Kerry Haters: We're Not Fonda John

 
They'd Vote for Kerry If They Could Part II



That is, assuming the election comes before the mothership.

 
Ratso Uses Rizzo



Kerry walks out of his tailor's shop.

What, you don't have a tailor?

 
Goofus Rides With One Hand Free and Fails to Look Where He's Going



Why are they going to such a ridiculous extent to convince us he's healthy?

 
Great Reagan Links

Solid coverage from the Telegraph.

The Commissar rounds up the big blogs.

Command Post is looking for more classic Reagan quotes.

 
Farewell, Dutch



There are two men who made me a Republican. Ronaldus Maximus and Robert Bartley. Both are now gone, but their legacy will survive for centuries.

Andrew Sullivan wrote this a few years ago; it's one of the best things he's ever written, which is saying quite a bit.

Reagan stood for two simple but indisputably big things: the expansion of freedom at home and the extinction of tyranny abroad. He achieved both. When he came to office, top tax rates in the United States were in the 70 percent range. Against the odds, Reagan slashed the top rate to 28 percent and ignited an economic boom that, in some respects, is still with us. Bill Clinton nudged taxes up a little, but to nowhere near the levels of the Carter's America, and all signs now point to a reduction this year back to Reagan levels.

Thank you, President Reagan. Now, let's go out and win one for the Gipper!

 
Compliments from an Unlikely Source

It pays to read comments even from fairly old posts. Last weekend we noted that KH was about to become the #1 blog in the TTLB traffic ranking among blogs with Kerry in the name, surpassing the folks at East Bay Kerry, who have been #1 for as long as I've been checking.

Yesterday apparently that post got noticed at EBK, for in the comments section was this:

Bring it on!

You're such a fun read, if only because you break the rule: "If you don't have something nice to say, say nothing at all."

I suppose it's good that you leave the defence of this administration's rash, rigid incompetence to others; it makes for a better blog.

Yours in limp-wristed blogging,

- Phil Wolff, editor, EastBayKerry.com

That last is a reference to a gratuitous and undeserved crack we (correction--I) made about passing those limp-wristers at EBK.

Now, that's a classy comment. We generally highlight the barking moonbats of the left, but it is useful to remember that most Democrats are good people. In the office where I work, there are two Democrats and one (not counting me for the moment) Republican. I like all three, but I'm much closer to the two Democrats as it happens. And they're not of the moonbat variety, they're rational guys with different ways of prioritizing the issues (and of course a different way of looking at many of them).

I went out for a couple beers last night with another friend who's a Democrat. Much to my surprise, he had supported the war in Iraq and still does, but he was still voting for Kerry because his #1 issue is the environment. His statement was that Republicans would sacrifice the environment for the economy and he was not ready to accept that.

Now there are 1,001 arguments I can raise, but you know how that goes--deep down inside there is a faith in the guy in the party you support to do things right and a distrust of the guy from the other party. And when it gets right down to it, I can't argue that Republicans would not sacrifice the environment for the economy. Look at the Kyoto treaty for example. If you buy the global warming argument and you buy the Day After Tomorrow-type disaster scenarios and you buy the idea that abiding by Kyoto would prevent all that, then of course you would sacrifice the economy a bit for the sake of the environment. And, at least rhetorically, the Democrats agree (although the Senate voted down a proposal regarding Kyoto--not the treaty itself--by 95-0).

Anyway, I guess the point is that we here at Kerry Haters may despise Kerry for all the reasons that we've gone into in this blog since its inception. But we don't despise the folks who may vote for him in November. They're good people, like Phil Wolff and my friend from last night, Johnny Richardson, who by the way sells wonderful educational flashcards for small children that are not liberal in any way. We'd love to change their minds, but we respect their integrity.

Oh, and Kerry Haters is now the #1 blog in traffic rating in the TTLB ecosystem among blogs with Kerry in the name. Officially our ranking is #418 with 309 visits per day, but something's wrong with their read of our site meter; we're off quite a bit from that, with 218 per day. However, I suspect most sites have seen some fall-off in traffic this week because of the Memorial Day holiday. East Bay Kerry's site meter shows them at 148 per day.

 
Bookies Betting Bush

Best of the Web Today (yesterday's edition) points out that Bush is still the odds-on favorite of bookmakers:

TradeSports.com (click on "Politics" in the left-hand navigation bar, then click on "US Presidential Elec") currently lists Bush as a 57.2% favorite--which means a bet of $57.20 wins $42.80 if Bush is re-elected.

Intertops.com has Bush at -155 and Kerry at +100, which means you have to bet $155 to win $100 on Bush, whereas Kerry is an even-money bet.

BestBetting.com lists British bookies' odds on the two candidates. Kerry's odds range from 9-10 (a $100 bet pays $90) to 1.2-1 ($120), while Bush's range from 4-6 ($66.67) to 8-11 ($88.89).

 
Know Your Enemy

The New York Times has two worthwhile writers covering John Kerry in Jodi Wilgoren and David Halbfinger. When I say worthwhile, I mean that there is always something interesting in the article, and the writing almost always contains a frisson of snarkiness towards Nuancy Boy that makes it entertaining.

Today Halbfinger introduces us to the people behind the campaign.

The core group of advisers — some on retainer, some working without pay and all wielding wide influence with the campaign — include Mr. Rosenblith, Mr. Thorne and Mr. Whouley, as well as John Marttila, a strategist who first worked with Mr. Kerry in 1970; Tom Kiley, a veteran Boston pollster; and a number of friends and former staff members who are involved in this campaign to varying degrees. They seldom speak for or about Mr. Kerry, at least on the record. But they know him well enough to tell him when he is wrong. Or when he is taking too long to finish a speech or make a decision. Their history with him, they say, makes for a kind of conversational shorthand.

The snarkiness is on the front end this time:

When word broke on May 21 that Senator John Kerry was thinking of delaying his acceptance of the Democratic nomination for president until after the convention next month in Boston, the reaction to the news there was swift, blunt and negative.

And that was among Mr. Kerry's friends.

