Sharp Knife

Sharp Knife Issues Our Endorsement for '04...
A WORLD AWAITS BREATHLESSLY!

[From Nov. 22, '03]

"The President has failed to control spending and government growth.

He has urged Arafat on the Israelis and ignored Arafat's murder of our own diplomats.

He has supported protectionism for one specific American industry.

He has sometimes failed on 2nd Amendment issues, immigration policy & race preferences.

Yes, he has cut taxes and the economy seems to be turning around.

And while he has appointed some good judges, he has not fought hard enough for others, and hasn't given an often hostile Senate the sound thrashing they so richly deserve.

The President has, for the most part, vigorously confronted our most dangerous adversaries, correctly identifying them as 'evil' to the chagrin of the Euro-elites. And for this, I give him credit. But it is not enough. For all these reasons and more, I cannot support the re-election

...of President Ronald W. Reagan in 1984.

I will, however, be supporting President George W. Bush in 2004.

For this:

"The evil is in plain sight. The danger only increases with denial. Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. We will face these threats with open eyes, and we will defeat them."

"Whatever has come before, we now have only two options: to keep our word, or to break our word. The failure of democracy in Iraq would throw its people back into misery and turn that country over to terrorists who wish to destroy us. ...We did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq and pay a bitter cost of casualties, and liberate 25 million people, only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins."

We do not get to choose perfect candidates. I, for one, will not let the 'perfect' be the enemy of the 'good', to the benefit of the stupid and the evil.

Nor should you.

Vote Reagan in '84...

And Bush in '04!"..................................................

My point was--and is--that Pres. Bush isn't perfect--and neither was Pres. Reagan. But Reagan was truly great.

And I believe Pres. Bush has some of that greatness about him. Time will tell us more, but he is already well underway. And though I disagree strongly with some policies, the President deserves--and has earned--our support.

He's got mine.

Give him yours.

..."we are probably angriest about all that we were told about Vietnam and about the mystical war against communism."--Kerry

"One thing about Ronald Reagan that struck me time and again was his obvious, visceral loathing of communism. For him it wasn't just a difference of opinion about economics or governance: he saw through the whole thing to its essentially anti-human nature. And this was at a time, we all too easily forget, when plenty of people in the West -- I think a majority of the intellectual classes even as late as the 1980s -- didn't mind communism at all, thought in fact that it was just the ticket, if perhaps not for the USA, at least for poor counties like Nicaragua. Reagan had the firmest, clearest, truest moral compass of any modern President. May he rest in peace. "-- John Derbyshire

"So in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride; the temptation blithely to declare yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil. Let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples of the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world. The Marxist vision of man without God must eventually be seen as an empty and a false faith; the second oldest in the world, first proclaimed in the Garden of Eden with whispered words of temptation: 'Ye shall be as gods.' "-- Ronald Reagan.

You've probably already seen the Kerry Class Aircraft Carrier.

But have you seen the proposed new Kerry Stealth-Fighter Air Wing? (Actually, as Alan points out, it's not one, but three new fighter Wings.)

And aren't those Sandy Berger's socks?

[UPDATE: links now fixed...go have a look!]

IN WHICH MR. HASKELL, SR., SPANKS A RECALCITRANT YOUNG EDDIE, AT LONG, LONG LAST.

""Everybody likes quiet heroes,” Dole added, saying he told Kerry, “John, everybody knows you were in Vietnam and the less you say about it, the better.""

That's the sound of one generation speaking to another.

(More Lumpy-ness here.)

ON THE WAY TO THE SENATE:

John "A New Medal Every 10 Days!" Kerry:

..."we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."

And the SwiftVets have over 250 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans who say you're full of sh*t.

And their story hasn't changed in thirty years; your's changes every thirty seconds.

And unlike your 150 "vets" from 1971, ALL of these Swifties actually served.

This ain't about history, folks; the continuous lying is as fresh as this morning's dog vomit.

But dog vomit smells better.

"MANUFACTURED NEWS...ASK YOUR DOCTOR IF IT'S RIGHT FOR YOU."

The Kerry campaign charged today that the SwiftVets were funded by rich Bush-supporters from Texas.

"Their largest single contributor is some shadowy, mysterious cattle-futures baron named H.R. "Hill" Rodham," said Kerry spokes-searer, Cam Bodine Krismus. "When we find out who this guy is, we're really gonna' tear into him."

"We also object to the SwiftVets motto, "John Kerry: Frank Burns with an Evinrude!" she said.

BUT NOW IT'S "OUR" LAND...BUT WE'LL LET YOU KEEP PAYING THE TAXES. YOU'RE WELCOME.

From Mountain States Legal Foundation comes a story of property "owners" whose land has basically been confiscated without payment because the property features blind cave-dwelling bugs. Courts and agencies have ruled that under the Endangered Species Act and the Interstate Commerce Clause, the owners can't use any of the land, even though the caves were deeded over to an environmental trust.

First, if We, the People want to declare someone's private property a wildlife preserve, then we should at least pay them for it.

Second, ...the Interstate Commerce Clause?!! Is there a burgeoning blind cave-bug industry that somehow escaped our notice? That's a gross abuse of power...and exactly what happens when words don't mean what they mean.

Not all Blind Cave-Bugs live in caves.

WRONG OR WRONGER!"

John Kerry:

..."they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside..."

He said these War Crimes were "not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command..."

He's correct.

They were indeed Official Government Policy.

...in Iraq.

Dear President Bush,

When you were campaigning in 2000, you said this:

"To protect the right of individuals to express themselves, Governor Bush will: Preserve the right of individuals and groups - from the Christian Coalition to the Sierra Club - to run issue ads. Senator McCain would protect incumbents from scrutiny by unconstitutionally restricting the right of citizens to engage in issue advocacy." --Bush Campaign 2000

But after you were elected, you signed this law, prohibiting:

..."any broadcast, cable, or satellite communication which-- ``(I) refers to a clearly identified candidate for Federal office; ``(II) is made within-- ``(aa) 60 days before a general, special, or runoff election for the office sought by the candidate; or ``(bb) 30 days before a primary..."

And now you say:

"Well, I say they ought to get rid of all those 527s, independent expenditures that have flooded the airwaves. ...And what I think we ought to do is not have them on the air."

Mr. President, the "reformers" will surely use these words to push for even more restrictions on the people's right to speak.

You have called Sen. Kerry's service "noble". But veterans who were there have a different perspective. And they believe what they experienced bears on his ability to serve again. If anyone has earned a right to speak, it is them.

Sir, I support you for many reasons. And I understand your need to make political peace with Senator McCain. I know it couldn't have been fun enduring that fundamentally dishonest NAACP ad in 2000. I know the hope was that the Court would strike down the Free Speech Ban. But that it why all officers take an oath to the Constitution, not to the Court. If you believed it unconstitutional, you had a duty to veto it.

And sadly, our courts are too busy inventing new rights to defend the actual ones.

In other times, the press would have spoken out in opposition. But since they were exempted, they were quite content to have the voices of other citizens suppressed, as it left their voice amplified. I consider them the "Good Germans" of Free Speech. And I understand the pressure you are under from that press corps now.

As I said, for many good reasons, I support you and will continue to do so.

