John Ellis Says It All

3/11

Europe is in now. That's what 3/11 means. They thought they could straddle it, let the storm blow by. But it just blew up in Madrid and every member state of the EU understands that Madrid is Rome is Berlin is Amsterdam is Paris is London is New York.

As a lot of people in the US have been saying for a long time, this isn't terrorism, this is a world war. On one side is a death cult that seeks global domination. On the other is democratic capitalism and what historians call "western and oriental civilizations." Know this about the death cult: the minute they get nuclear devices they will use them. In major urban areas. The minute they get aerosol small pox, they will use it. At airports and train stations and malls. These people worship death. It is their true religion.

Killing them is now the job of every western and oriental government. Every last one of them. The UN probably won't join us in this pre-emptive war against terrorism. But the EU will be along shortly. Eight million people in Spain didn't take to the streets because they were "traumatized," as one of the nitwit news channels put it. They took to the streets because they were furious about what happened in Madrid. Every politician in the EU understood the ramifications.

Game on. The game is kill every terrorist that walks.

And the appeasement crowd can go pound sand.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:40 AM -

 
It's not a problem, it's an opportunity!

Great flying carp! Fish a threat to boaters, skiers

Remember these Asian fish species: silver carp and bighead carp.

You will likely hear their names many times as Kentucky and neighboring states try to prevent the two invasive species from destroying sport and commercial fisheries, and endangering recreational boaters and water skiers.

If you are boating or skiing on the Ohio or Mississippi Rivers, in their backwater lakes or in many of their tributaries, you may see silver carp jumping several feet out of the water, or even into your boat.

Some fishermen in Western Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois have resorted to using garbage can lids, lawn chairs and other homemade shields to ward off the torpedo-shaped fish while their boats are moving.

Yeehaw! I'd be tempted to say you need someone in the bow with a baseball bat, but these suckers are big.

One fisherman was running up behind an island over here at 15 (to) 20 miles an hour, and about a 40-pounder jumped out and hit him right in the chest," said commercial fisherman Ronny Hopkins of Compliance Fish and Caviar in Livingston County, Ky. "He was down for two weeks. If he hadn't been sitting in a tractor seat with a solid back, it would have knocked him out of the boat."

Hopkins said he has had as many as 15 to 20 silver carp jump into his boat while running commercial nets, and various reliable accounts suggest that the silver carp, the most likely to jump, can rise 8 to 10 feet out of the water.

"They react to a boat and just go wild," said Benjy Kinman, the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife director of fisheries. "If somebody bangs something or stomps on the floor of an aluminum boat — if they're up in a little creek mouth or something — they'll all jump out of the water like popcorn."

Hmmm, why not think of it like skeet shooting? Pull!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:35 AM -

 
Today's Hoot

David Brooks regales us with The Boston Fog Machine:

The 1990's were a confusing decade. The certainties of the cold war were gone and new threats appeared. It fell to one man, John Kerry, the Human Nebula, to bring fog out of the darkness, opacity out of the confusion, bewilderment out of the void.

Kerry established himself early as the senator most likely to pierce through the superficial clarity and embrace the miasma. The gulf war had just ended. It was time to look back for lessons learned. "There are those trying to say somehow that Democrats should be admitting they were wrong" in opposing the gulf war resolution, Kerry noted in one Senate floor speech. But he added, "There is not a right or wrong here. There was a correctness in the president's judgment about timing. But that does not mean there was an incorrectness in the judgment other people made about timing."

The next crisis occurred in Somalia. Again, the U.S. Senate faced what appeared to lesser minds as a clear choice: to withdraw in the wake of U.S. casualties or not to withdraw. The oxymoronically gifted junior senator from Massachusetts perceived an equivocation between the modalities: "The choice for the United States of America is not between two alternatives only: staying in or getting out. There are many other choices in-between which better reflect the aspirations and hopes of our country."

Kerry backed a policy of interventionist withdrawal, which jibed with the "third way" option embraced by President Bill Clinton himself. As Kerry noted, "I think that the president today made the right decision to try to establish a process which will maintain the capacity of our forces, protect them, and to disengage while simultaneously upholding the mission we have set out to accomplish."

The Balkan crisis emerged, and again the Congress seemed to face a tough decision, whether to authorize the use of American force. But then the Boston Fog Machine rolled in: "It is important to remember that this resolution does not authorize the use of American ground troops in Bosnia, nor does it specifically authorize the use of air or naval power. It simply associates the U.S. Senate with the current policies of this administration and of the Security Council." The vote, Kerry concluded, was over whether to associate with a process that would determine certain necessary conditions involving uncertain modalities, which must be explored, in order to reach certain desirable ends.

The Iraq problem returned in 1998, and Kerry proved again that there is no world crisis so grave it can't be addressed with a fusillade of subordinate clauses. Teams of highly trained spelunkers have descended into the darkness of the floor speech he gave on Oct. 10, 1998, searching for meaning, though none have returned alive.

Ole Lurch sure is nuanced!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:11 AM -

 
Maybe he hears them talking to him inside his head?

