Mudville Gazette on the draft

Mudville Gazette Thoughts on the draft from a soldier serving in Iraq. Money graphs: Speaking only for myself, an American serving in uniform in Iraq, there's little I fear more than having the determined, confident, and competent young sons and daughters of our nation that I see here daily replaced by some group of conscripts torn kicking and screaming from their mother's skirts and forced to become something that only faintly resembles the effective members of our armed forces that are currently far from home and risking all for a cause they believe in. and Likewise I suggest Americans note that the Army and Army Reserve will meet their recruiting goals this year as stated here

The Army's goal was to recruit 77,000 new active Army troops and 21,200 Reserve troops. As of Aug. 31, the Army had 70,479 new recruits and the Army Reserve had 19,642.

The Navy and Air Force are turning people away.

Luther was a blogger!

Luther was a blogger! Lileks (who works at the Minneapolis Star Tribune aka the Twin Cities Star and Sickle) with trenchant-as-usual observations on the relationship of MSM and bloggers. RTWT.

Baghdad Bombings Kill 34 Children

Yahoo! News - Baghdad Bombings Kill 34 Children Perhaps now the Iraqi people will rise up against the terrorists in their midst.

Irreconcilable Musings: Some Additional Thoughts on Blogging and the Media

Irreconcilable Musings: Some Additional Thoughts on Blogging and the Media To quote "Master Insta" - RTWT.

An Attack on the Will to Learn

Yahoo! News - An Attack on the Will to Learn I'm sure the UN will consider a resolution to form a committee that will commission a fact-finding team to issue a report, and after a proper debate on whether to accept the report, issue a strongly worded statement of concern. Meanwhile, the children die.

What CBS should've done

Barabaig Special @ National Geographic Magazine HT - Instapundit, as usual.

Yahoo! News - Half of Internet Viagra Could Be Fake - Study

Yahoo! News - Half of Internet Viagra Could Be Fake - Study WHAT?!?!?! You mean... those score-daily emails full of inventive spellings just might be... FRAUDS? I am shocked - shocked! /sarcasm The real stunner is that apparently nearly half of the stuff is actually the real deal. Whoodathunkit?

Kerry suggests anatomical impossibility?

Yahoo! News - Bush sharpens jabs against Kerry ahead of debates: "'What they don't need is all these trumped up advertisements, they just make people curl up and walk away,' added the Massachusetts senator" Seem to me a little hard to walk away if you're curled up. Maybe it's a windsurfing move?

TCS: Tech Central Station - Rigor-Free Research

TCS: Tech Central Station - Rigor-Free Research Interesting post on "scientific" standards for assessing educational outcomes. The big problem, of course, is that so darned many factors go into student success. There's another problem with NCLB, and that's the focus on "hard" or quantitative data. It's perfectly legitimate to do research based on anecdote and case study, or qualitative data. NCLB needs to be changed to reflect that. BUt here's a telling quote:

But there's a deep well of hostility to cold, hard, number-heavy science, poisoned further by liberal elites' loathing of the Bush administration. Though the move to controlled studies started in the Clinton administration, it didn't take off till Bush pushed through No Child Left Behind, which greatly increased federal education funding and insisted that all federally funded programs be research-based. If Bush's guys want scientific rigor, it must have something to do with Halliburton, right?

Jordan's King Raises Doubts About Iraq Poll

Jordan's King Raises Doubts About Iraq Poll Someone tell me exactly how an unlelected monarch has any credibility to speak about free and fair elections?

This week's good news from Iraq

Chrenkoff's WSJ Roundup

Virgin Galactic

The Speculist: Bootstrapping to Space What a great time to be alive, eh?

Wizbang: Intel Showed Iraq Smuggled Out WMDs

Wizbang: Intel Showed Iraq Smuggled Out WMDs Someone tell Michael Moore.... oh, don't bother. We don't want to upset the poor disturbed man.

The Politburo Diktat: Trackbacks - The Peoples' Version

The Politburo Diktat: Trackbacks - The Peoples' Version Again, for reference

The Politburo Diktat: Blogging How-To Archives

The Politburo Diktat: Blogging How-To Archives For reference...

Betsy's Page

Betsy's Page Betsy's Page - Now part of the minimum daily requirement.

JunkYardBlog: Send a DVD to a trooper!

ONe way to counter Michael Moore's attempt to destroy the morale of our troops.

