Miscellaneous Threads Worth Noting:
The Provisional-Vote Scam
The headline of this article was How Dems could try to hijack the election. Fortunately, the Democrats failed to steal Ohio much as they failed to steal Florida four years ago. Nonetheless, the above article is an excellent reminder of why we need stricter voting laws in this country.
Howard Dean for DNC Chairman in 2005!!!
Yes, there are actually some Democrats who are pushing for Dean in this position out of a belief that he would help their party be viable again. Heck, I would support Dean as DNC Chairman because it would have precisely the opposite effect that the Democrats who want Dean to be Chairman actually want to happen.
To Angry Dems: Upset that JFKerry... was your candidate?
The above link points out whom it was who was pushing for John Kerry when it appeared that he was losing to Howard Dean -and further: who was taking credit for John Kerry winning the nomination in early 2004. Thank you Henry Hanks for the reminder as I (and probably the bulk of the readers of this humble weblog) had forgotten about that.
To My Fellow Democrats
The Backseat Philosopher is on the money in the above link.
President Ronald Reagan in Pictures
A fitting pictoral of Ronaldus Magnus can be viewed above. And finally, before ending this post, a few comments on the upcoming Senate Judiciary Committee hearings and the probable soon-to-be-new chairman of the committee Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
I have been hesitant to say anything much about Senator Arlen Specter in recent years. Part of the reason is because I cannot think of anything he has done since his unmasking of Anita Hill that was worth anything. He seems to pride himself on being "independent" to the point of sacrificing principles for political expediency. Nonetheless, apparently the Republicans in the Senate are actually going to show some backbone here viz. Specter's desire to head the Senate Judiciary Committee. I quote from a Sun Times article by Robert Novak:
Before Sen. Arlen Specter stood beside other Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday and pledged support as their chairman for any judge that President Bush nominates, he had been scared stiff by his colleagues and by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist...
Frist told Specter he must produce a written statement pledging his cooperation as chairman. What he wrote pledged only that judicial nominations would get out of his committee. That was not good enough, Frist told him Wednesday night. He would have to pledge support for Bush judges and declare himself open to a rules change blocking filibusters of judicial nominations. Specter must have been frightened. He wrote a new four-paragraph statement incorporating the majority leader's demands.
Even so, when Judiciary Committee Republicans assembled behind closed doors Thursday, two conservative Southerners still had their doubts about him: Senators Jeff Sessions of Alabama and John Cornyn of Texas believe voters across the country on Nov. 2 voted for an end to the tactics that have blocked action in the Senate. Although he never mentions it, Sessions has to remember that Specter helped block his nomination to the appellate court before he ran for the Senate.
In the Thursday meeting, Specter persuaded Sessions, Cornyn and everybody else that he meant what he said in his statement. [Robert Novak: Putting a Scare into Spector circa November 22, 2004]
Time will tell if Specter follows through on his promises or not; nonetheless this is a good development for congressional Republicans who need to start showing some real backbone for a change. Chalk me up as skeptical until they actually do...
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Points to Ponder:
(On Blogging and Freespeech)
Courtesy of Eve Tushnet is the following article on the arrest of five Iranian bloggers. Such news should give those of us who blog in America a bit of additional gratitude that we can do what we do without being arrested - though if we lose this war on terror one of the first freedoms we will lose is the right to public speech. (To be likely followed by our heads for those of us who would refuse to straddle the prayer rug towards Mecca five times a day.) [I. Shawn McElhinney]
(On Blogging and Freespeech)
Courtesy of Eve Tushnet is the following article on the arrest of five Iranian bloggers. Such news should give those of us who blog in America a bit of additional gratitude that we can do what we do without being arrested - though if we lose this war on terror one of the first freedoms we will lose is the right to public speech. (To be likely followed by our heads for those of us who would refuse to straddle the prayer rug towards Mecca five times a day.) [I. Shawn McElhinney]
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
"JunkYard BLOG" Dept.
(A Rerum Novarum Ten Part Slam)
It has been about six weeks since we ran a multipart JYB thread at this humble weblog. In such an time frame, it would be easy to post a large installment ala what we did last time in running a twenty part thread; however, there is enough to cover in just the past ten days so we will keep this thread shorter. As usual, Bryan (and Chris') stuff will be in purple font -though I will put the text in black when they quote a source. My comments will be in regular font.
DR. CONDOLEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE
If any Democrat had nominated someone anywhere near the caliber of Dr. Condolezza Rice, an accomplished black woman, to become Secretary of State, the nation would have been carpeted with laudatory newspaper biopics, with quickly-produced television documentaries, with rushed-to-print books and maybe even a feature film. It would be a huge, huge gush moment as the entire press and creative community paused to hail the beneficent president and his wisdom and tolerance as exemplified by his astounding choice.
Since Dr. Rice is a Republican, though, we're not getting any of that. What we are getting is a spate of racist editorial cartoons that would have made even Senator Robert C. Byrd blush during his Klan says. Go here for a shocking round-up, and consider what would have happened if the roles had been reversed; i.e. if the nominee had been a black Democrat and conservative cartoonists compared her to Prissy from Gone With the Wind. The rest of the media has met Dr. Rice's accension to one of the highest and most important offices in the land with muted golf-clapping or covert hostility. It's a disgrace, frankly, and it's even more of a disgrace that the NAACP hasn't a) met Dr. Rice's nomination with joy, since that organization is nominally about the advancement of black people and her nomination represents a major advance for a black person; and b) hasn't uttered a peep in protest about the racist garbage the press is hurling at her. The NAACP's national phone number is 401-358-8900 if you'd like to register your opinions on the matter with them.
But back to Dr. Rice. Her hometown paper has published a bio that's worth a read. After reading it, it's no wonder that so many on the left see her as a threat. Her rise exemplifies the left's failures in so many, many ways.
Rice, 50, head of the National Security Council, was raised in Birmingham by parents who believed strongly in religion and achievement through education. Her mother taught at Fairfield High School. Her father was a minister at Birmingham's Westminster Presbyterian Church who also worked as a high school football coach to augment his salary.
By the age of 5, Rice had well-developed reading skills. Her mother, Angelena, wanted her to start school early, but teachers at a local black elementary school said she was too young. So Angelena Rice took a year off from her job at Fairfield High to home-school her precocious daughter.
