Kerry Haters: We're Not Fonda John

 
Lookin' Good

 
Kerry Supporters Losing Their Cool

 
Why We're Here

Just came across this perfect explanation:

"Humor has long been known as effective negative advertising and a way to deflect criticism upon the person making the negative attack because you laugh, if the joke is good," said Paul Gronke, the chairman of the political science department at Reed College in Portland, Ore. "Good political humor always has a biting edge to it."

The bite in the Kerry jokes, Gronke said, is designed to shrink Kerry, make him look un-presidential. "By bringing Kerry down a notch by not taking him seriously, this encourages the audience not to take Kerry seriously."

 
The Candidate of 1972



Wasn't there an old song about "Before the parade passes you by"? This is the after picture.

 
More Incriminating Emails?

One of the more amazing stories this year has been that of our friend Chris's Kerry's Waffles site (formerly known as the Waffle House). Shut down twice by the Democrats in a desperate attempt to save the SS Kerrytanic, and yet his moles in the Kerry campaign and elsewhere continue to feed him emails that appear to document illegal coordination between the Kerry/Edwards campaign and a philanthropy controlled by Teh-RAY-za.

This is tough stuff to document in the blogosphere. But the emails that Chris has posted certainly appear to be worthy of investigation by the media and potentially law enforcement.

 
Newsweek Confirms Time--52% Bush, 41% Kerry!--Updated!

You know why this is important? Because it means if we win every day between now and the election, Kerry's toast.

Update: Crush Kerry says be wary of this poll; for once the pollsters oversampled Republicans.

 
They're Billed As Kerry Supporters, But...



Uh, shouldn't that be JK? :)

 
The Best Blog I Never Read Before

Surfed over to Dislogue from Prestopundit and was transfixed. Lots of Kerry-related posts, including several fantastic reads on Tour of Duty. I remember reading one time that a bright person is someone you agree with before they start speaking, and a brilliant person is someone you agree with after they finish speaking. Dan is brilliant.

 
Want To Be A Pundit?

Our buddy Joel Gaines (who is moving into the Arizona Alliance section of our blogroll) offers you the chance to put up a politically-oriented post on his blog.

This is your chance to show your punditry skills and be part of elevating the power of blogging to new heights!

T3 will become a weekly contest on NPI once the word has gotten out and enough submissions are coming in to support the weekly timeline. It can't happen without YOU.

This is your chance to become an unintentional pundit. Does anybody out there know how George Will became a pundit? Believe it or not, he wrote an angry op-ed piece about the movie Billy Jack and sent it to the editor of the Washington Post. The rest, as they say, is history.

 
AP Retracts Claim About Bush Crowd Booing Clinton

Drudge headline this morning. Seems there is a pesky little thing called video and audiotape of the event which (as one of our commenters noted) shows the audience cheering President Bush warmly when he wished Bill Clinton a speedy recovery. Doggone that Al Gore, he probably invented video and audiotape when he wasn't busy stringing the internet together.

 
KERRY’S DUKAKIS MOMENT?

'PANICKY' DEMS IN THE DUMPS
By Deborah Orin
Democrats were reaching for the panic button yesterday amid growing fears that John Kerry is blowing the 2004 race — while President Bush basked in the glow of a successful New York convention.
"The smell of panic is in the air," said a veteran Democratic strategist as Time magazine reported that Bush has suddenly built an 11-point lead over Kerry.
Democratic angst was fueled by Kerry's decision to hold a shrill, post-midnight rally right after Bush's well-received convention speech and blast the wartime commander in chief as "unfit to lead."
"It looked reactionary and panicky and angry — not confident. That's not presidential," said a senior Democrat.
Others said Kerry is starting to look as tone-deaf as 1988 Massachusetts loser Michael Dukakis.
The stunning turnaround began after anti-Kerry Vietnam vets went on the air with TV attack ads noting how Kerry once painted fellow vets as war criminals.

 
“KAMIKAZA KANDIDACY”

Kerry's showing he just can't take the heat
By Mark Steyn
[L]ess than 60 minutes after President Bush gave a sober, graceful, droll and moving address, Kerry decided to hit back. In the midnight hour, he climbed out of his political coffin, and before his thousands of aides could grab the garlic from Teresa's kitchen and start waving it at him, he found himself in front of an audience and started giving a speech. As in Vietnam, he was in no mood to take prisoners: ''I have five words for Americans,'' he thundered. ''This is your wake up call!''
Is that five words? Or is it six?
…
Ah, yes. As usual, he has four words for Americans: I served in Vietnam. Or five words if you spell it Viet Nam.
…
That seems to be the way John Kerry likes it. Americans should be free to call Bush a moron, a liar, a fraud, a deserter, an agent of the House of Saud, a mass murderer, a mass rapist (according to the speaker at a National Organization for Women rally last week) and the new Hitler (according to just about everyone). But how dare anyone be so impertinent as to insult John Kerry! No one has the right to insult Kerry, except possibly Teresa, and only on the day she gives him his allowance.
…
That's surely why Kerry is running his kamikaze kandidacy on biography rather than any grand themes. Senator Kerrikaze is running for president because he thinks he should be president -- who needs a platform?
…
If you want passivity and wallowing in victim culture, the Dems will do. If you want to win this thing, Bush is the only guy running.

 
HOME GROWN ADVICE

This is his home town!
Still whining Kerry running out of time
Boston Herald Editorial
It's time John Kerry chooses between being a whiner and being a leader. His midnight performance Thursday and remarks at events Friday showed he's yet to get the difference in this campaign.
Americans do not want to hear Kerry's whining about being ``attacked'' and ``insulted'' at the Republican National Convention. Americans do not want to hear his childish claims that he was attacked first and therefore he now must attack back.
Americans do not want to hear the Democratic nominee call the commander in chief during a war where American lives are on the line ``unfit for office and unfit for duty.''
They want to hear that he is as committed as President Bush to stopping fanatics from taking over American schools and slaughtering children. And if he has better ideas about how to go about doing it than Bush does, Americans want to hear those, too.
…
Defining differences is what campaigns are all about.
George W. Bush told the country in no uncertain terms what he will do in a second term. And he told the country how his beliefs and record differ from Kerry's. That's just what Zell Miller did. That's just what Dick Cheney did. That's just what Rudy Giuliani did. Stop whining, Senator, and start telling voters why you believe you're right and these men are wrong.

 
GIRLIE MAN SPUTTERS

Short fuse betrays Kerry
By Jim Wooten
John Kerry should have slept on it. His midnight outburst following President Bush's rousing success in defining himself, his domestic agenda and the stakes in the war on terrorism reveals a candidate who can be goaded. Not good in a president.
…
Clearly seething with the TV remote control when he was to be relaxing during Republican convention week, Kerry blew at the first opportunity.
Nobody, of course, questioned his patriotism. His policies, yes. His votes during 20 years in the Senate, yes. His apparent inability to make and abide a decision, yes. His commitment to a strong military, yes. His patriotism, no.
It's a revealing outburst.
…
When this campaign is over -- and barring some disaster, Bush will win -- Democrats would be well advised to re-examine the primary election process that assures candidates of the party's nomination before they are fully known and tested. … [H]is approach is to ignore the charges and charge the chargers. They're all liars, conspirators or unworthies daring to question his record. Has he not already told us that he's inoculated against impertinent questions?

Thanks to L.dotter texaspast, here is the sign in info you’ll need, just in case:
First Name: Gunar
e-mail: joebftzpk2@yahoo.co.uk
password: lilabner

 
Thanks to Les Kinsolving

We get mentioned in another WND article.

Please take a look around--our two amazing articles on Christmas in Cambodia, which broke the story of Kerry's lies 80 days before anybody else can be read on the right side under Kerry Haters Greatest Hits. Also, come back often, we have 10-12 posts a day.

 
What the Angry Speech Means

The speech as prepared is here. It doesn't show John's remark about the Red Sox closing in on the Yankees, but aside from that it appears to be the same speech I heard snippets from last night. Here are the meaty bits:

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

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

Let me tell you what I think makes someone unfit for duty. Misleading our nation into war in Iraq makes you unfit to lead this nation. Doing nothing while this nation loses millions of jobs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting 45 million Americans go without healthcare makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting the Saudi Royal Family control our energy costs makes you unfit. Handing out billions of government contracts to Halliburton while you're still on their payroll makes you unfit. That's the record of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

The good news for Kerry is that he's probably secured the Howard Dean crowd with that speech. The bad news is that he's lost everybody else.

 
Now Go Deep, Say Five Yards Deep, and Be Ready to Dive



Kerry feels the need for the Hail Mary.

 
Kerry on Sports

Kerry started his midnight speech with an update from the world of sports; he mentioned that his beloved Red Sox had pulled to within 2-1/2 games of the New York Yankees. This surprised Tom Maguire, who had turned the game off when the Bronx Bombers were up 8-0. Turns out that as usual, Nuancy Boy was wrong.

I pulled a boner myself in the comments on that post, referring to Ned Yost (of course it is Ed, not Ned).

 
The One Thing Missing From the Republican Convention

 
Now We Know Why Kerry Was Angry Last Night

The latest Time Magazine poll shows President Bush opening up a double-digit lead over Kerry, 52-41!

Woooooooooooo-hooooooooooooooo!

 
Blogger Roundup

GOP and the City picks up on the baseball theme with Bush Pitches, Kerry Whiffs. Another post pushes the bounds of good taste, but it's pretty funny nonetheless.

M@ at Manifest Content has a good post on blind quotes coming out of the Kerry camp.

La Shawn Barber liked President Bush's speech, although the title of the post made me scratch my head. Did she start a different post and then change her mind with the very solid ending of the speech?

Danegerus has a good post on some quotes about Kerry from the RNC.

 
This Sounds a Little More Encouraging

MSNBC:

Former President Bill Clinton has been hospitalized and will undergo heart bypass surgery after complaining of mild chest pain and shortness of breath, his office said Friday.

Clinton talked by phone to Democratic National Committee chief Terry McAuliffe, one Democratic Party source said. Clinton told McAuliffe he was "fine," but was going to have bypass surgery.

As a result, quadruple bypass surgery was advised and one source said it is scheduled for Tuesday.

Quadruple bypass surgery's no joke, but it's not experimental either.

 
Pray for Bill Clinton!

:(

 
Kerry Decides Zell's Approach Was Right

I am looking around for a transcript of Kerry's midnight speech; from the few bits I heard on Fox last night, it was a masterpiece worthy of Howard Dean or Al Gore. This is the second major blunder of the Kerry campaign in the last two weeks after a reasonably mistake-free campaign thus far. Kerry's attack on the Swiftees and his truly bizarre attack on VP Cheney (he claimed that Cheney had said he was unfit to be commander in chief; yet the text of Cheney's speech contains no such assertion). Even more oddly, he blasted Cheney for supposedly denigrating his service in Vietnam, but what Cheney actually said was:

The President's opponent is an experienced senator. He speaks often of his service in Vietnam, and we honor him for it.

Okay, there was a little dig in the "He speaks often...", but still. It's like the constant "They're questioning my patriotism," garbage.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing particularly wrong with drawing distinctions between Kerry's service and that of his opponents. But that's what you have surrogates like John Edwards and Terry McAwful for.

"The vice president called me unfit for office (Wednesday) night. I guess I’ll leave it up to the voters whether five deferments make someone more qualified to defend this nation than two tours of duty."

That's just really, really stupid. Of course Cheney is more qualified to defend this nation, but not because of what he did as compared to Kerry in the 1960s. It's what he did in the 1980s and 1990s, when he was Secretary of Defense, and in the 2000s as Vice President.

Kerry must be seeing some really bad polling in the internals. His campaign's starting to smell like flop sweat.

 
CARTOON KERRY

CARTOONIST Mort Todd, creator of the "Molly the Model" strip, has published a new comic book poking fun at John Kerry. In "Major Flip-Flop" No. 1, Kerry is cast as a vacillating superhero who faces down "Diabolical Dubya" with the aid of diaper-wearing "Left-Wing the Wonder Boy," a.k.a. John Edwards. Other pols lampooned in the comic include Dick Cheney ("The Bushmaster"), Al Gore ("The Gorebot"), Patrick Leahy ("Vermont Venger"), Howard Dean ("Howlin' Howard"), and Michael Moore ("The Fat Man").

 
JOHN "FORGES" KERRY?

The 34-Year Old "Typo"
And when a few years ago Kerry corrected his DD 214 with a DD 215, to add even more questionable medals, did he not correct the false Combat "V" on his Silver Star?
Well, perhaps he was distracted.
And maybe he was distracted back in 1970 when he signed his DD 214, and distracted again recently when he put his DD 214 on his website with the unauthorized, illegal, fake, and perhaps even criminal, Combat "V."

 
McKERRY'S NAVY


Hat tip to LoanCat!

 
CALLING NURSE RATCHET



CrushKerry's eval of John "Flipping-out" Kerry is priceless!
John Kerry Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Well he did it. John Kerry finally "fought back" by lanching the "draft dodger" bombs at Cheney and Bush, slamming "Halliburton" and saying Bush "misled" us into war. We welcome this. It's pure desperation. He's again complaining about imaginary attacks on his "patriotism", and he's starting to look like Don Quixote fighting imaginary windmills. He's ready for the rubber room, and playing right into the GOP's hands. Hey dummy, people already know Bush and Cheney didn't serve and they don't care. John Kerry is quickly becoming a parody and has joined the pantheon of stark raving Democratic lunatics - which means Al Gore, Howard Dean, and Dennis Kucinich will have company. Can you believe this moron is still, even after the Swifty damage, bringing up Vietnam as a shield against his being a 20 year disaster on issues of national defense?

Here's their recap of his
Midnight Meltdown: Conduct Unbecoming a (Wanna Be) President
He wigged out last night. That’s the only way to describe it. It was the kind of hissy fit that is unbecoming of a wartime president, let alone any president at all. And besides, it was none of it truthful. Let’s look at what he said, and clear up some of Kerry’s frantic misstatements.

 
More Google Fun

For "Kerry Blog" we come up in fourth place behind two instances of the official campaign blog and something called the Unofficial Kerry blog, which has the name Kerryblog.blogspot.com.

You know what I'm thinking? Google bomb! Add a space on your blogroll and link KH as Kerry Blog. If you do it, mention it in the comments and we'll give you a blogroll link if you're not already there and a free roundup post link if you are.

 
New to the Arizona Alliance

I was pleased to check out commenter Desert Rat's blog and discover that he is a fellow Phoenician. He's got a nice clean writing style and solid observations like this one on Kerry spokesman Tad Devine's angry performance last night that I meant to blog but forgot, and he's got a nice review of the President's speech as well.

 
Speech Blogging

Sorry, had a little malfunction there that took awhile to fix so I missed blogging much of the speech.

He's mentioning the Iraqi hands story! He didn't set it up very well--that should have been a longer anecdote. (Later note: This was one of my favorite stories coming out of Iraq). Here's a picture of the men he mentioned:



General impressions: Surprised that he's devoted so much time to "my opponent". There will be some grumbling on the far right about the laundry list at the early part of the speech. I was surprised that Kerry did not offer his own laundry list at the DNC.

As predicted here, Bush did not forget to say something in Spanish; that was a huge blunder on Kerry's part.

Loved the dig at the NY Times--great research there! Harry Truman gets his second positive mention in two nights at a Republican convention.

Loved the little bits of self-deprecating humor near the end--his infelicity with language and his "swagger". Smart stuff; one of the big criticisms I had with Kerry's speech was the lack of wit. You don't have to try to perform a standup act, but you have to show you've got a sense of humor.

Overall? A very good speech. I won't call it a great speech; the President set the bar very high with his post-9/11 and pre-Iraq invasion speeches which were the defining moments of the first term. It was far, far better than Kerry's speech in terms of content, and in delivery it was miles above--as we commented at the time, Kerry rushed through his speech, rocking back and forth in a very distracting manner. The President took his time, and did nothing to remove the attention from what he was saying. He did not hit a homer, but he didn't need a homer.

