Res Publica 2005

This crisis is the result of a series of policy decisions dating back a decade. In 1994, First Lady Hillary Clinton led an effort to enact the Vaccines for Children program, and the government now purchases 60% of all pediatric vaccines.

The government has dictated prices to manufacturers that are often below costs, and many suppliers have been forced out of the market, unable to make a profit at 15 cents a dose, in some cases. At the same time, the cost of manufacturing and the cost of complying with increasingly burdensome regulation have gone up.

Other manufacturers watched and saw that this clearly is not a good business to be in.

The Manhattan Institute held a forum in 2002 to analyze the problems, and it forecast today's shortages. At that forum, Wayne Pisano of Aventis said that just two decades ago, there were a dozen companies making vaccines, most of which have left the market or been driven out by a variety of pressures.

Henry Miller, M.D., of the Hoover Institution said this "should be the golden age of vaccine development" because new biologic technologies are available. "But there is scant enthusiasm for vaccine development in the drug industry."

This is a clear warning to those who would try to impose price controls on the pharmaceutical industry. They would predictably force many companies out of business, supplies would be dislocated and even vanish, and, most importantly, research for tomorrow's medical miracles would dry up.

Source: The Galen Institute

So when you hear John Kerry blame Bush, just remember this stems from Clinton era legislation...between being caught between the tort lawyers and the government dictating prices too low, why should a company want to be in this business?

By David Mills


Most Pressing Question

But the most pressing church-state question this year is whether the churches should "tell American politicians what to do in the context of our public life." Put another way, not Kerry’s, but I think more to the point, the most pressing question is, from what sources are Americans allowed to take the principles that govern our life together and on what grounds are religious principles allowed or excluded? The incoherence of Kerry and company’s arbitrary exclusion of religious principles from public affairs promotes the confusion so destructive of our common life.

One thing should be made clear before we go on. In the matters at issue in our public life, the churches assert no sectarian doctrine and demand of their politician members nothing resting upon their authority alone. They only say aloud what is taught by natural law—in other words, they tell their members to support what everyone knows, but many have forgotten or have refused to see.

Killing the unborn, the aged, and the sick is wrong, and no politician should need the church to tell him so. So with the nature of marriage, and so with embryonic experimentation, and so with cloning. Of course, sexual liberals will deny this, and there is no neutral authority to which we can appeal to show them that such beliefs are indeed true. But the sexual liberals’ denial of reality is no excuse for the Catholic politician’s doing so.

Kerry—now the poster boy for the secular and unconstitutional definition of "the wall of separation between church and state"—represents all those politicians who profess allegiance to churches that expect their members to represent their teachings in their individual callings, but who refuse to do so. Most of them are Catholic, but some are Orthodox and some even (at least in the last administration) Southern Baptist. Most are Democrats, but the Republicans have a goodly number as well.

Here I will take the Catholic politicians as the example, because one of them wants to be President of the United States and because the Catholic Church has spoken most clearly on this matter, most recently in the Vatican’s doctrinal note on "The Participation of Catholics in Political Life" and the American bishops’ "Catholics in Political Life." As Joseph Bottum of The Weekly Standard put it:

The Doctrinal Note marks at least the beginning of the end of the Vatican’s toleration of what the pope’s biographer George Weigel has called "Cuomoism" in the American Church: the effort to finesse abortion by declaring oneself personally opposed but politically supportive of laws allowing abortion. Catholics have a "duty to be morally coherent," the Doctrinal Note declares, and the Catholic fight on the life issues—abortion, euthanasia, and cloning—is not some merely prudential question, to be decided by political give and take. The Catholic Church doesn’t take political positions—except when politics intrudes into something, like the right to life, that ought to be beyond the power of politicians.

Having It Both Ways

There are two problems with the politician who reduces his religious faith to Values He Cannot Impose On Others.

First, as legislators who vote on all sorts of legislation covering almost every aspect of human life, they vote to impose their values (or principles) every time they vote. A vote for or against a tax break is a vote for a particular principle about the nature of government and the citizen’s rights, in particular how much money a government may take and how much a citizen may expect to keep. A vote for a new welfare benefit is a vote for a particular principle about the nature of the collective responsibility for the people served (or disserved).

We vote for our representatives precisely because we want them to impose their values, and we prefer the values of the man we vote for to those of the man he’s running against. The man who tells us by what principles he works is a man whose future actions we can—in a fallen world, always only to some extent—predict, and therefore know whether we want him in office. So, as I said at the beginning, the legislator who refuses to Impose His Own Values is ignorant of his proper calling, which is worrisome in itself. This means he will spend his time in office trying to impose his values without telling his constituents what values he would impose.

Second, these politicians do not have to be Catholics if they do not hold Catholic principles. If they fear imposing Catholic values on others, they can stop being Catholics and live openly by the principles they actually hold. One of the most important of which is that those matters the Catholic Church teaches are matters of natural law (that is, known to and binding upon everyone) are not so. This is a defensible principle, but an Imposed Value nevertheless, imposed not least upon the unborn whose right to live this Imposed Principle, imposed by men-who-don’t-impose-their-principles, is denied.

One would think better of such a politician if he chose either to live by the principles of the faith he professes and let the voters decide whether they want to be represented by a faithful Catholic, or to live by the principles of the faith he holds and let the voters decide whether they want to be represented by an ex-Catholic. (He may, of course, not know clearly what his actual faith is, which ignorance of principle gives his political life a certain useful flexibility. I think the church threatens such politicians not only because it expects them to believe what they do not want to believe, but because it expects them to speak of fundamental matters they would prefer to leave unknown, even to themselves.)

From Pardon My English

I’m going to tell you a secret now.

There’s an earthquake coming, and if you stand very still and block out the noise of Iraq and the economy and Scott Peterson and Bill O’Reilly and everything else that passes for news these days, you can hear it. The ground is humming softly, all over Red America. The sound gets louder on Sundays and Wednesdays, and mid-week Thursdays, but then it softens for a bit.

But it’s still there. And on November 2, everyone will hear it.

There’s a campaign out there–actually, thousands of them–among pro-family voters to register new voters and get them to the polls. And the issue isn’t Bush. It isn’t Iraq. And it isn’t the economy.

The issue is gay marriage.

(read the rest! It's long and it's a great read!)

Blogs for Bush is featuring a story about Truth For Troops:

This past summer, Moore gave unofficial permission for his fans to share bootlegged files of Fahrenheit 9/11, many copies of which have made their way to US troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Worse, Military theaters -- caught in a bind between a successful yet polemic film and a possible charge of censorship if they didn't run it -- chose to run Fahrenheit 9/11 at troop installations around the world.
...
It's time to counter Michael Moore's demoralizing propaganda with with truth for our troops. If we don't respond, Michael Moore will win this critical battle in a post-modern war of ideas.

Truth for Troops is a grassroots campaign with one purpose: Get truth to the front lines to combat Michael Moore's lies. The film FahrenHYPE 9/11, recently released for sale or rent on DVD, is a point-by-point examination and refutation of Michael Moore's film. Truth for Troops' inaugural campaign is to purchase 5,000 DVDs of the film FahrenHYPE 9/11 and ship them to our troops serving on the front lines of the War on Terror.

You can find out more at the Truth For Troops site

From the Weekly Standard:
If Kerry thinks he can solve the flu vaccine problem, he need look no further than his own running mate, trial lawyer John Edwards. Vaccines are the one area of medicine where trial lawyers are almost completely responsible for the problem. No one can plausibly point a finger at insurance companies, drug companies, or doctors. Lawyers have won the vaccine game so completely that nobody wants to play.

Two weeks ago, British regulators suspended the license of Chiron Corp., the world's second-leading flu vaccine supplier, for three months. Officials cited manufacturing problems at the factory in Liverpool, England, where Chiron makes its leading product, Fluvirin. Chiron was scheduled to supply 46 million of the 100 million doses to be administered in the United States this year. The other 54 million will come from Aventis Pasteur, a French company with headquarters in Strasbourg.

So why is it that 100 percent of our flu vaccines are now made by two companies in Europe? The answer is simple. Trial lawyers drove the American manufacturers out of the business.

