The Last Ephor

Why is it that Kerry's own biography contradicts his statements about being under fire? On his official website, the timeline is as follows: December 2, 1968: Kerry experiences first intense combat; receives first combat related injury. December 6, 1968: Kerry moved to Coastal Division 11 at An Thoi on Phu Quoc Island December 13, 1968: Kerry moved to Coastal Division 13, Cam Ranh Bay Yet according to Brinkley, Kerry "had just turned 25, on Dec. 11, 1968," when he first saw combat. "They pulled away from the pier at Cat Lo with spirits high, feeling satisfied with the way things were going for them. They had no lust for battle, but they also were were not afraid. Kerry wrote in his notebook, 'A cocky feeling of invincibility accompanied us up the Long Tau shipping channel because we hadn't been shot at yet, and Americans at war who haven't been shot at are allowed to be cocky.'" Kerry returned home calling himself and those he served wit...

This one is a little dusty, but still funny: Democratic National Convention Schedule Boston, Massachusetts 6:00 PM - Opening Flag Burning Ceremony 6:05 PM - Pledge of Allegiance to the U.N. 6:15 PM - Secular Prayers by Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton 6:30 PM - Antiwar Concert by Barbara Streisand 6:40 PM - Ted Kennedy Proposes a Toast 7:00 PM - Tribute to France 7:10 PM - Collect Offerings for al-Zawahri Defense Fund 7:25 PM - Tribute to Germany 7:45 PM - Antiwar Rally (Moderated by Michael Moore) 8:25 PM - Ted Kennedy Proposes a Toast 8:30 PM - Terrorist Appeasement Workshop 9:00 PM - Roundtable Discussion of Taxes: "Calling for Higher Taxes on Others While You Pay None" 9:15 PM - Bill & Hillary Clinton Host a Seminar on "The Successful Selling of White House & Air Force One Mementos on eBay" 9:20 PM - Gay Marriage Ceremony (Both Male and Female Couples) 9:30 PM - * Intermission * Special Guest Soloist Jane Fonda 10:00 PM - Pos...

Do as I say, not as I do: What John Kerry Says... And What He Actually Did John Kerry today : "Had I been reading to children and had my top aide whispered in my ear, 'America is under attack,' I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the president of the United States had something that he needed to attend to -- and I would have attended to it," John Kerry in July on the September 11th attacks : "...And as I came in [to a meeting in Sen. Daschle's office], Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon..."

From the "I Hate You, Please Don't Go" files; A German magazine called DIE ZEIT ran the following story: Just a year and a half ago the majority of Germans were certain the USA and its President represented a greater danger to world peace than Saddam Hussein, and the US armed forces were considered fearsome executors of the sinister US plans for world domination. Now, however, German politicians and union people, who marched at the very front of the peace demonstrations, are pouting and grimacing like children who feel they have been left in the lurch by Daddy because the number one war-monger wants to deny us the trusted presence of our uniformed American friends. From: http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2004/08/a_breath_of_fre.html I *love* this story. The US armed forces is the root of all instability and evil in the world. Now we're taking out ball and going home and now we're lambasted for it. The 180 on this one is so fast I'm surpris...

If Kerry keeps backpedaling this fast he's actually going to be in Cambodia this time. From the Boston Globe : The Kerry campaign removed a 20-page batch of documents yesterday from its website after The Boston Globe quoted a Navy officer who said the documents wrongly portrayed Kerry’s service. Edward Peck had said he — not Kerry — was the skipper of Navy boat No. 94 at a time when the Kerry campaign website credited the senator with serving on the boat. The website had described Kerry’s boat as being hit by rockets and said a crewmate was injured in an attack. But Peck said those events happened when he was the skipper. The campaign did not respond to a request to explain why the records were removed.

According to SFGate.com that noted Warmongering Neocon News Organ, Al-Qaeda funding has been reduced by 90%. Why is this not emblazoned across the NYT front page? It doesn't fit the meta-narrative. That which hurts Bush, A1, above the fold. That which helps the President, gets page A39, next to the obituaries if at all. Here's the link http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/22/MNGTS8CIL81.DTL

http://www.nationalreview.com/kerry/kerry200408230910.asp Yes, they did question Bob Dole's medals in '96. Where was the outrage then? I wonder.

More conversations with Patrick. For the uninitiated Patrick is an interesting character. He's a regular on a message board I frequent and an ardent libertarian. He's also a militantly pro-life vegan. He derides carnivores as "speciesist" and is equally hard on abortion proponents. He's very bright and also owns his own business if you believe what he says on the boards. (I do.) Anyway, here's one of our exchanges. My repsonse is dashed off and I wish I had more time to talk about it but here goes: How do liberals think? What goes on inside their minds? I've often wondered that. I know what they want: abortion, racial quotas, multiculturalism, gay marriage, socialized medicine, big government, big taxes, suppression of religion, decrease in national sovereignty, political correctness, etc - but what motivates them? Why do they think the way they do? What would it seem like to be in the mind of a liberal? I think you ascribe motives to...

