I’d be writing the magisterial post about voting security except that my neighborhood is hip-deep in trick-or-treaters.
I’m on my fifth large bag of candy and fruit snacks with three more in the kitchen before we have to turn out the lights.
Have I mentioned that I love my neighborhood?
Meanwhile, I have nothing to add to the latest John Kerry brouhaha except to point out that Andrew Sullivan said it perfectly:
Is Kerry not content to lose just one election? Does his enormous ego have to insist on losing two?
What makes the Kerry smear of our troops particularly ironic:
Source:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/06/07/yale_grades_portray_kerry_as_a_lackluster_student?mode=PF
Apparently Kerry’s prep school education failed to teach him academics or manners.
Give him a break, Thorley. During his press meltdown, he mentioned the word “textbook” like six or seven times. Don’t tell me that he didn’t learn anything in school.
Face it, Kerry can’t tell a joke. Remember that joke he told during the presidential debates about how we should give nuclear material to Iran? My dad thought it was funny, but I thought he stepped on the punchline.
I might add, “Katrina foreign policy” is not funny either. It’s not even coherent.
Best Kerry Joke So Far
Clarice:
He’s very thin-skinned. When he shot himself in the ass with a rice grain he considered himself badly wounded.
Hit and Run:
I can’t say I blame him for taking that wound very seriously. Think how close it came to inflicting brain damage.
Kerry’s remarks apparently refleced his own experience. He did poorly in school, and he ended up in the military in a war zone.
If you have nothing to say about the “brouhaha” (haha), then say nothing.
You are a negative person Andy.
Meanwhile I wonder: will we get a post over here at Winds of Denial on the fact that Muqtada Al Sadr just ordered US troops out of Sadr City — and we complied?
From Andy L’s Rules of Blogging: no linking allowed. Unless you have original content (that is, “something to say”), don’t do a post.
It was more of a suggestion than a “rule”, Rob. Used to thinking in absolutist terms I see.
But getting back to the other other Andy, Sullivan is mistaken on another point: Kerry didn’t lose the election of 2004, the Republicans in Ohio stole it from him.
Furthermore, Kerry is not running this year. I doubt that what he says is going to suddenly turn Macaca “The Spitter” Allen into a nice guy overnight…and get voters to ignore all his past racist remarks.
Just thought that these issues needed some clarification…y’know, I’m a “negative” kind of person….
I saw that meme long before Sully’s post, in a much more articulate and precise fashion from a Dem congressman, to wit, “I guess Kerry wasn’t content blowing 2004, now he wants to blow 2006, too.”
But I’ll give credit to Sully for seeing the tendency of those with enormous egos to have a blind spot about themselves.
Um, Andy – as a student of elections right now, I’ll suggest that the evidence that Ohio was stolen from Kerry is far thinner than the evidence that Minnesota was stolen from Bush.
But thanks for making a point I’ll be using in the elections post.
A.L.
By the way, AL, did ya do a head count? Run out of candy?
I got 131 (the weather was great for it), ran out of candy on 118, and the last 13 received quarters. I wasn’t surprised that they gladly took the quarters, though the wife was. The last ‘kids’ left around 8:15 — two young mothers pushing their year-olds in carriages! WTH?
You give out quarters? Not bad. I generally don?t give out candy on Halloween, instead I usually give out (near mint, good condition) comic books that I found in the quarter bins at the local used book stores. Kids seem to appreciate getting an old Archie, Walt Disney, Superman, or Spiderman issue almost as much as the parents 😉
Was that why Kerry wouldn’t release his military records prior to the election? He didn’t want people to know he got worse grades than the President? He would rather let people believe the SWIFT story than concede the *slightest* unfavorable intelectual comparison.
What a pompous ass. The Democrats deserved better.
Why is it that everytime Kerry shits all over the military and its members, he immediatley wraps himself in his service record as if its some form of teflon coating that will insulate him from all criticism? This tends to be a common meme by liberals/leftists vetrans in public office.
I really don’t buy the “botched joke” angle, especialy given how tasteless the joke is. Its readily apparent that he wrote this one himself, and it wasn’t passed off by a handler, even though I would bet that at some point in his defense that the coward will blame a staffer for the gaffe.
Apologies to Andy.
A.L.
I apologize to you also. I read that you love your neighborhood; so, I went to the comments to express my love of neighborhood also. I was frustrated by Andy L. I should have let it go.
My family is new to our neighborhood and were blown away by all the kids enjoying Halloween. It was tough to do head count. We had over 200 guests. Nearly all dressed in costume.
We have made so many friends in such a short time. There is a lot to be said about offering friendship to new neighbers. You usually receive much more in return.
Jeffrey
“Meanwhile I wonder: will we get a post over here at Winds of Denial on the fact that Muqtada Al Sadr just ordered US troops out of Sadr City — and we complied? ”
Sadr didnt order it, the prime minister of Iraq did. Would you prefer we ignore the soveriegn government of Iraq’s demands? It is a serious issue and something of a catch 22 for US policy- serious enough that it doesnt need to be hyperbolized with a phony post claiming Sadr is giving orders to the US military.
#17
That’s the kind of denial I expect. Sadr ordered it. Maliki orders lunch.
Re: Halloween – I’d guess we had about 120 – 140 kids. Two groups of about 30 each from two of the neighborhood churches. We had one bag left when I shut out the lights at 9pm, and we went to go see the 3D “Nightmare Before Christmas”…well worth it!!
And yes, it’s a great metric for neighborhoods.
A.L.
“That’s the kind of denial I expect. Sadr ordered it. Maliki orders lunch. ”
And thats the kind of nonanswer I would expect. If US forces were ignoring Malikis orders you would be screaming bloody murder about US imperialism. The fact is a democratic election put Maliki in office, and for _whatever_ reason he ordered US roadblocks away from Sadr City- yes very likely at Sadr’s request. That does not mean US forces are taking orders from Sadr. If Sadr would have demanded it we would not have complied. The lawful government of Iraq demanded it- if the people of Iraq dislike the decision they have recourse at the ballot box. I know, democracy can be a complicated thing and simply demagoging a dangerous issue is so much easier. In a word- typical. You have an actual issue you might be able to show you have a better way of dealing with (and hence gain some influence) and instead you cant help but prove to the world how unserious you are. You dont happen to work for the DNC do you?
Thorley (#13), I hadn’t thought of that ’cause I usually hand out candy and that was the only equivalent household item I had a good stock of. But the comic book alternative is a great idea, particularly since I am not a dentist. 🙂
Thanks for mentioning it.
#20
If Sadr orders Maliki and Maliki orders us, then Sadr ordered us. Cause and effect. The guy who topples domino #1 topples domino number #2.
As for me screaming imperialism, you got the wrong guy. I’m the guy screaming that if we intended to occupy a nation we needed to do it old school: boot on neck democratization. Precisely because this is the kind of absurdity you wind up with when you try to pull off a terrifically difficult task with a half-assed effort.
Now even the military — perennially optimistic and can-do, bless ’em — says the situation is veering toward chaos.
I don’t give a damn about Iraqi “sovereignty.” They had sovereignty before we showed up. We went there to . . . well, skipping ahead to rationale number three . . . to create a model of democracy that would enlighten the benighted middle east. That was the goal. And while we can argue how this goal was screwed up, it’s now ridiculous to pretend that it has not been screwed up.
We have a militia leader telling us to take down roadblocks and stop looking for a missing US serviceman. Is Sadr somehow defending Iraqi soverignty and that “fledgling democracy?” Is it all part of Sadr’s presidential campaign, maybe?
_I’m the guy screaming that if we intended to occupy a nation we needed to do it old school: boot on neck democratization._
At least JFK had the testicular veracity to off Ngo Dinh Diem. The President is an effete intellectual.
_”If Sadr orders Maliki and Maliki orders us, then Sadr ordered us. Cause and effect. The guy who topples domino #1 topples domino number #2.”_
Umm, no, because there is a democratic institution involved with veto power over Sadr’s wishes. If Halliburton ‘orders’ Bush to invade Iraq, and then Bush invades Iraq, was the US army ordered by Halliburton? You know what, never mind.
_”We have a militia leader telling us to take down roadblocks and stop looking for a missing US serviceman. Is Sadr somehow defending Iraqi soverignty and that “fledgling democracy?” Is it all part of Sadr’s presidential campaign, maybe?”_
Great, you have a real, wellfounded argument here. Now if you framed the issue as: ‘hey, what is the United States doing taking orders from a government that is taking orders from Sadr?’ THATS how you get people attention (in a positive way). Instead you frame it as though Sadr is on the bat-phone to the White House, most people are either going to ignore the obvious hyperbole or get into a pointless waste of time conversation like we have to this point.
#24
In your second graph you concede the very argument you attacked in your first graph.
You know what would help? Stop pretending white is black and black is white. Live in the reality-based community. Makes it so meach easier to argue rationally.
Three-peat! Three-peat!