I just had to delete well over 2k in comments because I got major spammed this week.
Justin Kindy, Willyb, and Ex-Republican- your 600+ comment thread on John Kerry had to be nuked to get to all the comments I needed to delete. Feel free to post here.
Far North
I read today that, since the President can’t run on his record, he’s setting new lows in campaign advertising distortion by making stuff up about John Kerry. About 75% of Bush ads are attacks on Kerry. Most of the attacks don’t have use much of the Truth.
Ricky
Yes, those “false” advertisements that bring up Kerry’s voting record are indeed ‘attack’ ads, eh?
Do you think we don’t know who Dana Milbank is?
Nice try.
Far North
Oh yea, it’s that damn “liberal media”. If you research the ads, they come up phony eact time.
How about referring me to a report that defends Bush’s ads rather than attack the source of the criticism.
capt joe
turnabout is fair play. I remember a few months ago, the major force is putting out negative adds was Kerry and his extended crew, MoveOn, Air Amerikka, and various other so-called non partisan orgs.
Get over your self.
He quotes Jamieson who has said in the past that negative adds were an important part of getting the message out. Turns out that was when Clinton was doing it to Dole. Good non biased source there. The other source for Milbank has since claimed that he was misunderstood and has not made the statement attributed to him by Milbank.
try again, trollie
willyb
Far north,
What attack ads are you referring to? What was said in these ads that is distorted?
Ken Hahn
I prefer negative ads. Positive ones tend to be about the flag, motherhood, apple pie or baseball. Not much info there. Negative ads work. They force a candidate to clarify his or her position. Kerry will produce some good negative ads by and by, after all his the the party of slimemasters like Carville, Begala et al. Hang in there, Far North, both sides are just getting started. It’ll be a fun summer.
Ricky
He’s referring to Dana Milbank carrying the water for the DNC. Straight from atrios to his atriettes.
Refer this.
Veeshir
I can’t even read Dana Millbank anymore. He is so over the top that it’s ridiculous. I clicked on that one for curiousity.
It was definitely carrying water for Kerry. The funny part was that Millbank mischaracterized Bush’s ads. He implied that Bush’s ad said that Kerry wants to raise the gas tax today, it says that he has wanted to raise it.
I loved an interview I saw with Kerry, the interviewer showed a clip of the Bush ad with Kerry saying that he voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it and Kerry said that it was, “Character Assassination. Even though the clip used his speech. Isn’t that Character Suicide?
Ricky
Lest we forget that Kerry claimed that the Bush campaign was questioning his patriotism by bringing up his voting record.
Yeah, I dare some donk to start calling for sources, as if they don’t know anything about it. Ask and I’ll post the letter from Kerry himself, and then I’ll demand your condemnation towards Kerry…….don’t go there.
willyb
I’m new to this blog, the one I was posting to (John Kerry, Vietnam vet) got spammed apparently. This blog seems relatively short. Did you guys get spammed as well?
Regarding “attack ads,” it seems to me that these claims are more about the Democrats’ lack of real issues than about anything else. It is very similar to the way they spin any discussion about John Kerry’s weak record on defense issues. When you point out that he voted against many of the systems the military is currently using, he goes into his “I served in Vietnam, and I not going to listen to people challenging my patriotism that didn’t serve.” It
Far North
It’s simple. Do you think Bush deserves 4 more years? Do you want 4 more years of this? I can’t say how Kerry will perform as the commander-in-chief. I do know how Bush has performed. Our country needs a change. Be it a Democrat or a different Republican president, our country needs a change.
I don’t know if 4 or 5 months as a swift boat capt is worth anything when it comes to being a president. But I do think it’s worth more than some sketchy national guard duty where Mr Bush hid to avoid Vietnam.
Bloggerhead
Jeez, Ricky, if you’re gonna demand anything, it better be that your wife give you some loving tonight. It appears you need release in a big way, my man.