If it's not close they can't cheat, indeed

Cleveland.com: Search Hugh Hewitt's book, "If It's Not Close They Can't Cheat" should be required reading for Lake County Republicans. "1,000 cases of suspicious voter registrations Lake, Summit officials intend to investigate Friday, September 24, 2004 Steve Luttner and Michael Scott Plain Dealer Reporters More than 1,000 voter registration forms and absentee ballot requests may be fraudulent in Lake and Summit counties, where investigations of irregularities are broadening. ... Lake election and law enforcement officials said their investigation is centered on absentee registration attempts by the nonpartisan NAACP's National Voter Fund and an anti-Bush, nonprofit group called Americans Coming Together, or ACT Ohio. ... Bryan Williams, director of the Summit County Board of Elections, said high interest in this year's presidential election has resulted in unprecedented numbers of voter registrations, absentee ballot requests and irregular voter applications. Williams said the suspect voter registration applications include some with nonexistent addresses while others from the same street all have the street identically misspelled. Williams said the suspect voter registration applications include some with nonexistent addresses while others from the same street all have the street identically misspelled. Williams said that usually people applying to vote fill out their own cards before signing them, drawing attention to the odd fact that the street name is not spelled correctly. Still other voter registration cards bear strikingly similar handwriting, suggesting one person submitted a group of fraudulent voter registration cards. "We are not certified handwriting experts, but we believe that these were common looking signatures," Williams said. " NAACP and ACT nonpartisan? Riiiiight, as Bill Cosby used to say. The Democrats and their allies want to stuff the ballot boxes on 11/2. Lake County was one of the only counties in Northeast Ohio to vote for Bush in 2000. The region has been battered by the shift away from a manufacturing economy, and Cleveland (next door) has the dubious distinction of having the highest poverty rate of any large city in America. The Democrats have means and motive, though they appear to have been caught. Watch for a slew of letters to the editor denouncing "brazen attempts by right-wing partisans to strip the poor, elderly, and minorities of their voting rights." Riiiight.

Bush's Honorable Air National Guard Service

Bush's Honorable Air National Guard Service -- Opinion Central -- GOPUSA This is probably the definitive summary of the issues, including details of the "points" bush accumulated over his four-year tour flying fighters.

When did McAulliffe see the CBS memos?

WHY WAS TERRY USING TERMS FROM THE CBS MEMO 9 HOURS BEFORE BROADCAST? The Chairman of the DNC, 11 hours before the CBS report using the fake memos aired, used the term "sugarcoated" - the exact same term used in the fake memo. Hmmmm...... UPDATE: Jim Gerharty at KerrySpot says he blew it. The transcript of Chairman Terry's remarks were from a PR sent out as the CBS broadcast was starting, based on the memos. That's the way the New Media works - self-correcting.

Swimming through the Spin: These aren't the Droids I'm voting for

Swimming through the Spin: These aren't the Droids I'm voting for Nothing to add, absolutely nothing. Laughing too hard....

Lileks on Naming the Enemy

Naming the Enemy Great minds think alike, part X. [link to my post on Putin just after Beslan]. James Lileks writing for Newhouse:

Here at home, some still fail to see the shape of the new century, stuck as they are in the comfy delusions reinforced by the periodicals and cocktail party chatter.

That's the theme of "The Dangling Conversation", in case you don't recall your Simon & Garfunkle lyrics. [link to lyrics] James continues:

As American playwright and actor Wallace Shawn, quoted in the National Review online, recently said: "Part of the problem presented by Bush and his gang is that they are so crude. ... These people believe in cruelty, vengeance and brutality. The American government in my lifetime has never been in the hands of people so unbelievably unqualified to run a large country. These guys are out of touch with reality. The most shocking thing about them is that they have only a contempt for the law. That means that they could -- and probably will -- do anything. "This is the scariest I've known it. Part of the problem with these men is that their sensitivities have never been shaped by any civilization, of East or West -- or even the wisdom of primitive cultures." Ah, the wisdom of primitive cultures. If Condi Rice played a log drum instead of a piano, if Bush worshipped the Sun and fed it fresh hearts every eclipse; if Don Rumsfeld did his press conferences slathered with blue mud and demanding that everyone bow to the Tree Sprites. "The wisdom of primitive cultures." It truly takes the product of an advanced culture to utter such drivel. If these are the words Shawn has for the administration, what words are left for the men who smile as they gun down the children? Or autocrats who truly want to turn the state into a private gang? Think of Shawn's words after the next Belsan. It'll be in Jakarta. Or in some small community outside of London unheralded until its name joins the list of places known only for their pain. Or in Des Moines. When it happens in America we might consult again the thinkers and artists and legions of leisured chin-pullers, and ask how they spent the days after Sept. 11. What they wrote. Whom they opposed. Why they could not name the enemy, when the enemy had so clearly named them.

Light posting week

Note to my faithful readers (both of you) - it's been a busy week at work and home, so very little posting is happening.

swaggart, the kkk, gays and eugene volokh

pr9000.net: Swaggart, the Klan, gays and Eugene Volokh Paul at pr9000.net notes:

Eugene Volokh says televangelist Jimmy Swaggart is "unclear on the Ten Commandments" because Swaggart said he'd kill a gay man who might look at him funny....I wonder if Volokh would feel differently if Swaggart said he'd kill a Klansman.

He asks if anyone can explain how these view can be reconciled. It's not crystal clear? Gays are a Protected Class of Oppressed People. Not only is it unChristian to say you'd kill one*, it's a crime punishable by fine and imprisonment to commit the thoughtcrime of failing to endorse their choice of behavior. The KKK, on the other hand, are Hateful Bigoted Oppressors whose intolerance must not be tolerated. It's doubleplus good for ungood things to happen to them. Perfectly consistent. /satire *it is, of course capital-double-you WRONG to say you'd kill a man for looking at you funny, (not to mention idiotic to think you could lie to God) BUT I hesitate to say it, because a. it's utterly self-evident to anyone but the most deeply deluded postmodernist and b. I deeply resent Volokh's implication that silence implies assent. Also, Eugene seems to be unaware that "kill him and tell God he died" is a Southern colloquial expression, not a literal threat of using deadly force. The South is the Bible Belt, where children are raised on the tales of Cain and Jonah. You can't lie to God, and everyone knows it. That doesn't excuse Swaggart, but it may explain him a bit. Not too many serious Christians take him seriously, anyway.

