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monday, october 11, 2004
UN Election Observers Nixed, Moonbats Vexed
It’s curiously absent from the news wires, but UN Secretary General Kofi Annan apparently turned down the request from US members of Congress to send international observers to monitor our presidential election.
Which is good news, because it means I don’t have to worry about going to jail on November 2 when I see an observer from Tajikistan trying to make sure I’m following the rules.
But the moonbat clans are not happy about Annan’s decision. Not happy at all.
UNITED NATIONS - Seven American activist groups asked the United Nations on Monday to provide international observers for next month’s presidential election.
A petition delivered to the U.N. Economic and Social Council said that only the U.N. can “give us recourse to international bodies beyond those within our own national and state governments” in case of a repeat of the problems seen in the 2000 election, which President Bush won after a protracted ballot fight in Florida.
Grace Ross of the Economic Human Rights Project, based in Somerville, Mass., said the non-governmental groups decided to seek action from the Economic and Social Council, known as ECOSOC, after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan turned down a request for international observers from 13 members of Congress, led by Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Tex. Annan said the U.N. needed an invitation from the U.S. government, not Congress.
Ross claimed that while governments need to go through the U.N. General Assembly, non-governmental organizations could request observers through ECOSOC. If its 54 elected member nations approve, the ECOSOC president could then ask Annan to send observers, she said. The United States would have to grant permission to any observers that the ECOSOC wanted to send. ...
But the seven groups say it’s not clear that the European observers will have the force of international law behind them since they are invited guests.
Other organizations signing the petition include the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, based in Philadelphia; the National Welfare Rights Union and the Michigan Welfare Rights Union, based in Detroit; the Independent Progressive Politics Network, headquartered in Bloomfield, N.J.; Seacoast Peace Response, based in Portsmouth, N.H.; and the North Shore Massachusetts chapter of the Alliance for Democracy.
Offshore and Outsourced
In addition to outsourcing America’s national defense, John Kerry apparently outsourced a good portion of his income.
Bush Campaign Office Vandalized
Another Bush-Cheney campaign office attacked, in Spokane, Washington: Bush’s campaign office in Spokane burglarized, vandalized.
Offices that house President Bush’s re-election campaign in Spokane were broken into and vandalized last night, the latest in a string of crimes at Republican offices across the country.
Workers arriving this morning found a hole smashed through the wall from an adjacent, vacant office. Bush campaign officials say a small amount of petty cash is missing and a computer and television had been moved and left near the hole.
Dems Planning to Swing to the Left
If you think the Democratic Party has already gone off the deep end, just wait. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The looming fight for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party.
Influential figures on the party’s left wing are planning a long-term campaign to move the Democrats to the left, just as right-wing activists took over the Republican Party and moved it to the right over the past 30 years.
If the left’s campaign is successful, it could transform the political landscape of the United States, changing the terms of debate and bringing dramatically different policies on local, national and international issues.
After George McGovern’s landslide loss to Richard Nixon in 1972, some centrist Democrats argued that Democrats had become too liberal to win national elections.
The accusation was repeated after Michael Dukakis’ lopsided loss to George Bush in 1988. Leading the charge was the Democratic Leadership Council, a group of centrist Democrats who subsequently pushed the party rightward on crime, economics and foreign policy during the presidency of Bill Clinton, himself a council supporter.
Now, leftist Democrats are planning to challenge the centrists’ control. The leftists argue that many Democrats, especially the party establishment in Washington, have become too much like Republicans and too afraid to stand up to right-wingers like George W. Bush.
In the short run, the left-wingers are working hard to elect Kerry, even though they regard him as representing the party’s cautious center. In the primaries, most of the left preferred Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, whose populist, anti-war candidacy threatened to wrest the nomination from Kerry, to the horror of the party establishment.
The left is uniting behind Kerry out of a widely shared conviction that a second Bush term would be an unmitigated, perhaps irreversible, disaster. “Four more years of George Bush would destroy the country,” Dean said in announcing last summer that he would campaign hard for Kerry.
Nobel Prize Winner: AIDS is a Genocidal Plot
We already knew mass-murdering terrorists were acceptable to the Nobel Committee (e.g., Yasser Arafat), but apparently being crazy doesn’t knock you out of the running for the Peace Prize either: AIDS ‘made to kill blacks’.
KENYA’S new Nobel Peace Prize winner believes the virus causing AIDS was a deliberately created biological agent unleashed on Africans.
“Some say that AIDS came from the monkeys, and I doubt that because we have been living with monkeys (since) time immemorial, others say it was a curse from God, but I say it cannot be that,” Wangari Maathai told a news conference a day after winning the prize.
Ms Maathai, an ecologist and trained biologist, became the first African woman to win the prize on Friday for her work in human rights and reversing deforestation.
“Us black people are dying more than any other people in this planet. It’s true there are some people who create agents to wipe out other people. If there were no such people, we could have not have invaded Iraq. We invaded Iraq because we believed that Saddam Hussein had made, or was in the process of creating agents of biological warfare,” said Ms Maathai, also Kenyan deputy environment and natural resources minister, who has gained a reputation as a fearless speaker.
“In fact it (the HIV virus) is created by a scientist for biological warfare,” she added. “Why has there been so much secrecy about AIDS? When you ask where did the virus come from, it raises a lot of flags. That makes me suspicious.” ...
“We know that the developed nations are using biological warfare, leaving guns to the primitive people,” the Standard quoted Ms Maathai as telling a public workshop in the central Kenyan town of Nyeri on August 30. “AIDS (is) not a curse from God to Africans or the black people. It is a tool to control them designed by some evil-minded scientists, but we may not know who particularly did.”
Religion of Misogyny
After a rush of statements about holding new liberalized elections, the Saudi royal family decided to quietly shut the door on the 21st century again: Saudi Women Won’t Vote in Elections. (Hat tip: zulubaby.)
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Women may neither vote nor run in Saudi Arabia’s first nationwide elections, the government announced Monday, dashing hopes of progressive Saudis and easing fears among conservatives that the kingdom is moving too fast on reforms.
Some women considered the move yet another indignity in a country where they need their husbands’ permission to study, travel or work. But others said they wouldn’t trust themselves to judge whether a candidate is more than just a handsome face.
The religious establishment had been lobbying against women’s participation in the elections, diplomats said.
But an electoral official cited administrative and logistical reasons Monday for the decision to ban women from the municipal elections, scheduled to be held in three stages from Feb. 10 to April 21.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there are not enough women to run women’s-only registration centers and polling stations, and that only a fraction of the country’s women have the photo identity cards that would have been needed to vote.
Free Speech 40th Anniversary
Don’t miss LGF operative zombie’s latest photo essay collection, showing the convergence of MoveOn.org, International ANSWER, and the ACLU at a celebration of Berkeley’s free speech movement: Free Speech Movement 40th Anniversary.
Mubarak Wants UN Summit Meeting
John Kerry’s pal Hosni Mubarak called for a UN-sponsored conference on terrorism today: Mubarak Calls for U.N. Conference on Terror.
