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Calling it as it is.

Finally, Micheal Moore is getting titled as he should be. At last night’s RNC speech by John McCain:

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But what brought the house down was McCain’s reference to film director Michael Moore — who wrote and produced “Fahrenheit 9/11,” an excoriating look at the Bush administration, and has been one of Tinseltown’s most vocal Bush critics. “Our choice wasn’t between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war. It was between war and a graver threat. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Not our critics abroad. Not our political opponents. “And certainly not a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe that Saddam’s Iraq was an oasis of peace when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children held inside their walls.” As McCain made reference to Moore, the audience turned toward the director who was in the convention hall and loudly booed him and chanted “four more years.” In reponse, Moore chuckled, clapped and said “two more months.” At one stage he made the “L” sign with his thumb and forefinger, meaning “loser.”

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Actually, Mike, I think it stands for “Liar” which is a perfect lapel pin for you. As in: “Hello, my name is: Liar.” Now that’s truth in advertising.

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Clinton as character witness?

Former President Bill Clinton stepped up to the microphone for John Kerry today saying the ads against John Kerry are bearing “false witness”. In his own words:

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“There has been too much controversy or discussion about the politics of it and little about its merits,” Clinton told FOX News’ Geraldo Rivera. “The ad was paid for by a big supporter of the president and the campaign’s lawyer and one of the military advisers participate accurately in it and it was wrong. It was false witness.”

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That’s good. Complain that there’s been too much made of the politics of the accusations made by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth but not enough about the merits of those claims, then in the same breath point out the source of funding as opposed to actually discussing those merits. Very nice. Note to Bill: the source of the funding does not make an argument right or wrong. It’s the premises of the argument that make the argument right or wrong.

So, for Bill’s sake, let’s review about the claim being made: Kerry claims he was ordered on a mission into Cambodia over Christmas, 1968. While there, he heard President Nixon telling the nation we had no troops there. John takes this event in and it breaks any faith he had in his government and in a significant portion of America at the time. The President was lying to the American people. Never happened, Bill. Eyewitness testimony (Steve Gardner) says they weren’t there. No one – no one – is claiming Steve was wrong. After 30 years of spouting that story off to anyone who would listen (and using it in a speech on the floor of the Senate in an effort to influence legislation and, thereby, the actions of this nation), Kerry’s “people” revised their story. Suddenly, he wasn’t in Cambodia, he was near it. Not near enough for the Battleship Iowa to put ordnance on it, but hey. What’s 50 miles between us buds, eh? And do we even need to tell you, Mr. Former-President that President Nixon wasn’t the President in December, 1968?

Mr. Clinton, the claims made by the Swifts are not wrong. They are, in fact, correct. Mr. Kerry knows they are correct which is why he changed his story. This is the textbook definition of not bearing false witness. Doing that requires your claims to be false. They aren’t. Do the math. There’s going to be plenty of harsh light shone on Mr. Kerry’s anti-war activities after he returned home so we won’t go into those here. Not yet, anyway. My guess is your man’s not going to be happy with the new attention.

(As a side note to this evening’s addition to the Left’s “response” to the Swiftees – and in no way connected to the correctness of the claims made by the former President – how desperate do you have to be to be looking for Bill Clinton to speak up for your character and the likelihood of your lying about anything? Sure, Bill. We know how trustworthy and honest you’ve been, so we can be sure of this guy’s honesty, too.)

Should be interesting.

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It’s official: Russian aircraft downed by terrorism

Several reports are up this morning that explosives have been found in the wreckage of the 2nd of the two Russian airliners that crashed this week. This makes it official that the aircraft were brought down as a result of terrorist action. Representatives of the so-called Religion of Peace have claimed responsibility and are promising more. From the BBC article:

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An Islamic group has claimed responsibility for the crashes in a website statement. A previously unknown group called the Islambouli Brigades said it had five people on board each aircraft. It warned this act would be followed by others “until the killings of our Muslim brothers in Chechnya cease”. Russian officials have repeatedly contended that the rebels, who have been fighting Russian forces in Chechnya for nearly five years, receive help from foreign terrorist organisations, including al-Qaeda.

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I would say that this shows very clearly that the gripes being put forth by various people as justifications for the actions of these Islamic extremists aren’t the real reasons. “US Foreign Policy” and the fact that there are American soldiers on the ground in Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with these Russian aircraft or the Russian souls aboard. They kill indiscriminately because they want to and they have no intention of stopping of their own accord. Forward defense is the only thing they’re going to get through their skulls. When more of our international neighbors see fit to stop caving in to their actions and stand up beside us, we’ll all be better off.

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John O’Neill Answers…

John O’Neill, author of Unfit for Command and a leading member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth answers questions put to him in the Washington Post. Of course, most of the media won’t post his on-target replies in the main sections of their papers or web sites so I offer the link to the story here.

