Ashley Faulkner lost her mother on 9/11. Back in May when President Bush was in Lebanon he took a moment to hug and comfort her. The story of the hug was run in the Enquirer and spread on the web. Now the Faulkners are being featured in a new ad from the group Progress for America.

The most expensive TV ad buy of the presidential campaign shows President Bush consoling a teenage girl whose mother died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

The ad, created by the conservative Progress for America Voter Fund, will run until the election on cable stations and in nine key states at a cost of $14.2 million, said the group's president, Brian McCabe. (Related link: Ad analysis)

The ad was inspired by a photo of Bush hugging Ashley Faulkner, who is now 16, while campaigning in Lebanon, Ohio, on May 4. The photo, taken by the girl's father, Lynn Faulkner, was widely circulated on the Internet. As Bush shook hands in the crowd, the Faulkners' neighbor told him that Ashley had lost her mom on 9/11. Bush enfolded Ashley in his arms and offered her comfort.

"In the midst of all those people and all that noise, it was an intimate and personal moment," Lynn Faulkner, a marketing consultant and a Republican, said in an interview. His wife, Wendy Faulkner, an information-systems executive, was in the South Tower on Sept. 11.

The ad features the photo and Ashley and her father talking about Bush. "All he wants to do is make sure I'm safe," Ashley says in the ad. Lynn says in the ad that he saw in Bush "what I want to see in the heart and soul" of a president.

--Progress for America

The ad is titled "Ashley's Story" and can be viewed here. It's a pretty moving ad.

A transcript of the ad:

LYNN FAULKNER:
My wife Wendy was murdered by terrorists on September 11th.

NARRATOR:
The Faulkner's daughter Ashley closed up emotionally, but when President George W. Bush came to Lebanon, Ohio she went to see him as she had with her mother 4 years before.

LINDA PRINCE:
He walked toward me and I said "Mr. President, this young lady lost her mother in the World Trade Center."

ASHLEY FAULKNER:
And he turned around and he came back and he said "I know that's hard, are you all right?"

LINDA PRINCE:
Our president took Ashley in his arms and just embraced her. And it was at that moment that we saw Ashley's eyes fill up with tears.

ASHLEY FAULKNER:
He's the most powerful man in the world and all he wants to do is make sure I'm safe, that I'm ok.

LYNN FAULKNER:
What I saw is what I want to see in the heart and in the soul in the man who sits in the highest elected office in our country.

NARRATOR:
Progress for America Voter Fund is responsible for the content of this message.

--Update--
The ad has its own domain, AshleysStory.com.

Last summer, John F. Kerry refused to cross a police picket line and address the US Conference of Mayors meeting in Boston. Last night he rode in a motorcade that crossed two Florida police picket lines en route to a get-out-the-vote rally in vote-rich Orlando.

Aides said the demonstration, staged by members of the Orlando Police Department represented by Fraternal Order of Police Local 25, was sprung on the campaign without prior notice in an effort to embarrass the city's Democratic mayor, Buddy Dyer. Local media describe the union as Republican-leaning, the same label aides to Mayor Thomas M. Menino attached to the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association in the midst of its dispute before the Democratic National Convention in July.

"It was a surprise demonstration by an organization that supports President Bush," said David Wade, a spokesman for Kerry.

The officers' contract expired Oct. 1. The city has offered the membership a 2 percent raise, as it did all city labor unions. The union is seeking 4 percent.

One of the pickets, Officer Paul Bruning, said the union notified Democratic officials in Miami last week of its plans to picket Kerry both at Orlando International Airport and at the Barnett Park Recreation Center.

--Boston Globe

...not enough crack cocaine to hand out.

Mary Poppins. Jeffrey Dahmer. Janet Jackson. Chad Staton.
Defiance County elections officials were confident the first three hadn't moved to their small community. But the fourth one lived there, and - in exchange for crack cocaine - tried to falsely submit the first three names and more than 100 others onto the county's voter registration rolls, police said.

Now Mr. Staton, 22, of Defiance, faces a felony charge of false registration in a case that has quickly gained national attention as part of a hotly contested presidential battle that's attracted a flurry of new voter registrations across the country - and a flurry of complaints of voter registration fraud.

Defiance County Sheriff David Westrick said that Mr. Staton was working on behalf of a Toledo woman, Georgianne Pitts, to register new voters. She, in turn, was working on behalf of the NAACP National Voter Fund, which was formed by the NAACP in 2000 to register new voters.

Sheriff Westrick said that Pitts, 41, of Toledo, admitted she gave Mr. Staton crack cocaine in lieu of cash for supplying her with completed voter registration forms. The sheriff declined to say how much crack cocaine Pitts supplied Mr. Staton, or to say whether Pitts knew that the forms Mr. Staton gave her were falsified.
...
Of the 130 forms submitted, county elections board director Wayne Olsson said that only six turned out to be legitimate.

Noting that the potentially new voters had listed addresses in Defiance County, Cuyahoga County elections officials sent the forms to Defiance County, where they arrived the afternoon of Oct. 8.

The package came with a small note inside from Cuyahoga County officials: Check the signatures on the cards for fraud.

Within an hour, Defiance County elections workers had deduced that the batch of 130 was mostly faked forms, said Laura Howell, the county elections board's deputy director.

"We could tell by the handwriting that many of them were written by the same person," she said. "And of course we know the streets. Defiance being a small town, many of [the forms] had streets not even in Defiance."

And so elections workers immediately began sending out letters, addressed to the people listed at those addresses, as a precaution to ensure that a Mary Poppins, a Jeffrey Dahmer, or a Janet Jackson didn't, in fact, live in Defiance County, she said.

Letters also went out to George Foreman, Brett Favre, Michael Jordan, and Dick Tracy, among others in the bundle to see if the post office would return them as undeliverable.

Letters even went out to a handful of people registered on forms with different personal identifiers but the same name: Chad Staton.

None of the Chad Statons made the cut.

In the meantime, elections officials contacted the office of Sheriff Westrick, a Republican, who began an investigation that included the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation.

Sheriff's deputies arrested Mr. Staton as he walked along a Defiance street about 8 a.m. yesterday, and issued a press release by noon that soon spread across the Internet.
...
it's not the first complaint of fraud against the NAACP Voter Fund, which insists it is nonpartisan.

Elections officials in Lake County, just east of Cleveland, last month began investigating the group and an anti-Bush group called Americans Coming Together, or ACT Ohio, for hundreds of suspicious registration forms and absentee ballot requests.

Among them was one, submitted by the NAACP Voter Fund, for a man who'd been dead for more than two decades.

--Toledo Blade

... on Friday's post about foreigners trying to influence the election by writing to Clark County residents, the Guardian has posted some responses they've received.

A few highlights:

Dear wonderful, loving friends from abroad,
We Ohioans are an ornery sort and don't take meddling well, even if it comes from people we admire and with their sincere goodwill. We are a fairly closed community overall. In my town of Springfield, I feel that there are some that consider people from the nearby cities of Columbus or Dayton, as "foreigners"- let alone someone from outside our country.
Springfield, Ohio
...
I just read a hilarious proposal to involve your readership in the upcoming US presidential election. At least, I'm hoping that it is genius satire. Nothing will do more to undermine the Democratic cause in Ohio than having patronising Brits wander around Clark County telling people how to vote. Just, for a second, imagine if the Washington Post sent folks from Ohio to do the same in Oxfordshire. I'm saying this as a Democrat, and as someone who has spent the last few years in the UK. That is, with all due respect. Please, please, be rational, and move slowly away from the self-defeating hubris.
United States
...
My dear, beloved Brits,
I understand the Guardian is sponsoring a service where British citizens write to Americans to advise them on how to vote. Thank heavens! I was adrift in a sea of confusion and you are my beacon of hope!

Feel free to respond to this email with your advice. Please keep in mind that I am something of an anglophile, so this is not confrontational. Please remember, too, that I am merely an American. That means I am not very bright. It means I have no culture or sense of history. It also means that I am barely literate, so please don't use big, fancy words.

Set me straight, folks!
Dayton, Ohio

--Guardian Unlimited

And there are many there that are quite a bit more strongly worded.

Readers of a British newspaper have been invited to write Clark County voters with the aim of persuading the undecided to vote for either George W. Bush or John Kerry.

The 400,000-circulation Guardian, a London-based newspaper, published an article explaining to its international readers that although they have no vote in the U.S. presidential election, they can make a difference.

“ ... We’ve zeroed in on one of the places where this year’s election truly will be decided: Clark County, Ohio, which is balanced on a razor’s edge between Republicans and Democrats,” the article reads. It can be found on the Internet at guardian.co.uk, under the heading “My fellow non-Americans...” by Oliver Burkeman, who is based in the newspaper’s New York City bureau.

The newspaper is encouraging its readers from “Basildon to Botswana” to write Clark County residents who do not have a declared party, “which somewhat increases the chances of their being persuadable.”

Features editor Ian Katz said the unique idea stemmed from many foreigners’ feelings of helplessness while they watched the unfolding of the U.S. election — an election they feel will have a strong impact on the entire world.
--Springfield News-Sun

Cleanup will soon be under way at the Bush-Cheney Victory Center in York County for the fifth time this election season.

Vandals spray painted anti-Bush messages and "Vote Kerry" on the building and on the rented sign out front Wednesday night.

They also stole the letters from the sign out front which had been advertising a veterans event for this weekend.

"I just don't understand the mentality we're dealing with here. I mean, what are they proving? Because it's really, it's degrading to the other party to have this kind of vandalism going on," said Darwin Doll, headquarters coordinator.

The vandals hit other businesses and a barn along Route 74 just outside of Dallastown Wednesday night.

Doll said the Victory Center will now be equipped with security cameras.

--TheWGALChannel.com

All Italy is abuzzing today about a Kerry gaffe aired last night on HBO in Italy. As reported in today's Corriere della Sera in Italy, Defense Minister Antonio Martino criticized John Kerry for an incredible remark that the conditions of the Iraqi Army were so bad that even the Italian Army could kick their a**es.

Martino remarked that Kerry, "instead of saying what he thinks, should think about what he says."

But that would be too much for the great statesman from Massachusetts, wouldn't it?

--The Corner on National Review Online

Democrats in a race for a state House seat in District 82, are circulating a flyer that shows a child with disabilities with President Bush’s face running in a track race. The headline says: “Voting for Bush Is Like Running In The Special Olympics: Even If You Win, You’re Still Retarded.”

The flyer is being distributed by Democrat Craig Fitzhugh. His opponent, Dave Dahl has issued a call to Fitzhugh to stop distributing the flyer.

According to Dahl, “Hard-ball politics is one thing and everyone expects tough battles, but using those who are born with mental disabilities for political fodder is disgusting.”

Dahl says the flyers have been distributed for at least two weeks from Fitzhugh’s campaign office in Ripley, Tennessee. It also serves as the Kerry-Edwards headquarters. “At first, I really did not believe that Fitzhugh and the Democrats would stoop to such gutter politics, but then people started bringing the flyer to me at the end of last week. I was shocked and disgusted.”

--TraditionalValues.org

Bill Hobbs has the response from the Special Olympics people:

We at Special Olympics are astounded and appalled by a political flyer being distributed in Tennessee, showing the head of President Bush superimposed on the body of a Special Olympics athlete, saying, "Even if you win, you're still retarded."

We see this communication as an egregious, gratuitous insult to our almost 2 million athletes in over 150 countries around the world and a stunning affront to the more than 200 million people in the world who have intellectual disabilities.

We cringe at the thought that any one of these capable and courageous athletes would ever have to endure the agony, embarrassment, pain and suffering that this flyer would certainly cause.

We hope that the person or persons responsible for this outrageous political advertisement would come forward, identify themselves, and explain to the people of Tennessee and everywhere else why they would choose to denigrate the spirit, courage, and accomplishments of the Special Olympics athletes.

--BillHobbs.com

Sinclair Broadcasting Group, owners and/or operators of Fox 45 and ABC 22 in Dayton and WB 64 in Cincinnati are preempting prime time programming on their stations to run Stolen Honor, a documentary about John Kerry's conduct upon returning from Vietnam.

Off the bat, I think the judgements about Sinclair's presentation of the documentary are premature. As yet we don't have a clue as to how it will be presented, it might just end up being presented in an evenhanded manner. Or of course it could be completely biased, the point is we don't know yet.

Personally I don't see how this is worse than what CBS and Michael Moore have done. Raise a stink about it if you want, boycott Sinclair stations, try to convince them not to run it, rebut it, tell people where it's wrong. That's fine. That's your right. I don't have a problem with that.

I do however have a problem when people start whining to the FEC, when people move from "I don't like what that guy's saying, let's try and get him to stop" to "I don't like what that guy's saying, let's use the power of the government to get him to stop." The very purpose of the free speech clause of the First Amendment was to protect political speech. Airing this documentary is political speech. Sinclair has just as much right to air that documentary as the Left has the right to protest it.

Were the FEC to do the unthinkable and rule that Sinclair can't broadcast it, that decision would be a travesty.

Robin Dahle, who asked President Bush the first question yesterday, was just on NPR's Weekend America...

Dahle said that, before the debate, there was a 40 percent chance he'd vote for President Bush. He's now 80-90 percent sure of his vote, although not 100 percent.

The reason he gave was that Bush was more "personable." He also said that Kerry blundered when he said that only 3 people in the room made $200,000/year. He said that Kerry had made that assumption based on the appearance of the audience and the location of the debate. Dahle found that condescending.

--Blogs for Bush

Congrats to John Howard who won a fourth term yesterday.

There are in fact a couple of Internets. Now I can't speak as to whether draft rumors are flying around on Internet 2, but with all the college-types on there it's not out of the question.

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the attacks and spin emanating from the Left. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group. If you'd like to help out monetarily you can give to the RNC.

His conclusion at the end of the debate:

If I ever need to sue somebody, I'll call John Edwards.

If I ever need somebody killed - like, you know, terrorists trying to kill me or my family - I'll call Dick Cheney.

--The Kerry Spot on National Review Online

Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you "Senator Gone." You've got one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate.

Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session.

The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.

--Washington Post

Thought Cheney did very well tonight. He clearly knew his stuff, and I'd call it a draw in style. In the end, as with last week's debate, I think more people will agree with and believe what Vice President Cheney said. And also as with last week's debate, very few people's votes will have been changed.

And the runner up:

And with respect to [the Iraq War], we've seen a situation in which, first, they voted to commit the troops, to send them to war, John Edwards and John Kerry, then they came back and when the question was whether or not you provide them with the resources they needed -- body armor, spare parts, ammunition -- they voted against it.

I couldn't figure out why that happened initially. And then I looked and figured out that what was happening was Howard Dean was making major progress in the Democratic primaries, running away with the primaries based on an anti-war record. So they, in effect, decided they would cast an anti-war vote and they voted against the troops.

Now if they couldn't stand up to the pressures that Howard Dean represented, how can we expect them to stand up to al Qaeda?

--Washington Post

A group of protestors stormed and then ransacked a Bush-Cheney headquarters building in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, according to Local 6 News. ... Local 6 News reported that several people from the group of 100 Orlando protestors face possible assault charges after the group forced their way inside the Republican headquarters office.

While in the building, some of the protestors drew horns and a mustache on a poster of President George W. Bush and poured piles of letters in the office, according to the report.

"We told them to leave, they broke the law," Republican headquarters volunteer Mike Broom said.

Two protestors received minor injuries when the crowd stormed the building, including a Republican volunteer.

--WKMG (Orlando, FL)

Hat tip Instapundit (He also has pics from the Knoxville attack mentioned below.)

An unknown suspect fired multiple shots into the Bearden office of the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign Tuesday morning. ... According to Knoxville Police Department (KPD) officers on the scene Tuesday, it is believed that the two separate shots were fired from a car sometime between 6:30 am and 7:15 am.

One shot shattered the glass in the front door and the other cracked the glass in another of the front doors.

Bush-Cheney volunteer campaign coordinator Suzanne Dewar says she originally planned to be in the office early Tuesday morning.

"If I had gotten here a couple hours earlier, I'd have been inside," Dewar explains. "And we don't turn the lights on until we open, so they wouldn't have [known] someone was inside."
...
Volunteers and staffers at the campaign office say they have no clues as to who might have committed the crime. However, they add that the shooting makes them even more enthusiastic about working for their candidates.

"If anything, they've energized us," Dewar says. "Thank you. Not thank you for shooting at us, but, nothing's gonna slow us down."

Dewar says she can't imagine why someone would fire shots into an office where people could have been injured or killed.

"I don't even know what to say to the person that did this," Dewar says. "...Get a life. This is ridiculous."

--WBIR (Knoxville, TN)

Keep this quiet though, people are supposed to think that only the "brownshirts" on the right would stoop to stuff like this.

Football may not be the best sport for you to take up on the campaign trail.

The Global Test you need to take before doing anything outside our own borders is now available online.

The Gallup Poll on the debate is out. It shows that 53% of people believe Kerry won the debate and 37% think President Bush did. Interestingly the only aspect of the debate Kerry led in was "Expressed himself more clearly".

Viewers saw Kerry as more articulate in the debate than Bush (60% to 32%), though they divided equally as to which candidate had a better understanding of the issues (41% each).

Thinking about the following characteristics and qualities, please say whether you think each one better described John Kerry or George W. Bush during tonight's debate. How about -- [Random Order]?

2004 Sep 30 (sorted by advantage for Kerry)		Kerry	Bush	Advantage
		%	%	pct. pts.
Expressed himself more clearly		60	32	+28
Had a good understanding of the issues		41	41	0
Agreed with you more on the issues you care about		46	49	-3
Was more believable		45	50	-5
Was more likable		41	48	-7
Demonstrated he is tough enough for the job		37	54	-17
+	Advantage indicates Kerry lead
-	Advantage indicates Bush lead

--Gallup

Kerry may have been a more effective speaker, but I don't know that that's going to equate to people changing their minds on whether he's the right person to lead the war on terror.

Hugh Hewitt's got a debate scorecard going where he grades each question and each response.

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the vicious smear campaign the Left has launched. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group. If you'd like to help out monetarily you can give to the RNC.

--Correction--
The Times has run a correction of the quote.

"We know we can't count on the French. We know we can't count on the Russians," said Mr. Kerry. "We know that Iraq is a danger to the United States, and we reserve the right to take pre-emptive action whenever we feel it's in our national interest."

In reference to a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding access to Iraqi weapons sites, Mr. Kerry actually said: "I think that's our great concern [-] where's the backbone of Russia, where's the backbone of France, where are they in expressing their condemnation of such clearly illegal activity [-] but in a sense, they're now climbing into a box and they will have enormous difficulty not following up on this if there is not compliance by Iraq."

Later, referring to French and Russian reservations on the use of force, Mr. Kerry said: "There's absolutely no statement that they have made or that they will make that will prevent the United States of America and this president or any president from acting in what they believe are the best interests of our country."

--The Washington Times
(via Polipundit and AlphaPatriot)

The state of Ohio is stepping in to investigate possible voter fraud in Summit County. And the Lake County prosecutor is also looking into fraud there.

More than 800 voter registration cards in Summit County are under investigation, NewsChannel5 reported.

The Board of Elections said the voter registration cards in question are for addresses that don't exist, spelling mistakes or have similar handwriting.

Fifty of those questionable cards apparently came from the AFL-CIO central office in Cleveland, WEWS reported.
...
Elections officials said the bogus cards were kicked out by the computer and forwarded to state investigators.

In the meantime in Lake County, elections officials said some voter advocacy groups are forging registration cards.

In one example, a man who's been dead for 20 years is apparently a new registered voter.

And in another case, it looks as if an entire neighborhood will be out of town on Election Day. Everyone there applied for absentee ballots.

--NewsNet5.com

Siegel: What do you do if you ask the Joint Chiefs of Staff what they need to achieve their mission in Iraq and they say, "We need a lot more troops"? Do you escalate the troop levels, or do you plan for a quick or a constant exit instead?

Kerry: You have to support our troops, and you have to do what's necessary to try to make this mission successful, but they have not asked for that. I have to wait until I'm president and sit down with them and see where we are.

Siegel: But you yourself have pointed out that Gen. Shinseki, the former Army chief of staff, said there should be hundreds of thousands of troops in Iraq, and you say he was fired for saying that. What if you get now the "real story," as you would say, the Army speaking candidly--

Kerry: I'll have to make a decision when I get there as to what the probabilities are. I can't hypothesize as to what I am going to find on Jan. 20--whether I'm going to find a Lebanon or whether I'm going to find a country that's moving towards an election. That depends on what the president does now.

Siegel: But--

Kerry: I think the leadership has been arrogant and disastrous.

Siegel: But should either you or whoever is president next year consider the possibility of an increase in troops? Is that even a consideration, or should it be completely off the table?

Kerry: I do not intend to increase troops. I intend to get the process in place that I described, and I believe as a new president, with new credibility, with a fresh start, that I have the ability to be able to change the dynamics on the ground.

--Best of the Web

Where's that nuance when you need it?

Offered up by Neal Boortz:

Continuing their deep plunge into the abyss of political cluelessness, The Poodle's campaign has now decided to accuse George Bush of trying to reinstate the draft. Really, is this the best they can do? How about a little show of imagination here? I'm known for my willingness to assist the clueless, so here are some suggestions for The Poodle's handlers. Over the next 42 days they can make a series of statements to the media claiming that:

George Bush has a secret plan to destroy Social Security so that he can give more tax cuts to the wealthy.

George Bush has a secret plan to end Medicare. Let nature take its course.

Bush wants senior citizens to die. To hurry them along he will cut off their food supply.

George Bush has a secret plan to accelerate global warming.

George Bush wants the FCC to limit CBS newscasts to between 2:00 and 3:00 am.

George Bush wants to open an investigation into Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick. (Come to think of it, that's not such a bad idea. If Bush's National Guard service is fair game, let's seek the Truth about Ted.)

George Bush wants $2.50 a gallon gas to enrich his Texas oil buddies.

George Bush wants to keep black citizens away from the polls with the possible exception of Colin Powell, Condi Rice and Clarence Thomas.

George Bush will start another war. He needs a war for each term. To save on transportation costs the next target will be Canada. He will use sealing our borders as an excuse.

--boortz.com: Nealz Nuze Today's Nuze

The sad thing is, they're already made most of those statements.

Poor, poor Democrats. I feel sorry for them. They think they're in a bad enough spot that they need to try to scare young people with talk of President Bush reinstating the draft. Never mind that the bills to reinstate the draft in Congress sponsored by people like Fritz Hollings (D-SC), Chuck Rangel (D-NY), Jim McDermott (D-WA), John Conyers (D-MI), John Lewis (D-GA), Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-CA) and Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) and not Republicans.

--Addendum--

"There will be no draft when John Kerry is president," the North Carolina senator vowed, raising the question of whether there would be a draft if Bush remains in the White House.

Edwards’ comment came on the heels of remarks last week by Kerry’s friend and fellow Vietnam War veteran, former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland.

In a speech at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Cleland told students they might find themselves pressed into military service if Bush wins a second term.

“America will reinstate the military draft” if Bush is re-elected and continues the Iraq War, Cleland predicted, according to an account of his speech by the Colorado Springs Gazette.

"Pay attention ... to what you've got going on in Iraq. That, ladies and gentlemen, is Vietnam. I've seen this movie before. I know how it ends. It does not end pleasantly," he added. Cleland has been in a wheelchair since 1968 when he lost both legs and one arm in a grenade accident in Vietnam.

Former Kerry rival Howard Dean, now traveling the country to drum up support for Kerry and raise money for Democratic candidates, said last week at Brown University in Providence, R.I., "I think that George Bush is certainly going to have a draft if he goes into a second term, and any young person that doesn't want to go to Iraq might think twice about voting for him."

--MSNBC

That is simply despicable. They are flat out lying and making stuff up in order to scare people into voting for Kerry. I'd deleted this line from the original post, but it's going right back in now: It's like the kooks have completely taken over.

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the vicious and untrue smear campaign the Left has launched. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group. If you'd like to help out monetarily you could give to the RNC or consider giving to Mel Martinex's effort to win the Senate seat in Florida.

Given [the] economic problems the President needed a way to mute their possible damage. He has done this by setting the negatives in context, by countering economics with cultural values, and by stressing his leadership on the war on terror. Bush’s stump speeches focus on what has been over come and what can still be accomplished. While he admits that the economy is still struggling, he points out that he inherited a struggling economy that was hit hard by 9/11 and the corporate scandals that rocked Wall Street. Bush insists that, thanks to the tax cuts he championed, the economy is on the up turn but promises to keep working until everyone who wants to find work can do so. This rhetorical strategy allows Bush to frame a perceived weakness as a roadblock overcome rather than a failure. It also keeps his campaign tone positive and focused on the future.

Another way Bush counters economic bad news is by appealing to the cultural values of those in distressed areas. In media interviews with independent voters one sees again and again where those with doubts about the economy often lean Bush because of cultural issues like faith, abortion, gay marriage, and guns. The recent media focus on the Assault Weapons Ban is a good example. While Kerry was blasting the President on the issue Bush was in Southern Ohio talking about his strong support for the Second Amendment and campaigning with Zell Miller on his support for family values. In the potential swing region of Appalachia who do you think wins in that battle?

In foreign policy Bush has positioned himself as a decisive and committed leader in the war on terror and in contrast to the overly nuanced and shifting Kerry. As with cultural issues, Bush tells voters that he is on their side; that only he has the commitment to do what it takes to protect American lives and values.
...
This brings up a third and crucial strength Bush has in Ohio: organization. Ohio is dominated statewide by the Republican Party and, despite some inter-party rivalry and even scandal at the state level; they are unified in support of President Bush. Building on this support the GOP is no longer willing to give the edge to the Democrats in “get out the vote” (GOTV) efforts. Instead, the Bush team has mobilized a massive volunteer effort to get out every possible supporter on November 2. They have utilized web technology and email lists to recruit, encourage and direct volunteers in everything from donations, voter registration, and phone banks, to bumper stickers and yard signs and a final 72-hour GOTV push. With a volunteer leader in every precinct in the state the GOP is ready to get their people registered and to the polls on Election Day. GOTV used to be a big advantage for the Democrats but Republicans should be their equals this year.

--Redstate

And it shows President Bush leading Senator Kerry by 11 points, 54 to 43, among likely voters in Ohio. A month ago it showed Kerry leading 48 to 46.

Bush picked up 11 points in his net favorability rating while Kerry lost 12 points off his favorability.

10% of Ohio Democrats support President Bush while only 3% of Republicans are supporting Kerry.

This certainly isn't good news for John Kerry, he needs to pick up either Ohio or Florida and as things go on Ohio is looking less and less likely. He hasn't led a poll in Ohio since August 26^th and hasn't led outside the margin since July 22^nd.

The Ohio Poll is sponsored by the University of Cincinnati.

From today's press conference:
"Why are our troops not without the allies that they need so that they are bearing 90% of the cost."

Well, that's what he said. It's obviously not what he meant, but if President Bush had said it then it would be on a calendar tomorrow.

The GOP has made up a list of 14 Kerry Flip Flops from today's speech alone.

A few of my favorites.

FLIP FLOP #2: Iraq Was “Diversion From” War On Terror. “That means we must have a great honest national debate on Iraq. The President claims it is the centerpiece of his war on terror. In fact, Iraq was a profound diversion from that war and the battle against our greatest enemy, Osama bin Laden and the terrorists. Invading Iraq has created a crisis of historic proportions and, if we do not change course, there is the prospect of a war with no end in sight.” (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks At New York University, New York, NY, 9/20/04)

Kerry Said Iraq “Is Critical” To Success Of War On Terror. SEN. JOHN KERRY: “Iraq may not be the war on terror itself, but it is critical to the outcome of the war on terror. And therefore any advance in Iraq is an advance forward in that. And I disagree with the Governor [Howard Dean].” (Fox News’ “Special Report,” 12/15/03)

...

FLIP FLOP #4: Saddam’s “Downfall … Has Left America Less Secure.” “The satisfaction we take in his downfall does not hide this fact: we have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure.” (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks At New York University, New York, NY, 9/20/04)

Kerry Questioned Judgment Of Those Claiming Saddam’s Capture Doesn’t Help American Security. “Those who doubted whether Iraq or the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein, and those who believe we are not safer with his capture, don’t have the judgment to be president or the credibility to be elected president.” (Anne Q. Hoy, “Dean Faces More Criticism,” [New York] Newsday, 12/17/03)

...

FLIP FLOP #7: Iraq War Took “Attention And Resources” Away From Afghanistan. “The President's policy in Iraq took our attention and resources away from other, more serious threats to America. Threats like … the increasing instability in Afghanistan.” (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks At New York University, New York, NY, 9/20/04)

Kerry Said War On Terror “Doesn’t End With Afghanistan” And Suggested U.S. Move On To Addressing Menace Of Saddam Huseein. KERRY: “I think we clearly have to keep the pressure on terrorism globally. This doesn’t end with Afghanistan by any imagination. And I think the president has made that clear. I think we have made that clear. Terrorism is a global menace. It’s a scourge. And it is absolutely vital that we continue, for instance, Saddam Hussein.” (CNN’s “Larry King Live,” 12/14/01)

...

FLIP FLOP #10: Would Not Have Invaded Iraq Given What He Knows Now. “Yet today, President Bush tells us that he would do everything all over again, the same way. How can he possibly be serious? Is he really saying that if we knew there were no imminent threat, no weapons of mass destruction, no ties to Al Qaeda, the United States should have invaded Iraq? My answer is no - because a Commander-in-Chief's first responsibility is to make a wise and responsible decision to keep America safe.” (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks At New York University, New York, NY, 9/20/04)

In Response To President's Question About How He Would Have Voted If He Knew Then What He Knows Now, Kerry Confirmed That He Would Still Have Voted For Use Of Force Resolution. SEN. JOHN KERRY: "Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it's the right authority for a president to have. But I would have used that authority as I have said throughout this campaign, effectively. I would have done this very differently from the way President Bush has." (CNN's "Inside Politics," 8/9/04)

...

FLIP FLOP #14: Would Have Continued Containment Of Saddam. “I would have tightened the noose and continued to pressure and isolate Saddam Hussein - who was weak and getting weaker -- so that he would pose no threat to the region or America.” (Sen. John Kerry, Remarks At New York University, New York, NY, 9/20/04)

Kerry Expressed Opposition To “Policy Of Containment.” “So we’ve got a major set of choices to make here. And we’d better make them. We’ve been sliding into a fundamental policy of containment, which I share with Major Ritter the notion is disastrous to our overall proliferation interests and disastrous with respect to the Middle East and our interests with respect to Saddam Hussein and Iraq . But we have to make a decision whether we’re prepared to do what is necessary, and I mean to the point of a sustained targeting of the regime; not the Iraqi people, but the regime.” (Sen. John Kerry, Committee On Armed Services And Committee On Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, Joint Hearing, 9/3/98)

-- GOP.com

I'm sorry, but I don't trust to run our national security and foreign policy a man who's willing to change his policy to suit whatever the crowd wants to hear.

The DNC still has a page up using ^The Documents to attack President Bush.

Mason-Dixon has President Bush up by 7 and the Plain Dealer has President Bush up by 8. The average of the polls in Ohio released over the last week is President Bush by 9.

Politics in Gainesville turned rough and tumble Thursday night when, police say, a social behavior sciences instructor - a Democrat - punched the chairman of the Alachua County Republican Executive Committee in the face.

David Philip McCally, 55, of Gainesville faces misdemeanor battery and criminal mischief charges after he was accused of hitting both committee chairman Travis Horn, 32, and a life-sized, cardboard cutout of President George Bush.
...
Reached Friday, Horn said, "I enjoy thoughtful debate with my counterparts on the left. I think this is what makes this country great, but when you cross the line with physical violence, it's absurd."

After hitting the cutout, Horn said McCally left the office where a Young Republicans meeting was taking place. When Horn went outside, he said McCally came up to him. "He proceeded to say how he had a Ph.D., and he was smarter than me. I'm a stupid Republican," and other comments laced with obscenities, he said.

Horn said he was hit and knocked into a wall.

His lips were cut and his nose injured.

"I then proceeded to defend myself," he said. "I used the minimum force necessary to subdue him."

The police report states Horn kicked McCally because McCally was holding on to Horn's legs.

Police happened to be pulling into the area at the time, Horn said. A police report states officers saw McCally throw what they later learned was the first punch.

"Of course I'm going to have a restraining order filed against him," Horn said. "I certainly will seek his removal from the classroom. Obviously he's shown a serious lack of judgment."

As for Horn's commitment to his political opinions, he said, "If I have to take a beating every day for George W. Bush to be president, I'll do that. My passion for my beliefs continues unabated."

--Gainesvillesun.com (Hat tip Blogs for Bush)

He's back on the ballot.

Some are suggesting that because Phil Parlock has had run-ins with Democrats before that this incident is phony and even that the union thug who tore up the sign was one of Phil's sons.

You really want to tell me that either of these two people is the same as the last person?

Son 1:	Son 2:

Union Thug:

Son 1 is the better match, but I really don't think they're even close.

--Addendum--
I'll direct people to Michelle Malkin's site where they'll see "'That's ridiculous. This is a small town,' Parlock told me from his home in Huntington, W. Virginia. 'Everyone would recognize him.'"

Furthermore, the IUPAT, the union, is investigating. If they discovered that the person had nothing to do with the union or was Parlock's son don't you think they'd be mentioning that instead of apologizing? (A real class act by them.)

Hey, I'm with Malkin. If this all turns out to be a hoax I'll blast the guy, but you're going to have to possess better proof than a fuzzy picture of his sons that kinda, almost, sorta looks something like the guy.

A [national] Gallup poll being released Friday has Bush up 54-40 in a three-way matchup, with Ralph Nader at 3 percent.

--Yahoo! News

*Standard take this poll with a big 'ole grain of salt disclaimer*

Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards made a brief stop at the airport as he concluded his two-day bus tour to locations in West Virginia and Ohio.

Sophia Parlock, 3, cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, a supporter of President Bush, after a Bush-Cheney sign she and her father were holding was torn up by another person standing in the crowd that had gathered to greet Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va. At right, is Alex Parlock, 11, Sophia's brother.

*Disclaimer* There are of course idiots on both sides.

Received in the inbox today:

For Immediate Release
Thursday, September 16, 2004

Football Fans for Truth Takes Aim at Kerry's Football Fumbles

(Arlington, VA) -- September 16, 2004

A new organization has been created to help the American voter and sports fan determine whether John Kerry can be trusted to represent the nation both as President and sports-fan-in-chief. Football Fans for Truth, a 527 organization, will seek to raise awareness about John Kerry’s eminent failures in the area of sports knowledge, especially as it relates to America's favorite sport: football.

Football Fans for Truth believes the evidence it has collected is compelling. Last month, John Kerry lauded "Lambert Field" during a visit to Wisconsin. It is unknown what Kerry thinks of Lambeau Field, the historic home of the Green Bay Packers. John Kerry also praised the Ohio State Buckeyes football team; during a visit to Michigan.

Kerry's lack of knowledge extends far beyond the sport of football. ESPN's Peter Gammons reported that John Kerry told a radio interviewer that his favorite Red Sox player was Eddie Yost. Yost never played for the Red Sox. Gammons also reported that John Kerry lauded "Manny Ortez", an amalgamation of Red Sox first baseman and designated hitter David Ortiz and left fielder Manny Ramirez. When Kerry threw the first pitch at a Red Sox-Yankees game, he did not throw from the pitcher's mound -- yet still bounced the ball before it reached home plate. He then blamed his namby-pamby throw on the catcher, a National Guard soldier and Iraq war veteran: "I held back," Kerry told reporters. "He was very nervous. I tried to lob it gently."

"John Kerry is a menace to sports fans everywhere," said Football Fans for Truth Chairman Dino Panagopoulos. "Can we take four years of this?"

"I shudder to think of this man throwing out first pitches for four years," said Football Fans for Truth Director Jeff Larroca. "It is the mission of Football Fans for Truth to make the American public aware of the terrible dangers posed by Kerry to the sports world. He is not fit to be our sports-fan-in-chief."

Football Fans for Truth is already moving forward with its public education campaign. The organization has ordered a billboard near "Lambert Field" to educate Wisconsin football fans of the threat of a Kerry administration. It will stand through the election.

With additional public support from concerned sports fans, Football Fans for Truth plans to undertake other initiatives throughout the country.

"This is too important an issue for us to just sit on the sidelines," said Panagopoulos. "After watching one to many Kerry sports gaffes, we realized that we needed to get in the game. I mean, this is a person who probably prefers Astro-Turf to real grass."

Individuals can donate to Football Fans for Truth by sending a personal check for any amount in order to educating the American football public. The non tax-deductible check should be made out to "Football Fans for Truth."

Contributions should be sent to:

Football Fans for Truth
4201 Wilson Blvd., Ste 110
Box 106
Arlington, Virginia 22203

Press Contacts:

Pete Peterson 215-990-8928
Michael Barbera 703-380-6540
Email: ffft@cox.net

Our website will soon be up:

Footballfansfortruth.us

Boy, don't tick off those sports fans. :)

This time a "reputable paper" is reporting that President Bush might have "presenile dementia". and going on about how the White House will just cover up this condition.

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the vicious and untrue smear campaign the Left has launched. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group. If you'd like to help the cause monetarily you might consider giving to John Thune's campaign to unseat Tom Daschle.

Some have claimed President Bush wore an award ribbon he didn't earn, specifically the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award.

The Air Force has now completely debunked that.

The Air Force has knocked down allegations by a Web site that said President Bush, when serving as an officer in the Texas Air National Guard, wore a ribbon he was not authorized to wear -- a military offense that could have led to a bad-conduct discharge from the service if true.

The original story was offered to United Press International during late August by operatives from Democrats.com, an Internet activist group whose founder had earlier this year served as a source for The Boston Globe and other media outlets on stories about Bush's service in the guard in the 1960s and 1970s.
...
An e-mail message to UPI on Aug. 27 from Bob Fertik, founder of Democrats.com, stated, "Walt Starr called the Air Force and discovered that the only AFOUA given to Bush's unit was in 1975 -- five years after the photo. Case closed!"

The Air Force and the White House last week in interviews with UPI said the allegations were misleading. White House spokesman Trent Duffy referred UPI to the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Colorado where Technical Sgt. Rob Mims is the spokesman.

Mims said the claims were "not true. I verified that (Thursday). Lieutenant Bush received Air Force Outstanding Unit Award while he was in basic training with the 3724th Basic Military Training Squadron at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas."
...

Mims said that personnel records in the military are often incomplete due to "clerical errors."

"But I did verify that that unit did get the award while he (Bush) was there," said Mims.

The sergeant added that the photo in question was "taken after pilot training."

Mims said he confirmed his information about the medal with the Air Force's history office. "It's all there in black and white, we've spelled it out," said Mims.

The White House, through Duffy, said: "Lieutenant Bush at the time was completely authorized to wear those ribbons he has in those pictures. He could only wear those ribbons if he has the wings. He earned his wings in 1969."

--Washington Times Insider(subscription required)

Frank Abagnale, inspiration for the 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can has put in his two cents on ^The Documents.

"Though Mr. Abagnale has not personally seen the documents or copies of the documents, from what he has seen on television he believes the documents are forgeries. He feels this should be evident to anyone of any knowledge of forged documents," Sarah Hammermill, an information officer at Abegnale's[sic] company, Abegnale and Associates[sic] said in an email to blogger Robin K. Juhl.

"I can tell you that he sent an e-mail to Neil Cavuto of Your World on Fox News Network (he knows him personally) that stated: 'If my forgeries looked as bad as the CBS documents, it would have been Catch Me In Two Days.'"

Contacted by RatherBiased.com, Kelly Welbes, executive assistant to Abegnale[sic], confirmed the message.

"The person who wrote it was just asking his opinion on it. Mr. Abignale[sic] did, in fact, send that email to Fox News. And it is the opinion of Mr. Abignale[sic] that, having seen the documents as presented by CBS on TV, it is his opinion that they are forgeries," Welbes said.

Abegnale's[sic] comments are just the latest from what is fast becoming a gaggle of experts who doubt the authenticity of the CBS memos.

"Most of the colleagues that I know that are -- that are well trained and have a good reputation, every one that I have heard of on the nightly news or on the internet have basically come to the same conclusion regarding both the typing and handwriting," Jerry Richards, a former FBI document analyst told Fox News Channel's Special Report during tonight's edition.

--RatherBiased.com/LGF (bold emphasis added)

RatherBiased's post also would be a strong entry in any "Spell 'Abagnale' incorrectly as many times and in as many ways as possible" contest.

Poor, poor Democrats. I feel sorry for them. They think they're in a bad enough spot that they need to lower themselves to videos like this. It's like the kooks have completely taken over.

In the last days of that doomed 1992 Bush reelection effort, we knew we were losing. James Baker and other close Bush friends and family moved in to keep a close eye on all our work. In particular, they were looking for mistakes that would embarrass the family. At the time, dubious documents about the Arkansas governor's alleged "zipper problem" were floating temptingly around campaign headquarters. Wrong-headed whispers among junior staff about "saving the campaign" could be heard if you listened closely.

Finally, we were called into a meeting and given a simple instruction: Anyone caught trafficking in this information would be summarily fired. The Bush family did not want to "win this way." Because we were almost sure to lose anyway, they made a further promise that violators would never work in Washington again. Any doubts were laid to rest when we were told who sent this message: the president's son, George W. Bush.

--Michael Caputo - Christian Science Monitor (Hat tip Tim Blair)

Now compare that to the Kerry campaign. Even if you don't think The Documents came through the Kerry campaign/DNC there's more than enough name-calling, mudslinging and ad hominem attacks emanating from the Left to make the comparison unfavorable.

The lead expert retained by CBS News to examine disputed memos from President Bush's former squadron commander in the National Guard said yesterday that he examined only the late officer's signature and made no attempt to authenticate the documents themselves.

"There's no way that I, as a document expert, can authenticate them," Marcel Matley said in a telephone interview from San Francisco. The main reason, he said, is that they are "copies" that are "far removed" from the originals.
...
CBS executives have pointed to Matley as their lead expert on whether the memos are genuine, and included him in a "CBS Evening News" defense of the story Friday. Matley said he spent five to eight hours examining the memos. "I knew I could not prove them authentic just from my expertise," he said. "I can't say either way from my expertise, the narrow, narrow little field of my expertise."

--Washington Post

Retired Master Sgt. James Copeland does not care so much whether people think President Bush went absent without leave in 1972, but one thing he hears bothers him plenty.

"Maybe the Bush family was well known in Texas, but we didn't know who he was here. He was just another guy in a flight jacket," Copeland said Sunday.

Copeland, who lives in Hartselle, retired from the Air Force on Jan. 31, 1980. He was the disbursement accounting supervisor, a full-time position, for Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery from Oct. 28, 1971, to Oct. 27, 1975. His office was less than 100 yards from the hangar where Bush performed drills.
...
Copeland, 65, remembers meeting Bush on two occasions. He does not remember the precise dates. On one occasion, Copeland said, Bush and Lt. Col. John "Bill" Calhoun came to Copeland's office with a question about Bush's pay. Copeland is not sure, but he believes the question had to do with where to mail Bush's checks.

Bush was never a member of the Alabama National Guard, he just did his drills here. For that reason, Copeland thinks he referred the pay question to the paymaster for the Texas National Guard.

The other time Copeland remembers meeting Bush was at the base canteen. Bush was there drinking coffee or a soft drink, Copeland said.

Copeland stressed that Calhoun's account of Bush's service in Montgomery would be accurate because Calhoun was in a position to work with Bush during every drill. Calhoun told The Associated Press last week that he saw Bush every drill time, which was one weekend each month.

Not only was Calhoun in a position to know of Bush's service, Copeland said, but Calhoun "was an ethical and honest officer."
...
The suggestion that he or anyone else gave Bush a break because of the family legacy bothers Copeland.

"You hear people saying that everybody (at Dannelly) knew the Bushes. Well, that's just a lie," Copeland said. "He was just another pilot. No one paid any more attention to him than to anyone else. There was no hoopla."
...
Joe Holcombe, 71, of Joppa worked with Bush on the Blount campaign. He told THE DAILY last week that he remembers Bush missing at least one campaign meeting because of his National Guard drills.

--Decatur Daily News (Hat tip Captain's Quarters)

Calhoun had come forward before. Additionally there's Joe LeFevers.

CBS has left the flap over purported documents involving President Bush's record in the Texas Air National Guard in this posture: Who are you going to believe, CBS or your lyin' eyes?

To accept CBS's insistence the four documents from the early 1970s are authentic, you would have to believe the following:

(1) That the late Jerry Killian, Bush's commanding officer, typed the documents--though his wife says "he wasn't a typist."

(2) That Killian kept the documents in his personal files--though his family says he didn't keep files.

(3) That the disputed documents reflect his true (negative) feelings about Bush and a contemporaneous official document he wrote lauding Bush did not.

(4) That he typed the documents on a technically advanced typewriter, an IBM Selectric Composer--though that model has been tested and failed to produce an exact copy of the documents.

(5) That this advanced typewriter, which would have cost $15,000 or so in today's dollars, was used by the Texas National Guard and that Killian had gained the significant expertise needed to operate it.

(6) That Killian was under pressure to whitewash Bush's record from a general who had retired 18 months earlier.

(7) That Killian's superior, Maj. Gen. Bobby Hodges, was right when, sight unseen, he supposedly said the documents were authentic, but wrong when, having actually viewed the documents, he declared them fraudulent.

Now if you can't accept all that, there's another side. To believe the documents are forgeries, you have to believe this:

(1) The documents were typed recently using Microsoft Word, which produces documents that are exact copies of the CBS documents.

(2) There's no number 2. All you have to believe is number 1.

--The Weekly Standard (Hat tip Bill Hobbs)

I had been feeling disappointed in the Cincinnati Post. They had an editorial today all about how the forged documents showed that President Bush didn't fulfill his guard commitment and didn't mention at all that the documents had been shown to be forged.

It was like saying that this memo...

...which I discovered* and could claim to be from the personal files of Kerry's direct commander raised serious questions about not only whether he earned his Purple Hearts but also about whether he was in Vietnam at all and whether there was a serious purple monkey problem in Vietnam at the time. Just as this "document" says nothing about Kerry's service record, the forged national guard documents say nothing about President Bush's. They're fake, they can't show that President Bush received preferential treatment or disobeyed a direct order.

It now appears that they've seen the light and taken down the editorial as the link above now gives you a "URL is not valid" error. Good for them for correcting their mistake unlike some others. *cough*CBS*cough*

* "discovered" meaning "Found on my desktop after typing it up in Word, printing it out, scanning it in, editing it in Photoshop and saving it to my desktop"

Mike Allen is removing his name from the ballot for Hamilton County Prosecutor and Ohio Treasurer Joseph Deters is launching a write-in campaign.

All day Friday, Rather, his producer on the story, Mary Mapes, and other 60 Minutes staffers were scrambling to shore up support from their sources on the story. That effort didn't go so well. By Saturday, one of their key sources, retired Maj. Gen. Bobby Hodges, had said that CBS misled him, and that he had never been shown the memos in question.

"We pulled the trick of only calling some sources at the last minute to reconfirm," says the CBS producer. "Someone called Hodges, I think, on Monday night and read him parts of the document. The late contacts are a standard practice so we don't tip off the competition or our sources."

Hodges is a critical loss for CBS News' credibility. He was the superior officer of the man CBS claims wrote the memo, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984.

MEANWHILE, OVER THE WEEKEND journalists from around the country were attempting to track down the original source of the documents. "We're having a hard time tracking how we got the documents," says the CBS News producer. "There are at least two people in this building who have insisted we got copies of these memos from the Kerry campaign by way of an additional source. We do not have the originals, and our sources have indicated to us that we will not be getting the originals. How that is possible I don't know."

One individual several news outlets were looking at was Bill Burkett, a former Texas National Guard officer. Burkett in the past has cooperated with both press and Democratic Party opposition researchers in slinging mud at President Bush. Burkett gained some national attention earlier in the campaign when he claimed he was at National Guard headquarters in Austin 1997, when he overheard Guard officials and a representative of then Governor Bush discuss how to sanitize Bush's files. That story was fully discredited. Nonetheless, Burkett sat down for at least three different interviews with CBS News for the story now at the center of the controversy. One of those interviews was with Rather's producer, Ms. Mapes.

"There are rumors here that if there are any real documents, they are hand-written notes from Killian that someone like Burkett was holding, and that instead of using the hand-written notes, someone typed them up to look more official," says the CBS News producer. "They would look better on TV and posted on line if they were typed, but on a number of levels, that story just doesn't hold up. There are too many inconsistencies factually with what is in the memos."
...
REPORTERS ARE ALSO LOOKING at staff and associates of Sen. Tom Harkin, who enthusiastically held a press conference on Thursday morning using the forged documents as the tent pole for attacks against President Bush. Harkin called Bush a "liar."

"Harkin has been pushing this story for a while," says the CBS producer. "Not this specific story, but the 'Bush is a liar about his record' story. His people seemed particularly interested in making sure they could keep their boss up to date on what was going on."

That Harkin was the individual selected to be the attack dog on this particular issue was an interesting one, give that Harkin himself has a checkered history about telling the truth about his involvement in the Vietnam War.

--The American Spectator

Gee, if you have no idea where the original documents are and can't get ahold of them... maybe you can't be too adamant about them being real...

While the Democrats are smearing President Bush's National Guard service and scaring people with bogus threats of disenfranchisement; President Bush is rolling out his Agenda for America with an ad campaign here in Ohio.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Everything seemed to be in place for a powerful run by Senator John Kerry in Ohio in the stretch drive after Labor Day. Al Gore lost the state by 175,000 votes in 2000, despite having pulled all his advertising early in October. Ohio has shed 250,000 jobs since George W. Bush became president. Rocked by scandals and an unpopular tax increase, the statehouse Republicans, from Gov. Bob Taft down the line, have been in unaccustomed disarray for weeks.

At the end of last month, the Census Bureau reported that Cleveland, with a poverty rate of 31.3 percent, led the country in that most dubious category, and this month American deaths in Iraq topped 1,000. Both developments might have given a leg up in the campaign to Mr. Kerry, a critic of Mr. Bush's economic policy and his conduct of the war. Yet Mr. Kerry seems to be falling back.
...
Democratic professionals have begun to criticize Mr. Kerry's efforts - privately and, in a few cases, publicly. Gerald Austin of Cleveland, a leading Ohio campaign consultant for more than 30 years, said that former President Bill Clinton could run a better campaign than Mr. Kerry's "even when he was under ether."
...
"I smell the same New England genius that I smelled in the Dukakis campaign in 1988," Mr. Austin added. "Kerry wants to run as a man of the people, and where do they put him for photo opportunities? Snowboarding in Sun Valley, shooting skeet in the Ohio valley, and windsurfing off that great working-class vacation paradise, Nantucket. Democrats - at least Ohio Democrats - play softball and touch football."
...
Another reason for Mr. Kerry's difficulties is demographic. The state has been closely contested so far, but it is less representative of the nation as a whole than it once was. As labor unions have waned and the suburbs and exurbs around cities like Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo and Akron have flourished, the state has become more Republican. The Republicans now have a 12-to-6 majority in the Congressional delegation, and hold both Senate seats, the governorship, all the other statewide constitutional offices and both houses of the Legislature.

"Since 1948, Ohio has slowly become less of a barometer," said Michael F. Curtin, president of The Columbus Dispatch, who has tracked Ohio politics for decades, "On average, it has voted 1.7 points more Republican than the country has. The last Democrat to run stronger here than he did nationally was Lyndon Johnson in 1964."

--The New York Times

Last week’s seismic voter shift to George W. Bush showed no signs of dwindling in this week’s Time Poll. Bush continues to lead Democratic challenger John Kerry among likely voters by double digits, 52% - 41%, in the three way race, with Nader at 3%, the same as last week.

Putting this into perspective, just a month ago, post-Democratic convention, the Time Poll had Kerry with a statistically significant lead over Bush, 48% - 43%.

--TIME.com

Could still be a fluke, but if so it's now two flukes in a row.

I said at the time I would have preferred if we had given diplomacy a greater opportunity, but I think it was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein. And when the president made the decision, I supported him, and I support the fact that we did disarm him. John F. Kerry, May 3, 2003

Those who doubted whether Iraq or the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein, and those who believe that we are not safer with his capture, don't have the judgment to be president or the credibility to be elected president.
December 16, 2003

Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it's the right authority for a president to have. But I would have used that authority as I have said throughout this campaign, effectively.
August 9, 2004

Iraq was "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time."
September 6, 2004

We should not send more American troops. That would be the worst thing.
John F. Kerry, September 4, 2003

If it requires more troops . . . that's what you have to do.
April 18, 2004

I will have significant, enormous reduction in the level of troops.
August 1, 2004

We're going to get our troops home where they belong.
August 6, 2004

We should increase funding [for the war in Iraq] by whatever number of billions of dollars it takes to win.
John F. Kerry, August 31, 2003

$200 billion [for Iraq] that we're not investing in education and health care, and job creation here at home. . . . That's the wrong choice.
September 8, 2004

--The Weekly Standard

CBS says Retired Maj. General Bobby Hodges, Killian's supervisor, was a source in verifying The Documents.

A senior CBS official, who asked not to be named because CBS managers did not want to go beyond their official statement, named one of the network's sources as retired Maj. Gen. Bobby W. Hodges, the immediate superior of the documents' alleged author, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian. He said a CBS reporter read the documents to Hodges over the phone and Hodges replied that "these are the things that Killian had expressed to me at the time."

--Washington Post

The problem? Hodges isn't playing along. He says he was misled by CBS.

HODGES SAID HE WAS MISLED BY CBS: Retired Maj. General Hodges, Killian's supervisor at the Grd, tells ABC News that he feels CBS misled him about the documents they uncovered. According to Hodges, CBS told him the documents were "handwritten" and after CBS read him excerpts he said, "well if he wrote them that's what he felt."

Hodges also said he did not see the documents in the 70's and he cannot authenticate the documents or the contents. His personal belief is that the documents have been "computer generated" and are a "fraud".

--ABC News (Hat tip Instapundit)

It was a very good sized crowd. Don't think they could have fit more people (safely) into the Ross County Fairgrounds. Traffic was a bit backed up going in, but it wasn't too bad. You were always moving... just slowly. On the way out was a different matter entirely. It took us at least an hour and a half just to get out of the parking lot.

Appearences by Congressmen Bob Ney and Rob Portman, Ross County's State Representative and State Senator (who is ironically named John Kerry), Governor Bob Taft, Senators Mike DeWine and Zell Miller, and Anthony Munoz.

A few of my pictures:

Boy, those Kerry protestors showed up in full force.

Zell Miller and Rob Portman

Zell Miller got a very good reception.

Unfortunately my camera's batteries died just at the end. Missed some very good shots when he was closest to me.

He... and I... will be in Chillicothe, OH this afternoon.

The Left's been getting its jollies from being outraged over Vice President Cheney saying that if Kerry/Edwards wins there'll be more terrorist attacks. The problem is, that a) isn't what he meant and b) is only what he said if you take it out of context.

In an interview with the Enquirer after a campaign event in Cincinnati, Cheney said he wanted to "clean up" the controversy surrounding his remarks at a similar event Tuesday in Des Moines, Iowa .

There, he told a town-hall audience that if, on Election Day, "we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again...."

But Thursday, he emphasized the half-sentence that came after: "... that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States, and that we'll fall back into the pre-9/11 mind-set, if you will, that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts, and that we're not really at war."

"I did not say if Kerry is elected, we will be hit by a terrorist attack," Cheney said.

--Enquirer

It should probably be taken with a grain of salt, but The Spectator (working link with the text here) suggests that CBS got The Documents from the DNC who got them from an unidentified individual.

More than six weeks ago, an opposition research staffer for the Democratic National Committee received documents purportedly written by President George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard squadron commander, the late Col. Jerry Killian.

The oppo researcher claimed the source was "a retired military officer." According to a DNC staffer, the documents were seen by both senior staff members at the DNC, as well as the Kerry campaign.

"More than a couple people heard about the papers," says the DNC staffer. "I've heard that they ended up with the Kerry campaign, for them to decide to how to proceed, and presumably they were handed over to 60 Minutes, which used them the other night. But I know this much. When there was discussion here, there were doubts raised about their authenticity."
...
The CBS producer said that some alarms bells went off last week when the signatures and initials of Killian on the documents in hand did not match up with other documents available on the public record, but producers chose to move ahead with the story. "This was too hot not to push. If there were doubts, those people didn't show it," says the producer, who works on a rival CBS News program.

Now, the producer says, there is growing concern inside the building on 57th Street that they may have been suckered by the Kerry campaign. "There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in our laps, figuring we'd do the heavy lifting on the story. That maybe they had doubts about these documents but hoped we'd get more information," says the producer. "If that's the case, then we're bigger fools than we already appear to be judging by all the chatter about how these documents could be forgeries."

--The Spectator (working link with the text here)

Again, take it with a grain of salt until there are more actual facts.

CBS NEWS executives have launched an internal investigation into whether its premiere news program 60 MINUTES aired fabricated documents relating to Bush's National Guard service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. ... The source, who asked not to be named, described CBSNEWS anchor and 60 MINUTES correspondent Dan Rather as being privately "shell-shocked" by the increasingly likelihood that the documents in question were fraudulent.

Rather, who anchored the segment presenting new information on the president's military service, will personally correct the record on-air, if need be, the source explained from New York.

--Drudge Report

ABC News meanwhile has a good story up on the situation.

Marjorie Connell — widow of the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, the reported author of memos suggesting that Bush did not meet the standards for the Texas Air National Guard — questioned whether the documents were real.

"The wording in these documents is very suspect to me," she told ABC News Radio in an exclusive phone interview from her Texas home. She added that she "just can't believe these are his words."

First reported by CBS's 60 Minutes, the memos allegedly were found in Killian's personal files. But his family members say they doubt he ever made such documents, let alone kept them.

Connell said Killian did not type, and though he did take notes, they were usually on scraps of paper. "He was a person who did not take copious notes," she said. "He carried everything in his mind."
...
More than half a dozen document experts contacted by ABC News said they had doubts about the memos' authenticity.

"These documents do not appear to have been the result of technology that was available in 1972 and 1973," said Bill Flynn, one of country's top authorities on document authentication. "The cumulative evidence that's available … indicates that these documents were produced on a computer, not a typewriter:"

Among the points Flynn and other experts noted:

The memos were written using a proportional typeface, where letters take up variable space according to their size, rather than fixed-pitch typeface used on typewriters, where each letter is allotted the same space. Proportional typefaces are available only on computers or on very high-end typewriters that were unlikely to be used by the National Guard.

The memos include superscript, i.e. the "th" in "187th" appears above the line in a smaller font. Superscript was not available on typewriters.

The memos included "curly" apostrophes rather than straight apostrophes found on typewriters.

The font used in the memos is Times Roman, which was in use for printing but not in typewriters. The Haas Atlas — the bible of fonts — does not list Times Roman as an available font for typewriters.

The vertical spacing used in the memos, measured at 13 points, was not available in typewriters, and only became possible with the advent of computers.

--ABC News

Instapundit has a good roundup of the information.

Proportional spacing... superscripts... non-straight quotation marks... the fact that every line ends at the same word as it does in Word...

You have to admit, it doesn't look good for the folks at CBS questioning President Bush's Guard service.

These two results could simply be coincidence, but if they are, you have to admit that 1972-73 documents exactly matching documents typed up in Word today with standard 12 point Times New Roman font is a big enough coincidence to be worth noting.

A protestor at Kerry's Cincinnati speech was taken down by a sheetmetal worker in a not-so-friendly fashion.

The Kerry-Edwards '04 office floor plan via Wonkette.

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the lies, untruths, and misleading spin being put out by the Left. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group.

Living in the nearly 100% of America where Air America radio isn't broadcast I'd never heard The Al Franken Show prior to today. It's on the Sundance Channel now so I gave it a watch and oooh boy... I can't imagine those pre-scripted bits work all that well on the radio and they work even worse when you can see them.

It's the "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time" but is in fact a part of the War on Terror.

''Today marks a tragic milestone in the war in Iraq; more than 1,000 of America's sons and daughters have now given their lives on behalf of their country, on behalf of freedom, the war on terror,'' Kerry said as he arrived in Cincinnati on a campaign stop.

--Boston.com

[Kerry] seemed to forget that Republicans have been tearing him down for months as a vacillating, indecisive, finger-in-the-wind politician of the worst order.

"Everybody told me, 'God, if you're coming to Canonsburg, you've got to find time to go to Toy's, and he'll take care of you,'" Mr. Kerry said, dropping the name of a restaurant his motorcade had passed on the way in. "I understand it's my kind of place, because you don't have to - you know, when they give you the menu, I'm always struggling: Ah, what do you want?

"He just gives you what he's got, right?" Mr. Kerry added, continuing steadily off a gangplank of his own making: "And you don't have to worry, it's whatever he's cooked up that day. And I think that's the way it ought to work, for confused people like me who can't make up our minds."

--The New York Times

Steve Verdon takes a look at the budget deficit figures and comes to the conclusion that when numbers are adjusted for inflation this year's deficit is only the 4th highest since 1940 and 17th highest when measured as a percentage of the GDP, and thus the cries of "record deficit" are a bit overstated.

(Make sure you do scroll down to the bottom, I am going somewhere with this.)

For Immediate Release

Convention Day 1
Bush is Good for Hispanics.

1. Fortuno: President Bush understands that that is why he believes in empowering Hispanics through improved education, better job opportunities, affordable health care and lower taxes.

2. Fortuno: And that's why President Bush believes in empowering the American citizens of Puerto Rico so that we can fulfill our aspirations regarding our political status.

Bush Funded Homeland Security for NYC After 9/11.

3. Bloomberg: I want to thank President Bush for supporting New York City in changing the Homeland Security Funding formula and for leading the global war on terrorism.

4. Kerik: “He was there for them as he was for us right here in New York City, inspiring a nation as he stood on hallowed ground, supporting the first responders.”

Lawsuits Are Driving Up Health Care Costs & Hurting Job Growth.

5. Melissa Brown: Thousands of lawsuits are driving up health care costs.

6. Geoff Davis: “I'll fight to stop the frivolous lawsuits that drive up health care costs…”

“… and hurt jobs.”

Bush Works Across Party Lines.

7. Triplett : President Bush understands that “teamwork is critical to success. President Bush understands that.”

Bush Good for Immigrants.

8. Fernando Mateo: Over the past four years, he has welcomed immigrants to our shores and given us more hope and opportunity to care for our families

9. Fernando Mateo: “Our President has proposed reforms to our immigration laws that will match willing foreign workers with willing American employers, when no American can be found to fill the job. The program will offer legal status, as temporary workers, to millions of undocumented men and women, allowing them to come out of the shadows and escape abuse and exploitation.”

Bush Has Done A Good Job With Our Allies.

10. Senator John McCain: “My friends in the Democratic Party and I'm fortunate to call many of them my friends assure us they share the conviction that winning the war against terrorism is our government's most important obligation. I don't doubt their sincerity. They emphasize that military action alone won't protect us, that this war has many fronts: in courts, financial institutions, in the shadowy world of intelligence, and in diplomacy. They stress that America needs the help of her friends to combat an evil that threatens us all, that our alliances are as important to victory as are our armies. We agree. And, as we've been a good friend to other countries in moments of shared perils, so we have good reason to expect their solidarity with us in this struggle. That is what the President believes. And, thanks to his efforts we have received valuable assistance from many good friends around the globe, even if we have, at times, been disappointed with the reactions of some.”

11. Senator John McCain: “Our President will work with all nations willing to help us defeat this scourge that afflicts us all.”

Bush Did It Right Going to War Against Iraq.

12. Senator John McCain: “However just the cause, we should shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us. But there is no avoiding this war. We tried that, and our reluctance cost us dearly. And while this war has many components, we can't make victory on the battlefield harder to achieve so that our diplomacy is easier to conduct.”

13. Senator John McCain: “After years of failed diplomacy and limited military pressure to restrain Saddam Hussein, President Bush made the difficult decision to liberate Iraq. Those who criticize that decision would have us believe that the choice was between a status quo that was well enough left alone and war. But there was no status quo to be left alone. “

Bush Economy is Humming Along & Creating Good Jobs.

14. Bill Manger: We revived an economy and are creating good jobs.

15. Marc Racicot: “Today, more people are working.”

16. Dennis Hastert: And we are proud of what the Republican Congress and the president have achieved together: historic tax reduction, which has helped create 1.5 million new jobs in the last year and has the economy growing again.

Republicans Are Protecting the Environment.

17. Bill Manger: “And finally, Republicans are following the inspiration of New York's own Teddy Roosevelt to ensure our natural resources are protected for generations.”

LIE: Bush Created Homeland Security Department

18. Bernard Kerik: “The President responded by creating the Department of Homeland Security, he enacted the PATRIOT Act and he has tripled our homeland security funding since 2001.”

19. Dennis Hastert: We have taken important steps to defend our people by creating a Department of Homeland Security to better coordinate our internal defense.

America Safer Under Bush.

20. Bernard Kerik: “Today, we live in a much safer world as a result of this President's strong leadership.”

21. Marc Racicot: Under President Bush, we have a safer, more hopeful America.

Bush Has Continually Supported Our Troops

22. Bernard Kerik: “It takes continued support for our troops and first responders, not votes against our military, our intelligence and law enforcement spending.”

Education Has Improved Under Bush.

23. Racicot: “Schools are focused on success, and children are learning.”

24. Hastert: And we are proud of what the Republican Congress and the president have achieved together …revolutionary education reform, which demands more accountability from schools and better results for our children;

Bush Leading the Global Fight Against Disease & Hunger.

25. Marc Racicot: We are leading the world in the fight to eradicate disease and hunger.

John Kerry “On the Wrong Side” on Taxes.

26. Dennis Hastert: He's on the wrong side of taxation.

John Kerry “On the Wrong Side of Litigation.”

27. Hastert: He's on the wrong side of litigation.

John Kerry “On the Wrong Side of Regulation”

28. Hastert: And he's on the wrong side of regulation.

Taxes, Litigation, and Regulation Lead to Job Loss.