Did you even read Milbank and Vandehei’s article, or was this another one of your I’ve-haven’t-read-it-but-I-know-it-says smears (ala Richard Clark’s book)? While I’ll acknowledge that Milbank is no Judith Miller, the article is a fairly straightforward account of the negativity & distortions of both campaigns, interspersed with comments from scholars whose livelihoods depend on their closely following such things that this appears to be unprecedented so early in an election.
Indeed, the real point of the article is that rarely has a sitting president, who should need only refer to his record, been forced to slime his opponent so early and so often. Luckily for Bush, his opponent is a long-serving Senator with a necessarily complex voting record. Of course, Kerry has the even greater luck to be running against a failed presidency.
By the way, the missus can’t still be mad about the dog getting loose, can she?
Far North
BTW;
Without your “Mainstream Media”, the case for war might never have been made. Do you know the name Judith Miller? Yea, that Judith Miller, the “reporter” for the NY TIMES who carried the Bush drumbeat for war to America via the “Mainstream Media”. Miller promoted your case for war under what has proven to be false pretenses. Yep, the media was sure liberal in it’s promotion of war.
triticale
Sketchy National Guard duty? The unit was flying combat missions in Nam when he volunteered for it, and he flew combat air patrols in the Gulf of Mexico at a time when Soviet fighters based in Cuba were testing our defenses.
If the highest rate of economic growth in 20 years is a failed presidency, I’d be curious to know what would constitute a successful one.
willyb
Far North,
If you can believe the stuff that Kerry is putting out there about how he would handle the war on terrorism, I don’t see how Kerry and Bush would be much different. Kerry, of course, would get the international community behind us (which is code for kissing France’s ass) and deal with rerrorism in the International Court. Do you really think that going back to Clinton’s policies for dealing with terrorists as criminals is a good idea?
Just for the record, I don’t think Bush’s tour in the Air National Guard prepared him for the duties he has assumed as Commander-in-Chief. Both Kerry’s and Bush’s experiences are non-negatives, as opposed to positives. That is, at least they had the guts to do something other than run to Canada. But I really don’t think it gave them the military experience to defend this nation.
willyb
Judith Miller was a voice in the wilderness. Were it not for the fact that she worked for the New York Times, her take would have been dismissed along with the other conservative voices signing a similar song. Why have the New York and LA Times continued to beat the Abu Garaib story to death. Have there really been any new developments?
I don’t think any of the media could have stopped Operation Iraqi Freedom once Congress passed the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq. Last I heard, John Kerry voted for this resolution. The only thing that could have stopped the Bush administration after that was Saddam Hussein. Why didn’t Saddam just let the inspectors in, unfettered by any Iraqi guides or restrictions. After all, he didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. Right?
Far North
willyb,
I think I agree. Nothing was going to stop the move to war. But you can’t say that the “liberal media” didn’t regurgitate the Bush administrations rationale for war for 18 solid months. There weren’t too many references to Anthony Zinni or Gen Shinseki on the cable or network news shows. “Expert” after “expert” was an unqualified war supporter leading up to its execution. What I detested as a card carrying Democrat was that, when it came time, the Democrats in Congress failed to initiate an open debate.
At the time, I didn’t know if invading Irag was the right or wrong thing to do. My goverment told me it was right. I, too, was caught up in the assualt on our country by the terrorists. But I didn’t trust the likes of Cheney, Rumsfeld and company to tell the truth. I know now that all my fears about the Bush team have been proven correct.
I would have thought Saddam would have done anything to stay in power, including letting the inpectors in. But when have we ever correctly predicted anything in the Middle East. I just know that in America, we don’t start unprovoked wars. We don’t do things to war prisoners that hostile Arabs, or Nazis or Russian KGB agents do, right? We don’t lie to our citizens to get them to support wars. At least, not the America I used to know and was taught about in school.
We need a change like we’ve never needed a change before.
Respectfully….
Far North
Oh crap, I’m done posting tonight. Arizona beat my Giants to break our 10 game winning streak. Time for a vodka.
