WTF?? Roy F. Hoffmann, a retired rear admiral and a leader of the [Swift War Veterans for Truth] group, allowed that he had disagreed with Mr. Kerry’s antiwar positions but said, "I am not going to say anything negative about him." He added, "He’s a good man." In a profile of the candidate that ran in The Boston Globe in … Read More
Florida Black Voter Intimidation Starting Earlier Than Usual
From this NY Times op-ed piece: State police officers have gone into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando and interrogated them as part of an odd "investigation" that has frightened many voters, intimidated elderly volunteers and thrown a chill over efforts to get out the black vote in November. Nice to see the Republican machine isn’t waiting until … Read More
Bush Forgets His Lines
The thing about theater is this — you have to remember your lines. And if you forget them, you shouldn’t tell the audience that. Because then it takes them "out of the moment" and reminds them that they are watching a piece of fiction. Someone should tell that to the President. Here is Bush yesterday at his "Q&A" where he … Read More
Kerry Might Win . . .
. . . if only he’d stop saving the lives of Republicans. First, we heard about Rassmann (the Vietnam Special Forces dude Kerry plucked from the water, a Republican), and now this guy: Former U.S. Sen. Chic Hecht of Nevada is a staunch Republican, but he thanks his lucky stars for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. On … Read More
Bush and Rugby — A True Spoof
Since the time machine is set on 1968 or thereabouts, let’s poke around. Let’s see . . . Kerry may or may not be on a secret mission in Cambodia. Check that. And where’s W? Oh, THERE he is. Playing varsity rugby at Yale: In her new book, “Ten Minutes From Normal,” [former Bush aide Karen] Hughes recounts a conversation … Read More
Cambodia Christmas Controversy For Beginners
Matt Yglesius has the definitive post on Kerry’s Christmas in Cambodia, to wit: This much we know to be true: (1) John Kerry was in Vietnam serving in the vicinity of the Cambodian border (2) John Kerry has said repeatedly that he crossed into Cambodia (3) Some U.S. forces were crossing into Cambodia during the period in question (4) During … Read More
Conservative Guns Now Point at McCain’s Vietnam Record
Cheesed off that Sen. John McCain, while not moving away from his endorsement of Bush, attacked the Swift Boat Veteran ads as "dishonest and dishonorable", certain elements of the so-called "compassionate" right are now taking their shots . . . at McCain . . . again. Check out this editorial from the conservatives’ favorite "I-don’t-believe-it-except-in-a-pinch" source, WorldNetDaily. I swear, if … Read More
Veteran Retracts Criticism of Kerry
WASHINGTON — A week after Senator John F. Kerry heralded his wartime experience by surrounding himself at the Democratic convention with his Vietnam ”Band of Brothers," a separate group of veterans has launched a television ad campaign and a book that questions the basis for some of Kerry’s combat medals. But yesterday, a key figure in the anti-Kerry campaign, Kerry’s … Read More
Bush Administration Officially Goes ‘Round The Bend
The better title for this post is "Trust But Verify", but that was already taken. But seriously, what is up with this? In a significant shift in U.S. policy, the Bush administration announced this week that it will oppose provisions for inspections and verification as part of an international treaty that would ban production of nuclear weapons materials. For several … Read More
Skanks
Back here, I posted about an article in the New Republic, the gist of which was this: A White House aide asked the Pakistani government (specifically, their intelligence agency) to find or kill a high-level al Qaeda operative, adding "it would be best if the arrest or killing . . . were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July" — … Read More
How Money Hurts Politics
I’ve been swooning rather out-of-character for Barack Obama all day, which is why I find this from Matt Yglesius to be particularly disturbing: If the [Democratic] party leaders had had their way, not only would Obama not have been delivering the keynote address at the convention, he wouldn’t be the party’s candidate for U.S. Senate at all. Plan A was … Read More
DNC Day Two – A Perspective
Boy, was last night a night of contrasts. It started off with what I thought was a very bad, and somewhat bizarre, speech by Ted Kennedy. As recognized by Ezra Klein and others, this was one of Kennedy’s major faux pas: "In the depths of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt inspired the nation when he said, ‘The only thing we have … Read More
DNC Day One – A Perspective
Don’t kid yourself. Democrats are pissed. They really really really don’t like Bush. As many on the right have said, Dems dislike Bush more than they like Kerry. How true. Last night’s festival in Boston was clearly an attempt to take that Bush negativity and channel it into Kerry positivity. This was most apparent in Al Gore’s speech, who reminded … Read More
Pentagon Releases Bush’s National Guard Records That Were, um, Destroyed
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon on Friday released payroll records from President Bush’s 1972 service in the Alabama National Guard, saying its earlier contention the records were destroyed was an "inadvertent oversight." (Source) WTF?!? Let’s recap. Bush promised (in his interview with Tom Russert) that he would release all his military records, which he didn’t . . . and when everybody … Read More
The Current Probability of a Kerry Win is 98 percent
So says this Princeton professor (a biologist). I’m not gloating. I think news like that, if widely circulated, will UNenergize the people who actually need to get out their and vote for Kerry. I know a little about statistics, but I’m not sharp enough to find flaws in methodology. Is there anything anyone can find that is flawed? It just … Read More