So much for leftwing educational theories that homeschoolers are wasting their time and harming their kids--Rice was homeschooled, and look where it got her.
During the bombings of the summer of 1963, her father and other neighborhood men guarded the streets at night to keep white vigilantes at bay. Rice said her staunch defense of gun rights comes from those days. She has argued that if the guns her father and neighbors carried had been registered, they could have been confiscated by the authorities, leaving the black community defenseless.
That is exactly the lesson the gun-grabbers hope you and I never learn--that there are times when the right to bear arms can mean the difference between freedom and tyranny, even on a local level. Dr. Rice's history is a slap in the face to every gun control agitator in the coutry, but it's a slap they deserve: Had they gotten their way, there might never have been a Dr. Condolezza Rice because some racist nut might have killed her as a child...Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
As I have already commented on the Condi Rice situation, I will not repeat myself here except to note that (as so often happens), Bryan's take on a political subject meshes well with that of your humble servant at Rerum Novarum.
TERRORISM, BANK FRAUD AND IMMIGRATION VIOLATIONS
The Feds swept up 13 suspected terrorist operators in Seattle:
Federal counter-terrorism agents swept down on homes and businesses in Seattle yesterday, conducting searches and charging 13 men with gun, immigration and bank-fraud violations.
The FBI said it searched 19 Seattle-area homes, businesses and vehicles. Federal agents detained five other people on immigration charges, said FBI Special Agent Robbie Burroughs.
None of the men targeted in the raids is accused under terrorism statutes. However, the federal charges unsealed yesterday allege the ringleader of the bank-fraud case told a paid FBI informant that his "whole Muslim crew" was involved in stealing money because "you can't go to war broke."
According to the complaint, the purported ringleader, a drug felon named Karim Abdullah Assalaam, told an acquaintance that the money obtained through the fraud "goes to help our Muslim brothers and sisters. ... It goes to the cause, not like it goes to me and you."
The bank-fraud scheme involved depositing forged checks into bank accounts and then withdrawing the money through automatic-teller machines before the fraud was discovered. Tens of thousands of dollars were stolen, according to the court documents.
Several gun-related cases also sprang from the investigation. Assalaam and four other men were charged as felons possessing firearms, including several handguns, two shotguns and an AK-47 assault rifle...Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
As one who lives in the Seattle area, this was both a comfort and also a disturbance to me. Obviously I want to see these kinds of people rounded up; however, then when it happens, the realization that Seattle is seen as a place for them to infiltrate the country starts setting in. But lest I mull this over too much, onto the next subject: Rathergate.
RATHERGATE UPDATE
As InstaPundit notes, it has been two months since CBS announced it would investigate the 60 Minutes forged documents fiasco, and the world has yet to hear any conclusions from it. In that time, the President that CBS producers and journalists wanted to defeat has been re-elected and Dan Rather has become the butt of jokes.
None of this is stopping 60 Minutes curmudgeon Andy Rooney from weighing in, though. Speaking at Tufts University Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy last Thursday, Rooney said:
"I am very critical of some of the people at CBS who make it apparent what their political leanings are. That's what happened to this thing of Dan Rather's that got out. There's no question they wanted to run it because it was negative towards Bush."
If an old stick in the mud like Rooney sees this, what is CBS waiting for?
Rooney got this story right--the forged doc story is about media bias--but that doesn't mean his opinions on other matters are worth much. On Christian fundamentalists:
Rooney also attributed voters' reliance on religion in the recent election to ignorance. "I am an atheist," Rooney said. "I don't understand religion at all. I'm sure I'll offend a lot of people by saying this, but I think it's all nonsense."
He said Christian fundamentalism is a result of "a lack of education. They haven't been exposed to what the world has to offer."
Let's see...I've lived overseas and visited more than a handful of countries and territories outside the CONUS. I'm a born red-stater living in a very blue state. My child is bilingual because he lives in a bilingual/biracial household. I do in fact have a college degree and probably know more about astrophysics than Rooney knows about anything, yet I'm the uneducated one because I understand that I am not the center of the universe and that my opinion doesn't count for much in the grand scheme of things? Having lived among believers and pagans, the saved and the atheist, red staters and blue staters, it's the atheistic, tunnel-visioned America-hating leftists I pity the most. They are the parochial, self-centered, head-in-the-sand reactionaries who have no understanding of America's role in the world or Christianity's place in history. They just thrive on hating their fellow Americans while apologizing for sadists and maniacs who happen to be fighting against us. These blue-staters just don't get it and probably never will...Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
Well said Bryan (as usual). As far as Andy Rooney goes, he certainly gets the bias of CBS but then again, anyone with a normal intact functioning brain who actually pays attention cannot help but notice it. With regards to his views on religion, the expression "the sun shines on the keister of every dog once in a while" comes to mind.
PROLIFERATION SECURITY INITIATIVE UPDATE
Finally, somebody besides the JYB has noticed that the PSI is a de facto blockade of North Korea. Writing for FrontPage, Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu describes an "anaconda strategy" for dealing with the mercurial Kim personality cult masquerading as a country:
Under the politically convoluted constraints that define the War on Terror, we and our allies often need to pursue strategically critical actions but may not wish publicly to call them what they are. A good case in point is the Anaconda Strategy in Northeast Asia. There is well underway an expanding naval blockade of North Korean. It is not called a blockade because would be tantamount to an act of war under international rules. And a shooting war with North Korea is what we hope to avoid. But the need to intercept North Korean contraband is absolutely necessary.
Most North Korean weapons-narcotics contraband is exported in an aging but seaworthy fleet of merchant vessels flying the North Korean flag. Other ships sailing under flags of convenience are North Korean owned. Many of these ships transit Japan, particularly the port region of Osaka-Kobe. In this largely industrial region of western Japan resides a huge Korean-Japanese population. They are generational descendants of workers imported from Korea during the 1910-1945 colonial period. Many are part of the yakuza, or gangster element. The Kim Jong Il regime has deep ties within this criminal community.
