"Bill Clinton was hospitalized with chest pains and shortness of breath Friday and will undergo heart bypass surgery in an operation that could sideline the former president at the height of the campaign for the White House.

...It was not clear when the surgery would be performed, but Clinton's wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said: "They did advise him to have bypass surgery, and to do it as soon as he could."

I may not agree with Bill Clinton on much politically, but when someone becomes ill, I think partisanship needs to be temporarily set aside until they've recovered. Politics is an important thing, but it's not the most important thing. So with that in my mind, my best wishes go out to Bill Clinton's family and friends and I wish the man himself a speedy recovery.

Get well soon Bill!

There was less coverage of the liberal wackos protesting the convention than I had expected this week, in part because the NYC police did a fantastic job of keeping them under control, but also because the mainstream media has undoubtedly figured out by now that putting these nutjob lefties on TV only helps the GOP.

But here at RWN, we love the crazies, the commies, & the anarchists who come out to rant against Bush and talk up their beloved Democratic party! That's why I wanted to put together just a few of the protester lowlights for the week for your enjoyment...

"Police said more than 1,760 people have been arrested in a week of convention-related protests, a record for a U.S. political convention."

"Suddenly a group of perhaps a dozen materialized, chanting and carrying a banner that read "Free John Hinckley" Their slogan: "F--- Reagan! Go home!" They moved down the avenue at a very fast pace and were gone as quickly as they arrived. Between their chant and the bicyclist's shirt, we really started to wonder how anyone can call President Bush inarticulate."

"But individual protesters kept tensions high, some of them hissing or cursing at well-heeled couples heading to popular Broadway musicals like "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "Fiddler on the Roof."

"B*tch, go home! We don't want you here!" At one point, police cordoned off a city block after several dozen demonstrators jeered and razzed the incoming audience."

"A featured performer at a National Organization for Women rally accused President Bush of having "savagely raped " women "over and over" by allegedly stealing the 2000 presidential election.

"Imagine a way to erase that night four years ago when you (President Bush) savagely raped every pandemic woman over and over with each vote you got, a thrust with each state you stole," Birnbaum said from the podium. (If something is pandemic, it affects many people or a number of countries."

"U.S. Rep. Major Owens, a New York Democrat, warned a crowd of feminist protesters that the Bush administration is taking America "into a snake pit of fascism."

Owens made his remarks in New York City's Central Park at a National Organization for Women rally on Wednesday night."

Nice group of people, huh?

The entire primetime hour tonight was taken up with George W. Bush's speech and it was not wasted time.

While W. isn't a master orator like Reagan, or Clinton who can deliver a superb speech even though he's reeling off a laundry list of programs, he helped himself tonight.

Bush's speech was issue laden, he scored some points on John Kerry without coming across as mean-spirited, he ably defended his role as commander-and-chief, & he just oozed likability.

Overall, this was a much stronger convention than the one the Dems put on and I'm confident that Kerry was damaged, Bush was boosted, and the race has further tilted in W's favor.

The poll numbers early next week? They should be sweet and I'm particularly looking forward to seeing what the numbers look like in the big 4 states, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois. But, we'll have to wait until the 15th or so to tell how much momentum W will be able to retain.

Now, here's W's speech from last night...

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Either someone is doing a very bad job of advising John Kerry or he's buying into that old saw that both parties' faithful always repeat "We're just lying there and taking it! We're not fighting back" and he's insisting on saying this in his speech tonight...

"We all saw the anger and distortion of the Republican Convention. For the past week, they attacked my patriotism and my fitness to serve as Commander-in-chief. We'll, here's my answer. I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq.

Let me tell you what I think makes someone unfit for duty. Misleading our nation into war in Iraq makes you unfit to lead this nation. Doing nothing while this nation loses millions of jobs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting 45 million Americans go without healthcare makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting the Saudi Royal Family control our energy costs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Handing out billions of government contracts to Halliburton while you're still on their payroll makes you unfit. That's the record of George Bush and Dick Cheney. And it's not going to change. I believe it's time to move America in a new direction; I believe it's time to set a new course for America."

