Terror Threat in Midtown

This afternoon, I decided to walk down to school (in the Village) from my apartment (on the UES) to take care of a few things, like getting my NYU ID made, etc. I try to walk 5-7 miles a day, so the approximately 3.5-miles-each-way journey seemed like a good way to get that done. I was walking down 2nd Avenue in Turtle Bay (which is where the UN is) and had just crossed 43rd Street when I was obstructed by an orange police line at the corner. There was a drunken homeless man and a cop just on the other side of it, so I assumed that that was the issue and, along with a bunch of other people, stepped around them into the street and attempted to make our way down the block. We were then stopped by another cop who told us that they were clearing the area, we couldn't go that way, and so go around. I crossed 2nd and walked east on 43rd street until I got to Tudor Place. I walked a block south, to where 42nd street passes under the bridge that is Tudor Pl. A large crowd was assembled on the bridge, looking east. I joined them and saw that the NYPD/NYFD had closed down 42nd street from where we were all the way to Lexington (which runs between Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building on that corner) and possibly somewhat beyond. They were letting cross traffic through on the avenues, but the street was blocked for vehicular and pedestrian traffic. They had also evacuated most of the buildings in that stretch, which is from whence many of my bridge buddies came. We were all calling people on our cell phones, trying to get information from friends and family with access to news sources. The word on the street was that a Pullman suitcase was found unaccompanied and unexplained on the sidewalk between the Pfizer building and the Daily News building. The NYPD was talking it dead seriously, and everyone from my vantage point was pretty nervous. Not so nervous as to give up front row seats to watch, but nervous. My rationale for staying on that bridge was that if it was a conventional explosive device, it wouldn't reach as far as us, and if it was a nuclear device, pretty much anywhere I would walk within 20-30 minutes would be within blast range, so might as well go for the view. Might not be the smartest strategy, but oh well. I eventually left and walked home -- I never did make it down to school. If it was an accident, which I hope it was, someone's going to be very embarrassed when the NYPD gives them their laundry back. If it was a joke, it certainly wasn't a funny one. If it was in fact a terrorist device of sorts, I hope they got it diffused and such, and I'm glad the "If you see something, say something" campaign is working. There was some speculation, up on the bridge, that perhaps our responses were being tested, and maybe there were a dozen guys with binoculars noting the NYPD/FD response.

Anyway, I don't know anything else, because it's not on the news as far as I can tell. I'll keep you updated if I hear any more.

Continuing on the thoughts of the post below, I find it interesting the the left holds the belief that our troops belong stateside, yet simultaneously believes that Bush was a horrible person for guarding Texas against Oklahoma. There's no pleasing some people.

Where They Belong

I'm not exactly sure when John Kerry said this (Milwaukee, I think), and my internet connection as I write is currently sketching out on me so I can't google it, but at some point recently, Kerry has said something to the effect of "we're going to get our troops home where they belong."

Now this can mean one of about three things.

1) John Kerry is a blowhard who talks out of both sides of his mouth and the central anatomical feature of his posterior region, and his words have no actually meaning because he's just pandering. Nothing to see here, folks, just keep moving.

2) Our troops are going to vigilantly guard us from attack at home. This means that there will be fighter jets over all our cities at all times, destroyers and battleships (and, my favorite, the frigate! Whatever that is...) patrolling our costal waters, the Army posted along the border, shoulder to shoulder, and the Marines controlling any high risk areas, with a rifleman on every corner and an armored battalion in the middle of Times Square. Heck, 1950s Moscow was one of the safest cities in the world. Sure, it was a police state, but it was safe. This is so crazy, it just might work!

3) Our troops are going to train vigorously to be qualified to sit around on their bases, because there is no one for them to fight at home, where they belong.

I don't know if John Kerry missed the memo on this one, but the reason the armed forces are, well, armed is so they can fight things. The US does not have a huge problem with invading armies, it has a problem with terrorists, and unless he plans to use option #2 to deal with the terrorists which is a) not bloody likely and b) a stupid idea to begin with, they're not going to get dealt with.

This may come as a shock, but Going to War is somewhat of a traditional way to do it. Odysseus went to war. Agamemnon went to war. King David went to war, and the year he decided to keep himself at home "where he belonged" he got himself into massive trouble with Bathsheba. Johnny went off to war, which is what enabled him to come marching home. George Washington went off to Valley Forge, along with his men. We went off to war in WWI and WWII and pretty much every other war we've ever fought. Generally speaking, when the war comes to your home, you have a very serious problem. Just like your mother always told you, "No fighting in the house -- take it outside in the pea gravel." (Note: wrestling someone in pea gravel is a dumb and painful idea. Not that I would know.)

I'm not saying we should randomly and wantonly send our fighting forces off to war to give them something to do, or because they're fighters, they should be fighting, but if we have enemies that feel the need to kill us, then we should kill them first, and we're not going to do that from Yonkers.

Gilderoy Kerry

It just occurred to me exactly which fictional character John Kerry reminds me of. He's Gilderoy Lockhart, to a tee.

For those of you who aren't die-hard Harry Potterites, let me explain. Gilderoy Lockhart is the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry during Harry Potter's second year, as found in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and portrayed by Kenneth Branaugh in the movie. Gilderoy is extremely attractive (5 time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile) award and a best-selling author. He has scores of books out, all detailing his heroic achievements against the forces of evil -- Gadding with Ghouls, Break with a Banshee, Holidays with Hags, Travels with Trolls, Voyages with Vampires, Wanderings with Werewolves, Year with the Yeti, etc., not to mention his autobiography, Magical Me. He tends not to be around when scary things actually happen, and then he makes sure everyone knows that "It's a pity I wasn't there -- I know exactly the counter-curse that could have spared her," or similar things. Throughout the year, however, he doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his abilities, as he tends to botch things when he's given the chance to act on them.

So then, at the end of the year, Harry and his friend Ron have a showdown of sorts with Lockhart, who admits that he didn't do any of the things in his books, but is exceptionally talented with a memory charm -- he took down the stories of the witches and wizards that actually had done heroic things and modified their memories so he could claim the triumphs as his own, so that he could sell books and be a hero.

It's worth remembering that true heros rarely call themselves such, that the truly brave almost never declare themselves to be, and that those with real power generally don't need to flaunt it.

Incidentally, according to JK Rowling, the only character in the Harry Potter books that is based on someone she has actually know in real life is Lockhart, only the real life version is apparently even more objectionable. I wonder, do JKR and JFK know each other?

Unfit for Amazon

Well this is interesting. I just, on a whim, went over to Amazon.com to see what how Unfit for Command was doing on the charts. So, from the main page, I clicked on " Top Sellers" assuming that that would lead me to, you know, the books that were selling best. On the main page of that, the book highlighted was "A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush", which is, to be fair, a Bush-friendly book. But I still hadn't found "Unfit for Command." So I clicked on the non-fiction list. Not there. I'll list the top 20 books that were there at the bottom. So I went to New/Future releases. Not there either, only 15 on that page though. Huh. So I went to the search box.

If you search for the words "unfit for command" you get three "Most Popular Results," none of which are the book in question. Then, finally at the top the 20052 other books with those words, is the Swiftvets' book. You'd think it wasn't selling well. Unless you went to the actual product page, here and you'd see that the sales rank is, well, 1.

On BarnesNoble.com, you click on bestsellers, and "Unfit for Command" is at the top. At Amazon, it requires an effort to find.. Interesting.

The books on the non-fic list were:
1) The 9/11 Report
2) All the President's Spin: George W Bush, the Media, and the Truth
3)BushWorld: Enter at Your Own Risk
4) A Matter of Character (as seen above)
5) Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
6) Reckless Disregard: How Liberal Democrats Undercut our Military, Endanger our Soldiers, and Jeopardize our Security
7) Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror
8) If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It
9) What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
10) Misunderestimated: The President Battles Terrorism, John Kerry, and the Bush Haters
11) The American Prophecies: Ancient Scriptures Reveal Our Nation's Future
12) Rewriting History
13) Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush
14) Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
15) Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency
16) Recovering the Past: A Historian's Memoir
17) Ask the Pilot: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel
18) A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat
19) The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership (J-B Warren Bennis Series)
20) Deserter: George Bush's War on Military Families, Veterans, and His Past
21) The Missing Peace: Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace
22) Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism and Liberalism
23) Fat Man Fed Up: How American Politics Went Bad
24) The First Days of School: How To Be An Effective Teacher
25) Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

A Crime That Dares Not Speak Its Name

I don't want to go here again. I don't want to think about it. Too big a can of worms. But I'm curious.

Is lying while testifying before Congress perjury? Or is it only if it's in a court of law? Just if it's under oath? What's the legal standard? What's the statute of limitations on it?

If Kerry lied about, well, all kinds of things in front of Congressional committees, not that I'm suggesting we go this route, but is he then guilty of purjury? I have no idea, and I need to get out of the apartment, but I'd be interested to know if Kerry's falsifications have any legal ramifications.

I'd Vote For Him...

Susan has a beautiful little post right here. I won't spoil it. Just go. Then come back.

I Know You Are But What Am I?

I could be totally mistaken in my recollection of this, but I believe the Aboriginal creation story tells of a time before time, the Dream Time, when spirits or something sang the world into existance. Other mythologies and supersitions reference the idea of speaking something into existance -- part of the reason that the characters in Harry Potter will not speak the name of Voldemort. Why do I bring this idea up? Because the Democrats seem to have spoken their "worst fears" into existance. I use the scare quotes here because the things they claim as their worst fears actually aren't. They don't really care about Iraqi deaths (and the few that really do need to do some math and take a short stroll through Iraq the Model), they don't really have a problem with , and having a lying, Machiavellian president is fine, as long as said president is a Democrat.

The interesting thing is that the shrill accusations that have been thrown at Bush have bounced off, at least as far as facts are concerned, and stuck firmly to Kerry. It's almost like they've spoken John Kerry into existence in their tirades against Bush.

Bush Lied! Um...Bush was mistaken, but Kerry lied about Cambodia, probably about his magic hat, and several medals.

Bush is a Deserter Well, both candidates were honorably discharged, and Bush got out of the TANG early to work on a campaign, but the war was over then and there were no planes for him to fly anyway. Kerry did his darnedest to keep away from battle and happily played his Get Out of Nam Free card, leaving his men after his three Purple Hearts. I'm not going to call that deserting, because it isn't, but Blackfive, who has a right to talk on this, rightly questions:

"So I just have one question for you Active Duty Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, and Airmen: Would you ever leave your men in a combat zone because you earned the right to go home early, even though you were physically able to continue leading them?

Would the rest of you?

That's what I thought."

Bush is part of a conspiricy with evil foreign leaders to seize power. Kerry seems to be supported by a group of anonymous foreign leaders who may not all wish us harm, but sure don't seem to wish us well. And let's not forget the whole Meeting the Viet Cong to negotiate thing.

Bush Lied, People Died! See above on lying, but also... John Kerry's now-debunked Winter Soldier testimony caused the will of the American People to falter, which essentially allowed the VC to triumph, and led to the massacre and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and massive numbers of refugees, etc., not to mention US servicemen, especially of the POW/MIA variety. Lots of people were against the war, but John Kerry was the leader of the group that did the most damage, and his lies actively impacted the course of that war.

Now, bear in mind, just because I think that many of the descriptions of Bush better reflect his opponent, I'm not going to run around drawing horns and swastikas on him. I think that Kerry is a Machivellian opportunist, I don't trust him, I don't believe him, I don't respect him, and I don't like him, and I certainly don't believe he's qualified to be president, but I don't think that he is the Anti-Christ or Hitler or anything like that.

I just find it interesting that the Dems may want the Anti-Bush, but they may wake up a man who actually is what they say Bush is.

My Only Contribution Whatsoever to the Discussion of Cambodia

Many better bloggers than I have done a great job with the Kerry in Cambodia story, and I have nothing to contribute to this. However, let the record show that I, too, have a memory of Cambodia seared -- seared -- into my mind, and that is the memory of sitting for my IB ab initio Japanese test, which, when we started the subject, purported to teach us "survival level Japanese," and being given a reading comprehension on the topic of landmines in Cambodia. In case we hadn't picked up the word for landmine in our textbooks, the concept was graphically depicted through cartoons, first of a cylinder buried under ground, then a farmer in a straw hat with his foot over the cylinder, and then an explosion. All this to say, of all of the Japanese (and other languages) I've learned and forgotten, the phrase jirai ni cambojia will never leave me. Seared.

Why I Am A Republican

A week or so ago, I mentioned that I had been at a Democratic election watch-party and found myself the target of lots of Democratic evangelism (man, that's an oxymoron...Ed.--Be nice, Katie... No. It's my blog and I'll snark if I want to).

Some friends (parents of a girl with whom I went to high school) who I've know for many years outed me as a Republican, and then tried to convince me that I should become a Democrat. Their rationale was something like this (names have been changed to protect the Moonbats)

Mary: Katie, you should give up all that money (Note: My parents are relatively well off) and become a Democrat.

Me: Give up what money? I have no money. That's my parents' money. I have no money.

Sam: That's why you should be a Democrat.

Me: No, that's why I'm a Republican. If I ever happen to earn any money, I want to keep it, and even if I never earn any, I still don't want your money.

That doesn't fully encapsulate why I'm a Republican, although it sums up my fiscal reasoning. Obviously, I'm very hawkish, which puts me firmly in the Bush camp. I'm hard left on gay rights and somewhat ambivilant on abortion. Moreover, the Republicans seem to be the Party of Adults, while the Dems seem to be the Party of Adolescents. The world has uses for adolecents, but they generally involve dealing with French fries, not French people.

Medical Savings Accounts

Jeff Harrell, who continues to be on a roll, has a great explaination of the Medical Savings Accounts. I think these are a fabulous idea. Jeff really has a knack for going out an researching complicated policy issues and presenting them lucidly, something with which the mainstream media can no longer be bothered, presumably because the effort causes their tinfoil hats to fall off. Anyway, Jeff writes:

Put simply, HSA's work like this. First you sign up for a high-deductible health plan. The "high-deductible" part is defined in the statute and the numbers change every year, but for 2004 your plan has to have a deductible of at least $1,000 for a self-only plan or $2,000 for a family plan. During the course of the year, you can put up to $2,600 (if you're on a self-only plan) or $5,150 (if you're on a family plan) into your HSA. If you make your deposits out of your net income, you'll receive a tax deduction for the total amount on your tax return. If you prefer, you can have your contribution to your HSA taken out of your gross income by your employer, in which case you aren't taxed on it.

Say you live alone and you decide to sign up for the cheapest health plan you can find with a whopping $2,500 deductible. You make your deposits into your HSA for 11 months, then you get careless and slice open your finger. You drive yourself to the hospital, bleeding all over the interior of your 1977 AMC Pacer (if you could afford a new car, you wouldn't need to cheap out on your health insurance, would you?). They make you wait for seventeen hours, then they put five stitches in the cut that's already well on its way to being healed on its own and present you with a bill for $1,900.

Because you have a Health Savings Account, you've got the cash you need to pay that medical bill right up front. You hand your debit card to the cashier, she rings you up, the amount is deducted from your HSA, the insurance forms are filled out so that $1,900 can be applied to your annual deductible, and you go home.

But wait a minute. You didn't pay any taxes on the money you put into your HSA, because it was deductible. That means you must get taxed like crazy when you take it out, right? Wrong. HSA payments for qualifying medical expenses are 100% tax-exempt. What's a qualifying expense? Pretty much everything. Office vists. Hospital care. Surgical fees. Laboratory fees. Eyeglasses and optical exams. Crutches. Dental fees. Psychiatric care. Braces and other orthodontia. Nursing home care. Osteopathy. Acupuncture. The list just goes on and on. You can take money out of your HSA at any time and for any reason, but if you don't spend that money on a qualifying expense, you'll have to pay regular income taxes on it, plus a 10% penalty. That's to keep folks from using their HSA savings unless they absolutely have to.

But what happens if your emergency-room bill had exceeded the value of your HSA, you ask? Remember that you're allowed to put an amount equal to your insurance deductible into your HSA every year. So by definition, if you need to spend more than you have in your HSA, you've already maxed out your deductible. You'd use your HSA to pay the deductible and your insurance plan would cover the rest.

So in other words, you spend less money on your insurance, you have tax-free money with which to pay your deductible, if you don't exceed your deductible, you get the save the money, with interest, instead of having large sums of your money disappear into the Pit of Insurance Premiums and Lost Socks, and you can use the money for whatever you need it. Dude, sign me up. Except I don't currently have an income. But we're working on that, and in any case, I do hope, at some point in my life, to be gainfully employed/solvent.

Internet Access Update

I officially get internet access on Tuesday, between 12-4. Until then, I'll be haunting libraries (why are most of the Wi-Fi connected NYPLs in Harlem? Or WAY downtown? Couldn't we have a little wi-fi love up here on the UES?), etc, trying to connect, but blogging may still be sporadic until Tuesday. I'm not happy about it either. I'm gonna try real hard though, k? On the health front, my head feels somewhat better at the moment, and I have replenished my supply of Nyquil, so all is well. Still have a cough, but I've had lung problems for, oh, 18 years now, so that's not real surprising. All indications are that I will survive to blog another day.

Can We Win?

