Kerry Haters

2005-12-31T10:32:00.000-07:00

We're Still Blogging!

(This post will remain on top--scroll down for newer posts).

Just not as often over here, at least until the 2008 race starts to shape up.

Aaron, Kitty and I are blogging along with Professor Shade at Lifelike Pundits.

Kitty still has her own blog at Kitty Litter.

I'm still blogging over at Brainster's.

2005-06-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

Kerry The Horndog

Probably photoshopped, but hilarious anyway.

Hat Tip: Conservative Grapevine

2005-06-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

Pulling Down the Clock

Okay, fair is fair. I'm not satisfied that everything's been released, and it seems to me that the Globe has an obligation to release the records to the public, but I want to err on the side of fairness to Kerry here despite the name of the blog.

2005-05-15T22:53:00.000-07:00

Kerry Gets New Honor--Or Does He?

At least, the headline says that:

GROHL HONOURS KERRY ON NEW ALBUM

However, when you read the story, the dedication is a little less clear.

FOO FIGHTERS frontman DAVE GROHL has dedicated a handful of tracks on the band's new album IN YOUR HONOUR to his time spent on the US election campaign trail with defeated Democrat JOHN KERRY.

Doesn't that sound like a typical celebrity? "I'd like to dedicate this next song to my efforts to save the rainforest." Read the rest of the article and it's typical of Kerry's many "fans":

He recalls, "I went out and supported John on his campaign trail, only because George W. Bush was using one of our songs at his rallies."

As we remarked many times on this blog, nobody liked John Kerry. The Democrats ran on hatred of President Bush, not on affection for Lurch.

2005-05-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Then Again, He Might Have the Inside Track

According to Alexander Bolton:

Democratic insiders say that Kerry’s unprecedented direct access to so many current and onetime supporters is a huge advantage heading into the next Democratic presidential primary. But his greatest strength, the experience of winning his party’s nomination last year, is also his greatest weakness, as many former supporters became disillusioned by his loss to President Bush and now blame him for losing a race they believe should have been won.

2005-04-29T07:33:00.000-07:00

Kerry Finishes Well Back in Insider Poll

When asked whom they expected to win the nomination of their respective parties in 2008, political insiders picked Kerry as the fifth most likely to win the nod from the Democrats.

Of possible Democratic nominees, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York led the group by a 202-point margin, followed by former US senator John Edwards, Virginia Governor Mark Warner, US Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, Kerry, and five others.

2005-04-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

Kerry Running in '08?

Any hopes that he'd put on weight, grow a beard and start raving like Al Gore seem premature:

When New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton attended the DFL Humphrey Day Dinner in Minneapolis less than two weeks ago, Dayton, D-Minn., told the crowd he hoped he was introducing "the next great president of the United States of America."

Two days later on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Dayton said Kerry approached him "with daggers in his eyes and said, 'What are you doing endorsing my 2008 presidential opponent?'... He was very serious."

2005-04-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

Kerry to Participate in the Boston Marathon?

Yep. Our friend John Ruberry, who was the blogger to break the story that Kerry had falsely claimed to have run the Boston Marathon back around 1980, has the news.

2005-04-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

Le Fraude Getting His News from the Onion?

The Best of the Web pointed this one out yesterday. Kerry, moaning as usual about how he lost due to trickery, had this to say:

"Leaflets are handed out saying Democrats vote on Wednesday, Republicans vote on Tuesday. People are told in telephone calls that if you've ever had a parking ticket, you're not allowed to vote," he said.

Of course, this was a gag that the Onion and Scrappleface both ran with before the election. And anybody stupid enough to fall for it probably shouldn't be voting in the first place.

2005-04-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

New To the Legion

Check out Respected Opinions. Great, thoughtful blog, but a trifle hard to read.

2005-03-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

Nuancy Boy Runs Left to Get Moo-On Crowd

From the LA Times:

In response to a question, Kerry charged that Bush's nomination of Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank would undermine the administration's efforts to rebuild ties with allies frayed by strains over the war in Iraq.

"Here are two people who come to the jobs quite dismissive of the very fundamental purposes and engagements that those entities have been involved in, and it will be felt in the rest of the diplomacy of this administration," Kerry said.

Kerry's tough words were the latest example of his rapid reemergence as a leading critic of Bush after the presidential contest.

He knows he's not going to get the moderate Democrats next time around, so he's trying to attract the idiot crowd.

2005-03-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

Great Interview with John O'Neill

Our hero gives a long and informative interview to The American Enterprise.

TAE: Did the attempts of Kerry's people to stop your message only help publicize it more?

O'NEILL: They helped us tremendously. The threats against the station managers led to extensive publicity, particularly on the "Hannity & Colmes" show and then on other FOX News shows. Then it spread to CNN and to MSNBC. More than 1,400,000 people downloaded that first ad, and it swept through the Internet. It also allowed thousands and thousands of people to start donating money to us at our Web site.

Three weeks after it was put up, half of all the people in the United States had heard about that ad and about us and yet there had never been a story about us on ABC, NBC, or CBS or in the New York Times. At that point, people began laughing, I believe, at the mainline media. It became obvious they were suppressing the story.

The critical factor was that it was the truth. I think anyone of good faith would believe Kerry's post-Vietnam activities were clearly a campaign issue. So once the facts about those came out, the story was almost impossible to suppress. The media was like the dutch boy, keeping its fingers in the dike to stop the story from flowing out. It just got to a point where it got beyond them. There weren't enough fingers.

2005-03-09T13:43:00.000-07:00

Humor from an Old Friend

Those who've been around for awhile may remember the marvelous Kerry Waffles site (gone, but not forgotten). The proprietor, Chris, dedicated countless hours and more than a few dollars to create an amazing multimedia experience. He was so good at it that Kerry's campaign shut him down not once, but twice. The above is a little bit of his newer photoshop activity. Thanks Chris!

2005-03-07T19:20:00.000-07:00

Thank You, Michelle Malkin!

Our buddy John Hawkins (whose blog is at the very top of my blogroll here and at Brainster's for a very good reason) scores an interview with Mrs M. You gotta read it all, but this part had me cheering:

John Hawkins: Has Chris Matthews or anyone from his show ever gotten back to you and apologized for his despicable behavior when you were on his show?

Michelle Malkin: No. If he were a man, he would publicly apologize to John O'Neill, Larry Thurlow, and all the Swift Boat Vets for continuing to malign them without having bothered to read their book.

Oh, that is wonderful! Start with the deliciously snarky "If he were a man...." and then the defense of the Swiftees, who are our #1 heroes. As the guy who spent dozens of hours poring over Unfit for Command, Tour of Duty and the Boston Globe bio of Kerry, I can tell you that the Swiftees discredited John Kerry, not the other way around.

2005-03-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

Italian Journo Hostage Hoax?