But not on this.

I cannot.

I'll drink the Constitutional Kool-Aid for no man, sir.

Long after you and I and Senators McCain and Kerry are gone, the American people will still have a Constitution. And it should recognize their right to speak out and to criticize politicians, whether 60 days or 60 seconds before an election.

I urge you to admit that this course was tried--and it failed. Return to the principled stand you took in 2000. It was an echo of the principled stand taken by some other Americans in 1789;

Amendment I

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Come home, Mr. President.

Stop it and come home, sir.

Sincerely,

ANGKOR WAT MANAGEMENT TEAM

Patterico finds it odd.

The Times discerns a "web of connections", complete with flow-chart when it comes to Bush and the SwiftVets. And Kerry knows without any doubt that there is illegal coordination taking place. He's so sure, he's even taking legal action to stop it.

Yet for years, al Qaeda met with the Saddamites and operated out of Baghdad...but there was no coordination there!

And here, columnist Tom Oliphant (not Pat, the smear-artiste' cartoonist) gets one right for a change:

"O'Neill: Jim, one other thing, they can look at swiftvets.com, which is the Web site that has a great deal of information on it.

Lehrer: Is there a Web site that's comparable to that? I'm sure the Kerry--

Oliphant: Yes, it's called the daily press, which is the most difficult thing for these guys to deal with."

In other words, SwiftVets are an anti-Kerry 527, and the daily press are a pro-Kerry 527.

Even a bow-tied Oliphant cuts the Windsor knot of truth once in a while.

BOTH OLD AND NEW.

From 'A Man For All Seasons':

Wm. Roper: "So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law!"

Sir Thomas More: "Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?"

Roper: "I’d cut down every law in England to do that!

More: "Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turn round on you—where would you hide, Roper, the law all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast—man’s laws, not God’s—and if you cut them down (and you’re just the man to do it) d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.".....................................

Does the name Benjamin R. Curtis mean anything to you?

It should.

Mr. Curtis was a Massachusetts man, from the all-but-bygone era in which that state still produced statesmen.

Born in 1809, he graduated from Harvard Law and began practicing in Boston. As a state legislator, he reformed the state's judicial code. It was done so well, that it was adopted without any changes. Later, he ably defended Pres. Andrew Johnson, when Johnson was impeached for the political reason of failing to punish the South harshly enough during Reconstruction. He finished his career arguing cases before the Supreme Court.

And Benjamin R. Curtis knew the Court well; he had served on it from 1851 to 1857. And it was there that his signal service to our country was performed.

In 1857, the Dred Scott case came before the Supreme Court. Chief Justice and Democrat Roger Taney wished to wreck the new Republican Party and settle the slavery issue on terms favorable to the South. When the Court's majority under Taney asserted that the black man had no citizenship rights "that any white man was bound to respect", that was too much for Curtis.

Justice Curtis eviscerated the majority's opinion in his dissent.

Methodically, Curtis proved that the voting & citizenship rights of black freemen had been recognized by at least five states at our Founding; and that Congress had acted fourteen separate times under seven different presidents, beginning with Washington, to limit the spread of slavery in the territories.

As a matter of principle, he and fellow dissenter Justice John McLean then resigned from the court.

Why is this important to us today?

In the Oprahfied waters in which we all now navigate, we're beginning to lose sight of the shoreline, our safety; the Constitution, for which our Founders labored so long and fought so hard.

Too many people assume that the proper role of judges is to wander the legal landscape, "doing good". As More told Roper, that is a pernicious, liberty-killing doctrine, contrary to the very concept of self-governance & the Consent of the Governed.

We barely even know what actual Constitutional jurisprudence--or jurists--look like anymore. I'm excerpting Curtis' dissent, not to debate the merits of the particular case, but to see what real Law and real judges look like. He makes his case by grounding it in the actual words & meanings of the Constitution--the "Actual" Constitution. He cites historical precedent, Congressional actions, The Declaration, The Federalist Papers, the state ratifying conventions, Blackstone's Commentaries, the Magna Carta. He quotes Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Morris.

You'll not find Justice Curtis cite a 'Living Constitution' anywhere. No deference will he give to any contemporary, unelected European tribunals; bodies to whom no American ever consented to be ruled. No sweeping pronouncements of Philosopher-Kings, such as the famed 'Sweet Mystery of Life' dictum:

"At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."

I shat better law than that in my morning constitutional. If that's in your Constitution, you may be French.

Take a moment to peruse Justice Curtis' wide-ranging dissent here; whether he speaks of treaty law, limited government, the role of courts or of Natural Law...his penumbra never emanates.

And pause to remember what happened to our nation the last time the courts ran amok, "doing good" because they alone knew goodness, flattening all the laws in their mad rush to catch the Devil...it was disaster.

We don't need kings. We are fit to rule ourselves. We, the People are not moral ogres. We don't need to be shunted aside, our opinions discounted, words put in our mouths by those who wish to short-circuit the agreed-upon process, in some frenzied Neo-Nitzchean "will-to-power"-grab.

They know what they want and, by God, they mean to have it, by whatever pretext is nearest at hand.

No. Let's make for that shoreline instead. Our safety. Our rock. Our beacon;

Our Constitution.
..................................................................................................................

"Mr. Justice CURTIS dissenting"

..."With the weight of either of these considerations, when presented to Congress to influence its action, this court has no concern. One or the other may be justly entitled to guide or control the legislative judgment upon what is a needful regulation. The question here is, whether they are sufficient to authorize this court to insert into this clause of the Constitution an exception of the exclusion or allowance of slavery, not found therein, nor in any other part of that instrument. To engraft on any instrument a substantive exception not found in it, must be admitted to be a matter attended with great difficulty. And the difficulty increases with the importance of the instrument, and the magnitude and complexity of the interests involved in its construction. To allow this to be done with the Constitution, upon reasons purely political, renders its judicial interpretation impossible because judicial tribunals, as such, cannot decide upon political considerations. Political reasons have not the requisite certainty to afford rules of juridical interpretation. They are different in different men. They are different in the same men at different times. And when a strict interpretation of the Constitution, according to the fixed rules which govern the interpretation of laws, is abandoned, and the theoretical opinions of individuals are allowed to control its meaning, we have no longer a Constitution; we are under the government of individual men, who for the time being have power to declare what the Constitution is, according to their own views of what it ought to mean. When such a method of interpretation of the Constitution obtains, in place of a republican Government, with limited and defined powers, we have a Government which is merely an exponent of the will of Congress; or what, in my opinion, would not be preferable, an exponent of the individual political opinions of the members of this court."...................................................................................................................................

I was born into a Constitutional Republic. I'll be God-damned if I willingly hand over to my children a Judicial Monarchy, and fit them for saddles, ready to be booted, ridden and spurred by our black-robed Ropers.

Never.

NEVER.

Move over, Justice Curtis. hold on, Justice McLean;

I join the dissent.

[Note: While researching this article, I found a speech by The Hon. D. Arthur Kelsey, which had reached some of the same conclusions that I had, only more eloquently. It was from Judge Kelsey's piece I got the 'Man For All Seasons' quote, so credit where credit is due. It's excellent and you can read it here.]

LATE KNIFE PRESENTS...