For years North Korean shipping was given a pass by Japanese customs and port inspectors rather than upset the always delicate bilateral relationship. Since 9-11 Japan has actively supported American efforts to combat terrorism worldwide. A large part of this effort has been refocused attention on North Korean shipping. While not engaged in anything resembling a blockade, of course, Japanese inspectors are extremely concerned with safety violations on some of these ships, often requiring repairs and re-inspection that keep them tied to the wharfs for an extended time. Customs and narcotics investigators, meanwhile, sift through cargo to detect the narcotics and weaponry banned by international agreement.......Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
Bryan was definitely ahead of the curve on this one. Nonetheless, those who wonder why we have not taken military action with North Korea as we did with Iraq can mull over the PSI for a while and maybe the penny will drop for them.
BAATH PARTY LIVES ON IN FRANCE
Nazi-occupied Vichy France was the birthplace of the Baath Party. Why should we expect modern France to do anything but try and resurrect its creation?
With the defeat of the Saddam Hussein regime on April 9, 2003, the Ba'th ruling party was outlawed and a committee for the de-Ba'thification of Iraq was established. [1] However, the Ba'th's propaganda machine appears to have found a new abode in Paris, France, whence threats to the U.S. are issued regularly in three languages - English, French, and Spanish. Not surprisingly, the Ba'thist propagandists use the word "resistance" (in French, "la resistance") to underscore the association with the struggle against the Nazi occupation of France during WWII.
The resurrection of the Ba'th Party on French soil was further strengthened by France's proposal that representatives of "la resistance" should participate in any future conference that will be convened to discuss the future of Iraq. This position was clearly stated by Michel Barnier, the French Foreign Minister, in an interview with the French TV station " France Inter."...
The National Council for the Iraqi Resistance, also referred to as the United Council for the Iraqi Resistance, was born in June 2003, comprising Ba'th activists (referred to as militants), remnants of the Iraqi army and Republican Guard, and what are described as "heroes of the national security apparatus."
The membership of the leadership of the Council remains secret, although in an interview with the former Iraqi Vice President, Izzat Ibrahim Al-Duri, he was identified as the leader of the resistance.
These post-Saddam Baathists are using "French speaking space" to try to defeat us in Iraq and then destroy the West:"......Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
Those who were looking for yet more reasons why being on France's bad side is hardly the problem that many in the MSM like to portray it as: consider France's support of Baathists much as they are harbingers of some of the world's worst Anti-Semitism. Consider also that they are sticking the knife in the backs of our fighting men and women in Iraq by collaborating with seditionists. This is true to form for France for she collaborated with the Nazis in World War II and also (more recently) with with Saddam Hussein in the UN oil-for-food scandal.
As far as the Muslim Baathists in France go, I remind you that France's policies for dealing with the Muslim extremists is suicidal as Bridget Bardot and others have asserted for quite some time. Frankly, I do not want to see America become another France -even if we are already well on our way there. It is not too late for us to reverse course. France on the other hand is about a generation away from being Muslim dominated with her heritage as one of the great bastions of Christendom consigned to the ash heap of history. If she does not swerve from this suicidal pathway, all I will say is this: "good riddence France!!!" If you want to kill yourselves feel free to but do not expect America as a nation (or people like myself) to follow you down your delusional path to nationalist suicide. Hopefully you like kneeling on prayer rugs five times a day...
THE DIPLOMAD
I've found a very interesting new blog called The Diplomad. It's written by a nest of conservatives working within the notoriously leftwing State Department. Its two most recent posts--the one on the Marine kill shot and the post on the corruption of the UN --are must-reads. The first makes a point Chris R. and I have talked about but haven't written on yet--that the Pentagon's infowarriors are failing to defend our troops and are terribly inept at managing the critical informational aspects of our post-modern war in Iraq. The latter details just how things work in the UN...Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
Both posts were excellent as Bryan noted they were. Indeed, it seems I have another political weblog to add to the scroll when I get around to updating Rerum Novarum again. (Odds are good it will be in December before Christmas if I can find a stray hour or so to do it.)
"COURAGE"
Dan Rather will step down as anchor of CBS Evening News in March. Among the pajama-clad warriors there will be much rejoicing.
But.
We're being denied a clean victory here. Rather was likely on his way out within another year or two anyway, and the CBS statement indicates that the network plans to keep Dan around for more of his fine 60 Minutes reporting--the very reporting that the pajama-clad hoped would be his undoing. Even airing forged documents in a desperate attempt to unseat the President of the United States won't get you fired cleanly from CBS. If you're Dan Rather, you still get to keep the pension and you still get to fabricate stories until they plant you six feet under.
Couple Dan's limited modified step-down with Jonathan Klein's move from CBS 60 Minutes via TheFeedRoom over to become president of CNN and you can quickly see that the legacy press isn't catching on. Rather has disgraced his profession, and Klein managed to insult the blogosphere --the collective reporting engine that expose Rather's shoddy reporting--in a way that has reverberated ever since, yet both remain essentially unfirable and untouchable. And Klein was defending Rather when he insulted the blogwriting critics who have been since vindicated (I know the CBS investigation is still in progress, but we all know those docs were fakes... ). Shouldn't a prospective president of a cable news network have been a bit more circumspect? Shouldn't he have shown less interest in defending a particular reporter and more interest in getting at the truth?
Any why would a struggling cable news net hire a guy from a struggling online news net with a history at the third-place national TV news net anyway? What part of Jonathan Klein's history screams "success" so loud that CNN just had to make him an offer? LINK
In a phrase: the MSM still does not get it!!! I cannot say that this bothers me really -heck I relish watching the MSM stumble around like drunks unable to figure out why they are continuing to become more and more irrelevant. It is the same relish I get from watching the Democratic Party act in like manner but I digress.
HERO
Uncommon valor is the common virtue among our Marines in Iraq, but one sergeant's actions in Fallujah still stand out:
FALLUJAH, Iraq — Sgt. Rafael Peralta had built a reputation for putting his Marines' interests ahead of his own.
Peralta, 25, as platoon scout for 1st Platoon, wasn't assigned to the assault team that entered the insurgent safe house in northern Fallujah where he died, Marines said. Though his assignment would have allowed him to avoid such dangerous duty, he regularly asked squad leaders whether he could join their assault teams, they said.
One of the first Marines to enter the house, Peralta was wounded in the face by rifle fire, said Lance Cpl. Adam Morrison, 20, of Tacoma, Wash., who was in the house when Peralta was wounded.
Peralta fell to the floor, Morrison said. Moments later, an insurgent rolled a fragmentation grenade into the area where Peralta and the other Marines were seeking cover.
