Friday - June 10, 2005

Le Fisque Royale

This little editorial in the WaPo today literally made me scream with laughter. I had to stop after every paragraph or risk tearing a muscle in my side or stomach. Mr. (Ms.?) Dionne is a complete flake .. we’re talking Kelloggs Best here, folks .. with plenty of nuts thrown in ....

Kerried Away
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, June 10, 2005

Democrats have to end their addiction to the Kerry alibi.

They may be publicly castigating their national chairman, Howard Dean. But wherever two or more Democrats are gathered privately, their instinct is to blame John Kerry first. I am fed up (to borrow Bill Safire’s coinage) with the nattering nabobs of negativism who make themselves feel good by trashing Kerry.

This habit is dangerous because dissing Kerry is an easy way for Democrats to evade discussion of what the party needs to do to right itself. By focusing on the past, the Kerry alibi allows Democrats to avoid engaging the future. In 2008, the Democrats could nominate a candidate who combines Harry Truman’s toughness, JFK’s charm and FDR’s gifts of leadership—and still face many of the problems Kerry confronted. Blaming everything on Kerry as a supposedly elitist, stiff and indecisive Massachusetts liberal is the Democrats’ version of cheap grace.

Please understand: I didn’t think Kerry was the ideal Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 and don’t think he’d be ideal for 2008. I still cringe when the part of my brain prone to nightmares brings back his talk about voting for the $87 billion to finance the Iraq war before he voted against it. Kerry didn’t find a clear voice on Iraq until too late and didn’t respond quickly enough to the scurrilous attacks of the partisan Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

But saying that Kerry was the Democrats’ one and only problem is both an evasion and unfair. The three debates were the only moments in the campaign in which Kerry’s fate was entirely in his own hands, and he used them well. Kerry trounced Bush the first time and, I’d argue, beat him in the other two encounters.

His one false move was mentioning Mary Cheney in connection with the gay rights issue. He shouldn’t have done that. But the Cheney slip became a big deal because the Bush machine is so skillful at turning little things into big things—always with help from Rush and Fox and the rest of the party-line conservative media eager to read scripts generated by the White House. This is not just a Kerry problem but a long-term challenge for his party.

That raises the larger question. The Republicans and their allies spent millions taking Kerry apart. They would have done the same to John Edwards, Wesley Clark or Dean. Would those three have handled the attacks better? Who knows? Would they have looked a lot worse for the wear? You bet.

Bush’s lieutenants always understood that their candidate couldn’t win unless his Democratic opponent was turned into Frankenstein. This crowd may not know how to beat the Iraqi insurgency, but they sure know how to make Democrats look bad.

Yes, Kerry had trouble articulating a persuasive position on Iraq and terrorism. But in a Democratic Party badly divided on national security, he was far from alone in having this problem. Once Bush got the country into Iraq, Democrats were no clearer on how to win or get us out than Bush was—but the president, as the instigator of the war, looked strong, and that was enough. Any Democrat would have been swimming against the security tide created by Sept. 11. It’s not obvious that another Democrat would have done a better backstroke or butterfly.

Kerry didn’t invent the Democrats’ problems on abortion, their weakness in the South, their troubles with very religious voters. Democratic candidates of the future will have to grapple with the same challenges. True, Bill Clinton did better on such things. But—with the exception of a certain unfortunate scandal and a certain unfortunate pardon—Clinton did better than most politicians at almost everything.

So why wasn’t Kerry stronger on the economy? Well, Kerry’s plan on health care was genuinely innovative. His ideas on outsourcing clung to the pro-business center—the very place where many of Kerry’s critics say the party belongs. Yes, Kerry should have done better in answering the nation’s economic anxieties. But if his party cares about the future, it needs to do better, too.

Were John Kerry to quit politics and spend the rest of his life windsurfing off Nantucket, Democrats would still have to figure out how to deal with national security, social issues and economic stress. That’s hard work. Making fun of Kerry is easy, fashionable and, ultimately, useless.

postchat@aol.com

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/10/2005 at 11:36 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Media-Bias •  
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World’s Smallest Record Player

The World’s Smallest Record Player is playing the “Sad Concerto” this morning ....

Accompagnato Ad Libitum: Saddam lawyers ‘left in the dark’ - Saddam Hussein’s lawyers say they have not yet been given any details of the case against him.