In 1967 there were 26 companies making vaccines in the United States. Today there are only four that make any type of vaccine and none making flu vaccine. Wyeth was the last to fall, dropping flu shots
after 2002. For recently emerging illnesses such as Lyme disease, there is no commercial vaccine, even though one has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

All this is the result of a legal concept called "liability without fault" that emerged from the hothouse atmosphere of the law schools in the 1960s and became the law of the land. Under the old "negligence" regime, you had to prove a product manufacturer had done something wrong in order to hold it liable for damages. Under liability without fault, on the other hand, the manufacturer can be held responsible for harm from its products, whether blameworthy or not. Add to that the jackpot awards that come from pain-and-suffering and punitive damages, and you have a legal climate that no manufacturer wants to risk.

I thought this captured so much of the "If you don't agree with me, then I will crush you like you have no right to exist" politically correct viewpoint of so many today.

There is intolerance and there is intolerance. There is the dumb intolerance of the religious right and there is the new, vaulting, even more suffocating intolerance of the liberal left. Which is more dangerous? Here, by way of an answer, is another guess: Buttiglione and his supporters would not attempt to disbar from office a politician on account of that politician’s homosexuality, no matter how much they objected to it. Has Buttiglione yet registered a complaint about that exciting Bruxelles arriviste, P Mandelson? But the left — well, the left has taken intolerance to a whole new level.

Transgress the narrow boundaries of the left-liberal manifesto on a whole bunch of issues — race, gender politics, human rights, overseas aid and so on — and you will not be argued with, your views will not be challenged. They’ll simply stop you trying to have your say, insisting your point of view is not merely wrong, but “unacceptable” and therefore should not be heard. Even — or maybe particularly — if the majority of the electorate agrees with you.

Partly this is a result of the old leftist tendency to insist that the personal is the political and that therefore a human being is indivisible from his or her beliefs. And so, rather than counter the belief with argument they persecute the individual. Partly it is through a fear of actually engaging with the tricksy arguments themselves: it is altogether easier to attack the individual — to take out the man, rather than the ball, as it were.

But partly, too, it is evidence of an insufferable arrogance, the arrogance of a political hegemony whose views must not be challenged. If they are, then the people who do the challenging are either mad or bad and in either case should be sacked or prevented from speaking.

The Sunday Times via Free Republic

A Lebanese newspaper published on Friday a statement purportedly from al-Qaida claiming responsiblity for deadly bombings in Egypt's Sinai peninsula. It was the fifth separate claim in the attack and could not be verified.

The statement, allegedly issued by al-Qaida's media office and signed "International Islamic Front," was e-mailed Thursday night to Sada al-Balad, an independent newspaper, which published it on the front page Friday.

Via Yahoo News

Huntington, WVUSA - A visit to West Virginia by Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry has been put on hold.

Kerry was scheduled to attended services at the Apostolic Christ Cathedral in Guyandotte on Sunday.

West Virginia Senators Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller were to attend with Kerry.

The church pastor, Reverend E. S. Harper, said they were not welcome if they planned to discuss politics during the service.

The Kerry campaign says the church issue did not affect the decision to cancel the trip.

Source MSNBC

Aldaynet has covered a story about the BBC trying to deconstruct and minimalize the War on Terror. He quotes:

Much of the currently perceived threat from international terrorism, the series argues, “is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media.” The series’ explanation for this is even bolder: “In an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility, fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain their power.”

As he says: Fantasies and distortions didn’t knock down the World Trade Center, they also didn’t punch a hole in the Pentagon or bomb embassies in Nairobi and Kenya and they sure as hell didn’t try to sink a US battleship off the coast of Oman. No sir, fantasy and distortion didn’t do those things blood thirsty lunatics did them and the gall of the BBC2 to say otherwise is like spitting in the face of all those they’ve murdered. Boy the Brits are really pissing me off today.

I invite anyone who wants to whitewash away the reality of the terror war to go read the Belmont Club today.

Long before September 11, the Madrid train attack and the massacre of school children in Beslan they were forshadowed by Operation Bojinka, the LRT train attack and the mass abduction of schoolchildren in Basilan. Never heard of them? That's understandable.

Operation Bojinka was a series of planning exercises and dry runs in the Philippines in preparation for the September 11 attacks. Here's how Wikipedia describes it.

The term can refer to the "airline bombing plot" alone, or that combined with the "Pope assassination plot" and the "CIA plane crash plot". The first refers to a plot to destroy 11 airliners on January 21 and 22, 1995, the second refers to a plan to kill John Paul II on January 15, 1995, and the third refers a plan to crash a plane into the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia and other buildings. Operation Bojinka was prevented on January 6 and 7, 1995, but some lessons learned were apparently used by the planners of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

I can still see the Dona Josefa apartments, where these outrages were planned, in my mind's eye. It's along FB Harrison near a dusty children's playground not far from the city zoo.

On January 30, 2000 a Light Rail Transit (LRT) commuter train packed with children was blown up by Al Qaeda-affiliated Fathur Rohman Alghozi, with the assistance of Isamudin Riduan Hambali, killing 12 and mutilating 19 others. The Blumentritt station, where the blast occurred, is above an intersection so crowded the street below has been turned into a permanent wet market where hawkers sell vegetables and fish on plaited mats. The wreckage of the train was covered with bloody children's clothes and Christmas toys.

The kidnapping and murder of schoolchildren was common fare on the Island of Basilan, with which I am thoroughly familiar. In May, 2001 a Filipino journalist wrote:

It seems almost a lifetime ago since it happened. Even in the jungles of Mount Punoh Mahadji, there are hardly any signs left of the 44-day ordeal suffered by 53 kidnap victims at the hands of the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf. Indeed, the outcry over the bandits' abduction of 53 school children and teachers in Basilan on March 20 last year died down almost immediately after their rescue by a civilian paramilitary group 1 months later, on May 3. For the kidnap victims, however, the gruesome drama refuses to sink into oblivion. Memories of their sleepless nights in a cramped 12 by 38 ft. windowless wooden cell refuse to fade even in their sleep.

The victims may retain their impressions, but the world is innocent of forgetfulness; because first you have to remember before you forget. But it was not the first time Islamic rebels had kidnapped schoolboys. Just a year before a group of schoolchildren were being held for ransom by the Abu Sayyaf. A little later the Abu Sayyaf demonstrated their eclectic tastes by attacking two high schools. "They kidnapped 30 people after attacks on two high schools in March -- of them 15 have been rescued while six were killed by the guerrillas, including two adult males who were beheaded."

The Terror War, no matter what you want to think of it exists. Predominantly, it is a dream of certain Islamic activists to bring the dream of a golden age of Islamic dominance back to the world. You may think it's a way of politicians to manipulate the weak, but take away the vigilance, and you are left with scenes like the bombing of the Trade Towers.

And that is a high cost to pay to stick your head in the sand.

Democrats this time around seem to be having trouble understanding...shall we say, nuancing...the way a truly free democratic process works. Instead, they are trying bully tactics.

The NY Post notes:

As the Rocky Mountain News reports, on Wednesday — after Colorado's governor and secretary of state, both Republicans, warned that any case of voter-registration fraud would be prosecuted — state Democrats immediately put out a release denouncing the threat as "voter intimidation."

And — wouldn't you know? — the press release just happened to quote two minority elected officials.

As it happens, massive fraud in registering Democratic voters has been documented this year — and constitutes a genuine attempt to manipulate the election.

But Dems aren't interested in that kind of fraud.

Democratic leaders and many in their rank-and-file are simply not prepared ever to accept that voters just might prefer a Republican candidate.

Any GOP victory has to be tainted, the result of a "steal."

Which is why they're fully prepared to manufacture evidence — even when none exists.

It's simply disgusting.

ISSUE: Welfare Reform
Kerry's Original Position: In 1988, Sen. Kerry voted against a proposal to require at least one parent in any two-parent welfare family to work a mere 16 hours a week, declaring the work requirement "troublesome to me."
Kerry's "Flipped" Position: During his 1996 re-election campaign, when his Republican challenger, Gov. William Weld, was calling him soft on welfare, Kerry voted for the much stricter welfare reform law that Clinton signed into law.

ISSUE: Mandatory Minimums
Kerry's Original Position: In 1993 and 1994, the senator from liberal Massachusetts voted against mandatory minimum sentences for gang activity, gun crimes, drug trafficking, and drug sales to minors, explaining in an impassioned speech that long sentences for some dealers who sell to minors would be "enormous injustices" and that some convicted drug offenders were "so barely culpable it is sad." He also said congressionally imposed mandatory minimums made no sense and would just create turf battles between federal and local prosecutors.
Kerry's "Flipped" Position: Today, presidential candidate Kerry strongly supports mandatory minimum sentences for federal crimes, including the sale of drugs to minors.