The Top 20 Ways John Kerry is Like M*A*S*H*:

Number 20. He sounds like Major Winchester, chases rich spouses like Major Houlihan, and has the vision thing...of "Radar" O'Reilly.

19. "Hot Forehead", while interesting, lacks the punch of "Hot Lips".

18. This quote-- "...but know this: You can cut me off from the civilized world. You can incarcerate me with two moronic cellmates. You can torture me with your thrice-daily swill. But you cannot break the spirit of a Winchester. My voice shall be heard from this wilderness, and I shall be delivered from this fetid and festering sewer,"--is seared, seared in his memory.

17. Promises to get our troops out of Korea by Christmas. 1953.

16. Like Father Mulcahy, he's Catholic. Unlike the Father, however, he would never dream of letting it affect his public duties.

15. Mike Ferrell: anti-war hack who hasn't worked a lick since 1980; Hello, Senator!

14. Like Capt. Flagg, he's a flag-waving CIA operative who is always on secret missions he can't really tell you about. But if he does, he'll have a special version just for you.

13. Like Maclean Stevenson's cousin Adlai, he's just too gosh-darned smart to be President.

12. He is both strongly for & steadfastly against Corporal Klinger's Constitutional Right to cross-dress.

11. Hawkeye Pierce & John Kerry...Sex Machines!

10. Campaign's theme song: "Public Suicide is Painful". For us.

9. When battle scenes don't come out right, he films a re-take.

8. His friends call him "Heiress-Trapper John".

7. Keeps lobbying Larry Gelbart to include a heroic lieutenant character who tries to negotiate a U.S. defeat with the North Koreans.

6. M*A*S*H* also won a lot of awards. But they never threw them over the White House fence, now did they?

5. M*A*S*H* was really all about Vietnam and nothing else. Help me, somebody. seriously.

4. Frank Burns. Need I say more?

3. Swapped early-discharge tips with Klinger.

2. Complains about lack of affordable medical coverage for North Korean prisoners.

And the Number One Way that John Kerry is like M*A*S*H*....

Has also been in permanent re-runs since 1972!

I AM LARGE, BUT MY CHURCH NO LONGER CONTAINS MULTITUDES.

Wonder why?

The Bishop of Hulme, the Rt. Rev. Stephen Lowe, has banned the hymn ‘I Vow To Thee My Country’, saying it "echoes of 1930s nationalism in Germany and some of the nastier aspects of right wing republicanism in the United States." You mean like book-banning and music censorship, Bishop?

Relax, Rev; if Britain fails to control immigration, Muslim clerics may yet ban ALL hymns for you.

""I quoted it as one example of my concerns about growing nationalism," he told the Telegraph. "While I am proud to be English, it is dangerous for a nation to suggest that our culture is somehow superior to others.""

"The bishop said the emergence of nationalism had been evident during the Euro 2004 football tournament and recent military anniversaries such as D-Day."

Comparing drunken sports orgies to D-Day observances is a slur. And if one doesn't feel one's own culture is superior, then one should seek out a culture that is.

And is too much patriotism really Britain's problem today? C.S. Lewis identified patriotism as one of the Lesser Loves. If a man can't feel any gratitude or loyalty to the society that has given him so much, how will he be able to feel any Greater Love?

""It is like American culture where there is this view that America is the land of the free when we know it is not. But there are those in America who want to maintain that it is and want to impose their understanding, their culture, their way of doing things on everybody else. That is dangerous.""

Why, Right Lefty Reverend; where did your much-vaunted 'All-Cultures-Are-Equal' & 'Tolerance Uber Alles!' stance suddenly go?

Forget all the trash that's on the radio; will banning a hymn that's sung only occasionally in nearly-empty churches really make a difference? C.S. Lewis, again:

"...the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ..."

Yes, our faith should inform our politics. But our politics shouldn't drive our faith.

For if one wants politics, especially left-wing politics, both Britian and America have entire bureaucracies, universities, interest-groups & parties who do it better. If one merely wants company, the nightclubs will suffice. If one seeks luke-warm platitudes, greeting-card companies will out-perform the church every time--and for only $1.59 and a few moments of one's precious time.

If you keep telling people God is in the trees, eventually they just go to the park.

Titanic, meet Deck-chair Re-arranger.

"A MAN'S HOME IS HIS... DUNGEON?"

From the Belfast Telegraph:

..."Antonio Caeiro, 33, who said he wounded a 19-year-old intruder at his home in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, said yesterday that he would do the same again to defend his family.

...Mr. Caeiro claimed he was woken by his 28-year-old wife's screams at 2am on Saturday when the burglar came into their bedroom.
He said the 6ft. tall intruder had pulled away their 14-month-old daughter's cot from the side of their bed causing the child to fall on the floor and cry.
Mr. Caeiro said: "This man was kneeling at the side of my bed and started touching the legs of my wife.
"My wife woke up screaming and then I woke up. The man then ran downstairs and went out through the kitchen door."
Mr. Caeiro, who is 5ft 6ins, rang 999 to report the break-in and was told by police that because the intruder was no-longer believed to be in the house they would be there in 15 to 30 minutes. He said: "I looked out into my yard and saw a shadow. I was frightened and I grabbed the bread knife from a rack because my first thought was that I had to stop my family being harmed. I opened the back door ... then this man attacked me with a metal bar.
"He hit me on the shoulder and I was knocked back into the kitchen. The door opened and the man tried to come inside.
"I stabbed him in the leg and then we ended up fighting and I stabbed him in the chest.
"We fought for about a minute outside ... then he managed to break away and run down the alley at the back of my house."
Mr. Caeiro said he tried to call the police again, but got no reply. He then called a friend who alerted police officers who arrived three minutes later.
The intruder was arrested near by on suspicion of burglary. Police also arrested Mr Caeiro on suspicion of assault, and later released him on bail pending further inquiries."........................

The great English jurist Blackstone, codifier of British (and therefore, American) Common Law:

"1. The defence of one's self, or the mutual and reciprocal defence of such as stand in the relations of husband and wife, parent and child, master and servant.

In these cases, if the party himself, or any of these, his relations, be forcibly attacked in his person or property, it is lawful for him to repel force by force; and the breach of the peace, which happens, is chargeable upon him only, who began the affray.

For the law, in this case, respects the passions of the human mind; and, (when external violence is offered to a man himself, or those to whom he bears a near connection) makes it lawful in him, to do himself that immediate justice, to which he is prompted by nature, and which no prudential motives are strong enough to restrain.

It considers, that the future process of law, is by no means, an adequate remedy for injuries, accompanied with force; since it is impossible to say, to what wanton lengths of rapine or cruelty outrages of this sort, might be carried, unless it were permitted a man immediately to oppose one violence with another.

Self-defence, therefore, as it is justly called the primary law of nature so it is not, neither can it be, in fact, taken away by the law of society. In the English law particularly, it is held an excuse for breaches of the peace, nay even for homicide itself, but care must be taken, that the resistance does not exceed the bounds of mere defence and prevention ; for then the defender would himself, become an aggressor."