Why oh why? Wife: Let's go shopping. Me: For what? Wife; Curtains. Me: Why do I have to go? Wife: Because I need your opinion! Me: I don't have one, they're curtains and I'm a guy. Wife: What if I buy something and you don't like it? Me: I'm sure whatever you buy will be fine. If not, I promise not to complain. [this continues for several minutes until I'm in the car and on the way to the curtain store] Wife: How about these for the kitchen? Me: Looks good. Wife: You're not even looking at them!! Me: (looking up from book I'm reading) Ok, now I am. They look great. Wife: You're just saying that, you don't even care. Me: That's true. Wife: I don't know why I bring you Me: (thinking) Me either Wife: Next time I'm just going to go by myself and you can stay home! Me: Good! That's what I've been asking for. We'll both be much happier that way. Of course she always for...

Some of the stuff I"m dumping here is my crossing swords with a Bushater who styles himself "BlackJack": >This runour has been fully debunked, >and is only being propagated >by nitwits such as yourself. And nitwits like the guy who treated John Kerry's *ahem* wound. http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200405041626.asp I'm sure he's just a Karl Rove plant as part of the Bushitler Neocon Chickenhawk Blood-for-oil brigade. (I tried to squeeze in rightwing fundamentalist evangelical Christian but I just couldn't make it work). > > >http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/service.asp Snopes makes no mention of the good Dr.'s comments as they are new. > >Never mind the fact that Kerry >did win a Silver Star >and Bronze Star in addition >to his Purple Hearts (for >whatever level of injury sustained), >the more important point is >simply that he was there. That is partly th...

This one is dead on. I know the comments are short and lame but I need to post this stuff before I lose it. More comments to follow soon. Promise. Let Europeans save Sudanese Tribune Editorial Maybe what is happening in the western Sudan province of Darfur doesn't meet, as Secretary of State Colin Powell says, "the definition of genocide," but reports from journalists and aid workers make it clear that something gruesome is going on. While Darfur lacks the methodical slaughter of Rwanda in 1994, the figures are alarming enough, according to Western estimates: 30,000 dead, 1 million made refugees and 300,000 more likely to die this summer of starvation and disease. The violence, sadly, is not new in Sudan, where there has been a running civil war between the Islamic and Arab north and the Christian and animist black south. Periodically, truces are announced and then broken. The largely Arab central government promises to end the fighting but never does. The...

Some quotes from our friends in re: Iraq http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373295039&p=1012571727085 [b]However, European intelligence officers have now revealed that three years before the fake documents became public, human and electronic intelligence sources from a number of countries picked up repeated discussion of an illicit trade in uranium from Niger. One of the customers discussed by the traders was Iraq. These intelligence officials now say the forged documents appear to have been part of a "scam", [u]and the actual intelligence showing discussion of uranium supply has been ignored.[/u][/b] The FT has now learnt that three European intelligence services were aware of possible illicit trade in uranium from Niger between 1999 and 2001. [b]Human intelligence gathered in Italy and Africa more than three years before the Iraq war had shown Niger officials referring to possible illicit uranium ...

Let's check the wayback machine! http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9902/13/afghan.binladen/ Bin Laden reportedly leaves Afghanistan, whereabouts unknown Taliban authorities did not confirm or deny reports that bin Laden had left Afghanistan February 13, 1999 Web posted at: 10:55 a.m. EST (1547 GMT) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire accused by the United States of plotting bomb attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa, has left Afghanistan , Afghan sources said Saturday. Bin Laden's whereabouts were not known, said the sources who declined to be identified. The report of his departure comes just days after the Taliban Islamic militia, which rules most of Afghanistan, took away his satellite telephone and banned bin Laden from speaking to the media. Taliban authorities in the militia's southern stronghold of Kandahar refused to either confirm or deny reports that bin Laden had left the country. The Taliban have called bin Lade...

Some humor for today. Hat tip: www.Frontpagemag.com You might be a Leftist if.... You believe John Ashcroft poses a greater danger to America than Osama bin Laden You think President Bush lied to the nation but his predecessor did not. You believe President Bush is too dumb to be President and Arnold Schwarzenegger is too dumb to be Governor of California, but the Dixie Chicks, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Barbra Streisand, Eddie Vedder and Jeanine Garofalo are qualified to discourse at length on foreign policy. You believe all conservatives are racist, but do not think minorities can ever succeed without Affirmative Action. You can't decide which is worse: the Patriot Act or the Patriot Missile. You believe Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Il, and Yasser Arafat were fairly and democratically elected, but President Bush was not. You root for prisoners when they escape from our oppressive prisons, but oppose allowing poor children to escape from failing public schools. You suppo...