29. Hastert: These [taxation, litigation, and regulation] are the job killers. They add costs to our products and put American workers at a disadvantage.

John Kerry Said He Would Raise Taxes on Businesses Creating Jobs.

30. Hastert: No, at his Boston tax party, John Kerry promised to increase taxes on the job creators.

John Kerry Voted For and Against the War.

31. Dennis Hastert: You know, he's voted for it, and he's voted against it.

John Kerry is Weak on the War.

32. Dennis Hastert: My friends, this is no time to pick a leader who is weak on the war

Health Savings Accounts Will Make Health Insurance More Affordable.

33. Dennis Hastert: And we are proud of what the Republican Congress and the president have achieved together …health savings accounts, which will give families more control over their health care and will make it more affordable.

Republican Convention Will Present a Positive Agenda.

34. Ed Gillespie: We will present a positive agenda for our future that will expand our Republican majority in the Senate, expand our Republican majority in the House, and expand our majority of Republican governorships.

John Kerry Has No Clear, Consistent Vision of Terrorism.

35. Rudy Guliani: President Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that it is. John Kerry has no such clear, precise and consistent vision.

Bush’s Refusal to Change His Mind Even When Facts Prove Him Wrong is Indicative of Leadership.

36. Rudy Guliani: President Bush, a leader who is willing to stick with difficult decisions even as public opinion shifts.

John Kerry Changes His Position Often on Key Issues.

37. Rudy Guliani: John Kerry, whose record in elected office suggests a man who changes his position often even on important issues.

John Kerry Voted Against Funding Troops.

38. Rudy Guliani: And then just 9 months later, he voted against an $87 billion supplemental budget to fund the war and support our troops.

John Kerry Said He Was an Anti-War Candidate, Then Pro-War.

39. Rudy Guliani: He even, at one point, declared himself an anti-war candidate. Now, he says he's pro-war.”

John Kerry’s Statement on the $87 Billion Indicates Inconsistency.

40. Rudy Guliani: My point about John Kerry being inconsistent is best described in his own words when he said, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."

John Kerry Flip-Flopped on the Security Fence.

41. Rudy Guliani: In October, 2003, he told an Arab-American Institute in Detroit that a security barrier separating Israel from the Palestinian Territories was a "barrier to peace." A few months later, he took exactly the opposite position. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post he said, "Israel's security fence is a legitimate act of self defense."

John Kerry Will Pursue an Uncertain Course in the War on Terror.

42. Rudy Guliani: The contrasts are dramatic. They involve very different views of how to deal with terrorism. President Bush will make certain that we are combatting terrorism at the source, beyond our shores, so we can reduce the risk of having to confront it in the streets of New York. John Kerry's record of inconsistent positions on combatting terrorism gives us no confidence he'll pursue such a determined course.

John Kerry Would Appease Terrorists.

43. Rudy Guliani: President Bush will not allow countries that appear to have ignored the lessons of history and failed for over thirty years to stand up to terrorists, to dissuade us from what is necessary for our defense. He will not let them set our agenda. Under President Bush, America will lead rather than follow. John Kerry's claim that certain foreign leaders who opposed our removal of Saddam Hussein prefer him, raises the risk that he would accommodate his position to their viewpoint.

Regime Change in Iraq Was Part of the War on Terror.

44. Rudy Guliani: In any plan to destroy global terrorism, removing Saddam Hussein needed to be accomplished.

Reasons for Removing Saddam Were Based on More Than Just WMDs.

45. Rudy Guliani: But the reasons for removing Saddam Hussein were based on issues even broader than just the presence of weapons of mass destruction.

Convention Day 2

Bush Lowered Health Care Costs

46. Frist: He has won some huge victories to make health care cost less and be there when you need it. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Bush Gave Prescription Drugs 40 Million

47. Frist: Thanks to his leadership, over 40 million seniors and individuals with disabilities will soon have access to prescription drugs. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Bush Gave 4 Million Seniors Discounted Prescription Drugs

48. Frist: And right now, thanks to the President's action, this Medicare prescription drug discount card is providing 4 million seniors with immediate relief from the high cost of their medicines. Remarks [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Kerry is Against Prescription Drug Card

49. Frist: Now some of our opponents don't want seniors to get this card. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Health Care Costs the Result of Medical Malpractice

50. Frist: Another reason health care costs too much is our abused medical liability system. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Trial Lawyers to Blame for Health Care Costs

51. Frist: The culprits are personal injury trial lawyers. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Kerry Mischaracterized Bush’s Stem Cell Policy

52. Frist: John Kerry claims that the President has put a "sweeping ban" on stem cell research. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Health Care More Affordable Under Bush

53. Frist: My friends, I'm so proud of our President's record. He's making health care more affordable, more accessible. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Kerry’s Health Care Plan to Cost $1 Trillion

54. Frist: We have a choice. John Kerry's trillion dollar government-run plan will place your health in the hands of others faraway. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Bush Devoted Resources to Education

55. Paige: President Bush saw this two-tiered system as unacceptable! He proposed a plan High standards; measurable goals; real consequences and resources to get the job done. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Schools Getting Assistance Under Bush

56. Paige: States, not Washington, set the standards. Schools that need assistance get assistance. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Bush Increased the Pell Grant

57. Paige: President Bush also increased Pell Grants funding so one million more young adults can afford college. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Kerry Flip-Flopped on No Child Left Behind

58. Paige: Our opponents voted for No Child Left Behind. They praised it then. Now they attack it. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 8/31/04]

Bush committed record funding for AIDS

59. Brownback: "Here at home, President Bush has committed record levels of support to fighting the disease. He has called for a new focus on abstinence education and has established a new effort to develop an AIDS vaccine. Internationally, President Bush has marshaled an army of compassion to combat this disease. His Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and TB authorized a record $15 billion, which will treat 2 million people, prevent 7 million new infections, and care for 10 million orphans and others affected by AIDS."

Immigrants Welcome in Republican Party.

60. Schwarzenegger: “To my fellow immigrants listening tonight, I want you to know how welcome you are in this party.” [GOP Convention, 8/31/04]

GOP is the Party of Fiscal Responsibility.

61. Schwarzenegger: “If you believe your family knows how to spend your money better than the government does... then you are a Republican!” [GOP Convention, 8/31/04]

Bush Inherited Recession, Faced Attack on Homeland.

62. Schwarzenegger: “America's economy is moving ahead in spite of a recession they inherited and in spite of the attack on our homeland.” [GOP Convention, 8/31/04]

Tax Relief Helped All Families.

63. Steele: “He didn't just hope for economic recovery, he turned that hope into action by returning money to the people who earned it -- American families. Today, over 111 million taxpayers are keeping more of their own money.” [GOP Convention, 8/31/04]

Kerry Doesn’t Consider the Fight Against Terrorism a “War.”

64. Steele: “He also recently said that he doesn't want to use the word ‘war’ to describe our efforts to fight terrorism. Well, I don't want to use the words ‘Commander-in-Chief’ to describe John Kerry.” [GOP Convention, 8/31/04]

Convention Day 3

Bush Inherited a Recession

65. Cheney: “As President Bush and I were sworn into office, our nation was sliding into recession…” [Cheney Remarks, 9/1/04]

Economy is Good

66. Chao: “Thanks to President Bush’s tax relief, the economy is expanding, creating more than 1.5 million new jobs in the last eleven months. Today, the national unemployment rate is lower than the average for the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/1/04]

Bush is Making Healthcare More Affordable

67. Cheney: “Our nation has the best healthcare in the world and President Bush is making it more affordable and accessible to all Americans.” [Cheney Remarks, 9/1/04]

Bush Destroyed Terrorist Training Camps in Afghanistan

68. Cheney: “In Afghanistan, the camps where terrorists trained to kill Americans have been shut down…” [Cheney Remarks, 9/1/04]

Kerry Said He Would Only Deploy Troops at the Directive of the UN

69. Cheney: “Senator Kerry began his political career by saying he would like to see our troops deployed ‘only at the directive of the United Nations.’” [Cheney Remarks, 9/1/04]

Kerry Opposes Reagan Defense Initiatives

70. Cheney: “During the 1980s, Senator Kerry opposed Ronald Reagan's major defense initiatives that brought victory in the Cold War.” [Cheney Remarks, 9/1/04]

Kerry Spoke of a More “Sensitive” War on Terror

71. Cheney: “He talks about leading a ‘more sensitive war on terror,’ as though Al Qaeda will be impressed with our softer side.” [Cheney Remarks, 9/1/04]

Kerry Foreign Policy is Designed To Please Critics

72. Cheney: “Senator Kerry denounces American action when other countries don't approve as if the whole object of our foreign policy were to please a few persistent critics.” [Cheney Remarks, 9/1/04]

Kerry Voted Against Body Armor for Troops

73. Cheney: “He voted against body armor, ammunition, fuel, spare parts, armored vehicles, extra pay for hardship duty, and support for military families.” [Cheney Remarks, 9/1/04]

Kerry Cut Intelligence Funding

74. Romney: If you want cuts in intelligence funding, then yes, send him. If you think that during the great national policy debate of the 1980’s Ronald Reagan was wrong and Ted Kennedy was right, then by all means send in John Kerry. Senator Kerry now tells us he has a clear position on the war on terror.” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/1/04]

Bush Speaks Plainly and Means What He Says

75. Cheney: “George W. Bush is a man who speaks plainly and means what he says.” [Cheney Remarks, 9/1/04]

Kerry Voted For Tax Hikes 98 Times

76. Romney: “No, it’s John Kerry’s record in his nearly 40 years since Vietnam that’s the question. Study that record; if you want someone who voted for tax hikes 98 times, then yes, send him. [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/1/04]

77. Healey: “Why would he want to remind us that he voted 98 times for tax increases - or that he voted 126 times against tax cuts for American families, totaling more than 5.3 trillion dollars.” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/01/04]

78. Healey: “John Kerry doesn't like to talk about serving as Michael Dukakis's lieutenant. And for good reason. Why would he want to remind voters of Dukakis' legacy of skyrocketing taxes, high unemployment and a plummeting economy?” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/01/04]

Kerry Is The Most Liberal Senator Ever/ Out Of Touch

79. Healey: “The fact is, John Kerry can't win by telling us the truth. Because the truth is that John Kerry - and not Ted Kennedy - is the most liberal Senator in the United States.” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/01/04]

Bush Has Strong Convictions/ Not Changing His Beliefs

80. Lingle: “He has turned our country around by following his strong convictions and doing what he believes is right, rather than changing his beliefs in response to the latest opinion poll.” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/01/04]

AHPs Help Small Business

81. Lurita Doan: He's committed to making health care affordable for small business owners and their employees.

Bush Helped Reduce Bundling In Federal Contracts

82. Patricia Stout: This President laid out a strategy for reducing the size of government contracts so that small businesses would have a chance to compete.

Bush Allows Americans To Define Marriage

84. Santorum: George Bush has shown his compassion by… fighting to let the American people define marriage, not left-wing judges.

Kerry Doesn’t Stand His Ground

85. Romney: “He voted NO on Desert Storm in 1991 and YES on Desert Shield today. Then he voted NO on troop funding, just after he had voted YES. He’s campaigned against the war all year, but says he’d vote YES today. I don’t want Presidential leadership that comes in 57 varieties! I want a strong President who stands his ground.” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/1/04]

Bush Ensured Quality Education

86. Chao: “He has opened doors of opportunity to millions of other Americans as well, by ensuring that quality education is available to everyone so that all Americans have the skills they need to compete in the 21st century economy.” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/1/04]

Inherited Recession

87. Portman: “This President inherited an economy spiraling into recession, and already losing jobs in states like Ohio.” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/1/04]We’re On Track For Economic Growth

88. Portman: “Yes, we have more work to do, but we are on track for economic growth.” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/1/04]

Kerry Is An Isolationist

89. Portman: “This means opening foreign markets to the best goods and services in the world American products not retreating to economic isolationism that kills jobs!!” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/1/04]

Kerry Ignores The Changing Economy

90. Portman: “This means giving workers the opportunity to build their skills to meet 21st century challenges, not false hope and empty promises that ignore the realities of a changing economy!!” [Remarks at the Republican National Convention, 9/1/04]

The Democrats Are Negative

91. Miller: “Now, while young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrat's manic obsession to bring down our Commander-in-Chief.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

The Democrats Are Politicizing The War

92. Miller: “Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

93. Miller: “But don't waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my party today. In their warped way of thinking America is the problem, not the solution.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

94. Miller: “They don't believe there is any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided foreign policy.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

Kerry Doesn’t Support Our Troops

95. Miller: “Together, Kennedy/Kerry have opposed the very weapons system that won the Cold War and that is now winning the War on Terror.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

96. Miller: “Listing all the weapon systems that Senator Kerry tried his best to shut down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security but Americans need to know the facts.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

97. Miller: “The B-1 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, dropped 40% of the bombs in the first six months of Operation Enduring Freedom.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

98. Miller: “The B-2 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hussein's command post in Iraq.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

99. Miller: “The F-14A Tomcats, that Senator Kerry opposed, shot down Khadifi's Libyan MIGs over the Gulf of Sidra.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

100. Miller: “The modernized F-14D, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered missile strikes against Tora Bora.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

101. Miller: “The Apache helicopter, that Senator Kerry opposed, took out those Republican Guard tanks in Kuwait in the Gulf War.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

102. Miller: “The F-15 Eagles, that Senator Kerry opposed, flew cover over our Nation's Capital and this very city after 9/11.”

103. Miller: “I could go on and on and on: Against the Patriot Missile that shot down Saddam Hussein's scud missiles over Israel…”[Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

104. Miller: “…Against the Aegis air-defense cruiser…” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

105. Miller: “…Against the Strategic Defense Initiative…” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

106. Miller: “…Against the Trident missile, against, against, against. This is the man who wants to be the Commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces? U.S. forces armed with what? Speeutbawlls?”[Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

107. Miller: “Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the United Nations. Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending. I want Bush to decide.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

108. Miller: “For more than twenty years, on every one of the great issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak and more wobbly than any other national figure. As a war protestor, Kerry blamed our military.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

109. Miller: “John Kerry wants to re-fight yesterday's war. George Bush believes we have to fight today's war and be ready for tomorrow's challenges. George Bush is committed to providing the kind of forces it takes to root out terrorists.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

Kerry Will Weaken Our Military

110. Miller: “John Kerry, who says he doesn't like outsourcing, wants to outsource our national security. That's the most dangerous outsourcing of all. This politician wants to be leader of the free world.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

111. Miller: “As a Senator, he voted to weaken our military. And nothing shows that more sadly and more clearly than his vote this year to deny protective armor for our troops in harms way, far-away.” [Miller Remarks, 9/1/04]

Bush Has Fought Crime

112. Sandoval: “While working diligently to prevent terrorism, our Commander in Chief has remained equally dedicated to the important fight against domestic crime, and his strategy is succeeding.” [Sandoval Remarks, 9/1/04]

113. Sandoval: “From Project Safe Neighborhoods to the President's fight against identity theft, from his anti-drug strategy to his plan to eradicate gun crime in America, this President has demonstrated an ability to lead. And deliver results. Violent crime at a thirty-year low. Teen drug abuse is declining across a wide front. Federal gun prosecutions have hit record highs. For America to fulfill its promise as the land of opportunity, each of us must be safe from crime. President Bush has made great strides in making America safer.” [Sandoval Remarks, 9/1/04]

Kerry Does Not Support Welfare Reform/Faith-Based Initiatives

114. Santorum: John Kerry's response -- he joined Senate Democrats in blocking the President's welfare reform and faith-based initiatives. He says he's "concerned" about the separation of church and state.

Kerry Does Not Support Families

120. Santorum: Senator Kerry should worry more about the separation of children from their fathers.

Convention Day 4

Bush Had a Record of Achievement.

121. Pataki: “I want to help voters compare President Bush's record of achievement with Senator Kerry's. That way they'll be able to see the difference, which is that President Bush has a record of achievement.” [Remarks at Republican National Convention, 9/2/04]

Bush Inherited a Recession.

122. Pataki: “He inherited a recession, and then came September 11th. But George Bush said he would turn around the economy and create new jobs.” [Remarks at Republican National Convention, 9/2/04]

Bush Eased Taxes on all Americans.

123. Pataki: “He said he would cut taxes on the middle class, and ease the tax burden on all Americans.” [Remarks at Republican National Convention, 9/2/04]

Bush Said He Would Get Seniors Drug Coverage.

124. Pataki: “He'd help our seniors get the prescription drug coverage they need.” [Remarks at Republican National Convention, 9/2/04]

Pataki Distorted Kerry’s Record.

125. Pataki: “Senator Kerry, on the other hand well, what can we say of Senator Kerry? He was for the war and then he was against the war. Then he was for it but he wouldn't fund it. Then he'd fund it but he wasn't for it. He was for the Patriot Act until he was against it. Or was he against it until he was for it? I forget. He probably does too.” [Remarks at Republican National Convention, 9/2/04]

Pataki Blamed Clinton Administration for 9/11.

126. Pataki: You know the history. Osama bin Laden declared war on America -- and then came the attacks -- the first World Trade Center, the embassies, the USS Cole -- hundreds dead, thousands injured. How I wish the administration at that time, in those years had done something. How I wished they had moved to protect us -- But - they - didn't - do -it. [Remarks at Republican National Convention, 9/2/04]

Pataki Questioned Kerry’s Commitment to Perusing Terrorists.

127. Pataki: Where does Senator Kerry stand on all this? In Boston, he said that in the future “any attack would be met with a swift and certain response”. Well, respectfully Senator, that's not good enough. We've already been attacked, time and again. [Remarks at Republican National Convention, 9/2/04]

Pataki Distorted Kerry’s Comment on War.

128. Pataki: Senator Kerry says, “America should go to war not when it wants to go to war but when it has to go to war.” Well, Senator: the fire fighters and cops who ran into those burning towers and died on September 11th didn't want to go to war, they were heroes in a war they didn't even know existed. [Remarks at Republican National Convention, 9/2/04]

Franks Distorted Kerry’s Comments About Fighting War on Terrorism.

129. Franks: “Some argue that we should treat this war as a law enforcement issue. Some say we should fight a less aggressive war -- that we should retreat into a defensive posture and hope that the terrorists don't attack us again.” [Remarks at Republican National Convention, 9/2/04]

Other Countries Making Substantial Contributions

130. Franks: “Some have ridiculed the contributions made by our allies, but I can tell you that every contribution from every nation is important.” [Remarks at Republican National Convention, 9/2/04]

Martinez Said Bush’s Policies Helped All Americans.

131. Martinez: “Not only does President Bush believe in the American dream, but his policies are helping people across our country to realize their own American Dream.” [Mel Martinez, 9/2/04]

Martinez Said Kerry Wanted to Raise Taxes.

132. Martinez: “President Bush wants to cut taxes, and John Kerry wants to raise taxes.” [Mel Martinez, 9/2/04]

Martinez said Bush Provided Seniors with Affordable Prescription Drugs.

133. Martinez: “…I am extremely thankful to President Bush for his leadership in providing affordable drugs for our seniors. For years, our seniors have been promised a prescription drug benefit under Medicare, and those promises fell empty. Now because of President Bush, seniors are finally getting help with the cost of their prescription drugs.” [Mel Martinez, 9/2/04]

Bush Says Seniors Are Getting Immediate Help With Prescription Drugs.

134. Bush: “Now seniors are getting immediate help buying medicine. Soon every senior will be able to get prescription drug coverage, and nothing will hold us back.”

Bush Says Medical Liability Reform Will Make Health Care Cheaper.

135. Bush: “To make health care more affordable and accessible, we must pass medical liability reform now.”

Bush Says Will Keep Promise Of Social Security.

136. Bush: “We will always keep the promise of Social Security for our older workers.”

Bush Asserts Kerry Opposes Medicare Reform.

137. Bush: “My opponent's policies are dramatically different from ours. Senator Kerry opposed Medicare reform and health savings accounts.”

Bush Says Kerry Wants To Dilute Education Reforms.

138. Bush: “After supporting my education reforms, he now wants to dilute them.”

Bush Says Kerry Opposes Medical Liability Reform.

139. Bush: “He opposes legal and medical liability reform.”

Bush Says Kerry Opposes Marriage Penalty.

140. Bush: “He opposed reducing the marriage penalty, opposed doubling the child credit, and opposed lowering income taxes for all who pay them.”

Bush Lies About Cost of Kerry’s Programs.

141. Bush: “To be fair, there are some things my opponent is for he's proposed more than two trillion dollars in new federal spending so far, and that's a lot, even for a senator from Massachusetts. To pay for that spending, he is running on a platform of increasing taxes and that's the kind of promise a politician usually keeps.”

Bush Lies About Kerry Vote Funding Troops

142. Bush: “Again, my opponent and I have different approaches. I proposed, and the Congress overwhelmingly passed, 87 billion dollars in funding needed by our troops doing battle in Afghanistan and Iraq. My opponent and his running mate voted against this money for bullets, and fuel, and vehicles, and body armor. When asked to explain his vote, the Senator said, "I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars before I voted against it." Then he said he was "proud" of that vote. Then, when pressed, he said it was a "complicated" matter. There is nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat.”

Bush Lies About Kerry’s View of Coalition.

143. Bush: “In the midst of war, he has called America's allies, quote, a "coalition of the coerced and the bribed." That would be nations like Great Britain, Poland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, El Salvador, Australia, and others allies that deserve the respect of all Americans, not the scorn of a politician. I respect every soldier, from every country, who serves beside us in the hard work of history. America is grateful, and America will not forget.”

The amazing thing? This is an official Kerry campaign press release titled "The 2004 GOP Convention: Four Days Filled With Lies, Mischaracterizations, Distortions, And Half-Truths".

Look at that release again, there are exactly 4 entries (numbers 18, 141, 142, and 143) that couldn't be lifted word-for-word as a Bush/Cheney press release. They're not really trying to rebut what was said. They're not trying to prove they're lies. They're more than content simply to label everything a lie and move on.

This really illustrates a big problem with the Kerry campaign. When their opponents say something they don't agree with they don't rebut them. Instead they dismiss them as lies and attacks on patriotism/character and move right on to attacking back. That's not how debate works. When the other side says something you don't agree with you explain why they're full of crap and say something they're not going to agree with. You don't simply dismiss everything said against you as a lie/attack and try to stifle the dissent. That just makes you look like you think you're above being questioned. And more and more it appears that's exactly what the Kerry campaign thinks. "John Kerry served in Vietnam for 4 months so you're not allowed to say anything bad about him."

(hat tip Blogs for Bush)

--Update--
Looks like the Kerry team realized what they had on their hands and disappeared it. For the record, the only difference between the text in my blockquote and the actual release is that the Kerry site had the title "The 2004 GOP Convention: Four Days Filled With Lies, Mischaracterizations, Distortions, And Half-Truths" before "For Immediate Release" and the headers for each section were bolded.

--Update 2 (9/9/04)--
For any who may doubt the veracity of the text, Google still has cached copy of the page.

From an e-mail sent to Kathryn Jean Lopez over at NRO:

John Kerry came to Steubenville yesterday and quickly realized he was in the wrong city. Steubenville is a city where there are 6 Democrats for every 1 Republican, and the Steelworkers unions are alive and active. You would think this was solid John Kerry territory. The mob used to control Steubenville and now the unions think they do. Well, they are wrong.

The Kerry campaign first scheduled a visit to Steubenville two weeks ago but "scheduling conflicts" came up at the last minute. Oh, and did I mention that Kerry wanted to use a local gun range as a campaign stop, but the owner turned him down? And that the Fire Department Union President told the Kerry campaign that not only would he not organize the union to support Kerry at the rally, but that he was supporting President Bush! The Kerry campaign took for granted that this area was sown up. Mistake number one. So they rescheduled the campaign trip when Franciscan University was back in session. Mistake number two.

Before Kerry arrived there was a huge pro-life march led by Franciscan University students, 500 strong. "You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion", read some of their signs. Students and members of local Catholic parishes were full of energy and FoxNews reported that this was the largest protest against Kerry outside of the Democratic Convention. Just picture 500 pro-lifers marching from their college campus to meet Kerry. Where else but in Steubenville, Ohio! Though the Franciscan University did not organize the event, it is well known for its orthodox Catholic education which encourages students to put their faith into action. These students simply cherish their Catholic faith and could not stand to let Kerry use their faith as a political prop. I am proud of my alma mater.

….The Kerry campaign not only made a mistake in their timing, but they also chose to hold the rally in a public park which should be open to all the public. Mistake number three. The police chief, sheriff, and mayor all agreed with me that protesters and their signs would be allowed inside the Kerry rally site. Freedom of speech is alive and well here in Ohio. The Kerry campaign flipped out!

So, now add another 500 local Bush supporters to the Kerry rally. They tried to turn up the music but they could not drown us out. According to the Herald Star (local press), "The crowd, estimated by officials as 3,500 strong, was almost split in half with people for and against the Massachusetts senator." John Kerry must know he has a problem when over 15% of his audience was booing him. We were respectful and did not heckle him - but upon arrival and when he sought our applause he got something he didn't expect. As the press arrived a feisty nine year old little girl began shouting, "We want Bush!", and we all chanted along. The campaign staff was beside themselves. This is history in the making! Even places like Steubenville are not supporting John Kerry. He is in serious trouble.

My friends, John Kerry will not be coming back to Steubenville. Kerry was visibly shaken when he received boos from the audience.....

--The Corner on National Review Online

Professor Bainbridge sets them straight.

A Democrat Congressman says the Bush administration is taking America "into a snake pit of fascism."

Getting former astronaut and Democrat Senator John Glenn to trot out the Hitler comparison.

Three liberal protestors tried to disrupt Bush's convention speech (funny, I didn't see any conservatives trying to disrupt Kerry's speech to the DNC convention).

Liberal protestors who tie up city streets and inconvenience people just so they can satisfy their narcissistic jones.

A featured speaker at a NOW rally says Bush "savagely raped " women "over and over."

...

Democrat operatives working overtime to keep Ralph Nader off the ballot, thus besmirching the very name of their party.

The Democrat's media allies planning a 60 Minutes smear of Bush's National Guard service.

--Professor Bainbridge

Professor Bainbridge has more and the links to back them up so go check it out.

NEW YORK, NY, Sep. 4 (UPI) -- Top staffers in the Kerry campaign defend their recent tactics.

Tad Devine, Sen. John Kerry's senior advisor, told the Washington Times that he does not think that the Swift Boat veterans' ads, which attacked Kerry's Vietnam War record, have hurt the campaign.

"Fundamentally, I don't think they reshaped the race at all," Devine said. "If they did, the president would be 10 points ahead, not in a dead-heat horse race."

--Washington Times

*cough* *cough*

The latest Newsweek poll agrees with yesterday's Time poll.

President George W. Bush leads his Democrat opponent John Kerry by 11 percentage points according to a poll immediately after the Republican National Convention in New York, Newsweek magazine reported.

Bush is supported by 54 percent of the 1,008 registered voters surveyed Thursday and Friday, compared with 43 percent support for Kerry, a four-term Massachusetts senator. Independent candidate Ralph Nader polled 3 percent. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points, Newsweek said.

--Bloomberg.com

Brian Griffin's been pointing out examples of violence at Democratic offices.

Just to ensure that people don't start thinking this type of stuff only happens to Dems... "Shot fired at Huntington GOP office during speech".

In a speech that was at once eloquent and substantive, sensitive and dynamic, profound and familiar, Bush has risen to a level few presidents have ever reached.

Sometimes a strategist just has to sit back and gasp. Occasionally, a seasoned political observer needs to realize that he has seen something extraordinary. Tonight, Bush made me feel like that.

The speech satisfied every single political need. He contrasted with Kerry without appearing negative. He demonstrated emotion without pandering. He rose to a level of substantive specificity without becoming wonkish.
...
I voted for Gore in 2000, as a true child of the Clinton era. But I decided to vote for Bush on Sept. 12, 2001 when I saw how he handled the threat we face. I used to back Bush because he offered safety; now I support him because he summons us all to an ideal. Before he spoke, supporting Bush was a duty one owed to the fallen. Now, it is an honor.

--New York Post

The latest Time Poll (via Instapundit) shows President Bush with an 11 point lead over Kerry.

AMONG LIKELY VOTERS, 52% WOULD VOTE FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, 41% WOULD VOTE FOR JOHN KERRY,
AND 3% WOULD VOTE FOR NADER

New York – For the first time since the Presidential race became a two person contest last spring, there is a clear leader, the latest TIME poll shows. If the 2004 election for President were held today, 52% of likely voters surveyed would vote for President George W. Bush, 41% would vote for Democratic nominee John Kerry, and 3% would vote for Ralph Nader, according to a new TIME poll conducted from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2. Poll results are available on TIME.com and will appear in the upcoming issue of TIME magazine, on newsstands Monday, Sept. 6.

--Time

*Insert standard grain of salt reminder about polls here*

The latest Carnival is up over at Blogo Slovo.

Get over yourselves. The RNC was not filled with "negative personal attacks" on John Kerry. They did attack him, they were not personal attacks. Not everything said against him is a personal attack. They did not question his patriotism. They did not question his service in Vietnam.

They questioned his decisions. They questioned his record. They questioned whether he was the best choice to lead our country.

Serving 4 months in Vietnam does not exempt you from ever being questioned again. They do not automatically qualify you to be the Commander in Chief. You do not earn your right to speak by going to Vietnam. You are not entitled to be president.

Kerry and Edwards say they want to talk about the issues. At the RNC they did and all Kerry and Edwards can do is paint every thing said against them as attacks on patriotism and character. Whenever someone says they're wrong, that they're not the ones to lead the country they run to a microphone and whine that they're being picked on. It's pitiful.

Zell Miller says President Bush has "a spine of tempered steel". Try growing one yourselves Senators Kerry and Edwards.

Grow the hell up.

(One side note, you've got this big speech meant to rebut President Bush's acceptance speech... it's meant for a national audience... what the hell are you doing putting in a line about choosing between the Springfield North and Springfield South teams? And what kind of line is "If you think we're doing ok vote for him, if you think we're going in the wrong direction vote for us"? Shouldn't you instead be trying to persuade people that we're on the wrong track?)

Governor George Pataki: A very impassioned speech. A reminder of 9/11 and President Bush's leadership then and since as can only be delivered from a New Yorker.

The video voiced by former Senator and Law & Order cast member Fred Thompson I thought was very effective. It seemed very well put together compared to some of the other videos at the convention and ads on TV.

President George W. Bush: Wow, a great speech. The best speech I've ever seen him give. And amazingly enough the media seems to agree. It necessarily started out a little slow as he had to lay out his domestic agenda for the next four years, but the last 20 minutes at least were dead on. A surprising amount of emotion, both in President Bush and in the crowd. A very hopeful message, a visionary message.

A very well run convention overall, almost perfect.

(Note: A flag was shown within 100 feet of a Republican tonight so somewhere there's a liberal complaining that the Republicans think they own the flag and that it needs to be taken back.)

Some selections from Governor Pataki's speech.

PATAKI:...[Senator Kerry] has asked for a full and frank discussion. Well, let's start now.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to help voters compare President Bush's record of achievement with Senator Kerry's. That way they'll be able to see the difference, which is that President Bush has a record of achievement.

(APPLAUSE)

Almost four years ago, George W. Bush raised his right hand and took the oath of office. And from the first, he showed us something we hadn't seen in a while. When he said he was going to do something, he meant it. And then he did it.

(APPLAUSE)

PATAKI: Given recent history, that's amazing.

He inherited a recession. And then came September 11th. But George Bush said he would turn around the economy and create new jobs.

He said he'd do it. And he did.

(APPLAUSE)

He said he would cut taxes on the middle class and ease the tax burden on all Americans.

He said he'd do it. And he did.

(APPLAUSE)

He said he'd help small businesses, protect Social Security and expand home ownership.

He said he'd do it. And he did.

He said he'd apply tougher standards to our schools. He'd help our seniors get the prescription drug coverage they need.

He said he'd do it. And he did.

And George Bush said he'd fight to allow the power of faith to help our young and help our troubled.

He said he'd do it. And he did.

There's much more, but you get the point.
...
Where does Senator Kerry stand on all this? In Boston, he said that in the future "any attack would be met with a swift and certain response."

Well, respectfully, Senator, that's not good enough. We've already been attacked, time and again.

And President Bush understands we can't just wait for the next attack. We have to go after them, in their training camps, in their hiding places, in their spider holes, before they have the chance to attack us again.

(APPLAUSE)

PATAKI: Senator Kerry says -- Senator Kerry says, "America should go to war not when it wants to go to war but when it has to go to war."

Well, Senator, the firefighters and cops who ran into those burning towers and died on September 11th didn't want to go to war. They were heroes in a war they didn't even know existed. America did not choose this war. But we have a president who chooses to win it.

--Washington Post

And now vast swaths of President Bush's speech.

I believe the most solemn duty of the American president is to protect the American people.

BUSH: If America shows uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy.

This will not happen on my watch.
...
He's proposed more than $2 trillion in new federal spending so far, and that's a lot, even for a senator from Massachusetts.

(APPLAUSE)

And to pay for that spending, he is running on a platform of increasing taxes. And that's the kind of promise a politician usually keeps.

BUSH: His policies of tax and spend, of expanding government rather than expanding opportunity, are the politics of the past. We are on the path to the future, and we're not turning back.
...
My opponent recently announced that he is the candidate of "conservative values," which must have come as a surprise to a lot of his supporters.

(LAUGHTER)

Now, there are some problems with this claim. If you say the heart and soul of America is found in Hollywood, I'm afraid you are not the candidate of conservative values.

(APPLAUSE)

BUSH: If you voted against the bipartisan Defense of Marriage Act, which President Clinton signed, you are not the candidate of conservative values.

(APPLAUSE)

If you gave a speech, as my opponent did, calling the Reagan presidency eight years of "moral darkness," then you may be a lot of things, but the candidate of conservative values is not one of them.

(APPLAUSE)

This election will also determine how America responds to the continuing danger of terrorism, and you know where I stand.
...
BUSH: In Saddam Hussein, we saw a threat. Members of both political parties, including...

AUDIENCE: USA. USA. USA.

BUSH: Members of both political parties, including my opponent and his running mate, saw the threat, and voted to authorize the use of force. We went to the United Nations Security Council, which passed a unanimous resolution demanding the dictator disarm, or face serious consequences. Leaders in the Middle East urged him to comply.

After more than a decade of diplomacy, we gave Saddam Hussein another chance, a final chance, to meet his responsibilities to the civilized world. He again refused.

And I faced the kind of decision that comes only to the Oval Office, a decision no president would ask for, but must be prepared to make: Do I forget the lessons of September 11th and take the word of a madman...

AUDIENCE: No.

BUSH: ... or do I take action to defend our country?

Faced with that choice, I will defend America every time.
...
BUSH: Our allies also know the historic importance of our work. About 40 nations stand beside us in Afghanistan, and some 30 in Iraq. I deeply appreciate the courage and wise counsel of leaders like Prime Minister Howard, President Kwasniewski, Prime Minister Berlusconi and, of course, Prime Minister Tony Blair.

(APPLAUSE)

Again, my opponent takes a different approach. In the midst of war, he has called American allies, quote, a "coalition of the coerced and the bribed."

AUDIENCE: Boooo.

BUSH: That would be nations like Great Britain, Poland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, El Salvador, Australia, and others...

(APPLAUSE)

... allies that deserve the respect of all Americans, not the scorn of a politician.
...
America has done this kind of work before, and there have always been doubters. In 1946, 18 months after the fall of Berlin to allied forces, a journalist wrote in the New York Times wrote this: "Germany is a land in an acute stage of economic, political and moral crisis. European capitals are frightened. In every military headquarters, one meets alarmed officials doing their utmost to deal with the consequences of the occupation policy that they admit has failed," end quote.

BUSH: Maybe that same person is still around, writing editorials.

(APPLAUSE)

Fortunately, we had a resolute president named Truman who, with the American people, persevered, knowing that a new democracy at the center of Europe would lead to stability and peace. And because that generation of Americans held firm in the cause of liberty, we live in a better and safer world today.

(APPLAUSE)

The progress we and our friends and allies seek in the broader Middle East will not come easily or all at once.

BUSH: Yet Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of liberty to transform lives and nations. That power brought settlers on perilous journeys, inspired colonies to rebellion, ended the sin of slavery, and set our nation against the tyrannies of the 20th century.

We were honored to aid the rise of democracy in Germany and Japan, Nicaragua and Central Europe and the Baltics, and that noble story goes on.
...
BUSH: You may have noticed I have a few flaws, too. People sometimes have to correct my English.

(LAUGHTER)

I knew I had a problem when Arnold Schwarzenegger started doing it.

(LAUGHTER)

Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called "walking."

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Now and then I come across as a little too blunt, and for that we can all thank the white-haired lady sitting right up there.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

One thing I have learned about the presidency is that whatever shortcomings you have, people are going to notice them; and whatever strengths you have, you're going to need them.
...
To everything we know there is a season -- a time for sadness, a time for struggle, a time for rebuilding.

BUSH: And now we have reached a time for hope. This young century will be liberty's century.

(APPLAUSE)

By promoting liberty abroad, we will build a safer world. By encouraging liberty at home, we will build a more hopeful America.

Like generations before us, we have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom. This is the everlasting dream of America. And tonight, in this place, that dream is renewed.

--Washington Post

Boy, I wish I had access to a time machine like the Independent.

Portraying himself as a clear-minded and decisive leader, George Bush last night pledged that if elected for a second term, he would continue the fight against terrorists "not for pride, not for power," but to keep America and the world a safe place to live.

In his acceptance speech climaxing the Republican convention here, Mr Bush offered his country "clear, consistent and principled leadership," insisting he had a "clear and positive plan" both for international affairs, and to set his country right at home.

Mr Bush's speech to a wildly cheering audience at Madison Square Garden arena capped a four-day convention launching the President into the last 60 days of a campaign which will determine whether he achieves the second White House term that eluded his father.

Immediately afterwards he left to campaign in Pennsylvania, a key swing state, which Mr Kerry must carry to win the Presidency.

--The Independent

Meanwhile the Left continues to spout this kind of hatred and vitriol.

Poet Molly Birnbaum read aloud to a crowd of feminists gathered in New York's Central Park on Wednesday night, as part of a NOW event dubbed "Code Red: Stop the Bush Agenda Rally."

"Imagine a way to erase that night four years ago when you (President Bush) savagely raped every pandemic woman over and over with each vote you got, a thrust with each state you stole," Birnbaum said from the podium. (If something is pandemic, it affects many people or a number of countries.)

"A smack with each bill you passed, a tear with each right you took until you left me disenfranchised with hands shackled and voice restrained. Thanks for that night, Mr. President, I can barely remember my tomorrows," Birnbaum said to applause.

--CNSNews

U.S. Rep. Major Owens, a New York Democrat, warned a crowd of feminist protesters that the Bush administration is taking America "into a snake pit of fascism."

Owens also said the Bush administration "spits on democracy" and is leading the country down a path reminiscent of "Nazi Germany."

Owens made his remarks in New York City's Central Park at a National Organization for Women rally on Wednesday night.

--CNSNews

Here is a 1984 John Kerry campaign memo.

The Reagan Administration has no rational plan for our military. Instead, it acts on misinformed assumptions about the strength of the Soviet military and a presumed "window of vulnerability", which we now know not to exist.

And Congress, rather than having the moral courage to challenge the Reagan Administration, has given Ronald Reagan almost every military request he has made, no matter how wasteful, no matter how useless, no matter how dangerous.

The biggest defense buildup since World War II has not given us a better defense. Americans feel more threatened by the prospect of war, not less so. And our national priorities become more and more distorted as the share of our country's resources devoted to human needs diminishes.

--Kerry Campaign Memo

A sampling of what the memo says Kerry wanted to do to various weapons systems:

MX Missile	Cancel
B-1 Bomber	Cancel
Tomahawk Missile	Reduce by 50 per cent
AH-64 Helicopters	Cancel
Patriot Air Defense Missile	Cancel
Aegis Air-Defense Cruiser	Cancel
AV-8B Vertical Takeoff and Landing Aircraft	Cancel
F-15 Fighter Aircraft	Cancel
F-14A Fighter Aircraft	Cancel
F-14D Fighter Aircraft	Cancel
Phoenix Air-to-Air Missile	Cancel
Sparrow Air-to-Air Missile	Cancel

Remember, these cuts weren't proposed as a part of the "peace dividend", this was at the height of Reagan's fighting the Cold War. Thank God Kerry didn't get his way or there's a decent chance we'd still be fighting the Soviet Union.

There seems to be a pattern here. Every night so far it seems we have one person who just knocks it out of the park oratorically and one who makes a fine little speech in workmanlike fashion. In the first group fall Rudy, Arnold and Zell. In the second group are McCain, Laura Bush and Dick Cheney. Good or bad? I dunno. I'm not sure that you'd want a whole lineup of the first group.

Senator Zell Miller: The fiery orator of the night. He certainly went after his fellow Democrats. It was a speech that only he could give, a Republican wouldn't have been able to get up and give that speech.

Tonight we get to see just how inclusive the Democratic party actually is. Watch the claws come out.

Mrs. Cheney: Acquitted herself well. Nothing exciting about it, but nothing embarrassing about it. She got up there and acted like somebody capable of being Second Lady of the United States. Admittedly that pretty much just means that she managed to stand up there for 5 minutes and not commit a felony or cuss anybody out.

Vice President Dick Cheney: It was Vice-Presidential. It laid out the contrasts between President Bush and Senator Kerry. It's not going to be a speech long remembered but he got up there and did his job.

Additionally Michael Reagan managed to get up in front of the podium without pimping the memory of his father. His speech and the ensuing video were a fitting tribute to Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Selections from Zell Miller's speech:

In 1940, Wendell Wilkie was the Republican nominee. And there is no better example of someone repealing their "private plans" than this good man.

He gave Roosevelt the critical support he needed for a peacetime draft, an unpopular idea at the time.

MILLER: And he made it clear that he would rather lose the election than make national security a partisan campaign issue.

(APPLAUSE)

Shortly before Wilkie died, he told a friend that if he could write his own epitaph and had to choose between "here lies a president" or "here lies one who contributed to saving freedom," he would prefer the latter.

(APPLAUSE)

Where are such statesmen today? Where is the bipartisanship in this country when we need it most?
...
What has happened to the party I've spent my life working in? I can remember when Democrats believed that it was the duty of America to fight for freedom over tyranny. It was Democratic President Harry Truman who pushed the Red Army out of Iran, who came to the aid of Greece when Communists threatened to overthrow it, who stared down the Soviet blockade of West Berlin by flying in supplies and saving the city.

Time after time in our history, in the face of great danger, Democrats and Republicans worked together to ensure that freedom would not falter.

MILLER: But not today.

(APPLAUSE)

Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator.

And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.
...
No one should dare to even think about being the commander in chief of this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home.

(APPLAUSE)

But don't waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my party today. In their warped way of thinking, America is the problem, not the solution. They don't believe there is any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided foreign policy.

MILLER: It is not their patriotism, it is their judgment that has been so sorely lacking.

They claimed Carter's pacifism would lead to peace. They were wrong.

They claimed Reagan's defense buildup would lead to war. They were wrong.

And no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.
...
George W. Bush wants to grab terrorists by the throat and not let them go to get a better grip.

From John Kerry, they get a "yes/no/maybe" bowl of mush that can only encourage our enemies and confuse our friends.
...
[President Bush] is not a slick talker but he is a straight shooter. And where I come from, deeds mean a lot more than words.

(APPLAUSE)

I have knocked on the door of this man's soul and found someone home, a God-fearing man with a good heart and a spine of tempered steel...

(APPLAUSE)

... the man I trust to protect my most precious possession: my family.

--Washington Post

Lots of you noticed this, from last night:

Schwarzenegger said:

I finally arrived here in 1968. What a special day it was. I remember I arrived here with empty pockets but full of dreams, full of determination, full of desire.

The presidential campaign was in full swing. I remember watching the Nixon-Humphrey presidential race on TV. A friend of mine who spoke German and English translated for me. I heard Humphrey saying things that sounded like socialism, which I had just left.

But then I heard Nixon speak. Then I heard Nixon speak. He was talking about free enterprise, getting the government off your back, lowering the taxes and strengthening the military.

The facts? There was no presidential debate in that election. Nixon never debated Humphrey.

But it sure is a touching story, regardless of its truth.

--Daily Kos

The facts? Nowhere in Schwarzenegger's speech does he say he was watching a debate between Nixon and Humphrey. The word "debate" appears 0 times in Schwarzenegger's speech.

But it sure is a nice example of gotcha politics, regardless of its truth.

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer or donate to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the lies, untruths, and misleading spin being put out by the Left. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group.

Apparently these blathering idiots, from Chris Matthews on down, are under the impression that diversity in a party means everyone agrees on the issue of gay marriage. That isn't diversity? Diversity means differing people with differing opinions gathered together under one roof. Do they agree on everything? No. But choosing the liberal cause of the day and claiming that total adherence to one side of the issue is the embodiment of diversity does nothing but demonstrate the extent to which the media and the liberals have hijacked the english language.

Remember, tolerance does not mean embracing things that you do notagree with. It means TOLERATING SHIT THAT PISSES YOU OFF, and remaining civil about the issue.

--Balloon Juice

Diversity is not simply accepting anything, no matter what it is.

"Surely you've seen through that particular stupidity. I mean the one that claims the pig is the symbol of love for humanity - the creature that accepts anything. As a matter of fact, the person who loves everybody and feels at home everywhere is the true hater of mankind. He expects nothing of men, so no form of depravity can outrage him."

--Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead

Diversity isn't "we'll accept you so long as you accept everything we believe in". There's room in the Republican Party for pro-choice people, there's room in the Republican party for pro-gay rights people. The Republican Party is not a single issue party. There is no litmus test.

That's not to say that anything will be accepted as policy. There will be debates, there will be fights over issues as there must be. Those are necessary if you're going to have true diversity. That's what I see in today's Republican Party.

Went back today and watched the last 10 or so minutes of Giuliani's speech and came to a conclusion. Until/unless a better option comes forward you count me me in the Giuliani '08 camp.

What little political career Alan Keyes had before he joined the race will be nonexistent come November 3rd.

Arnold Schwarzenegger: A VERY good speech. His delivery was off the charts. There were plenty of comedic moments, which will of course be taken far too seriously by many. The type of person that got their panties in a bunch over the girlie-men comment from a while back will of course be livid. The detractors are going to lambaste the "I'll be back" and "girlie-men" and "you're as good a politician as you were an actor" parts, but that's who Arnold is. He's not going to come out and give a 20 minute speech in the manner of Ferris Beuller's Ben Stein. He's going to crack jokes, and they're going to help the serious message go over better, and they did.

First Daughter Jenna & Barbara Bush: They didn't do too badly for people who don't do this type of thing for a living. The material wasn't that bad, but the delivery needed a ton of work. It didn't come anywhere close to sounding natural. Other people would certainly have given a more practiced and professional introduction, but ultimately I think they were there for the humanizing factor rather than to be prim and proper and polished.

First Lady Laura Bush: It wasn't spectacular, but I think it was certainly better than Heinz Kerry's speech at the DNC.

Ideally I suppose it would have been better to have Laura go first and then have Arnold close the night out.

From Schwarzenegger's speech:

Now, my family didn't have a car. But one day we were in my uncle's car. It was near dark as we came to the Soviet checkpoint. I was a little boy. I was not an action hero back then.

(LAUGHTER)

But I remember. I remember how scared I was that the soldiers would pull my father or my uncle out of the car and I would never see them again. My family and so many others lived in fear of the Soviet boot. Today, the world no longer fears the Soviet Union, and it is because of the United States of America.
...
The presidential campaign was in full swing. I remember watching the Nixon-Humphrey presidential race on TV. A friend of mine who spoke German and English translated for me. I heard Humphrey saying things that sounded like socialism, which I had just left.

SCHWARZENEGGER: But then I heard Nixon speak. Then I heard Nixon speak. He was talking about free enterprise, getting the government off your back, lowering the taxes and strengthening the military.

(APPLAUSE)

Listening to Nixon speak sounded more like a breath of fresh air.

I said to my friend, I said, "What party is he?"

My friend said, "He's a Republican."

I said, "Then I am a Republican."
...
In this country, it doesn't make any difference where you were born. It doesn't make any difference who your parents were. It doesn't make any difference if you're like me and couldn't even speak English until you were in your 20s. America gave me opportunities, and my immigrant dreams came true.

I want other people to get the same chances I did, the same opportunities. And I believe they can. That's why I believe in this country, that's why I believe in this party, and that's why I believe in this president.
...
SCHWARZENEGGER: My fellow immigrants, my fellow Americans, how do you know if you are a Republican? Well, I tell you how. If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government, then you are a Republican.

(APPLAUSE)

If you believe a person should be treated as an individual, not as a member of an interest group, then you are a Republican.

(APPLAUSE)

If you believe your family knows how to spend your money better than the government does, then you are a Republican.

(APPLAUSE)

If you believe our educational system should be held accountable for the progress of our children, then you are a Republican.

(APPLAUSE)

If you believe this country, not the United Nations, is the best hope for democracy, then you are a Republican.

(APPLAUSE)

SCHWARZENEGGER: And, ladies and gentlemen, if you believe that we must be fierce and relentless and terminate terrorism, then you are a Republican.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, there's another way you can tell you're a Republican. You have faith in free enterprise, faith in the resourcefulness of the American people and faith in the U.S. economy. And to those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: Don't be economic girlie-men.

--Washington Post

And Blogs For Bush scoops Hannity who had been teasing it all afternoon.

Senator John McCain: I imagine it read better than it sounded. Not the best job of oration. It had some good lines, but until the last couple sentences he never really seemed to give it much oomph.

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani: Everything McCain's speech wasn't. A very strong delivery. On paper McCain's probably looked better but Giuliani had an energy about him that really made him the star of the night.

You know, it's going to be awfully hard for the Dems to work the "They're only in New York to exploit 9/11!" angle when you've got Mayor Giuliani there talking about how 9/11 is such a big part of why President Bush should be reelected. If Rudy thinks it's ok, who is Terry McAuliffe to argue?

Between McCain and Giuliani they did a pretty good job of laying out the Republicans' perspective on 9/11, the war in Iraq, and the War in Terror. A few selections from their speeches...

Our choice wasn't between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war. It was between war and a graver threat. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

(APPLAUSE)

MCCAIN: Not our political opponents. And certainly... not a disingenuous film maker...

(APPLAUSE)

MCCAIN: ... who would have us believe, my friends, who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace, when in fact -- when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children inside their walls.

(APPLAUSE)

Whether or not Saddam possessed the terrible weapons he once had and used, freed from international pressure and the threat of military action, he would have acquired them again.

MCCAIN: My friends, the central security concern of our time is to keep such devastating weapons beyond the reach of terrorists who can't be dissuaded from using them by the threat of mutual destruction.

We couldn't afford the risk posed by an unconstrained Saddam in these dangerous times. By destroying his regime, we gave hope to people long oppressed, that if they have the courage to fight for it, they may live in peace and freedom.

--Washington Post

At the time, we believed that we would be attacked many more times that day and in the days that followed. Without really thinking, based on just emotion, spontaneous, I grabbed the arm of then Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, and I said to him, "Bernie, thank God George Bush is our president."

(APPLAUSE)

GIULIANI: I say it again tonight. I say it again tonight: Thank God that George Bush is our president, and thank God...

(APPLAUSE)

And thank God that Dick Cheney, a man with his experience and his knowledge and his strength and his background is our vice president.
...
And since September 11th President Bush has remained rock solid.

(APPLAUSE)

It doesn't matter to him how he is demonized. It doesn't matter what the media does to ridicule him or misinterpret him or defeat him.

(APPLAUSE)

They ridiculed Winston Churchill. They belittled Ronald Reagan. But like President Bush, they were optimists. Leaders need to be optimists. Their vision is beyond the present, and it's set on a future of real peace and security.

(APPLAUSE)

GIULIANI: Some call it stubbornness. I call it principled leadership.

(APPLAUSE)

President Bush has the courage of his convictions.

In choosing a president, we really don't choose just a Republican or Democrat, a conservative or a liberal. We choose a leader.

(APPLAUSE)

And in times of war and danger, as we're now in, Americans should put leadership at the core of their decision.

There are many qualities that make a great leader. But having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader.

(APPLAUSE)

One of my heroes, Winston Churchill, saw the dangers of Hitler while his opponents characterized him as a war-mongering gadfly.

GIULIANI: Another one of my heroes, Ronald Reagan, saw and described the Soviet Union as "the evil empire," while world opinion accepted it as inevitable and even belittled Ronald Reagan's intelligence.

President Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that it is.

(APPLAUSE)

John Kerry has no such clear, precise and consistent vision. This is not a personal criticism of John Kerry. I respect him for his service to our nation.

(APPLAUSE)

But it is important and critical to see the contrast in approach between the two men: President Bush, a leader who is willing to stick with difficult decisions even as public opinion shifts and goes back and forth; and John Kerry, whose record in elected office suggests a man who changes his position often, even on important issues.
...
Frankly, I believed then and I believe now that Saddam Hussein, who supported global terrorism, slaughtered thousands and thousands of his own people, permitted horrific atrocities against women, and used weapons of mass destruction; he was himself a weapon of mass destruction.

(APPLAUSE)

GIULIANI: But the reasons for removing Saddam Hussein were based on issues even broader than just the presence of weapons of mass destruction.

To liberate people, give them a chance for accountable, decent government and to rid the world of a pillar of support for global terrorism is nothing to be defensive about. It's something for which all those involved, from President Bush to the brave men of our armed services, should be proud. They did something wonderful. They did something that history will give them great credit for.

--Washington Post

It's just a shame Rudy couldn't have spoken on a night when the networks were carrying the convention.

A quick ad suggestion for the Bush team: Just stick people like Rudy, and McCain, and Koch and maybe Ron Silver in front of the camera. Have them talk about how important the fight against Terror is. Have them talk about President Bush's leadership. Compare that leadership to Kerry's. Those are the commercials I want to see.

Wait, you mean it's the leftists attacking peaceful protestors? Then nevermind.

Abolish the Electoral College

When Republican delegates nominate their presidential candidate this week, they will be doing it in a city where residents who support George Bush have, for all practical purposes, already been disenfranchised.

Well there's some bleeped up logic. By that rationale, every person that votes for the person that loses the election is disenfranchised. Americans do not vote for president, they vote on how to allocate their states electors for president. To suggest that just because they vote for the losing side in their state they've been disenfranchised is simply asinine.

Barring a tsunami of a sweep, heavily Democratic New York will send its electoral votes to John Kerry and both parties have already written New York off as a surefire blue state.

Right... because it is.

The Electoral College makes Republicans in New York, and Democrats in Utah, superfluous. It also makes members of the majority party in those states feel less than crucial.

Awww... do da wittle voters feel bad. :(

The same could be said of an election where the issue is whether people should kick puppies. The clear majority is going to be against it but there's always going to be a couple sick bastards who think it's a dandy idea. The majority isn't going to feel important. The crackpots are going to feel "superfluous". That doesn't mean you give the crackpots more power just so everyone feels like it's a close race and their vote matters.

It's hard to tell New York City children that every vote is equally important - it's winner take all here, and whether Senator Kerry beats the president by one New York vote or one million, he will still walk away with all 31 of the state's electoral votes.

Every vote in the state of New York is equally important. No one person in New York has more input into how to allocate those electoral votes than anyone else.

The Electoral College got a brief spate of attention in 2000, when George Bush became president even though he lost the popular vote to Al Gore by more than 500,000 votes. Many people realized then for the first time that we have a system in which the president is chosen not by the voters themselves, but by 538 electors.

In other words, many people didn't learn squat in Social Studies. That's ok, lots of people didn't learn much in Social Studies. For instance, the New York Times Editorial Page seems to have missed the day when they were supposed to learn that the United States is a Republic and not a Democracy.

It's a ridiculous setup, which thwarts the will of the majority,

The will of the majority should be thwarted at times. Majorities tend to do stupid things. A few decades ago the courts thwarted the will of the majority in the fight for Civil Rights. Being the will of a majority doesn't make a decision right, and the founders knew that. They set up Congress so that, while the House gave more representation to the bigger states, the Senate protected the rights of the smaller states by giving every state an equal representation. The Electoral College does the same thing, for the same reasons. California and New York shouldn't be able to gang up and vote in a guy who's platform is "Let's screw the small states!"

distorts presidential campaigning

How exactly does it do this? It makes the candidates go where the people are undecided. I'd ask whether they thought candidates should fight for areas that are already decided, but this is the New York Times, what they really mean is that New York and California don't get enough attention while those damn little states like Arkansas and New Mexico get all the attention.

and has the potential to produce a true constitutional crisis. There should be a bipartisan movement for direct election of the president.

I really hope they explain that constitutional crisis bit later on, I'm sure it's a doozy.

The main problem with the Electoral College is that it builds into every election the possibility, which has been a reality three times since the Civil War, that the president will be a candidate who lost the popular vote.

This is bad why? Again, I'll point out that this is a Republic and not a Democracy. Pure Democracy can lead to very bad things.

This shocks people in other nations who have been taught to look upon the United States as the world's oldest democracy.

Those poor, misguided other nations. But you can't blame them, if the New York Times hasn't figured out the Republic thing, how can we expect Germany to have done it. The worst ideal pushed on newly free states is that majority rule, democracy, is enough to make a stable, workable state.

The Electoral College also heavily favors small states.

Damn right, and for a very good reason. I don't want to be repeating myself, but there need to be protections against tyranny by the majority. There need to be assurances that the states with 51% of the population can't kick around the greater number of states with the other 49%.

The fact that every one gets three automatic electors - one for each senator and a House member - means states that by population might be entitled to only one or two electoral votes wind up with three, four or five.

Oh look they did learn something in Social Studies!

The majority does not rule and every vote is not equal - those are reasons enough for scrapping the system.

No they're not. They're the very reason that the system was established. This is a noteworthy point they're making here. They're not simply arguing that things have changed since the nation was established. This is an argument against the very intent of our Founders. The lack of majority rule and voters in one state having more input in a presidential election wasn't an oversight by the Founders... IT WAS THEIR INTENT! They intended to protect the smaller states against the possible tyranny of the larger ones. They meant to ensure that majority rule wasn't the means for electing the president. They intended it to work this way and the New York Times thinks they were wrong.

But there are other consequences as well. This election has been making clear how the Electoral College distorts presidential campaigns. A few swing states take on oversized importance, leading the candidates to focus their attention, money and promises on a small slice of the electorate.

Of course they do, but abolishing the Electoral College isn't going to eliminate it, it'll just change it. Instead of focusing on states that are undecided they'll focus on the areas where they can reach the largest number of people. Getting rid of the Electoral College won't make the candidates go after everyone, it'll just make them go wherever there are the most people. Take away the Electoral College and Alaska and Georgia are not going to get any more visits from candidates. Places like Arkansas, Arizona, and New Mexico will be losing attention from the candidates and places with lots of people like California and New York will get a lot more.

We are hearing far more this year about the issue of storing hazardous waste at Yucca Mountain, an important one for Nevada's 2.2 million residents, than about securing ports against terrorism, a vital concern for 19.2 million New Yorkers.

So instead the issue of Yucca Mountain should disappear? You eliminate the Electoral College and the only issues that matter will be those in the big states. The Electoral College is meant to raise the issues that are important to those 2.2 million residents. It's meant to make them important. It's meant to make the candidates think about more than New York and LA.

The political concerns of Cuban-Americans, who are concentrated in the swing state of Florida, are of enormous interest to the candidates. The interests of people from Puerto Rico scarcely come up at all, since they are mainly settled in areas already conceded as Kerry territory. The emphasis on swing states removes the incentive for a large part of the population to follow the campaign, or even to vote.

So instead they'd prefer that the candidates focus only on the areas of high population and ignore those that don't.

Those are the problems we have already experienced.

They seem to be using the term "problems" very loosely.

The arcane rules governing the Electoral College have the potential to create havoc if things go wrong.

And prevent havoc if it goes right.

Electors are not required to vote for the candidates they are pledged to, and if the vote is close in the Electoral College, a losing candidate might well be able to persuade a small number of electors to switch sides. Because there are an even number of electors - one for every senator and House member of the states, and three for the District of Columbia - the Electoral College vote can end in a tie. There are several plausible situations in which a 269-269 tie could occur this year.

DAMN THOSE FOUNDERS! WHY DIDN'T THEY THINK OF A SOLUTION FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS?!?!?!

In the case of a tie, the election goes to the House of Representatives,

Oh, look, they did.

where each state delegation gets one vote - one for Wyoming's 500,000 residents and one for California's 35.5 million.

Which, *GASP* is exactly what the Founders intended. See above RE: protecting the rights of the minority, Republic vs. Democracy, kicking puppies, etc... In the event of a tie the Founders ensured that the small states wouldn't be kicked around by the big states.

The Electoral College's supporters argue that it plays an important role in balancing relations among the states, and protecting the interests of small states.

What kind of crazy person would say that? Oh yeah... me.

A few years ago, this page was moved by these concerns to support the Electoral College.

Ok, so they were right at one point.

But we were wrong.

D'oh!

The small states are already significantly overrepresented in the Senate, which more than looks out for their interests.

And who decides what is an adequate level of looking out for their interests? The small states have their protection in the Legislative branch, why should they be stripped of their protections in the Executive.

And there is no interest higher than making every vote count.

--The New York Times

Again, just because you vote for a loser doesn't mean your vote didn't count. And likewise, even if your choice wins in a landslide your vote still counts. Your vote counts absolutely in choosing who your states electors go to. We cannot however fudge things so that everybody's happy and thinks "oh, it was a close vote, so my vote counted". In some places it's just a landslide and cosmetically changing things so that it doesn't seem like a landslide doesn't actually make the vote count any more or any less.

Oh, and one more feature of the Electoral College that the NY Times failed to mention is that it compartmentalizes the election process. They complain that there could be "havoc" in a couple of situations where the vote might end up going to the House. That's noting compared to the bedlam that might happen without the Electoral College. You saw the turmoil that was Florida 2000. Imagine if the President were elected solely on the popular vote and that vote were close enough to require a recount. That chaos we saw in Florida would be nationwide as every precinct had the possibility to influence a close election. Hmmm, bedlam in ever precinct in every state in the nation or the vote being decided in the House of Representatives. You can guess which I'd take. Which would you take?

RNCBloggers rounds up all the bloggers at the Republican Convention on one page.

But a funny thing has happened- I am starting to believe [the Swift Boat Vets]- at least some of the claims. The Democrats response of attack, retreat, sue, intimidate, malign has been unimpressive. The cripple stunts with Max Cleland have been uninspiring and seem like they are straight out of South Park. The worst has been the reaction of the press and other Kerry supporters (does Douglas Brinkley have any credibility left, whatsoever?), who have behaved like there is something to hide.

At any rate, the Democrats have given it all they have, and the Vets have held up. Meanwhile, I have learned the following:

- Kerry did not volunteer, per se. He tried for a deferment, but was turned down. Then he was given the option to volunteer for the Navy over the Army.

- Despite his campaign continuing to lie about it, Swift Boats were not as dangerous as they turned out to be when he volunteered to be on them.

- We have learned that Kerry clearly lied about Cambodia, including during SENATE TESTIMONY, in which the lie was used to INFLUENCE NATIONAL POLICY.

- Kerry has admitted the first purple heart was from a self-inflicted wound, and it is pretty clear that he gamed the system to get that first one (mind you- I don't begrudge him- how many others would have done the same thing- it was a fucked up war).

- We know that he has three different citations for his Silver Star, each one more glowing than the other, each written after Kerry became moreand more influential in Washington.

- We know that his Silver Star information on his DD 214 is incorrect or falsified.

- We know that in 2001, his record was again amended, this time adding 4 bronze stars for campaign service, when according to Navy Spokesmen he does not deserve two of them.

- We know that his records are inaccurate, and that he has only displayed certain records- cherrypicking, if you will, and refusing to release others.

- I know that his campaign lied about numerous aspects of the Swift Vets relationship with Kerry, including the ridiculous 'they weren't on the boat' meme.

--Baloon Juice

Some of the things the Swift Vets for Truth have said haven't been shown to be true, a good number of them however certainly appear to be true and the Democrats' continued attempts to smear the vets rather than argue what really happened doesn't help their case.

You want to show that the Swift Vets are nutjobs? Simply walking up to a camera, mic, or keyboard and screaming "THEY'RE NUTJOBS EXECUTING A SMEAR CAMPAIGN" doesn't cut it. Whining about nonexistent collaboration with the Bush campaign isn't going to cut it . You want to make them out as nutjobs? Show that Kerry was in Cambodia, or that he never claimed he was. Show that the first Purple Heart wasn't self-inflicted. Release all of Kerry's records. Show that Kerry hasn't played up his war record, that he was the war hero his convention made him out to be.

But it seems they're either unable or unwilling to do that. And that leaves many people no choice but to give the Swift Vets' stories some weight.

So why does Kerry want to be president?

The reason is almost tautological: John Kerry wants to be president because he is John Kerry, and John Kerry is supposed to be president. Hence his campaign's flummoxed and tone-deaf response to the swift boat vets. Ban the books, sue the stations, retreat, attack. Underneath it all you can sense the confusion. How dare they attack Kerry? He's supposed to be president. It's almost treason in advance.

It's not enough to believe you should be president. Clueless mortals need some hints. Is he motivated by a broad ideological agenda? There's no Kerry Doctrine, no Kerry Approach, no Tony-Blair-style "third way" gambit. There's just Lurch, lurching.

The war? He's said he would have gone to Iraq even if he knew then what he knows now — he just would have done it differently, whatever that means. He has endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war — but of course he would do it differently. It all seems to boil down to getting the French and the Germans on board so they can complain about the food and the quality of the sheets. He's pro-war when it counts, anti-war when it matters.

Inconsistencies are irrelevant, because he's consistently John Kerry. And he's supposed to be president.

--James Lileks

From Peter Kirsanow at NRO.

