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Email Eric Lindholm: MadSwede10 -at- aol -dot- com
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Wednesday, August 25, 2004
On vacation again - Yes, in the European style, I'm taking a large chunk of August off. This time, I'm going camping so there's really no hope of an Internet hookup. How 20th century is that? See you Sunday. Wishful thinking alert From Senator Splunge’s blog: “The Washington Post reports on the testimony of another Vietnam veteran eyewitness who contradicts the claims of the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth." Minute by minute, day by day, the SBVT claims are washing away.” Or not: “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth raised $1,764,000 in donations on website in past 2 weeks, sources tell Drudge.” What media bias? Jeff Jacoby is blinded by the obvious: “Some of Kerry’s biggest fans are in the press – Not much doubt who the media wants to win” Earlier today, Solomon was in high dudgeon over Boston Globe columnist Thomas Oliphant: The Globe's Thomas Oliphant continues to peddle the fantasy that the Mainstream Media are the guardians of the public good with regard to the SwiftVets movement -and that's how it strikes me, as a movement. These guys are driven.Wise Solomon: don’t you know that the mainstream media has the superhuman ability to cast aside bias and report the news in a factual and objective fashion? Certainly the minor detail that Oliphant’s daughter is working for the Kerry campaign has nothing – nothing whatsoever – to do with his leftist commentary: I write now because the political junk is much higher profile now, though no less misleading -- and not, by the way, because in her fourth job in the public arena, my daughter just joined Kerry's staff.Perish the thought, Tommy boy! Hugh Hewitt – Master Pundit Earlier today, Hugh posted this: “They [Camp Kerry] needed a big lead at this point in the race, and instead they have a dead-heat and the Swift Boat vets are chewing them up --because Kerry won't "meet the press."” Before Kerry appeared on the “Daily Show” tonight, host Jon Stewart made some joke about how the Senator won’t go on “Meet the Press” but he’ll come on the “Daily Show.” I thought it was a pretty clean jab about how the Senator is avoiding tough questions. Zing! Today’s feel-good story: Bush Wins Iowa Bush trounced Kerry in a straw poll at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. By way of explanation, the Kerry campaign cited the lack of East Coast newspapers available to Iowa voters. You can't flip-flop with no voting record - Owen at Boots and Sabers notes that John Edwards is criticizing new overtime rules that went into effect yesterday. They’re so awful, and yet John Kerry couldn’t be bothered to cast a vote in the Senate on the measure. Tuesday, August 24, 2004
I just finished watching John Kerry on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart. Memo to Kerry staff: please put the Senator on more shows. Give him more exposure. That will surely sink his candidacy. Kerry came out with this unnatural grin on his face that only dissolved when he was required to make a "serious" point. His self-deprecating jokes were horribly forced and his rhetoric was as stale as week-old bread. (Are we really still talking about getting the French into Iraq? Oh my heck.) Take a big whiff America: there's a remote chance that this walking 2x4 could be President. He makes Michael Dukakis look like Robin Williams. Monday, August 23, 2004
Mark Steyn – “Kerry: Strange, stuck-up, and stupid” If this campaign were any more inept, Michael Moore would be making a documentary claiming Kerry's a Republican plant secretly controlled by Karl Rove and the House of Saud. Up and Atom! True story: my senior thesis at college was “Ceramic Nuclear Fuels” and part of the project was a contemporary review of the technology. At the time (1991) I postulated that the nuclear energy industry would experience a resurrection of sorts because the dual effects of spiraling fossil fuel prices and a resurgence in the environmental movement. To this latter point, I noted that the only waste caused by nuclear energy is spent radioactive material that could be reliably contained at the repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. I noted in the report that nuclear waste would be active for 10,000 years but that Yucca sees so little rainfall that any water passing by the buried radioactive containers would not reach the water table for 9,000 years. My professor wrote in the margin: “What about the other 1,000 years?” Um…we’ll all be living on the moon? Even the uber-leftist New York Times couldn’t furrow its brow at this far-out concern: A federal appeals court decision has thrown a gigantic roadblock in the way of efforts to create an underground burial site for nuclear wastes at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. A three-judge panel in the District of Columbia ruled last month that regulators could not simply require the repository to contain the wastes for 10,000 years, the standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency, but must instead ensure that Yucca could function acceptably for hundreds of thousands of years. That standard is so outlandishly stringent it may not be achievable.If atomic energy were more readily available, America could reduce its dependence on coal-fired electricity generation, which accounts for the vast majority of electricity sources (nuclear and natural gas are a distant second and third). Oh but we hates that nuclear energy and we loves Nevada’s five electoral votes: Congress will no doubt be reluctant to tackle the issue in an election year, especially since Senator John Kerry and other Democratic leaders, pandering shamelessly for the electoral votes of the battleground state of Nevada, have pledged to block Yucca.Holy cow, the NY Times said that? Are they also in cahoots with the Bush campaign? As Howard Dean would say: the timing is suspicious. Glenn Reynolds has the Bizarro World version of the Kerry campaign while Chris Lynch details the inept reality. Let's get reeeeeaaaady to flip-flop! I smell a policy adjustment coming: "59% Favor Plan to Redeploy Troops from Europe, Korea" Initial public reaction to a proposal for reducing the number of American troops in Germany and Korea is very positive.This is the trouble you invite when every position you have is "not Bush." Quote of the Day From Mackubin Thomas Owens in National Review on "John Kerry's Two Vietnams" As a correspondent pointed out to me in an e-mail, each episode of the HBO series Band of Brothers, begins with a voiceover in which the narrator says of the World War II soldiers portrayed in the program: "I was not a hero, but I was surrounded by heroes." In contrast, what John Kerry is saying in essence about his "band of brothers" is that "in Vietnam, I was a hero, but I was surrounded by war criminals."Except for those who basked in the aura of JFK II. Sunday, August 22, 2004