My Pet Jawa has the details. Great post, Rusty!

Hat Tip: Reader GD

2005-03-02T14:03:00.000-07:00

John O'Neill Executed a Form 180

Wow, just caught this over at Real Clear Politics:

What you didn't see reported by the "journalists with real names" is that the day after Kerry appeared on Meet the Press and called for "those who have challenged me" to release their records, John O'Neill executed a Form 180 and released it to the media authorizing the "total voluntary release of all records to anyone interested" (click here to enlarge image).

Hat Tip: Jeff Gannon.

2005-03-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

Form 180 Pressure Continues

Thanks to Polipundit for the Form 180 counter shown at the top. RealClearPolitics has more.

2005-03-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

Oddball Photo

Caption this photo over at Brainster's, and just like John Kerry, you could win a major award!

2005-02-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

Lucianne.Com Donation Time!

One of my favorite posts at Kerry Haters during the election season was when I saw that Lucianne.Com, the indispensible political website, had asked its readers not to donate to the upkeep of that site, but to send more money to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. As you doubtlessly know, the Swiftees were in many ways the heroes of the 2004 election, and Lucianne's amazing website undeniably helped lift their boats a little higher.

Well, it's time to donate to Lucianne.Com. Without Lucianne.com Kerry Haters and Brainster's would never have existed. There is no greater blog in the world than Lucianne; it is truly a unique and amazing place.

As always, I pledge to you that I have donated myself when I ask you to donate to somebody else, (as I did with the Swiftees and John Thune last year at KH).

2005-02-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Bloggiversary to Us!

Kerry Haters started out on February 27, 2004. Over 3,500 posts, nearly 300,000 visitors later....

2005-02-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

Kerry Makes a Firm Decision

To not make a decision, that is.

The senator doesn't want to take a public stand that will make him appear weak on renewable energy, suggested Todd Domke, a Republican consultant.

But, Domke added, Kerry is also unwilling to oppose Kennedy, a Capitol Hill institution whose support last year helped resurrect Kerry's flagging presidential campaign.

"In this case, neutrality was politically the only course for him," Domke said. "Besides, this is what he's known for - taking whatever stand is politically expedient."

2005-02-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

That */#!@ Maureen Dowd!

I don't curse much these days, but Maureen Dowd's latest column makes me want to break out the f-bombs.

She notes that USA Next, a group that is lobbying for President Bush's Social Security reform plan, has hired some of the consultants that helped the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the heroes of the 2004 election campaign.

Except of course, that Dowdy Doody doesn't see them that way.

It's hiring some of the same consultants who helped the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who dynamited John Kerry, a war hero, by sliming him as a war criminal.

John Kerry was no hero. Even Douglas Brinkley, who wrote a glowing biography of Kerry's days in Vietnam acknowledges as much:

"Every American now knows that there's something really screwy about George Bush and the National Guard, and they know that John Kerry was not the war hero we thought he was," said Douglas Brinkley, the historian and author of a friendly biography of Mr. Kerry's war years, acknowledging that Mr. Kerry's opponents had succeeded in raising questions about his service.

2005-02-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Moron Those Foreign Leaders Kerry Met

Ipse Dixit notices that Kerry did in fact meet with a foreign leader during the primary season.

2005-02-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

Ten Most Underreported Stories of 2004

According to WND:

4. The validity of the Swiftboat vets' charges against Sen. John Kerry. The more than 250 veterans who challenged the Democratic presidential candidate's version of his war record and subsequent anti-war activities were shut out of the mainstream media until Internet sites such as WorldNetDaily and talk radio made it impossible for them to be ignored.

Then mainstream media repeated the assertion by Kerry supporters that the claims against the senator were debunked, without providing evidence. Those who offered evidence contended the military's records supported Kerry's version of events, without mentioning the swiftboat vets' assertion that it was Kerry himself who wrote the "official record" in many instances, in after-action reports.

The campaign was forced to backtrack on Kerry's long-held assertion that he was in Cambodia illegally on Christmas Eve in 1968. Kerry had claimed his swiftboat was ordered to Cambodia by President Nixon while the president denied to the world that any U.S. military forces were engaged in the country. The event was "seared, seared" into his memory, Kerry said on many occasions, including from the Senate floor. It was an experience that helped him conclude the war was immoral and worthy of protest. But Nixon did not become president until Jan. 20, 1969, and none of Kerry's former crew members, including those who campaigned for him, backed his story.

Yep, that was surely one of the more underreported stories of 2004. The good news is that thanks to Kerry Haters, Crush Kerry, Just One Minute, Captains' Quarters and Beldar, with Hugh Hewitt on the radio, the word did get out.

2005-02-19T22:18:00.000-07:00

One of My Faves

Note the closed eyes and the interlocking grip. John Kerry, man of the people!

2005-02-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

Like Father, Like Daughter?

Actually it sounds like Vanessa Kerry (the younger one who didn't show off her boobs) is serious about running the Boston Marathon, unlike her dad, who just liked to brag that he'd done it.

Our buddy John Ruberry, who broke the story of Kerry's lie about having run the course in the late 1970s has the details.

2005-02-15T21:51:00.000-07:00

Film Flam

That's what the folks who backed George Butler's film of John Kerry are claiming.

The federal lawsuit filed Monday says brothers Marc Abrams and Russell Abrams were misled into thinking that George Butler, a longtime Kerry friend, and the film's producers were trying to make a commercially successful film.

When you look at the relative sales of, say, Tour of Duty, and Unfit for Command, it's not hard to figure out how Butler could have made a profitable film.

Hat Tip: Aaron, our co-blogger here and at Lifelike Pundits

2005-02-14T08:48:00.000-07:00

Et Tu, Teh-RAY-za?

She's gone back to being just Teresa Heinz.

"I just checked, and she no longer uses her [entire] last name; only during the [presidential] campaign did she use Kerry," the council's Tamara Rodriguez Reichberg told Inside the Beltway upon our inquiry.

Hat Tip: Wizbang

2005-02-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

Christmas in Cambodia, Part XXX

Tom Lipscomb, who wrote the article that touched off the VVAW assassination story, does a little hat dance on Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia.

But even assuming there is somewhere a top secret after action report that backs up Kerry and those nasty Swifties are taking advantage of the fact that we can’t see it because it is still classified, Kerry proudly told Russert and the world what his top secret mission was. “We delivered weapons to the Khmer Rouge on the coastline of Cambodia. We went out of Ha Tien, which is right in Vietnam. We went north up into the border. And I have some photographs of that, and that's what we did.”