Kerry fails to back up foreign 'endorsements'

Sen. John Kerry refuses to provide any information to support his assertion earlier this week that he has met with foreign leaders who beseeched him to prevail over President Bush in November's election.

The Massachusetts Democrat has made no official foreign trips since the start of last year, according to Senate records and his own published schedules. And an extensive review of Mr. Kerry's travel schedule domestically revealed only one opportunity for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to meet with foreign leaders here.

Actually, that's real generous to the Botox Boy. It turns out that on one of Lurch's rare visits to the site of his day job in Washington D.C., the New Zealand Foreign Minister was in town the same day in meetings at the State Department.

On Monday, Mr. Kerry told reporters in Florida that he'd met with foreign leaders who privately endorsed him.

"I've met with foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly," he said. "But, boy, they look at you and say: 'You've got to win this. You've got to beat this guy. We need a new policy.' Things like that."

Aides and supporters of Mr. Kerry have said providing names of the leaders or their countries would injure those nations' ongoing relations with the current Bush administration.

"In terms of who he's talked to, we're not going to discuss that," spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said yesterday. "I know it would be helpful, but we're not going into that. His counsels are kept private."

Bwahahaha. You could always try "he can't remember," Steph!

Mr. Kerry has made other claims during the campaign and then refused to back them up, including statements that Mr. Bush delayed the deal with Libya to give up its weapons of mass destruction program for political reasons.

Republicans have begun calling Mr. Kerry the "international man of mystery," and said his statements go even beyond those of former Vice President Al Gore, who was besieged by stories that he lied or exaggerated throughout the 2000 presidential campaign.

This is better than Kuku and the orbital mind control lasers! But Botox Boy as Austin Powers? Hmm, rearranging the letters in "JOHN KERRY" does spell "HORNY JERK".

And speaking of the rare occasions when Botox Boy shows up at his day job, he was there yesterday to pal around with the other Donk Senators in a photo op. Here's a snap. Does that look like the bar scene is Star Wars or what?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:44 AM -

 
Support for Spain

Glenn Reynolds has the information for flowers for the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C. There will also be a memorial service there today. An email of condolence would be nice as well.

Mark Steyn sums it up best in an online column which quotes from an article he wrote after the Bali bombing in 2002:

The Independent's Robert Fisk thinks the Aussies were targeted for a more specific reason - blowback for being too cosy with the Great Satan: "The French have already paid a price for their initial support for Mr Bush. ...

I wonder if it was a cautious editor who added "initial" to that French "support for Mr Bush". The French were supportive for about ten minutes after 11 September, but for most of the last year have been famously and publicly non-supportive: throughout the spring, their foreign minister, M. Vedrine, was deploring American "simplisme" on a daily basis. The French veto is still Saddam's best shot at torpedoing any meaningful UN action on Iraq. If you were to pick only one Western nation not to blow up the oil tankers of, the French would be it.

But they got blown up anyway. And afterwards a spokesman for the Islamic Army of Aden said, "We would have preferred to hit a US frigate, but no problem because they are all infidels."

No problem. They are all infidels.

Unlike Mr Fisk, I don't have decades of expertise in the finer points of Islamic culture, so when people make certain statements and their acts conform to those statements I tend to take them at their word. As Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah, neatly put it, "We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you." The first choice of Islamists is to kill Americans and Jews, or best of all an American Jew - like Daniel Pearl, the late Wall Street Journal reporter. Failing that, they're happy to kill Australians, Britons, Canadians, Swedes, Germans, as they did in Bali. We are all infidels.

And now Spaniards. "We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you." And by "you", they mean not just arrogant Texan cowboys, but any pluralist society - whether a relaxed tourist resort like Bali or a modern Muslim nation like Turkey or - come to that, one day down the road - a cynical swamp of appeasement like France.

Sure it might be the homegrown thugs of the ETA instead of the Islamofascists, but it doesn't make any difference. You can't live with rabid dogs. Kill 'em all.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:04 AM -

 
Look what's under this rock!

Ex-Congressional Aide Charged With Spying

A former journalist and congressional press secretary was arrested Thursday on charges she acted as an Iraqi spy before and after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, accepting $10,000 for her work, prosecutors said Thursday.

Susan Lindauer, 41, was arrested in her hometown of Takoma Park, Md., and was to appear in court later in the day in Baltimore, authorities in New York said.

She was accused of conspiring to act as a spy for the Iraqi Intelligence Service and engaging in prohibited financial transactions involving the government of Iraq under dictator Saddam Hussein.

Lindauer worked at Fortune, U.S. News & World Report and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer before beginning her career as a political publicist. She worked for then U.S. Rep. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., before joining the office of former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun as press secretary in 1996.
...
Moseley-Braun's current spokesperson, Loretta Kane, said the former senator does not remember Lindauer.

Ole Carol's always been a bit short in the memory department.

More than a half dozen FBI agents could be seen searching Lindauer's residence in Takoma Park, a city known for its liberal views. Her neighbors recalled her as friendly.
...
But Malvina Lacey, who lives next door to Lindauer, added, "She lives in a fantasy world."

Sounds like a perfect job description! The full indictment is at The Smoking Gun.

