QandO

September 04, 2004

Weekly QandO Roundup
Posted by Jon Henke

Links to, and excerpts of, our most valuable posts from the past week. If you've missed anything--and we do write a lot, so it's understandable--this is the place to catch up.

* "Operation RAW" deal (McQ) - A look at the poisonous rhetoric of "Operation Raw"--with which John Kerry was involved--which slandered far more than "just a few soldiers".

[A reader] claims Kerry’s focused on the “leadership” of the military, not the soldiers.

Now, before you get all crazy...keep in mind one very important thing. Kerry NEVER blaimed the vets for the atrocities comitted. He blamed our LEADERSHIP. Read the whole thing. Read it 3 times. I read it 5 times.

Operation RAW certainly didn’t do that, did it? It was talking about American soldiers. In particular infantry soldiers. It was saying “American soldiers do these things every day”. It said we were the butchers. It said we raped and murdered “every day”.

You know, just another day at the office.

* Evil Bush (Dale Franks) - Power corrupts. Absolute power corrups absolutely. Lack of power just makes people crazy.

This is paranoia. There's simply no other word for it. I mean, sure, it's an amusing kind of paranoia; the kind that makes you smile as you see 100,000 people march down the streets of Manhattan, claiming that civil liberties are being smashed, just like in Germany back in the 30s. Marching in front of gas stations where regular unleaded is selling for $2.00+ per gallon while carrying "No Blood for Oil" signs. That kind of cognitive dissonance is just too precious for words.

* Energy and Progress (Jon Henke) - Promising developments in the world of alternative energies. (plus, whatever happened to Cold Fusion!)

So, the biomass-to-oil project, and a hydro/solar project show great potential. That's all very heartening, but what brings this up again is an email I got in reference to my question about those cold-fusion scientists.

Apparently, via reader Eric, we know "whatever happened to those guys"....at least, one of the proponents of cold fusion, if not the original University of Utah scientists. Eugene Mallove died--was murdered, actually--just months ago.

Oddly, this occurred just about the time there has been renewed interest in the "Cold Fusion" idea....

* What IS the point of the Kerry campaign? (McQ) - He's the perfect "anybody but Bush" candidate, because there's just not a whole hell of a lot else to recommend him.

And that's the weakness the Democrats bring to the election. Kerry isn't there because of his record. Kerry isn't there because of his leadership. Kerry isn't there because of his war time service.

Kerry is there for one and only one reason. Kerry's there because he, of a field of 9 candidates, was deemed the most likely to beat George Bush. He's the nominee because he appeared to be the most 'electable'. The nominee who most excited the Democrats, who appeared to best reflect what they are, Howard Dean, was abandoned like an old whore with STD when it became obvious he wasn't going to make it.

In my opinion, that choice by the Democrats is beginning to show in a campaign which appears to be fraying around the edges and coming apart at the seams. Its still early, and Kerry has kick-started his compaign before, but barring unforseen catastrophe on the Republican side, I'd have to bet it will come up short.

* Kill them all, each and every one (McQ) - The war on terrorism can only be won proactively.

In Russia today we are seeing the future unless we utterly and completely destroy the will of Islamic terrorists to carry out their terror campaigns. Of course that requires action ... not dithering for months in such venues as the third-world debating club known as the UN. But other than the US and a few allies, it doesn't seem many other countries are willing to take the sort of action necessary to accomplish that goal.

* Liveblogging RepubliCon '04 (Dale Franks) - Running commentary on the most interesting night from either convention.

Tonight's attacks on Mr. Kerry's record are, I think, made even more effective by Senator Kerry's failure to talk about his own record. The Dems went into Boston with the idea that the American people had already decided to dump Mr. Bush, and all Mr. Kerry needed to do was to look presidential. In so doing, he left Boston with no attempt to define what his public life has been about.

That left a blank slate for the Republicans to do so, and tonight, they did so with a vengeance. As of now, essentially the only thing the American people know about Mr. Kerry's Senate record is what Messrs. Miller and Cheney said about it. Kerry may regret failing to inoculate himself against it.

* The VVAW and Radio Hanoi (McQ) - A peek behind the Radio Hanoi curtain. (hint: they're just "on the other side", too)

As is obvious for anyone who's read anything I've written about John Kerry's post-war activities with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), I'm not a fan of either. So I probably won't take advantage of the offer the VVAW to buy copies of audio cassettes they had made featuring Radio Hanoi during the Vietnam war.

