4 Mile Creek

How Tough Is That?

Associated Press writer Margie Mason has gone all the way to Viet Nam to interview some ex-Viet Cong in what can only be described as a tremendous effort on the part of the Associated Press to make sure that no stone is left unturned in their effort to back Senator Kerry, and discredit the SBVs.
Only problem is that she couldn't come up with any real information that discredits the SBVs.
But on the bright side, she did get one of America's former enemies, a self-professed killer of American servicemen, to praise John Kerry.
Not that that would be too tough. The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army have been praising John Kerry since 1971.

We're Number 49!

The new SAT standings have been published, and the big news here in Georgia is that they are no longer at the bottom of the list. They have clilmbed all the way to number 49! This is beeing touted as good news for Georgia schools, and I guess it is news that is not entirely bad. But I'm not sure I'd call it good news. I know that when the states are ranked, one state has to come out on top, and one state has to come out on the bottom. But when the state on the bottom really makes an effort to get out of the bottom, but only makes it to number 49, then that's not much of an effort, really. I'd be interested in seeing a score vs. monies-spent-per-child chart, I'll bet it isn't a one-for-one alignment.
I've thought that teaching might be something I'd like to do after I retire. Some states even have a sort of military to school program, where ex-soldiers (it may be officers only, I don't know for sure) go through a couple of classes and then they can teach.
But it won't be in Georgia, that's for sure. I'm not that competitive, but I'm competitive enough to not want to start out at, or very near, the bottom.

Michael Should Be So Proud

Michael Moore says,

"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win....I oppose the U.N. or anyone else risking the lives of their citizens to extract us from our debacle...the majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let...

He must be so proud of these guys:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A video purporting to show the methodical, grisly killings of 12 Nepalese workers kidnapped in Iraq was posted Tuesday on a Web site linked to a militant group operating in Iraq.
...
The video of the Nepalese showed a masked man in desert camouflage apparently slitting the throat of a blindfolded man lying on the ground. The blindfolded man moaned and a shrill wheeze was heard. The masked man then displayed the head to the camera before resting it on the body.
Other footage showed a man firing single shots from an assault rifle into the back of the heads of 11 others. Blood seeped from their bodies into the sand.

Sooooo, enough blood let yet, Mike?
I can see why Michael Moore was a revered, distinguished guest at the Democratic Convention. He had the temerity to stand up and show that he fully supports the terrorists who kill innocent people every day in Iraq, even calling for the death of more Coalition soldiers as some sort of payment to his worldview.
It's just dissent, right?
And that's got to be patriotic, my fucking t-shirt says so!

How Original

Like I said in my earlier post, if this is the level of intellectual discourse from the Left, then it will be a complete sweep for President Bush. A trouncing of the liberal candidate not seen since Mike Dukakis's ill-inspired run.
Nothing original here. The most thought these demonstrators had to put into this bit of street theater was how to get to the Halliburton building in downtown NYC without spilling their fake blood.
Pathetic.
I'm not even sure how the cops are keeping themselves from laughing.

(update 31 Aug PM) - More originality. Like I said in an earlier post, if this is the best the Left can do for denouncing the Republicans, when there are literally hundreds of legitimate complaints against President Bush, then he will trounce Kerry. From the AP -

Outside the midtown hotel where Texas delegates are staying, about two dozen protesters, depicting employees of "Hallibacon," grunted through plastic pig snouts Tuesday and wallowed in stacks of fake $100 bills bearing the images of Bush and Cheney.

Let Me March For Peace...Or I'll Kill You

From AP:

A march from the United Nations to Madison Square Garden ended in violence Monday after a protester attacked a plainclothes detective on a scooter, knocking him unconscious. The plainclothes detective who was attacked, William Sample, was in serious condition Tuesday with serious facial trauma, but his injuries were not life threatening, police said. His assailant was being sought. Four other officers suffered minor injuries during the scuffle. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly called it "a blatant, vicious attack." The protest began when a crowd of several thousand outside U.N. headquarters negotiated with police to march to Madison Square Garden despite not having a permit. Police proposed a route to a sanctioned protest area south of the Garden, and demonstration leaders accepted. "They asked if they could march, and we said yes," police Assistant Deputy Commissioner Tom Doepfner said. "We try to be nice."
A wall of uniformed police on motor scooters blocked off half of Second Avenue as marchers trooped down city streets. Police steered the restless, unwieldy crowd through midtown Manhattan rush-hour traffic as cars backed up 10 blocks in places.
The march ended at the protest area south of the Garden. Witnesses said the confrontation began as police tried to use interlocking metal fences to contain the thousands of protesters.