As Morrison and another Marine scrambled to escape, pounding against a locked door, Peralta, still conscious, grabbed the grenade and cradled it into his body, Morrison said. One Marine was badly wounded by shrapnel from the blast. But the Marines said more lives would have been lost if not for Peralta's selfless act.
“He saved half my fire team,” said Cpl. Brannon Dyer, 27, of Blairsville, Ga.
Alpha Company Marines said such a final act would be in character for Peralta, a native of Mexico who lived in San Diego and became a U.S. citizen after joining the Marines.
Peralta signed up for the Marine Corps, then signed on for its toughest fights in its most fierce battle in Iraq. And when his mates were in danger, he died to save them. He deserves a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor. LINK
I concur with Bryan on Sgt. Rafael Peralta: a Congressional Medal of Honour is in order for this kind of valor. May he rest in peace with the souls of the faithfully departed for giving perhaps the greatest sacrifice he could: his life for the safety and security of his countrymen.
DESPERATELY SEEKING VALUES
Does the popularity even in Red states of trashy TV shows like Desperate Housewives, Will & Grace, etc mean Red staters are hypocrites? Are we a "do as I say but not as I do" bunch of folks? Rooftop Blog is asking that question, and I thought I'd chime in.
I don't think the Red state popularity of trashy TV means much beyond a few simple things. First, even in the Red states there are enough Blue staters, or at least residents with Blue state values, to make almost any TV show popular if they all watch it. It's a phenomenon of the narrowcast world of TV these days that it takes a relatively small number of committed viewers to lift a given show in the ratings. My sense is that as Red staters increasingly leave television viewing for other pursuits and activities--family stuff, the web, church activity, etc--and head toward the narrowcast cable channels, it's easier for the networks to pass off tawdry crap in primetime and have the Blue staters, even in the Red states, give that stuff enough ratings to sustain them. I say that's my sense only because I don't have much empirical data to support it, just my own changed habits and those of Red staters I know. We're mostly leaving the networks or have already left them precisely because they've just gotten worse and worse over the years. Pretty soon we'll see some network show trollop showing full-frontal nudity at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Jeff Jarvis and the rest will be out there attacking the FCC for uttering a peep about it. Frankly I don't even have time to battle against that nonsense when we're at war with a bunch of latter day Nazis who have found sympathy on the American left. I wish Jarvis would get a grip.
My second impression from all this is that even us Red staters are smart enough to separate mindless entertainment from the direction we want our ship of state to go. We have our guilty pleasures just like everybody else, because we're human and we have the modern luxury of leisure time to waste. Just because I love Seinfeld, a show absolutely without values that depicted some of the most morally despicable characters ever to appear on TV, doesn't mean I want a bunch of people like Jerry's four running the country. I can separate the world of entertainment, which is mostly an escape from the everyday, from the real world. I think that separation is lost on Hollywood, which tends to see itself as the center for all knowledge in the universe. The rest of us are just smarter than that, and I think the Redder you vote the more separation you see between Hollywood and the real world. We can watch crap made by people we neither like nor agree with politically, yet vote in a president based on his and our true values. Blue staters tend to think Martin Sheen is actually the President of the United States.
The values that drove part of the Bush vote, as I have explained before, are actually more basic than what we Red staters think on any given issue. Speaking for myself, my values vote was a rejection of the shameless dishonesty and blatant anti-Americanism of the modern Democrat party, as exemplified by Michael Moore, Al Sharpton, Terry MacAuliffe, John Kerry and the rest of that wretched lot. That bunch doesn't deserve power in any way, shape or form. In the case of Moore you have an enemy propagandist embraced by the party; in Sharpton's case, you have a blood-soaked rabble rouser passed off as a responsible voice for the oppressed. What a crock. By their actions and rhetoric since 9-11 the Democrats have proven themselves irresponsible and unworthy to lead a Girl Scout troop, let alone the country in a time of peril. That they can't articulate a clear position on other basic issues, from gay marriage to abortion (other than to demand no regulation or restriction of the latter), just clinches it. They're worthless and destructive, with no positive view of this country or its place in the world. The Democrats have become a shape-shifting set of liars and frauds who will put up a man who once worked with an enemy in the middle of a war. How could I possibly vote for that? I'd vote Green before I'd vote Democrat now. At least the Greens are up front about their Communist tendencies; the Democrats think they're fooling us...Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
From one whose TV viewing has been declining in recent years (and who has seen virtually none of the "new shows" in that time), I see merit in Bryan's analysis above because it applies to my view on the matter too. And like Bryan, I would vote Green before voting Democratic but then again, (i) I have a trackrecord of manifested contempt for the Democratic Party spanning nearly twenty years, and (ii) I have gone on the record more than once supporting certain applications of the third party concept as well so that should not surprise.
AN OPEN LETTER TO EUROPE
Brilliant
An Open Letter to Europe by Harold E. Meyer
Hi. Are you nuts?
Forgive me for being so blunt, but your reaction to our reelection of President Bush has been so outrageous that I’m wondering if you have quite literally lost your minds. One of Britain’s largest newspapers ran a headline asking “How Can 59 Million Americans Be So Dumb?”, and commentators in France all seemed to use the same word – bizarre -- to explain the election’s outcome to their readers. In Germany the editors of Die Tageszeitung responded to our vote by writing that “Bush belongs at a war tribunal – not in the White House.” And on a London radio talk show last week one Jeremy Hardy described our President and those of us who voted for him as “stupid, crazy, ignorant, bellicose Christian fundamentalists.”
Of course, you are entitled to whatever views about us that you care to hold. (And lucky for you we Americans aren’t like so many of the Muslims on your own continent; as the late Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh just discovered, make one nasty crack about them and you’re likely to get six bullets pumped into your head and a knife plunged into your chest.) But before you write us off as just a bunch of sweaty, hairy-chested, Bible-thumping morons who are more likely to break their fast by dipping a Krispy Kreme into a diet cola than a biscotti into an espresso – and who inexplicably have won more Nobel prizes than all other countries combined, host 25 or 30 of the world’s finest universities and five or six of the world’s best symphonies, produce wines that win prizes at your own tasting competitions, have built the world’s most vibrant economy, are the world’s only military superpower and, so to speak in our spare time, have landed on the moon and sent our robots to Mars – may I suggest you stop frothing at the mouth long enough to consider just what are these ideas we hold that you find so silly and repugnant?
