October Surprise?

This blog has a link to what may be the Left's attempt at an October Surprise. Apparently President Bush only had one DWI in his past.

Democrat Crime Spree

I tried to keep track of all of the Democrat attacks on Bush/Cheney Campaign headquarters across the country, but they were occuring so often I couldn't keep up. The guys at Powerline have been doing a great job of documenting this amazingly unreported story among The Big Three. I have yet to see a report of any GOP attacks on Kerry/Edwards Campaign headquarters. The closest thing I have seen are complaints of vandalized signs, which happens in every election. Besides, stealing or vandalizing campaign signs hardly compares to this.

My Favorite Marxist, Part Deux

Here's another reason why Christopher Hitchens is My Favorite Marxist.

Kerry Gets Another Key Endorsement

Just when I thought John F-enheimer Kerry wouldn't be able to top his endorsement by Yasser Arafat, the thankfully-former governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura, has announced his endorsement of Kerry. I guess that locks up the narcissistic, Liberal-masquerading-as-a-moderate, former professional wrestler vote. Oh, yeah. I left out Harvard professor.

Ann Coulter: Miss American Pie?

Quick witted and sharp tongued Ann Coulter dodged a bullet, or should I say, a bakery item. The police photos of her assailants look as if they have been prepared for their punishment: the pie-ering squad. (Sorry about that one. Does that make me a PUN-dit now?)

Dems 4 GOP 0

Unless I've missed it, there have been no reports of GOPers invading, trashing or shooting up Kerry's campaign headquarters. This is the latest in a long string of apparently organized attempts to intimidate Bush supporters. I've written about previous reports here and here. Before anybody tries to suggest damaging or stealing lawn signs is comparable, it's not. That stuff happens in every election. It seems the left is becoming unglued and is resorting to crime in their efforts to win. It's a sad, sad situation.

Law of Unintended Consequences

President Bush is going to win because of stuff like this. The chaps at the Guardian just don't get it. We kicked their butts twice over 200 years ago so we could govern ourselves. If we are going to be subject to unaccountable, unelected rulers who don't represent the will of the people, it'll be our own judiciary, thank you.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

For those of you who thought the former Gigilo-in-Chief would be content to have been "the leader of the free world", think againthink again. He wants to drop the word "free" from that phrase. I said long ago that Clinton would want to succeed Kofi "Oil-for-Food Payola" Annan. I have no doubt that the job will be his if he wants it. However, it all depends upon how much political capital the second Geo. W. Bush administration will be willing to spend in order to block Clinton's appointment.

Note that Kofi's term is up in 2006 -- just in time for the start of the next Presidential election campaigns. That means Bill will have the world's largest glass soapbox from which to assist his ex-wife . . . er . . . wife Hillary run for President. That's just scary.

Films for the Good Guys

Blogizdat posted a link to the new movie, Michael Moore Hates America which opens tomorrow.

Another movie opening tomorrow is Celsius 41.11, the temperature at which the brain begins to die. This movie addresses the truth behind the lies of Michael Moore's movie, Fahrenheit 9/11.

And last, but not least, Laura Ingraham has this link on her website. The film Voices of Iraq shows what is really happening in Iraq, without the "Nightline" spin. Click here to find out if it will be showing at a theatre near you. It is scheduled to open October 29th.

American Digest's Fifty Reasons

If you haven't checked out American Digest's Hugh Hewitt Symposium entry, Fifty Reasons Why, do so now. It's more of a photo essay and is very powerful. Some of the photos are not for the squeamish, as they deal with September 11th, the current War on Islamofascism and the War in Iraq. Americans need to start getting serious about this War. Fifty Reasons Why will help. This will not. Nor will this.

Another Reason to Vote Republican

If you're a guy whose body is above room temperature and you appreciate the feminine, go check out the Attractive Trio link on Shock and Blog. All I have to say is, "Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!"

