Reading the media "endorsements" of John Kerry is like having lunch with a woman who wants to tell you about her great new boyfriend. She spends seven-eighths of the time bitching about the old boyfriend -- cocky, hot-headed, insensitive, never wants to listen, never gonna change -- and in the remaining few minutes tries to come up with the new guy's good points:

Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan in the New Republic sounds like some blousy torch singer sitting atop the piano in a Jazz Age cabaret doing one of those laundry-list songs ruefully adumbrating her lover's faults: "His record is undistinguished, and where it stands out, mainly regrettable. He intuitively believes that if a problem exists, it is the government's job to fix it. He has far too much faith in international institutions, like the corrupt and feckless U.N., in the tasks of global management. He got the Cold War wrong. He got the first Gulf War wrong --"

It's only a day or so now till the chad-dangling round of Campaign 2004 begins but, when the lawsuits are over and the bloodletting begins, serious Democrats need to confront the intellectual emptiness of their party, which Kerry's campaign embodies all too well. The Dems got a full tank from FDR, a top-up in the Civil Rights era, and they've been running on fumes for 30 years. Their last star, Bill Clinton, has no legacy because, deft as he was, his Democratic Party had no purpose other than as a vehicle for promoting his own indispensability. When he left, the Democrats became a party running on personality with no personalities to run. Hence, the Kerry candidacy. Despite the best efforts of American editorialists, there's no there there.

The Communists were without leverage over the United States during this time - except for those POWs who basically were being held hostage to pressure Uncle Sam. The Tet Offensive had been a terrible defeat for freedom's enemies. But increasingly we prisoners of war sensed, from our captors' demeanor and reading between the lines of propaganda broadcasts, a sinister force surfacing. Americans whom the Communists - the enemy - were calling "comrades" were rallying to their side. From the point of view of our captors, in America anarchy was reigning supreme.

[...]

And then in 1971 we started hearing about "Vietnam Veterans Against the War," whose leader was a former Naval officer. From various sources I've since learned that the most senior leader of VVAW was LTJG John Kerry, a U.S. Naval Reserve officer. Kerry claimed Vietnam was "ravaged equally by American bombs and search-and-destroy missions as well as by Viet Cong terrorism . . . ." Hunh? Hadn't I been shot down because we were required to fly close to the targets to minimize civilian casualties?

Asked for a recommendation as to possible courses of action for Congress to pursue, Kerry said he had spoken to representatives from Hanoi and from the PRG (Viet Cong) at the Paris peace talks, and mentioned his support for "Madame Binh's points." At that time Madam Nguyen Thi Binh was the Viet Cong foreign minister. These meetings took place in the spring of 1970, apparently before Kerry joined the VVAW. Hunh? It's illegal for U.S. citizens to do this, much less commissioned officers.

[...]

But the worst was when Kerry, clad in store-bought camouflage and festooned with his decorations, told the world he and his comrades routinely had committed war crimes while ravaging the countryside like Genghis Khan.

It was a terrible lie, but it reinforced what the leaders of the peacenik movement had been saying for several years. It was the antithesis of what our government had been reporting. And it was simultaneously the worst betrayal of the United States to those of us who had been spectating for so many years in enemy territory.

It was very simple to us. Kerry sold out his shipmates from the Swift Boats. He sold out every one of us in Hanoi - and likely extended our stay there (for which we all offer him ever so many thanks) - by concocting the lies he now calls "a little over the top." And he continues to fabricate stories to cover up a lackluster career in the Senate. When I heard a tape of Kerry's Boston accent complaining about our forces "ravaging the countryside like Genghis Khan," I had my only flashback to the large cell in Hoa Lo where I first had heard it when Hanoi Hannah - North Vietnam's woman propagandist - was bragging about Kerry's "Winter Soldiers" and the testimony of this Naval officer before a committee of the U.S. Senate.

Kerry's legacy isn't that he has the same initials as John Fitzgerald Kennedy or that he motored around the rivers of South Vietnam in a small boat for four months before asking to leave the war early. His legacy is more along the lines of Benedict Arnold's. The only difference is that Benedict Arnold was a successful soldier before he committed treason. I doubt Benedict Arnold would have much success running for President today. Are we to believe that someone who aided the enemy in time of war is worthy of becoming President?

[...]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSAMA BIN LADEN (through translator): Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands. Any nation that does not attack us will not be attacked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: OK, Walter. What do you make of this?

CRONKITE: Well, I make it out to be initially the reaction that it's a threat to us, that unless we make peace with him, in a sense, we can expect further attacks. He did not say that precisely, but it sounds like that when he says...

KING: The warning.

CRONKITE: What we just heard. So now the question is basically right now, how will this affect the election? And I have a feeling that it could tilt the election a bit. In fact, I'm a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing. The advantage to the Republican side is to get rid of, as a principal subject of the campaigns right now, get rid of the whole problem of the al Qaqaa explosive dump. Right now, that, the last couple of days, has, I think, upset the Republican campaign.

Captain Qurters posted this, about a group of Minnesota Democrats that formed a 527. They are raising funds to air a discusting Michael Moore style cobbled version of the recently relased Bin Laden clip with a terrorist holding up a Bush-Cheney sign.

My opinion is that it can only create more votes for Bush-Cheney, but you can click here, or on the picture below to watch the clip and decide for yourself.

Curtsey to Captains Quarters for the tip.




The Georgethemenace.org touts their clip with this.

A few weeks ago, with the Swift Boat nonsense all over the news (and that which pretends to be news), several South Minneapolis neighbors got together and said, "Hey, why can't we do that?"—except on the other side.

So, gathered around a patio table with coffee and muffins, we formed a 527 group called georgethemenace.org, then produced a 30-second spot, which we hope to start airing soon. We've already had coverage in the local and national press.

Our intent is to scrounge enough money to actually get the thing on TV a few times and make enough noise to—perhaps—help tip the election in our favor.

See it, pass it on, let's win this thing.

The Committed Neighbors of GeorgeTheMenace.org

What a discusting lot they are, but I am not supprised with all the hate coming from the left. Ask yourself if you really want people like this in charge.

BALTIMORE — A 12-year-old girl has been charged in the beating death of a 4-year-old family friend, according to police documents.

The girl, whose name was not released, was arrested Friday in the death of Randy Allen Weeks, who died Oct. 19, according to police documents obtained by The (Baltimore) Sun.

Police refused to release details about the case, which was one of more than 30 youth homicides in Baltimore this year. At least nine victims have been younger than 10 years old.

The right to vote is precious, the politicians preach. Our democracy hangs in the balance, the pundits screech.

Yes, but if we all value the sanctity of the voting process so highly, why is it that I have never once been asked to produce identification of any kind in the 16 years I have been a voter, from Ohio to California to Washington state to Maryland?

And why is it that we can't protect our elections from people who have no right to vote, no right to be here, and no right to undermine our safety or sovereignty?

While unhinged Democrats spread fear about alleged discriminatory disenfranchisement of U.S. citizens, they have supported the indiscriminate enfranchisement of untold numbers of foreign outlaws — including suspected al Qaeda operatives and terrorist sympathizers.

Last week, the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported that illegal alien Nuradin Abdi — the suspected shopping mall bomb plotter from Somalia — was registered to vote in the battleground state of Ohio by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a left-wing activist group. Also on the Ohio voting rolls: convicted al Qaeda agent Iyman Faris, who planned to sabotage the Brooklyn Bridge and had entered the country fraudulently from Pakistan on a student visa.

In the battleground state of Florida, indicted terrorist suspect Sami Al-Arian illegally cast his ballot in a Tampa referendum in 1994 while his citizenship application was pending. He claimed the unlawful vote was the result of a "misunderstanding." State officials declined to prosecute.

You have heard about those satirical "10 out of 10 terrorists agree: Anybody but Bush" bumper stickers? There may be more truth to them than you think. John Fund, author of "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy," says at least eight of the 19 September 11 hijackers were eligible to vote in Virginia or Florida while they plotted to kill Americans.

In an article on Thursday, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz interviews Bill Keller, editor of the New York Times. Within the course of the piece we learn, first, that Keller ran a piece containing the supposed revelation that 377 tons of explosives in Iraq "vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year," then we learn that Keller doesn't know if the explosives went missing after the invasion. Kurtz asked Keller if the explosives could have disappeared while Saddam Hussein controlled the country. "Sure there's a possibility," said Keller, "and I think the original story accounted for that possibility.

"What amazing dishonesty. Go back and look at how Keller's editorial page used that story on Tuesday. It did not account for the possibility that Saddam Hussein moved the explosives. No, it declared authoritatively that a blundering U.S. military effort accounted for the lost explosives. "James Glanz, William J. Broad and David E. Sanger reported in The Times yesterday that some 380 tons of the kinds of powerful explosives used to destroy airplanes, demolish buildings, make missile warheads and trigger nuclear weapons have disappeared from one of the many places in Iraq that the United States failed to secure," stated the Times editorial titled "Making Things Worse." Where in this statement is the "possibility" that the explosives vanished before U.S. troops arrived?

The Times editorial used the news story to crow about U.S. fecklessness. The U.N. monitored the explosives before the war, but American troops lost them after it, the Times editorialized: "The United Nations inspectors disdained by the Bush administration had managed to monitor the explosives for years. But they vanished soon after the United States took over the job." Donald Rumsfeld's military couldn't "guards things like the ammunition dump," it wrote.

The Times editorial acknowledged, for the purposes of embarrassing Bush in this case, what the paper had previously denied, the existence of weapons of mass destruction in pre-war Iraq, so that it could open a new line of attack on him: "It's been obvious for months that American forces were not going to find the chemical or biological armaments that Mr. Bush said were stockpiled in Iraq. What we didn't know is that while they were looking for weapons that did not exist, they lost weapons that did."

They lost weapons that did. Given Keller's admission to Howard Kurtz, shouldn't the Times now run one of its precious corrections about this editorial? It could go something like this: "Our Tuesday editorial, 'Making Things Worse,' did not adequately take into account the possibility that the explosives went missing during Saddam Hussein's control of the country."

The Times is now desperately trying to prove Monday's story so that readers will forget its initial dishonesty of treating as certain what it didn't know for certain. Dan Rather pulled this trick. After Bill Burkett made him look like an ass, Rather searched for a new source, a more credible source, to say roughly what Burkett had said, and he found one in the anti-Bush, ex-Jerry Killian secretary who gave Rather the line that the forgeries were fake but an accurate reflection of Killian's feelings.

After Osama bin Laden released his pre-election video yesterday, John Kerry repeated his criticism that President Bush let the terror kingpin get away by "outsourcing" the job to Afghan forces when we had him cornered in the Tora Bora mountains.

But it turns out that in December 2001, when the Tora Bora operation was underway, Kerry endorsed Bush's tactics during an interview with CNN's Larry King.

Kerry said the Bush plan to get bin Laden "is having its impact, and it is the best way to protect our troops and sort of minimalize the proximity, if you will."
Lest anyone mistake his endorsement as half-hearted, Kerry added:

"I think we have been doing this pretty effectively, and we should continue to do it that way."

The quotes, unearthed Saturday by New York Times columnist David Brooks, only add to Kerry's image as a political opportunist who tailors his rhetoric to fit the moment.

According to Kerry, says Brooks: "When we rely on allies everywhere else around the world, that's multilateral cooperation, but when Bush does it in Afghanistan, it's 'outsourcing.' In Iraq, Kerry supports using local troops to chase insurgents, but in Afghanistan he is in post hoc opposition."

The Tora Bora contradiction exposes the credibility gap in Kerry's anti-terror pronouncements, says Brooks. "Many people are not sure that he gets the fundamental moral confrontation. Many people are not sure he feels it, or feels anything."

Cmdr. Paul Galanti first heard John Kerry’s 1971 Senate “testimony” about alleged war atrocities committed by U.S. troops when he was a POW in Vietnam and his captors played it over the public address system at the “Hanoi Hilton” prison camp. For years, the North Vietnamese tortured POWs to try to get them to admit they were war criminals and had razed villages and tortured and killed many innocent civilians -- crimes they never committed.

Much of that testimony is now discredited (even Kerry distances himself from it) and -- according to Galanti, veterans groups, and archive video footage of Kerry preparing for the testimony -- was made up by Kerry and his group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

In one of the Swift Vets TV ads, Galanti says, “John Kerry gave the enemy for free what I and many of my comrades in North Vietnam, in the prison camps, took torture to avoid saying. It demoralized us.”

Later in the ad, he states, “He dishonored his country and, more importantly, the people he served with. He just sold them out.”

He has called Kerry a traitor on national TV.

He believes that the presidential candidate may have been dishonorably discharged from the Navy, and that could be the reason he isn’t releasing all of his service records.

Several investigative journalists, such as Thomas Lipscomb of the New York Sun, have pointed out that only some of Kerry’s military records are posted on his campaign Web site.

“Something is really squirrelly about the documentation on his website,” Galanti said.

Journalists also point out a document that shows his discharge was reviewed by a "board of officers." According to experts, no such review should be necessary for an honorable discharge. The review was conducted under U.S. law that pertains to grounds for involuntary separation from military service.

The document was also dated February 1978, eight years after Kerry was discharged, and it was signed by President Carter’s secretary of the Navy. The significance is that Carter gave amnesty to all draft evaders and war protesters on his first day in office in 1977, and reversed many “less than honorable” discharges through review boards shortly thereafter.

Galanti has written an op-ed piece that is scheduled to appear in the Richmond Times-Dispatch this Sunday. It’s a letter to John Kerry, asking him to release his military service records, including his original discharge papers.

He believes that the presidential candidate may have been dishonorably discharged from the Navy, and that could be the reason he isn’t releasing all of his service records.

Several investigative journalists, such as Thomas Lipscomb of the New York Sun, have pointed out that only some of Kerry’s military records are posted on his campaign Web site.

“Something is really squirrelly about the documentation on his website,” Galanti said.

Journalists also point out a document that shows his discharge was reviewed by a "board of officers." According to experts, no such review should be necessary for an honorable discharge. The review was conducted under U.S. law that pertains to grounds for involuntary separation from military service.

The document was also dated February 1978, eight years after Kerry was discharged, and it was signed by President Carter’s secretary of the Navy. The significance is that Carter gave amnesty to all draft evaders and war protesters on his first day in office in 1977, and reversed many “less than honorable” discharges through review boards shortly thereafter.

Galanti has written an op-ed piece that is scheduled to appear in the Richmond Times-Dispatch this Sunday. It’s a letter to John Kerry, asking him to release his military service records, including his original discharge papers.

THE man whose presidential ambitions were destroyed when he plagiarised Neil Kinnock is set to become America’s chief foreign policymaker if John Kerry is elected President next Tuesday.

Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware has been asked by Mr Kerry to become Secretary of State in a Democratic administration, according to Kerry campaign aides. Mr Biden, the leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the past four years, ran for President in 1988. His campaign ended abruptly when it was revealed that a key element of his stump speech had been lifted directly from Mr Kinnock’s general election speeches in 1987.

But Mr Biden has since emerged as a leading foreign policy figure in the Democratic party and is expected to take the job offered by Mr Kerry unless political factors intervene. Were the Democrats to retake control of the Senate, he might prefer to remain as a lawmaker, but those who know him think that unlikely.

Paper Reported Saddam Transferred High Explosives




[Link to NewsMax story]

The New York Times claimed this week that hundreds of tons of high explosives had been removed from the Al-Qaqaa weapons depot while the facility was under U.S. control.

But Times reporters knew way back in Feb. 2003 that the removal process was instigated - not by looters or insurgents after the U.S. liberation - but instead by the government of Saddam Hussein.

On Feb. 15, 2003, the Times reported on an address to the United Nations Security Council by Mohamed ElBaradei, the UN's chief nuclear watchdog. In quotes covered extensively by the paper, ElBaradei shared his concern about the removal of high explosives from facilities like Al Qaqaa:

"We have also continued to investigate the relocation and consumption of the high explosive HMX," ElBaradei explained a month before the U.S. invasion.
"As I reported earlier, Iraq has declared that 32 tons of the HMX, previously under I.A.E.A. seals, had been transferred for use in the production of industrial explosives, primarily to cement plants as a booster for explosives used in quarrying."

Baradei noted that Saddam's government had even confirmed the movement of the HMX, in quotes also picked up by the Times 21 months ago:

"Iraq has provided us with additional information, including documentation on the movement and use of this material, and inspections have been conducted at locations where the material is said to have been used.

Beverly Mitchell came back from 2½ weeks in Greece on Oct. 4 to find that a stranger had moved into her Douglasville, Ga., home.

"I noticed a car in the driveway and the windows of the house were open, which freaked me out," Mitchell, 46, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I had left everything shut up."

Mitchell quickly backed out of the driveway, hitting a tree twice, and dialed 911.

Douglas County Sheriff's Deputy Chuck Haralson went into the house and found a different Beverly naked in the shower — 53-year-old Beverly Valentine, a stranger to Beverly Mitchell.

"In 28 years, I've never seen something this strange," said Chief Sheriff's Deputy Stan Copeland.

It turned out that this funny Valentine had moved her own furniture and her dog into the house, switched the utilities to her name, taken Mitchell's family photos down from the walls, worn Mitchell's clothes, installed a washer and dryer, ripped up carpeting and begun to lay down floor tiles.

"She had two, maybe even three different types of tiles," Mitchell told the newspaper. "That's just out of this world."

Valentine first said she'd been in the house two weeks and had gotten in by breaking a window with a shovel. Then she said she'd lived there two years.

Finally Valentine admitted she'd just needed a place to live, saw that no one was home at Mitchell's house, "and she just moved her things in the house," according to the sheriff's report.

"Some people have suggested," Mitchell said, "and I agree, that she probably thought this was her home."

In Valentine's car, authorities found a gun and $23,000 in jewelry belonging to Mitchell. She was charged with burglary and held in the Douglas County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.

"What she's done is really make a mess," said Mitchell. "She repainted around the fireplace, and there's paint all over the brick. I'm going to have to get somebody to probably sandblast stuff like that to get it off."

Asked if she'd keep any of Valentine's remodeling work, Mitchell responded, "It's not my style."

Mitchell said she is sympathetic to the plight of Valentine, who was apparently recently evicted from her own home about 20 miles away, but thinks she may have already gotten help.

"She's saying she moved by herself, but she didn't lift a washer and dryer by herself," said the angry homeowner. "And she didn't lift a sleeper sofa by herself. Did she just hire some local help or was there somebody else involved?"

As for the washer and dryer, Valentine told authorities she didn't care what happened to them, so police are leaving them in Mitchell's care.

"I'm hoping maybe 'Extreme Makeovers,' somebody like that, will get in touch with me," Mitchell said. "It's a bizarre story, and they always want bizarre stories."

She expected that Valentine's relatives would come get the intruder's photographs and personal items.

"I've given them until Tuesday," Mitchell told the newspaper. "Come Wednesday, I've got to move this stuff out and try to work myself back into my life."

"Interest in the 2004 general election has exceeded all those in recent memory in Delaware County," said county Solicitor John McBlain, who also spoke at Tuesday’s press conference. McBlain, who is also treasurer of the county Republican Party and vice president of Aldan Borough Council, said this year’s election has seen an unparalleled amount of voter registration applications and absentee ballot applications.

He said more than 27,000 new registrations have been filed, and to date more than 15,000 applications for absentee ballots have been received and processed. There are currently 198,400 Republicans, 119,166 Democrats, 34,997 non-partisans, 1,143 Libertarians and 588 Green Party members in the county. New registrations have been 2 to 1 Democrat.

"Unfortunately, it appears that some individuals have attempted to take advantage of our election system by fraudulently filing forms to vote, voter registration applications and obtaining absentee ballots fraudulently," said McBlain.

Republicans across the country have been making similar allegations in recent weeks. The Philadelphia GOP on Tuesday questioned the validity of 10,000 new registrations.

Numbers such as those have Green and other Republican officials in the county running scared, charged state Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney.

"I understand why they feel threatened. When Democrats turn out in large numbers in Pennsylvania, we don’t lose," Rooney said.

Green, a fellow Republican, said the problems involve both Republicans and Democrats and exist countywide. He said the probe will not end with Tuesday’s election. "Our intention is to continue to investigate these matters as long as it takes and well beyond Tuesday, the date of our general election," he said.

At the press conference, McBlain displayed a stack of documents he and Green said contained incomplete information.

"What we have here are forms that for one reason or another are bad," said McBlain. "We have approximately 1,100 voter application forms that were not complete when they were sent to us. We’ve sent letters to the applicants as well as tried to telephone them."

He said the remaining pile consisted of forms in which no response was received. He said there will be people on Election Day whose forms were improperly prepared by voter advocacy groups who won’t be able to vote.

"We have another 300 instances of voter-registration applications that were processed and accepted with completed information. We mailed voter information cards to the voter, and they have been returned to us with no such person at that address or no such address."

He said some went to vacant properties; at others, a resident reported nobody with that name lived at that address. He said still others who received the card indicated they had not requested a change -- and when the signatures were compared, they turned out to be fakes.

Green said 30 forged signatures have been discovered on voter registration applications. Among the victims, Green said, was the 98-year-old woman. He said there are another 31 instances in which absentee ballot applications have been submitted for residents of a local nursing home, which he declined to name.

"In connection with those applications, we have determined at this time that none were signed by the voters. Each of these applications appears to have been filled out by the same person in the same hand," said Green.

The Democrats' election-stealing playbook calls for counting every illegal "vote," but a federal judge in Florida has issued a ruling against them and for fair elections.
More than 10,000 foreigners, and people too stupid to check a box on the registration form indicating that they were American citizens, won't get to help decide the election Tuesday, thanks to U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King in Miami.

Democrats, Big Labor's AFL-CIO and other left-wing groups had sued elections officials in Democrat-run Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties and elsewhere, but King's ruling Tuesday noted that people had to take responsibility for completing the simple forms and could not blame elections supervisors.

"I don't think the federal and state requirements, which are in place to prevent voter fraud, are unreasonable," Ed Pozzuoli, a lawyer for the Broward Republican Party, told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. Illegal voters "dilute" votes cast by legitimate voters, he noted.

Alia Faraj of the Florida Department of State noted: "It's an anti-fraud measure. It's to protect the voter. It's the law, and we stand by that."

Pro-Kerry groups grumbled that the ruling would exclude more than 14,000 (illegitimate) voters. Hooray!

The pro-Kerry educrats are allowing a left-wing outfit that calls itself Wisconsin Citizen Action Fund to pluck pupils from the classroom to go door to door in black neighborhoods that vote overwhelmingly Democrat and urge residents to go to the polls.

"The students, ranging in age from 11 to 18, also use phone banks to call homes and urge people to vote," the Associated Press reported today.

The aptly named Larry Marx, co-executive director of Wisconsin Citizen Action, denied partisanship ... even though the outfit openly supports Kerry.

Chris Lato, spokesman for the state Republican Party, noted the scheme was "a disgraceful use of taxpayer money."

"To spend this time on a clearly partisan effort when these kids should be in school learning is shocking," Lato pointed out.

No wonder Kerry now opposes the reforms of No Child Left Behind: He'd leave no child behind for his own exploitation in his relentless do-anything quest for power.

"In July, here she was on the front page of the same local newspaper, saying she's a deputy registrar of voters. How could an illegal alien go from [that] status...to a deputy registrar of voters in less than a year?" Tully wonders.

So the FAIR Midwest field director sent one of her activists to take the class in Racine to become a deputy voter registrar. What Tully discovered concerns her.

"At no time was she asked to show identification; at no time was she asked for her Social Security number; and at no time was she asked if she was a citizen of the United States," she says. "I have a real fear, based on my knowledge now, that this election will be decided by foreign nationals and illegal aliens."

And Tully did not stop there. Suspecting voter fraud, FAIR sent two activists from another state to the office of the former illegal alien who is not only a deputy registrar of voters in Racine but also the leader of a Hispanic organization. Tully gave the activists specific instructions.

"I wanted them to specifically tell this person they were illegal aliens, but that they wanted to register to vote -- and she registered them both," she says. The two activists received a similar response at the Milwaukee office of the Hispanic group. "This time one of the men in the office at least said it's a felony to register someone who's not a citizen to vote -- but the office manager went ahead and registered them."

After investigating the Milwaukee incident, District Attorney E. Michael McCann said Tuesday that he won't pursue prosecution, partly because he can't confirm the identity of the testers. But he issued a stiff warning.

"Anyone who tries to test the system from now on will be criminally prosecuted no matter who they claim they are working for or what they're testing," he said.

Racine County Deputy District Attorney Michael Nieskes said Tuesday that his investigation in Racine is continuing.

He, too, said individuals should leave the investigation to the professionals and take any credible information to law enforcement. "It makes the case much easier to pursue," he said.

He added that the testers are put at possible legal risk by such tactics.

According to a description on its Web site, Washington, D.C.-based FAIR is a non-profit citizens organization that "seeks to improve border security, to stop illegal immigration, and to promote immigration levels consistent with the national interest - more traditional rates of about 300,000 a year."

Voces de la Frontera, a community group that works on immigrant and worker rights, is holding a voter registration drive in Latino communities in Racine and Milwaukee.

Tully said she sent a man and a woman from Kalamazoo, Mich., - one a foreign national and the other a Spanish-speaking American citizen - to Voces offices in Racine and Milwaukee to register to vote. Both transactions were tape-recorded, and the tapes were turned over to prosecutors, Tully said.

According to McCann, volunteers at Voces said they were suspicious of the two, who said they were born in the United States but had lived in Colombia and seemed vague about their status though insistent on registering. One volunteer agreed to register them, but a second tore up the card believing it was fraudulent, McCann said. He said the cards have not turned up at the city Election Commission.

In Racine, the cards have been recovered from the city clerk's office, but questions remain about who signed them, Nieskes said.

Tully reacted angrily to McCann's conclusions. "I have a slam-dunk case, and they're not doing their job," she said.

"It's amazing. We have people who we believe are registering illegal aliens to vote and the DA says he will go after American citizens instead of illegals who may be committing felonies," she said. "It's unbelievable to me."

BUSH TEAM RESPONSE [10/26 05:40 PM]
Steve Schmidt, Bush-Cheney '04 Spokesman, today: "John Kerry demonstrated today that he is not going to let the facts get in the way of his political attacks. He is a candidate who will say and do anything if he perceives there to be an opportunity for political gain. The fact is that John Kerry does not have a plan or vision to fight and win the War on Terror, and he is resorting to a series of baseless attacks and distortions that have been proven false."

Come on, guys. The New York Times, international bureaucrats like Mohamed ElBaradei and the Kerry campaign are coordinating October-surprise hit pieces on President Bush. This is screaming for a tougher response. Something like an attack ad stating, “Kerry is playing Monday Morning Quarterback with the 101st Airborne’s performance in Iraq. In 1971, John Kerry smeared our troops as rapists and butchers then... He’s smearing them as incompetent now. This Nov. 2, show John Kerry what you think of his attacks on our troops."

From yet another Kerry Spot reader with a ".mil" e-mail address:

You are correct in your bottom line conclusion. Here is a second follow up.
I was serving as a [identifying information removed by the Kerry Spot] staff member during the time in question. The Commander on the site had complete real time intelligence on what to expect and possibly find at the Al-QaQaa depot. The ordinance in question was not found when teams were sent in to inspect and secure the area. When this information was relayed, Operational plans were adjusted and the unit moved forward. Had the ordinance in question been discovered, a security team would have been left in place.

More from a Kerry Spot reader with a ".mil" e-mail address, stating he was among the soldiers who secured Al QaQaa on April 10th with the 101st:

I can tell you what happened at my squad level. When we arrived there, humvees with Mark-19's and other mounted weapons immediately secured the parameter with appropriate manpower backup. On the foot level we broke up into squads and went building to building and cleared them; mind you, we couldn't do them all. But we found what had been typical finds, caches of AK-47's, artillery rounds and bullets. There was absolutely no talk of a big find, and what I could sense no worries of anything that should have been there. Of course, we were still worried about the possibilities of chemical weapons but they never panned out.

I am a little perturbed at the gross mischaracterization of what went on there. From what I remember of the NBC crew, they did not go out with us, and they may have in fact been asked to not to go on the search with us, due to the dangers that may have possibily come up. Now this part is my opinion, but don't you think that if they had gone out with us they would have video?

Thanks to this guy for what he did, and sharing what he could.

You read words like this, from a guy who has put it on the line for his country, and wonder who heck thinks they have the right as a Monday Morning Quarterback to tell guys like him they botched the job.

Gibson prodded Bush to explore the notion on ABC’s airwaves that he would be a loser next week. (See box.) Gibson also asked about the burden of the presidency: “Does it wear you down? Does it depress you? Does it feel burdensome?” Can we spare you all that, sir?

At least half of Gibson’s interview was devoted to the human cost of the Iraq war: “Before a commander-in-chief or President commits kids to war, is there a calculus of war? Do you say to yourself, in a risk-benefit analysis, the ends of this war are worth X or Y? If I had said to you on March 19, 2003, we're going to lose 1100 kids and counting, we're going to have 8,000 kids wounded, and we're going to spend $140 billion of our treasury and counting, would you say removing Saddam Hussein was worth it?”

Bush declared you can’t put a price on a person’s life, but Gibson continued: “But is there a point where the cost is too great, Mr. President?” When Bush countered that “the cost is too great if the American President withdraws before the mission is complete,” Gibson offered pessimistically: “If we lose another thousand kids, if you have to ask for $50 or $60 billion more after the election, as people expect?” Bush replied: “It's essential we succeed in Iraq at this point, Charlie.”

Gulfport, Miss. - Deanna Favre, the wife of Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre, has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Deanna Favre was recently released from Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York after undergoing a lumpectomy, Bonita Favre, Deanna's mother-in-law, told The Sun Herald on Monday.

Deanna Farve will undergo chemotherapy treatments which could last up to five months and is expected to make a full recovery, Bonita Favre said.

It has been a difficult year for the Favre family. In December, Brett's father, Irvin, died from a heart attack. Deanna's brother, Casey Tynes, 24, was killed three weeks ago in an ATV accident on Brett Favre's land near his home in Oak Grove.

Deanna Favre runs the Brett Favre Fourward Foundation, which has raised more than $1 million for disadvantaged or disabled children who live in Wisconsin or Mississippi.

The novice legislator who wants to be one heartbeat from the presidency either is too stupid to understand the phoniness of the New York Times' latest fiction about Iraq or thinks the American people are too stupid.

Or perhaps Democrat airhead apparent John Edwards is just doing his handlers' bidding: the old Democrat trick of repeating a lie often enough until people believe it.

Edwards claimed today in Wilmington, Ohio: "These are exactly the kind of explosives terrorists want. They're the dangerous weapons we wanted to keep from falling in the hands of terrorists. And now these explosives are out there, and we have no idea who's got them. Dick Cheney calls that a remarkable success."

He failed to mention that the pro-Democrat Times, whose recent endorsement of the Kerry-Edwards ticket was the nation's most obvious redundancy since the coining of the term "liberal media bias," refused to report reality: that the explosives were already missing from Al-Qaqaa when GIs got there a mere one day after Saddam Hussein's fall.

Nor did the one-term senator or the Times note that that "news" dated from April 2003.

Appearing on CNN’s American Morning program Tuesday, Ohio’s Republican Governor Bob Taft painted a disturbing picture of widespread vote fraud in his state.

Taft told CNN’s Bill Hemmer that in four Ohio counties, more people have registered to vote than live in those counties and are of voting age.

"We've had a lot of fraudulent voter registrations already, mostly by those 527 groups. There will be unprecedented scrutiny of this election on both sides,” he said. Taft noted that many of these new registrations appear to be fraudulent.

"A lot of these voters don't have addresses,” he [Taft] said of the new registrations. "When they send the postcard out to them, after they register, that comes back undeliverable. You're talking about thousands of cases like that all across the State of Ohio.”

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 - The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.

The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year.

The White House said President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was informed within the past month that the explosives were missing. It is unclear whether President Bush was informed. American officials have never publicly announced the disappearance, but beginning last week they answered questions about it posed by The New York Times and the CBS News program "60 Minutes."

"Mr. President, what else are you being silent about? What else are you keeping from the American people?" Kerry said during a speech in Green Bay, referring to the estimated 380 tons of highly explosive material that have gone missing from an arms depot in Iraq.

DAVENPORT, Iowa, Oct. 25 - The White House sought on Monday to explain the disappearance of 380 tons of high explosives in Iraq that American forces were supposed to secure, as Senator John Kerry seized on the missing cache as "one of the great blunders of Iraq" and said President Bush's "incredible incompetence" had put American troops at risk.

NBC News reported Monday night that 380 tons of missing explosives were already gone when U.S. troops arrived at the Al-Qaqaa weapons installation in April 2003 – one day after Saddam's government was toppled.

NBC should know. It had a reporter embedded with the U.S. troops when they arrived at Al-Qaqaa in April 2003.

While the Kerry campaign blasted the Bush administration for "stunning incompetence" on Monday, many Bush supporters questioned the timing of the New York Times' report Monday about the missing explosives, just eight days before the presidential election.
NBC News correspondent Jim Miklaszewski suggested a political motive as well: In his report on the missing explosives Monday night, he quoted one official as saying, "Recent disagreements between the administration and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency makes this announcement appear highly political."

According to the Times, the IAEA said it had warned the Bush administration about the need to secure the Al-Qaqaa facility before and after the war.

Times' Bias Caught Again

In a follow-up report on Tuesday, the Times did not mention the fact that NBC had an embedded reporter on the scene when the missing explosives were discovered - the day after Baghdad fell.

A friend of mine says the whole thing is doomed to failure because half the voters are below average in intelligence. Winston Churchill wasn't much more encouraging: "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

Too mocking? Maybe not. A recent report from the Cato Institute by George Mason law professor Ilya Somin, "When Ignorance Isn't Bliss," doesn't paint a pretty picture. "The overwhelming evidence," writes Somin, shows that "the American electorate fails to meet even minimal criteria for adequate voter knowledge."

The extent of the ignorance? Somin points to the almost 70 percent of Americans who don't know that Congress recently added a massive prescription drug benefit to Medicare, the largest new federal entitlement in decades, and to the more than 60 percent who don't understand how the substantial increases in domestic government spending are connected to the recent upsurge in the federal deficit, and to the 70 percent of adult Americans who can't name either of their state's senators.

On issues directly linked to Tuesday's election, a recent Roper Center poll shows that 61 percent of respondents mistakenly believe that there's been a net loss of jobs in 2004, 65 percent don't know of the recent passage of a ban on partial birth abortion, and 58 percent said they know "nothing" or "very little" about the USA Patriot Act.

[snip]

In a nutshell, here's how it works. They lie, and we know they lie, so we don 't pay a lot of attention. We stay basically unaware of the minutiae of their day-to-day shenanigans, remain essentially in the dark about the passage of this or that, and then just hope every four years that we're wise enough to turn the keys over to the guy who sounds like he's the most likely to get things back on track. Or as H. L. Mencken put it: "Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance."

Or said another way, it's like monkeys throwing paint at a wall and expecting a Rembrandt. The way Claire Wolfe sees it, it's unlikely that any Rembrandts are forthcoming -- in spite of that idea that says enough monkeys pounding away at enough keyboards will eventually produce a perfect Sunday edition of the New York Times. As Wolfe writes in the opening lines of 101 Things To Do 'Til The Revolution, "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."

"In a victory for the Democrats, a federal judge ruled Thursday that Ohio voters who show up at the wrong polling place on Election Day can still cast ballots as long as they are in the county where they are registered," the Associated Press reported.
Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican, had correctly noted that state law required poll workers to send wayward voters to the right precinct.

U.S. District Judge James Carr, nominated to the judiciary by Bill Clinton in 1994, decreed in Toledo that people may cast so-called provisional ballots in the wrong precinct. The only thing that has to be correct is the county. Let's see, how many precincts does Cuyahoga County have?

But the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Saturday noted that Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell was correct in noting that people must be responsible enough to vote in the right place and not commit fraud in as many precincts as they can visit on Nov. 2.

Ohio's foundering Democrat party and left-wing groups said they would not appeal the court's decision.

"Today's ruling reaffirms Secretary Blackwell's understanding of the law," Blackwell's spokesman Carlo LoParo stated Saturday. "Unfortunately the frivolous lawsuits filed by the Ohio Democratic Party and its allies have needlessly wasted the valuable time of election officials across the state as they prepare for this important election."

John Kerry boasted earlier this year that he's met with a number of world leaders who are secretly rooting for him to defeat George Bush on Nov. 2.