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In the end, it’s not about medals. It’s about earning the respect

This posted on another blog’s comments, that blog being Sondra K. I repost it here because this is the word that needs to be getting airtime.

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There is a reason that some of those veterans turned their backs to Kerry and that many others sat with arms folded, refusing even polite applause. A reason that non veterans can, perhaps, know intellectually but not feel in their guts. Like all veterans of all wars, regardless of branch of service or duty stations, we all lost friends there. Some of those we lost were closer than brothers. Unlike other wars in our history we didn’t go over together and come home together, our individual wars ended individually. Unlike other wars we came home branded by a large segment of our society as war criminals, by another segment as losers. Then, as most of us were already home, one of our own officers branded us all, including the dead that we were just beginning to mourn, as war criminals, murderers and rapists. We later discovered that many of those that he was quoting as witnesses to our ‘crimes’ had not spent one day in uniform. Others had never served in Viet Nam. None of them, not a single one, would testify under oath, even if granted immunity. Yet our ‘crimes’ became part of the common knowlege. Our children were given that testimony as fact in their history classes. We all knew soldiers, sailors,airmen and Marines that had died, leaving children behind, we know that those children were taught those same lies as fact. Who sat with those children as we did with ours, explaining that those were lies told for political gain? It’s bad enough that we couldn’t mourn our dead then. Now we see the same man that stood over the open graves of our brothers and pissed on their bodies is back. This time he’s dug up those bodies and is standing on them to give himself the stature for high office. I am no famous war hero, just one of the two and a half million guys who wore Uncle’s suit for awhile in a place where the same truck would splash red mud on your trousers and throw a cloud of dust on your face at the same time. My service was entirely undistinguished but I stood shoulder to shoulder with some genuine heros. Those heros came home in shiney aluminum caskets, they cannot speak for themselves. I hope someone more famous and more eloquent will speak for them soon. Until they do I can only say that not only is John Kerry not fit to command the young men and women that inherited the uniforms but he is not fit to speak of my comrades, much less speak for them. I shall say this as long as I have a breath left in my body. This isn’t about George Bush or who has a Senate majority for me. It isn’t about politics. It’s about a bunch of young men who never grew old. It’s about the families of some 58,000 men who cannot answer the slander that this War Hee-row has never retracted. I tried to answer that slander in 1971, I had no one to hear my voice. No way to reach anyone but my family. I have that way now, if only commenting on other people’s forums. It isn’t about me. It isn’t even about politics. It’s about restoring the honor to the 58,000 names carved in black granite. Posted by Peter at August 24, 2004 03:06 PM

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Sadr wants to negotiate – again

Yeah, yeah. Faced with another threat of a raid, Sadr is asking to negotiate a cease-fire. Again. What’s this now? Four times? How many more times are we (or rather, the Iraqi government) going to fall for this joke? Every time he’s wanted to negotiate, he uses the time to resupply and re-arm before getting a “flip-the-bird” attitude and announcing he’s ready to fight to the death.

The time for negotiations is done. He’s clearly not trying to act in good faith and he’s owed nothing now. Apologize in advance for the impending bullet holes in the shrine and lay in the firepower.

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Russian airliners down, 2 within minutes

In an event certain to sound famiiar to Americans, 2 Russian airliners have crashed within minutes of each other. While the specifics aren’t out yet – and I wouldn’t expect there to be investigative results for several days – it certainly smells like a terrorist attack.

My sympathies to the families of the passengers and crew. This is not a good day for the Russian people. I hope we can help if they should want or need it.

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More misdirection attempts by the Kerry Camp

Finally forced to report on the issue they were hoping they could ignore, the Washington Post had to put a story on page 1 today about the latest Swift Boat Vets ad and the response to it by the Kerry Campaign. The new ad highlights comments made by Kerry in 1971 in front of Congress where he accused fellow soliders of being war criminals and committing attrocities. Kerry’s comments are a matter of Congressional record and yet, as with the “Christmas in Cambodia” meltdown, his campaign is seeking to re-write the history of what he said:

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Yesterday, Kerry did not respond to the new allegations, although aides said his testimony was directed at military leadership, not the soldiers fighting in Vietnam. The Kerry campaign filed a legal challenge against the veterans group, alleging it is illegally colluding with the Bush campaign. Aides denounced the president and his aides for what they called a smear campaign.

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Emphasis mine. Of course he didn’t respond. SOP for Kerry is to avoid answering the actual questions and, instead, blame President Bush for everything. Feel free to listen to the comments Kerry made and then try to square that with the concept that he wasn’t directing his comments at the soldiers in the field. He was accusing them of being war criminals. How can that not be directed at them? And just when I thought they couldn’t come up with a more lame excuse… Then again:

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In defense of Kerry, aides distributed a copy of the candidate’s comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press” earlier this year, when he conceded the language was sometimes excessive. “I think some soldiers were angry at me for that, and I understand that and I regret that, because I love them,” Kerry said on the April 18 program. “But the words were honest, but on the other hand they were a little bit over the top.”

