily?
SEN. JOHN KERRY: i'm glad to be with you. i really am.
GIBSON: 1984, senator, to the present. you have said a number of times, as brian pointed out as recently as friday with the ""los angeles times,"" have you said a number of times that you did not throw away the vietnam medals themselves. but now this interview from 1971 shows up the in which you say that was the medals themselves that were thrown away.
KERRY: no, i don't.
GIBSON: can you explain?
KERRY: absolutely. that's absolutely incorrect. charlie, i stood up in front of the nation. there were dozens of cameras there, television cameras, there were -- i don't know. 20, 30 still photographers. thousands of people and i stood up in front of the country, reached into my shirt, visibly for the nation to see, and took the ribbons off my chest, said a few words and threw them over the fence. the file footage, the reporter there from the ""boston globe,"" everybody got it correctly. and i never asserted otherwise. what i said was and back then, you know, ribbons, medals were absolutely interchangeable . senator simmington asking me questions in the committee hearing, look ad at the ribbons and said what are those medals? the u.s. navy pam let calls the medals, we referred to them it is a symbols, representing medals, ribbons, countless veterans through the ribbon -- threw the ribbons back. everybody did. veterans threw back dog tags. they threw back photographs, they th rew back their 14's. there are photographs of a pile of all of those things collected on the steps of the capitol. so the fact is that i have -- i have been accurate precisely about what took place. and i am the one who later made clear exactly what happened. i mean, this is a controversy that the republicans are pushing , the republicans have spent $60 million in the last few weeks trying to attack me. and this comes from a president and a republican party that can't even answer whether or not he showed up for duty in the national guard. i'm not going to stand for it.
GIBSON: senator, i was there 33 years ago and i saw you throw medals over the fence and we didn't find out until later -
KERRY: no, you didn't see me throw th. charlie, charlie, you are wrong. that's not what happened. i threw my ribbons across. all you have to do -
GIBSON: someone else's medals, correct in?
KERRY: after -- excuse me. excuse me, charlie. after the ceremony was over, i had a bronze star and a purple heart given to me, one purple heart by a veteran in the v.a. in new york and the bronze star by an older veteran of world war ii in massachusetts. i threw them over because they asked me to. i never --
GIBSON: let me come back to the thing just said which is the military --
KERRY: this is a phony -- charlie, this is a phony controversy.
GIBSON: the military makes no distinction between ribbons and medals but you are the one who made the distinction. in 1984 --
KERRY: no . we made no distinction back then, charlie. we made no distinction.
GIBSON: senator, i don't want -- i just want to ask the question. in 1984 when you were running for the senate, that was the first time that you called someone in from labor because they were upset that you had thrown ribbons away.
KERRY: no.
GIBSON: you called them and you made the distinction and said i didn't throw my medals away. i just threw the ribbons away. you made the distinction.
KERRY: i was asked specifically in greater detail about what took place. i answered the question truthfully. which is consistent with what happened in 1971. i mean, charlie, go back and get the file footage. there are were millions of people watching. i took my ribbons off my chest just as other veterans did. this is a phony controversy. this is being pushed yesterday by karen hughes of the white house on fox. it shows up at a several different stations at the same time. the republicans are running $10 million this week to attack my credentials on defense. this comes from a president who can't even show or prove that he showed up for duty in the national guard.
GIBSON: senator --
KERRY: i'm not going to stand for it. i'm in the going to stand for it.
GIBSON: i-understand you are feeling politics is behind this. but i ask you, is it not --
KERRY: i know politics is behind this.
GIBSON: when trying to appeal to the anti-war people in 1971, you said as in that interview, it was the medals and then when the people who supported the war were giving you political problems, you then said i didn't throw the medals away 13 years later.