 
The Movie

Oh, man, that was such a great inside joke at Kerry the way they highlighted the President throwing that opening pitch from the mound, in a bullet-proof vest and he still managed to toss a strike.

 
GIRLIE MAN



What the hell is he wearing?

 
John Kerry Lied

And made a little girl cry.

Hat Tip: You Big Mouth You

 
More on Zell

Hugh Hewitt wonders why, if the TV media are convinced that Zell went too far, that the talkers on radio row at the convention are planning on playing it regularly for the next 60 days. Hugh also has a tremendous post on OODA loops and net-centric warfare, and how it's crippling the Kerry Campaign.

Some more on the smackdown between Chris Matthews and Zell here.

A heated exchange quickly developed between Miller and Matthews because Zell was not going to take any of the usual shenanigans from the blowhard. It was at this point that Chris Matthews revealed just how absurd the media bias can become. He asked Senator Zell Miller, in pointed fashion, "Do you really believe John Kerry would send soldiers into battle armed with only spit balls?" Matthews was completely serious in asking this question. Miller, who was already about to explode, responded, "Have you ever heard of a metaphor?!"

Hat Tip on this one to KH reader Dan

Lorie Byrd at Polipundit says that the security moms don't want a girly-man in the White House.

While many, including myself, believed that the angry tone of the speech might alienate women, at least one focus group last night showed that was not the case. It makes sense. I think Rush has this one right. Why should it upset women that a man would be angry when he determined that the political party he grew up in had sacrificed the nation’s security at the alter of political expediency?

 
McAwful: Kerry In Cambodia Twice

Captain Ed covers it, Powerline has the video (requires Quick Time).

Q: Does it bother you that the Democrats have nominated a candidate that told a fable about spending Christmas in Cambodia on the floor of the United States Senate?

A: John Kerry went to Cambodia twice. He was over in Viet Nam and at one point, as you know, he took some CIA operatives into Cambodia, and he did a lot more than George Bush ever did for his country. George Bush never got to Viet Nam.

To which I would simply reply, George Bush never claimed to have gotten to Vietnam. Kerry claimed to have gotten to Cambodia.

Note: McAwful may be playing games with the "two times" reference, since he does not specify that it was twice in the 1969-1970 timeframe; it is well-reported that Kerry went to Cambodia during the 1990s.

 
Bolshies on the March!

The madcap folks over at Communists for Kerry confront weak liberalism with strong communism. Great photos, hilarious captions.

 
You Can't Get to Cambodia from Here

Here's a solid op-ed from a Swift boat vet named Doug Regelin on whether Kerry could have gotten into Cambodia from An Thoi.

Alan makes the claim, and actually calls in to question whether I drove Swift Boats in Vietnam. He actually states that I even tried to duck his questions. He never asked about driving the boat. Alan has a severe misconception of the crews responsibilities on Swift Boats. First, I was a Radarman 3rd Class. I have never claimed in any articles or blogs that I was an officer. Secondly, officers on Swift Boats rarely drove the boats unless they did so from the aft helm or if the driver, who could have been any rating, was not available. On the 82 boat, I drove more than 98 percent of the time. That's because I had almost every river, channel, canal, sand bar and fishing stake memorized. This talent was necessary so that when things went bad at night, and if the radar unit wouldn't work, we could still get out of trouble.

I'd say Regelin is an expert on the subject.

Hat Tip: Prestopundit

 
Navy Blues

Reader Chuck (aka Phillies Fan) pointed us to this one.

The United States Navy is challenging the authenticity of Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam War medals, in a development that could prove to be the most damaging yet to the embattled Democrat's presidential campaign.

A Navy spokesman is calling Kerry's Silver Star citation with Combat V "incorrect" as it appears on his campaign Web site, explaining in an interview with Chicago Sun-Times reporter Thomas Lipscomb that the Navy has never issued a Combat V at any time for the Silver Star.

The Navy also is questioning the listing on Kerry’s Web site of four bronze campaign stars for his service in Vietnam. The official naval record credits Kerry with just two Vietnam campaigns.

Remember Kerry on folks wearing medals that don't belong to them:

“The military is a rigorous culture that places a high premium on battlefield accomplishment,” said Sen. John F. Kerry, who received numerous decorations, including a Bronze Star with a "V" pin, as a Navy lieutenant in Vietnam.

“In a sense, there's nothing that says more about your career than when you fought, where you fought and how you fought,” Kerry said.

“If you wind up being less than what you’re pretending to be, there is a major confrontation with value and self-esteem and your sense of how others view you.”

 
Thursdays 'R' for Thune

(Note--This Post Will Be Promoted Throughout Thursday--Scroll Down for New Content)



NEW YORK, Aug. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- The following are remarks by the
Honorable John Thune as prepared for delivery at the 2004 Republican National
Convention:

I'm John Thune and it's time to end what the Wall Street Journal calls "Daschle's Dead Zone."
With the help of thousands of South Dakotans, we are going to end Tom Daschle's obstructionism in the Senate.
The common sense agenda of President Bush and our Senate Republican Majority has been obstructed too long.
Judicial nominations are dying in the "Daschle Dead Zone." Permanent tax cuts and Welfare reform are dying in the "Zone."
Repeal of the death tax and the marriage penalty are dying in the "Daschle Dead Zone." Medical liability reform is dying at the hands of trial lawyers in the "Zone."
Class Action Reform is dying in the "Daschle Dead Zone." An energy bill including a national commitment to renewable fuels is dying in the "Daschle Dead Zone."
We can pass this common sense agenda when we defeat Tom Daschle and reelect President George Bush in November.

Contribute to the John Thune for Senate Campaign here. As we have remarked before, Thune offers the best value for your money; he's proven he can get the votes of South Dakotans, he's a solid conservative, and electing him would end Tom Daschle's Dead Zone.

 
This is More Understandable if You Know 80% of New Yorkers are Democrats

That's the only reason I can think of for this result:

On the eve of a Republican National Convention invoking 9/11 symbols, sound bytes and imagery, half (49.3%) of New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens overall say that some of our leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act," according to the poll conducted by Zogby International. The poll of New York residents was conducted from Tuesday August 24 through Thursday August 26, 2004. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/-3.5.

Hat Tip: Allah via Lileks.

 
Blogger Roundup

Kitty has a cartoon that notes the resemblance between Kerry and Nixon that we have remarked on several times in the past.

Crush Kerry reviews last night's speeches. Like us, they enjoyed the red meat that Zell Miller served up.

John at My Take on Things points out this hilarious video. If that link doesn't work for you (it didn't for me) try this one and choose "open". Very reminiscent of Monty Python.

Chris at Kerry Waffles has a critical two minute clip of Zell Miller's speech last night; the part about Kerry's opposition to the weapons systems that won the Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. Click on the picture of Zell to hear it and choose "open".

 
From the Marine Corps Times

In 1971, I awoke after three days of unconsciousness aboard a hospital ship off the coast of Vietnam. I could not see, my jaws were wired shut and my left cheekbone was missing, a gaping hole in its place. Later, while still at St. Albans Naval Hospital, one of my earliest recollections is of hearing about Kerry's testimony before Congress. I remember lying there, in disbelief, as I learned how Kerry told the world that the Army that I served in was reminiscent of Genghis Khan's; that officers like me routinely let their men plunder villages and rape villagers; that ''war crimes'' committed in Vietnam by my fellow soldiers ``were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.''

Then Kerry went to Paris, meeting with North Vietnamese enemy officials, while our soldiers still fought in the field. The pain and disbelief I felt listening to his words went deeper than the pain I felt from the enemy fire that wounded my face. I was discharged from the hospital 18 months later. The wounds inflicted by the enemy had fully healed. More than 30 years later, the wounds inflicted by Kerry continue to bring pain to scores of Vietnam veterans. Those wounds -- the bearing of false witness against me and a generation of courageous young Americans who fought and died in Vietnam -- are more serious than any warranting a Purple Heart. They never go away.