Ritardando Ostinato: Federal panel upholds plan for redistricting - Texas districts stay same unless Supreme Court decides to step in.


Staccato con Grave: Iraq Sunnis reject compromise on constitution - Iraq’s Sunni minority rejected a compromise offer on giving them more say in the drafting of a constitution on Friday.


Scherzo Rubato: Rift widens over EU contributions - Jacques Chirac is whining and moaning to get more money from Tony Blair and Britain, Blair tells Chirac to FOAD.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/10/2005 at 10:02 AM   
Filed Under: • News-Briefs •  
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You Knew This Was Coming

Hidden in several places around the media this morning is the following tidbit. First in the NY Daily News and at the Jossip Blog ....

Runaway deal?: Fresh from copping a plea to faking her own abduction, “Runaway Bride” Jennifer Wilbanks seems ready to cash in. I hear that Queen of All Media Judith Regan is close to inking a mid-six-figure deal with the 32-year-old Wilbanks and her on-again, off-again future husband, John Mason, that includes movie-of-the-week rights (possibly for NBC) and a network television interview - maybe with Katie Couric. No comments all around.

They say, “where there’s smoke there’s fire” and in this case I sincerely hope the fire is a book burning ceremony. Stay tuned ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/10/2005 at 06:12 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Outrageous •  
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What’s Going On In Lodi?

The FBI’s probe into alleged Al-Qaeda cells in Lodi, CA is ongoing and new informations is turning up daily in the small California town. Home of a large Pakistani population, there are several twists and turns in this story ....

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Federal authorities aren’t saying much about their terrorism investigation in nearby Lodi but are making two things crystal clear: Their work in the farming town has been going on for years - and it’s not over yet.

They denied the implication by some members of Lodi’s large Pakistani community that the probe was triggered by a rift between fundamentalist and mainstream factions.

Each side accused the other of contacting the FBI, which is in charge of the investigation. The dispute has led to a leadership struggle at the Lodi Muslim Mosque and a legal fight with a budding Islamic learning center.

“This specific investigation has been going on for several years,” FBI spokesman John Cauthen said Thursday.

The FBI alleges several people committed to al-Qaida have been operating in and around the tranquil wine-growing region just south of Sacramento.

Investigators say Hamid Hayat, 22, trained with al-Qaida in Pakistan and planned to attack hospitals and supermarkets in the United States. He is scheduled to appear in federal court Friday for a bail hearing.

Umer Hayat, 47, said his son was drawn to jihadist training camps in his early teenage years while attending a madrassah, or religious school, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, that was operated by Umer Hayat’s father-in-law, according to an FBI affidavit.

Hayat allegedly paid for his son to attend the terrorist camp in 2003 and 2004. The affidavit says it was run by a friend of his father-in-law’s.

The Hayats are charged only with lying to federal investigators.

Two Islamic religious leaders, or imams, and one leader’s son also have been detained on immigration violations. Neither Cauthen nor a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would reveal specifics of the alleged visa violations.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/10/2005 at 05:59 AM   
Filed Under: • Terrorists •  
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F.O.A.D.

_{Tab (Thomas Boldt), The Calgary Sun, Alberta, Canada}

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/10/2005 at 05:52 AM   
Filed Under: • Sports •  
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Headline Of The Day

This is good news for our friends up in Canuckistan ....

Canadian Court Chips Away at National Health Care
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Published: June 9, 2005

TORONTO, June 9 - The Canadian Supreme Court struck down a Quebec law banning private medical insurance today, dealing an acute blow to the publicly financed national health care system.

The court stopped short of striking down the constitutionality of the country’s vaunted nationwide coverage, but legal experts said the ruling would open the door to a wave of lawsuits challenging the health care system in other provinces.

The system, providing Canadians with free doctor’s services that are paid for by taxes, has generally been supported by the public, and is broadly identified with the Canadian national character.

But in recent years, patients have been forced to wait longer for diagnostic tests and elective surgery, while the wealthy and well connected either seek care in the United States or use influence to jump ahead on waiting lists.

The court ruled that the waiting lists had become so long that they violated patients’ “liberty, safety and security” under the Quebec charter, which covers about one-quarter of Canada’s population.

“The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread and that in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care,” the Supreme Court ruled. “In sum, the prohibition on obtaining private health insurance is not constitutional where the public system fails to deliver reasonable services.”

The case was brought to the Supreme Court by a Montreal family doctor, Jacques Chaoulli, who argued his own case through the courts, and by a chemical salesman, George Zeliotis, who was forced to wait a year for a hip replacement while being prohibited from paying privately for surgery.

Posted by Z Woof     on 06/10/2005 at 05:27 AM   
Filed Under: • International • Social-Security •  
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Not Everyone Hates America

Paul Edwards, a blogger down in Australia, takes the time to thank America for many things. In doing so, he reminds us all of what America has done for the world over the last century .. and asked nothing in return. Go read it now and feel good about America.

It is a beautiful piece and a wonderful read. In fact, I’m recommending we begin negotiations today with Great Britain to see if we can swap them California for Australia and possibly trade them Massachusetts for New Zealand. Scratch that. No one wants Massachusetts.

(-- thanks to Grumpy Old Man for the tip)

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/10/2005 at 05:08 AM   
Filed Under: • Patriotism •  
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   Thursday - June 09, 2005

Help!

orry, kids but blogging may be over with for tonight. For the last two hours we have been getting hammered here in St. Louis. I can see trees down all up and down the street. Severe thunderstorms, high winds and small hail. Power went out totally about 5:15 (just after I got home from work) and has just come back on in the last few minutes. My home network is down and I’m on the laptop fer now. I’m about to go read a good book ("1776" by David McCullough) by candlelight as long as the roof stays in place. Lower the bloody mizzen mast, trim the fo’ sail, ‘eave to, Mr. Christian. Put ‘er into the wind and batten down the hatches ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/09/2005 at 07:34 PM   
Filed Under: • Environment •  
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Photo Du Jour

oday’s offering is a two-fer-one deal. It is a poem and a picture that I wrote and posted here a year and a half ago. I wrote the poem to go with the picture .... and to force people to just .... remember what once was. Two buildings where over 3,000 people died. Innocent civilians, businessmen, secretaries, janitors, delivery boys and yes .. firemen and policemen. They had all gone to work that morning expecting nothing more than another boring day at the office. Hours later, their lives were abruptly terminated by madmen from overseas. It is now nearly four years later. People have forgotten. Our country is divided. The war against these madmen is ongoing. Are we safe yet?

I intend to keep posting this image over and over and reminding everyone of that tragic day until hell freezes over or .... the last terrorist sonofabitch is dead and the last terrorist-sponsoring country is freed .... whichever comes first. Are you with me or against me?

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/09/2005 at 04:58 PM   
Filed Under: • Patriotism •  
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Trivial Pursuit

Today’s Trivial Pursuit question revolves around recent Democrat Senators’ remarks that “the filibuster is a two-hundred year-old tradition” and to change it just so President Bush can nominate judges is wrong and violates the Constitution. Let’s see just how old this filibustering of judicial nominees really is ....

Which president submitted the first Supreme Court justice nomination to be filibustered by the Senate?

• Jimmy Carter
• Lyndon Johnson
• Franklin Pierce
• William Howard Taft

The answer is in the comments ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/09/2005 at 03:36 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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I Already Knew This

Sigh! It always amazes me when some scientific group or survey group comes up with a concept that is so blindingly obvious. I have known about the fact described below for years .... nay, decades. Owing to my good looks, charm, charima, intelligence, I have always had the ladies chasing after me and dogging me constantly to spare just a little of my valuable time with them. Sheesh! You’d think I was the only Geek in the world, wouldn’t you? I mean, what’s a handsome, mature, debonair geek like yours truly supposed to do with all these ladies who just want to feel up my brain, eh?

Nerds Make Better Lovers
Ready for a real relationship? Ditch the
pretty boys and grab yourself a geek
By TRACEY LOMRANTZ

Christina Aguilera recently traded in piercings for petticoats, apparently making the usual Marilyn Monroe morph. But there’s more than meets the eye: Sure, she’s blond, buxom and sweet-voiced now, but she’s also emulating the classic bombshell in matters of the heart.

You see, Aguilera’s fiance, like Monroe’s husband, playwright Arthur Miller, is kind of a geek.

When Aguilera announced her engagement to smarty-pants music executive Jordan Bratman in February, the 24-year-old pop star demonstrated a tried-and-true dating trick. Geeks have got the goods.

Bratman, with his scrawny frame and oversize ears, has mastered the music industry at just 26 and is Romeo enough to have stolen Aguilera’s heart (as well as inspired her new demure-coquette look).

