:: PROLEGOMENA ::

:: Friday, September 24 ::

KRAUTHAMMER ON UNDERMINING OUR ALLIES

He echos my yesterday-thoughts, but by noting the cloned language in John Kerry's sister, the head of Americans Overseas for Kerry. Then he words it thus:

This snide and reckless put-down not only undermines our best friends abroad. It demonstrates the cynicism of Kerry's promise to broaden our coalition in Iraq. If this is how Kerry repays America's closest allies -- ridiculing the likes of Tony Blair and John Howard -- who does he think is going to step up tomorrow to be America's friend?

Before that, however, he gives Kerry too much credit:

She is, of course, merely echoing her brother, who, at a time when American allies have shown great political courage in facing down both terrorists and domestic opposition for their assistance to the United States in Iraq, calls these allies the "coalition of the coerced and the bribed.''

I disagree here. Her brother is more likely echoing the sister. Otherwise is too much credit to give to the candidate who has actually ripped off the "Bring it on!" slogan from Bush's remark to the terrorists, who took the "Regime Change" need from an already-faded bumper sticker, who thought we would not recognize Dick Cheney's "Help is on the way."

Be careful, Herr Krauthammer, crediting the wrong source here may cost you any chance with Kerry's sister.


:: michael parker Friday, September 24, 2004 [+] ::
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THE NUANCE OF KERRY'S FOREIGN POLICY

Kerry: Allawi's Take on Iraq Unrealistic
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Thursday that Iraq's Ayad Allawi was sent before Congress to put the "best face'' on Bush administration policy. Shortly after Allawi, the interim government's prime minister, gave a rosy portrayal of progress toward peace in Iraq, Kerry said the assessment contradicted reality on the ground. "The prime minister and the president are here obviously to put their best face on the policy, but the fact is that the CIA estimates, the reporting, the ground operations and the troops all tell a different story,'' Kerry said. Allawi told a joint meeting of Congress that democratic elections will take place in Iraq in January as scheduled, but Kerry said that was unrealistic.

Wow - now please remind me about the importance of increasing our allies and match that up with Kerry insulting our newest.

Super. The would-be President Kerry declares that the current Iraqi leadership is a puppet. I guess it really is time to pull out the "Terrorists for Kerry" bumper stickers - his asinine statement proves it.

With the same pessimism that characterizes Kerry's seeming desire for us to lose this war, he seems willing to hurt the credibility of the leader of the world's youngest democracy, who flies here with the good manners to say "Thank you." Instead of having the manners to say, "You're welcome," Kerry calls it bullshit - is it any wonder North Korea broadcasts Kerry's speeches?

But inside all that:

...but the fact is that the CIA estimates, the reporting, the ground operations and the troops all tell a different story,'' Kerry said

Oh - so intelligence gathered during the Bush administration is worth trusting.

"The United States and the Iraqis have retreated from whole areas of Iraq,'' Kerry told reporters outside a Columbus firehouse. "There are no-go zones in Iraq today. You can't hold an election in a no-go zone.''

Those of us who watched South Florida four years ago would tend to agree. Yassir Arafat would also agree but blame it on the Jews. Leaders like Arafat rule those "no-go" zones.

However, the no-go zones in Iraq are the minority. The majority there is building a free Iraq.

Having earned my comtempt for telling church-going Black Americans that the GOP would attempt to suppress their vote - again - as well as for abusing the parables of Jesus, Kerry is exhibiting another shade of his filthy instinct to pander, and his seeming preference for minority rule. This time, however, the stench is that of a 30 year-old betrayal.


:: michael parker Thursday, September 23, 2004 [+] ::
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STANDING GUARD

Pinned to the cubicle wall by my desk is this Cox and Forkum cartoon of the Statue of Liberty, searching the horizon, with a machine gun over her shoulder. It's the sexiest she's ever looked.

If a man take no thought at what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand. ~ Confucius

At the office, someone we hired turned down extra work this weekend due to her observation of Yom Kippur. I do not know so well the details of Jewish holidays, being raised in the New Testament and not having Sunday School lessons on that subject stick.

Still, I know such times are important - the same God I know via the New authored the Old. That is why I know the offense of the Arab surprise attack on the Jewish State thirty-one years ago. I also know the value of what was learned then. Israel was not standing guard then. They have not made that mistake since.

He who puts up with insult invites injury. ~ Proverb

This is where I feel like I live in two worlds at once. There is my recognition of the enemy, the enemy's ambitions, the fact that when I see the tee shirt which reads, "Peace through superior firepower," I totally get it. Then there is the Truth of Jesus who directed us to turn the other cheek. Where does standing guard fit in here?

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. ~ Jefferson


:: michael parker Thursday, September 23, 2004 [+] ::
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KERRY LEADS FORGERIES IN THE POLLS!

27% Believe CBS Memos Authentic

Actually, the whole headline is odd:

27% Believe CBS Memos Authentic; 38% Disagree

meaning:

However a Rasmussen Reports survey also found that 38% believe the memos are forgeries. Among voters who are following the story very closely, 56% believe the memos are forgeries and 27% believe they are authentic.