Ricky
Well, the rest of the family DID go to the beach last week. :)
Good catch.
syn
Why should I believe in those who are confused as to the reasons why we are at war? At first, the Bush-bashers were against the war because of oil then when that theory was debunked, they changed their beliefs to the ‘the war was about simply saving Isreal’
Bush-bashers are as confused as Senator Kerry and I have no desire to support chaoic confusion.
Besides, it is idiotic to believe Saddam was a contained irritant.
willyb
Far North,
In the run-up to the war, the mainstream press was regurgitating what just about every politician out there was saying, including Democrats such as John Kerry. That they would be supportive of what liberals were saying is no revelation, and it certainly doesn’t prove that they are independent purveyors of the facts. Most of what I’m talking about has taken place after the two policial parties were at odds over what should have done. When the Democrats started their mantra that there were no WMDs, and that Bush lied to take us to war. If lies were told, didn’t John Kerry lie as well? How do you know that the Bush administration knew there were no WMDs, but lied about them to take us to war. At the time, the intelligence services of just about every country, including France, had indicated their belief that Saddam had WMD. What am I missing?
Frankly, I think Saddam Hussein was confident that the US would not attack without UN approval. And since he had the French, Germans, and Russians in his pocket by way of bribes he was paying through the UN’s Oil for Food Program, he was pretty confident that a UN Resolution would not get out of the Security Council. He underestimated Bush.
What I don’t understand is why so many people (mostly Democrats) are saying we would be better off if we had left Saddam in power. Given America’s relationship with Iraq prior to the war, it is likely that Saddam would have provided WMD to terrorists just to see us hurt. Why would you want to leave someone like that in power, with the ability to do all sorts of nasty things to hurt us?
Justin Kindy
Ted Sampley, the great John sKerry agitator and founder of Vietnam Vets against John Kerry, has apparently gotten under sKerry’s skin once again. So much so, that sKerry reportedly gave Sampley the bird in front of school children. The report states the following:
Ted Sampley, a former Green Beret who served two full tours in Vietnam, spotted Kerry and his Secret Service detail at about 9:00 a.m. Monday morning at the Vietnam War Memorial Wall. Sampley walked up to Kerry, extended his hand and said, “Senator, I am Ted Sampley, the head of Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, and I am here to escort you away from the Wall because you do not belong here.”
At that point a Secret Service officer told Sampley to back away from Kerry. Sampley moved about 6 feet away and opened his jacket to reveal a HANOI JOHN T-shirt.
Kerry then began talking to a group of schoolchildren. Sampley then showed the T-shirt to the children and said, “Kerry does not belong at the Wall because he betrayed the brave soldiers who fought in Vietnam.”
Just then Kerry, in front of the school children, other visitors and Secret Service agents, brazenly ‘flashed the bird’ at Sampley and then yelled out to everyone, “Sampley is a felon!”
sKerry was referring to an incident 12 years ago in which Sampley confronted Sen. John McCain’s chief aide, Mark Salter, in a Senate stairwell after McCain repeatedly offended POW families at a Senate POW hearing. Sampley, whose father-in-law at that time was MIA in Laos, followed Salter into the stairwell and, when they emerged, Salter had a bloody lip and a broken nose.
Sampley’s group, Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, has garnered huge national attention and has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post and on MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country.” Tens of thousands of Vietnam vets have registered their opposition to Kerry through Sampley’s group.
Justin Kindy
willyb,
Looks like you found out about this offshoot before I did. Good to see you’re still going to be involved. Sorry for the late showing on my part. I was going to mention the media only saying what both Dems and Reps were saying before the war, but it looks like you beat me to it…good job!
willyb
Justin Kindy,
I was wondering if you would show up over here. What happened over at the old blog. Have you heard anything other (than spammers)?
Your story about Ted Sampley makes me wonder if Ted has a death wish. You’ve got to give him credit for guts.
I wonder why John Kerry’s political ads don’t feature his experience as a Vietnam was protestor? While he didn’t receive any purple hearts while serving as a leader in the Vietnam Vets Against the War group, I heard he threw some over the wall at the Whitehouse.
Justin Kindy
I’m guessing that the server that the administrator of this site uses got hit with a bunch of spam, so he deleted a whole bunch of comments that could have caused that and our particular comments were among them.