A few weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with my mother about the War on Terror. She tenatively expressed the idea that perhaps we ought to be killing individual terrorists rather than dealing with rogue states, after all, terrorists, not rogue states, fly planes into buildings. I then said that I believe that dealing with Islamofacist terror is like treating cancer -- you have to remove the tumors so that the cancer can't spread further, and then chemo or radiate any remaining cells that might have survived the tumor removal. I said that I thought we had to change the Middle East and kill individual terrorists if we want to win. And then she asked me a very interesting question. She asked "Do you think we can win?"
My response was essentially this: "You grew up during the Cold War, right? Did you ever, when you were my age, think that it would end? Did you think that it could be won?" And she replied that they had always believed that Communism and the Cold War were something that would always be, a conflict that would last forever, a stalemate that couldn't be resolved. Sure they wanted to win, but never actually believed it would happen. I told her that I believe that the War on Terror will end in my lifetime, but perhaps not in hers. And I do believe that, although I think that victory will be expedited by leaders who are sober-minded and determined, and who actually believe that we can win. Look at the Cold War -- Carter didn't believe that we could win, and didn't try. Reagan knew we could, and did it. Kerry's strategy of holding a "terror summit" doesn't convey a belief that this is a war that can be won, it conveys a belief that it's a problem that can be managed. Bush believe he can and will win, or his successors will, building on the work that he has done.

I think that it's important that we all ask ourselves that question: "Do you believe that we can win?" (And, a corrollary for our leftist friends, "Do you want us to?") Discuss.

The Inarticulate Genius

I've been mulling something very similar to this post over for quite some time, but this comment (and the fact that I needed something to do) got me around to it. He writes, in response to my post Hold The Presses,

Oh come on, this was terrible - exactly the kind of thing that makes me NOT want to vote for Bush. I don't like the idea of someone who appears to be such a moron running our country. No, this won't change my vote, but yes, this is the kind of thing I _hate_ about the current president.

We can guess at what he _meant_ to say, but it's very clear what was said. Very clear.

Now, before I get into this, two caveats. 1) I realize the "Bush is a genius/Bush is a moron" thing has been beaten to death. I do not care. 2) My argument here is based on anecdotal evidence, which, admittedly, cannot be applied universally (for example, just because I had two roommates who were both a) black and b) evil, does not permit me to conclude that all black people are evil -- and don't accuse me of it, because I don't) but I wish to provide a counterexample to the idea that because someone mangles language, he or she is an idiot by default.

So here goes -- my younger brother talks like George W. Bush. He mangles words. He botches sentance structure. He calls avocados tomatoes and says 'inconsistent' when he means 'inconsiderate' or something else further astream. He's a slow reader. His essays are often nearly incomprehensible as he struggles to articulate what he means. He cannot grasp the relationships between Latin and English, even in relatively simple cognates. An idiot, right?

His IQ is somewhere north of 175. Average being 100, gifted 125, profoundly gifted (genius) 175. And lest this dissolve into a critique of IQ testing, let me add that everyone he meets can tell that he is exceptionally bright. He's very good with numbers, a highly gifted athlete, is a good decisionmaker and leader, and exhibits a majority of the signs of profound giftedness. Whether or not IQ tests are fair to red-headed Armenians with last names starting with H is not a relevant to this argument.

And lest this dissolve into fantasy, anyone who mentions that bogus "IQ assessment" that declares that Clinton's IQ was 180 and Bush's 90, or something like that, should first go here and then, if you still choose to make such comment, be prepared to be mocked without mercy and fisked until your bottom blisters. Just wanted to get that out there.

Now, do I think that a high IQ is an indicator of whether or not someone is competent to be a president? Not at all. I went to a special middle school where you had to have a minimum IQ of 150 to be admitted, and I would guess (this wasn't the sort of thing that was tattooed on everyone's foreheads) that most people exceeded 180, with scores ranging up to 210ish. I have kept in touch with/kept track of a fair number of these students, and I would say that I can think of one, maybe two, of those people who would be competent to be president, and in any case, the one I'm thinking of would prefer to be a political appointee.

In fact, for many occupations, and life in general, a IQ higher than about 150 is considered to be as much a hinderance as a help. I don't remember the exact instance, but there was a case of a man who was turned down from a position with the police department because he had an IQ over 140, I think it was. 125-150 is often considered to be peak functioning range. Much higher and people start to get rather weird and screwed up.

Anyway, getting back to my main point, just because someone is not particularly articulate does not make them an idiot. That's all.

View From the Starbucks

Interestingly, of approximately 8 laptop users I have seen in the 75th and 1st Starbucks over the last few hours, exactly one has been using a non-Mac laptop. Even if the people of Manhattan have lousy taste in political affiliation, they have good sense when it comes to computers. I think I'm going to give up on the Starbucksing for now and go outside, even though I'm not breathing especially well and it's hot, because I can't sit at this table much longer. C'mon, ISP people, hook up my apartment! Faster! Faster! Mush, you huskies!

Anyway... I think I want to go find a DVD rental/cheap buy-al place so that I can retreat to my apartment and lay on my futon and wheeze and feel sorry for myself in peace.

A Roundup of Goodness

Since I'm a little behind on my reading, I'm just going to put up a round-up of Good Things I Read This Afternoon.

For starters: Cold Fury has a magnificent rant of his ideal Tom Ridge press briefing. Go read it all. Be happy.

Jeff Harell has good stuff on stem cell research, presented in a cool, calm, and collected manner, as all of his writing generally is.

My War has a firsthand account from a FOB in Mosul, which he contrasts with the AP report. Includes lots of strong language. I feel that I would have used similarly strong language had I had a similarly strong experience.

This is old, but worth remembering -- The Type of Man GW Bush Is from RightWingNews

Bill Hobbs has an excellent point about the Bush recovery and small businesses.

More Update

So I've ordered internet for my apartment because it's cheaper than T-Mobile (and I can surf from my futon instead of going to Starbucks) and my arteries (and wallet) can't deal with having to order a combo meal from Mickey D's every time I need to get online. I should have it up and running within a week or so. Having been out of internet contact since Thursday evening, I'm a bit behind, so I'll be taking a little bit of time to get back up to speed. Also, as I mentioned, I'm sick, and that does dampen the exhuberance of my snark. In any case, soon the excuses will be over and I'll be back.

On another note, I've been accepted to volunteer at the RNC, in the Welcoming/Planning division, not the on-the-floor division, which is a pity, but it should be exciting anyway. If any of you credentialed blogger folks wanna give me a call when you're in town, I'd love to actually meet you.

An Open Letter

Dear Celebrities of the Beat Bush tour, or whatever it is:

If you were wondering why some of your fans have vowed never to buy your music again, you obviously don't understand your fans. First off, we're not sheep and you're not that cool. We like you, but if John Mellencamp jumps off a cliff, we're not following. Just because we like your music does not change our convictions of what's right and wrong and good and bad and wise and foolhardy. Sure, maybe you'll pick off the young and the weak, but they were likely to vote your way anyway. Second, we resent that you think of us as sheep, who will believe that you know what you're talking about because you have better hair than us. It's not that you have an opinion. We honestly don't care. The fact that you condesend to your fans by assuming that your radiant presence will change our mind, that bothers us.

Just so you know.

UPDATE

So I'm in New York, but blogging will continue to be light because my internet access is rather spotty, and also I have a very bad cold. But hopefully I'll be back to my bloggy self very soon. Keep checking back, and I'll try to have something interesting to say at some point.

The Watchers Council

The Council has spoken this week, and the winning posts are as follows:

Winning Council post -- Misdirected Mail from Damnum Absque Injuria

Winning non-Council post -- The Forgotten Enemy from A Small Victory

A list of all the posts that received votes is here.

Brilliant

Jeff over at Shape of Days has a great post about Bush's handling of the Swiftvets Ad, especially Scott McClellan's statement at the press briefing this morning. It's hard to excerpt and follow the line of reasoning, so go read it all.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the Bush administration is not saying a word about the content of the ad. They're using this opportunity to raise the level of debate about unregulated soft money and specifically not mentioning the content of the ad at all.

Net result? The ad is out there, it's shredding Kerry's reputation, Bush is benefiting from it, but Bush Cheney '04 isn't advocating attack ads, and the White House is using this as a springboard to raise the issue of unregulated contributions again.

Yes, folks, this is politics. But you know what? This is big-league politics. This is Super Bowl politics. This is politics the way the big boys play it. From where I sit, this looks like a flawless way to handle this whole situation to maximize the President's advantage. He gets the boost from the ad itself, he gets to distance himself from the ad, and he gets to advance his legislative agenda all at once.

He's exactly right. He takes the high road, the vets take the low road, and they all get to Scotland before John Kerry.

Hold The Presses!

According to CNN.com -- <"Bush Misspeaks During Signing Ceremony -- Aug 5, 2004." Good God, he did? Better put that on the main page of CNN.com!

And what is the content of this groundbreaking story?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush offered up a new entry for his catalog of "Bushisms" on Thursday, declaring that his administration will "never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people."

So Bush said "My administration will never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people"? Nope, even though, considering that the issue on 9/11 was a "failure of imagination." I want them to think of every way they can to harm Americans and then prevent all of those things from happening. Anyway, what did Bush say?

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said.

"They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

No one in Bush's audience of military brass or Pentagon chiefs reacted.

Of course they didn't, partially because they're trained better than that, and partially because that's hardly a misspeak in context. Yes, when you dissect the sentance, it come out to mean that he thinks about harming Americans, but it's really not that far off in the sentance.

CNN is stretching for headlines at this point, apparently. Bush didn't create a word, he didn't mangle grammer in any really egregious sort of way, and he didn't say something really heinous, like positive things about OSU. It's nice to know that while the good news from Iraq can't get coverage, a slightly sketchy sentance from Bush gets reasonable billing.

Moving Alert

We made it as far as St. Louis, and here we will be for the night. In the morning, my father and brother are flying to Florida for a golf excursion. My mother and I are taking three duffel bags and my banjo and flying to New York, where we will spend the night in my apartment and meet my possesions on Saturday when the Fedex man brings them. Still not much in the realm of blogging tonight, as I'm rather tired and not in the mood to be coherent. Not that that stops me. I'm not sure when, after tonight, I will have a chance to post or email until Sunday at the earliest and Tuesday at the latest. We'll see. Anyway, see you on the flip side.

Missouri Politics

Let me just go ahead and call this one: Bush will win Missouri in November. Basic reason? The church folks remembered the way to the polls yesterday, and I will be very surprised if they forget in three months. The gay marriage amendment passed, and passed mightily, and White River gambling sank, though less mightily. Many of the churches preached on those issues and exhorted everyone to get out and vote. They did. I'm not happy about the gay marriage amendment passing, but that won't kill us. Losing the state to Kerry might.

Statewide, voter turnout approached 45%, and about 50% of those took Republican ballots, 44% Dem, with some non-partisans and Libertarians making up the middle, even though there were some very highly contested races on the Democratic side, with the governor being unseated by the state auditor.

I was at a Democratic watch party last night (it was painful -- I was there semi-incognito, not wearing a Bush/Cheney button but not wearing a Kerry/Edwards one either, and I was definately the only Republican there) and one of the strategists/campaign managers told us that the Teamsters had told her that 60% of the people who voted for Bush in 2000 aren't going to vote for him again. Hogwash. Assuming that no Gore voters switch to Bush (which isn't the case, but let's keep our math from getting fuzzy) and rounding Bush's 48% to 50%, that means that they're anticipating that Bush get roughly 20% of the vote, which means they are idiots. This may be a case of not knowing any Republicans except for me, who can pass at a party.

I had to keep dodging the camera at the speeches -- they kept shooting at me trying to get reaction shots, despite the fact that I was looking less than enthusiastic about most of them. One of the pols giving a speech said, I think unintentionally, "We're going to restore peace...with honor." I feel the need to wear bellbottoms and listen to disco.
MORE LATER...

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory in Michigan

First, there was the Rolls-Royce gaffe. Now he goes and tells a crowd of University of Michigan people that he just came in from Ohio, and wouldn't want to pick between Bowling Green and University of Toledo (neither would we...yee) but he's a Buckeyes fan.

"I just came here from Bowling Green," Kerry told the crowd to subdued applause. "I was smart enough not to pick a choice between the Falcons and the, well, you know, all those other teams out there. I just go for Buckeye football, that's where I'm coming from."

At that point, before all the boos began raining down upon him, Kerry seemed to realize his error. In an attempt to silent the angry crowd of University of Michigan supporters, Kerry said, "But that was while I was in Ohio. I know I'm in the state of Michigan and you got a great big M and a powerhouse of a team." Then his face, presumably, the Botox per

I don't know if he realizes that he may have just cost himself the state of Michigan. Michigan children sometimes get disowned for going to college in Ohio. Some people will not wear red, because it's Ohio State's color. Beating Ohio State is the single biggest thing that happens at U of M each year, and losing to them is the single worst. Finding out that someone you know roots for OSU is comparable to finding out that they were once Klansmen. That's just the way it is. Michigan = Good, OSU = Sulfurous, Oozing, Festering, Virulient Evil. Get it right, John.

(Via King of Fools)

Blogging will be erratic, at best, for the next few days, as I'm moving tomorrow/Friday/Saturday. Hopefully, regular blogging will resume Sundayish.

The Best Thing Ever

Apparently, they have FINALLY released Zorro on DVD. Unfortunately, it was only the first season and they released them in France, but they do exist, and we can hope they'll come out in the US some day soon. And if not, we can hope to get them from France. Anyway....so happy....

Pols and Public Transit

Gregg Easterbrook has a great piece about politicians, CEOs and celebrities using private planes, especially planes paid for by other people, in a waste of resources and funds, all for a massive ego stroke. On the other hand, you have Mayor Bloomberg, who, despite being a zillionare, rides the 6 train to work every day, crushed in with the unwashed masses, all the way from 77th street (my stop!) to City Hall.

Equal Pay for Equal Work

I mentioned this in passing earlier, but I'd like to flog it properly this time.

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- The Senate Ethics Committee rejected a complaint filed against Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) for continuing to draw a paycheck despite having missed most of the legislative session this year while campaigning for president. At the time of the filing, Kerry had voted only 14 times out of the Senate's 112 votes this year.

Secretary of the Senate Emily Reynolds was also named in the complaint, citing her responsibility to enforce the federal statute that requires she make deductions from a senator's paycheck for absence. In a letter to American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene, Reynolds refused to enforce the statute because her predecessors had not done so in other cases.

The complaint was filed by Hofstra law student Jonathan Stein, who accused Reynolds of willfully violating a federal statute and criticized Kerry for knowingly accepting salary to which he is not entitled.

Reynolds reason was basically that the statute hasn't ever been enforced and she's not going to start now.

I want her to start now. I want her to dock Kerry's pay, and Edwards', and Jim Talent's and Kit Bond's and Ted Kennedy's and Hillary Clinton's and every other Democrat and every other Republican, every time they miss. If the law permits (requires!) then I wholeheartedly support not paying legislators for work they didn't do. I would support additional legislation that mandates that any legislator that doesn't have attendance measuring up to the attendance standards required for, say, graduating from high school (70%ish, usually), the governor of that state is permitted and required to name a replacement. If you want to run for higher office, either do it on your own time or quit your day job. It's really very simple. The American people pay you to represent them, and lest you forget, the taxpayers who fund your salaries do not get months at a time off from work. Maybe we could get the MTV "Rock the Vote" folks to work on Congress.

...Lest You Sound Like a Comic Book Villian

If I were managing a candidate (well, first, he would have a defined position on issues, but that's another story), I would keep him from saying things like "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." It's the word 'power' at the end of that sentance that really creeps me out. He doesn't say "power to enact my ideas" or "power to implement change" or "power to nuke their sorry Islamofacist asses or camels, as the case may be." He just says "the power" and I know I'm arguing linguistic minutia, but I feel like he doesn't want "the power to do x, y, z," he wants The Power. It makes you sound like Sauron or something. That is an image I would suggest not cultivating...

Will You Come?

Get this:

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Monday endorsed creation of a national intelligence czar and counterterrorism center - his first steps in revamping the nation's intelligence-gathering system to help prevent a repeat of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
[...]
Kerry, who has given a blanket endorsement to all the commission's recommendations, applauded Bush for embracing some commission proposals. But he said the president wasn't moving with sufficient urgency. "The time to act is now, not later," the senator declared, saying Bush should call Congress back from its summer recess to begin working on the changes.

That remark is a bit rich coming from a man who has only been at about 13% of the votes this year (yet has collected 100% pay), and whose running mate has both terrible attendance at votes and at committee meetings (yet also collected 100% pay -- and this is John "We're gonna reward work, not wealth" Edwards we're talking about here), attending about 1/3. Kerry himself, over 8 years on the Senate Intelligence Committee, managed to make it to 9 out of 38 meetings. Kerry/Edwards claim that their attendance is based on their campaigns, but both had abysmal attendance before they started to run for office.

So basically, my question, John, is this: If Bush calls it, will you come? If you come, will you stay? If you stay, will you work? Or are you above all those things just like you are above waiting in line or eating at Wendy's?

UPDATE: Donald Sensing has slightly different attendance numbers, but the point stands, and boy is it amusing.

Kerry the Diplomat

I can't find a transcript of the interview right now, but I saw a little bit of the Kerry-Edwards interview on Foxnews last night, and I have to say, the combination of arrogance and vapidness was really disconcerting. The bit I saw had the interviewer asking John Kerry some question like "How would you deal with Iraq/Iran/North Korea/something?" and Kerry responding something to the effect of, "Look, I'm not going to play my hand and negotiate a position while I'm not in power. I've dealt with these things before and worked with foreign leaders and I know what I'm doing."