If that is true, the United States should have shaken up the CIA 35 years earlier. The “Khmer Rouge,” so named derisively by Cambodian leader Prince Sihanouk, were the Cambodian communists who were later to murder millions of their fellow citizens in the “killing fields” in 1974. “Ridiculous,” snorted a former CIA station chief from neighboring Laos, “That is the equivalent of delivering arms to the Viet Cong.” Robert Turner, an expert on North Vietnamese and Vietcong affairs at the embassy in Saigon at the time and now a professor at the University of Virginia says: “Kerry has gone delusional. This is hilarious.” When Kerry was in Vietnam in 1969 the estimate of Khmer Rouge strength was only 2500. They would have been hard to find, much less deliver weapons to, scattered around a country of 10 million almost the size of Oklahoma.

Read it all, especially the part at the end about Form 180.

Hat Tip: Power Line

2005-02-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

Leave It to the Ankle-Biters--Updated!

During the presidential campaign we were often amazed at how well the dynamic duo over at Crush Kerry managed to predict events with astonishing success. Well, they've moved over to Ankle-Biting Pundits and are still beating the pants off the press. Yesterday the Bulldog Pundit predicted that Al Franken would run for the Senate from Minnesota to replace retiring chicken Mark Dayton. Today, a local TV station has the news.

Just one day after U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton decided not to run for a second term, comedian Al Franken may be throwing his hat into the ring.

Tomorrow's news today: that's what you get when you read Ankle-Biting Pundits!

Update: Looks like Franken's staying put at Dead Air America.

"I believe in honoring my commitments," Franken said Thursday. "I agreed to do two more years on Air America radio."

Afterwards, though, Franken admitted the truth to his mirror: "I'm not good enough, not smart enough, and doggone it, people don't like me!"

2005-02-09T16:38:00.000-07:00

Kerry Still Delusional

He gave a long interview to the Boston Globe.

'Let's get the record absolutely straight," Kerry said. ''[The veterans' group] first surfaced in the spring and we did have a press conference on the same day and they were gone. And then they came back and there was another press conference and another dealing with them and they were gone, folks. Then the Republicans got involved with them . . . and they came back in August, right around convention time, and they came back with TV."

Kerry explained: ''I don't remember seeing the first ad; I think I read it rather than saw it. Several friends of mine saw it immediately. My reaction the minute that I heard what they had said [was that] I was outraged and I said this has to be responded to. Within a few days, I gave a speech to the firefighters and I responded to it."

But the first ad appeared Aug. 5. Kerry did not make his speech to the firefighters until Aug. 19. The two-week delay between the charges and the rebuttal allowed the allegations that Kerry had exaggerated his military record to take root, according to some Democratic organizers.

Let's get the record absolutely straight; Kerry couldn't respond to the Swiftees because he'd exaggerated his military record. The Globe does nail him down on the Form 180 issue:

Kerry later confirmed that his decision to sign the form is not conditional on any others signing, but he expressed lingering bitterness over double standards on military service.

Of course, the Globe did NOT ask Kerry to go ahead and sign the form; that would be unsporting. And this is just plain silly:

Asked what hurt him the most during the campaign, Kerry mused about how ''all of us are flawed as human beings" and ''I think I have a strong record" before raising his voice and declaring: ''One thing I know is that I didn't flip-flop on anything."

Hat Tip: Beldar. Good to see him blogging again!

2005-02-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

What Dean Means

Ankle-Biting Pundits lays out the future of the Democratic Party:

2. A disastrous strategy to "campaign in all 50 states" In a speech to the DNC Dean pledged to "campaign in all 50 states". Now while some of that may have been pandering to the lone liberal DNC member in Idaho, many Democrats actually think they need to get out their message to all 50 states to regain power. That sounds great in theory, but then that damn reality smacks you square in the face. That being the fact that not all 50 states will respond to the message. Just as it would be foolish for a national Republican to waste time and money in New York or Vermont, one has to wonder about the sanity of the Democrats thinking they can have a winning message in Alabama or Texas.

Yep. I do think it's a pro forma pledge; as we covered a long time ago, Kerry pledged to campaign in Texas, but never did. Great article by H-Bomb.

2005-02-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

He Would Have Been Kerry's Secretary of State

Mano-a-mano Joe suddenly gets sensitive:

Senator Joseph Biden said that even if Iran was a full democracy like India, it would want nuclear capability, like India. What the world needed to address was Iran's emotional needs, he said, with a nonaggression pact.

Hat Tip: Polipundit

2005-02-04T17:11:00.000-07:00

Take Our Foreign Policy Poll!

Check out this post and comment on your choice.

2005-02-04T11:08:00.000-07:00

Great Column on Blogs and Political Campaigns

Patrick Hynes of the Ankle-Biting Pundits has an absolutely brilliant column over at the Am Spec on how blogs will affect future campaigns. We're big fans of Patrick's but this article far exceeded even my lofty expectations.

2005-02-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

Over At Brainster's

I have tons of coverage of the Eason Jordan affair, the Ward Churchill fiasco, and a Super Bowl XL preview.

2005-02-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

Pat Hynes Getting Results On Social Security Already?

The Washington Post published a misleading account of President Bush's plan to save Social Security. A "Social Security strategist type" wrote over to K-Lo at the Corner:

The Old Media has given us an uncritical regurgitation of the anti-reform crowd’s argument that needs to be debunked. Jonathan Weisman’s article on the Post is dead wrong. There is no “clawback” in the Social Security proposal the President outlined last night. The stuff about account balances and the amounts taken out is completely made up. People would own the entirety of their accts -- opponents are seizing on the fact that people would give up bennies up front to get the acct to sow deliberate confusion about a clawback -- which there is not. I don’t know if this is an example of a journalist being hoodwinked by the opposition, or a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts, but the truth is this is a basic actuarially fair offset. An offset is based on how much you put into your account, while a clawback is based on your account's end balance. With the second, all the risk and reward lie with the govt, which undermines the ownership element.

This afternoon, the Post recants.

Correction to This Article
An earlier version of this article incorrectly described how new private accounts would work under President Bushs Social Security plan. This article has been corrected.

But wait, as Ron Popeil says, there's more, or should I saw Moore. The fat tub of goo waddles in with a post on Social Security this afternoon, which is taken from the original, uncorrected WaPo account (and posted after the correction), and gets mauled by the Ankle-Biters.

Great job, guys!

2005-02-03T01:47:00.000-07:00

The Thrill of Victory

2005-02-03T01:45:00.000-07:00

And the Agony of Defeat

2005-02-03T01:23:00.000-07:00

Say Goodbye to the Photostrip Up Top!

Fortunately, Nuancy Boy doesn't find himself in the news media's cameras as often, so it's hard to find enough photos to keep it filled. And when one of them goes it's a pain in the neck figuring which one. Sad to see it go, though, it was one of the few things I did to make the site look a little more distinctive.