Yeah, Ted is a real wise guy. You do have to hand it to him, though. He certainly doesn’t pull any punches (figuratively and physically).
I heard of a recent poll by Harris Interactive that just came out that it very interesting, here’s the details:
In April 2003, 49% of adults said that their personal situation had improved over the previous five years. In April 2004, 56% gave this answer.
In April last year, 21% said their situation became worse in the previous five years. In this year
Justin Kindy
Here’s another interesting poll conducted by CBS.
The poll shows that Kerry leads Bush in the numbers by one of the widest margins ever, eight points, but that isn’t what’s so interesting, this is:
Since the beginning of Kerry’s campaign, he has touted his military service and used it as the cornerstone of his campaign, almost never appearing on the stump without his Vietnam “Band of Brothers” by his side. Democratic Party surrogates have repeatedly blasted Bush for not serving in Vietnam – going so far as to label him AWOL – a charge the media was only too happy to focus on for weeks on end. But, Kerry is losing the veterans’ vote to President Bush by a landslide.
Buried deep inside the internals of the CBS poll released Wednesday was this stunning statistic: Veterans now prefer Bush over Kerry by a whopping 13 points, 54 to 41 percent.
Even the Democrat dream team presidential ticket of Kerry and John McCain doesn’t steal the vet vote away from Bush, with the same CBS survey showing an even split should McCain defect.
Not surprisingly, coverage of the stunning poll result has been slim to none.
willyb
Justin Kindy,
While I’m sure some don’t see these poll results the way I do, I think it’s great news.
Regarding Abu Garaib, I heard there was a poll out there saying that 62% of those surveyed thought the torture of Iraqi prisoners by 6 or 7 soldiers (maybe more by now, I stopped reading the stories) was overdone. According to Bill O’Rielly, last week sometime, the New York Times had put stories about the Abu Garaib torture scandal on the front page for 28 straight days (50 stories). The LA Times had a similar record. They are trying to portray this as a Bush Administration problem, like the administration had policy in place that okayed this type of treatment. This is clearly an anti-Bush spin. There is no other explanation.
Justin Kindy
willyb,
I definitely agree. It falls in line with my old post about the bias of the media and also with these latest poll results that show that the American public has very little confidence in any news organization on T.V. or in print. Very fascinating.
Did you hear that sKerry has expanded his view of how he will protect this nation against the threat of nuclear weapons used by terrorists? He has a five-point plan, and here’s what they are:
Secure nuclear weapons materials around the world, particularly in the former Soviet Union. – Agree with
Reduce existing nuclear stockpiles worldwide. – Agree with
Increase interdiction and enforcement. – Agree with
Establish a White House coordinator. – Agree with
Ban future existing nuclear material production. – What?
As my good friend Boortz pointed out, “is this a modern-day update to the old nuclear freeze idiocy from 20 years ago.”