In case you're wondering, the VVAW describes them thusly:

* Who invited Howard Dean? (Jon Henke) - Hypocrisy abounds as the Republicans learn demagoguery, and Democrats take a break from comparing the Bush administration to Nazi Germany so they can act all offended about said demagoguery.

Opinion seems split on Zell Miller's performance last night.

* Democrats: " Miller was abrasive, shrill and misleading!"

* Republicans: "Yeah yeah yeah, but we're cool with that. He's our abrasive, shrill, misleading guy."
[...]
[but, regarding the Democrats who are acting offended about Miller's speech] Have they really forgotten Al "digital brownshirts" Gore? Al "Democracy Itself is in Grave Danger" Gore? The guy screaming, pounding his fist, comparing an investigated, corrected incident--Abu Ghraib--to the Soviet Gulags, and accusing Bush of losing his soul?

Have they forgotten Paul "revolutionary power" Krugman? Howard "Ashcroft is not a patriot" Dean? George "America, under Bush, is a danger to the world" Soros? Or, alternately, George "[Bush] reminds me of the Germans" Soros?

I mean, I remember them defending Gore, and criticizing Republicans for calling out Al Gore and Paul Krugman's hysteria for what it was.

I remember that, but it's apparent that they don't.

* Undecided Veterans may be key to win in November (McQ) -Kerry's "Band of Brothers"--the veteran vote--may not be standing beside him come November. And Kerry has nobody but John Kerry to blame.

Why is the veteran vote so important in this election? Well there are 25+ million vets in the US, so its a pretty formidable voting bloc. Per American Legion magazine (no link), the 2000 Census showed 26.4 million vets lived in the US and about 84% were registered to vote. About 24.8 million were men and 1.6 million women. 82.9 percent are white and 9.7 percent are black. 31.7 percent are Vietnam War vets and 21.7 are WW II veterans. While they're distributed throughout the conuntry, there are higher distributions in the South and Midwest.

They really do present a diverse cross section of America, and although they all share the honor and distinction of being veterans they aren't necessarily like minded in voting. The reason, perhaps is they don't see themselves solely as vets. While that's one issue with which they're concerned, it does't usually outweigh all others.

Until maybe this election:

I don't care."

The thing about the speech was that it was the type of stem-winder that used to be regular American political fare, but has gone out of fashion in the last generation. That may be why many people are having trouble understanding it.

Chris Matthews' first question for Mr. Miller last night (before Mr. Miller offered to meet Mr. Matthews on the Field of Honor) was, "Do you really think Senator Kerry wants to arm American troops with spitballs?"

That's just an extraordinarily stupid question. Imagine a reporter a century ago asking William Jennings Bryan, "So, sir, where is that Cross of Gold? Can you produce it? Does it actually exist?"

The polite term for someone who asked something like that a century ago was "congenital idiot." Today, I guess we'd call that kind of person a "Matthews".

* How LOW can Cleland go? (McQ) - Max Cleland--pulling statistics out of his ass--politicizes suicide. Charming fellow, isn't he?

Former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, who joined Mr. Kerrey in demanding Mr. Rove's resignation on behalf of the campaign, said the veterans attacking Mr. Kerry's war record have contributed to a spike in suicides, which, he says, has occurred among veterans.

This is just unconsionable bullshit. This is inexcusable. Its gutter politics of the worst sort. Exploitation of suicides for cheap political points? Disgusting. Utterly revolting and completly over-the-top. This sort of nonsense deserves to be rebuked in no uncertain terms.

* The Petulant Mr. Kerry (Dale Franks) - John Kerry brings out the old "don't question my patriotism, I served!" chestnut. Which is a bit odd, considering the things (atrocities) in which he claimed to participate in Vietnam.

I reject utterly any contention that Kerry's military service immunizes him against criticism from those who did not serve. One of the key elements of our system of government is the inflexible and inviolable principle that the military is permanently subject to civilian audit.

No one questioned Mr. Kerry's patriotism. They questioned his judgement, and rightly so. For Mr. Kerry to proclaim the valid criticisms he's received over the last four days as a slur on his patriotism is, quite simply, a lie.