KERRY: that's the most -- with all due respect, that's the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. because i stood up in front of the country, in front of cameras, a reporter of the ""boston globe"" got it correct . he wrote about the medals but knew they were my ribbons. everybody understood what we were doing. i even said in that interview we threw away the symbols of what our country gave us for what we had gone through. and if i was -- you know, back then, trying to appeal to somebody, i stood up against richard nixon, stood up against the withar, took a position, and it wasn't popular, and it was polarizing. i didn't have to do it. if i was trying to hide something, i would have never stood there in floment of everybody and thrown them over the fence. i threw my ribbons over. i threw the medals of two veterans who asked me to throw them over, after the ceremony, completely separate, and i'm the one -- if hi something to hide, i'm the one who made it known exactly what happened. to me, it is one in the same. and i'm proud of it.
GIBSON: let me ask you, too, about two other things that you have said. subsequent to that. 1985, you said to ""the washington post,"" it is such a personal thing i did no want to throw my medals away. then 1996, you said to the ""boston globe,"" i didn't bring my own medals to throw because i didn't have time to go home and get them. which one was it?
KERRY: i expressed there was great sense of wrench being the whole thing. many of us -- we had a long argument the night before, charlie. it is a matter of record. as to how we were going to do it. and the vote was taken. i was not in favor of throwing them over the fence. i thought we ought to lay them on a table and put them in front of people in a way that, you know, wouldn't be as challenging to many americans. other veterans felt otherwise. they took a vote. the vote was made, they voted to throw. i threw my ribbons. i didn't have my medals. it is very simple . what the republicans are trying to do is make this into an issue because they have no record to run on and they can't go out and talk about jobs or health care or environment. they are going to attack 35 years ago. last week in an unprecedented attack, they sent congressmen to the floor of the senate of the house to attack me on the anniversary of my speech. george bush has yet to explain to america whether or no t to tell the truth about whether he showed up for duty. i'm not going to get attack order something i did that's a matter of record that the press saw, that i did in front of the entire nation and everyone then understood there was no distinction. we threw away the symbols of the war. i'm proud i stood up and fought stood up and fought against it. proud i took on richard nixon. and i think to this day, there's no distinction between the two.
GIBSON: all right. senator, i appreciate your being with us this morning. i'm glad to have you here. thank you. all the best. diane?
Sunday, April 25, 2004
Democratic Strategist Concedes: "If this election is about terrorism, Bush wins."
The "doom and gloom" campaign of the Democrats seems to have fallen on deaf ears with the American public:
Democrats once thought a bleaker outlook in Iraq would help their nominee convince Americans that the time has come to find another Commander in Chief . . .And even their pro-Kerry ads have gone over like a lead balloon:
As one Democratic strategist says, "No matter how bad Bush does on the war and 9/11, just having voters think about it kills us." Another puts it more bluntly: "If this election is about terrorism, Bush wins."
Kerry strategists acknowledge they have little hope of overcoming Bush's advantage on questions of strength and security.
In the other [television ad], [Kerry] attacks Bush's Iraq record and promises to "reach out to the international community" to share the burden there — a position that most voters will find to be indistinguishable from Bush's of late. Those are not the kinds of spots that will help cement the support of voters like Krystal Brown, an 18-year-old nursing student at the University of Arkansas. "I am against Bush," says Brown. "I am going to vote for — what is his name?"At the same time, the Bush ads have resonated with their target audiences quite nicely:
Meanwhile, the Bush campaign has done a lot of work filling in the picture of Kerry for voters. Democrats are discovering that when they ask voters in focus groups about their candidate, the answers frequently come back as nearly verbatim lines from the Republicans' anti-Kerry ads. To the degree voters have an impression of Kerry at all, Democratic strategists say, it is the Bush campaign's caricature of a calculating politician who flip-flops on issues and yearns to raise their taxes.So let's see, if you are the Kerry campaign you can't talk about the economy (or the "Bush Boom" as we like to call it) and now you can't talk about the war on terrorism. When you look at the priorities of the country today if the Kerry camp concedes those two maybe he can win the "Ted Rall" vote which should amount to about 2% of the vote.
Bush Bus Tour to Visit Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin
The President is actively visiting the battleground states to make sure his message reaches the public:
President Bush plans a stop in Lucas County on May 4 as part of a four-state campaign swing that represents the next step in focusing his attention on key battleground states in the Midwest, sources close to his re-election campaign said yesterday.Make sure you keep up with all the campaign events in your area to show up and support the President.