 
Hey, I'm Sure He Was Just Trying to Sell Them Cookies

Kerry tends not to remember embarrassing meetings, like the second time he met with the North Vietnamese communists in Paris in 1971.

Researcher and author Jerry Corsi, who began studying the anti-war movement in the early 1970s, believes Kerry is hiding key aspects about his anti-war past from the public as he seeks the presidency.

"Kerry has admitted to one meeting with Madam Binh. Now we have reason to believe there was a second [meeting], so let's press them to admit the second [meeting]," Corsi told CNSNews.com.

"Kerry needs to explain to the American people why he directly went into negotiations with communists," Corsi added. Corsi has written an essay on Kerry's dealings with the Vietnamese communists on the Internet site, WinterSoldier.com.


Madame Binh

 
This Could Backfire

Kerry's got a new program to register 1 million veterans before the election. Now, remember, this is coming from the nominee of the party which didn't want the absentee ballots of active duty military to be counted in 2000.

Of course, Kerry claims to have met many veterans and active duty military who want him to become Commander in Chief. One suspects that they are like this guy.

 
Kerry Haters Links Policy

Basic rules:

1. Put us on your blogroll and we'll put you on ours. I check our Technorati profile and TTLB status just about daily, so you should find the reciprocating link pretty quickly. If you don't see it feel free to ask in the comments.
2. Leave a comment that includes your blog/website and we'll put you on our blogroll (unless you specifically ask not to be added).
3. If we link to your website in more than a post or two, we will usually add you to our blogroll.
4. Notwithstanding the above, we will not link to pro-John Kerry or anti-George W. Bush sites except in posts or Google Bombs.
5. We reserve the right to change this policy at any time without notice.

 
Members of the Legion of Kerry Haters on the Front Lines



Thanks to all these good people for taking the time to protest the Anti-War Criminal.

 
Microbes Update

I'm pretty doggone proud of the folks that I've dubbed the Microbes of the Day. It took me awhile to find each of them, and each has proven more than deserving of the link:

Red Line Rants took a couple days off blogging, but he's no slacker; he used the time to work on the Diedrich (R) for Congress campaign in South Dakota. Unfortunately, the Democrat won, but by far less than the polls were predicting (see Poll Fault II below). As I commented on his blog, let's hope that Diedrich will do better with some coattails from George W this November.

MJG's Political Blog has several posters, one of whom is off to Russia. Fortunately, MJG is still on the job. Today, he points to some praise for Bush from a surprising source.

No Pundit Intended continues to post solid commentary. I pointed yesterday to his great post on how Kerry's AWOL on Bioterror, but somehow I blew the link. Apparently I'm not the only one to discover Joel's blog; he's now a Flippery Fish in the TTLB ecosystem. Good blogging, Joel!

American Liberty Journal has a great post about the idiots like the aspiring Kerry voter shown a few posts below. When in Rome, don't do like the Romans.

Christian Conservative has a great take on the Lurch/Kerry comparison that I just linked to in the last post. Anybody who thinks Christian Conservatives don't have a sense of humor should check it out. He also has a thought-provoking post on who hates America.

The Second to Last Resort is a British blogger who understands the American political scene better than most San Franciscans. He comments today that the Democrats not only need to change their candidate, but their entire attitude:

Democrat after Democrat are blogging away linking to sites like The American Assembler or the Daily Kos (to mention two of many). These sites that claim they show Bush's lies are so inept, so biased and frankly so dishonest that it is shocking so many people visit them. Yes there are equally bad sites set up by Republicans but at present it's the Democrats that are setting up sites that make the BNP website look truthful.

The Nudnik File has been very busy lately, but will be traveling to the Holy Land next week. Nudnik is an excellent writer and thinker as this paragraph will illustrate:

In a number of previous posts I have mentioned that many of today's ideas regarding the war and post-war situation in Iraq, as well as views on Israel are shaped by people's lack of knowledge of history. A large part of the problem is that high schools as well as universities are largely no longer teaching the history of events, but are instead focusing on history of individuals and groups. There has been a trend in historical scholarship from macro-history to micro-history. Undoubtedly it is interesting to learn the circumstances of ordinary life hundreds of years ago, but when this pushes out the learning of the macro circumstances that shaped these ordinary lives it makes historical study close to useless. For example, on this 60th anniversary of D-Day, many high schoolers in the US do not know the basics of when WWII was, who was involved, and why it occurred. They do however know very well the stories about Rosie the Riveter and the internment of Japanese-Americans.

That is just plain superb.

All of these blogs are going to become well-known in the blogosphere over the next few months. Just remember where you heard about them first!

 
Lurching to the Convention

You have to check this out for a laugh. Turn down the volume if music would disrupt your workplace. Great job, Michael!

 
Teh-RAY-za Accidentally Tells the Truth



The wife of democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says President Bush is her husband's "best fund raiser."

Teresa Heinz-Kerry -- referring to the president as "the other guy" -- implies that opposition to Bush is enough to draw contributions to the Kerry campaign.

Exactly what we've been saying for months now. Nobody contributing to Kerry actually likes The Againster, they just hate Bush.

In my lifetime, there have been three presidents running for re-election who've been hated with a passion by those on the other side: Nixon, Reagan and Clinton. All won re-election easily, with the two Republicans scoring historic landslides.

 
Hugh Hewitt's Back!

And he's gunning for George Soros. He points us to the billionaire currency trader's comments at a gathering of liberal activists:

"The picture of torture in Saddam's prison was a moment of truth for us," Soros said Thursday morning in Washington at a meeting of the liberal activist group Campaign for America's Future.

"I think that those pictures hit us the same way as the terrorist attack itself," Soros continued, "not quite with the same force, because in the terrorist attack, we were the victims. In the pictures, we were the perpetrators and others were the victims."

That's wrong on so many levels that it's hard to know where to start. First, note the usual assigning of blame to America, not to a few rogue prison guards (remember the Ketchup Queen said Lynddie England is a victim too?). The pictures of the prisoners being humiliated (haven't seen one picture that I would say constitutes torture) sure as hell did not hit me with anywhere near the same force as 9-11. That's like comparing a summer shower to a hurricane.

Soros was introduced by Boobah herself, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hugh points out that the media, ever careful to make the left look moderate, are largely ignoring the story:

Byron York of National Review broke the story, which was carried but buried in this morning's Boston Globe, but ignored in the account of the gathering that appeared in the Washington Post. No story on the meeting appeared in the New York Times. Thus do the bigs provide cover for the loons at the heart of Kerry's party. The Washington Times has the most complete account, including an excerpt of Senator Clinton's effusive welcome of the slanderer of the American military and people.

"George Soros is using his considerable success in our democracy to make sure that his opinions are heard in the marketplace of ideas," Mrs. Clinton said.

Hillary, we are also using our considerable success in our democracy to make sure that George Soros' opinions are heard in the marketplace of ideas. Difference is that we don't think his "Blame America First" opinions are going to have much of a market.

 
Making the News Better for Kerry

The Commissar has a better way of looking at the job numbers.

 
More Good News for USA, Bad News for JFK--Updated!



This just in:

U.S. employers added an unexpectedly large 248,000 jobs in May, extending a nine-month hiring spree, the Labor Department (search) said Friday in a report that confirmed a strengthening economy likely to soon bring higher interest rates.

The May tally exceeded Wall Street expectations for 216,000 new jobs. Employment figures for March and April were revised up to reflect the addition of 353,000 and 346,000 jobs respectively. Payrolls have swelled by almost 1 million in the last three months alone.

Crush Kerry has the press release all prepared for the New-Wonk of Nuance.

CrushKerry's Prediction of the basics of Kerry's Statement in response to the numbers - "It's good, but working families are still struggling to pay for health care and college. Don't forget Bush's "net job loss". I will keep jobs here." Blah, Blah, Blah. Keep checking to see how on target we were.

Of course, they missed his most important point: "Did you know I was in Vietnam?" ;)

Updated: Crush Kerry smacked that one right out of the park. Here's Kerry's actual press release:

"Any step forward in the job market is good news for workers but America is still in the worst job recovery since the Great Depression, with 1.9 million private-sector jobs lost in the Bush presidency.

“Families are still struggling in this economy. Jobs are scarce and those lucky enough to have one are making $1,500 less each year. Meanwhile, their budgets are being squeezed by skyrocketing costs of healthcare, college tuition and gasoline.

“John Kerry has a real economic plan to create 10 million new jobs in his first term as President. He will end special tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs, help companies and families address the skyrocketing costs of healthcare and move America towards energy independence.”

That's actually pretty spooky; about the only thing Crush Kerry missed was the non sequitur about moving America towards energy independence. BTW, Kerry's lying abot the 1.9 million jobs lost. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 137,790,000 jobs in the US when Bush was inaugurated. Today there are 138,772,000 jobs (both figures seasonally adjusted). By my count, that's almost a million new jobs. But we all know the Democrats love that fuzzy math, and anyway, Kerry's real concern is that he's not getting a new job.

 
Poll Fault II

The Kerry Spot looks at the recent online Zogby polls, which appeared to show Le Fraude running away with the battleground states.

So why is Zogby's poll so out of whack with everyone else's? Well, for starters, it's an Internet-based poll. "Likely voters from each state followed instructions sent by e-mail that led them to a survey on Zogby's secure servers. Slight weightings were applied to ensure that the selection of participants accurately reflects characteristics of the voting population." Is Internet-based polling more accurate than telephone-based polling? We will see. But it's worth noting that in Zogby's May 19-20 telephone poll before the South Dakota special election, he had Democrat Stephanie Herseth leading Republican Larry Diedrich 52 percent to 41 percent. Actual results: Herseth 51, Diedrich 49. Maybe his weightings are overestimating Democratic turnout a bit.

Plus, of course, Zogby's got a vested interest in Nuancy Boy doing well. He predicted last month that this is John Kerry's election to lose.

 
He'd Vote Kerry If He Could

 
Mom's Army

You might be interested in hearing who Kerry's listening to for military advice.

Even as John Kerry lapses into pacifist rhetoric -- describing the military under President Bush as a "back-door draft" is a scare tactic from his anti-war days -- Kerry casts himself as strong on national defense. To appear sufficiently militaristic in the eyes of the moderates he needs to win, Kerry cobbled together a board of military advisers this week. Kerry is turning for advice to, among others, Claudia Kennedy, the first female three-star general -- a feminist famous during the Clinton years for charging a fellow general (whose advancement she hoped to stop) with "inappropriate touching."

Kerry's selection of Claudia Kennedy to his board of military advisers is illuminating: he is now taking advice on how to strengthen the military from feminists intent on weakening it. Claudia Kennedy once bragged to West Point cadets that "this is not your father's Army anymore!" As the press reported in the 1990s, Kennedy didn't like the word "enemy"; she relied instead on the term "peer competitor."

This kind of PC nonsense might have been acceptable in the Gay '90s. But we're doing serious business now with our military.

 
Why We Read George Will

Don't always agree with him, but he has a solid article in Newsweek in which he argues that Nuancy Boy should have embraced what we called "Nominatus Interruptus".

It's a delightful article, particularly when you consider that Nuancy Boy is trapped into accepting the nomination now.

 
Kerry Violating Copyright Laws With Ads?

This one comes to us from the Corpus Christi Caller-Times and Lucianne. Turns out Kerry's using a photos in his TV ads that shows images from a copyrighted book. If you want to read the article you can get a password at the latter link.

Two World War II veterans and relatives of four others say they want to know how photos of their relatives came to be included in the ad, and say the campaign could only have retrieved the photos from "South Texas Heroes," a book published by the Caller-Times last year.

The men were all Hispanic, and the ads are aimed at the Hispanic market. Fair enough, but 15 of 16 of the men were Texans, and the ads are not being run in Texas.

The commercial, which is not airing in Texas, was conceived and produced by Armando Gutierrez, who owns a political advertising company, A. Gutierrez & Associates, Inc., with offices in Albuquerque and Corpus Christi. Gutierrez said he borrowed the photos from family and friends of family, who gave verbal permission to use the photos in the commercial.

Heh, you know what they say about verbal permission, Armando? It's not worth the paper it isn't printed on.

 
Roger L. Simon Profile

National Review has a profile of screenwriter and mystery novelist Roger L. Simon, one of the top bloggers out there. Roger's comments section is invariably the liveliest and most intelligent in the entire blogosphere.

Kerry connection? Turns out Roger went to Yale with John Kerry.

The Vietnam War debate was raging then, and "I was militantly antiwar," Simon recounts. So was Kerry, publicly and vocally. But Kerry really threw Simon for a loop when he volunteered for service. Among those opposed to the war, it was a matter of principle to avoid serving: "If you were at Yale and you didn't want to go to Vietnam, there was always a way out of it," Simon recounts.

So when Kerry volunteered it struck Simon, then and now, as a supremely hypocritical act. Because Kerry's actions didn't match his expressed convictions, "it proved [to Simon] that his values weren't really deep."

Good point. Remember, as we've said many times, JFK stands for "Just For Kerry". A lot of Kerry's friends were startled that when he got out of law school, Kerry became a prosecutor. Did it make sense given his stated ideals? No, but it made eminent sense given his ambition.

 
Send Some Love to Crush Kerry!

Our buddies over at Crush Kerry could use a little hug right now. We're big fans of theirs; they have a great site and great people working for them, and they have given us some great leads on interesting stories about the Lord of Louisville Square. We have in the past disagreed with them on minor tactical points, but we really appreciate their hard work and that they are on our team.

 
How Much of Their Income Should Americans Be Allowed to Keep, Senator?

 
Kerry's Slogan Starting to Fester

We commented about 3 weeks ago on Kerry's dippy slogan for his campaign, "Let America be America Again". We found it annoying ("What has America been the last few years, Senator Horseface"), but we really got mad when our friends at Crush Kerry pointed out that it was cribbed from a poem by noted communist sympathizer Langston Hughes.

Others are now taking notice. Tim Noah at Slate (no Bush fan) points out:

Anyone who takes the time to read "Let America Be America Again" will quickly understand that its entire thrust is that nostalgia for a golden age of American freedom is a crock. In the poem, idealized paeans to "the dream [America] used to be" alternate with parenthetical responses exposing the harsher reality ("America never was America to me").

In other words, Kerry is taking a famous phrase, and turning around the meaning, much as he did recently when he (or his speechwriters) lifted a quote from JFK's final (undelivered) speech and changed the meaning completely.

Real Clear Politics has been on this as well. They point out that Kerry's call to "Let America Be America Again" was rather ironic when he used it to commemorate the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education since it could be construed as a call for a return to segregation, and that as a campaign theme, it's rather flaccid and passive.

Hat Tip: Danegerus.

 
Why Should I Listen to This Guy--He's Not French--Updated!



Kerry tries to avoid looking bored out of his skull with the opinions of Tampa, Florida native Robert Whorley and fails. Just for the heck of it, I googled Robert Whorley of Tampa and this is what I found.

Update: Jeez, no comments on this one? The link gives you an idea of why the Pterodactyl did not seem interested in Mr Whorley. Turns out the latter has quite a past:

He was a 20-year-old ex-con with bedlam in his bones. She was a 14-year-old girl who felt fevers for him. Their love story began with the snap of handcuffs and a first kiss stolen in the shadow of a squad car.

You can tell that story's going to end well, can't you? Amazingly, it seems to have. But more important for the Botoxicated Brahmin I suspect that Monseiur Worley has about as many votes as Jacques Chirac, given his apparently felonious past.

 
Kerry AWOL Again

Joel Gaines over at No Pundit Intended has a great post on Kerry's position on bioterror.

Kerry also seems to be ignorant of a piece of legislation that passed (99-0) through the Senate in May to provide $5.6 billion in funds for research, production and stockpiling of vaccines and antidotes for bioterror agents.

Why doesn't Kerry know about this? He wasn't there - that's why there were only 99 votes.

Nothing but net, Joel!

 
Get Well, Kitty!

My co-blogger, Kitty, reports that she's suffering from a cold/bronchitis. Let's all wish her a speedy recovery!

 
Enthusiasm Lacking for Kerry

The American Spectator reports further on the U of South Florida event discussed a few posts below (the one where Kerry's nodding off).

On several occasions, Kerry paused, seemingly expecting applause for his lines. For example, at one point he said, "I will do what I think is best for the country," then waited for applause that only developed after one of his advance staffers began leading a weak round of applause.

His lukewarm reception was so bad that Kerry lost his cool, telling his audience, "I know you don't want to be here anymore."

"That line actually generated more real cheers," says a bemused Florida Democratic Party official. "If this is the kind of response our campaign is getting elsewhere, we're dead. This was awful. He was awful."

 
Kerry Defense Policy Similar to Bush's?--Updated!

We know that Kerry's got the nomination sewn up. How can we tell? Because he's starting to do the quadrennial molting of the Democratic dove into near-Republican hawk. Rowan Scarborough has the details.

The president has adopted a policy of pre-emption to kill or capture al Qaeda and other terrorists before they attack.
Mr. Kerry seemed to echo that position in a May 27 speech. "As president," he said, "my No. 1 security goal will be to prevent the terrorists from gaining weapons of mass murder. And our overriding mission will be to disrupt and destroy their terrorist cells. ... We must take the fight to the enemy on every continent."
In the speech, Mr. Kerry did not repeat his earlier position that the military would play "far less" of a role in the war on terror if he is elected.

Let's remind Kerry that in March, he did not think it was a war on terror. He told the NY Times he did not like that term, he preferred to call it an engagement of economies.

Scarborough also reveals that Kerry is getting advice from Clinton defense "experts". Perhaps this expert?



Update: Turns out Helen Thomas, the crotchety old nag of the Washington Press Corps has already sounded the alarm on Kerry's policy appearing too close to Bush's.

It's time for Kerry to split with the administration on this ill-conceived war. Otherwise, disaffected voters may decide to sit this one out.

This plays on a theme much discussed on this blog. Despite their stated determination to oust Bush, the left is still demanding ideological purity from their candidate. Simple logic would tell them that the best thing Kerry could do is neutralize the war as an issue, and fight on domestic issues, where Democrats tend to have an advantage. But they are not going to let Kerry slide to the right, and Ralph Nader is still there waiting to pick up their votes.

 
Ketchup Queen Attacks

Sometimes you gotta admire Nuancy Boy's chutzpah. A few weeks ago, he made the solemn announcement that his wife was off-limits to the Republican Attack Machine. Of course, that did not mean that his wife would not engage in attacks herself. Yesterday, she decided she was competent to assess the foreign policy of the Bush Administration.

Teresa Heinz Kerry criticized President Bush on Wednesday, arguing that his push to invade Iraq "exacerbated, out of control, terrorism around the world" while alienating allies.

"The option was to do the job and finish Afghanistan, and then build a coalition to combat terrorism," the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry told relatives of servicemembers.

Typically, for a lib (was she really married to a Republican senator?), she had a hard time telling between the villains and the good guys.

Heinz Kerry also mentioned Lynndie England, the Army private from Fort Ashby, W.Va., who appears in several of the photographs of prison abuse from Abu Ghraib. Heinz Kerry said it is wrong to blame England for what may have occurred.

"She perpetrated some horrible things. She's also a victim," Heinz Kerry said.

I get it. Just like your husband perpetrated some horrible things, but was also a victim, too?

 
I'm Very Interested In What You're Saying....zzzz



Maybe Kerry knows what he's doing here for a change. According to the caption under the picture, "Democratic presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry (news - web sites) (D-MA), (L), listens to remarks by Dr. Margaret Hamburg of the Nuclear Threat Institute of the University of South Florida during a discussion with first responders and emergency management experts at the University in Tampa, Florida June 2, 2004."

However, when I went to the University of South Florida to find out about the Nuclear Threat Institute, here's what I discovered.

 
John Kerry, Up Close & Personal

George Butler, the filmmaker who did the (really quite good) documentary Pumping Iron, which made a star out of Arnold Schwarzenegger is now hoping to help make a politician into a celebrity. One guess as to who.

"You know, these photos show a side of John Kerry that no one else can show," the 60-year-old Mr. Butler said, referring to these and some 6,000 other pictures he has taken of the candidate since 1969. He chuckled lightly: "If the Republicans knew where they were, they would probably steal them."

(!) Six thousand pictures of John Kerry? That's an average of a photo every other day!

When the film hits theaters shortly after the Republican National Convention, it could become one of Mr. Kerry’s most potent campaign tools, burnishing his image as a seasoned leader while molding his identity as a loyal family man Americans can trust.

Let's see, the kind of loyal family man who gets an annulment of his 14-year marriage? The kind of loyal family man who didn't make his child support payments? The kind of loyal family man who can't remember where he lived for his first four years in the Senate (because it was with a lobbyist)? The kind of loyal family man who dated Hollywood celebrities like Dana Delaney, Michelle Phillips and Morgan Fairchild? The kind of man that Americans can trust because he stole the plans for his cookie store?

 
More Bad News for Kerry

Larry Kudlow points out that manufacturing is booming.

According to just-released data from the Institute of Supply Management, which tracks the manufacturing sector, new orders, production, order backlogs, export orders, and employment were very strong in May. The industrial sector is so strong that the speed of supplier deliveries has hit its highest level since April 1979. This means that firms cannot produce fast enough to meet rising demand, which is why commodity prices continue to climb. As a result, capacity use keeps growing and inventories are still too low in relation to skyrocketing sales.

Meanwhile, new factory hiring has jumped to a 31-year high, the best since 1973. Of more than 400 industrial firms surveyed, 36 percent added workers in May while just 7 percent had fewer workers. This is another nail in the coffin of the jobless recovery. As the inventory-rebuilding process ratchets up over the next year, expect even more job creation to follow.

Hat Tip: Danegerus.

 
Microbe of the Day

The Nudnik File gets the link today. Dictionary.com defines "nudnik" as an obtuse, boring or bothersome person; a pest. Personally I don't find Nudnik to be any of those things. He links to Michelle Malkin, Victor Davis Hanson, and Michael Ledeen; doesn't sound very obtuse to me (although it probably would to the geniuses at DU).

 
If You Want More Judges Like This...

Just vote for John Kerry. Turns out that the SF judge who struck down the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, also approved of allowing Muslim prayer in schools!

As part of the class students were told to recite: "In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of Creation, The Compassionate, the Merciful, King of Judgment-day! You alone we worship, and to You alone we pray for help, Guide us to the straight path."

I'll confess that I'm surprised that she didn't strike down the part about the "straight path" (surely that's intolerance of homosexuality?).

Hat Tip: Right Wing & Right Minded.

 
What, No Hockey Pucks Were Available?




Kerry before boarding his plane in West Palm Beach yesterday, shows off his common touch. There's another photo of him riding a motorcycle around the tarmac as well. Get the picture?

 
Howell Raines on Kerry's Parade

Former NY Times' editor Howell Raines takes on Kerry in the Guardian. The article generally reveals Raines' support for the Democrat (what a shock!), but it does express quite a bit of doubt about Kerry.

First the bad. Raines describes Kerry as "America's first war-hero candidate since John F. Kennedy". Well, yes, if you ignore WWII bomber pilot George McGovern, and WWII fighter pilot George Bush, Sr., and WWII soldier Bob Dole, who lost the use of his right arm in Italy, and if you define war hero as somebody who requested out of the war with two scratches on his arm and one on his butt, I guess you could say that Kerry was America's first war-hero candidate since Kennedy.

However, Raines does get in some mild zingers.

I personally find him easier to talk to than Al Gore, but there's no denying that he's ponderous. And he's pompous in a way that Gore is not. With Gore, you feel that if he could choose, he would have been born poor and cool. Kerry radiates the feeling that he is entitled to his sense of entitlement. Probably that comes from spending too much time with Teddy Kennedy, but it's a problem. The TV camera is an x-ray for picking up attitudinal truths, and Kerry's lantern jaw and Addams Family face somehow reinforce the message that this guy has passed from ponderous to pompous and is so accustomed to privilege that he doesn't have to worry about looking goofy. It's as if Lurch had gone to Choate.

