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Kneecapping Barack Obama at every opportunity. | ||
This is small story that understandably hasn't gotten a lot of press, but I think it's more significant that it would seem to be at first...
"A live-target paintball game in which patrons take aim at runners dressed as Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden has drawn fire from critics who say the game is tasteless and can only encourage violence against Arabs.
"We don't need any more games that would encourage people to hate Arabs or kill them," said Aref Assaf, president of the New Jersey Chapter of American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Assaf has called on local officials to shut the game down, which he considers hate speech. He also wants Wildwood visitors to boycott it."
First of all, this is off topic, but I don't envy the poor guys who are running around getting shot at -- paintballs sting! Especially from up close. I bet those poor guys are covered with bruises from head to toe every night when they get off of work =D...but that's not what I wanted to talk about.
What I really wanted to talk about was how little things like this are exactly why so many people tend to wonder who "moderate" Muslims are really rooting for in the war on terrorism.
I mean, if you're getting upset that someone is shooting paintballs at Osama Bin Laden & Saddam Hussein, that in and of itself makes people question where your loyalties lie. I mean if back in say 1943, if you had someone of German-American ancestry getting all upset because someone was...oh, let's say throwing darts at a Hitler cut-out, wouldn't people start to wonder what was going on in their head? Wouldn't people start to wonder why they were "defending Hitler"?
It's no different today. If you think shooting paintballs at "Osama" and "Saddam" is "hate speech" against Arabs, doesn;t that mean you think that Saddam and Osama are representative, at least in a certain sense, of all Muslims or Arabs?
Furthermore, while I don't doubt the loyalty of the overwhelming majority of American Muslims &/or Arabs to our country and while I've slammed even other Republicans who act as if Islam itself is the enemy, I cannot help but be bothered by things like this.
This has been said before, but moderate Muslims &/or Arabs really need to speak out against terrorism & against radical Islam because although there are a few moderate voices out there, they are being drowned out by a sea of radical Islamist, pro-terrorist, Jihadis who treat Islam like some sort of fanatical cult run by an evil "God of Death". Yeah, maybe moderate Muslims shouldn't have to speak out against radical Islamists in an ideal world, but this isn't an ideal situation.
You have Muslims sawing off the heads of innocent victims and crying "God is great" afterwards. Day in and day out in the Middle-East, anti-Semitic rhetoric matched only by the Nazis is being preached in mosques all over the region. And don't forget all the Muslim terrorists that are blowing themselves up on buses filled with innocent people and flying into skyscrapers so they can have their "72 virgins" in heaven. Moreover, you have all of these radical Islamists specifically saying they're doing this in the name of Islam, while moderate Muslims are at best not being heard, or worse, are not saying anything. Given that, how can anyone blame the average person on the street for wondering what Islam is really all about?
The world and even Islam itself needs more moderate Muslims to step up to the plate and be heard. I'm talking about people like Hirshad Manji & the guys over at Iraq The Model & Healing Iraq. If we had more moderate Islamic voices like that out there, the planet would be better off...
Hat tip to Tongue Tied for the paintball story.
The New Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ad is out and believe it or not, it's even more devastating than the first one.
Kerry is calling on Bush to condemn the ads, sending out legal threats to stations that play it, filing an FEC complaint, calling on the publisher to withdraw the book, complaining that Republicans gave the group money....everything but actually responding in any sort of substantial way to the myriad of claims these very credible veterans and war heroes who knew John Kerry are making.
It's becoming very apparent that the reason John Kerry has been unable to refute what they're saying is because they're telling the truth. The media has spent a lot of time focusing on the weakest accusation that the Swiftees have made, that John Kerry lied to get his Bronze Star (however, I would note that Larry Thurlow is only one out of four eye witnesses who say John Kerry was not under fire when he came back and pulled Jim Rassman from the water after running away and leaving him behind in the first place).
However, Kerry has already been caught in a lie about going to Cambodia and in my personal opinion, it looks to be almost a certainty that John Kerry gamed the system and lied to acquire his first and third Purple Hearts.
That's the type of thing that sinks a run at the presidency and as a matter of fact, had these accusations come out before John Kerry was the nominee, he WOULDN'T BE the nominee today. Of course, that's the biggest thing John Kerry has going for him in this situation -- that the Democrats and the mainstream media are stuck with him at this point and so they'll have to desperately defend him no matter how much truth there is to the charges.
But unfortunately for John Kerry, I don't think that's going to be enough. Kerry is not going to be able to ignore or censor the Swift Boat Vets for Truth, smearing them isn't going to be all that effective not only because they're vets and war heroes, but because there are JUST SO MANY OF THEM making charges. Do you think that anybody other than partisan liberals (including some of Kerry's allies in the mainstream media) are going to buy that all of these war heroes and vets who knew John Kerry got together and decided to lie through their teeth all in an effort to smear a guy they fought beside of in combat? If there were a handful of guys involved, sure, you'd have to consider that possibility. But who really believes that one of John Kerry's crew members, his doctor, every commanding officer he ever had, & large numbers of soldiers who fought by Kerry's side in other boats along with officers who served with JFK, all are participating in some sort of bizarre conspiracy to sink Kerry's run at the presidency? Come on, that's like something out of the "X-Files;" it's just not possible.
So, unless Kerry can actually respond to the Swiftees actual charges effectively, something he has not even STARTED to do at this point, I think the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, all by themselves, are going to finish him. If Kerry's telling the truth about his war record -- which I don't think he is -- he'd be smart to sign a 180 form so his records can be released and then he'd try to directly refute these charges. Make no mistake about it, this is a make or break issue for the Kerry campaign and it's looking increasingly likely that it's going to be break...
*** Update #1***: Just take a look at these Swift Boat Veterans for Truth related polling numbers. They don't look good for the Kerry campaign...
""During the week ending Aug. 8, 966,000 people visited the anti-Kerry group's Web site, 34,000 fewer than those who visited Kerry's official site, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. The new CBS poll found Kerry winning 37 percent of veterans' votes to Bush's 55 percent. (The two were tied at 46 percent after last month's Democratic National Convention, where Kerry highlighted his service.)"
Also, it looks like Kerry has hired an experienced new spokesman to handle these allegations...(heh, heh, heh).
Hat tip to Hugh Hewitt for those two update links.
While his battle against his former swift boat comrades raged on, Democrat presidential candidate John Forbes Kerry learned today he will have to fight a two-front political war as yet another anti-Kerry group prepared to release a book and TV ads to challenge the candidate's version of events in his life.
'Senate Page Veterans for Truth' (SPVT), a coalition of 254 people who used to carry messages around the Senate floor, announced the publication of Empty Desk: The Senate Career of John F. Kerry.
"We're not accusing Kerry of lying or being a bad leader or even dramatizing injuries," said an unnamed spokesman for SPVT. "We're saying, 'We couldn't deliver messages to him, because he wasn't really there.' It was Christmas in Cambodia all over again."
The Kerry campaign immediately filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission and Amazon.com to block the ads and the book.
"My time at that senate desk is seared....seared in my memory, and on my dorsal regions," said Mr. Kerry. "This is clearly part of George Bush's plot to suggest that I wasn't really a senator, just because I have no major legislative accomplishments. Well, at least I was elected a U.S. Senator--which is more than Mr. Bush can say."
If you enjoyed this satire by Scott Ott, you can read more of his work at Scrappleface.
Sam Kinison has always been my favorite stand-up comedian. While he was vulgar, grossly obscene, shockingly cruel, sometimes blasphemous, & outrageously offensive, he was also wickedly funny and delighted in skewering politically correct targets that few other people had the guts to take on.
While Kinison is certainly no role model and would surely offend -- well, just about everybody on both sides of the political spectrum -- I wanted to share a little bit of his humor with you because I find Kinison funny for many of the same reasons that I enjoy South Park (Of course, South Park is still running and Kinison died back in 1992, so a lot of you probably aren't all that familiar with his work).
So here are some snippets from some of Kinison's bits that you may find funny, provocative, outrageous, and even offensive. But, I'm going to post them and let you make up your own mind. There's certainly nothing here worse than you'll see on the average episode of South Park...
(continued...)Know what happens when you fight off a metal bar wielding burglar who knocks your 14 month baby in the floor and then starts stroking your wife's leg? In Britain, they consider charging YOU with a crime.....
"A man who admitted stabbing a suspected burglar with a bread knife to protect his wife and child is being investigated for assault.
...Mr Caeiro claimed he was woken by his 28-year-old wife's screams at 2am on Saturday when the burglar came into their bedroom.
He said the 6ft tall intruder had pulled away their 14-month-old daughter's cot from the side of their bed causing the child to fall on the floor and cry.
Mr Caeiro said: "This man was kneeling at the side of my bed and started touching the legs of my wife.
"My wife woke up screaming and then I woke up. The man then ran downstairs and went out through the kitchen door."
Mr Caeiro, who is 5ft 6ins, rang 999 to report the break-in and was told by police that because the intruder was no-longer believed to be in the house they would be there in 15 to 30 minutes.
He said: "I looked out into my yard and saw a shadow. I was frightened and I grabbed the bread knife from a rack because my first thought was that I had to stop my family being harmed. I opened the back door ... then this man attacked me with a metal bar.
"He hit me on the shoulder and I was knocked back into the kitchen. The door opened and the man tried to come inside.
"I stabbed him in the leg and then we ended up fighting and I stabbed him in the chest.
"We fought for about a minute outside ... then he managed to break away and run down the alley at the back of my house."
Mr Caeiro said he tried to call the police again, but got no reply. He then called a friend who alerted police officers who arrived three minutes later.
The intruder was arrested near by on suspicion of burglary. Police also arrested Mr Caeiro on suspicion of assault, and later released him on bail pending further inquiries.
The police will investigate the case and can decide not to charge Mr Caeiro. Alternatively they can send a file of the evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service which will decide whether there is a case to answer and whether it would be in the public interest to prosecute.
Mr Caeiro said he was making arrangements to move to a new home in Great Yarmouth because he fears reprisal attacks."
I guess this guy is lucky that he didn't put the bread knife in the burglar's throat or he might have ended up getting charged with murder. This is really impressive too...
"Mr Caeiro said he tried to call the police again, but got no reply."
See, this is what happens when European liberals get complete control of the criminal justice system . You're not allowed to own a gun to protect your family. You call the police, they may answer, they may not. If you fight the burglar who's in your home, they consider throwing you in jail.
Personally, I like how we in America handle this sort of situation better. The burglar breaks in, you shoot him dead, call the cops, then they show up and tell you that you did the right thing. You're better off because the cops aren't looking to throw you in the pokie, society's better off because the burglar's dead -- it's just a win/win situation.
Hat tip to Ravenwood's Universe & Kim du Toit for finding this one.
I think Germany's long and tortured transformation from a violent, militaristic, nation into a bastion of Euro-weenieness can now officially be said to be complete...
"German men are being shamed into urinating while sitting down by a gadget which is saving millions of women from cleaning up in the bathroom after them.
The WC ghost, a £6 voice-alarm, reprimands men for standing at the lavatory pan. It is triggered when the seat is lifted. The battery-operated devices are attached to the seats and deliver stern warnings to those who attempt to stand and urinate (known as "Stehpinkeln").
"Hey, stand-peeing is not allowed here and will be punished with fines, so if you don't want any trouble, you'd best sit down," one of the devices orders in a voice impersonating the German leader, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder. Another has a voice similar to that of his predecessor, Helmut Kohl.
...So far 1.8 million WC ghosts have been sold in German supermarkets."
May I paraphrase my all time favorite comedian here, the hilarious, obscene, and be forewarned -- at times blasphemous -- Sam Kinison?
Any man who let's his wife or girlfriend put on of these WC ghosts in his house or apartment should go to all his friends, look them straight in the eye, and say,
"If you see me working round the yard and stuff, around the house...kill me. %$#^#$^%$^ KILL ME! SHOOT ME IN THE FACE, RUN ME OVER WITH A CAR, I LIVE IN HELL!"
Because trust me fellas, if you let your wife or girlfriend put a device in the bathroom to remind you that you need to sit down to pee, it's over for you. You have less cahones than my dog Patton and he has been neutered. I'm just telling you the truth here guys, the truth that your Euroweenie friends don't have the courage to tell you about...
Hat tip to Ravenwood's Universe for finding this story.
I'd like to talk to you about an event that I just can't seem to get off my mind, or the TV for that matter. THE OLYMPICS.
Are the Olympics cool? Are they a waste of time?
The Olympics started not too long ago, and what have we heard from the Blogosphere? Whine, whine, whine. We whine like a Frenchman wanting more Iraqi Oil. We whine like the a Democrat in Florida.
We whine about the Olympics being boring. We complain about unfair judging. We groan at the idea of steroids and their impact on sports. We pretend to be shocked that some Olympians are posing nude before they ever even compete.
Here's my gripe. I believe we're taking this Olympic thing in the wrong direction!
Have you ever watched those cool car overhaul shows? Like Dude, Pimp My Ride or Overhaulin'? They don't try to just change the paint a little or tweak it here or there. They go all out! They redo, repaint, and replace virtually everything!
And that ladies and Gentlemen is exactly what the Olympics need.
You see, we need MORE STEROIDS. We need more ACTION. We need MORE nude Olympians!
I want a juiced up sprinter. I want to see them popping pills just before the race and watch the foam. I want them so juiced up you think they're about to outrun a locomotive! Whooooosh.
I want them to measure the 100 yard dash with that measuring thingy from the Dragster Races. I want to see these people go so fast that parachutes come out to slow them down. I want them so fast that instead of those stupid flower tattoos these people have racing stripes and chrome on their running shoes.