In addition, Mr. Bush will campaign in Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin as part of a bus tour that begins May 3, a source inside the campaign said. His re-election campaign already has spent millions on television ads in several Midwestern states.
"The President is looking forward to getting out of Washington again and meeting people across the Midwest," the source said. "He is looking forward to discussing his positive agenda of winning the war on terror and growing the economy."
Bush Campaign to Begin New Ads Showing Kerry's Weak Record on Defense
The Presidential election is six months away, but as John Kerry continues to flip-flop on his positions, the Bush campaign is aggressively showing American voters what John Kerry's career is the Senate has meant to military readiness:
The tough television attack advertisements, combined with a speech Vice President Dick Cheney will deliver in Missouri on Monday, reflect what both sides see as an increasingly critical question: whether Mr. Kerry can convince Americans that he would be a strong enough president in a time of war. The advertisements will begin Monday night and will be broadcast on stations in nine states and on some national cable networks.Something tells me the most memorable line of the campaign may end up being John Kerry's "I actually voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it." The Bush campaign could never have more succiently summed up their opponent so I guess John Kerry is good for something . . . self-sabotage.
...
Mr. Bush's new advertising campaign includes nine spots specifically tailored for nine swing states in which some of the weapons programs Mr. Kerry has opposed are made. The advertisements are to coincide with speeches in those states by senior Republicans, some of whom will be accompanied by medal of honor winners.
In a version of the advertisement to run in Florida, for instance, the announcer says Mr. Kerry opposed "Apache helicopters, C-130 Hercules and F-16 fighter jets, components of which are all built here in Florida." A spot for Maine says he "wanted to cancel Aegis Warships built here in Maine at Bath Iron Works."
...
Mr. Kerry's voting record does include many votes to cut weapons systems. He ran for the Senate in 1984 on proposals to eliminate 27 weapons systems and to make reductions in 18 others. Mr. Kerry has said many defense bills he voted against later were ridden with pork. Still, although he has complained that Mr. Bush's campaign has taken his votes out of context, he told The Boston Globe last year that some of his stances were "stupid in the context of the world we find ourselves in right now and the things that I've learned since then."
Nonetheless Mr. Bush's strategists said they would continue to lord those moves over him to raise questions about his credibility when it comes to fighting terrorism.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Washington Post Editorial Criticizes John Kerry's Latest Flip-Flop
The Washington Post is no friend of the Bush campaign and their editorial page has rarely been complimentary of President Bush's liberation of the Iraqis. But even they can not stomach Jonh Kerry no longer supporting President Bush's plan for developing a free and democratic country in Iraq:
Contrast that with what Mr. Kerry told reporters last week: "With respect to getting our troops out, the measure is the stability of Iraq. [Democracy] shouldn't be the measure of when you leave. I have always said from day one that the goal here . . . is a stable Iraq, not whether or not that's a full democracy."It is quite clear that John Kerry's inability to have a plan for the direction of this country is dangerous to winning the war on terror. Thankfully traditional media outlets are holding him accountable for that.
Mr. Kerry contends that he has not shifted his public position. But there are major differences between what he said in December -- right after Saddam Hussein's capture, when Mr. Kerry was seeking to discredit dovish Democratic challenger Howard Dean -- and his remarks last week, which followed several weeks of bad news from Iraq and growing public disenchantment with the course of the war. Where once he named democracy as a task to be completed, and the alternative to "cutting and running" or a "false success," Mr. Kerry now says democracy is optional. Where once he warned against setting the conditions for an early but irresponsible withdrawal of U.S. forces, now he does so himself by defining the exit standard as "stability," a term that could describe Saudi Arabia or Iran -- or the Iraq of Saddam Hussein.
...
Now he differs with Mr. Bush on the crucial issue of what the United States must achieve in Iraq before it can safely end its mission. "Iraq," Mr. Bush said at his news conference last week, "will either be a peaceful democratic country or it will again be a source of violence, a haven for terrorists, and a threat to America and to the world."