As usual with terrorism conferences proposed by Arab dictators, Mubarak is very concerned with distinguishing legitimate resistance from the actions of a few deviant elements.
Mubarak, speaking to reporters after meeting President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, said such a conference could help the international community find what he called an “integrated approach” to deal with extremism.
“I repeat my call... for an international conference on international terrorism, under the auspices of the United Nations,” he said.
Mubarak thanked Italy for its support following “the terror attacks in Taba and their evil consequences.” Two Italian sisters, Jessica and Sabrina Rinaudo, 19 and 22 years-old, were among those killed in the main bombing at Taba’s Hilton hotel.
Mubarak envisioned a conference that would study the causes of terrorism and help make a distinction between “the efforts of people seeking their legitimate rights and attempts by a few deviant elements to impose their violent views on the world.”
GOP Protests AFL-CIO Voter Intimidation
The Bush-Cheney campaign has sent a strongly-worded letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, protesting the thuggish and violent behavior of AFL-CIO members who have stormed and ransacked GOP offices across the country: Letter on Voter Intimidation to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
Tommy Franks: Not a Kerry Fan
Retired General Tommy Franks had some stinging words for John Kerry yesterday.
“If his voting record ruled the day, Saddam Hussein would not only be running Iraq but Kuwait,” Franks told about 200 people Sunday at a Reno rally.
“The choice is very, very clear. We need decisive, strong, no-backing-down and no-equivocating leadership,” he said.
Franks praised the Democratic challenger’s military service during the Vietnam War, but said Kerry’s later anti-war activities upset him.
“The men I served with in Vietnam weren’t war criminals and I’m proud I served with them,” Franks said. ...
“I know a commander in chief when I see one and there’s only one on the ballot,” Franks said. “After September 11th, we were blessed to have a commander in chief who said enough is enough. There are two options: to fight them (terrorists) over there or to fight them over here. I’m an over-there-kind-of-guy,” he said.
In an interview before the rally, Franks said he doesn’t foresee an endless cycle of violence in Iraq, and he thinks violence will diminish after the Nov. 2 election.
“I believe they (insurgents) are influenced by what they see in our media,” he told The Associated Press. “They see if they blow something up it’s front-page news ... (and) the presidential candidates will talk about it.
“After Nov. 2, that dynamic will leave. The problem won’t go away, but it’ll be diminished ... This will be a long process, but there will come a time when the insurgents have less opportunity to create mischief for us,” he said.
Duelfer Report: Key Findings
I received an email this morning that was copied to Markos “Screw Them” Zuniga (which is unusual enough to grab my eye), with the subject line: “Duefler report - do either of you dare to make this public to your audience?”
The author was daring “Kos” and me to provide a link to the actual Duelfer report; I already did this on October 7. But in his email he also dared us to post the text of the report’s “Key Findings.”
Not only do I dare, I think it’s a wonderful idea.
Key Findings
Saddam Husayn so dominated the Iraqi Regime that its strategic intent was his alone. He wanted to end sanctions while preserving the capability to reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) when sanctions were lifted.
• Saddam totally dominated the Regime’s strategic decision making. He initiated most of the strategic thinking upon which decisions were made, whether in matters of war and peace (such as invading Kuwait), maintaining WMD as a national strategic goal, or on how Iraq was to position itself in the international community. Loyal dissent was discouraged and constructive variations to the implementation of his wishes on strategic issues were rare. Saddam was the Regime in a strategic sense and his intent became Iraq’s strategic policy.
• Saddam’s primary goal from 1991 to 2003 was to have UN sanctions lifted, while maintaining the security of the Regime. He sought to balance the need to cooperate with UN inspections—to gain support for lifting sanctions—with his intention to preserve Iraq’s intellectual capital for WMD with a minimum of foreign intrusiveness and loss of face. Indeed, this remained the goal to the end of the Regime, as the starting of any WMD program, conspicuous or otherwise, risked undoing the progress achieved in eroding sanctions and jeopardizing a political end to the embargo and international monitoring.
• The introduction of the Oil-For-Food program (OFF) in late 1996 was a key turning point for the Regime. OFF rescued Baghdad’s economy from a terminal decline created by sanctions. The Regime quickly came to see that OFF could be corrupted to acquire foreign exchange both to further undermine sanctions and to provide the means to enhance dual-use infrastructure and potential WMD-related development.
• By 2000-2001, Saddam had managed to mitigate many of the effects of sanctions and undermine their international support. Iraq was within striking distance of a de facto end to the sanctions regime, both in terms of oil exports and the trade embargo, by the end of 1999.
Saddam wanted to recreate Iraq’s WMD capability—which was essentially destroyed in 1991—after sanctions were removed and Iraq’s economy stabilized, but probably with a different mix of capabilities to that which previously existed. Saddam aspired to develop a nuclear capability—in an incremental fashion, irrespective of international pressure and the resulting economic risks—but he intended to focus on ballistic missile and tactical chemical warfare (CW) capabilities.
• Iran was the pre-eminent motivator of this policy. All senior level Iraqi offi cials considered Iran to be Iraq’s principal enemy in the region. The wish to balance Israel and acquire status and influence in the Arab world were also considerations, but secondary.
• Iraq Survey Group (ISG) judges that events in the 1980s and early 1990s shaped Saddam’s belief in the value of WMD. In Saddam’s view, WMD helped to save the Regime multiple times. He believed that during the Iran-Iraq war chemical weapons had halted Iranian ground offensives and that ballistic missile attacks on Tehran had broken its political will. Similarly, during Desert Storm, Saddam believed WMD had deterred Coalition Forces from pressing their attack beyond the goal of freeing Kuwait. WMD had even played a role in crushing the Shi’a revolt in the south following the 1991 cease-fire.
• The former Regime had no formal written strategy or plan for the revival of WMD after sanctions. Neither was there an identifiable group of WMD policy makers or planners separate from Saddam. Instead, his lieutenants understood WMD revival was his goal from their long association with Saddam and his infrequent, but firm, verbal comments and directions to them.
Palestinians Blame Israel, US
The Palestinian Authority has issued a pro forma “condemnation” of the Taba Hilton terrorist attack, but the Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh reports that on the streets of Ramallah, the mass murder in Taba filled hearts with joy: Palestinians blame Israel, US. (Hat tip: Barak M.)
In Ramallah, many Palestinians on Saturday expressed support for the attacks in Sinai, which they said, were a “natural response to Israel’s crimes in the Gaza Strip.”
“The Israelis deserve what happened to them,” said Bassam Abu Halaweh, a taxi driver. “In the last two weeks Israel killed about 100 Palestinians. It was clear that there would be some kind of retaliation.”
Maha Odeh, a secretary for a local law firm, said she was “delighted” when she heard about the bombings.
“I don’t know any Palestinian who is sad on a day like this,” she added. “We hope that Israel and the US, which is perpetrating daily massacres against the Iraqi people, will learn the lesson and stop the killings.”
In the nearby town of Bir Zeit, several shopkeepers blamed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the Sinai bombings. “Sharon is responsible for the bloodshed because of what he’s doing in the Gaza Strip,” said Hassan Khalil, who works in a grocery.
Fayez Ibrahim, a student at Bir Zeit University, said he and many of his colleagues were hoping that there would be more attacks like the ones in Sinai. “We want to see such attacks in the heart of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv,” he said.
Such lovely people. Let’s give them a state!
Heinz Kerry: No Blood for Oil!
Billionairehead Teresa Heinz Kerry is at it again, recycling the barking moonbat “No Blood for Oil” theme that has worked so well for the far left: Heinz Kerry Says Husband Would Be Cautious.
McALLEN, Texas - The wife of presidential candidate John Kerry told a receptive audience in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas that Kerry would seek out all other options before going to war.
“John will never send a boy or girl in a uniform anywhere in the world because of our need and greed for oil,” Teresa Heinz Kerry told about 1,200 supporters at the McAllen Civic Center.
She said her husband, as president, would be able to approach the families of slain soldiers and say, “’I did everything I could to prevent this, I’m sorry.’ ”
“Diplomacy is not about, ‘I’m telling you.’ Diplomacy is about, ‘what do you think?’” Heinz Kerry said. “If you cannot have respect for the other side, you cannot have diplomacy.”
UPDATE at 10/11/04 9:28:35 am:
Heinz Kerry and hubby John, by the way, own a private jet, a power yacht, and five mansions, and a fleet of bloodthirsty Secret Service SUVs is kept running night and day outside their Beacon Hill palace.
CNSNews.com Publishes Iraqi Intelligence Docs
Cybercast News has made available online the Iraqi documents they obtained, showing Saddam Hussein’s extensive ties to terrorist groups and acquisitions of anthrax and mustard gas in 2000: Iraqi Intelligence Docs.
Christopher Reeve Dead at 52
Christopher Reeve has died of complications from an infection, at the age of 52.
Markos “Mr. Compassion” Zuniga immediately uses Reeve’s death to attack President Bush; in his eagerness to post, “Kos” makes two spelling mistakes in one sentence: Reeve dies. Stem cell research to take center stage.
Reeves was a tireless advocate for stem cell research — the same type of science Bush has worked tirelessly to stiffle.
The Case for Fearmongering
Charles Krauthammer demonstrates again why his columns are essential reading, in a piece on The Case for Fearmongering. (Hat tip: song_and_dance_man.)
Shortly after Hiroshima, wrote physicist Richard Feynman in his memoirs, “I would go along and I would see people building a bridge ... and I thought, they’re crazy, they just don’t understand, they don’t understand. Why are they making new things? It’s so useless.” Useless because doomed. Futile because humanity had no future. That’s what happens to a man who worked on the Manhattan Project and saw with his own eyes at Alamogordo intimations of the apocalypse. Feynman had firsthand knowledge of what man had wrought — and a first-class mind deeply skeptical of the ability of his own primitive species not to be undone by its own cleverness.
Feynman was not alone. The late 1940s and ‘50s were so pervaded by a general fear of nuclear annihilation that the era was known as the Age of Anxiety. That anxiety dissipated over the decades as we convinced ourselves that deterrence (the threat of mutual annihilation) would assure our safety.
Sept. 11 ripped away that illusion. Deterrence depends on rationality. But the new enemy is the embodiment of irrationality: nihilists with a cult of death, yearning for the apocalypse — armed, ready and appallingly able.
The primordial fear that haunted us through the first days and weeks after 9/11 has dissipated. Not because the threat has disappeared but for the simple reason that in our ordinary lives we simply cannot sustain that level of anxiety. The threat is as real as it was on Sept. 12. It only feels distant because it is psychologically impossible to constantly face the truth and yet carry on day to day.
But as it is the first duty of government to provide for the common defense, it is the first duty of any post-9/11 government to face that truth every day — and to raise it to national consciousness at least once every four years, when the nation chooses its leaders.
Fearmongering? Yes. And very salutary. When you live in an age of terrorism with increasingly available weapons of mass destruction, it is the absence of fear that is utterly irrational.
AP: They're Calling Kerry a "Liberal!"
AP’s Democratic operative Jennifer Loven has a new story out, this time moaning about the “aggressive” language used by the Bush campaign. Why, they’re actually calling Kerry a (gasp!) liberal! Stop the insanity! Bush Rhetoric Becoming More Aggressive.
Hoping to stunt the momentum the Massachusetts senator gained from a much-praised showing in the first debate and a week of difficult news for Bush on Iraq and the economy, aides are signaling the anti-Kerry arsenal is far from depleted.
“There’s a lot more in (Kerry’s) record that the American people are going to hear and know about by the time it’s all over,” said Karl Rove, Bush’s chief political adviser.
Looking ahead to the final debate, set to focus entirely on domestic issues, Bush is devoting more time to talking about Kerry’s record on taxes, health care and other domestic issues.
In the process, he is seeking to drive home two main characterizations of his rival: that Kerry is a die-hard liberal who lacks credibility because he tries to paint himself as otherwise. It’s the domestic version of the weak, flip-flopping image the Bush team has tried to attach to Kerry on Iraq and the war on terror.
Campaigning Saturday in Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota, Bush mocked Kerry’s debate promise never to raise taxes on those earning less than $200,000 as unbelievable and ridiculed his rival’s plan to increase the number of people with health insurance as a federal takeover of health care, a characterization Kerry says is false since his plan does not call for nationalized health care. Many of Kerry’s statements, Bush now likes to say, “don’t pass the credibility test.”
Bush then warns — his audience often chanting along with him — that Kerry “can run but he cannot hide” from a record that the president criticizes as both unimpressive and unabashedly liberal.
In chats with reporters, two Bush’s closest advisers — Rove and Karen Hughes — together used the word “liberal” nearly a dozen times to describe Kerry.
sunday, october 10, 2004
Hip-Hop Generation Now a Factor
Sean “P. Diddy” Combs raises the grim specter of 40 million hip-hop voters: Rap mogul P. Diddy rallies ‘hip-hop generation’ to the polls.
“You want to talk demographics like ”soccer moms“ and ”Nascar dads?’ We’re larger than them,“ he said.
”You want to talk about focused interest groups like the NRA (National Rifle Association) and AARP (American Association of Retired Persons)?
“We eat them,” said Combs, “and you see how much Bush and Kerry are sweating those groups.”
Combs said politicians ignore urban America at their own peril.
“We know we’re going to be the deciding factor in who is the next president,” he said.
“Why? Because it’s simply in the numbers — We have not voted in these numbers before.
“You know, (rap star) 50 Cent has more power than a Kerry or Bush in these communities ... We’re bigger than Kerry. We’re bigger than Bush,” said Combs, who estimates there are more than 40 million hip-hop voters.