The British police now assume that the home-owner is an aggressor until proven otherwise, getting it exactly backwards. Had this burglar done the same thing in the Police Commissioner's home, he would have been shot dead, with no arrests. And rightfully so. But British citizens--or subjects, rather--are now reduced to fending off home-invaders with butter knives. They are no longer deemed morally capable of gun-ownership.

Maybe it's time to re-visit Crispin's Day:

"He that shall live this day and see old age
will yearly report to his parole officer
and say: “Tomorrow is Saint Crim'nal's Day.”
Then he will strip his sleeve and show his scars
and say: “These wounds I had on Crim'nal's Day.”
And gentlemen in England, now abed, shall think
themselves lucky that the burglar didn't sue,
And hold their manhood cheap--it's now official policy
for those who fought with thugs on Crim'nal's Day."

The purposeful de-moralization, infantilization & feminization of a society has frightful costs. Don't wait until your baby is dropped on his head, your wife is being fondled and you're being struck with a pipe to fight back.

More Leftism, More Crime.
More Statism, More Injustice.
And the more you know your heritage,

...the more's the pity.

AND THE PRESIDENT SHALL NOT SIGN IT AND THE SUPREME COURT SHALL NOT RATIFY IT.

And yet, they did.

"LARRY KING: In view of that, do you think that it's fair, for the record, John Kerry's service record, to be an issue at all? I know that Senator McCain...

GEORGE W. BUSH: You know, I think it is an issue, because he views it as honorable service, and so do I. I mean...

KING: Oh, so it is. But, I mean, Senator McCain has asked to be condemned, the attack on his service. What do you say to that?

G. BUSH: Well, I say they ought to get rid of all those 527s, independent expenditures that have flooded the airwaves. There have been millions of dollars spent up until this point in time. I signed a law that I thought would get rid of those, and I called on the senator to -- let's just get anybody who feels like they got to run to not do so.

KING: Do you condemn the statements made about his...

G. BUSH: Well, I haven't seen the ad, but what I do condemn is these unregulated, soft-money expenditures by very wealthy people, and they've said some bad things about me. I guess they're saying bad things about him. And what I think we ought to do is not have them on the air. I think there ought to be full disclosure. The campaign funding law I signed I thought was going to get rid of that. But evidently the Federal Election Commission had a different view."

I support the President, but he's wrong on this one.

I understand he doesn't want to get down in the mud and roll around. And Kerry certainly doesn't want to answer questions about his service.

But that's what the 'Free' in Free Speech means.

In Europe, many countries have Tweedle-Dee & Tweedle-Dum parties who have declared certain questions--indeed, whole swaths of public policy--off the table for consideration or even polite conversation. The citizens are largely locked out when the two parties collude that way. That's not something we should emulate.

In this particular case, Kerry's convention theme was "It's Good Morning, Vietnam Again In America". He's running on his war record (while running away from his war-protest record). Whether the subject is peanut-butter sandwiches or prostate cancer, he finds a way to work in a Vietnam reference. His "seared in my memory" comment on the Senate floor was a way of using 'Nam to discredit Reagan and support the Sandanista Communists.

And Kerry is the one who put the SwiftVets picture on his web-page; if not implying their endorsement, it certainly is an admission that they 'served with' him--a fact Kerry now denies.
(For a succinct explanation of 'served with', see here. heh.)

Certainly their service is presumptively every bit as noble as anyone else's. And they had a front-row seat at what the candidate claims as the defining experience of his life.

The SwiftVets deserve to be heard.

Even if both parties wish they would go away.

Or should I say, especially if both parties wish they'd go away.

Pres. Bush announced 70,000 troops will be redeployed from Asia and Europe.

Some excerpts from His Steynliness (you'll want to Read It All):

"This will undoubtedly be welcome news to the likes of Goran Persson, the Swedish prime minister, who famously declared that the purpose of the European Union is that "it's one of the few institutions we can develop as a balance to US world domination". It must surely be awfully embarrassing to be the first superpower in history to be permanently garrisoned by your principal rival superpower."

..."Like any other form of welfare, defence welfare is a hard habit to break and profoundly damaging to the recipient."

"...John Keegan, once wrote that "without armed forces a state does not exist".
That's true in a certain sense."

"But, in another, for wealthy nations who've found a sugar daddy, it's marvellously liberating. You're able to preen and pose on the world stage secure in the knowledge that nobody expects you to do anything about it."...

"...European countries now have attitudes in inverse proportion to the likelihood of their acting upon them. They're like my hippy-dippy Vermont neighbours who drive around with "Free Tibet" bumper stickers. Every couple of years, they trade in the Volvo for a Subaru, and painstakingly paste a new "Free Tibet" sticker on the back."

In my town , I saw a Libchick with a "Free Tibet!" bumper sticker...AND a "No War On Iraq!" sticker. I laughed. And laughed and laughed and then I laughed some more. And then I thought "Darlin' [I can talk that way when my wife's not reading my thoughts], one of those countries is free today and one isn't; and the difference is...???"
(Hint: rhymes with None Hundred & First Nairborne.)

And Hog On Ice has the best post on this you'll see anywhere in the Blogosphere:

"It's easy to be a socialist on an allowance."

Balloon Juice notes the nuanced, principled response of the Donks: "I know...we'll question the timing!"

If Bush announced a cure for cancer, they'd question the timing.

God, that's pathetic.

"...You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--this is God's own truth."

"Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so."

"Why is this? You know that Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land. The Jewish people, the Scriptures tell us, once enjoyed a flourishing Commonwealth in the Holy Land. From this they were expelled by the Roman tyrant, the same Romans who cruelly murdered Our Lord. Driven from their homeland, their nation in ashes, forced to wander the globe, the Jewish people time and again suffered the lash of whichever tyrant happened to rule over them."

"The Negro people, my friend, know what it is to suffer the torment of tyranny under rulers not of our choosing. Our brothers in Africa have begged, pleaded, requested--DEMANDED the recognition and realization of our inborn right to live in peace under our own sovereignty in our own country."

"How easy it should be, for anyone who holds dear this inalienable right of all mankind, to understand and support the right of the Jewish People to live in their ancient Land of Israel. All men of good will exult in the fulfilment of God's promise, that his People should return in joy to rebuild their plundered land."

"This is Zionism, nothing more, nothing less."

"And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the Globe. It is discrimination against Jews, my friend, because they are Jews. In short, it is antisemitism."

"The antisemite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the antisemite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just 'anti-Zionist'!"

"My friend, I do not accuse you of deliberate antisemitism. I know you feel, as I do, a deep love of truth and justice and a revulsion for racism, prejudice, and discrimination. But I know you have been misled--as others have been--into thinking you can be 'anti-Zionist' and yet remain true to these heartfelt principles that you and I share."

"Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--make no mistake about it."--Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967

(Hat-tip: Nuke Vet)

IT'S BROKEN IN HOBOKEN.

Turns out Jim McGrievance consulted with the radicals at the Human Rights Campaign, who gave him the poll-tested phrase 'Gay American'. Which makes sense, since the HRC (hmm...) is also double-speak for the 'Special Rights for a Few by Eliminating Actual Rights for the Many' Campaign.