2005-02-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

Eason Jordan

Captain Ed owns the story. He came up with this:

"Actions speak louder than words. The reality is that at least 10 journalists have been killed by the US military, and according to reports I believe to be true journalists have been arrested and tortured by US forces," Mr Jordan told an audience of news executives at the News Xchange conference in Portugal.

Where's the next place the story is going? How about a list of all journalists killed in Iraq? Coming at Brainsters.

2005-02-02T11:59:00.000-07:00

Moron the Khmer Rouge Connection

I put up a fairly long post over at Brainster's on Kerry's problems with Christmas in Cambodia, along with a brief comment on Kerry's supposed gun-running to the Khmer Rouge.

Prestopundit points out that last year Kerry claimed to have been shot at by the Khmer Rouge on Christmas Eve 1968, and wonders "Perhaps John Kerry was shot at by the guns he'd delivered earlier in the day to the Khmer Rouge...."

Our friend Margaret points to Jim Geraghty's ruminations on the subject, via Hugh Hewitt.

2005-02-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

This Might Have Helped Kerry During the Campaign

Gloria Feldt, outgoing head of Planned Parenthood, slams Nuancy Boy:

"I have great respect for John Kerry, but there's no question he did not articulate these [abortion] issues well," Feldt said in an interview. "He seemed equivocal. He ceded the moral high ground to the other side."

It appears that even Gloria recognizes that Kerry was lying when he said he thought abortion was wrong.

2005-02-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Patrick Hynes: Moving Up!

Our buddy Patrick Hynes, half of the writing team for the amazing Crush Kerry website (now rechristened Ankle-Biting Pundits in the wake of Kerry's flattening) is moving on up in the world. He's been tapped by the Cato Institute to spearhead their push for Social Security reform. This is a prestigious honor, and I can't think of a man more likely to get the job done. Congratulations, Patrick!

2005-01-31T13:22:00.000-07:00

This Is Another Fine Mess You've Gotten Us Into

Hat Tip: Longtime KH reader Margaret.

2005-01-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

New Blog, Old Friend

Our buddy Grant from Australia has finally joined the ranks of the living dead (aka bloggers), with his new blog, The Radical Conservative. Those who read Kerry Haters regularly during the election season remember Grant as a great source of news articles and I think we even posted one of his superb emails verbatim on the blog. Grant's writing has a little bite to it, as this example shows:

Well here they go again. The sycophantic hacks on the left who call themselves journalists lining up to back their next great white hope - The Bomber. I'll continue to add to this list as time goes on in what I suspect is an action motivated not through genuine support for the leader but just simply an outward loathing and hostility for the incumbent.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Grant!

2005-01-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

Great Day for the Iraqis, Bad Day for Le Fraude

Iraq the Model:

I couldn't think of a scene more beautiful than that. From the early hours of the morning, People filled the street to the voting center in my neighborhood; youths, elders, women and men. Women's turn out was higher by the way. And by 11 am the boxes where I live were almost full! Anyone watching that scene cannot but have tears of happiness, hope, pride and triumph.

The Mesopotamian:

I bow in respect and awe to the men and women of our people who, armed only with faith and hope are going to the polls under the very real threats of being blown to pieces. These are the real braves; not the miserable creatures of hate who are attacking one of the noblest things that has ever happened to us. Have you ever seen anything like this? Iraq will be O.K. with so many brave people, it will certainly O.K.; I can say no more just now; I am just filled with pride and moved beyond words.

Healing Iraq:

The turnout in Iraq was really like nothing that I had expected. I was glued in front of tv for most of the day. My mother was in tears watching the scenes from all over the country. Iraqis had voted for peace and for a better future, despite the surrounding madness. I sincerely hope this small step would be the start of much bolder ones, and that the minority which insists on enslaving the majority of Iraqis would soon realise that all that they have accomplished till now is in vain.

Diary from Baghdad:

(Holds up the V sign with the purple index finger).

John Kerry:

"It is significant that there is a vote in Iraq," Kerry said in an interview with NBC television's Meet the Press. "But ... no one in the United States should try to overhype this election.

2005-01-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

Signs of Liberty

The purple finger revolution is spotted at Brainster's.

2005-01-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

Just Being Nominated is an Honor

But of course, winning is a greater honor still. So go over and vote for Kerry Haters at the Smoke Signals Forum as the blog that "did the best job (overall) in 2004". Registration required to vote, but it's a painless process. While you're at it, check out the Smoke Signals blog.

2005-01-30T07:42:00.000-07:00

Abortion Should Be the Rarest Thing In the World?

He's just trying to square the circle.

2005-01-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

Russert Doing a Solid Job, Fails to Go for KO

Nails Kerry down fairly well on the Christmas in Cambodia story. Kerry commits to being five miles over the border. Unfortunately, he doesn't hit Kerry with the tough follow-up.

Example: He had the form 180, why not ask Nuancy Boy to sign right there and now? Kerry sucks up to Dean and the Deaniacs. Lots of folks going after those votes: Gore, Kerry, even Evan Bayh.

2005-01-30T07:28:00.000-07:00

Would You Sign Form 180?

"Yes, I would." Arrgghhhh!

2005-01-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

Painless, "I Take Responsibility for Mistakes"

Note the lack of specificity on mistakes, the very specific things his campaign did right? Says he was rising in the polls prior to the Osama tape, then flatlined and started declining.

Good point on beating the spreadsheet models. But the stupid comment about if half the people at an Ohio State football game had changed their minds is ridiculous.

Russert tags him on the Rice vote.

Continues to insist "Unfit for Command" was full of lies and smears. Christmas in Cambodia! Waaaaahoooooo!

2005-01-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

Back on the Foreign Leaders Schtick

Foreign leaders telling him a lot of things. Called for Rumsfeld's resignation. 800,000 of his supporters signed a petition.

Russert confronts Kerry with Teddy the drunk's ravings on immediate timetable.

Doesn't agree with Kennedy on removing 12,000 troops immediately. Says we shouldn't have a specific timetable. Good for him. Of course, if we'd listened to Kerry in the fall, we'd be able to have a timetable. Arrggghhhh! So glad we won't be listening to this twit for the next four years.

2005-01-30T07:06:00.000-07:00

Live-Blogging Kerry on Meet the Press

But monkey start. Reports are encouraging, but...

Brings back the Apology tour. Waaaaahhhh!

Oh heck, this is going to suck.

2005-01-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

Nuancy Boy on Meet the Cuomo Aide

Coming up in a few minutes. Although speculation is that Russert will go easy on Kerry, my guess is that Kerry gets some tough grilling.

2005-01-28T17:52:00.000-07:00

This Post Cracked Me Up

Molten Thought has a post on innocents in Cuba that should provide amusement. Be sure to check out the rest of this smart, new blog. Wordgirl and Teflon find interesting topics and comment on them with wit and intelligence.