Sean’s campaign to rally the hip-hop vote is titled, “Vote or Die.” Mr. Combs has not stated whether he will personally kill those who do not vote.
But his pimp hand is strong. Ahem.
John Quincy Adams Knew Jihad
Long before the age of instantaneous mass media and counterintuitive political correctness, the sixth President of the United States knew jihad.
The precept of the Koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God. The vanquished may purchase their lives, by the payment of tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet, may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Moslem creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force.
Of Mahometan good faith, we have had memorable examples ourselves. When our gallant [Stephen] Decatur had chastised the pirate of Algiers, till he was ready to renounce his claim of tribute from the United States, he signed a treaty to that effect: but the treaty was drawn up in the Arabic language, as well as in our own; and our negotiators, unacquainted with the language of the Koran, signed the copies of the treaty, in both languages, not imagining that there was any difference between them. Within a year the Dey demands, under penalty of the renewal of the war, an indemnity in money for the frigate taken by Decatur; our Consul demands the foundation of this pretension; and the Arabic copy of the treaty, signed by himself is produced, with an article stipulating the indemnity, foisted into it, in direct opposition to the treaty as it had been concluded.
CBS Still Parsing the Truth
At the New York Daily News, Michael Goodwin has strong words for CBS News, with the revelation that producer Mary Mapes is actually still working the Guard story: CBS still parsing the truth. (Hat tip: Rathergate.com.)
A month after it embarrassed itself with the discredited story about President Bush’s National Guard service, the network continues to send mixed signals about the mess it created. Most shocking, top brass apparently are allowing the same team that screwed up the initial report to keep working on the story.
Note to CBS: The first rule of holes is, when you find yourself in one, stop digging. Step away from the shovel!
But noooo. Having learned nothing the first time, CBS seems doomed and determined to repeat history. Mary Mapes, the producer who masterminded the disaster and tainted her colleagues by putting her source in touch with the Kerry campaign, could be among those working on the story even now.
“I don’t know” was all a spokesman would say about what Mapes is doing. Incredibly, Mapes seems not to be barred from the reporting team, which could air a new report on the suspect memos any day now. If this were a movie, I’d call it “Dumb and Dumber.”
It’s clear that CBS News has decided to stuff the story under the covers and ride out the storm, until Thornburgh and Boccardi’s report exonerates them of any wrongdoing. Gee, did that sound a bit cynical?
Meanwhile, Dan Rather keeps delivering the “news.” And a CBS anchor will moderate the final presidential debate.
Although News President Andrew Heyward and Dan Rather apologized for the flawed story, they refuse to concede the memos they relied on were fake, as virtually every expert in America says they are. The network says only it can’t “authenticate” them.
That parsing of the truth smacks of the arrogant defensiveness used to ward off the first questions about the story. And it’s only slightly more contrite than the smears Rather aimed at honest journalists who dared doubt his judgment.
More troubling, Heyward and Rather have held no one accountable, including themselves. Not a single person at CBS has been disciplined in any way, with a spokesman saying everyone involved is working in the same capacity.
So all the responsibility for putting Humpty Dumpty back together again was laid on Thornburgh and Boccardi, meaning CBS outsourced its ethics and standards.
Apparently freed from such messy tasks, the gang that couldn’t shoot straight is preparing to take another shot at the story.
That turns the probe into a facade for business as usual. And allows the bosses to maintain the illusion of accountability and remorse.
Make no mistake: Something very bad and very damaging happened here. And not just to CBS. Coming during a nasty election where the media have too often been the story, the shame of Rathergate has eroded America’s fragile trust in all news organizations.
The network must clean its own house immediately. Until it does, everything it says is suspect.
Especially those apologies.
Headline of the Day
Al-Reuters says: Bush Camp Trying to Portray Kerry as Liberal. (Hat tip: scaramouche.)
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - President Bush goes to his third debate with Democrat John Kerry this week looking to accuse Kerry of shifting positions for political purposes and portray him as an out-of-the-mainstream Massachusetts liberal, top Bush aides said.
The liberal bashing strategy is one the Bush campaign used last spring to try to undermine a Kerry jump in the polls after he won the Democratic nomination for president.
I guess we’re now calling it “bashing” when someone is correctly identified by their political views; according to the National Journal’s congressional vote ratings, John Kerry was the #1 most liberal member of the Senate in 2003.
And John Edwards was #4.
Who Is Recruiting for Osama?
A great essay by author Orson Scott Card, on the essential dishonesty of the Kerry-Edwards campaign: Is Iraq a ‘Mess’? Who Is Recruiting for Osama? (Hat tip: Nancy Block.)
Here’s the reality check. The mess in Iraq is caused by murderers, rebels, thugs, and self-righteous fanatics. For Edwards to say that the mess is “because of” President Bush and Vice-president Cheney is so monstrously false that it offends not just common sense but common decency for a candidate for such high office to utter such an unspeakable charge.
The murderers are the ones who are guilty of murder. The messmakers made the mess. Our President and Vice-president have been doing their job: sticking to the mission they embarked on and seeing it through to a successful conclusion.
And there is no sign whatsoever that Kerry or Edwards know how to make a decision at all, let alone how to stick to a decision and respond to the unpredictable events that always come up in military matters.
It’s as if Kerry and Edwards thought that if they were in power, America’s enemies would consult with them to find out what script to follow. But they won’t.
Good to be in DC
Another hit from JibJab: Good to be in DC!
The Masked Face of Evil
Al-Reuters describes the last minutes of British hostage Ken Bigley’s life before the monsters slaughtered him, capering and dancing and calling out the name “Allah!” as he died: Web Video Shows Last Appeal of Beheaded UK Hostage.
The four-minute tape, posted on Web sites often used by Islamists, showed militants holding up the Briton’s severed head and then placing it on top of the corpse.
The title shown at the beginning of the video issued by the group read: “The slaughter of the British hostage who was not helped by Blair or his people despite being given enough time.”
“The heads of the infidel Western governments pretend to care about their citizens, but they are liars and hypocrites,” said a statement read out by one of the militants on the tape.
“We extended the deadline to kill the British hostage to see if our sisters in Abu Ghraib prison would be freed but the tyrannical British government lied and claimed there was no way to contact Tawhid and Jihad Group when in fact there was a clear source of contact,” the man said, vowing the group would continue to behead “infidels” until women prisoners are freed.
Steyn: Frenchmen Would Be Involved
Mark Steyn on the second presidential debate: It was a face-off without their faces on.
If you want to know the real difference, after 90 minutes of debate it came in the final exchange of the night: “The truth of that matter,” said Bush, “is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he [Kerry] were the President of the United States.”
Kerry replied: “Not necessarily.”
That’s John Kerry: the “not necessarily” candidate. Saddam might not necessarily be in power. He might have been hit by the Number 37 bus while crossing the street at the intersection of Saddam Hussein Boulevard and Saddam Hussein Parkway in downtown Tikrit. He might have put his back out with one of his more vigorous concubines and been forced to hand over to Uday or Qusay. He might have stiffed Chirac in some backdoor deal and been taken out by some anthrax-laced Quality Street planted by an elite French commando unit.