“A nerd is an excellent provider and a guy who puts you first,” says E. Jean Carroll, Elle magazine’s love and sex advice columnist. “He’ll turn out to be a great father and a great husband.”

And, she insists that a woman who is willing to stick it out with a nerd and get past his quirks will be handsomely rewarded. “Don’t give up on him too fast,” she said. “If you stick with him, he’s going to turn out to be really great.”

But to get to that authentic nerd, chic women have to be willing to embrace their own inner geek and accept the guy for who he is, chess trophies and all. The caveat to mating with a geek, as some dating experts see it, is coming to terms with his less-than-studly looks and less-than-suave demeanor. All thoughts of embarrassment have to go out the window.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/09/2005 at 02:56 PM   
Filed Under: • Love-Marriage •  
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Headline Of The Day

It looks like CNN has finally had a flash of brilliance....

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/09/2005 at 11:59 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias • Stoopid-People •  
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Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day

I have to thank James Taranto of the WSJ’s Opinion Journal for discovering this gem. It’s from the Letters To The Editor at the Asheville, NC Citizen-Times (last letter at the bottom) ....

Unnecessary squirrel death
Reminder of our responsibility

I am an animal lover. I am shocked at the speed of automobiles on the Blue Ridge Parkway and have reported same to the rangers.

On a recent Sunday I saw a little squirrel halfway across the road. A driver approached and could have more than given the squirrel time to get out of danger, but no. He hit the little squirrel. I jumped out hoping he was only dazed. I picked him up, trying to breathe air into his nostrils — his heart was still beating — yet he died in my arms before I got home.

This indifference must end — they are God’s creations. We are responsible for their welfare.

Faye Arrington,
Asheville

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/09/2005 at 11:09 AM   
Filed Under: • Stoopid-People •  
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Homeland Insecurity

n case you’ve ever wondered why we need to keep a close eye on our borders, then this might give you a clue as to what is on the other side, just a few miles away ....

NUEVO LAREDO (BBC) - A police chief in a northern Mexican border city has been killed by gunmen - just hours after taking the post.

Alejandro Dominguez was sprayed by at least 30 bullets after attackers ambushed his car in Nuevo Laredo late on Wednesday, witnesses said.

Dozens of people have been killed in the region in a wave of drug-related violence since the authorities launched a crackdown on drug gangs in January.

The US has warned citizens about the risks of travelling in the border area.

‘Mother of all battles’

The attackers - who arrived in three vehicles - opened fire as Dominguez was getting in his car on Wednesday evening, a witness was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

“They cut him off so he couldn’t go. They shot him from inside [the vehicles] and then got out to shoot him more,” the witness said.

He added that the gunmen then drove away slowly, with their lights turned off.

Dominguez had taken office earlier in the day, saying he was not afraid of any threats.

“I don’t owe anybody anything. My duty is to the citizenry,” he said.

More than 50 people have been killed since January in Nuevo Laredo - a major transit point for drugs entering the US.

Drug wars, bullets flying, police shot in broad daylight. Is this what we want only a few miles from our Southern border? Do we want these people crossing our borders at will, bringing tons of drugs? In fact, what’s to stop them from coming across our border and killing policemen here, say in Colorado and then fleeing back to Mexico where they cannot be extradited? Absolutely nothing. In fact, that very thing happened recently.

We capture their cop-killers and send them back where Mexico releases them and they return to commit more crimes ....
Illegal Alien Residing In Colorado Wanted For Killing Cop In Mexico

They capture our cop-killers and refuse to send them back to us for prosecution ....
Mexico draws line on return - Terms: no death penalty, no life without parole

You know .... I could swear we had a “Department Of Homeland Security” somewhere up there in that cesspit called Washington, DC. WTF are those asshats doing? Why is every Congress-critter in DC determined to throw open our nation’s borders and let this madness continue? I personally think it’s time for another remake of “The Alamo”, except this time the Americans need to show up down on the Rio Grande with devastating firepower, massive troop deployments, tanks, cannons and, just fer grins, a few nukular weapons. These damned greasers wetbacks vicious, drug-running criminals Central American SandMonkeys are just about starting to really piss me off. I’m almost as damned mad at them as I am at the treasonous weasels in DC who are aiding and abetting these Mess-Can bastards.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/09/2005 at 09:34 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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