I was also thinking of titling this post “when you’re in a hole, stop digging.” Either expression would apply to Kerry’s recent press conference. Given the chance to explain his musings about education and the military, he stated that he was, in fact, attacking Bush.
Considering that Bush graduated from Kerry’s alma mater, doing better than Kerry did, and that the President then went on to get an MBA from Harvard, it’s hard to accept that it was the President to whom he referred when he said “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” That Kerry is retrofitting madly is also evident from the fact that he was giving advice to young students — that is, he seemed to be saying to them that their career choice (not the President’s) was to go to college or be in the military.
Kerry would have done much better just to apologize gracefully. As it is, he just can’t help being the gift that keeps on giving.
What follows below is a note from an Air Force reservist to the squadron mates he is leaving behind. His words are inspiring to the squadron, and to stateside Americans who seek the unvarnished truth.
As I head out to wrap-up my five month active reserve tour, I am sad to notice a certain questioning about the direction of the War on Terrorism. So I have something to say to my fellow military members as I walk out the door, and it’s something I feel must be voiced. Please bear with me, as this has been on my mind often in the last few weeks.
Every day we hear on the news about another bombing in Baghdad, or about unrest on the Pakistani border to Afghanistan. Recently, another five soldiers were killed in Iraq and sectarian violence is threatening to rip the country apart. And the question that keeps being asked is, “Can we win this?” A simple question, but one that is entirely misguided. We’ve already won our fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. The only question left is “How far can we take our victory?”
Never again will Al-Queda use Afghanistan to train and send terrorists to attack our homeland. Women now hold elected positions in the country and are going to school, homosexuals aren’t being killed by having walls collapsed upon them, children can fly kites with their fathers in fields without being beaten, people may now listen to music, adults vote in a representative government, and the soccer fields are now used for games instead of mass executions.
Never again will Saddam Hussein use his once-large army to invade his neighbors. The Kurds will not be gassed with WMDs, and have turned their portion of the country into the safest part of Iraq. The two sons of Saddam, Uday and Qusay, will never again patrol the streets of Baghdad looking for women to abduct. The Hussein’s will never again oversee the dropping of their enemies into human-sized shredders, nor will they ever house international terrorists in their country as guests. Terrorists such as Abu Nidal, who killed over 900 people in 20 countries and who was a guest living in Iraq for nearly a decade. And al-Zarqawi, the Iraqi al-Queda leader who fled to Iraq after our invasion of Afghanistan, obtained medical treatment under direction of Uday, and is now taking the eternal dirtnap.
Sometimes it doesn’t seem like a victory, especially since al-Queda appointed a new leader in Iraq to continue the war. But we know his name and we know his face, and his time will also come. And as tiring as the violence in the Middle East may be, we must acknowledge that we’ve moved the forward edge of the battlefield from the skyline of downtown New York City to the territory of the enemy. This may be our greatest victory.
There are still those who think the TSM (Terrorist Supporting Media) is not biased. There are those who do not believe the TSM leans so far left they are about to fall off the diving board. This just in:
Network news coverage has favored Democratic candidates in the midterm election, and the page scandal involving former congressman Mark Foley has been the main story line, drawing almost as much coverage as Iraq and terrorism combined, a new study finds.
An analysis by the Center for Media and Public Affairs of midterm election stories aired on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts Sept. 5-Oct. 22 found that 2006’s coverage has been almost five times as heavy as in the 2002 midterm elections: 167 stories, compared with 35 four years ago.
The study found that three out of four evaluations of Democratic candidates’ chances of winning — such as sound bites — were positive, compared with one out of eight for Republicans. Coverage has been dominated by two major themes: the effects of the Foley scandal, and the impact the Bush presidency is having on the party’s congressional candidates.
The Foley scandal produced 59 stories alone, compared with 33 on Iraq and 31 on terrorism/national security issues. “What’s hurting Republican candidates is the media’s focus on two non-candidates: Mark Foley and George W. Bush,” says center director Robert Lichter.
Because of the focus on Foley, the re-election race of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., was featured in 42 stories. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was featured in 10 stories, even though he’s not up for re-election this year. Sen. Hillary Clinton’s possible 2008 presidential run was grist for nine stories. USA Today
This is a recording of John Kerry who says (paraphrase) that you make the best of your education, study hard and make an effort to get smart you can do well. If you don’t you get stuck in Iraq.
John Kerry is Speaking For The Democrat Party As He States That Soldiers Are Dumb Video Courtesy of Michelle Malkin - Please Pass This Video Around
Basically, he is saying is stay in school, get an education and become smart OR you will get stuck in Iraq. In other words, only dumb people go to Iraq.
I wonder if John Kerry realizes that the men and women in the armed forces volunteered to be there and that they have educations. I wonder if he knows that our military is the best educated in the history of this country, including when elitists like him served in Vietnam. We have some of America’s best and brightest in our armed forces and Kerry, a member of Congress, just called them dumb.
He dishonored the troops in Vietnam (where he served if you don’t know) and he dishonored our troops by claiming they terrorize Iraqis and now he has called them dumb. Kerry just demonstrated the liberal idea that smart elitists stay at home and the dumb hicks go off to war. Why the people of Massachusetts keep reelecting this jackass is beyond me.