1. The Bush campaign maintains that you spent 20 years in the Senate with no signature legislative achievements. What do you consider to be the five most important pieces of legislation that you've authored?

a. What's the most important piece of legislation regarding intelligence you've authored?

b. What's the most important piece of antiterrorism legislation you've authored?

c. What's the most important piece of health-care legislation you've authored?

d. What's the most important piece of education legislation you've authored?

2. You'd agree that on paper, Dick Cheney's experience and qualifications dwarf those of your running mate. Why would John Edwards make a better president during the war on terror than Dick Cheney?

a. It's been widely reported that John McCain was your first choice as running mate. If true, why did you prefer Senator McCain to Senator Edwards?

3. Earlier this year you told Tim Russert that you'd release all of your military records, yet you've failed to do so and you refuse to release your Vietnam journal. Why shouldn't the public infer that the contents of these documents would undermine your credibility or otherwise damage your candidacy?

a. When will you release the documents?

4. You've stated that you believe that life begins at conception yet you voted against the ban on partial-birth abortions. At precisely what point is a life worth protecting?

a. Is there any limitation on abortion (waiting periods, parental notification) for which you'd vote? If so, what?

5. You've promised to repeal much of the Bush tax cut and while in the Senate you voted to raise taxes an average of five times per year. If current economic trends remain largely unchanged during a Kerry presidency, would you seek additional tax increases?

a. How would you raise taxes and what are the highest marginal tax rates that you'd support?

6. You opposed the 1991 Gulf War even though Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, had invaded another country, and France and Germany had supported the war. In the current conflict no WMDs have been found, France and Germany oppose the action, and Saddam hadn't invaded another country. Yet you recently stated that knowing what you know now, you'd nonetheless authorize the use of force — even though you voted against funding it. Could you please reconcile these positions?

7. You acknowledge meeting with representatives of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong in Paris in 1970. Afterward you urged Congress to accept the North Vietnamese proposals. Please explain how this wasn't a violation of the Logan Act and, if you were still in the Naval Reserves at that time, how it wasn't a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibiting unauthorized communications with the enemy.

8. In several speeches before black audiences you've stated that a million African Americans were disenfranchised and had their votes stolen in the 2000 presidential election. There are no official or media investigations that support that statement. What evidence do you have to support the statement and if you believe a million blacks had their votes stolen, why haven't you called for criminal prosecutions and congressional investigations?

9. Do you dispute the National Journal's assessment that you're the nation's most liberal senator? If you do, which senators do you consider to be more liberal and why?

10. Why did you propose cutting the intelligence budget by $6 billion in 1994?
...

--Peter Kirsanow on National Review Online

Go read the rest, they're serious questions that should be answered.

The response to Kerry after he trotted out a crippled veteran/former congressman to deliver his mail:

August 25, 2004

Senator John Kerry
304 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Kerry,

We are pleased to welcome your campaign representatives to Texas today. We honor all our veterans, all whom have worn the uniform and served our country. We also honor the military and National Guard troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today. We are very proud of all of them and believe they deserve our full support.

That’s why so many veterans are troubled by your vote AGAINST funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, after you voted FOR sending them into battle. And that’s why we are so concerned about the comments you made AFTER you came home from Vietnam. You accused your fellow veterans of terrible atrocities – and, to this day, you have never apologized. Even last night, you claimed to be proud of your post-war condemnation of our actions.

We’re proud of our service in Vietnam. We served honorably in Vietnam and we were deeply hurt and offended by your comments when you came home.

You can’t have it both ways. You can’t build your convention and much of your campaign around your service in Vietnam, and then try to say that only those veterans who agree with you have a right to speak up. There is no double standard for our right to free speech. We all earned it.

You said in 1992 “we do not need to divide America over who served and how.” Yet you and your surrogates continue to criticize President Bush for his service as a fighter pilot in the National Guard.

We are veterans too – and proud to support President Bush. He’s been a strong leader, with a record of outstanding support for our veterans and for our troops in combat. He’s made sure that our troops in combat have the equipment and support they need to accomplish their mission.

He has increased the VA health care budget more than 40% since 2001 – in fact, during his four years in office; President Bush has increased veterans funding twice as much as the previous administration did in eight years ($22 billion over 4 years compared to $10 billion over 8.) And he’s praised the service of all who served our country, including your service in Vietnam.

We urge you to condemn the double standard that you and your campaign have enforced regarding a veteran’s right to openly express their feelings about your activities on return from Vietnam.

Sincerely,

Texas State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson
Rep. Duke Cunningham
Rep. Duncan Hunter
Rep. Sam Johnson
Lt. General David Palmer
Robert O'Malley, Medal of Honor Recipient
James Fleming, Medal of Honor Recipient
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Castle (Ret.)

--Blogs for Bush

It just so happens that, in its September issue, Details magazine is outing Hollywood GOP sympathizers. The magazine claims that, in order to address the celebrity deficit that the GOP currently has, the Republican National Committee has unveiled a list of stars who veer toward the Republican side of the aisle.

Some of the names, like Jessica Simpson and Shannen Doherty, are already known. But others are more unexpected, like Adam Sandler and Freddie Prinze Jr., although Prinze's wife Sarah Michelle Gellar has been known to lean right in the past.

In a related article, Sony producer Mike DeLuca has stepped up and acknowledged his Republican affiliation, describing the reaction in Hollywood as the equivalent of being “exposed as a serial killer.� DeLuca pointed out some lefty hypocrisy, saying, "They scream about the environment before they hop onto their private jets and blow 8,000 pounds of fuel getting to the Hamptons."

One of the celebs named in the Details article has responded to the outing incident via her publicist and has done so in an entertaining and quasi-historical manner. The star is Mandy Moore, and the New York Post has reported the response as, "Mandy is not, nor has she ever been, a Republican."

--Newsmax (Hat tip Michael King)

Try these.

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer or donate to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the lies, untruths, and misleading spin being put out by the Left. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group.

Earlier today Mayor George McKelvey, Democratic mayor of Youngstown, Ohio, announced his endorsement of President George W. Bush in his reelection bid. ... "Although I have never publicly endorsed a presidential candidate, the significance of this election - an election which I view as the most important of my lifetime - has motivated me to acknowledge my support for President Bush.

"I support President Bush's proactive approach to the war on terror. He has demonstrated the strong leadership necessary to strengthen our national security. He understands that the war on terror is a war we must win to protect our freedom, for our children, grand children and great grandchildren.

"I support President Bush because I believe that our economy is experiencing a recovery, and that it will continue to improve. It is unfair, at best, to blame President Bush for the devastating impact 9-11 had on the American marketplace. Furthermore, I cannot agree with those who criticize a tax policy which allows the American people to keep more of their own money, allowing them, not the government, to decide how to best spend their money," McKelvey said.

He continued, "Senator Kerry reminds me of the traditional politician who will say anything you want to hear to get elected... This Democrat is proud to call President Bush his friend, and honored to have the opportunity to work with him on his reelection as president of the United States of America."

--GeorgeWBush.com

I suppose you could most likely add him to the list of "nonexistent" people who voted for Gore but will now be voting for President Bush.

--Addendum--

Brian brings us this lovely post in which he makes it known that anybody who doesn't support Kerry isn't welcome in his Democratic Party. Heaven forbid people should decide based on the issues and not simply pick the person at the head of your party's ticket. To quote The Simpsons, "The Leader is good, The Leader is great! We surrender our will as of this date!"

Chris Lynch sums up the Kerry campaign's month of August.

Michael Reagan will be speaking about stem cell research at the Republican National Convention.

Let's keep in mind that Gov. Jim McGreevey isn't simply having to resign because he's a "gay American" and had an extramarital affair.

Several sources close to McGreevey identified Golan Cipel, 35, as the ex-lover who is expected to file the suit against McGreevey in Mercer County Civil Court in Trenton.
...
Although he won office in a landslide three years ago, McGreevey has been buffeted by a string of political missteps and a corruption scandal that enveloped some of his closest political allies.

One of the worst missteps was the hiring of Cipel, an Israeli-born man who now lives in Manhattan.

Cipel, whom McGreevey met during a 2000 trip, later was named a $110,000-a-year aide on anti-terrorism issues.

A former poet, sailor and spokesman for the Israeli Consulate in New York, Cipel eventually quit the state post amid damaging disclosures that he couldn't even get a security clearance.

With McGreevey's help, Cipel landed a series of cushy jobs at firms controlled by Democratic fund-raisers.

--New York Daily News

It's hard to call that kind of activity good, ethical governance.

The way stem cells have been reported, you'd think we were in a new Dark Ages, with government-backed religious inquisitors threatening scientists on the cusp of life-saving treatments.

Reinforcing this misimpression are the headlines and commentators talking up a "ban" on research. "First lady Laura Bush defends ban on stem-cell research" is how the Philadelphia Inquirer spun Mrs. Bush's talk. A sampling of other headlines shows the Inquirer is far from alone: "Rethink the stem-cell ban" (Des Moines Register); "Stem cell ban stays, despite Reagan pleas" (Newark Star-Ledger); "Kerry says he'd reverse stem cell ban" (The Grand Rapids Press); "Kerry 'would lift stem cell ban' "(BBC), and on and on. You get the drift.

The problem is that the drift is wrong. As Mrs. Bush gently reminded her audience in Pennsylvania this week, far from banning embryonic stem cell research, George W. Bush is the first President to expand federal funding for it. The nearby table shows that, as a result of his decision, federal funding went from zero in 2000 to nearly $25 million today--and this doesn't include the many tens of millions more being spent by the private sector.
...
On the whole this would be a healthy debate for America to have. But the Kerry campaign seems more interested in politicizing the issue by continuing to advance claims for a ban that simply does not exist. Typical was the press release by the campaign Web site this week entitled "Edwards Calls for an End to Stem Cell Ban and a Return to Scientific Excellence in America." This is no slip: It's the same language Mr. Kerry used in his radio address when he declared he intends to "lift the ban on stem cell research." And it's the same language Hillary Clinton used during her own convention speech, drawing cheers when she invoked the "need to lift the ban on stem cell research."

All these people know better. The issue is federal subsidies. The need for a Presidential decision arose from an appropriations rider passed by Congress in the mid-1990s forbidding federal funding for any research that creates, injures or destroys human embryos.
...
Plainly this is one of those subjects that involves clashes of goods, in this case the sanctity of human life versus the needs of scientific research. The best way to resolve the issue of taxpayer funding is to let the American people make that decision themselves, through their elected representatives. And dealing, we hope, with the science--not just the Kerry campaign sound bites.

--OpinionJournal

"I couldn't get a job with CIA today. I am not qualified," the Florida Republican [Rep. Porter Goss] told documentary-maker Michael Moore's production company during the filming of the anti-Bush movie "Fahrenheit 9/11."

A day after Bush picked Goss for the top U.S. spy job, Moore on Wednesday released an excerpt from a March 3 interview in which the 65-year-old former House of Representatives intelligence chief recounts his lack of qualifications for employment as a modern CIA staffer.

"I don't have the language skills. I, you know, my language skills were romance languages and stuff. We're looking for Arabists today. I don't have the cultural background probably," Goss is quoted in an interview transcript.

"And I certainly don't have the technical skills, uh, as my children remind me every day: 'Dad you got to get better on your computer.' Uh, so, the things that you need to have, I don't have."

Goss, who served with the CIA clandestine services in Latin America and Europe in the 1960s, was not immediately available for comment.

--Michael Moore.com

So let's sum this up real quick. Porter Goss was a spy for the CIA in Latin America and Europe in the 1960s, therefore the languages he knows are the romance languages (you know, the ones spoken in Latin America and Europe), not the Arabic languages that spies need to know today. In the 1960s integrated circuits were just being invented and computer systems looked like this.

Gee, ya think maybe the requirements to be a spy have changed a little in the past 40 years? Of course a 65 year old man doesn't meet the requirements that a 20 year old needs to meet to get a job in the CIA's Clandestine Service today. Rep. Goss is not being nominated for an entry level position at the CIA however. He is being nominated to lead the CIA. We don't require the Secretary of Defense to be able to jump from a C-130, hike 20 miles and kill bad guys. The CEO of Disney doesn't need to be able to draw. The CEO of Ford doesn't need to know how the run the CAD software. The CEO of Lion's Gate doesn't need to know how to distort and manipulate the facts in Michael Moore's films.

Porter Goss doesn't need to speak Arabic to lead the CIA.

He doesn't need to physically design and create the equipment that the field operatives use.

He doesn't need to code the encryption schemes that the CIA uses.

He needs to lead the CIA.

He needs to the intelligence community inside and out. He needs to know how the CIA works. He needs to know what doesn't work and how to fix it.

Everything seems to suggest that he is fully qualified to be Director. He is obviously not qualified to be a field operative, not many 65 year olds are. To suggest that not having the skills and knowledge to be a spy today but instead having the skills and knowledge he needed when he WAS a spy disqualifies him from being the Director of Central Intelligence is silly and asinine and quite frankly lives right up to what you’d expect of a Michael Moore criticism.

National Lampoon's MoveOnPlease.org

(Thanks to Jake for the link.)

Vodkapundit reports that ABC News' The Note can't seem to find a single person who voted for Gore in 2000 that will now vote for President Bush.

Vodkapundit's post lays out 7 famous people who voted for Gore and will now be voting for President Bush and the comments section is full of additional people, even some Nader voters who will be voting for President Bush. OpinionJournal also had letters from such voters back in July.

Something else is wrong with today's The Note.

Forget the latest polling out of Ohio (and perhaps Florida … .).

They're using this as something that's going against President Bush. I don't have a clue where they get that. 6 of the past 11 polls in Ohio show a Bush lead equalling or exceeding the margin of error. Only 1 of those 11 shows a Kerry lead outside the MoE. (It's 3-0 in the President's favor in the last five.) How is this a bad sign for President Bush?

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer or donate to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the lies, untruths, and misleading spin being put out by the Left. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group.

WICHITA, KS—Delivering the central speech of his 10-day "Solution For America" bus campaign tour Monday, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry outlined his one-point plan for a better America: the removal of George W. Bush from the White House.

"If I am elected in November, no inner-city child will have to live in an America where George Bush is president," Kerry said, addressing a packed Maize High School auditorium. "No senior citizen will lie awake at night, worrying about whether George Bush is still the chief executive of this country. And no American—regardless of gender, regardless of class, regardless of race—will be represented by George Bush in the world community."
...
Kerry's message resonated less strongly with one Lawrence, KS swing voter.

"Politicians make a lot of campaign promises," Lance Radda said. "Sure, this not-being-Bush policy sounds good now. But how can we be sure that Kerry will deliver on that promise once in office?"

Kerry addressed Radda's question.

"I promise you, here and now, that I will enact my one-point plan on the day I enter the Oval Office," Kerry said. "For the last three and a half years, we've had George W. Bush, and today I have this to say: We can do better!"

In his final words, Kerry changed the subject to attack Bush's record.

"During his term in office, George Bush has relentlessly continued to be president—despite the clear benefits to America his absence would bring to the lives of citizens everywhere," Kerry said. "My one-point plan for America highlights the sort of change that this country desperately needs. And my plan is something that George Bush will never, ever be able to accomplish."

--The Onion

President Bush today put forward Rep. Porter Goss (chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and CIA spy in the '60s) to head the CIA.

Nancy Pelosi's thoughts on Goss in June:

“If Goss is nominated for the post, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said that she would support him. Pelosi worked closely with Goss during the congressional investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks. Whoever replaces Tenet needs to be independent of political pressure, Pelosi said. Goss, who worked for the CIA before becoming a congressman in 1988, has shown that ability as chairman of the House Intelligence panel, she added.” (“CIA To See Change In Leadership Style,” Chattanooga Times Free Press, 6/5/04)

Nancy Pelosi's thoughts on Goss now:

“Nancy Pelosi though, did point out … that maybe Porter Goss is too political of a pick, at a time in the post-9/11 world where there should be more bipartisanship on national security. Here’s what Pelosi had to say.” PELOSI: “But I will say what I said before is that there shouldn't – a person should not be the director of central intelligence who’s acted in a very political way when we’re dealing with the safety of the American people. Intelligence has to be the gathering and analysis and dissemination of information, of intelligence, without any political, any politics involved at all.” (CNN’s “Inside Politics,” 8/10/04)

--GOP.com

Boy, I'd hate to think the Democrats were just opposing the nomination of a man to a post vital to national security in order to hurt President Bush.

From Mark Steyn in the Telegraph:

[W]ith Kerry, even before any gaffes or scandals, the official narrative makes no sense. He's publicly opposed to the Vietnam War. But he volunteers for it. Then he comes back disgusted with his experience in war, publicly hurls his medals away (or someone else's: that story keeps changing), denounces his fellow veterans as war criminals, torturers and rapists, and claims that he personally committed atrocities.

But then he decides to run for president and suddenly Jane Fonda morphs into John Wayne and all those war criminals are war heroes he wants at every rally and he's got his medals back and his disgust at his wartime experience has mysteriously turned into pride in his wartime experience to the exclusion of all else.

If Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand or any of his other Hollywood supporters got a script like that, they'd send it to rewrite. Either that or they'd figure they'd got an early, rejected draft of the new Manchurian Candidate.

That's what people mean when they talk about how "complex" and "nuanced" Kerry is. They don't mean his positions on the great questions of the day are complex and nuanced.

Quite the contrary: for the purposes of this campaign, his entire political career – 20 years as Senator, Lieutenant-Governor to Michael Dukakis – has been dropped from his CV. If Kerry had exhibited the slightest trace of any interestingly complex view of any policy matter, you can be sure we'd have heard about it. But he hasn't.
....
For decades, John Kerry has told anyone who'd listen that at Christmas 1968 he was on an illegal mission inside Cambodia.
...
Just one problem. It never happened. Every living officer up his chain of command says Kerry was never ordered to Cambodia. At least three of his five crewmen say their boat was never in Cambodia.
...
I'm Vietnammed out. But it's the centrepiece of Kerry's campaign: the other day, asked a straightforward question about 9/11, he stuck to the current millennium for a good 20 seconds and then veered off into "the war that I fought in was a war where we saw America lose its support for the war, where the soldiers came back having had to do what our soldiers are doing today, carry an M-16 in another country, try to tell the difference between friend and foe. I know what it's like to go out at night on patrol", etc, etc. So, since Vietnam seems to be the only subject on which he has anything to say, it would be reassuring to know that at least he's got that right.

For most of his adult life John Kerry has peddled as his central Vietnam anecdote – the one that drove him to turn on his nation's leaders – what appears to be a complete fantasy. Why would he do such a thing? If there's a good answer to that question, maybe someone in his doting press pack would like to ask it.

--Mark Steyn - Telegraph

Add it to the pile of stuff that doesn't add up.

Mr. President, I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the President of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me, that says to me, before we send another generation into harm's way we have a responsibility in the U.S. Senate to go the last step, to make the best effort possible in order to avoid that kind of conflict.

...

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

The Kerry-friendly Globe repeated this claim as recently as mid-June.

Ignore the fact that Nixon wasn't President on December 25, 1968. The real scandal is that Kerry couldn't have been in Cambodia at that time. None of Kerry's crewmates remember Cambodia. American armed forces didn't enter Cambodia until Spring 1970, which prompted widespread protests and "four dead" at Kent State University--on May 4, 1970, not year-end 1968. Even the authorized hagiography of Kerry in Vietnam, David Brinkley's Tour of Duty, says Kerry wasn't there, in Chapter 10, second paragraph...

--No Oil for Pacifists

Not really looking good at this point.

Kerry's plan, which promises to effectively shift much of the Iraq war burden from America to its allies, so far is failing to receive the international support the proposal must have to succeed.
...
"I understand why John Kerry is making proposals of this kind, but there is a lack of realism in them," Menzies Campbell, a British lawmaker who is a spokesman on defense issues for the Liberal Democratic Party, said in a typical comment.

Many allied countries may welcome a new team in Washington after years of friction with the Bush administration. But foreign leaders are making it clear they don't want to add enough of their own troops to allow U.S. forces to scale back to a minority share in Iraq, as Kerry has proposed.

Allies say they are ready to consider further financial aid and other help for the fragile new Iraqi government. But some officials overseas already are fretting about Kerry's talk of burden-shifting.

"Some Europeans are rather concerned that Mr. Kerry might have expectations for relief [from abroad] that are going to be hard to meet," said one senior European diplomat in a statement echoed in several capitals.
...
The French and German governments have made clear that sending troops is out of the question. British officials have made no such categorical statement, but they have expressed concern that their troops are overstretched.

Although Japan has supplied a 550-member noncombat force as a symbol of its international commitment, analysts there see little chance the nation would agree to send more.

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Andrei Denisov, ruled out a commitment of troops. "We are not going to send anybody there, and that's all there is to say," Denisov said.

--Yahoo! News/LA Times

The article also mentions that 88% of troops in Iraq are American. Drawing from an earlier post, I'll remind you that the great, UN backed, international effort that was the Korean War featured an international force that was... 88% American.

“President Bush has shown through his decisive leadership that we will take a stand against terrorism. Because of his leadership, we have made major changes in our government to help us against this war, such as the Homeland Security Department, the PATRIOT Act, and a proactive policy of fighting terrorists on their own soil before they come and kill us in our country.

“I believe that it's President Bush's personal values, morals and his clear determination not to allow the terrorists to succeed and to take a proactive role against them, and to view it for what it is - a war - not a criminal act that we need to fight with law enforcement, as the previous administration did and failed.”
...
Capt. O’Grady is equally vocal about his distaste for candidate John Kerry as a potential commander in chief:

“I can tell you that I, Scott O'Grady, do not see him fit. I have had nightmares about this. Let me put it this way. I have myself have heard John Kerry testify that he committed war atrocities, where he came out and admitted that he is a war criminal. That he was involved in activities in Vietnam where he hurt innocent civilians.

“There is a big difference between war operations where civilians are hurt or killed in collateral damage. It's a tragedy of war versus actually targeting civilians, which is a criminal act. It's against our military laws of warfare. It is an unlawful act to purposely target non-combatants.

“I've heard from Senator Kerry's mouth when he testified after coming back from Vietnam that he purposely took part in activities that targeted civilians.

"The other reason I don't see him fit is his Senate record. His voting record does not support the military: the supplies they need, the pay they receive, the support for their families. I think it would be a major mistake for the American people to vote for John Kerry.”

When a cyber-questioner looks to the controversial Patriot Act as an indication that Bush has overstepped, O’Grady fires back:

“The misleading myth that the Patriot Act has carte blanche authority to violate civil liberties is a lie. All the Patriot Act does primarily is to allow federal agencies to communicate more effectively with one another to fight the War on Terror with intelligence and allows federal agencies to investigate terrorist groups just as if they were organized criminals, i.e. the Mafia.

“Federal wire-tapping was allowed before the Patriot Act to follow individuals. All the Patriot Act does is to take policies already in place to fight crime to be allowed to fight terrorism. I will also note that there has not been one instance of reported abuse because of the Patriot Act.”

--Newsmax

Remember, it's the evil Republicans that go negative; they're the ones who practice the politics of personal destruction. The Democrats are the party of super-fun-happy-optimism.

The Democrat National Committee has prepared a full-scale assault against the Vietnam Veterans for Truth to draw their character and veracity into question, according to one anonymous source inside the DNC. The campaign of character assassination is scheduled to coincide with the release of the book Unfit for Command which reveals inconvenient facts for the Kerry campaign.

“We have prepared what we call ‘Brown Books’ that contain damaging military records, personal credit histories, medical histories, psychiatric histories, divorce records, you name it,” our source told us. "We've got the goods on the Veterans who oppose Kerry."
...
When asked if this was just another example of John Kerry slandering Vietnam Vets – like he did in 1971 as a member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War – our source snapped, “No! This is warfare. The only way we’re going to get out of this is to force everyone to question their motives and credibility.”

“If they want to spread rumors and stories about John Kerry, we’ll spread rumors and stories about them. And some of the things they did in Vietnam were a lot worse than what they say John Kerry did,” our source concluded ominously.

--CrushKerry.com

Geez, maybe they could "get out of this" if they would actually, I don't know, dispute the facts rather than fling mud at the messengers. If the best you can do is say they have a chip on their shoulder from Kerry's post-Vietnam activity, and lie and say that people didn't serve with him simply because they weren't on the same 6-person boat as him and claim that the person who says he treated Kerry didn’t sign the paperwork, while not actually saying he didn’t treat Kerry... well if that's the best you can do it kinda makes people wonder if these people might not be telling the truth and have a point.

Kerry and the Democratic party are threatening to sue stations that carry the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth' ad.

The group is now responding. Castle Argghhh! has the text of their letter.

Victor Davis Hanson has a good piece over at NRO.

Bombs going off in Manhattan or stuck in a tunnel while cops search every truck? Either way, Bush is the problem. Either he foolishly went into Iraq and let down our guard, or he is trying to scare us into believing that a nonexistent terrorist is under every bed. The television still blares about suicide bombers and repugnant thugs tormenting bound hostages? Surely Bush set them off. The proper response? Presto! Elect a less confrontational John Kerry, and thus cease a long, difficult war to defeat and to discredit all who would embrace such odious ideas.

Liberal civilizations often tire of eternal vigilance and in the midst of peacetime affluence work themselves into mass hysteria when challenged. Such is the picture we receive of the Athenian assembly around 340 B.C. when Demosthenes desperately warned that Philip was not a national liberator. Few thought Hannibal really would cross the Ebro. Churchill in the 1930s wasn't listened to very much — after the Somme, who wanted lectures about deterrence? Ronald Reagan's earlier prescience about the Soviet threat in the post-Vietnam era prompted Hollywood to turn out cheap TV movies warning of Reagan-inspired nuclear winters.

We too are reverting to our childhood and thus are in the same weird mood preferring fantasies and stories to reality. The Democrats know it. And so the unifying theme of their otherwise contradictory messages is that we can return to the infantile delusions of September 10, and not the crisis-filled adult world of post-September 11 that now confronts George W. Bush.

--Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online

Fun Facts About Democrats from Frank J.

Some highlights:

* If your skin pigmentation is dark enough, you may be legally required to vote for Democrats.

* Democrats are big into class warfare. They also are for gun control which has caused the deadliest firearms to be too expensive except for the rich to buy. So, if class warfare ever goes to blows, it won't last long.
...
* Some Democrats may have served in Vietnam. You can find out which ones by seeing who tells you that fact over and over and over.

* And over and over and over.
...
* If you're plagued by Democrats, they can be scared away with snakes, guns, or concepts of individual responsibility.
...
* In a fight between Democrats and Aquaman, Aquaman would be slurred by an NAACP ad that links him to lynching.
...
* Democrats are convinced Bush lied about something. They're not sure what... but they know it's something! Come on; Clinton lied all the time... Bush must have lied at least once!

* The foreign policy ideals of the Democrats involve waiting for the mighty France to approve anything they plan on doing. This should allow them to snap into action about the time half the earth is destroyed by radical Islamists.

--IMAO

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's new ad. That's gotta hurt.

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer or donate to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the lies, untruths, and misleading spin being put out by the Left. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group.

To get his Ohio rallies up and rolling, Kerry used a set of jokes to open his events. In Bowling Green, his shtick went something like this:

"If you elect me and my running mate, John Edwards, we are going to give you the courageous leadership you need. We'll take the tough positions, the courageous positions, the tough stands. But there's one tough position I will not take: I am not going to choose between the Falcons and the Rockets" -- this is a local reference to the well-known rivalry between Bowling Green University and the University of Toledo.

"I will say this," he added. "There is nothing better than Buckeye football, period!"
...
On Sunday and into Monday, Kerry hit Michigan, where he attempted to use the same Ohio jokes. Clearly, the sports humor has to be taken out of his hands before he really embarrasses himself.

"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."

--The American Spectator

That's ok, Michigan fans don't mind OSU fans do they? Oh yeah....

Mr. McNickle,... was demonized after his July 25 exchange with Mrs. Kerry was caught on videotape by a local TV station, then picked up by the news channels and replayed endlessly. "What did you mean?" Mr. McNickle asked the wife of the Democratic presidential candidate after she told Pennsylvania delegates that "un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits" were sullying politics.

Mrs. Kerry denied she had used the phrase, then snapped, "You said something I didn't say. Now shove it."

In the aftermath of the "shove it," Mr. Kerry supported his wife, as did the Democratic National Committee, which called Mr. McNickle's paper "a right-wing rag," and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

Mr. McNickle denied he had been rude.
"I didn't bully her. I didn't set her up. She stumbled all by herself," he said. "She began her remarks about her husband's vision, then went off on a tangent."

But Mr. McNickle swiftly became the target of partisan ire, inspired by what he termed the "DNC's liberal attack machine." In hundreds of e-mails and telephone calls to his office and home, and even on the street, Mr. McNickle's life was threatened. He was called a "Nazi" and a variety of obscene names, and had death wished upon him.

In a Boston Globe interview, singer Patti LaBelle advised Mrs. Kerry to "pimp slap" Mr. McNickle; liberal columnist Molly Ivins suggested he had inappropriately "touched" Mrs. Kerry; and former Baltimore Sun columnist Jack Germond told CNN that Mr. McNickle "was not a legitimate newspaperman."

He responded in a Tribune-Review column Sunday, explaining he was only seeking an example of "un-American traits" from Mrs. Kerry, but "I got a finger in the face and was told to 'shove it.' I have been told worse things by more important people."

--Washington Times (via The Right Side)

If that's a civil tone I'd hate to see what an uncivil tone coming from the Left would sound like.

News of the terror threat on Sunday also stirred renewed suggestions from some Democrats that the White House was manipulating terror alerts for Mr. Bush's political gain. They said the alert had been issued just as Mr. Kerry emerged from a convention that was described by Republicans and Democrats as a success.

"I am concerned that every time something happens that's not good for President Bush, he plays this trump card, which is terrorism," Howard Dean, a former rival of Mr. Kerry for the Democratic nomination, told Wolf Blitzer on CNN on Sunday.

"His whole campaign is based on the notion that 'I can keep you safe, therefore at times of difficulty for America stick with me,' and then out comes Tom Ridge," Mr. Dean, the former Vermont governor, added, referring to the homeland security secretary. "It's just impossible to know how much of this is real and how much of this is politics, and I suspect there's some of both in it."

--NY Times (via THE BELGRAVIA DISPATCH)

That trump card is trump for a reason. All the liberal policies they want to put in place are no good if everybody's dead.

While Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards, and their families were having a "lite" lunch at Wendy's in the Town of Newburgh Friday, drumming up local support right after the national convention in Boston, their real lunches were waiting on their bus.

A member of the Kerry advance team called Nikola's Restaurant at the Newburgh Yacht Club the night before and ordered 19 five-star lunches to go that would be picked up at noon Friday. Management at the restaurant, which is operated by CIA graduate chef Michael Dederick, was told the meals would be for the Kerry and Edwards families and actor Ben Affleck who was with them on the tour.

The gourmet meals to go included shrimp vindallo, grilled diver sea scallops, prosciutto, wrapped stuffed chicken, and steak salad. The meals came to about $200.

The entourage had also expected to stop at the Alexis Diner at Route 9W and North Plank Road in the Town of Newburgh. In fact, the Kerry advance team had ordered 125 lunches for the team and supporters. Their buses drove right by the diner on I-84 and proceeded straight to Wendy's.

--Hudson Valley News story

John Kerry's heavily hyped cross-country bus tour stumbled out of the blocks yesterday, as a group of Marines publicly dissed the Vietnam War hero in the middle of a crowded restaurant.

Kerry was treating running mate Sen. John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, to a Wendy's lunch in Newburgh, N.Y., for their 27th wedding anniversary — an Edwards family tradition — when the candidate approached four Marines and asked them questions.

The Marines — two in uniform and two off-duty — were polite but curt while chatting with Kerry, answering most of his questions with a "yes, sir" or "no, sir."

But they turned downright nasty after the Massachusetts senator thanked them "for their service" and left.

"He imposed on us and I disagree with him coming over here shaking our hands," one Marine said, adding, "I'm 100 percent against [him]."

A sergeant with 10 years of service under his belt said, "I speak for all of us. We think that we are doing the right thing in Iraq," before saying he is to be deployed there in a few weeks and is "eager" to go and serve.

The Marines — all of whom serve at nearby Stewart Air Force Base — wouldn't give their names.

--New York Post

Because this is the type of do-nothing, please play nice resolution the UN likes to put out.

With China and Pakistan abstaining, and the other 13 members approving the text, the Council agreed to impose an arms embargo against the Janjaweed militias and all other non-governmental forces in Darfur, which has been described as the site of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The resolution says the Council might take measures against Sudan if it does not show progress on achieving the commitments – most notably the pledges to disarm the Janjaweed and restore security to Darfur – it outlined in a joint communiqué with the UN on 3 July.

--UN.org (emphasis mine)

President Bush in Springfield, MO today:

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.

BUSH: This will not happen on my watch.

The world changed on a terrible September morning. And since that day, we've changed the world.

Before September the 11th, Afghanistan served as the home base for Al Qaida, which trained and deployed thousands of killers to 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.

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.

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 Qaida and America and the world are safer.

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 message, the leader of Libya has abandoned his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and America and the world are safer.

Before September the 11th, the ruler of Iraq was a sworn enemy of America.

BUSH: He was defying the world. He was firing weapons at American pilots and forcing the world's sanctions. He had 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 threats in a new light. One of the lessons of September the 11th is we must deal with threats before they fully materialize.