Today, new generations of heroes are serving our country, defending our freedoms from an insidious enemy. One of them is my son, a Marine Corps weapons officer who flies the F/A 18 Hornet. He belongs to the same Marine Corps that Kerry ridiculed with his 1971 book cover showing protesters simulating the Iwo Jima Memorial, raising an upside down American flag. He flies the same F-18 fighter jet that Kerry voted against in the Senate. Yet Kerry shamelessly drapes himself in the imagery of Vietnam, military service and the support of veterans, devoid of any media scrutiny. Veterans' criticism falls on deaf ears, and legitimate criticism of Kerry's post-war record is discredited as a personal attack or an attack against his service.

Kerry surrounds himself with a handful of veterans and claims overwhelming support from the veteran community. Yet he won't answer or apologize for the wounds he inflicted on them, insisting that his Vietnam experience gives him credibility on defense issues. If Kerry wants to exploit his service, he should at least have the courage to look veterans like me in the eye and give an honest answer on his actions then, his votes since and his plans for the future.

Hat Tip: Prestopundit

 
I Not Only Have the Better Hair, I've Got a Big Package



The endangered species, Lawyerus Edwardicus, shows off its mating dance.

 
The Hanoi Tapes?

Coming soon to a radio station near you.

 
PAPER TIGER



Right after 9/11, I remember the Democrats lamenting that it was Bush, instead of Clinton, who had the opportunity to shine as a strong leader. Oh, if only Clinton had been president to show what he could do! They seemed to have had conveniently forgotten that the terrorists had once before tried to down the Twin Towers, on February 26, 1993, with a 1,500-pound urea-nitrate bomb packed into a van, and Clinton did nothing. However, Clinton got another chance to shine in October of that same year when 18 of our soldiers were killed and dragged through the streets of Mogadishu as the Somalians cheered. Clinton’s response was to being our troops home. Osama bin Laden’s response to ABC News was that "the American soldier was a paper tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat."
President Bush never wanted to be a war president, but he had no choice. We had been attacked yet again and the terrorists had to be stopped. Years of reasoning with them and asking pretty-please did nothing but embolden them further. In fact, America lost face in the eyes of the terrorists, who viewed us as bin Laden correctly did: “a paper tiger” who runs in defeat. Bush is not a poll driven man; his decision to go to war to stop terrorism, a decision which could kill his chance for re-election, emanates from his sense of right and wrong, his values.
Facing the Swift Vets is John Kerry’s moment to shine before the election. His opportunity may not be as “sexy” as Bush’s, yet the manner with which he handles this issue, an issue which he brought upon himself, is a measure of him as a man. He’s had three decades to right the scurrilous wrongs he committed by impugning his fellow vets’ integrity and he chose not to do so. Well, now he’s got another chance and he’s proving himself to be not a man but a paper tiger.

KERRY NOT SO 'SWIFT'
Analysts thought Kerry might use the moment to confront the issue head-on since some vets — including McCain — have taken great offense at the ads.
Kerry was also dead silent about his strident anti-war activities after he came back from Vietnam. He famously accused GIs of war crimes and atrocities in televised hearings, and some pundits had predicted he might apologize or explain his actions.
Instead, Kerry focused on the war being fought now, chiding Bush for failing to secure Iraq after Saddam Hussein's fall. Kerry said the president even ignored advice from his own military leaders on the number of troops needed for postwar operations.
"When it comes to Iraq, it's not that I would have done one thing differently," Kerry said. "I would've done almost everything differently."

VETS FOR SALE?
By Ralph Peters
YESTERDAY, in front of the American Legion's National Convention, John Kerry made his most disgraceful speech since he lied about atrocities to Congress three decades ago. By making promises he doesn't mean and can't keep, he tried to buy the votes of American veterans.
Had he offered each vet a $5 bill and a shot of whisky for their support, his performance could not have been shabbier.
…
Kerry's so shameless that he once again tried to associate himself with John McCain, a true American hero, in his remarks. He almost made it sound as if they'd been in a North Vietnamese prison together. But Kerry's brother-in-arms isn't Sen. McCain. It's the naval hero of Chappaquiddick.
Kerry's speech to the veterans was condescending in other ways, too. It assumed that vets are so stupid they can't do basic math. Kerry claimed he'd reduce the deficit, while expanding the military and buying every weapons system in sight, increasing veterans' benefits, bringing health care to all Americans and, of course, creating millions of new jobs that pay phenomenally well.
Would you mind explaining how, senator?
…
Does Kerry have no shame at all? No spine, whatsoever? Is it possible to be nothing but a bundle of pure ambition, with no shred of ethics? Is Kerry so hungry for office that he'll change any position to buy a vote?
…
The guy is an eel in a vat of olive oil.
Yesterday, John Kerry tried to pander to America's heroes, conveniently forgetting that he'd trashed them for political gain, then shortchanged them throughout his Senate career. Suddenly, Kerry was the man who had fought for benefits for his fellow Vietnam vets, the man who felt their pain (Kerry makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity).
The only veterans' benefit young John Kerry fought for was the right of vets to be spit upon in public.

Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer and a regular Post contributor.

 
Kerry Doing Well in France & Germany

That appears to be the point of this article in the Globe.

In France, polls have consistently shown that if the French had a say in the election's outcome, Kerry -- appreciated, at the very least, for speaking French -- would reap about 80 percent of their vote. A poll commissioned by the German magazine Stern and published Wednesday had 81 percent of 1,001 German respondents for Kerry and only 8 percent for Bush. The margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points.

Gee, how many electoral votes do they have?

New Bumper Sticker: Annoy The French: Vote for Bush

 
I Wish I Was A Little Closer So I Could Get Into Your Face

You can see the Zell Miller smashmouth interview with Chrissie Matthews here. Scroll down to Duel: Chris Matthews & Zell Miller.

 
Who Wants to Photoshop This One?--Updated & Promoted



Shouldn't take much effort to put Kerry on that poster in place of Rantisi. Feel free to ask for a link in the comments if you do it.

First one's here. Good job, Greg! He also pointed us to this on-topic amazing award won by John F. Kerry: Iranian of the Day!

Update II: Chris at Kerry Waffles did a take-off here.

 
Zell Reactions Starting to Pop Up

The Hill's Jonathan Kaplan:

The former Marine also told the audience and American voters that his party had changed beyond recognition from the one he had been proud to join: “Time after time in our history, in the face of great danger, Democrats and Republicans worked together to ensure that freedom would not falter. But not today. Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today’s Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator.”

NRO's John J. Miller:

NRO: Why aren't there more Zell Millers in the Democratic party?

MILLER: The Democratic tent has shrunk to the size of a dunce cap.

Love it!

Captain Ed was clearly loving it.

 
Kurtz--That Was Not An Iceberg

Howard Kurtz is trying to avoid the evidence in this column.

I think this is way out of control. Almost but not quite reminiscent of Iowa, when the press said JFK had no chance against the Dean juggernaut.

:) So it's JFK now, Howard?

Team Kerry was slow to respond to the swift boat attacks, but it was not unreasonable, for a few days at least, to avoid giving oxygen to a tiny group buying ads in three states. What the Kerryites misjudged was how cable could turn this into an August thunderstorm that washed away everything else.

Team Kerry was slow to respond because they realized that they'd been caught with their pants down, and they had a candidate who was a fabulist. Plus they did not have an answer to the Christmas in Cambodia tale, which is evidence of incompetence or idiocy on the part of the Kerry campaign. We broke Christmas in Cambodia on May 21; the media did not cover it until mid-August, a week or so after the Swiftees released Chapter 3 of their book. Who's watching the enemy blogs for minefields, Camp Kerry?

Hilariously, Kurtz goes on to quote Joshua Micah Marshall, who's become the ultimate Democratic hack:

Josh Marshall is on the same wavelength, declaring that "what had been a congealing sense that the second half of August had been a bad couple weeks for Kerry had turned into a galloping panic that his campaign is in disarray and hope for his candidacy may be close to over."

Actually, that's pretty badly phrased; you could read it as meaning his campaign is in disarray and hope for his candidacy may be close to over, or you could read it (the way Marshall intends) as meaning the galloping panic is over.