Given the dearth of respectable and worthy candidates one might say yes to the headline question, but that wasn’t exactly the angle I was looking for here.
Starting with the disputed 2000 election, people have been looking for voting reform or something like it, when in actuality a huge shakeup was hardly needed. Now we have early voting for a month prior to an election, people crying about the difficult “butterfly ballot”, and a hue and cry claiming disenfranchisement. So optical scan and computer voting was brought in. Many have complained of voter fraud over the past two national elections, crying foul at the victors but with little proof of said fraud. In Florida during the 2000 election the Gore campaign actually asked for their recount in heavily democratic counties hoping to glean a few votes from the old hanging chads.
I think the traditional marriage, which often includes children, is the glue that holds a stable society together. Married couples, especially those with or planning to have children, have an enormous incentive to hold jobs, save money, create safe communities, look to the future politically, and to crave non-revolutionary continuity when it comes to social and political issues. They’re the antidote to anarchy. That’s why I’ve been so opposed to gay marriage. It’s not because I think gays should be punished. I’ve long said that I support extending certain legal benefits (and concomitant burdens) to committed gay couples. My opposition comes about because I’ve seen gay marriage as a slippery slope, a wedge issue, aimed at doing away with traditional marriage entirely, with all that this radical change implies.
Stanley Kurtz now writes a lengthy article that essentially says my instincts are right. While many gays just want to “get married,” the intellectuals behind the gay marriage movement have much larger plans that really go to destroying marriage all together. And because I think traditional marriage is one of the single most important aspects of a healthy society, I’m baulking completely at heading down the gay marriage path. I’m not homophobic; I’m traditional marriage-philic!
As an aside, I’ve realized that this issue, too, fits into my handy-dandy Leftist morality matrix. On the feelings side of the morality discussion, Leftists let us know that, even though some in our culture have embraced a non-traditional lifestyle, it hurts their feelings that we exclude them from the marriage tradition. It’s just soooo not fair. I agree that it may be hurtful, but I don’t agree that these feelings justify a radical change to a social, moral and religious institution. There may be other reasons to change the institution, but hurt feelings don’t qualify in the argument.
The Washington Post is reporting that Black Democrats, party leaders and Democrat businessmen in Maryland are breaking ranks with the Democrat Party and endorsing Republican Senatorial candidate Michael Steele.
A coalition of black Democratic political leaders from Prince George’s County led by former county executive Wayne K. Curry endorsed Republican Michael S. Steele’s bid for the U.S. Senate yesterday.
The support from Curry, five County Council members and others barely a week before Election Day reflects their continued disappointment that the Democratic Party has no African American candidates at the top of the ticket and a sense that the county is being ignored, officials said.
“They show us a pie, but we never get a slice,” said Major F. Riddick Jr., a former aide to then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening and a former county executive candidate. “We are here today to say we’ve waited and we’ve waited and we’re waiting no longer.”
Quick, no take backs!!
I am going to preface this discussion with a glimmer of hope that others start to realize that Democrat promises of helping minorities and victims is nothing more than lip service. The Democrats are nothing without either and their hold on power rests on their ability to perpetuate the state of being a victim.
One does get the impression that the Washington Post grudgingly reported this news. First of all it is on page B01. News like this would almost certainly be above the fold on page A01 if the circumstances were the other way around.
The Post writers also went out of their way to print a Democrat response and defense of the party break.
Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, was more skeptical. “The endorsements will not make Prince George’s County residents forget that Michael Steele is George W. Bush’s handpicked candidate,” he said.
I find this a bit disingenuous. Election year politics remind us once again that papers like the New York Times and the Washington Post do more campaigning than reporting. I suppose one can make an argument that the Democrat response is news but I find it more than simple reporting on the response.
For instance, the following quote from University of Maryland political science professor Ron Walters is nothing more than a gratuitous plug.
Walters said the Prince George’s politicians made an “audacious” move by putting local interests above national ones since a Steele victory could keep the Senate in Republican hands.
I suppose one could find merit in this statement considering that the article doesn’t meet the requirements that would normally allow for a quote from a Republican voter who is breaking ranks with the Republican Party. This will serve the purpose just fine.
Nonetheless I’ll take what I can get. It is good news to see such a story break so close to the election. Now if only we could get them to mention how staffers working for Democrat Rep. Chuck Schumer stole Mr. Steele’s identity in an attempt to get his credit report. That would be news.
Bill Maher is so funny. I am sure that his depiction of Steve Irwin is one step behind countless moonbats who will be wearing a similar costume for President Bush on Halloween. Grab him up quick ladies.
“Vote Democrat on November 7th”
Yeah, I am going to take advice from this idiot just as soon as I am done walking on broken glass, playing in traffic and standing on a golf course holding a lighting rod during an electrical storm.
We all know that the only thing more painful than ripping a bandaid off is taking it off ever so slowly.
We all know that you treat cancers by swiftly removing the whole tumor (if possible), and not by gently nudging out one cancerous cell at a time.