Feedback from the fever swamp

I received the following email this morning, apparently in response to a snippet I wrote that got published in the local paper. I had said that Bush's ANG service records don't matter nearly as much as his record as CinC, but Kerry's do matter, since he's made his tour in Nam the basis for his candidacy. Note how the reader thoughtfully addressed my argument, and bravely included his return address: This article from DemocraticUnderground.com has been sent to you by blowme@youfacist.com. Title: The Top Ten Conservative Idiots http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/index.html

The Gospel according to ... Dan?

Chuck Colson interviewed by Hugh Hewitt in 1996 I've heard Chuck tell this tale in a number of venues, and it's part of my own apologetica. I've been meaning to write about the parallels between this political campaign and the early days of Christianity for some time. In particular, (before Ra^therGate broke), about the nature of eyewitness testimony. The CBS forgeries offer an opportunity to bring in document analysis as well. This isn't the post I planned to write - I don't have time tonight to really craft my thoughts - but let me toss out a couple of ideas, prompted by Hugh's post. Christanity is based on an historical event - the Resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, we'd be better off as Buddhists or neopagans. So the historicity of the Resurrection is really, really key. Problem is, CBS News didn't have a film crew covering the opening of the tomb on Easter Sunday. (And even if they did, I'd want a video expert to go over the tape frame by frame.) The only record we have of the event is the New Testament documents. Read more here about why they're valid records. (Link will open in a new browser window.) Back to current events, we're talking about people's memories of events from 32 to 36 years ago. Some of those memories were supposedly "seared-seared!" [link to a Xmas in Cambodia recap] while others were not so vividly impressed. [link to people remembering and not remembering W sitting at a desk in AL in 72]. Now, look at what Bush and Kerry have to lose or gain by sticking to their stories, versus how outlandish their stories were. Most people don't care whether Bush showed up for every scheduled drill the last couple of months of his service. If the CBS forgeries had turned out to be real, there still would have been a collective "so what" from the voters. Why? 1. Because the story is dreadfully mundane (everybody was skipping out in '72), and 2. Bush doesn't have a great deal to lose - the voters have already factored it in. [link to analogy to a stock price not moving when the bad news is anticipated] Kerry's tale of cross-border incursions are pretty wild, especially given all the evidence that says they didn't happen. (Not quite as much evidence as that showing that dead people stay dead, but a lot nonetheless.) Kerry says he crossed the border. Maybe. Or he got near it. Now, note this: The stakes were pretty high for Kerry - his Presidential aspirations were riding on his war-hero record. But when the heat got turned up just a little, he backed away from the tale. What would he say about it if a gun were held to his head? (Not that I'd advocate that - this is hypothetical.) Would he recant entirely? Dan's documents tell a very believable tale (even if no one cared whether it was true). The fact that they are certainly bogus casts doubt on the tale itself, but more on the teller. Dan Rather has a lot riding on his story. His career. His reputation. But not his life. Compare that to the situation the original disciples - telling a totally outlandish tale, and facing torture and death if they didn't back down. But they didn't back down. Not a one. Here's the other thing. The Gospels were composed in the 80's and 90's AD, but they relied on still-earlier collections of Jesus' words and deeds. Jesus died (and rose) in AD 30. Paul wrote his letters in the mid-50's, and his writings clearly show that the belief in the literal, historical resurrection of Jesus was well-established. That's only 25 years after the event. Living witnesses were still around. The Gospels preserve their eyewitness recollections, in all their messy authenticity. Who was first on the scene that first Easter morning? Had the sun risen or not? When they got the news, the disciples rejoiced - but they were afraid... The essential, central fact, though, remains - THE TOMB WAS EMPTY. There was no 1st-Century equivalent of the SwiftVets, challenging the essential thread of narrative with an alternative set of eyewitness accounts. At least, none that was successful. Certainly the Roman government and the Sanhedrin tried to shut up the disciples, with tactics more heavy-handed than Kerry's lawyers. [link to story of letters to tv stations running fist SBVT ad]

What's the opposite of rope-a-dope?

The Command Post - Iraq - December Offensive Announced (ht instapundit as usual) The Iraqi government has announced that 7,000 elite troops - that's native troops, not Coalition - will commence operations in December to clean out the insugents. Commenters give the impression that telegraphing the move is probably a good idea, for a number of reasons. It certainly fits with Bush's HBS-MBA management style.

Heh: Fake, but Accurate

coldfury.com, ht instapundit From "When Harry Met Sally", just in case you don't instantly get it.

Iran defies UN re nuclear program

LGF quotin Reuters: "Iran will not accept any obligation regarding the suspension of uranium enrichment, chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani told a news conference Sunday. No international body can force Iran to do so." They are of course, correct. The UN cannot do a dad-blamed thing. A couple of American B-2s or a squadron of Israeli F-15s, OTOH....

Tears in my eyes

My old buddy Wally (we once arranged a marriage between our children) has a new blog. Wally's a songwriter. I sing and play guitar. He's just added a new song to my repertiore. A teeny taste: "And we were singing, Bye, Bye, to the CBS Guy, Dishin' whammies in my jammies and refutin' the lies..." Oh, me, oh my.... I DO wish I didn't have so much darned work to do tonight!

