Don’t Play the Vietnam Card with ME, John Kerry

WSJ’s OpinionJournal has an excellent commentary from LAURA BARTHOLOMEW ARMSTRONG, who is the daughter of Lt. Col. Roger J. “Black Bart” Bartholomew, who was a First Air Cavalry rocket artillery helicopter pilot killed in Vietnam on Thanksgiving Day 1968,w he the author was eight years old. she is a former journalist with a military newspaper, a U.S. Marine widow.

She has some rather biting comments toward Mr. Kerry.
She points out among other things that for all the lip service given ‘supporting the troups, she remembers the Democrats sending hundreds of lawyers …

“…to Florida in 2000 to make sure military absentee ballots did not get counted (some sources say that two out of three military voices in Florida were never heard). That was after the Clinton administration initiated rules making it more difficult to vote on overseas military bases.”

She goes on:

“Mr. Kerry has tried to distance himself from some anti-war activists and surround himself with veterans, yet his anti-military voting record speaks much louder and resonates with those of us who are affected by the results.”

A worthy read, and the Democrat’s worst nightmare come true.

WSJ’s OpinionJournal has an excellent commentary from LAURA BARTHOLOMEW ARMSTRONG, who is the daughter of Lt. Col. Roger J. “Black Bart” Bartholomew, who was a First Air Cavalry rocket artillery helicopter pilot killed in Vietnam on Thanksgiving Day 1968,w he the author was eight years old. she is a former journalist with a military newspaper, a U.S. Marine widow.

She has some rather biting comments toward Mr. Kerry.
She points out among other things that for all the lip service given ‘supporting the troups, she remembers the Democrats sending hundreds of lawyers …

“…to Florida in 2000 to make sure military absentee ballots did not get counted (some sources say that two out of three military voices in Florida were never heard). That was after the Clinton administration initiated rules making it more difficult to vote on overseas military bases.”

She goes on:

“Mr. Kerry has tried to distance himself from some anti-war activists and surround himself with veterans, yet his anti-military voting record speaks much louder and resonates with those of us who are affected by the results.”

A worthy read, and the Democrat’s worst nightmare come true.

WSJ’s OpinionJournal has an excellent commentary from LAURA BARTHOLOMEW ARMSTRONG, who is the daughter of Lt. Col. Roger J. “Black Bart” Bartholomew, who was a First Air Cavalry rocket artillery helicopter pilot killed in Vietnam on Thanksgiving Day 1968,w he the author was eight years old. she is a former journalist with a military newspaper, a U.S. Marine widow.

She has some rather biting comments toward Mr. Kerry.
She points out among other things that for all the lip service given ‘supporting the troups, she remembers the Democrats sending hundreds of lawyers …

“…to Florida in 2000 to make sure military absentee ballots did not get counted (some sources say that two out of three military voices in Florida were never heard). That was after the Clinton administration initiated rules making it more difficult to vote on overseas military bases.”

She goes on:

“Mr. Kerry has tried to distance himself from some anti-war activists and surround himself with veterans, yet his anti-military voting record speaks much louder and resonates with those of us who are affected by the results.”

A worthy read, and the Democrat’s worst nightmare come true.

WSJ’s OpinionJournal has an excellent commentary from LAURA BARTHOLOMEW ARMSTRONG, who is the daughter of Lt. Col. Roger J. “Black Bart” Bartholomew, who was a First Air Cavalry rocket artillery helicopter pilot killed in Vietnam on Thanksgiving Day 1968,w he the author was eight years old. she is a former journalist with a military newspaper, a U.S. Marine widow.

She has some rather biting comments toward Mr. Kerry.
She points out among other things that for all the lip service given ‘supporting the troups, she remembers the Democrats sending hundreds of lawyers …

“…to Florida in 2000 to make sure military absentee ballots did not get counted (some sources say that two out of three military voices in Florida were never heard). That was after the Clinton administration initiated rules making it more difficult to vote on overseas military bases.”

She goes on:

“Mr. Kerry has tried to distance himself from some anti-war activists and surround himself with veterans, yet his anti-military voting record speaks much louder and resonates with those of us who are affected by the results.”

A worthy read, and the Democrat’s worst nightmare come true.

