SAD MAX TURNING TRICKS FOR THE POODLE

This interesting fact from James Taranto's column of yesterday:

In April of 1971 John Kerry gave the following testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:  "I called the media .... I said 'If I take some crippled veterans down to the White House and we chain ourselves to the gates, will we get coverage?'  'O, yes, we'll cover that.'"

Then, on August 25, 2004, John Kerry sends Max Cleland, a veteran who lost three limbs in Vietnam to accost George Bush at the gates of his Crawford ranch.

It was a sad and pathetic spectacle, especially for people like myself who have known and loved Max Cleland for so many years.  Sadly, former Georgia Senator Max Cleland is now serving in a new role as John Kerry's public relations prostitute  Yesterday he went to President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas to deliver a letter.  That's right...Max went right up to the gate to deliver a letter to George Bush asking him to specifically condemn the Swift Vets attacks on The Poodle.  The letter said "you owe a special duty" to condemn the attacks.  Interestingly John Kerry apparently owes no special duty to tell Moveon.org to stop the 'AWOL' attacks on George Bush's military service.  But why argue the fine points of media bias?

Anyway, so there it was....poor Max Cleland, playing up the shock value of his disability by visiting the president's home in Texas.  How sad.  Doesn't Cleland realize why he was picked for the job?  Why for instance did The Poodle not send John Edwards?  Right...he's not a Vietnam Vet.  Well then...how about some other Democrat that was in the military...maybe Tom Harkin?  Nope...of course the Kerry campaign sent Max Cleland...they used him...because of his status as a triple amputee.  Just go back to Kerry's statement to the Senate in 1971!  They hope that the image of Cleland in his wheel chair on the news will pull at people's heart strings and make them dislike that mean, evil George Bush.  Talk about  having no pride...what do you suppose Max is after?

Maybe The Poodle has promised him a job in a potential Kerry administration.  Maybe Max has nothing better to do.  Maybe it's just the result of Cleland's intense bitterness over losing his U.S. Senate seat in 2000.  Cleland says that his patriotism was challenged in that election.  I was here ... I was in the middle of it ... and that's not the case.  The voters of Georgia were disgusted.  They didn't like the way Max Cleland sold his very soul to Tom Daschle and the government employee unions, and they made their feeling known at the polls. 

Either way, it's a shame.  By the way, Cleland wanted to deliver the letter to an officer, but neither the Secret Service nor the state troopers would take it.  A Texas state official and Vietnam veteran Jerry Patterson said he would accept the letter and offered a pro-Bush letter, but Max said he would just mail it in.

Kind of like he did when he was in the Senate.

Can this get any more absurd?  While John Kerry is sending surrogates to the Western White House to demand denunciations of the Swift Boat veterans,  supporters stand behind him at a visit to a union shop in Philadelphia holding bumper stickers that read "George Bush, AWOL, 1972-1973."

HOW SUBTLE IS THIS?

OK, so this isn't an example of media bias .. more of an example of the bias you find in academia.  I thought it interesting, so I'm bringing it to you here.

This morning on CNN's Daybreak Carol Costello was interviewing John Geer from Vanderbilt University.  It is Geer's position that this so-called "negative advertising" may serve a positive purpose.  I'll address that in the next segment.  It's Geer's opening statement that I found interesting:

"These attacks on John Kerry, which many people feel are outrageous unfair lies, have stirred up more people to come forward and talk about what John Kerry did in Vietnam."

OK, I understand that many people do believe that the Swift Boat veterans are telling outrageous lies, but the fact is that many people think they're telling the truth!  The book, after all, is number one right now.  And just who is doing the backtracking?  Hint:  It's not the Swift Boat Veterans.  Maybe Kerry could expose all of these "lies" by just releasing ALL of his military and medical records.

DON'T GIVE ME THAT "NEGATIVE ADVERTISING" NONSENSE

Just what is "negative advertising" anyway?  I guess that by definition any advertisement that gives you a reason why you should not vote for a particular candidate is "negative."  What in the world is wrong with giving a voter a reason why he should not vote for a candidate?  It's "negative" for me to tell you that you might not want to vote for Kerry because he's going to raise your taxes, or that you might not want to vote for Bush because he pandered to Ted Kennedy on education spending?

In any political campaign there are both reasons why you should vote for one candidate as well as reasons why you should not vote for another.  These are all valid issues to be brought before the voters ... so spare us any further whining about "negative" advertising.

QUESTIONS INCREASING ABOUT KERRY'S FIRST PURPLE HEART ... AND HIS SECOND

While the Kerry campaign presses the idea that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are actually a Bush campaign front, questions about John Kerry's first Purple Heart are starting to draw some interesting responses from the Kerry camp.

It was actually months ago that questions about Purple Owie number one began to surface.  You will remember that Kerry's commanding officer at that particular time said that he did not believe that there was any enemy fire.  When I would bring this up on the air I was accused of every evil in the book, but the questions kept coming.  Vietnam vets who were there came forth to say that Kerry's wound was actually caused when he fired a grenade launcher toward the shore.  The boat was too close and a piece of shrapnel from the grenade ricocheted and hit Kerry in the arm.  One of the two men on that boat with John Kerry that night is saying that he cannot say that there was enemy fire and that he does not know how Kerry suffered his wound.

So ... where do we stand now?  The Kerry campaign seems to be backtracking.  The Kerry campaign will not now say that this wound was the result of enemy fire.  The Kerry campaign also says that the injury was unintentionally self-inflicted.  In other words, the Kerry campaign can not say that Kerry actually earned that first purple heart. 

There are also questions about Purple Heart No. 2.  This was the mission where Kerry pulled Jim Rassman out of the water.  Here, again, we have an incident where most of the men present say that there was no enemy fire.  Kerry, though, says there was.  Do you sense a pattern?

ANOTHER LIE!  DOES THIS MAN EVER TELL THE TRUTH?

Here are the words of The Poodle at a gathering in Richmond, Virginia on January 20th, 2003:

"I remember well April 1968 -- I was serving in Vietnam, a place of violence -- when the news reports brought home to me and my crewmates the violence back home, and the tragic news that one of the bullets flying that terrible spring took the life of [Dr. King.]"

Oops.  Small problem here.  If you look at John Kerry's website you will see that he didn't report for duty in Vietnam until November 16, 1968 .. more than seven months after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered.

Oh well. 

BUSH ATTORNEY RESIGNS FOR NO REASON

The left has been whining about the supposed 'coordination' between the Swift Vets and the Bush campaign.  They held up as proof the fact that Bush campaign attorney Benjamin Ginsberg also advised the Swiftees.  They say that's illegal coordination under the rules. But it's not.  As a matter of fact, the Democrats do the exact same thing.  One of the DNC's lawyers also advises Moveon.org. 

So even though he wasn't asked to do so, attorney Benjamin Ginsberg decided to quit the Bush campaign yesterday.  He said he doesn't want to be a distraction and so on.  Of course, this wasn't enough for the hypocritical Kerry campaign...who said that it doesn't end the extensive web of connections between the president and the Swift Vets. 

Now ... let's address the media role in this.  The media will eagerly report the Kerry claims that the Bush campaign is behind the Swift Boat Veterans.  There is no proof .. but the media will repeat the charge endlessly.

The Bush campaign, though, has released a list of the top 10 connections between John Kerry and the 527s, including: Joe Sandler, who is general counsel to the DNC, while also serving as legal counsel to Moveon.org and Moving America Forward.  Also, a Moveon.org staffer recently joined the Kerry campaign as director of online communications and organizing.  How's that for extensive connections?  There are more, but you get the idea.

These are all extensive connections between the Kerry campaign and Moveon.org, the same group that is smearing President Bush by running ads that lie about his military record in the Texas Air National Guard.  These are proven lies, unlike many of the Swift Vets accusations, which Kerry hasn't even responded to.

Where is the media on this?  As usual, doing their best to elect The Poodle.  Remember the template.

NEW ISLAMIC SECRET WEAPON

Oh man, you have to hand it to those wacky Imams.  According to Fox News Channel we now have Iraqi Sheikh Al Sumidei telling Syrian television of a grand new secret weapon soon to be unleashed on the infidels.  It's a giant spider the size of a chair, and it has black hair.  The Sheikh tells Syrian television that "If [the spiders'] hair touches the human body, within a short period of time the body becomes black or blue, and then there is an explosion in the blood cells in the human body, and the person dies." 

Ouch!  Sounds unpleasant!  This beats those crabs the French were sending after our troops during World War II however. 

AND THE GOOD GUYS HAVE A SECRET WEAPON OF THEIR OWN

This one is reportedly being developed by Israel.  It's a stink bomb.  The idea is to detonate this skunk bomb in the middle of any Palestinian crowd that turns violent.  They say it will bring tears to your eyes and that your clothes will stink for five years. I think that Israel has already tested this device on the homeless in San Francisco. 

GUILTY LIBERALS APOLOGIZING FOR SLAVERY

This is almost hard to take seriously, but it's actually true.  Something called The Lifeline Expedition will visit 10 U.S. cities this fall, starting in Annapolis, Maryland.  Their purpose?  To "reverse the damage" caused by the slave trade.  That's right...the slave trade that ended in the United States permanently 140 years ago.

These morons are going to be marching, with the white marchers wearing chains on their hands and yokes on their necks being led by the black marchers.  What is lost on these people is that there isn't a single soul alive today that was either held as a slave, or was responsible for holding slaves.  Yet, for some reason, these idiots continue to make it an issue.  Maybe they just need to get a job or find something to do.

By the way, Tony Blair still hasn't apologized to the American people for burning down the White House in the War of 1812...maybe we need a march for that?

NOW HERE'S AN INTERESTING IDEA ...

.... contained in an email from a Tulsa listener:

"I am addicted to your show.  Start taping advance shows in case I outlive you."

I'll get right on it.

REVISITING YESTERDAY'S NUZE

In yesterday's Nuze I had a segment entitled "Things we would like to hear a presidential candidate say."  I listed five statements on five different issues that I would like to hear from a presidential candidate.  The Winsome Web Wench then turned that bit into a poll.  She asked Nuze readers which one of these fantasies appealed to them the most.

So ... to save you having to go back and review yesterday's Nuze, I'm going to repeat the five fantasies here ... and then tell you how the people voted.

Here we go with the five statements I would like to hear from a presidential candidate:

"Is my opponent talking about health care?  Yes, he is.  He's talking about how to get the government even more involved in your day-to-day relationship with your doctor.  He's talking about limiting your freedom to make your own health care decisions.  He's talking about putting the government in charge, and he's talking about spending over a trillion dollars to do it.  I want to put you back in the driver's seat.  You belong to you, not to the government, and you should make the decisions about your own health care.  The competitive free enterprise system is the greatest system ever devised by man to deliver essential goods and services to the people at a reasonable price.  For years the government has been interfering with the health care free market.  Now that power rests in government, not the competitive marketplace, we can all see the problems this shift has caused.  We will return the power to the marketplace and your control over your health care decisions to you."

"If elected I will immediately seek a repeal of the McCain Feingold campaign finance reform act.  If we could use some sort of time travel to bring Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams to visit us today during this presidential election, they would be repulsed by the idea that a group of ordinary citizens can't get together and pool their resources to support or oppose a specific presidential candidate.  Our Constitution protects free speech ... and no speech is more worthy of protection than political speech.  Not only will I ask for repeal of this dangerous law, but I will insure that any appointments I may be privileged to make to the Supreme Court will have a history of strong support for the free speech rights of Americans.  And while we're discussing free speech, I believe that all First Amendment protections should be applied to the broadcast media as they are to the printed media."

"It is clear that our current system of raising revenue for the federal government is broken.  If you have even the most basic sense of fairness and equity you will agree that there is no excuse for shouldering the top one percent of income earners in this country with 38% of our total income tax burden when they earn 17 of our total income.  The Fair Tax plan allows every American to take home 100% of their paycheck, free from any federal withholding of any kind.  It protects America's poorest families from any federal taxes of any type.  With the Fair Tax our economy will become a tax-free haven for every business in the world.  With the Fair Tax you would have to hide to avoid a good job ... so if you don't want to work, you had better start looking for a place to hide now, because if I'm elected the Fair Tax will become a reality."

"Perhaps the greatest fraud ever committed against the American people is Social Security.  The government takes about 14% of the money you earn and then says that it might ... that's might give it back to you when you reach a certain age, an age subject to being increased, if you agree to stop earning money.  Do you know that if you die this money just goes away?  Don't you think that at the very least the money that is taken from your paychecks while you're alive should belong to your wife, husband or children when you die?  And here's something else I'll bet you didn't know.  In America black men have the lowest life expectancy, and white women live the longest.  Social Security statistics show that the average black man loses $10,000 of his lifetime earnings to a white woman.  Is there a problem here?  Of course there is ... and as your president I'm going to work to give you control over your Social Security account.  It's your money.  The returns should be guaranteed, and they should go to your family if something should happen to you."

"I don't do drugs, and hopefully you don't either.  But it's time to recognize that our war on drugs isn't working.  We have the research to show that the most cost-effective way to get people off drugs is through treatment.  What is our goal here?  Do we want to move people off debilitating drugs and toward a productive life, or do we want to spend billions of dollars trying to punish them?  A non-violent drug offender does not belong in a cell.  He belongs in a treatment program that will return him to his family and his workplace.  The hideous amount of money we're spending on this absurd war on drugs belongs back in the pockets of the people who earned it.    It's time to put our revulsion aside and deal intelligently with the drug problem."

Now, the results of the polling:

Get government out of health care.   7%

Repeal McCain Feingold    4%

Switch to Fair Tax plan    74%

Social Security reform    7%

End the war on drugs    6%

The clear winner is the Fair Tax plan.  As you know, President Bush indicated two weeks ago that he thinks the Fair Tax plan should get a hearing in Washington.  John Kerry immediately charged that this plan would amount to biggest increase in the tax burden on poor and middle income Americans in our country's history.  I've written a column for Townhall.com that should appear tomorrow addressing John Kerry's charges.  It's twice as long as Townhall.com guidelines, so we'll see if it gets published.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Talk show host attacked in Seattle.  What, me worry?

Like, wow!  Now this website promises to be interesting.  It's RateMyProfessors.com.  There are over two million ratings of over 400,000 different professors there right now .  Have fun.

Letters, letters, letters....we've got letters.  Here's the letter from the Kerry campaign to President Bush....here's the Bush campaign's response.  While we're at it, here's attorney Benjamin Ginsberg's resignation letter, along with the Kerry campaign's lame response.

There are several ways to evaluate the claims of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.  Ann Coulter reviews some of the popular methods, in her usual way.

Kerry could have healed the wounds of Vietnam. Instead, he tried to exploit them.

Here are the top 10 connections between the Kerry campaign and the 527 groups.

Sounds like the Democrats are "sticking to the issues" to me....they're digging up dirt on the Swiftboat guys.  I suppose since he can't refute what they're saying, The Poodle wants to destroy them personally.

Kerry called one of the Swift Vet guys....wait..that's illegal coordination under the rules! Does the media care? Of course not.

'Unfit for Command' is now the #1 book on the New York Times bestseller list.  If people aren't interested in what the Swift Vets have to say, then why are they buying the book in droves?

Bush has The Poodle over a barrel....Kerry wants the president to denounce the Swift Vets, but Bush wants to denounce all of the 527s.  Zev Chafets says it's a masterstroke, and sKerry took the whole thing hook, line and sinker.

As the Republican National Convention approaches, what is currently running in Bush's favor?  John Hughes takes a look.

President Bush and The Poodle disagree on nearly everything, except the fact that the First Amendment does not apply to political speech.  This excellent editorial says hurrah for 527s.

It is impossible to regulate campaign finance and preserve the First Amendment.  You get one or the other, says Robert Samuelson.

The television department of the Kerry/Edwards campaign (CBS News) grilled 'Unfit For Command' author John O'Neill, barely letting him speak, but then asked only softball questions of a Kerry supporter. The Media Research Center has more.

The Poodle and his handlers like to say that he volunteered for his service in Vietnam.  But Larry Elder, complete with an excerpt from 'Unfit For Command,' recounts how Kerry actually tried for a deferment.

Here's part three of Thomas Sowell's series of columns about the Swift Vets vs. John Kerry.  Sowell talks about John O'Neill's debate with The Poodle 33 years ago.  In case you missed it, here's part one and part two.

The GOP needs to get serious about attracting minority voters, says Armstrong Williams, and he explains some reasons why more black folks don't vote for Republicans.

The Bush White House has completely abandoned the process of writing the party platform, and has instead just dictated what it will be.  Robert Novak explains.

The First Amendment is in trouble....and Gary Aldrich says it's all because those pesky citizens will not shut up.

School officials mistake student's shirt for drug reference

WHAT THE HECK ARE THOSE POINTY HAND THINGS?
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