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If the words are honest, they cannot be “over the top.” Kerry said exactly what he meant to say to get the results he wanted. That those words now come back to haunt him is his own fault, no one else’s. Considering that he’s lost 18 points in polls of vets and independents since the 1st Swiftees ad came out, I think it safe to say that there’s more than “some” soldiers that are angry with him over his actions on returning home. Also considering Kerry was still an active-duty officer in the US Navy at the time he made those comments, he should be glad he wasn’t hauled off to the brig. Getting in front of Congress was his protection against that.

As they’ve done with every other embarrassing revelation to come along, they trot out the old “7-minute” issue and make references to President Bush’s service.

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David Wade, a Kerry spokesman, responded in kind: “Maybe if George Bush had seen combat up close his hired-gun mouthpiece wouldn’t be so flip.” Not to be outdone, Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said, “Mr. McClellan needs to understand that John Kerry is not the type of leader who will sit and read ‘My Pet Goat’ to a group of second-graders while America is under attack.” On Sept. 11, 2001, Bush remained in a Florida classroom for several minutes after learning that planes had flown into the World Trade Center.

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Again with the 7-minute comment. In spite of revelations that Senator Kerry has said publicly that he sat stunned, “unable to think” for a full 40 minutes between the 2nd strike on the WTC and the impact at the Pentagon. And what’s with the “hired-gun mouthpiece” comment? David Wade’s working for free? Maybe he is but it’s a useless distinction and just another example of attempts to misdirect the point.

If anyone needed any further proof that the allegations in the Swifts ad are on target, witness Kerry’s actions in response. Does he call a press conference to answer those allegations directly? Release his service records to prove his claims? Nope. He files a complaint with the FEC. So who’s looking to have the government supress speech now? Yeah, we need this guy as President, don’t we?

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Bad call by the Vatican

You should absolutely bring your child up in the Catholic Faith. And if she’s got a medical condition that precludes her ingesting the Official Catholic Communion Wafer&trade, well then you’ve got a decision to make. Threaten the health of your daughter or simply get used to the fact that while we’ll hold her (and you) responsible for following all the Church’s commands on everything, she will never be allowed to partake in the Faith’s highest ritual and sacrament.

That sound OK to you? This isn’t fiction, by the way. The story is about a girl who suffers from a medical condition known as celiac sprue disease. The disorder occurs in people with a genetic intolerance of gluten, a food protein contained in wheat and other grains. These people can suffer escalating damage every time they ingest gluten. Seems that when her parents tried to be good parents and good Catholics at the same time, they had the local parrish use a rice wafer instead of a wheat one. The Catholic Church is taking the stance that it’s not valid and will not make the exception for this girl and her parents.

This is ridiculous. To push away a family of the faithful over the inclusion of wheat versus rice is nuts. Would Jesus really have wanted this? Would God be sitting there saying, “I really want you to get to know me and include me in your life, but about that wheat thing…”? To say that the Catholic hierarchy, specifically Bishop John M. Smith who speaks on their behalf, has allowed itself to miss the forest for the trees is putting it lightly. We already know that the little round wafer is very much not the bread Christ used at the last supper. Clearly form isn’t an inviolable concept for the Church. Why can we not allow this girl access to the sacrament so long as her heart is in the right place?

This is an extremely bad call on the part of the Church and, this time, it deserves every letter of bad press is garners.

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WAPO once again avoiding the story and attacking the messengers

The continued press self-blackout with regard to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth‘s revelations on Kerry’s Vietnam record and on Kerry’s “Christmas in Cambodia” comment is bad enough. That they only mention either in attacking the messengers is worse. Staff writer Jefferson Morley manages to get the dig in there:

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Arlington, Va.: Are the international press doing any better job than the American press in covering the emerging inconsistencies in Kerry’s Vietnam record? Jefferson Morley: The international press has not shown much interest in the story. This may have something to do with the partisan motivation of the people making the charges. Kerry’s Vietnam record is usually regarded as praiseworthy.

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Notice how he managed to pass off as an undisputed fact that the “people making the charge” have a partisan motivation? That’s not been proven, not by a longshot, Mr. Morley. Those “people”, who are the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, by the way, have stated explicitly that their motivation is not to advance any candidate as the choice to vote for, it’s to set the record straight on Mr. Kerry’s service record. It takes less brainpower and work to just assume they’re part of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy &trade, I realize, but is it too much to ask of our so-called “reporters” that they actually do some investigative reporting? Address the points one by one. Go ahead.

Not that Senator Kerry’s been doing that, either. He’s been more busy trotting out threatening letters to TV station managers in an effort to muscle the Swiftee’s message off the air. No hue and cry about that, either, from the media, I notice.

WAPO and the rest of the so-called mainstream media had better get their heads back into the game or they’re going to find themselves becoming very irrelevant in the information age.