ISSUE: Affirmative Action
Kerry's Original Position: In 1992, Kerry created a huge stir among liberals and civil rights groups with a major policy address arguing that affirmative action has "kept America thinking in racial terms" and helped promote a "culture of dependency."
Kerry's "Flipped" Position: Today, Kerry's campaign Web site vows to "Preserve Affirmative Action," noting that he "consistently opposed efforts in the Senate to undermine or eliminate affirmative action programs, and supports programs that seeks to enhance diversity." It doesn't mention any downside.

ISSUE: Death Penalty
Kerry's Original Position: During one of his debates with Weld in 1996, Kerry ridiculed the idea of capital punishment for terrorists as a "terrorist protection policy," predicting that it would just discourage other nations from extraditing captured terrorists to the United States.
Kerry's "Flipped" Position: Now, Kerry still opposes capital punishment, but he now makes an exception for terrorists.

ISSUE: Education Reform
Kerry's Original Position: In a 1998 policy speech the Boston Globe described as "a dramatic break from Democratic dogma," Kerry challenged teachers unions by proposing to gut their tenure and seniority systems, giving principals far more power to hire and fire unqualified or unmotivated teachers.
Kerry's "Flipped" Position: Today, Kerry once again espouses pure Democratic dogma on education. His Web site pledges to "stop blaming and start supporting public school educators," vowing to give them "better training and better pay, with more career opportunities, more empowerment and more mentors." It doesn't mention seniority or tenure.

ISSUE: Double Taxation
Kerry's Original Position: In December 2002, Kerry broke with Democratic dogma yet again in a Cleveland speech, calling for the abolition of the unfair "double taxation" of stock dividends in order to promote more investment and more accurate valuations of companies.
Kerry's "Flipped" Position: Five weeks later, after President Bush proposed a second round of tax cuts that included an end to this double taxation, Kerry changed his tune. He voted against the dividend tax cuts that were ultimately enacted by Congress and now hopes to roll them back as president, along with Bush's other tax cuts for upper-income Americans.

ISSUE: Gas Taxation
Kerry's Original Position: In 1994, when the Concord Coalition gave Kerry a failing rating for his deficit reduction votes, he complained that he should have gotten credit for supporting a 50-cent increase in the gas tax.
Kerry's "Flipped" Position: Today, he no longer supports any increase in the gas tax.

ISSUE: Social Security
Kerry's Original Position: During the 1996 campaign, when I was a Globe reporter, Kerry told me the Social Security system should be overhauled. He said Congress should consider raising the retirement age and means-testing benefits and called it "wacky" that payroll taxes did not apply to income over $62,700. "I know it's all going to be unpopular," he said. "But this program has serious problems, and we have a generational responsibility to fix them."
Kerry's "Flipped" Position: Now, Kerry no longer wants to mess with Social Security. "John Kerry will never balance the budget on the backs of America's seniors," his Web site promises.

ISSUE: Trade
Kerry's Original Position: Kerry has been a consistent supporter of free trade deals, and as late as December, when reporters asked if there was any issue on which he was prepared to disagree with Democratic interest groups, Kerry replied: "Trade." Slate editor Jacob Weisberg came away impressed by the depth of Kerry's commitment to the issue: "Unlike Edwards, he supports international trade agreements without qualification."
Kerry's "Flipped" Position: But that was three months ago! In recent weeks, when Kerry has talked trade, he has talked nothing but qualification, calling for "fair trade" rather than "free trade," claiming to agree completely with the protectionist Edwards on trade issues, and vowing to "put teeth" into environmental and labor restrictions in agreements like NAFTA.

Source: Catholics Against Kerry

Pic was too good to pass by....

Kerry caught even some of his advisers off guard late Thursday night by questioning Bush's word that he would maintain an ''all-volunteer army" in a meeting with the Des Moines Register's editorial board, arguing that Bush will soon run short of US forces to patrol Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

''With George Bush, the plan for Iraq is more of the same and the great potential of the draft," Kerry said to the Iowa journalists, who are preparing to make their coveted presidential endorsement next Sunday. ''Because if we go it alone, I don't know how you do it with the current overextension" of the military.

After a week of concerted focus on his domestic goals, the Democratic camp found itself grappling with the fallout from remarks by a nominee who does not hew to the campaign script as closely as the incumbent does.

Hours after the Register reported the remark in yesterday's paper, Bush repeated his commitment to an all-volunteer military during a rally in Cedar Rapids yesterday. His advisers amped up the response, accusing Kerry of ''fear-mongering" to win votes -- an accusation Kerry regularly hurls at Bush over the war on terrorism.

Michael McCurry, a senior adviser to Kerry, found himself trying to tamp down the original comment, saying the Democrats had no evidence -- nor did Kerry mean to imply -- that Bush had a ''secret plan" for a draft.

''We're not putting this issue in play -- he was just pressed pretty hard about what his positions were on Iraq," McCurry said in an interview. Earlier, aboard Kerry's campaign plane, McCurry insisted that Kerry was not guilty of the scare tactics that he ascribes to Bush: ''If you go and talk to any college kid on any campus, or report out what people are nervous about, you run into this -- I mean, we get this all the time."

Source Boston.com

Victor Davis Hanson on the real political reality:

We can no more reason with the Islamic fascists than we could sympathize with the Nazis' demands over supposedly exploited Germans in Czechoslovakia or the problem of Tojo's Japan's not getting its timely scrap-metal shipments from Roosevelt's America. Their pouts and gripes are not intended to be adjudicated as much as to weaken the resolve of many in the United States who find the entire "war against terror" too big, or the wrong kind, of a nuisance.

Instead, read the fatwas. You hear not just of America's injustice in Palestine or Chechnya — not to mention nothing about saving Kuwait, Bosnia, Kosovo or Afghanistan of the 1980s — but also of what we did in Spain in the 15th century and in Tyre, Gaza, and Jerusalem in the 12th. The mystery of September 11, 2001, is not that it happened, but that it did not quite happen when first tried in 1993 during Bill Clinton's madcap efforts to move a smiling Arafat into the Lincoln Bedroom and keep our hands off bin Laden. Only an American with a JD or PhD would cling to the idea that there was not a connection between Group A Middle Eastern terrorists who attacked the WTC in 1993 and Group B who finished the job in 2001.....

Our mainstream media also cannot quite believe we are at war with evil people who wish us dead — something like the crises that have faced all civilizations at one time or another. Instead, to ponder Rathergate or the recent ABC memo advocating bias in its reporting is to fathom the arrogance of the Enlightenment, and the learned's frustration with those of us less-gifted folk who don't quite wish to follow where they lead us. Such anointed ones have taken on the burden of saving us from George Bush and his retrograde ideas. After all, who believes that anyone would really wish to reinstate a mythical caliphate, a Muslim paradise of sharia, gender apartheid, and theocracy spreading the globe through Islamic nukes and biological and chemical bombs? How one dimensional and unsophisticated.

Meanwhile most Americans have already quietly made up their minds. They think the Democratic party is run not by unionists, farmers, miners, truckers, and average folk, but by those rich enough not to have to make a living, and who wish out of either guilt or noblesse oblige to force the dumber upper middle class to be more sensitive, generous, or utopian. Americans also believe Europe has lost its way and is bogged down in a hopeless and soon-to-be scary task of legislating by fiat heaven on earth. We of the tragic persuasion wish them well with Turkey and their unassimilated Islamic populations, but we don't want our hurtful combat troops there after 60 years of subsidized peacekeeping. Americans also don't care much about the Nobel prizes anymore — not when a Jimmy Carter is praised after trying to undermine his own president on the eve of war, and not when the most recent peace-prize winner rants on that AIDS is a Western-created germ agent unleashed to hurt Africa but silent about $15 billion in American aid to stop what her own continent is spreading.

WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda linked Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group of radical Islamist terrorists has been formally designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

In an announcement on Friday, the US State Department said Zarqawi's Jama'at al-Tawhid wa'al-Jihad was formally designated as a terrorist organization under the US Immigration and Nationality Act and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.

The group is also known as The Monotheism and Jihad Group, the al-Zarqawi network and al-Tawhid.

These actions will result in asset freezes, travel bans and arms embargoes against the group, as well as prohibitions on citizens of UN member states providing any funds or other resources to the group.