Windsurfer

THIS is too rich!!!! www.americanwindsurfer.com/mag/back/issue5.5/kerry2.html An interview with JFK - in American Windsurfing magazine, from before the 1998 campaign began. Select quotes: (emphasis mine)

AW: Would you say with all the problems we face in the country and the breakdown in morality at the highest level, that the country would seek an exceptional leader? JK: Well, I'm not talking about one leader and I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to make any assumptions about my capacity or anybody else's capacity to do that. AW: But people are looking around and asking, "Who is the person who can put all these things together?" I recently read that Senator Ted Kennedy claimed you would be a great choice for the Democratic presidential candidate. ... JK: Well, I think he is very generous in his assessment of my ability to be able to mount a candidacy if I chose to. ... I think there is a lot of preparation, a considerable amount of thought about the agenda that must be processed before you can make any judgement about a national race. I have seen people who haven't done that and found it very difficult to achieve a platform. So, my intention is to be thoughtful about it and approach it in a sensible way that isn't so much influenced by what I hear people say but influenced by what I deem to be the national dynamic, as well as my own personal assessment of the agenda that I have to offer to that dynamic. AW: It would seem that the national dynamic is one that would clearly need somebody who can come in and really give a sense of leadership. [JK:] Sure. Absolutely! People want something clear, something truthful, something ... ... AW: Now, we windsurfed together several times in the past year. Between your schedule and my schedule we really don't have much time to play around with, but somehow we managed to find a day here and there. It's amazing how each time we meet . . . JK: . . .we got the wind blowing! AW: Yes! We got wind blowing! JK: [laughs] AW: It's amazing! JK: That's wonderful! AW: We have done this about six or seven times and each time it just blows! JK: Lucky! AW: And amazingly! Many of the days before and after we sailed, there were no winds at all. JK: The force is with us, John. AW: Now, don't you think in politics that there are forces at play, just like in nature? JK: Absolutely. Oh, I absolutely believe that. 'Course there are! Big forces way beyond one's control that can pick you up and slap you down or give you that perfect jibe. It can work both ways. It really does. I've seen it happen. Things way beyond our control. There are those forces and it's one of those great linkages I suppose between politics and windsurfing. ... [AW:] So, as a metaphor, are you sitting on the beach assessing the forces of the wind before venturing into the waters? JK: Well you know, you and I never assessed the wind. We just decided we're going to go and this was going to be it. We take what we get and what we got has been good. That's not what I'm assessing. I'm assessing whether or not I have a board and a sail. It's a little different. You need a little equipment to go out there. Whatever the wind, I want to make sure that I am going to be real physically fit. That's the metaphor.

...and much, much more, including JK's opinions on the spirituality of windsurfing

Celsius 41.11

The Celsius 41.11 Interactive Media Center - A Citizens United Production Oh, this is good! Celcius 41.11 - the temperature at which the brain begins to die.

The View from Iraq

From Captain's Quarters: Citing a letter from a Marine Major in Baghdad: "The momentum is moving in our favor, and all Americans need to know that, so please, please, pass this on to those who care and will pass it on to others. It is very demoralizing for us here in uniform to read & hear such negativity in our press. It is fodder for our enemies to use against us and against the vast majority of Iraqis who want their new government to succeed. It causes the American public to start thinking about the acceptability of "cutting our losses" and pulling out, which would be devastating for Iraq for generations to come, and Muslim militants would claim a huge victory, causing us to have to continue to fight them elsewhere (remember, in war "Away" games are always preferable to "Home" games). Reports like that also cause Iraqis begin to fear that we will pull out before we finish the job, and thus less willing to openly support their interim government and US/Coalition activities." Doing my little bit to "pass it on"...

Put the blame where it lies

Tried to post this over at DalyThoughts... Lileks put it very well this morning: "It's like saying a body in a pine box is 'dead' but 'lifelike.'" As Rather might say, that dog won't hunt. In 1972 Bush was the son of a junior congressman, elected from the minority party. He may well have had some unasked-for help getting his Guard slot. So what? He did nothing that hundreds if not thousands of other guys did at the time, and more than most: Rather than fulfill his committment by marching in circles and pushing a broom, he signed up to fly a supersonic interceptor with a reputation as a widow-maker. Oh-and-by-the-way, he also volunteered to go to Vietnam as part of an F-102 deployment, but was turned down because he had too few flight hours. He got stellar performance appraisals from his peers and superiors. Now, TWO guys - one with a long-standing grudge against Bush and another who is Kerry's 3rd-biggest donor - lay out this "failed to fulfill his committment" line and try to back it up with badly faked memos that contradict the known-to-be-authentic record, CBS and the Left eat it up with a spoon. Yet when 250+ SwiftVets (with no particular love for or ties to W) hammered Kerry's version of events in the Mekong with living-eyewitness testimony, they were castigated as liars. Blame Terry McAuliffe. The Democrats could have nominated Dean or Lieberman, and we could be having a discussion of how to fight THIS war, not rehashing one from a generation ago.