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 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.

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.

BUSH: Given that choice, I will defend America every time.

When it comes to fighting the threats of our world and making America safer and promoting the peace, we're turning the corner, and we're not turning back.

--FOXNews.com

It's nice to have a President in the post-9/11 world willing to see and deal with threats before they harm us and not one that is willing to wait for the attack followed by a "swift and certain response."

JOHN KERRY told us more last night about his childhood memories of bike riding in Berlin than he did about his nearly three decades in public office.

"I ask you to judge me by my record," he implored, but then said virtually nothing about it. There was a single throwaway line about his time as a prosecutor. Nothing at all about being elected lieutenant governor. And just three sentences about his 20 years in the US Senate. Twenty years! A third of his life! Yet neither in his speech nor in the video that preceded it did Kerry say anything about what those two decades have meant to him or what lessons they may have taught him or how he thinks they have prepared him for national leadership.

"Judge me by my record," he says. But all night long -- all week long -- there is only one part of Kerry's long record that the Democrats have wanted Americans to notice: the part that ended 35 years ago when he came home from Vietnam. Why are they so reticent about everything he's done since?

--Boston Globe

It was a very pretty speech, you'd almost think it was true and that he actually believed it. With all his talk about the people who fought alongside him in Vietnam you'd almost think he hadn't come home and called them war criminals. You'd almost think President Bush had claimed the flag belonged to those who support him. You'd almost think that there was something President Bush could have done to get the people in bed with Saddam Hussein to go along with removing him. You'd almost think Kerry's opinion of the war in Iraq wasn't directly tied to what people want to hear. You'd almost think Kerry's fit to be Commander in Chief.

Almost, but if you did you'd be wrong.

Tom Junod makes a great case for the reelection of President Bush from the perspective of a "Bush is an asshole" Liberal.

As easy as it is to say that we can't abide the president because of the gulf between what he espouses and what he actually does , what haunts me is the possibility that we can't abide him because of us—because of the gulf between his will and our willingness. What haunts me is the possibility that we have become so accustomed to ambiguity and inaction in the face of evil that we find his call for decisive action an insult to our sense of nuance and proportion.

The people who dislike George W. Bush have convinced themselves that opposition to his presidency is the most compelling moral issue of the day. Well, it's not. The most compelling moral issue of the day is exactly what he says it is, when he's not saying it's gay marriage. The reason he will be difficult to unseat in November—no matter what his approval ratings are in the summer—is that his opponents operate out of the moral certainty that he is the bad guy and needs to be replaced, while he operates out of the moral certainty that terrorists are the bad guys and need to be defeated. The first will always sound merely convenient when compared with the second. Worse, the gulf between the two kinds of certainty lends credence to the conservative notion that liberals have settled for the conviction that Bush is distasteful as a substitute for conviction—because it's easier than conviction.
...
And now that the war has defied the optimism of its advocates, the issue is no longer Bush's moral intention but rather his simple competence. He got us in when he had no idea how to get us out. He allowed himself to be blinded by ideology and blindsided by ideologues. His arrogance led him to offend the very allies whose participation would have enabled us to win not just the war but the peace. His obsession with Saddam Hussein led him to rush into a war that was unnecessary. Sure, Saddam was a bad guy. Sure, the world is a better place without him. But . . .

And there it is: the inevitable but. Trailed by its uncomfortable ellipsis, it sits squirming at the end of the argument against George Bush for very good reason: It can't possibly sit at the beginning. Bush haters have to back into it because there's nothing beyond it. The world is a better place without Saddam Hussein, but . . . but what ? But he wasn't so bad that we had to do anything about him? But he wasn't so bad that he was worth the shedding of American blood? But there are other dictators just as bad whom we leave in place? But he provided Bush the opportunity to establish the doctrine of preemptive war, in which case the cure is worse than the disease? But we should have secured Afghanistan before invading Iraq? But we should have secured the cooperation of allies who were no more inclined to depose Saddam than they—or we, as head of an international coalition of the unwilling—were to stop the genocide in Rwanda ten years before? Sure, genocide is bad, but . . .

We might as well credit the president for his one great accomplishment: replacing but with and as a basis for foreign policy. The world is a better place without Saddam Hussein, and we got rid of him.
...
Of course, Iraq might be a lost cause. It might be a disaster unmitigated and unprecedented. But if we permit ourselves to look at it the way the Republicans look at it—as a historical cause rather than just a cause assumed to be lost—we might be persuaded to see that it's history's judgment that matters, not ours.
...
In a nation that loves fairy tales, the president seemed so damned eager to cry wolf that we decided he was just trying to keep us scared and that maybe he was just as big a villain as the wolf he insisted on telling us about. That's the whole point of the story, isn't it? The boy cries wolf for his own ends, and after a while people stop believing in the reality of the threat.

I know how this story ends, because I've told it many times myself. I've told it so many times, in fact, that I'm always surprised when the wolf turns out to be real, and shows up hungry at the door, long after the boy is gone.

--Tom Junod - Esquire

...but I can appreciate their choices in convention-related blog links.

--Update--
Ditto for the Washington Post.

In a 34.5 second span during John Edwards' speech I counted 52 blinks.

He complains about the negativity of President Bush's campaign. Oddly enough I don't see him calling off the Liberal 527 attack dogs, telling them to take the high road. The attacks coming from President Bush's campaign, which are really only exposing Kerry's voting record, are nothing compared to the negativity coming from the Left day in and day out. President Bush has been compared to Hitler, and Republicans compared to Nazis and he thinks it's the Republicans who are going negative?

Who let Al Sharpton onstage? I thought the point of the convention was to hide the negativity, hatred and vitriol that the Democratic Party actually stands for today.

--Addendum--

I suggest to you tonight that if George Bush had selected the court in '54, Clarence Thomas would have never got to law school.

--Washington Post

Really? That's odd, here it is '04 and Colin Powell is the Secretary of State, Rod Paige is the Secretary of Education, Alphonso Jackson is the Secretary of Housing & Urban Development and Condoleezza Rice is the National Security Advisor. (And since Sharpton is only interested in the welfare of blacks I won't bring up Chao, Abraham, or Mineta.) Yeah, hypothetical President Bush from 50 years ago clearly would have been against blacks going to law school. /sarcasm

The GOP has a great, almost 12 minute video laying out the multitude of Kerry's unprincipled positions on the Iraq war.

The transcript is here.

KERRY: "I would disagree with John McCain that it’s the actual weapons of mass destruction he may use against us, it’s what he may do in another invasion of Kuwait or in a miscalculation about the Kurds or a miscalculation about Iran or particularly Israel. Those are the things that - that I think present the greatest danger. He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat." (CBS’ "Face The Nation," 9/15/02)
...
KERRY: "George, I said at the time I would have preferred if we had given diplomacy a greater opportunity, but I think it was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein, and when the President made the decision, I supported him, and I support the fact that we did disarm him." (ABC News, Democrat Presidential Candidate Debate, Columbia, SC, 5/3/03)
...
MSNBC’S CHRIS MATTHEWS: "Are you one of the anti-war candidates?" (MSNBC’s "Hardball," 1/6/04)

KERRY: "I am - Yeah." (MSNBC’s "Hardball," 1/6/04)

--DemsExtremeMakeover.com

And we're supposed to believe that a man whose position on a war varies with the polls is fit to be Commander in Chief?

John Cole examines them.

Ever since voters began telling Teresa Heinz Kerry that they didn't think much of the pumpkin spice cookie recipe her office had submitted to Family Circle's presidential cookie bake-off, an aide said, Mrs. Heinz Kerry, the wife of the about-to-be Democratic nominee, has been thinking how she could tell America the truth: the recipe isn't hers.

In an interview on National Public Radio that was broadcast yesterday, the cookies came up in conversation and in the direct, unvarnished style that people have come to expect, Mrs. Heinz Kerry said: "Somebody at my office gave that recipe out and, in fact, I think somebody really made it on purpose to give a nasty recipe. I never made pumpkin cookies; I don't like pumpkin spice cookies."
...
Ms. Romash, who when she is not working in politics runs a baking-catering business, agrees with her boss. "If you tasted those cookies," she said, "you'd think someone was trying to do you harm, too."

Ms. Romash would not say why Mrs. Heinz Kerry would think an aide would want to harm her.

--The New York Times

Now Heinz Kerry's own staff is out to get her.

So we now have Nasa and Heinz Kerry's staff forming dastardly plans to embarrass the Kerry campaign. Who's next? Big Bird?

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer or donate to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the lies, untruths, and misleading spin being put out by the Left. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Oh, sorry, Heinz Kerry put me to sleep there for a minute. I'm amazed they were able to find a blazing red dress that managed to almost perfectly match the color of her face.

Did anybody else get a strong "Jurassic Park tour" vibe from Ron Reagan's speach? In this scenario Ron would play the part of part of Mr. DNA, the happy-go-lucky double-helix strand of recombinant DNA that explains the process of cloning in a way that's just a little too serious about providing edutainment.

  

Kerry's campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill is actually accusing Nasa of pulling a political "dirty trick" in releasing the above photos.

Cahill, asked by FOXNEWS whether it was a dirty trick, said: 'Well, what do you think?' No photos were supposed to be taken, she said.

Well it does seem to fit, so much of the opposition to President Bush is already based on conspiracy theories, why not one more?

--Update--
According to this Washington Times article the Kerry campaign saw the photos and approved their release.

One campaign official told The Washington Times last night: "All I can say is it was not an authorized release."

But the National Aeronautics and Space Administration told Fox News that the Kerry team saw the photos before publication and passed on their release.

A NASA spokesman told the top-rated cable network that the images were given to the Kerry campaign to review before several were posted on the Kennedy Space Center Web site.

In no way were photographs "leaked," the spokesman said.

It's kind of amusing watching Howard Dean talking about how they're no longer going to shrink from standing up for what they believe in and how they're proud to be Democrats in the middle of a convention that's doing everything it can to distance the Democrats from what Kerry, Dean and their followers actually believe.

Bill Clinton seems to be under the delusion that when he left office he left "prosperity and peace". To this day he doesn't seem to recognize the threat of terrorism that he left us facing.

The overall theme I'm getting from his speech: "If I were still in office the recession we had would have been a depression because I've got about 1,000 different things I think are more important than the tax cuts that spurred the economy to the greatest growth in 20 years."

He makes some very good points.

1. Kerry is soft on sovereignty. As Boston Herald columnist Cosmo Macero says: "Never has the dilution of U.S. Sovereignty been so boldly forecast." This is a man who said that the United States should not deploy troops overseas without the "permission" of the United Nations. He made no exceptions. He stated it as a hard and fast rule. Do we want a president who seeks the permission of the United Nations before he can act in what he believes to be the best interests of the United States? Oh .. to be sure, Kerry wouldn't dare make this statement today. He's running for office! Tell me ... just when do you think a person speaks his true mind? Hint: It's not when he's in the middle of the campaign. Remember ... Kerry has instructed Democrats to hold back on their anti-war statements during the convention. He knows that many of the voters he wants to convince approve of the liberation of Iraq. He also knows that most of the voters don't think the UN should have veto power over US military deployments. Believe him now at your peril.

2. Kerry is an appeaser. Kerry knows that many of the principal members of the European Union want to build the strength of that body on the declining weakness of America. The leaders of these countries are quite upset over George Bush's show of strength in the Middle East. They knew the threat was there, but it was a threat they didn't have the courage to face. The US did. The US is showing strength, Europe is showing weakness. Naturally this is going to breed bitterness toward our country. Kerry wants to address and moderate this bitterness by weakening America through a policy of appeasement.

3. Kerry is a tax-and-spend liberal. Just recently Microsoft announced that it was going to distribute $32 billion ... that's with a "B" ... in Microsoft cash to shareholders via a dividend. Give The Poodle his way and the dividend, which has already been taxed by the Imperial Federal Government, will be taxed again when it reaches the shareholder. How nice. Kerry's spending plans, if enacted, would essentially double the size of the federal government. Virtually every economist out there not working for the government credits Bush's tax cuts with our economic turnaround. Raising taxes is a good way to stop our economy in its tracks.

4. Kerry sends a message of weakness. Islamic terrorists are emboldened when they believe their enemies to be weak. Disagree if you wish, but there's a school of thought out there which believes that the election of John Kerry would send a signal to the wonderful world of Islamic terrorism that America is once again ripe for an attack. I attend that school. How many Americans will die when Kerry brings us the era of appeasement?

5. Kerry sends a message of government dependency. Whatever you need, the government is there to provide it for you. Kerry is pressing the concept of health care as a right. This means that the person in need of health care would have, under a Kerry regime, an enforceable right to a portion of the life of some health care provider somewhere. If health care is a right, what else? The right to a home? The right to a job?

I've said it before, but here we go again for the record. We're in the middle of World War IV. Bin Laden has pledged to kill as many Americans as he can. He has even set a goal of four million. Will you be one of those? How about a member of your family? The Democrats are going to nominate a man who was opposed to removing Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. A man who voted for the Iraq war, and then voted to deny the funding our troops needed to pursue that action. The Democrats are nominating a man who believes that the United Nations should have veto power over American military moves. A man who would weaken the American economy through ratification of the Kyoto Treaty and the imposition of tax increases on the very people who are now powering our economic revival.

--Neal Boortz

In which I Hobble/Fisk a Letter to the Editor from Sunday's Dayton Daily News:

Administration flouts Constitution

This secretive, arrogant administration disregards the Constitution with its Bill of Rights and the checks and balances of our three separate and equal branches of government. It cordons off protesters, manipulates our fears and politicizes religion.

Does this administration understand the possible negative consequences of the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Department, with their ability to invade, silence, censor and destroy people's freedoms, civil liberties and privacies? It must be afraid of the people's right to free speech, press and peaceful assembly, and especially the separation of church and state, since it advances America as only a Christian nation under extreme McCarthyism.

And now for a bit of straight fisking.

Teaching creationism in public schools...

The Bush administration is forcing schools to teach creationism? No? They’ve at least tried and failed to force schools to teach creationism, right? No again? Gee, it’s almost as if the Bush administration has nothing to do with schools deciding whether to teach creationism, but that of course can’t be since President Bush is the source of all evil in the universe.

...and other religious activities such as the House's "safe harbor for churches" act...

Wait, the "House" is now a part of the administration? Just two paragraphs ago weren't you complaining that the Bush administration disregards the idea of our "three separate and equal branches of government"?

...continually violate the First Amendment.

Really? Where in the First Amendment does it talk about what is required for churches to be tax exempt? Where does the First Amendment lay out which theories of creation can be taught in schools? Where does the Constitution even mention schools? In a teacher saying that some people believe a higher being created everything, in which way is Congress making a law respecting an establishment of religion?

This administration is stretching and possibly violating other rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and state and international laws. - Ann C. Bell, Oakwood

--Dayton Daily News - Letters to the Editor

Geez Ann, think you could be a tiny bit more vague on that last bit? It’s easy to scream “Help! Help! I'm being repressed!”, but when you do you should be able to, ya know, actually be able to back it up with examples of how your rights are being violated. (Yes, that was, for some reason, my second Holy Grail quote in 12 hours.)

The Kerry Campaign seems to have figured things out, though -- the Joe Wilson "RestoreHonesty.com" website is gone from the Kerry page. And -- as Nick Queen notes -- searches for Wilson on the Kerry site now turn up nothing.

Wilson's been airbrushed, which seems like an admission that those who have been defending him were wasting their time. (For those interested in history, here's a preserved copy. Reportedly, they've even cleared the Google cache on this one! [LATER: Google cache found here.])

--Instapundit

In the immortal words of Monty Python and the Holy Grail's King Arthur: "Run away! Run away!"

The highlights:

The thing I like about the National Urban League is you believe in the future of the African American community. You've got this great faith that the future is going to be better, and I share that. That's what I'm here to talk about. I believe the same thing.

I believe this country can and will be a place of opportunity and hope for every single citizen. It's not a given; there's work to be done. But it's a goal, and it's an important goal.

I don't care what party you're in, what city you live in, or what state you're from, the goal has got to be -- America has got to be an hospitable, hopeful place for every single citizen. That's what I believe. That's kind of the heart of what they call compassionate conservatism, that the American experience must be alive and viable for everyone, and that government has a role to help people have the tools so they can help themselves. See, I believe in the human spirit; I believe if people have the opportunity and the ability, they will achieve their God-given talents. That's what I believe. And I think that's a proper role for the federal government, to help people.

The last three-and-a-half years, we've worked on that. We've worked hard to make opportunity available and prosperity real and justice not a word. And I'm here to tell you, we're making good progress.

Progress for African Americans and all Americans require a healthy, growing economy. It's hard to realize dreams if -- if you're in a recession; it's hard to realize dreams if jobs aren't being created; it's hard to realize dreams if the entrepreneurial spirit is flat, at best, and that's not the case today.
...
What I'm telling you is, the role of government is to create an environment where people from all walks of life have a chance to realize their dream. And that's precisely what's taking place in America. And the economy is better for it, and more people are finding work, and we must not go backward to the days of high taxes, high spending, more regulation and more lawsuits, if we expect more people to own their own business.
...
Progress for African Americans, and progress for all Americans, requires good schools. (Applause.) The system tended to shuffle kids through, and you know what I'm talking about. You know, the hard-to-educate were labeled that, and they just moved through, that's what was happening. We can play like it wasn't happening. It was happening. That's what you get when you get low expectations. It's what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations.
...
We need to make sure a high school diploma means something. When a kid comes out of high school, an employer or community college, the college says, that means something when they hold up a high school diploma.
...
Plus, I want to make sure the community college system is vibrant. I put money aside and will continue to do so for the community colleges. They're available, affordable, they're accessible, they're good things, they can change their curriculum to meet the needs of a local community. They actually train people for jobs which exist. They're good opportunities for kids coming out of high school. Look, education is the future of the country. And that's why, under my administration, we've increased the number of men and women who will be receiving Pell Grants to nearly one million. (Applause.)

And why, under my budget, funding for historically black colleges is at an all-time high. (Applause.) It's what I said I would do when I was running for President, see. I told people I'd do that, and I've done it. And the country is better off for it, because education is the cornerstone of a hopeful tomorrow.

I was proud to support Mayor Tony Williams... Tony is the Mayor of Washington. He's a very good Mayor, by the way. He's a good man. Maybe you know him. But he and I -- (applause.) I work with Tony. And I signed a bill into law creating taxpayer-sponsored scholarships for students in Washington, D.C. And let me tell you why. I believe this: If school choice is good for the wealthy, it's good enough for disadvantaged children in America. This is a good piece of legislation. (Applause.) It's a good piece of legislation, which is going to help improve education for all children in the nation's capital.
...
I'm the first President of the United States to ban racial profiling in federal law enforcement. (Applause.)

And to serve the cause of justice on the bench, the federal bench, I have nominated outstanding men and women to the courts, including six superbly qualified African Americans for the courts of appeal and 11 for district courts. (Applause.)
...
We've got a diverse cabinet, diverse administration, people who serve our nation with dignity. You know, when it comes time to money, Allen Greenspan is a smart guy, so is the Vice Chairman, Roger Ferguson, of the Federal Reserve. (Applause.) Chairman of the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, Michael Powell -- in other words, what I'm telling you is -- (applause) -- I feel I have an obligation to reach out to people from all walks of life. I have met that obligation, and the government is better for it. (Applause.)

And when it comes to national security, thankfully I've had a good team. We've had some big challenges in this country. And I've got a strong foreign policy, because the architects of that policy are people like Condi Rice and Colin Powell. (Applause.) These are good people. I've seen them -- I've seen them under incredible pressure. I know their steadiness and their clear vision.
...
Ours is a solid record of accomplishment. And that's why I've come to talk about compassionate conservatism and what I envision for the future. I'm here for another reason. I'm here to ask for your vote. (Applause.)

No, I know, I know, I know. The Republican party has got a lot of work to do. I understand that. (Laughter and applause.) You didn't need

to nod your head that hard, Jesse. (Laughter.)

Do you remember a guy named Charlie Gaines? Somebody gave me a quote he said, which I think kind of describes the environment we're in today. I think he's a friend of Jesse's. He said, "Blacks are gagging on the donkey but not yet ready to swallow the elephant." (Laughter and applause.)

Now that was said a while ago. (Laughter.) I believe you've got to earn the vote and seek it. I think you've got to go to people and say, this is my heart, this is what I believe, and I'd like your help. And as I do, I'm going to ask African American voters to consider some questions.

Does the Democrat party take African American voters for granted? (Applause.) It's a fair question. I know plenty of politicians assume they have your vote. But do they earn it and do they deserve it? (Applause.) Is it a good thing for the African American community to be represented mainly by one political party? That's a legitimate question. (Applause.) How is it possible to gain political leverage if the party is never forced to compete? (Applause.) Have the traditional solutions of the Democrat party truly served the African American community?

That's what I hope people ask when they go to the community centers and places, as we all should do our duty and vote. People need to be asking these very serious questions.

Does blocking the faith-based initiative help neighborhoods where the only social service provider could be a church? Does the status quo in education really, really help the children of this country? (Applause.)

Does class warfare -- has class warfare or higher taxes ever created decent jobs in the inner city? Are you satisfied with the same answers on crime, excuses for drugs and blindness to the problem of the family? (Applause.)
...
I'm here to say that there is an alternative this year. There is an alternative that has had a record that is easy to see. If you dream of starting a small business and building a nest egg and passing something of value to your children, take a look at my agenda. If you believe schools should meet high standards instead of making excuses, take a look at my agenda. If you believe the institutions of marriage and family are worth defending and need defending today, take a look at my agenda. (Applause.)

If you believe in building a culture of life in America, take a look at my agenda. If you believe in a tireless fight against crime and drugs, take a look at this agenda. If you believe that our men and women in uniform should be respected and supported 100 percent of the time, take a look at my agenda. (Applause.)

If you're struggling to get into the middle class and you feel like you're paying plenty of taxes, take a look at my agenda. (Applause.)

If you're a small business owner who is trying to expand your job base and are worried about excessive lawsuits, increasing taxes and over-regulation, take a look at this agenda. (Applause.)

And finally, if you believe in the power of faith and compassion to defeat violence and despair and hopelessness, I hope you take a look at where I stand. (Applause.)

You see, I believe in my heart that the Republican party, the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, is not complete without the perspective and support and contribution of African Americans. (Applause.)

And I believe in my heart that the policies and actions of this administration, policies that empower individuals and help communities, that lift up free enterprise and respect and honor the family, those policies are good for the nation as a whole. That's what I believe. And I'm here to thank you for giving me a chance to come and express those beliefs.

--WhiteHouse.gov

If they knew President Bush were addressing the Urban League today they might have to drop the inflammatory racial rhetoric and that would just leave them sad and bored. We wouldn't want that.

“We’ve got a president that’s prepared to take us back to the days of Jim Crow segregation and dominance,” says NAACP president Kweisi Mfume. Republicans’ “idea of equal rights is the American flag and Confederate swastika flying side by side,” says NAACP chairman Julian Bond. And the leaders of this supposedly nonpartisan organization are surprised President Bush declined to attend their convention last week?

Instead, tomorrow the president will address the National Urban League, a black organization whose mainstream leadership is focused on ideas for improving life in inner cities rather than on politics and racial demagoguery. The president will have a lot to talk about. Issues number one and two on his domestic agenda have been education reform and his faith-based initiative, both specifically targeted to help inner city minority residents, and both implemented by two accomplished African-American cabinet members, education secretary Rod Paige and HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson.

--Charles Upton Sahm - City Journal

(CPOD) Jul. 22, 2004 – The Republican ticket of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney could carry the state of Ohio in the 2004 United States presidential election, according to a poll by Strategic Vision. 48 per cent of respondents would vote for the incumbents, while 43 per cent would support Democratic challengers John Kerry and John Edwards.

Independent candidate Ralph Nader and running mate Peter Camejo garner the support of one per cent of respondents, while eight per cent remain undecided. The election is scheduled for Nov. 2.

Bush carried Ohio’s 21 electoral votes in 2000, with 50 per cent of the vote. The state has supported the eventual president in every election since 1964.

Polling Data

If the 2004 presidential election were held today, would you vote for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the Republicans, John Kerry and John Edwards, the Democrats, or Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo, the independents?

Bush / Cheney (R)	48%
Kerry / Edwards (D)	43%
Nader / Camejo (I)	1%
Undecided	8%

Source: Strategic Vision
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 801 likely Ohio voters, conducted from Jul. 17 to Jul. 19, 2004. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

--Centre for Public Opinion and Democracy

Being poll data it should of course be taken with the requisite grain of salt, but since late May President Bush has lead in the majority of polls taken in Ohio.

Rich Lowry has a good piece over at NRO laying out how no matter what President Bush does the Left is going to have a problem with it.

If he stumbles over his words, he is an embarrassing idiot. If he manages to cut taxes or wage a war against Saddam Hussein with bipartisan support, he is a manipulative genius.

If he hasn't been able to capture Osama bin Laden, he is endangering U.S. security. If he catches bin Laden, it is only a ploy to influence the elections.

If he ignores U.N. resolutions, he is a dangerous unilateralist. If he takes U.N. resolutions on Iraq seriously, he is a dangerous unilateralist. If he doesn't get France to agree to his Iraq policy, he is ignoring important international actors. If he supports multiparty talks on North Korea, he is not doing enough to ignore important international actors.

If he bombed Iraq, he should have bombed Saudi Arabia instead, and if he had bombed Saudi Arabia, he should have bombed Iran, and if he had bombed all three, he shouldn't have bombed anyone at all. If he imposes a U.S. occupation on Iraq, he is fomenting Iraqi resistance by making the United States seem an imperial power. If he ends the U.S. occupation, he is cutting and running.

If he warns of a terror attack, he is playing alarmist politics. If he doesn't warn of a terror attack, he is dangerously asleep at the switch. If he says we're safer, he's lying, and if he doesn't say we're safer, he's implicitly admitting that he has failed in his core duty as commander in chief.

If he adopts a doctrine of preemption, he is unacceptably remaking American national-security policy. If the United States suffers a terror attack on his watch, he should have preempted it. If he signs a far-reaching antiterror law, he is abridging civil liberties. If the United States suffers another terror attack on his watch, he should have had a more vigorous anti-terror law.

Bush's economy hasn't created new jobs. If it has created new jobs, they aren't well-paying jobs. If they are well-paying jobs, there is still income inequality in America.

If Bush opposes a prescription-drug benefit for the elderly, he's miserly. If he supports a prescription-drug benefit for the elderly, he's lining the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies.
...
If he accuses John Kerry of flip-flopping, he is merely highlighting one of the Massachusetts senator's strengths — his nuance and thoughtfulness. If he flip-flops on nation-building or testifying before the 9/11 commission, he proves his own ill-intentions, cluelessness, or both.

If he doesn't admit a mistake, he is bullheaded and detached from reality. If he admits a mistake, he is damning his own governance in shocking fashion.

If he sticks with Dick Cheney, he is saddling himself with an unpopular vice president, giving Democrats who can't wait to run against Cheney a political advantage. If he drops Cheney, he is admitting that the Democratic attacks against his vice president have hit home, thus giving Democrats who have made those charges a political advantage.

If he loses in November, the voice of the American people has spoken a devastating verdict on his presidency. If he wins, he stole the election.

--National Review Online

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer or donate to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the lies, untruths, and misleading spin being put out by the Left. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group.

Ohio Countdown 2004 has noted that President Bush’s campaign aired a "hit piece on abortion on 60 minutes" in Northeast Ohio. He says that this is a signal that President Bush has "a base problem" and that President Bush's campaign is "in complete panic".

Unless I'm mistaken the ad in question is this ad entitled "Family Priorities". The text of the ad is as follows:

President Bush:
I'm George W. Bush and I approve this message.

Voice Over:
When it comes to issues that affect our families, are John Kerry's priorities the same as yours?

Kerry voted against parental notification for teenage abortions.

Kerry even voted to allow schools to hand out the morning after pill without parents' knowledge.

He voted to take control away from parents by taking away their right to know.

John Kerry has his priorities. The question is, are they yours?

--GeorgeWBush.com

I don't think you can fairly call this a "hit piece on abortion". It doesn't say abortion should be illegal, it doesn't even say that teenage abortion should be illegal. It says that Kerry voted to oppose parents being told about teenage abortions and that he voted in favor of school's being able to hand out the morning after pill without parents' knowledge. These aren't anti-abortion stances; these are pro-parental notification stances. I think these charges are pretty clearly aimed not at President Bush's base who totally oppose abortion but rather at liberal-to-moderate Republicans and moderate-to-conservative Democrats and Independents who support abortion but at the same time think that the parents of the children having abortions should know about it. It's one more effort to paint Kerry as a liberal, not to convince President Bush's base that he's a conservative.

It's worth noting also that this ad isn't running simply in the Democratic bastion of Northeast Ohio during 60 minutes. I've seen it repeated numerous times during a wide range of shows here in the Dayton area which is much more of a swing region. I think it's rather obviously an ad designed to appeal to moderates throughout Ohio who may support Kerry's economic policy but can't stomach his social policy.

The state Republican Party on Tuesday said a contractor working for the Michigan Democratic Party is outsourcing work to India as he checks the validity of signatures putting presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the ballot.

The accusation came on the same day that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry released new ads pledging his economic plan would begin by "putting an end to tax incentives that are encouraging American companies to ship jobs overseas."

In Tuesday's salvo, the state GOP said Mark Grebner of Practical Political Consulting in East Lansing has sent digital copies of the Nader petitions to a data entry firm in India. Grebner refused to confirm or deny the accusation, or to say where the work is being done on the Nader petitions.

Nonetheless, state GOP executive director Greg McNeilly strongly criticized the move, calling it "hypocrisy."

"Michigan Democrats are so intolerant of minority perspectives at the ballot box that they'll outsource Michigan jobs in order to protect a two-party duopoly," McNeilly said in a statement. "They are paying a firm in India for work that could be done by Michiganders."

--mlive.com (Hat tip AlphaPatriot)

Now personally I agree with Grebner who says "This really is work that you can't do in the U.S. because it just doesn't make economic sense... I can't hire people to do some things here." That however doesn't match the rhetoric coming out of the Democratic Party who are playing up outsourcing in all its class warfareish glory. They have shown that they don't care if companies can be competitive and continue providing jobs in the long term just so long as not a single job is given to a person in another country in the short term. Sure Grebner’s 15 person staff would be out of work after a month or so, but for that month several other Michiganders would have jobs, which of course they too would lose when the company went out of business. The Democrats and the Kerry campaign have made it clear that they don’t care about that however so I'd like to see how they rationalize shipping these jobs off overseas.

Sandy Berger, former President Clinton's national security adviser, is under criminal investigation by the Justice Department after highly classified terrorism documents disappeared while he was reviewing what should be turned over to the Sept. 11 commission.

Berger's home and office were searched earlier this year by FBI agents armed with warrants after the former Clinton adviser voluntarily returned some sensitive documents to the National Archives and admitted he also removed handwritten notes he had made while reviewing the sensitive documents.

However, some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration's handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration are still missing, officials and lawyers told The Associated Press.
...
Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed the handwritten notes by placing them in his jacket and pants, and also inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio.

--Yahoo! News

Ya know, when you're knowingly stuffing sensitive information down your pants to hide it, it kind of lowers the credibility of the idea that the sensitive information you carried out in your portfolio was an accident.

Drudge has an amusing/interesting page up questioning Kerry's claim that "You're not going to have to look for us on vacation. You're going to find us working for America."

Borrowing a line from Hans and Franz the SNL characters, Governor Schwarzenegger called Democrats in the California statehouse "girlie men", or more accurately he said "If they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers ... if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men,"

For this he's being called a "misogynist", "sexist", and "homophobic". You want to complain and say that you're not girlie men, that you're in fact manly men with flannel shirts, muscles, and power tools then fine, but calling it misogynistic, sexist and homophobic? COME ON! Men are men. Women are women. “Girlie man” is no more derogatory towards women than “manly woman” would be towards men.

The only mystery is what Edwards knew about himself that we haven't yet seen. What hidden qualities of leadership and wisdom? What fervently held beliefs that could guide his nation through difficult times?

We've seen none of these things, since he has never actually led anybody anywhere, and his opinions seem to be suspiciously close to what an election strategist might have told him it would be useful for him to believe.
...
And while there are those who will claim that Kerry simply chose the Democrat who was second-best qualified for the Presidency, we all know that's a joke. Kerry isn't even the second-best-qualified, and Edwards isn't in the top twenty-five.

Kerry is the most liberal Senator -- which means that he stands for something, even though he's spending his campaign pretending that he was just kidding about all those anti-defense and pro-spending votes over the years.
...
Four years from now, when Hillary is ready to make her move... Edwards will be the only Democrat in a position to deny her what she thinks of as her right -- another eight-year stint in the White House.

Which means that if this election turns out correctly, and we stick with our much-vilified and ridiculed Abraham Lincoln to see us through the rest of this war against terrorism, I will actually find myself in 2008 rooting for John Edwards to win the Democratic nomination -- because the idea of Hillary as President is so hideous that even Republicans have to hope the Democratic Party will choose someone who is probably harmless as their candidate.

Think of John Edwards as the Warren Harding of contemporary politics. He just looks so darn electable, somebody has to nominate him for something.