2005-01-28T16:59:00.000-07:00

The New McGovern

Despite the fawning tone of this article, that's Kerry's fate:

But Sen. John Kerry, after brooding about his loss for a few months, seems determined to be different, and he has a platform to do so. The Massachusetts Democrat is the first sitting senator in 32 years - the last was George McGovern - to return to the Senate after losing a presidential election.

Kerry is carving out a role for himself as the Bush administration's critic-in-chief on Capitol Hill. He is one of 13 senators - one of only two on the Foreign Relations Committee - to vote against Condoleezza Rice's nomination as secretary of state.

2005-01-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

Who'll Stop McCain?

Pat Hynes asks the question.

I've been saying for years that if Dick Cheney ran on the ticket in 2004, it was a dead giveaway that Jeb is running in 2008.

2005-01-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

Kerry'$ Money Pit

Looks like the gigalo and silky pony owe us some money! I am talking hundreds of thousands of dollars...find out why here.

2005-01-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

KERRY TO APPEAR ON MEET THE PRESS

How hard do you think Russert will press on election subjects that Russert couldn't ask him since his last interview in April 2004 (i.e. our heros: the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth)?

Let me know here.

2005-01-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

Old Friend, New Website

Our buddy John Ruberry, who scooped the world on the story of Kerry's Boston Marathon lie on his old blog, Blue States for Bush, is now blogging as the Marathon Pundit. Although I am sure that he will be mentioning his running at times, most of the posts up there now are about Midwest politics, including the Wisconsin ballot fraud issues and the State of Illinois' fiscal woes.

2005-01-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

KERRY IN ’08?

2005-01-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

Kerry Hater to Run for Kerry's Seat?

Jerome Corsi, the less-famous of the two authors of Unfit for Command (John O'Neill was the other; we'll assume that Corsi did most of the writing) plans to move to Massachusetts and run against Kerry for his Senate seat.

I might be in favor of his candidacy, but this part concerns me:

He told the Herald his "strong first choice" is to run as a Republican, but he would run as an independent if the party does not back him.

Of course, as an independent he would be hindering the cause of defeating Nuancy Boy. We'll see how this one plays out; Kerry's seat is not up until 2008.

2005-01-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

HALF THE MAN?

Does Mutha Teraaaaaaaza call him “A jewel”?
Will John Kerry run again? The ball is in Teresa's hands
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry may want to consider running for president again in 2008. But his wife, local ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry of Fox Chapel, has made it clear she won't sit still for another campaign.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," an unidentified Heinz Kerry friend told the Boston Herald. "Teresa will never do it again."
Not necessarily, said Jeff Lewis, a Heinz Kerry spokesman.
"Teresa Heinz is too smart to say that," he said. "She campaigned her heart out, as did her husband ... it was hard work and a great experience and we'll just go from there."
According to the Herald, sources say Heinz Kerry went into a deep funk after President George Bush was re-elected -- especially because her husband came so close to victory.
"She was angry and hugely disappointed and (ticked) off," the Heinz Kerry friend told the Herald. "She wanted to win so badly."

2005-01-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

The Kerry Un-Augural

The Swiftees held a little party the other day to celebrate the defeat of John Kerry.

"These men literally changed history, because I believe that without Vietnam Veterans across the country taking a stand for the truth, this election would have gone otherwise, there is no doubt in my mind," said Carlton Sherwood, producer of the documentary "Stolen Honor," which details Kerry's "betrayal" of U.S. servicemen fighting in Vietnam.

The MVPs of the Stop Kerry effort, as I put it the day after the election.

Burkett noted that much of the media still does not give the Vietnam Veterans who opposed Kerry the respect he believes they deserve.

"The mainstream media is still saying the Swift Boat Veterans were completely discredited. Nobody has ever discredited anything the Swift Boat Veterans presented. You will see that type of phrase in column after column and articled after article and it's just totally bunk," Burkett said.

Amen!

2005-01-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

Say It Ain't So!

Hat Tip: Kitty

2005-01-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

Ankle-Biting Pundits Launches

Our buddies Patrick Hynes and the Writing Partner (now known as the Bulldog Pundit) are noshing on liberal ankles at their new home, after having successfully Crushed Kerry.

2005-01-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

Kerry In the Limelight

NY Times soft-focus:

He had a prominent seat - front but not quite center - at Thursday's inaugural ceremony, where he gamely smiled when the Republican crowd on the National Mall booed his image on the giant television screen. Earlier in the week, he made headlines with his aggressive questioning of Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's nominee for secretary of state, and his announcement that he would vote against her.

Ah, yes, the wonderful moment where Kerry tied Barbara Boxer for the nuttiest senator on the Foreign Relations Committee. But, just to remind us:

The last losing presidential contender to return to a prominent job in Washington was George McGovern, the Democratic senator who lost to Richard Nixon in 1972. Defeated presidents and vice presidents - Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and Al Gore among them - quietly retreated to private life. Bob Dole, the Republican former senator who lost to President Clinton in 1996, became a pitchman for Viagra and Pepsi. Michael Dukakis, who lost to the first George Bush in 1988, went back to being governor of Massachusetts and wound up a pariah in his own party.

That is a fate Mr. Kerry wants to avoid. So he is reintroducing himself to Americans in a way calculated to keep his political fortunes alive.

Look, John, this is pretty simple. It's not the Super Bowl, where folks get a crack at it every year. Ben Roethlisberger will get another chance. John Kerry will not.

2005-01-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

An Intelligent Liberal

This is one of the more thoughtful pieces I've read from a Democrat since the election. I agreed wholeheartedly with this part:

[C]alling attention to Bush as a youthful ne’er-do-well, whether it is his lack of military service, his frat-boy wealth, or his alcoholism, actually strengthens the coherence and authenticity of the story that Bush tells of his own life, and deepens his appeal for many Americans. It makes his evangelism vastly more powerful than Jimmy Carter’s, for example: Bush can self-present as a sinner who was redeemed, whereas Carter could only present as someone for whom evangelical religion was his cultural habitus. As Morris notes, Bush’s narrative of redemption covers all the sins that his critics might try to attribute to him and makes powerful use of them.

Not sure I go along with this:

I’ve been thinking a lot about Errol Morris’ op-ed piece in the NewYork Times. In it, he attributes Kerry’s loss in November to his inability to communicate his own life story as a convincing, authentic, and complete narrative. In particular, argues Morris, Kerry’s near-total silence about his opposition to the Vietnam War, his failure to claim that as a life-defining and shining moment of conscience and courage, was his downfall.

The key word there is "authentic". I don't know if Kerry would have done better emphasizing his opposition to the Vietnam War; I suspect that he pretty much got universal support from the folks who still count their opposition to the war as a badge of honor. But I certainly agree that Kerry's attempt to square the circle by presenting himself as a war hero while refusing to recant any of his statements against the war (and especially against his fellow soldiers) made his story inauthentic and incomplete.

