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I read a lot of negative comments about how the bloggers handled the Democrat National Convention, but if it was as bad as those folks said, it would be because it was the first time. There was the novelty of it all ("Oh look, Clinton's speaking now..."), and you can hardly blame those bloggers for the quality. I read some of it but not enough to form a good opinion of it (especially since I'd have probably done far worse), but it seemed OK to me. Hopefully, the RNC bloggers, having a bit of hindsight working for them, will do better. So far, it's looking good. (But again, am I the guy to go to for a decent review? >grin<)
posted at 4:13 PM

Deskmerc has a good post on false dichotomies, non sequiturs, cold fusion and John Kerry. Of course, why didn't I think of putting all those together in one cohesive post! >grin< Nonetheless, he makes some very good points.
posted at 4:03 PM

Congrats to marc who got interviewed about his blog. My brush with fame consisted of 2 sentences in a UPI article on blogging in January of 2003, but as I mentioned back then, it wasn't due to quality--just a healthy dose of luck.

Enjoy your 15 minutes, marc!
posted at 3:54 PM

Y'know, this story just sounds like a Darwin award winner in the making.

Giuseppe Cannella had a big surprise for his mother-in-law when he put a jet engine on the back of her wheelchair.
Mr Cannella says the chair can now do top speeds of more than 60mph and has proved the star of a model plane championship during the Bank Holiday.

A model plane enthusiast himself, Mr Cannella has been putting on shows at Barkston Heath near Grantham, Lincs.

"It is just the wheelchair with the engine bolted on the back and steering on the front," he said.

Now, the Darwin Award I cite has been confirmed to be bogus (a guy who died when the car he'd attached a jet engine to went airborne and hit a cliff). However, there is a cartoon on that page which was inspired by the story; "Backed by a new set of sponsors, Evil Kneivel [sic] re-attempts to jump the Snake river canyon in a rocket powered wheel chair".

Prophetic? Only time will tell.
posted at 1:50 PM

Before you blame Bush for high oil prices, don't forget that there's a whole world out there that has an effect on it as well.

EVIDENCE is mounting that China is buying more oil than it consumes, raising fears that oil hoarding may be supporting the current high price of crude.
The signs of aggressive Chinese stockpiling emerge from research by Merrill Lynch, the investment bank, which suggests that China is importing crude and refined products at twice the rate of growth in actual demand.

Rampant economic growth in the People’s Republic over the past two years has enabled China to overtake Japan this year as the world’s second largest oil consumer, burning some 6.3 million barrels a day.

Projections of the rate of growth in consumption in the People’s Republic suggest that China’s power generators, road hauliers, petrochemical plants and factories will burn an extra 500,000 barrels a day of crude oil this year. But Merrill Lynch’s analysis of implied demand, based on import data in the first and second quarter of this year, suggests that demand will increase this year by one million barrels a day.

Michael Rothman, Merrill Lynch’s senior energy analyst in New York, reckons that the second figure is not real consumption and does not reflect actual burning of crude in Chinese cars and power plants.

“It appears to be a hoarding phenomenon and we think it has to run its course, and when it does pass, prices should gravitate much lower, somewhere down towards $30 per barrel.”

It's easy to blame one guy (that you may hate) for all the ills of the world. Too easy. It's also rarely correct.

Oh, and if you think Bush went into Iraq solely to get cheap oil, you're in the same rut. (Of course, at this point in time, you may really be wishing that this alleged cheap oil would get flowing, so the pump prices would come back down, eh?)
posted at 1:37 PM

In the 80s there were "Reagan Democrats". Ron Silver shows (in addition to Zell Mill, who we'll hear later) that 2004 may be the year that "Bush Democrats" tip the scales.

Even though I am a well-recognized liberal on many issues confronting our society today, I find it ironic that many human rights advocates and outspoken members of my own entertainment community are often on the front lines to protest repression, for which I applaud them but they are usually the first ones to oppose any use of force to take care of these horrors that they catalogue repeatedly. Under the unwavering leadership of President Bush, the cause of freedom and democracy is being advanced by the courageous men and women serving in our Armed Services.

The President is doing exactly the right thing. That is why we need this President at this time! I am grateful for the chance to speak tonight to express my support for our Commander-in-Chief, for our brave troops, and for the vital cause which they have undertaken. General Dwight Eisenhower's statement of 60 years ago is true today . . . "United in this determination and with unshakable faith in the cause for which we fight, we will, with God's help, go forward to our greatest victory."

Dubya will get their attention with his proper and principled stance on the War on Terror, and he'll keep them with the growing economy. His speech at the end of the week should emulate Reagan's approach; optimism for the future by giving people more control of their lives, taking that control away from government, and leaving government to its proper, constitutional role. One of those roles is fighting to protect us from those who would attack us. He's got all cylinders firing. He just needs to share that with the American people.
posted at 11:13 AM

Redstate.org quotes a good roundup of press coverage of day 1 of the Republican convention. As much as the press tried to portray this as a moderate face to a conservative party, conservatism showed up quite obviously. I think you'll find that conservatives are not afraid to identify themselves as such, and you'll see that this week. At the same time, liberals are forever coming up with euphemisms for their beliefs, unable to call it what it is.
posted at 11:01 AM

From the Wandering Mind comes this information about connections between al Qaeda and Saddam, straight from the horse's...son.

AMMAN, Aug 29 (AFP) - Iraq is attracting Islamic militants from across the world determined to join the "holy war" against the US-led occupation, the son of Osama bin Laden's mentor Abdullah Azzam told AFP in an interview.

"Hundreds of Muslims from all over Arab and non-Arab countries go to Iraq to help the resistance end the occupation, spurred by the conviction that jihad is a duty against the occupier," said Hudayfa Azzam, 34.

He also claimed that the former regime of Saddam Hussein "strictly and directly controlled" members of bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network in Iraq before the US invasion, as charged by members of US President George Bush's administration but refuted by other experts.

Experts who, no doubt, know better than bin Laden's son what was going on in Iraq. Listen closely to how the American press will investigate this.

Or not.
posted at 5:01 PM

These days, "Everybody Loves Raymond" apparently serves the public interest more than the political process. An FCC commissioner (a Democrat) disagrees that "Last Comic Standing" is more important that covering the Republican National Convention.

As a Democratic commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, I may not agree with many positions taken by speakers this week at the Republican National Convention. Even so, I believe our broadcast media owe us more coverage of an event that remains an important component of the presidential campaign. Yet tonight, if people around the country tune in to the commercial broadcast TV networks, most will not see any live convention coverage. That's not right.

Let's remember that American citizens own the public airwaves, not TV executives. We give broadcasters the right to use these airwaves for free in exchange for their agreement to broadcast in the public interest. They earn huge profits using this public resource. During this campaign season broadcasters will receive nearly $1.5 billion from political advertising.

What do we get in return for granting TV stations free use of our airwaves? Unfortunately, when it comes to coverage of issues important to our nation, the answer is less and less. Coverage of the 2000 presidential election on the network evening news dropped by a third compared to reporting on the 1996 election. During the last election cycle we heard directly from presidential candidates for an average of 9 seconds a night on the news. Local races? Forget it. In 2002 - the most recent midterm elections - more than half of local newscasts contained no campaign coverage at all. Local coverage has diminished to the point that campaign ads outnumber campaign stories by four to one. What coverage there is focuses inordinately on polls and handicapping the horse race.