When this first broke, it was just "an American woman," but then the crew on FR went to work. Aside from being a member of a variety of leftoid "peace" organizations, Susie was most recently a spokesman for Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Outer Space) where she showed up spreading the good vibes to permit noncitizen security screeners to retain their jobs at San Francisco airport. She was also notable for trying to horn in on the Lockerbie terror bombing with a story that Libya didn't really do it.

Hey, she could always try the illegal war defense. Isn't that what John Kerry claimed when he lead the VVAW delegation to Paris to surrender to negotiate with the North Vietnamese?

UPDATE: Newsday/AP keeps updating the story at the first link so it has now picked up a lot of the background info. It also has some words from Brainiac:

"I'm an anti-war activist and I'm innocent," Lindauer told WBAL-TV as she was led to a car outside the Baltimore FBI office. "I did more to stop terrorism in this country than anybody else. I have done good things for this country. I worked to get weapons inspectors back to Iraq when everyone else said it was impossible. I'm very proud and I'll stand by my achievements."

See, I knew she would try the Kerry defense. My understanding is that hanging isn't on the table. Too bad.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 2:30 PM -

 
We're from the UN. We're here to help. Ourselves.

Claudia Rossett has the latest on the scandal in the unlamented United Nations' Oil for Bureaucrats Food program. And guess who's a star player? It's Kofi's son, Kojo! Hey, what good's having a dad who's a big bureaucrat, if you can't get a gig?

And speaking of bloated bureaucrats, there's always Benon Sevan, the big UN cheese at Oil for Bureaucrats. If you like forensic accounting of financial swindles, you'll love Therese Raphael's article today in the WSJ on Bevon's entry on Saddam's payroll.

Hey, I have an idea! Why don't we put the UN in charge of the world's oceans?

When I first heard of the LOST (Law Of the Sea Treaty), it sounded like a bad plot for a science-fiction movie.

In the '60s and '70s, when the United Nations organized and led a series of conferences on the Law of the Sea, most considered the idea too weird to be taken seriously.

However, this maritime nightmare is about to become a reality.

The LOST was hatched by a group of internationalists who want to give the United Nations control of seven-tenths of the earth's surface area. It creates an International Seabed Authority to regulate the vast oceans and everything that happens beneath these waters, as well as everything that travels above or below their surfaces.

In addition, it would – for the very first time – create a revenue stream for the United Nations and give this onerous international bureaucracy true independence from its member nations.

Under the LOST, the United Nations would have the power to tax any and every type of sea-going vessel, as well as any type of ocean research and exploration. In fact, it would give the United Nations absolute control of these activities.

Be still my heart! And the best part is that everything wet will be run by a crack United Nations Authority that has already been set up with a headquarters in Jamaica. Maybe Kojo needs a little fun in the sun!

The only real question is why the Bush Administration and the Republicans in Congress are playing along with this farce.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:58 AM -

 
Apropos of the post immediately below

A reader suggests that I shouldn't be so grumpy about the upper crust offering to straighten out us little people:



because if they didn't, we'd never have campaign scenes like:



(Second photo is from Allah.)

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 1:05 AM -

 
Noblesse Oblige Alert!

The guiding principle of today's Democrat party seems to be that a collection of trust fund babies should tell us little people what to do because, well, they're better than we are. Yeah, I know there are the Hollywierdos, the union thugs, and the race baiters along for the ride, but the storyline is that it's the idle rich folks like John and Teresa Kerry who will uplift us petit bourgeois types and make us do the right thing despite our selfish inclinations. After all, they know best.

I don't rightly care what the silver spoon crowd believes in its heart of hearts, but it's always mildly amusing when this meme surfaces from their brown nosers in the press. The other day I mentioned a Deutsche Welle article whose author waxed ecstatic that

While Bush has had limited foreign travel experience -- when he was 21 he listed his only foreign travel as a vacation trip to Scotland -- Kerry attended a Swiss boarding school and when he receives envoys from Paris in Washington, he chats with them in fluent French. His wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, was born in Mozambique, studied in South Africa and Switzerland and is fluent in five languages herself.

Of course, they failed to mention ole Jawnee regularly vacations in France:

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Johnny to his French friends, is much loved in the Brittany seaside town of St. Briac best known for its golf and harbor.

Francois, a bar keeper there, said, "We see him every summer -- he is Chirac's revenge against America."

Woohoo, we're talking impeccable credentials here. Maybe if Jawnee got elected, he would have a "French White House" during the summer instead of some dusty place inhabited by the hoi polloi like Crawford, Texas.

But if you want to really tap into this kind of stuff, you need to check this gusher about Teresa:

"I realize both through the work I'm doing and everything that's happening in the world and in our own country, we have to put ourselves forth, and that it's going to take all of our effort to really improve the country," Heinz Kerry said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Maybe she wants to redecorate!

That's not to say Teresa (pronounced teh-RAY'-zah) was immediately warm to the idea of Kerry running for the White House, which inevitably has taken her away from her full-time work on environmental, health care and women's issues as head of the $1.2 billion Heinz Foundation endowment.

"I decided at my age I have no more right to be selfish. That's how I decided," she said.