Good God that's frightening. Not to mention disingenuous -- anyone remember which foreign leaders John Kerry most famously negotiated with? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Yep, that's right...the Viet Cong...while we were still, right or wrong, at war with them.

As has been noted by Ed Morrisey and Glenn and everyone, the whole "secret plan" thing sounds quite familiar, although in this case, it would be better that the secret plan involved staying the course than getting the hell out of Dodge.

War in the Future Tense

I've been meaning to write something very similar to this for a while and just haven't gotten the words in the proper order in my head. Hindrocket over at Powerline has though, so go read what he has to say. His point is this:

In the key paragraph of his acceptance speech, John Kerry said:

I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as President. Let there be no mistake: I will never hesitate to use force when it is required. Any attack will be met with a swift and certain response.

My question: What's with the future tense? We've already been attacked, repeatedly, and everything the Bush administration has done to combat terrorism since Sept. 11 is part of its "swift and certain response" to those attacks. Logically, Kerry's formulation seems to imply that, should he be elected, the terrorists will have a clean slate, and Kerry will await yet another attack before contemplating aggressive action against them. Otherwise, why the suggestion that he will be waiting for a new attack before launching a "swift and certain response"?

Read the whole thing.

Leadership and Creativity

I've been sitting here ruminating over different analogies to illustrate why it is that being a good (or at least decent) skipper of a swiftboat doesn't qualify you to run a country, and I'm coming back to two things: creativity and experience.

Ruminate with me:

Being a good instrumentalist doesn't qualify you to conduct. Sure, you know what it feels like to be conducted, and you've observed a good deal of it, but that doesn't make you qualified to stand up at the front and wave the baton and go bossing the brass around.

Being a good hockey player doesn't qualify you to run the NHL. Sure, you know the game, and you know the guys, and you know every play in the book, and you know exactly what it's like to be crosschecked into the boards by 215lbs of post-Soviet aggression, but that doesn't give you the business experience or managerial experience or personnel experience to run a league.

Being a decent follow-spot operator doesn't qualify you to be a technical director or scenic designer. Managing a McDonalds doesn't qualify you to head up the Marketing division. Etc.

The real thing that sets apart the leaders from the led, at least in terms of thought process, is creativity. The led follow orders or rules or guidelines or habits. The leaders have to invent their own path out of the air. A conductor has to have a vision for a piece in order to make it materialize. The head of the NHL has to decide which cities get teams and which don't, and keep 26ish highly competitive teams at peace, and make the public want to watch the skirmishes. The TD/SD has to see the production in their mind and create a lighting plot of the show so that the lighting designer can execute it. The McDonalds Marketer has to dream up an new way to get people to eat fatty foods, and the Manager has to make surly teenagers make the fatty foods. Etc.

The difference between being the Commander-in-Chief and being the Skipper is that one imagines and the other executes. Kerry, for all his nuance, has never had to imagine anything up. He was sent, not sending. And in fact, this is reflected in his slogan "Send me." I don't want to have to try to survive another "failure of imagination," I want a CIC who will think of big things and solve big problems and knows how to conduct the symphony, not just play second fiddle.

He Was a Nice Boy in a Suit...

...and he had a nametag and everything! This is a wonderful "Dear John" letter to Kerry. Enjoy.

Removing All Doubt

From an article on the terror alerts:

Some Democrats such as Howard Dean questioned the timing of the terror alert, noting it comes as Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) rides a surge of post-convention momentum.

Dean either drank the Kool-Aid this morning or has moved on to an obscure set of linguistic usages in which 'surge' means 'bus' and 'momentum' means 'exorbitantly priced gourmet box-lunches'.

Let's Get Regressive!

If the GOP can and will actually pull this off... The Dems would herniate something, but that wouldn't be a huge loss. Then again, we'd have to listen to Ben Affleck and Bill Clinton sit around and gripe about the government not taking enough of their money. Maybe give people the option of sending in an additional 40% of their income just for kicks and grins. The other logical things that would go with this would be a) privatized social security and b) the healthcare savings accounts. The GOP will need somewhat of a landslide for this, but that could happen. It would be cool.

UPDATE: Jeff, in the comments (where a thoughtful discussion is occuring, 300 words at a time) writes:

I did some reading about this a few hours ago for a post on my site. It turns out that the Bush administration has been paying very close attention to Russia's 13% flat-tax experiment for more than two years now and are impressed with what they've seen. (Growth rate of 10% over two years, 50% higher tax revenues over the same period.)

Furthermore, a 15% flat tax was a part of the preliminary post-war plan for Iraq. Paul Bremer signed it into law back when the CPA was still running the show, and it remains in place now with no sign of going away any time soon.

It seems like the Bush administration has been thinking "flat tax," or at the very least "massive tax reform," for some time now. I think this might be a part of the President's second-term legislative agenda.

It'd also be a fantastic campaign plank: get the Democrats to defend the IRS. Brilliant.

My opinion is that planks are made for walking, and I'd dearly love to see the Dems plunge to Davy Jones' locker over this one.

UPDATE UPDATE: In response to Abigail, and just to clarify my own position, I favor a flat tax rather than a sales tax for several reasons. First, keeping price perceptions low seems important for customer spending (in other words, if the price of my goods shoots up because of a sales tax, I'd be, at least at first, inclined to change my spending habits to conserve, not that that's an entirely bad thing). Second, if people's taxes become too incognito (or too low/nonexistant) it creates an apathy to the actions of government. My feeling is, impractical as this would be, I'd love to see all of an employee's payroll taxes deducted from his or her checks and put into an account to collect all year, and then turned over to the employee at tax time, just so he or she can sign the check for the lump sum, and feel the pain. People who don't feel the pain don't care when the government does moronic things and keep electing people who allocate money for such things. People who do feel it tend to rant about funding for NASA and the National Endowment for the Arts and such. Most of these people are Republicans.

Link Whorage!

The Watcher has his weekly offer of link whorage up and is looking for takers. If you have a post that you think is just golly-gee-willikers swell and you want people to come be amazed by your brilliance, follow this link and you will receive further instructions there. Just think -- fame, glory, traffic!

The Salute

I know I'm slightly behind on this, but while we're being nasty, this is what Kerry's salute reminded me of...



I miss Zorro being on the Disney Channel...

This ain't good

Considering that I'm moving to Manhattan on Friday, this is not at all reassuring.

Kerry's Defense Plans (shudder)

RTO Trainer goes through Michele's list of Kerry's defense promises and decimates them. One point that particularly stood out to me during the speech and annoys me now:

- End the military's heavy reliance on National Guard and military reservists.

RTO says:

Umm... Okay. How?

Actually, its not okay. Maybe I'm not typical, but I signed up to serve. If we're fighting a war I expect to be there. The lesson of Vietnam (didn't Kerry serve in Vietnam?) was that we had to make certain that the Guard and Reserve were involved in a future war. (Recommended Reading: On Strategy by COL (ret) Harry Summers) Mission accomplished there so now the obvious lesson is to undo that? I got some compelling reasons from COL Summers for the earlier decision, I'm going to need some for this one.

Ending the military's heavy reliance on some National Guard and Reserve specialites and units, that I can go for.

The Dems have a rather wicked little double standard going on as it pertains to the National Guard and Reserves. On the one hand, they should never be deployed, ever, unless perhaps Iran marches on Milwalkee, because if they're deployed, it's a "backdoor draft." On the other, they seem to think that the National Guard are practically deserters and dodgers if they don't get deployed, even though they are still Brave, which the Dems use like men use "Well, she has a good personality."

My personal feeling is that we aren't paying and training these guys to defend Michigan from Ohio, we're paying and training them to be ready and willing to go to war if and when we need them. I realize that is inconvenient, but nobody held a gun to their heads and forced them to enlist. If we need to revamp their benefits or something to compensate them more accurately for their service (I apply this everyone in the military) I say go for it, and I tell the part of my mind that is reminding me that Kerry voted against funding our troops to just simmer on down.

Incidentally, this argument applies to Kerry's "We're gonna add 40,000 troops but not deploy them, especially not to places they might be useful, and really especially not to Iraq because that would be crazytalk" plan. No sense in spending tax dollars to fund 40,000 guys who are going to sit around in the US. No sense enlisting guys who will have to sacrifice control and normal lives and civilian haircuts if they're not going to do the jobs they're hired and trained to do.

And another thing: Kerry says he'll, on his first day in office, "immediately reform intelligence gathering." There is exactly one way to immediately reform a government agency, and that's to cut all of its funding, and that's an option that applies to the Federal Department of Moss Management, not intelligence gathering. Besides that, I want rapid reform, but human intelligence seems to be the issue here, and that ain't built in a day. I see Kerry either a) breaking his promise or b) doing something half-cocked and half-assed that will do more harm than good.

RTO Trainer writes from Afghanistan, and has lots of interesting things to say, so just keep scrolling.

Kennedy Voters

Greyhawk from Mudville Gazette has, in the interest of restoring balance to the blogosphere, kindly provided a graphic for the anti-War folks, so they won't feel left out by the whole Eowyn Voters League thing.


Nice. Very Nice.

Bigger Things

I saw Spiderman 2 last night, and it had tons of good stuff about sacrifice and responsibility and courage and all that jazz. The one line that really popped out at me though was when Peter's friend Whats-His-Name was getting all bent out of shape that Peter wouldn't tell him Spiderman's identity and would choose to protect Spiderman rather than help him get revenge. At that point, Peter turned to him and said something to the effect of "There are bigger things going on here than the two of us," namely that Doc Oct was about to blow up New York.

I think this line would be well remembered by the Bush-haters/Anybody-But-Bush people. Bush is just trying to, literally, save the world in general, and the US in specific. The terrorists are, literally, trying to kill us all, although they are willing to settle for doing it in segments. There are bigger things than whether or not you approve of his pronunciation of "nuclear"going on here. There are bigger things than whether or not the French and Germans approve of our actions going on here. There are bigger things than gay marriage going on here than.

Far bigger things.

Bush in Springfield

The blog ate my post. So I'm redoing. I'm not happy. Anyway.

Bush's speech was very good this morning, and the whole experience was fun. We had to be there way early to go through the line and security and stuff, but it was an interesting place to people watch. We got to see the protesters, which the media said numbered in the hundreds, but I would say 40 is more accurate and 70 would be very very generous. Here's what I saw: The people on the hill and immediately in front of it are protesters, the people in the foreground facing towards the hill/left are Bush supporters.

The AP's choice protester quote is this:

“I’m so frightened about what’s happening to the country,” said Joan Wagnon, 72, of Springfield. She held a sign reading, “Don’t waive your rights while waving your flag.”

She's the khaki body on the right. Her face is obstructed by an operative from the Federal Moonbat Protection Program, Nasal Division. Babe, you're 72 and you live in Springfield, MO, which Al Qaeda is unlikely to target over places that are actually important. Furthermore, the chances of the Patriot Act being used to subpeona lists of the Harlequin Romances you have read recently are slim. You will not be drafted. Dubya gave you prescription drug benefits. He's not going to change social security for the people currently on it, and you'll be dead when it runs out. And very few white suburban grandmothers have been interned at Guantanmo. So what are you afraid of?
Some of the other protesters had completely incomprehensible signs. This one reads: "GWB Heroin of the Bami Air Wars" which may simply be to clever for my limited intellect. About 10,000 Springfieldians turned out, pretty good for a work day. It was nice to see that capitalism remained in effect.

Finally we got through security and into the stadium, and heard warm-up speeches from Jim Talent, Kit Bond, Roy Blunt, and various and sundry other Missouri politicians. The woman running for Secretary of State promised to "count every vote, count them only once, and make sure the votes only come from people who are alive and from people who are human. St. Louis is an interesting electoral creature.

And then Bush arrived, greeted like a rock star, accompanied by country music. He walked out with about four other men, one of whom looked a good deal like my friend Joe White. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that it was indeed Joe White, who is, in all honesty, perhaps the greatest human alive. He runs both Kanakuk Kamps (which I attended for 9 years and my brother does still), which reaches over 20,000 kids a summer and Kids Across America, which reaches thousands of inner city kids each summer, is a national speaker for Promise Keepers, plays football with the guys at Kamp, sends me graduation gifts, called my dad when he was sick last year, and knows me only as Mango, which was my camp nickname. A good man, that Joe White.

My mother and I had made a bet on what color tie Bush would be wearing, but we both lost, as he was wearing a windbreaker and blue button-down, which was a sensible fashion decision because it was cold and misting, and anyway, it's Springfield, MO and 9am -- no need to impress. (I didn't take this picture) We saw the guy put the seal on the front of the podium. Apparently it has its own little pouch. I want that job.

The text of Bush's remarks, with audience response, is here. It was a good speech and I recommend reading it all. He had a lot of specifics about what he is doing, which was a nice contrast to Kerry's speech last night, which mostly consisted of broad platitudes about things that he will do, instead of things he has done or is currently doing. As he hasn't really done anything to speak of in 19 years as a senator and has missed 90-odd percent of the votes in the past year, he simply doesn't have that much to talk about. Bush used a lot of present tense, and I like that. For example:

We have more to do to make America's public schools the centers of excellence we all know they can be, so that no child is left behind in America. When we came to office three-and-a-half years ago, too many of our children were being shuffled from grade to grade, year after year, without learning the basics. We're challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations. We've raised the bar. We're setting high standards. We're focusing on results. We're insisting on accountability. We're empowering parents. We're making sure local folks are in charge of schools. And, today, children across America are showing real, substantial progress in reading and math. (Applause.) When it comes to improving America's public schools, we are turning the corner and we're not turning back.

One of his main themes was that the world is changing. He applied the idea to several concepts, but the best part was this:

These are exciting times for our country. It's a time of amazing change. The economy is changing. The world is changing. In our parents' generation, moms usually stayed home while fathers worked for one company until retirement. The company provided health care, and training, and a pension. Many of the government programs and most basic systems, from health care to Social Security to the tax code were based, and still are based on those old assumptions.

This is a different world. Workers change jobs and careers frequently. Most of these jobs are created by small businesses. They can't afford to provide health care or pensions or training. Parents are working; they're not at home. We need to make sure government changes with the times, and to work for America's working families. You see, American workers need to own their own health care accounts. They need to own and manage their own pensions and retirement systems. (Applause). They need more ownership so they can take the benefits from job to job. They need flex-time so they can work out of the home.

All of these reforms are based on this conviction: The role of government is not to control or dominate the lives of our citizens. (Applause.) The role of government is to help our citizens gain the time and the tools to make their own choices and improve their own lives.

If he can pull this off, this is a great paradigm. I really like the idea of changing the way things are structured instead of making them bigger. It's like trying to get more processing power when you have one of the ancient supercomputers. You could just keep making it bigger, or you could redesign it to make it more efficent, to the point where what would once take up several city blocks is now sitting on my lap.

Bush also did a great job explaining the Bush Doctrine, and how exactly we have made progress in the past three years. he said:

We have more to do to wage and win the war against terror. America's future depends on our willingness to lead in the world. If America shows uncertainty and weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy. This will not happen on my watch. (Applause.) The world -- the world changed on a terrible September morning. And since that day, we changed the world.

Before September the 11th, Afghanistan served as the home base for al Qaeda, which trained and deployed thousands of killers and set up terror cells in dozens of countries, including our own. Today, Afghanistan is a rising democracy, an ally in the war on terror, a place where many young girls go to school for the first time. And as a result of our actions, America and the world are safer. (Applause.)

Before September the 11th, Pakistan was a safe transit point for terrorists. Today, Pakistani forces are aggressively helping to round up the terrorists, and America and the world are safer. (Applause.) Before September the 11th, in Saudi Arabia, terrorists were raising money and recruiting and operating with little opposition. Today, the Saudi government has taken the fight to al Qaeda, and America and the world are safer. (Applause.) Before September the 11th, Libya was spending millions to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

Today, because America and our allies have sent a strong and clear massage, the leader of Libya has abandoned his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and America and the world are safer.
[...]
In the long run, our security is not guaranteed by force, alone. We must work to change the conditions that give rise to terror: poverty and hopelessness and resentment. You see, a free and peaceful Iraq and a free and peaceful Afghanistan will be powerful examples to a neighborhood that needs the example of liberty. Free countries do not export terror. Free countries do not stifle the dreams of their citizens. By serving the ideal of liberty, we're bringing hope to others, and that makes America more secure. By being resolute and strong, by working for the ideal of liberty -- after four more years, America will be more secure and the world will be more peaceful.

That last bit convinces me that the Shrub from Crawford has a much clearer and more expansive vision than the Brahmin from Beacon Hill.

About Iraq and his decision to invade, he said:

Before September the 11th, the ruler of Iraq was a sworn enemy of America. He was defying the world. He was firing weapons at American pilots and forcing the world to sanctions. He has pursued and used weapons of mass destruction against his own people. He had harbored terrorists, he invaded his neighbors, he subsidized the families of suicide bombers. He had murdered tens of thousands of his own citizens. He was a source of great instability in the world's most vulnerable region.

I took those threats seriously. After September the 11th, we had to look at the threat in a new light. One of the lessons of September the 11th is we must deal with threats before they fully materialize. (Applause.)

The September the 11th Commission concluded that our institutions of government had failed to imagine the horror of that day. After September the 11th, we cannot fail to imagine that a brutal tyrant who hated America, who had ties to terror, had used weapons of mass destruction and might use those weapons or share his deadly capability with terrorists was not a threat.

