Send 'em to meet their "prophet"

U.S. Launches Offensive in Samarra, CNN Reports

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces accompanied by the Iraqi national guard launched a major offensive against insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra Thursday, CNN reported.
CNN's reporter in Iraq, Jane Arraf, in a live broadcast from the city, said she was accompanying U.S. forces engaged in the attack, which she described as "an entire brigade-size operation into Samarra to root out insurgents."

She said she had been told there were an estimated 2,000 fighters in the rebel stronghold, including 250 foreigners.

Arraf said the city had previously had been off limits to U.S. forces under an agreement that they would not patrol there.

But Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, have been rocked by growing violence, including three car bombings Thursday that killed 41 people, most of them children.

The U.S. military has said that with the help of Iraqi forces it will retake rebel strongholds such as Samarra, Falluja, Ramadi and the Baghdad neighborhoods of Sadr City and Haifa Street by the end of the year so that elections can go ahead in January.

In a telephone call punctuated several times by explosions, Arraf said the troops were nearing the middle of the city in an assault spearheaded by the 3rd Brigade of the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division.

The force was moving through the city sector by sector to clear out insurgents, she said, reporting on explosions by rocket propelled grenades and bursts of machine gun fire.

Say hulloo to Muhammad when you check in to Hell, boys! God (not Allah) frowns on the murder of children waiting in line for candy.

"Religion of Peace" my arse!

Could someone PLEASE make some sense of this?

Bush and Kerry set for first debate

"George Bush is scaring America. He's talking terror every day and people see terrible images of what's happening in the world, and they're real -- people being beheaded, the acts of terror in that school in Russia," Kerry said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America."

Say WHAT?!? People see acts of terror but are being scared by Bush?

Then there's this gem:

"I know how to fight a more effective war on terror, and by the end of this campaign, America will make that decision, and that's why I'm going to win," Kerry said, adding he was looking forward to the encounter.

Ah, yes -- John "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" Kerry-Heinz.

Never has anyone so unaccomplished --face it, Bryce (left) could put a "D" next to his name and get elected in Massachusetts -- been so full of himself. From whence does this massive conceit spring? We suppose Mumsy and Doddy and the headmasters at boarding school must have really stroked little Master Kerry's ego ... Frankly, we find any man who lives off women to be quite ... lame, and his treasonous acts vis-a-vis Vietnam and Nicauragua make young Boy Clinton look like Patrick Henry by comparison!

Brace yourselves for MSM post-debate pro-Kerry spin

As you watch the debate on Thursday night, remember: No matter what happens, on Friday morning, you're going to hear that the race is tightening.
by Mike Murphy

A SURE BET in this campaign is that the media will write a big October comeback story for John Kerry. It is evitable for three reasons. First, the media works in a pack that is happiest when following a simple narrative. Second, from moribund to miracle campaigner is Kerry's tiresome myth turned worn-out cliché. Third, this is indeed a tight race and--as with any incumbent seeking reelection--the undecided vote will break heavily against Bush, which will make Kerry look like he is surging late. (Even hapless Michael Dukakis had such a late surge.)

The signs of this pending storyline are already apparent in the coverage of Kerry's new team of savvy advisors. Their decision to bet the entire Kerry campaign on a debate over the Iraq war--a strategic suicide note in my view--is the required "big move" such stories demand and is being applauded as a masterstroke. This is where narrative and reality truly differ. If President Bush wins this campaign, the decision to focus the entire Kerry campaign on a debate over the war, instead of on domestic issues, will be a key ingredient to the president's success. Kerry's mistake is that it is impossible to have a serious campaign-winning political victory over the administration without a serious policy difference between the two. Howard Dean had a policy difference with the Bush administration on Iraq; Kerry essentially does not.

All his squirming and wiggling aside, Kerry essentially supported the war. Quibbling over details and promising to deliver a world where large French
and German forces cheerfully deploy to Iraq and take daily causalities in the place of American troops is campaign silly talk, best reserved for audiences of party regulars with already made up minds and the trained seal's ability to happily applaud even the most shameless and imbecilic arguments. It won't wash in a serious debate on a foreign war, which is the campaign battlefield Kerry has foolishly chosen. Kerry's cynicism masked as honesty will undo him. Worse yet, Kerry's decision to rhetorically slide into the cheap seats at the United Nations last week and--along with the various aid thieves, despot mouthpieces and Kofi worshippers of the Blame America chorus--raspberry the United States will return to haunt him. Kerry doesn't just want to re-live Vietnam in his biography; he seems to want to re-experience the 1972 Nixon-McGovern race.

The media's Kerry comeback will unfold in earnest after this Thursday's debate. What actually happens in the debate, barring a highly entertaining Tourette's style meltdown by one of the candidates, really doesn't matter. This is the first campaign debate in George W. Bush's career where he has entered with performance expectations, a troubling burden. While I expect the president will actually do well, that expectations game and the comeback narrative will combine, through the media's funhouse mirror, to put Kerry back in the race. Even though it may ultimately be simply an optical illusion.

Mike Murphy is a political and media consultant.