The Morris piece referred to is here. It's pretty much the same--well written and intelligently argued, but with the same fatal flaw; that it believes if Kerry had just embraced his antiwar past he would have gotten more votes. I doubt that very much. However, I agree that Kerry's defeat was in large part due to his lack of honesty about his real positions.

2005-01-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

Evan Coyne Maloney, Documented

Here's a profile of the wonderful young conservative filmmaker.

Best bit:

It's an interview tactic he used effectively on a Bucknell professor, Geoffrey Schneider, the faculty member who spoke about his students' unconscious racism.

In an interview with the Sun, Mr. Schneider said he was "basically manipulated into appearing" in Mr. Maloney's film. "I was told originally I was going to be interviewed for a film about professors' academic freedom and attempts to censor professors," he said.

Mr. Schneider, a specialist in what is called institutionalist economics, said the film was edited in a "ridiculous" way that made it seem as though Bucknell students learn only about Marx and feminist political economy. "I also teach Austrian economics," he remarked, saying he was sympathetic to all the ideas taught in the economics courses.

2005-01-21T01:28:00.000-07:00

Look Who Pops Up In College Courses!

From The Keele Guide to Elections and Electoral Systems in the United States published by Keele University (UK), under 2004 Elections:

Weblogs

* Blogging of the President 2004
* Norwegianity - anti-Republican gay-friendly commentary
* Blog for Victory - voter registration
* Blog Reports from the Field: Wisconsin
* Campaign Journal
* Cinemocracy
* Conservative Web Log
* The Daily Kos
* Electablog
* Justice Through Music
* Kerryhaters
* Mystery Pollster
* Use of Blogs in the 2004 Presidential Campaign - Johns Hopkins 2003
* Ohio Countdown 2004 blog
* Sensible Election
* Andrew Sullivan
* TalkingPointsMemo
* US Campaign Blogs 2004
* Watchblog
* Wonkette

Not too shabby, eh? Keele University immediately becomes the official favorite UK university of KH!

2005-01-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

A Review of Kerry Haters from the Left

Just found this one:

Going even a bit further is the crushkerry.com site that has a top-of-the-page picture of John Kerry being compacted by the title of the web site. A recent crushkerry.com article opens with this: "crushkerry.com is honored to have guest P** C***** from the fine blog KerryHaters explain why he hates the ever-so-hatable Senator John Kerry." Uh, just how many hates is that?

The KerryHaters blog has a special section titled "Legion of Kerry Haters" and an ad for The Digital Brownshirt Alliance. Hopefully this poorly chosen moniker is a spoof. Why would anyone, unless they are completely consumed by malevolence, actively align themselves with the stormtroopers who protected Hitler's rallies and wrecked polling places, stole ballot boxes and attacked opposing politicians and voters?

Just for the record, Kerry Haters does not actively align itself with the stormtroopers yadda yadda yadda. Digital Brownshirts is indeed a spoof and refers to a disgusting quote by Al Gore, when he said that conservative bloggers were "digital brownshirts". Well, we are certainly the kind of right wing bloggers that Gore was slandering by comparison to the Nazis. And by the way, the picture of the Digital Brownshirt Alliance (which is down right now, Kitty) is not an advertisement at all.

2005-01-20T17:42:00.000-07:00

Around the Horn

Over at Brainster's I have some photos that illustrate the lie that liberals support the troops and that they're not anti-American, just anti-Bush. Veterans, check your blood pressure before clicking!

Kitty Litter takes us on a trip down memory lane with der Schlickmeister and has some coverage of an exceptional man.

Lifelike Pundits points out that the Iraqis want to vote and shows a protester's sign that certainly left me scratching my head.

Wild Bill is back at Passionate America after a month and a half hiatus.

Our longtime friend Joel Gaines says that the Tiniest No Pundit Intended is due any moment and has some coverage of events unfolding in Russia.

2005-01-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

Kerry Financial Monkey Business

Alan over at the Command Post wants to know why Kerry took money that was donated to the overly-optimistically named "Kerry-Edwards Victory 2004" and used it to set up the "Friends of John Kerry".

Now you know that I can't resist the obvious jab here--"Friends of John Kerry"? That must be a very small group indeed!

Indeed:

I also see that no individuals have given to date, so at least according to the FEC, Friends of John Kerry is funded, so far, by that single $25 K from Mr. Hinojosa.

This is a solid little piece of investigative journalism, an example of citizen bloggers poking around and putting two and two together. Great work, Alan!

2005-01-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF?

Kerry is an arrogant POS. You'd think after being caught in the most humiliating lies about his "military career" that he'd try to fade from the public spotlight, at least for a while. But, being the elitist that he is, Kerry is once again recycling his tawdry history of lying. In an excellent read in TAS entitled ,Kerry’s Logan Act, Pat Hynes points out that Kerry very likely again violated the Logan Act:
Bear in mind this was not an official trip to Europe and the Middle East. Kerry was not visiting as a representative of the United States Government. He was in no way commissioned by the executive branch to negotiate alliances with foreign countries. So what was he doing there? In an e-mail to 3 million political supporters in which he also calls for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Kerry said, "After several months consumed by the campaign trail, I wanted to make contact with our soldiers on the ground there."In short, his trip was, essentially, a very public vacation. One in which Kerry seems to have run afoul of the Logan Act...

So, to refresh everyone's memory, I'm re-printing our original post which debunked Kerry's Excellent Cambodia Tour.

THOSE CAREFREE DAYS OF PROTESTS

VietnamVeteransAgainstJohnKerry.com

I don’t know if Pat has posted these two pieces before, but even if he has, they’re worth repeating. The first article is in its entirety; the second is not, but that one is loaded with John-John’s record of accomplishments. When he speaks these days about those nebulous foreign leaders who’ll gladly support him as president, you might consider his previous contacts in worldly affairs.

Vietnam Vet Kerry Told Senate He Saw Military Action in Cambodia
By J. Michael Waller
Did decorated Vietnam War veteran John F. Kerry see military action in Cambodia? He says nothing about it on the campaign trail, but he stated it as fact on the floor of the U.S. Senate on March 27, 1986. In that speech, Kerry accused President Ronald Reagan of leading the United States into another Vietnam in Central America, accusing the administration of Nixon-like duplicity and saying that he should recognize it because of his Vietnam experience.

Kerry told his colleagues he was on Navy duty in Cambodia at a time when President Richard M. Nixon lied to the public and said that there were no U.S. forces in that country. He even took enemy fire. In his words, "I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared - seared - in me."

L Larsen noted in a comment he posted that Nixon was elected in '68 but not in office until he was inaugurated in '69. L Larsen was kind when he referred to L'Fraude's BS as a "faux pas."