We looked at the intelligence; we saw a threat. Members of the United States Congress from both political parties, including my opponent, looked at the intelligence and they saw a threat. (Applause.) We went to the United Nations, which unanimously demanded a full accounting of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs, or face serious consequences. After 12 years of defiance, he refused to comply with the demands of the free world. When he continued to deceive the weapons inspectors, I had a decision to make: to hope for the best and to trust the word of a madman and a tyrant, or remember the lessons of September the 11th and defend our country. Given that choice, I will defend America every time.

And that is why I will vote for him. I have great faith in a man who is willing to put his political career on the line to liberate two little sandy, rocky nations full of 50 million oppressed and forgotton people, I have great faith in a man who is willing to trust his judgement and make a decision to protect his people, and I have great faith in any man who hangs out with Joe White. Four More Years!

UPDATE: Deacon at Powerline has thoughts on Bush's Stump Speech. He says:

From the transcript, I'd say that , domestically, he's matching the Democrats promise for promise, while touting the job growth (1.5 million new jobs since last August) that has followed his tax cut. On values, it's all about marriage.

But it's when he discusses the war against terrorism that, in my estimation, Bush outshines Kerry. That's because he has a strong and unambiguous record.

I agree. The other major issue between their two stump speeches is delivery. Bush seemed at ease, happy to be there, and genuinely relatable and accessible, as much as one could be while surrounded by Secret Service and the like. I haven't seen Kerry in person, but he seems like a foreign-but-reasonably-fluent practitioner of, I don't know, American behavior or something. The other vibe I get from Kerry is "Ooh! Look at me! I'm important! Hey! Look at me! Don't you know who I am! I'm Important! Hey! Look at meeeeeeee!" Bush knows he's important. He knows he's powerful. On Bush, power and influence wears naturally. On Kerry, it looks like a little girl trying on her mothers make-up, jewelry and high heels (savor that mental picture...). In a lot of ways, Bush does remind me of Joe White -- yeah, Bush is the leader of the free world, but he'd also come over and help you deal with an ant problem in your kitchen or clear brush or go fishing with you. Kerry seems like the sort where you'd go to his mansion and sit in the parlor and you'd entertain yourselves by scolding the servants, and if you had an ant problem he might give you the name of his Insect Termination Consultant or send one of the servants, but unless he really wanted your vote, he's not the sort of guy you'd find in your crawlspace. Just my impression.

Sure You Can!

Go read this from LLama Butchers -- It's entitled "Who says you can't mix Tolkien and politics" and it's really quite amusing. So scamper on over. Then come back.

Bush!

I just got home from Bush's speech in Springfield. It was really very good, and I'll have more on it later, but I was up late last night and had to get up Very Early this morning to go see Bush speak (doors opened at 6:30) so I'm going to take a nap and then get right on that, so check back later and I'll have quotes and pictures and everything.

The Watcher's Council Speaks

This week's winning posts from the Watcher's Council. The full results are here.
The council post is Control Room by Patterico's Pontifications. The non-council post is Getting It Out by S-Train Canvas. They both come highly recommended. Go read.

I'm fisking. I'll try to get it done in an hour or so. Otherwise it may have to wait till tomorrow. We have to get up WAY early to go see Bush. General impression: It would have been hard to have less specifics while still using nouns. I'm not inspired.

UPDATE: No, I'm not. I'm going to watch Friends and relax. Man does not live on blog alone. Go read Rob Sama. He's good. Instapundit has a running thread too. Ed liveblogged. A good read.

Kerry's Speech

Lurch has entered the building. He's pressing the flesh. The Secret Service guys don't seem to be thrilled to be there. They just added the steps today so he could enter through the people. The vertical "KERRY" signs are reminiscent of highly magnified pictures of intestinal villi. He's there. There's chanting. The villi are excited. Leo DiCaprio is there. I'll be playing Cards # and #, but I have to look up the numbers in a minutes. I'll fisk the speech later, but for now, I'm just gonna have fun and yell obscinities "Reporting for duty."
Dad: I'm going to barf.
Mom: This is gonna be tough. Kerry: "I'm home again."
Katie, screaming: You've been home for 35 years!!
Mom: "If I had 'Home' on my card, I'd have Bingo by now."
JFK:"I was born in the West Wing."
Dad:"Hopefully this is the closest you're gonna get, buddy."

9:22 He accepts! He can't raise any more money! He can't raise any more money!

BINGO

Okay folks, post your card number here when you call BINGO. Feel free to go for a second BINGO, or play Blackout. Whatever works. Here we go!

Max

Now they're dragging out Max Cleland. This speech is brought to you by the word: "Patriotism." The crowd has red "MAX" signs. John Edwards applauds prettily.

Max is telling his story of when he met John Kerry. He was being airlifted out of Vietnam, John Kerry was heading to Vietnam. That doesn't actually tell us how they met. While Kerry was earning medals, Max was in the hospital. He resolved to make something of his life. Good for him. I support that.

I'm going to take a brief typing break till Kerry's speech. Blogging will be light because I'm gonna play Kerry Bingo!

Okay, Max is losing it. I didn't get a chance to get all that down, I'll update it later when the speech transcript is up. The gist seems to be that currently Bush is excluding people from education and destroying the environment.

"He looked at me with those long sad eyes and said 'I won't let you down.'" Max, we're electing a president, not buying a puppy. This man needs to write Harlequin Romances.

(500th Post)

Last Chance!

Get yer Bingo Cards. 15 more minutes!

The Kerry Video

Oh, here's the fabled Kerry video. Starts with lots of people talking. "A Remarkable Promise" The music is remenicsent of a slow version of the "Jurrasic Park" theme. Bio of the parents. Sister speaking. John speaking about the parents. He was 6'4". He was part of the "Electras" rock band. See yesterday's post on Edwards wife. "
"John went to Yale."
Who is this narrator?
"John chose to serve in Vietnam." Albeit not for very long.
Now John's narrating, and we have pensive string music. Now we have one or two of the few boatmates who are still speaking to him. Now we're seeing the swiftboat footage, and explosions. No Kerry in action yet. I'd like to know what video came from Kerry.

The music is "Come Holy Spirit Come," which is gorgeous. I never thought I'd hear THAT in a Dem video, but you couldn't really make out the words, so I guess it's okay...yeah... Video of Kerry walking past camera in gear, with soldeirs behind him. He came home to fight against the war, became an activist. Testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His pow-wows with the Viet Cong are not mentioned. Nor is the discredited Winter Solder investigation.

He went to congress. He commuted home to be with his family. He tried to be a good senator. Will we hear about the legistlation he proposed? No. There isn't any to speak of.

He married Teresa Heinz. The first wife has been forgotten, apparently. This is definately the Botoxed John.

Now we're hearing Teresa's story. "Being an American is something I have to work every day to deserve." Everyone deserves the liberties we have, that's what the Declaration of Independance says. And Dubya's trying to bring those liberties to people around the world.

Dad says: "I think I'm going to be sick!." Dead air. People are chanting. Quick -- somebody sing something.

Now we are seeing the "John went to the funerals of some firefighters" video again.

Now we have the members from Kerry's swiftboat. You'll notice that there aren't that many of them, and they're not even all from Kerry's boat, only the first four are. It's a bit disingenuous, because they make it seem like those guys all served on John's boat, but they kept calling out different boat names. Only about 4 were from John's boat. I'd love to have all 200+ members of Swiftboat Veterans for Truth at the GOP convention.

Heinz-Kerry Kids

Andre is up. His step-dad is a sportsman, a public servant, loving person etc. Andre sounds a) very formal and b) vaguely British.
Now Chris is standing around with him.

Now the Kerry girls are up. Both of their dresses are opaque. The red daughter wandered off. That may have been Vanessa. Or Alex. "As someone who knows all 6'4" of my dad best." I was hoping that Teresa knew all 6'4" of him best, but some families are different. I thought most of those of those families lived in Arkansas, but apparently not.

Shocking developments: John laughs, is sad, and hugs his children. He also embarrasses them at times. "He and our mother have given us great gifts." Well they'd better have, what with a net worth of upwards of a billion dollars. "He had the courage to take risks (cough) Our house..." Right, cuz Teresa couldn't have wiped out that mortgage with a weeks worth of interest on her fortune.

"My grandmother was ailing, she loved the autumn, and we wanted to bring her some foliage."
This speech is brought to you by: Webster's Thesaurus

Apparently that was Vanessa. This is Alex. She's going to tell a silly story. The hamster fell in the pond and was going to drown. Kerry fished the hamster out and began to administer CPR. Well, that will win him the rodent vote. I'm still not convinced of why that qualifies him to be president.

Alex is giving the speech Teresa should have. She's good.

More on the Music

Now they're dancing in a semi-coordinated way to the "John Kerry's Tryin' to Make A Difference" song. They seem to also have the lyrics on the big screen. The dance seems to be somewhere between John-Travolta-in-Saturday-Night-Fever and Taibo. "The Real Deal keeps on flyin',
John Kerry Keeps on tryin',
Tryin' to make a difference."

Please God don't ever make me listen to that song again.

They play this goofy wash under all the quotes. This is like watching the Disco/Motown rounds of American Idol, but without the joy that is Simon. Or Clay Aiken.

As I said, if I were planning the GOP convention, I'd go for Copeland, Sousa, etc. Gravitas. "We have experience, we can kick terrorist butt while increasing our portfolio, and we don't boogie." That is the GOP motto.

Willie and Maddy and Alfrie

Here's Willie Nelson with a blue-robed gospel choir singing "Livin' in A Promised Land." I can see the teleprompter. Shouldn't he know the lyrics by now. People are waving their flags whimsically. They've chosen to shine blue lights on the blue-robed people. They look like African-American Smurfs. I reiterate my contention that Democrats have no rhythm. I suspect that GOP doesn't either. As far as I can tell, the choir was there to sing the final chord.

Madeline Albright is up. When I was in high school, all the girls on my debate team thought Madeline Albright was all that and a bowl of granola. Good God, what happened to her hair. I am no longer in awe. She starts that 40 year ago she voted for a senator from Mass. Translation: I am old.

She has known Kerry for 20 years, and is looking forward to him being president. In this time of danger, she wants someone who will keep Amerca strong secure and safe, and will lead in the tradition of Roosevelt Truman and Eisenhower, the greatest generation folks. Translation: I am old, but better than you.

The past few years we've seen a new enemy arise: Terrorism.
Good call, Maddy. Our adversaries have nothing to offer their followers except hatred and death. I assume she means the terrorists.

John Kerry will mobilize the full arsenal of American power.
When? When Manhattan is rubble? Or before? That seems important.

"He will use intelligence to shape policy, not twist intelligence to justify policy."
Even Egypt and Jordan warned us that Iraq had WMDs and would use them.

He will stop the spread of the worlds most dangerous weapons by concentrating on where they are, not where they are not.
So we'll be attacking Iran and Syria with (shudders to type it) President Kerry?

He will not seek a truce, settle for surrender nor accept a stalemate. We will persist until we prevail.

Now some believe our country should never take action without permission. John Kerry will seek to explain and strive to gain support. If I recall correctly, Bush kept going back to the UN to explain himself.

"We must help with the dangers that most threaten them. John Kerry will do whatever it take s to defend America whether it's approved by other nations or not." Even though he did say he wouldn't send out American troops without UN permission. That seems like seeking approval. Do you really think that Saddam would be in custody right now if Kerry was president? No, I don't either.

Never ducked a fight, gone missing in battle, left a buddy behind. Whatcha trying to say, Maddy?

"He will be ready on day one, John Kerry has always been a warrior for truth and right." I beg to differ.

Madeline is gunning for Rummy's job. That's all there is to it.

Now we hear her tale of immigrating. What on earth is that pin she's wearing? It looks like a small, gilded bat. I'm guessing it's an eagle, but man, it's ugly.

Here's the "Uniter, not a Divider" shtick again. Gag me.

"This November, we can alter the course of history by giving John Kerry and John Edwards a huge mandate to restore America to it's proper place as a beacon of truth and as the land we all love.
Go read Iraq the Model and get back to me.

Some Young Person says John Kerry will "Represent the United States as a place that will accept the ideals of all people."
Does that include terrorist people? French people who hate Americans? I don't want that.

Alfrie Woodard is up. I don't care. "John Kerry understands that being stronger at home means standing up for ordinary Americans."
Often standing up in front of them because he can't be bothered to stand in line.

A farmer from Kentukey is speaking. She supports John Kerry. Her voice needs WD-40. "He shares our values: hard work, faithfulness, and trust."
Hard work: Marrying Heiresses. Faithfulness: Divorcing/Annulling one. Trust: pick your own flip-flop.

Carol King's up, singing "You've Got a Friend."
Mom says, "And I used to love that song."
Carol: "We're here to honor a proven leader and a friend to all Americans."
Mom: "Oh don't spoil the song!"

The background music here SUCKS.

Kerry Bingo Reminder

If you haven't gotten your Kerry Bingo cards yet, be sure to get them before Thursday night so you can play along. Good luck!

(UPDATE 7/28) I just added a special new card. Go check it out.

(UPDATE 7/29) Kerry Bingo is TONIGHT! I'll be posting a comment thread which you can use to call Bingo there and linking it here and at the original post. Be there!

The Edwardses

First up, Cate Edwards. What's up with the hair and outfit? Not my favorite.

This is John Edward's daughter, who is slightly older than me. She is doing what Teresa should have done last night. She's doing the "Gee, my mom is swell" routine, and then the "my dad is the most magnificent human since Jesus" routine. She's human, she's personable, she seems like the sort of person I could be friends with as long as she didn't find out I was a Republican (which is, shockingly possible.)

Alright, the choreographed signs are kinda creepy. They all have Elizabeth signs now. She's speaking. Not the best dress for her either.

Now we're going to to end the injustice of Two Americas. See post re: Obama.

Elizabeth is taking about how John Kerry is like her father. It's almost Electra-ish.

John was Santa Claus to poor kids. He coached young people's teams. This qualifies him to be the President of the PTA, not one breath away from the Presidency of the United States. As Bush said when asked what the difference between Cheney and Edwards is, "Dick Cheney can be President."

Apparently John Edwards is optimistic. This is still much better than Teresa. The vertical, red Edwards signs are vaguely remenicent of Red China. Or a bed of anemones.

Now here comes John. It's like Vice President Ken Doll. John Edwards has a mole on his upper lip, marring his fabled beauty. Personally, I'd take Bush-in-a-flight-suit any day. This speech is brought to you by the word, "smarmy."

He asked "How great was Teresa Heinz Kerry last night?" Not at all.

John's parents are here. Even THEY don't look that old. There's an abnormally large adolescent sitting behing them. Not a big guy, the perspective's just wrong.

"I want to talk" (chanting) "about our next president. For those who want to know what kind of leader he'll be, let me take you back about 30 years ago. He graduated from college and volunteered for the military yadda yadda yadda."
Once again, we're getting into the piccolo/conductor problem. Or rather, piccolo/composer problem. Whole different kettle of fish. Did Edwards just say that "Your problems are [Kerry's] problems"? Right... Kerry doesn't have student loans and I'm not henpecked. We have different problems.

Aren't we sick of relentless negative attacks? As opposed to those positive attacks? "This is America, where everything is possible." No it's not, you ninny.

John Edwards loves his country. His father was a millworker. Other millworkers had lint in their hair. Now little Johnny is able to afford hair care products, but he still remembers the linty masses.

He has spent his life fighting for the linty masses. The fact that he became a millionaire using junk science and helped drive up insurance and health care costs is not mentioned.

Now he's riding the Two Americas bit. He's preaching that everyone can be a part of an equal America, essentially. George Orwell to the Farmhouse, George Orwell to the Farmhouse. Now he seems to be abolishing private schools, or at least saying that everyone's schools should be equally good. Do his kids go to private schools?

"Two different economies -- people who are set for life and people who live paycheck to paycheck."
So we just abolished the middle class.

"Gonna get rid of tax breaks for companies that outsource."
Teresa's gonna be pissed.

"We're going to reward work, not just wealth.: Then how about you actually reward work? Like by letting the people that work for the money KEEP the money.

"So now we're gonna pay for healthcare. And a tax break if your kid is the first in the family to go to college."

"How are we going to pay for this? He's going to pay for it by hiking takes on 2% of Americans and close corporate loopholes."
And somehow create high-paying jobs. Which corporate loopholes. And where are the companies going to get the money to pay these employees?

We have children going to bed hungry, without clothes, etc. There are not that many of those. I don't feel like finding them right now, but the standard of living for the American poor is much higher than the standard of living for average Americans 50 years ago, and is still better than for average people in most of Europe.

"Raise the minimum wage."
Or we could just print more money. Then everyone would be rich. My tunnels are carping.

"Say no forever to any American working full time and living in poverty."
You know, encouraging marriage would be a good start for that. Marriage almost automatically lifts people from poverty.

Why we need One America -- he saw segregation growing up. That doesn't explain why the money I earn should be redistributed. We should talk about race and civil rights everywhere. Would you talk about it in a box? Would you talk about it with a fox? He's talking about two different Two Americas.

Now we're at war, so we gotta be One America. "As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee..." (more on that later -- not tonight)

"When John is President, we will listen to the wisdom of the 9/11 commission." When George in, that definately won't happen.

Edwards did the "You cannot run, you cannot hide, we will destroy you" bit. I can't see Osama trembling in his boots over this.
We're back to harping on Vietnam. Bingo Card #13 is sounding like a good bet.

Veterans benefits -- I support those.

We're stretched thin. There are brave people fighting in Iraq. Did I mention the Kerry was brave?

"Restore respect in the world, bring allies to us. It's how we won the Cold war, it's how we won two World Wars."
No, dear, it isn't. We won the Cold War by arms-racing the USSR into bankrupcy and the only way in which our allies came to us in WWII was in that "Help, help, we're being blitzkreiged!" sort of way. We were isolationists then, John. We didn't build broad coalitions because we didn't need them.

We'll be safer if America's looked up to and respected. If we are respected in the world, apparently we can then bring the soldiers home. Interesting. I don't understand that causal relationship.

"Hope is on the way." Oh good grief, they have "Hope is on the way" signs. They're like a weird flag corps. I'd never seen Edwards in action before. He seems like someone who Hollywood cast to portray a young southern politician. He's a bit shifty. And he blinks a lot.

Praise God, he's done. His kids are cute.

(Song: "You can feel it all over." That would have been a good song for Clinton...
Man, I hope the GOP raids the Copeland catalog and acts like grownups. )

Switching to C-SPAN

Ed Rendall is currently railing on about energy independence.

"John Kerry will free us from the Tyrrany of Foreign Oil. And he has a plan. 1) To bring down fuel cost, he will do whatever it takes to bring natural gas in abundant supply and at low prices. His speeches seem to be the implicit source."

Ed says, "John wil roll up his sleeves and scrub coal," or something similar.
And then he will be the first into the line of fire. The Secret Service is gonna have fun with this guy.

Ed says, "we will become world leader in clean coal economy."
As Den Beste notes, that is a goal, it is not a plan.

Ed's listing states, trying to get applause, it's not working. When your big cheer delegation is West Virginia, it's not going well.

"Moving towards energy independance means creating more jobs. Lots of people are driving hybrids, and staying on waiting lists. They're being made in Japan. John Kerry will give tax incentives for Detroit to build them, and give us tax credits to buy it."

"He's going to boost demand for renewable, and make America leading producer of renewables."
Good luck.

"If I use less power, the bill will go down. That's how Kerry will cut the federal energy bill, and help everyone else do the same thing."
This doesn't make sense to me either. Magic must be involved.

"John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independance, John Kerry will declared energy independence."

Here's a nifty idea -- while we're doing the voodoo required to make those things happen, why don't we drill in ANWR and build some refineries. Then we can do what we need to do.

John Mellencamp is playing. Democrats do not seem to have an exceptional sense of rhythm. Singing about his Small Town. For reference, the number of small towns that vote Democratic is, well, small.

Bill's proud to be the first Hispanic to be the chair of the convention. He's speaking spanish, taking about how the latino community is proud and strong. He says with opportunity comes with responsibility. He's trying to get the vote out, and says, "Nuestro voto es nuestro voz." "Bill Clinton led our nation and the world to an era of unprecidented peace and prosperity."
NEWSFLASH: did you know that John Kerry enlisted in the Navy as a young man?

"Our strenght as measured by our standing in the world. We are on our own in a dangerous world. We pursue the enemies of civilization with few partners. It's time for John Kerry."
Hogwash.

"Just four years algo, I was able to go anywhere in the world and get them to do things. Now I can't. I was able to unite the security council around American interests."
Did it ever occur to you that our interests and their interests happened to coincide at that point but they don't now?

Now we're into the "We're going it alone" garbage. Do you think we don't have Google, Bill? Good grief.

Granholm's up. She can't be president, she's Canadian. Just wanted to get that out of the way. I didn't vote for her, by the way.

"231 years ago, Boston was abuzz with the sound or rebellion."
This is about the Tea Party. Liberal use of tea puns: brewed, steeped, etc. The founding fathers must be spinning in their graves at the moment. "

Let us launch the rebellion to choose a new president: John Kerry."
Gag me. These guys don't have the cojones to launch a real rebellion. Those guys are a) in the White House and b) in Iraq.

"We are here to nominate John Kerry to be the next president of the United States."
OH! That explains it!
I know Granholm's aunt. She's loopy too.

"So-called recovery."
Bite me.

"Americans are being financially squeezed."
[Insert "Americans who are squeezed"/Clinton joke here.] Didja ever think that taxes might have something to do with it?

"Who will stand up for small business owners?"
It sure ain't you, babe. And it ain't Kerry either. When was the last time he stood up for anything. Go look, I'll wait here.

"I'm the governor of Michigan, a state of hard work and innovation."
As opposed to the rest of you slackers.

"Health care is part of John Kerry's plan to help small businesses and create 10 Million jobs"
(Mom says: "Do we need 10 million new jobs?) Like hell it will. Just like it does in Europe and Canada, where, Jenny, I note you don't live. Now we're back to that "Send Me" bit.

"Let us wake up our neighbors."
I'm grouchy when awakened, and liable to bite.

"Kerry our nation forward."
I like puns, but not on my governors. Yeesh.

Now they're recognizing Dukakis. And chanting. Somewhere, Karl Rove is doing the happy dance.

Now we have the John Kerry, loyal friend and brother. It's about firefighters, specifically some fire that went wrong. There is scary music. John Kerry comforted them. He attended a funeral. He was very human.

So there we have the qualifications:
1) he fought in Vietnam
2) He attended a funeral for some firefighters who were his constituants.

Some lady in New Hampshire says that she wants Kerry so "All of our children will find jobs for which they are highly qualified and which they enjoy."
The McDonalds Corporation is not going to be pleased. Since when is employment, let alone employment in your area of qualification and enjoyment a right? Lots of people don't enjoy their jobs. Deal. I've done a number of jobs for which I am over qualified and that I didn't enjoy. And that was okay.

A Colorado Vietnam vet says: "Combat experience and knowledge are the qualities that are required for a Commander-In-Chief."
Ding ding WRONG. That's like saying that excellent piccolo skills are the essential quality of a symphonic conductor. Not even slightly.

Oh God, it's "We Are Family" again. Overweight Dems boogying while wearing funny hats. Also Triumph the Insult Dog.

John Somethingunpronouncable is speaking. I'm taking a break till Cate Edwards.

Watching Al So You Don't Have To

Al is yelling. Apparently the our freedoms are at stake. Al is convinced that ...oh, I don't know what he's saying. A little dynamic range would do him good. Bring back Obama. Please...

UPDATE: samaBlog apparently does have something intelligent to say. Go read him.

A thought from last night: The Dems gave Ron Reagan, what, 20 minutes to go on about stem cells during primetime. There's a war going on and we're worried about stem cells? I mean, sure, they're a good thing, but people!

Dick Morris -- "Kerry was nuts to put his wife on Tuesday night. She can't handle that kind of scrutiny. "Kerry didn't have a choice, not within the Democratic party, but within the Kerry household. "

Does it bother anyone else that Kerry doesn't make the calls for his family? Because if he doesn't make the calls for his family, do you think he's going to get to actually run the country? And does Teresa seem qualified to run it? Not to me she doesn't.

"People don't want a leiutenant for their president, just like they don't want a firefighter. They respect that he was a good firefighter, they respect that he was a good leiutenant, but the American people want a general and a leader."

The Church of The Democrats

The Conventional Wisdom is that one of the main differences between the parties is religion (the GOP has it, the Dems don't). I would argue that the GOP has religion, but the Dems are one. Don't believe me? What's the first thing you need for a religion? You need a Messiah. Exhibit A:

As I've traveled America, I've seen that strength. I've seen it in the people I've met and their desire to take our country back for the American people. I saw it in a college student in Pennsylvania who sold her bicycle and sent us a check for $100 with a note that said, "I sold my bicycle for democracy." I saw it in a woman from Iowa who handed me $50-all in quarters. She saved it from her monthly disability check, because she wanted to make America well again. And I saw it in the 19-year-old from Alabama who had never been involved in politics before he got in his car and drove up to Vermont, because he didn't feel like he was being heard in Washington.

For reference, the Bible says:

Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
(Mark 10:21)

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."
(Mark 12:40-44)

Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
(Matthew 16:24)

What else do you need? You need faith. And John has faith -- he believes:

"John believes that we can, and we will, give every family and every child access to affordable health care, a good education, and the tools to become self-reliant."

"With John Kerry as president, we can, and we will, protect our nation's security without sacrificing our civil liberties. In short, John believes we can, and we must, lead in the world - as America, unique among nations, always should - by showing the face, not of our fears, but of our hopes."

"John believes in a bright future. He believes we can, and we will, invent the technologies, new materials, and conservation methods of the future. He believes that alternative fuels will guarantee that not only will no American boy or girl go to war because of our dependence on foreign oil, but also that our economy will forever become independent of this need."

"He believes that our voices - yours and mine - must be the voices of freedom. And if we do not speak, neither does she."
-- Teresa

Jesus said, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."(Matthew 17:20)

And finally, you need miracles. John Kerry will give 'em to ya.

"With John Kerry as president, global climate change and other threats to the health of our planet will begin to be reversed."

"We can, and we will, create good, competitive, and sustainable jobs while still protecting the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the health of our children, because good environmental policy is good economics."

"Today, the better angels of our nature are just waiting to be summoned. We only require a leader who is willing to call on them, a leader willing to draw again on the mystic chords of our national memory and remind us of all that we, as a people, everyday leaders, can do; of all that we as a nation stand for and of all the immense possibility that still lies ahead."

"John Kerry will give us back our faith in America. He will restore our faith in ourselves and in the sense of limitless opportunity that has always been America's gift to the world."

Hallelujah.

Walking the Plank

Tasty Morsels in today's OpinionJournal -- They seem to have located at least one plank of the Democratic platform. OJ says:

Hold on right there. In the scavenger hunt for any substantive Democratic foreign policy, we have found the platform's main plank. President Bush has caused us to "walk away from our allies" (there are a few allies out there, such as our new pal, Moammar Gadhafi, where I'd suggest: Don't walk--run. But we'll get to that). And that, so far, has been pretty much the sum total of Democratic foreign policy offered up for this election. The rallying cry for Mr. Kerry is that the Bush administration has engaged in a crusade of ally-alienating, away-pushing, bridge-burning pre-emptive war on two of the world's worst terrorist-sponsoring tyrannies, and only John Kerry can now re-unite us, in fluent French, no less, with the likes of Jacques Chirac.

Previously it was surmised that the Dems were rocking along to the Oldies on their Air Platform, but apparently, it has a plank! Let us rush to the polls! (I was awakened abnormally early this morning for inadequate reasons. I'm a bit punchy.) They then go through many of the major countries of the world and examine how we've "burned bridges" with them. It's a good read, so go read it. What it comes down to:

Let's get to the real point. George Bush has deeply irritated France. That would be more distressing were it not for the memory that the last time the French resented America this much was in the mid-1980s. That was when President Ronald Reagan was more intent on winning the Cold War than pleasing the Elysee. And you know what? We won.

No thanks to you, Mr. Carter.

The real point is that the world is in fact too big and complicated a place to be simply all about America, and whether we're hated or loved. There are at least 190 other governments out there, dozens of them dictatorships we probably shouldn't try to please, and some of them democracies in which politicians, believe it or not, have agendas that may well differ from Washington's. It's an interesting notion, that we can make friends, influence nations and win the war on terror by relying on John Kerry's social skills. But it would be lot more comforting to hear the Democrats touting the virtues of principle.

The Democrats have become the Party of Popularity, which would explain their support in Hollywood and possibly New York, to some extent. You know that "if the world were only 100 people" thing that goes around on email and dorm bulliten boards? Not all those 100 people would like each other. They wouldn't all have the same agenda. They wouldn't always agree. Anyone who has ever tried to get 5 people to agree on a restaurant can tell you that. It's asinine to demand that we get all the nations of the world to sing in perfect harmony before we take action. There's just not enough Coke for that.

Children, Go Where I Send Thee

I think the point at which the Moore/O'Reilly slugfest jumped the shark (aside from when Michael Moore walked in with a State hat on and started talking) was when Moore tried to get Bill O'Reilly to offer to sacrifice his son (does he have one? I don't think so...) to secure Fallujah or something. This is an idiotic line of questioning for so many reasons, but I'll only flog two.

First off, parents send their children to elementary school. They do not send their children to secure Fallujah. Brave young men and women enlist themselves in the Army once they reach the age of 18, which is the legal age of consent/adulthood/majority, after which time the parent doesn't have authority to send the child anywhere. When they enlist, they give control of their own destinies, as it were, to their branch of the military, which then sends them where they need them. I have a friend who up and joined the Marines over much opposition from his parents. He's in Iraq right now, sent there by a) the USMC and b) his choice to join USMC. Bill O'Reilly answered the question as best he could, saying that he's sacrifice himself to secure Iraq. Moore pointed out that he's too old, but besides being too old, Bill was simply speaking for the only person for whom he has the right to enlist. George Bush (or any Commander-in-Chief) has the power to order men into battle and likely-death situations, which is why we are very careful about who we pick as President. Parents cannot order soldiers into battle and which is why it's okayish that parenting has a much lower threshold of qualification.
The only acceptable instance of a father sending his son into battle to die was Jesus, and even that was consentual.

Second. It may be an emotionally powerful argument, but making decisions by the "send your kids to die" method is asinine. If you asked 400,000 WWII era families "Would you send your children to die to liberate Jews and Poles and the French," you'd probably get a lot of "no" votes, and Hitler would've lived to a ripe old age. The better question is, "With the knowledge that soldiers will lose their lives, should the Jews/Poles/French/Afghans/Iraqis be liberated?"

But Michael Moore has lost all touch with reality and reason, so really, why bother?

Fun with Photoshop

Llamabutchers has a great new Kerry-Edwards campaign poster, based on Jimmy Carter's speech.

Also, Aaron has a Teresa/Evita picture up. Go look at both.

I've been offered one of the open spots on the Watcher's Council! Yay!

This week's posts are up here.

Teddy Keddy Sez:

"How could any President have possibly squandered the enormous goodwill that flowed to America from across the world after September 11th?
Most of the world still knows what we can be -- what only we can be -- and they want us to be that nation again."

Oh right. The rest of the world has our best interest in mind. If you buy that, I have a bridge to sell you.

The Panel Speaks

Sam Donaldson says: I didn't understand why they gave Teresa Heinz Kerry the featured speech on one of the four precious nights, and after her speech, I still don't get it. She was supposed to give a window into John Kerry's soul, but it was mostly a window into Teresa. [...] By the end, I expected her to burst into "Don't Cry For Me Argentina."

One of the other FoxGuys says something to the effect of "If she says in a time of war that the best face of America is a Peace Corps volunteer seems a little off kilter and seems to belittle the contributions of the fighting people." He also noted that she said nothing about John Kerry, the man.

Fred Barnes describes it as eccentric, bizarre, and self-indulgent. He notes that it is the first time a candidate's wife has gotten the primetime and will probably be the last.

Blogging Teresa

Ooh, she's gonna speak in five languages. That makes me want to vote for her husband. Maybe I'll blog in four languages, although I don't have Greek and Japanese fonts, and I don't feel like transliterating. Su hijo Chris habla ahora. No creo que el es muy guapo. "Mama, te amo," dijo. Es muy raro que la familia Heinz habla sobre el muerto padre como el esta viviendo.

Here she is. Invoking that father again. Creepy. I think she's on valium. Now she's speaking to the spanish, french, italians, brazilians and the continental africans. What about the Greeks? Stous ellinikous tis Amerikis?

Shocker! She's not from this country. Man, she may be a real livewire, but she's putting me to sleep. (Mom thinks she's had plastic surgery.) She looks like she's falling asleep.

She's going on about having grown up under a dictatorship. Ma'am, if you had grown up under the Iraqi dictatorship and John was president, you'd still be.

OH! She started this section well, saying that she's labeled opinionated and that she hopes that the women of the world will be called smart and informed instead of opinionated. How about "I hope women won't be beaten, killed, and mutilated by the psycho Islamist men in their lives." The other is cosmetic. She wants to free the women of the world, but doesn't mention the women of Afghanistan or who liberated them.

Now she's bashing Americans? Or not? It sounded like she was knocking us for a minute, apparently not. She just said we'd do something from Iowa to California, presumably representing coastal boundaries. (Mom says: "This is hard to follow -- she's jumping around."

She says John believes in a bright future, and believes that technologies will be invented. I refer you to Den Beste on that one. John can believe it all day long, but without, say, a plan and feasibility, the magic ain't gonna happen.

"John believes we will give everyone affordable healthcare." Well then. And they say the Republicans are the faith-based party. "Working to give parents more opportunities with their children." What the heck does that mean? "John Kerry will protect our nation's security without sacrificing our civil liberties." Once again, apparently some voodoo happens somewhere in there. "John earned his medals the old fashioned way, by putting his life on the line for the country." Is she insinuating that the current soldiers are earning theirs through backgammon? "He will always be first in the line for fire." Well that's dumb. I don't think the Secret Service will stand for that.

"When John Kerry is president, global climate change will begin to be reversed." And the lion will lay down with the lamb and we will beat our swords into plowshares, whatever those are. "John Kerry will return the nation to its moral bearings." (Mom: "Oh for God's sake!" She's holding her face in her hands.)