Kerry's Lesbian Comment - The Real Outrage

Let's be honest. Kerry mentioned VP Cheney's lesbian daughter for political purposes. He could have mentioned any well known lesbian or gay man. He purposefully chose the daughter of his direct political opponent. It is not only an outrage but it is also unprecedented. The candidates themselves have always been fair game, but the children have always been off limits . . . until now. That is why the Cheney's were upset. What Kerry did was wrong and outrageous, but it wasn't the real outrage.

The real outrage came from the mouth of Elizabeth Edwards, John Edwards wife. In response to the Lynne Cheney's taking exception to Kerry using their daughter for political purposes, Elizabeth Edwards said, "I think that it indicates a certain amount of shame with respect to her daughter's sexual preferences." Shame. Shame? I think that is the most offensive thing I have ever heard! Who is Elizabeth Edwards to comment on what Lynne Cheney thinks or feels about her daughter's lesbianism? The Cheney's have been anything BUT ashamed of their daughter. In fact, they are so supportive of her that they openly disagree with the President's position on a Marriage Protection Amendment to the US Constitution. For EE to claim that the response of two loving parents whose child has been made a political pawn is evidence that they are ashamed of their daughter is beyond the pale - the real outrage.

Elizabeth Edwards comments only confirm that the original purpose of Kerry bringing Mary Cheney's name up in the debate was political and not complimentary.

Edwards Gantry's Snake Oil

Charles Krauthammer's Washington Post article addresses John Edwards' unbelieveable claim that the lame will walk and the blind will see if he and John F-enheimer Kerry win in November. Krauthammer also dispells several false notions about stem cell research that are being casually tossed around in the wake of the demise of Christopher Reeve. BTW, for anyone who is not familiar with Mr. Krauthammer, he has a vested interest in this issue. Like Mr. Reeve, he is wheelchair-bound due to a spinal cord injury.

I Think There's a Moral In This...Somewhere.

I just got an email from a good friend who had visited my blog for the first time. I thought it was interesting partly because I remember when CB radios were all the rage. I also think there's a subtle hint in it, although he would never admit it. (I just copied and pasted. Any spelling errors are in the original.)

"This whole bloging (or blogging?) thing is interesting to me. It sort of reminds me of when I was into CB radios in about 1975. There people would have a semi-anonymous forum to speak their mind and create an identity for themselves. I found it intoxicating and I began to search out some of these Radio Stars I was talking to. They sounded so clever and witty and intelligent on the radio. They always seemed to be lurking by their radio ready to provide an amusing comment or story. So I was really interested in meeting some of these people that I had grown to admire in a certain sort of way.

One of the most interesting was a guy who called himself "Castaway". He was kind of a cult hero over the CB air-waves. He had what we called a "Linear" (short for linear amplifier) which boosted his signal so that you could always hear him all over the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California. He couldn't hear you unless you were close because your signal wasn't amplified but you could hear him. It made him large, important, mysterious. Here was someone I considered a celebrity. He was somewhere in the hills above Pasadena with a giant antenna and all the best equipment. He had style when he spoke. He had a certain air about him and because of the type of microphone he used, had this erie echoing sound to his voice. He sounded larger than life. My curiosity was aroused. Who was his CB knight? It was the same feeling that makes the bad guy want to peek under Batman's mask. I had formed a picture of what Castaway looked like. He was cool and popular. So, I don't remember how, but somehow I found out where Castaways secret hideout was. And to ventured into the hills to meet him.

I arrived at the modest home in Sierra Madre. I knocked on the door and was met by a lady who owned the house. I believe it was, indeed, his mother. She pointed me to a door on the side of the house that led to a tiny apartment attached to the house. It was Castaway's Island. I knocked on that door and when it opened the first thing I noticed was the smell. The smell of a room that had not been cleaned in years. It has been almost 30 years but I can still smell that smell. Castaway was a shock! He was something over 6 feet tall and very thin with shoulder length hair. He looked to be about 19 or 20 years old and obviously considered personal hygiene optional and even hazardous. He sat down at his microphone and I stood over him as he began to show me his setup. He seemed to be a loner. You imagine someone like the Unibomber having similar beginings. As I looked down over his shoulder, I was stunned to see in the middle of his hair was the biggest matte of hair I had ever seen. It was like a ball of twine stuck to his head. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I wondered if "No More Tangles" would solve that or if he would just have to shave his head. Did this guy ever leave this room?