Kerry's Disloyal Nicaraguan Journey
In his first major foreign-policy action as a U.S. senator nearly 20 years ago, John Kerry accused the United States of "funding terrorism." Fresh from a trip to the Far East, Kerry made his sensational allegation in Washington before flying to Nicaragua, then in the grip of a Marxist-Leninist junta, to coauthor a propagandistic peace proposal designed to disarm the U.S.-backed forces fighting to oust the Soviet-backed Sandinista regime.

2005-01-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

Byron York: Kerry's Running Again

That's the message he gets from this email:

In an e-mail addressed to supporters nationwide, Kerry asks that his campaign workers and volunteers reunite in a drive to force President Bush to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "I believe that together, the three million of us who worked together on the campaign can help the troops," Kerry writes. "We not only have a right to speak out against failed Bush policies: we have a duty to defend this country from a President who refuses to recognize the total inadequacy of his own Defense Secretary. That's how democracy works."

Looks like this site will be sticking around for awhile.

2005-01-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Class & Ass

2005-01-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

Pat Hynes Debates Kos on the Radio

Listen to the Kerry Crusher steamroll the loony liberal blogger today at 2:30 Eastern time.

2005-01-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

Kerry Has a Dream--Updated!

It's that somehow there was some skullduggery going on in Ohio.

``Voting machines were distributed in uneven ways. In Democratic districts, it took people four, five, eleven hours to vote, while Republicans (went) through in 10 minutes - same voting machines, same process, our America,'' he said.

Gee, John, did it ever occur to you that Democratic districts are usually run by Democrats? That if there was a problem with the way voting machines were "distributed" it may be an artifact of the incompetence of Democrats at the local level? Remember, the poor woman who designed the butterfly ballot in Palm Beach was a Democrat, too.

Captain Ed thinks there's something rotten in the state of Wisconsin.

Update: An emailer was kind enough to point me to this article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

But a Plain Dealer analysis shows that, in Cuyahoga County at least, the elections board distributed machines equally to city and suburban polling locations.

The long lines at some locations appear to be more the result of timing, new voters and overwhelmed poll workers, not necessarily a shortage of machines.

Before the Nov. 2 election, the elections board allotted each Cleveland precinct one machine for every 117 registered voters within its boundaries - the same ratio of machines that suburban precincts received.

In other words, the more registered voters a particular precinct had, the more machines it received, regardless of where that precinct was.

And in the end, the busiest precincts - when measured by the number of ballots cast per machine - were actually in the suburbs, not Cleveland, according to a Plain Dealer analysis of records from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

2005-01-17T16:00:00.000-07:00

Those Ignorant Red State Voters--Updated!

I actually enjoyed David von Drehle's long article on his trip through Red State America. You can tell he's trying his darnedest not to look down his nose at the people he encounters, trying to be non-judgmental. But catch this bit:

She was too polite to say, in so many words, that she felt John Kerry was a man of bad morals. Instead, she put it this way: "When Kerry said he was for abortion and one-sex marriages, I just couldn't see our country being led by someone like that."

Later, I double-checked what Kerry had said on those subjects. During his campaign, he opposed same-sex marriage and said that abortion was a private matter. But Joyce Smith heard it the way she heard it, and voted the way she voted.

Look, this is one of the signal problems that Democrats have, something that I have commented about on more than one occasion. They don't say what they really believe, but their actions speak louder than words. What is John Kerry saying when he says that abortion is a private matter? Essentially that he's in favor of it. As for gay marriage, Kerry's either lying, or completely out of touch with his own party. So essentially, the woman being quoted was dead on about Kerry's real position on those two issues, even though von Drehle wants you to believe the opposite.

One of the other folks quoted gets it:

He also said: "Don't get me wrong. I don't think George Bush is the greatest guy in the world. Both of them scared the hell out of me. But at least Bush tells you what he thinks."

Update: Tim Graham points out that Kerry regularly gets perfect marks from the leading gay rights organizations and abortion rights lobbies based on his voting record.

2005-01-17T15:41:00.000-07:00

Shameful plea for clicks (PLEEEEEASE!)

I am trying to get blogads on my site and I also applied to lifeblog for CPAC next month.

Let's be democrats for once: click early and click often to LifeLike Pundits.

2005-01-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

Billionare Speaks about Dr. King's Dream.

John Kerry does it again. Read here.

2005-01-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

LifeLike Pundits

Dont forget to check out our other site here.

2005-01-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

IMPORTANT MESSAGE

Pat Hynes, at PassionForFairness, says that Today is the day!
Your Oscar ballots are due at 5 PM PST. Once in, your ballots will be tallied and the nominees for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and all the rest will be kept closely guarded until January 25th.

So, if you haven’t already, PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION
Thank you.

2005-01-14T17:44:00.000-07:00

I'm Not a Lawyer, But I Play One on the Blogs--Updated

From a reader on the Corner at NRO:

Beyond that, that Hynes article treads perilously close to libel. He lists a few examples of crazy Kos quotes and wonders if Kos wrote them on the Dean payroll. But that Fallujah quote is from April, and the "Kerry's team should be shot" quote is from last month. This isn't just after the Kos-Dean agreement expired - it's after Dean pulled out of the prez race!

That may be true as far as it goes, but of course, you cannot libel somebody by asking questions. You can only do it by making allegations. Here's what Patrick Hynes wrote:

A whole new round of unanswered questions ought to anchor Dean's ascent to the DNC Chairmanship now. Questions like: Was Dean paying him when Kos wrote this little cutie in early April about contract workers who were murdered in Fallujah:

That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries [sic]. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

How about when Kos said John Kerry and his campaign team "should be lined up and shot"? Does Dean endorse Kos's use of the phrase "racists thugs" to describe his rivals in the blogosphere? Does Dean support Kos's conspiracy theory that the "neocons" have a secret plan to prolong the terror war by strengthening al Qaeda....

And of course, the question arises as to who would sue Hynes for libel. Obviously not Kos, because he really did write the statements in question. Dean? Hey, he was the one who chose to associate himself with Kos (even if, as it appears likely, Kos wrote those statements after the end of his consulting arrangement with Dean). And I am sure that given some time, Patrick could locate some even worse quotes from during the Dean consulting assignment.

Personally I don't think the Kos/Dean relationship is all that big a deal. (Update: At least not from the blog side. It may be a bigger deal from the political side, as Patrick argued). Apparently it was disclosed, which was my problem with the Lauck/Thune arrangement. But Kos deserves a little slamming anyway for implying that all conservative bloggers are getting paid (I'm certainly not) and for implying a financial interest to Hynes in keeping New Hampshire's first in the nation primary.

2005-01-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

Kind of a Drag

That's what Kerry was to the Democrats.

U.S. Senator John Kerry's presidential candidacy was a ``drag'' on other Democrats and probably cost his party statewide victories in Alaska, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Dakota, a report on voter turnout said.

