Happy Second Blogiversary

To Dust in the Light, which is quoted & cited here frequently, especially as one of the more frequent denizens of Blogworthies.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 08/05/04 05:41:59 PM
Categorized as Blogosphere Stuff.

Sen. Snake in the Grass Tom Daschle Wants Phone Calls

Margaret just forwarded this request from the American Family Association:

Senator Tom Daschle, Senate Minority leader, was the one person who held the liberals together to filibuster the Federal Marriage Amendment, thus keeping the American people from having their voices heard in this matter.

Sen. Daschle is leading the fight to use our children and grandchildren as guinea pigs in a grand social experiment promoting homosexual marriage. You see, if the people are kept from voting, then some liberal federal judge will rule that homosexual marriage is legal and throw out the marriage laws in 50 states. That is precisely what Sen. Daschle is trying to do. He is willing to sacrifice our children and grandchildren to get the big money and a handful of votes from the homosexual activists.

Shortly before the vote, Sen. Daschle said that his office was not receiving any phone calls on the FMA. There will be another effort made to allow the Senate an opportunity to vote on the FMA later.

Just one phone call is all I am asking. Please make that call today. If the line is busy, please keep trying until you get through. Ask why he is unwilling to allow your Senator to vote on this matter.

Sen. Daschle's number is 1-202-224-2321. If that number is busy, call 1-202-224-5556. His fax number is 202-224-6603. Those numbers go straight into his office. Please be kind and polite, but firm....

P.S. Keep up with the most important Senate race here and here.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 08/05/04 08:25:13 AM
Categorized as Political.

Any Questions?

The script of a new TV ad from John Kerry's old band of brothers.

The ones that weren't on display at the Democratic National Convention.

At Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (emphasis and ellipses in original):

Any Questions?

John Edwards: "If you have any question about what John Kerry is made of, just spend 3 minutes with the men who served with him."

Al French: "I served with John Kerry."

Bob Elder: "I served with John Kerry."

George Elliott: "John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam."

Al French: "He is lying about his record."

Louis Letson: "I know John Kerry is lying about his first Purple Heart because I treated him for that injury."

Van O'Dell: "John Kerry lied to get his bronze star ... I know, I was there, I saw what happened."

Jack Chenoweth: "His account of what happened and what actually happened are the difference between night and day."

Admiral Hoffman: "John Kerry has not been honest."

Adrian Lonsdale: "And he lacks the capacity to lead."

Larry Thurlow: "When the chips were down, you could not count on John Kerry."

Bob Elder: "John Kerry is no war hero."

Grant Hibbard: "He betrayed all his shipmates ... he lied before the Senate."

Shelton White: "John Kerry betrayed the men and women he served with in Vietnam."

Joe Ponder: "He dishonored his country ... he most certainly did."

Bob Hildreth: "I served with John Kerry ...

Bob Hildreth (off-camera): John Kerry cannot be trusted."

Announcer: "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth is responsible for the content of this advertisement."

P.S. The ad is available for viewing, in several formats, on their home page.

[Follow-up: Sellout.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 08/05/04 07:44:33 AM
Categorized as John Kerry & Political.

At Least Five, and At Least Two-Thirds

I'm saying it now.

In the presidential election, Nov. 2, 2004, Bush-Cheney will carry at least five states that right now are considered to be a lock for the Democratic ticket; and, at least two-thirds of the "battleground" states will be carried by the Republican ticket.

I think the whole idea of an evenly divided electorate, with the presidential election hanging in the balance of a relatively small number of undecided voters, is hogwash.

P.S. I see that Deacon has similar, but much more tentative, thoughts.

P.P.S. Also, Bush-Cheney won't lose any state they're considered to have a lock on right now.

[Follow-ups: Big Bounce, and Mr. White Thinks I'm Pessimistic.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 08/05/04 07:16:20 AM
Categorized as Most Notable & Political.

Friends & Enemies

Amaani Lyle vs. Warner Brothers Television Productions et. al.

I never watched the TV show Friends. Life is too short, no?

The phrase poetic justice springs to mind, though, when I read about this California lawsuit.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 08/05/04 07:07:34 AM
Categorized as Social/Cultural.

What If He's Right?

Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CCCXLVIII

I apologize for delaying so long in blogging this astonishing essay by Tom Junod at Esquire, which I came across late last week. An unusual combination of bluntness and delicacy of thought — a remarkable combination of historical perspective and psychological insight — it is powerfully and beautifully written. Much of it, I heartily disagree with; but it contains a number of striking passages, including the following (emphasis in original).

From Page 1:

.... What haunts me is the possibility that we have become so accustomed to ambiguity and inaction in the face of evil that we find [George W. Bush's] call for decisive action an insult to our sense of nuance and proportion....

The reason he will be difficult to unseat in November — no matter what his approval ratings are in the summer — is that his opponents operate out of the moral certainty that he is the bad guy and needs to be replaced, while he operates out of the moral certainty that terrorists are the bad guys and need to be defeated....

From Page 2:

.... I am, however, asking if the crisis currently facing the country — the crisis, that is, that announced itself on the morning of September 11, 2001, in New York and Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia — is as compelling a justification for the havoc and sacrifice of war as the crisis that became irrevocable on April 12, 1861, in South Carolina, or, for that matter, the crisis that emerged from the blue Hawaiian sky on December 7, 1941. I, for one, believe it is and feel somewhat ashamed having to say so: having to aver that 9/11/01 was a horror sufficient to supply Bush with a genuine moral cause rather than, as some would have it, a mere excuse for his adventurism....

Let's not flatter ourselves: If we do not find it within ourselves to identify the terrorism inspired by radical Islam as an unequivocal evil — and to pronounce ourselves morally superior to it — then we have lost the ability to identify any evil at all, and our democracy is not only diminished, it dissolves into the meaninglessness of privilege....

Of course, Iraq might be a lost cause. It might be a disaster unmitigated and unprecedented. But if we permit ourselves to look at it the way the Republicans look at it — as a historical cause rather than just a cause assumed to be lost — we might be persuaded to see that it's history's judgment that matters, not ours. The United States, at this writing, has been in Iraq fifteen months. At the same point in the Civil War, Lincoln faced, well, a disaster unmitigated and unprecedented. He was losing....

From Page 3:

.... The question is not, and has never been, whether we can fight a war without perpetrating outrages of our own. The question is whether the rightness of the American cause is sufficient not only to justify war but to withstand war's inevitable outrages. The question is whether — if the cause is right — we are strong enough to make it remain right in the foggy moral battleground of war....

In defending his suspension of habeas corpus, Lincoln sought to draw the distinction between liberties that are absolute and those that are sustainable in time of war. Bush seems to be relying on the same question, and the same distinction, as an answer to all the lawyers and editorial writers who suggest that if Jose Padilla stays in jail, we are losing the war on terror by abrogating our own ideals.

Losing the war on terror? The terrible truth is that we haven't begun to find out what that really means....

In a nation that loves fairy tales, the president seemed so damned eager to cry wolf that we decided he was just trying to keep us scared and that maybe he was just as big a villain as the wolf he insisted on telling us about. That's the whole point of the story, isn't it? The boy cries wolf for his own ends, and after a while people stop believing in the reality of the threat.

I know how this story ends, because I've told it many times myself. I've told it so many times, in fact, that I'm always surprised when the wolf turns out to be real, and shows up hungry at the door, long after the boy is gone.

RTWT.

Why is this included among Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode? Because so few of them will see the wisdom in it.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 08/05/04 06:53:07 AM
Categorized as Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode.