The Rant

____________________________________ by Bob Clasen I thought that Kerry was smoother, more eloquent, a better debater. I thought Bush could have done much better in explaining his position. But he did make the necessary arguments, in a not entirely artful manner. On the substance, Kerry seemed tonight to be saying that he intends to persevere in the war until we win because defeat is not an option. But Kerry did not convince me that his constant practice of saying that this is the “Wrong War at the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time” is going to help to win the war. To say that the present war is a “colossal mistake” a grand “diversion” from the real war on terror does not help to motivate anyone to win the war. How is this going to motivate other countries to join the coalition? He says we should have spent the 200 billion dollars on school lunches and other important programs. If the war is such a colossal mistake, isn’t the thing to do to pull out and not waste an...

__________________________________ By Bob Clasen Well, if Bush is as big a dunderhead and cowboy as the liberals assures us, it should be very easy for Kerry to cut him to ribbons and turn the election around tonight. After all, how can a candidate who is intellectually deficient, unable to speak English and living in a complete fantasy world about the state of international affairs possibly defeat the knowledgeable, brilliant and nuanced John Kerry? Can't happen. Various pundits have offered suggestions to Kerry about how he might turn his campaign around. He is acknowledged to be a superior debater, with an excellent memory and the ability to think on his feet and respond immediately to difficult questions. The problem with Kerry is not a matter of debating technique. It is a problem with clarity of thinking. A person's speaking (or writing) is limited by the quality of his thinking. If your thinking is not clear and consistent it is impossible for Rhetor...

______________________________ by Tony Blair _______________________________ Annual speech Tuesday at the Labour party's annual conference ________________________________ The evidence about Saddam having actual biological and chemical weapons, as opposed to the capability to develop them, has turned out to be wrong. I acknowledge that and accept it. I simply point out, such evidence was agreed by the whole international community, not least because Saddam had used such weapons against his own people and neighboring countries. And the problem is I can apologize for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can't, sincerely at least, apologize for removing Saddam. The world is a better place with Saddam in prison not in power. But at the heart of this, is a belief that the basic judgment I have made since September 11th, including on Iraq, is wrong, that by our actions we have made matters worse not better. . . . Do I know I'm right? Jud...

The rules for this debate were carefully negotiated and are too voluminous to post. Some are quite interesting: ____________________________________________________________ At no time during these debates shall either candidate move from their designated area behind their respective podiums. —From the agreement worked out for the Presidential debates. _____________________ Paragraph Two: Dress _____________________ Candidates shall wear business attire. At no time during the debates shall either candidate remove any article of clothing, such as tie, belt, socks, suspenders, etc. Candidates shall not wear helmets, padding, girdles, prosthetic devices, or “elevator”-type shoes. Per above, candidates shall not remove shoes or throw same at each other during debate. Once a debate is concluded, candidates shall be permitted to toss articles of clothing, excepting underwear, into the audience for keepsake purposes. _____________________________ Paragraph Six: Hand g...

by John Podhoretz ___________________________ September 28, 2004 -- JOHN Kerry has taken a new tack on Iraq. He accuses the president and Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi of refusing to face "reality" because they express an upbeat view of Iraq's political future. The "reality," say Kerry and his surrogates, is that the security situation is deteriorating, attacks on coalition forces are increasing and things are getting worse. Question No. 1 is — worse than when? Are things worse in Iraq than they were, say, six months ago? If you measure solely by the number of attacks against U.S. and Iraqi targets, the answer is undoubtedly yes. The insurgency has demonstrated a terrifying capacity for organized terror. Their capacity is dispiriting and depressing. And that's the point of it: It has no military value. The terrorists will not win a single head-to-head fight against the United States. Their purpose is to make us feel that the chaos w...

Flirting With Disaster The vile spectacle of Democrats rooting for bad news in Iraq and Afghanistan. By Christopher Hitchens Posted Monday, Sept. 27, 2004, at 11:35 AM PT ________________________________ There it was at the tail end of Brian Faler's "Politics" roundup column in last Saturday's Washington Post. It was headed, simply, "Quotable": "I wouldn't be surprised if he appeared in the next month." Teresa Heinz Kerry to the Phoenix Business Journal, referring to a possible capture of Osama bin Laden before Election Day. As well as being "quotable" (and I wish it had been more widely reported, and I hope that someone will ask the Kerry campaign or the nominee himself to disown it), this is also many other words ending in "-able." Deplorable, detestable, unforgivable. … The plain implication is that the Bush administration is stashing Bin Laden somewhere, or somehow keeping his arrest in reserve, for an ...

______________ by Bob Clasen Most Americans take it as an article of faith that we should be tolerant of other religions. I am reading an interesting book by an author who challenges this assumption. In “The End of Faith” by Sam Harris, the author argues that it is time to directly challenge the assumption that toleration of dogmatic religion is a force for good in the world. The basic problem seems to be that many religions believe that God wrote a Book. Unfortunately, they can’t agree on which book it was: the Old Testament, The New Testament, The Koran, Mormon Holy books, etc. These books make conflicting claims and can't all be true. In every other sphere of knowledge, in the modern world, if one makes some assertion, we are expected to offer evidence and logic to support that assertion. In religion alone, is the idea of believing ideas written in a book thousands of years ago “on faith” considered a virtue. No one would consider for a second adopting the...

Who Has Chosen the Winning Strategy? ______________________________________ by Zev Chafetz _____________________________________ John Kerry is running the dumbest presidential campaign in modern history. Don't misunderstand. Dumb is not the same as wrong. Kerry may be right on some of the issues. But that's not the point. Elections are about votes, and Kerry's campaign seems calculated to actually repel them. Have a look: Taxes. The first rule of politics is: Low taxes, good; high taxes, bad. President Bush understands this. He is running as a tax cutter, plain and simple. Elect him and you pay less. Kerry, on the other hand, wants to raise taxes. Just on the rich, he says, but nobody believes that - and why should they? For years he and other Democrats have denounced Bush's cuts as unfair. Middle class voters look at Kerry and see a guy who's going to raise their taxes. Religion. Another rule of politics is: Carry your own denomination. Bush will -...

Sunday, September 26, 2004 Records Show Bush Skipped Kiwanis Breakfast in 1972 9/24/2004 - William Grim Washington, DC - CBS News is reporting that records obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request indicate that President George W. Bush skipped the annual Houston Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast on January 25, 1972. This occurred at a time in which the future President was a member of the Executive Board of the Houston Kiwanis. "George Bush was AWOL in 1972," said Democrat challenger John Kerry last night during a campaign rally in Massachusetts, a key battleground state in Kerry's attempt to top Walter Mondale's 1984 electoral vote tally. "While I was throwing away my medals and meeting with the Viet Cong in Paris, George W. Bush was skipping out on his Kiwanis obligations. Well, the American people won't stand for this. And when I am President I promise that I'll show up to work every day in order to undermine the efforts of our brave men an...