Richard Cohen: Bush-hating goes haywire

New York Daily News - Ideas & Opinions - Richard Cohen: Bush-hating goes haywire I usually skip Cohen. He claims to be a "purple" moderate but he's still much more liberal than centrist

It's hard to know whom to loathe more - religious zealots who would censor my reading and deny me the fruits of stem-cell research or fervid hallucinators who belittle Saddam Hussein's crimes (or even 9/11) and wonder, in the throes of perpetual adolescence, whether the assassination of the President would not amount to a political mercy killing. It's all pretty repugnant.

Of course, real "religious zealots who would censor" his reading are pretty darn few and far between, unless you believe that parents not wanting their children to be exposed to sex with animals at the public library is "censorship." Likewise, barring federal funding for some fetal stem-cell research doesn't stop privately-funded research. And if the promise of stem-cell cures is so great, there should be plenty of private investor money, right? So Cohen is clearly a liberal, not a moderate. But he makes some telling points that agree with what those of us in the center-right have been saying for a long time.

[Bush-haters] are infected with a corrosive doubt about their own country. A recent Pew poll found, for instance, that 51% of Democrats agreed with the proposition that "U.S. wrongdoing" contributed to the attacks of 9/11. (Only 17% of Republicans agreed.) Those are astounding numbers, an indictment not really of America (for what?) but of those people who compulsively blame their own country for the faults of others. You can believe that America's support of Israel and the stationing of troops in Saudi Arabia played a role in the 9/11 attacks, but the term Pew used was "wrongdoing." In this respect, these people and Bin Laden are in agreement. (emphasis mine)

Refreshingly honest, and coming from Cohen, a devastating indictment of the Modern American Left.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

Bloom County on Dan Rather, circa 1984

The blogosphere - a disruptive technology and a force for social change

Don't Drink the Kool Aid Excellent post by Ignatius, quoting Eric Hoffer. I work in what is now called "e-learning," teaching faculty how to use the Web to enhance F2F classes or to teach completely online. I keep having an image of medieval professors in the cloister, worrying over how they will teach now that Gutenberg can put a copy of the text into the hands of every student. (Yes, I know it didn't really work that way; even printed books were too expensive for most students then, but the image remains.) The Internet has been correctly viewed as a disruptive technology. The rise of the blogosphere makes that abundantly clear.

Tim Blair: WHO KNEW WHAT, WHEN?

Tim Blair: WHO KNEW WHAT, WHEN? ...that interview with Barnes ... was the first shot ... that the Texans for Truth, the new DNC ads, and Kitty Kelly's book were to follow and destroy with withering fire ... Commenter Ginny makes a good point. Moore, Barnes, CBS, MoveOn, Kitty Kelley... sure sounds like an orchestrated campaign to me. Maybe what the congressional investigation we need isn't just to look at CBS, but at a widespread conspiracy to violate McCain / Feingold?

Journalism has a new dress code. Pajamas

Today in Investor's Business Daily : "Journalism has a new dress code. Pajamas." What a great opening line. Good article, too. It's a concise chronology of how Ra^therGate unfolded. Odd that the article doesn't contain actual links to the referenced sites*, but at least there's a graphic with the URLs. * here they are: Andrew Sullivan Instapundit Mickey Kaus Little Green Footballs.com Josh Marshall The graphic omits the Freepers, but the story contains a reference.

Spinnin' wheel, got to go 'round...

LA Times - Rather Rides Out Latest Partisan Storm Riding out the storm, sure - just like George Clooney's fishing boat in "The Perfect Storm". Now the anchor finds himself in the midst of another major partisan storm... Partisan? You mean partisan like Killian's secretary, who hates GW Bush, but who nonetheless says that the CBS memos are not her work. Inside CBS, however, some of his colleagues, who declined to be named, said they were dismayed that Rather and his team had left themselves open to any criticism, precisely because his well-organized critics would be sure to pounce. Well-organized? Elizabeth Jensen (the LA Times author of this bit of fluffery) clearly has never read Little Green Footballs. Rather said he had no intention of giving in to those pressures. "Say what you want to about me, I keep my word," Rather said. "No, I'm not going to reveal my source." There you go, Dan - go down with the ship.

AWOL, SCHMAWOL

JustOneMinute: Maybe We Could Have A "Press AWOL" Story A good summary of the "whaddya mean, AWOL?" non-story.

Bingo!

Light posting this week; I'm really slammed at work and home. But I could not resist this gem: Jonah Goldberg on Dan Rather and Big Media on National Review Online:

"Well, if you agree with Rather, maybe you should give just a smidgen more slack to George W. Bush about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Bush's sources were more solid by several orders of magnitude than Rather's, and yet it is 'obvious' to so many that Bush lied while Rather deserves the benefit of the doubt. George W. Bush had the head of the CIA, the intelligence agencies of all our allies, the Clinton administration, the United Nations, and most of the establishment media generally backing his understanding of the threat from Iraq. Dan Rather had a couple shoddy Xeroxes - not all of which were examined thoroughly or at all. He interviewed a partisan - Ben Barnes - a huge backer of Kerry whose story has changed several times. But because many who hate Bush believe he lied, they are willing to believe any lies that confirm what they already know to be true. "

This is very true, but how many of the rabid "Bush Lied" crowd will agree? My guess is not very many, not many at all.

Blogger Jammies!

The Truth Laid Bear: Proposal: Blogger Jammies! Gotta get me some. In Digital Brown, of course.

Call me Retro, then

New 527 paints Kerry as Metro, Bush as Retro/a> The Captain quoting the 527 site, Retrovsmetro.org

On the Retro side of the cultural divide are those who, in response to their conservative religious beliefs, are pro-life and support prayer in the schools, the display of Christian symbols in public facilities, and publicly funded religious social services. The Republicans who represent them in Congress vote for constitutional amendments to ban flag burning, declare the U.S. a Christian nation, allow tax-exempt religious organizations (but not other nonprofits) to engage in partisan politics, and favor limitations on the First Amendment to combat speech and symbols they perceive as pornographic or unpatriotic. Retro representatives support subsidies to oil, mining and agriculture, but they are opposed to women’s rights, gay and lesbian rights, affirmative action, welfare, organized labor, and taxes of any kind. These are “God, Family, and Flag” folks politically dominated by rural, conservative, white, Fundamentalist Christian populations. Retro America is not the land of co-habiting, unmarried, hetero, or same-sex couples, or of the young seeking cultural excitement in the large Metro cities.

It is to laugh. The US is a Christian nation with a secular government. Just like Turkey and Indonesia are Mulsim nations with secular governments. The retrovsmetro folks clearly don't understand the difference between Fundamentalist Christians and "mere" evangelicals such as myself.

OOOFFF!

Redstate || Collaborative Republicanism for the Masses Remember Batman with Adam West? The difference is that this time, the blows aren't just stunt punches. They are landing on target and doing damage.

DONG... DONG...

Yahoo! News - CBS Defends Report on Bush Guard Memos - But AP casts doubt on CBS's defense! The bell tolls. Ra^ther's 'expert' is a handwriting expert, not a typeface expert. He has no street cred to comment whether the documents were produced on 1972-era hardware. Zero. Zip. Nada. Dan also ignored the family of the now-deceased Lt Col (who in other, indisputably-authentic documents praised Lt Bush), who say that Col Killian didn't keep files, period. Never mind how stupid it would be to write a memo implicating yourself in 'sugar-coating' someone's record. Where did Dancin' Dan get the memos, when, and under what circumstances? And since we're dissecting GWB's records from 30 years ago down to the individual approach-to-landing, where is John Kerry's form 180? Fair is fair, right?

Font wonkery

SHINY HAPPY GULAG: CYA

Finally.

We are so Sorry for 9-11: Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism

Great minds think alike, yet again.

Captain's Quarters: " Voters who manage not to be completely put off by the dishonest[ty] have to ask themselves whether they want the country run by people this flat-out stupid. " They can't forge a two-paragraph memo, and they expect us to trust them with the CIA?

The superior pilot...

...uses superior judgement to avoid situations that require the use of his superior skill. Yahoo! News - Bush Piloted Guard Trainers Before He Quit Non-pilots may view a missed approach as a sign of poor skill, and that's clearly the attempt of this lame smear attempt. As I pilot, I practice go-arounds regularly. Sometimes the wind shifts on short final, or you don't get lined up or stabilized properly, or something else happens. Only a fool tries to salvage a lousy approach. Cob the power, go around, and try it again. In particular, instrument pilots practice missed approaches all the time - if you descend down to the minimum approach altitude and still don't see the field, you declare a missed approach and go around. Kerry's a pilot - somebody ask him whether HE ever executes a missed approach. Oh, that's right, sorry. Kerry doesn't take questions these days. BTW - Since we're looking at Bush's service records in such incredible detail, where are Kerry's?

And they want to be trusted with the CIA?

They can't even forge a two-paragraph memo. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read Powerline, and Hugh Hewitt, INDC Journal, and follow the links from there.

Badda Bing!

INDC Journal: A POINT THAT I'D LIKE TO STRESS Re the ANG forgery. Love it.

Badda Boom

Allah Is In The House: More on the ANG forgery

Bush "AWOL" memos are forgeries

Power Line: The sixty-first minute I am shocked... SHOCKED! that someone would put out forged documents over a dead man's signature that questioned Bush's ANG service.

Space - the final frontier?

The New Atlantis - The Path Not Taken - Rand Simberg Good article. Long, but worth the read.

Bush Guard Records

Yahoo! News Full Coverage - U.S. - Lawsuit Uncovers New Bush Guard Records Golly. The mainstream media once again is all over the details of President Bush's ANG service. Where was he? When? Where's the proof? Who saw him? What did he do? Etc. But when the SwiftVets raise similar questions about John Kerry's service in Vietnam, it's "Smear! Smear! Follow the money!" Hypocricy, thy name is The Press.

OWTCH! Genesis Space Capsule Crashes Into Desert

Oh, this is terribly disappointing. Years of work - and waiting - wasted because the chute didn't deploy. Exploration is inherently risky. Yahoo! News - Genesis Space Capsule Crashes Into Desert

The New York Times > Washington > Times on the Trail > Mutually Assured Deconstruction

The New York Times > Washington > Times on the Trail > Mutually Assured Deconstruction The difference is that Bush was genuinely fumbling for words, as he often does when speaking off-the-cuff. Meh. Moses wasn't much of a public speaker, either, by accounts. Kerry seemed to be deliberately attempting self-deprecating humor. At least I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and call it that. He must have seen some poll internals that showed the positive reaction to Bush's jabs at himself.