The report released today by the nonpartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate said exit polls showed more Democrats defected from their party than did Republicans. Kerry ``lacked clarity'' on issues and failed to present a vision for the future, the report said.

``He was a terrible candidate,'' said Curtis Gans, director of the committee. ``He was emotionless and passionless and humorless. He was mostly stiff and boring.''

We never noticed!

2005-01-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

Caption It Yourselves!--Updated!

Update: Barbara Bassfire has a very humorous look at one of the other Kerry/Chirac photoes.

Update II: Ten very funny captions. My favorite:

"You know, it just wouldn't be Paris if I weren't holding back-door meetings with America's sworn enemies."

2005-01-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

Dem's 2008 Field Looking Crowded

According to this, Al Gore's thinking about a run in 2008. Hillary, Kerry, Gore, Silky Pony, and perhaps Doctor Dean? Now, that would be a battle royal!

Hat Tip: Crush Kerry

2005-01-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

Dean's Other Blogger--Updated!

A lot of focus on Daily Kos in this story (probably because he's an insufferable jerk), but what about the second blog? Called MyDD, it's run by Jerome Armstrong, who appears, from a brief reading to be somewhat more sufferable than Zuniga (Correction: Kos' last name is Moulitsas, apparently Zuniga is a middle name). However, he also appears to be quite a bad writer, as these snippets from his post on BloggerGate reveal:

Zephyr Teachout went public in her anonymous (she signed onto it later when outed) blogging that made the Wall St. Journal with the accusation that Howard Dean's Presidential campaign conspired to buy the the airtime by Markos and I, of Daily Kos of MyDD.

What Zephyr just did was hand a return (unfactual though it is) to the Republican bloggers that are moving up against Democratic activists gaining traction against Armstrong Williams being a shill for the Republicans with taxpayer dollars.

Note, this is not some minor blog; this is one of the largest Democrat-oriented blogs with over a million hits in October and November.

Update: Patrick Hynes has some thoughts about the Daily Kos. Could Dean's association with this slimebucket cost him a shot at the DNC?

2005-01-13T16:55:00.000-07:00

FLYOVER COUNTRY FIGHTS BACK!

Pat Hynes ( Crush(ed)Kerry and AnkleBitingPundits) launched his latest blog, PassionForFairness, just to make certain that Mel Gibson’s blockbuster film would not be snubbed by the Oscars. Pat must be very pleased and optimistic these days.
Don’t look now, but The Passion of The Christ may be muddling through all those snubs and peaking in this Oscar race at just the right time!

'THE PASSION' UNLEASHED
Thousands petition Academy for Gibson film
Urge Oscars organization not to ignore popular movie about Christ

Sign the petition!

2005-01-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

IS THIS 1984?

Do you shop online? Then you had better read SMOKING OUT YOUR PRIVACY.

2005-01-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

Swiftees to Fade Away

That's the message at the end of this little tribute to John O'Neill and the men who sank John Kerry's candidacy.

Toward the end of the dinner, we asked Mr. O’Neill whether he has thought of converting his fame from the Swiftboats into a career in politics, perhaps running for the Senate from Texas. It turns out he has been all his life a champion debater. But he made it clear, as he had done earlier during the dinner, that he and his comrades in the Swiftboat Veterans were in it not for the politics but for the honor of their fellow veterans of Vietnam and that what they were going to do now was what they had been doing before they were interrupted — to go home, back to the families and jobs to which they’d been devoting themselves since the war.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold; John O'Neill's plate was in the freezer for 33 years. Congratulations to him and the rest of the Swift Boat Vets on a job well done!

2005-01-12T16:16:00.000-07:00

Dems in Reform the Nominating Process Mode: Train Wreck Ahead!

Crush Kerry pointed us to this posting on the Daily Kos, probably the most popular liberal Democrat blog. Kos takes on some of the arguments for retaining Iowa and New Hampshire at the front of the line in the nominating process. Kos makes some reasonably good points and some fatheaded ones that Patrick Hynes demolishes, but the fact is that his focus on Iowa and New Hampshire is misguided.

Let's start with some definitions. What is the goal of the presidential nomination process? Kos, being a liberal, not surprisingly has a squishy goal in mind:

And how fair was it? Not fair to the 48 other states which had no say in the matter.

Fairness is Kos' objective. Well, if that's the goal of the nominating process, then clearly Iowa and New Hampshire should not be first in the nation every four years. Perhaps we could draw state names out of a hat and have them vote in that order?

Now, a more rational person might think that the actual goal of a nominating process is to nominate the best candidate who can actually win. And if that is your goal, then the primary system that has evolved (especially on the Democrats' side) is the problem, not the presence of Iowa and New Hampshire at the front of the line. Indeed, one can trace the Democrats' frustration in the presidential elections back to 1968. That year, the anti-war candidates, McCarthy & Bobby Kennedy, had won most of the primaries, and yet Humphrey still got the nomination. Stung by that loss, the anti-war clique "reformed" the process to make it more responsive to the will of the Democratic party's primary voters. The result? The Democrats have lost six of the last nine presidential elections. An additional "reform" was instituted around 1984, when "winner take all" was scrapped in favor of proportional representation. This effort at fairness rewards fringe candidates for staying in the race and makes winning a state less important than finishing well. Of course, there are no rewards for finishing well in the general election; winning is the only thing.

Look, this is pretty simple. The Democrats need to get away from their concern for "fairness" in their nominating process and get back to their concern for winning. That means de-emphasizing the primaries and going back to the days of smoke-filled rooms and party bosses calling the shots. Putting a state or two ahead of New Hampshire is a feel-good measure that amounts to shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.

2005-01-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

Compare & Contrast: RatherGate Versus Swift Boat Vets

Lorie Byrd has an excellent post on the mainstream media's zeal to investigate President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service with their hands-off approach to questions about Kerry's service raised by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Hat Tip: Crush Kerry

2005-01-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

COMMRADES IN WAITING

CFK Store

I thought I'd check on our good buddies ... er, commrades ... at CommunistsForKerry.
Important Announcement:
Important Announcement: In a few weeks the Party shall determine new course of action and set up new website. Until then feel free to use our discussion board to express righteous rage at life, the universe, and everything!

Check out their discussion board called The Collective Mind. "u people will burn" is especially enlightening!

2005-01-11T08:09:00.000-07:00

RatherGate Updates

I put up a couple posts at Brainster's; here's the smoking gun in the report, and here's why Dan Rather should be fired.

2005-01-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

Alexandra Kerry: An Independent Person

According to this NY Daily News item.

2005-01-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well His Dog Is Named Splash....

Just when you thought Ted Kennedy couldn't get any more shameless.

2005-01-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

The Reality-Based Community?