But in an unprecedented series of announcements in recent days, most U.S. allies are lining up behind Bush - with Kerry garnering the backing of several of America's most outspoken antagonists.

Meanwhile, John Kerry has won expressions of support from North Korea, Cuba and the Palestinian Authority, with the governments of Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder believed to be quietly hoping he wins.

U.N. ambassadors from several nations are disputing assertions by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry that he met for hours with all members of the U.N. Security Council just a week before voting in October 2002 to authorize the use of force in Iraq. An investigation by The Washington Times reveals that while the candidate did talk for an unspecified period to at least a few members of the panel, no such meeting, as described by Mr. Kerry on a number of occasions over the past year, ever occurred.

DETROIT -- A judge's order requiring some provisional ballots in Michigan to be counted even if they are cast in the wrong precinct was put on hold Sunday, the second time in as many days that a federal appeals court dealt a setback to Democrats who wanted to ease voting restrictions.

A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Cincinnati issued a stay of a lower court ruling that had reversed Michigan's policy for counting provisional ballots, saying it will hear an appeal of the issue quickly. On Saturday, the same three-judge panel had rejected a similar ruling out of Ohio.

Provisional ballots - required in all states for the first time this year - are used when voters say they are properly registered but their names are not on the registration rolls. The ballots are later counted if elections officials determine the voter is validly registered.
Michigan officials had ordered that only provisional ballots cast in the correct precinct should be counted, but a federal judge in Michigan had issued an injunction Tuesday saying ballots should be counted for federal races, including president, if the votes were cast in the wrong precinct but the right city, township or village.

Expedited Appeal The panel that stayed that ruling promised to hear an expedited appeal of the case, but it was unclear whether a decision would be reached before Election Day on Nov. 2.

Washington - Nearly 50 protesters gathered near the White House on Friday to protest Sinclair Broadcast Group's decision to air interviews with prisoners of war who blame Sen. John Kerry for their captivity during the Vietnam War.

"It's a pit of blatant, partisan swinishness," said Mark Mellon of Washington, D.C., who took time from his lunch to join the demonstration. "Are they POWs? They don't look like POWs. They look like elderly white men to me," Mellon said in reference to the interviews set to air as part of a news program Friday night on 40 of Sinclair Broadcasting's local television affiliates around the country.

The great Florida vote-recount fiasco of 2000 highlighted problems with voting equipment used in the United States. Those problems may be less important, however, than the voting fraud allowed by the "politically correct" voting procedures currently in effect in the United States. Current voting registration procedures allow non-citizens to vote, and current voting sign-in procedures make it nearly impossible to prevent anyone from voting more than once.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 -- the "Motor-Voter" law -- requires that people be allowed to register to vote when they apply for a driver's license, when they collect welfare payments, or by mail. No proof of citizenship is required, however, and motor vehicle departments are not equipped to check citizenship status. They must simply trust the applicant. The practical effect is that non-citizens are now essentially allowed to vote in the United States -- a clear violation of the Constitution.

The Motor-Voter law was signed into law by President Clinton, a Democrat, after being approved by every single one of the 57 Democratic Senators (the Republicans voted 37-6 against it). Guess which party enjoys the lion's share of the benefit of voting fraud. That's right! What can be said about a party that is willing to make a travesty of both common sense and the Constitution to promote its own power -- and bank on the ignorance of the American public to get away with it?

The Democratic demagogues got away with their power grab by depicting the Republicans as trying to "disenfrancise" racial minorities and the poor, of course. But the effort involved in registering to vote was minimal even before the Motor-Voter law, and registering was no more difficult for any one group than for any other. If someone is unwilling to endure a slight inconvenience to register to vote, how much effort are they likely to put into educating and informing themselves on the candidates and the issues? And guess which party they are likely to vote for? Right again!

But if voting registration procedures are absurd, voting sign-in procedures are equally ridiculous. Only fourteen states require voters to provide official identification of any kind before they vote. In the other 36 states, anyone can waltz into any precinct voting station, claim to be any registered voter who lives in that precinct, then proceed to vote. And once an anonymous vote is inserted into the ballot box, it cannot be retrieved, of course.

Yes, the Motor-Voter law makes fraudulent voting illegal, but how can anyone be caught doing it if they cannot be asked for official identification? And what is to stop anyone from getting up early on election day and voting fraudently in several precincts? If the real voter votes before the fraud arrives, the fraud can simply leave -- or claim that the earlier voter was the fraud and proceed to vote with a "provisional" ballot (just as the innocent voter could do if preceded by the fraud).

The right to vote is the foundation of democracy, but the Motor-Voter law makes a travesty of it by facilitating voting fraud. It effectively allows non-citizens to vote, and it effectively allows anyone to vote more than once with impunity. The Motor-Voter law was pushed through by Democrats to bypass the Constitution in a pure and simple power grab. Any effort to accurately record and count votes is a sham as long as the Motor-Voter law is in effect.

A RECENT story that didn't get nearly the attention it deserved was the New York Daily News report that 46,000 registered New York City voters are also registered to vote in Florida. Nearly 1,700 of them have had absentee ballots mailed to their home in the other state, and as many as 1,000 have voted twice in the same election. Can 1,000 fraudulent votes change an election? Well, George W. Bush won Florida in 2000 by just 537 votes.

It is illegal to register to vote simultaneously in different jurisdictions, but scofflaws have little to worry about. As the Daily News noted, "efforts to prevent people from registering and voting in more than one state rely mostly on the honor system." Those who break the law rarely face prosecution or serious punishment. It's easy -- and painless -- to cheat.

A recent development has received very little notice in the news. Earlier this year, the New York State Motor Vehicle Department notified nearly half a million drivers that their social security numbers were unverifiable. Some corrected the problem. But state officials expect as many as 300,000 will fail to comply. This is because they are illegal aliens.

A driver's license is the passport to American society. The Federation for American Immigration Reform reports that 16 states have intentionally allowed illegal aliens to get driver's licenses or had lax application provisions in which licenses could be easily obtained. Illegal aliens have been able to fraudulently obtain a driver's license in many of the other 34 states, as well.

Now enter the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as the Motor Voter Law. Signed into law by President Clinton in 1993 it allows anyone getting a driver's license to also register to vote. In its first year of full implementation more than 11 million people registered to vote or changed their voting address. No one knows just how many are illegal voters.

But a couple of years ago, the Postal Service was unable to locate 28 percent of the registered voters in St. Louis, Missouri a very scary statistic.

And now, as many as 300,000 in New York may be using fraudulent social security numbers indicating their status in the U.S. is illegal. Yet, they and every other illegal alien who holds a driver's license will potentially cast a ballot in this year's and every year's election.

In yet another sign of how fiercely Ohio will be contested in the Nov. 2 presidential election, Republicans challenged 35,427 newly registered voters yesterday. And both parties named thousands of people to be challengers at the polls.

The Ohio GOP said it is questioning new voters in 65 counties where mail sent to them was returned as undeliverable.

But overburdened elections officials were left wondering how to comply with a state law requiring a hearing on each challenge no later than two days before the election.

"I’m not sure how we’re going to accomplish this," said John Williams, deputy elections director in Hamilton County. "We’ve never had anything like this before."

Those who have been challenged must receive a letter by first-class mail no later than three days before a hearing to answer the challenge — with a lawyer and witnesses, if they choose.

In Franklin County, where 4,219 challenges were filed, officials are considering using the Veterans Memorial auditorium to hold hearings.

"Burden or not, we’ll do it to the best of our ability," said Matthew Damschroder, county elections director.

Damschroder said hearings can be short — showing a driver’s license or utility bill can prove residency. But if mail was returned once, hearing notices also might be returned — meaning no hearing can be held.

Another victory for fair elections. I have to agree with Blackwell. Not only would casting votes where ever a voter shows up be a recipe for Election Day chaos, but a recipe for voter fraud as well.

Because there is little means to cross check in most states, voters could cast provisional ballots in every precinct in the county. Apparently the Democrats plan is that there are more cheaters in their party.

Psst: Hey, wanna vote in as many precincts as you can visit in one day? If you live in the crucial battleground state of Ohio, you can!

"In a victory for the Democrats, a federal judge ruled Thursday that Ohio voters who show up at the wrong polling place on Election Day can still cast ballots as long as they are in the county where they are registered," the Associated Press reported.
Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican, had correctly noted that state law required poll workers to send wayward voters to the right precinct.


U.S. District Judge James Carr, nominated to the judiciary by Bill Clinton in 1994, decreed in Toledo that people may cast so-called provisional ballots in the wrong precinct. The only thing that has to be correct is the county. Let's see, how many precincts does Cuyahoga County have?


"Lessened participation at the polls diminishes the vitality of our democracy," Carr said.

He failed to note that massive fraud at the polls diminishes the vitality of our republic.


Even if the Democrat judge hadn't ruled in his party's favor, Democrat-run counties had planned to violate state law anyway.

"Nobody is going to be turned away at the polling location," Michael Vu, director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Monday.

Really? Not even illegal aliens or non-residents or dead people? Seems Chicago-style antics are spreading.


Citizens who don't want the election to be stolen will supposedly be allowed to challenge all the bogus provisional ballots later, after the Democrats have carried out their threat to unleash their mobs of lawyers.