Now she's quoting Lincoln and talking about our mutual affection and the better angels of our nature, which are waiting to be summoned, we only require a leader who is willing to call on them, a leader willing to summon the mystical cords of our national memory." Once again, I find Bush's faith less creepy than a guy who's summoning better angels and mystical cords. (Music choice: "Shout" -- I'm glad they didn't play "We are Family" again, although it would have been appropriate for Teresa, not Howie." I predict that the Democrats-with-signs Boogie will not be the next national dance craze.)

It's Not About You

Rich Lowry, in response to Clinton's speech last night:

Mr. President, you said Bush cut your taxes. Have you paused to think that maybe the tax cuts, like at least a few other things in life, aren't about you personally?

That goes for you too, Mr. Affleck. Just because you make millions a year and got a tax cut doesn't mean that everyone does. Lots of people who got the tax cuts are just normal people who use it for normal things building porches.

The whole letter is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Scamper on over.

(via Physics Geek, who goes on my blogroll tonight)

My mother's comments on Ron Reagan's speech

Regarding his exhortation that we "vote for embryonic stem cell research," my mother replied, "I wasn't aware stem cell research was running..."

She also noted the Reagan spoke as though he had the cure in his back pocket, what does he need research money for? He made it sound like "Vote, and we'll cure it by Christmas" instead of being in the beginning stages.

My thought: We all know, even if he doesn't, that he's only there to put the Reagan stamp on the DNC. They'd let him give recipes for quiche from the dias if that would get him up there.

Paging Mr. Rove

Via Instapundit: David Hines writes:

Suggested TV commercial:

FADE IN: on Ted Kennedy, on the podium, partway through his garbled
convention speech, as he delivers the line, "The only thing we have to
fear is four more years of George W. Bush!"

CUT TO: New York City skyline. The old one. With the World Trade
Center.

TITLE/ANNOUNCER: Really?

Exactly. FDR Teddy ain't.

N.Z. Bear has a beautiful anti-Teddy snark. It reminds me of two precious Ann Coulter comments in regards to Teddy. First:

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said: "The administration had a plan to fight the war, but it had no plan to win the peace." Kennedy's idea of "a plan" consists of choosing a designated driver before heading out for the evening.

And second:

Among Bush's "many unworthy judicial nominees," the Times said, Brown is "among the very worst" – more "out of the mainstream" than all the rest! Even Teddy Kennedy, who might be well advised to withhold comment on a woman's position relative to a moving body of water, has described Brown as "out of the mainstream," adding, "Let's just hope this one can swim."

Watching the Convention II

Obama (who the heck is that? he's doing well though...) is talking about how we aren't red states and blue states, Republicans and Democrats, etc, we are one United States of America. John Edwards must be backstage, swearing prettily.

UPDATE: Whoever he is, I hope he overthows Jesse and Al's claim to leadership of the fabled black community. He's good. He's misguided, but good. Kinda like Ben Affleck. The cheesy black-gospel music with lyrics "we are one country" (I think) is wretched.

Watching the Convention

7:03 Did Ben Affleck just describe himself as middle-class on the Factor? He comes off as moderate and intellegent though. Not as much of a lefty-ditz as you'd think. He's a gun supporter, amazingly. And doesn't hate Bush. And managed to have a good, friendly conversation with O'Reilly. He says he respects the president, even if he doesn't agree. Alright, I can respect that. His facts are a little funny, but he'll do.

7:11 Oh Lord -- coming up: O'Reilly vs. Michael Moore. I cannot handle that. I will have to go away.

7:24 Just saw the excerpt from Kennedy. He says something to the effect of "the Bush Administration has bred nothing but fear. Fear of cuts to social security, fear of additional pollution, fear of greater unemployment, fear of rising health care costs, and most of all, fear of another four years of George W Bush."
Conspicuously absent is...oh, I don't know...terrorism? That's what scares me...

(UPDATE: What he actually said was:

John is a war hero who understands that America's strength comes from many sources -- especially the power of our ideas. He knows that a true leader inspires hope and vanquishes fear.

This administration does neither. Instead it brings fear. Fear of rising costs for health care and for college -- fear of higher unemployment and lesser pay -- fear for the future of Social Security and Medicare -- fear of greater bigotry -- fear of pollution's stain on our magnificent natural heritage -- fear of four more years of dreams denied and promises unfulfilled and progressed rolled back.

In the depths of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt inspired the nation when he said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Today, we say the only thing we have to fear is four more years of George Bush.

...And being assigned to your carpool, Teddy.)

7:38 Michael Moore is a) a moron and b) wearing a Michigan State hat. I hate him already. O'Reilly is trying to get him to grasp the concept of being wrong versus lying. Now he says that Bush is pathological, because Bush thought it was true. Good God, people I respect think this man is a genius? This kills me. O'Reilly asked him what he would do if he was President and recieved overwhelming information that Saddam had WMDs. Michael Moore said that he would have known that the information was false. Michael Moore seems to only have hindsight capacities, which is a nice way of saying he's looking out his ass.

"Over 900 of our brave soldiers are dead, what do you say to their parents?" Michael Moore is trying to get Bill O'Reilly to sacrifice his children. He seems to have a belief that we're still in the 1500s and that parents can actually enlist their children. Which they can't. I'm going to restrain my language, as this is a family blog, but it's hard.

O'Reilly: "You wouldn't have invaded Afghanistan?"
Moore: "I would have gone after the man who killed 3000 of our citizens"
...who was in Afghanistan, you baboon.

Michael Moore says he wouldn't have let Hitler come to power. Impressive. Hindsight is a handy thing.

Howard Dean is going to speak soon. This should be...precious.

8:00 Newt Gingrich says "If those three guys [Clinton, Gore, Carter] are describing strength, you know you don't want to be anywhere near it." "How can you put strength and Kerry in the same language? I don't get it." Good Ol' Newt...

8:07 Dean is up, thanking states individually. He still reminds me of a weasel. The delegates LOOOOVE Dean. They're wetting their natural-fiber elastic-free undershorts. This is at least a 2 minute ovation. He's going to help the Johns take America back "for the people who built it." What do the people who built America care? They're dead and decomposed.

Invocation of "Brave Soldiers" Count:
Michael Moore --II+
Howard Dean -- I

It's a good thing that I have low blood pressure. These people are changing it.

His stories of people who had no money giving money to his campaign are not inspirational. They are creepy. It works when Jesus does it. Dean is not the Messiah, shockingly.

Dean just called described Bush with the expression "false patriotism."

He's listing states, the states in which they are going to be proud to be called Democrats. Apparently some people simply have no shame. "We're going to claim the American Dream." HOW? Did having jobs and making money and saving it and being self-reliant ever occur to you? NO! My mother is offering me sedatives. I need a massage. They're playing "We Are Family." Hillary is sitting with Jesse Jackson; she boogies in that "white Senator" sort of way.

The Boston Globe chick says "there are a variety of views here," and then cites two different abortion views held by John Kerry. There's a great slogan in that somewhere: "Dems 2004: Our Tent Is Big Enough For John Kerry's Opinions."

UPDATE: SamaBlog has something similar, but more insightful. On Kennedy here, on Daschle/Gephardt here.

A Tribute to the Victims of Ted Kennedy

Mary Jo Kopechne
July 26, 1940 - July 18, 1969

She would have celebrated her 64th birthday yesterday.
While the Democrats pay tribute to Ted Kennedy, remember her.

Surreal Moments from Monday Night

Rob Sama articulates the difference between the parties on national security:

Now I think that the fundamental difference between the two parties this election is that one believes in building a Maginot line using homeland security and first responders like police and fire, while the other party believes in creating a world in which first responders to chemical or nuclear attacks aren't necessary. It's a real difference between the two parties, and I wish they'd discuss it.

And we all remember how effective the Maginot line was.
He also notes one of the more surreal moments of Hillary's speech, saying:

Hillary spoke at length about rising health care costs, just moments before lauding John Edwards.
Hello???
Edwards was a medical malpractice lawyer. They're a HUGE part of the problem. For example, today, 70% of OB/GYN's wind up in court. And this reduces health care costs how?

I still feel the champion surreal moments were either Clinton referring to Gore as an example of "grace under pressure" or describing Jimmy Carter as someone "who has inspired the world with his work for peace, democracy, and human rights." Now, I wasn't alive under Carter's presidency (I'm a Reagan baby) but my general impression is that it wasn't a really inspirational time to be an American. As for peace, democracy, and human rights, let us remember that he suggested we just live with communism and that Islamofacism got started on his watch. And that he got thoroughly hoodwinked by Kim "No, of course I won't continue building nukes because you asked so nicely" Jong-Il. And that he goes around engaging in unauthorized acts of diplomacy. Using these two descriptions as a key to interpreting Clinton's (admittedly excellent, though unbearable) speech, well, draw your own conclusions.

Other surreal moments: Just minutes before Clinton was to speak, Jimmy Carter says, "Truth is the foundation of our global leadership, but our credibility has been shattered and we are left increasingly isolated and vulnerable in a hostile world. Without truth -- without trust -- America cannot flourish. Trust is at the very heart of our democracy, the sacred covenant between the president and the people."
And then he says, "Let us not forget that the Soviets lost the Cold War because the American people combined the exercise of power with adherence to basic principles, based on sustained bipartisan support."
No thanks to you, Jimmy.

I may fisk the whole thing later, but just go read it. It's pretty much self-fisking.

(Rob Sama via Accidental Verbosity)

Axis Mikey

Dean is hopping mad about what F9/11 has done to morale in the troops overseas. He writes:

Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" is being distributed informally via the Internet among troops in the field, and its effects on morale are devastating.

Which, as Sully puts it, is exactly what it was intended to do. For it was more than a critique of the Bush administration. Far more. It swept under the carpet all the horrors of Saddam's regime, and portrayed our efforts there as immorally destructive and murderous, and ignored the good. Which makes it by any rational measure a fascist-apologist movie. Indeed, Michael Moore now stands alongside such luminaries as Axis Sally, William Joyce, and Lord Haw-Haw (but not, we should say, Tokyo Rose, who had no choice in what she did and was rightly pardoned by President Ford).

This post is excellent, read the whole thing. He also refers to Fifty-Nine Deceits in F-911, which is something you should put in your bookmarks folder to have on hand whenever you're talking to a friend who should know better but doesn't.

Great Stuff from CQ

Cap'n Ed's on a roll today. Just keep scrolling. Some highlights:

Apparently Democrats in tight races are avoiding being seen with Kerry and the Conventionettes (great name for a Celtic rock band, eh) for fear that he will scuttle them. Ed says:

Out of eight Senate candidates facing tough elections in November, only one of them has the courage to stand up with John Kerry. In the House, only one out of five candidates from Texas in contested districts will bother to attend their party's convention. Jim Jordan, the Kerry campaign manager fired three weeks into Kerry's candidacy, points out that the convention is not merely a pep rally to the presidential nominee, but also a fund-raising effort for lower-ticket races. After all, all of the donors will be in Boston this week. Having people locked in tight races skipping out on fundraising opportunities demonstrates palpable fear.

So why do Democrats fear the Kerry juggernaut? Could it be that they know their candidate will tank their own campaigns? If that is the case -- and sources tell the Post's Charles Babington they fear linkage to John Kerry and Ted Kennedy most of all -- it shows that despite the polling from the liberal media, the Democrats have huge problems in the swing states. Most Senate and House candidates count on coattails during presidential elections. Running away from the top of the ticket equates to rats abandoning a sinking ship. That should tell you all you need to know about the enthusiasm for the Kerry/Edwards ticket among the electorate.

Incidentally, who on earth decided that spending a whole evening on "A Tribute to Ted Kennedy" was a good idea? Karl Rove seems like the obvious answer. I think maybe this evening I'll do "A Tribute to the Victims of Ted Kennedy."

Moving on... The current rumor (in the Asia Times) is that GWB has managed to convince Putin to send 40,000 (count 'em) troops to pacify the Sunni triangle (especially Fallujah), presumably in ways that are less electorally palatable when used by American troops. This is a huge victory for GWB and a huge loss for the Church of Dubya Is an Isolationist Poo-Poo Head. Ed says:

What does George Bush gain? Two big and obvious wins. First, Russia's addition of 40,000 troops to Fallujah will make them the second-largest contingent in Iraq, taking pressure off of the US to extend deployments and cycling Americans out of the zone with the most danger. Second, the alliance with Russia will, as Spengler notes, make hash out of the argument that Bush cannot attract allies. A third, more subtle win for Bush is the pacification of Fallujah, which will immeasureably strengthen the new Iraqi government, set Shi'ite minds at ease about the upcoming elections, and devastate the emotional momentum for Islamofascists worldwide.

He's got some really good analysis, especially as it pertains to the Balkans, that's less quotable, so make sure you read the whole article (especially you, Susan).

And finally, Ed discusses the story that the head of the AFL-CIO union representing government workers, which is the largest in the nation, has publically stated that labor and the Dems might be better off if Kerry loses.

If Stern had wanted to deliberately stick a knife in Kerry's back, he could hardly have chosen a better time. Nor did Stern stop there. He accused Kerry of aiming to use unions solely to bolster his own political ambitions, comparing him to Clinton in this regard. Stern also claimed that the Democrats were nothing more than a "hollow party" and that despite sticking $65 million in its coffers this cycle, he is pessimistic about Kerry helping to energize and modernize the labor movement.

So it's settled then. It's better for Republicans if Bush wins, it's better for Democrats if Bush wins -- why even bother with the election?

So if you've been keeping score, the head of one of the biggest Democratic supporters says the Dems are out of fresh ideas and any Democrat who has to compete for re-election is avoiding the nominee like the plague. That's appealing -- sign me up!

Incidentally, Ed has been invited by the RNC to blog the convention. I myself am hoping to be there as a volunteer. Are any of you planning to be there?

More Jen-y Goodness

Jen (you all do read her regularly, right? Good, good) has also posted The Latest Numbers from the polls, which show Kerry slipping somewhat. Go look at them. Mmmm...tasty statistics..

Good Advice

Jen has a must-read open letter to the RNC, begging them to be classy and take the high road.
I would add:

PS -- New York will be full of loopy protesters, and you have to keep them at a distance for security reasons. However, make your "free speech zone" as inviting as possible. No barbed wire, etc. Maybe have coffee and donuts for the protesters. "We welcome dissent and free speech," you say. If you're going to intern the protesters, do it nicely. You're not going to win their vote (not this year at least...maybe when the drugs wear off and the money runs out and they have to become functional members of society, they'll remember that the GOP treated them much better than the Dems did) but it would be great PR.

(via Accidental Verbosity)

Makes Sense To Me

Virginia Postrel attempts to explain rabid Bush-hatred. Her general point is that people would prefer to project their fears of someone they cannot control (Bin Laden) onto someone they can control (Bush, through elections). This seems reasonable to me, and also possibly answers why it is that people who live in high risk areas (ie New York City) seem to be sillier about national security than people who live in low risk areas like southern Missouri.

(via Dean Esmay)

Tuppence a Blog

Andrew Sullivan is having a pledge drive, ostensibly to pay for bandwidth and an assistant. He says:

: The good news is that our traffic keeps going up. The bad news is that our bandwidth costs have also risen, and although I was hoping to go a full year without asking for more support, the site needs some extra cash to keep going at least until the election. If you read this site regularly and have never contributed, please take a moment to send $20 or more our way. If you have contributed in the past, please help us again with another donation. We've deliberately kept this site reader-supported, because the community of readers it now sustains is, to my mind, its greatest asset.

Wunderkinder figures that Sullivan makes about $80k-$120k per pledge drive, and bandwidth/upkeep expenses should cost him no more than $5000 a year. His analysis is here and it's good. He goes on to say here:

Look, if Andrew Sullivan wants to hold twice-yearly fundraisers to put money in his pocket, that's fine with me. But why does he have to lie about his motives? I can only assume Andrew thinks less people will pay if they don't think the money will go into upkeep and instead will go to him. But isn't that all the more reason an honest man would be candid about his motives?

In the spirit of transparency, I'd really like to see Andrew at least generalize what his bandwidth costs actually are for his site. I know he won't, since they're nowhere near the tens of thousands of dollars he rakes in twice a year, but it would be interesting.

Various other bloggers weigh in:
Michelle Malkin
PoliBlog
James Joyner
This Blog Is Full of Crap presents the Give your Money to Anyone but Andrew Sullivan Project

Interesting. If you're giving money to non-Andrew blogs, feel free to throw some my way...

Great Moments from Clinton's Speech

"And with Al Gore, my friend and partner for eight years, who played such a large role in building the prosperity and progress that brought America into the 21st century, who showed incredible grace and patriotism under pressure, and who is the living embodiment that every vote counts -- and must be counted in every state in America.
" -- Bill Clinton

Excitement

I got tickets to go see George W. Bush speak on Friday! We have to be there ungodly early (doors open at 6:30 AM) but I'm looking forward to it. I'm hoping that a Powerbook can get through security -- I'd like to blog it. Anyone have any strings to pull to let me do that? If I can't, I'll try to take pictures, and if I can't do that, I'll just blog about it once I get home and take a nap. If anyone in the Southwest Missouri area wants tickets, I may have one or two spare.