It was then that I realized that the radio was all he had. It was his escape from who he was. It allowed him to create a new identity with no real effort. He could "be somebody" without the "becoming" part which involves effort, initiative, stuggle and self-discipline. The rest of his life was a train wreck. He knew he was a hero on the radio with a self-formed identity and status. His was an empty, lonely life based on illusion. It made me very sad that day.

Soon after this experience, I turned my radio off. I didn't want to become a Castaway.

When you come to a fork in the road, take it. That is some wise advise... if I only understood what it means.

As I look back at that time, I was at a fork in the road. I was just beginning my college career and I had taken every hard class I could. I was only at a Junior College and it was only my first semester but I was already over my head. I was in danger of distroying my entire college GPA and vaporizing any hopes of going to Medical School. I was behind in Calculus, behind in Biology, behind in Political Science, behind in English... all at the same time. I could just seen my grades....D D D D or even worse. I was supposed to be pre-med. I needed A's. Lots of them. The CB was a great escape. I could lose myself for hours, pretending to be somebody important. All the while I was ignoring my studies and fact that I was nearing a point of no return. The ship was taking on water 1000 miles from shore and I was afraid to bail.

My encounter with Castaway shocked me. I needed the jolt. In the nick of time, I picked up the bucket and started to bail. I ended up dropping every class I had on the very last day I could do so. Instead of F's, I had I's for incomplete. It would look odd on my transcript but it would not be F for Fatal! In the mean time, my brother in medical school at the time, sensing my desperation, flippantly had offered to have me move in with him and his wife to undergo a sort of Boot Camp for Students. With my near death experience so fresh in my mind, I jumped at the opportunity. I moved in with them, changed to a different school close to their house and began my chrysalis transformation. They monitored every aspect of my studies. They wouldn't allow me to take on too much at first, aiming for early success. Amazingly enough, I learned that I could change, that I could accomplish what I had worked so hard at avoiding the previous semester. I got nearly all A's that semester. I felt good about the direction I was headed. I was going in a new direction and I did not turn back. And I never turned that CB radio back on again.

I often wonder how God is involved in those kinds of situation. Did he guide me or just allow me to go through my Castaway experience. I am sure he knew that it was good for me to taste failure without being crushed in the process. He also knew that it would be good to teach me about the tendency to run away from problems instead of dealing with them. Those were good lessons. I know that how ever I got into the situations, God protected me along the way. And the lessens learned have stuck with me like the smell of Castaway's room."

Oil for Bribes Program and the UN

If this story about the Oil for Food Program scandal is interesting to you, go read the in depth reporting Claudia Rosett has done on this story. She has been doing the heavy lifting in uncovering much of what is currently known about the scandal and the involvement of the UN and Kofi Annan. Kofi is up to his diplomatic pouch in this scandal, IMO. Maybe if the International Criminal Court went after Kofi, critics like me would have less ammunition against them.

BTW, Claudia has a great article today about America standing on principle instead of worring that the world won't love us. Maybe I'll email it to John Kerry. Nah. Why waste the electrons.

Selective Reporting on WMD

Isn't it amazing that this story has made headlines but this one didn't? I guess the word of a Weapons Inspector who has a vested interest in proving there were no WMDs in Iraq is more credible than the documents of the Regime that befuddled the Inspectors for 12 years. If you read the former article, you will note that he also claims that Sadam didn't seek uranium after 1991. However, the universally lauded 9/11 Commission found that Sadam was indeed seeking uranium. That's why we haven't heard from Joe Wilson recently.

As Condi Rice said, "We don't want 'the smoking gun' to be a mushroom cloud." That's exactly where the Democrats on the Left would lead us. That's why this election is so important.

Twins Blow a Prime Opportunity

The Minnesota Twins had a golden opportunity to steal two games from the Yankees in "the house that Ruth built." I will not second guess the decisions made by Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire, but someone should. I'll leave it at that.

The good news is that they now have two home games to finish off the Yankees. Hopefully, they won't repeat their performance of last year.

Political Harassment

The Dems seem to have a new political strategy: if the candidate is failing, attack and harass your opponent's campaign headquarters. Shouldn't they be trying to convince voters that their guy is a better candidate? It seems to me that acts like this are counterproductive.

Lament of a Busy Blogger

One of the disadvantages to having a day job is that I don't always have time to blog about things right away. I had a blog about the VP debate that I was going to post entitled, "Johnny Gets Taken To The Woodshed". Unfortunately, befor I could post it, I heard Michael Medved use the metaphor in my title. Also, virtually all of the points I was going to make were either uttered on one of the radio talk shows I listen to on a regular basis or were already posted in other more popular blogs. So, I decided to 86 my VP debate blog.

BTW, Cheney did take Johnny to the woodshed. Ouch!

A Twin Killing . . . 5 Times!

The Minnesota Twins turned 5 double plays to go along with Johan Santana's 9-hit shutout performance to beat the New York Yankees 2-0 in the first game of their five game series. Great pitching, clutch hitting, back-to-the-basics fielding and some outstanding relief pitching made it a long night for the Yanks. The Twins cannot take this win for granted. They stole a game at Yankee Stadium in last year's playoffs, only to have the Yankees win the next three games and the series. This promises to be a heckuva series!

They Just Don't Get It

I'm getting a little tired of hearing from John F-enheimer Kerry, JohnBoy Edwards and the rest of the anti-defense crowd that the Iraq War was wrong because Sadam did not attack us on September 11, 2001. It may or may not be technically true, but it misses the point. The lesson most rational Americans have learned from September 11th is that we cannot wait until terrorists (not just Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda) attack us before we take them out. WE ARE AT WAR against people who want to kill us. They don't care who, when, where or how. As I pointed out in a recent blog, there is now evidence that Sadam was very much involved with al Qaeda well before September 11, 2001. The 9/11 Commission didn't seem to have trouble grasping the concept.

The Democrats and Leftists who are attacking the President and the War on Islamofascism are more concerned with grasping power for themselves than they are for the safety of America. The don't get it and, I believe, they don't want to get it. They are blinded by their own lust for power and hatred of the man they believe "stole" it from them. America cannot afford to have people like that running the country. This is a turning point in American history. We must either fight the War we must fight in order to survive, or we will face the inevitable collapse of our way of life and, perhaps, of Western civilization. This may sound a bit dark, but if you're going to play in the game you have to know the stakes -- and they couldn't be higher.

A Little Respect...

Take a moment of respectful silence for the self-deprecating comedian Rodney Dangerfield who died today at the age of 82. Dangerfield and his famous line, "I can't get no respect," have become cultural icons. Dangerfield is one of the first comedians I remember from my youth. I had seen him recently on a couple late night talk shows and was disappointed that his "jokes" were so vulgar. But then, television from my youth didn't allow the same kind of garbage that is tolerated today. Oh, well. I digress.

Rodney Dangerfield may not have been a saint, but he did make a lot of people laugh. Measured against eternity that may not be much, but it's at least worth a blog entry.

Give Peace A Chance?

The Democrat Party is showing their true colors. Their frustration with the impending failure of the Kerry-Edwards campaign has turned violent. This morning they took pot shots at a Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters in Knoxville, Tennessee. Now, this afternoon they trashed the Bush-Cheney headquarters in Orlando, Florida. I suspect it is not a coincidence that the attacks took place on the day of the Vice-Presidential candidate debate. The Old Media will have more important things to talk about than a few indiscretions of a few overenthusiastic Democrats.

Maybe A Rolled Up Newspaper On The Nose...?

I'm beginning to wonder if even passing a Constitutional Amendment will be sufficient to stop activist judges. I guess where there's an activist will, there's a way. D*%# the Constitution, full speed ahead!