But, on the other hand, not necessarily. That’s the difference: Bush believes America needs to shape events in the world; Kerry doesn’t and, even if he did, because he doesn’t know how he’d want to shape them the events would end up shaping him. There would be lots of discussion. Frenchmen would be involved.
Edwards on Hardball, Oct 13, 2003
Here’s John Edwards on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, October 13, 2003: Hardball: Sen. John Edwards. (Hat tip: gumble.)
MATTHEWS: Were we right to go to this war alone, basically without the Europeans behind us? Was that something we had to do?
EDWARDS: I think that we were right to go. I think we were right to go to the United Nations. I think we couldn’t let those who could veto in the Security Council hold us hostage.
And I think Saddam Hussein, being gone is good. Good for the American people, good for the security of that region of the world, and good for the Iraqi people.
MATTHEWS: If you think the decision, which was made by the president, when basically he saw the French weren’t with us and the Germans and the Russians weren’t with us, was he right to say, “We’re going anyway”?
EDWARDS: I stand behind my support of that, yes.
MATTHEWS: You believe in that?
EDWARDS: Yes.
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about-Since you did support the resolution and you did support that ultimate solution to go into combat and to take over that government and occupy that country. Do you think that you, as a United States Senator, got the straight story from the Bush administration on this war? On the need for the war? Did you get the straight story?
EDWARDS: Well, the first thing I should say is I take responsibility for my vote. Period. And I did what I did based upon a belief, Chris, that Saddam Hussein’s potential for getting nuclear capability was what created the threat. That was always the focus of my concern. Still is the focus of my concern.
So did I get misled? No. I didn’t get misled.
...
MATTHEWS: If you knew last October when you had to cast an aye or nay vote for this war, that we would be unable to find weapons of mass destruction after all these months there, would you still have supported the war?
EDWARDS: It wouldn’t change my views. I said before, I think that the threat here was a unique threat. It was Saddam Hussein, the potential for Saddam getting nuclear weapons, given his history and the fact that he started the war before.
Read the whole thing to see how completely and shamelessly Edwards has reversed his positions on Iraq, in his (and Kerry’s) desperate campaign to get elected at any cost.
Edwards: We Shouldn't Have Invaded Iraq (Sort Of)
John Edwards goes right to the brink of saying that things would be better if Saddam Hussein were still in power: Edwards Disputes Rice on Iraq Invasion.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards on Sunday disputed a White House assertion that it was right to topple Saddam Hussein even if he had no illegal weapons because he posed a future threat.
The North Carolina senator, appearing on several television news programs, said Saddam’s intent to eventually gather weapons of mass destruction was one of dozens of such threats.
“There are lots of threats waiting to happen all over the world,” Edwards said. “That doesn’t mean that that justifies invading a country.”
This is the most childish way possible to look at national security. If we can’t handle all threats, we’re not supposed to handle any?
There are lots of cases of medical malpractice all over the world too. That doesn’t mean John Edwards is justified making millions suing one hospital.
I expect this kind of mud-headed reasoning from the Morlocks at Indymedia; seeing it issue from a vice presidential candidate is just scary.
Religion of High Explosives
Five Die as Suicide Bomber Attacks Pakistan Mosque.
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed four people as he shot his way into a Shi’ite Muslim mosque and blew himself up in the Pakistani city of Lahore Sunday, emergency workers said.
The attack was the latest in a spate of sectarian attacks in Pakistan that has fueled fears of a flare-up in violence between minority Shi’ite and majority Sunni Muslims.
Witnesses in the eastern city of Lahore said a man opened fire on a security guard who tried to stop him entering the mosque, then blew himself up inside.
At the entrance to the mosque was a large pool of blood and body parts, including the head of a child, were strewn around.
Women wailed and beat their chests and heads while male worshippers shouted angry slogans and attacked two policemen.
Hate Like an Egyptian
These are the people John Kerry wants to “engage more directly and more respectfully:” Israel To Benefit From Sinai Bombings: Experts. (Hat tip: Oki.)
CAIRO, October 9 (IslamOnline.net) — A cohort of Egyptian security, political and diplomatic experts have concluded that Israel is the only party to benefit from the blasts that rocked tourist resorts in the Egyptian Sinai peninsula on Thursday, October 7, ruling out any possible Egyptian involvement.
Former Egyptian Assistant Interior Minister Mohammad Omar Abdel-Fattah said that while analyzing any such operation security experts should always seek an answer to the basic question of who stands to benefit.
At least 38 people, mostly Israeli tourists, were confirmed dead after a series of bomb attacks rocked the Hilton hotel in the Red Sea resort of Taba and another attack at a backpacker resort in Nuweiba, further south.
“Israel is the only party to gain from this operation,” the international security expert told IslamOnline.net. He pointed out that the Israelis and their agents are the only people who have free access to the targeted area.
Abdel-Fattah said the booby-trapped vehicles used in the bombings do not carry the trademark of terrorist groups who usually resort to suicide bombers instead.
He stressed that the Israeli right has been cornered due to mounting pressures from the US on Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon after Washington had to wield its veto power to kill a resolution condemning Israel for the onslaught on the Gaza Strip. Israel needed something to dodge such American pressures and throw the ball at the American court till the end of the elections, said the expert.
Former Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister Abdullah Al-Ashaal also agreed that several indications suggest an Israeli foul play. “Israel’s ultimate goal is to undermine Egypt’s regional role and force it on its knees,” he told IOL. “All indicators suggest an Israeli involvement, especially that the area is very close to the Israeli borders.”
Diaa Rashwan, an expert in the Islamic movements affairs in Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, an Egyptian think-tank, also agreed that Al-Qaeda was not a likely culprit.
“Sinai bombings carry the trademark of careful planning which means those involved had a hand-on experience on the area, which is already under tight security.”
The expert suggested that “foreign intelligence” are directly or indirectly involved in such “dirty attacks.” Rashwan agreed with the other experts that Israel would be the only party to make gains from the attacks, especially that Israel would exploit them to associate itself with Washington in its so-called war on terror.
Kerry's Undeclared Policies
In a lengthy advertisement for John F. Kerry, appropriately accompanied by an advertisement for Michael Moore’s agitprop film Fahrenheit 9/11, the New York Times’ Matt Bai makes very clear that a vote for John Kerry will be a vote for a return to Carter-style diplomacy: Kerry’s Undeclared War.
If forced democracy is ultimately Bush’s panacea for the ills that haunt the world, as Kerry suggests it is, then Kerry’s is diplomacy. Kerry mentions the importance of cooperating with the world community so often that some of his strongest supporters wish he would ease up a bit. (“When people hear multilateral, they think multi-mush,” Biden despaired.) But multilateralism is not an abstraction to Kerry, whose father served as a career diplomat during the years after World War II. The only time I saw Kerry truly animated during two hours of conversation was when he talked about the ability of a president to build relationships with other leaders.