We one add one other potential snare for Kerry that would make it tough for the MSM to do his bidding: His massive, Botox tautened face bursts and whatever that orange stuff he is retaining leaks all over the lectern spoiling his notes ...

Catching up ...

We've been a bit busy the past few days -- for you liberals, WORK can have that effect -- so here's a quick recap:

The Most Disgraceful ex-President in our history, Jimmy Carter (give Clinton time, he may catch up), has been fomenting discontent in the form of those hoary Florida 2000 myths -- this after he ignored obvious irregularities in the Venezuelan election. Anything for a tyrant!

Ted Kennedy continues to be as bad an American as he is a husband. Yes, we're questioning his patriotism.

The kids at MoveOn.org squandered a pile of George Soros' money to place an ad in the NY Times bashing polls that show the President in the lead -- about as useful as posting the Ten Commandments in a church.

Kerry has been whining about those nasty Bush campaign ads -- the ones that dare address Kerry's record -- and assailing the President for "politicizing" the War on Terror even as the Kerry-Edwards campaign hauls 9/11 widows out at campaign appearances.

Finally, perhaps aiming at the children's vote, John Kerry has turned Winnie the Pooh orange:

Deluge of economic bad news for Kerry-Heinz

Economy Grows at 3.3 Percent Rate in Q2

All 50 States Post Personal Income Growth

Not surprisingly, the Kerry campaign has gone into full Vietnamization mode vis-a-vis Iraq, even getting a boost from reliable ally CBS who gleefully reported on the likelihood of a reinstatement of the draft, the source for which seems to be an Internet hoax.

Ah well, no one's watching them anyway.

Economy continues to betray Kerry

New Home Sales Jump 9.4 Pct in August

IBD on Kerry's loathesome behavior

Insulting A Friend

Sen. John Kerry and his crew have proved Sen. Zell Miller right. They really will say anything to get elected, even if that means undermining a courageous ally and greasing the skids to defeat in Iraq.

It was the renegade Democrat Miller who roused the 2004 Republican convention and raised the ire of the taste police with lines like these:

"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 Democrats' manic obsession to bring down our commander in chief."

Strong stuff. At the time, even some on the GOP side suggested that Miller had gone too far. But after the events of the past week, we're wondering if he might not have gone far enough.

That "manic obsession" described by Miller has so consumed Kerry and his campaign aides that they don't seem to care how much harm they do to the national interest or to America's allies.

One of those allies, maybe the most important one at this point, is Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Allawi is a true hero, a man who has stepped forward for the hazardous mission of forming an effective Iraqi government and shepherding the nation toward democracy. Terrorists have marked him for death. Even critics of President Bush's policies owe Allawi some respect.

They owe him support as well. If he fails, Iraq would slide closer to chaos, and the danger to U.S. troops and civilians would rise accordingly. Whether the goal is to win or just get out unscathed, it would be harder to achieve.

So how did the Democratic presidential nominee show his respect and support for Allawi? By snubbing his Thursday speech to Congress (along with a number of other Democrats) and, as soon as it ended, calling him little better than a liar and a lap dog.

It was an insult as ignoble as Kerry's description of the coalition allies as "the bribed, the coerced, the bought and the extorted."

In his speech, Allawi said the situation in Iraq is less chaotic than news reports make it seem, and the country should be able to hold national elections as scheduled in January. Kerry, who has pegged his campaign on persuading the American people that the Iraq war is an unwinnable fiasco, couldn't let such optimism go unchallenged, even when it came from a man who actually lives in Iraq.

So he suggested, not so subtly, that Allawi was bending the truth just to give Bush a boost.

"The prime minister and the president are here obviously to put their best face on the (Iraq) policy," he said, "but the fact is that the CIA estimates, reporting, the ground operations and the troops all tell a different story."

That was "relatively restrained," as Los Angeles Times' Ron Brownstein noted, in comparison to what some Kerry aides were suggesting. Brownstein quoted one of them, senior adviser Joe Lockhart, as saying of the courageous Allawi: "The last thing you want to be seen as is a puppet of the United States, and you can almost see the hand underneath the shirt today moving the lips."

What might Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and our other enemies make of such comments? Kerry and Lockhart have played into their hands. To the extent that the Kerry campaign's view of Allawi gets around in Iraq, it will weaken the prime minister's government. It's never helpful to a leader to be seen as anyone's puppet, yet here's Kerry and his crew calling Allawi just that.

Are we saying that the Kerry campaign is deliberately seeking to undermine Allawi, destabilize Iraq, embolden terrorists and bring about a U.S. defeat?

No. But Kerry's insulting treatment of a key ally shows him to be irresponsible, graceless and obsessively bent on winning office at all costs. Three little words come to mind: unfit to serve.[emphasis added]

Again, we have no idea where Kerry got this sense of superiority. The only part of his life that is the least bit impressive is his service in Vietnam, where millions of other guys also served.

He seems to be campaigning on the idea that, anything Bush can do he can do better, though no evidence exists of his supposed judgment or competence. Indeed, according to the SwiftVets, he was a bungler as a sailor.