The judge's reasoning was that the amendment dealt with two issues instead of just one: Gay marriage and civil unions. I suppose if it only dealt with gay marriage, the judge would still claim it was two issues: Gays and marriage. Anything to thwart the will of the people.

If The Truth Be Told...

It now appears we have proof that Sadam did have WMDs and "extensive terror ties". Don't expect to see this on your "top of the hour" news. Maybe somebody could email this to the Kerry Campaign.

P.S. Apparently, Blogizdat beat me to this one. So what else is new?

If You Have Nothing Better To Do...

It seems Mt. St. Helens (any bets on when the ACLU will sue to get the name changed?) is about ready to put on another display. You can find the Volcano Cam here. Its cool, but it's kinda like watching lava dry.

I'm Baaaack! Let's Talk Debate.

After a weekend of illness (why do I always get sick on weekends?), I'm back just in time to miss all of the hand-wringing by some Bush supporters. For a reality check, go to Real Clear Politics and check the non-Newsweek polls. Most show no change in Bush's lead and the President's Approval Rating has gone up since the debate. I will be the first to admit that the President did not appear as comfortable or as prepared as John F-enheimer Kerry. My first impression was that the debate was close on substance. However, I thought that most of the dumbed-down populace who watched the debate would consider Kerry the winner. Well, apparently I was wrong on both accounts. Certainly, some of the general public thought Kerry did better in the debate. However, they also seem to have been reassured that President Bush is the man to lead the World War on Islamofascism. It seems our men and women in uniform agree by a 4 to 1 margin. Polipundit has some statistical optimism for Republicans. If you haven't done this already, go get a copy of the debate transcript and read it. You will get a very different impression of who won the debate.

Don't get me wrong. I do not think the President had a good performance. If he had, the election would be over and even the Dems would be wondering why we're bothering to actually vote. John Kerry may have looked good, but what he said was NUTS! He actually said that the Iraq War was a mistake, but that the soldiers who have died in the war did not die for a mistake. Oh, yeah. He said it was the Presidents mistake. But isn't he still calling it a mistake? Of course he is. John Kerry was astonished that the USA is developing new nuclear "bunker buster" weapons. He was further aghast that we might consider using them. That is the voice of someone who voted against virtually every weapons system our military is using to win the War. John Kerry believes that the United States of America cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons any more than the totalitarian regimes in Tehran and Pyongyang (that's Iran and North Korea, for my friends on the Left). Here's a little free info for Senator K.: there are countries, in this world who view us as AT LEAST a potential enemy (i.e. China, Iran, North Korea..) and they have no problem with developing nuclear weapons. We are currently in the middle of World War IV against Islamofascism. Unilateral disarmament in the middle of a World War would be national suicide. I don't believe, Senator, that that is an issue you want to run on. You'd be better off sticking with your "Global test" idea.

National Sovereignty No More?

Here's another good reason for the USA to get out of the UN. The fastest way to say goodbye to national sovereignty would be for the USA to go along with this scam. The following is an excerpt of the above article:

"The Bush administration is bitterly opposed to the new court and rescinded former President Bill Clinton's signature to the tribunal's statutes, arguing that it would expose U.S. soldiers and officials to frivolous law suits."

The reporter then adds:

"But supporters of the court say the ICC steps in only when a country is unwilling or unable to investigate, making it highly unlikely U.S. citizens would be targeted." (emphasis added).

Highly unlikely. That's not very comforting. In fact, it wouldn't be comforting if they swore on a stack of holy books from every possible religion that there was no way any U.S. citizens would be targeted. They could even cross their hearts and hope to die. I still wouldn't believe them.

Who gets to decide when a country is "unwilling" to investigate? I've got a gajillion dollars that says the good old US of A will not be given a say in it. As soon as we elect a President and Congress who are stupid enough to go along with this charade, we can all say goodbye to the freedoms we now take for granted. (By the way, I don't really have a gajillion dollars.)