TV executives tell us that the convention and campaign coverage provided by the cable channels is sufficient. I don't think so. Around 35 million Americans don't get cable, often because they cannot afford it. To put it in perspective, that's more than the combined populations of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Furthermore, broadcasters legally undertake to serve the public interest themselves in exchange for free spectrum - their licenses don't allow them to pass the buck to cable. Remember also that the vast majority of cable channels are national, not local. So don't look for local campaign coverage on cable, except in the few towns where local cable news exists. Most Americans still must look to their local broadcaster for news of local campaigns and issues.

Well, then it's a good thing we have the FCC in place to deal with this. Right?

The F.C.C. is doing nothing to help as the situation deteriorates. It has weakened almost every explicit duty stations once had for serving the public interest, like ensuring that stations cover local issues and offer viewers a diversity of opinion. Just as bad, the commission eliminated protections against media consolidation last year, even though critics warned that this would result in even less local coverage. Luckily, a federal court rejected this decision, so we have another chance to save these rules.

The F.C.C. has also failed to set guidelines for how broadcasters will meet their public interest responsibilities when digital TV and multicasting become more widespread. To make matters worse, the F.C.C. now practically rubber-stamps TV license renewals, usually without auditing station records to determine whether licensees are fulfilling their public interest responsibilities or checking with communities to ensure that stations are meeting local needs.

Whether we are Democrats, Republicans or independents, we all can agree that democracy depends on well-informed citizens. So as you flip through the channels tonight while the convention is largely ignored, consider whether TV broadcasters, sustained by free access to the public airwaves in exchange for programming in the public interest, are holding up their end of the deal.

Did the networks cover the first day for the Democrats? Do I even have to ask that question? Of course they did. Just more ammunition in the "Oh, that liberal media" campaign.
posted at 4:01 PM

An interesting report on peace breaking out around the world:

The chilling sights and sounds of war fill newspapers and television screens worldwide, but war itself is in decline, peace researchers report.

In fact, the number killed in battle has fallen to its lowest point in the post-World War II period, dipping below 20,000 a year by one measure. Peacemaking missions, meantime, are growing in number.

"International engagement is blossoming," said American scholar Monty G. Marshall. "There's been an enormous amount of activity to try to end these conflicts."

For months the battle reports and casualty tolls from Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites) have put war in the headlines, but Swedish and Canadian non-governmental groups tracking armed conflict globally find a general decline in numbers from peaks in the 1990s.

The authoritative Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in a 2004 Yearbook report obtained by The Associated Press in advance of publication, says 19 major armed conflicts were under way worldwide in 2003, a sharp drop from 33 wars counted in 1991.

The Canadian organization Project Ploughshares, using broader criteria to define armed conflict, says in its new annual report that the number of conflicts declined to 36 in 2003, from a peak of 44 in 1995.

What's the main cause of this?

Why the declines? Peace scholars point to crosscurrents of global events.

For one thing, the Cold War's end and breakup of the Soviet Union in 1989-91 ignited civil and separatist wars in the old East bloc and elsewhere, as the superpowers' hands were lifted in places where they'd long held allies in check. Those wars surged in the early 1990s.

"The decline over the past decade measures the move away from that unusual period," said Ernie Regehr, director of Project Ploughshares.

At the same time, however, the U.S.-Russian thaw worked against war as well, scholars said, by removing superpower support in "proxy wars," as in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Cambodia. With dwindling money and arms, warmakers had to seek peace.

The Reagan "peace dividend" continues to pay off. Thanks, Gipper.

And now, what will we do with this new-found peace?

"The end of the Cold War liberated the U.N." — historically paralyzed by U.S.-Soviet antagonism — "to do what its founders had originally intended and more," Mack said.

Oh great. This may give them more opportunity for graft and corruption. One might pine for the days of UN paralysis. Their peacekeeping missions are laudable (although many Rwandans might disagree), but when they try to overextend their power, billions are lost. If it wants to remain relevant, the United Nations needs to stick to its original mission.
posted at 1:01 PM

A peek into Pandora's Box:

A FERTILITY expert is set to provoke international uproar this week by claiming he has taken the first step towards cloning a dead human being.

In what many will regard as a grotesque experiment, maverick American scientist Dr Panos Zavos will announce that he has taken DNA from two corpses and used it to create embryonic clones of the dead people.

Zavos says he has taken DNA from an 11-year-old girl called Cady and a 33-year-old man, both of whom died in road accidents, and implanted it into living eggs that subsequently divided in the laboratory to form embryos.

But an attempt to make a third clone, using DNA taken from a dummy and nasal extractor belonging to a baby who died, has so far failed to provide results.

The controversial experiment is certain to provoke a furious backlash from critics, who will accuse Zavos, from Lexington, Kentucky, of using gruesome Frankenstein science and of playing God.

It will also lead to accusations that he is exploiting vulnerable people by raising false hopes that they can bring their dead loved ones back.

The road to human cloning is lined with hucksters like this waiting to exploit empty promises. If we really want to go down this road, these guy have to be dealt with early and often.
posted at 12:44 PM

Pre-convention bounce?

For the first time all year, President Bush has moved ahead of John Kerry in the Rasmussen Reports Electoral College Projection, just as the Republican National Convention is getting underway.

The polling company says its latest numbers show Bush leading in states with 213 electoral votes, while Kerry is ahead in states with 207. There are 118 electoral votes in the toss-up column, and the magic number to win the White House is 270.

Over this past weekend, Arkansas, Virginia and Missouri moved from toss-up to "leans Bush." Minnesota moved from "leans Kerry" to toss-up. Maine and Michigan moved in Kerry's direction – from toss-up to "leans Kerry."

Rasmussen considers any state where polls show a candidate leading by less than five percentage points to be a toss-up.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the convention, but most likely the results of the Swift Boat Vets' challenge. I wasn't sure if "Vietnam Fatigue" had already hit in this campaign season, but perhaps not. If that's true, then further revelations from their book could be Kerry's undoing.
posted at 12:27 PM

Chrenkoff on "doing nothing":

So next time somebody tells you that we should leave the foreigners alone and let them sort their own problems, remember these three simple propositions:

1) sometimes the alternatives to war are even worse.

2) sometimes our interests don't stop at our shoreline.

3) sometimes it's better to fight them in Fallujah.

Read all of "Why We Fight". It's long but worth the time.
posted at 5:16 PM

From Brain Shavings, score one more actual success with adult stem cells (vs. embryonic stem cells, where the score is still 0).
posted at 4:54 PM

"Bring it on", John Kerry challenged when asked about challenges to his Vietnam record. By "bring it on", of course, he meant more accolades; anything critical requires him to try to stifle it, whether it's filing FEC complaints or grandstanding. And it's no wonder; every time someone looks at his record, there's more contradiction.

Raising questions about John Kerry's Silver Star medal won in Vietnam, two researchers say its accompanying citation was reissued twice, an "unheard of" occurrence serving to expunge from the record the shooting of an enemy solider [sic] in the back and upgrade the signer from an admiral to the secretary of the Navy.