What we see is a thoroughbred mountebank -- a strutting, preening, perfumed ass, lavished with praise by his nannies and tutors till he became convinced of his own superiority. Al Gore without the lisp and the legislative achievements.

The wrong man for this or any other time of peril, a mediocrity thrust to the fore by dint of his alleged "electability" -- at least, until the not so fine print was read.

That he was able to build a political career in Massachussets speaks only to the depths that the state that helped give birth to this republic has sunk. A state that will automatically elect a murdering, philandering souse with a "D" next to his name can't be expected to reject a facile liberal whose only crime was treason.

Disgraceful

Disgraceful

That's the only way to characterize pompous blowhard Kerry-Heinz's supercilious fulminations just moments after Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi -- a man with a price on his head wherever he goes -- spoke to a joint session of Congress. Kerry-Heinz, who has been stealing his Senatorial paycheck for the past year or so, was, of course, not present. He has time for Regis and Letterman, but not the leader of a democratic Iraq.

Kerry, ever the great multilateralist, insulted Allawi, implying the latter was less than truthful regarding the situation in Iraq and is nothing but a shill for the Administration. We fail to see what can be gained by insulting and alienating Allawi, with whom he'd have to work closely should the unthinkable occur and Kerry be elected in November.

But what the hell does Allawi know? He only lives there.

Kerry has previously heaped opprobrium on the nations supporting us in Iraq, calling them a "coalition of the coerced and the bribed." Clearly, Kerry reserves his internationalist affection for those opposed to the best interests of the United States: the Viet Cong, the Sandinistas, the corrupt and incompetent Kofi Annan and his UN, Saddam pal Chirac . . . and on and on . . .

Recently, we had the spectacle of Kerry's sister undermining our staunch Aussie allies.

Kerry spent the years after he returned from Vietnam cavorting with the enemy and slandering his former (and future) "band of brothers", sapping the nation's will to fight on, resulting in the complete betrayal of the South Vietnamese and, ultimately, the slaughter and exile of millions in the region.

He appears intent on a repeat performance with Iraq.

Kerry, 1997: "We know we can't count on the French. We know we can't count on the Russians"

Inside the Beltway

Inside the Beltway
By John McCaslin

Kerry out attack

During a 1997 debate on CNN's "Crossfire," Sen. John Kerry, now the Democratic presidential nominee, made the case for launching a pre-emptive attack against Iraq.

So reveals Rep. Peter King, New York Republican, who appeared with Mr. Kerry on the program.

Mr. King says the U.N. Security Council had just adopted a resolution against Iraq that was watered down at the behest of the French and the Russians. Yet the candidate who now criticizes President Bush for ignoring French and Russian objections to the Iraq war blasted the two countries, claiming that they were compromised by their business dealings with Baghdad.

"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."

While no "Crossfire" transcripts from 1997 are available, Mr. King in recent days produced a tape of the show, sharing it with New York radio host Monica Crowley for broadcast, and this Inside the Beltway column for publication. Stay tuned.

Amazing.

This enables us to state: we agreed with Kerry before we disagreed with him.

Allawi currently addressing Congress

Kerry and Edwards not present ... Kerry has time for Regis and Letterman, but not the Prime Minister of Iraq ... frickin' unreal. What a clown.


Hungover: Kennedy shows his respect for Iraqi Prime Minister

Refresher: The Sacred Muslim Practice of Beheading

"Now, you have people who love death just like you love life. Killing for the sake of God is their best wish, getting to your soldiers and allies are their happiest moments, and cutting the heads of the criminal infidels is implementing the orders of our lord."

Can Islam correctly be called a "religion of peace" when its founder was a savage?

...

According to Muhammad's sacralized biography by Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad himself sanctioned the massacre of the Qurayza, a vanquished Jewish tribe. He appointed an "arbiter" who soon rendered this concise verdict: the men were to be put to death, the women and children sold into slavery, the spoils to be divided among the Muslims. Muhammad ratified this judgment stating that it was a decree of God pronounced from above the Seven Heavens. Thus some 600 to 900 men from the Qurayza were lead on Muhammad's order to the Market of Medina. Trenches were dug and the men were beheaded, and their decapitated corpses buried in the trenches while Muhammad watched in attendance. Women and children were sold into slavery, a number of them being distributed as gifts among Muhammad's companions, and Muhammad chose one of the Qurayza women (Rayhana) for himself. The Qurayza's property and other possessions (including weapons) were also divided up as additional "booty" among the Muslims, to support further jihad campaigns.

-more-

Keep this in mind when you vote in November: al-Zarqawi and his frat brothers are merely following their leader.

Now, before our server is swamped by mail from self-professed "peaceful Muslims", it's our contention that you "peaceful Muslims", not the Jihadists, are the ones not being faithful to the dictates of your "prophet".

One merely need compare the lives of the major figures of the other religions to the bloody, sex-filled life of Mohammed.

My prophet of peace died on a cross.

Every religion has its fanatics, but they are typically heretics. Jesus, the Buddha, etc. never preached the forced conversion or murder of "infidels".

Mohammed did.

There is something inherently dysfunctional in the Koran and we (that is -- all non-Muslim nations) ignore it at our peril.

S-kerry tactics

Aside from marrying rich broads, John "World's Homeliest Gigolo" Heinz isn't good at very many things.

Demagoguery is one of them.

In recent weeks, the Botoxed Brahmin has scared the hell out of blacks at the NAACCCP and National Baptist conventions with forewarnings of disenfranchisement and a rollback in civil rights.

A couple days ago, while enunciating his latest position on Iraq, he raised the spirits of the Iraqi terrorists, hurling scurrilous invective at everyone but them (presumably Mr. "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" could lecture them on the proper way to behead) and giving them every incentive to ratchet up the killings in the month before the election (I should add "providing aid and comfort to the enemy" to his list of skills). Having helped America lose one war (and sentencing millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians to death), Kerry seems hell bent on a repeat performance in Iraq.

Wednesday he scored a two-fer: planting the fear of a potential draft in the minds of young voters while tossing the word "quagmire" around, and later on painting a Dickensian picture of life under GWB's common sense ideas to reform Social Security -- throwing in the requisite bashing of wealthy "special interests" -- causing a room full of golden agers to soil their Depends.

Liberals using hyperbole and scare tactics to get out the minority and senior citizen vote is nothing new. The lunatic Algore used the technique masterfully in the final days of the 2000 campaign to close the gap. Lefties can pretty much make any claim -- one million disenfranchised African Americans -- and be confident the lapdog MSM (who are far too busy foisting forged documents on us in an attempt to disgrace a sitting president during a time of war) will not correct the record.

But, as with his continued focus on his four months in Vietnam 35 years ago, we can understand why Kerry is taking this tack: he has nothing else to sell. His Senate career has been lackluster at best, and at worst, counterproductive -- witness his constant opposition to the policies that won the Cold War. His current proposals are the same rehashed socialism lite the Dems have been peddling for decades: rich guys and big corporations bad, "working families" good ... blah blah ... He clearly sneers at any notions of American exceptionalism, instead defering to failed nations and corrupt international institutions. In short, another over-educated mediocrity confident in his superior intellect and motivations, yet illegitmately arrogant.

The sooner he is dispatched to the electoral ash heap, the better off America will be.

More bad econ news for Kerry-Heinz

Housing Starts in August Rise

We reckon the Heinz' understand that the economy has doubled-crossed them and remained strong, hence the recent emphasis on Kerry's latest position on Iraq ...

Gen. Franks replies to Lieut. Botox' Iraq speech

Statement By Gen. Tommy Franks (Ret.) On Senator Kerry's Speech On Iraq

ARLINGTON, VA – Gen. Tommy Franks (Ret.) today issued the following statement on Senator Kerry's speech today on Iraq:

"Senator Kerry's contradictions on Iraq are the wrong signal to send to our troops on the ground, to our coalition partners, to the Iraqi people and to the terrorists seeking our destruction. On the eve of Prime Minister Allawi's visit to the United States, Senator Kerry today said that America and the world are 'less secure' now that Saddam Hussein is out of power.

"The American people disagree and last December, so did Senator Kerry. At the time he said that those who believe the world was safer with Saddam Hussein in power 'don't have the judgment to be president.' I agree."

Goodness ... that'll send Johnny running to Mommy Terry ... maybe he can get a new snowboard out of it.

Apparently, Franks also unleashed on Kerry on today's "Sean Hannity" radio show -- claiming the Senator from Heinz' assertion that troops were diverted from Afghanistan to Iraq (Franks commanded troops in both theatres) was incorrect (we didn't hear it but we understand Franks was po'd).

Again, we'll defer to the expert over the consort.

Allawi says terrorists in Iraq well before war

We just caught Brit Hume's interview with Prime Minister Allawi ... no transcript just our paraphrasing: Allawi told Hume that things are better there than the media portrayal and that terrorists were already in Iraq prior to the war. The latter point deflates another tenet of the church of "I Don't Use Deodorant and I Hate Bush", the Irreverend M. Moore, pastor.

Aaaaah, what does Allawi know? Commander Heinz-McBragg tells us it's all Bush's fault.

He is smart. Bush is dumb.

Whom to believe ... whom to believe ... ?

He said it: Benedict Kerry on "judgment"

"That is one of the greatest understatements in recent American history. His were not the equivalent of accounting errors. They were colossal failures of judgment – and judgment is what we look for in a president."

Hanoi Heinz, whose superior judgment helped turn Southeast Asia over to the communists, resulting in the deaths of millions.

He has, however, displayed fine judgment in choice of wives, deftly avoiding real work for 35 years.

USA Today: CBS-Burkett-DNC nexus

CBS arranged for meeting with Lockhart

CBS arranged for a confidential source to talk with Joe Lockhart, a top aide to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, after the source provided the network with the now-disputed documents about President Bush's service in the Texas National Guard.

Lockhart, the former press secretary to President Clinton, said a female producer talked to him about the 60 Minutes program a few days before it aired on Sept. 8. She gave Lockhart a telephone number and asked him to call Bill Burkett, a former Texas National Guard officer who gave CBS the documents. Lockhart couldn't recall the producer's name. But CBS said Monday night that it would examine the role of producer Mary Mapes in passing the name to Lockhart.

Burkett told USA TODAY that he had agreed to turn over the documents to CBS if the network would help arrange a conversation with the Kerry campaign.

-more-

We sense there is a career to be made by the aspiring journo willing to take down both CBS and Kerry ...

Off to ProgPower V

We will be in Atlanta through Sunday, attending ProgPower V. Rocking with Edguy, Kamelot and ... so many more!

There is a business center in the hotel with Internet access, so we will check in if anything major develops over the weekend.

Flashback 1992: America elects a TRUE draft dodger

He routs a Vietnam war hero -- Bob Kerrey (the truly heroic Kerr[e]y) in the primaries and a WWII hero in the general election.

He repeats the feat in 1996, trouncing another WWII hero.

Case closed: Vietnam status is moot.

So, why the spectacle of Dan Rather and an octogenarian Bush Hater whom echoes DNC talking points -- "selected not elected" -- essentialy acceding that THE FRICKING MEMOS ARE FORGED -- which in a non-Bizarro World would signal the end of Rather's career -- yet continuing to thrash the dead horse that is GW Bush's National Guard Service?

Did Bush receive preferential treatment? Who knows? Some say he did, others -- ignored by Rather -- insist he didn't. We know, at least, that he did not lie to his draft board and hop a steamer to England.

What we do know is that Bush flew F-102's. Planes like that often malfunction. Pilots mess up. Guys can die as a result.

The only similar threat faced by Boy Clinton was the possibility of drowning in Newcastle Brown Ale at his fave Oxford pub.

Risking redundancy: It was KERRY who made Vietnam an issue in 2004. And we don't blame him: aside from those four months, his life has been unimpressive.

At best: an awkward goofus who marries rich women and uses their money to embark on an unaccomplished Senate career.

At worst, worthy of our scorn: returning home and turning on his "band of brothers", giving the enemy hope to fight on and an emotional club to use on our POW's, negotiating with the enemy in Paris, hastening our withdrawal from Vietnam and sentencing millions in the region to re-education, exile and extermination, opposing U.S. interests in the final decade of the Cold War, glad-handing with Daniel Ortega ... it goes on and on.

When 250+ "brothers" are amassed in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, men who sign affadavits countering Kerry's version of the events that led to his medals, they are ignored by the MSM and Dan Rather and their motivations, credibility and funding are questioned. No interview on "60 Minutes"(despite a best-selling book). No demands from the MSM that their charges be answered.

Nada.

Yet the MSM will trumpet the charges of obvious partisans like Ben Barnes, Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson -- even the fantastic hallucinations from the febrile "brain" of the loathesome blob Michael Moore are given air time -- yet emit not a peep when they are later proven false.

We know young GWB was a screw up and a boozehound. Somewhere along the way, though, he changed his life -- that is, he married a great woman and got religion (boy does THIS burn them and is likely the true source of their venom).

He has since gone on to defeat two nut-jobs who thought themselves brighter than he: Ann "Ma" Richards and The Lunatic Al Gore.

As geniuses (hahahaha!) ourselves, we can tell you that Richards is a mental midget and Gore is worse -- a psuedo-intellectual major loon who spews (often literally, what with his lisping problem) multi-syllabic silliness -- but silliness nonethless -- and would be likely living in a shelter somewhere absent his royal parentage.

There's something to be said for the mundane childhood experiences of setting up a lemondade stand in front of your house and being bullied in a sandbox. You learn about the rules of the Marketplace and the Jungle. Most Leftists believe they can learn and understand these rules by memorizing textbooks and attending seminars and can subvert these truths by using their "superior" intellects and pure motives. But the real world isn't like that. There's nothing new under the sun since Adam bit the apple.

The real world consists of people driven by Evil who want to kill us.

There are those who understand -- and proudly and strongly defend us from that Evil.

There are those who don't see the Evil, or who think we deserve what we get from the disciples of Marx (in Vietnam) and Mohammed (today).

Dan Rather and John Kerry have long been in the latter group.

John Kerry gave aid and comfort to the enemy in 1971 and today worries that failed and corrupt former powers will not approve should we choose to vaporize the enemy.

Dan Rather passes off obviously forged documents in a last ditch attempt to save his laughable career.

GWB faces real world Evil and is responsible for keeping YOU and ME and EVERYONE WE LOVE alive. Any mistakes he has made have been in not acting firmly enough ... we wasted time in 2002 seeking UN approval to dispose Hussein (giving Hussein time to spirit his WMD to Syria and to organize the insurgency), we should have razed Torah Borah and Fallujah and to hell with the recriminations from the pantywaists ... but he is the only viable choice in 2004, indeed the only ADULT choice. His opponent is stuck in 1971 and refuses to admit his egregious errors in judgment (how many million dead in Southeast Asia after we pulled out?) and action.