Source: Times of India

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -George Orwell

Leading economists have a message for America: “John Kerry favors economic policies that, if implemented, would lead to bigger and more intrusive government and a lower standard of living for the American people.”

That was the conclusion released in a statement Wednesday by 368 economists, including six Nobel laureates: Gary Becker, James Buchanan, Milton Friedman, Robert Lucas, Robert Mundell, and — the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics — Edward C. Prescott. The economists warned that Sen. Kerry’s policies “would, over time, inhibit capital formation, depress productivity growth, and make the United States less competitive internationally. The end result would be lower U.S. employment and real wage growth.”

Consider Kerry’s spending and tax proposals. Kerry claims he wants to balance the federal budget, but as the Washington Post pointed out last August, “Sen. John F. Kerry’s pledge to reduce record federal budget deficits is colliding with an obstacle that may be growing higher by the week: his own campaign commitments.” In fact, Kerry’s spending proposals would add an estimated $226 billion annually to federal spending. To put this in perspective, $226 billion is roughly equal to the gross domestic products of Greece or Sweden.

Source: NRO

Peter Brown, Orlando Sentinal (registration required)


The best reason to be skeptical that John Kerry has the gumption to defend America's vital interests and allies is not that he has been all over the map about this current war in Iraq.

Although such erratic behavior is unpresidential, Kerry's unwillingness to support military action in 1991 against Saddam Hussein after Iraq had invaded and raped neighboring Kuwait is the best reason to question his judgment.

The lesson of history -- Kerry's Senate vote against the first Iraq war that hindsight shows to be a reasonable and necessary conflict -- makes his claim that he would be willing to use force ring most hollow.

What a politician says is one thing.

What he does is another.

Kerry may have served honorably in Vietnam a lifetime ago, but that service and the personal courage it demonstrates say nothing about his judgment as a public official.

He spent the Democratic convention imitating Rambo. When the chips were down in 1991, however, Kerry acted more like Bambi.

In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, much to the shock and awe of the intellectual elites, the race has come around to religion. Both candidates touched on their faith in Wednesday night's debate - the subject they believe will tip swing voters in their direction.

Mind you, the goal is not for each candidate to distance himself from faith, as it might happen in many secular democracies. Rather, the candidate seeks to show he takes religion seriously.

The overwhelming majority of American voters place a high priority on religious concerns in their private lives; they want to vote for candidates who share that sensibility.

This is why Europeans, who care little about religion, think we are crazy. Three in four Americans consider themselves to be active Christians (compared with 13 percent who consider themselves nonreligious or secular), half of whom are active in a house of worship on a weekly basis.

In Western Europe, while 80 percent express some belief in God, only half give this belief high importance. Only one in five is active in a church.

Is there something going on that contradicts the spirit of separating church and state? Paradoxically, the emphasis on the faith of the candidates grows out of this sense of separation. Just because something is not required by law does not mean it is not hugely important in our lives.

Source: Detroit News

Mark Green at News OK writes:

said all that to say this. John Kerry's use of Vice President Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary, in one of his answers might be the kind of serious gaffe with undecided voters that could spoil what otherwise has been a strong, home-stretch run by the challenger's campaign.

For all of Kerry's crisp answers, the blizzard of policy statistics and his efforts to appear presidential, could 30 seconds that produced audible groans among observers bite him?

The question was whether each candidate believed that homosexuality is a choice. Bush, who went first, gave an honest "I don't know," and talked of the need to treat everyone fairly.

Kerry started with some stock verbiage. "We're all God's children," he said, soberly. He paused ever so slightly and tried to add some depth, a personal touch, to his answer. "And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as."

Reportedly, a focus group of undecided voters organized by Republicans, which had been moving Kerry's way throughout the evening, was stopped cold by the remark.

The next day Cheney and his wife, Lynne, blasted Kerry for exploiting their daughter. "I am speaking as a mom, and a pretty indignant mom," Lynne Cheney said. "This is not a good man. What a cheap and tawdry political trick."

Political trick or not, it crossed a line. Kerry needlessly used the daughter of his opponent's running mate as a gimmick in a debate answer without offering any "foundation" -- a courtroom term former prosecutor Kerry knows well -- that he has any idea what Mary Cheney thinks or feels.

It looked like a low blow, a cheesy ploy to suggest that Cheney and Bush are hypocrites or perhaps to deflate evangelicals in the GOP base. Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Kerry's running mate, made matters worse the next day by saying the Cheneys' reaction looked to her like they felt "shame" over their daughter's lifestyle. Ouch!

The matter is a misstep, a groaner, literally. Big one or small one? Could be big, underscoring Kerry's likeability problems. They say undecided voters can turn one way or the other based on tie color. Stay tuned.

The extent to which the parties have flipped positions on the little-guy/rich-guy divide is illustrated by research from the Ipsos-Reid polling firm. Comparing counties that voted strongly for Bush to those that voted strongly for Gore in the 2000 election, the study shows that in pro-Bush counties only 7 percent of voters earned at least $100,000, while 38 percent had household incomes below $30,000. In the pro-Gore counties, fully 14 percent pulled in $100,000 or more, while 29 percent earned less than $30,000.

It is "becoming harder by the day to take the Democrats seriously as the party of the common man," writes columnist Daniel Henninger. "The party's primary sources of support have become trial lawyers and Wall Street financiers. It is becoming a party run by a new class of elites who make fast money--$25 million for 30 days work on a movie, millions (even billions) winning lawsuits against doctors...millions to do arithmetic for a business merger."

Source: The American Enterprise

While Kerry says he's opposed to "legislating" his faith on abortion, he insists that he's in favor of legislating his faith elsewhere. He said more than once Wednesday night, and plenty of times on the stump, that faith must be backed up by deeds. His religious faith, he says, is "why I fight against poverty. That's why I fight to clean up the environment and protect this earth. That's why I fight for equality and justice. All of those things come out of that fundamental teaching and belief of faith."

So, let me get this straight. Fighting for the environment, equality, and education — in the name of God — is righteously doing the Lord's work, but abortion must be kept legal because otherwise we'd be legislating religion?

Jonah Goldberg

A temporary worker at the Denver Election Commission was entering information on new voters into a computer Friday when one registration form leaped out at her. Her own name appeared on the form with a correct address and a fabricated Social Security number.

There was also one form Friday that resurrected Chicago-style politics. A dead person was registering to vote.

Election workers cross-reference voter registration information with vital records such as death certificates, and this particular "Joe" had been flagged as a "death delete" file.

Don't worry. In Denver, you can't vote from the grave. The new registration was found invalid and forwarded to the Denver district attorney's office for investigation of possible fraud.

In the basement of a downtown city building, 25 temporary workers are racing the clock to enter thousands of registrants before early voting starts Monday. The numbers are stunning. Since Sept. 1, Denver workers have recorded 25,000 new voters, 5,000 more than they registered in all of 2003.

With a tsunami of new voters and several groups working to boost registration, some forms are suspected as being fraudulent.

Denver workers have referred 200 suspicious registrants to the district attorney's office. They have sent copies of each case to the secretary of state as well.

Tina Romero, voter outreach coordinator for Denver, said the computer immediately flags names of voters who have registered more than once.

"We have a very fool-proof system," Romero said. "They're caught immediately."

What follows is a county by county story of voter registration tidbits . I suspect that the Dems will say reporting on this is Voter Intimidation, but when was fraud a right?

Source: Rocky Mountain News

Police Call on Kerry to Stop Misrepresenting Their Support

Today Chuck Canterbury, the President of the nation's largest police labor organization, called on John Kerry to stop making misleading statements regarding his support from the law enforcement community. Both on the campaign trail and in Wednesday night's debate in Tempe, AZ, Senator Kerry has alluded that he has the support of the majority of these brave men and women.

"As the elected leader of the largest organization representing America's Federal, State and local law enforcement officers, I believe it's important to point out yet again that we do not support his candidacy for President," Canterbury said. "And to be perfectly frank, the groups which do support him actually share the same membership rolls and, taken together, probably comprise less than one-quarter of our nation's police officers."

Canterbury further noted that unlike the organizations which Senator Kerry touts, F.O.P. members as a whole decided that the Fraternal Order of Police would endorse the reelection of President George W. Bush. They based their decision, he said, on the record of the Bush Administration in supporting America's first responders­-including helping to secure passage earlier this year of H.R. 218, the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, the organization's top legislative priority. Bush also successfully fought to greatly enhance the benefits for the families of officers killed in the line of duty.