We believe that church and state should be separate, but that religion should remain at the center of life. We are a Judeo-Christian culture, which means we consider those ten things on a tablet to be commandments, not suggestions. We believe that individuals are more important than groups, that families are more important than governments, that children should be raised by their parents rather than by the State, and that marriage should take place only between a man and a woman. We believe that rights must be balanced by responsibilities, that personal freedom is a privilege we must be careful not to abuse, and that the rule of law cannot be set aside when it becomes inconvenient. We believe in economic liberty, and in the right of purposeful and industrious entrepreneurs to run their businesses – and thus create jobs – with a minimum of government interference. We recognize that other people see things differently, and we are tolerant of their views. But we believe that our country is worth defending, and if anyone decides that killing us is an okay thing to do we will go after them with everything we’ve got.
If these beliefs seem strange to you, they shouldn’t. For these are precisely the beliefs that powered Western Europe – you -- from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance, on to the Enlightenment, and forward into the modern world. They are the beliefs that made Europe itself the glory of Western civilization and – not coincidentally – ignited the greatest outpouring of art, literature, music and scientific discovery the world has ever known including Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Bach, Issac Newton and Descartes...Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
The entire letter is worth reading and I concur with every bit of it. Those who think Europe is all "progressive" and "enlightened" and "intelligent" should be more discerning in what factors they use to make this assessment. For indeed, there are many of us who can read the tea-leaves and do recognize what the policies recommended by European intellectuals (and media elites in this country) will result in if they are implemented. We did not vote for John Kerry and far from being "idiots" or "stupid", the truth is: we know the lessons of history well and have eyes to see what is happening to Europe now as a result of these policies. It is not a pretty sight and I will out of charity spare noting here the true mental acuity of those who would want to see America go down the same path Europe has been traveling for quite some time now.
(A Rerum Novarum Ten Part Slam)
It has been about six weeks since we ran a multipart JYB thread at this humble weblog. In such an time frame, it would be easy to post a large installment ala what we did last time in running a twenty part thread; however, there is enough to cover in just the past ten days so we will keep this thread shorter. As usual, Bryan (and Chris') stuff will be in purple font -though I will put the text in black when they quote a source. My comments will be in regular font.
DR. CONDOLEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE
If any Democrat had nominated someone anywhere near the caliber of Dr. Condolezza Rice, an accomplished black woman, to become Secretary of State, the nation would have been carpeted with laudatory newspaper biopics, with quickly-produced television documentaries, with rushed-to-print books and maybe even a feature film. It would be a huge, huge gush moment as the entire press and creative community paused to hail the beneficent president and his wisdom and tolerance as exemplified by his astounding choice.
Since Dr. Rice is a Republican, though, we're not getting any of that. What we are getting is a spate of racist editorial cartoons that would have made even Senator Robert C. Byrd blush during his Klan says. Go here for a shocking round-up, and consider what would have happened if the roles had been reversed; i.e. if the nominee had been a black Democrat and conservative cartoonists compared her to Prissy from Gone With the Wind. The rest of the media has met Dr. Rice's accension to one of the highest and most important offices in the land with muted golf-clapping or covert hostility. It's a disgrace, frankly, and it's even more of a disgrace that the NAACP hasn't a) met Dr. Rice's nomination with joy, since that organization is nominally about the advancement of black people and her nomination represents a major advance for a black person; and b) hasn't uttered a peep in protest about the racist garbage the press is hurling at her. The NAACP's national phone number is 401-358-8900 if you'd like to register your opinions on the matter with them.
But back to Dr. Rice. Her hometown paper has published a bio that's worth a read. After reading it, it's no wonder that so many on the left see her as a threat. Her rise exemplifies the left's failures in so many, many ways.
Rice, 50, head of the National Security Council, was raised in Birmingham by parents who believed strongly in religion and achievement through education. Her mother taught at Fairfield High School. Her father was a minister at Birmingham's Westminster Presbyterian Church who also worked as a high school football coach to augment his salary.
By the age of 5, Rice had well-developed reading skills. Her mother, Angelena, wanted her to start school early, but teachers at a local black elementary school said she was too young. So Angelena Rice took a year off from her job at Fairfield High to home-school her precocious daughter.
So much for leftwing educational theories that homeschoolers are wasting their time and harming their kids--Rice was homeschooled, and look where it got her.
During the bombings of the summer of 1963, her father and other neighborhood men guarded the streets at night to keep white vigilantes at bay. Rice said her staunch defense of gun rights comes from those days. She has argued that if the guns her father and neighbors carried had been registered, they could have been confiscated by the authorities, leaving the black community defenseless.
That is exactly the lesson the gun-grabbers hope you and I never learn--that there are times when the right to bear arms can mean the difference between freedom and tyranny, even on a local level. Dr. Rice's history is a slap in the face to every gun control agitator in the coutry, but it's a slap they deserve: Had they gotten their way, there might never have been a Dr. Condolezza Rice because some racist nut might have killed her as a child...Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
As I have already commented on the Condi Rice situation, I will not repeat myself here except to note that (as so often happens), Bryan's take on a political subject meshes well with that of your humble servant at Rerum Novarum.
TERRORISM, BANK FRAUD AND IMMIGRATION VIOLATIONS
The Feds swept up 13 suspected terrorist operators in Seattle:
Federal counter-terrorism agents swept down on homes and businesses in Seattle yesterday, conducting searches and charging 13 men with gun, immigration and bank-fraud violations.
The FBI said it searched 19 Seattle-area homes, businesses and vehicles. Federal agents detained five other people on immigration charges, said FBI Special Agent Robbie Burroughs.
None of the men targeted in the raids is accused under terrorism statutes. However, the federal charges unsealed yesterday allege the ringleader of the bank-fraud case told a paid FBI informant that his "whole Muslim crew" was involved in stealing money because "you can't go to war broke."
According to the complaint, the purported ringleader, a drug felon named Karim Abdullah Assalaam, told an acquaintance that the money obtained through the fraud "goes to help our Muslim brothers and sisters. ... It goes to the cause, not like it goes to me and you."