Another headline of note, in yesterday's New York Times:

Memos on Bush Are Fake but Accurate, Typist Says

The end is near.


:: michael parker Wednesday, September 15, 2004 [+] ::
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BUSH = HOOVER!

Via Drudge - God bless him - Kerry has us wondering, again, how low can you go?

Percentage of favorable view by registered voters:

Herbert Hoover: 43 (1944)
Jesse Jackson: 38 (2003)
Vladimir Putin: 38 (2003)
John Kerry: 36 (2004)
Martha Stewart: 36 (2004)
Joseph McCarthy: 35 (1954)

Didn't Kerry just compare George W. Bush to Herbert Hoover?

Memo to Kerry: when comparing your opponent to someone else, first ensure that you rank above that someone. For example, George W. Bush could compare you to Jesse Jackson (especially after you warned the blacks against GOP voter suppression), but he should not compare you to the pope.

:: michael parker Tuesday, September 14, 2004 [+] ::
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THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR...
.......SOO-PER SCRIPT!

Every blogger and every Bushman should be posting and e-mailing this link:

http://img41.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img41&image=60minbusted.swf

I was hesitant to agree with commentators in the media that this would be one of the dirtiest campaigns in history. I did not associate the protestors in NYC with the Democrats in such a way that I called that dirty campaigning, although I condemned Democrat non-objection to the violence for their needing the protesters' votes.

Forged documents - sure, that's dirty, but still to me most of that dirt belongs to CBS. Helen Thomas semi-famously said, albeit stupidly said, that the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal was the biggest story of the war. Well, this forged document story should be the biggest story of the election season. The truly scandalous behavior by a major player in the media makes this the scandal of the season.

Democrats then suggested that the one-man-illuminati Karl Rove planted the forged documents. John Fund reports and advises:

Meanwhile, former Clinton and Gore operative Chris Lehane, an acknowledged
master of the black arts of opposition research, is already making the rounds on
television hinting that Karl Rove could have planted fake National Guard
documents to embarrass Democrats. If CBS is offered that scoop, my advice is
simple: Don't take it, no matter how many documents with Karl Rove's signature
you are shown.

Yet I still wasn't put off entirely. Forged documents are no surprise to me if they serve the candidate who took a camera to war and filmed re-enactments of his heroics, and if they are presented and defended by a news anchorman who believes a man can be a liar an still an honest person.

I was, however, put off by Kerry's hideous pandering to the black congregation, his shitty abuse of the parable of the good Samaritan, and then his nuanced warning that Republicans would labor to suppress the black vote - again.

If you don't vote, another church burns!

Ladies and gentlemen, the dirt has arrived. And what else would you expect from the ticket which include the former personal injury lawyer from North Carolina, Senator John Edwards, than this added bonus, for your protection:

Kerry has a team of lawyers to examine possible voting problems to try to prevent a repeat of the 2000 election disputes. He also has said he has thousands of lawyers around the country prepared to monitor the polls on election day.

I can hear, not the church bells ringing, but the cheer from the Wellstone memorial. "WE WILL WIN! WE WILL WIN!"

:: michael parker Sunday, September 12, 2004 [+] ::
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WORD OF THE DAY: TYPOLOGIST

I wasn't surprised that they exist, because there are geeks in every area of interest. I had just never seen the word, or had never had my eyebrows so raised by what typologists have just determined, to the embarassment of CBS:

Authenticity of Bush's Guard papers questioned
By Michael Dobbs The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Documents unearthed by CBS News that raise doubts about whether President Bush fulfilled his obligations to the Texas Air National Guard include several features suggesting that they were generated by a computer or word processor rather than a Vietnam War-era typewriter, experts said yesterday. Experts consulted by news organizations pointed to typographical and formatting questions about four documents as they considered the possibility that they were forged. The widow of the National Guard officer whose signature is on the bottom of the documents also disputed their authenticity.

There was this revealing scene in the movie Jagged Edge, where Glenn Close's character pulled that typewriter from the closet shelf and.... TYPOLOGY!

The NYT reports:

CBS said in a statement that it stood by its story and the memos' authenticity. "As is standard practice at CBS News, the documents in the '60 Minutes' report were thoroughly examined and their authenticity vouched for by independent experts,'' the statement said.

There was this election victory speech to be spoken by Senator Jesse Helms, when he began by apologizing for being late. He explained, "I just wanted to see the look on Dan Rather's face."

So do I, when he does his personal retraction. But then again, Rather said he believes a man can tell lies and still be an honest man, so this shouldn't be too hard.






:: michael parker Friday, September 10, 2004 [+] ::
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JIMMY CARTER, CLOSE YOUR EYES

..but not until after you find the Russian words for "pre-emptive" and "unilateral"

Russia prepared for pre-emptive strikes on 'terror bases' worldwide

Russia is prepared to make pre-emptive strikes on "terrorist bases" anywhere in the world, the Interfax news agency cited the country's chief of staff as saying. "With regard to preventive strikes on terrorist bases, we will take any action to eliminate terrorist bases in any region of the world. But this does not mean we will carry out nuclear strikes," General Yuri Baluyevsky said Wednesday. Baluyevsky added that Russia's choice of action "will be determined by the concrete situation where ever it may be in the world. "Military action is the last resort in the fight agaisnt terrorism."