Tucker Carlson, aka; Chadsworth Fosdick Worthington III:

"Beside him on Thursday, as he confessed to an affair with another man, stood McGreevy's wife and mother. It wasn't the first time he'd used his family as political props. McGreevy married his current wife in the middle of his last gubernatorial campaign. McGreevy was in his mid-40s at the time. He knew he was gay. He'd already been through one failed marriage."

"Yet he married her anyway, presumably for the obvious political benefit. The couple and their new baby soon became part of scripted photo-ops designed to present Jim McGreevy as a happy, and decidedly heterosexual family man."

Nice.

This total lack of respect for family life--indeed, life itself--shows in policies, too. For example, McGreedy's bid to have New Jersey lead the world in the cloned-baby harvesting industry, making New Jersey into "The Human Garden State".

John H. Fund:

"Indeed, Mr. McGreevey accomplished the remarkable feat of lowering ethical standards in the state capital. The McGreevey administration was stuffed with hacks and yes-men, and within months two of his aides had to resign after scoring millions of dollars in suspect profits on an outdoor billboard deal. Joseph Santiago, his appointee to head the state police, had to resign after it was revealed he had a criminal record and alleged relationships with mobsters."

And check this out:

"New Jersey's post-New Deal constitution made the state's governor what columnist George Will calls "an American Caesar." As the only statewide elected official, he appoints the attorney general, the treasurer, all the county prosecutors and almost all the judges. When Mr. McGreevey leaves office, state Senate president Richard Codey will become acting governor, but he will also keep his old job, thus allowing him to control both the executive branch and half the legislature."

"He will be able to do this because the state also has a bizarre law that allows New Jersey officials to hold two elected positions at the same time."

This scandal has every pathology known to modern politics. New Jersey is resembling less & less a state, and more & more a large rock, out from under which two-legged cockroaches crawl, a Bonfire of Vanities with a Vanity of Bonfires, an American Banana-in-your-pocket Republic-be-damned.

Did I mention Venezuela?

Hell; Free New Jersey!

Please visit Devil's Excrement to keep up on the effort of patriotic Venezuelans to rid themselves of dictator Hugo Chavez. Think Castro with a huge pile of oil money on the mainland of the Americas. This is hugely important to ALL of us.

And I've heard that today is the last day to register for military absentee-voters.

Don't take it for granted.

Ever.

UPDATE: Chavez miraculously went from a million votes behind to a million votes ahead, in keeping with the commie dictum "Free Elections--once".

Warm up the helicopters.

WE'LL RETURN TO OUR REGULARLY-SCHEDULED PROGRAM OF BITTER CONDEMNATIONS AND SCATHING DENUNCIATIONS MOMENTARILY.

The University of Colorado backs off of its neo-segregationism, via Joanne Jacobs.

Green good news...yet the dirt-worshippers want it buried. At GreenieWatch.

Rich Lowry Rocks the Afghan Vote.

Clayton Cramer: 'Good News On The DC Second Amendment Case'

The citizens of Missouri affirm the truth, as state voters always do when actually allowed to govern themselves; marriage is a man and a woman. Marriage Debate.

No. 2 Pencil shares some Olympian lessons learned here and here.

'The terrorists and other anti-coalition elements "really are not winning," our pilot correspondent says. "Not even a little."'-- there's joy in Mudville.

A Small Victory calls for more small victories: " Strengthen the Good"--check it out.

Homeland Security works in Sauget, Illinois! And, as an added bonus, NBC reporters get arrested! Wizbang tells the tale. heh. heh heh.

A lot of terrorists have been rolled-up recently--the Brothers Judd noticed.

And the truly Good News for Modern Man: Steve H. conquers the French Fry!

Of course he did; they're French, après tout.

A: EXIT NOW!

Mark Steyn wrote it for me:

"'My truth is that I am a gay American,'' announced Gov. James McGreevey to the people of New Jersey last Thursday."

"That's such an exquisitely contemporary formulation: ''my'' truth. Once upon a time, there was only ''the'' truth. Now everyone gets his own -- or, as the governor put it, ''One has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world.'' For Jim McGreevey, his truth is that he's a gay American; for others in the Garden State, the truth about McGreevey is that he's a corrupt sexual harasser who put his lover on the state payroll in a critical homeland security post, and whose I-am-what-I-am confessional is a tactical feint that distracts the media sob sisters from the fact that, as his final service to the Democratic Party, he's resigned in such a way as to deny the people an early vote on his successor."

Leaving aside the weird formulation "Gay American", McGreevey is hiding behind a label for sympathy. In truths, he's a lying-thieving-Donk-Politician-American. And he's not even "gay"--he's a bi-sexual menace who should, by radical lights, be allowed to marry both a man and a woman--to be forced to choose would be unfair, you see.

And his boyfriend is no prize, either; he's a black-mailing home-wrecking grifter...and probably a sh*tty poet, too.

McGreevey should resign yesterday. He's taken bribes. He's stolen state property. And when it came time to choose between his penis and the safety of the citizens of New Jersey, he chose his penis. It would be as if Clinton appointed Monica Lewinsky to be the National Security Advisor. And he made the same choice when it came to his family.

New Jersey is one of the worst-governed states in the Union. Its supreme court ruled unanimously that the Boy Scouts had no free-association rights--not even O'Connor could countenance that. During the Torch debacle, the court threw out election law when it became inconvenient, saying fairness demanded a real choice.

Let's see if they insist on that 'real choice' now.

That press conference wasn't an apology; it was another insult, not the least of which was to law-abiding homosexual citizens. It was meant to cast him as a victim, whose only crime was love. And on top of it, deny the voters of New Jersey any redress at the ballot box.

Still lying, still thieving.

Get out, scum.

Get out NOW.

WHO NEEDS PROSTITUTES?

Great minds think alike:

"The [Kerry] campaign source said that the book was not considered a "serious" problem for the campaign, because, "the media wouldn't have the nerve to come at us with this kind of stuff," says the source. "The senior staff believes the media is committed to seeing us win this thing...""

"“Journalists are our brothers, our friends,” said Sheik Salah al Ubaidi, an al-Sadr spokesman in Baghdad. “They reflect our opinions and convey our voices to all of the world.”"

And still the media black-out continues on both the Sandy Berger and SwiftVet stories.

tick...tick...tick...

WHERE IT'S ALWAYS 1969 ON YOUR AM DIAL!

Gooood Morning, Vietnam! We're Radio Free Sharp Knife...and we're reporting for duty, too!

And since John Kerry won't release his records, we're happy to release his records for him, without demanding our usual payol...campaign contribution.

From the great Johnny "Mekong" Rivers;

"SECRET AGENT JOHN" :

"There's a man who leads a life of danger
Even to himself he stays a stranger,
With every whopper told, he digs another hole;
Odds are he won't make it in November.

Secret agent John, Secret Agent John
They're giving you poll numbers
and you can't like what you see.

Beware of pretty faces plumped with bo-tox
Advisors stuffing documents in their sox
John, be careful what you say;
The SwiftVets are on the way!
Oddly, they don't share your recollections...

Secret agent John, Secret Agent John
The Swifties have your number
and they're giving away your game.

Patrolling on the Mekong River one day
And then sellin' out your comrades on the next day
Oh, you let some big ones slip,
While the press applied their lips
The odds are you won't like it in November.

