Operation Clark County backfires on Guardian

Everyone's trying to influence the election

Excerpt:

The Guardian, a London-based newspaper, ended a letter-writing
campaign aimed at defeating U.S. President George W. Bush after a Web
site hosting the promotion was attacked by hackers.

Ian Katz, an editor at the British newspaper who thought up "Operation
Clark County," said in a letter posted to the company's Web site on
Thursday that despite garnering an overwhelming response from the
public, the project was being scrapped. The campaign asked for
non-American volunteers to pen letters to undecided voters in Clark
County, Ohio--which the Guardian had identified as a crucial region in
a battleground election state--urging them to vote against Bush in
next month's presidential election.

I say:

For "despite" read "because of." See below:

Excerpt:

Katz wrote in his letter that the effort was launched as something
of a joke, but took on a more serious tenor as angry letters began
flooding into the Guardian from Americans incensed by the plan. Despite
taking the turn for the worse, the editor said his project still had
its intended effect, provoking discussion of the election.

I say:

You mean nobody was discussing it before the Guardian came to our
rescue and raised our consciousness?

According to one Whitehall source, the people at the Guardian are a
bunch of flaming jackasses. But at least they don't pretend to be
unbiased, and that makes them less contemptible than, for example, CBS.

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Kerry vs history - the truth about diplomacy

He's no John F. Kennedy

Excerpt:

It used to be, Kerry reminds us, that American presidents consulted
our European allies before we decided to drop our bombs. Why, it even
used to be that we were trusted to behave this way by the French. Thus,
Cold War History 101, Professor Kerry (at NYU):

In the dark days of the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy sent
former Secretary of State Dean Acheson to Europe to build support.
Acheson explained the situation to French President de Gaulle. Then he
offered to show him highly classified satellite photos as proof. De
Gaulle waved him away, saying, "The word of the President of the United
States is good enough for me." How many world leaders have that same
trust in America's president today?

Politically devastating historical analogy--or totally bogus
fabrication? You be the judge.

Item the first: It's not true that Charles de Gaulle decided to forgo
any personal inspection of Acheson's evidence for the existence of a
Cuban-based Soviet military threat against the continental United
States. THE SCRAPBOOK refers you to a contemporary, eyewitness account
of the meeting by legendary CIA official Sherman Kent--the man who
actually carried the relevant satellite photos into the French
president's private office on October 22, 1962. First Kent showed de
Gaulle a large photo-composite map of Cuba, and "still standing," the
latter man "bent over it as I began to talk about the defensive phase."
De Gaulle remained standing, still bent over, while Kent then proceeded
to show him many, many similar such photos. So interested was Monsieur
le president in Kent's material that at one point he picked up a reading
glass in order to see the details more clearly.

Item the second: More basically, it's not even true that this October
22, 1962, episode reflected a serious effort by the Kennedy
administration to "consult" its European allies in the first place.
According to Jean Lacouture's standard two-volume biography of de
Gaulle, the very first thing the French president said to Dean Acheson
was this: "I understand that you have not come to consult me, but to
inform me." And the only thing Acheson offered de Gaulle by way of reply
was this: "That is correct."

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Meet Warren Kinsella of the Canadian thought police

He's not big on this whole free speech thing (courtesy of Mike Brock)

Excerpts:

In what appears to be anything but a limited incident, with Kinsella
also making legal threats against a couple of other blogs, Shamrocks and
Babbling Brooks, for criticism which he considered defamation, I feel
the definate need to come out to defend my fellow bloggers.

In the case of Ian Scott (that's the author of Ianism), the threat of a
law suit seems to stem from the following paragraph:

See, this is sort of like a private journal here, Warren. Where I record
lots of thoughts. I just make my thoughts available to others. And
sometimes, when I've read your posts, I've secretly wondered, in a
humorous sort of way of course, to myself, that makes me chuckle, "Were
both your parents retarded, or just one of them..." but of course,
that's a private little thought, and of course, I DON'T REALLY think
either of your parents were retarded.. it's just one of those fun little
insults that sometimes we laugh at. Insults CAN be funny at times. You
should see my really really private journal sometime! You just wouldn't
believe what was there.. But it's encrypted with triple DES.. I don't
know, but I could do a search for you.. and see what I've called you
there, if you'd like.

As what has been made clear by Kinsella's younger brother Lorne, their
father sadly passed away on June 15th, which apparently accounts for the
extra-sensitivity of the Kinsella's for a joke about their parents, I
can appreciate how such statements could be personally hurtful.

What I don't see here is a legitimate case for defamation, especially
coming from a guy who was a keynote speaker at a conference on blogging
as a form of legitimate, participatory journalism...

That being said, I?m going to go out on a limb here, backed with all
that Brock-ego, and call Warren Kinsella a hypocrite. I?m calling him a
hypocrite on the said basis; that he would leverage blogging as a
legitimate form of journalism and editorialism, and then turn around and
launch a defamation suit against a myriad of bloggers who have chosen to
criticize him.

If Mr. Kinsella wants to launch a defamation suit against me for any of
this, then I'm ready to go to court and bang up some case law. I think
it's time that we make clear in the law that bloggers share the same
occupational right of protection from such frivolous suits as do printed
editorialists.

I think the Canadian polti-blogging community should come together and
show a little solidarity on this issue. I believe the real victims here
are these bloggers who are the subject of harassment by Warren Kinsella.
If you have a blog, disagree with this, then here's an execuse for some
daily filler: announce your solidarity with Ian!

Mike Godwin says:

"The First Amendment was designed to protect offensive speech,
because nobody ever tries to ban the other kind."

I say:

I don't think they have the First Amendment in Canada. Or any
sufficient facsimile thereof.

Maybe they could try hosting services in the United States, coupled
with use of pseudonyms.

For a more radical and comprehensive solution, the English-speaking
parts of Canada could quit pretending that Canada is a real country and
join the U.S. Let Quebec figure out how to function without them. How's
that for a secession movement?

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ACORN voter registration shenanigans in Florida, too

Gotta watch these guys

Excerpt:

Hundreds of Republican voters have been disenfranchised in Florida
as part of a Democrats-only voter registration drive sponsored by a
national civil rights group, according to new allegations that are at
the center of an investigation by the state's Election Division and the
U.S. Justice Department.

A field director for ACORN, one of the many pro-Democratic Party
organizations trying to register new voters in the state, has told
investigators that efforts to rig votes for the 2004 election were
"routine," according to the newspaper Florida Today.

"There was a lot of fraud committed," said Mac Stuart, former Miami-Dade
field director for ACORN. Among his allegations: that ACORN "quality
control" workers routinely kicked back Republican voter registrations
while paying for Democratic ones, using the excuse that "they had
enough" new voters for the GOP. Stuart said the "boxes" of Republican
voter registration cards were tossed while "thousands of invalid voter
registration cards" were submitted in their place.

The former ACORN director said his group "eagerly sought" to register
convicted felons, even though they're not allowed to vote under Florida
law. He recalled setting up registration tables outside the Miami police
department and Dade County jail.

I say:

There's some talk of pro-Republican fraud in Florida, too. But
you've probably already heard if that. Here's the other side of the
equation to help complete the picture.

(Speaking of giving criminals the vote, how about that "global test"
idea of Kerry's?)

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Massive voter registration fraud in Colorado

Looks to be way bigger than Reno

Excerpt:

9News has discovered a record number of fraudulent
voter-registrations across the state. Secretary of State Donetta
Davidson tells 9News she is concerned about what the I-Team has
uncovered and wants those responsible prosecuted. "It has just gone
rampant," she told reporter Deborah Sherman in an interview Monday
afternoon.

Most of the fraud has come from registration drives, where people at
grocery stores or on the streets ask you to sign up. 9News has learned
many workers have re-registered voters multiple times by changing or
making up information about them. 9News has documented 719 cases of
potentially fraudulent forms at county election offices show fraudulent
names, addresses, social security numbers or dates of birth in Denver,
Douglas, Adams, Boulder and Lake counties. Information from other
counties is still coming in.

And look who's doing it

Excerpt:

The voter registration applications are public record. 9NEWS went to
the clerk's office to review some of the questionable applications that
had been set aside. One of them was from a man named "Jason Kills Enemy,"
whose address was phony and whose number was disconnected. He'd
registered six times to vote in Arapahoe County.

"The New Voters Project" is one of the organizations that registered
Jason Kills Enemy. Ben Prochazka spoke to us on behalf of the Project.
He says the organization does hire people to register voters, but they
do have checks and balances. He admits that there was a problem, but
added "people who falsified the applications, also defrauded us."

ACORN was another group that had questionable registrations. Ross
Fitzgerald of ACORN told us, "We've been defrauded by these
registrations."

Bill Vandenberg of Colorado Progressive Coalition agreed. "We've been
had by these registrations and we want an investigation," said
Vandenberg.

The problematic applications in Arapahoe County were primarily from
these three groups, which all pay their workers to register voters. All
three political groups say they are non-partisan.

"They may be non-partisan, but in point of fact, they are on the
progressive or liberal side of a political perspective," says 9NEWS
political analyst Floyd Ciruli.

I say:

They really should demand some ID.

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Democrats to cry wolf on voter intimidation?

What to make of this?

Quote:

2. If no signs of voter intimidation have emerged yet, launch a
"pre-emptive" strike (particularly well-suited to states in which there
techniques have been tried in the past).

I say:

Note the presumption of guilt.

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Economists against John Kerry

For those who believe in economists

Excerpts:

We, the undersigned, strongly oppose key aspects of the economic
agenda that John Kerry has offered in his bid for the U.S. presidency...

John Kerry boasts that his economic policies will lead to the creation
of 10 million jobs in his first term as president. As Martin Sullivan
wrote last April in the strictly non-partisan Tax Notes, no one "has
presented any analysis to relate the Kerry plan to the creation of 1
million jobs, much less 10 million jobs." In fact, we believe Kerry's
proposals 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...

All in all, 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.

I say:

I don't know from the economic theory mumbo jumbo. But if we don't
win the war against Islamist terror, we won't have an economy to worry
about.

Oh, and could we please drill in the ANWR and reduce our dependence on
foreign oil? Thank you very much.

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Kristallnacht in Knoxville?

Ominous attack on Republican headquarters

Excerpt:

An unknown suspect fired several shots into the Bearden office of
the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign Tuesday morning.

The headquarters are located at 4618 Kingston Pike, next to Noveau
Classics and in the same shopping plaza as Long's Drugstore.

According to Knoxville Police Department (KPD) officers on the scene
Tuesday, it is believed that the two separate shots were fired from a
car sometime between 6:30 am and 7:15 am.

One shot shattered the glass in the front door and the other cracked
the glass in another of the front doors.

But wait. There's more.

Excerpt:

Someone burned an 8-foot-by-8-foot Nazi swastika on a home's lawn
near where Bush-Cheney signs were posted. The vandals used grass killer
to spray the symbol.

Several nearby homes were vandalized -- all were within a two-block
radius on the West Side, near Ice Age Trail, News 3 reported.

State Republican Party officials claim it's the latest in a series of
desperate acts by Democrats.

And then there's this

Excerpt:

Earlier this week, somebody chain-sawed the middle out of two Bush
signs on his property in Avon at the William Post Boulevard exit on
Interstate 70. A "Bush/Cheney '04" campaign sign was burned in Wolcott.

The Avon signs had been torn down previously, and others around the
state have been damaged. Also targeted were campaign signs in other
parts of the state promoting the U.S. Senate campaign of Pete Coors,
also a Republican.

No signs promoting Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry or Senate
hopeful Ken Salazar have been reported damaged.

And then there's this third rate burglary

Excerpt:

Between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., after the last campaign worker had gone
home from the office in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, someone threw a
rock through the office window of Jon Seaton, executive director for
President Bush's state campaign, said Chris Vance, state GOP chairman.

Vance said two of the stolen laptops belonged to Seaton and Chris
Taylor, head of the office's get-out-the-vote campaign. A third had been
slated for a field office.

The computers contained much of the Bush-Cheney campaign strategy for
the state and advertising schedules, Vance said.

I say:

This culture of hate has gotten out of hand. Can't the Bush haters
just, you know... move on?

Whining about the Swift Boat Veterans and trying to have it both ways
about 527s I could let slide. But all this is going just a tad over the
line.

Oh, and there's some jackass at zIWETHEY thinks making a sarcastic remark about a sense of proportion
is a proper apologia for all this.

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Kerry calls for slavery for high school students

Well, he did at one point

Excerpt:

As part of his 100 day plan to change America, John Kerry will
propose a comprehensive service plan that includes requiring mandatory
service for high school students and four years of college tuition in
exchange for two years of national service.

I say:

Mandatory? Didn't the 13th amendment outlaw that?

I'm sure he didn't mean it. But only because I'm sure he doesn't
really mean anything he says.

Now that the Google cache has rescued this gem from the memory hole,
and Gary McGath has done his part, I've added a bit of insurance by
inserting it into Freenet at:

/SSK%40jbf~W~x49RjZfyJwplqwurpNmg0PAgM/rescued/7//kerryslavery.html

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Samarra: locals in Iraq dealing with the terrorists

With our troops as the training wheels

Excerpts:

Iraqi officials used the apparent victory as an opportunity to warn
resistance fighters who control or frequently destabilize other cities
in central and northern Iraq and harass U.S. and Iraqi patrols on the
roads between them.

"This is the first step in operations to take back lawless areas,"
Interior Minister Falah Naqib, a native of Samarra, told reporters at
city hall, which was recaptured by U.S. and Iraqi troops, news services
reported. "The Iraqi government is moving from a defense position to an
offensive position to regain control over all of Iraq...

The 1st Infantry Division, which lost one soldier in two days of battle,
was followed into the city by 2,000 Iraqi forces, most of them freshly
trained guardsmen, commandos and police. U.S. and Iraqi officials said
real success would come only if the Iraqis managed to hold the peace
when the armored U.S. forces withdraw. Samarra fell into insurgent hands
this summer when its police force collapsed.

Batiste, who spoke to a CNN crew accompanying his division, praised the
Iraqi forces. Specially trained Iraqi units captured two religious sites
in the city without suffering any casualties.

"The Iraqi security forces really handled themselves well," Batiste said.
"They're getting better and better trained, better and better equipped.
It ought to give us a lot of confidence."

Iraqi officials have said that, in order to allow orderly elections to
take place across Iraq in January, the offensive for Samarra would be
repeated in at least three other urban battlegrounds held by insurgents.

I say:

It's wonderful to watch young democracies take their first baby
steps. Here's hoping Kerry doesn't get his chance at infanticide.
I want to watch this one grow up.

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Kerry would give plutonium to the Iran regime!

No, your ears did not deceive you. He actually said it.

Excerpt, just before a lie about North Korea:

I think the United States should have offered the opportunity to
provide the nuclear fuel, test them, see whether or not they were
actually looking for it for peaceful purposes. If they weren't
willing to work a deal, then we could have put sanctions together.

I say:

As Dilbert would say, this is wrong on so many levels. This guy is
nuttier than Dr. Strangelove.

UPDATE: Not crazy enough, it seems. Reuters says Iran's already turned down the deal.
man, those mullahs are tough bargainers.

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Kerry the winnah!

...of the booby prize.

Soxblog sums it up

Excerpt:

The networks have all said it was a good night for Kerry. "He was
articulate and expressed himself well; he was the clear victor in last
night's debate." Before heading out to the ledge, bear in mind the
following: The same people who are telling you this were telling you two
months ago that it was Kerry's race to lose. The same people who are
telling you this were saying the Democratic National Convention and
"reporting for duty" were master-strokes. In other words, the people
telling you that last night was a great night for Kerry are reliably
sharp as bowling balls.

I say:

I was watching the commentary on PBS, and they didn't gush over
Kerry. Sometimes PBS can seem almost nonpartisan and dignified.

By the way, Kerry said a lot of things in that debate. And there's
going to be a price to pay. Bush called him on all the lies he could,
but there were too many. Don't worry. The Web will pick off the rest.
Here's a foretaste.


Excerpts:

LEHRER: "New question, Senator Kerry. Two minutes. You've repeatedly
accused President Bush, not here tonight but elsewhere before, of not
telling the truth about Iraq. Essentially, of lying to the American
people about Iraq. Give us some examples of what you consider to be his
not telling the truth." SEN. KERRY: "Well, I've never, ever used the
harshest word as you just did."

..."Kerry also told a New Hampshire newspaper editorial board Friday
that Bush had 'lied' about his reasons for going to war in Iraq, a word
Kerry has been reluctant to use publicly for months. Yesterday he said
he did not plan to use the word again." (Patrick Healy, "Kerry Camp
Lowers N.H. Expectations Behind In Polls, Senator Now Seeks Spot In
'Top Two,'" The Boston Globe, 12/8/03)...

"This administration has lied to us." ... (Sen. John Kerry, Campaign
Event, Claremont, NH, 9/20/03)

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