TehRAYzah's full time work seems to be passing out her dead husband's dough to left wing wackos like the Tides Foundation, but I digress. Isn't it swell that she took time out from her busy schedule to help out us little people?

"She's in touch with so many important issues that are associated with this country: the environment, human rights, dealings with issues of poverty and race, and so forth, all of which she's quite conversant in and passionate about," said Bill Strickland, a longtime friend of the Heinzes and president and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corp., a job training center in Pittsburgh.
...
Wealth has extended certain other privileges to Heinz Kerry. She owns homes in Idaho, Nantucket, Mass., Pittsburgh and the Georgetown section of Washington. She has a private jet at her disposal. She and Kerry once paid to have a fire hydrant moved from near their $7 million home in the historic Beacon Hill section of Boston after her car was ticketed for parking too close.

And she cares about us!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 6:58 PM -

 
More Flipflop News!



Kerry Slams Russia and France (in 1997)

Every time I look up from the keyboard there’s a new story about John Kerry’s mind-boggling hypocrisy making the rounds.

The latest: he relentlessly slams George Bush for not getting Europe on our side in the Iraq War—but in 1997 he expressed the completely opposite opinion about Clinton’s preparations to attack Iraq, even deriding Russia and France: Kerry Praised Clinton for Snubbing Iraq War Allies.

He didn't think much of the UN, either.

Hmm, it would be a sight easier if we just tracked the issues where Jawnee doesn't change his position all the time.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:24 AM -

 
I guess he won't be shooting any more 69 year old guys in wheelchairs

Achille Lauro Hijacker Abbas Dies

Abul Abbas, the Palestinian mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro passenger ship in which an American tourist was killed, has died in U.S. custody in Iraq, Palestinian and U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Take it away, Jen:

Tell Satan to throw some more wood on the barbie 'cause Abu's coming down!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:05 AM -

 
Retard meets his petard!

White Champion of 'Diversity' Rages at Loss to Black

Oops. It seems that supposedly liberal supporters of what they call "affirmative action" have second thoughts when they're the victims of it.

U.S. Rep. Chris Bell, a freshman "European-American" Democrat in Texas, is furious after being crushed in the primary yesterday by Al Green, a former head of Houston's chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Bell, placed in a mostly non-white area by redistricting, courtesy of the majority Republicans, fumed, "I'm not going to stand here and pretend that it's not somewhat heartbreaking when you've spent your entire career in public service fighting for diversity, championing diversity, to suddenly be placed in a situation where many people do not want to look past the color of your skin."

Where's my violin? I feel a big sad coming on.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:22 AM -

 
More on the Wingnut Billionaires' Campaign Fund

Democrats forming parallel campaign

Led by veterans of presidential and congressional campaigns, a coalition of Democratic Party interest groups, armed with millions of dollars in soft money, is rapidly constructing an unprecedented political operation designed to supplement the activities of Sen. John F. Kerry's campaign in the effort to defeat President Bush.

The newest visible sign of the coalition's activities will be seen beginning today, when a $5 million advertising campaign begins in 17 battleground states. But behind the scenes, Democratic operatives are moving to set up coordinated national and state-by-state operations that amount to the equivalent of a full presidential campaign, minus the candidate.

Why bother? It's because of "campaign finance reform."

This parallel Democratic campaign, already under legal challenge, grows out of changes in campaign finance laws. Those changes prohibit the national party committees from raising and spending soft money -- large, unregulated contributions -- on behalf of their presidential candidates. The Democrats have taken the expertise they developed in past campaigns and applied it to the new, separate operation. By law, coalition members cannot coordinate with the campaign of Kerry (Mass.), the presumptive Democratic candidate.
...
The Democratic coalition includes many of the party's most experienced strategists, spokesmen and fundraisers, as well former staffers for Kerry's campaign and the campaigns of several of his rivals. They include Ickes, who was deputy White House chief of staff in the Clinton administration, Steve Rosenthal, a former political director for the AFL-CIO who is executive director of ACT, and Jim Jordan, formerly Kerry's campaign manager, who heads Thunder Road Group.

Bill Knapp, who did ads for the Gore and Clinton presidential campaigns the past three elections, oversees the advertising operation for the Media Fund. Five pollsters, several with presidential experience, are sharing the coalition's survey research work.

Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Say no more.

And where are they getting the dough? All the usual wealthy wingnuts:

The Democratic 527 organizations have drawn support from some wealthy liberals determined to defeat Bush. They include financier George Soros and his wife, Susan Weber Soros, who gave $5 million to ACT and $1.46 million to MoveOn.org; Peter B. Lewis, CEO of the Progressive Corp., who gave $3 million to ACT and $500,000 to MoveOn; and Linda Pritzker, of the Hyatt hotel family, and her Sustainable World Corp., who gave $4 million to the joint fundraising committee.

If it were Republicans doing this, we would be hearing about the tyranny of the wealthy plutocrats evading the campaign finance laws until the cows come home. As it stands now, the Republican war chest is made up of many small contributions although as the article relates, if the Federal Election Commission doesn't stamp out these shenanigans, they plan to start their own "separate" organizations to keep up.

Oh yeah, who were the big backers of "campaign finance reform?" George Soros and the Democrats. Are they simply crooks or is their position just nuanced?

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:13 AM -

 
Good ole Traitor John! (part 2)

Retired Admiral, former Vietnam POW, and former Senator Jeremiah Denton weighs in with Who's Kerry?

Knowing that I served in the U.S. Senate with John Kerry and that, like him, I am a veteran of the Vietnam War, many people have asked me what I think of him, particularly now that he's the apparent presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.

When Kerry joined me in the Senate, I already knew about his record of defamatory remarks and behavior criticizing U.S. policy in Vietnam and the conduct of our military personnel there. I had learned in North Vietnamese prisons how much harm such statements caused.

To me, his remarks and behavior amounted to giving aid and comfort to our Vietnamese and Soviet enemies.

That's what it looks like to me too.

So I was not surprised when his subsequent overall voting pattern in the Senate was consistently detrimental to our national security.

Does a skunk smell?

Considering his demonstrated popularity during the Democratic primaries, I earnestly hope the American people will soberly consider Kerry's qualifications for the presidency in light of his position and record on both our cultural war at home and on national security issues.

To put it bluntly, John Kerry exemplifies the very reasons that I switched to the Republican Party. Like the majority in his political party, he has proven by his words and actions that his list of priorities -- his ideas on what most needs to be done to improve this country -- are almost opposite to my own.
...
As a nation, we are now at the point of no return. The good guys are finally angry enough to join the fray, and I pray we are not too late.

John Kerry is not among the good guys. The Democratic Party isn't, either.

Indeed, on the subject of national security, John Kerry epitomizes a fatal weakness in the Democratic Party.

During the decisive days of the Cold War, after the Democratic Party changed during the mid-1960s, the party was on the wrong side of every strategic debate on policy regarding Vietnam and the USSR, and is now generally on the wrong side in the war on terrorism.

The truth is that the Cold War was barely won by a narrow margin -- a victory and a margin determined by the political choices made by our government regarding suitable steps to deter Soviet attack and finally win the Cold War.

If the U.S. had followed the Democratic Party line, the Cold War would have concluded with the U.S. having to surrender without a fight, or the U.S. would have been defeated in a nuclear war with acceptable losses to the USSR.

It was not Johnson and Carter and the Democrats; it was Nixon, Reagan, George Bush and the Republicans who led us to victory in the Cold War.

And George W. Bush and the Republican majority -- not John Kerry and the Democrats -- can lead us to victory in the war on terrorism.

The fact is that the Democrat party at the national level has been taken over by USA loathing leftists of the most pernicious type. The good news is that they don't have the Soviet Union and China to ally themselves with anymore. The bad news is that they will pal around with any Third World thug they can find.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:46 AM -

 
Brainiac spotted working for the AP!

(Via Best of the Web) U.S. Marines Say They Killed Haiti Gunman:

The marchers ended up on the vast Champs de Mars plaza in front of the National Palace and chanted that Aristide stand trial for alleged corruption and killings committed by his armed militants.

Several witnesses said they saw Aristide militants open fire from the roof of the Rex movie theater across the plaza.

U.S. Marine Col. Charles Gurganus said gunfire broke out on the northeast corner of the plaza and several people were wounded before Marines spotted two gunmen. When the gunmen tried to attack the Marines, the troops shot and killed one of them, he said, adding that he did not know what happened to the other man.

Asked how he knew the man killed was a gunman, Gurganus said: "He had a gun, and he was shooting at Marines. That's what I call a gunman."

Indeed and now he's dead. That's what I call a gunman who shoots at Marines.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:42 PM -

 
Good ole Traitor John!

But it isn't some sort of bizarre M*A*S*H remake because this time he has the "little woman" along - (Mrs.) Kerry's Cash Connection:

To hear some folks tell it, families of the 9/11 victims have risen en masse to denounce President Bush for using brief images from Ground Zero in his campaign commercials.

We have no doubt that the use of the images is appropriate - given that the president's leadership in the wake of 9/11, and his conduct of the War on Terror, are under drumbeat assault by John Kerry and the Democrats.

But now it turns out that this whole furor is driven by a tiny group that's motivated by a far-left agenda and a festering hatred of the president - and has some quite dubious financial ties.

Leading the rhetorical charge has been an outfit called September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows - which, the group admits, has only a few dozen members and represents relatives of no more than 1 percent of the 9/11 victims.

More to the point, the group was formed specifically to oppose the entire War on Terror: Not just the campaign against Saddam Hussein, but also the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Indeed, the group's leaders traveled to Afghanistan, drawing a detestable moral equivalence between the 9/11 attacks and U.S. bombing of the Taliban and opposing "violent responses to terrorism."

Then, before the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a Peaceful Tomorrows delegation went to Baghdad to "demonstrate solidarity" with Iraqis - a move that Saddam's deputy, Tariq Aziz, termed at the time "a very important international development."

They also demanded that Congress set up a $20 million fund to compensate Afghan "victims" of the U.S. military.

And back in January 2003, the group said had it had gotten a "verbal commitment" to the fund proposal from the junior senator from Massachusetts - John F. Kerry.