--World Watch - Orson Scott Card

Some are in an uproar because some government officials want to look into procedures for delaying the election.

I should hope somebody's thinking about this. God knows I wouldn't want anything to happen to delay the election, but the worst possible thing that could happen would be a terrorist strike very close to or during the election and nobody having a clue what they can or should do. If a dirty bomb goes of the day before the election, or the day of, I don't want 500 Congressmen and innumerable local and state officials each with their own thoughts and plans and actions about how the election will take place. I don't want one Senator saying the election should be delayed a month and Representative saying it should be next week while the Election supervisor in Podunk Township, USA is saying "eh, just come back tomorrow" while the next county over is saying "vote now or never". That's chaos and we need to know what we're doing to avoid it.

If we're going to have a debate over whether we can, or how we can, or whether we should delay the election I want it held now, not 10 minutes after a terrorist attack. If the worst should happen I want a plan in place. I want people to know whether they're allowed to delay voting. If they are I want people to know under what circumstances it should happen. I want them to know how they can go about doing it.

If we decide that the election should be delayed under no circumstances then we should know that going in. If in the event of a terrorist attack that results in the election being delayed we should know going in whether that means every polling place in America shuts down... whether just those in the states, counties, or cities affected are shut down... whether votes already cast will count... whether they won't count... who has the right to make the call. This is stuff we need to know and a vast scream of "WE SHOULD NEVER EVEN THINK ABOUT THIS!!!!!" doesn't help. We need to at least think about it and if after thinking it's decided that a delay should never happen then so be it, but we can't allow that decision to be made without examining the situation.

And worse than that, making it easier for possible terrorists.

Fringe elements are hoping to spark major disruptions at the Republican National Convention with a series of sneaky tricks - including fooling bomb-sniffing dogs on trains bound for Penn Station, the Daily News has learned.

Internet-using anarchists are telling would-be troublemakers to decoy specially trained Labrador retrievers with gunpowder or ammonium nitrate-laced tablets in a bid to halt trains or even spur the evacuation of Madison Square Garden.
...
"Where is the legitimate protest in trying to endanger the public?" an angry ­Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told The News.
...
So in addition to guarding against the most vile, organized and destructive of terrorists, Kelly and company have to combat a shadowy, loose-knit band of traveling troublemakers who spread their guides to disruption over the Internet.

The dog decoy ploy is the among most insidious in the fringe groups' bag of tricks - which includes throwing marbles under the hooves of police horses and using slingshots to pelt the animals.

"They're trying to use up our resources with false alarms. ... The sensitive dogs would become burned out with too many alerts," said a police source.

--New York Daily News

Posted by robbernard at 7:07 PM in Politics/Government

40 Reasons To Vote For George Bush Or Against John Kerry from Right Wing News.

The Ohio Republican Party has a new blog called State of the Union.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond - June 2, 2004:

"Their [conservatives] idea of equal rights is the American flag and the Confederate swastika flying side by side," Bond told a cheering audience. "They've written a new constitution for Iraq and ignore the Constitution here at home. They draw their most rabid supporters from the Taliban wing of American politics. Now they want to write bigotry back into the Constitution."

--CNSNews

NAACP National Voter Fund ad run in 10 states in October, 2000:

[Background sound: deep, eerie metallic; later fade in low clanking]
Renee Mullins (voice over): I’m Renee Mullins, James Byrd’s daughter.

On June 7, 1998 in Texas my father was killed. He was beaten, chained, and then dragged 3 miles to his death, all because he was black.

So when Governor George W. Bush refused to support hate-crime legislation, it was like my father was killed all over again.

Call Governor George W. Bush and tell him to support hate-crime legislation.

We won’t be dragged away from our future.

--Democracy in Action

Someone want to tell my why the President of the United States should speak in front of this group?

Hillary to the Houston Chronicle according to Drudge:

"This administration is in danger of being the first in American history to leave our nation worse off than when they found it."

--DRUDGE REPORT

Is she seriously suggesting that we as a nation were better off when Carter left office than when he came in?

Kerry on Larry King Live: (emphasis mine)

King:...Let's get to, first thing's first, news of the day. Tom Ridge warned today about al Qaeda plans of a large-scale attack on the United States, didn't increase the -- do you see any politics in this? What's your reaction?

KERRY: Well, I haven't been briefed yet, Larry. They have offered to brief me; I just haven't had time. But all Americans are united in our efforts to defeat terrorism.

I believe that John Edwards and I can wage a far more effective war on terror than George Bush has.

--CNN.com

Really? A "more effective war on terror than George Bush"? Kerry can't even make time for a briefing on "al Qaeda plans of a large-scale attack on the United States". And we're supposed to believe he could run a better War on Terror?

At least President Bush can make time for important stuff like that.

Addressing the crowd at RiverScape MetroPark, Kerry ticked off the ways he and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, are a better choice than incumbent President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Kerry boasted that he and Edwards have better ideas, a better sense of what America needs.

"And," he said, "we've got better hair."

--Dayton Daily News

Not so according to a survey pitting President Bush against Kerry.

May the best candidate win, but
when it comes to the best presidential hair, George W. Bush has America's
vote, according to Wahl Clipper Corporation's 2004 Grooming Survey and First
Ever "Index" on men's grooming habits.

Despite John Kerry's recent claim that the Kerry-Edwards ticket has the
best hair, Wahl's survey found that the majority of Americans overwhelmingly
voted for Bush's hair over Kerry's (Bush -- 51 percent; Kerry -- 30 percent;
neither -- 10 percent; don't know -- 9 percent.)

--PR Newswire

Poor guy, he can't even claim to have the best hair without being wrong.

When a reporter noted that Edwards was being described as "charming, engaging, a nimble campaigner, a populist and even sexy" and then asked "How does he stack up against Dick Cheney?" the president immediately responded, "Dick Cheney can be president. Next?"

--Yahoo! News

In Edwards we have a man that not even Kerry thought was fit to be President. Can anybody really say now that he is?

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer or donate to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the lies, untruths, and misleading spin being put out by the Left. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group.

The new ad from President Bush's campaign featuring Senator John McCain.

Sen. McCain:

It’s a big thing this war.

It’s a fight between right and wrong, good and evil.

And should our enemies acquire for their arsenal the chemical, biological and nuclear weapons they seek, this war will become an even bigger thing.

It will become a fight for our survival.

America is under attack by depraved enemies who oppose our every interest and hate every value we hold dear.

It is the great test of our generation and he has led with great moral clarity and firm resolve. He has not wavered, he has not flinched from the hard choices, he was determined and remains determined to make this world a better, safer, freer place. He deserves not only our support but our admiration. That’s why I am honored to introduce to you the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

--GeorgeWBush.com

‘In the Senate four years – and that is the full extent of public life – no international experience, no military experience, you can imagine what the advertising is going to be next year,’ Mr. Kerry said. With a grin, he added: ‘When I came back from Vietnam in 1969 I don’t know if John Edwards was out of diapers then.'

--GOP.com

On a related note, the GOP already has KerrypicksEdwards.com linking to their take on Edwards.

Labeled "EXCLUSIVE" at the NY Post's site: "Kerry Picks Gephardt"

MSNBC

Boy, it's a good thing they were so secretive about it, you wouldn't want the media to announce it before Kerry gets to announce it in a little over an hour.

Now we see how Kerry handles having an underling right out in the spotlight who's infinitely more personable than him.

Recieved this in the mail, it has some LOL moments. Neither fair nor balanced, but deal with it.

It's quite long so click to check it out.

Democratic Convention Update News Service

Newsletters 4,5,6

demconventionupdatenews@yahoo.com,

or

yahoogroup, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/demconventionupdatenews/

Due to the fact that the Secret Service has decided to shut down the "Information Superhighway" (AKA internet) because it runs too close to the Fleet Center and is therefore a security risk to John Kerry, we at Democratic Convention Update News Service have decided to combine newsletter numbers 4, 5, and 6. We recognize the fact that some of the people who will receive this newsletter are Liberal Democrats and /or members of the National Education Association and are therefore barely literate. For their benefit, we typed the newsletter slowly to match their reading speed and are using small words wherever possible.

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Security Notices and Transportation Notices

The Security Notices section of this newsletter, as well as color coded security levels, are brought to you as always by "Osama Bin Laden and Associates, PC" If you are every randomly stripped searched in public, have your flight delayed, or are maimed on a bus by a homicide bomber because you are an American Infidel living in an unholy country, you can thank us at OBL and Associates.

The Transportation Notices section has been brought to you by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). At OPEC, we remind you that with or without oil, many of our people are nothing more than a bunch of illiterate, homicidal maniacs brainwashed by blind eunuch so-called clerics who are strapping explosives to our children and sending them into your country to kill you as you sleep. Pleasant dreams, infidel, and keep buying those SUV's.

The Coast Guard announced that to protect the DNC, Boston Harbor will be closed. They further announced that part of the security plan calls for a 50 mile radius in and around Boston Harbor to be MINED, with the mines in various sized ranging from ultra-small to super-ultra large. While no timetable for the mining has been announced, the disappearance of a Hingham to Boston commuter boat, and the fact that a customer at Legal Sea Foods had his head explode into little pieces when he bit into a shrimp, has led some to speculate that the mining may already have begun.

Due to the DNC Security requirements, the Queen Mary 2 will be rescheduling its previously planned port visit to Boston. The visit is also contingent upon Ted Kennedy moving his many cars that are parked throughout Nantucket Sound.

The Department of Defense announced today that at the request of John "liveshot" Kerry, troops from the United Nations will be manning security checkpoints in a thousand mile radius around the convention. Troops from France, Morocco, Belgium, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Sudan, Libya, North Korea and Lebanon, along with a group of observers from the Palestinian Authority will be taking part in this effort. The DOD stated that this is a good opportunity to give troops from these countries an opportunity to learn how to use toilets and take showers, and practice such important skills such as kidnapping, extortion, sexual favors in exchange for safe passage through a roadblock, and how to recognize if a BMW is being driven by a gimme girl or driven by a capitalist pig who can afford to pay ransom. The Mexican Army was invited to participate, but they stated that their army was too busy shooting at American Border Patrol Agents 10 miles inside Texas and New Mexico as they escorted drug dealers into America. John Kerry stated that he managed to organize this coalition of countries that are together for a common purpose, and this is proof that his coalition building skills should get him elected president. Kerry, on the advice of his political advisor, Michael Dukakis, has promised reporters a unique photo opportunity when he rides on top of a North Korean tank from his residence to the Fleet Center.

The United National released a statement saying they welcomed the chance to bring their peace loving troops into the United States, and that money raised from kidnapping, extortion, and of course, tolls, will be used to increase the funds available for dictators and tribal leaders to obtain prostitutes, with additional funds set aside for the new chief of UN Weapons Inspections, Scott Ritter, to locate a new harem of young teenage boys.

The Sierra Club, in cooperation with other environmental groups, has announced that they plan to take advantage of Boston's new found freedom from auto traffic to transplant Piping Plovers onto every street in Boston at 50 yard intervals, with special attention to the intersections.

Every road is going to be closed by either roadblocks or Piping Plovers, and all other modes of transportation are going to be closed, so why bother leaving your house. AAA of Massachusetts said that if you feel like a fish out of water by just staying at home because your three jobs are barricaded shut, you can just sit outside in your car with the engine running for two hours at a time looking at the cars parked next to you to simulate a trip on the expressway. If your commute takes you onto the Mass Pike, just toss money into a sewer. Ladies, You can put on your makeup in a parked car, and yes stockbrokers, you can also read the financial section in a parked car. Gas Stations will be open and charging the usual $10.00 per gallon during the summer driving season.

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Education Report:

The Education Report of this Newsletter is sponsored by the National Education Association (NEA) At the NEA, we have been indoctrinating your children with the words and wisdom of Karl Marx and Joseph Stalin, and cleansing them of any belief in God or of the American Dream. We love our union negotiated invulnerability to your efforts to protect America from our ultra-left wing policies, and we are proud to endorse John Kerry in his effort to unite America under the leadership of dictators, tribal leaders and un-elected despots that is the United Nations.

The Practical Exams for UMASS Amherst Course, Rioting 101, and Looting 202 will be held on Causeway Street at Merrimack Street. Be certain to register with your instructor (wearing the blue ski masks), and be certain to dump your student ID into one of the burning trashcans prior to donning your mask. Graduates of these programs can go onto a roster for invitations to other planned spontaneous riots throughout the civilized world. A special award will be given to the student who throws the tear gas canisters the farthest.

The Practical Exams for Northeastern University Course Rioting 101, and Boston University Course Mayhem 101 have been canceled due to the fact that they were held after the Patriots Superbowl victory. Most students failed the practical because they allowed themselves to be videotaped without their masks.

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Legal Report

The Legal Report section is brought to you by the ACLU. At the ACLU, the only thing missing from our name is "anti-", as in "anti-american", "anti-religion", etc.

After a first of its kind change in venue from the Federal First Circuit Court of Appeals, the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals based in California issued a ruling in the case of ACLU V. MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE, ET AL. This case affects all law enforcement agencies except for Federal Law Enforcement that are working at the convention. In a PER CURIAM ruling, the court ruled that all police working at the convention may not carry guns as this may cause post-traumatic stress disorder in any illegal aliens that may be present. Also, the police working traffic or crowd control may not use hand signals as this is considered to be culturally insensitive to people from some countries. The court ruled that the police must shout "Simon says", and then use the words "red light or green light" in order to get cars to move, or "please kind sirs and madams, cross the street in an orderly and safe fashion while looking in both directions". These orders must be given in Cambodian, Creole, Vietnamese, Russian, Ebonics, Spanish, Mandarin, French and Arabic before the barely understood English is actually used. Court appointed monitors from the Sierra Club will be present to ensure that the shouts from the police do not interfere with the Piping Plovers. Reporters attempted to interview the justices, but they were all in a San Francisco medical marijuana clinic for treatment of their various ailments and were unavailable for comment.

The Bulger family announced that a special fund has been established by the South Boston Winter Hill Gang Business Club for businesses that may be vandalized during the convention but cannot get insurance. This fund is available to all businesses throughout the city except for those that already have "special protection." Rates for the loans are 30% compounded weekly. A special security force has also been expanded, and will visit you on a weekly basis to ensure your continued safety and prosperity. You can get details at almost every business in Southie that has intact windows and non-vandalized cars parked in front.

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ALERT!! A DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION UPDATE NEWS SERVICE EXCLUSIVE!!!!

Excerpts from John "liveshot" Kerry's acceptance speech have been leaked exclusively to us here at DNC Update News Service. Here is part of the speech:

"I am proud to have you nominate me on the last night of the Democratic Convention here in Boston for the Democratic ticket for president. I am extremely proud...... (short pause for dramatic effect and looks at his watch for proper timing) ... OH NO!! Did the electrical power just go out in a spontaneous and completely unplanned manner!?! You know, with no lights and the TV and radio media outlets unable to properly record my acceptance, I guess we should defer this monumental moment for about 5 weeks from now, where I fortunately reserved a large sports arena in the key battleground state of Ohio. There, on a stage with excellent lighting to showcase my perfect hair and surgically enhanced facial features, I can formally announce my acceptance and save federal campaign funds that can be better used to showcase my ultra-liberal screw America policies on TV.

To the people that live within a thousand mile radius of Boston, I apologize for Mayor Menino's lack of planning that has caused this convention to become a circus due to this power failure and which had already greatly inconvenienced you and left you with a city full of Piping Plovers and no hope of auto traffic for the next year.

Well, in the dim light provided by police and firefighters that are preparing to escort you, my faithful delegates, to the safety of your Hotel or various corporate sponsored parties, let me assure you that in five weeks my formal acceptance of this nomination will not be interfered with by a friend and member of the AFL-CIO International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers accidentally closing off a circuit breaker, and our great march to Washington will begin and our federal funds will match that of George Bush."

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Media, Politics, and Entertainment Report

The Media, Politics, and Entertainment Report Sections are brought to you by the Guild of Chinese Government Censors. The Guild of Chinese Government Censors has been changing, editing and outright removing passages critical of Red China since 1949, and is a proud sponsor of the Democratic National Convention and a major donor. Find out more by going to Freespeechisbannedinredchina.org

A concert will be held with many of Hollywood's stars making appearances. The highlight will be a sing along featuring “God-Damn the USA”, a new song using the music from Lee Greenwood's song "God-bless the USA” with new lyrics provided by the Dixie Chicks and sung by Barbra Streisand. An alternative “Damn the USA” will be available for Atheists, as well as “Allah Damn the USA” sung by the Saudi Arabian Embassy Glee Club. The sing along guide, available for $20.00 at the door or $18.50 in advance, also includes a full-size pinup of Nancy Pelosi wearing a tear away bikini.

Judges from Anti-American Idol will be present to judge who has the best raving lunatic speech outside of the Fleet Center. After 8 PM, they will be inside to judge who has the best raving lunatic speech.

Bill Clinton has agreed to be a judge for "Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation Government Girls Gone Wild’s It’s almost a bikini bikini content” to be held at the State House Hall of Flags. Female State Employees not related to Speaker Tom Finneran are encouraged to attend, regardless of the job that was arranged for you by your relatives in the legislature. All female employees are reminded that the producers of Government Girls Gone Wild will be filming when the police water cannons open up on the protesters, so the photos of you in wet transparent clothes looting, burning cars, or just enjoying the mayhem can earn you extra cash (see newsletter 3 for more details).

The Russian newspaper Pravda, famous for its reporting during the soviet era, and Radio Moscow, are taking advantage of the Democratic convention to hold a reunion the day before the convention begins at the new Massachusetts Convention Center. All former interns and graduate students that worked for Pravda, Radio Moscow, TASS or any of the other soviet bloc media outlets are invited to attend. Because of this reunion, the BBC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and NBC will not be broadcasting any news, and the New York Times, Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times will not publish any editions, as all of the on-air talent, writers, producers, reporters, and editorial staff will ALL be in attendance. As a matter of fact, all programs on PBS will be canceled that day. Phil Donahue promised to wear a suit and not a skirt when he attends.

An internet poll has revealed that only one out of five NASCAR fans watch races because they expect to see a spectacular crash. However, the same poll shows that nine out of ten NASCAR fans will tune into the Presidential Debates between Bush and Kerry in the expectation of seeing Kerry do a spectacular flip-flop and then crash and burn.

“Gimme Girls Gone Wild”, will be holding a wet t-shirt contest and a contest with prizes in the following categories: best decorated car costing over $30,000, largest high definition TV in a section 8 apartment, most number of illegitimate children, most creative application for welfare and food stamps, largest diamond necklace, most designer clothes, most number of arrests for any offense or series of offenses without a conviction, and best high pitched shrill yell of “give us more welfare money now”. As an extra special treat, winners of the Days of Our Lives and General Hospital trivia contests get 20 gallons of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. After the contest, participants can drive their Lexus, Mercedes, BMW’s and Humvees in a police escorted parade to the Welfare office where special hours have been arranged so they can pick up their checks. Ben and Jerry will be present to give out more ice cream. As always, clothing is optional for those who wish to find potential fathers for more welfare babies.

Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner and the Nation of Islam will be holding a discussion on how to get the liberal stooges in the media to publish pornographic photos with captions that blame America for the world’s troubles. Autographed copies of Turner’s book on how to manipulate the media, and the illiterate pinheads that live in your district, and a bonus guide to pornography will be on sale for $29.95. A special full size centerfold of Miss Iraq 2002 is also included.

The O.J. Simpson book, “How to Behead your wife, a waiter, or an infidel” is being offered by the Boston Chapter of Islamic Jihad. Price is $24.95 for an autographed copy.

The Boston Chapter of Hamas, in cooperation with the Boston Chapter of the Arab Taxi Drivers Association, are offering “The Gullible Idiots Guide to Obtaining 71 Virgins”. For $19.95, the book includes a bonus video on how to cut and sew a vest to properly fit plastic explosives in order to avoid painful chafing, and how to wire a Crown Victoria Taxi with as much dynamite as possible. A special offering of a map of American Nuclear Power Plants, Chemical Factories, Bus and subway routes, and homes of American Leaders will be given out to the first 100 buyers of the book. Available from taxi drivers throughout Boston

Move-On.Org Girl's Gone Wild is sponsoring a Nancy Pelosi look and Sound Alike wet T-shirt contest, during which contestants scream barely coherent anti-American statements and then strip to the tune of the French National Anthem. California grown "medical" marijuana will be given out to contestants by Woody Harrelson of "Cheers" Fame, followed by Harrelson beating the crap out of a bound and gagged photographer.

Danny Glover is teaming up with Sean Penn in an as-yet-unnamed movie about a pair of left wing cops that tenderly care for the disadvantaged illegal aliens in their precinct by beating the crap out of greedy republicans until they donate hot-tubs for every apartment in the local public housing complexes No word yet on the complete plot, but Penn told US Magazine that this movie was inspired by his visit to Iraq where the people all had access to hot-tubs before the US Air Force bombed the helpless civilians in them, and Glover told Entertainment Tonight that after his visit to Cuba, he was convinced that the exploited minorities in the US should live more like Cubans. The film will be shot in Boston during the DNC too take advantage of both the abandoned streets and the fact that the Teamsters will be looting with everybody else and therefore unavailable to interfere with filming.

By popular demand, the Hilary Rodham Clinton look and sound alike contest has been moved to the Boston Police Rifle Range. Word from the knowing is that Hilary herself is going to attend to see if she still can be her annoying self.

In order to show solidarity with the oppressed people from overseas who are coming into Boston by flying in first class on Air France, Move-on.org reminds you not to wear deodorant, brush your teeth, use breath mints, or bathe for a couple of weeks prior to the convention. You are further reminded not to wear designer ski masks or expensive leather gloves from large multi-national stores. In order to prevent allergic reactions, use only non-latex gloves when you are looting department stores or raiding the center of multinational capitalist pig's lives, McDonalds.

Jane Fonda has announced plans to travel from the Fleet Center to Battleship Cove in Fall River to pay tribute to Vietnamese War Veterans as part of her support for John Kerry. After laying a wreath in honor of Ho Chi Minh, Fonda will sit upon one of the Battleships 40MM antiaircraft gun batteries for a photo op, and then lay inside one of the 16 inch gun barrels for a special photo op. A raffle is being held which will benefit the Disabled American Veterans to see who will get to fire the 16 inch guns once Hanoi Jane climbs inside. Tickets are $25.00 and already 60,000 have been sold.

Michael Moore will be in Boston during the convention, and is looking for historical reference materials and veterans to interview for his upcoming new documentary, "How the French Single Handedly Won the Second World War Without Help From the Cowardly, Gun Crazy Americans and the Lazy British". Moore's other documentary, "North Korea, Breadbasket of Asia and a Model of Utopian Living", took first place at the Pyongyang Film Festival last year and is due out on video on July 27th. DVD's with unseen historical footage of farms overloaded with produce and a trial and execution and disembowelment of a dissident are also included.

In a break from his usual anti-firearm ravings, Michael Moore is offering French Army rifles with his autograph clearly on the stock. Saying that these rifles are harmless because they were never fired and only dropped once, Moore says this is the start of numerous business deals with French companies. Moore is lending his name to a designer series of nuclear centrifuges, biological warfare equipment, and a line of tanks with three gears set for reverse and one for forward. Moore's name also appears on a new book, "How to Sell Oil for Weapons Instead of Food with the Full Knowledge and Cooperation of the UN Secretary General". Moore's EBAY store has been doing a brisk business except for the tanks, which haven't sold outside of France.

Michael Moore also wants to show that the French aren't a nation of cowards, but are victims of an American smear campaign. Moore says he obtained documents that show that the German Panzer Divisions bombarded the French troops with jugs of decaffeinated coffee and heavy French pastry. After a lull in which the French troops hungrily ate the food, the German troops all sang "Frere Jacques" in a soft melodious voice that caused the troops to fall asleep and be captured. These documents were kept secret by NATO officials because they feared that the enemies of France and NATO could use these tactics again wherever French troops appeared, like Vietnam, Africa... These documents do not explain away the French's reputation for a being a bunch of rude, smelly, whiney and ungrateful bastards...

Nominations for the Berlitz School of Double Talk "Award for Excellent Doubletalk" are open until the end of June, with the award to be presented by the Chairman of the Berlitz School of Double Talk, John F. Kerry. While no official news has been released, top candidates include Nancy Pelosi, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Mike Wallace, and the combined staffs of the New York Times and the Boston Globe.

The National Association For the Advancement of Insane People is preparing to endorse John Kerry, saying that his policies are so crazy they might actually work despite what the "sane" people say. They also like his constant flip-flops on issues, saying it is a sign of either Manic-Depression or even Multiple Personality Disorder. They plan on presenting Kerry with the endorsement and coupons for Prozac and Electric Shock Therapy before the convention.

The Massachusetts Republican Party (MRP) has announced that they are planning to hold a convention of their own. All members of the MRP are expected to attend the convention to be held at the 99 Restaurant in Charlestown at 1PM on July 28. In order to provide for a more comfortable setting for everyone, a table of 6 has been reserved rather than the usual table for four.

Nation of Islam Girls Gone Wild wet t-shirt contest will be held at the intersection of Causeway and Merrimack Street. Awards for best vail, and hairiest legs will be given out. Winners will be eligible to appear at a Boston City Council meeting with City Councilor Chuck Turner.

Nation of Islam is also sponsoring an event with prizes awarded in the following categories: Name your homicidal clerics, longest time spent illegally in the US on an expired tourist visa, assemble a homicide vest loaded with plastic explosives in the shortest time, a geography contest where you name various chemical and nuclear plants and subway stops from the photos provided, reassemble an AK-47 in the shortest time, loudest shout of "allah ahkbar" and "death to the great Satan", and many other events. You do not need to be a Muslim to enter this contest. You just need to hate the USA. Newly released or escaped convicts from American jails are encouraged to attend.

Al Jazeera will be at the convention. As part of their coverage, they will be showing live, preparations for a 21 mortar salute which will be fired at American army positions in Iraq and simultaneously in Afghanistan, interview Jane Fonda and Ted Kennedy as they discuss why America is the Great Satan, and air live segments of Al Franken as he makes a pilgrimage to the cave where Osama bin Laden planned the attacks on 9-11. Mike Wallace of CBS's "60 Minutes", in a special report, will travel to various bases inside Iraq and interview soldiers at the British, Polish, Ukrainian, South Korean, Japanese and a few other camps as he attempts to explain the lack of international support for the removal of Saddam Hussein. A musical salute to John Kerry will be done by the combined Palestine Liberation Organization Orchestra / Pakistani Army Intelligence Glee Club, as they celebrate what they hope will be John Kerry's rise to power with a mixture of fundamentalist ravings, photos of John Kerry, and musical songs celebrating the 9-11 highjackers. In a not-so-stunning announcement, it was announced that Al-Jazeera is actually co-owned by the New York Times, CNN, and Move-on.org, and that Al Franken is responsible for most of the programming content.

The Leader of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and co-editor of Democratic Convention Update News will be in Boston during the Convention. Pro-American, pro-law enforcement types can contact him directly at demconventionupdatenews@yahoo.com, or see his yahoogroup, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/demconventionupdatenews/, where back issues can be requested, comments exchanged, and your input through polls can be left (or right). Left wing, Pro-United Nations, Liberal Democrats can kiss his.... For those wondering, The Leader of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and co-editor of Democratic Convention Update News should be addressed by his official workplace title of "Mighty Great One".

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ALERT !!! BREAKING NEWS!!! ALERT !!! BREAKING NEWS!!! ALERT !!!

BREAKING NEWS: France has surrendered to a group of German Soldiers! The Germans, led by a 95 year old former colonel and 10 other former soldiers ranging in age from 85-87 years old, became bored at a retirement home, asked themselves what they could do for some excitement on a slow day, and decided to invade France. After strapping on artificial legs and arms, putting in hearing aids and dentures, and taking the multiple medications required by geriatric Rambo's, they were ultimately successful.

After the French surrender, the German Government reluctantly accepted the surrender due to all of the people that they would need to provide welfare for, and arranged for a new French Government. The new government is called Vichy Light after the World War 2 government.

Exiled French President Jacques Chirac, from the mobile home in a British Welfare Trailer Park located in a desolate and windswept section of Scotland that was provided by Prince Charles and normally reserved for the common illegal aliens that sneak into Britain from France, begged the USA to come to his assistance. President Bush's reply was "Been there! Done that! No thanks!!"

The French people have all opened up their emergency survival kits provided by the French government in anticipation of an emergency like this, took out the Berlitz Guide to Instant German, and now the only place speaking french is Quebec.

(Editors Note - Chirac might have gotten some support if he got of his fat ass and went to the Reagan Funeral to show some respect instead of staying in Georgia and watching "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 911" on DVD)

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That's it for this edition folks. Stayed tuned and well have more tidbits of info for you in our next edition, including a recipe for stuffed Piping Plover, a report on the other Democratic Candidates who are waiting for John Kerry to fall flat on his surgically altered face, a look at Mayor Menino's traffic management plan (Traffic plan? We don't have no traffic plan. WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN TRAFFIC PLAN!!!), and a report from the student athletes at UMASS Amherst as they prepare for the Tear Gas Olympics that is the Democratic Convention, and Laura Ingram, Jay Severin, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly will offer tips on how to avoid becoming nauseous when you are bombarded with liberal BS. Your comments are welcome - Mighty Great One

Copyright 2004 by the Leader of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

--Yahoo! Groups : demconventionupdatenews

Bush has prospered, in the view of these Democrats, less because of his own efforts than uncontrollable events and Kerry's failures. The prospective Democratic nominee's campaign was eclipsed by Ronald Reagan's death, Bill Clinton's book and the Iraq handover. However, the Democrats complain Kerry's campaign has done a poor job of presenting the candidate to the public.

The Kerry camp has responded to these critics by saying that the Democratic National Convention, beginning in Boston on July 26, will introduce him to voters at large. Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, enjoyed his first big spurt in the polls during the 1992 convention in New York.

--Robert Novak - Chicago Sun-Times

You know, it's kind of sad really. Coming out of the primaries nobody had a clue who Kerry was so the campaign said "don't worry, we'll do it with ads". For months now the Kerry campaign has been spending millions of dollars on the biographical ads meant to "introduce Kerry to the public" and that hasn't worked. Now they're falling back to "don't worry he'll be introduced to people at the convention".

At this rate it'll be sometime in the second quarter of the century before the voters have the slightest clue who Kerry is. Maybe then they can move on to explaining what he stands for.

You wouldn't think the Secret Service would allow that. :)

From Yahoo! News

"Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it."

Take a few minutes to think about the founders of this country though. They created a nation dedicated to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; a nation dedicated to liberty and freedom and destined to be despised by the tyrannical haters of those values.

What happened to the signers of the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British and brutally tortured as traitors. Nine fought in the War for Independence and died from wounds or from hardships they suffered. Two lost their sons in the Continental Army. Another two had sons captured. At least a dozen of the fifty-six had their homes pillaged and burned.

What kind of men were they? Twenty-five were lawyers or jurists. Eleven were merchants. Nine were farmers or large plantation owners. One was a teacher, one a musician, and one a printer. These were men of means and education, yet they signed the Declaration of Independence, knowing full well that the penalty could be death if they were captured.

In the face of the advancing British Army, the Continental Congress fled from Philadelphia to Baltimore on December 12, 1776. It was an especially anxious time for John Hancock, the President, as his wife had just given birth to a baby girl. Due to the complications stemming from the trip to Baltimore, the child lived only a few months.

William Ellery's signing at the risk of his fortune proved only too realistic. In December 1776, during three days of British occupation of Newport, Rhode Island, Ellery's house was burned, and all his property destroyed.

Richard Stockton, a New Jersey State Supreme Court Justice, had rushed back to his estate near Princeton after signing the Declaration of Independence to find that his wife and children were living like refugees with friends. They had been betrayed by a Tory sympathizer who also revealed Stockton's own whereabouts. British troops pulled him from his bed one night, beat him and threw him in jail where he almost starved to death. When he was finally released, he went home to find his estate had been looted, his possessions burned, and his horses stolen. Judge Stockton had been so badly treated in prison that his health was ruined and he died before the war's end. His surviving family had to live the remainder of their lives off charity.

Carter Braxton was a wealthy planter and trader. One by one his ships were captured by the British navy. He loaned a large sum of money to the American cause; it was never paid back. He was forced to sell his plantations and mortgage his other properties to pay his debts.

Thomas McKean was so hounded by the British that he had to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Continental Congress without pay, and kept his family in hiding.

Vandals or soldiers or both looted the properties of Clymer, Hall, Harrison, Hopkinson and Livingston. Seventeen lost everything they owned.

Thomas Heyward, Jr., Edward Rutledge and Arthur Middleton, all of South Carolina, were captured by the British during the Charleston Campaign in 1780. They were kept in dungeons at the St. Augustine Prison until exchanged a year later.

At the Battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr. noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the family home for his headquarters. Nelson urged General George Washington to open fire on his own home. This was done, and the home was destroyed. Nelson later died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis also had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife for two months, and that and other hardships from the war so affected her health that she died only two years later.