Heck, we could combine the sprint and the archery events into one. It would give a challenge to the archerers by having moving targets - and let's face it - nothing motivates a sprinter more than knowing somebody is targeting their butts.
"Here they come, it looks like the Canadian is in front, yes, there he goes BAM whoa - nice shot by the Bulgarian. And it's the American by a nose!"
Yes- ACTION!
I really don't care if most of the swim teams are taking performance enhancers. You want to enhance performance, make the events more interesting. Speaking of swimming, how about making these events more for the masses?
How about having Budweiser sponsor a 'Drink and Dive' event? The swimmers get loaded then they have to walk across the diving board as best they can and then do their dive. I want to have the divers get so loaded they miss the swimming pool and land on the papparazzi table. I want to see sombody do a cannon ball. I want to see some diver get so stinkin' drunk he pulls down his trunks and pees off the high diving board. How many points would he get for THAT? Not only would it be funny, it would have something for the ladies as well.
Can I get a YEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
We need to crank this baby up and have fun with it.
Ask yourself, do you want to see a weightlifter train for years and years just so he can beat his personal best record from 4 years ago by 10 pounds? Of course not. I want these athletes cranked to full power and tweaked to maximum capacity. I want them so pumped full of steroids, we get to see what the human body is REALLY capable of doing? Don't just tweak the car - load it up and press the pedal to the metal.
I want a weightlifter that has so much pharmacia in him that not only does he have breasts, but he has THREE of them! I want a guy who can move so much weight he has a sponsorship from Caterpillar! Guys who are so amped that if their arms broke they would just keep on lifting because they didn't even FEEL it.
Can I get a WOOHOO!?
And while we're at it? Why not have pharmaceutical sponsors? That's an official sponsor I'd like to see. Sure "Offical Film of the Olympics" is nice and "Official Airlines of the Olympics" is cool.
How about, "Flexoor, Official Drug of the US Weightlifting Team - less Testicular Shrinkage - more Muscle!"
Or better yet, something along the Mastercard commercial: "Flight to the Olympics - $500. Cost to attend the 100 yard dash event $35. Cost to run like a bat out of hell - $20 per vial".
See, this competition could be fun? It's just that some of the events lack Zip. How about a Fear Factor type of Olympic event where people have to eat gross bugs? Sure, we'd have to disqualify anyone from a country where bugs are standard fare on a menu, but that would still be cool.
"Here we see the Australian Athlete about to eat a Tarantula. Oops, missed a leg - oh, he's gonna lose points for puking!"
And what's with the complaining about the athletes posing nude? So what? You don't like it, don't buy the magazine! I want these athletes to pose nude. I want to pose the Women's Chinese swim team next to the Men's Weightlifting squad and see who has bigger private parts!
Folks, the problem is that the Olympics are really a TV sport. Sure, it's nice to attend an Olympic event and collect pins and all of that other 0ld-lady crap: but when all is said and done, the Olympics are viewed from home.
TV has changed - but the Olympics really haven't. We need to form a new Olympic Committee - one where we look at what is fun - what works - and what has a chance to be seen and attended.
See, this thing could be fun. I should pick up the ball and run with it. First, I need an official sponsor.
I can't wait for 2008.
Rightwingduck has a blog at http://www.rightwingduck.com. This post originally appeared at IMAO.
I know that there are some of you out there thinking, "Yeah, maybe John Kerry lied about what he did in Vietnam, but that was so long ago. So do the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth really matter?"
Folks, not only do the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth matter, they matter A LOT. Let me explain why...
Let's say there's a guy who's trying to get a job with ABC company. We'll call him...let's say, John Terry. The boss of "Faceless Corporation, Inc." interviews John Terry, sees that he has requisite experience for the job, and asks why he should hire him. John Terry tells the boss,
"You should hire me because of the great job I did as an accountant at XYZ company. I'm telling you, I did the work of 5 people. I was the guy in charge of our budget, I did payroll, I did price quotes for sales, I'm telling ya, there was no better accountant in the company. Just ask my references, the guys in my department."
So, the boss checks with the guys in John Terry's department and they all have nothing but good things to say about him. So, he starts to seriously consider Terry for the job...then, something odd happens. He runs into a guy from sales at XYZ company and this guy says,
"Oh, Terry was the worst accountant we had. Not only was he a jerk, he was constantly late with the price quotes we gave to customers. I bet you his screw-ups cost us $100,000 last year".
Suddenly, the boss is confused. What the salesman is telling him is exactly the opposite of what all the guys in Terry's department were saying. So the boss checks around and he actually runs down every single boss Terry had at XYZ company and they all say the same thing,
"This Terry guy was a creep and he was terrible at his job. Hiring him would be the biggest mistake you ever made".