"While Kerry was flying around the country campaigning and leaving the actual work of the nation to his colleagues in the Senate, the President was out there working on our behalf," Canterbury said. "Senators Kerry and Edwards have missed so many crucial votes this Congress that I was beginning to believe there were only 98 members of the U.S. Senate."

Canterbury also said it was the height of irony that Kerry would use his position on the reauthorization of the assault weapons ban as a reflection of his support from police. "First, if a police officer is killed by an AK-47, Kerry would oppose the death penalty for the killer," Canterbury said. "In addition, where was he when this issue was being discussed in the 108th Congress? Where was he when we were working to pass H.R. 218? When it came time to help push for final passage of legislation important to law enforcement, Senator Kerry was regrettably A.W.O.L."

"Given the facts, I would greatly appreciate it if Senator Kerry would refrain from making similar whimsical assertions regarding his support from the law enforcement community," Canterbury said. "The real majority of my fellow officers are standing behind President Bush, because he has been there for us."

The Fraternal Order of Police is the nation's largest law enforcement labor organization, representing more than 318,000 members.

Hattip to Blogs for Bush

This was particularly well-written, and I really respect the author, Jimmy Akin, so I thought I 'd share it with you:

What Sen. Kerry did was not violate Dick Cheney's privacy; it was to attempt to turn Cheney's daughter into an embarrassment and a political liability to him and his boss.

It was the exploitation of an extraordinary sensitive family situation for his own political ends.

No child should be made to feel that she is an embarrassment and liability to her parents, and no parents should be placed in a situation where their child feels this way.

Kerry tried to turn the vice president's child into a political weapon to be used against him.

Cheney may have acknowledged his daughter's sexual orientation in public, but it is one thing for a parent to muster up the courage to admit such a sensitive fact and it is another thing entirely to have it thrown in your face in an attempt to harm you politically by using your child as a weapon.

What Sen. Kerry did was heartless.

It was cruel.

It was vile.

It was despicable.

It was wrong.

Source: JimmyAkin.Org

FRom the JAWA Report:

I was stunned last night as John Kerry continued to retell a falsehood over and over and no one called him on it. In fact, it was the biggest whopper of the night. His lie was not a simple twisting of words. His lie was not a faulty memory. It was a down and dirty lie. What was it? From the WAPO transcript:

And this is the first president in 72 years to preside over an economy in America that has lost jobs, 1.6 million jobs.

Eleven other presidents -- six Democrats and five Republicans -- had wars, had recessions, had great difficulties; none of them lost jobs the way this president has.

In a number of earlier posts I thought I had disproved this myth, but perhaps John Kerry just hasn't gotten word yet. So, let me restate some of the conclusions drawn in those earlier posts. Also, will the rest of the blogosphere do their damn jobs and call Karl Rove, Fox News, and the rest of the VRWC so we can finally put the 'worst job recovery ever' lie to rest!

Go read the rest and see where Kerry lied.

From CNS via Townhall:

When Sen. John Kerry insisted during the final presidential debate that "I will not tamper with the Second Amendment," he was being disingenuous because he has actually been "trying to roll the Second Amendment right off a cliff" for 20 years, a group of Second Amendment supporters has charged.

Portraying himself as a pro-Second Amendment candidate, Kerry insisted: "I am a hunter. I'm a gun owner. I've been a hunter since I was a kid; 12, 13 years old. And I respect the Second Amendment, and I will not tamper with the Second Amendment."

Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said Kerry's claim "does not pass the smell test." Gottlieb added: "One look at Mr. Kerry's record on gun control proves that actions speak louder than words.

"Over the years, there is not a single gun control proposal that Sen. Kerry did not support," Gottlieb said.

"He backed the Brady Law, part of which was found unconstitutional. He supported the Clinton semi-auto ban, an issue that cost his party control of Congress. He backs legislation that would effectively ban all semi-auto shotguns, including the one he held in front of an audience in West Virginia on Labor Day," added Gottlieb.

"Senator, when you vote to restrict the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms," Gottlieb said, "you are tampering with the Second Amendment. When you support bans on certain firearms because of cosmetics you don't like, you are tampering with the Second Amendment.

from Iraq in the MSM...but you need to see anyway!

If ABC News discovered that the public watchdog over a corporation was the son of one high official in that corporation and the brother of another, ABC rightly would report this as a scandalous conflict of interest and a betrayal of public trust.


ABC never notified its audience that its reporter Mark Halperin was covering a Clinton White House that employed two members of his immediate family.

- Frontpage Mag

See INDC for more discussion of this story

As Blogs for Bush has noted, we could call the the Mary Cheney comments officially a gaffe.

Washington Post reports:

An overwhelming majority of voters believe it was wrong for Democratic nominee John F. Kerry to have mentioned in Wednesday's presidential debate that Vice President Cheney's daughter was a lesbian, according to the latest Washington Post tracking survey.

Nearly two in three likely voters -- 64 percent -- said Kerry's comment was "inappropriate," including more than four in 10 of his own supporters and half of all swing voters. A third -- 33 percent -- thought the remark was appropriate.

The story today has been about the outing of Mary Cheney. After Kerry brought her into the picture, and Liz Edwards remarked about how ashamed the Cheneys were of her, there has been a furor of buzz, like a disturbed nest of bees.

Someone I saw yesterday said that Kerry had been able to do the possible: turn Dick Cheney into a sympathetic character.

Buzz is still going on today.

ABC News Note gave us this morning wrap up:

7:00 am packages or segments (not in the news blocks) about Iraq, debt, gas prices in the morning shows: 1/4 (part of a 2-way on NBC covered gas prices).

NBC dedicated an entire Mary Matalin/Dee Dee Meyers/Katie Couric chat to Kerry's debate mention of Mary Cheney and the reaction to it preceded by the graphic "OVER THE LINE?"

ABC opened its Begala/Carlson chat with the topic. (GMA's coverage was much more extensive yesterday.)

CBS dedicated a package to it by Jim Acosta, who said that "for an experienced politician he seems to have made a rookie mistake" but also included sound very critical of the Administration from both the Log Cabin Republicans and the Human Rights Campaign.

Don Imus slammed both Kerry and Edwards for what he characterized as a concerted effort to bring up Mary Cheney, calling it "repulsive behavior." Imus said he was disappointed in what he saw was a "fundamental" problem with Kerry's "character." Imus said that Bush and Cheney will say anything to get elected — "now it's clear that Kerry and Edwards will do and say anything to get elected as well."

Fox News raised the issue in the beginning of a Steve Schmidt / Chat Clanton chat, although with less of the outrage than it did yesterday.

CNN dedicated much of an interview with Tad Devine to it.

CNN's Jack Cafferty said he received 1,200 emails in an hour to his question of the day about whether Kerry was right to raise Cheney's name.

Some of it has been quite angry:

Mention a gay Republican, that's fair game.
You're not supposed to talk about how Kerry won't release all his military records, or the fact that his billionaire wife won't release her tax returns, or the fact that he confessed, under oath, to being a war criminal.
All that stuff is below the belt.
Mary Cheney, though, is ``fair game.''
God forbid Kerry should have mentioned Dick Gephardt's lesbian daughter Chrissy, or Gov. Jim McGreevey, who put his own personal Hot Bottom on the New Jersey state payroll for more than $100,000 a year.
They're all untouchable. They're liberals. Mary Cheney campaigns for her father, so she's . . . fair game.

Howie Carr, Boston Globe

New York Daily News calls it:

There's little argument that the gambit of making Mary Cheney's lifestyle a high-visibility issue is what the adviser calls "obviously highly calculated."

Mary Beth Cahill called Mary Cheney fair game, but all the uproar in both the conservative and the MSM says something more is going on.

Did Kerry cross a line of political decorum? One yet not fallen to the barbarism of our current day?

Hugh Hewit thinks so. He says:

When John Edwards lamely tries to claim innocent or even noble motives for the Kerry-Edwards low blows, keep in mind that "fair game" is a hunting term, a clear giveaway that the Kerry-Edwards campaign planned the attack as an attack. As most of the stories admit somewhere along the line, this was a malicious attempt to hurt Bush-Cheney with fundamentalist Christians. It was gay baiting of the worst sort, as James Taranto branded it yesterday, but the real anger in America is over the exploitation of children by Kerry-Edwards. My post here explains that the widespread anger and revulsion isn't about the particulars of using Mary Cheney's sexuality at all. It is the product of the "leave the kids out of it" sentiment that nearly all Americans hold and which until this campaign was respected by both parties and all candidates. Anger at the breach of that rule was compounded by the churlishness of Elizabeth Edwards' "a certain amount of shame" comments, which was a direct attack on the Cheneys' relationship with their daughter.

and

And if you think it is just Republicans, here's presidential scholar Stephen Hess of the liberal Bookings Center (in the Philly Inquirer):

"Stephen Hess, a political analyst at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, and author of The Little Book of Campaign Etiquette, said he was 'absolutely startled' by Kerry's mention of Mary Cheney.

Hess said Kerry crossed the line of political decorum - even though Mary Cheney is open about her sexual preference and her parents have talked publicly about her in the past.

'To make it about an opponent's daughter struck me as such poor taste,' Hess said."

It will be interesting to see all the fall out. But one thing is clear, it's just another example of how John Kerry needs to learn what the word Integrity really means.

Mr. Kerry lied about his own mother.

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA - Rosemary Forbes Kerry, a community activist and the mother of U.S. Sen. John Kerry, died Thursday at her home. She was 89. The cause of death was respiratory complications, a spokesman for Sen. Kerry said


I don't know. He gave us the impression that she died at the hospital with her loving son at her side. And now it turns out she died at home. Thinking about this gives me the willies at its coldness.

I was in the room when my own mother died. Her very last words were, "I can't deal with this." then she had a spasm and an cardio aneurysm we didn't even know about broke, and she was gone. This was one of the most traumatic, life-shaping and sacred moments in my life. I don't talk about it much, but it still can make me cry even remembering it.

Kerry, evidently, doesn't even hold that particular moment in his life above political manipulation.

What do you do with a man who thinks his mother and his faith are tools to be used for poltical gain?

Kerry very well ought to listen to the story he told. Integrity. He truly seems to need it.

Recently, we've been seeing a lot of lawbreaking in the name of fairness. Political signs stolen and defaced, with one woman claiming she was merely exercising her right to free speech by defacing other people's hundred dollar poltical signs. A student at Chapel Hill thought nothing of buring someone else's flag to make a point. Strong arm tactics were used to intimidate people working in GOP offices last week so the AFL-CIO could prove a point. All over the country case after case of voter fraud is adding up.

Why? Because they claim the Republicans intimidate voters. Because they have turned the republicans into a mythic monster that combines the worst of Stalin, Hitler and Satan, and some of them even believe it.

We saw the Republicans are the Boogy-man in action yesterday, when Drudge leaked a page from the Democratic Action manual, which said, even if there was no proof of irregularities, do a pre-emptive strike.

In Colorado, according to the Rocky Mountain News, "a press release from the Colorado Democrats on Wednesday looked straight out of the playbook.

After Secretary of State Donetta Davidson and Gov. Bill Owens, both Republicans, said anyone caught defrauding the voter registration process would be prosecuted, the Democrats shot out a statement decrying Davidson's and Owens' remarks as "voter intimidation."

Since when is it Voter Intimidation to tell people to obey the law about voting?

Mostly it looks like, "Anything I want to do is right because you are a bad guy."

When the means justify the ends, there is always a price that is paid.

When the trust in the American electoral process breaks down, what price are we going to pay?

From Diana West via The Washington Times:

Was Mr. Kerry right to champion the cause of North Vietnam's brutal communist dictators? (They think so: The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City depicts Mr. Kerry as a hero of its victory against the United States.) Was he right to boost the Soviet-supported Sandinista regime in Nicaragua? To knock the liberation of Marxist Grenada as a "bully's show of force"? To embrace the nuclear-freeze movement during the height of the Cold War? To vote against the first Gulf War? If Americans elect Mr. Kerry president, they will answer yes, validating a long career of uninterupted, unshakeable leftism that has opposed, time and again, the expansion of freedom and democracy.
If Mr. Kerry had his way, Saddam would still be in power, and in Kuwait. If Mr. Kerry had his way, Ronald Reagan's military expansion, which bloodlessly defeated the Soviet Union, would never have occurred. Indeed, Mr. Kerry called the Strategic Defense Initiative, the visionary straw that broke the USSR's back, a "cancer on our nation's defense." If, in a time of war, we elect a man whose idea of protecting American lives is holding summits, canceling such vital weapons programs as "bunker-buster" nukes, and allowing such enemies as Iran to keep their nuclear power plants in exchange for promises, we would not only be repudiating the security-boosting moral interventionism of Mr. Bush. We would also be rejecting the doctrine of peace through strength that Ronald Reagan applied with triumphant result against communism's evil empire.
Of course, Mr. Kerry called the Reagan years a "moral darkness." Was he right? I would hope the answer breaks the tie.

Mr. Kerry thinks the United States should open trade with Iran's clerics, not isolate them — as if concessions could convince them to abandon their pursuit of 20 years duration in the face of U.S. and international punishment.
Mr. Kerry's support for a pro-regime agenda is troubling as America enters an extremely difficult phase of the war on terror. Tehran's mullahs are playing a sophisticated shell game with their nuclear capabilities. Like a drunken reveler at a county fair, Mr. Kerry has bought the empty shell, while proudly insisting that "as president, I'll never take my eye off that ball."
Top among the pro-regime fund-raisers who have contributed to the Kerry campaign is a recent Iranian immigrant in California named Susan Akbarpour.
Miss Akbarpour came to this country in 1997, claiming to be a political refugee. In seeking asylum, she told U.S. authorities she feared she would be persecuted if she was forced to return to Iran. And yet, in court records I examined in California and described in this month's American Spectator, Miss Akbarpour maintained a privileged relationship with government agencies of the Islamic Republic, even after she came the United States. (Her lawyers deny this, but in the settlement agreement the disputed document is allowed to stand).
Here in the United States, Miss Akbarpour has become an outspoken public supporter of the regime — odd behavior for someone who claims to have been persecuted in Iran. She has been one of the privileged few admitted to closed-door meetings with regime officials visiting the United States, and has been videotaped by Iranian television reporters in Los Angeles screaming at pro-freedom demonstrators. As part of her effort to build a pro-regime lobby among Iranian-American high-tech executives, she has hosted conferences to promote venture capital investment in Iran, though the Clinton administration made it illegal for U.S. citizens and permanent residents to invest in Iran.
The Kerry campaign credits Miss Akbarpour and her new husband, Faraj Aalaie, with each raising $50,000 to $100,000 for the presidential campaign. Mr. Aalaie is president of Centillium Communications, a Nasdaq-listed software firm.
These contributions continue despite even though Miss Akbarpour was not a permanent U.S. resident when she made her initial contribution to Mr. Kerry on June 17, 2002, as this reporter first revealed in March. (To be legal, campaign cash must come from U.S. citizens or permanent residents).
Miss Akbarpour, her husband and members of the Iranian American Political Action Committee (IAPAC) hosted a fund-raiser featuring Rep. Anna Eshoo, California Democrat, last Sunday in California. Ms. Eshoo is a member of the House Permanent Select committee on Intelligence.
IAPAC's agenda includes opening trade with Iran and ending the fingerprinting of Iranians coming to the United States, two measures with pro-democracy advocates say will bolster the rule of radical clerics in Tehran and allow them to more easily send intelligence operatives to this country.
Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards need to distance themselves from the pro-regime lobbyists who are raising money for their campaign. To start with, they might return money raised by Susan Akbarpour, some of which was donated illegally. They might also explain how they would help bring freedom to Iran, instead of bringing comfort to the ruling mullahs.

Source: Kenneth R. Tinnerman, Washington Times

The following statement from John O'Neil, member of Swift Boat Veterans and POW's for Truth, concerns a news segment that aired on October 14th on ABC's Nightline with Ted Koppel.

"While I have a tremendous amount of respect for Ted Koppel and ABC News I was appalled to learn that ABC News would go to the lengths of traveling to Vietnam to interview three Viet Cong communists in yet a third attempt by ABC to corroborate John Kerry's version of the events that took place on February 28th, 1969.

"I would only ask the American people: 'Who do you trust more, three members of a communist regime that tortured and killed our American troops or a group of more than 280 highly decorated American veterans, who proudly served their country and are now responsible members of their respective communities.

"The number of veterans who support John Kerry's accounts of his military service would not fill one Swift Boat. But instead of sitting down to interview some of the 280 plus members of our Swift Boat organization, ABC News chose to travel to Vietnam taking extraordinary and highly suspect steps to find someone to corroborate John Kerry's story.

"ABC News Nightline has now dedicated three seperate programs to this one incident while ignoring John Kerry's now discredited Senate testimony that he spent Christmas in Cambodia, his receiving a purple heart after all three of the officers required to approve such an issuance rejected his application, or his constantly changing account of the circumstances surrounding his remaining medal, a bronze star.

"Further, one has to wonder why ABC News will not address the serious questions as to why John Kerry only received an honorable discharge through the act of then President Carter, seven years after his discharge, and had to have all of his military citations reissued, on the same day, when he became a United States Senator in 1985. And, finally, why has Nightline found it of no interest to permit any POWs to come on their program to explain why they believe John Kerry betrayed their nation, caused them to be incarcerated for an additional two years and caused them tremendous additional hardship and suffering."


Read more about this at Redstate.org

Cleanup will soon be under way at the Bush-Cheney Victory Center in York County for the fifth time this election season.

Vandals spray painted anti-Bush messages and "Vote Kerry" on the building and on the rented sign out front Wednesday night.

They also stole the letters from the sign out front which had been advertising a veterans event for this weekend.

"I just don't understand the mentality we're dealing with here. I mean, what are they proving? Because it's really, it's degrading to the other party to have this kind of vandalism going on," said Darwin Doll, headquarters coordinator.

The vandals hit other businesses and a barn along Route 74 just outside of Dallastown Wednesday night.

Doll said the Victory Center will now be equipped with security cameras.

Source: WGALChannel.com

Hat tip to Blogs for Bush

If you'd like to take action about the Sinclair Broadcast Group and their plan to show Stolen Valor the story of the shameful way Vietnam Veterans were treated upon returning from the war. A brief segment of the movie focuses on John Kerry and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and let your views be known, you can contact the following people.

Remember, this is the movie that Linda Vester asked about during an interview withChad Clanton, described as a 'senior Kerry campaign advisor.' Clanton stated:

"They [Sinclair] better hope that we're not elected."

Vester immediately asked if that was intended as a threat to Sinclair that a Kerry administration would not renew their broadcast licenses. Clanton tried to back off, but the threat was unmistakable.

If you'd like to help, here are some numbers and emails you can contact people at and let your views be known.


FCC - The number: 1-888-225-5322


Sinclair Executives:

Mark Hyman - mhyman@sbgnet.com - Vice President for Corporate Relations
David Smith - dsmith@sbgnet.com - CEO
Joe Defeo - jdefeo@sbgnet.com - Corporate News Director

Advertisers

Applebees International, Inc. (913) 967-4000 (913) 967-2718 http://www.applebees.com/ Carol DiRaimo, ca.diraimo@applebees.com

Arby's 1-800-487-2729

Best Buy 1-888-BEST BUY 612-292-4000 612-291-1000

Betty Crocker 1-800-446-1898

Brinker International (972) 980-9917 http://www.brinker.com/

Brinker International investor.relations@brinker.com

Chili's Grill and Bar 515-226-1744 1-800-983-4637 http://www.chilis.com/ http://www.chilis.com/contact/

Circuit City 800-843-2489

Consolidated Credit Counseling Services, Inc. 1-800-320-9929 http://www.consolidatedcredit.org http://www.consolidatedcredit.org/feedback.asp

Discount Tire (888) 774-6560 800-589-6789 http://www.discounttire.com/dtc/brochure/contact/contactUs.jsp

Dodge 1-800-992-1997

Domino's Pizza 734-930-3030 http://www.dominos.com/

Dunkin' Donuts 781-961-4020 http://dunkindonuts.com

Educate, Inc. (Sylvan) (410) 843-8000 fx?410 843-6145 http://www.educate-inc.com

Fazoli's 1-859-268-1668 http://www.fazolis.com/

GMC 1-800-462-8782

Geico Car Insurance: contactmarketing@geico.com

Great Earth Vitamins 1-800-284-8243 http://www.greatearth.com http://www.greatearth.com/contact_us.html

ITT Tech (805) 520-7200 http://www.itt-tech.edu

JC Penny http://www.jcpenny.com

Jim Barkley Toyota 828-667-8888 www.jimbarkleytoyota.com

Johnson & Johnson 732-524-0400

Long John Silvers (502) 874-8200 http://www.ljsilvers.com/ http://www.ljsilvers.com/comments/default.htm

Mile One Automotive 866-645-3663 http://www.mileone.com info@mileone.com

NetZero 1-888-349-0029

Papa John's 1-502-261-7272t http://www.papajohns.com/

Patties Panties (493)555-1293 http://www.pattyspanties.com

Pepsi-Co. boardofdirectors@pepsi.com

Pfizer, Inc. (212) 573-2323 fx: 212 5737851 http://www.pfizer.com mckinnell@pfizer.com

Procter & Gamble 513-983-1100 http://www.pg.com/

Red Bull North America 781-961-4020 http://redbull.com http://www.redbull.com/extras/contact.jsp

Rentway, Inc. 1-800-RENTWAY 814-455-5378 http://www.rentway.com http://www.rentway.com/contactus.asp

SC Johnson Scrubbing Bubbles 1-800-494-4855 262-260-3709 262-260-4402

Select Comfort Corp. 763-551-7000 http://www.selectcomfort.com

Skyland Automotive 828-667-5213 http://www.skylandautomotive.com/ http://www.skylandautomotive.com/

Sonic (405) 225-5000 (816) 842-1500 http://www.sonicdrivein.com/business/newsroom/mediaContacts.jsp sonicpr@sonicdrivein.com

Subway (203) 877-4281 (800) 888-4848 http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/Applications/CustServ/frmCustomerService.aspx

Taco Bell/Yum! Brnads Inc 502 874-2543 1-800-tacobell http://www.yum.com Amy.Sherwood@Yum.Com

Time Domain Inc. 888-826-8378 (Sinclair owns equity stake) http://www.timedomain.com/index2.html

Time Warner Road Runner of Rochester 585-756-1608 http://www.twrochester.com/contact.cfm http://www.twrochester.com/feedback.cfm

Toyota Consumer Relations 800-331-4331 #3 http://www.toyota.com

Tri-Star Health Systems/HCA Mid-America 615-886-5000 615-886-4902 http://www.tristarhealth.com/ cheryl.chubbs@hcahealthcare.com

Whataburger 361-878-0650

ZigZagZone -- send e-mail to smitty@zigzagzone.com

Warner Bros -- send e-mail to faces@thewb.com (many Sinclair affiliates are WB stations)


TV Stations, Contact them and show your support:

WABM, Birmingham, AL
Web: www.wabm68.com

WDBB, Birmingham, AL
651 Beacon Pky W, Ste 105
Birmingham, AL 35209
(205)943-2168
Web: www.wtto21.com

WTTO, Birmingham, AL
Web: www.wtto21.com

WEAR, Mobile, AL
P.O. Box 12278
Pensacola, FL 32581
850-456-3333
850-455-8972 Fax
Web: www.weartv.com

WFGX, Mobile, AL
4990 Mobile Hwy.
Pensacola, FL 32506
(850)438-3533
Web: www.wfgxtv.com

KOVR, Sacramento, CA
2713 KOVR Drive
West Sacramento, CA 95605
(916) 374-1313
Email: programming@kovr13.com
Web: http://www.kovr13.com

WTWC, Tallahassee, FL
Web: www.wtwc40.com

WTXL, Tallahassee, FL
8440 Deerlake Road
Tallahassee, FL 32312
(850)893-4140
Web: www.wtxl.com

WTTA, Tampa, FL
Bay Television, Inc.
7622 Bald Cypress Place
Tampa, FL 33614
(813)886-9882
Web: www.wtta38.com

KGAN, Cedar Rapids, IA
600 Old Marion Road, NE
Cedar Rapids, IA 54202
(319)395-9060
Web: www.kgan.com
Emails: kgan@kgan.com
General Manager: Mike Sullivan mike.sullivan@kgan.com
News Director: Rod Peterson rpeterson@kgan.com
National Sales Manager: Mark Classon mclasson@kgan.com
Local Sales Manager: Jim Stoos jstoos@kgan.com

KDSM, Des Moines, IA
4023 Fleur Drive
Des Moines, IA 50231
(515)287-1717
Web: www.kdsm.com

WYZZ, Peoria, IL
2714 E. Lincoln Street
Bloomington, IL 61704
(309)662-4373
Web: www.wyzz43.com