Just Cuz We're Conservatives Don't Make Us Dumb

David M. reports that 92% of the donations from Ivy League professors go to the Democrats. That's not surprising in the least.
A week or so ago, a friend asked me why I thought it was that the majority of highly intelligent people are liberals. My answer was basically that I don't think that's the case at all. The reason it looks it is that the liberals dominate academia, which makes sense. Academics are more concerned with the supremacy of ideas and ideals than with pragmatic matters. Furthermore, the structure of the university is quasi-socialist in nature, with tenure and other benefits, such as university-supplied faculty housing, etc. So most academics are highly intellegent and most academics are liberals, so most highly intellegent people are liberals, right? Wrong. In academia, this liberalism is especially obvious in the humanities and soft sciences, but engineers and scientists tend to be spared to a degree, although I did have a physics professor who managed to relate the physics of music and socialism on a bi-weekly basis. Saying that most highly intellegent people are liberals, based on the sampling of academia, is like saying that most athletic people are black, based on the NFL, NBA, and Kenyan distance-runners. Hockey players, speed skaters, and college golfers are all also highly athletic, yet they are for the most part caucasian. What gives? The reason it's easy to mistake academics for the majority of clever people is that the people who are at the top of their fields in, say, business, tend to have less letters after their names. A CEO may only have a bachelor's or MBA (or in Bill Gates case, a high school diploma) but that doesn't make them any dumber than someone who has written a thesis on Czechoslovakian bonding rituals of the 17th century. In fact, if I had a major problem to solve, I'd go for the CEO's advice. Business people tend to be conservatives, largely because they are forced to be pragmatists. They're not dumb though.

The Madness of Mr. Sullivan

Stephen Green and James at Outside the Beltway both have interesting things to say about Andrew Sullivan's descent into madness. I totally agree with James when he says:

First, Andrew is being disengenous about his primary motivation, which he hardly mentions: Bush's lukewarm endorsement of a constitutional amendment to maintain the traditional definition of "marriage." My strong guess is that, had Bush not done that, the other things Andrew cites would not be enough to make Andrew endorse a liberal Democrat.

My general impression of Sullivan's current position is that he would endorse Kim Jong-Il if the latter endorsed gay marriage. I support gay marriage, but a) I think it will come about naturally and b) I am not willing to sacrifice on life-or-death issues that affect a majority of, if not all, Americans to bring a mostly cosmetic benefit to a small minority. In other words, given the choice between not getting blown up on the subway and you gettting hitched, you lose. The fact that he seems to be leaning towards the opposite bothers me.

Scott at Confessions of a Jesus Phreak says:

I used to read Andrew Sullivan faithfully - his posts were always erudite and well-thought-out, even when I didn't agree with him. Unfortunately, the President's endorsement of the FMA seems to have transformed him into the Antichrist in Andrew's eyes.

From that time forward, he started heading toward the cliff of Loony-Land. I sadly gave up on him quite a while ago. Having said that, Vodkapundit demonstrates exactly why I don't read Mr. Sullivan anymore.

Exactly. I've just kinda stopped reading.

Ed Driscoll has a roundup of Sullivan's posts on Kerry.

Charles Johnson says, brilliantly:

t’s a disappointment to see Sullivan get all sloppy drunk on the Abu Ghraib torture-flavored Koolaid, not to mention the almost stereotypical leftist accusation of an American intelligence debacle—when the intelligence services of every major Western power came to the same conclusions about Saddam’s weapons.

UPDATE: PhysicsGeek says:

Apparently this is what single issue justifying can do to a brain. In Sullivan's case, of course, it's gay marriage. For some reason, he didn't believe candidate Bush when he stated repeatedly in 2000 that he thought marriage was only between a man and a woman. In any case, when President Bush stated the exact same view, Andrew melted down completely and has yet to recover. It's too bad because he's a smart guy who USED to be reasonable. Anyway, I've long said that many opposed to the FMA on "federalist" grounds were, in reality, waiting for the judiciary to impose gay marriage by fiat.

Jonathan Hawkins goes through Sullivan's varying stances on federalism, based on how expedient they are for gay marriage. He says:

Many advocates of gay marriage, Sullivan included, don't want to play that game. They want gay marriage now and they'd rather try to appeal to "enlightened" judges out there who are willing to legislate from the bench rather than wait for the "unwashed masses" to come around to their way of thinking. And if they have deceive people about what they're doing, well...they figure it's OK to be dishonest if it's for a good cause.

UPDATE UPDATE: Powerline writes:

The Islamofascists have bet that the U.S. is too unserious and decadent to sustain an effective war against terrorism. To the extent that Americans reject strong war leadership due to parochial concerns -- for example, because the war leader doesn't want a handful of state courts imposing gay marriage on the rest of the country -- the Islamofascist wager doesn't look like a bad one.

Melanie Phillips has some excellent insight on the matter as well, but it's not really snippable, so go read the whole thing.

EVEN UPDATIER: Alan Sullivan says:

Two years ago Sullivan understood the political environment that constrains and compels this president, like any other. Now my namesake pretends to be a disillusioned centrist. Why? He seethes over the Marriage Amendment, that sop Bush threw to the social conservatives, knowing it would never pass. Sullivan has become a single-issue voter--the bane of political life. And he ties himself in Kerryesque knots, trying to explain away the truth.

(via Random Jottings)

Legal XXX says that Andrew Sullivan has jumped the shark. Yes.

Ace of Spades says:

As Donald Luskin first noted (and I have repeated consistently since then), Sullivan is an intensely personal, emotional, and ad hominem analyst. Part of this tendency was unseen by many conservatives for a while, because his intensely personal, emotional, and ad hominem style of hyperventilating hackery often was in praise of Bush or Reagan ("A Mash-Note to Reagan"... ewwww) or directed at conservatives' opponents (Howell Raines, the Stalinist gay left), and people have a tendency to miss unfairness when that unfairness inures to their own benefit.

The Frozen Toaster says:

I don't support gays OR Sullivan.  I don't disparage gays either, but I may start disparaging Sullivan if he doesn't wake up and understand that his gay issues are hugely subordinate to protecting this country, and that Kerry is not now and never was the man to entrust with national security.

Political Musings writes:

Sullivan knows full well that Kerry would never have taken on the “theocrats” in the Middle East. He apparently feels that certain of the Bush policies cannot be unwound by Kerry, like liberating 50 million people to date. Likewise, he sees Kerry as the man who will give him “marriage”, or as the person least likely to do anything to intervene to halt or slow judicial activists’ imposition on society of a new institution without so much as a debate, let alone a vote.

He predicted the endorsement too. Lots of people did, actually.

Caerdroia writes about the just reasons for invading another country and suggests the Sullivan consider them instead of emotional "Where did the WMDs go" whining. This isn't an easy article to excerpt, but it's very well thought out. Read the whole thing.

Kaisercrack thinks we're all over reacting.

Peaktalk questions the timing of the endorsement and writes:

If anything, if you would extrapolate Andrew’s thinking then a vote for Bush – no matter how much you dislike him for abandoning real conservative positions – would be crucial in cementing support for the pro-active approach the president has taken in the War on Terror. That war is the core challenge of our time and a point reiterated almost daily on, yes, the Daily Dish. To take Andrew’s advice and throw our weight behind Kerry because of the (failed) FMA, Abu Ghraib and the budget would send the wrong signal to the outside world as it would imply that the American voter clearly repudiates the efforts in especially Afghanistan and Iraq. By supporting Bush, voters this year will support the War on Terror, which with all its flaws and problems, is in far better hands of the diligent, committed, experienced and focused Bush team. That has been Sullivan’s argument until very recently, and now he shifted his support in an uninformed way (we still have to see what comes out of this week’s DNC in terms of policy positions) to a man whom he despised only a number of months ago.

Chris Lawrence writes:

Andrew Sullivan’s virtual endorsement of John Kerry, apparently motivated by the elephant in the room that James Joyner points out—the president’s position on same-sex marriage, something that Sullivan doesn’t bother mentioning in the column, but looms over the whole discussion for anyone familiar with Sullivan’s tireless crusading on the issue. Whatever one’s feelings on Bush’s handling of the issue (and, there, I’m largely in agreement with Sullivan, though I do lack the personal self-interest angle), wishing John Kerry were conservative isn’t going to make him conservative, as Stephen Green points out, and it’s disingenuous for Sullivan (or anyone else who genuinely considers themselves conservative) to believe otherwise.

Andrew has a rebuttal to all this up right now, but I still don't buy it. And speaking of not buying it, a Pledge Week roundup is next out of the dock.

That's all the damage I can do on this issue for now. If I've missed your post, comment me a link.

Conservatives Behaving Badly?

Jay responds to Dean's question to conservatives, which is basically, "Can you behave yourselves if Kerry gets elected?" He says:

I'd like to think I will try my damndest. Certainly if I disagree with my President's handling of foreign policy, I would not consider it my place to go somewhere like, say, France and criticize or make fun of him there. Which is not to say I would not express disapproval when he caves to the terrorists, allows Iraq to become a failed state, allows afghanistan to revert to dictatorial rule, allows Iran to develop nukes, and that sort of thing. I'd just like to think I will do so without mentally hyperventilating or resorting to fiction.

I find it nearly inconceivable to imagine Kerry as President. I lived through Carter. No need to do it again. It scares me that much to imagine Kerry as President. I would as soon have Kennedy. Yet most people who get into office somehow step up and do mostly the right thing. It's remarkable, really.

Now is not the time, however, to go experimenting with the outlier theory. In a time of peace, you can muck about with people who might at some point prove competent. In a time of war, that's misguided at best and suicidal at worst.

As far as Kerry being toast, well, that is my general expectation, yet I have come to the conclusion that it may not be so.

I am almost certain Kerry is toast, I simply hope he is toast before the election, rather than after it. If the majority of Americans discover that Kerry's a dud after they've voted for him, we're not gonna have a fun four years. Oh well... Bush-Rice in 2008!

UPDATE: Dean's post raises a few other interesting points. For one, he says:

tend to hold to a rather odd doctrine myself, which is that partisanship is supposed to stop at the water's edges: we can argue as loudly as we want about domestic policy, but we do our best to speak with one voice once we get past the nation's shores. Old-fashioned and crazy I know, but it's just how I see the world. There was a time in America when if you'd spoken of the Democrat Franklin Roosevelt as a liar, a traitor, and a warmonger during World War II, accused him of engineering the Pearl Harbor attacks, referred to our war over there as "Roosevelt's war" (as a few dipshit Republicans did back then) you might well have gotten yourself a bloody nose even in the most Republican counties in America.

Because debate all you want but, once a decision is made, partisanship should stop at the water's edges. At least so far as I'm concerned.

I agree with that, which is why it enrages me when individuals (ie Jimmy Carter, various and sundry Congressional Democrats, Jesse Jackson, etc) go around having their own individual foreign policies on behalf of the US. Thanks, guys, but the State Department, Pentagon and White House pretty much have that covered. Now go sit quietly in the Midwest where you can't hurt anyone.

However, I think that we also need to watch ourselves, to a degree, before we leave our shores. Information in global, and consequently, people all over the world get to watch our internal discussion, and they do. People in countries that hate us enjoy watching Michael Moore hate America, whether he's on his turf or ours.

I'm in on Dean's pledge. "I respectfully disagree with the President's directions, but I will do my best to express my dissent respectfully and hope that I am mistaken and that he has made the proper decisions after all."I will blog. I will critique. I will fact-check. I will educate myself. I will vote. I may at times use witty analogies, scathing analysis and withering sarcasm. I will avoid loopy conspiracy theories. I will not call him a liar without a legally adequate standard of proof. I will not compare him to Lurch or Herman Munster. I will resist the urge to Photoshop. I will not say that he is the Anti-Christ, worse than Saddam or Osama or Kim Jong-Il. I will not insinuate that he eats babies. I will not use derogatory terms to describe his wife. I will not burn him in effigy. I will hope that he is right and I am wrong, even when I do not believe this to be the case. This is my pledge.

M-Ack!

Well this is a disturbing little bit of information:

In the years since he lost the 2000 election, Mr. Gore has moved from Washington back to his home state of Tennessee, which he represented in the House and Senate for 16 years.

He has taught college seminars and steeped himself in business activities, including serving as a director on the board of Apple Computer and as an adviser to Google. He and his business partner, Joel Hyatt, one of the founders of Hyatt Legal Services, have acquired a cable news channel and intend to make it over into a channel for young adults

I mean, I know he invented the internet, but what on earth is he doing contaminating the board at Apple? I like Apple. I like their products. I want Al Gore to keep his earth-toned paws away from their products, at least the ones that I personally purchase. I think I want to go wipe down my laptop now -- it feels dirty.

UPDATE: Virginia Postrel, via Ed Driscoll, wrote last year:

I like my iBook and love my iPod. They're pretty. They give me pleasure. They work well. Two out of three ain't bad. But I'm getting a little uncomfortable with the cultural meanings Apple is determined to attach to its products.[...] Maybe I'm nuts, but trying to grow your market share by excluding everyone who doesn't share hippie-dippy Bay Area politics strikes me as a dumb strategy. Of course, there is a way to make amends: diversify those black-and-white portraits.

"Go Grow Some Shame"

Michelle Malkin is a keeping a running tab of Dem convention hijinks. She says:

Most offensive quote from an anti-war activist.
From Medea Benjamin, a "peace campaigner" from San Francisco, objecting to the gated demonstration area outside of Fleet Center: ""We don't deserve to be put in a detention centre, a concentration camp." This is a concentration camp, ninny. Now, go stand in a corner and grow some shame.

Precisely.

Kerry's Church of the Rhythm of Life

The Weekly Standard has some even-more-interesting-than-usual pieces this week. This one is about John Kerry's "Catholic" church, which seems to be something of the New Agey variety. Jonathan Last writes:

Built in 1970, the Paulist Center of Boston is as much a community center as a church. Founded by the Paulists (a religious order, like the Jesuits), it operates with the permission of the local bishop, but is financially independent from the Church. As such, the Paulist Center differs from traditional Catholic churches in both superficial and serious ways. (For instance, the Center is permitted to celebrate Mass, but may not perform marriages.)

On the back of the Sunday bulletin, the Paulist Center carries ads, like all Catholic churches do. Where most Churches have ads from local florists, funeral homes, hotels, and restaurants, the Paulist Center carries ads for the Animal Rescue League and "Yoga of the Future." The biggest block of ads is from psychotherapists. More than a fifth of the ads in the Paulist Center bulletin are from "Jungian psychoanalysts" who offer counseling, "body psychotherapy," and even "dream interpretation."

The ideology which brings people to the Paulist Center is best explained by the Center's Mission Statement which declares, "Attentive to the Holy Spirit, we are a Catholic community that welcomes all, liberates the voice of each and goes forth to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ." (Before Mass, this Mission Statement is projected, in large type, onto the wall above the alter, on either side of the statue of Christ.) In their Vision Statement, the Center goes on to explain that they aspire to serve "those persons searching for a spiritual home and those who have been alienated from the Catholic Church."

The subtext here--with talk of liberating voices and welcoming those alienated from those other mean Catholic churches--is that the Paulist Center is Catholic, but not really: more Episcopal lite; or orthodox Unitarian.

Now, John Kerry has been pretty much given a pass on this one, since his weird varient of Catholicism veers to the left. At his church,

"the Mass departs from the Catholic text. During the Nicene Creed, for example, the sections on believing in only "one Lord" ("We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God . . .") and only "one holy Catholic and apostolic Church" are excised from the prayer."

So if you take the 2000 year old traditions of the church and chop them as you see fit, you're pretty much okay by the media. A few fuddy-duddy priests may be out to get you, but largely, you're harmless. However, if you happen to prefer your church service exactly the same way it's been for the past millenium, you are dangerous! Interesting.

Other worthwhile columns at the Weekly Standard are:

Four Questions for John Kerry -- Bill Kristol wants to know four things from John Kerry:

1) If Kerry were president, would he be willing to use force?
2) Kerry had been president the past four years, would Saddam still be in power?
3) If Kerry were president, would we pull out of Iraq?
4) If Kerry were president, would marriage be redefined?

The fourth one isn't a voting issue for me, but the others are. I'd like to know the answers.

The Democrats and the Loony Left -- Fred Barnes says:

The Bush Administration is curtailing democracy in America. President Bush himself, in case you hadn't noticed, is like Hitler. By the way, he knew about 9/11 beforehand. On top of that, he let Osama bin Laden's relatives sneak out of America shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The war in Iraq? It's a war for oil. And while we're on the subject of the war, Vice President Cheney intervened to assure contracts in postwar Iraq for Halliburton, the company he once headed.

These flights of paranoia, far-out analogies, conspiracy theories, and wild charges devoid of evidence are the stock in trade of the Loony Left. Normally such ideas are ridiculed or ignored by those in the political mainstream. But these days the fantasies of the Loony Left are increasingly embraced and nearly always tolerated by the Democratic party and its auxiliary groups. The result? The Loony Left now has a toehold on the Democratic party.

It's the usual roundup of the Moonbats, but worth reading.

John Kerry Is Different From You and Me -- Noemie Emery says, "Yes, he has more money. Lots, lots more." Nuff said... Something worth remembering when you hear the Johns' populist rubish:

Poor President Bush. It's not often a man with a net worth in the low eight figures is made to feel destitute. But compared with the other three men atop the national tickets, Bush seems almost indigent. This year, both ends of both tickets are rolling in lucre. Taken together, their net worth comes out at more than $1.3 billion, equivalent to the gross national product of many small nations. If Bush, Dick Cheney, and the Democrats' Johns--Kerry and Edwards--got together, they could fund their own country. Meanwhile, Bush, with a mere $18 million or so, is very much the low end of this quartet, worth three times less than the two men running for the privilege and post of being vice president, who score in the neighborhood of $50 million apiece. But they all seem like pikers next to John Kerry, who, thanks to his wife, has access to something over $1 billion, making him by far the richest man ever to run on a national ticket, as well as the most self-indulgent in his lifestyle, and the most quasi-royal in his sense of himself.