GWB has long since renounced the days of his misspent youth.

Kerry continues to harbor the same jejune worldview he held 35 years ago.

As Commander in Chief, GWB has led actions that have resulted in the manumission of 50 million people. Were he to resign today, his accomplishments would DWARF those of his detractors (and US, for that matter).

Clinton used the office to get tail.

Reagan and Bush used it to change history.

Choose your side wisely.

Now ... anyone wonder where the forged memos originated?

Kerry-Heinz is lying about the economy

Policy Memo: Economic Comparisons of August 1996 and August 2004

Senator Kerry has repeatedly tried to talk down a growing economy by focusing only on the most pessimistic of statistics and ignoring the remarkable recovery of an economy that experienced the shocks of the stock bubble burst, recession, terrorist attacks, and corporate scandals. The irony is that the same statistics Kerry campaigned on in 1996 are the same he rails against in 2004. As BusinessWeek recently reported, "On many of the key variables that voters care about, the economy looks uncannily like it did in the summer of 1996, a year when the incumbent was reelected." (Source: Michael Mandel, "The Economy: Advantage Bush?," BusinessWeek, Sept. 6. 2004)

Our sources tell us the last three years have even been good for John Kerry's wallet: word on the street is Theresa has nearly DOUBLED his weekly allowance since late-2001!

Fake, fake, fake

Bush Guard memos "forged as hell"

New information casts additional doubts about the authenticity of the memos purportedly written concerning President Bush by a former superior officer in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s, as Dan Rather and CBS News doggedly stuck to their guns defending the documents.

"They're forged as hell," said Earl W. Lively, 76, who during the era in question was director of Texas Air National Guard operations in Austin.

Mr. Lively said he had proof that Col. Walter "Buck" Staudt — who supposedly forced an underling to favorably alter reports on Mr. Bush's activities as a member of the Guard in the early 1970s — had been honorably discharged nearly 18 months before the date of the memos, purportedly written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian.

After Mr. Lively's revelation, the Dallas Morning News discovered records amid the newspaper's archives, from when the paper investigated Mr. Bush's Guard career in 1999, that show Mr. Staudt had left the Guard on March 1, 1972.

One of the memos concerning Mr. Staudt's supposed pressure to ensure that Mr. Bush's record was to be "sugar coated" was dated Aug. 18, 1973.

Mr. Killian at the time was Mr. Bush's squadron leader.

"And there's no way that Jerry Killian would have written what they've come up with," added Mr. Lively, now one of the most successful real estate agents in Dallas.

Mr. Lively was referring to CBS' "60 Minutes" story Wednesday night that revealed what the network claimed were memos and notes written by Mr. Killian that strongly suggested Mr. Bush got special privileges during his stint in the Texas Guard and failed to perform adequately.

The same claims, without written documentation, were raised back in 1999.

Since last week's broadcast, considerable comment has been forthcoming that casts a dark shadow on the memos authenticity.

Mr. Killian's widow, Marjorie Connell, refused to believe the notes were legitimate.

"I was angry," she told ABC Radio on Friday, "because here they are going back and pulling records of a man who is deceased 20 years, who is not here to explain what any of these documents said or supposed to have said, and I just find it appalling."

His stepson, Houston businessman Gary Killian, who followed him into the Guard and retired as a captain in 1991, said one of the documents, supposedly signed by his father, seemed legitimate, but he strongly doubts Col. Killian would have written the one that says he had been pressured to "sugar coat" Mr. Bush's performances.

"It just wouldn't happen," Mr. Killian said Friday. "The only thing that can happen when you keep secret files like that are bad things. No officer in his right mind would write a memo like that."

Beyond the "he did, he didn't" aspect of the controversy, there remains what seems to be strong evidence that the memos might have been generated on a computer using computer software that was not available at the time. Included in some of the documents was a "superscript," a smaller, raised "th," for example, in 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron.

Mr. Rather strongly endorsed the "60 Minutes" program in an unusually long and detailed report Friday evening.

"This story is true," he said. "The questions we raised about then-Lieutenant Bush's National Guard service are serious and legitimate."

CBS said yesterday it was "adamantly defending the authenticity of the memos," and claimed "experts who examined the memos concluded they were authentic documents,"

"This report was not based solely on recovered documents, but rather on a preponderance of evidence, including documents that were provided by unimpeachable sources, interviews with former Texas National Guard officials and individuals who worked closely back in the early 1970s with Colonel Jerry Killian and were well acquainted with his procedures, his character and his thinking," the network said.

One retired Guard official, who was Mr. Killian's immediate supervisor, Maj. Gen. Bobby Hodges, was offered up by Mr. Rather as one who would substantiate that the memos were real. But yesterday Gen. Hodges told the Los Angeles Times he thought the memos were fake. One CBS executive said the general, a known Bush supporter, had changed his story.

Still another one-time Guard official, Robert Strong, who worked alongside Mr. Killian as the administrative officer in charge of air operations at the Austin state headquarters from early 1971 to March 1972, said he viewed nothing in the CBS-released documents that convinced him they were forgeries, but could not vouch for their authenticity.