Raines' prescriptions for Kerry are, to put it kindly, silly. He suggests "Kerry has to understand that when a cure is impossible, the doctor must enter the world of the deluded." Specifically, he recommends that Kerry embrace the "greed is good" philosophy, but turn it to his advantage by making the voters greedy for social security. When Kerry's anti-war past is brought up, he suggests that Nuancy Boy start yammering about Bush's national guard service. In sum, he recommends lying and changing the subject.

 
Kerry on Foreign Policy

Joshua Micah Marshall serves up a steaming plate of Kerry's foreign policy stew in this month's Atlantic.

Marshall's a good writer, but a lousy analyst, and a cheerleader for his (the Democrats) side.

Check out his view of history:

In the period after Vietnam the Democratic Party became a house divided against itself, with an articulate and energetic dovish base battling a diffuse but larger Cold War constituency.

Who, pray tell, were the members of the larger Cold War constituency among Democrats? Remember, we're not talking about the Scoop Jackson era here, we're talking about the nuclear freeze era.

The second effect was to cede the ideological and intellectual battlefield to Republicans. In the post-Cold War era Republicans developed a foreign-policy vision based on the notion that America should aggressively assert itself abroad, and in which the problem of Saddam Hussein became an idée fixe.

An idée fixe for the Democrats, too, right Josh? Or would you prefer to forget all the UN resolutions passed during the Clinton Administration about Saddam and his regime?

It just goes on and on. Marshall characterizes Kerry's foreign policy approach as similar to that of the first President Bush (nostalgia for whom, among Democrats, is getting quite cloying) and Brent Scowcroft. Joe (Mano-a-Mano) Biden is hilariously tapped as a potential Secretary of State in a Kerry administration.

As we discussed this, [Kerry Foreign Policy Advisor] Feldman outlined a course that starkly departed from the one charted by President Bush, yet was equally unlike the approach—characterized by soft multilateralism and fealty to the United Nations—portrayed by Republicans as typical of Democratic foreign policy.

Rolling my eyes here. What does Kerry himself propose? Soft multilateralism and fealty to the UN.

This is clearly an attempt to sell Kerry as more of a moderate than he actually is.

 
Over the Hill Stars for an Around the Bend Candidate

Cindy Adams wants you to know who's going to be at celebrity galas for Jean Kerree:

Stars Bette Midler, who's a friend of Teresa Heinz Kerry, Whoopi Goldberg, who's a friend of William Jefferson Clinton, Robin Williams, who's a friend of anyone not Republican. Also Jon Bon Jovi, Wyclef Jean, John Mellencamp and Kerry's longtime Boston pal James Taylor.

The first production is June 7 in L.A. at Disney Hall, featuring Barbra Streisand, Neal Diamond, Willie Nelson, Billy Crystal. "It took several calls to get Barbra. I know her and John himself called her. Then came Neal. Then Willie and Billy. One manager won't commit until another confirms. Lots of egos have to be checked at the door. I had to say, 'Look, don't do it for me. Do it for the country.' The hosts are Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck, Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman. No speeches, just intros.

"Wyclef Jean opens, Bette closes and she'll also do a 'Do-Run-Run' duet with Darlene Love. We're working on a video about John. Introducers are Paul Newman, Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Jessica Lange, Chevy Chase..."

I'd suggest boycotting their movies, if you can find any.

 
Kerry Reacts to the News that Jersey is in Play



The Washington Post notes the surprising news that New Jersey remains in play this election. Gore beat Bush handily in the Garden State in 2000, by some 16 percentage points. Bizarrely, the Post characterizes NJ as "arguably the most Democratic state in the nation". Considering that New York went for Gore by 25 percentage points, Massachusetts by 27 points, and Rhode Island by 29 percentage points, it seems safe to say that New Jersey is not the most Democratic state in the nation. Sure, they've got a Democratic governor, but they had a Republican for much of the 1990s.

I suspect, although I can't prove it, that New Jersey is still impacted by the after-effects of 9-11. NJ lost the second-most people in the attacks, with 694 confirmed dead. Only New York (with 1,747) had more casualties. Massachusetts was a distant third with 92 fatalities.

The bad news for Nuancy Boy is that New Jersey is extremely expensive for advertising, since all its TV stations are located in New York City or Philadelphia. To a certain extent, Kerry can get double mileage on the Philly ads (since Pennsylvania is also a battleground state), but there are far more NJ residents who get the New York stations.

 
Kerry Had Gobs of Fun at Viet Vet Memorial

Sounds like Kerry had better stay away from that black V for awhile. In addition to the Ted Sampley fiasco that Kitty posted below, the NY Times' Jodi Wilgoren highlights this exchange:

Many visitors to the wall offered their support as they shook hands with Mr. Kerry, but as he departed the memorial, a middle-aged woman wearing a flag sweatshirt heckled him. "Are you paying tribute to all the people you spat on, Senator Kerry?" she asked, referring to his antiwar activities upon returning home.

Hat Tip: Viking Pundit.

 
NOT THAT FINGER


The one NEXT to it.

Kerry 'Flips Off' Vietnam Vet
Democratic senator - and certain presidential nominee - John F. Kerry gave the middle finger to a Vietnam veteran at the Vietnam Memorial Wall on Memorial Day morning, NewsMax.com has learned.
Ted Sampley, a former Green Beret who served two full tours in Vietnam, spotted Kerry and his Secret Service detail at about 9:00 a.m. Monday morning at the Wall. Sampley walked up to Kerry, extended his hand and said, "Senator, I am Ted Sampley, the head of Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, and I am here to escort you away from the Wall because you do not belong here."
At that point a Secret Service officer told Sampley to back away from Kerry. Sampley moved about 6 feet away and opened his jacket to reveal a HANOI JOHN T-shirt.
Kerry then began talking to a group of schoolchildren. Sampley then showed the T-shirt to the children and said, "Kerry does not belong at the Wall because he betrayed the brave soldiers who fought in Vietnam."
Just then Kerry - in front of the school children, other visitors and Secret Service agents - brazenly 'flashed the bird' at Sampley and then yelled out to everyone, "Sampley is a felon!"
Kerry was referring to an incident 12 years ago when Sampley confronted Sen. John McCain's chief aide, Mark Salter, in a Senate stairwell after McCain repeatedly offended POW families at a Senate POW hearing. Sampley, whose father-in-law at that time was MIA in Laos, followed Salter into the stairwell and, when they emerged, Salter had a bloody lip and a broken nose.
Sampley's group, Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, has garnered huge national attention and has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post and on MSNBC's "Scarborough Country." Tens of thousands of Vietnam vets have registered their opposition to Kerry through Sampley's group.
Clearly Sampley has gotten under Kerry's skin once again.