To reissue a citation, regulations would have required Kerry to prove there was an error in the previous citation or that the existence of the citation somehow constituted an "injustice," say Henry Mark Holzer and Erika Holzer, writing in Front Page magazine.

...

The authors, who want Kerry to release all documents related to the citations, have noted another peculiarity about Kerry's Silver Star -- its unauthorized "V" for valor which "makes it facially false, they say, and at variance with official government records." That's because Silver Stars are given for gallantry and never are accompanied with a combat "V," which would be redundant. But Kerry's DD 214, or "Report of Transfer and Separation," displayed on his website, shows the "V."

Oh, and in case you were wondering...

The researchers are not affiliated with Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, the group of 254 men who served with Kerry in Vietnam and now assert he is unfit to be commander in chief of the United States.

And here's another account...

Former Navy Secretary John Lehman has no idea where a Silver Star citation displayed on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's campaign Web site came from, he said Friday. The citation appears over Lehman's signature.

"It is a total mystery to me. I never saw it. I never signed it. I never approved it. And the additional language it contains was not written by me," he said.

The additional language varied from the two previous citations, signed first by Adm. Elmo Zumwalt and then Adm. John Hyland, which themselves differ. The new material added in the Lehman citation reads in part: "By his brave actions, bold initiative, and unwavering devotion to duty, Lieutenant (jg) Kerry reflected great credit upon himself...."

Asked how the citation could have been executed over his signature without his knowledge, Lehman said: "I have no idea. I can only imagine they were signed by an autopen." The autopen is a device often used in the routine execution of executive documents in government.

Autopen is one thing, but having comments supposedly from him added to the citation without his knowledge is certainly worthy of investigation.

Glenn Reynolds agrees and has more analysis. His view of the medal issue as simply a "distraction" is changing a bit due to this.
posted at 3:59 PM

A couple days ago I mentioned that one of the lawyers for the Bush campaign also did work for the Swifties. Under campaign finance "reform", this was perfectly legal, but Ginsburg resigned so as to not detract from the campaign. Wonder if these guys will be quitting anytime soon (or if they'll get major media press coverage).

Start with Robert Bauer. His Web site identifies him as national counsel to the Kerry-Edwards campaign (he's paid by the Democratic National Committee).

But he also represents America Coming Together, which is spending millions on mobilizing pro-Kerry voters and has been described as "the major ground-war vehicle for the Democratic groups."

In fact, ACT's president, Ellen Malcolm, boasts that her group is "looking for effective ways to do the work of delivering the message and getting out the vote that used to be done by the party."

Or Joe Sandler, who advises Move-On.org and also works for the DNC, which works directly with Kerry's folks.

Or Harold Ickes, the former Clinton politico, who also advises both America Coming Together and the Democratic National Committee and is president of the Media Fund.

The phrase "double standard" keeps coming up with the Kerry campaign; with the campaign lawyers, with the complaints about 527 groups, with the "how dare you challenge a Vietnam vet" stance. He claims to want an honest debate about the issues, but he won't be honest or consistent about the mechanics of a campaign. What makes us think he'll be honest with the issues he wants to address?

Well, nothing, actually.
posted at 9:16 AM

Brain Shavings has read his copy of "Unfit for Command" and comments on a portion of it where Kerry tried to bargain with one of the original organizers of "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth". Kerry would rewrite his admittedly unfair representation of this Admiral in Kerry's book "Tour of Duty" if the Admiral would stop his efforts to challenge him.

That's all you need to know, both about Kerry and about the SBVT's revelations. As the charges continue to come out, I think we'll see that it's not just about "Christmas in Cambodia". There's a lot more waiting to explode on the scene.

Also, he's got a great graphical description of John Kerry's definition of the phrase "served together".

(Check out the "Homespun Bloggers" blogroll. That's where I found him. The list just keeps on growing; who can keep up? >grin<)
posted at 2:50 PM

As noted by Croooow Blog, another installment of Good News Watch:

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently snuck out a telling confession beneath everyone's radar: Its flagship payroll survey is likely undercounting hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Most economic observers were too busy fretting over the lackluster gain of 32,000 payroll jobs in July to take notice of the other positive indicators, let alone the quiet little study that acknowledges payrolls have a problem.

The study describes how job-changing can inflate the payroll survey's numbers artificially. When worker turnover is brisk, as in the late 1990s, millions of workers are counted twice when they switch jobs. About 3.9 million people changed employers during a typical month during the 1990s, but only 3.1 million do so now.

Why is job-changing dropping? Maybe stability is preferred since 9/11. Perhaps lower turnover is a reflection of the aging workforce and low participation rate of current teens. Or maybe more workers are becoming self-employed. The reason doesn't matter, but the effect on payrolls does.

So comparing the Bush economy with the Clinton economy is almost an apples-to-oranges comparison. Time for a better statistic, I imagine.

So what's the good news? The good news is that the economy is even better that the stats show.

UPDATE: Little Red Blog has further comments.
posted at 11:56 AM

Mail early and avoid the Christmas rush.

A woman in County Donegal in the Irish Republic has received a Christmas card from a nearby relative - almost five years late.

The card Peggy Watson got from her cousin Diana was posted on December 17, 1999, in the town of Raphoe.

Peggy, 85, lives just three miles away.

posted at 2:16 PM

Looks like Democrats are stepping all over themselves overstepping their authority on the same-sex marriage issue. First it was judges, now local canvassing boards are doing it.

Backers of a ban on same-sex marriage in Michigan will have to go to court to get their proposal on the November ballot, following the unexpected and stunning rejection of the group’s petitions by the Board of State Canvassers on Monday.

The Citizens for the Protection of Marriage could find themselves waiting in line for a court date with those who want to see third-party presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the ballot in Michigan. The board also denied Nader a spot on the ballot as an independent. Both issues failed on a 2-2 partisan vote with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. A majority vote was needed.

...

The setback for advocates of the gay marriage prohibition was easily the most surprising development of the contentious four-hour meeting. Opponents of the ban did not even challenge the petitions, and the vote not to certify came despite staff recommendations to approve the issue.

A Secretary of State Elections Division review showed the proponents filed 464,243 valid signatures. They needed only 317,757.

Democrats who voted against the measure said it could be construed to outlaw domestic partnership benefits, union contracts, common law marriage, the equal protection clause and religious freedom.

“To put on the ballot a proposal that can never be enforced is a lie,” said Doyle O’Connor, a Democratic member of the board. “We have to vote our own conscience.”

An attorney for supporters said the board clearly overstepped its authority when it rejected the proposal based on the substance of the issue. It is supposed to decide simply whether the petition signatures are valid and sufficient, he said.

“Are we going to court? We have no choice,” Eric Doster said. “This was a clear violation of their legal duty.”

Sound familiar? Liberals are covering all the bases they can. When the courts look like they'll legislate from the bench, attempts to put the issue to a vote can be hampered by many other means. And of course, if this means ignoring current law, that doesn't matter to them. Activists judges have begat activist local politicians and board members.

I keep hearing about how conservatives (and, even more so, religious conservatives) want to shove their view of morality down your throat. Sorry, but same-sex marriage advocates are second to none in this regard.
posted at 2:13 PM

First the book, now the movie.