"I didn't see anything that was inconsistent with how we did business," Mr. Strong told the Associated Press yesterday. "It looked like the sort of thing that Jerry Killian would have done or said. He was a very professional guy."

In addition to the varying beliefs concerning the origin of the documents, somewhat intriguing remarks came from the two presidential campaigns.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe called the documents "further evidence, really, that George W. Bush failed this country when it was his time to serve and he hid out."

He suggested that White House political adviser Karl Rove might have been the one who supplied CBS News with the documents.

That brought a quick retort from White House spokesman Reed Dickens, who called the suggestion "complete nonsense."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Friday that the materials surfaced as part of "an orchestrated effort by Democrats and [the Sen. John] Kerry campaign to tear down the president."

Mr. Staudt, who lives in New Braunfels, Texas, did not return phone calls, nor did Mrs. Connell or Mr. Strong.

Please, no more emails from doped up Lefties lecturing on us on how the media is "corporate controlled" and thus, de facto, conservative. Never mind that a corporation is an accounting fiction and can be neither liberal nor conservative ... that's a Straw Man, the fallaciousness of which we witnessed first hand when we worked in a newsroom.

While the stockholders and board members of giant media corporations surely have political views from all over the spectrum, this is clearly not the case where the news is "made" -- in the newsroom, where an astounding percentage of producers, editors, writers and "reporters" lean way Left.

The lastest brouhaha over the faked Guard memos epitomizes this bias.

For weeks, the MSM have haughtily ignored the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of 250 men who served with John "F-Troop" Kerry in Vietnam, who happen to have the #1 Best Seller on the "NY Times" charts (Richard Clarke and other Bush bashers got their invite well before their books charted) and who've signed affidavits. The media interrupted this apathy only to question the Swiftee's integrity and the source of their funding -- though, in stark contrast to Kook Left 527s like MoveOn.org, the Swiftees' donors are mostly folks like the Cartwrights, not anti-American billionaire currency manipulators (the sort of eeeevil rich guys the media usually calumnies, though in the case of George Soros they'd be right to do so).

Fast forward to the memo kerfuffle ... these memos were instantly outed as, if not outright forgeries, then at least very suspicious, by pajama-clad members of the blogosphere.

CBS chose to ignore obvious technical and timing questions regarding the device used to produce them, the status of General Staudt, and the protestations of the family members of the alleged (and conveniently dead) author of the memos.

CBS WANTED the memos to be authentic, and featured them in a "60 Minutes II" piece along with KERRY FUNDRAISER AND OPERATIVE BEN BARNES, a man whose own daughter is now challenging his veracity. Undisclosed was that Dan Rather's daughter serves on a Democratic committee in Texas with Barnes, a committee which Rather famously spoke at a FUNDRAISER for a couple years ago.

This is all you really need to know about Dan Rather, CBS and most of the MSM.

When the President opened up a nice lead after the RNC, we immediately stated (not really a prediction coz it's so obvious) that the MSM would launch a concerted campaign to elect the Botoxicated Brahmin from Boston.

And it has begun.

Reprehensible traitor and Useful Idiot Kerry suggests GOP will suppress black vote

Kerry Hints GOP May Suppress Black Votes

WASHINGTON - John Kerry (news - web sites) suggested Saturday night that Republicans may try to keep black voters from casting their ballots to help President Bush (news - web sites) win in November.

"We are not going to stand by and allow another million African American votes to go uncounted in this election," the Democratic presidential nominee told the Congressional Black Caucus (news - web sites). "We are not going to stand by and allow acts of voter suppression, and we're hearing those things again in this election."

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.

"What they did in Florida in 2000, some say they may be planning to do this year in battleground states all across this country," Kerry said. "Well, we are here to let them know that we will fight tooth and nail to make sure that this time, every vote is counted and every vote counts." [The Ponderosa: The last time we heard such inflammatory race baiting from a candidate was the Fall of 2000, when the lunatic Al Gore told a black church (where was the ACLU?) that the GOP wanted to return to the days prior to Brown v. Board of Education as well as to reduce blacks to 3/5's of a person, as they were in 1789 (the genius apparently did not know that this measure was meant to insure that SLAVE STATES had fewer Congressional reps.) Meanwhile, it's the Dems who keep inner city kids enslaved to the whims of the National Education Association.)]

Bush-Cheney spokesman Steve Schmidt said the campaign would not respond to Kerry's "baseless, divisive attacks" until Sunday. "Today is a day of remembrance," he said.

The Massachusetts senator also criticized the president for failing to meet with the caucus since his first month in office and for what he said was a failure to meet the Biblical standard set by the Good Samaritan to help others in need.

...

Ladies and gents, your 2004 Dem nominee ... anybody wanna reconsider Lieberman?

The American people deserve, at least, two viable candidates ...

The Ponderosa "celebrates" the day

Not in the sense that Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky celebrate the anniversary of 9/11 -- as well-deserved retribution for our "sins" (e.g., support for Israel, "economic imperialism" and all that other hackneyed drivel) -- rather (!) we celebrate the very existence of America and the wonderful lives we live as a result of God's great generosity in, in our case, making this the land of our birth.