Mr. Kerry now argues that there is a third option. But what would that be? "I can't tell you what it's going to be," he said to reporters covering his campaign. "That stability can take several forms." True; in the Middle East, there is the stability of Islamic dictatorship, the stability of military dictatorship and the stability of monarchical dictatorship. In Lebanon, there is the stability of permanent foreign occupation and de facto ethnic partition. None is in the interest of the United States; all have helped create the extremism and terrorism against which this nation is now at war.
...
The past weeks of violence have been, or should have been, sobering to any observer. Yet on goals Mr. Bush is right, not only in a moral sense but from the perspective of U.S. security too. Iraq is a country of diverse communities; if its differences are not arbitrated by some form of democratic politics, then it can be held together only by brute force. The wielder of that force is likely to be hostile to the democratic world and, like Saddam Hussein or the mullahs of neighboring Iran, to seek defense by means of terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.
We believe a successful political outcome is still possible; others disagree. But Mr. Kerry's shift on such a basic question after just a few months is troubling and mistaken.
Wictory Wednesday
Here is Polipundit's post:
Over a million people have donated an average of $92 to the Bush campaign. Are you part of this unprecedented grassroots swell?
Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, dozens of bloggers ask their readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush 2004 campaign.
If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays simply by putting up a post like this one every Wednesday, asking your readers to volunteer and/or donate to the Bush campaign. And then e-mail wictory@blogsforbush.com so that you'll be added to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll, which will be part of the Wictory Wednesday post on all participating blogs:
Monday, April 19, 2004
Republican National Committee Rolls Out New Ads on Kerry's Record
Ron Brownstein had en excellent piece last Friday (I was indisposed for the last 4 days so I am now catching up) highlighting the new ads coming from the RNC. His excellent reporting focuses on how these ads contrast Kerry most specifically with Southern voters, but I think any reasonable interpretation reveals these ads show Kerry is out of touch with the mainstream of America:
Earl Black, a Southern politics expert at Rice University, said Thursday's attack on Kerry might represent "a shot across the bow" that foreshadows the arguments Republicans will use later against Kerry in the South and in rural communities across the Midwest.But I guess the Bush campaign would be wrong for actually making John Kerry run on his record . . . at least that's what the Democrats are hopelessly arguing.
"None of those issues are explicitly Southern," Black said. "In a lot of rural, small-town America, many of those issues would resonate, and since a lot of voters don't really know much about Kerry at this point, those issues are going to be part of the battle to define him." ...
The RNC study attempts to portray Kerry as outside the Southern mainstream by highlighting votes by him that differed from current and former Democratic senators from the region. In compiling that case, the document reprises some issues the Bush campaign has already emphasized in its advertising.
For instance, it notes that Kerry's vote last year against Bush's request for $87 billion to fund reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan put him at odds with Sens. Blanche Lambert Lincoln (D-Ark.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). It contrasts Kerry's vote against Bush's 2001 tax cut bill with support for the measure by Democratic Sens. John B. Breaux and Mary Landrieu, both from Louisiana.
The study also spotlights Kerry's opposition to subsidies for tobacco farmers and disaster relief for cotton farmers. But the document's key new thrust is its focus on social issues. These include Kerry's votes:
? Against banning the late-term abortion procedure that critics call partial-birth abortion.
? Against a constitutional amendment to ban burning the American flag.
? Against a requirement for organizations receiving federal funds to notify parents before performing abortions for minors.
? Against a federal death penalty for drug-related murders.
? Against the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which said states did not have to recognize gay marriages performed in other states.
? For a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons.