“The problem is this: just because the United States stops building nuclear weapons doesn’t mean our enemies will. If banning something made it go away, then illegal drugs and illegal weapons would be off the street. Doesn’t work. Is the Souffl
willyb
Some funny stuff from the Federalist:
“The House Minority Leader, the woman aspiring to be the first female Speaker of the House, is so sputtering with Bush hatred that she needs a lobster bib.” –Brent Bozell
“It would be great if the tub of lard formerly known as Michael Moore were solicited to light the Olympic flame in August and just stayed over there. Given his deteriorating physical condition, however, he probably would be only a 50-50 bet to survive the climbing of the stadium steps.” –Columnist Tom Knott
“Michael Moore’s new film ‘Fahrenheit 9-11,’ which won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival… claims to be a documentary, but it doesn’t document anything but Michael Moore’s dementia.” –Linda Chavez
“Just think — all it would take to achieve a liberal’s idea of utopia is the abrupt onset of an ice age. Who says they lack a positive agenda?” –Ryan Zempel
“Top things on the John Kerry running mate application:” Do you support both sides of every issue?; Which trait do you find more inspirational: My dour blandness or my smug arrogance?; Excluding horse, what animal do I most resemble?; Do you have my back if I pull a ‘Clinton’?; Any black market Botox Connections?; Are you related to any Governors who can help rig an election?; Mind if I pretend you’re John McCain? — David Letterman
John Kerry met with Ralph Nader Wednesday in a closed door meeting. It wasn’t a secret meeting, it was just so boring the press closed the door. …. I heard today that John Kerry and President Bush may be getting together soon. The bad news, it’s to ride bicycles together. …. Actually, Bush’s bike accident was different from John Kerry’s accident: Bush fell when he tried turning too hard to the right; Kerry fell when he kept switching gears. …. So far opinion is split on the president’s plan [for Iraq]. Republicans say the outlook is Sunni, or as Democrats say, we’re in deep Shiite. …. John Kerry has a new 757 jet to use while he campaigns for president … did you see it on the news? This is a really cool plane. In the event that Kerry starts speaking, oxygen masks fall from the ceiling to keep people awake. …. Kerry told reporters it
Justin Kindy
It looks like the issues with which John Kerry could have effectively run on, i.e. bad economy, and international policy, have taken another hit.
In May 246,000 new jobs were created making it now 1,000,000 jobs created in the last 3 months alone. The unemployment rate stands at 5.6% which is lower than the the average of the 80’s and 90’s.
Day by day the issues sKerry thought would be helping him, are now hurting him and helping Bush.
President Clinton has released his book, effectively making this summer’s news stories all about him, and not the Presidential candidate and the Democratic National Convention. They must be livid about Clinton right now, to the point of foaming out of the mouth, like Gore.
This is great!
willyb
Justin Kindy,
I think John Kerry does better when he stays out of sight. It’s all going to come down to events that can be negatively attributed to President Bush by the media.
Do you know of a different site where’s there’s more action?
Justin Kindy
The only ones I know of are moderated so much, it makes you want to puke, or at least hunt down the people that determine what should and shouldn’t be put on…pussies.
Justin Kindy
willyb,
Actually I do like this one, but you have to become a member of livejournal if you haven’t already. And, this particular journal was created by a girl – who is the conservative and moderates it, along with someone else from the left. I haven’t posted any comments, yet, but I probably will soon.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/rantsandpants/
Justin Kindy
During the Senate debate on Feb. 19, 1994, in which Sen. John Kerry proposed deep cuts in the intelligence budget, he was taken to task by two pillars of the then Democratic majority: Dennis DeConcini of Arizona and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.
DeConcini, the Intelligence Committee chairman, and Inouye, the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee chairman, assailed Kerry’s unsuccessful efforts to cut the intelligence budget. DeConcini calculated it would cost $1 billion in intelligence spending that year and $5 billion over the next five years. Both senators suggested Kerry did not recognize the dangers existing then after the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. In opposing Kerry’s amendment, DeConcini declared, “We no longer seem immune from acts of terrorism in the United States.” Inouye asked: “Is this the time to cut the satellite programs that give our forces warning of attacks?”
Kerry’s unfortunate charges of American war crimes in Vietnam can be excused as the excesses of an angry 27-year-old war veteran. In 1994, he was 50 years old with 10 years experience as a U.S. senator and was a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which makes this a not so easily defendable position.
His campaign aides have tried to defend it anyway, rather than admit that it was a bad judgement call, something that the Bush campaign has recently come under non-stop fire for. The defense by the campaign is that Kerry’s proposed intelligence cuts were aimed at what “was essentially a slush fund for defense contractors.” Clanton added: “Unlike George Bush, John Kerry does not support every special spending project supported by Halliburton and other defense contractors.”
Here’s the problem. When Sen. Kerry proposed these cuts he made no mention of slush fund’s and his amendment, offered without co-sponsors, would have cut intelligence across the board.
His campaign aides, in the defense of this amendment, are referring to the scandal over the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) hoarding $1 billion in unspent funds. But, Sen. Kerry never mentioned the NRO, either, and the scandal didn’t occur until the year after his amendment was proposed.