“We need to engage more directly and more respectfully with Islam, with the state of Islam, with religious leaders, mullahs, imams, clerics, in a way that proves this is not a clash with the British and the Americans and the old forces they remember from the colonial days,” Kerry told me during a rare break from campaigning, in Seattle at the end of August. “And that’s all about your diplomacy.”
When I suggested that effecting such changes could take many years, Kerry shook his head vehemently and waved me off.
“Yeah, it is long-term, but it can be dramatically effective in the short term. It really can be. I promise you.” He leaned his head back and slapped his thighs. “A new presidency with the right moves, the right language, the right outreach, the right initiatives, can dramatically alter the world’s perception of us very, very quickly.
“I know Mubarak well enough to know what I think I could achieve in the messaging and in the press in Egypt,” Kerry went on. “And, similarly, with Jordan and with King Abdullah, and what we can do in terms of transformation in the economics of the region by getting American businesspeople involved, getting some stability and really beginning to proactively move in those ways. We just haven’t been doing any of this stuff. We’ve been stunningly disengaged, with the exception of Iraq.
“I mean, you ever hear anything about the ‘road map’ anymore?” he asked, referring to the international plan for phasing in peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which Kerry supports. “No. You ever hear anything about anything anymore? No. Do you hear anything about this greater Middle East initiative, the concepts or anything? No. I think we’re fighting a very narrow, myopic kind of war.”
Reading the article gives you a very good picture of John Kerry—empty, driven by political winds, and utterly bereft of ideas except a desperate, naïve hope that by rehashing failed policies of the Carter administration (bilateral talks with North Korea? more money for Hosni Mubarak?) he can bamboozle the public into electing him.
UPDATE at 10/10/04 10:01:40 am:
Biggus Trunkus at Power Line also noticed the echoes of Jimmy: Senator Kerry’s G-8 spot.
UPDATE at 10/10/04 1:53:32 pm:
Here’s another revealing quote, as Kerry pines for that warm, safe world of September 10, in which terrorism was only a nuisance, like prostitution, best handled by law enforcement:
“We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance,” Kerry said. “As a former law-enforcement person, I know we’re never going to end prostitution. We’re never going to end illegal gambling. But we’re going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn’t on the rise. It isn’t threatening people’s lives every day, and fundamentally, it’s something that you continue to fight, but it’s not threatening the fabric of your life.”
Stand By... Rebuilding Directory...
Don’t you hate it when you wake up, start up the computer, it works fine for a little while, then locks up when you try to launch a program?
And then it refuses to start up, displaying instead the dreaded Mac OS X kernel panic? (Ahh! Kernel panic! Kernel panic!)
That’s what happened to me today. And once again, Alsoft Disk Warrior pulled my bacon out of the fire, finding several overlapped files and some directory damage, and repairing it all so well that my sick computer started up again on the first try.
I remained calm throughout the episode, however, because I do a scheduled automatic backup of my startup disk every night at 3 am, with the aid of Carbon Copy Cloner.
Two utilities no Mac user should be without. ’Cause there’s bugs out there, and they’re gonna gitcha.
UPDATE at 10/10/04 8:21:56 pm:
The most secure backup is one that’s stored at a separate site from your important data; and LGF sponsor DataStash is a great way to do this.
saturday, october 09, 2004
A Little Child Shall Lead Them
Teaching Ramadan in public schools. (Hat tip: SoCalJustice.)
During the next few weeks, multicultural trainer Afeefa Syeed will bring third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students from a Muslim academy in Herndon, Va., to nearby public schools to share the practices and beliefs of their holiest month, Ramadan.
Syeed and the children will present the call to prayer in Arabic, display prayer rugs and offer tastes of dates. In countless other classrooms across the country, similar efforts will be made to educate students about the time of fasting and spiritual reflection for adherents of the world’s second-largest religion.
Ramadan, which likely will begin Oct. 15, depending on the sighting of the new moon, is making more appearances in public school classrooms, thanks to a series of new teacher training initiatives, an increased fascination with Islam and the assurance that schools, if careful, can educate impressionable children about religion without crossing a constitutional line.
The Council on Islamic Education, a nonprofit organization based in California, plans to release an updated version of its booklet “Muslim Holidays,” which was first published in 1997, for the more than 4,000 teachers nationwide who have used it.
The booklet, which contains lesson plan ideas and historical and cultural background on Ramadan and other Muslim holidays, also outlines the various state regulations governing instruction about religion in public schools and discusses accommodations that schools can make to enable Muslim students to observe the holiday.
Muslim educators note tremendous progress in education about Ramadan and Islam in general in public schools, particularly since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — perpetrated by extremist Muslims — brought Islam into the national spotlight.
Wretchard on Howard (and Bush)
An especially excellent post from the always excellent Belmont Club, on John Howard’s wonderful Australian victory:
The really horrifying thing about Howard’s victory for Labor is that it proves that packaging and spin are ultimately dead ends. It is a cul-de-sac lined with klieg lights and celebrity occasions, but there is no exit all the same because it is the platform of the Labor party that is rotten. The hodge-podge of wacky environmentalists, professional victims, special sexual pleaders etc. have laid a dead hand on attempts to regard any issue, like the War on Terror, with anything approaching common sense. How else to explain why Labor should offer a country of 20 million people, living in close proximity to Indonesia, the chance to downgrade their alliance with the United States.
If the Left were thinking clearly, it would realize that the single most striking aspect of George W. Bush is how ordinary he is. There is nothing in his strategy to combat terrorism beyond a refined common sense. He represents a threat to Liberalism for precisely the reason that an everyman reacting to an extraordinary historical challenge imperils kings and hereditary elites: the prospect he may discover by success in action that royalty with its cant and obscurantism is no better than he.
Let’s welcome back on to the world stage the man deemed intellectually inferior to all his Labor opponents; a person said to be singularly lacking in refinement and bereft of nuance. The man who for nearly ten years beat them all and has won another term. Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
Egypt: Bombers Came From Jordan or Saudi Arabia
The Islamic mass murderers who bombed the Taba Hilton probably came from—get ready for a shock—Saudi Arabia or Jordan.
Investigators lifted fingerprints, swabbed dust and collected tissue from the sites of three car bombings Saturday and detained dozens of Bedouin tribesmen, including quarry workers who could have provided the explosives that killed at least 34 people.
Egyptian investigators said they suspect that a group of eight to 10 terrorists targeting Israelis carried out the Thursday night attacks, possibly slipping in from Saudi Arabia or Jordan on speed boats.
Israel has blamed al-Qaida for the attacks. The Egyptian investigators are leaning toward an al-Qaida connection as well, saying a local sleeper cell may have been awakened to carry out the attacks, Egypt’s first terrorist strike in seven years.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, they said such a group would almost certainly be linked to Ayman al-Zawahri, who led the Egyptian Islamic Jihad before merging his group with al-Qaida in 1998. The Egypt-born Zawahri is now bin Laden’s top deputy.