P.S.: In the nation's other most hotly contested state, Florida, Democrats and their thuggish, increasingly violence-prone allies in Big Labor are urging the Democrat-run state Supreme Court (yes, the same court that abetted Al Gore's failed coup attempt in 2000) to issue a similar ruling.

Mr. Kerry has promised that he would not raise taxes on anyone making more than $200,000 a year. But the IRS tax rate schedule for 2004 states that the lower of the top two tax rates applies to single people that make $143,500 and up and married couples who file jointly and who have a combined income of $174,700 or more. This is far below the $200,000 threshold Mr. Kerry has promised.

To keep his pledge, Mr. Kerry will have to add another tax rate or multiple deductions for the people in this 36 percent tax rate bracket, further complicating an already insanely complicated income tax system that imposes hundreds of billions of dollars in compliance costs on all of us.

Mr. Kerry's reasoning for doing all this is that it will help pay for the many new domestic spending initiatives he has proposed, from health care to education, and it will help cut the deficit in half. But when the nonpartisan Tax Foundation crunched the tax revenue numbers in his plan, it could come up with only $25 billion a year in increased tax revenues, a modest sum for a government that spends $2 trillion a year and is running a deficit of more than $400 billion.

But this $25 billion looms large when it is removed from the pool of investment start-up capital that creates the new businesses of tomorrow -- not to mention the disincentives it imposes on work and entrepreneurial creativity.

Mr. Kerry needs to explain how punishing the most successful and affluent people in our country with higher tax rates can help anyone get a job. If you want to see how his plan would work, take a look at Europe, where the tax rates exceed the levels he wants to set here and where the jobless rate is nearly 10 percent.

An angry and worried John Kerry claims Sinclair Broadcasting will violate federal broadcasting rules if it shows the documentary "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal."

In a letter released Friday the Kerry campaign made clear it wants to stop the film from being broadcast on television.

If Sinclair does air the documentary, Kerry is demanding the station group give his campaign equal time.

If Sinclair does air this program in which supporters of President Bush attack Senator Kerry, it must provide a similar opportunity for Senator Kerry's supporters. Please consider this a request that each Sinclair station that airs the documentary provide supporters of the Kerry-Edwards campaign with a similar amount of time on that station before the election at a time where an audience of similar size can be expected to be viewing the station. Please contact me or have a representative of each station do so in order to schedule an appearance by supporters of Senator Kerry.

Hyman countered, "If John Kerry sat down with us for two hours, we may end up with a 60-minute program that has 57 minutes of John Kerry presenting his side of the issues. That's fine. That's what this is all about. We've made an open invitation.

"We told Senaator Kerry we would meet him anywhere, anytime that he chooses, anywhere in this country to discuss this issue. We are going as far as we can to make this available to him," said Hyman.

(Oct. 12) -- Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.

The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at Democrats. The focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.

The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.

Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.

"We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage and she tells her assisatnt to get those from me," said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee.

Eric Russell managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law.

The polling stations were guarded by Afghan police. Voters stood in line and studied sample ballots, which included a picture of each candidate, lest anyone become confused and vote for Pat Buchanan. As each voter entered the voting area, they were asked for ID and their name was checked against a registration list.

When the ballot boxes left the polling station, they did so in the company of police, who guarded the sealed boxes along city streets, back roads and donkey trails. Isolated attempts to interrupt the ballots return was the only violence of the day. Three police died protecting the integrity of the ballots. For their trouble, 25 insurgents were killed. The ballots remained intact. Ten million Afghans voted for the first time.

No policemen will be killed defending the ballots in the upcoming US election. Beyond that, our election process will not be as legitimate as the Afghan one. No police will supervise our polling places, lest they intimidate the allegedly timid American voter by enforcing election law. Instead, the polling place will be supervised by volunteers drawn from the local political party faithful -undoubtedly the most unbiased observers possible.

As the voters enter, they will not be required to show ID, again in deference to the timid nature of the American electorate. Having to show ID leaves a scar on me every time I enter a bar, buy a beer, cash a check, fly on an airplane, or get pulled over for speeding -so I am glad the trauma is not compounded by ID being required for something as trivial as choosing the leader of the free world.

When the American voters leave, their thumbs will be ink-free, so the relative indelibility of the ink will not be an issue. This could theoretically allow a person to get on a bus full of other un-inked and unidentified "mystery voters" and travel from poll to poll in a corrupt attempt to skew the election, but at least there will be no chaos in Chicago or Indianapolis.

After the voters have all voted for the last time that day, the absentee ballots will be counted. These ballots will be carefully certified as having come from a real absent voter by having the self-identified name on the ballot checked against the publicly available list of registered voters. The legitimacy of the voters on the list was carefully certified by the registration forms having arrived in the mail one day.

The election results or sealed ballot bag for each precinct will then be thrown in the floorboard of a Mazda 323 by a single poll worker and driven through the night, via Burger King, to polling headquarters. There the results will be duly recorded in an official book and immediately released to the media, so that anyone driving around with a sealed bag of "overlooked" ballots in their Mazda 323 can watch the results unfold, and -if necessary- show up at 4:00 am to enfranchise another bag-full of the electorate.

U.S. citizens who go to the polls Nov. 2 to decide local, state and national elections are likely to get more help from noncitizens this year than ever before.

Beyond requiring applicants to sign a pledge on voter-registration forms affirming that they are U.S. citizens, there is no way to prevent the nation's estimated 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens from casting ballots in November, area elections officials said.

With less than a month until Election Day, Colorado's registration rolls include as many as 6,000 felons who should be ineligible to vote.

In the run up to November 2's American election, we now have members of self-declared "nonpartisan" yet partisan observer groups out in the field examining U.S. voting systems they claim are administered by partisan agents.

Touted as a Tory, former Canadian cabinet minister David MacDonald is monitoring American elections as a member drafted by the San Francisco human rights group Global Exchange.

MacDonald said observers were shocked to find that partisan officials run U.S. elections.

Specifically: Where are the stories analyzing the campaign issues raised by John F. Kerry compared to his political stump rhetoric compared to the senator's 20 years worth of votes, speeches and legislative history?

Sure, sure - I know, that would mean that news organizations actually are looking for fair or balanced or news reported in context. And that's not going to happen. But I remain hopeful against all hope if only because I remain an optimist.

What brings this to mind is an email I received on Columbus Day with the following subject line: What Does Kerry Have to Hide? Why No Form 180?

The text of the note (also sent to other news outlets that probably won't even mention it) reads as follows:

Hi,

My name is Brian Sullivan, from Plymouth, MA (1-508-224-7775). I understand the following may seem like an inconsequential issue. Nevertheless, as a Vietnam Veteran, I think it is important for John Kerry to explain why he hasn't signed an SF-180 to release all his military records.

What's he got to hide?

There is a letter circulating on the Internet that suggests that John Kerry was awarded an Honorable Discharge in March 2001 and that he might have initially received an other than honorable discharge, which he appealed until he was later awarded an honorable discharge.

If this is nothing but a smear, why doesn't John Kerry authorize the complete release of his military records to disprove this?

As a Vietnam Veteran it would be an important character consideration, if John Kerry "reported for duty" at the Democratic Convention, while concealing the above.

Thank you,

Brian F. Sullivan
1LT, MP, USAR
Qui Nhon, RVN '70/71

This issue has been increasingly circulating on the Internet, talk radio shows and even today when this editor was a guest on the Sam Donaldson show broadcast by ABC News. Is there any truth to what floats out there on the Internet -- like this issue involving Kerry?

We don't know the validity of the issue other than to know that John Kerry easily can clear such matters up by releasing all his military-related records. This is something he's not done -- why we don't know. But there you go -- and the press lets Kerry slide.

"Back when I was making Fahrenheit, I was offered the same documents that were given to CBS but I didn't use them because we couldn't verify them," Moore said following a speech at the University of Central Arkansas.
According to Alan Skorski, a former congressional candidate who's writing a book about Al Franken, Rather and Moore have something in common - a London-based reporter named Greg Palast.
In fact, Palast has claimed credit for reports broken by both Moore and Rather over the years.
On the eve of the 2000 election, Palast interviewed Bill Burkett, the former National Guard officer who would later pass bogus Guard records to Rather's news team. Burkett talked about Bush's records being scrubbed, but at the time had no documents to back the claim up.
The expatriate journalist says he's also been feeding movie-maker Moore info on Bush for years. This past May Palast wrote:
"In fact, our joke in the London newsroom is that if we can't get our story on to American airwaves, we can just slip it to the fat guy in the chicken suit. Moore could sneak it past the censors as 'entertainment.'"

The war in Iraq, inadvertently, has become "President Bush's unintended gift to bin Laden," Soros charged, a gift of an "unnecessary war" that's producing more anger against the United States, more recruits for al Qaeda, and more credibility for those in the Arab world who oppose the creation of open societies. "The invasion of Iraq bred more people willing to risk their lives against Americans than we were able to kill -- generating a vicious circle of escalating violence with no end in sight," Soros contended, producing a quagmire that's decreasing our security, expanding our debt, killing our troops, impairing our military power, driving away allies, and eroding our values.

Mr. Soros stated that we should start by correcting our own behavior, by looking at what we've done wrong. One thing he sees as wrong is that George W. Bush is Commander-in-Chief. Another wrong, he explained, is that the United States isn't yet signed up with the Kyoto treaty or the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

In a split second, rocket fire shatters the silence, and through a plume of oily smoke, the boat sinks to the river's bottom. "My whole crew lost their lives that night. I was the only one who survived," Lt. Davis says.