Little surprise there - because Peaceful Tomorrows' parent group, the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation, has received millions from foundations controlled by Kerry's heiress wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

What a nice batch of pond scum! But that's only fitting because Teresa says her late husband's bucks are only going to the Tides Foundation to help the environment in Pennsylvania. Sure Terry, they would be my first choice for that too!

But money is fungible - and the Tides Foundation has a lot more than greening the earth on its plate.

It has given millions to anti-war groups since 9/11 - particularly the extremist MoveOn.org.

Tides has also funded groups like United for a Fair Economy, which has been involved in violent anti-globalization street protests.

For example, the Ruckus Society, which was largely responsible for the anarchy in Seattle in 1999 and trains would-be environmental terrorists in the practice of "monkey-wrenching" - the willful destruction of construction equipment and so on.

Tides gets much of its funds from philanthropists like Mrs. Kerry and billionaire George Soros - who has made defeating President Bush his top personal priority.

As Richard Berman, director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, told Congress in 2002: "The Tides Foundation distributes other foundations' money, while shielding the identity of the actual donors."

Call it charitable money-laundering.

I have a few stronger words.

But wait, there's more:

Despite denials that the Kerry campaign criticized the Bush ads, the Kerry camp did reach out (to) family members of people killed on 9/11 whom they knew were supporters of Kerry and asked if they'd be willing to denounce the ads publicly. Those people were given the names of assignment editors at cable news channels and network news outlets, as well as talking points for them to use if they were interviewed.

It's just like old times!. Like when Jawnee came back from Vietnam and stabbed his buddies in the back. If you're a 3rd world thug regime, you've got a friend in Jawnee. And Terry.

How sadly predictable. The only amazing thing was the way the lap dogs in the press started howling over this. Actually, that's sadly predictable too.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:28 AM -

 
He's back

And already kicking butt:

Overheard in the men's room immediately following a Fort Lauderdale fundraiser, at which the Junior Senator from Massachusetts waxed internationalist:

Campaign Strategist: "Gee, Senator, I don't know. I mean, all that stuff about having the tacit support of a bunch of foreign leaders? And then not even naming any of them? That might have been a bit much..."

Kerry: "Well, there's Jacques, of course. And Gerhard. And that little Korean fella, the cute one with the wild hair and the spent nuclear fuel rods--"

Campaign Strategist: "-- Yeah. You see, that's precisely what I'm talking about. Tactically speaking, I'm not sure we should be pushing that particular angle..."

Kerry: "-- Ooh, and Kofi! I almost forgot Kofi...!"

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:06 AM -

 
I'll see your pander and raise you one!

First it was Jawnee pining to be the nation's "2nd black president". Now we find out that Teresa's black friends call her African American:

First lady wannabe Teresa Heinz Kerry once insisted that her black friends think of her as African American and often refer to her in conversation using the term, a phrase almost universally employed by blacks in America to describe their race.

In 1993, Grant Oliphant - the spokesman for the wealthy Mozambican-born socialite at the time - told the Los Angeles Sentinel, "Her black friends support her decision to call herself African American."

Oliphant described his ketchup-heiress boss as "sensitive to black issues," saying she "traces interests in health care, human rights and the environment from her days of growing up in Africa."

"For decades, many of her black friends have referred to her as an African American," he claimed.

In a story headlined "White Woman Says She is African American, No Hyphen!" the Sentinel explained that Heinz Kerry had "long referred to herself as an African American since moving to the United States from Mozambique in 1964."

Oliphant justified his boss' description of herself as African American by saying she doesn't hyphenate the two words, saying that makes the term applicable to both blacks and whites who have come to the U.S. from Africa.

Hmm, didn't James Taranto get all sorts of nasty email for saying Teresa was "African-American"? Maybe it's because he used that pesky hyphen!

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:37 AM -

 
Maybe it's one of them Pander Bears!



On a visit to Florida, Kerry Shifts His Views on Arafat:

John Kerry says he no longer considers Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to be a statesman, but rather "an outlaw to the peace process" in the Middle East who has been rightly shuffled aside.

In a 1997 book, Kerry described "Arafat's transformation from outlaw to statesman." But in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday he said he no longer views Arafat favorably.

"Obviously, Yasser Arafat has been an impediment to the peace process," said Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting. "He missed a historic opportunity and he's proved himself to be irrelevant."

Anyone who thought Arafat ever was a statesman is delusional. But Jawnee, your new position sounds confrontational, unilateral, and likely to be pooh-poohed by the Euroweenies! In fact it kind of reminds me of:

The Bush administration has ruled out dealing with Arafat, a veteran Palestinian activist, claiming he is tainted with terror against Israel, a close U.S. ally. In peace process, the administration has dealt only with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other senior Palestinian officials appointed by Arafat.

Stay tuned for the news that Jawnee has been investigating his family tree and discovered that he's actually from Texas.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:05 AM -

 
Ruh Oh!

9th Circuit Court Overturns New Iraq Constitution. Stay frosty, it's ScrappleFace.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:13 AM -

 
It's way too early for this stuff!