This appalling terror attack, killing dozens of innocent people and perpetrated by the very monsters who declared war on America, has already slipped off the front pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post.
"One of the Happiest Days of My Life"
Mainstream media is maintaining a tight focus on the downside of the Afghan election, but buried in the negativity you can find small gems: Afghan Poll Ends Peacefully; Opposition Claims Fraud.
“This is one of the happiest days of my life,” said Sayed Aminullah as he cast his vote at Eid Gah Mosque in the capital.
“I don’t care about the result. All I care is that we are having an election. This is a sign that things are improving for Afghanistan.”
In Kandahar city, the former headquarters of the Taliban and still the source of much of its support, large crowds of men pushed to get into a polling center near the blue-tiled Kherqi Sharif mosque.
On the other side of the street, only a trickle of women covered in burqa veils entered a school to vote, as many in the deeply conservative region have said they would not allow their wives and daughters to participate.
“We came here to vote for peace and stability and freedom for women,” said Raihana, a 37-year-old mother of eight who lived in exile in Iran for 14 years to flee war.
Australia, Reporting for Duty
Lots of good commentary on John Howard’s stunning victory over the forces of appeasement and schtoopidity in Australia, at Silent Running. That faint whining you hear from the southern hemisphere is the sound of thousands of terminally depressed Aussie moonbats.
Kerry Lets His Backbone Slip
Well you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I’m a woman’s man
No time to talk
(Hat tip: heyniceboard.)
When Flipper Attacks
Kerry mocks rough and ready Bush.
“Do we want leadership as it’s called that can’t face reality and admit mistakes or do we want leadership that sees the truth and tells the truth to the American people?” Kerry asked, shouting in a hoarse voice in a performance a world removed from the prosecutorial style he adopted in the debate.
“For me, the most stunning moment of the whole evening was when George Bush was asked to name three mistakes that he has made ... and the President couldn’t even name one mistake.”
This “name three mistakes” nonsense makes me want to scream. If President Bush had played along and named some “mistakes,” Kerry would be attacking him for it today, using Bush’s admissions as ammunition. But since he didn’t admit “mistakes,” Kerry attacks him for that instead.
It’s the classic “Have you stopped beating your wife?” ploy.
UPDATE at 10/9/04 1:07:09 pm:
For the record, here is President Bush’s response to this silly, loaded question:
Q. President Bush, during the last four years, you have made thousands of decisions that have affected millions of lives. Please give three instances in which you came to realize you had made a wrong decision and what you did to correct it. Thank you.
President Bush: I - I have made a lot of decisions and some of them little, like appointments to boards you’ve never heard of, and some of them big. And in a war there’s a lot of - there’s a lot of tactical decisions that historians will look back and say, he shouldn’t have done that, he shouldn’t have made that decision. And I’ll take responsibility for them. I’m human.
But on the big questions, about whether or not we should have gone into Afghanistan, the big question about whether we should have removed somebody in Iraq - I’ll stand by those decisions because I think they’re right. It’s really what your - when they ask about the mistakes, that’s what they’re talking about. They’re trying to say, did you make a mistake going into Iraq? And the answer is absolutely not. It was the right decision.
The Duelfer report confirmed that decision today because what Saddam Hussein was doing was trying to get rid of sanctions so he could reconstitute a weapons program and the biggest threat facing America is terrorists with weapons of mass destruction. We knew he hated us. We knew he’d been - invaded other countries. We knew he tortured his own people.
On the tax cut, it’s a big decision. I did the right decision. Our recession was one of the shallowest in modern history.
Now you ask what mistakes. I’ve made some mistakes in appointing people, but I’m not going to name them. I don’t want to hurt their feelings on national TV.
But history will look back and I’m fully prepared to accept any mistakes that history judges to my administration. Because the president makes the decisions, the president has to take the responsibility.
A Strange Bird
From Cox & Forkum Editorial Cartoons.
Jihad in Nashville
An Iraqi man was arrested yesterday in Nashville after purchasing machine guns, hand grenades, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from an undercover FBI agent—with the stated intention of “going jihad.” (Hat tip: Jheka.)
According to the affidavit, the investigation began in August after federal authorities were tipped by an acquaintance of Al-Uqaily that he was seeking to buy weapons.
According to the affidavit, Al-Uqaily told the acquaintance that he was angry about the state of affairs in Iraq, that he was “going Jihad,” and that he was going to blow up something.
In conversations over the next few weeks, Al-Uqaily pursued efforts with the informant to purchase machine guns, grenades, handguns and missiles. The informant set up a meeting with Al-Uqaily and the undercover agent, authorities said.
“This case underscores the significance of information and assistance provided to law enforcement by the good people of the United States,” Assistant Attorney General Christopher Wray said in a statement.
The affidavit says that during the later conversations with the informant, Al-Uqaily “expressed animosity towards the Jewish community” and discussed “two Jewish facilities in the Nashville area,” but made no specific threats, according to a release from the U.S. Justice Department. Authorities declined to say at a news conference on Friday what two Jewish facilities Al-Uqaily mentioned.
UPDATE at 10/9/04 11:53:04 am:
Peace activist and alleged would-be jihadi Ahmed Al-Uqaily had a previous 15 minutes of fame at Indymedia, dressing up as an Abu Ghraib prisoner: Tennessee Independent Media Center: newswire/2048. (Hat tip: aaron.)
Kerry Passes Iranian Section of Global Test
John Kerry has some new fans: the mad mullahs of Iran.
After first rejecting Kerry’s knuckleheaded offer to give them nuclear fuel, the mullahs have obviously realized that John Kerry will be much easier to manipulate than George Bush. Their sudden backflip would almost be comical if they weren’t such murderous fanatics.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran would welcome a proposal by U.S. presidential candidate Senator John Kerry’s running mate for a “great bargain” to solve the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday.
Vice presidential candidate Senator John Edwards has said that Kerry, a Democrat, would be willing to supply Iran with nuclear fuel for power generation if Tehran abandons its own fuel-making capability - if Iran did not accept this offer, it would confirm Iran wanted to make an atom bomb.
Iran earlier rejected the proposal, saying it would be “irrational” for Iran to jeopardize what it says is its purely civilian nuclear program by relying on supplies from abroad.
But in an apparent policy shift, Hossein Mousavian, head of the foreign policy committee at Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Iran would review the proposal.
“Iran welcomes any constructive proposal from any American candidate,” Mousavian told Reuters in an interview. “We are willing to consider constructive proposals from Americans,” he added.
Lindorff's Mystery Bulge
The latest eruption from the fever swamp makes it into the New York Times: The Mystery of the Bulge in the Jacket.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 - What was that bulge in the back of President Bush’s suit jacket at the presidential debate in Miami last week?