As controversy over John Kerry's Vietnam service holds center stage in the presidential campaign, a war veteran is about to release a television documentary with devastating testimony by former POWs of the demoralizing impact of the senators' war-crimes accusations more than 30 years ago.

...

The documentary has no official connection to the swiftboats group, the source said, but one of the POWs the film features is Paul Galanti, who appears in the group's second ad, released this week.

Galanti, who spent more than six years in prison after being shot down south of Hanoi, says he first heard Kerry's testimony in late 1971 when it was broadcast by his Vietnamese captors over the public address system in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton."

Jerome Corsi, co-author of the swiftboat vets' book, "Unfit for Command," said he has seen some of the taped interviews used in the documentary.

"They are very, very powerful," he told [WorldNetDaily].

So what does Kerry think about this?

Kerry told Fox News in March he had no regrets about his service or his protest.

"Now, if some veterans still can't accept that or they don't like the fact that I stood up and spoke my mind, I respect them, that is their choice," he said.

On Sunday, the Kerry campaign's veterans organizer, John Hurley, said in an interview on Fox News Sunday that Kerry stands by his claims in 1971 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that U.S. soldiers in Vietnam regularly, and as a matter of official policy, committed war atrocities against innocent civilians.

He denied that Kerry had overstated the case against the war when he returned home as a spokesman for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

So it sounds like Kerry's going to let his record stand on his war protest, although if he handles this in a similar fashion to the Swifties, the complaints will not be very far behind.
posted at 1:31 PM

The Washington Times is reporting...

John Kerry's own wartime journal is raising questions about whether he deserved the first of three Purple Hearts, which permitted him to go home after 4½ months of combat.

...

Mr. Kerry has claimed that he faced his "first intense combat" that day, returned fire, and received his "first combat related injury."

A journal entry Mr. Kerry wrote Dec. 11, however, raises questions about what really happened nine days earlier.

"A cocky feeling of invincibility accompanied us up the Long Tau shipping channel because we hadn't been shot at yet, and Americans at war who haven't been shot at are allowed to be cocky," wrote Mr. Kerry, according the book "Tour of Duty" by friendly biographer Douglas Brinkley.

If enemy fire was not involved in that or any other incident, according to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, no medal should be awarded.

But your humble blogger mentioned this back on the 18th.

Advantage Considerettes (and WorldNetDaily)!
posted at 10:45 AM

That was John Kerry then...

"Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: Bring it on."

This is John Kerry now...

The Kerry letter, signed by at least seven Democratic senators who have served in the military, calls on Bush to "recognize this blatant attempt at character assassination, and publicly condemn it."

"Call on this group to cease and desist," they wrote.

Again, it's not "character assassination" if it's true, as the Kerry campaign has had to admit on more than one occasion so far. Of course he wants Bush's condemnation of those ads; they're working because there's something to them.

(UPDATE: Speaking of the whole letter-delivery incident, the play-to-the-cameras bit done by Cleland really ticked marc off. You don't want to do that. Follow the link.)

One other note: In the second article there is a mention of a lawyer working for the Bush campaign doing some work for the Swifties. MSNBC has further details. But there's a problem with the Kerry campaign charge in this.

A top lawyer in President Bush's reelection campaign acknowledged Tuesday that he has been advising the veterans group seeking to discredit Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry's military record, an admission the Kerry campaign said is evidence the president's campaign is orchestrating a "smear" by the private group.

Fair enough, this certainly does have the appearance of bolstering the Kerry campaign's complaint to the FEC about unlawful collusion between the Bush camp and a 527 group. But read on.

Benjamin L. Ginsberg, the chief outside counsel to the Bush campaign who also has advised Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said in an interview: "I've done some work for them. ... The law lets lawyers do that ... and does not include lawyers among the coordinated political activities" that are prohibited by federal election law. He said two prominent Democratic lawyers are doing the same thing.

Other election lawyers agreed that the fact that Ginsberg, who also was active in Bush's 2000 campaign, has been giving legal advice to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth does not necessarily violate campaign finance law prohibiting collusion between campaigns and independent groups.

Now remember, Kerry voted for these campaign finance laws, so it's extremely difficult now for his campaign to credibly try to stretch the truth so that what he was for he is now against. This was the bill you voted for, big guy. Can't handle the Swifties? Then call off MoveOn.org, who's ads, by contrast, have generated way more heat than light. They haven't required the Bush campaign to shift into serious damage control mode because there has to be some semblance of truth for that to happen.

Welcome to the bed you made. Now lie in it.
posted at 9:12 AM

Why does it take a comedy show to ask the hard questions?

As Kerry launched into one of his lengthy monologues about why President Bush avoids talking about issues like the economy, jobs and the environment, [Jon Stewart of the Daily Show] interrupted.

"I'm sorry," Stewart said. "Were you or were you not in Cambodia?"

Of course, it's a safe environment, especially with a sympathetic host.

Stewart and Kerry then lean in and stare each other down over the comedian's desk before Stewart asks about some of the other things Kerry's opponents are saying about him.

Thanks, Jon, for your contribution to the debate. The problem is, you can't decide whether or not you want to be taken seriously. While you are obviously a comedian (that is the main point of "The Daily Show" of course), you're also blatantly partisan. You can be serious.

When the conversation turned serious, Stewart asked Kerry how he would counter Bush's ability in debates to turn issues into a choice between his position and the opposition.

Kerry said the debates would be a challenge. "The president has won every debate he's ever had," Kerry said. "He beat Ann Richards. He beat Al Gore. So, he's a good debater."

But when you give your guy a free pass on a point on which his campaign has been unravelling, don't ever expect to be taken as any more than half-serious when you make any sort of commentary, which you do quite often.

P.S. Is the glass half serious or half silly?

UPDATE: David Limbaugh has more on the appearance.
posted at 8:57 PM

Put a date on this group of quotes.

The Commission by its own action, or more precisely inaction, today has given the "green light" to all non-federal "527's" to forge full steam ahead in their efforts to affect the outcome of this year's Federal elections and, in particular, the presidential race.

...

As FEC Commissioner Michael Toner said, "Delaying a decision is making a decision-namely, that we are not going to issue any regulations for the 2004 elections. We are going to see a new 'soft money' arms race for the 2004 election."

...

Look at the blatant anti-President Bush and pro-Kerry activity by MoveOn.org, The Media Fund, ACT and others.

...

The 2004 elections will now be a free-for-all. Thanks to the deliberate inaction by the Federal Election Commission, the battle of the 527's is likely to escalate to a full scale, two-sided war.

Nope, this isn't part of Bush's condemning of 527 group ads from yesterday. These quotes come from a Bush/Cheney press release on the use of "soft money" in 527 organizations by the Federal Election Commission. The press release was issues in May. This was way before the Swifties were a factor, and when MoveOn was doing far worse to Bush than the Swifties are to Kerry (and MoveOn's still getting better funding; thanks Uncle Soros).

And now Terry McAuliffe calls Bush's denouncement "too little, too late"? Folks, Bush has been against soft money for 527s for a lot longer than most Democrats remember (for McAuliffe, that means farther back than last week, apparently).
posted at 2:02 PM

Drudge is reporting on a phone call Kerry made to one of the swift boat vets who are opposed to him. The conversation is instructive.