This is all part of the sine wave nature of political reporting; but I suspect that Kurtz and especially Marshall are desperate to push the sine wave back upwards when there is no evidence that it is moving. After all, with three nights of solid speeches (and one to come) there is no doubt in my mind that the President's poll numbers should rise and Kerry's should drop, perhaps quite dramatically.

 
What's the Story with Security?

Something like ten protestors during the Young Republicans meeting, and at least one during Cheney's speech. Get on the ball, guys!

 
A Point

Paul, one of the nicer Democrats out there, challenged me on something, and I thought it made a better post than a response. I was talking about the great article by Glenn Reynolds in the WSJ and his note:

The good news is that it makes the lefty blogs weak, and sooner or later they are going to suffer for it. Right-wing blogs are getting used to having to dig for the truth, to sift throught three or four different sources.
Pat

Pat, I think this last comment of yours is unintentionally damning. How do you know the truth when you find it? If you have to look through so many sources, maybe you're not looking for the truth you find, but the truth you want.
Paul

Well, of course, anybody wanting to understand any incident in history is far better reading multiple sources than a single source, right? Or do you believe reading one book on the Civil War makes you an expert?

Brinkley is supposedly the expert on Kerry's service in Vietnam. But he appears to have placed Rassmann on the wrong boat, at least according to Rassmann's own account in the Wall Street Journal. Should we stop at the one source, Tour of Duty? Tour of Duty also had Skip Barker at the scene, something that was debunked in the Washington Post.

Always look at multiple sources for information. The differences between two accounts are often more interesting than the similarities.

 
Zell II

It is the soldier, not the agitator....

Oh, man. This is a great speech!

Shoot, had company for much of the Kerry bit.

Now he's talking about the President. Great stuff.

 
Live-Blogging Zell

"My family is more important than my party."

Positive Roosevelt mention at a Republican Convention? Ah, positive Wendell Wilkie mention!

"Nothing makes this Marine madder than calling US troops occupiers!"

Wow!

 
Zell To Give Kerry Hell

Fox is reporting it's going to be a tough speech on Kerry and the Democrats. :) Be sure to tune in.

 
Shortage of Kerry Haters at the Republican Convention?

CBS News (!) reports.

John Kerry is not loved by those attending the Republican National Convention, but he is not universally loathed either.

In fact, convention delegates and guests interviewed at the convention claim they have thought little about the Massachusetts senator one way or the other — a contrast with last month's Democratic convention where President Bush was near the top of many delegates' minds.

"The other side seems fueled by hate," said alternate Missouri delegate Matt Gerstner. "Not only myself but, I think, a majority of the Republicans here respect Kerry. They respect his service. They just disagree with his positions.

 
Imus Withdrawing Support for Kerry

Our buddy Matt at Matt's Rants alerted us to this story.

He has been ‘pushing’ Kerry for almost two years.

But, after the Swift Boat Fiasco, Imus, a former Marine, has now ‘withdrawn’ his Kerry endorsement and declared himself an ‘Independent’ on the race.

So, guess who is arriving in a motorcade this morning to appear live on Imus’ Show?

Former President George H.W. Bush!

 
Bush Job Approval Rises to 53%



Kerry gets the news.

 
Joke from the Mailbox

On a tour of Texas, the Pope took a couple of days off to visit the coastal area near the gulf for some sightseeing. He was cruising along the sea wall on Galveston Isle in his Pope mobile when suddenly he notices a frantic commotion just off shore.

There was John Kerry struggling frantically to free himself from the jaws of a 25-foot shark. As the Pope watched, horrified, a speedboat came racing up with two men aboard. One of the men, President George W. Bush quickly fired a harpoon into the shark's side while Dick Cheney reached out and pulled the bleeding, semi-conscious John Kerry from the water.

Then using (autographed Round Rock Express, of course) baseball bats, the two heroes beat the shark to death and hauled it into the boat.

Immediately the Pope shouted and summoned them to the beach. "I give you my blessings for your brave actions," he told them. "I heard that there was some bitter hatred between President Bush and John Kerry, but now I have seen with my own eyes that this is not true."

As the Pope drove off, President Bush asked Dick "Who was that?"

"It was the Pope," Dick replied. "He is in direct contact with God and has all of God's wisdom."

"Well," President Bush said, "he may have access to God's wisdom, but he doesn't know squat about shark fishing. ... How's the bait holding up?"

 
New Linkers

Did a little technorati search to see who's linked to our blog lately:

Passing Thoughts is the blog of a military wife. She's got some nice thoughts on Laura Bush's speech here.

Mark Rezyka has a blog called Cartoon Nazi. Name in haste, repent at leisure, Mark. Some strong language, but I liked his take on Rudy Giuliani's speech.

Bane Rants is another blog with some pretty strong language (and some opinions I don't share), but it's still pretty entertaining. Here's a post on how his 3-year-old daughter earned her Bronze Star.

No Oil for Pacifists has a great name, and he had a brief moment in the sun when he got the Instalanche for a solid roundup of the Christmas in Cambodia story. He has a very strong post comparing reactions to Bush's 16 words about yellowcake in the 2003 State of the Union address, to Kerry's serial lies and exaggerations.

Freedom of Thought is a pretty big blog, with lots of very diverse posts. I liked this picture of Flipper.

 
Give 'em Zell

Lorie Byrd over at Polipundit has a great suggestion as to how the Republicans can capitalize on Democrat Zell Miller's speech to the Republican National Convention tonight.

Hat Tip: Crush Kerry

 
She'll Be Voting for Kerry



Unless Burning Man is going on that week.

Update: Check out YaMon's take on the protestors. (Click on YaMontary once you get to the site). Strong language warning, but it's funny.

 
Yet Another Lame Salute

 
Google Search Fun

"Christmas in Cambodia": 24,800 results. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like you can eliminate pages done in the last X days. I did check the Usenet newsgroups; there were about 3,540 results; prior to August 1, 2004 there were 3 (none of which are relevant).

 
Tour of Doo-Doo VI

Here's an interesting one. Skip Barker was, at one point, the only one of the Swift Boat skippers who supported the Kerry campaign (it appears that two other skippers have since moved from the undecided camp into the pro-Kerry side).

Conflict #3: Was Skip Barker with John Kerry on March 13, 1969?

Tour of Duty certainly indicates so. From page 307:

Finally PCF-94 arrived at the opening to the small Dong Cung canal, where they were to rendezvous with the Swifts skippered by Lieutenants Skip Barker, Don Droz, and Larry Thurlow, who would join them bearing South Vietnamese PF troops they had picked up in Cai Nuoc.

Wearing a bandanna around his head, Barker arrived leading the other boats....

On page 308:

Lieutenant Skip Barker led the way upriver, seeking to drop off the South Vietnamese troops at a point some two thousand yards past the position of the Nung mercenaries...

Interestingly, that is the last time Barker is mentioned. During the whole Bronze Star incident itself (pages 314-318), Thurlow and Droz are mentioned a great deal, but Barker appears to do and see nothing. Perhaps it is because he wasn't there.

The Washington Post's Michael Dobbs broke this story in an outstanding article on Kerry's Bronze Star.

In his book, Brinkley writes that a skipper who remains friendly to Kerry, Skip Barker, took part in the March 13 raid. But there is no documentary evidence of Barker's participation. Barker could not be reached for comment.

This is significant for two reasons. First, it marks at least the second time that a Kerry supporter among his fellow Swift boat veterans has attempted to insert himself falsely into one of Kerry's missions that resulted in a medal. David Alston was caught by Captain's Quarters claiming that he had been present at the incident which led to Kerry's Silver Star. Second, Barker is cited by Brinkley (pages 271-273) as the only other witness to Kerry's humanitarian rescue of 42 Vietnamese villagers, a story that has the aroma of falsehood.

 
Guest Soapbox

One of the singular pleasures of the recent growth of KH is that we get lots of suggestions for new posts. Sometimes things don't work out, or we are already working on a post in a similar vein, or I just can't think of a good take on the story. But every now and then something comes in that really fits. I am quoting herewith verbatim an email I received from a gentleman named John. It's long, but it's really quite good, and I like the emotion. Out of sympathy for your eyes, I will not italicize the whole thing, but everything after this paragraph is from John. Good work, John!