Of course, nobody challenged John Kerry's patriotism at the Republican convention, that's just a dodge that Democrats use when Republicans start pointing out how bad their voting records are on security related issues (See Max Cleland for a perfect example of what I'm talking about). Furthermore, if you check Dick Cheney's speech last night, you won't find the words "unfit" or "office" in the speech. All you'll see is a very pointed, illuminating attack on John Kerry's poor record on security issues.

Moreover, strategically, this is a dumb thing for Kerry to say on so many levels...

"The Vice President even called me unfit for office last night. I guess I'll leave it up to the voters whether five deferments makes someone more qualified to defend this nation than two tours of duty."

First of all, that's the sort of charge you send surrogates out to make because it sounds nasty, partisan, and unpresidential, especially when compared to the very gracious & respectful way that the Bush campaign has treated Kerry's military service. Furthermore, it's not going to hurt Dick Cheney or help John Kerry. People already know Cheney got deferments during the war and that John Kerry served.

Furthermore, by continuing to put his Vietnam record front and center in the campaign, Kerry helps keep the charges by the Swift Boat Vets for Truth front and center in the campaign.

On top of all of that, we've got Kerry complaining about a war he voted for and talking about the Saudis and Haliburton? What, is Michael Moore writing his campaign speeches for him now?

Maybe Kerry feels like he needs to ramp it up a notch since the momentum is swinging dramatically in Bush's direction because of Swift Boat Vets for Truth & the convention, but John Kerry is going to hurt himself more than he hurts Bush by personally launching these sort of shrill attacks...which actually suits me just fine =D

*** Update #1***: From a post I wrote back on Feb 11, 2004...

"Most importantly, you have to remember that the last thing a Massachusetts liberal with a terrible voting record on security issues wants to do is go toe to toe on defense issues with George Bush in a time of war. So expect him to try to use the old Max Cleland dodge to get out of it. Kerry will claim that simply being a decorated Vietnam vet makes him credible on national defense and if anyone questions his judgement, they're attacking his patriotism. Then the issue becomes the attacks on his patriotism, not his sure to be mousey foreign policy."

Hat tip to Country Store for creating this one.

The Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign today announced it will spend $50 million in the next few days on advertising to prove John Forbes Kerry and John Edwards understand the concerns of middle Americans.

"We're regular folks, just like all you ordinary people, and we're going to burn through $50 million in about week just to prove it," said Mr. Kerry, a Vietnam veteran and distinguished anti-war protestor who is also a U.S. Senator. "Sen. Edwards and I got this $50 million the old fashioned way--by asking generous friends in Hollywood, at union headquarters and at the trial lawyers association to give it to us. You should see our callouses."

Before a crowd of cheering supporters, Mr. Kerry shouted, "We have been oppressed by those fatcat Republicans for too long."

Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards then led the crowd in chanting: "Down with The Man. Power to the people."

If you enjoyed this satire by Scott Ott, you can read more of his work at Scrappleface.

Zell Miller went on Hardball last night and when Chris Matthews tried to pull his standard operating procedure, Miller stomped a mudhole in his behind and walked it dry while pointing out the incredibly rude & unprofessional way Matthews treated Michelle Malkin when she was on his show a couple of weeks ago.

I guess Matthews picked a fight with the wrong marine.

Here's my favorite exchange from the interview...

MILLER: If you‘re going to ask a question...

MILLER: I don‘t know why I even came on this program.

Chris Matthews is another Morton Downey Jr. and it was great to see someone lay the verbal smackdown on him that he so richly deserved. I loved it, absolutely LOVED IT...

Hat tip to CavalierX from Guardian Watchblog for pointing this out.

On Tuesday, the convention featuring a rousing speech by Arnold, followed by a more sedate speech by Laura Bush aimed at women's voters.

Well last night, we had a blistering, no-holds-barred speech by Zell Miller, again followed by Dick Cheney, who touted the domestic agenda, talked up Bush and the importance of the war on terrorism, and then laid into John Kerry, albeit not as effectively as Zell Miller. Not that Cheney did a bad job, but he just couldn't compare to the sheer voltage Miller was pumping out.

Speaking of Miller...WOW! He looked furious and sounded like a Baptist preacher unleashing a sermon about fire and brimstone as he STRIPPED THE HIDE off not only John Kerry, but his whole party on defense. And the delegates were lovin' it so much that you could practically see the little hearts floating above their heads as they stared at Miller with open mouthed admiration.