The bank-fraud scheme involved depositing forged checks into bank accounts and then withdrawing the money through automatic-teller machines before the fraud was discovered. Tens of thousands of dollars were stolen, according to the court documents.
Several gun-related cases also sprang from the investigation. Assalaam and four other men were charged as felons possessing firearms, including several handguns, two shotguns and an AK-47 assault rifle...Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
As one who lives in the Seattle area, this was both a comfort and also a disturbance to me. Obviously I want to see these kinds of people rounded up; however, then when it happens, the realization that Seattle is seen as a place for them to infiltrate the country starts setting in. But lest I mull this over too much, onto the next subject: Rathergate.
RATHERGATE UPDATE
As InstaPundit notes, it has been two months since CBS announced it would investigate the 60 Minutes forged documents fiasco, and the world has yet to hear any conclusions from it. In that time, the President that CBS producers and journalists wanted to defeat has been re-elected and Dan Rather has become the butt of jokes.
None of this is stopping 60 Minutes curmudgeon Andy Rooney from weighing in, though. Speaking at Tufts University Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy last Thursday, Rooney said:
"I am very critical of some of the people at CBS who make it apparent what their political leanings are. That's what happened to this thing of Dan Rather's that got out. There's no question they wanted to run it because it was negative towards Bush."
If an old stick in the mud like Rooney sees this, what is CBS waiting for?
Rooney got this story right--the forged doc story is about media bias--but that doesn't mean his opinions on other matters are worth much. On Christian fundamentalists:
Rooney also attributed voters' reliance on religion in the recent election to ignorance. "I am an atheist," Rooney said. "I don't understand religion at all. I'm sure I'll offend a lot of people by saying this, but I think it's all nonsense."
He said Christian fundamentalism is a result of "a lack of education. They haven't been exposed to what the world has to offer."
Let's see...I've lived overseas and visited more than a handful of countries and territories outside the CONUS. I'm a born red-stater living in a very blue state. My child is bilingual because he lives in a bilingual/biracial household. I do in fact have a college degree and probably know more about astrophysics than Rooney knows about anything, yet I'm the uneducated one because I understand that I am not the center of the universe and that my opinion doesn't count for much in the grand scheme of things? Having lived among believers and pagans, the saved and the atheist, red staters and blue staters, it's the atheistic, tunnel-visioned America-hating leftists I pity the most. They are the parochial, self-centered, head-in-the-sand reactionaries who have no understanding of America's role in the world or Christianity's place in history. They just thrive on hating their fellow Americans while apologizing for sadists and maniacs who happen to be fighting against us. These blue-staters just don't get it and probably never will...Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
Well said Bryan (as usual). As far as Andy Rooney goes, he certainly gets the bias of CBS but then again, anyone with a normal intact functioning brain who actually pays attention cannot help but notice it. With regards to his views on religion, the expression "the sun shines on the keister of every dog once in a while" comes to mind.
PROLIFERATION SECURITY INITIATIVE UPDATE
Finally, somebody besides the JYB has noticed that the PSI is a de facto blockade of North Korea. Writing for FrontPage, Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu describes an "anaconda strategy" for dealing with the mercurial Kim personality cult masquerading as a country:
Under the politically convoluted constraints that define the War on Terror, we and our allies often need to pursue strategically critical actions but may not wish publicly to call them what they are. A good case in point is the Anaconda Strategy in Northeast Asia. There is well underway an expanding naval blockade of North Korean. It is not called a blockade because would be tantamount to an act of war under international rules. And a shooting war with North Korea is what we hope to avoid. But the need to intercept North Korean contraband is absolutely necessary.
Most North Korean weapons-narcotics contraband is exported in an aging but seaworthy fleet of merchant vessels flying the North Korean flag. Other ships sailing under flags of convenience are North Korean owned. Many of these ships transit Japan, particularly the port region of Osaka-Kobe. In this largely industrial region of western Japan resides a huge Korean-Japanese population. They are generational descendants of workers imported from Korea during the 1910-1945 colonial period. Many are part of the yakuza, or gangster element. The Kim Jong Il regime has deep ties within this criminal community.
For years North Korean shipping was given a pass by Japanese customs and port inspectors rather than upset the always delicate bilateral relationship. Since 9-11 Japan has actively supported American efforts to combat terrorism worldwide. A large part of this effort has been refocused attention on North Korean shipping. While not engaged in anything resembling a blockade, of course, Japanese inspectors are extremely concerned with safety violations on some of these ships, often requiring repairs and re-inspection that keep them tied to the wharfs for an extended time. Customs and narcotics investigators, meanwhile, sift through cargo to detect the narcotics and weaponry banned by international agreement.......Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
Bryan was definitely ahead of the curve on this one. Nonetheless, those who wonder why we have not taken military action with North Korea as we did with Iraq can mull over the PSI for a while and maybe the penny will drop for them.
BAATH PARTY LIVES ON IN FRANCE
Nazi-occupied Vichy France was the birthplace of the Baath Party. Why should we expect modern France to do anything but try and resurrect its creation?
With the defeat of the Saddam Hussein regime on April 9, 2003, the Ba'th ruling party was outlawed and a committee for the de-Ba'thification of Iraq was established. [1] However, the Ba'th's propaganda machine appears to have found a new abode in Paris, France, whence threats to the U.S. are issued regularly in three languages - English, French, and Spanish. Not surprisingly, the Ba'thist propagandists use the word "resistance" (in French, "la resistance") to underscore the association with the struggle against the Nazi occupation of France during WWII.
The resurrection of the Ba'th Party on French soil was further strengthened by France's proposal that representatives of "la resistance" should participate in any future conference that will be convened to discuss the future of Iraq. This position was clearly stated by Michel Barnier, the French Foreign Minister, in an interview with the French TV station " France Inter."...
The National Council for the Iraqi Resistance, also referred to as the United Council for the Iraqi Resistance, was born in June 2003, comprising Ba'th activists (referred to as militants), remnants of the Iraqi army and Republican Guard, and what are described as "heroes of the national security apparatus."
The membership of the leadership of the Council remains secret, although in an interview with the former Iraqi Vice President, Izzat Ibrahim Al-Duri, he was identified as the leader of the resistance.