 
OT, But Well Worth the Read

Bill at InDC Journal has amazing coverage of the WWII memorial dedication.

 
Free Base?

Donald Lambro reports that Kerry's base has yet to be solidified behind Nuancy Boy.

"There are Democrats who are upset with Kerry over his position on the war. You can see that Kerry is aware of that as well," said Kevin Zeese, spokesman for the Nader campaign.
"We met with him and his staff last week and noticed afterwards that his staff said that Iraq was not discussed, when of course it was," Mr. Zeese said. "What I make of that is that he is very insecure about the issue because he wants the peace vote and the war vote."

 
The Return of the Intern--Updated!

Alexandra Polier, the intern on the Kerry campaign who was briefly rumored to be having an affair with the New-Wonk of Nuance, writes of her experience as the new Monica Lewinsky in New York Magazine.

Perhaps the most interesting thing in the story is the explanation of the "sleazeball" quote. Polier claims that her father (a Republican) used that expression because of Kerry's tendency to flip flop on issues. Oh, that kind of sleazeball! Most of the rest of the article is dedicated to her attempt to track down how the story started; unfortunately she really never determines that part.

Noam Scheiber has more. He points out that Kerry would have been unlikely to respond to a young man the way he did to Alex Polier.

 
WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS FRIENDS


StrangeCosmos.com

[Sorry that StrangeCosmos.com decided to blur the picture. It's a classic of the Beatles' album cover, featuring Kerry & Clinton & John Dean & Helen Thomas & all the Dems' cohorts in crime.]

The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album was released exactly 37 years ago. How's this for a great parody?

"L-T Kerry Purple Heart Grab Man" Parody by Guy DiRito
About thirty years ago they say,
Lieutenant Kerry got fragged one day.
Vietnam war was way out of style,
When he took a hit from some hostile.
So into his caboose some flew.
Purple Hearts got like souvenirs
L-T Kerry purple heart grab man.

The question of this election year: Will they still need him, will they still feed him,
When he's sixty-four?

 
Kerry a Big Hero in Hanoi?

The folks at Winter Soldier have photographic proof. Turns out that a picture of Kerry (then Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts) meeting with various Vietnamese communist mucky-mucks in 1983, hangs proudly in a Saigon museum dedicated to the war.

"This photograph's unquestionable significance lies in its placement in the American protestors' section of the War Crimes Museum in Saigon. The Vietnamese communists clearly recognize John Kerry's contributions to their victory. This find can be compared to the discovery of a painting of Neville Chamberlain hanging in a place of honor in Hitler's Eagle's Nest in 1945."

 
New/Old Kerry Nickname

Heh, Kerry certainly had a way with the ladies. According to Tour of Duty, His first wife, Julia Thorne, referred to him as "Pterodactyl" because of his long face.

 
Suspicious Kerry-Kennedy Meeting Story in Tour of Duty

It is well established that Kerry did meet JFK; there are a few photos of them together on a yacht. But the way Kerry tells their first meeting is just a little unbelievable.

Kerry was scheduled to spend the weekend at his girlfriend's house. He telephones her from work to tell her that he's running a little late. "Well, hurry up, because the President's here and he wants to go off sailing." So Kerry hurries up indeed, arriving in what Brinkley calls "Barney Oldfield" time.

"...I walk up, open the door, and there's nobody inside. I can't see anybody. But there's this guy standing there peering out a window at the bay. He turns around and it's the President of the United States."

Kerry goes on to recount a brief private conversation with Kennedy.

Now, does that sound awfully suspicious? Okay, I can buy that security was lax in those days. But does anybody believe that Kennedy would be standing there alone? What, was everybody else changing into their topsiders? The story is convenient, because of course, Kerry is the only living participant.

 
Rolling Thunder, Vets Group, Endorses Bush Over Kerry

They aren't fooled by Nuancy Boy's four months of combat duty.

Bush also met at the White House with the leaders of Rolling Thunder, a nonprofit group dominated by Vietnam-era veterans but dedicated to veterans of all wars. With a special White House escort, the group's president, Artie Muller, and seven other riders were able to steer their bikes straight up to the South Portico, where a smiling Bush greeted them with a big thumbs-up and led them to the Oval Office.

Rolling Thunder, which claims 82 chapters in the United States and abroad, has endorsed Bush over the presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), and the Bush campaign turned out to capitalize on that endorsement. Two members of Bush's Cabinet joined the Rolling Thunder parade: Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson, who showed up for his sixth Rolling Thunder ride decked out in black jeans, a black vest and black sunglasses.

Although Bush never saw combat and Kerry is a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, many in the Rolling Thunder crowd demonstrated little affection for their brother-in-arms. As they rolled across the Memorial Bridge, around the Lincoln Memorial and down Constitution Avenue, bikers displayed signs reading "Stop Kerry" and "Vietnam Vets against Kerry."

Instapundit has some wonderful photos of bikers expressing their appreciation for Le Fraude. My favorite is the one reading "John Kerry--Titless Jane Fonda". :) Roll on, gentlemen, roll on!

 
Kerry's National Security Policy Speech Fisked

Robert Musil is on the job as usual. His "Pathetic... And Bound To Lose" series on Kerry is some of the best blogging out there on the subject of Nuancy Boy.

The Democrats and Europeans want to obscure matters, but the big picture is not that hard to see: Cooperation with European "free ride" diplomacy and foreign policy will lead to ever greater disasters. But the Europeans are wedded by economic imperatives to those policies. That's not a problem that's going to go away by either cooperating with them (in which case, America pays their way towards more disasters) or not cooperating with them (in which case they continue to complain about American "unilateralism"). Put another way: America making itself a free-of-charge common carrier for European economic and military aspirations is not a viable American policy, and charging tolls is going to make the Europeans complain.