[Robert "Friar Tuck"] Brant [USN (RET)] received a call from Kerry at his home in Virginia while he was watching the Olympics on TV.

The call lasted 10 minutes, sources tell DRUDGE.

KERRY: "Why are all these swift boat guys opposed to me?"

BRANT: "You should know what you said when you came back, the impact it had on the young sailors and how it was disrespectful of our guys that were killed over there."

Is this really a mystery to Kerry? The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth certainly hasn't been quiet about why its members oppose him. And Kerry's own folks have been trying to silence them, so they must know what the issues are.

But watch how Kerry tries to smooth things over.

KERRY: "When we dedicated swift boat one in '92, I said to all the swift guys that I wasn't talking about the swifties, I was talking about all the rest of the veterans."

"But I meant everybody else, not you guys." Puleeeeze! This sounds like a child trying to smooth things over with his friends after a temper tantrum, and 20 years after the fact to boot.

This sounds desperate.

UPDATE: More at marcland. (But I beat you to the punch by 45 minutes, dude. >grin<) His admonition is correct: "This is on Drudge, so I take it with a grain of salt...."
posted at 1:12 PM

Add one more problem with Kerry's "Christmas in Cambodia" story. Now, the Kerry campaign has said that maybe just the timing's wrong, but before he left in March of 1969 he was in Cambodia. But there's still another problem even being in Cambodia as late as that.

Kerry said his boat took fire from Khmer Rouge forces, the Communist army under the direction of Pol Pot.

The Khmer Rouge were unheard of in 1968 and 1969 and began their guerrilla campaigns to topple the Cambodia government in 1970, even then with only a handful of soldiers numbering perhaps 3,000, according to a variety of historians who have chronicled Pol Pot's eventual genocidal reign.

It was not until 1975, following the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam, that Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army, consisting mainly of teen-age peasant guerrillas, marched into Phnom Penh April 17 and effectively seized control of Cambodia.

Kerry's speech from the floor of the Senate on March 27, 1986, specifically mentioned the Khmer Rouge. This is yet another embellishment of a supposedly "seared" memory that just keeps unravelling the closer you look at it.

The big question, of course, is how much of what he says can we believe? This story isn't just some tale he'd tell to war buddies over drinks; he's been making political points with these claims for 3 decades. And now he's handing us the ultimate embellishment. He's taking a war in which he was "ashamed of and hated", where the war there was a "mystical war against communism", where he didn't think America's national interests were involved, and now he's casting it as a war in defense of America so he can use applause lines like, "I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as President."

He embellished then, and now he's telling tall tales that would make Baron Munchausen blush, and all surrounding an event that he's made the centerpiece of his campaign. Is this the kind of guy you want running the country: Senator John F. Munchausen (D-Moon)?
posted at 1:20 PM

A Considerettes Public Service Announcement: I peruse my web server logs frequently, and I'm noticing a few folks coming to this site who are going directly to the archive page for this month. No doubt these are folks who felt this site worth bookmarking, having come from the Instapundit link of a week and a half ago. With the Blogger service, permalinks go to a specific point in the archive page, so there's just one page per month in the archives, not one per post. So while your bookmarked page seems to be continually updated properly, it'll come to a screeching halt come September 1st. To avoid the impression that this blog will have been abandoned at that time, check the URL you just came to. If it ends with:

2004_08_01_archive.html

then you've bookmarked the archive page. Just delete that portion of the URL and you'll get the main page, which shows post just from the last week (instead of the whole month of August). I'm honored that y'all thought this blog worth bookmarking, and I just want to make sure you are where you intend to be.

This has been a public service announcement. We now return you to the regularly scheduled blog, already in progress.
posted at 9:12 AM

Last Friday, a "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" ad "prompted the Kerry campaign to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that alleged the group behind the ad was illegally coordinating its efforts with the Bush-Cheney campaign".

I wonder if those ties with 527 groups is as tight as the Kerry campaign's are, hmmm?
posted at 9:00 AM

Double standards anyone?

The Bush campaign has suggested that Sen. John Kerry join President Bush in calling off the dogs -- those "shadowy" 527 groups that run ads for and against Bush and Kerry.

The liberal group MoveOn.org and the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are both 527s, named after a section of the tax code.

But on Friday, a spokeswoman for the Kerry campaign backed away from the suggestion. She said what MoveOn.org is doing is perfectly fine, while what the Swift Boat Veterans are doing is "dishonest" and "dishonorable."

Debra Deshong of the Kerry campaign told Fox News there's a difference between MoveOn.org and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth: "MoveOn.org is an independent organization that existed well before the Kerry campaign," she said, whereas Swift Boat Veterans for Truth "is not an independent group."

Kerry wants the Swiftie book banned, but MoveOn.org's Hitler ads are fair game? For the love of all that is political, how can you possibly defend this position? Let's parse a later paragraph:

"Again, we (the Kerry campaign) have nothing to do with these independent ads, like MoveOn.org. That is an independent organization that existed well before the Kerry campaign. They have every right to be running what they are under the campaign finance laws." According to Deshong, "This is about the Swift Boat Vets that are running dishonorable ads that Bush refuses to condemn."

The Kerry campaign has "nothing to do with these independent ads, like MoveOn.org". Fair enough, but by their protestations the implication is that the Bush camp is fully involved with the Swifties. Strategically, Ms. Deshong doesn't actually say that, but heavily implies it.

And she says that MoveOn.org has "every right to be running what they are under the campaign finance laws." The same could be said about the Swifties, but again she doesn't say that. Also by implication she's suggesting that the complaints about MoveOn have to do with their ads being supposedly illegal, but no one's saying that.

And finally, "This is about the Swift Boat Vets that are running dishonorable ads that Bush refuses to condemn." There's a host of news articles citing Kerry's challenge to Bush to condemn these ads, but what you've heard virtually nothing about is that the first ad and first chapter released of their book "Unfit for Command" hit the mark dead on, and caused Kerry to retreat from his "Christmas in Cambodia" story. What exactly is there to condemn? And is Ms. Deshong, by implication, calling the MoveOn.org ads "honorable"? That would be overly kind.

The left is coming unhinged, and the press is doing their utmost to bury, spin and/or ignore the bad news unlike they ever have before. Well, let me qualify that. They might have done it this blatantly before, but they didn't have the blogosphere to contend with in the past as the do in this election cycle. "Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one", goes the old saying. But now, for a pittance, anyone can own a digital press.

John Gilmore, a founding member of the Electronic Freedom Foundation once said, "The Net treats censorship as damage and routes around it." Dean Esmay has updated this for the old media. "The Internet has detected the mainstream media as a form of censorship and simply routed around them." Indeed it has. Let's hope the word of this gets out to those who are still under the influence.
posted at 3:49 PM

On a page describing the science of the technology from the Star Trek TV series, there's this comment about the Holodeck.

One thing I can't figure out is how they make the holodeck scroll. It is a small room, but when they go in, they walk for miles and never hit a wall. Neat idea, though.

Wonder no more.

Intelligent floor tiles that allow a person to walk through a virtual environment while remaining in one spot have been developed by Japanese researchers.

Hiroyuki Fukushima and colleagues from the University of Tsukuba, in Ibaraki, and ATR Media Information Research Labs, in Kyoto, came up with the smart tile system, dubbed CirculaFloor.

The system can be connected to a virtual reality headset to let a person move through a computer-generated world while remaining in the same space.

Existing virtual reality systems typically rely on a user navigating through a space using a joystick or some other controller. But this lacks realism and can even cause dizziness because visual stimulation will not be matched by a physical feeling of movement.

The new prototype consists of four square floor tiles, each incorporating several motors and wheels to enable the tiles to move in any direction. The tiles move to cancel out the motion of someone walking. They use magnetic sensors attached to the walker's feet to determine the direction they are walking.

As the user passes over one tile it repositions itself to create the illusion of a continuous floor. If someone is walking forwards, for example, the backmost tile will race to the front of the line to let them continue.

CirculaFloor has a website and a demo movie (22 meg MPEG).
posted at 1:57 PM

Which would you rather experiment on to advance medical science; monkeys or babies? First note that many liberals want to push ahead with using embryonic stem cells in research, but also ally with PETA to keep animals from being used in research. Now, that's a generalization to be sure, but it's generally true. The Democrats put Ron Reagan on the stand to defend embryonic stem cell research, but I wonder what their position is on this:

A worldwide shortage of laboratory apes and monkeys could be holding back research into new drug treatments and genetics, it has been claimed.

The problem, highlighted in the first global audit of primate studies, is said to threaten advances aimed at tackling HIV and neurological diseases.

So if you believe that George W. Bush is personally holding back a cure for Parkinson's disease, do you also believe that PETA is keeping the world from a cure for AIDS?

Hmmm?
posted at 1:30 PM

OK, advertising is a hassle of everyday life that we put up with, since it generally brings down the cost of a lot of things (like free broadcast TV, for instance). But here's a concept in advertising that is truly cool.

Miami-based Royal Caribbean International said it will this week begin a series of ad photos the motion of the train will make run like a film on Boston's underground transit system, the "T."

The advertisement, to promote its Caribbean vacations, created by the line's agency of record Arnold Worldwide, runs frame by frame, laid out sequentially along the subway tunnel walls like a section of movie film.

Instead of moving film, passengers move past the images, the cruise line said.

"The motion of the train takes the place of a projector, bringing the still photos to life," Royal Caribbean elaborated.

The images show guests on a Royal Caribbean cruise at play in the Caribbean: cutting through the water on Wave Runners, scuba diving, racing in two-person inflatable boats and climbing a rock-climbing wall.

"The placement and lighting of the photos have been synchronized with the cruising speed of the train to tap into the scientific marvel of persistence of vision, a phenomenon in which the brain pieces together multiple images to form a single, fluid picture," Royal Caribbean said.

posted at 12:52 PM

Do charter schools (independently run public schools) have lower-than-average test scores than regular public schools? Yes they do, but as Jay Greene (via Pejmanesque) notes:

Such a broad comparison between charter schools and regular public schools is sheer nonsense. Unlike regular public schools, many charter schools are specifically designed to serve students with low test scores. Denouncing charter schools for having lower-than-average test scores is like denouncing drug rehab clinics for having more drug users than regular hospitals. A recent Manhattan Institute study found that a large number of charter schools are specifically targeted to educate particular underperforming populations.Across the nation there are charter schools with the stated purpose of educating groups like pregnant teens, high school dropouts, delinquent youth, or even the broadly defined group of at-risk children. About 13% of New York's charter schools are targeted to such underperforming populations. So are about 41% of charter schools in Texas and 67% of charter schools in Illinois.

And, of course, this bit of junk science/polling made the NY Times front page on August 17th.

The findings, buried in mountains of data the Education Department released without public announcement, dealt a blow to supporters of the charter school movement, including the Bush administration.

It's very odd that the Times can find useless poll data to smear the Bush administration, but can't seem to find time to cover Kerry challenges from the Swifties. Or not.

The letters to the editor that came in on this (that were published) included one noting Greene's point, but also one citing another reason this is an apples and oranges comparison.

Many parents choose charter schools to escape the value placed on standardized tests in public schools, but we are using those same tests to judge how well these schools are faring. Since many charter schools offer alternative choices that veer away from the teach-to-the-test mentality of public schools, the children in those schools, and the schools themselves, should be assessed accordingly.

Lumping all charter schools together and declaring failure hurts more children than it helps.

Standardized tests pigeonhole students and schools. It is time to stop allowing them to control students, teachers and the system.

A better measure would be to see how the charter school students were faring in public school vs. how they are faring in charter schools. I'd be very interested in those results.
posted at 11:15 AM

Can't stand the heat? Ban the book.

The Kerry campaign has told Salon that the publisher of "Unfit for Command," the book that is at the center of the attack on Kerry's military record by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is retailing a hoax and should consider withdrawing it from bookstores. "No publisher should want to be selling books with proven falsehoods in them, especially falsehoods that are meant to smear the military service of an American veteran," said Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton. "If I were them, I'd be ducking under my desk wondering what to do. This is a serious problem."

Ah, I see. And what is Mr. Kerry's position on a movie with "proven falsehoods" all through it, and who's writer got one of the best seats in the house at his party's convention?

Frankly, the Swifties have a better track record so far than Michael Moore does. That's a serious problem--for Kerry.
posted at 10:24 AM

A Considerettes Correction: Last Saturday I noted a post by Captain Ed that there was news that David Alston, a Swiftie who spoke at the Democratic National Convention in support of John Kerry, might not actually have served with him, which is how he was billed. However, on NRO, Byron York sets the record straight.

In the last few days, there's been a new accusation floating around the Internet about John Kerry's Vietnam record. It involves speculation that David Alston, one of the "band of brothers" who served on board Kerry's Swift Boat, did not actually serve with Kerry at all. If such a story were true, it would be sensational news, given that Alston has made extensive public statements, including a speech at the Democratic National Convention, about his time with Kerry. The only problem is, it's not true. Alston did indeed serve under Kerry.

But the attention the rumor brought to Alston and his service aboard Kerry's boat, PCF-94, has cast new light on the time the men were together. And it appears that while Alston was in fact on board PCF-94 when Kerry was in command, his total time of service under Kerry was quite brief — perhaps as little as seven days. According to records of Kerry's service posted on his campaign's website, it appears the two men were in actual combat together on two of those days.

Seven days out of 4 months is almost (tap tap tap) 6% of Kerry's total time in action. Not much, but nonetheless Alston did serve with Kerry. But there is more to the story. RTWT.
posted at 3:05 PM

Global Warming update: Poo matters.

In science the little things really do count. Just ask Tasmanian researcher Dr Karin Beaumont, who is making it her life's work to discover how the microscopic poo of tiny ocean organisms is affecting global climate change.

The minuscule zooplankton feed on ocean algae which, like all plants, use carbon dioxide to photosynthesise.

The carbon absorbed by the zooplankton is released in its faeces and if it floats to the surface it can be reabsorbed into the atmosphere and contribute to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

If it sinks to the bottom of the ocean it is locked up in sedimentary rock for thousands, if not millions, of years, keeping down the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Now if you're still not convinced you care whether zooplankton drop sinkers or floaters you should know there are more than 1500 million tonnes of protozoa, a type of zooplankton, in the Southern Ocean alone.