Well, the boss keeps checking around and he finds that for every guy in Terry's department who had good things to say about him, there are 20 guys from different departments at XYZ company who all say Terry was a walking disaster. He hears things like...
-- "Terry was constantly claiming to have done work that he really never completed."
-- "This guy has done nothing but talk down the company to anyone who'll listen since he left. I can't stand him."
-- "Don't even get me started on this Terry guy. I wouldn't hire him to help run my kid's lemonade stand."
Now, after hearing all of this, does John Terry get hired? My guess is that most people would say "no".
Well, this is roughly the same situation we have with John Kerry. Kerry has been trotting out his "band of brothers" and bragging about being a war hero since he started campaigning for the presidency. In fact, he has in essence said to the American people,
"Forget about war protestor days, forget about my time as Lt. Governor to Mike Dukakis, forget about my mediocre 20 year career in the Senate, vote for me because I went to Vietnam for 4 months and won medals".
But now, late in the game, because the mainstream media has given Kerry a free pass on his Vietnam war days, the public is starting to find out John Kerry's time in Vietnam wasn't the John Wayne movie he made it out to be.
Not only did Kerry lie about his record (Christmas in Cambodia anyone?), but he is overwhelmingly opposed by other Swift Boat Vets including all of his commanding officers and a large majority of the men who fought side by side with John Kerry in other boats. That in and of itself should make people think twice before pulling the lever for John Kerry.
Moreover, the stories that are starting to come out from these vets don't paint Kerry in a flattering light either. For example, there are relatively unimportant tales like this one that paint Kerry as someone who wasn't particularly well-liked or respected by his fellow soldiers...
"When Kerry was dispatched to go to An Thoi with Lt. Tedd Peck (who would retire as a Navy captain), Peck told him: "Kerry, follow me no closer than a thousand yards. If you get any closer, I'll teach you what a real Purple Heart is."
But, there are also much more disturbing stories like this one...
"George Bates, an officer in Coastal Division 11, participated in numerous operations with Kerry. In UNFIT FOR COMMAND, Bates recalls a particular patrol with Kerry on the Song Bo De River. He is still "haunted" by the incident:
With Kerry in the lead, the boats approached a small hamlet with three or four grass huts. Pigs and chickens were milling around peacefully. As the boats drew closer, the villagers fled. There were no political symbols or flags in evidence in the tiny village. It was obvious to Bates that existing policies, decency, and good sense required the boats to simply move on.
Instead, Kerry beached his boat directly in the small settlement. Upon his command, the numerous small animals were slaughtered by heavy-caliber machine guns. Acting more like a pirate than a naval officer, Kerry disembarked and ran around with a Zippo lighter, burning up the entire hamlet.
Bates has never forgotten Kerry's actions."
All I can say at this point is that John Kerry invited all of this scrutiny of his war record by making it the centerpiece of his campaign. So now that other Vietnam Vets who served with him are pointing out that he played fast and loose with the truth about his time in Vietnam, he has a big dilemma.
The old, "Aww, this stuff happened 35 years ago so it's irrelevant" line won't work because Kerry has been RUNNING on what he did 35 years ago. Furthermore, the Kerry camp can't use the other tactic they love so well, poo-pooing what their critics have to say because "they didn't serve" against other Vietnam Vets. Last but not least, it's hard to make the argument that vets who are critical of Kerry's service have no right to speak when John Kerry has been using vets who praised his time in Vietnam at campaign stops. What's good for the goose should certainly be good for the gander, right?
So if John Kerry ends up going down in flames because of the Swift Boat Vets for Truth, which is looking more possible almost by the day, then he'll have no one to blame but the Massachusetts billionaire he sees when he looks in the mirror every morning...
I thought this was cute =D
Graphic swiped from the fine folks at Ernie's House Of Whoop@ss (Some obscene language, links, and content).
***Update #1***: I've found where you can purchase one of these shirts for your kids if you're so inclined. Right Wing Stuff has them here.
The Swift Boat Vets for Truth story first got traction on talk radio and in the blogosphere, but now the story is spreading to the mainstream media and John Kerry is taking a beating.
In fact, the Washington Times has posted a very convincing piece from Swift Boat Vets for Truth John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi that seems to conclusively show that John Kerry lied to get his first Purple Heart. Here are the highlights...
At the time of this incident, Kerry was an officer in command (OinC) under training. He was aboard the skimmer using the call sign "Robin" on the operation; Schachte, using the call sign "Batman," also was on the skimmer.
After Kerry's M-16 jammed, Kerry picked up an M-79 grenade launcher and fired a grenade too close, causing a tiny piece of shrapnel (one to two centimeters) to barely stick in his arm. Schachte berated Kerry for almost putting someone's eye out.