KERRY BEAT THE SYSTEM (with the help of the system, NYT etc)

It is a great mistake and a fraudulent one at that to buy into/accept/reason that somehow because Kerry went to Viet Nam, (in spite of whatever happened during his four month "visit")---that---that in itself somehow makes him honorable, noble, ----ad nauseum---an effort calculated by himself and his supporting media to give him some kind of recognition of his "service" thus transposing him into "war hero status". Never mind that he lied about it before/during/after!---and the "hero" is purely fictional, a perverted calculation, suspiciously based on and influenced by the equally dubious film, Apocalypse Now. Much to Hollywood's delight, the Kerry/Sheen character is the central casting hero being foisted upon the masses with no basis in fact, just slick Hollywood pretense all under the welcoming guise of the media, ---both entities--- driven by a hatred of and desire to depose, President Bush.

In an effort to want to put VN behind us, there is too great of rush to sweep under the rug the facts and to gloss over Kerry's motives, simply give him the benefit of the doubt and agree that his "service" was noble, something to be proud of.

If Kerry had genuinely volunteered to go to VN, put his life in some sort of danger via that action and then became disillusioned with the war---that would be one thing.

BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED

Kerry is a premeditated, scheming opportunist---has been all his life and continues the ploy with his carefully engineered, central casting of "Kerry, the war hero, Kerry the man's man" and all that type of Hollywood fluff.

We have all seen Kerry in our every day lives. Remember back to school. Kerry was/is the "brown-noser", "apple polisher", "suck-ass", the loser always trying to take credit for someone else's achievements, the rodent who would stab anyone in the back to get notice, attention, credit. Back before "girlie-man" became popular, Kerry was what was then known as a sissy, a pansy, he was and is effeminate and his big mouth has always gotten him in trouble and he would run to others for protection, "to make it all right". Kerry is Sgt Bilko. Kerry is the athlete who "enhances" his lacking ability with performance drugs to win. The Kerry twisted persona can justify anything to win---to him it matters not how he wins, only that he wins, he will crush anything that gets in his way, not from his own strength and courage, but using money from his sugar mamma to buy what he can't achieve on his own.

Kerry is the personification of "Catch 22". Kerry is a "user", ---wives, people, fantasies, ever upward climbing. How to get ahead in business without even trying, or, more personalized in Kerry's case, how to steal an election through fraud and deceit. And watch, if and when he loses, he will not go down as easy as Algore. Kerry will fight to contest the outcome, even if it is a 50 State sweep for the President,--- already Kerry has the mechanism in place to undo the election results, teams of lawyers throughout the U.S. ready to pounce, U.N. observers to make sure a "fair" election takes place(translation, one that delivers the Presidency to Kerry).

What Kerry actually did in Viet Nam was realize he could improve his credentials for eventually gaining the White House as his hero JFK before him did, by creating "another" PT109 episode. Kerry tried to avoid actual service, asking for deferments etc, but when it become inevitable that he should go, he then looked around for the "safest" way to create "Kerry the war hero". Initially, by volunteering for Naval duty, his thinking was he could stay out of harm's way by remaining off shore in a big naval vessel, which he did for a while. But being another face in the crowd on a large Navy vessel cramped his style, made it almost impossible to dream up ways to put in for phony medals, kept him under too much scrutiny to where he couldn't creat his destined "hero" image. Then, it occurred to him that piloting a swift boat could be used to create even more of an appearance of "combat" while not exposing himself to any real danger, at the time he applied, the swift boats were not involved or even close to any of the real fighting and he was driven by his delusion of grandeur as the rightful heir to JFK, PT 109, and ascendancy to the Presidency---and besides, he would have lots of time and opportunities to make his "home movies".

Now this is the real motive why Kerry was there in the first place. And the fact that he took along his "brownie" and had himself filmed in staged combat settings should be painfully awakening to any casual observer--- other than those who wish not to see,---ie the mainstream media who wishes Bush out, Kerry in AT ANY PRICE! (There are none so blind as those who will not see). Think about it if you find this somewhat extreme---what other military service personnel brought along (which shows premeditation) filming capability and then went to the trouble to "stage" combat sequences???---For what reason???? And this cold, calculated effort has significant basis to be workable as these purveyors of history "re-write" are counting on the average arm chair American to accept this fiction as fact because---"there it is on T.V., in film, if it is on T.V. and the talking heads say it is real, then by gosh, it must be real, it must be what really happened".

So, in essence, we have a phony cartoon character, much like Bubba, who goes to VN simply to create credentials for himself, not out of patriotic belief in his country or the war itself,--- instead we have the pitiful, disgusting charade that is now being spun by the mouthpiece of the "donks" and Kerry himself, ranting: "never mind the fine details of what actually happened, at least he volunteered, at least he was there"---what does it really matter if he was in or near Cambodia, at least he was in VN.

It matters because a lie is a lie.

Kerry's "service" in VN and to our country was no different than if Michael Moore went today to Iraq to film a twisted phony version of U.S. aggression in Iraq and in doing so, returned as a "veteran" who had put his life at risk in "service" to his country. There is no difference between these two, the ketchup/pickle king and the fat slob Moore. They both would--- and have--- sold their country out in a flat minute for any self-seeking, self-promoting, self-aggrandizement goal they felt they could gain by their fraudulent "service" to gain their perverted ends--- no matter what the cost, what the lie, who has to be hurt. In their twisted philosophy, the end result justifies the means used to achieve it.

To not really examine the true motive of Kerry's "service" and to give him a pass on all this by saying that at least he volunteered, he was there, he did sustain "some kind of injury", (even if it was self inflicted) is to sugar coat the fraud and play into his game plan of reaching the White House, where, in his twisted, fantasy mind, he believes he rightfully belongs and he is counting on "coach potato America" to apathetically accept his fraud due to the credential of Hollywood and the Media. If Streisand, perky Katie, Dan and all the rest of them say it is so, then it must be so!

Kerry's war "hero" status cannot stand up to any serious scrutiny, witness the cracks since the book, Unfit for Command, Kerry's refusal to release pertinent military records (until he gets them laundered) and the recent statement by Secretary of the Navy, Lehman, that the document supposedly carrying his signature for Kerry's Silver Star is FALSE. Kerry has wrapped himself as worthy due to his 4 months in Viet Nam, he cannot stand on his 20 undistinguished, practically useless years in the Senate. The man has no accomplishment in life other than living off of other men's money inherited by their widows who Kerry has sucked up to.

There is so much in the Kerry convoluted smoking gun that a fair and unbiased press would be all over his dillusions/falsehoods with a microscope, but no, the mainstream media refuses and has accepted the fictional Kerry farce because they want Bush defeated more than they want the truth. Rather than investigate Kerry, the mainstream media, ie the New York Times chooses to attack those who expose Kerry for the fraud that he is. Kerry is their candidate and they will ignore, look the other way, even fabricate for Kerry, whatever it takes to get "their" man in.

We, the American people cannot let this happen. No one elected perky Katie, Dan, Peter, Tom, George Soros, the NYT---the list goes on, but these people have more power than anyone else simply because of their celebrity status and Soros's money. If the next Presidential election is stolen/bought by the likes of these self appointed cronies of the fourth estate, America will lose her greatness, the word must go out to expose what is happening and people, regular people must take back our country before it is too late and get everyone possible involved in exposing this sham, the phony Kerry, the disgrace that has become the media, the threat to our country to be defeated from within.

(Pat speaking again. That is just really well done. John, like I said in my email response, you should really be blogging.)

 
Convention Coverage

Virtually everybody agrees that Laura Bush was good, the twins pretty bad (although that may have been intentional), and Arnold was electrifying. I would not have thought that anybody could top Rudy's speech, but the Governator pulled it off. BTW, kudos to his speechwriters; they seemed to get (the way many don't) that you've gotta make your applause lines positive. When Arnold said, "Then I am a Republican!", you knew the house was going to come down.

Crush Kerry has a solid review of the night. They're a little hard on the Bush twins' speech, which I ended up hearing twice; the second time around it wasn't as bad. But I do have to wonder who in the world thought of turning them into a stand-up comedy duo. The jokes actually weren't awful, but it should have been limited to one or two--"Young and stupid" and "our hamster didn't make it." But Hugh Hewitt points out that not everybody in every party is a genius, and this may have been intended to appeal to the lowbrows out there.

Captain Ed and Powerline have great convention coverage from blogger's row. Hugh Hewitt has a transcript of his interview with Terry McAwful.

 
Kerry Losing It

In more ways than one.

Sen. John Kerry is angry at the way his campaign has botched the attacks from the Swift boat veterans and has ordered a staff shakeup that will put former Clinton aides in top positions.

"The candidate is furious," a longtime senior Kerry adviser told the Daily News. "He knows the campaign was wrong. He wanted to go after the Swift boat attacks, but his top aides said no."

Let's get real here. Kerry's biggest single mistake this election season was when he did go after the Swiftees. The media had largely managed to contain the damage, by saying "Move along, nothing to see here." True, it had hurt Kerry, but the story seemed to be fizzling out a bit. Kerry gave it new life, especially when the campaign was forced to admit that maybe that first Purple Heart had been for a self-inflicted (unintentionally) wound.

And one gets the impression of Kerry as the drunken brawler who picks on somebody, only to find that the guy is a lot bigger standing up than sitting down. He yells to his friends, "Hold me back! I'll tear him apart! Hold me back!", praying of course, that they do hold him back.

 
Hispanic Voters

Robert Musil has an excellent post on how President Bush is doing with Hispanic voters. Hint: It's better than the media want you to think.

 
The Media Biased in Favor of Kerry? Mais Non!

Benjamin Ginsberg wonders why the media were so curious about connections between the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the Bush Campaign, but seemingly oblivious to ties between Move-On and the Kerry people.

Kerry campaign lawyer Bob Bauer and Democratic National Committee counsel Joe Sandler also represent 527s -- not illegal, but doesn't it deserve a little scrutiny?

Nah! Nothing to see there!

The good news is that this is why the blogs and talk radio are rising as Glenn Reynolds points out in the Wall Street Journal.

Does this mean that blogs will work in the Bush campaign's favor? Not inevitably, and there are plenty of lefty blogs doing their best to beat Mr. Bush. But so long as the mainstream media are lazy, and biased -- and strongly in favor of a Democrat -- the fact-checking and media-bypassing power of the blogosphere is likely to disproportionately favor Republicans. That's not so much a reflection on blogs, alas, as it is a reflection on big media.

 
CONDUCT UNBECOMING A MAN



As I’ve said all along, these ads were between Kerry and the vets. Only Kerry can stop the ads. Bush can’t. Cleland can’t. Not even the election will stop the ads. Only Kerry can stop the ads. Let’s see what kind of man Kerry really is.

Senator Kerry: Tell the Truth and We'll Stop the Ads
August 31, 2004
Senator John Kerry
901 15th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
Dear Senator Kerry:
As you prepare for your address before the American Legion in Nashville, Tennessee, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth encourages you to use this opportunity to clarify your actions in Vietnam and your statements about your fellow Veterans and shipmates when you returned home. Since you have made your four-month tour in Vietnam the centerpiece of your campaign, we respectfully insist that you be truthful. The public is owed a full and honest accounting of your actions. Veterans are owed an apology from you and an acknowledgement that there was no basis in fact for the accusations you made against them.
We urge you to …
Read the rest of their letter.

So much for an apology.
SWIFT RECOVERY
According to Kerry insiders, the candidate will attack his Swift Boat Veterans for Truth critics, by claiming it was he who stood up for veterans and the missing in action during his days in the Senate. "This is going to be the big pushback," says a Kerry adviser. "He will take this Swift Boat guys on, and then put the debate to rest. He isn't going to let this spin out of control for days on end. We won't let it."
…
Kerry intends to renew his campaign, with a new message and tweaked stump speech almost immediately following the conclusion of President Bush's acceptance speech. Kerry will be in Ohio with veep candidate John Edwards and their spouses to begin two-day bus tours in the pivotal state.

So much for being a man.
Families of POWs Frightened By Kerry
NewsMax hears from inside the Swift Boat Vets groups that Kerry's campaign and its allies in the media have been so intimidating that some critics are now fearful of coming forward.
…
Apparently, there are also claims that anti-war protesters like Jane Fonda and John Kerry actually contacted the families of POWS, encouraging them to come forward and criticize the U.S. government. Some families were told that by criticizing the U.S. government their loved ones in Hanoi would get better treatment.
But getting POW family members to speak out has become difficult. After seeing how the Swift Boat Vets and the POWs have been treated, many are fearful of going public.
One who went through the ringer for speaking out was former POW Ken Cordier, a former Air Force Colonel. When a friend recently commiserated with the media drubbing, Cordier said, "The communists tortured me for seven years, this is nothing."

You may be interested in signing this petition by now.
Kerry Should be Prosecuted and Disqualifed from National Office
A citizen petition demanding that John Kerry be prosecuted for "giving aid and comfort to the enemy" and disqualified for national office.

 
Tonight I'm Gonna Party Like It's 1972!

 
The August That Was

Wow, what a spectacular month for the blog and for our hopes of derailing John F. Kerry. We started out at about 700 hits a day, which was thrilling at the time; after the first couple of days of August we didn't dip below 900 visitors even on weekends.

On August 2, I met Hugh Hewitt at a book-signing in Tempe. He gave me some encouragement about our blog and a link to Kitty's post about Kerry's goof-up in Michigan, where he mentioned his affection for (Ohio State) Buckeye football and got a chorus of boos.

On August 5, we hit the lottery. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth released Chapter Three of Unfit for Command, which included a thorough Fisking of Kerry's claim to have been in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968. With my usual keen eye for news, here's how I described it:

More on the Swift Boat Vets

I read the chapter of their book that was emailable; if you want to read it without giving your email address, it is here. It contains an excellent account of the incident leading to Kerry's first Purple Heart, which leaves little doubt in my mind that Kerry did not deserve that medal.

It also covers Kerry's ridiculous "Christmas in Cambodia" story, which we debunked awhile ago, with the help of Kerry Haters reader L. Larson. This was such an absurd story that even Kerry hagiographer Douglas Brinkley left it out of Tour of Duty.

Well, it may have been offhand, but it really helped the blog a lot. Hugh Hewitt happened over here, saw that we had blogged the story way back in May and noted it in his blog. Tom Maguire of Just One Minute also noted it, and suddenly our hits were soaring. August 5 was the first day we broke 1000 hits. After that, we got another big boost about a week later when Hugh mentioned us in his World Net Daily column; the hit meter soared through 2,000 and almost reached 2,800 on August 11. Two days later we got an echo boom as Lucianne linked co-blogger Kitty Litter and broke 2,000 again.

By then we were threatening to break into the top 100 blogs in traffic per Sitemeter. You always hope that something like that will happen, but you never really expect it. We didn't quite hit the hot 100 (our top positon was 114), but we're currently #144 and probably moving up another ten spots on the basis of the traffic the last couple days (back over 2,000 hits).

In the meantime, the Christmas in Cambodia story was trickling out into the media. For awhile, the media seemed determined to keep the lid on the story, but it began to poke out. Hugh Hewitt hammered on the story on his radio show; he deserves most of the credit for forcing the media to face it. He had bloggers like Captain Ed, Instapundit and Roger L. Simon on his show and told them to keep talking about it. Hugh also gave Kerry Haters credit on air at least 4 times for breaking the story, and congratulated us when I called up the show.

The Christmas in Cambodia story dribbled out very much like the VVAW assassination plot story; interestingly in both cases Scott Canon of the Kansas City Star was the first mainstream newspaperman to touch it. Carl Cameron of Fox News was the first to grill the Kerry Campaign on the issue; hilariously they got caught saying that Kerry had never claimed to be in Cambodia.