Go read it.

Dubya, Man of Education

Great article here about Bush, the education president. Yes, you read that right.

In the fall of 1995, Dr. Reid Lyon, who directs research in the neuroscience of reading and learning disorders in children at the National Institutes of Health, got an unexpected call from first-year Texas governor George W. Bush. “Look,” Bush said, getting right to the point. “I have lots of kids who are not reading well. What’s the science on this that can guide us?” After that chat, Bush flew Lyon down to Texas several times to help redesign the state’s early-childhood reading programs so that they incorporated the latest NIH findings. “We’ve had a great relationship ever since,” Bush recently noted.

Lyon now serves as President Bush’s informal advisor on reading pedagogy, and he helped craft parts of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act, the ambitious federal education bill that Bush signed into law in January 2002. Thanks largely to his input, Washington for the first time is using its spending power to prod school districts across the nation to rely on scientific standards in selecting reading programs. “There’s no need to throw good money into programs that don’t work,” Bush explains. “We’ve tried that before.”

God bless him. That's the most sensible thing I've heard all day. No wonder the Dems hate him -- they'd better hope Bush doesn't get wind of the War on Poverty...

For NCLB’s reading initiative alone, Bush richly deserves the title “education president.” But in addition, NCLB, though not perfect, is a powerful instrument of reform in other ways. What’s more, a new Bush-promoted school voucher program for Washington, D.C., may point the way toward further education reform in a second Bush term.

Not that the president’s opponents in the education establishment and the Democratic Party are likely to give him any credit for these accomplishments. With all of today’s harsh criticism of NCLB, it’s easy to forget that it passed Congress by overwhelming bipartisan majorities (87 to 10 in the Senate; 381 to 41 in the House) and that Ted Kennedy stood beaming with the president at the bill-signing ceremony (above). That era of good feelings lasted only a few months—about as long as it took for the public education industry to realize just how serious Bush was about no longer rewarding failure.

Once again, God bless him. Now, I have issues with NCLB because it doesn't really do much for gifted kids, which is a pity, but at the same time, any thing that pisses off the NEA is good by me. The rest of the article goes into detail about all of the nifty education-related things Bush has done over the past three years. It's a good read if you'd like specific details to win arguments with misinformed sorts.

(Via Random Jottings)

AND ANOTHER THING: I think a lot of the misconceptions about Bush's education policies come from the Conventional Wisdom that Bush is an uneducated idiot, and therefore couldn't possibly craft reasonable policy about anything, but especially about education. I'm just speculating here, but I would argue that perhaps Bush, by dint of his language/learning disorder, whatever it is, acutely empathizes with any child left behind, and especially those who have trouble reading, and thus is very committed to helping them receive decent educations. I suspect that a lot of people would feel better about NCLB if Bush was a bona fide intellectual -- you know, someone with a solid prep-school education and SATs of at least 1200, back when they were hard, and a couple of degrees from Ivy League schools...oh wait.

A Rolls-Royce in Every Pot

You know, for all the talk about Bush and the Republicans alienating people and dividing people and not being adequately sensitive to the feelings of certain people and pissing off certain French and otherwise anti-American people, John Kerry isn't establishing an especially compelling track record of superiority in this department. Captain Ed has quite a few examples of the tone-deafness of the Kerry campaign, but this one may take the petit four. Apparently some fool (or brilliantly subversive graphic artist) had chosen a Rolls-Royce as the press pass logo for Kerry's Motor City tour. According to the Washington Times:

"That's an insult to the auto worker, it's an insult to the American worker, it's an insult to mainstream America," said Sam Burwell from Corunna, Mich., a third-generation auto worker for General Motors. "It also shows who he's really in touch with: his European, elitist French friends and not Americans like me. A Rolls-Royce, for cryin' out loud."
    The Kerry-Edwards traveling press pass was designed by Mr. Kerry's campaign advance team in Michigan and distributed to the reporters who flew with him to Detroit to attend the 2004 National Urban League Conference. Dominating the pass is the photograph of a Rolls-Royce 100EX, an opulent convertible complete with the famed "Spirit of Ecstasy" hood ornament.

Now, as the child of two Detroiters and someone who lived in Southeast Michigan for four years, I may have a leg up on the Kerry campaign when it comes to local knowledge, but I thought that it was pretty well known that in certain circles, the ownership of foreign cars is frowned upon, often very strongly and occasionally violently. You'd think Kerry'd have somebody on the ground who knew that.
Let's continue:

Asked about the press-pass logo, Kerry spokesman David Wade said it was unintentional error by a campaign volunteer and then criticized President Bush's economic policies.
    "I could say that the Rolls-Royce is the perfect symbol of who got the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, but sometimes objects in the rearview mirror are closer than they appear," he said.

Huh? What objects? What mirror? What are you talking about? The only thing missing from this statement is, "I know you are but what am I?"

    "Under President Bill Clinton, our strong economy actually helped bring Rolls-Royce jobs to the United States for American workers," Mr. Wade said. "Now, with health care costs rising and no end in sight under George Bush, American automakers say they may have to outsource jobs overseas. That's why John Kerry's health care plan offers relief to American companies and hope for the United Auto Workers who are fighting to put John Kerry and John Edwards in the White House."

Does he mean actual jobs manufacturing Rollers? Does he mean jobs that would enable you to purchase such cars? Don't we hate people who have jobs like that because they are greedy and should give all their money to the government, which better knows how to spend it? Also, since when has the government chipping in and paying for things caused costs to go down? Just asking...

My Blog Rankings

At the suggestion of Right Wing News, I proudly present:

My Top 30 Blogs

30) Absinthe & Cookies
29) California Yankee
28) Balloon Juice
27) Volokh Conspiracy
26) Watcher of Weasels
25) One Hand Clapping
24) Jen Speaks
23) Protocols of the Yuppies of Zion
22) It Comes in Pints
21) USS Clueless
20) Powerline
19) LLamabutchers
18) Random Jottings
17) Moorewatch
16) Barking Moonbat Early Warning System
15) Neal Boortz
14) Hugh Hewitt
13) Dave Barry
12) A Small Victory
11) Vodka Pundit
10) Roger Simon
9) Dean's World
8) Iraq The Model
7) Literal-Minded
6) BuzzMachine
5) JunkYardBlog
4) Lileks
3) Instapundit
2) Michelle Malkin
1) Captain's Quarters

Friends' blogs don't count (my decision), but Susan always has interesting things to say, so go read that too.

UPDATE: Jay has a good point. I'd like to add to his critique of listing the problem that sometimes you accidentally leave out blogs that you really like and read all the time because you're listing in a hurry and then you feel bad. So Jay, consider yourself somewhere in my top 10, and I apologize. You really are loved.

UPDATE UPDATE: I've been thinking about this for a few days now, and really, what I need, instead of an ordinal list, is better criteria for blogrolling people, or a short list of my own, because I've been blogrolling people sorta willy-nilly. I think my new rule for blogrolling people may be something to the effect of, "I read your site and put you on my personal blog link list. If I go back on two seperate occasions and still like you, I'll blogroll you."

Better Late Than Never

The irreplacable James Lileks delivers a no-holds-barred, pants-down (Moore's pants, not Lileks') fisking of Michael Moore's Fourth of July column in particular and existance in general. I'm rather late to the party on this one (written while I was out of town) but if you haven't read it yet, go read it all.

Yet Bush is the Nazi...

Dean's World has aquired the 1920 Nazi Party platform, and says:

"Seriously now: the next time someone tries to tell you that America is starting to resemble Nazi Germany, just show that to 'em and tell them to stop being so damned silly."

Amen.
He goes on to say:

Still, here's my hint to people who like to compare modern politicians or governments to the Nazis: if someone isn't a racist militarist bent on mass murder and world conquest in the name of the master race, he's not a Nazi.

Hmmm... racist militarist bent on mass murder and world conquest in the name of the master race sounds vaguely familiar...

The Eowyn Voters League

The whole "Eowyn voter" concept seems to have proved very popular. Thus, for your blogging pleasure, I present (drumroll)... a Graphic!

Feel free to steal or borrow it as necessary, preferably copying it to your own server or Photobucket account or something. Credit or a link (or both!) would be appriciated.

The Eowyn Voters League: Taking the Big Flaming "I" out of EVIL.

UPDATE: New Graphic!


UPDATE UPDATE: If you'd like to be added to the EVL roll:
1) Blog something about the "Eowyn voter" concept and leave a comment or a trackback.
2) Put up a link to the EVL somewhere on your blog. If you'd like to use one of the banners, go for it, but please don't hotlink. Go get your own Photobucket account.

General requirements: You must be a woman and you must consider yourself to be an Eowyn voter for roughly the reasons explained in this post. (Very roughly...Free thought is permitted here.) I also reserve the right to add blogs to this roll who are ideologically Eowyn voters but who have not requested it.

Forth, Eorlingas!

Remembering

Michele at A Small Victory has a magnificent post entitled "Never Forget." She writes:

I am now defined by what happened shortly after I arrived at work on September 11, 2001. It defines my politics, my beliefs, my ideology and my heart and soul. It has changed me and forged me into something that is stronger and more determined than I was on September 10. It made me reevaluate my ideals and reorganize my life. It changed the structure of my world. It woke me up and made me more aware of the world around me. It changed me drastically and completely. Forever.

There is no other way to explain it. There are no other words I can find to justify my obsession with that day and to all the people who question why I continue to write about, talk about and dream about it as if it happened just yesterday all I can say is, because it feels like it did. And I don't think anyone who chose to spend the time after 9/11 by sticking their head in the sand can comprehend that. How, after everything that happened that day, can you still believe that I am a hawk for calling it an act of war? How can you still believe that there is nothing to fear but fear itself?

When I was in New York last week, a friend complained to me about how there were rememberences of 9/11 all over the place, and he thought we should just forget about it. Now, I'm not a huge fan of the 9/11 hats and stuff, but as a general principle, I think that things that cause us to remember are good. 9/11 is one of those things that I never want to forget, at least in this life. There are some things that must be remembered. In a speech I wrote for Sara a few months ago, I said:

Make this experience part of your oral history, and always remember. Remembering is why the Jewish people celebrate Passover -- to remember how God delivered them from Egypt. Remembering is why Christians celebrate Communion -- to remember Jesus' sacrifice. Remembering is why we sing the [National Anthem] -- to remind us who we are and from whence we've come, to remember the things that are worth risking spilling our physical and emotional blood on.

Michele concludes:

We are safer. We are not safe. And only a comprehensive strategy that recognizes who our enemy is will make us safer. Only the realization by everyone that we are at war against a specific ideology and we need to be a bit more vigilant and a lot less liberal in our ideas in dealing with our enemy will make us safer.

This is why I never forget 9/11. This is why the images are burned in my mind and my anger is worn on my sleeve. We must never forget who our enemy is and what they did to us. We must never lose sight of the fact that they declared war on us. I am not paranoid. I am realistic.. And I will never, ever get over it or stop carrying it around with me because to do so would be to become complacent. Which would be a great disservice to the memory of those who died for nothing more than a blatant hatred of freedom.

Never forget.

Flotsam Liberals

I just finished Hugh Hewitt's new book "If It Isn't Close, They Can't Cheat" and I highly recommend it. I like the idea of handing it off to some Democrat friends, but with most of my friends, I honestly can't see it helping, simply because many of them seem to be Democrats for reasons they can't articulate, and I don't see an argument based on facts swaying them. I got into it with a friend the other day and his basic contention was that everything was as bad as it could possibly be in Iraq and you couldn't trust any news sources (including Iraqi bloggers). His evidence for his beliefs is basically drawn from a combination of Fahrenheit 9/11 and his own conjecture. Every time he made a contention, I'd ask him for an information source, and the basic answer was that he "just knew." How do you reason with that?

I have another good friend (who should know better) who is very much a liberal, thinks Michael Moore is a genius, and believes John Kerry is "a good man." Couldn't tell me a thing about Kerry or what he stands for or what he's done in his life, but knows that he's a good man, presumably through some sort of Democratic voodoo network to which I am not privy. He tried to convince me that I needed to see Faherenheit 9/11 and I told him that I refused to give Michael Moore my $10. He offered to pay for me to see it. I told him I'd do it if he'd go see Michael Moore Hates America with me. No dice. He seemed absolutely shocked that someone might fact-check Michael Moore and find him wanting. Sheesh.

Hugh talks about various levels of informational consumerism -- blog readers as a group tend to be high information consumers. Most of my friends are moderate or low level information consumers. They don't generally seek information out, and therefore don't have a great deal of context in which to process the information that drifts their way. The idea of 10,000 Iraqi dead in the past 17 months sounds like a pretty awful thing if it just washes up on the beach of your conciousness. If you happen to know that UNICEF reported that 50,000 children a year were dying under Saddam, the way you see the first fact changes. I have little patience for people whose entire political conciousness is accumulated floatsam and jetsam style. I've lived in Ann Arbor, MI, for the past four years, and in that time, I pretty much gave up on discussing politics, especially in groups. It just raises my blood pressure. I'll occasionally debate someone one on one, but usually, even that isn't worth it. In groups, I just don't talk about politics. I like to win, and if they cared about facts, I generally would, but trying to argue with liberals-by-faith is like trying to tap dance in Jello.

Nonetheless, if you have liberal friends who are not impervious to reason, buy the book and give it to them. And in any case, buy it for yourself.

Warrior Women

Michelle Malkin has a great post up about "security moms" -- women for whom the main and only issue is national and personal security. These are my sentiments exactly. If you're running for office, if I don't believe you're going to kick butt and take names to keep me safe, I don't care about your education policy or Medicare policy or funding-for-the-National-Endowment-For-The-Arts policy. I'm not a mom (yet), but some day I may be, and even so, I have a family, and I have people of whom I'm very protective, and I have neighbors and coworkers and others that I dearly love and God have mercy on anyone who tries to mess with them.

I suppose a good way to describe me, actually, would be as an Eowyn voter. For those of you who aren't rabid Tolkeinites, Eowyn is the niece of a king who's kingdom is under attack, and she chooses to fight rather than to stay back with the women and children. She fears neither death nor pain and chooses to defy the Nazgul (big scary way-evil thing) which stands between her and her "lord and kin." You mess with me and the people I love -- I take offense to that. You stand aside and let other people mess with me and the people I love -- I take offense to that too. I'm not a fan of war, I have no great desire to be a warblogger, but it is because I long for peace, true peace, that I choose to fight the war that is upon us. I choose to fight by blogging, I choose to fight by voting, and if I ever find myself in a situation where I have to physically fight for my life or for those around me, I will choose that as well. Terrorists would do well to remember the old adage, "If captured, don't let them give you to the women." Because we will protect ourselves and our families, and it won't be pretty.

Just a reminder

Things that accidentally wind up in your socks:
Ticks, cockleburrs, toe jam

Things that do not accidentally wind up in your socks:
Sheep, canoe paddles, classified documents

I am the #1 Google Hit for the word collection "cartoon supreme court boxers elephants ann."

UPDATE: I am #10 for the collection "if i eat mango after pregnancy it means i having baby boy"

I'm so proud.

Kerry Bingo!

For your DNC enjoyment, I've put together Kerry Acceptance Speech Bingo Cards. Print and play along with your friends and family, or play online in the comments. First one to call BINGO! (and list your card number and the words used) in the comments wins honor, glory, and a mention here. Save this permalink, and come back on convention night!

The cards:
#1 #2 #3 #4

#5 #6 #7 #8

#9 #10 #11 #12

UPDATE: For the very brave (or cynical), I present the special edition #13 card.

Have Fun!

In Case You Were Wondering...

...what Ben Kingsley was doing in a SoHo store that sells only women's clothing, the answer is that he was accompanying a woman that was, in Will's opinion, very attractive, and in my opinion, old enough to be his (Ben's, not Will's) granddaughter.

If you were wondering about this Will character I keep mentioning, he's the son of the principal of my middle school/gifted program. She's also currently running for state House of Representatives, and I'm helping with her campaign, despite the fact that she's running as a Democrat. He's a great guy, and I've travelled with him before, and was thrilled that she offered to send him along.

This is Will in a very shady bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn, called Buttermilk. We were in Brooklyn visiting some friends of his, and we were waiting here to meet one of their roommates before proceeding to a much less shady establishment. The seating here was rather, um, eclectic, as demonstrated by the school-desk. Also, the bar is unmarked on the outside and the name can only be found in rather small letters on a board over the bar. Bars and restaurants in NYC, and especially Brooklyn, seem to be pretty lax about IDing, unless Will and I simply look much older than we are (both legal, btw). In fact, the only place that IDed was a bar called d.b.a in the East Village where we were meeting one of my friends from Michigan. And no, we were not drunkenly wandering from bar to bar or anything. I'm a good girl, I am. We were, at one point, wandering from bar to bar, but only because we were searching for one with an outdoor seating area. But that's different. Incidentally, I absolutely adore NYC's prohibition on smoking in bars and restaurants. So nice

This is Will at the front edge of Central Park, in front of the pond. He was trying to pose in front of a really beautiful castlelike building on the Upper West Side, but for some reason it didn't come out in the picture. Just imagine a castle over his shoulder.