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Friday, August 13, 2004
Contrasting Leadership Styles
DailyKos has it right, I think:
"In a moment of crisis, this is how Bush responds:
Bush also defended his decision to continue sitting in an elementary school classroom for seven minutes on Sept. 11, 2001, after being told of the terrorist attacks. Kerry and filmmaker Michael Moore have criticized Bush for doing so.
"I was collecting my thoughts and I was sitting with a bunch of young kids, and I made the decision there that we would let this part of the program finish," he said.
In a moment of crisis, this is how Kerry responds:
On July 12, 1988, [former Nevada Senator] Hecht was attending a weekly Republican luncheon when a piece of apple lodged firmly in his throat.
Hecht stumbled out of the room, thinking he might vomit but not wanting to do it in front of his colleagues. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., thumped his back, but Hecht quickly passed out in the hallway.
Just then, Kerry stepped off an elevator, rushed to Hecht's side and gave him the Heimlich maneuver -- four times.
The lifesaving incident made international news, and Dr. Henry Heimlich, who invented the maneuver in 1974, called Hecht to say that had Kerry intervened just 30 seconds later Hecht might have been in a vegetative state for life.
"This man gave me my life," the 75-year-old Hecht said Thursday.
Hecht said he was amazed that Kerry acted so quickly -- some people were assuming that he was having a heart attack.
"He knew exactly what to do," he said. "But a lot of people know what to do. They just don't size up the situation immediately."
Had Kerry waited just 30 seconds more, Hecht would've been brain dead. Good thing he didn't wait seven minutes."
The more we learn about Kerry, the more lives we've learned he's saved. And Republican lives too. How's that for bipartisanship? That doesn't even factor in Teresa and her philanthrophic work.
The Kerrys save lives, which is more than you can say for the Bushes, since Laura ran over and killed an ex-boyfriend after she ran through a stop-sign. Really. Seems a bit worse than "shove it," huh?
Thursday, August 12, 2004
A Little Bit Fishy?
So I'm reading Newsweek about the terror alerts issued recently and I came across a picture that raised my eyebrows a bit. It was a picture taken during the terrorism meeting to decide to raise the terror alerts last week. I'll let Tina Brown explain, because she had the same reaction:
On these premises, it is a given that the timing of the recent terror reports
was sheer manipulation. Exhibit A is a photo in the takeout on terrorism in this
week's Newsweek. See that big picture of Fran Townsend, the White House's
homeland security adviser? In the background is Karl Rove. C'mon, what's he
doing at a terrorism meeting?
Good question.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Forget NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC (Fox News doesn't count anyway)...
Jon Stewart is the man to get the news from. Here's one of his latest, with a great take on this whole Swift Boat thing.
His opening lead-in:
Well, let's begin tonight with the current presidential race, where for the
first time in half a century the Democratic candidate for President is a
decorated war hero, thrice-wounded receipient of the Silver Star who pulled a
wounded comrade to safety. We know we can't have that, can we?
I Knew They Would Try Something Like This
Recently, as things have been going very well for Kerry, I've worried that the Republicans would try something underhanded and dirty to even the score, since they would realize that they couldn't win at the ballot box.
My main thoughts were either 1) postponing the election on some bogus terror reason or 2) playing electronic hanky-panky with the electronic voting machines in an important swing state, like Ohio. I certainly didn't put this things past them after what happened to the African-American "felons" in Florida in 2000 and with attempts to suppress the minority vote in places like Florida and Maryland in 2002 (efforts like putting flyers on cars in poor black neighborhoods stating if you want to vote in the election on [date] (note: this is always the wrong date too), then you need to pay all outstanding fines and parking tickets or you will not be allowed to vote.)
Now, it appears that the Republicans have come up with this, according to a posting on Craig's List in Missouri:
Today, around lunchtime, I went with my parents to the polls to vote in our
primary election. When I got there, I found that I had somehow been removed from
the books, and hence could not vote. Frustrated, I took the day off work
and my mom took me down to the Election Board at 18th and Walnut. When we got
there, we found that the reason I was not on the books is that SOMEONE had sent
in an address change card for me. I live near 76th and Troost, but the voting
database now had me down as living at 52nd and Locust - I've NEVER lived there,
and have in fact lived at this address all of my life [...] It took about two
hours, but the elections commission director straightened it out and I was
finally able to vote. However, she told me why this has been happening, and it's
very worrisome.
Apparently there are groups out there who buy copies of the voter
registration rolls, then send in new registrations for registered voters giving
them a new address. It's really a more sophisticated version of the whole thing
with the felony lists in Florida in the last election - however, people aren't
being REMOVED from the voting rolls, and hence there's no red flag being raised.
After all, people DO move and send in change of address, so there's no reason
for them to suspect voter fraud [...]
By the way, I'll just say that I think it's significant that I happen to
live in a largely minority, heavily Democratic district in a swing state.
This is not the first time I've read about this happening this year. Disgusting. This shit has got to stop.
Monday, August 09, 2004
I've Missed These
I'm back from vacation, and there are a couple of excellent W quotes that are fresh off the presses.
First, here's W signing the defense appropriations bill:
"They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and
neither do we."
(Here's the video if you prefer.)
And here's another great quote, (with audio,) with Bush responding to a question about Native American tribal sovereignty. You've got to hear it.