WICD, Springfield, IL
250 South Country Fair Drive
Champaign, IL 61812
(217)351-8500
Web: www.wicd15.com

WICS, Springfield, IL
2680 East Cook Street
Springfield, IL 62703
(217)753-5620
Web: www.wics.com

WTTK, Indianapolis, IN
WTTA38
7622 Bald Cypress Place
Tampa, FL 33614
Phone: 813-886-9882
Fax: 813-880-8100

WTTV, Indianapolis, IN
Web: www.wb4.com

WDKY, Lexington, KY
836 Euclid Avenue
Lexington, KY 40505
(859)269-5656
Web: www.wdky56.com

KBSI, Paducah, KY
Web: www.kbsi23.com

WDKA, Paducah, KY
806 Enterprise St.
Cape Girardeau, MO 63703
(573)334-1223
Web: www.wdka49.com

WGGB, Springfield, MA
1300 Liberty Street
Springfield, MA 01102-0040
(413)733-4040
Web: www.wggb.com

WBFF, Baltimore, MD
Web: www.foxbaltimore.com

WNUV, Baltimore, MD
Web: www.wbbaltimore.com

WGME, Portland, ME
1335 Washington Ave
Portland, ME 04103
(207)797-1313
Web: www.wgme.com

WSMH, Flint, MI
Online Contact Form: http://www.wsmh66.com/flint_mi

STATION ADDRESS:
Saginaw's Office
310 Johnson St., Suite 185
Saginaw, MI 48607
Phone: (989) 790-8866
Fax: (989) 790-9527
Across from the Saginaw Heritage Theater



Flint Office and Studio
G-3463 W. Pierson Rd.
Flint, MI 48504
Phone: (810) 785-8866
Fax: (810) 785-8963
1 Mile East of I-75 on Pierson Rd. Next to Murray's



KMWB, Minneapolis, MN
1640 Como Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55108
(651)646-2300
Web: www.kmwb23.com

KSMO, Kansas City, MO
10 E. Cambridge Circle Dr.
Kansas City, KS 66103
(913)621-6262
Web: www.wb62.com

KDNL, St. Louis, MO
1215 Cole Street
St. Louis, MO 63106
(314)436-3030
Web: www.abcstlouis.com

WBSC, Asheville, NC
110 Technology Drive
Asheville, NC 28803
(828)684-1340
(864)297-1313 (Greenville, SC office)
Web: www.wb40.com

WLOS, Asheville, NC
Web: www.wlos13.com

WUPN, Greensboro, NC
3500 Myer Lee Dr.
Winston-Salem, NC 27101
(336)722-4545
Web: www.upn48.com

WXLV, Greensboro, NC
Web: www.abc45.com

WLFL, Raleigh-Durham, NC
3012 Highwoods Blvd, Ste 101
Raleigh, NC 27604
(919)872-9535
(919)872-2854
Web: www.wb22tv.com

WRDC, Raleigh-Durham, NC
3012 Highwoods Blvd, Ste 101
Raleigh, NC 27604
(919)872-9535
(919)872-2854
Web: www.upn28tv.com

KFBT, Las Vegas, NV
3830 S. Jones Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89103
(702)382-2121
Web: www.kfbt33.com

KVWB, Las Vegas, NV
Web: www.wblasvegas.com

WNYO, Buffalo, NY
951 Whitehaven Rd.
Grand Island, NY 14072
(716)773-7531
(716)875-4949
Web: www.wb49.net

WUTV, Buffalo, NY
Web: www.wutv.com

WUHF, Rochester, NY
360 East Avenue
Rochester, NY 14604
(585)232-3700
Web: www.foxrochester.com

WNYS, Syracuse, NY
1000 James Street
Syracuse, NY 13203
(315) 472-6800
Web: www.wb43.com

WSYT, Syracuse, NY
Web: www.wsyt68.com

WSTR, Cincinnati, OH
5177 Fishwick Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45216
(513)641-4400
Web: www.wb64.net

WSYX, Columbus, OH
Web: www.wsyx6.com

WTTE, Columbus, OH
1261 Dublin Road
Columbus, OH 43215
(614)481-6621
Web: www.wtte28.com

WKEF, Dayton, OH
Web: www.nbc22.com

WRGT, Dayton, OH
1731 Soldiers Home Road
Dayton, OH 45418
(937)263-2662
(937)263-4500
Web: www.fox45.com

KOCB, Oklahoma City, OK
Web: www.kocb.com

KOKH, Oklahoma City, OK
1501 NE 85th St.
Oklahoma Cith, OK 73131
(405)478-3434
(405)843-2525
Web: www.kokh.com

WCWB, Pittsburgh, PA
750 Ivory Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15214
(412)931-5300
Web: www.wcwb22.com

WPGH, Pittsburgh, PA
Web: www.wpgh53.com

WMMP, Charleston, SC
Web: www.wmmp36.com

WTAT, Charleston, SC
4301 Arco Lane
Charleston, SC 29418
(843)744-2424
Web: www.wtat24.com

WNAB, Nashville, TN
631 Mainstream Drive
Nashville, TN 37228
(615)259-5617
Web: www.wnab.com

WUXP, Nashville, TN
Web: www.upn30.com

WZTV, Nashville, TN
Web: www.fox17.com

WEMT, Tri-Cities, TN
3206 Hanover Rd., PO Box 3489
Johnson City, TN 37602
(423)283-3900
Web: www.wemt39.com

KABB, San Antonio, TX
Web: www.kabb.com

KRRT, San Antonio, TX
4335 NW Loop 410
San Antonio, TX 78229
(210)366-1129
Web: www.krrt.com

WTVZ, Norfolk, VA
900 Granby Street
Norfolk, VA 23501
(757)622-3333
Web: www.wtvz33.com

WRLH, Richmond, VA
1925 Westmoreland St.
Richmond, VA 23230
(804)359-3510
Web: www.fox35.com

WMSN, Madison, WI
7847 Big Sky Dr.
Madison, WI 53719
(608)833-0047
Web: www.fox47.com

WCGV, Milwaukee, WI
Web: www.upn24.net

WVTV, Milwaukee, WI
4041 N. 35th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53216
(414)442-7050
Web: www.wb18.net

WCHS, Charleston, WV
PO Box 11138
Charleston, WV 25339-1138
Switchboard: 304-346-5358
General FAX: 304-346-4765
Web: Web: www.wchstv.com
EMail Addresses: sales@wchs.com news@wchs.com programming@wchs.com production@wchs.com promotion@wchs.com

WVAH, Charleston, WV
1301 Piedmont Road
Charleston, WV 25301
(304)346-5358
(304)757-0011
Web: www.wvah.com



programming@wabm68.com
programming@kovr13.com
eschwarz@wtwc40.com
kgan@kgan.com
amuster@kbsi23.com
programming@wsyt68.com
programming@wmmp36.com
webmaster@upn30.com
webmaster@fox17.com
kabbtv@kabb.com
sales@wchs.com
news@wchs.com
programming@wchs.com
production@wchs.com
promotion@wchs.com
dhoward@wtxl.com
mroberts@wtxl.com
mplummer@wtxl.com
news@kdsm17.com
kevinh@wmbd.com
nancyl@wmbd.com
news@wmbd.com
news@wicd15.com
comments@wicd15.com
programming@wicd15.com
news@wics.com
comments@wics.com
promotions@wics.com
news@wdky56.com
programming@wdky56.com
jchronis@kbsi23.com
programming@wtvz33.com
assignmentdesk@wggb.com
programming@wb62.com
webmaster@wb62.com
webmaster@wb43.com
programming@wb43.com
comments@wtvz33.com

Other Contacts to Spread the Word:

The Federalist: letters@federalist.com

Laura Ingraham: suggestions@lauraingraham.com

Jerry Fawell: http://falwell.com/?a=contact

Concerned Women for America: http://www.cwfa.org/feedback.asp?mode=feedback&referrer=http://www.cwfa.org/main.asp

Focus on the Family: http://family.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/family.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=14190

Sean Hannity: http://www.hannity.com/story.php?content=/contact
Michael Medved: http://www.michaelmedved.com/confirm.shtml
www.grassboots.org
www.grassfire.org
www.rightnation.us


Related FR Threads with more info:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1242801/posts?page=1,50
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1242109/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1242960/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1242866/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1243325/posts


Source: Free Republic Discussion Thread

# posted by Knitting a Conundrum @ 4:32 PM 0 comments