Feb. 29 - Peter's not the only vet irritated with Kerry's continuous references to Vietnam and he expresses it well:

Yes, he had a decent record, but he wasn't Audie Murphy. (For those too young to remember, Murphy won every American valour decoration in WWII and became a movie actor, but never aspired to be president.) more...

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Feb. 27 - Sgt. Mom hits a nerve and she doesn't pull her punches.

In a remarkably short time, the whole war went down the memory hole until one morning I was sitting at breakfast in the kitchen of the Hilltop house, reading the newspaper, with page after page of pictures of frantic people. People cramming around the iron fence of the American Embassy in Saigon, reaching desperately through the bars, people standing shoulder to shoulder in tiny boats, barely afloat as they waited to be rescued, people trampling others to get into a departing aircraft, a straggling line of people going up a ladder to a rooftop, where a man handed them into a helicopter. Pictures of desperate people with bundles, carrying their children, of babies strapped two and three into the seats of aircraft evacuating them to safety, of helicopters being thrown off the deck of an aircraft carrier, to make room for three more, hovering just overhead and crammed with people who had trusted us, depended on us.

And I think these images are why I too would never consider voting for John Freakin' Kerry.

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Feb. 27 - I'm glad someone else sees the inherent hypocrisy irony: Enviros Commence Election-Year Attack

The Union of Concerned Scientists issued a widely covered report last week condemning the Bush administration for allegedly politicizing science on a number of controversial issues, ranging from global warming to HIV/AIDS to Iraq's nuclear weapons efforts.

It was quite an ironic charge coming from a self-described activist group whose left-wing, eco-extremist, anti-biotechnology, anti-chemical, anti-nuclear, anti-defense and anti-business screeds embody the very antithesis of the scientific ideal of objectivity.

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Feb. 24 - Michael Ledeen on the The Great Iranian Election Fiasco:

The regime clearly intends to clamp down even harder in the immediate future. Hints of this were seen in the run-up to the election, when Internet sites and foreign broadcasts were jammed, the few remaining opposition newspapers shut down, and thousands of security forces poured into the major cities. One wonders whether any Western government is prepared to speak the truth about Iran, or whether they are so determined to arrive at make-believe deals - for terrorists that are never delivered, for promises to stop the nuclear program, that are broken within minutes of their announcement, or for help fighting terrorism while the regime does everything in its power to support the terrorists - that they will play along and pretend, as Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has put it, that "Iran is a democracy."

For those interested in exposing hypocrisy, it is hard to find a better example than all those noble souls who denounced Operation Iraqi Freedom as a callous operation to gain control over Iraqi oil, but who remain silent as country after country, from Europe to Japan, appeases the Iranian tyrants precisely in order to win oil concessions.

Meanwhile, the only Western leader who consistently speaks the truth about Iran is President George W. Bush, and the phony intellectuals of the West continue to call him a fool and a fascist. Meanwhile, his most likely Democrat opponent, Senator John Kerry, sends an e-mail to Tehran Times, Iran's official English-language newspaper, promising that relations between the United States and Iran would improve enormously if Kerry were to be elected next November.

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Feb. 23 - The fabricated firestorm over Ralph Nader's announcement that he will run in the upcoming presidential elections is a good example of the media creating a story where there is none. They are focusing on the effect of the Nader campaign in 2000 without providing the context of Sept. 11.

Did anyone in the USA wish fervently that Nader had won after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon?

There is also a gross deception: the pundits are ignoring the facts from the 2000 campaign by failing to recognize the splinter votes that went to the Libertarian and Reform Parties.

Third Party Unlikely to Field a Spoiler offers a bit of balance.

There have been important third parties in America's history. Ross Perot's Reform Party was the most successful in recent years, but the campaigns of Teddy Roosevelt's Progressive Party and the Socialist Party under Eugene V. Debs also had an impact in national elections. Furthermore, have members of the media totally forgotten the roots of both the Democrats and Republicans?

Actually, the Whigs aren't entirely gone or forgotten, although I'm not sure if Alexander Hamilton would consider the latest incarnation his true heirs.

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Feb. 18 - Dean ends presidential campaign.

You think Sens. Kerry and Edwards are ducking phone calls from Gore? Maybe lighting incense and making burnt offerings to nudge the Nomination Deities to get Gore to endorse the other guy?

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Feb. 18 - Wonderful post at Laughing Wolf that should be sent to every politician on both sides of the border addressed To Those Candidates Who Believe The End Justifies The Means.

In short, discuss the issues. I don't really give a flip about what you did 30 years ago, unless it has bearing on your character and abilities today. I don't care if you have slept with every person of the opposite (or same, for that matter) sex you have ever met, provided you did not use lies or violate sworn oaths in so doing. Discuss the issues.

Violate every tenet of modern politics and give me straightforward, simple, honest answers. I may not like all of them, and they may not play well with everyone. Deal with it. The job you want is to lead, not win a beauty contest. So show me you can do the job, and lead from the start. You may not win my vote, but you will win my respect. (Emphasis added)

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Feb. 16 - Jeff Jarvis has a specific list of things he could not care less about in the upcoming presidential election.

Short, succinct, and dead on target.

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Feb. 3 - It's hard to read (much less post) an article like this without wanting to take a few swipes of my own, but I'll just let it stand on its own merits: Canadians to Bush: Hope You Lose, Eh. (Hat tip to Nik, who sent the link with the subject line "More Maclean's BS.")

UPDATE: Let it Bleed is astonished that this is Canada's Most Pressing Issue.

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Feb. 1 - Steyn column up at the Chicago Sun-Times The Kerry biography: He's risen without trace in which he crunches some numbers:

But just to make it simple: The G-7 comprises the world's major industrial democracies. Aside from America, there are six other countries. Three -- the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan -- have troops in Iraq. Three -- France, Germany and Canada -- do not. So a majority of G-7 nations are members of this ''fraudulent coalition.'' Eleven of the 19 NATO members have contributed troops to the ''fraudulent coalition.'' Thirteen of the 25 members of the newly enlarged European Union have forces serving in the ''fraudulent coalition.''

So, when John Kerry pledges to rebuild America's international relationships, what he means is that he disagrees with the majority of G-7 governments, NATO governments, European governments and key regional players in Asia and the Pacific, as well as the people of Iraq.

On the other hand, Kerry's position has the support of a majority of the Arab League.

Can we say X, Y, Z Affair? Of course we can, and we all know how that turned out.

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