Andrew Stuttaford is on a roll at The Corner. Kicking off is First they came for the cigarettes:

Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns declares March ‘caffeine awareness month.’ Caffeine can, Nebraskans are warned, lead to headaches, jitteriness, irritability, difficulties in concentration, mood swings and other maladies. If this proclamation is any way typical of his activities, the same might be said of Gov. Johanns.

Make a move on my coffee and I'm going for my holster!

Then there's a 7-11 dining review (not suitable for a first date) and good news from the EU:

In view of accession of ten new Member States on 1 May 2004, appropriate arrangements have to be made to ensure sufficient supply of bananas to consumers in the new Member States."

Next thing you know, they'll be having 5 year plans!

And saving the best for last, he links to an article about the liberal bias at Duke University:

Much to the dismay of the Duke administration, the DCU (Duke Conservative Union - ed.) has provoked its ritual annual contretemps, this time by publishing an advertisement revealing that registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a whopping 142-to-8 margin among university deans as well as faculty members of eight liberal arts departments. The numbers apparently startled some alumni-donors, which provoked President Keohane to publish a soothing article declaring that the near monopoly Democrats enjoy in the humanities, of course, in no way implies any insincerity regarding her oft-stated commitment to intellectual diversity.

When President Keohane wanted to demonstrate her support for racial diversity following the publication of an anti-slavery reparations ad at Duke, she allocated hundreds of thousands of dollars to expanding the African-American Studies program, creating yet another new multicultural center, implementing additional affirmative action schemes, and funding even more diversity initiatives. Lately, to demonstrate her commitment to intellectual diversity in light of the revelation of a massive political imbalance in professors and deans, President Keohane…revealed that she had once suggested that a “small group” of students and professors be gathered to discuss questions of bias in a “relaxed and thoughtful session.” Racial diversity problems require six-figure solutions, while intellectual diversity gets an unrealized proposal for an Oprah episode.

President Keohane sounds like a real pip. I wonder if she was born being able to come up with concepts like a "relaxed and thoughtful session" or she learned it somewhere?

But it's been that way on campus for years, so the only surprise is when they pretend it really isn't so:

Professors and administrators, caught off guard by the sudden publicity of the DCU ad, scrambled to downplay or disregard the findings. President Keohane led the charge to dismiss the survey’s saliency by claiming in her article that political party affiliation is unimportant because professors would never, ever allow their personal political views to enter the classroom. She declared there is “ample evidence” that this is the case—apparently she was so overwhelmed with the abundance of evidence that she felt relieved of the need actually to cite any. President Keohane’s faithful favorite, Duke VP John Burness, dutifully followed the party line, declaring that he is “struck repeatedly” by the shocking success professors have in removing their personal politics from the classroom.

These two ought to hit the comedy circuit! Although Johnny might not want to give anyone any ideas by saying "struck repeatedly."

Let’s pretend for a moment that entire programs like Women’s Studies and African and African-American Studies were not established specifically to propagate left-wing social and historical theories in the classroom. If we are to believe that professors never politicize the classroom, then we can expect to find a general agreement among professors that this is the case. It is illuminating, then, to read the January 24 New York Times editorial column by Connecticut College Professor Rhonda Garelick in which the author bemoans her students’ resistance to her repeated attempts to instill in them “‘wakeful’ political literacy,” “feminist awareness,” and “literacy in sexual politics.” She finds it inexplicable that her introduction of “contemporary politics into classroom discussions,” such as the Iraq war, only provokes “paralysis and anxiety, plus some disgruntlement over my deviation from the syllabus.” This is indeed a real headscratcher, but perhaps the problem lies in the fact that Professor Garelick teaches French literature, and her recalcitrant students may, for some bizarre reason, have failed to grasp the colossal impact the Iraq war has had on the allegories underlying Les Miserables.

Professor Garelick’s solution, incidentally, is increasingly to “look beyond my syllabuses” and devote more classroom time to contemporary politics. She evidently missed the memo explaining that professors never do this. I suppose it is possible that the New York Times printed her column in order to highlight the rare exception to academia’s iron-clad rule that professors don’t politicize the classroom. Maybe President Keohane will convene a small, relaxed group of students to study Professor Garelick’s position.

Indeed. Hit the full link for the really humorous part where the Duke professors weigh in. At a guess, I'd say they couldn't find their butts with a roadmap.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:20 AM -

 
Apparently IQ's dropped while I was away

Although it may not be apparent to Northerners, it's spring planting time along the border of "God, Guts, and Guns" country so I have a variety of chores that have cut down on the blogging. But it's nice to see that there are no worries about the national asshat crop this year.

I'll let Terpsboy lead off the ball with When "progressives" are in charge. Here's my fave:

One member of the University Planning Committee voiced concern when the UoP announced mandatory "racism seminars" for all their students. She said she felt mandatory seminars were unconstitutional and said she had "deep regard for the individual and my desire to protect the freedoms of all members of society." A university administrator sent the note back to the committee member with the word "individual" circled and in the margin had written, "This is a RED FLAG phrase today, which is considered by many to be RACIST. Arguments that champion the individual over the group ultimately privileges[sic] the individuals who belong to the largest or dominant group."

Who knew? Much more rich nutty goodness by following the link.