Thursday, April 15, 2004
"I Would Die For You"
The carping from the critics of the liberation effort in Iraq often site the statements from Bush Administration that our troops would be welcomed as liberators by the Iraqis, often deriding the statement that we would be welcomed by them "waving flowers". Well, it sounds like the Iraqis have far stronger feelings than simply "welcoming" our forces as liberators:
As the stragglers rejoined us in the meadow, the Kurds lit up cigarettes, and we told jokes about the Saudis, glutting ourselves on the perfect air. And in a pause between rounds of laughter, I learned from one of the other men that the sergeant who had kept up with me - out of pride and to protect me, if necessary - hadn't just been shot once through the jaw. He had been wounded 20 different times.Read the whole thing and do what you can to support those that have put their life on the line for freedom and democracy around the globe.
My attempt to impress the Kurds had been stupid. And thoughtlessly cruel. It must have cost that sergeant real pain to make that brief forced-march. But he had smiled all the way.
When we said goodbye later on, the sergeant touched his heart and told me, "You are an American. You are my brother. I would die for you."
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Reactions to Bush's Prime Time Press Conference
The President did an excellent job tonight. He was focused and had a clear message: We have a tough mission in the war on terror, we are fighting it and will continue to do so, Iraq is no longer an ally of the Taliban, Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and whoever else is with the terrorists in this battle. The United States will transfer the authority to the Iraqis on a schedule of our choosing and not a schedule of the terrorists.
All in all he layed out his continued argument for why we must hold steadfast and support the troops and not give comfort to the terrorists (something his often critics fail to realize). His answers to the questions were clear and direct. Osama bin Laden is responsible for 9/11 and that is where our focus should be. Even on the ones designed to trip him up, he deftly manuevered around those landmines without giving his critics more ammunition. Most specifically the question regarding his biggest mistake was clearly designed to have the President give the press and Democrats a stick with which to beat him from now until election day. Needless to say, ask any campaign advisor, his non-answer was the best reponse. Bravo!
Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit was "live-blogging" and has some copious notes and thoughts. Easily the best round-up so far.
Jeff Jarvis picks out some key graphs to highlight and offers his usual worthwhile commentary.
Everyone keeps saying it looks like the President listened to Jay Rosen, so why don't you check out what Jay actually said.
Michelle was in The Command Post chat room I was in and has some great quotes (although she missed the one about the press asking President Bush in November if he will apologize to America for getting re-elected...hehe).
Edward Yee has some live blogging commmentary worth reading.
Democrats in Florida Sink to Incredible Lows -- Suggest Shooting Donald Rumsfeld
Matt Drudge has the exclusive:
CAMPAIGN RAGE: FLORIDA DEMOCRATS PLACE NEWSPAPER AD CALLING FOR RUMSFELD HIT; FUNDRAISING FOR KERRYMatt Margolis has the actual advertisement here.
Campaign 2004 turns extreme in Florida with the placement of a newspaper ad calling for physical retribution against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld!
"We should put this S.O.B. up against a wall and say 'This is one of our bad days,' and pull the trigger," the ad reads.
MORE
The call-to-arms fundraising ad, placed by the St. Petersburg Democratic Club in the current issue of the GABBER, a local St. Petersburg paper, asks readers to make an urgent donation to the John Kerry campaign.
Club Vice President Edna McCall told the DRUDGE REPORT Tuesday morning: "We want to get our country back. In Iraq, we're in deep trouble. If we don't try to get this situation cleared up, we are finished."
When asked if the ad was a challenge to inflict violence on Rumsfeld, McCall explained: "'Pull the trigger' means let Rumsfeld know where we stand, not to shoot him!"
"We are getting raped, and they are planning to steal the election again."
McCall said her club is in direct contact with John Kerry campaign.
"We're all working together."
The publisher of the GABBER says running the ad with the passage "pull the trigger" was a mistake that "slipped through" during the editing of this week's edition.
This Blog Gets Some Ink
Jennifer Smith, a journalism major at NYU, wrote up a nice story about bloggers in lower Manhattan for "Voice" magazine. And she interviewed yours truly about the whole blogging experience:
RepublibloggerShe did a great job on a short deadline. Thanks for the write-up Jenn!