No epithets strong enough

A Happy Anniversary? Just read it. Then try to come up with a succint description of the lifeforms (I can't call them 'people') that would join such a celebration.

Headline from 2008: Kerry, As School Toll Tops 350, Vows Fight

Yahoo! News - Putin, As School Toll Tops 350, Vows Fight John Kerry promises to respond forcefully "if" we are attacked. By failing to take the fight to the terrorists, he assures they will take it to us. Putin finally gets it. The only problem is, the Islamist terrorists are now WELL-entrenched within his borders, and so he's going to have to crack down on a scale that will make the American Left's most insane nightmares of Ashcroft's "Amerika" look like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Not gonna be pretty. Still, the fever-swamp-dwelling moonbats can take comfort in the fact that they have brethren overseas (don't they always?)

Marat Avsarayev, a 44-year-old taxi driver in Vladikavkaz, questioned why Putin and other politicians didn't "even think about fulfilling the (militants') demands to save the lives of the children. Probably because it wasn't their children here."

I can partly forgive the grief-stricken taxi driver for thinking that even the lives of several hundred children would be worth caving into terrorist demands, thus assuring further terrorist attacks and threats. It's hard to think long-term when the gun is pointed at your child's head. But know this - the terrorists are counting on such a response. And if your children are NOT directly under the gun, it is stupid, idiotic folly to think otherwise. Yes, Russia is a very different country than the US. Their history of totalitarian goverment is far longer than America's experiment in federal democracy. There will be little internal hue and cry over the coming crackdown. Russians expect and value security far more than they expect and value liberty. I could be wrong, of course, but I suspect not. They have less than a single generation's experience with democracy. There are no parents there with no memories of Soviet rule. Putin, I suspect, has less strength of character than strength of position. But as President Bush pointed out the other night, when you lead a nation that is under attack, whatever strengths you have, you're gonna need 'em. And use them. If you are a praying person, then please pray for Russia. Pray for Russia every day between now and Nov 2. Then vote for President Bush. Because if you don't, you'll be reading the headline above in a year or three.

Hollywood Hell

OpinionJournal - Taste H'wood does a send-up of the evangelical Haunted House movement. The founder of the movement is invited to the premier, shows up, and demonstrates REAL Christianity. Loved the last paragraph.

Another one bites the dust

CBS News | Taliban 'Billy The Kid' Killed | September 2, 2004�09:00:55 Hat tip Instapundit- again!

All Hat...

Slings And Arrows: Kerry's Reaction ZING! (hat tip: Instapundit)

General Franks on PBS before Bush's speech

Saw the Franks interview with Jim Lehrer and Mark Shields etc. on PBS. Shield's attemps to get Franks to get on board with the Swiftvets were laughably transparent. Franks aquitted himself extremely well. He cited a scene described in his book when he was home from Vietnam and his Dad came in while he was putting medals on his uniform in preparation for his next duty assignment. "Lot of medals you have there, son," said the elder Franks. "Well, Dad, over there they hand 'em out in Cracker Jack boxes." "Oh, I'm sure that's not true," replied the father. General Franks continued, (paraphrase) "But that's the sort of thing we - most people - did. That self-deprecating thing, not making too much of it." Ka-POW!! And now, let us move beyond Vietnam and look to the future.

There, there, baby.. don't be afraid... be VERY afraid!

USATODAY.com - Why Democrats shouldn't be scared - Michael Moore channels FDR, and tells the fever-swamp faithful that the only thing they have to fear is fear itself. Wow. When Michael Moore has to hand out aid and comfort, you know it's bad over there. Contrast his bizzaro-world POV with the eminently rational Victor Davis Hanson.

Life goes on, even without the trees

Welcome to the Gnat Belt: "I had made my peace with the death of the elms. There are four century-old elms outside Jasperwood, and they're all going down. Dutch-elm disease. G@$#%mnd beetles. It's sad, I said to Gnat. We were watching a man in a cherrypicker chainsaw his way through a limb that sprouted during FDR's presidency. Too bad for the trees. Too bad, she said. But on the good side, now we'll get lots more blue sky. Yeah! I love sky. I pointed the videocam at her and asked: Do you think you'll remember these trees? No, she said. I don't think I will."

I'm no tree-hugger. But when we lost two grand old trees in the old neighborhood - a magnificent nine-trunked elm, and a massive ancient oak - I nearly wept. Just because. Ah, James, yer a good daddy, ye are.

They would love to do it here, too.

CNN.com - Bloody end to school siege - Sep 3, 2004 Taking over a school, holding children hostage. Setting booby-traps of explosives and shrapnel to kill the rescuers. This is the mindset we're up against. John Kerry says he will respond forcefully when they attack. George Bush will prevent the attack in the first place, by going after the bad guys where they breed. UPDATE: BBC says that nine of the hostage-takers were Arabs. Connections? Linkages? What more do the fever-swamp LLL moonbats need? I have said it before and I will continue to say it: I would rather we fight them over there with Marines and M1A1 tanks, than over here with cops and fire trucks. The Kerry Doctrine is an open invitation to terrorists. For the sake of your children, vote for George W. Bush for President!