Of course, I clicked this headline just to see how soon I would hit a Carter quote with those words:

Carter Calls Miller's GOP Speech Disloyal

"By now, there are many of us loyal Democrats who feel uncomfortable in seeing that you have chosen the rich over the poor, unilateral pre-emptive war over a strong nation united with others for peace, lies and obfuscation over the truth and the political technique of character assassination as a way to win elections or to garner a few moments of applause,"

It must be like helping Stalinist North Korea become nuclear capable to garner a few moments of applause.

As I have argued many times, if Carter knows the definition of "unilateral", then the Sunday-school-teaching best-ex-President knows he is a liar, but that's the price of party loyalty, now, isn't it?

"Rich over poor"? This shit again? If Carter has heard about the Heinz fortune, then the Sunday-school-teaching, best-ex-President knows he is a liar, but that's the price of party loyalty, now, isn't it?


:: michael parker Wednesday, September 08, 2004 [+] ::
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IF THE WORLD COULD VOTE...

The Liberals have been proven right... much of the world is not ready for democracy.

Globally, a Kerry romp

If the world could cast a vote in the United States presidential election, John Kerry would beat George W. Bush by a landslide

HA! Let's examine that world, with one billion-plus Chinese under the influence of state-controlled media, with one billion-plus Muslims whose leaders give standing ovations to blame-the-Jew speeches and largely control their media; where a direct descendant of Mahandas Ghandhi recently embraced Yassir Arafat; where Nelson Mandela rallied for the comfort of the Lockerbie bombers; and where communist Vietnamese gave a place of honor to the image of John Kerry.

On the other hand:

The poll of 34,330 people older than 15 from all regions of the world found that the majority or plurality of people from 32 countries prefer Kerry to Bush.

So what is the margin of error on a poll taken from .000006% of the population?

One question before I listen any more to this wise .000006% of the world's population: can they figure out how to use a punch ballot?


:: michael parker Wednesday, September 08, 2004 [+] ::
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NEWS THAT HURTS

National Public Radio this morning gave a graphic report of the scene in Russia. I wonder how the report affected the typically left-leaning audience, which will surely never forget the name of Abu Ghraib for having to hear of it all summer. The abuse of these Russian people I believe meets the definition of torture. Children urinating into bottles for the only liquid they could get, the suicide bomber who killed three with himself, the chunks of flesh stuck to the walls - this is the vision of evil. Since it happened to Russians instead of Americans, will NPR's typical audience wake up?


:: michael parker Sunday, September 05, 2004 [+] ::
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SO DAMN BORING

NPR on as usual when I wake up, and I hear this:

The Vice President even called me unfit for office last night. I'm guess I'll
leave it up to the voters whether five deferments makes someone more qualified
to defend this nation than two tours of combat duty.

Translation: Yes, please SBVT, please put out another commercial.

Perhaps this is jealousy, since Kerry's first deferment request was denied. At least he got his first marriage annulled... and successfully married five times as much money when he did that.


And was there something about being "mislead" into war? Again?
The war Kerry said he would have supported anyway?
Go back to Christopher Hitchens' suggestion for Kerry's campaign slogan: "Vote for me - I was duped by a dope."
I have asked this question before - and I am now wondering even more if dope has anything to do with this.


WWC(entrists)D?

Michael Totten writes:

The polarization during this election season makes me lonely. There are few
centrists left. Most have hitched their wagons to one partisan train or another.
Hardly any honest dialogue remains.

Hardly any honest dialogue ... ?

I see it very differently, albeit partisan-ly. On one side, I see the people who call evil good and call good evil, on the other, people who understand world views and call evil evil, and know not to give evil any nuclear fuel.


:: michael parker Friday, September 03, 2004 [+] ::
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(thanks to Todd for the image)

So we are supposed to buy what Zell Miller said at the RNC because he is a Democrat?

No. We buy it because what he said makes sense:

In the summer of 1940, I was an 8-year-old boy living in a remote little Appalachian valley. Our country was not yet at war, but even we children knew that there were some crazy men across the ocean who would kill us if they could. President Roosevelt, in his speech that summer, told America "all private plans, all private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding public danger."

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

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. Where are such statesmen today?

Usually I do not care about when someone was a child, but he made an excellent point: even a child can understand that evil exists. This is easy to understand. Michael Moore was lying when he sat in a news studio 2 miles from the WTC site and declared we were in no danger, and the Democrats gave him a seat in the box with Jimmy Carter.

The reference to private lives and private plans is marvelously instructive. Kerry has spent his entire life planning and playing to win this position of power and his place in history books.

Miller asks a question, "Where are such statesmen today?" And the question has an answer,

and this ain't it:

Give me a fucking break, I groaned.

Zell, thanks for the relief.
.

:: michael parker Thursday, September 02, 2004 [+] ::
...