Few topics incite more heated discussion in the liberal bastion of New York City than support for President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
"Blogs like mine exist to distill what we do see as a liberal slant in the reporting of the facts," said Kevin Patrick, a 33-year-old conservative who maintains www.Bushcheney2004.blogspot.com. "We feel compelled to get the facts out there, make sure it?s being put in the proper light."
Patrick, an attorney on Water Street, said he has received negative feedback on some of his posts. His November 2003 commentary about a cartoonist who sketched the widows of Sept. 11 victims elicited a flurry of responses, many of which called him 'oil-loving, blood-sucking' and the Antichrist, he said.
He said one of the benefits of his blog is the opportunity to meet other Republican bloggers. "I know of blogger weddings," he said. "People develop phenomenally intimate relationships through e-mail and postings. Many of the blogs are confessionals, like diaries."
Ms. USA Supports the Effort to Liberate Iraq
Good to see a public figure with strong beliefs:
A Republican, she told Reuters she would use her position to help explain America's involvement in Iraq. "What needed to be done had to be done," she said.
Now I was rooting for Ms. Tennessee but had I known of her stance Ms. Missouri would have been my favorite. The following two quotes from the article don't hurt either:
At a party following the event, Fennessey described her social life as "totally single and looking."Well, if she needs a "friend" in New York City, I would be happy to help!
...
The winner's prize package includes a $200,000 crown, free accommodation in New York City . . .
Thursday, April 08, 2004
What We Have Learned From Dr. Rice's Testimony So Far
First, her opening statement amplified the difference between grandstanding (Richard Clarke) and governing (Rice and the Bush Administration) -- hat tip K.Lo.
Second, we see that the Bush Administration transitioned on September 4th, 2001 from the previous Administration's passive strategy on terror to a more aggressive approach to Al-Qaeda:
This new strategy was developed over the Spring and Summer of 2001, and was approved by the President's senior national security officials on September 4. It was the very first major national security policy directive of the Bush Administration — not Russia, not missile defense, not Iraq, but the elimination of al-Qaida.Third, we have learned that the non-partisan spirit of the 9/11 Commission, if it ever existed, is now clearly gone. Jeff Jarvis has some good insights on the partisanship of Richard Ben Veniste and Bob Kerrey:
Although this National Security Presidential Directive was originally a highly classified document, we arranged for portions to be declassified to help the Commission in its work, and I will describe some of those today. The strategy set as its goal the elimination of the al-Qaida network. It ordered the leadership of relevant U.S. departments and agencies to make the elimination of al-Qaida a high priority and to use all aspects of our national power — intelligence, financial, diplomatic, and military — to meet this goal. And it gave Cabinet Secretaries and department heads specific responsibilities. For instance:
It directed the Secretary of State to work with other countries to end all sanctuaries given to al-Qaida.
And it directed the Secretary of Defense to — and I quote — "ensure that the contingency planning process include plans: against al-Qaida and associated terrorist facilities in Afghanistan, including leadership, command-control-communications, training, and logistics facilities; against Taliban targets in Afghanistan, including leadership, command-control, air and air defense, ground forces, and logistics; to eliminate weapons of mass destruction which al-Qaida and associated terrorist groups may acquire or manufacture, including those stored in underground bunkers." This was a change from the prior strategy — Presidential Decision Directive 62, signed in 1998 — which ordered the Secretary of Defense to provide transportation to bring individual terrorists to the U.S. for trial, to protect DOD forces overseas, and to be prepared to respond to terrorist and weapons of mass destruction incidents.
Richard Ben Veniste, on the other hand, is an ass, acting like a prosecutor getting his moment in the TV sun. He's hostile and political. That kind of behavior is both unproductive, it harms the mission of the commission and its reputation and thus the veracity of the report it will issue.But apparently we all knew yesterday what reactions would be so I am not sure this should be surprising.
: Kerrey is acting like Dennis Miller did when he interviewed Eric Alterman. Petulant little boy.
: Kerrey also goes political. Rice said Bush was tired of "swatting flies" and wanted to go after al Qaeda. Kerry asked what flies he swatted and says he didn't swat any. "How the hell could he be tired?"