There was no hostile fire of any kind, nor did Kerry on the way back mention to OinC Mike Voss, who commanded the PCF that towed the skimmer, that he was wounded.
There was no report of hostile fire that day (as would be required), nor do the records at Cam Ranh Bay reveal such hostile fire. No other records reflect hostile fire. There is no casualty report, as would have been required had there actually been a casualty.
To the surprise of both Schachte and the treating doctor, Louis Letson, Kerry managed to keep the tiny hanging fragment barely embedded in his arm until he arrived at sick bay miles away. Kerry was examined by Letson, who never has forgotten the experience and related it to his Democratic county chairman early in the 2004 primary campaign.
Letson, observing Kerry's unimpressive scratch, asked in surprise, "Why are you here?" Kerry answered, "I've been wounded by hostile fire." Accompanying crewmen told Letson that Kerry had wounded himself. Letson used tweezers to remove the tiny fragment, which he identified as shrapnel like that from an M-79 (not from a rifle bullet), and put a small bandage on Kerry's arm.
The following morning, Kerry appeared at the office of Cmdr. Hibbard and applied for the Purple Heart. Hibbard turned down the award.
...Hibbard's account
...Hibbard: ...This was 36 years ago; it really didn't seem all that important at the time. Here was this lieutenant, junior grade, who was saying, "I got wounded," and everybody else, the crew that were present were saying, "We didn't get any fire. We don't know how he got the scratch."
Kerry showed me the scratch on his arm. I hadn't been informed that he had any medical treatment. The scratch didn't look like much to me; I've seen worse injuries from a rose thorn.
...Q: How did Kerry get a Purple Heart from the incident, then?
Hibbard: I don't know. It beats me. I know I didn't recommend him for a Purple Heart. Kerry probably wrote up the paperwork and recommended himself, that's all I can figure out. If it ever came across my desk, I don't have any recollection of it. Kerry didn't get my signature. I said "no way" and told him to get out of my office.
...Kerry somehow "gamed the system" nearly three months later to obtain the Purple Heart that Hibbard had denied. How he obtained the award is unknown, since his continued refusal to execute Standard Form 180 means that whatever other documents exist are known only to Kerry, the Department of Defense and God.
Only a treatment record reflecting a scratch and a certificate signed three months later have been produced. There is no "after-action" hostile fire or casualty report. This is because there was no hostile fire, casualty, or action on this "most frightening night" of Kerry's Vietnam experience.
(The doctor who treated Kerry) Letson agreed with Hibbard, in a statement the doctor gave us in April, that Kerry's injury was minor and probably self-inflicted:
..."According to Kerry, they had been engaged in a firefight, receiving small arms fire from on shore. He said that his injury resulted from this enemy action.
"The story he told was different from what his crewmen had to say about that night. Some of his crew confided that they did not receive any fire from shore, but that Kerry had fired a grenade round at close range to the shore. The crewman who related this story thought that the injury was from a fragment of the grenade shell that had ricocheted back from the rocks. That seemed to fit the injury I treated.
"What I saw was a small piece of metal sticking very superficially in the skin of Kerry's arm. The metal fragment measured about one centimeter in length and was about two or three millimeters in diameter. It certainly did not look like a round from a rifle," Letson continued.
"I simply removed the piece of metal by lifting it out of the skin with forceps. I doubt that it penetrated more than three or four millimeters. It did not require probing to find it, nor did it require any anesthesia to remove it. It did not require any sutures to close the wound. The wound was covered with a Band-Aid. No other injuries were reported and I do not recall that there was any injury to the boat.
"I remember that Jess Carreon [Letson's corpsman, now dead] was present at the time, and he, in fact, made the entry into Lieutenant Kerry's medical record."
Interestingly enough, John Kerry's own biography, 'Tour Of Duty', has a passage in it that backs up Corsi and O'Neill's contention that John Kerry is lying about how he got his first Purple Heart. Keep in mind that the entry you're about to read is from Dec 11th, 1968, 9 days after Kerry claims that he took "enemy fire" that led to his first Purple Heart....
"They pulled away from the pier at Cat Lo with spirits high, feeling satisfied with the way things were going for them. They had no lust for battle, but they also were not afraid. Kerry wrote in his notebook, 'A cocky feeling of invincibility accompanied us up the Long Tau shipping channel because we hadn't been shot at yet, and Americans at war who haven't been shot at are allowed to be cocky."
Come on folks, John Kerry obviously lied to get his first Purple Heart. To believe otherwise, is to belive that...
