"Let There Be No Mistake . . . "

. . . I will never hesitate to use force when it is required. Any attack will be met with a swift and a certain response."

So this means the United States won't respond to threats until after there is another smoking crater in Lower Manhattan? I believe this was the Clinton Doctrine which became the Bush Doctrine until 9/11 when most of us realized that was a far too dangerous position to take in a far too dangerous world. Praise for Bush for recognizing that that policy was a mistake.

"The future doesn't belong to fear; it belongs to freedom."

Well, not by default. You have to do something to ensure that the future belongs to freedom. That might require projecting military force. Perhaps even before the enemy strikes. George Bush, though his actions and words, believes we have to shape history not sit back and see how it shapes us.

"I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as President."

As Lileks observes this morning, this is the first time anyone has heard a liberal say that Vietnam was a war of national defense. After all, Vietnam didn't attack us and we were there without UN mandate. Plus, after he was safely stateside Kerry did all he could to erode public support for the war even while his "brothers on arms" were under fire abroad and vilified as baby killers when they returned.

How would Kerry react to Iran announcing that it had developed a nuclear weapon? We have no idea whatsoever.

Wiffle Ball John Kerry stands halfway to home plate and throws one into the dirt.

Grace Under Pressure George W. Bush throwing a strike from the mound before 52,000 people at the 2001 World Series three weeks after 9/11.

Stronger at Home . . .

Michael Dukakis demonstrating why our enemies ought to refrain from messing with Massachusetts.

. . . Respected Abroad

John Kerry demonstrating that he is a tone deaf asshole.

And So On. And So On. And Scooby Dooby Doo Bee.
 
I tuned into the Democratic Convention two times on CSPAN last night and each time silver-haired conventioneers were swaying and dancing to some of the most putrid music of the last 40 years.

First I saw a perfect demographic tableau of people – black, white, red, yellow, a glorious mosaic -- all mouthing the infantile words of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People.”

And so on. And so on
And scooby dooby doo bee.
Different strokes for different folks.

That sparked a little flashback to the Forced Joy era of the early seventies when the revolution became institutionalized, when men wore big fat neckties printed with earth-toned op-art octagons and women smoked foul little cigarettes and dressed in Marimekko tarps. The days when everything was brown, yellow or avocado.  The world of housing projects, 20s nostalgia, busing, caucus rooms, plaid everything, syrup rock, Free to Be You and Me mind control, AMC Pacers, Brezhnev, Roger Moore, macramé, Attica, Squeeky Fromme, the Mayaquez Crisis. 

Whoa!  Am I the only person who doesn’t have a visceral reaction to that misery?

I didn’t just switch the channel.  I flipped the main electrical switch in the house just to be safe.  After a few hours to ensure that all the wattage had leaked out of the wires I turned on the television again. 

This time the old fogies were holding hands and singing Blowin’ in the Wind.

Yes 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Christ!  We’re at war with religious fanatics who cut peoples’ heads off with steak knives and then have their children act out the murder as if it were a school play and our fellow Americans are singing the anthem of boneheaded fatalist submission. 

I’m all for banning cannon balls at some point, but first let’s fire everything we’ve got at the Islamofascists and throw in a few daisy cutters topped in napalm. 

There will always people who choose to sing about peace instead of doing what’s necessary to secure the peace . . . that’s fine.  But no one is ever going to trust them with the keys to national security any more than you would count on solar energy to power your iron lung.

This was apparently part of the intro to Jimmy Carter’s speech about restoring respect for America around the world and standing forcefully against our enemies.  This of course is exactly like Gloria Steinem bragging about her relationship with Dale Earnhardt Jr or Konstantin Chernenko pumping up the crowd with his infectious enthusiasm.

So far the Democrats are making a great case for ignoring the present, deferring the future and all walking hand in hand back to the warm comfort of the past. 

I don’t blame them.  The future is uncertain, dangerous and challenging.  It's particularly challenging to all the unquestionable beliefs that have encrusted the Democratic Party over the  past forty years – multiculturalism, agnosticism, moral relativism, pacifism, socialism.

These dogmas are the only lasting remnants of that post-sixties Golden Age (well, more like an orange and chestnut brown age) when all the political left fought for appeared to come true – the Vietnam War was over, the race riots were over, Nixon was humiliated, women could wear pants. 

Today those victories are under direct attack by medieval holy warriors who hate women, homosexuals, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, most Muslims, and just about everyone else and are eager to martyr themselves in order to cleanse the earth of all non-believers.
    
What’s blowin’ in the wind? How about the smell of 3,000+ charred and pulverized innocent people who showed up for work one Tuesday morning.

How would the Democrats protect the rest of us from attack by Islamic suicide bombers?  With more funding for Head Start? With more women in mid-level positions at the EPA?
With a deeper understanding of the concerns of Muslim fanatics?