We all know (don’t we?) that you fight wars to win. To that, I’d add that there’s probably more humanity in getting a war over swiftly, even if that means bringing in a lot of upfront firepower against enemy troops, than dragging a war out forever in order to spare as many enemy troop lives as possible. That is, I’d be willing to bet that, if you could play the two war scenarios out in alternative universes, the swift, but more brutal war, would end up with fewer casualties than the attentuated, but kinder war.
NATO troops fought a six-hour battle with insurgents in southern Afghanistan Monday in a firefight that left 55 militants and one NATO soldier dead, the Western alliance said.
Twenty militants also were wounded in the fight in the Daychopan district of Zabul province, NATO said. The nationality of the dead NATO soldier was not released, though many of the Western troops in Zabul are American.
The battle came on the heels of another major fight between militants and NATO and Afghan troops Saturday in neighboring Uruzgan province in which 70 insurgents were killed after they attacked a military base north of Tarin Kowt.
Maj. Luke Knittig, a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, said troops in southern Afghanistan are moving into areas where insurgents are active in order to set security conditions to allow reconstruction and development.
“We’re not going to get fixated on a scoreboard tally of insurgents killed,” he said. “What’s more important is getting an accountable government in place.”
NATO and Afghan troops are pressing ahead with a new joint offensive called Operation Eagle, aimed at keeping pressure on the Taliban through the fall and winter and to pave the way for long-promised development after the harshest fighting since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban.
The 32,000-strong NATO-led force took command of security operations in all of Afghanistan last month and has been battling resurgent Taliban militants in the south and east.
There’s more, but the point seems to be that NATO has figured out that you don’t win a war against a determined enemy by dropping a desultory bomb or two on a mule.
Oh yeah…I’m good with this(link requires registration). Hopefully it’s the first raindrop of a flood, long overdue.
At 2 TV Stations in Maine, What Al Gore’s Movie Says Isn’t News By JOSEPH B. TREASTER
How important is global warming in Maine? Not important enough for local television.
Michael Palmer, the general manager of television stations WVII and WFVX, ABC and Fox affiliates in Bangor, has told his joint staff of nine men and women that when “Bar Harbor is underwater, then we can do global warming stories.”
“Until then,” he added. “No more.”
Mr. Palmer laid out his policy in an e-mail message sent out during the summer. A copy was sent to The New York Times. Mr. Palmer did not respond to a phone message left with an employee of the stations nor to an e-mail message. But a former staff member confirmed the e-mail message that went out during the summer after the stations broadcast a live report from a movie theater in Maine where Al Gore’s movie on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” was opening.
Mr. Palmer began his e-mail message: “I was wondering where we should send the bill for the live shot Friday at the theater for the Al Gore commercial we aired.”
Mr. Palmer said he wanted no more stories broadcast on global warming because: “a) we do local news, b) the issue evolved from hard science into hard politics and c) despite what you may have heard from the mainstream media, this science is far from conclusive.” Mr. Palmer said in his e-mail message to his operations manager and two women who served as a news anchor and a reporter that he placed “global warming stories in the same category as ‘the killer African bee scare’ from the 1970s or, more recently, the Y2K scare when everyone’s computer was going to self-destruct.”
H/T: Boortz.
Article goes on to cite Dr. James Hansen as a neutral, authoritative source. Good for Dr. Hansen. And therein lies the trouble with things like neutrality, objectivity, centrism: Someone has to define these things. A lot of people are walking around, bragging about how well-informed they are because they read NYT. Not only will they stop short of saying they let the Old Gray Lady tell them what they’re supposed to think, they’ll vigorously argue against that very concept — and yet — the Paper of Record sticks a microphone into the face of James Hansen, not bothering to collect any other dissenting scientific opinion or counterpoint, and hey it’s all good.
I was also thinking of titling this post “when you’re in a hole, stop digging.” Either expression would apply to Kerry’s recent press conference. Given the chance to explain his musings about education and the military, he stated that he was, in fact, attacking Bush.
press conference, education, Bush, Kerry, MBA, Harvard, military
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My friends,
There are still those who think the TSM (Terrorist Supporting Media) is not biased. There are those who do not believe the TSM leans so far left they are about to fall off the diving board. This just in:
Given the dearth of respectable and worthy candidates one might say yes to the headline question, but that wasn’t exactly the angle I was looking for here.
I think the traditional marriage, which often includes children, is the glue that holds a stable society together. Married couples, especially those with or planning to have children, have an enormous incentive to hold jobs, save money, create safe communities, look to the future politically, and to crave non-revolutionary continuity when it comes to social and political issues. They’re the antidote to anarchy. That’s why I’ve been so opposed to gay marriage. It’s not because I think gays should be punished. I’ve long said that I support extending certain legal benefits (and concomitant burdens) to committed gay couples. My opposition comes about because I’ve seen gay marriage as a slippery slope, a wedge issue, aimed at doing away with traditional marriage entirely, with all that this radical change implies.
The 
We all know that the only thing more painful than ripping a bandaid off is taking it off ever so slowly.
Oh yeah…I’m good with