What happened to the Opinion Journal?
Archives for September 2004
Thanks, New York
Bill Clinton’s health issue and the danger posed by Hurricane Frances seem to have knocked much of the post-convention punditry from the headlines, but I think one thing that should be acknowledged is the success of the security efforts. Other than a few incidents, there seemed to be very little violence, very little property damage (if any), and I think the credit goes to the NYPD, the Dept. of Homeland Security, and all the other agencies involved.
No small amount of credit should go also to New Yorkers, who by most accoutns, were gracious hosts.
I might also add that, despite the fact I have never met a protester I liked, they seemed to be on their best behavior (for them). Perhaps the Democrats should think about not locking everyone up at their next convention. Free speech seemed to work in NY- certainly it can work in other cities.
BTW- In case you missed a lot of the coverage of the protests, Jeralynn Merritt was there, and despite the fact that I disagree with damn near anything she says, she clearly had the best of the lefty blog coverage.
Red State, IMHO, was head and shoulders above everyone else in their coverage.
The Wimp Factor
There was an old joke back in the Cold War:
Proud American to Russian guy: ”In my country every one of us has the right to criticize our president.”
Russian guy: ”Same here. In my country every one of us has the right to criticize your president.”
That seems to be the way John Kerry likes it. Americans should be free to call Bush a moron, a liar, a fraud, a deserter, an agent of the House of Saud, a mass murderer, a mass rapist (according to the speaker at a National Organization for Women rally last week) and the new Hitler (according to just about everyone). But how dare anyone be so impertinent as to insult John Kerry! No one has the right to insult Kerry, except possibly Teresa, and only on the day she gives him his allowance.
No one has questioned his patriotism. No one. Not even Zell Miller, who seems to have scared the hell out of even the blogosphere’s toughest pundits. So scared are they, that they had to bring out their race-baiting early. How else to explain the dixiecrat slurs, despite the fact that race was never mentioned in Miller’s speech. Kerry’s patriotism was, however. When Zell Miller praised it.
If the Democrats and whatever the hell Andrew Sullivan is these days want to know why they have permanently lost the south, they may ask themselves a simple question:
“Why do I think everyone with a southern accent is un-reconstructed racist?”
Shooting up the GOP
By now you have heard about this:
A shot apparently was fired at the Republican Party headquarters in downtown Huntington while President Bush’s speech accepting the GOP nomination for president was being televised.
No one was hurt in the 10:30 p.m. Thursday incident.“We heard a pop. We realized it was a gunshot and we were kind of scared,” said Gayle Adkins, a volunteer of Huntington.
Others said they didn’t see anything except for some of the banners jumping as the bullet whizzed over their heads. Police could not locate where the bullet landed.
From this we can learn one of two things:
1.) The bullet was a message, and no one intended to shoot anyone.
-or-
2.) The shooter was from out of state.
West Virgnian’s do not miss what they are aiming at.
Fast Food, Fast Women, Fast Living
The “Big Me” almost had the “Big One:”
Former President Bill Clinton today checked himself into New York Presbyterian Hospital where he will undergo heart bypass surgery in the next few days after complaining of shortness of breath and chest pains, his office said.
Mr. Clinton, 58, went to Northern Westchester Hospital on Thursday after he experienced “mild chest pains and shortness of breath,” his office said in a statement released to the news media.
Tests at that hospital were “normal,” his office said, and Mr. Clinton spent Thursday night at his home in Chappaqua, N.Y. But after additional tests today, his doctors advised bypass surgery, the statement said, although it did not indicate when the surgery would take place.
Heart attacks are just soooo sudden. It was only a few days ago I was watching him in some recent video footage and I thought to myself that he looked tanned, rested, and the best he has looked in years. He probably hates the fact he can not run again.
At any rate, I hope things go well- no family needs to go through this.
Kerry Meltdown
Wow. I just read Kerry’s rebuttal. It sounds like Michael Moore and Terry McAwful co-wrote it:
For the past week, they have attacked my patriotism and even my fitness to serve as commander in chief.
Well, here is my answer to them. I will not have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could’ve and who misled America into Iraq.The vice president called me unfit for office last night. Well, I’m going to leave it up to the voters to decide whether five deferments make someone more qualified than two tours of duty.
Let me tell you in no uncertain terms what makes someone unfit for office and unfit for duty. Misleading our nation into war in Iraq makes you unfit to lead our country. Doing nothing while this nation loses millions of jobs makes you unfit to lead this country. Letting 45 million Americans go without health care for four years makes you unfit to lead this country.
Letting the Saudi royal family control the price of oil for Americans makes you unfit to lead this country. Handing out billions of dollars in government contracts without a bid to Halliburton while you’re still on the payroll makes you unfit lead this country.
Fiscal Conservatives
Earlier today, fellow Milblogger Greyhawk at the Mudville Gazette observed:
Emerging theme of the Democratic response to the Republican convention speeches:
Schwarzenegger is not a Republican
McCain is not a Republican
Zell Miller is not a Democrat
After listening to the spending proposals in the first half of Bush’s speech, we can now add to that:
George Bush is no fiscal conservative
Bush could have saved us from having to listen to an hour of his grating diction by walkingto the microphone and stating:
I accept the nomination, and if I win, I intend to fund every imaginable program possible so the Democrats can’t say I am mean.
Simply indecent.