#2
It will not be long before German socialists and pacifists start calling nuclear-armed Iranian mullahs their "partners in security" â the affectionate label they once stuck on Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev. For those who shiver at the prospect of having to live under the shadow of Iranian nukes Mr. Bush's White House is the only place to look to.
AMEN!
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/22/2004 8:15 Comments ||
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#3
I love this line:
That is what the presidential election of 2004 is about: facing the real world.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/22/2004 10:25 Comments ||
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#6
RANTBURG UNIVERSITY quick notes:
From the posted article: âThroughout the Cold War, many Germans were used to having it easy and both ways: staging demonstrations against "U.S. imperialism" while at the same time enjoying the protection of the Pax Americana. Wealth and security were guaranteed, and the United States footed most of the security bill. What a wonderful world. Now the future does not look so wonderful any longer: global terrorism, nuclear weapons, Islamist extremism and failing states just across the Mediterranean Sea. Deep in their hearts most Germans feel that they are out of their depth and that their country cannot cope. Small wonder they would rather close their eyes and simply make the 21st century go away. Hardly surprising that many of them are angry about a man who refuses to trade in illusions and forces them to face the real world like President Bush . . . â
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From Mrs. Davis link: âGermanyâs troubles start with demographics. Germans are struggling to replenish their numbers and losing ground. If the childless trend continues, the population will reach a point where no number of children will be enough to sustain ethnic Germans as a group. Baring an upswing in the birth rate Germany is faced with two choices, neither of them acceptable. It must either encourage emigration and change the definition of German-ness, or face extinction. Germany is also wrestling with waning economic influence, a declining military, and a collapsing welfare state . . .â
October 22, 2004, 8:24 a.m. Kerry's DilemmaOr, how to lose an election.
There is a good chance that no matter what Kerry says or does in the final two weeks of this election — barring some major catastrophe in Iraq, a presidential gaffe, or massive voting irregularity — he will lose. And he may well take much of the Democrats' remaining control of government down with him. After all, Putin wants Bush, while Arafat prefers Kerry — and that is all we need to know. But besides the obvious concerns of national security and Kerry's own failure in any honest fashion to offer a coherent and principled alternative course of action to defeat the terrorists, there are more subtle, insidious factors at play that will, I think, preclude his election.
I thought John Kerry clearly won the first debate, lost the second, and did worse in the third. Most Americans, however, apparently disagreed, since many polls showed that respondents thought Kerry won all three. We hear of mayhem daily in Iraq; news on the economic front is mixed; and an entire host of surrogates has defamed George Bush in a manner not seen in decades during a political campaign. Why, then, does Kerry gain little traction, trail in most polls, and perhaps even start to slip further? After all, he is a hard campaigner, has a razor-sharp memory, speaks well, looks statesmanlike at times, raises lots of money, and has a mobilized base working hard for his election.
At least six reasons come to mind that have little to do with issues or substance, but everything to do with style, character, and judgment. First, he comes across, perhaps unfairly so, as an unfriendly sort. He seems to confirm to flyover America that the Ivy League East Coast is a cold place of holier-than-thou privileged reformers who live one life but advocate another. Kerry is a pleasant man, but he nevertheless presents himself as a ponderous aristocrat. His oratory, for all his undeniable mastery of facts and classical rhetorical tropes, is too often humorless, condescending, and pedantic. His photo opportunities that showcase hunting vests or windsurfing look forced, and they lack the natural ease of George Bush on the stump, twanging with his sleeves rolled up. Thus while Kerry does well in debates, he in some sense does not do well, since Americans feel he is either their smug professor or cranky grandfather, peeved that he had to descend from Olympus to impart knowledge to the less gifted. Somehow most would rather be wrong with Bush than right with Kerry.
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#1
When I hear people like Skeery proudly proclaiming they have a (magic) "plan", knowing full well they aren't worth the paper they're written on, assuming anyone has actually written it out, I am always reminded of sea-going navigation.
Way back when I was fortunate enough to be invited to join a voyage from Malibu to Hawaii - delivering the sailboat to a buyer. It was fascinating to check the chart and our track as we went - innumerable course corrections to counter constantly changing conditions. Sometime, they were surprisingly large as currents had quickly and dramatically, but silently, altered our course.
This was the real world - a lesson not to be forgotten. Only a jackass / novice would've drawn a chartline from point of departure to destination, taken a bearing, shoved off, and assumed that was that. And that is the value of the "plan" - non-existent.
Skeery's a liar, coward, political opportunist, fear and bullshit mongerer, and demogogue of the worst type possible - listening to him is unbelievably dangerous. And, perhaps worst of all, he's so full of himself it's become apparent he actually believes his own bullshit.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