Rice gives it back a few minutes later and quotes a Kerry speech saying that the best thing we could do after the attack on the Cole was to go after Saddam Hussein. "It's an asymmetic approach... It was a brilliant way of thinking about it. It was thinking about it strategically, not tactically."
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Fundraising Advantage of President Bush Disappearing?
As is much publicized, President Bush has raised enormous amounts of money for this most important election:
President Bush's reelection campaign has exceeded its fund-raising goal of $170 million nearly five months ahead of schedule, cementing its cash advantage over Democrat John Kerry in the hard-fought presidential race, Bush campaign officials said on Friday. (emphasis added)Cemented? Hold on there for a second.
What is rarely reported is all the 527 organizations (like MoveOn.org and MediaFund) exploiting campaign finance loopholes to help the Democrats meet and even pass President Bush's fundraising. Of course, they claim they there is no coordination between the Kerry campaign and these 527 organizations because that would be illegal. Even the most forgiving Political watcher has to raise an eye-brow and suspend reality to believe the claims that Democrats have no coordination with these groups.
Well, the Kerry campaign smashes right through the suspension of reality you need to believe there is no coordination by hiring MoveOn.org's Zack Exley as the director of online communications and organizing! Mark Noonan over at Blogs for Bush has a great write-up.
The hypocrisy of the Democratic Party knows no bounds ...
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Richard Clarke's Lies Continue to Unravel His Story
If you read nothing else, be sure to read THIS today.
Who Do You Want Quarterbacking The Nation?
Anyone want to bet Kerry was generally the "last pick" in playground sports?
Monday, April 05, 2004
Carnival of the Bush Bloggers
What are Bush bloggers all over the Internet saying today? Check out this post and find out.
Who is Ed Gillespie?
The Washington Post looks at RNC Chairman, Ed Gillespie, and finds some interesting tidbits about a man whose career is the defintion of dogged determination and razor sharp wit:
Politics today is about the primacy of packaging, and Eddie Gillespie, who started as a kid in the RNC basement, cold-calling for dollars, is one of the finest packagers the Republican Party has called up in years....Be sure to read the whole thing about the man leading out Party's Committee to new heights!
[H]e started life as the son of a poor Irish immigrant, and he uses this biography, earnestly, in every party-expansion speech.
The assembled listen raptly, nodding as Gillespie describes how his father came to America "with nothing but the clothes on his back. He worked in a number of very difficult jobs on his way to saving enough money to buy his own small business with my mother, the J and C Market, J and C standing for Jack and Connie. They saved enough money to make my brother and sisters and I the first generation of Gillespies to ever attend college. So I know the importance of bringing new people into the political process, and we are getting very much better at that as a party."
"The fact is that we understand that Hispanics care deeply about the need to create more jobs in the economy, to improve our public schools, to make health care more affordable, to provide a prescription drug benefit for our senior citizens and" -- here he tucks in the No. 1 message last -- "to win the war against terror."
When Ramon Tallaj, a Dominican doctor and GOP fundraiser, has his chance at the microphone, Tallaj declares of Gillespie and his personal narrative, "He is same person like us." ...
At Catholic University, he majored in political science and worked as sports editor for the student paper. On the side, Gillespie parked cars in the Senate parking lot, where he heard about an internship in the office of Rep. Andy Ireland, a Democrat from Florida. The congressman's press secretary "quit or got fired," recalls Gillespie, and suddenly, as a college senior, he was acting press secretary. ...
Gillespie's particular love and perhaps greatest talent is selling policy. "He doesn't let it out very often," says former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who worked with him on the Hill, "but Eddie is really wonkish."
Elizabeth Dole: "He was my architect of the Dole plan," her outline of her issue positions as a successful North Carolina candidate for the Senate in 2002, with Gillespie as her strategist. "It was brilliant in its simplicity. I held it up all the time, handed it out. And then he said, 'Why don't you hold your plan in one hand, and a blank piece of paper in the other, and say here's my opponent's plan?' It got to be kind of funny, and people started coming around and asking me to sign the blank piece of paper."