So despite the fact that, or perhaps because of the fact that, the police allowed the protestors to march without the proper permits, and despite the fact that the police were trying to cooperate with the protestors in every way possible, even allowing them to tie up traffic so they could do their infantile street theater with puppets and Uncle Sam on Stilts (TM), the protestors decided to pay the cops back by violently attacking and nearly killing one of New York's finest.
How nice.
How brave.
And how typical of the "peace movement" of today.
Tuesday, today, was supposed to have been the day of violence and random meaningless vandalism.

In the months leading up to the convention, activists designated Tuesday an official day of civil disobedience, planning sit-ins, street theater and even vandalism aimed at the offices of corporations with links to the Bush family or the Republican Party.

I guess you some of the "peace demonstrators" just couldn't contain their glee that long.

Your Horizon Is Much Closer Than You Originally Thought

Via Opinion Journal, this posting on Democratic Underground.

I had a horrible experience canvassing today. We went out canvassing Democrats today to ask them to support Kerry and our local candidates. We were in apartment complexes and lower middle class housing. The young Democrats living there told us they were voting for Bush! We even met a young marine who said he was just back from Iraq and supports the war, which is why he is voting for Bush. These people have nothing and they are the ones Bush is hurting the most, and yet they support him.And they are registered Dems and young. Why is this happening. I thought our base was solid. This is very frightening. We walked for five hours and only met two people who supported Kerry on our Democratic list! What does this mean? signed, saracat

Later, saracat goes on to further explain why she is so confused by lower class people who think. (all spelling mistakes are exact cut-and-pastes from the DU website)

I told you. Phoenix. And in a lower income Democratic leaning area. This isn't my area of Phoenix but the one we were assigned by the Kerry Campaign. I live in an upper middle repug leaning precinct in Phoenix and ,from the research I have done regarding contributions in my zip code, I'll bet I do better in my home precinct.I think more repugs will support Kerry than these Dems. I just don't undestand it.

Saracat can't understand why upper-middle class people would support the Democrats more than the lower class would. She has completely swallowed the kool-aid in gallon size gulps; the Dems always support and encourage the lower class, so why aren't those bastards a little more grateful? The "repugs" are of course, martini-drinking fat-cats who burn $1000 bills in their massive stone fireplaces to heat their castles; so why would the lower class people she canvassed support them?
Saracat, any belief there in your mind that maybe the people you canvassed were capable of more independent or perhaps more intelligent political thought than you and your fellow DUs are capable of? Let's test that theory...the very next post, from someone called "Liberty or Death" says

"It may also be That they are ignorant apolitical semi retarded Morans!"

Oops! Forget the fact that Patrick Henry is rolling in his grave, it doesn't look like saracat or Liberty or Death think that lower class voters should think independently, so they must be "morans", whatever that is.
Morons.
The DUers do eventually discuss what they can do about these "morans" who are going to vote for Bush. See if you can feel the love these Dems have for the working class in Arizona. There's this gem of compassion from rumguy (1000+ posts)

Mon Aug-30-04 02:25 AM Response to Reply #5 7. It's like what Bob Dylan once said Those who allow themselves to be manipulated by those who manipulate get what they deserve.

and from democratreformed (1000+ posts)

Mon Aug-30-04 05:36 PM Response to Reply #14
70. That's exactly what I was thinking! Why should all of us have to suffer because of the ignorance of some?

How's this for elitism, from oasis (1000+ posts)

Mon Aug-30-04 04:02 AM Response to Reply #5 28. More than likely, the lazy bastards won't even get out and vote.

And finally my last example of the Party of The Big Tent/Compassion/Whatever, from KurtNYC (670 posts)

Mon Aug-30-04 10:37 AM
Response to Reply #28 37. Drop 2 cases of beer there on November 1 they won't get up on Nov 2.

Really saracat, if you are still wondering why some people view Democrats like you with suspicion, simply look in the mirror. Or better yet, read the thread you've initiated in DU and see if you can't somehow glean an answer out of the overt racism, classism and hatred your fellow Democrats have spewed there. Not against a Republican, but against other Democrats; simply because they won't toe your line. Your worst fear used to be John Ashcroft crushing dissent; now it seems your worst fear is that you can't effectively crush dissent among ungrateful lower class Democrats!
Try to grasp the irony in that, okay? It really shouldn't be too hard, unless you are some type of moran.

Keep Reaching, Joe

Joe Klein tries desperately to fathom some level of coordination out of the recent bunglings by Senator Kerry and his campaign staff.
His best answer on why Kerry appears to be a deer in the headlights?
Kerry is trying to be much too "optimistic!"
Is he kidding?
The reason, according to Klein, that the Senator wasn't able to contradict the SBVs "incendiary nonsense" is not because they present clear hard evidence that has already made the Senator back down from several of his claims of Viet Nam derring-do (he doesn't even mention this at all) but because the Senator has, for some reason unexplained by Klein, an "unwillingness to dominate the news with tart, controversial substance."
I can answer that one Joe. The last time John Kerry came forward with "tart, controversial substance" was back in '71, and that "tart, controversial substance" is biting him in the ass right now.
Call it gun shy, shall we?
In trying to wave away the Senator's contradictory comments on troop pullouts from Korea, Klein suggests that his statements for and against troop reductions are another instance of Kerry's famous "nanonuances" rather than a desire to be all things to all people. So Klein says that Kerry's "in favor of redeployments, just not now." Apparently US soldiers in Iraq for a year is far too much time; but 53 years is not quite enough time for soliders to be in Korea.
And Klein thinks this is a "nanonuance?" Does he even realize he's playing to Kerry's caricature?
Finally, as if Klein is a Karl Rove plant, Klein suggests that Senator Kerry shoot himself in his other foot.

He has mentioned but hasn't really exploited the growing sense in the military and intelligence communities that the war has strengthened Islamist radicalism, overburdened the U.S. military, and made it far more difficult to rally the world against the nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran.

These were all losers for Dean. Most Americans understand that Islamic radicalism may be more vocal now than it was three years ago, but in the old saying "stick and stones may break my bones" the islamic radicals have been reduced to name calling for three straight years, thanks to Bush's wars. The Left clearly wishes that the islamic radicals were stronger, but wishing doesn't make it so.
And Joe, an "overburdened military" is what most Americans expect in a war; no one wants to pay the bill for a military so large that it's muscles aren't even strained when fighting a major global war on several fronts. As for "rally(ing) the world" to our cause, the President already has our real allies in the fight, and for most of us, it's high time the French and Germans were exposed as the NATO straphangers that we always knew them to be.
Joe, keep offering up your help to the Kerry campaign.
Please.

"...a few punches, kicks and profane insults."

And well deserved, too.
This CNN web article tells the story of an Iraqi who helped translate for the 4th ID in Iraq, and who happened to be along with the troops when they captured Saddam Hussein.

When the hole was exposed, the mystery man inside repeatedly implored, "Don't shoot, don't kill me!"'
"You need to come out before they kill you," Samir shouted into the hole.
Eventually, the man stuck one arm into the light, then the other.
The former ruler looked haggard, with a wild, graying beard and ratty hair. "He looked old and miserable," Samir says.
When Samir called the man names, the ousted ruler retorted, "`Don't talk to me. I'm Saddam Hussein,"' Samir recalled. "I said, `You are nobody."'
Samir cherishes a photo of him helping pin Saddam to the ground. Before returning to the United States, Samir said his family told him to thank Bush for helping liberate Iraq.

No Samir, let me say to you, thank you.

Al Sadr Listens to Protestors, Stops His War In Iraq

Al-Sadr has asked his Mahdi Army to lay down their weapons, and join him in forming a political party. This comes days after he had to withdraw his fighters from the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf. Pressured by Sistani, and likely understanding that any damage to the shrine could be blamed on his followers once the inevitable news videos got out, he was forced to cede control of the shrine. If anyone on his side tries to claim victory in the fight over the Imam Ali Shrine, this statement in the news is likely to dispel that theory.

Al-Sadr asked religious authorities for permission to enter the shrine and made a brief visit on Monday, according to the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric.

Not only did he have to ask Sistani's permission to even enter the shrine, Sistani thought it neccesary to make public al Sadr's request, conveniently passing along the unstated but undeniable information that al Sadr wasn't even at the shrine when he was exhorting his followers to fight to the death in defense of the shrine against "infidels", and his control over the shrine is null and void.
Now that his army is pretty much reduced to fighting in and amongst non-religious buildings and perhaps the occasional unimportant mosque, which Allawi would quickly overrun with loyal Iraqi (read muslim) troops, he probably realizes that his army can be wiped out in a matter of weeks. Then there goes his basis for any future political power.
But if he doesn't realize this now, and tries to pull some of this same crap again, he'll know that it is a undeniable fact in about as much time as it takes to dial in a GPS coordinate on a JDAMS.
Now that he understands that he's a beaten man (I use that term lightly), al Sadr has even stopped his pretense of demanding that the Allawi government meet his conditions prior to any surrender.

Al-Sadr also called for U.S. and Iraqi forces to withdraw from the center of Iraqi cities, Sheik Ali Smeisim told The Associated Press. However, that did not appear to be a condition for the unilateral ceasefire.

I guess when it's clear that your "army" will continue to shrink through violent mean every day Allawi can carry on operations against you, it's best not to get too picky about the details of your surrender.

Oh That's Right, Your Name Is Michael, Sorry.

"Hey! How's it going up there, Dick?"

"Not too bad , how's it down there, dick."