These post-Saddam Baathists are using "French speaking space" to try to defeat us in Iraq and then destroy the West:"......Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
Those who were looking for yet more reasons why being on France's bad side is hardly the problem that many in the MSM like to portray it as: consider France's support of Baathists much as they are harbingers of some of the world's worst Anti-Semitism. Consider also that they are sticking the knife in the backs of our fighting men and women in Iraq by collaborating with seditionists. This is true to form for France for she collaborated with the Nazis in World War II and also (more recently) with with Saddam Hussein in the UN oil-for-food scandal.
As far as the Muslim Baathists in France go, I remind you that France's policies for dealing with the Muslim extremists is suicidal as Bridget Bardot and others have asserted for quite some time. Frankly, I do not want to see America become another France -even if we are already well on our way there. It is not too late for us to reverse course. France on the other hand is about a generation away from being Muslim dominated with her heritage as one of the great bastions of Christendom consigned to the ash heap of history. If she does not swerve from this suicidal pathway, all I will say is this: "good riddence France!!!" If you want to kill yourselves feel free to but do not expect America as a nation (or people like myself) to follow you down your delusional path to nationalist suicide. Hopefully you like kneeling on prayer rugs five times a day...
THE DIPLOMAD
I've found a very interesting new blog called The Diplomad. It's written by a nest of conservatives working within the notoriously leftwing State Department. Its two most recent posts--the one on the Marine kill shot and the post on the corruption of the UN --are must-reads. The first makes a point Chris R. and I have talked about but haven't written on yet--that the Pentagon's infowarriors are failing to defend our troops and are terribly inept at managing the critical informational aspects of our post-modern war in Iraq. The latter details just how things work in the UN...Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
Both posts were excellent as Bryan noted they were. Indeed, it seems I have another political weblog to add to the scroll when I get around to updating Rerum Novarum again. (Odds are good it will be in December before Christmas if I can find a stray hour or so to do it.)
"COURAGE"
Dan Rather will step down as anchor of CBS Evening News in March. Among the pajama-clad warriors there will be much rejoicing.
But.
We're being denied a clean victory here. Rather was likely on his way out within another year or two anyway, and the CBS statement indicates that the network plans to keep Dan around for more of his fine 60 Minutes reporting--the very reporting that the pajama-clad hoped would be his undoing. Even airing forged documents in a desperate attempt to unseat the President of the United States won't get you fired cleanly from CBS. If you're Dan Rather, you still get to keep the pension and you still get to fabricate stories until they plant you six feet under.
Couple Dan's limited modified step-down with Jonathan Klein's move from CBS 60 Minutes via TheFeedRoom over to become president of CNN and you can quickly see that the legacy press isn't catching on. Rather has disgraced his profession, and Klein managed to insult the blogosphere --the collective reporting engine that expose Rather's shoddy reporting--in a way that has reverberated ever since, yet both remain essentially unfirable and untouchable. And Klein was defending Rather when he insulted the blogwriting critics who have been since vindicated (I know the CBS investigation is still in progress, but we all know those docs were fakes... ). Shouldn't a prospective president of a cable news network have been a bit more circumspect? Shouldn't he have shown less interest in defending a particular reporter and more interest in getting at the truth?
Any why would a struggling cable news net hire a guy from a struggling online news net with a history at the third-place national TV news net anyway? What part of Jonathan Klein's history screams "success" so loud that CNN just had to make him an offer? LINK
In a phrase: the MSM still does not get it!!! I cannot say that this bothers me really -heck I relish watching the MSM stumble around like drunks unable to figure out why they are continuing to become more and more irrelevant. It is the same relish I get from watching the Democratic Party act in like manner but I digress.
HERO
Uncommon valor is the common virtue among our Marines in Iraq, but one sergeant's actions in Fallujah still stand out:
FALLUJAH, Iraq — Sgt. Rafael Peralta had built a reputation for putting his Marines' interests ahead of his own.
Peralta, 25, as platoon scout for 1st Platoon, wasn't assigned to the assault team that entered the insurgent safe house in northern Fallujah where he died, Marines said. Though his assignment would have allowed him to avoid such dangerous duty, he regularly asked squad leaders whether he could join their assault teams, they said.
One of the first Marines to enter the house, Peralta was wounded in the face by rifle fire, said Lance Cpl. Adam Morrison, 20, of Tacoma, Wash., who was in the house when Peralta was wounded.
Peralta fell to the floor, Morrison said. Moments later, an insurgent rolled a fragmentation grenade into the area where Peralta and the other Marines were seeking cover.
As Morrison and another Marine scrambled to escape, pounding against a locked door, Peralta, still conscious, grabbed the grenade and cradled it into his body, Morrison said. One Marine was badly wounded by shrapnel from the blast. But the Marines said more lives would have been lost if not for Peralta's selfless act.
“He saved half my fire team,” said Cpl. Brannon Dyer, 27, of Blairsville, Ga.
Alpha Company Marines said such a final act would be in character for Peralta, a native of Mexico who lived in San Diego and became a U.S. citizen after joining the Marines.
Peralta signed up for the Marine Corps, then signed on for its toughest fights in its most fierce battle in Iraq. And when his mates were in danger, he died to save them. He deserves a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor. LINK
I concur with Bryan on Sgt. Rafael Peralta: a Congressional Medal of Honour is in order for this kind of valor. May he rest in peace with the souls of the faithfully departed for giving perhaps the greatest sacrifice he could: his life for the safety and security of his countrymen.
DESPERATELY SEEKING VALUES
Does the popularity even in Red states of trashy TV shows like Desperate Housewives, Will & Grace, etc mean Red staters are hypocrites? Are we a "do as I say but not as I do" bunch of folks? Rooftop Blog is asking that question, and I thought I'd chime in.
I don't think the Red state popularity of trashy TV means much beyond a few simple things. First, even in the Red states there are enough Blue staters, or at least residents with Blue state values, to make almost any TV show popular if they all watch it. It's a phenomenon of the narrowcast world of TV these days that it takes a relatively small number of committed viewers to lift a given show in the ratings. My sense is that as Red staters increasingly leave television viewing for other pursuits and activities--family stuff, the web, church activity, etc--and head toward the narrowcast cable channels, it's easier for the networks to pass off tawdry crap in primetime and have the Blue staters, even in the Red states, give that stuff enough ratings to sustain them. I say that's my sense only because I don't have much empirical data to support it, just my own changed habits and those of Red staters I know. We're mostly leaving the networks or have already left them precisely because they've just gotten worse and worse over the years. Pretty soon we'll see some network show trollop showing full-frontal nudity at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Jeff Jarvis and the rest will be out there attacking the FCC for uttering a peep about it. Frankly I don't even have time to battle against that nonsense when we're at war with a bunch of latter day Nazis who have found sympathy on the American left. I wish Jarvis would get a grip.