-- John Kerry's doctor was lying
-- John Kerry's commander was lying
-- John Kerry's own biography was wrong
Moreover, keep in mind that if John Kerry's lied about his first Purple Heart -- and that looks highly likely at this point -- it didn't just enable him to get a medal he didn't deserve, it allowed him to get out of the line of fire in Vietnam 243 DAYS EARLY. Then, just to add insult to injury, it looks as if Kerry used a medal that he didn't deserve as a stepping stone to fame and fortune in the anti-war movement and in politics. If that is the case, John Kerry is "Unfit to Command".
These are serious and VERY CREDIBLE charges, especially in light of the fact that John Kerry has already been caught lying about spending Christmas of 1968 in Cambodia, and they should be treated as such.
That means stonewalling and smear attacks on people making the charges aren't going to cut it. John Kerry should comment publicly on what really happened that day, release his FULL military records, explain why his biography says he hadn't taken any fire, and he should also talk about his meetings with Hibbard and Letson. It looks bad for Kerry at this point, so if he has an explanation, he should go ahead and offer it up...
Here are a few things that sprang to mind (in italics) as I read a puff piece about John Kerry that was based on his comments to GQ...
"Democratic presidential contender John Kerry (news - web sites) has a soft spot for South African actress Charlize Theron but is adamant that second wife Teresa Heinz-Kerry changed his life, he has told GQ magazine.
Theron is rich, but not that rich...
The men's magazine questioned Kerry, who he thought was the sexiest actress of all time, and he replied: "I think Charlize Theron is pretty extraordinary ... Catherine Zeta Jones ... and Marilyn Monroe ... I thought she was funny. Complicated. And obviously very attractive, very beautiful."
But the 60-year-old Massachusetts senator saved his highest praise for his heiress wife in the interview released in the September edition of GQ.
"Complicated", "attractive", and "very beautiful" are all nice, but they don't pay for butlers and vacation houses if you know what I mean...
He said being a bachelor senator in Washington after the breakup of his first marriage was not "good days".
I was eating out of the garbage behind the Capitol Building without a rich sugar mama to pay the bills...
"After my first marriage, I was like a lot of people who had a relationship that doesn't work -- you want to make sure that the next one does. And you're a little gun-shy and apprehensive and nervous. And Teresa gave me a sense of confidence about relationships that filled that.
"I'm confident about a lot of things, but I'm not somebody who's blind to human frailty and to the need for humility. We all have our flaws. And Teresa, you know, gave me just a great sort of strong, clear commitment to who I am.
"So you know, she loved me. And I think that kind of love is very compelling."
And we're talking about really compelling here, not like stories that are "seared into your brain" compelling that later turn out to be completely made up.
Kerry said he liked the music of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Bob Dylan and named ice hockey star Wayne Gretzky, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio and cyclists Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong among his sporting heroes.
His greatest sporting moment was scoring a hat-trick for Yale against Harvard in a soccer match. "I think I got down on my knees and hit the ground," he said.
Wayne Gretzky, cycling, & soccer? I thought he was just supposed to be "French looking," not actually French?
Kerry also spoke about overcoming prostate cancer -- he was operated on in 2002 a few months before announcing his presidential run.
"There's not much that scares me. So I'm not worried about things -- certainly not dying, because too many of my friends did. So I think it empowers you to go out and tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may."
Of course, all of that empowering truth telling and chip falling doesn't start until the election is over. Until then I'm going by the old "I don't own an SUV, the family has it" standard".
Of his feelings for President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and his family's political dynasty, Kerry said: "I like Junior, but I like the senior Bush enormously. A very decent, thoughtful guy. And I have great respect for him."
Gee, and I remember when Kerry was referring to the Bush & company as" the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen". I would call that a flip-flop, but maybe Kerry is just fond of crooked liars, you never know =D."
For a while now, I've been planning to put together a list of my favorite Bible quotes and I finally got around to doing it last night.
As you read these quotes, do keep in mind that I am not a biblical scholar & that there are most assuredly hundreds of other great quotes from the Bible and that I'm not claiming these are the "best of the best". These are just some Bible quotes that have stuck with me for one reason or another. Read and enjoy...
(continued...)This graphic just tickled my funnybone =D...
I swiped this pic from the fine folks at SondraK.
In so many words...
If you enjoyed this graphic from Allah, you can read more of his work here.
Mark Steyn summed up the John Kerry Vs. The Swift Boat Veterans For Truth On The Christmas In Cambodia lie so perfectly in his latest article that I just had to post what he wrote...
So what are we to make of Sen. Kerry's self-seared 30-year-old false memory of Christmas in Cambodia with its vast accumulation of precise details? Of being shot at by the Khmer Rouge (unlikely in 1968) and of South Vietnamese troops drunkenly celebrating Christmas (as only devout Buddhists know how)?
It's not about dates and places. For Kerry, his Yuletide mission was an epiphany: the moment when he realized his government was lying to the people about what was going on. This is the turning point, the moment that set the young Kerry on the path from brave young war volunteer to fierce anti-war activist.
And it turns out it's total bunk.
Thirty-five years on, having no appealing campaign themes, the senator decides to run for president on his biography. But for the last 20 years he's been a legislative non-entity. Before that, he was accusing his brave band of brothers of mutilation, rape and torture. He spent his early life at Swiss finishing school and his later life living off his wife's inheritance from her first husband. So, biography-wise, that leaves four months in Vietnam, which he talks about non-stop. That 1986 Senate speech is typical: It was supposed to be about Reagan policy in Central America, but like so many Kerry speeches and interviews somehow it winds up with yet another self-aggrandizing trip down memory lane.
A handful of Kerry's ''band of brothers'' are traveling around with his campaign. Most of the rest, including a majority of his fellow swift boat commanders and 254 swiftees from Kerry's Coastal Squadron One, are opposed to his candidacy. That is an amazing ratio and, if snot-nosed American media grandees don't think there's a story there, maybe they ought to consider another line of work. To put it in terms they can understand, imagine if Dick Cheney campaigned for the presidency on the basis of his time at Halliburton, and a majority of the Halliburton board and 80 percent of the stockholders declared he was unfit for office. More to the point, on the swift vets' first major allegation -- Christmas in Cambodia -- the Kerry campaign has caved."
While walking down the street one day a US senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies.
His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.
"Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you." "No problem, just let me in," says the man.
"Well, I'd like to but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity." "Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven," says the senator.
"I'm sorry but we have our rules." And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a club and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him. Everyone is very happy and in evening dress.
They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne.
Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that, before he realizes it, it is time to go.
Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises. The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.
"Now it's time to visit heaven."
So, 24 hours pass with the head of state joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns. "Well then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity."
The senator reflects for a minute, then the senator answers: "Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell."
So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.
Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags. The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder.
"I don't understand," stammers the senator. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and club, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?"
The devil looks at him, smiles and says,
"Yesterday we were campaigning ... Today you voted"
Hat tip to RWN reader CasperKnightshade who said he got this joke from Strange Cosmos.
I enjoyed "Alien" & "Aliens", "Predator" & "Predator 2", and even the first big crossover movie "Freddy Vs. Jason", so you'd think I would have really enjoyed "Alien Vs. Predator....but, it didn't work out that way.
That's not to say that it was a terrible movie, because the movie did do a few things well. The film was fast paced & the fights between the predators and aliens were superbly done
On the other hand, there was very little time spent developing any of the characters, so what happens to them means absolutely nothing to you one way or the other. Futhermore, those action sequences I mentioned? There simply weren't enough of them. In fact, given the non-existent character development and that the movie was called...well..."Alien Vs. Predator", I think they could have improved the movie by literally DOUBLING the number of fight scenes. Oh...and the heroine of the movie? Not only was I completely indifferent to whether she would be eaten by an alien or skewered by a predator, I thought it was particularly unbelievable when she went all "Xena Warrior Princess" later in the movie.
So in the end, I give the movie a thumbs near the middle, tilting slightly towards the earth. In other words, don't bother seeing it in the theater, but if there's nothing else you're dying to see, it should OK to catch when it comes out on video.
10) Maintaining John Kerry's hair will create jobs, jobs that cannot be outsourced to India.
9) Under Kerry, kids might not know all 50 states, but they will sure as hell know all 57 varieties of Heinz products.
8) Our enemies will respect his strong, determined, vague inconsistency and learn to fear us.
7) Because John Kerry believes in treating all of America's soldiers with the respect, dignity, and honor they deserve...except those *$%*$#*%#$ Swift Boat Veterans for Truth guys who aren't voting for him!
6) John Kerry will lead America to success in the war on terrorism just like he led America to victory in Vietnam!
5) Because unlike Bill Clinton, John Kerry wouldn't lay a finger on an intern who didn't have more money than his wife.
4) Because Bill O'Reilly would get so angry that he'd gnaw off his own hand if John Kerry made Ted Kennedy the Secretary of Defense!
3) Who better to stick up for the "little people" and "working folks" against the powerful than a Yale educated billionaire who made his fortune by marrying a rich widow?
2) Because John Edwards will sue you for every dime you're worth if you attempt to maliciously harm the Kerry campaign by voting for another candidate!
1) By sending a pro-abortion Catholic to the White House, we send a stern message to the Vatican: stop molesting small boys!
If you enjoyed this article, you can read more of Laurence Simon's work at This Blog Is Full Of Crap.
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