All the penguins, seals, whales and other animals in the Southern Ocean make up only 16 million tonnes.

And the ocean algae they feed on absorb about 40 per cent of the carbon dioxide taken up by plants globally.

So, Dr Beaumont says, these tiny little poos matter.

I blame the internal combustion engine for this.

Then there's good ol' Sol:

The controversial idea that cosmic rays could be driving global warming by influencing cloud cover will get a boost at a conference next week. But some scientists dismiss the idea and are worried that it will detract from efforts to curb rising levels of greenhouse gases.

That last phrase should probably read, "worried that it will detract from their pet causes and make them look foolish."

At issue is whether cosmic rays, the high-energy particles spat out by exploding stars elsewhere in the galaxy, can affect the temperature on Earth. The suggestion is that cosmic rays crashing into the atmosphere ionise the molecules they collide with, triggering cloud formation.

If the flux of cosmic rays drops, fewer clouds will form and the planet will warm up. No one yet understands the mechanism, which was first described in the late 1990s. But what makes it controversial is that climate models used to predict the consequences of rising levels of greenhouse gases do not allow for the effect, and may be inaccurate.

The bottom line is that if man's not the major cause of global warming, these guys' funding will dry up, their activism will be shown for what it is, and they won't be taken seriously anymore.

Some proponents of the theory argue that changes in the number of cosmic rays reaching Earth can explain past climate change as well as global warming today. Nir Shaviv of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, and Jan Veizer of the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, claimed in 2003 that changes in cosmic-ray flux are the major reason for temperature changes over the past 500 million years (GSA Today, July 2003, p 4).

They argued that changes in carbon dioxide levels over the same period had a much smaller effect on temperature than previously assumed, suggesting that today's soaring levels of the greenhouse gas may have less impact than scientists anticipate. "It makes you think maybe it's a waste implementing the Kyoto Protocol and losing all those trillions of dollars," says Shaviv.

Bingo. The article has the details on the theory.

UPDATE: Added the actual link to the cosmic rays article. Doh!
posted at 2:06 PM

Score one for the rule of law.

BOSTON — A Superior Court judge on Wednesday declined to halt enforcement of a 1913 state law barring out-of-state gay couples from marrying in Massachusetts, despite a concern that the statute violates the spirit of the state´s landmark same-sex marriage decision.

The law prohibits marriages that would not be legal in the couple´s home state. In what is likely to be the first of several phases in the case, Superior Court Judge Carol Ball denied a request by eight out-of-state gay couples for a preliminary injunction blocking the state from enforcing the residency requirement.

A few points:

• The "spirit" of a new law does not invalidate an existing law. If you want to get rid of the old one, that's what the legislature is for. Here we have another case of liberal activists trying to do an end run around the proper process (mostly because they know they couldn't win there).
  
• This is a good example of homosexuals trying to get special rights not afforded others. I don't recall any previous challenges to the 1913 law by anyone else, but when it's applied to same-sex marriage all of a sudden it's a travesty of justice.
  

But it ain't over yet.

"We think this is going to go up the ladder," said Michele Granda, an attorney with Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. "We always knew this was really just round one and round two will be at the appellate court."

Yup, they're just going to work their way up to a court willing to ignore the law.

In her decision, Ball said she sympathized with the plaintiff couples and was "troubled" by the state´s decision to suddenly begin enforcing the law after the Goodridge decision.

But Ball said the 1913 law, as currently enforced, is being applied equally to all nonresidents. "Clerks were instructed to do so for all couples and all impediments, not just for same-sex couples," Ball wrote.

The law, enacted when some states had laws prohibiting interracial unions, had in the past been applied to couples that didn´t meet their states´ age requirement for marriage, and for weddings between blood relatives and couples of different races.

But Ball said the law was not discriminatory because the state has a rational reason to ensure that marriages approved in Massachusetts have validity in other states.

"Safeguarding the benefits, obligations and protections of the parties, including the children, of a marriage that the Commonwealth has helped create, is a legitimate governmental objective," Ball wrote.

Congratulations to Judge Ball for using reason and justice, in spite of her being "troubled' by the timing of things, to enforce the laws as written. I would try to ease her mind by noting that there were no real stark differences in different states' requirements for marriage licenses prior to the same-sex marriage issue (less so if you just look at the nearby states), so enforcement didn't need to be a priority. Now, with such a gulf between Massachusetts and the rest of the country, it must be more strenuously enforced. And if it's being applied equally, there shouldn't be an issue with that.

Well, except for that whole "special rights" thing.
posted at 1:56 PM

Planned Parenthood is racist and anti-male? Say it isn't so!

Several black and Hispanic male employees of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles have filed multiple complaints of racism against the organization, charging they were the subject of constant slurs in a hostile, anti-male environment controlled by white women.

The employees made the allegations in sworn affidavits filed with California's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, and Fair Employment & Housing Administration, or FEHA.

According to an EEOC affidavit filed by employee Nnamdi Nkwuda, a member of Planned Parenthood's management "used the word nigger directed to me."

"I am African and was shocked by her cultural insensitivity," Nkwuda stated. "I immediately placed my concerns in writing and requested disciplinary action with the human resources department at PPLA. Nothing ever happened to my complaint. In fact, I was later put on probation by a female supervisor and then terminated. ... There appeared to be a damaging anti-male bias in the organization."

PPLA spokeswoman Laura Morgan did not immediately respond to WND's request for a response to the charges.

...

A female PPLA contractor, responsible for ensuring the organization complies with regulations, said in a sworn statement a corporate officer "initiated an investigation on the occasion of one of his employees being called a 'nigger' and he was prevented from finishing this investigation. The perpetrator of this ethnic slur ... was never punished for this action."

Another sworn statement from the female PPLA contractor, whose name was withheld, said Planned Parenthood "posters showing males as irresponsible are prominently displayed throughout headquarters; one shows an African American leaving his child abandoned in the middle of an apartment; another shows all male US Supreme Court justices beating down on women's rights ... ."

She said the organization also had postings criticizing President Bush and denouncing Rev. Jerry Falwell even though Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization legally required to avoid political activity.

Another female employee, reacting to knowledge of racism at Planned Parenthood, said, under oath, "There was a sense that any employee who was not a white female was going to be carefully watched."

"I am an African-American who witnessed and experienced it," she said. " ... It upset me because if they allowed her to call him one, they were probably calling all of the African-American[s] nigger too."

The employee also corroborated the claim that Planned Parenthood prominently displayed anti-male propaganda throughout the office.

If corresponding attitudes & political propaganda was found in, say, a 501(3)(c) organization that was trying to prevent abortions, who do you think would be the first group to say they need to be investigated with regard to their tax exempt status, hmmm?
posted at 1:10 PM

One of the Swifties challenging John Kerry is having a disconnect with his own records.

Newly obtained military records of one of Sen. John F. Kerry's most vocal critics, who has accused the Democratic presidential candidate of lying about his wartime record to win medals, contradict his own version of events.

