7-27-2004

Day 1: The benchmark was set too high

Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness.--Dick Cheney yesterday at Camp Pendleton

Did any of you troopers watch the Democratic convention gavel-to-gavel last night? I did. Well, when the Phillies game switched to a commercial. They had 17 baserunners and scored a meager 3 runs. Ouchola! Only 12 more games to go on the road trip that just might derail their once-promising season. Time will tell.

I watched the convention gavel-to-gavel although I never once spied a gavel being pressed into service. It was more like mouse-to-mouse with technology being what it is these days. I doubt that I'll be up to two consecutive nights of watching the DemFest from beginning to end though. It really does get kind of redundant after a while.

Speaker 1: "A, B, C, & D!" (applause)
Speaker 2: "A, B, C, & D!" (applause)
Speaker 3: "A, B, C, & D!" (a smattering of applause)

And on and on it goes. Nothing against the Dems, but these conventions used to be mildly entertaining. Then who could speak and what they could speak of became so tightly controlled that the entire affairs smack of a turntable stylus stuck on a deep scratch.

It was interesting that the order of the day was that the Bush bash would be suspended during the convention, but once again, I heard a lot about what was wrong with the current team or their policies, but rarely did I hear one iota of how anyone could do any better. Excuse me, we were promised that with new leaders we'd be sure to make sure our chief antagonists abroad, i.e., our "former" allies, would have their asses kissed from here on out. Why be safe when you can be popular?

For a while there, I was really impressed with Al Gore's presentation. He was relaxed, measured, and he displayed one hell of a sense of humor about what had to be the most crushing disappointment of his life. It seemed as if he was going to deliver some sort of uplifting rallying cry to the eager troops, but his deep-rooted bitterness eventually got the better of him and he let out with, "And let's make sure that this time every vote is counted."

There you go again.

The Chadmeister just couldn't help but to repeat the biggest lie ever told in American politics. How many times did they recount those much-maligned chads? The dimpled chads. The pimpled chads. The obese chads. The steroid-enhanced chads. The pregnant chads. The overly mishandled chads. And last but not least, the horny chads. Give it up, Al. No matter how many times you repeat it-It's still bullspit.

Can't "What-did-he-know-and-when-did-he-know-it?" Hillary afford a vocal coach or something? God! She starts out sounding somewhat sane, but always ends up sounding so completely shrill it's enough to get most folks holding their crosses up in front of the television. "We're going to kill your dog, my little pretty!"

And then there's Bill Clinton. He was his usual eloquent self. A powerful orater for sure. The only problem is, what he had to say was factually bankrupt, but why quibble about that? His delivery was wonderful. He exuded confidence. He mesmerized the assembled crowd. And immediately after the conclusion of his powerfully delivered revisonist history lesson, everyone in attendance gladly plunked down two bucks each for a 12 ounce bottle of his legendary Arkansas snake oil brewed in the back of a vintage El Camino.

Whatever, man. The only person to get a rise out of me was Jimmy Carter. And what a rise it was. Who the hell does he think he is to stand before us and dare to critique any other president, past or present? If he took the podium and criticized Bill Clinton himself, I would have still been enraged by the biggest loser to ever take command of the nuclear suitcase. What balls coming from a clueless peanut farmer.

He never mentions the 21% interest rates that strangled our economy during his disasterous four years. What was it at the time? 9%, that's 9% unemployment. An oil embargo. Cars lined up around the block to purchase the rationed gas supplies. Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days. His insane decision to relinquish control of the Panama Canal.

The "Anybody but Gerald Ford" nitwit. The relentless, self-appointed champion of human rights. Which amounted to what exactly? The end of human rights abuses worldwide forever more? An end to wrongful death, famine and the nascent terrorism movement? Or the beginning of worldwide terrorism in earnest after he mistakenly decided to pull the rug out from under the Shah of Iran?

And what was his assessment of the Bush years last night?

We cannot lead if our leaders mislead.

Coming from almost anyone else, that statement would have had me wondering what the latest from the Phils' game was. Coming from our failed "Anybody but Ford" president, it had me infuriated beyond all possible belief.

And the current rallying cry is "Anybody but Bush." The Dems are trying to elect another total loser who can't even manage to define himself. They say that history repeats itself, but I always envisioned a gap of much more than twenty-five years between each destructive cycle.

Listening to the once-banished Jimmy Carter criticize any other U.S. President is akin to listening to Mark Fidrytch (spelling) taking Cy Young to task. It's just well too far beyond the cusp to believe that it could ever come to pass.

Jimmy Carter? That was a major insult to those of us that like to believe that we still possess some modicum of intelligence.

How'd that supposed "progress" made at the Camp David Accords so long ago turn out anyway?

How many Elmer Gantry's do they have stored away and ready to pounce in the Democratic party?

An elixer anyone?

The forum page has been dead quiet since Mayor Leighton finally announced the promotions in the fire department. Based on what has been posted of late, that's certainly not a bad thing. Allowing everyone and anyone unfettered access to that forum page provided only that they use their real name was a noble experiment and all, but most of the less than clever folks posting there couldn't fill the nutsack of a grossly-undersized chipmonk. Sorry, girlie men. But it is what it is.

I took a peak at the increasingly pathetic forum this morning only to find this:

Horse-Faced Kerry Family -- Wilkes Barre Online Ombudsman, 18:30:30 07/26/04 Mon [1]

Have any of my conservative friends noticed those horse-faced Kerry daughters. They're just more liberal scum from a gold-digging daddy

Ombudsman? What-f**king-ever! Please stop looking at his daughters and start reexamining his threadbare platform.

And judging from this useless bilge, it's become obvious to those of us confident enough to attach our names to our thoughts that anonymity is no longer enough of a thrill for the severely simple-minded among us. Now they cannot resist the clever (childish/impish) urge to speak for someone else.

Shove it, you liberal, socialist, left-wing wacko -- Private Sector Idiot, 18:25:24 07/26/04 Mon [1]

How dare you question me, you moron! Don't you know that I spend my days becoming the best Republican I can be. The daily routine of reading the Bible, listening to Rush and Hannity and finishing the day reading Marky has given me entrance to the Republican Glee Club

This ridiculous and futile exercise in stupidity seems suspiciously similar to the "wit" displayed by one of our frequent posters who supposedly went silent a while back. