Tidbits

USA Today reports that Kerry didn't get a bounce in the polls- there's a reason for that, even though the Convention went to plan; it's that Kerry is a self-serving empty shell of a man with no backbone or morals. The more people see of him the more they'll realise that he is not the man who should lead the most powerful nation on the planet. Isn't that obvious- Kerry is not the man the Democrats should have picked. Zell Miller would have been a much better choice!

BTW, I hear that there was some scandal involving his military service i.e. he didn't complete his time in the Reserves after coming back from Nam (yes, he was briefly there). What's happened to this? Crush Kerry brought it up a while back but I've heard nothing since. Anyone heard anything?

At the weekend I commented on Kerry's reaction to the growing threat from Iran and I proposed that he would talk about it, and then maybe talk about it some more. Actually, he has a three part plan- international (read, UN) arms control, securing nuclear weapons all around the world ( he'll do this by making a breakthrough in talks with the Russians- how this will be achieved is not stated- the man with a secret plan. Oh yeah, and he'll magically be able to secure material in 40 countries)- and finally, in a masterstroke, giving Iran nuclear material. Yep, he's going to solve the Iran problem by giving them nuclear material. I'm not quite nuanced enough to see how this will work but Kerry's willing to give it a go. Maybe he'll make them promise to be good little Islamofascists? The rest of the article isn't much better- France and Germany didn't do a damn thing to help in Iraq- they didn't sacrifice anything- but Kerry thinks he can get their help by awarding them reconstruction contracts? What a great way to show those who oppose America the result of their stonewalling- big bucks contracts.

Edwards is much more of a dark horse than I had expected- and I expected very little from the Ambulance Chaser. And given the Democrats demonisation of John Ashcroft and the Patriot Act it's hard to see how Edwards can justify pushing for a US MI5 (especially given his dubious ties with the Saudis- does Michael Moore want to make a movie about this?). Maybe the same way they can be opposed to the draft and yet still be the ones pushing for its implementation?

And Kerry's Middle East advisor isn't any better. The Democrats want the troops out of Iraq where they are working hard and well to help establish a democracy, but I'll bet they'll be glad that troops are sent to the West Bank and Gaza to "help" the Palestinians. What an appalling idea. The longer this campaign goes on, the less appealing Kerry- and his awful choice of advisers- becomes.

Slate has a pretty good examination of the sudden religiousness of John Kerry. I was somewhat surprised by his announcement recently that life begins at conception, followed up by a somewhat bizarre bit of backpedalling about viability- what the hell does that have to do with it? Either life begins at conception or it does not. The viability of the foetus is not the issue- it's
the fact that it's a life. This statement, perhaps more than any other recently, has shown that Kerry is a heartless opportunist. For him to now talk about how religion has given him his values is such a crock- if the church shaped his values he would surely vote against abortion, especially the heinous crime of partial birth abortion. Surely some reporter somewhere is going to take Kerry to task about this waffling- he can't have it both ways. When are people going to ask him some tough questions- and keep at him until he gives a straight answer?

Finally, the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler has a great fisk on an article about the conflict in Sudan. Check it out. As per usual, he does a bang up job. I went to the Guardian to read the original but it seems that the link is dead. Maybe they removed the pile of tripe when they realised it was such a pile of offensive crap (no mass graves in Iraq? WTF?).