Johnny fought, then fled the life of danger
Each time he reminisces, it gets stranger;
Retracting every day, "Inoperative!" he'll say;
Odd how much he sounds like Richard Nixon!

Secret agent John, Secret Agent John
They gave you the nomination...
'cos you're Anyone But Bush!

Secret agent Johnnnnnnnnnnn!"

Up next, The Mamas & Papas & Stem-Cell Babies with...

"CAMBODIA DREAMIN'" :

The jungle leaves are green
and my ops are black.
I see my VC pals
but I don't want to attack.
We'd all be safe and warm
if we were in Paree'

Cambodia dreamin'
--come negotiate with me!

Stop calling me 'Lurch';
I helped the CIA.
Well, I put on my lucky hat
and I pretend to slay. (and I pretend to slaaaay..."Pow!")
You know, I came in from the cold
Who knows what next I'll say?

Cambodia dreamin'
on a summer-soldier's day.

All the polls are down
I see in shades of gray.
I've been waiting all my life
for this election day.
If I didn't tell lies,
I might be president today.

Cambodia dreamin'
on this election day...
Cambodia dreamin'
on this election day...
Cambodia dreamin'
on this election day.

THEREFORE I AM.

First John Milhous Kerry has a secret plan to end the war (hint: involves us losing).

Now he's claimed that was sent to Cambodia by President-elect Nixon:

"I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."

Perhaps those South Vietnamese knew who they were dealing with.

The SwiftVets call bullsh*t.

And here's Kerry in '92, via A Time For Choosing: "We were told, `Just go up there and do your patrol. Everybody was over there (in Cambodia). Nobody thought twice about it," Kerry said. One of the missions, which Kerry, at the time, was ordered not to discuss, involved taking CIA operatives into Cambodia to search for enemy enclaves." Allegedly.

But there's more; the Washington Post from a year ago:

"And who is he, really?"

"A close associate hints: There's a secret compartment in Kerry's briefcase. He carries the black attaché everywhere. Asked about it on several occasions, Kerry brushed it aside. Finally, trapped in an interview, he exhaled and clicked open his case. 'Who told you?" he demanded as he reached inside. 'My friends don't know about this.'

"The hat was a little mildewy. The green camouflage was fading, the seams fraying. 'My good luck hat,' Kerry said, happy to see it. 'Given to me by a CIA guy as we went in for a special mission in Cambodia.' "Kerry put on the hat, pulling the brim over his forehead. His blue button-down shirt and tie clashed with the camouflage. He pointed his finger and raised his thumb, creating an imaginary gun. He looked silly, yet suddenly his campaign message was clear: Citizen-soldier. Linking patriotism to public service. It wasn't complex after all; it was Kerry." [Oh, please.]

"He smiled and aimed his finger: 'Pow'."

Bond--John F. Bond.

The polite term is "a rich fantasy life". This guy is Walter Mitty.

The Kerry camp-followers are trying to silence and discredit the Swifties, especially John O'Neill, who they claim was sent by Nixon in '71 to discredit Kerry.

But that only means O'Neill has been telling the same story consistently for 30-some years, whereas Kerry has been all over the map--literally.

If any of his band of brothers has stepped up to say they accompanied Kerry to Cambodia on a CIA junket, I've not yet heard it.

Now I don't have a problem that we went into Laos & Cambodia. As far as I'm concerned, it's not too late to do it again. But this isn't some guys sittin' on barstools at the VFW shootin' the breeze; this is a candidate for presidency telling the Post that he went to Cambodia on covert mission. He better damn well have gone.

Kerry is famous for cutting in line, demanding "Do you know who I am?!!"

That's a real question; he doesn't yet know who he is.

But the presidency is no place to work out one's identity issues.

"SERVICING THE NEWS COMMUNITY...WITH A FULLY-CHARGED DIE-HARD AND A SET OF HEAVY-DUTY JUMPER CABLES!"

A San Francisco man has faked his own beheading in order to bring attention to his pro-terrorist/anti-war views and bolster his chances for election to office. In other news, Sen. John Kerry has taken to wearing his shirt with the collar pulled up over his head, with the top button fastened.

In sports news, Texan Lance Armstrong won his 6th straight Tour de France.

"This is good news for France," said Ministry of Cycling spokes-spokesman Wheeling W. Vergiennes. "Although he has defeated us six times in a row, Monsieur Armstrong ees still a dozen victories away from breaking our cherished 'Consecutive French Defeats' record."

To determine the reasons for France's repeated failure to win its own event, an investigation was launched by the Bureau de' Unicycles.

And now, from our Weather Desk & Entertainment Sofa:

In an obvious attempt to gain votes in the South, Sen. John "Opie-Gone-Bad" Edwards claimed a stunning coup today at a speech in Factory Outlet, West Virginia.

"Did you notice how Hurricane Alex turned and missed the Carolinas? That was me," said Sen. Whiplash. " I sent Mr. Alex a harshly-worded cease-and-desist letter in which I threatened to pull the wings off of all the colorful little butterflies whose wing-beats start these hurricanes. Well, let me tell you, that got some results!"

"In a Kerry-Edwards administration," he continued, "not only will we control the weather, all cows will give sweet, cold chocolate milk in thick, frosted mugs--so cold, that beads of water will form and drip down the sides--and there will be a bendy straw in it, just like the kind they sold at Beaufurt's Malt Shop when I was a kid, only I couldn't afford them 'cos my daddy was just a poor me-ill manager, and I'd walk by that malt shop every day after school and press my face up against the glass and stare and stare and stare until sometimes, Mr. Beaufurt would come out and say "Beat it, kid--come back when you got some money!" and I'd stick my hands in my empty pockets and walk away and then, one day, I walked past the Greyhound station and there were some bad men there and they said I had a pretty hair and the most gorgeous lower-lip they'd ever seen and they would give me some money--but I don't want think of that now; I'll think of it tomorrow. As God as my witness...as God as my witness, they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill, as God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again; after all, tomorrow is another day!" Col. Edwards said, scarletly.

When asked if he would go back to channeling dead children and forcing obstetricians to perform unneeded C-sections should his bid for office fail, Sen. ButterflyBoy said "I don't know nothing about birthing babies. And frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."

In a poll taken immediately after the speech, voters gave him credit for the Wind Done Gone, but rated his chances of becoming vice-president as "Gone With the Wind".

...you think FOX is worthy.

...you think 'schadenfreude' should mean 'a psychiatrist with a parasol'.

...when someone says 'for the children', you think of Christmas--and not of condoms, mandatory trigger-locks & higher taxes on parents.

...you can't quite grasp how one man can be a war hero in two countries.

...when you hear Jesse Jackson say "Keep Hope Alive", you wonder "Just who is this 'Hope' fella'--and how many cops did he shoot in the back?"

...when Lefties say "Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton", you think "No. He told us to keep it zipped and not to steal the furniture because He loves us...and isn't the phrase 'gays and Hillary' kinda' redundant?"

...you've often noticed how global warming is closely correlated with sunrise.

...you've got this crazy, nutty, radical idea that the Constitution actually means what it says.

...you think signing on to a 'living Constitution' is like telling your wife you took a 'living wedding vow'; you can do it--but one morning, you'll wake up with your manhood removed.