My second impression from all this is that even us Red staters are smart enough to separate mindless entertainment from the direction we want our ship of state to go. We have our guilty pleasures just like everybody else, because we're human and we have the modern luxury of leisure time to waste. Just because I love Seinfeld, a show absolutely without values that depicted some of the most morally despicable characters ever to appear on TV, doesn't mean I want a bunch of people like Jerry's four running the country. I can separate the world of entertainment, which is mostly an escape from the everyday, from the real world. I think that separation is lost on Hollywood, which tends to see itself as the center for all knowledge in the universe. The rest of us are just smarter than that, and I think the Redder you vote the more separation you see between Hollywood and the real world. We can watch crap made by people we neither like nor agree with politically, yet vote in a president based on his and our true values. Blue staters tend to think Martin Sheen is actually the President of the United States.
The values that drove part of the Bush vote, as I have explained before, are actually more basic than what we Red staters think on any given issue. Speaking for myself, my values vote was a rejection of the shameless dishonesty and blatant anti-Americanism of the modern Democrat party, as exemplified by Michael Moore, Al Sharpton, Terry MacAuliffe, John Kerry and the rest of that wretched lot. That bunch doesn't deserve power in any way, shape or form. In the case of Moore you have an enemy propagandist embraced by the party; in Sharpton's case, you have a blood-soaked rabble rouser passed off as a responsible voice for the oppressed. What a crock. By their actions and rhetoric since 9-11 the Democrats have proven themselves irresponsible and unworthy to lead a Girl Scout troop, let alone the country in a time of peril. That they can't articulate a clear position on other basic issues, from gay marriage to abortion (other than to demand no regulation or restriction of the latter), just clinches it. They're worthless and destructive, with no positive view of this country or its place in the world. The Democrats have become a shape-shifting set of liars and frauds who will put up a man who once worked with an enemy in the middle of a war. How could I possibly vote for that? I'd vote Green before I'd vote Democrat now. At least the Greens are up front about their Communist tendencies; the Democrats think they're fooling us...Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
From one whose TV viewing has been declining in recent years (and who has seen virtually none of the "new shows" in that time), I see merit in Bryan's analysis above because it applies to my view on the matter too. And like Bryan, I would vote Green before voting Democratic but then again, (i) I have a trackrecord of manifested contempt for the Democratic Party spanning nearly twenty years, and (ii) I have gone on the record more than once supporting certain applications of the third party concept as well so that should not surprise.
AN OPEN LETTER TO EUROPE
Brilliant
An Open Letter to Europe by Harold E. Meyer
Hi. Are you nuts?
Forgive me for being so blunt, but your reaction to our reelection of President Bush has been so outrageous that I’m wondering if you have quite literally lost your minds. One of Britain’s largest newspapers ran a headline asking “How Can 59 Million Americans Be So Dumb?”, and commentators in France all seemed to use the same word – bizarre -- to explain the election’s outcome to their readers. In Germany the editors of Die Tageszeitung responded to our vote by writing that “Bush belongs at a war tribunal – not in the White House.” And on a London radio talk show last week one Jeremy Hardy described our President and those of us who voted for him as “stupid, crazy, ignorant, bellicose Christian fundamentalists.”
Of course, you are entitled to whatever views about us that you care to hold. (And lucky for you we Americans aren’t like so many of the Muslims on your own continent; as the late Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh just discovered, make one nasty crack about them and you’re likely to get six bullets pumped into your head and a knife plunged into your chest.) But before you write us off as just a bunch of sweaty, hairy-chested, Bible-thumping morons who are more likely to break their fast by dipping a Krispy Kreme into a diet cola than a biscotti into an espresso – and who inexplicably have won more Nobel prizes than all other countries combined, host 25 or 30 of the world’s finest universities and five or six of the world’s best symphonies, produce wines that win prizes at your own tasting competitions, have built the world’s most vibrant economy, are the world’s only military superpower and, so to speak in our spare time, have landed on the moon and sent our robots to Mars – may I suggest you stop frothing at the mouth long enough to consider just what are these ideas we hold that you find so silly and repugnant?
We believe that church and state should be separate, but that religion should remain at the center of life. We are a Judeo-Christian culture, which means we consider those ten things on a tablet to be commandments, not suggestions. We believe that individuals are more important than groups, that families are more important than governments, that children should be raised by their parents rather than by the State, and that marriage should take place only between a man and a woman. We believe that rights must be balanced by responsibilities, that personal freedom is a privilege we must be careful not to abuse, and that the rule of law cannot be set aside when it becomes inconvenient. We believe in economic liberty, and in the right of purposeful and industrious entrepreneurs to run their businesses – and thus create jobs – with a minimum of government interference. We recognize that other people see things differently, and we are tolerant of their views. But we believe that our country is worth defending, and if anyone decides that killing us is an okay thing to do we will go after them with everything we’ve got.
If these beliefs seem strange to you, they shouldn’t. For these are precisely the beliefs that powered Western Europe – you -- from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance, on to the Enlightenment, and forward into the modern world. They are the beliefs that made Europe itself the glory of Western civilization and – not coincidentally – ignited the greatest outpouring of art, literature, music and scientific discovery the world has ever known including Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Bach, Issac Newton and Descartes...Go HERE to read the rest of the text.
The entire letter is worth reading and I concur with every bit of it. Those who think Europe is all "progressive" and "enlightened" and "intelligent" should be more discerning in what factors they use to make this assessment. For indeed, there are many of us who can read the tea-leaves and do recognize what the policies recommended by European intellectuals (and media elites in this country) will result in if they are implemented. We did not vote for John Kerry and far from being "idiots" or "stupid", the truth is: we know the lessons of history well and have eyes to see what is happening to Europe now as a result of these policies. It is not a pretty sight and I will out of charity spare noting here the true mental acuity of those who would want to see America go down the same path Europe has been traveling for quite some time now.
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