The President's Speech

Ten minutes too long, and one or two too many mentions of 9/11 and the War on Terror for my taste. Confronted the WMD issue ok, but re-used standard stump language. Excellent job re ordering troops into battle. Kerry commanded five enlisted men. Bush commanded several dozen generals, plus a couple hundred thousand assorted officers and non-coms. Loved the line, "You know where I stand." If he had delivered it with slightly different inflection and a raised eyebrow, it would have brought down the house. Without a doubt, the gloves are off. The debates will be very interesting. He needed to lay out a domestic agenda, and did. Whether we can afford to pay for it is another matter. I do hope that the increased funding for community colleges makes the cut, for purely personal reasons. The President did a very good job of outlining how promoting democracy makes the world safer by decreasing terrorism. We need to keep hammering that point. Of course, the LLL will jump on that as more imperialism - how DARE we have the hubris to spread democracy and freedom around the world. To which the response must be, "So, what parts of democracy and freedom don't you like?" He needed a home run, no question. This speech was inside the park, but he tagged 'em all.

Thank God for freon, AAA and cell phones

Car broke down in a not-so-nice part of town. Hint - the magazine rack at the c-store carried a number of, shall we say, "special interest" publications. And I ain't talking Car & Driver, or even Mustang Enthusiast. Took 45 minutes waiting in the air-conditioned van for the very nice tow truck driver, whom we followed to the previously-unknown-but-obviously-competent garage. No idea what it'll cost, other than more than I want to spend. Back to the bit-mines - I'm now a day behind where I want to be on my project.

Great Minds Think Alike

Captain's Quarters

Power Line: That's Our Story, and We're Sticking to It

Here's the link to Powerline's blog wrapper for the video in the previous post. Power Line: That's Our Story, and We're Sticking to It

McAuliffe on Cambodia redux

McAuliffe on Cambodia Yesterday on Hewitt, Terry McAuliffe had no idea whether John Kerry had ever been to Cambodia. Today, he tells Powerline's John "Hindrocket" Hinderaker that Kerry went to Cambodia twice, and dropped off a CIA man. I guess it's true, because after all, John Kerry said so! yaright.

Is it typical Democrat double standards, or a failure to percieve reality?

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Terry McAuliffe yesterday. Emphasis mine:

HEWITT: Do you believe that John Kerry took a CIA man into Cambodia and kept his hat? MCAULIFFE: Uh, I have no idea. HEWITT: You have no idea that he made that story to the Washington Post and that he made it again in 2004 to the LA Times? MCAULIFFE: If John Kerry said he did something, I’ll take John Kerry at his word. ... MCAULIFFE: Oh sure, everything matters what people say. Absolutely. George Bush also said that he showed up in the Alabama National Guard and never showed up. HEWITT: You’re still holding that story that he never showed up . . . MCAULIFFE: Hugh, wait a minute. They’ve released the documents and all we’ve got is more questions. He had one dental appointment. Big deal.

Yeah, this is a big deal. A very big deal. The Chairman of the Democratic party (who as Captain Ed pointed out, later admitted in this interview that his job is to tell people Kerry's winning no matter what the truth is), is on record as saying that Kerry's uncorroborated stories about CIA hats and watery borders - stories that have been proven to be at best wild exaggerations if not outright fabrications - are to be taken at face value. At the same time, hard evidence that Bush was where he was when he said he was is completely discounted. Get this straight: There's zero proof that Kerry is telling the truth (and a good deal of evidence that he is not) but Chairman Terry believes him. There's hard evidence that Bush IS telling the truth, but Terry still thinks Bush was AWOL in Alabama. I'm tempted to call this a case of typical Democrat double standards. But it's deeper than that. It's a clear demonstration that Democrats really and truly do not believe in objective reality. "My truth" said the gay governor. "I'm an artist" said Michael Moore, when his "documentary" was shown to be riddles with lies. Truth is what you make of it, in Democratland. This is beyond Moore's Disease. That's just irrational hatred, don't-confuse-me-wth-facts-my-mind-is-made-up. McAuliffe is demonstrating a total break with logic and reality. And he's the Chairman of the Democratic Party.

Kerry at the American Legion

Yahoo! News - Kerry Challenges Bush on Terror Policies The AP writer doesn't mention the reception Kerry got. Or whether he wore his lucky hat when he saluted. Twice. (I'm not a vet, but that just strikes me as a bit cheesy.) Time to check the blogs to get the real news....

Protesters Disrupt Convention Youth Gathering

Yahoo! News - Protesters Disrupt Convention Gathering Ah, yes...there's nothing like being rude and obnoxious - not to mention committing assault and battery - to score political points. I suppose they've got a right to sneak into the convention under false pretenses. Interesting that there were no reports of Republicans doing the same thing a few weeks ago in Boston. Hey Al Gore - would you characterize this as "brownshirt" tactics? And what's with their messages: "Bush Kills" and "Bush Drop Global Debt Now." The former is somewhat understandable (if deeply misguided - imagine wearing a "Saddam Kills" shirt in Baghdad a couple of years ago), but what "global debt" is Bush supposed to "drop?" But hey - they're Bravely Speaking Truth To Power. yaright.

Speaking of the convention

No, I haven't seen a bit of it. My TV is on the fritz, and besides, my reception is lousy. I've gotten all my info from the blogs. Hey, it's a new day, right?

Hitting the big-time

Ok, so getting quoted in Lileks' newspaper column isn't exactly on a par with giving the keynote at the Republican national convention. But hey, it feels pretty good.