In newspaper interviews and a best-selling book, Larry Thurlow, who commanded a Navy Swift boat alongside Kerry in Vietnam, has strongly disputed Kerry's claim that the Massachusetts Democrat's boat came under fire during a mission in Viet Cong-controlled territory on March 13, 1969. Kerry won a Bronze Star for his actions that day.

But Thurlow's military records, portions of which were released yesterday to The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act, contain several references to "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire" directed at "all units" of the five-boat flotilla. Thurlow won his own Bronze Star that day, and the citation praises him for providing assistance to a damaged Swift boat "despite enemy bullets flying about him."

But Thurlow's sticking by his story.

Last month, Thurlow swore in an affidavit that Kerry was "not under fire" when he fished Lt. James Rassmann out of the water. He described Kerry's Bronze Star citation, which says that all units involved came under "small arms and automatic weapons fire," as "totally fabricated."

"I never heard a shot," Thurlow said in his affidavit, which was released by Swift Boats Veterans for Truth. The group claims the backing of more than 250 Vietnam veterans, including a majority of Kerry's fellow boat commanders.

A document recommending Thurlow for the Bronze Star noted that all his actions "took place under constant enemy small arms fire which LTJG THURLOW completely ignored in providing immediate assistance" to the disabled boat and its crew. The citation states that all other units in the flotilla also came under fire.

"It's like a Hollywood presentation here, which wasn't the case," Thurlow said last night after being read the full text of his Bronze Star citation. "My personal feeling was always that I got the award for coming to the rescue of the boat that was mined. This casts doubt on anybody's awards. It is sickening and disgusting."

Thurlow said he would consider his award "fraudulent" if coming under enemy fire was the basis for it. "I am here to state that we weren't under fire," he said. He speculated that Kerry could have been the source of at least some of the language used in the citation.

A few things to note:

• The major media sat on the "Christmas in Cambodia" story, one that is damaging to Kerry, for over a week. But should one of those challengers have a problem and wild horses can't keep them away from it. Oh, that liberal media.
  
• Thurlow is not attacking those who are challenging him. He's not suing to keep their information off the air. He's just responding.
  
• He's not the only one telling his version of the events, while Kerry is the only one in his supportive "band of brothers" talking about going into Cambodia.
  

There's a vast difference between the way these two men, Kerry and Thurlow, respond to allegations, which doesn't speak well about Kerry. And it shows the vast difference between the ways the major media cover the candidates.
posted at 1:00 PM

Maybe Hugh Hewitt had a point when he said that folks really are expanding their horizons on news sources. Instapundit links to an editorial cartoon in the Charlotte Observer (registration required) that mocks Kerry's "Christmas in Cambodia" problem, which is a story that the Observer hasn't covered. Reynolds notes, "I think this says something significant about how people get news nowadays."

Could be the word is getting out. I certainly hope so.
posted at 10:51 AM

More proof that if you're getting your news just from the major media, you're not getting the whole story.

Back in February, the three broadcast networks were obsessed with the story of President Bush's National Guard service. But in May, when John Kerry's former Navy colleagues from Vietnam went to the National Press Club to charge that Kerry's tales of heroism as a Swift Boat commander were highly exaggerated, those same networks acted as if their job was to bury the news, not report it.

The Media Research Center has documented 75 stories that ABCCBSNBC reported on the Bush AWOL charges compared to only 9 for the Swift Boat Vets for Truth. A one-page PDF of their findings is here, with a full rundown of Kerry Vietnam coverage here.
posted at 10:15 AM

Why is all this "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" stuff important? John Hawkins answers with an apt analogy. Consider that before dismissing them.
posted at 9:49 AM

Hypersensitivity update: New legislation in California is moving ahead to get rid of American Indian mascot names.

The California State Senate has passed what may be the most sweeping anti-Indian mascot law in the country. The legislation still has to clear a few more hurdles before becoming law.

The bill, by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, was approved 22-10 and returned to the State Assembly for a vote on additional amendments inserted in the Senate. The bill then goes to the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for final approval.

The legislation bans the use of the word “Redskin.” If approved and signed, the Mascot Bill would make California the first state to put a ban on mascot names. The ban would affect all middle- and high schools in the state, and would take affect January 1, 2006, but schools could continue using old team uniforms with the Redskin name on them until they wore out if they selected a new team name and discontinued using Redskins as a name for any school publications or on any marquees or signs.

Would they add to that ban "the Fighting Irish" as well? Maybe it's instructive that Irish folks aren't up in arms about that, petitioning Notre Dame to remove it.

And let's not forget the mascot born out of a protest against insensitivity, but it didn't get the reaction the protestors planned on: The Fightin' Whites.
posted at 1:32 PM

There's a new member of the group "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth". John Kerry.

A previously unnoticed passage in John Kerry's approved war biography, citing his own journals, appears to contradict the senator's claim he won his first Purple Heart as a result of an injury sustained under enemy fire.

Kerry, who served as commander of a Navy swift boat, has insisted he was wounded by enemy fire Dec. 2, 1968, when he and two other men took a smaller vessel, a Boston Whaler, on a patrol north of his base at Cam Ranh Bay.

But Douglas Brinkley's "Tour of Duty," for which Kerry supplied his journals and letters, indicates that as Kerry set out on a subsequent mission, he had not yet been under enemy fire.

The article cites Douglas Brinkley's biography of Kerry. Kerry won his first Purple Heart on Dec. 2, 1968, but later on, when Kerry was leaving for a mission on PCF-44, Brinkley writes:

They pulled away from the pier at Cat Lo with spirits high, feeling satisfied with the way things were going for them. They had no lust for battle, but they also were were not afraid. Kerry wrote in his notebook, 'A cocky feeling of invincibility accompanied us up the Long Tau shipping channel because we hadn't been shot at yet, and Americans at war who haven't been shot at are allowed to be cocky.'

The article goes more into the parsing of the words as well.

Could the "we" to which Kerry referred in his notebook entry have meant only that his crew, rather than Kerry in particular, had not encountered enemy fire?

At least one other PCF-44 crew member was with Kerry during the Boston Whaler incident, Zaldonis, according to the Boston Globe's account of the story.

RTWT. (Read the whole thing.)
posted at 12:54 PM

Via marcland, who's title "Tone Deaf" is quite accurate, and via Insight Scoop, comes this news.

The director of religious outreach for the Democratic Party says she resigned this week because of criticism over her support for removing the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Democratic National Committee is seeking a replacement for the Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson, who resigned Wednesday after serving less than two weeks in the newly created position. DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera said the party had nothing to add to her resignation statement.

An interesting poll question for Democrats would be to ask if they notice the oddity.
posted at 11:43 AM

Instapundit has some analysis on the appearance (finally) of the "Kerry in Cambodia" story in the LA Times and the Houston Chronicle. Glenn's best quote comes with noting the LA Times article vs. its editorial item on the same subject.

It's an interesting commentary on the state of journalism, when partisan opeds provide less spin -- even on behalf of their own team -- than ostensible "news" stories do.

It's all opinion these days, sounds like.
posted at 2:05 PM

Next, a 7-day waiting period to buy...machetes?

A Second Amendment group says recent press reports out of Boston prove the point that criminals, not guns, are the problem.

"For year