Indeed, the Europeans have enjoyed a free ride on our defense for some 60 years, which has allowed them to create their generous welfare states.

 
Kerry In His Own Words

The New York Times has some snippets from Kerry on defense and diplomacy. As always with the Boston Fog Machine, it's pretty tough slogging.

On negotiating with hostile powers:

"We have to be more artful in seeing what they see, not just thinking about it from our point of view. War is the ultimate failure of diplomacy; or use of force is the ultimate failure of diplomacy. But I know the difference between when you've really tried to give meaning to the words `last resort' and when you haven't."

My guess is that he's referring to Saddam, and how under a Kerry regime Saddam would have known that he really, really meant it. Lord knows why, since we all know that Kerry would not have gone to war without our good friends, the French.

On comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam:

"Sure, there are increasing similarities. It's never been Vietnam. It's not Vietnam. It doesn't have to be. But there are growing similarities. Whether or not it becomes that is truly up to this administration and the leadership over the course of the next months."

Gotta love that; even with a softball question Kerry has to flip flop. There are similarities, but it's not Vietnam, but it could become Vietnam.

On the possibility that a new Iraqi government would push American forces from the country:

"There's an enormous crapshoot in the approach of this administration on this, which is not exactly the best way to be approaching something like this. Which is why I am saying that as president I would want to be proceeding from the greatest position of strength. I would want to be proceeding from the best prospects of success in the mission. And the best prospects of success and the greatest position of strength come from a maximum number of countries on the ground and involved, and come from a maximum share in local responsibility. None of which this administration has yet embraced or truly pushed for."

We know that Chirac would not have sent the French no matter how much Kerry kissed his butt. The Germans and the Russians would not have come either. Now maybe Kerry thinks then we should not have gone. That's an arguable position to take, although of course it makes one wonder why he voted in favor of sending the troops. I know, I know, he thought he was authorizing the threat of sending the troops. He was duped, in other words.

 
Some Good Memorial Day Reading--Updated!

Here's an article on the dedication of the WWII Memorial.

Here's an article on the heroism at Pearl Harbor of ship's cook Dorie Miller.

Here's a great article on Sergeant York, one of the most amazing war heroes of all time.

You can read about Audie Murphy, the most-decorated soldier of WWII here.

This is a good site about Congressional Medal of Honor recipients.

Update: Reader Mike Grobbel points us to this website for information on the Polar Bears, an expeditionary force of American soldiers that fought against the Bolsheviks in Russia from 1918-1919. Interesting stuff, I had never heard of this force before.

 


Pat and Kitty

 
NO COMPARISON



It's no contest between the fastidious L'Fraude and the Cowboy. But that's just me, an all-American woman who loves red-blooded all-American men.

Taking the High Road, the Low Road and Maybe a Boulder or Two
Their bikes:
Mr. Bush keeps a Trek Fuel 90 at his Texas ranch, the site of his tumble on May 22. The Fuel 90, one of the snazzier of Trek's mountain bikes, retails for more than $1,500. At Camp David, Mr. Bush also rides a Trek, but picks it out from the fleet of more ordinary $250 models available to guests.
…
Mr. Kerry owns two road bikes from Serotta, a niche manufacturer that serves a high-end market. The senator has an Ottrott, which retails with custom-added parts for an average of $8,000, and an older Colorado III. Mr. Kerry also has mountain bikes for the trails near his home in Ketchum, Idaho.

Their behavior:
When Mr. Bush had his spill, Mr. Kerry's reaction rapidly coursed through political cyberspace. According to The Drudge Report, Mr. Kerry said to reporters in what he believed was an off-the-record remark, "Did the training wheels fall off?"
…
Mr. Kerry took his own fall from a bike on May 2 after he hit a patch of sand on a two-lane road in Concord, Mass. Mr. Kerry had no injuries and Mr. Bush had no reaction, at least none that we know of.

The bottom line:
Of course, comparing road biking to mountain biking is like comparing Democrats to Republicans. "It's a much different type of exercise," said Stephen Madden, the editor of Bicycling and Mountain Bike magazines. "Mountain biking involves a lot of up and down, and it also can involve a lot of technical expertise in jumping logs and rocks."

 
Kerry Haters Approaching 10,000 hits

The growth in the number of visitors we've had has been tremendous. Thanks to all who visit, and all who link to us. Kitty and I are doing this for free, so the only reward we get is to see that site meter turning, and the wonderful comments many of you have left for us. We got 500 visits in March, 3000 in April, and we're nearly at 6,500 for May.

 
Memo to Self: Great November 3rd Photo



The twilight of John Kerry

 
TANKS, BUT NO TANKS



It's a moot point now, since Kerry has decided to accept his nomination at the convention. But it's worth noting, if only for fun, that Dukakis' advice to Kerry was to wait to accept the nomination.

Dukakis backs plan to delay Kerry nomination
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Recalling his tumultuous, losing campaign against Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, Dukakis said Kerry should not let the Republicans overpower him during the five week gap between the Democrats' July convention and the GOP's gathering at the end of August.
``John cannot afford to let these guys go after him while he is silenced effectively for over a month,'' said Dukakis. ``I got killed in August of '88 because that's what I did.''

Yeah, right!

 
FLOUNDERING


Life Preserver from John F. Kennedy's presidential yacht, the Honey Fitz.

Kerry flounders with the masses
As America rolls toward its November appointment at the polling booth, it's becoming quite a show. There is only one thing missing: The headliner, John Kerry, who seems barely willing, or is it able, to step full-stride into the spotlight.
…
In March, 59 per cent of voters thought him "honest and trustworthy". By last week, the number was 48 per cent and falling. Same thing with his "leadership quotient", down 9 per cent over the same period.

 
Kerry Haters Closing In on #1 Kerry Blog!

Our traffic rating is #441 among all Blogs right now, second only to those limp-wristers at East Bay Kerry. Let's leave them in the dust this week!