Lt. Davis, now 62, lost his left eye. The bones in both legs were shattered. But the scars of war are nothing compared to the demons that wake him from his sleep, leaving him drenched in sweat and trembling with fear.

[...]

Lt. Davis has come to Washington at his own expense, along with 89 other Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, to tape the eighth 60-second TV spot questioning Sen. John Kerry's fitness to be commander in chief.

[...]

These Swiftees, [...] are angry and frustrated. Not only because they say Mr. Kerry has lied about his service and refuses to sign the form that releases his military records to the public, but because 30 years ago, the candidate threw away his medals and called his fellow servicemen murderers, rapists, baby killers and cowards.
[...]

Vernon Smith, a 74-year-old Swiftee from Virginia Beach, didn't see any reason to come forward before, but when he read "Tour of Duty," Mr. Kerry's account of his Vietnam service as written by historian Douglas Brinkley, he got angry.

"I don't like the fabrications. Why does a man have to lie like that? He is totally unfit for command," he said.

[...]

"In more than one firefight, Kerry actually pulled our boat out of it and ran out of the canal. I don't think John Kerry was a coward," says 57-year-old Steve Gardner, from Clover, S.C., who spent more than two months with Mr. Kerry on PCF 44 as a gunner's mate 3rd class.

"I think John Kerry was an opportunist. And he was very ineffectual. He did everything in his own best interest. He was always carrying a little notebook with him. I assume it was his diaries. He was very aloof and disdainful of people under him," he said.

[...]

Sgt. LaCivita, a tall energetic former Marine who received a Purple Heart after he was shot in the face in the first Persian Gulf war, defends the TV spots against critics who say what happened 30 years ago shouldn't matter.

"Character has always been and will always be a major focus on every candidate running," he said. "So many of the men who were there have legitimate questions about whether he deserved his citations. These men have earned the right to be heard."

[...]

Shot down over North Vietnam in 1967, Maj. Day suffered numerous injuries, managed to escape from his prison, walked for two weeks through the jungle eating live frogs before he was recaptured.

He then spent the next six years as a prison cellmate of John McCain, who would become a Republican senator, at the prison the Americans called, with bitter irony, the "Hanoi Hilton." Maj. Day's presence in the room is palpable. Even in a group of decorated war veterans, he stands out as a living legend.

[...]

"Kerry betrayed us by telling the people we were committing atrocities," Maj. Day says. "A man who does that is not fit to lead. It's impossible to let this man masquerade as a war hero and someone who has leadership. To imagine this guy who betrayed us becoming president and him being the leader of our armed forces is just unthinkable."

Standing next to the major, 57-year-old Jim Hoffman from Oshkosh, Wis., said Mr. Kerry was never a leader.

"He was an arrogant snob," said Mr. Hoffman, an engineman 2nd class on the swift boats, adding that he felt afraid and alone for many years, but now feels buoyed by his Swiftee peers and their mission.

Mr. Gardner says Mr. Kerry used to boast to his fellow servicemen that he would be the next JFK.

Says Sgt. LaCivita: "JFK must be rolling in his grave."

How can we doubt their anger and frustration? Some of these vetrans came across the country at their own expense. Not just because they are angry, how can they not be. These brave heros who know what John Kerry is like, do not want to see the disgrace he would be as comander in chief.

While 50 percent of liberals are angry about Bush policies, for example, just 19 percent of conservatives are angry about the policies Kerry has proposed. While 39 percent of Democrats are angry with Bush, fewer than half as many Republicans, 17 percent, are angry with Kerry. And while 46 percent of Kerry supporters are angry about Bush policies, just 19 percent of Bush voters are angry back.

Anger, though, is not the only motivating factor in politics, and the race between the two men is still close: Fifty percent of likely voters support Bush in the latest ABC News tracking poll, 46 percent Kerry and one percent Ralph Nader. That's about where it's been the last few days.

The sudden loss last week of nearly half of the nation's flu shots because of contamination at a British factory was only the latest in a series of vaccine shortages: In a 30-month stretch starting in November 2000, the United States experienced unprecedented shortages of immunizations to prevent eight of 11 childhood diseases.

Some companies simply stopped making vaccines. Others experienced production problems. The consequences were the same: children missing booster shots needed to ensure continued protection.

A system once designed with the sort of redundancy that is the hallmark of the space program has withered, with just one company left to make shots to control measles and mumps and the number of firms producing flu vaccine dwindling from four to two in three years.

Israelis have been targets of terrorists since long before American cities were struck three years ago - a fact driven home last week by bombings that killed dozens of vacationing Israelis at three resorts in Egypt. But the nightmares about Iran are of another dimension.

So the Israelis who plan for this country's [Israels] security confront a paradox: While they are relieved that the American invasion of Iraq removed a sworn enemy, they are increasingly nervous about the opportunities that the same invasion has opened for another. And they see the Middle East moving from conventional military rivalries to far more dangerous nuclear rivalries.

That is why Israeli officials have been threatening for months to take "the necessary steps,'' as Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz puts it, to prevent Iran, his birthplace, from developing nuclear weapons.

Behind that threat is a hope that the rest of the world can persuade Iran, with threats and diplomacy, to drop the parts of its nuclear program that could be used for armaments. But Israeli officials say they have not had great success so far in encouraging a preoccupied Washington, a conflicted Russia and a divided Europe to do much about Iran except talk anxiously about it.

Iran, however, has an increasing number of cards to play in the region. According to the Israeli military, it has strong influence over the radical Palestinian group Hamas and over the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which has been financing and organizing most of the attacks against Israelis from the Palestinian West Bank. Iran is gaining influence with the Shia factions jockeying for power in southern Iraq. Officials in Washington have said Iran is helping to foment anti-American resistance there. Most important, perhaps, Iran has increasingly sophisticated Shahab missiles that could hit the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 9 - Afghans turned out to vote in large numbers Saturday in their first presidential election, an event that was unexpectedly peaceful but soon marred by 15 candidates' declaring the election illegitimate because of what they said was widespread cheating and fraud.

Those candidates asked for a new vote. But United Nations and Afghan officials overseeing the voting largely dismissed their concerns, saying they believed any problems had been corrected during the day, although they did say they would investigate all complaints. The criticism cast a shadow on what was otherwise a historic success for Afghans who have endured more than two decades of war and turmoil.
From villages in remote parts of the country to the poorest districts in Kabul, Afghans lined up patiently to cast their votes. Although precise numbers were not yet available, election officials praised the turnout.
Officials said the results could take two to three weeks to be tallied, because retrieving and counting ballots would be a drawn-out process.
The expected threat to the elections - attacks by Taliban insurgents who vowed to disrupt the voting - generally failed to materialize, although 11 people died in mine blasts in the south.

Halperin Memo Dated Friday October 8, 2004

It goes without saying that the stakes are getting very high for the country and the campaigns - and our responsibilities become quite grave

I do not want to set off (sp?) and endless colloquy that none of us have time for today - nor do I want to stifle one. Please respond if you feel you can advance the discussion.

The New York Times (Nagourney/Stevenson) and Howard Fineman on the web both make the same point today: the current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done.

Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win.

We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn't mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides "equally" accountable when the facts don't warrant that.

I'm sure many of you have this week felt the stepped up Bush efforts to complain about our coverage. This is all part of their efforts to get away with as much as possible with the stepped up, renewed efforts to win the election by destroying Senator Kerry at least partly through distortions.

It's up to Kerry to defend himself, of course. But as one of the few news organizations with the skill and strength to help voters evaluate what the candidates are saying to serve the public interest. Now is the time for all of us to step up and do that right.

In the first Presidential debate, Kerry said:

(W)e can remember when President Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis sent his secretary of state to Paris to meet with DeGaulle. And in the middle of the discussion, to tell them about the missiles in Cuba, he said, 'Here, let me show you the photos.' And DeGaulle waved them off and said, 'No, no, no, no. The word of the president of the United States is good enough for me.'

The point of the story Kerry wishes to tell is this: relations between the United States and other nations were once so good, so filled with a sort of total trust, that even a hardened leader like Charles de Gaulle was willing to simply accept the word of the President at face value.

Further, he implies, that if he's elected President we will return to those golden days. This is not only nonsense, but it's very dangerous nonsense.

It seems more logical to me to assume not that de Gaulle simply
accepted what was told to him by the United States because:

a) He already knew, from his own sources, what was told to him.

b) It suited his interests to accept what he was told uncritically.

c) Both.

Anyone who knows anything about de Gaulle should fully understand
this. The man was many things, but a starry-eyed idealist he was not. Neither was he particularly dedicated to the maintenance of good relations between France and the United States, as demonstrated by his decision three years later to withdraw France from the NATO military command and to order US troops off French soil, causing Secretary of State Dean Rusk to bitterly ask, "does that include the dead Americans in military cemeteries as well?"

Although the major news media, such as The AP vehemently deny it, study after study points to a liberal bias. (If you want to see this reported daily, log on to CyberAlert

In fact some "mainstream" reporters and editors are starting to admit this bias. For example, during MSNBC's coverage of the first night of the Republican Convention, Chris Matthews said Bush supporters are "right about the New York Times" being against them "and they may be right about all of us."

Newsweek editor Evan Thomas: "The media, I think, wants Kerry to win. And I think they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards...as being young and dynamic and optimistic and all, there's going to be this glow about them ... that's going to be worth maybe 15 points."

CNN's Jack Cafferty, speaking about a liberal radio network, wondered "whether we really need another liberal media outlet. I mean, if you don't like the New York Times or CBS News, or Peter Jennings, this might be just the ticket for you."

An editorial in the Dallas Morning News: "It's time that we in the Fourth Estate admit that liberal media bias isn't a figment of Rush Limbaugh's imagination."

From "The Note" at ABCNews.com: "Like every other institution, the Washington and political press corps operate with a good number of biases and predilections. The worldview of the dominant media can be seen in every frame of video and every print word choice that is currently being produced about the presidential race. That means the President's communications advisers have a choice: Try to change the storyline and the press' attitude, or try to win this election without changing them."

The public's thirst for a different approach to the news accounts for the skyrocketing popularity of Fox News, while other all-news channels have seen ratings plummet. The second night of the Republican National Convention, during the single hour that all the TV news organizations provided live coverage, Fox News had the highest rating. They were 2 to 20 percent higher than the broadcast networks and had more than triple the viewers of CNN and MSNBC.

Let's not be taken in when defeatists try to pooh-pooh the promise of this week's election in Afghanistan.

Already the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe - more insecure and uncooperative than usual - has announced that it will refuse to declare this coming election to be free and fair. European nit-picking about "irregularities" will be fierce from high-minded bureaucrats who do not realize that the most irregular thing in that part of the world is anything approximating a free election.

Too much world media coverage will focus on pictures of violence at polling places, not on the big news: lines of courageous Afghans patiently waiting to vote. Tinhorn despots are passing out leaflets in refugee camps promising divine rewards to anyone who kills a poll worker.

Iraq — A trio of rockets slammed into the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Baghdad Tuesday, sparking a fire outside the building and a heavy gun battle in the street.

Mortars sailed toward the Sheraton and Palestine hotels, which both house journalists and foreigners, including many Americans. Only the Sheraton was hit in the attack by rockets that smashed into the side of the building, igniting a blaze and filling the lobby with smoke.

While their show was airing, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was in Washington marching with the Freedom Riders for the Week of Action for "immigration reform." (Their definition of reform is slightly different than ours at VDARE.COM. By slightly different, I mean directly opposite.)

The AFL-CIO description of the group:

"The Freedom Riders, who include documented and undocumented immigrants and union and community allies, will stop in dozens of communities across the country to spotlight the need for immigration reform."

As chance would have it, while Robert F. Kennedy Jr. marched arm-in-arm with illegal aliens to promote "immigration reform," 3,000 miles away he had an even more personal connection to his beloved cause. Apparently, he just didn’t know it.

The hospital that closed was the Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center.

Islamic extremists, both here and abroad, have one purpose: To destroy America and halt the spread of democracy and religious tolerance around the globe.

They'd like to be plotting in our streets right now. They'd like to be sowing murder and mayhem with suicide bombers and hostage-takings, and spreading fear in the heartland and everywhere else. They'd like to be wearing us down and bringing our nation to its knees.

In the ashes of ground zero, where nearly 3,000 innocent Americans perished, President Bush vowed to find the perpetrators, in domestic cells and distant lands, and bring them to justice. He said he will do all that is humanly possible and necessary to make certain that terrorists never strike again on U.S. soil.

In this year's election, the question isn't whether we are safer now than we were four years ago. We already know the answer. Sure we are and that's because of President Bush. The critical question is: Four years from now, will America be safer than it is today?

John Kerry, on the other hand, has all the attributes of the shape of water when it comes to telling us what he believes and what he'd do for America. Like incoming and outgoing tides, Kerry is content to go with the flow. In a dangerous world infested with sharks, Kerry would be chum at America's expense.

In his 20 years in the U.S. Senate, Kerry, a Navy war hero, hasn't risen above the rank of seaman for his uninspiring legislative record. He's been inconsistent on major issues. First he's for the 1991 Persian Gulf War, then he opposes it. First he's for the war in Iraq, then he's against it. First he's for a strong U.S. defense, then he votes against military weapons programs. First he's for the U.S. Patriot Act, then he opposes it.

Kerry's solution to stop terrorism? He'd go to the U.N. and build a consensus. How naive. France's Jacques Chirac, Germany's Gerhard Schroeder, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and other Iraq oil-for-food scam artists don't want America to succeed. They want us brought down to their level. And more and more, Kerry sounds just like them. In a recent campaign speech, Kerry said America was in the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

No doubt John Kerry sincerely wants to serve his country, but we believe he's the wrong man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

We know if there is one thing the enemy fears above all else, it is that George Bush's iron will is stronger than his iron won't.

The Sun proudly endorses the

re-election of President George W. Bush.

Senator Kerry's plan is premised upon the bizarre idea that, simply by holding a summit and 'inviting the world in' all problems can be solved. In last Thursday's debate, Kerry callously dismissed those nation with "only" a few thousand or a few hundred troops in Iraq, suggesting that, if he were to become President, he could find many more.

So, what are the prospects for getting more than a hundred thousand foreign troops deployed to Iraq? The answer, to be brief, is "poor." Senator Kerry's blithe dismissal of those nations whose contributions in Iraq number "only" in the hundreds or the thousands suggests that he's looking for foreign contributions of massive, divisional-level forces.

But where are these going to come from? Senator Kerry would do well to remember that the great United States only has ten active-duty Divisions in its whole Army. The average European nation just doesn't have entire Divisions sitting around with the levels of logistical support available to deploy them to the Middle East.

So, where else is Senator Kerry going to get these troops he wants
from? The other major nations of Europe either already have troops in Iraq or are capable only of dispatching units which aren't nearly large enough for the gentleman from Massachusetts. Canada can barely keep a few hundred troops in Afghanistan. So where are these foreign troops upon which the Kerry fantasy relies going to come from?

Kerry has suggested that Arab nations ought to send troops. Frankly, I can't think of a worse idea. Leaving aside the fact that the average Arab Army these days would probably be defeated in battle by a Confederate Regiment teleported off the fields of Manassas to the present day, there's the obvious matter of which Arab nation would be sending those troops.

Whatever useable forces Russia possesses are going to be needed in
Russia in the years ahead, so they're out too.

Someone burned an 8-foot-by-8-foot Nazi swastika on a home's lawn near where Bush-Cheney signs were posted. The vandals used grass killer to spray the symbol.

Several nearby homes were vandalized -- all were within a two-block radius on the West Side, near Ice Age Trail, News 3 reported.

State Republican Party officials claim it's the latest in a series of desperate acts by Democrats.

The report says oil was given to key countries: "The regime gave priority to Russia, China and France. This was because they were permanent members of, and hence had the ability to influence decisions made by, the UN Security Council. The regime . . . allocated ‘private oil’ to individuals or political parties that sympathised in some way with the regime."

The report also details how the regime benefited by arranging illegal "kickbacks" from oil sales.

From September 2000, it is said Saddam made $228m (£127m) from kickbacks deposited in accounts across the Middle East. The analysis details only the export of oil -- not the import of humanitarian supplies, also alleged to have been riddled with corruption.

Thanks to The Hopeful Cynic, Power Line and Instapundit and others who also have the story.

Who are we? Who have we become? What kind of people do we want to be? These are questions for the debate that counts.

The extrusions of that vile species (erectus porcinus) who murdered 35 of their own children yesterday in the streets of Baghdad in the name of a malignant theology of an eighth-century religion, imagine that we're no tougher, no more resilient, no more courageous than the French, who can never even defend themselves; the Germans, who can't push themselves away from a plate of sausages long enough to recognize peril; or the Spanish, who demonstrated in the aftermath of the Madrid railway bombing that when the going gets tough it's time to cut and run.

The cowardly ingratitude of "old Europe," though depressing, is nevertheless old stuff. What's scary is that similar voices are raised in our own midst, that a serious, credible candidate for president of the United States encourages these voices of fear with articulate nuances, subtleties, modulations, explanations, variations, distinctions, innuendos and pious evasions. He imagines that an American president, in a world of evil run amok, must demonstrate leadership by submitting the security of Americans to something he calls a "global test," showing the practiced deference that a French poodle might show the rich widow taking him out for a stroll on the avenue.

Well Kerry's real debate always has been with himself.

The GOP has put together the "Kerry vs Kerry" debate called "Kerry’s Top Ten Iraq Flip Flops From First Debate"

The text version.

The video version.

"Well, I've never, ever used the harshest word as you just did."

"This administration has lied to us. They have misled us. And they have broken their promises to us. The president promised to the people and the Congress that he would build an international coalition, respect the United Nations' process and only go to war as a last resort. I will tell you that from my war fighting experience, I believe there is a test for a president as to how you go to war. And that test is whether or not you can look in the eyes of parents and say to them, 'I did everything possible to avoid the loss of your son and daughter, but we had no other choice in order to protect the security of our nation,' and I know this president fails that test in Iraq."

"Kerry also told a New Hampshire newspaper editorial board Friday that Bush had 'lied' about his reasons for going to war in Iraq, a word Kerry has been reluctant to use publicly for months. Yesterday he said he did not plan to use the word again."