On the first anniversary, we observed the day with tears and recollections -- and certainly the images of the horrors should never be allowed to fade lest we lapse, as many already have, back into the 9/10 mindest-- but last year we decided on a different tack: live it up.

Engage, within reason, in the "debauchery" they so hate: bang your head to pounding heavy metal, sip your fave adult beverage, attend a sporting event and cheer till you spit up parts of your lungs, go to an "R" rated movie, fire up your huge t.v. and satellite system and watch "TVLand" all night, pray to any god other than Allah, motor all over your state in a mammoth SUV, light up an oversized cigar and smoke the whole thing, peruse "Barron's" and select a good stock to invest in when markets open Monday morning -- throw your fist in the air and holler "F-CK MOHAMMED!"

Never forget the nature of the enemy as evidenced by the atrocities of 9/11, and Beslan and Madrid, and understand he is not to be negotiated with or "understood", but crushed under the boot heel of a superior civilization.

John Kerry, tightwad

Kerry: Bush Is No Good Samaritan

Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) accused President Bush (news - web sites) on Thursday of failing the Biblical test set by the Good Samaritan, saying, "He's seen people in need, but he's crossed over to the other side of the street."

...

"Four years ago, George Bush came to office calling himself a compassionate conservative," Kerry said. "Well, in the story of the Good Samaritan we are told of two men who pass by or cross to the other side of the street when they come upon a robbed and a beaten man.

"They felt compassion, but there were no deeds. Then the Good Samaritan gave both his heart and his help."

Kerry added: "It is clear: For four years, George W. Bush may have talked about compassion, but he's walked right by. He's seen people in need, but he's crossed over to the other side of the street."

...

Oddly enough, according to Byron York at NRO, Kerry isn't exactly a geyser of personal charity, at least not till he hooked up with Hyacinth:

In 1995, Kerry reportedly had a taxable income of $126,179, and made charitable contributions of $0. In 1994, he gave $2,039 to charity. In 1993, the figure was $175. In 1992, it was $820, and in 1991, it was $0.

Bush's returns from that period show he routinely gave more than 10% of his income to charity.

Now, we obviously know what Kerry really means by "compassion": coercively taking money from one American and lavishing it on another. The easy kind of "compassion" that gives Lefties a warm glow about themselves and how "good" they are while requiring no personal sacrifice.

With the massive new drug entitlement, education "reform" and a bloated farm bill, Bush can hardly be accused of being a skinflint. The Free Money spigot has not been turned off. Oh, how we wish that were true.

Lack of Chips Ahoy caused 9/11?

Group honors curricula that explore 9/11's 'root causes'

Call it the Chips Ahoy! School of International Studies: Fifth-graders at Fratney Street School in Milwaukee learn about causes of terrorism with a small bag of cookies and a large map of the world.

Bob Peterson teaches students that overpopulation and poverty help make it easier to recruit terrorists for attacks like those on Sept. 11, 2001.

Schools have been teaching about Sept. 11 since that morning nearly three years ago, but this year, Families of September 11, founded by victims' relatives, is honoring Peterson and three others for curricula on terrorism's root causes. At a Smithsonian Institution (news - web sites) conference today, the group will issue guidelines for educators.

In one of Peterson's lessons, students stand, arranged by population, on a huge world map. Peterson hands out cookies according to gross national products: The 16 students in Asia each get one cookie, and the three in Africa split half a cookie among them. In North America, one student enjoys eight cookies.

...

Er ... weren't the Beasts of 9/11 wealthy Saudis?

Perhaps these countries would have as many cookies as us if they stopped hating us and tried to emulate us.

Capitalism produces a lot of Oreos.

Anyhow ... about those documents ...

We gave you a heads-up to the CBS hit piece on Bush's Guard Service and wondered about the motivation of the Main Stream Media's (MSM) dogged pursuit of the story, particularly in light of their blatant enmity toward the Swiftees.

Now, thanks in great part to the blogosphere, the CBS story is falling apart: a font that hadn't been invented yet, proportional spacing that didn't exist, protests from the relatives of the alleged (and conveniently dead) author of the memos ... it's fun to watch.

Dan Rather is set to retire soon. Hopefully this hastens his exit.

Hacked!

You might have noticed some weirdness here the past two days ... apparently, our ISP was hacked by someone calling herself DaemonOptik. Judging by the Google search, this is some sort of crackpot Euro-Leftie hacker, prolly living off her fellow citizens (Swedes, perhaps?) and wasting her talent on destructive pursuits and whining about the mean ol' USA and it's evil-doofus-genius-fascist dictator Bush.

Tragic, really. We at The Ponderosa possess similar skills but prefer to use them to make ridiculous amounts of money by creating goods and services that increase productivity, expand our economy and help to create prosperity.

Perhaps DaemonOptik could use her talents similarly.

But that would be downright AMERICAN.

It's easier to be a pussy and hide behind your spoofed IP address and lash out at those greater than you.

No wonder Europe's moribund.