What makes this even more insulting is that the military service of which Mr. Kerry claims to be so proud now, is the same military service he denigrated as an exercise in atrocity 30 years ago. He didn't seem so proud of his service when he was providing aid and comfort to the North Vietnamese at the very time they were killing his fellow soldiers.

* Snippets from the Yapping Class (McQ) - "A review of some interesting snippets in various articles and columns about Bush, Kerry and the election."

Without Pakistan on our side we're in a huge strategic hole, since Pakistan was being used in some cases, for staging into Afghanistan by al-Queda. No Pakistan, horrible alternatives concerning going after the Taliban and al-Queda. When Pakistan, who'd not even been luke-warm in her relationship with the US, signed on it was a major coup in the prosecution of the war against terror in general and al-Queda in particular. Its not something which has gotten the credit it deserves.

* And I heard the number of those who were employed... (Jon Henke) - It's not a great jobs report, but it's also not as bad as some people try to make it. (though, I'm disappointed that nobody seemed to get the obscure reference in the title)

I am reading things like this, though, in a number of places...

144,000 increase in payroll employment in August, just enough to keep us from losing ground relative to the growing labor force.

Except, that's not quite true. Contrary to Professor DeLong's assertion, the "growing labor force" actually declined last month by 152,000. (perhaps economists have a different definition of "growing")

In fact, the oft-repeated claim that we need at least 150,000 new jobs every month just to keep up with growth in the labor force doesn't seem to be holding true, either. Since January 2001--per BLS data--it seems the Civilian Labor Force Level has only grown by ~89,022 per month....far below the ~150,000 goalpost being set.

* For those of you still enamored with Government Health Care (McQ) - Health care in Canada breaks down, but continues to be "free". I wonder if there might be a connection?

regardless of good intentions, finite assets cannot meet infinite need. You can't set a level of payment below the level of cost and expect hospitals to be able to break even. So, as I once pointed out, you end up rationing health care to achieve that balance.

Instead of rationing through money and market, the Canadians are going to ration through denying a certain level of treatment.

* This is what we call a "bounce" (Dale Franks) - Bush opens up an 11-point lead on Kerry, so it's obviously time for Kerry supporters to tell us how optimistic they are.

That's about what one expects from a convention bounce, and it's interesting that Mr. Bush got one, while Mr. Kerry didn't.

There are three general signs that a campaign is getting desperate:

1. Reorganizing the campaign's staff.
2. Challenging the opponent to weekly debates.
3. Declaring that the only poll that counts is the one on election day.

So far, the Kerry campaign has, in the past week, completed tasks 1 and 2. so that's not a good sign that they think things are going swimmingly.

* Inside the TIME Poll (McQ) - The Time poll, how it breaks down, what it means, and what it doesn't mean...

Analysis: The Republicans, if this poll is accurate, have successfully framed the debate exactly as they want it with the War on Terror and Iraq right under a rebounding economy. Perhaps they'd prefer Iraq and the economy to swap places, but close enough for government work.

Probably the most interesting of all the stats are those concerning the economy, simply because this is an issue the Democrats feel they can gain traction on.

While the Democrats wanted it front and center (and that's where it is) they've done nothing to make the case that they'd do a better job. In fact, Bush takes a slight lead in that area. And the tax policy question may be part of that reason. Kerry's said he'd only raise taxes on the rich, but voters have heard that sort of promise before.

* Mean-spirited haters (Dale Franks) - Democrats don't seem to want Kerry's record examined too closely. "One wonders if they would be so keen to push such an unfair idea if they had a stronger candidate than Mr. Kerry."

I'm wondering if he was watching the same convention I was. I saw a convention that had a few rhetorical excesses, but no personal attacks or hatred. One gets tired of repeating oneself, but, while I heard plenty of criticisms of Mr. Kerry's record in the senate, his positions on the issues, or his public statements, personal criticisms of Mr. Kerry were remarkably muted. Mr. Cohen, of course, gives no examples of this hatred. But he knows it was expressed, so, presumably, we must take his word for it.

It's perfectly acceptable for Mr. Kerry to allege that the president mislead us into war in Iraq. Just normal political discourse, you see. But to criticize Mr. Kerry, well, that's just hateful. Mr. Bush has been derided as a dunce, an avatar of fascism, a subverter of the constitution, and worse. Yet strong criticism of Mr. Kerry's public life can't be allowed.

TrackBack