Barbour remembers the slogan "chicken-fried steak break" to restore a tax deduction for "a very small universe of people -- rivermen, pilots and truckers. He made it about truckers, and their chicken-fried steak."
You might laugh at this, but it is brilliant, if not socially useful. It's pure Washington. It's about winning.
(Ed. note: I too worked those same phones in the basement of the RNC . . . not exactly the glamour job!)
Friday, April 02, 2004
The Ted Rall Wing of the Democratic Party
Today "Kos" has a truly despicable post (he changed the post so here is the screenshot) regarding the tragic murder and mutilation of American civilians in Iraq:
I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them."Well so what?" you say, this is just some left-wing blogger with a disgusting opinion. What does that have to do with Presidential politics? Well it turns out a lot.
You see, Kos is a big-time fundraiser for the Democrats:
» His blogads alone have raised over $40,000 for Kentucky Congressman Ben Chandler.
» On March 29th, Kos was invited and attended the Democrat "unity" dinner with Kerry (see the photos on his site).
» Kos has raised nearly $50,000 for the Kerry campaign and over $60,000 for the Democratic National Committee (check out the box on the left of his main page).
» DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe has personally called and thanked Kos for his work. (I'd like to hear Terry respond to this)
» John Kerry's Blog actually links to Kos (How about a comment regarding your support of Kos, Mr. Senator?)
» Kos' current fundraising effort is for South Dakota Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth...I wonder what the S. Dakotans think about her associations? Feel free to ask her what she thinks?
We've see this before. The Democrats embrace these leftists who aren't against President Bush but more appropriately very much against the freedom and American way of life. How soon we forget the Howard Dean's embracing of Ted Rall only to profusely edit their own comments when the light of this assocaition his the maintream.
Democrats argue that their criticism of Bush is deemed unpatriotic by the "Right." Of course they are wrong. Criticism is part of the discourse we fight for every day in Iraq, Afghanistan, Taiwan and in our own small way in the blogosphere. What is unpatriotic is rooting and supporting the villians and scoundrals who murder freedom loving patriots world-wide only to watch Democrats and their ilk embrace the 'Kos'es and Ted Ralls (check out the comments section of Kos' post!) who find a welcome home in the Kerry Campaign and the Democratis fundraising machine.
Markos, you should be embarrassed. But you are not and neither is the leadership of the Democratic Party. Now, that is unpatriotic.
Update: Glenn Reynolds has an exhaustive post on both the Left's shared despicable opinions and the blogosphere's reaction.
Update II: You are a reflection of the company you keep and check out who associates with Kos (Great post Michael!)
The Bush Boom Hits The Jobs Market
As we have said ad naseum, job growth is a lagging indicator and with the blistering pace of the economy these last few quarters it was only a matter of time before payrolls caught up. Well the chicken has come home to roost and with the Kerry Campaign's prospects inversely related to these numbers, Kerry et al have to be none too pleased:
U.S. nonfarm payrolls grew by a surprising 308,000 in March, the largest gain since April 2000, the Labor Department estimated Friday.Heh.
The gain in payrolls far exceeded the 122,000 expected by economists surveyed by CBS MarketWatch. Economists had been waiting in vain for months for hiring to pick up to match the explosive growth in U.S. gross domestic product over the past nine months.
Payroll growth in previous months was also revised higher, by a total of 86,000 jobs. January's gain was revised from 97,000 to 159,000 while February's was revised to 46,000 from 21,000.
Over the past eight months, payrolls have grown by 759,000, about 95,000 a month.
For the first time in 44 months, employment in the manufacturing sector did not fall; it was unchanged. Construction added 71,000 jobs, likely a partial rebound from bad weather in February.
Payrolls in services rose by 230,000 jobs, including 47,000 in retail. Temporary help services jobs fell by 2,000.
Private payrolls rose by 277,000, as 31,000 government jobs were added, most in education.
Of 278 industries, 61 percent reported higher payrolls in March, the largest percentage since July 2000.