...you think words have actual meanings...at least until John Kerry gets a hold of them.

...you think it's Sandy Berger, not John Ashcroft, who has been abusing library records.

...you think Paris Hilton is a place where a stranger can watch some HBO and sleep, not a person who sleeps with strangers on HBO.

...you think 'Pet Semetary' is a place in a Stephen King-franchise novel...not a novel place to enfranchise new voters.

...you don't just think we should stay out of the UN's International Criminal Court...you think the UN is a court of international criminals.

And finally, You May Be A Conservative If...

...you believe in defending America, defeating her enemies, spreading democracy, enfranchising women, stopping proliferation, exploring space, being color-blind but not culture-blind, protecting the innocent, creating wealth and bringing the Third World into the modern era.

Of course, you could believe all that and be a Liberal.

From 40 years ago.

Or a even a modern Liberal...if only George W. Bush had a 'D.' after his name.

Which is one more reason why...

You Already Are A Conservative!

"DAMN THE TORPEDOES; FULL SPEE...HEY; WATCH OUT FOR THAT BABY DUCK!"

"I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out..."--Sen. John Oprah Chopra Kerry

This puts Senator Phil firmly in the ranks of some of history's greatest tacticians, leaders, thinkers and talk-show hosts:

"In war there is no substitute for sensitivity." --General Douglas MacArthur

"O sensitive war, thou son of Hell!"--Shakespeare

"War is the continuation of sensitivity by other means."--Karl von Clausewitz

"We have met the enemy and, boy, are they sensitive!"--Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry

"It is well that war is so effective, thoughtful, strategic, proactive, sensitive & inclusive, else we should grow too fond of it."--General Robert E. Lee

Herbert Hoover: "Older men declare war. But it's the youth who must endure sensitivity-training."

Voters, too, evidently.

The Kerry camp is in a tizzy over a commercial they dislike, put on the air by citizens in opposition. But unless I miss my guess, this is one of the ads that will be banned under the new Campaign Finance Reform regime. Only a month remains until the partial repeal of the First Amendment kicks in, so expect lots of these commercials soon.

I found the NAACP Byrd ad dishonest and thought the Willie Horton ad was fair. You may think otherwise...but neither should be banned.

From our Berger-free Archives:

HAMILTON v. McCAIN

Mr. Hamilton:

"...To discuss measures without reference to men, was impracticable. Why examine measures, but to prove them bad, and to point out their pernicious authors, so that the people might correct the evil by removing the men? There was no other way to preserve liberty, and bring down a tyrannical faction. If this right was not permitted to exist in vigor and in exercise, good men would become silent; corruption and tyranny would go on, step by step, in usurpation, until at last, nothing that was worth speaking, or writing, or acting for, would be left in our country."

"Men are not to be implicitly trusted, in elevated stations. The experience of mankind teaches us, that persons have often arrived at power by means of flattery and hypocrisy; but instead of continuing humble lovers of the people, have changed into their most deadly persecutors."

"The real danger to our liberties was not from a few provisional troops. The road to tyranny will be opened by making dependent judges, by packing juries, by stifling the press, by silencing leaders and patriots. His apprehensions were not from single acts of open violence. Murder rouses to vengeance; it awakens sympathy, and spreads alarm. But the most dangerous, the most sure, the most fatal of tyrannies, was by selecting and sacrificing single individuals, under the mask and forms of law, by dependent and partial tribunals. Against such measures we ought to keep a vigilant eye, and take a manly stand. Whenever they arise, we ought to resist, and resist, till we have hurled the demagogues and tyrants from their imagined thrones."

"But, whatever may be our opinion on the English law, there is another and a very important view of the subject to be taken, and that is with respect to the true standard of the freedom of the American press. In England they have never taken notice of the press in any parliamentary recognition of the principles of the government, or of the rights of the subject, whereas the people of this country have always classed the freedom of the press among their fundamental rights." This I can easily illustrate by a few examples:"

"The first American congress, in 1774, in one of their public addresses, enumerated five invaluable rights, without which a people cannot be free and happy, and under the protecting and encouraging influence of which these colonies had hitherto so amazingly flourished and increased. One of these rights was the freedom of the press, and the importance of this right consisted, as they observed, "besides the advancement of truth, science, morality, and arts in general, in its diffusion of liberal sentiments on the administration of government, its ready communication of thoughts between subjects, and its consequential promotion of union among them, whereby oppressive officers are shamed or intimidated into more honorable and just modes of conducting affairs.""

Shame indeed.

Now let's hear the stirring oratory of Mr. McCain (and, sadly, almost the entire political class):

"(3) Electioneering communication.--For purposes of this subsection-- ``(A) In general.--(i) The term `electioneering communication' means any broadcast, cable, or satellite communication which-- ``(I) refers to a clearly identified candidate for Federal office; ``(II) is made within-- ``(aa) 60 days before a general, special, or runoff election for the office sought by the candidate; or ``(bb) 30 days before a primary or preference election, or a convention or caucus of a political party that has authority to nominate a candidate, for the office sought by the candidate; and ``(III) in the case of a communication which refers to a candidate for an office other than President or Vice President, is targeted to the relevant electorate. ``(ii) If clause (i) is held to be constitutionally insufficient by final judicial decision to support the regulation provided herein, then the term `electioneering communication' means any broadcast, cable, or satellite communication which promotes or supports a candidate for that office, or attacks or opposes a candidate for that office (regardless of whether the communication expressly advocates a vote for or against a candidate) and which also is suggestive of no plausible meaning other than an exhortation to vote for or against a specific candidate. Nothing in this subparagraph shall be construed to affect the interpretation or application of section 100.22(b) of title 11, Code of Federal Regulations."

Make mine Hamilton.

KERRY'S THE ONE!

SENATOR JOHN KERRY: "...I know that as president there's huge leverage that will be available to me, enormous cards to play, and I'm not going to play them in public, George. I'm not going to play them before I'm president."

GEORGE SNUFFALUFAGUS: So we're not going to see ...

SEN. JOHN MILHOUS KERRY: But I have the ability, I have the ability to sit down with leaders that I know. I know President Mubarak. I know Crown Prince Abdullah. I know King Abdullah. I've been there to those regions, and I believe there are many cards we have available to us that haven't even been put on the table by this administration.

SNUFFY: But, Senator, forgive me. That sounds like the famous old Nixon secret plan. ['Forgive me'?...C'mon Snuffy, you finally asked a tough question--and you ruined it!]

TRICKY JOHN: I don't care what it sounds like. It's truth. I don't care what it sounds like. The fact is that I'm not going to negotiate in public today without the presidency, without the power."...

Funny; it didn't stop him in 1971:

"Kerry explained to Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman J. William Fulbright in a question and answer session on Capitol Hill a year after his Paris meetings that the war needed to be stopped "immediately and unilaterally." Then Kerry added, "I have been to Paris. I have talked with both delegations at the peace talks, that is to say the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PVR)."
...
""In [Kerry's] first meeting in 1970, meeting with Madam Binh, Kerry was still a naval reservist -- not only a U.S. citizen, but a naval reservist -- stepping outside the boundaries to meet with one of the principle figures of our enemy in Vietnam, Madam Binh, and the Viet Cong at the same time. Kissinger was trying to negotiate with them formally," Jerry Corsi told CNSNews.com."