Yahoo! News – Factories Operate Near 20-Year High: “NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. factories boomed at close to a 20-year high in February, according to a survey released on Monday that also suggested a turnaround in hiring may be on the horizon after a three-year struggle. “

Setting Straight Kerry’s War Record:

” ….the fabled and distinguished chief of naval operations,Admiral Elmo Zumwalt,told me 30 years ago when he was still CNO that during his own command of U.S. naval forces in Vietnam,just prior to his anointment as CNO, young Kerry had created great problems for him and the other top brass,by killing so many non-combatant civilians and going after other non-military targets.

“We had virtually to straitjacket him to keep him under control,” the admiral said. ‘Bud’ Zumwalt got it right when he assessed Kerry as having large ambitions but promised that his career in Vietnam would haunt him if he were ever on the national stage. And this statement was made despite the fact Zumwalt had personally pinned a Silver Star on Mr. Kerry. “

Did you notice that? Read the first paragraph again, particularly where I put it in bold…

Ask yourself; Is John Kerry a war criminal?

The American Spectator has an article up that leans toward just what I’ve been saying since lat summer:

“‘Everyone is looking at Hillary and wondering what the hell is going on,’ says a DNC insider. ‘It has been way too quiet and people in Kerry’s camp are getting nervous…..

….”If Edwards has enough delegates to deny Kerry the necessary votes for the nomination, because Kerry fails to line up the superdelegates he needs, things could get interesting,” says a DNC staffer. “At that point, in late spring, early summer, there is nothing that says Bill and Hillary could not emerge and put her name in play as either a presidential nominee or for the vice presidency, particularly if she can muster superdelegate votes.”

Hat tip to Billy Beck

Boortz points out this morning that the Democrats are going to ahve a hard time convincing anyone who has been exposed to the facts, that our economy is in serious trouble… including, on the issue of jobs, and employment. Says he:

“**The peak unemployment rate during the recession that began in Clinton’s term was 6.4 percent.  The current unemployment rate is 5.6 percent.

**During this same period … from ’83 to ’03 a total of 38 million jobs have been created by private businesses in the United States.  No other industrialized country in the world has matched this number.  “

I was not overly suprised when LOTR won it’s first 10 nominated catagories. This blowout, I fully expected.
The trend has been, however, that when a picture wins so many awards that early, they try not to pick the same picture for best picture… leftist fairness and all of that. On that basis, I predicted Seabiscut would’ve won. So, it’s with some degree of surpise that I see that trend broken this time, LOTR took best picture.

The other thing I found interesting was that ethre wasn’t any anti-Bush screeds tonight. None at all.
Another trend broken.

I can’t recall being so pleased about being wrong.

SPACE.COM is getting excited, apparently.:

“PASADENA, California — Evidence that suggests Mars was once a water-rich world is mounting as scientists scrutinize data from the Mars Exploration rover, Opportunity, busily at work in a small crater at Meridiani Planum.  That information may well be leading to a biological bombshell of a finding that the red planet has been, and could well be now, an extraterrestrial home for life.
“

022904141657- Buffalo, NY–

This afternoon, I’m in Buffalo with the family, doing a little railfanning. This spot, out along Broadway, is one of the big spots for rail traffic.  It’s also the area of town that the Buffalo area band, The GooGooDolls sing about in “Broadway’s Dark Tonight”. Not exactly a high-rent district anymore, though this spot we’re in is safe enough.

Here’s a site with a lot of photos from the area.

The shots are mostly mid-90’s vintage, pre CSX stuff when Conrail still ran the show. Most of what you can see is still there today.

As we wait for events to unfold, I’m struck again, by a comparison I saw drawn a couple days ago in one of the many online discussion groups I’m involved with. The idiot actually tried to compare John Kerry to Alfred Nobel. Apparently, this guy thought them both motivated by similar interests… peace, and they both had life changing events that led them in that direction. Too bad the person making that comparison is such a poor student of history.

When Alfred Nobel’s brother, Ludwig, died in 1888 while doing oil exploration in Russia, a French newspaper of the day inadvertently published an obituary about not Ludwig, but Alfred, who in his turn was most famous at the time for having invented dynamite. The translated headline read, “The merchant of death is dead.” One imagines what goes through the mind of Nobel as he read his own obituary. Ironically, Ludwig was blown up incidental to mis-handling his brother’s invention.

There’s not much in the way of supporting evidence to this, but it’s suggested repeatedly among academics that this was a major turning point in Nobel’s life, and forced him into the active pursuit of peace, and to found the peace prize that now bears his name. Kenne Fant for example, in the book “Alfred Nobel: A Biography” (ISBN# : 1559702222, Arcade Publishing, NY 1993) notes that Nobel become so concerned about his legacy that he set about working to establish that legacy in a more peacful mode, establishing among other things, the fund that established the Nobel Peace Prize.

There are many among us who would suggest that Presidential hopeful John Kerry is not unlike Nobel, in having come to a juncture as regards military conflict and it’s results, and worked ever after toward peace.

Of course this is the best of all possible spins, but how true is it? There are extensive records on both people and they tend to paint some rather different pictures which do not favor Kerry. as Kerry’s supporters would have hoped.

First, unlike John Kerry, who was born into wealth and married into more of it, Nobel was born into poverty, in 1833, and worked his way out of it…. having amassed so many patents for inventions that only Thomas Edison had more.

Kerry’s never had a job, never worked a day in his life, never has understood nor will he, how the working man survives. Nobel knew.

Nobel also never turned his back on country and on his comrades in arms as John Kerry did…. Never embraced the opposition as Kerry has done.

I don’t doubt we’ll see the comparison come up during the campaign, particularly as Kerry gets more desperate. Think I’m off base, here? Think again; how much on the Democrat side got invested in Jimmy Carter got the Nobel prize some years ago… ironic, given he did more to bring about war with his capitulation than any President in history with the possible exception of FDR.

Josh Chafetz says very well over at Oxblog what I’ve been thinking for some days, now regards John Kerry:

“He’s trying to claim that, because he’s a veteran, any discussion of his views on national security is off-limits, even discussions about the way he has voted during his years in the Senate:

In a letter to Bush, Kerry wrote: “As you well know, Vietnam was a very difficult and painful period in our nation’s history, and the struggle for our veterans continues. So, it has been hard to believe that you would choose to reopen these wounds for your personal political gain. But, that is what you have chosen to do.”

Kerry was reacting to criticism earlier in the day from a leading Georgia Republican who, speaking for Bush’s re-election campaign, predicted trouble for Kerry in the state’s primary.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss said during a conference call arranged by the Bush campaign that Kerry has a “32-year history of voting to cut defense programs and cut defense systems.”

When Kerry responded later, at his side was Max Cleland, a triple-amputee Vietnam veteran who lost his Senate seat to Chambliss in 2002 after being portrayed as soft on homeland security.

He said the president “decided once again to take the low road of American politics.”

Look, no one is attacking Kerry’s record in Vietnam. He served honorably, and he, like every veteran, deserves thanks and praise from every American for what he did there. But that doesn’t insulate him from criticism based on what he’s done since — his anti-war activities when he returned are fair game; his votes in the Senate are fair game; his statements on Iraq are fair game. Note that Chambliss’ comment talked about a 32-year history — 32 years ago was 1972 — after Kerry got back from Vietnam. Again, no one here is questioning his Vietnam service — they’re questioning his political activity since he returned. And it’s Kerry’s attempts to foreclose these policy discussions that are taking “the low road of American politics.”

However, I’ll take it one step farther than Josh does, here. I WILL attack Kerry’s Vietnam record,as many vets have… openly and loudly. After all, Kerry’s the one who changed his middle name to ‘Served in Vietnam’, so his service, such as it is, is fair game as a target.

Kerry spent a total of four months in country. Four months.

During that time, he suffered three flesh wounds, two of them minor. When he got purple hearts for said injuries, they were given based on recommendations Kerry himself wrote. How many of US can be so fortunate as to write our own ticket?

Once he got his third Purple heart, he asked to be sent back stateside. This, he got, too. Again, the man writes his own ticket and dares call it ‘sacrifice’. His field commanders had serious questions about his service to this country. Even Adml Elmo Zumwalt stated flatly that he’d have problems in his political carrier based on his experiences in ‘nam.

Once he came back form ‘nam, he then proceeded to sit down before Congress and outright lie about a number of atrocities, committed he said, by American servicemen there. Yet, he never witnessed them In short Mr Kerry LIED, and slandered his fellow servicemen.

But, as Josh suggests above… The real issue is what he did since getting into office. This, it seems was very consistent with his anti- Americanism since coming back from ‘nam… Kerry is on record as having voted against every single Pentagon weapons program during his tenure in the U.S. Senate. Every single one.

And as for it all being with the intent of creating peace, tell me; why is it he never ONCE protested the actions in war that the Communists made? Or is it that he thinks it’s only non-communist nations that foster war?

Further, look at the statements made by John Kerry’s people this morning as regards the Rebels in Haiti; he’d have sided with the Communist backed Rebels.  All in the name of ‘peace’ of course.

This kind of selective weakness at best, and in truth, anti-Americanism, is something I want nowhere near the reins of power.

There’s a name for his kind of actions… but that name certainly isn’t “Nobility”, as some would have you think.

And it’s certainly is not “Presidential”, either.

Rich Lowry whose book you will note on the right column on this page, reports that:

“The numbers even like George Bush more than Bill Clinton. According to J. Edward Carter’s calculation, during the first three years of the Bush administration compared with the first three years of the Clinton administration, the inflation rate is lower (1.9 percent versus 2.6 percent), the unemployment rate is lower (5.5 percent versus 6.2 percent), annual productivity growth is higher (4.1 percent versus .5 percent), and the increase in nonfarm real compensation per hour is higher (+0.8 percent versus -0.3 percent).”

I’d say if the Democrats plan to run on the economy, they’re going to be in serious trouble.

Glenn posts an interesting tidbit about salvation Milosevic’s war crimes trial, from th Boston Herald:

THE HAGUE — The prosecution in salvation Milosevic’s war crimes trial moved yesterday to rest its case two days early as the chief prosecutor conceded her team had not produced “the smoking gun” to convict the former Yugoslav president of genocide, the most serious charge against him.

Glenn responds:

“No doubt we’ll see hindering, doubts about intelligence reliability, and charges that the Clinton Administration “sexed up” intelligence and misrepresented
Milosevic as a genocidal dictator in order to build support for unilateral action that even Wesley Clark called technically illegal — but justified on the basis of an “imminent threat” of genocide, one that is now, of course, completely undermined by the absence of a “smoking gun.” Massive criticism of the Clinton Administration’s warmaking, which landed us in a “Balkan quagmire” from which we have yet to extricate ourselves, is sure to ensue.

Yeah, right, that’s going to happen.

Glenn makes an interesting point here on several levels.

First being the most obvious; the double standard about the blame game currently being unloaded on President Bush by those seeking to replace him. Their overt concern over such matters seems selective at best. This point would seem furthered by the utter lack of concern from such places as even Matt Drudge’s page.

But further, there seems serious question about what is now being called ‘intelligence failures’.  Because something cannot be proven in a court… does that translate to something not being true? Of course it doesn’t… which raises some serious questions about Mr. Clinton’s legal gymnastics and the fairness and truthfulness of the outcome.

And there’s this also… If the world court cannot prove that a despot the likes of Slobodan Milosevic cannot be proven to be such in that court, what hope do the oppressed peoples of the world have? The UN is seriously lacking here.

And how does this failure play directly on the events in Iraq, I wonder? Can Mr. Bush be blamed for finally giving up on the UN, in light of the courts falure with Slobo? And what does this say about the role of the so-called ‘world court’ in Saddam’s future?

Mr. Bush has spoken repeatedly about the UN relegating itself into irrelevance.
I’d say offhand, these events bear out his comments.

Dean’s World: Our Family Is In A Crisis (Rosemary)

The lady could use a hand.
Follow the links and do what you can.

The Syracuse Post-Standard‘s John Mariani is reporting that

“Terry McAuliffe, who rose from Syracuse politics to lead the Democratic National Committee, will quit the chairmanship when his term expires next year. ”

See also, Rats, Sinking, Ship, Drowning