"Honest John" Hart, a New Jersey farmer, was driven from his wife's bedside when she was near death. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. Hart's fields and his grist mill were laid waste. For over a year he eluded capture by hiding in nearby forests. He never knew where his bed would be the next night and often slept in caves.

When he finally returned home, he found that his wife had died, his children disappeared, and his farm and stock were completely destroyed. Hart himself died in 1779 without ever seeing any of his family again.

Such were the stories and sacrifices typical of those who risked everything to sign the Declaration of Independence. These men were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged:

"For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of the Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

Are there any among us who would do likewise?

-- Author Unknown

Dave Kopel has an excellent piece exposing 56 problems with Moore's film.

The first two:

2000 Election Night
Deceits 1-2

Fahrenheit 911 begins on election night 2000. We are first shown the Al Gore rocking on stage with famous musicians and a high-spirited crowd. The conspicuous sign on stage reads “Florida Victory.” Moore creates the impression that Gore was celebrating his victory in Florida.

Actually, the rally took place in the early hours of election day, before polls had even opened. Gore did campaign in Florida on election day, but went home to Tennessee to await the results. The “Florida Victory” sign reflected Gore’s hopes, not any actual election results. (“Gore Campaigns Into Election Day,” Associated Press, Nov. 7, 2000.)

The film shows CBS and CNN calling Florida for Al Gore. According to the narrator, “Then something called the Fox News Channel called the election in favor of the other guy….All of a sudden the other networks said, ‘Hey, if Fox said it, it must be true.’”

We then see NBC anchor Tom Brokaw stating, “All of us networks made a mistake and projected Florida in the Al Gore column. It was our mistake.”

Moore thus creates the false impression that the networks withdrew their claim about Gore winning Florida when they heard that Fox said that Bush won Florida.

In fact, the networks which called Florida for Gore did so early in the evening—before polls had even closed in the Florida panhandle, which is part of the Central Time Zone. NBC called Florida for Gore at 7:49:40 p.m., Eastern Time. This was 10 minutes before polls closed in the Florida panhandle. Thirty seconds later, CBS called Florida for Gore. And at 7:52 p.m., Fox called Florida for Gore. Moore never lets the audience know that Fox was among the networks which made the error of calling Florida for Gore prematurely. Then at 8:02 p.m., ABC called Florida for Gore. Only ABC had waited until the Florida polls were closed.

The premature calls probably cost Bush thousands of votes from the conservative panhandle, as discouraged last-minute voters heard that their state had already been decided, and many voters who were waiting in line left the polling place. In Florida, as elsewhere, voters who have arrived at the polling place before closing time often end up voting after closing time, because of long lines.

At 10:00 p.m., which network took the lead in retracting the premature Florida result? The first retracting network was CBS, not Fox.

Over four hours later, at 2:16 a.m., Fox projected Bush as the Florida winner, as did all the other networks by 2:20 a.m.

CBS had taken the lead in making the erroneous call for Gore, and had taken the lead in retracting that call. At 3:59 a.m., CBS also took the lead in retracting the Florida call for Bush. All the other networks, including Fox, followed the CBS lead within eight minutes. That the networks arrived at similar conclusions within a short period of time is not surprising, since they were all using the same data from the Voter News Service. (Linda Mason, Kathleen Francovic & Kathleen Hall Jamieson, “CBS News Coverage of Election Night 2000: Investigation, Analysis, Recommendations” (CBS News, Jan. 2001), pp. 12-25.)

Moore’s editing technique of the election night segment is typical of his style: all the video clips are real clips, and nothing he says is, formally speaking, false. But notice how he says, “Then something called the Fox News Channel called the election in favor of the other guy…” The impression created is that the Fox call of Florida for Bush came soon after the CBS/CNN calls of Florida for Gore, and that Fox caused the other networks to change (“All of a sudden the other networks said, ‘Hey, if Fox said it, it must be true.’”)

This is the essence of the Moore technique: cleverly blending half-truths to deceive the viewer.

--Dave Kopel

Thanks to Not Todd for the heads up.

Kerry-04.com has put out a John Kerry resume. I figure it's no less fair than the old Bush resume.

JOHN FORBES KERRY, "MAN OF THE PEOPLE"

CAREER OBJECTIVE

President of the United States, Renter of the Lincoln bedroom, Intern Supervisor, Commander and Chief and Defender of the Working Man, I mean Person

EDUCATION

Educated at Swiss Boarding Schools -- because my parents did not like me that much

Attended elite private schools like Fessenden School in West Newton, Massachusetts and St. Paul's in New Hampshire -- just like your kids

Graduated Yale University, 1966 (I am much smarter than that Bush guy -- oh, wait, he also went to Yale.)

Graduated Boston College Law School in 1976 (I am much smarter than that Bush guy -- oh, wait, he got an MBA from Harvard.)

VIETNAM MILITARY SERVICE

Served as an officer on a swiftboat in the Mekong Delta in VIETNAM for three long months -- tried my best to come home a hero like JFK after his service on PT-109. I was in VIETNAM -- VIETNAM was a place where I was for a while. Did I mention that VIETNAM veterans love me?

I collected three Purple Hearts in my three months (had to get three in order to come home and run for Congress as a hero like JFK) and the last one for that scratch on my finger -- it REALLY did hurt! It was important to have the right connections so I could get home and run for Congress on my hero status like JFK -- he was not in VIETNAM, but I was.

Brought my own motion camera to make sure images of me in VIETNAM becoming a hero made it back home to the states. Got a free trip home after three months on my swiftboat where I suffered severe injuries and collected three Purple Hearts (did I mention that), a Bronze and Silver Star for heroism -- ensuring my destiny as a hero and man of the people like JFK.

Got home and found out they were not bestowing hero status on war heroes like me, so I threw my medals, or was it my ribbons, over the White House fence. Maybe it was someone else's medals.

Co-founder of the VIETNAM Veterans of America and spokesperson for the VIETNAM Veterans Against the War and worked closely with Jane Fonda to make sure everyone knew that all the guys in VIETNAM were war criminals -- I was too, and even testified before the Senate about my own war crimes.

"Represented" my cadre of anti-American misfits in a Paris meeting to discuss how we could better provide "aid and comfort" for the North Vietnamese and to discuss the unconditional surrender of the U.S. In doing so, I knowingly, directly violated UCMJ Article 104 part 904, and U.S. Code 18 U.S.C. 953.

Did I mention that this meeting, and my other anti-American activities, also put me in violation of the Constitution's Article three, Section three, which defines treason as "giving aid and comfort" to the enemy in time of warfare.

Consequently, I stand subject to the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3, which states, "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President...having previously taken an oath...to support the Constitution of the United States, [who has] engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."

But I don't have to resign -- I am understudy to Teddy Kennedy, now the patriarch of JFK's family.

I topped off my coddling of Commies by authoring a book called The New Soldier -- but since military heroes are back in vogue, I now sue anyone who reproduces the cover of that book on any website, especially a website like http://kerry-04.com. (The cover picture is a mockery of the Iwo Jima flag raising -- you can see it at http://kerry-04.com until my lawyers get them to take it down.)

NOTE: Please join fellow Patriots and sign the petition demanding John Kerry's resignation. Link to -- http://PatriotPetitions.US/Kerry
CONGRESSIONAL "SERVICE"

Volunteered as a campaign worker for my mentor, Teddy Kennedy in 1962. I just love that big lug!

My first campaign for Congress was in 1972 -- I was a war hero like JFK but nobody noticed so I ran on my anti-American platform. I won the primary with a little help from my campaign manager (brother Cameron) who broke into my opponents campaign headquarters. Unfortunately, because of that Watergate thing, I lost the general election to a Republican even after spending more than any other Congressional campaign in the nation.

In 1982, with the help of Uncle Teddy, I got elected as lieutenant governor for governor Michael Dukakis -- then got elected to the Senate in 1984 -- it has been smooth sailing ever since. I have dedicated the last 20 years, between wives and vacation homes, promoting big government spending (except in defense and intelligence, which I vote against every chance I get), class warfare, the welfare state and general wealth redistribution, any kind of abortion on demand (without parental consent for minors), and obstructionist tactics in the judicial nominee process.

According to Americans for Democratic [sic] Action, a far-left watchdog group, I have a higher lifetime liberal voting record at 93% than Ted Kennedy with 88%

I am the ranking Democrat member of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. My current millionaire wife is heiress of the Heinz Ketchup fortune -- a "small" business

Ranking member of the Hispanic Task Force, even though I "borked" Miguel Estrada

Chaired the Senate Democratic Leadership Steering and Coordination Committee

In 1987, teemed up with Teddy to get an override of presidential veto of Boston's Big Dig Boondoggle -- one of the most larded distributions of taxpayer largess in U.S. history.

In 1991 the Senate created the Select Senate Committee on POW/MIA Affairs to investigate the possibility that U.S. prisoners of war and soldiers designated missing in action were still alive in Vietnam. Acting as chairman, I helped persuade the group to vote unanimously that no American servicemen still remained in Vietnam. In doing so, I helped begin the process of normalizing U.S.-Vietnamese relations.

Wealthiest senator ("man of the people"), with an estimated net worth of nearly $200 million (that's $800 million if you combine it with my current wife's assets)

POLITICAL POSTURING AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

ABORTION

Voted to federally fund abortions

Voted against parental consent for minors

Voted against ban on Partial Birth Abortion (3 times)

Voted against ban on sending money to UN population fund -- the money was sent to pay for China's forced abortion and sterilization policy

Have been warned by Catholic clergy that I will not be served communion due to my stance on this issue

NARAL lifetime rating of 100%; National Right to Life Committee lifetime rating of 0%

DEATH PENALTY

Oppose federal and/or state death penalty (except for innocent unborn children -- see above)

Voted against death penalty for terrorists

Voted against death penalty for drug-related murders

TAXES & ECONOMICS

I like high taxes and want to raise them

Voted against all three Bush tax cuts & want to repeal them

Voted for 1993 Clinton tax hike (largest in history)

Voted against major tax relief packages at least 10 times

Support re-raising taxes on the wealthy to redistribute money for healthcare and education -- i.e., Socialism

Claim I can stop outsourcing and create 10 million new jobs in four years, despite the fact that there are only about 8 million unemployed people in the U.S.

Want to raise the minimum wage, which will result in outsourcing and the loss of jobs

Voted at least 5 times against balanced budget amendments

Voted at least 5 times to raid the Social Security Trust Fund

Believe Washington manages your money better than you could

Lifetime rating of 26% from Citizens Against Government Waste

MILITARY & NATIONAL SECURITY

We don't need a military, per se

Favor UN control of remaining U.S. Troops

Voted for 7 major reductions in military funding

Voted against Gulf War I (1991)

Voted for Gulf War II -- but then criticized and voted against military appropriation for troops

Voted against MX missile, Trident Submarine, SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative -- Star Wars), and the B-1 and B-2 Stealth Bomber/Fighter

Supported slashing $2.6 billion from intelligence funding while serving as a member of Senate Intelligence Committee

SECOND AMENDMENT

Against

Have earned a lifetime rating of 0% from the National Rifle Association

FAITH & VALUES

Against/Don't have any

Voted Against Defense of Marriage Act

Favor civil unions for homosexuals until marriage is popular enough to support

Voted to extend hate crimes protections to homosexuals

Voted against voluntary school prayer

Voted against ban on human cloning and support embryonic stem-cell research

EDUCATION

Voted against voucher pilot program

Voted against approving a school-choice pilot program

Support racial profiling and preference for admission to universities, known as "affirmative action"

JUDGES, COURTS & LAW

Against racial profiling and preference when dealing with terrorism

Voted against confirmation William Rehnquist as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

Voted against confirmation of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court

Only support activist judges who will support abortion, persecute Christians and rewrite the Constitution

Voted against confirmation John Ashcroft as U.S. Attorney General

Voted against punitive damage limits in products liability cases

As Michael Dukakis' Lt. Governor from 1983-1985, supported granting prison furloughs to hundreds of Massachusetts inmates

FOREIGN POLICY

Against linking Most Favored Nation status to China's human rights record

Voted for Kyoto Protocol on Environment that exempted major Third World polluters, while creating an unfair burden on American taxpayers

Supported Iraq regime change as late as January 2003, but not anymore

Support unilateral nuclear freeze

Support submitting completely to the UN, as well as the International Criminal Court, taking all sovereignty away from the U.S. and its citizens

Don't know what the Geneva Conventions say, mean or who they apply to

OTHER QUALIFICATIONS

Five multi-million dollar mansions

A large multi-million dollar yacht

Many "American" cars, including several gas-guzzling SUVs, which I am opposed to politically

Personal 757 campaign jet

Access to unlimited condiments -- did I mention my current millionaire wife is heiress to the Heinz fortune

Have dual citizenship in France

REFERENCES

General Vo Nguyen Giap -- most celebrated military hero of NORTH VIETNAM, where I served

"Hanoi Jane" Fonda

Teddy Kennedy

John F. Kennedy -- we have the same initials

Howard Dean -- (Albert Gore by proxy)

Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings

"Foreign Leaders" who I am unable to name at this time

--Kerry Resume for President

Newsweek has an article on the distortions of Fahrenheit 9/11

[F]or all the reasonable points he makes, on more than a few occasions in the movie Moore twists and bends the available facts and makes glaring omissions in ways that end up clouding the serious political debate he wants to provoke.
...
The use of innuendo is rife through... critical passages of “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
...
The innuendo is greatest, of course, in Moore’s dealings with the matter of the departing Saudis flown out of the United States in the days after the September 11 terror attacks. Much has already been written about these flights, especially the film’s implication that figures with possible knowledge of the terrorist attacks were allowed to leave the country without adequate FBI screening—a notion that has been essentially rejected by the 9/11 commission. The 9/11 commission found that the FBI screened the Saudi passengers, ran their names through federal databases, interviewed 30 of them and asked many of them “detailed questions." “Nobody of interest to the FBI with regard to the 9/11 investigation was allowed to leave the country,” the commission stated. New information about a flight from Tampa, Florida late on Sept. 13 seems mostly a red herring: The flight didn’t take any Saudis out of the United States. It was a domestic flight to Lexington, Kentucky that took place after the Tampa airport had already reopened....

It is true that there are still some in the FBI who had questions about the flights-and wish more care had been taken to examine the passengers. But the film’s basic point—that the flights represented perhaps the supreme example of the Saudi government’s influence in the Bush White House-is almost impossible to defend. Why? Because while the film claims—correctly—that the “White House” approved the flights, it fails to note who exactly in the White House did so. It wasn’t the president, or the vice president or anybody else supposedly corrupted by Saudi oil money. It was Richard Clarke, the counter-terrorism czar who was a holdover from the Clinton administration and who has since turned into a fierce Bush critic. Clarke has publicly testified that he gave the greenlight—conditioned on FBI clearance.

--Newsweek

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer or donate to help the President win reelection. President Bush needs your support now more than ever to help counter the lies, untruths, and misleading spin being put out by the Left. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group.

The new book Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stupid White Man from David T. Hardy and Jason Clarke is out. Looks like it should be worth a look.

If so you'd better not vote Democrat.

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Sen. Clinton said. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

--SF Gate

Because we all know that taxing the economy to a screeching halt is the "common good"...

Another excellent article from Orson Scott Card.

Kerry is stealing a page from the Clinton election handbook by focusing on the exact issue where the Republicans have him beaten.

He's not pulling a Howard Dean and raving about pulling our troops out.

No, he's talking like Clinton: Bush has done a terrible, terrible job. Elect me and I'll do a lot better with this war on terror. And you know how I'll do it?

By doing every single thing that President Bush has done. Only I would have done it sooner and better.

Why would anybody believe him? Kerry may or may not have been a war hero -- it's for darn sure he saw more active duty than George W. Bush. But we're not voting for favorite ex-soldier, we're voting for the policies that will protect us from foreign enemies.

Kerry's voting record in the Senate says that he'd rather our military consisted of a sixty-man chorus dressed in camo and singing "Give Me Some Men Who Are Stout-Hearted Men."

And maybe, maybe, one bugler.

If it had been up to Kerry, we wouldn't have had enough of a military to take over downtown Dallas, let alone Iraq.
...
The Democratic Party knows that Kerry isn't serious about running a tough anti-terrorist war. And the Republican Party knows he isn't serious about it.

But the vast middle group, the people who get their news from Leno and Letterman and Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, all they know is "Bush Is Dumb" and "Kerry's Going to Win the War." So guess which one they'll vote for.
...
Regardless of what Kerry promises during his campaign, a vote for him is a vote to end any serious effort to fight terrorism using our military abroad. And since he is also committed to dismantling the laws that make serious homeland security possible, just how do you think he's going to do against our sworn enemies?

There is a difference between the two candidates. A huge one.

--World Watch - Orson Scott Card

Newsday has a take on the limited view presented in the film. Most noteworthy IMO is this section:

Moore suggests Bush's conflict of interest was manifest shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks when the White House "approved planes to pick up the bin Ladens and numerous other Saudis" who, fearing reprisals, were flown out of the United States. Embellishing the well-known scenario, Moore interviews a retired FBI agent who says authorities should have first questioned the bin Ladens.

But the bin Ladens were questioned. The commission investigating the attacks reported in April that the FBI interviewed 30 passengers: "Nobody was allowed to depart on these six flights who the FBI wanted to interview in connection with the 9/11 attacks or who the FBI later concluded had any involvement in those attacks."

--Newsday

Yes, that would be something in Moore's film that's *surprise!!* not true.

Just like Columbine, it's a long series of self-contradictory arguments many of which are or border on conspiracy theories. President Bush wanted to invade Iraq after 9/11! He only invaded Afghanistan because it was obvious al Qaeda was being harbored there! No, we invaded Afghanistan simply so we could set up a natural gas pipeline! As with Columbine he's just throwing reasons up against the wall hoping that something will stick.

He jokes about people thinking that the Wal-Mart in their town might be the target of a terrorist attack. Of course that's silly, it's not like a couple weeks ago people were arrested for planning to blow up a shopping mall in the Midwest. That's just crazy talk!!!

The assumption going into every point made seems to be that the vilest of motives and reasoning possible can of course be assigned to President Bush. A name is blacked out in personal documents released? It couldn't possibly be to protect the privacy of the person who's name was blocked out! It's obviously a nefarious scheme to hide from people that the person whose name is blacked out is connected with the bin Laden family. And never mind that there's nothing wrong with having associations with that family. GEORGE BUSH IS EEEEEEEEEEEVIL!!!!!!

It distorts the Dickens out of the real world. You walk out under the impression that every person in America thinks President Bush is an evil, money-grubbing, power-hunger monster and that not one person in the military thinks liberating Iraq was the right thing to do. If you went solely on this film you would think that Saddam was the most beloved of all rulers, that he treated his people fairly and humanely and no harm ever came to them until that evil George Bush showed up.

It does have its heart wrenching moments, but even with those you can sense Moore trying to shoehorn them into the case he's trying to make. They're good reminders of the sacrifices people make, but then Moore feels the need to start throwing around opinions presented as fact like "the war in Iraq is immoral".

All that being said, it really is a very well-made little propaganda film. There probably hasn't been a better propaganda movie made in 70 years or so. Those who come in wanting to believe that President Bush is the source of all that's wrong in America will have no problem coming out believing every word of it, believing that "Truth" is the limited and flawed worldview presented in this film.

To close this out I'm going to point you back to Christopher Hitchens who rebutted the film so well. It really is a film that cries out for a good fisking.

The Kerry campaign is up in arms. Thursday President Bush's campain released this web video that exposes what the President's oponents are saying about him and how they're saying it.

The Kerry campaign sent out an e-mail yesterday:

Yesterday, the Bush-Cheney campaign, losing any last sense of decency, placed a disgusting ad called "The Faces of John Kerry's Democratic Party" as the main feature on its website. Bizarrely, and without explanation, the ad places Adolf Hitler among those faces.

The Bush-Cheney campaign must pull this ad off of its website. The use of Adolf Hitler by any campaign, politician or party is simply wrong.

We sent you a fundraising plea earlier this morning. But when this came up, we decided it was important to show you just what we're up against: a presidential campaign that is willing to do or say absolutely anything to win. You're our only line of defense against these underhanded tactics.

--OxBlog

President Bush's campaign responded, saying they agree completely.

Dear ____________,

On Thursday, the campaign launched a web video titled Kerry's Coalition of the Wild-eyed. The video featured Democrats who support John Kerry making negative and baseless attacks against the President. Interspersed in the video were segments of two ads that appeared on a website sponsored by MoveOn.org - a group campaigning for Kerry - in January.

On Friday night, John Kerry's campaign denounced our use of these ads, and called that use "disgusting."

The Kerry campaign says, "The use of Adolf Hitler by any campaign, politician or party is simply wrong."

We agree. These ads, like much of the hate-filled, angry rhetoric of Kerry's coalition of the Wild-eyed, are disgusting.

Where was John Kerry's disgust when he hired Zack Exley - the man responsible for encouraging the production of these ads as part of a MoveOn contest - to run the Kerry campaign's internet operation?

Where was John Kerry's sense of outrage when Al Gore, just yesterday afternoon, compared the Bush Administration to the Nazis saying, "The Administration works closely with a network of 'rapid response' digital Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for 'undermining support for our troops.'"

Where was John Kerry's anger when Al Gore in May spoke of "Bush's Gulag"?

Why has John Kerry not denounced billionaire and Democrat Party donor George Soros for comparing the Bush Administration to Nazis. Soros stated, "When I hear Bush say, 'You're either with us or against us,' it reminds me of the Germans. It conjures up memories of Nazi slogans on the walls, Der Feind Hort mit ('The enemy is listening')."

Why has Kerry not spoken out against filmmaker Michael Moore who last October compared the Patriot Act to Mein Kampf. "The Patriot Act is the first step. 'Mein Kampf' - 'Mein Kampf' was written long before Hitler came to power."

We created this web video to show the depths to which these Kerry supporters will sink to win in November.

Is this the Democratic Party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who reassured his countrymen we have nothing to fear but fear itself?

No. This is John Kerry's Coalition of the Wild-eyed, who have nothing to offer but fear-mongering.

Sincerely,

Ken Mehlman
Campaign Manager

Yeah, when complaining that the other side is comparing you to Hitler ya might want to check first and make sure it's not your side that's comparing the other side to Hitler.

From CNN.

I've never understood what's so important about knowing who was consulted when coming up with a policy/law. The energy plan is out there. It's big and convoluted, but it's no secret. If there are bad things in there you should be able to find them in the plan itself, it shouldn't matter who was consulted in coming up with it. Whether the consulted evil oil people or Greenpeace, it doesn't change the actual language of the plan. If something in the plan would be wrong after finding out who inspired it, it should still be wrong without ever knowing who was behind it.

"In America it's the people on the Right who have deified their heros and demonized their enemies. The Democrats haven't done that as much and are uncomfortable with doing that." --Bill Clinton

I call bullshit on Democrats not feeling comfortable demonizing their enemies and offer up Linda Tripp, Ken Starr, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and Hitler... I mean President Bush as proof.

Jim Pinkerton over at Newsday thinks so.

[Maybe] Bush doesn't really need to worry about this movie. And here's why: If Bush and the Iraq war are this bad, why vote for John Kerry? After all, in 2002, Kerry voted with Bush and the Republicans - and against a majority of congressional Democrats - to support the war.

Try as he might, Moore will not get his R-rated film before the mass of American moviegoers. Instead, it will play heavily in liberal areas - places that are already likely to go strongly for Kerry. Bush voters will be few and far between.

Here's the rub: The more left-leaning the locale, the more likely that third-party candidate Ralph Nader will be a force there, too.

Indeed, as public opinion has turned against the war, support for Kerry has increased, but so has support for Nader. The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Kerry besting Bush by four points. But Nader, who strongly opposed the war all along and proposes an immediate American pullout, is gaining, too. In recent months he has surged from asterisk levels to 6 percent. Almost all of those votes come out of Kerry's hide.
...
So if Moore's film is a hit at the box office, it's more likely to turn Kerry voters into Nader voters than it is to turn Bush voters into Kerry voters. That probably isn't Moore's intention, but the problem with zealous prosecutors is that once they get their blood up for the big confrontation, it's hard to get them to cool down, even if that would have been best for their case.

--Newsday.com

Wired has an article describing how President Bush's campaign is using the net to their advantage.

"They've basically taken the idea of a viral, team-led campaign structure, where they find these team leaders, who go recruit friends, neighbors and relatives," he said. "That gets a much higher response rate. Friend-to-friend is a much more effective solicitation than campaign-to-individual. They've also combined it with a Camel Cash approach. It's a good way to spread the message."

--Wired

Because if I don't mention it people will keep saying President Bush doesn't care about casualties and their families...

Maupins meet with President Bush

The parents of Spc. Matt Maupin, the Clermont County soldier held captive in Iraq, were aboard Air Force One for a private meeting with President Bush before he left for Washington Monday night.

Carolyn and Keith Maupin "were very comforted by what the president had to say to them," said Maj. Mark Magalski, the Army family assistance officer who has aided the Maupin family since the 20-year-old Army reservist was taken captive by Iraqi insurgents in a convoy assault on April 9.

--Cincinnati Enquirer

Families of slain military men say Bush shed tears with them

Some of the families who met privately with President Bush during his visit to MacDill Air Force Base said he shared their grief and shed tears with them.

Donna Ginther, the widow of Navy Petty Officer Ron Ginther who was killed by mortar fire in Iraq last month, told The Ledger for a story Thursday that she expressed to Bush her fears of raising her 9-year-old daughter without a father.

"When I told him that, he pressed his forehead against mine and said, `You can do it, and we'll all help you through it,'" she said. Bush met with Ginther and nine families of slain servicemen after his Wednesday speech to troops at MacDill.

--AP/Gainesville Sun

And from back in May...

President Meets With Captive Soldier's Family

President George W. Bush made two public appearances in Greater Cincinnati Tuesday, but he also made one very private stop.

The president reportedly met with the family of Matt Maupin, a soldier from Batavia who is being held hostage in Iraq, WLWT Eyewitness News 5's Jonathan Hawgood reported.

A source close to the Maupin family told WLWT that the visit was heartfelt and emotional. The exact location of the meeting was not revealed.

--WLWT

Protest Warrior has a great page up detailing one High School student's effort to make his beliefs heard at school. It's a pretty entertaining read, go check it out.

Though I will disagree with Bryan, the student, in that I don't think "Operation Tiger Claw" was a failure. He may not have gotten the posters that were taken down put back up, but I think he certainly got his message out.

Some great stuff from Christopher Hitchens.

To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of "dissenting" bravery.
...
A film that bases itself on a big lie and a big misrepresentation can only sustain itself by a dizzying succession of smaller falsehoods, beefed up by wilder and (if possible) yet more-contradictory claims. President Bush is accused of taking too many lazy vacations.... But the shot of him "relaxing at Camp David" shows him side by side with Tony Blair.... A meeting with the prime minister of the United Kingdom, or at least with this prime minister, is not a goof-off.
...
[In] spite of the film's loaded bias against the work of the mind, you can grasp even while watching it that Michael Moore has just said, in so many words, the one thing that no reflective or informed person can possibly believe: that Saddam Hussein was no problem. No problem at all.
...
Moore has announced that he won't even appear on TV shows where he might face hostile questioning. I notice from the New York Times of June 20 that he has pompously established a rapid response team, and a fact-checking staff, and some tough lawyers, to bulwark himself against attack. He'll sue, Moore says, if anyone insults him or his pet.... By all means go and see this terrible film, and take your friends, and if the fools in the audience strike up one cry, in favor of surrender or defeat, feel free to join in the conversation.

However, I think we can agree that the film is so flat-out phony that "fact-checking" is beside the point. And as for the scary lawyers—get a life, or maybe see me in court. But I offer this, to Moore and to his rapid response rabble. Any time, Michael my boy. Let's redo Telluride. Any show. Any place. Any platform. Let's see what you're made of.

--Slate - Unfairenheit 9/11 - The lies of Michael Moore. By Christopher Hitchens

The entire things good, go read it.

Many are using this letter that President Bush sent to Congress on the day the war began in Iraq, or a similar one 3 days later, as proof that he did say that Iraq was involved in 9/11. The people saying this are full of it.

The letter states:

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

Consistent with section 3(b) of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243), and based on information available to me, including that in the enclosed document, I determine that:

(1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic and other peaceful means alone will neither (A) adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq nor (B) likely lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and

(2) acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.

Sincerely,

GEORGE W. BUSH

--Whitehouse.gov

The more ill-informed among the left are claiming that section 2 above is proof that President Bush said Iraq was involved in 9/11. That's simply not true.

This is a letter that Public Law 107-243, the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, requires the President to send to Congress within 48 hours of using force in Iraq.

Specifically it says:

Presidential Determination.--In connection with the exercise of the authority granted in subsection (a) to use force the President shall, prior to such exercise or as soon thereafter as may be feasible, but no later than 48 hours after exercising such authority, make available to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate his determination that--

(1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic or other peaceful means alone either (A) will not adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq or (B) is not likely to lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and

(2) acting pursuant to this joint resolution is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorist and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.

--Public Law 107-243

Do sections 1 and 2 there look familiar? That's right, exactly the same as the sections in the letter sent by President Bush with the exceptions that in Section 1 Congress uses "either-or" while President Bush uses "neither-nor" and in Section 2 President Bush replaces "this joint resolution" with "the Constitution and Public Law 107-243" and makes "terrorist" plural.

consistent with... continuing to take the necessary actions against... terrorist organizations...

That's the part the Left essentially has its panties in a bunch over. Let's look at the definition of "consistent" real quickly...

con·sis·tent Pronunciation Key (kn-sstnt)
adj.

1. In agreement; compatible:

--Dictionary.com

Now that section above simply says that using force is compatible with the War on Terror, not that invading Iraq was a part of going after those responsible for 9/11.

Section 2 in the resolution simply means that the President must assure Congress that using force in Iraq would not be detrimental to continuing to take action against terrorists and that part of the President's letter is simply doing so. This is Congress' way of ensuring that the war in Iraq does not harm the War on Terror, not the President's way of telling Congress that Iraq was involved in 9/11.

There, we have that straightened out now. The more out there on the Left can go back to dreaming up more lies to tell about President Bush.

Top Ten Real Reasons John Kerry Is Running For President

10. To bring renewed tedium and uncertainty to the Democratic party

9. Vows to be the greatest horse-faced President since Polk

8. Couldn't live with himself if he didn't hold a higher office than Schwarzenegger

7. Needs an excuse to get out of a wedding in February

6. Get elected, eat a ton of waffles, become the fattest President

5. Long days on the campaign trail beats sitting around being nagged by the wife to put away the socks

4. An unusually persuasive horoscope told him he should

3. Did you know if the President kills some guy in a bar fight the FBI will make it cool?

2. A leader who supports both sides of every issue is a friend to all Americans

1. Show the world not all Democrats are ass-grabbing womanizers

--Late Show with David Letterman Top Ten Archive: June 15, 2004

This is Wictory Wednesday. Please volunteer or donate to help the President win reelection. You can also sign up to get e-mail from the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign. If you are an Ohioan who supports the President please consider joining the Ohioans for Bush-Cheney Yahoo! Group.

In Dayton, 33 percent of the companies interviewed for the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey said they will hire additional employees in the third quarter. Seven percent will reduce payroll; 58 percent will maintain employment levels; and another 2 percent aren't sure what the future holds.

Nationally, 30 percent of the 16,000 U.S. employers interviewed, or 4,800 employers, expect to hire workers in the third quarter. An estimated 6 percent, or 960 companies, expect to cut jobs; 59 percent foresee no change; and 5 percent are unsure of hiring plans.

--Dayton Daily News

The LA Times poll mentioned previously was working with a sample of 38% Democrats and 25% Republicans.

Sen. John Kerry "has taken big lead," according "to an L.A. Times poll."

But the Times poll that showed Kerry "beating Bush by 7 points" has created a controversy over whether the poll's sample accurately reflects the population as whole, ROLL CALL reports on Tuesday.

"Not counting independents, the Times' results were calculated on a sample made up of 38 percent Democrats and 25 percent Republicans -- a huge and unheard-of margin," ROLL CALL claims.

--Drudge

That's some high quality polling there LA Times. You know, I bet if you polled only Democrats then Kerry's "lead" would be even bigger! In fact if you only poll the Democrats that support Kerry I bet he'd be a lock to win this election!

The UK Times has a piece laying out how the past week has gone badly for those opposing President Bush.

All in all, it seems that in a single week the reputations of George Bush and Tony Blair have moved from the valley of despair to the bright uplands reserved for those who get it right in the tough world of geopolitics.
...
[This] is a misfortune for John Kerry. His campaign rests on a three-legged stool. The first leg is that Bush is a job destroyer; but the economy has created almost 1m jobs in the past three months, and is probably adding more than 10,000 every day.

The second leg is that Bush has antagonised America’s allies and is isolated. The 15-0 Security Council vote to recognise the Bush-backed Iraqi government saws that leg off.

The final leg is that the Bush tax cuts have been a disaster. But Reagan’s death has reminded everyone that the late president’s tax cuts helped to end the recession he inherited from Jimmy Carter, just as Bush’s cuts kept the Clinton recession short and mild.

It has not been a good week for the president’s foes, here and abroad.

--TimesOnline.co.uk (hat tip AlphaPatriot)