Here's another snippet from the ABC interview:

GEORGE THE JUNIOREST:Because President Bush didn't serve in Vietnam, what lessons did he fail to learn?
["Has the President stopped beating his wife, Senator?"]

JOHNNY "CHECKERS": That's for others to judge, that's not for me. I'm just going to speak for myself. What I know is I know how to defend America. I know how to make our country strong. I was willing to put myself on the line for it once...The American taxpayer is paying billions of dollars today, billions of dollars that could go to our schools, that could go to health care, that could go to seniors..."

This echoes his cheapskate "No Fire-Houses For Baghdad!" riff.

But then, it wouldn't be the first time he abandoned a foreign people, would it?

(Hat tip: JustOneMinute)

LIVING TOGETHER!

"Whether the human mind can advance or not, is a question too little discussed, for nothing can be more dangerous than to found our social philosophy on any theory which is debatable but has not been debated. But if we assume, for the sake of argument, that there has been in the past, or will be in the future, such a thing as a growth or improvement of the human mind itself, there still remains a very sharp objection to be raised against the modern version of that improvement. The vice of the modern notion of mental progress is that it is always something concerned with the breaking of bonds, the effacing of boundaries, the casting away of dogmas."

"But if there be such a thing as mental growth, it must mean the growth into more and more definite convictions, into more and more dogmas. The human brain is a machine for coming to conclusions; if it cannot come to conclusions it is rusty. When we hear of a man too clever to believe, we are hearing of something having almost the character of a contradiction in terms. It is like hearing of a nail that was too good to hold down a carpet; or a bolt that was too strong to keep a door shut. Man can hardly be defined, after the fashion of Carlyle, as an animal who makes tools; ants and beavers and many other animals make tools, in the sense that they make an apparatus."

"Man can be defined as an animal that makes dogmas. As he piles doctrine on doctrine and conclusion on conclusion in the formation of some tremendous scheme of philosophy and religion, he is, in the only legitimate sense of which the expression is capable, becoming more and more human. When he drops one doctrine after another in a refined scepticism, when he declines to tie himself to a system, when he says that he has outgrown definitions, when he says that he disbelieves in finality, when, in his own imagination, he sits as God, holding no form of creed but contemplating all, then he is by that very process sinking slowly backwards into the vagueness of the vagrant animals and the unconsciousness of the grass. Trees have no dogmas. Turnips are singularly broad-minded."--Gilbert K. Chesterton, Heretics

N.

Those who claim to have a multi-faceted grasp of national security tell us we don't need a missile defense, that it is an expensive & useless distraction in the War on Terror.

(Reuters) - "North Korea is deploying new land- and sea-based ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads and may have sufficient range to hit the United States, according to the authoritative Jane's Defense Weekly."

Robert Moran:

"On May 3, 2001, John Kerry called national missile defense a "mythology" on Don Imus's radio show."

"On June 14, 2001, John Kerry told Hardball's Chris Matthews that a "missile shield that could defend the United States against any incoming missile is a fantasy, it is too expensive, it won't work, and that's what people believe will drive an arms race.""

But more recently, his tune changes; "We have to do everything we can to stop a nuclear weapon from ever reaching our shore and that mission begins far away."
No. It begins closely, inside the very heart of a man, where he first decides that his country is worth defending. But don't just tell us 'where', Sen. ForAgainst; tell us 'how'.

Because it looks like you mean to revive the same Clinton Appeasement Doctrine (CAD) which has already failed so miserably in North Korea:

Kerry: "The Iranians claim they're simply trying to meet domestic energy needs. We should call their bluff, and organize a group of states that will offer the nuclear fuel they need for peaceful purposes and take back the spent fuel so they can't divert it to build a weapon," he said.

The Iranians could burn oil for their energy needs for centuries to come--and have made plain their purposes. 'Call their bluff'? Why would we dignify their lies with a serious offer? The Iranian Mullahs would play a Kerry administration like a fiddle, a KerryKamancheh.

He got the lessons of the 60's wrong. And the 70's. Ditto 80's. Now he wants to build a bridge to the worst national security failures of the 90's.

President Bush: "[Our goal] is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction. Some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since September the 11th. But we know their true nature. North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens."

"Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom."

"Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens -- leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections -- then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world."

"States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world." Right then--right now.

John Kerry doesn't believe in an 'Axis of Evil'. He seems shaky on the very concept of evil, unless he's speaking of corporations or when his wife calls Bush, Cheney & Ashcroft asses thereof.

As one of a hundred senators, John Kerry was unable to save Saddam. Were it up to him alone, that would have been his result. And the message Kim Jung Il & the Mullahs take from Kerry is this: "Hope is on the way!"

If you want hope, come to Jesus.

If you want help, then help our President.

Bush Led!

Falklandish Foibles

Mr. Edward Rowlands (Merthyr Tydfil):

"The right hon. Lady is talking about a piece of rock in the most southerly part of the dependencies, which is completely uninhabited and which smells of large accumulations of penguin and other bird droppings. There is a vast difference—a whole world of difference—between the 1,800 people now imprisoned by Argentine invaders and that argument. The right hon. Lady should have the grace to accept that."

Prime Minister Thatcher:

"We are talking about the sovereignty of British territory--"

Or, as Paul Simon rhymoned: "I am a rock. Get off my I-eee-I-island."

[Scott Wickstein has an historical update of sorts.]

PLEASE!

Just as fish need their bicycles--bicycles need their fish! Larry Miller concurs, as his better half contracts a rare double-dose of Jenning's Arched-Eyebrow-itis.

The Onion links to Dubya's blog. Damn...wish I had thought of that. Waitaminit; I did!:

"It's Official.com!

The FCC announced today that every single American now has their own blog. The 300 or so people who heard the announcement live could not be reached for comment, as they were already busy posting their own takes on it.

In related news, on his website, http://www.hey!overhere!payattention,darnit!i'mthepresident! President George W. Bush wrote "Sorry about the light posting; been kinda' busy. BTW, we just invaded Iraq...Flame War!" Democrats immediately accused the White House of 'link-whoring'.

In the Comments section, an 'Ari F.' urged other commenters to "ignore that troll named 'Helen' and maybe she'll go away."" --(2/2/03)

Can't afford those ever-rising college tuitions? Relax. You can earn your degree online! With the The Postmodernism Generator, you, too, can speak in acadamese--just like this:

"In the works of Rushdie, a predominant concept is the concept of precapitalist reality. Therefore, Drucker holds that we have to choose between the pretextual paradigm of context and structural socialism. Marx promotes the use of semiotic theory to attack hierarchy."
(Simply click 'refresh' for your degree in several different acad-anemic specialties!)

And please consider a obtaining a degree in the hard sciences; someone must stop the evil corporations from spreading the deadly compound DMHO in our environment.

And certainly no humor review would be complete without mentioning Scott Ott's Scrappleface, Frank J.'s IMAO and especially Hog On Ice, sponsored by recovering-Miracle Whip-addict and NY Times Best-Seller List-reading author, Steve H..

Remember, kids; Mayo has its own clinic; what has Miracle Whip ever done?