Personally, I was so happy to hear a Senator, not a columnist or blogger, nailing the Democrats for how reckless they are about defending America from external threats, that I was ready to do a snoopy dance across the room.

Here's Miller's speech. You may want to be on the look-out for the beat-down he laid on Kerry's votes against various weapons systems which culminated with his asking if Kerry wants our Armed Forces to have to defend themselves with spitballs. That was my fave part of the speech....

On the day that prosecutors dropped charges against basketball star Kobe Bryant, the three major cable news networks announced they would cut back to 12-hours of daily programming.

"Without the Kobe show, we just can't fill 24 hours a day," said one unnamed programming executive. "I mean you can only run so many Michael Jackson perp walks and pictures of Scott Peterson smirking."

A Fox News spokesman said her network would purchase exclusive rights to the second season of the Kobe trial, expected to start soon.

"Kobe is the new Regis," said the Fox source. "This could run 13 seasons, then go into eternal syndication."

If you enjoyed this satire by Scott Ott, you can read more of his work here.

This was RWN's best month ever for daily uniques, and the best month this year for page views. Right Wing News finished August with 335,225 total pageviews & 202,452 daily unique visitors.

Thanks to all the web pages that linked RWN and of course, all the readers for making that possible. I'm going to have to double that number (at least) to go full time, but it's nice to be going in the right direction.

Also, you may have noticed the new RWN advertiser, "Tell the Republican Party To Come Back To The Mainstream".

To be honest with you, I have no idea who these guys are -- literally. I mean here are the members listed on the front of their website....

"Gov. David Cargo, New Mexico, 1967-71
Gov. Dan Evans, Washington, 1965-77
Gov. A. Linwood Holton, Virginia, 1970-74
Gov. Willam G. Milliken, Michigan, 1969-83
Gov. Walter R. Peterson, New Hampshire, 1969-73
Sen. Charles M. Mathias, Jr., Maryland, 1969-87
Sen. Robert T. Stafford, Vermont, 1971-89"

I was tempted to reject their ad, since I totally disagree with the idea that the GOP isn't in the mainstream already, but hey, they're paying money and I'm a capitalist right? If they want to run ads on RWN, all I have to say is thanks for the money fellas and oh...check out their web page. Even if I don't agree with them, they should at least get something for their money...

I'm not the biggest ah-nold fan in the world, but I have to give him credit for the great speech he gave last night. He was funny, did a good job of talking up W., and it's always fantastic to hear someone who audaciously points out the obvious: that the United States is a beacon of freedom for the world and the greatest nation that is, has ever been, or likely ever will be.

On the other hand, I wouldn't advise the Bush twins to quit their day jobs (wait, do they have day jobs?) and go into stand-up comedy. Frankly, I didn't think they were very good and I'm a little surprised their lame act made it to prime time without someone cluing them in.

Laura Bush's speech seemed pretty tame compared to Schwarzenegger's potent time at the podium, but she was targeting a different crowd. Laura was up there to bring in the "soccer moms" and humanize W. a bit and while she certainly couldn't sling red meat like Arnold or Rudy, I think she earned a primetime slot.

But of course, the highlight of the night was Schwarzenegger's speech and here it is in its entirety...

Hat tip to Entropy from Arguing With Myself for pointing this pic out to me and to Flash Bunny for making it.

PS: For accidentally self-inflicted wounds that were used to fraudulently acquire medals, see Kerry's 1st & 3rd Purple Hearts.

Here's some info on those citations,

"Former Navy Secretary John Lehman has no idea where a Silver Star citation displayed on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's campaign Web site came from, he said Friday. The citation appears over Lehman's signature.

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

Last but not least, here's more on the "medal that doesn't even exist"...

"The DD214 form, an official Defense Department document summarizing Kerry's military career posted on johnkerry.com, includes a "Silver Star with combat V."

Naval regulations do not allow for the use of a "combat V" for the Silver Star, the third-highest decoration the Navy awards. None of the other services has ever granted a Silver Star "combat V," either."

If you enjoyed the interview I did with Walter Williams and the first year's worth of quotes that I culled from his columns, then you'll enjoy this latest set of Walter Williams quotes that I've put together. All that wisdom, distilled down into a single page of quotes. Enjoy! (Cont)