Then over at Powerline, they have John Kerry's interview with the SF Chronicle editorial board. You have to read the whole thing to get the full effect, but the punchline was:

So Kerry was "misled" because he believed that Bush didn't mean what Bush said. Talk about your dirty tricks...

Hey, for Kerry it is - he never means what he says.

And to get an early start on tax season - Why do Russians have the flat tax but we don't?

Now that Geroge Soros got his "Campaign Finance Reform" bill passed, we have all the dingleberries he has funded, like MoveOn.org, running campaign ads with unlimited soft money. Ooops, my mistake, they aren't campaign ads because they aren't "coordinated" with any candidate's national campaign. From a MoveOn missive to the minions that I received:

Dear MoveOn member,

It's now clear that John Kerry will be our Democratic nominee. And that means we've reached one of the most important points in the race to defeat George Bush.

Today President Bush begins airing the first of his campaign ads. He's amassed a campaign fund of more than $100 million to use for this purpose. Now that the nominee's known, the Bush campaign and allied groups will "go nuclear," saturating the air waves in swing states with ads intended to frame the contest early.

Senator Kerry is coming off a long and hard primary fight during which much of his money has been spent. But as the media focus on him and he steps into the role of the Democratic nominee, he also has an opportunity to frame the choice before voters. The big question is whether Kerry will have the resources in this key moment to powerfully respond to the Republican attacks and present his positive vision for our country.

Together, we can answer this question. If you've been holding off on contributing to a Presidential campaign, now's the time to jump in. We have a Democratic nominee, and he needs our support today. Please join us in contributing $5, $50, or $500 today to the Kerry campaign at: https://contribute3.johnkerry.com/contribute.html?team=34 .

I won't quote the whole thing, but you get the idea. I'd hate to see what "coordinated" would be. Not surprisingly, the GOP is all over this. Stay tuned for the whines about "chilling effects".

And saving the best for last, I see the usual suspects trotted out a few relatives of 9/11 victims who are having a big sad that President Bush's campaign ads had the audacity to mention 9/11. No word on what alternative reality they hail from where 9/11 isn't part of this year's campaign. If you look long enough you can always find some wingnuts, so I'm not too surprised; but it is kind of neat they are the poster children of a "peace" organization sponsored by Lurch's spouse with her dead husband's dough (UPDATE: More here). What was truly disgusting though, was the incredible pandering of the news media who would have us common folk think these people were ordinary citizens instead of delusional pond scum.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:24 AM -

 
How about some frogs' legs?

Jacques Chirac's best revenge? Johnny Kerry

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Johnny to his French friends, is much loved in the Brittany seaside town of St. Briac best known for its golf and harbor.

"Johnnny" makes it sound like Nebraska. How about "Jawnee"?

Francois, a bar keeper there, said, "We see him every summer -- he is Chirac's revenge against America."

Them Frenchies sure know how to fight dirty!

Kerry has been a visitor to St. Briac for many years. It's where his father met his mother, one of the wealthy Forbes daughters, when they were both in art school. John Forbes Kerry was their masterpiece!

And quite a masterpiece he is, too.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:32 AM -

 
Where do we sign up?

Will Killington start national trend?

WHOEVER SAID imitation is the sincerest form of flattery never received a request from a whole town smack dab in the middle of another state to become part of his family. No, what Killington, Vt., did Tuesday is surely the highest form of flattery — for New Hampshire.

How deliciously ironic: On the same day Vermonters gave their former tax and spend governor, Howard Dean, his one and only Presidential primary victory, the 1,100-member Vermont town of Killington voted to become part of New Hampshire so it could lower its taxes by about $10 million.

It’s not even a border town that just wants the state line redrawn. Killington, nationally famous for its wonderful skiing, is 35 miles inside the high-tax kingdom Dean ran until he stepped aside to run for President last year.

But so be it, and welcome, Killington, N.H., I say! Who can blame the overtaxed Killingtonians for wanting to annex themselves to the Granite State, which has the lowest tax burden in the country after Alaska?

Maybe other localities will follow in Killington’s footsteps and petition New Hampshire for refuge. How glorious for New Hampshire, to be beseeched by tax-strangled towns all over the country.

I'd be a tad picky about who I let in, if I were you.

New Hampshire could be choosy: Yes to Tahoe, N.H. No to Newark, N.H.

Topeka, N.H.? Fine. Detroit, N.H.? Not on your life! Ah, to live in Key Biscayne, N.H.!

New Hampshire could become to tax refugees what San Francisco’s City Hall has become to gays with the itch to get hitched — THE place to go.

That's the spirit! And be real careful with those leftoid college towns like Berkeley and Ithaca.

To heck with the folks who don’t understand New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” attitude. On a reporting trip to Howard Dean’s last major New Hampshire campaign rally, held at Phillips Exeter Academy the eve of the primary, I met a young Dean press aide who used to work at The Washington Post and who was astounded that Granite Staters care so much about taxes.
...
“I can’t believe they sat up here with muskets and fought a war over taxes, of all things! I would have been outta here, headed that way!” I guess he pointed south, toward Washington, D.C., where he probably learned his apathy for taxes.

Indeed.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:15 AM -