Sadly, the dogma of the sixties has nothing to tell us about countering violent religious hatred. That can be a frightening and certainly disorienting realization.  Too frightening for most of the delegates at the Democrat Convention who would rather dream about the past than confront the future.

Sad to say, but George Bush may be the only person who can make the world safe for Kumbaya jamborees. 

  

Jews and Frenchmen

Jacques Chirac is outraged that Ariel Sharon suggested Jews in France might consider emigrating to Israel. The Isreali Prime Minister is not welcome in Paris until he explains his insensitive remark says the smug leader of the French world. 

In the interest of world peace may I offer an explanation? 

Jews should leave France because Jews willnever be considered French no matter how long they live there.  The same applies to Muslims, and Germans, and Anglo-Saxons, and just about anyone else who is not already French. 

Unlike the thriving and vital societies in the English speaking world, continental Europe in general and France in particular are societies in retreat, unable to assimilate newcomers, more concerned about dividing up finite pieces of a shrinking pie than opening up to new possibilities and expanding the pie.

Proof?  He are Chirac's own words as found on the website of the Council on American-Islamic Relations: 

"We are in a time where undoubtedly, we are witnessing racist events involving our Jewish and Muslim compatriots and others, too. Sometimes just simple Frenchmen are attacked because they do not belong to such or such community. This is unacceptable.

Yes, racist violence is unacceptable particularly when ordinary French people are caught in the crossfire. 

Not welcome in Paris?  Sharon didn't need Chirac to tell him that.

Repeat After Me:   "There Is No Connection. There Is No Connection. There Is No Connection"

Clinton Foreign Policy Team

The Clinton Foreign Policy Team This photo is getting more and more embarrassing with time. Perhaps Sandy Berger was trying to destroy the negatives over at the National Archives? As far as I'm concerned, any classified documents that Sandy Berger stuffed into his pants are from now on officially "For Your Eyes Only," buddy.   Pre-September 11.  Seeing no evil

You're No Good   
 
It seems Linda Ronstadt was escorted off stage and out of town by an irate Vegas audience who paid good money to see her sing but were forced to endured babbling Left Coast culturesmog instead.   
 
Perhaps even more perplexing than her admiration for Michael Moore is her appearance before a Las Vegas crowd.  Who would actually pay to see Linda Ronstadt perform in 2004 anyway?   
 
Ronstadt was a pop star from the darkest seventies.  But unlike the rest of us, she actually looks far worse today.  She doesn't seem to have learned much in the ensuing decades either.  
 
Sad. 

This is Linda Ronstadt as millions of dorky former teenagers remember her.

And here she is now after being ravaged by years of BushHate®. "It's a real conflict for me when I go to a concert and find out somebody in the audience is a Republican or fundamental Christian. It can cloud my enjoyment. I'd rather not know," Ronstadt tells the San Diego Union Tribune. See how easy and acceptable blind hatred of people you don't know has become for the Religious Left. Why just the presence of such, how do you say . . . vermin?  Just the presence of these subhumans clouds her enjoyment.

Kerry Suffering from Severe Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome
 
During his recent tour through the Midwest where he "connected" with "working families" and "average Americans," John Kerry was asked for some bona fides by a reporter from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal: 
 

He was asked in the interview Sunday what kind of hunting he preferred.

"Probably I'd have to say deer. It's tough, depending on where you are," said Kerry.

"I go out with my trusty 12-gauge double-barrel, crawl around on my stomach. I track and move and decoy and play games and try to outsmart them. You know, you kind of play the wind. That's hunting," said Kerry.

 
Now, I don't know much about deer hunting but I'm pretty sure no one goes crawling around on their belly with a shotgun trying to outsmart deer.  Certainly no one who expects to bag a deer.
 
First of all, deer hunters sit all day in stands usually high up in trees.  Second of all, they use rifles with telescopic sights because you can't get very close to a deer.  Third of all, deer are skittish and fast.  They tend to notice six-foot-four Senators crawling through dead leaves and over tree stumps with heavy equipment including, maps, shotguns, and presumably a full-size decoy deer.  The smell of the Aramis alone would likely send them running.
 
For this approach to be successful, Kerry would have to crawl within a few feet of the deer (with a gale force wind blowing in the opposite direction), plant the barrel of his shotgun against the deer's temple and pull the trigger. 
 
Doesn't sound all that sporting to me.
 
I think Kerry, who is a Vietnam veteran (it was a traumatic experience and he doesn't like to talk about it)  is confusing deer hunting with The Deer Hunter, unless one of the games he uses to outsmart his prey is Russian Roulette.
 
You would think that Kerry would be sensitive to the charge that he is a Swiss-boarding school educated billionaire opportunist and strive not to validate it each time he speaks.    
 
Then again, maybe he's just outsmarting me. 
 
A condescending, elitist, dillitante?  That's exactly what he wants me to believe.