That Kerry has been wounded by this is obvious. The reporters on his campaign haven't talked to him since "Christmas in Cambodia" became an issue. He has not appeared on TV with the exception of the Daily Show. He seems almost relieved that the Republican Convention is here. The question is whether he can manage to get around the Cambodia question afterwards.

With our newfound popularity came added responsibility. We decided that John Thune offered a good deal for your dollar; he comes from a very small (population) state where the advertising doesn't cost a lot. He's been elected by all the people of his state in the past, to Congress. He's running on the same ticket with President Bush, who won South Dakota by 23 percentage points in 2000. And he offers us the chance to get rid of Tom Daschle. In the last week we've seen Thune demolish Disappointed Boy in a debate and we've seen the polls showing Thune now up 2 points. Remember, if the President is reelected by the same margin in South Dakota in November as he got in 2000, Daschle will need 11.5% of all voters to cross over from Bush to him to win.

We also began to wonder if the KH name was problematic. I didn't think hard about putting the word "Haters" in the name--I was just thrilled to find it available. I suspect it is limiting in that it may mislead folks as to what they will find here--we're more critical of Kerry than we are simplistic "haters". OTOH, it certainly also was catchy enough to be intriguing, and you know how it is--if you exceed expectations people respect you a little more. The other thing is that the blog was mostly intended to be a fun little blog. We had no idea our blog was going to become an investigative journalism blog piecing together the story and suddenly discovering that the name Kerry Haters did little for our credibility.

But you know what? The Christmas in Cambodia story was like catching lightning in a bottle; cool, but you shouldn't go running around with a bottle in every thunderstorm in the hopes of it happening again. We'll continue covering the stories, but we don't expect to shake the election again.

For once I'm not going to give thanks to everybody. We haven't won yet. We're winning now, but there's going to be some idiot on 60 Minutes every weekend selling a book comparing Bush to Mao or Stalin or the house-painter. This is going to get really ugly. If we work hard together, we can win. The Democrats need to get smashed this time.

 
Tour of Doo-Doo V

This one comes up today in the newly released chapter of Unfit for Command.

Kerry’s recent biography, Tour of Duty, claimed that he had quit the VVAW on November 10, 1971, several days before the Kansas City assassination meeting, and that his resignation letter was at the VVAW archive in Madison, Wisconsin.2 The trouble was that nobody could find the November 10 resignation letter in the files. Finally, Tour of Duty author Douglas Brinkley admitted to Lipscomb that he did not have a copy of the letter in question; instead, he had been relying on Kerry’s own report that the letter existed. To date, no resignation letter has been located. When Lipscomb asked Brinkley who had told him that Kerry was a no-show at the Kansas City meeting, Brinkley’s response was that his source was Kerry himself.

That's gotta be pretty embarrassing for Brinkley. The resignation discussion appears on page 406:

In a November 10 [1971] letter housed at the VVAW Papers in Madison, Wisconsin, Kerry quit, politely noting that he had been proud to serve in the organization.

However that is not true. As Tom Lipscomb discovered this year, Kerry in fact was present at the VVAW assassination plot meeting which took place in Kansas City from November 12-15, 1971, based on research by historian Gerald Nicosia.

Kerry conveniently forgot a meeting at which a proposal to assassinate US Senators was discussed? Yeah, sure.

I wrote a long (probably the longest post on the blog) summary of the VVAW Assassination Plot back in March.

 
Macho Liberalism at its Ugliest

Powerline covers the Row on Radio Row. Stuart Smiley won't be saying "Doggone it, people like me," unless he learns to cool his jets a little.

 
Thune Moves Into the Lead

Daschle v Thune has the story.

Thune 50% 62% Fav/29% Unfav
Daschle 48% 61% Fav/35% Unfav
Don't Know/Other 2%

Long way to go, but it's always good to be in the lead.

 
Liberal Logic Trap

A new reader of ours named Clint sent along this interesting logic trap that a friend of his came up with for catching a liberal.

Q. What do you think about the soldiers who did the attrocities
at the Abu Ghraib prison?
A. It is awful!

Q. Do you think the soldiers who did that should go to jail?
A. Absolutely!!!

Q. Do you think that after say 30 years that you might have
enough confidence in, say, Lynndie England to vote for her as President of the United States?
A. No way, no how, never!

Q. Did you know that John Kerry acknowledged on Meet the Press in 1971 that he had committed atrocities FAR worse than what happened in Abu Ghraib prison while in Vietnam?

 
Chapter 8 of Unfit Online

The Swifties have now put up the eighth chapter of Unfit for Command online. This chapter features the VVAW assassination plot, which was one of the very first stories that Kerry Haters became known for covering. It was also the way I discovered Captain's Quarters and Just One Minute, because those were the two major bloggers covering that story (we were just a teeny-tiny blog back then, thrilled when we got 50 visitors in one day).

It also covers the medals story which is also the subject of the new ad, and the fact that Kerry was in the Navy Reserves in 1971 when he met with the enemy in Paris.

 

Hat tip to LoanCat!

 
Lucianne--Class Personified!

Just caught this note on her website:

Ldotter Note: As you know, this site runs on love, addiction to the news, my shallow pockets, a few ads and donations. Your dedication and dollars help us feed the bandwidth beast and buy jellybeans and Spam sandwiches for Igor and his minions and we are more than grateful. If you had planned to write a small check in the next few weeks please....do not send it here. Send it to the SwiftVets for Truth (https://www.swiftvets.com/swift/ccdonation.php?op=donate&site=SwiftVets)

We will muddle through. It's far more important that we keep them funded and their truth telling ads on the air. It is far more important that we show the self-styled "gatekeepers" of the American media that their gates have been breached by the new media and things will never be the same again. This is the end of the same-old, same-old liberal filtering of the news. Let's make that point loud and clear and permanent.

Give up a Mocha Latte for a day or two. You don't need a new lipstick. No one notices anyway. Brown bag lunch next week. Have the car detailed next month. Find any old envelope, a working stamp and send a check, $5, $10 or $20, it doesn't matter how much it matters how many and this site alone can keep them going until election day.

Do it now. It's really, really....really important. But, you knew that.

Lucianne

If you want to know why we L-Dotters are so loyal, there's your answer. If you're paying by check, here's the address:

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
c/o Weymouth Symmes, Treasurer
PO Box 26184
Alexandria, VA 22313

PS--Yes, I donated again. Man, this blog is costing me money!

 
New Deck Chairs for the Titanic

The folks who will try to put some lipstick on the pig:

Joining the Kerry-Edwards campaign: Senior Advisor Joe Lockhart; Director of Rapid Response Joel Johnson; Senior Advisor for National Security Affairs Dr. Susan Rice; Policy Advisor on Israel and the Middle East former Congressman Mel Levine; Elizabeth Edwards Chief of Staff Lori Denham and Elizabeth Edwards Communication Director Karen Finney.

We've written about Dr. Susan Rice before under "What's Worse Than Sandy Burglar?"

Hat Tip: Phillies Fan

 
FOR THE BOLSHEVIK IN YOU


The Great Lenin disciplines a weak-kneed liberal, curing his washed-down socialism with a healthy doze of strong communism. Photo by Mario Tama

Those prankster-niks at CommunistsForKerry are putting together the new chapter of the Great American Socialist Revolution of their Sunday in (Red) Union Square. We’ll post it when it’s finished. In the meantime, check out their:
Communists End Kerry's Swiftboat Controversy
Initially, the Kerry campaign said that he never claimed to be in Cambodia, only that he was near Cambodia. But when presented with a copy of the Congressional Record and asked about Kerry's letter-to-the-editor in the Boston Herald, the Kerry campaign said it would come up with an explanation.
They have yet to do so. Communists for Kerry are here to help with our reeducation campaign. Don't worry Comrade Kerry, you can still win! We will re-educate Amerika for you!

 
Kerry Sends Five to the Hospital

This is pretty funny:

A similar scene played out the next day in Tacoma, where it appeared Kerry was attempting to kill his audience. Literally. At least five attendees to the rally required medical attention during Kerry's 45-minute speech. Sound like Kerry was hot.

The medical diagnosis: Terminal boredom.