Shimmer: A floor wax or a dessert topping? John Kerry’s four months in Vietnam: it’s both the reason why he should be President and the very thing that can never be questioned. I guess Bob Dole didn’t get the memo. Night and Day I read the article in today’s Washington Post titled “Swift Boat Accounts Incomplete” and it was the epitome of journalistic integrity: well-researched, fair, and factual. It put this NY Times hit piece to shame; do they even remember what the word “objectivity” means anymore? Let’s put it this way: even John O’Neill of the Swift Boat Vets cited the WashPost article on “This Week” today, while Clintonista mouthpiece John Podesta argued that military service is the sine qua non of presidential qualification. Unless you’re a governor from Arkansas, then, oh...nevermind. Saturday, August 21, 2004
“This could be heading for a preposterous landslide” Even I, a hopelessly partisan conservative, thinks Jayson Javitz is a tad too sanguine in his latest post of political predictions. But, golly, he makes some good points: “You could not have scripted a worse approach than the one Kerry has taken [to the Swift Boat Vets controversy]. In some respects, it boggles the mind.” The worst poll result of all Forget about Vietnam already: The Rasmussen Reports survey also found that 76% say Kerry's political career since Vietnam matters more than his career in Vietnam. In terms of Election 2004 voting decisions, only 9% take the opposite view and say that Kerry's combat experience is more important.This is devastating news for the candidate who has framed his qualification for the presidency entirely on four months in Vietnam. Because, as FactCheck noted, if you look at Kerry’s career, well, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein: “There’s no there there.” John Kerry is fond of saying "I led the fight" on a lot of things -- against Arctic drilling, against Bush's Medicare prescription drug legislation, for federal grants for 100,000 new police officers, against Newt Gingrich's attempts to lessen environmental regulations.Always remember: (unless you’re a Gloucester fisherwoman) after two decades in the Senate, John Kerry has done almost nothing to help ordinary Americans. No wonder he only wants to talk about Vietnam. [Cross-posted on Blogs for Bush] Vietnam Veterans can have an opinion…if they support Kerry. Right, Oliphant? (Hat tip to Polipundit's Lorie) Whiny, hypocritical, thumb-suckers He can dish it out: [Kerry spokesperson Stephanie] Cutter sought to turn the argument over presidential readiness back on the White House. "Mr. McClellan needs to understand that John Kerry is not the type of leader who will sit and read `My Pet Goat' to a group of second graders while America is under attack," she said. But he sure can’t take it: “Kerry Calls on Bush to Demand a Halt in 'Personal' Attacks by Critics of His Vietnam War Record” Funny, I don’t recall Senator Kerry condemning Michael Moore, Americans Coming Together, or MoveOn (at least until after the Swift Boat commercial aired.) What a flake. Friday, August 20, 2004
The Swiftys and the damage done NYT: “Kerry's defense may have come too late, some say” No thanks to the mainstream media. Score one for the bloggers! I sense a theme OK, I'm all caught up on my blog updates after my mini-vacation. A couple of blogs are covering the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, their new ad, and the NY Times hit piece. They're all listed to the left (except for, maybe, Medical Rants). So I was wrong: this story is big news and only looks to get bigger, despite the laughable efforts of the NY Times to bury it under ad hominem attacks. A couple of blogs with (I thought) particularly good coverage: Blogs for Bush, Betsy's Page, Hugh Hewitt, and Powerline. The New England Republican had a good review of the Swifty's second ad and I found myself nodding with gusto to this post from DGCI: John Kerry has a big problem, you see. Repeat after me:Hoisted by his own petard - that's all. Was I wrong? Swift Boat Vets gains attention I did not believe that the allegations by the Swift Boat Vets would affect the presidential race much at all. Honestly, I thought the news that Kerry missed 76% of the Senate Intelligence Committee meetings would be more damaging. But when the alpha and omega of your presidential campaign is four months in Vietnam, any challenge to that narrative can be devastating. I’m still not convinced, but judging by the reaction of the Kerry campaign, they’re somewhere between nervous and scared silly (getting the FEC to ban the Swifty ads? Please.) Watch how they react to the new commercial focusing on Kerry’s testimony to Congress as a member of Vietnam Veterans against the War. It’s certainly one aspect of Kerry’s biography curiously absent from his campaign so far. Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Blogging hiatus - I'm going away for a couple of days to visit friends and family. Posting may be spotty or non-existent until Friday night. I suggest you, dear reader, check back several dozen times a day to see if I've posted anything new. Also, add me to your blogroll. Thanks! See you soon. A basketful of good economic news: earnings are up, prices are down, productivity continues to rise and the housing market saw its largest monthly gain in two years. It’s “Wictory Wednesday” – go here! And here and here. Also check out this great post in support of President Bush on Right on Red. Here and Now - I agree with Mark Noonan on Blogs for Bush: the criticism of “living in the past” is a powerful one. (By the same coin, it’s why I don’t cover the Swift Boat controversy). We need forward-looking leadership, not one that is seen through the prism of the Sixties. FactCheck: “A Bush-Cheney '04 ad released Aug. 13 accuses Kerry of being absent for 76% of the Senate Intelligence Committee's public hearings during the time he served there. The Kerry campaign calls the ad "misleading," so we checked, and Bush is right.” Read the whole thing. |