It's old news now but Pat Tillman is dead. He was an NFL football player who turned down a multimillion dollar contract to join the Rangers. He was killed when the helocopter he was flying in was attacked. I mulled this over for the past week or so and didn't really think I had much to add. I now think, this is the most fitting tribute: To An Athlete Dying Young THE time you won your town the race We chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by, And home we brought you shoulder-high. To-day, the road all runners come, Shoulder-high we bring you home, And set you at your threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town. Smart lad, to slip betimes away From fields where glory does not stay, And early though the laurel grows It withers quicker than the rose. Eyes the shady night has shut Cannot see the record cut, And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has s...

One of the main memes coming from the Left these days is that Bush lied about Iraq having WMD’s. All of the other nations and NGO’s that agreed that Iraq had WMD’s are dismissed as irrelevant. All that matters is that Bush [b]knew[/b] that they did not and went to war, not on bad information but on a lie. First an example of the irrelevant findings of any non-US nation: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3639977.stm Denmark has declassified intelligence reports compiled before the Iraq war which show officials thought Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. In one report, Iraq was thought to have both chemical and biological weapons, as well as an active nuclear programme. Leftists will tell you this didn’t matter b/c Bush knew that the above information was false and the and his Neocon cabal “cherry picked” intelligence to support the conclusion they wanted. Iraq had WMD’s. Now, however, Bob Woodward has a new book out. This complicates matters for the intelle...

Some have called Khaddafi/Quadaffi/The curly haired guy from Lybia's willingness to negotiate as "pre-emptive surrender" there has been much wondering about North Korea. They have violated every agreement they've ever signed before the ink was even dry. In the latest news, they've agreed to let US inspectors into the nuclear facility. See here: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040102/1/3h0k2.html However, this does not by any means approach the scale of the inspections Lybia is going to allow. Is this truly progress in the "38th parallel problem"? Or just more wiliness from the "Dear Leader"? I vote for the latter. That he's willing to allow us access only tells me there's nothing to see. When there is, they usually hue and cry about the need for compensation for such inspections. Further, there is evidence of late that when Pakistan tested it's first nuclear bomb much of their help was from North Korea. The second explosion several days ...

I've talked about this one before and I contend that not only are the Palestinians waging war against Israel, they are engaging in a proxy war against us. Further, the EU knows this and they are funding this proxy war by giving countless euros to Arafathead and turning a blind eye to how the money is spent. According to this article: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=54963 An MEP from Germany's Green Party said exactly that. The Europeans," explained MP Schroeder, "supported the Palestinian Authority with the aim of becoming its main sponsor, and through this, challenge the U.S. and present themselves as the future global power. Therefore, the Al-Aksa Intifada should be understood as a proxy war between Europe and the United States." "It is an open secret within the European Parliament that EU aid to the Palestinian Authority has not been spent correctly," MP Schroeder said during a recent address in New York. "The European Parlia...

I've added some bolding below for emphasis. Amazing how liberals are always claiming they're in favor of free speech yet as soon as it's a conservative voice they retreat into the notion that they need not protect "hate" speech. We also hear about how authority figures who denounce or decry unpopular speech are having a "chilling effect" that in essence, gags those with unpopular views. We've heard this from the anti-war crowd over and over when they accused Bush of everything up to rounding up dissenters in to Ashcroft's gulags. Yet the science teacher below parodies the student letter and labels them "wingnuts" who "claim to be American." I can only imagine the din from trampling wejuns of the ACLU shock brigades that would sound if this was some teacher talking about "godless communists" who "claimed to be American." A dissenting student hounded for his views By Valerie Richardson THE WASHINGTON TI...

Howard Dean has shown himself to be unfit for the Presidency several times this week. First up, announcing that he'd break up Fox because they are ideologically opposed to him. The gobsmacking hubris of this is just beyond the pale. Don't try and tell me he was joking, he wasn't. I saw the tape. http://www.msnbc.com/news/1000254.asp?cp1=1 [i]MATTHEWS: Well, would you break up GE? (APPLAUSE) DEAN: I can`t -- you... MATTHEWS: GE just buys Universal. Would you do something there about that? Would you stop that from happening? DEAN: You can`t say -- you can`t ask me right now and get an answer, would I break up X corp... ...[/i] [GE owns NBC and MSNBC. But a little later: ] [i]Matthews continued: "Would you break up Fox?" (LAUGHTER) MATTHEWS: I`m serious. DEAN: I`m keeping a... MATTHEWS: Would you break it up? Rupert Murdoch has "The Weekly Standard." It has got a lot of other interests. It has got "The New York Post." ...