According to rumors racing across the Internet this week, the rectangular bulge visible between Mr. Bush’s shoulder blades was a radio receiver, getting answers from an offstage counselor into a hidden presidential earpiece. The prime suspect was Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s powerful political adviser.
When the online magazine Salon published an article about the rumors on Friday, the speculation reached such a pitch that White House and campaign officials were inundated with calls.
The source of the “Bush had something in his clothes” rumor is Dave Lindorff, who wrote about it for Salon: Bush’s mystery bulge.
So who is Dave Lindorff?
In February 2003, Lindorff wrote one of the nastiest, most insane pieces ever about George W. Bush, for the far-left journal Counterpunch: Bush and Hitler and the Strategy of Fear.
If we Americans value our society, our polity, our rights and liberties, and our security, we must begin exposing George W. Bush and his War Party for what they are: craven usurpers aiming at nothing less than the undermining of all those things that most of us hold dear.
It’s going a bit far to compare the Bush of 2003 to the Hitler of 1933. Bush simply is not the orator that Hitler was. But comparisons of the Bush Administration’s fear mongering tactics to those practiced so successfully and with such terrible results by HItler and Goebbels on the German people and their Weimar Republic are not at all out of line.
This is who Salon and the New York Times are listening to.
UPDATE at 10/9/04 12:19:10 pm:
Jeff Harrell also posted about this latest outbreak of Bush Derangement Syndrome yesterday.
Arab Groups Whine, Seethe, Endorse Kerry
Here’s why John Kerry avoided the subject of Israel in last night’s debate—because if he expressed support for Israel, the Arab American Political Action Committee would never have done this. (Hat tip: zulubaby.)
The Arab American Political Action Committee nearly unanimously endorsed its candidate for president on Tuesday.
Its selection, John Kerry, is an about-face for this Michigan based group, which backed President Bush in 2000.
“President George W. Bush hurt us on many levels. He hurt us on civil rights. He hurt us on the war he started. He hurt us in the Middle East by leaving the Palestinians and Israelis [to] kill each other,” said AAPAC member Abed Hammoud. [Isn’t his concern for Israelis touching? —ed.]
Four years ago, Bush won the support of Arab-Americans nationwide with 45 percent of the vote. But with the War on Terror changing the political landscape, recent polls suggest Kerry will win their support in November — but not necessarily because of what he stands for.
“The Arab community right now will be voting against Mr. Bush, not for Kerry,” said Osama Siblani, publisher of Arab American News.
Bush Wins Going Away
Reading the transcript of the second presidential debate is a revelation. The evasiveness and negativity of John Kerry stands out in sharp relief to the straight talk of George Bush.
But of course, mainstream media is doing everything possible to denigrate Bush and exalt Kerry; in just one out of dozens of similar articles, the Associated Press’s Ron Fournier writes: Bush Fights to Keep Emotions in Check.
WASHINGTON - President Bush smirked and winked and chuckled to himself. He jumped from his stool, chopped at the air and interrupted the debate moderator. As he fought to keep his emotions in check during a combative debate with Sen. John Kerry, the president jokingly said, “That answer almost made me want to scowl.”
Several answers brought Bush’s emotions to the surface, for better or worse, as he sought to curb Kerry’s momentum.
The question that hung over the second of their three debates was whether Bush’s aggressive, hyper style was an effective tool or a damaging habit — an extension of his disastrous first debate performance. Reviews were mixed.
Whatever, AP. LGF’s own totally unscientific poll, with 3900 votes as of this writing, shows an overwhelming defeat for John Kerry—the US version of Australia’s Mark Latham.
In your opinion, who won the second Presidential debate?
George W. Bush
3163
81.1%
John F. Kerry
737
18.9%
And this is in spite of a call by the morons at Daily “Screw Them” Kos to “freep” our poll.
This exchange with Senator Kerry about Iran’s nuclear aspirations shows the man’s suicidal nuclear-freeze mentality; the most important part of his plan to deal with Iran seems to be for the US to unilaterally disarm, so that we can pass the Global Test and regain our moral standing in the eyes of the French.
Q. Iran sponsors terrorism and has missiles capable of hitting Israel and southern Europe. Iran will have nuclear weapons in two to three years time. In the event that U.N. sanctions don’t stop this threat what will you do as president? In the event that U.N. sanctions don’t stop this threat, what will you do as president?
Mr. Kerry I don’t think you can just rely on U.N. sanctions, Randee. But you’re absolutely correct. It is a threat. It’s a huge threat. And what’s interesting is it’s a threat that has grown while the president has been preoccupied with Iraq where there wasn’t a threat. If he’d let the inspectors do their job and go on, we wouldn’t have 10 times the number of forces in Iraq that we have in Afghanistan chasing Osama bin Laden.
Meanwhile, while Iran is moving toward nuclear weapons, some 37 tons of what they call yellowcake, the stuff they use to make enriched uranium. While they’re doing that, North Korea has moved from one bomb, maybe, maybe to four to seven bombs. For two years, the president didn’t even engage with North Korea, did nothing at all while it was growing more dangerous. Despite the warnings of people like former Secretary of Defense William Perry, who negotiated getting television cameras and inspectors into that reactor. We were safer before President Bush came to office.
Now they have the bombs, and we’re less safe. So what do we do? We’ve got to join with the British and the French, with the Germans who have been involved in their initiative. We’ve got to lead the world now to crack down on proliferation as a whole. But the president’s been slow to do that even in Russia. At his pace, it’s going to take 13 years to reduce and get ahold of all the loose nuclear material in the former Soviet Union. I’ve proposed a plan that can capture it and contain it and clean it within four years. And the president is moving to the creation of our own bunker-busting nuclear weapon. It’s very hard to get other countries to give up their weapons when you’re busy developing a new one. I’m going to lead the world in the greatest counterproliferation effort. And if we have to get tough with Iran, believe me, we will get tough.
“Getting tough” will obviously not include using bunker busters. He’s throwing those away.
Please note: the questioner specifically mentioned the threat to Israel. But Kerry not only avoided bringing up Israel in his response to this question, he didn’t say the word “Israel” once in the entire debate.
Australia Comes Through the Storm
YES! Australians have sent socialist appeaser Mark Latham packing, and reelected John Howard: John Howard Wins Australian Elections.
SYDNEY, Australia - Prime Minister John Howard scored a convincing victory in Australia’s federal election Saturday, winning a historic fourth term in a vote ensuring the staunch U.S. ally keeps its troops in Iraq.
Labor Party leader Mark Latham conceded defeat in a speech to his supporters in western Sydney, saying he called Howard to congratulate him on his win.
“Tonight was not our night,” Latham said.
The election was widely seen abroad as the first referendum for the three leaders who launched the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, with President Bush facing a ballot next month and British Prime Minister Tony Blair probably facing voters next year.
The Labor Party had vowed to bring the approximate 900 Australian troops deployed in and around Iraq home by Christmas, while Howard insisted they will stay until Iraqis ask them to leave. Australian troops have not suffered any casualties and none have combat roles.
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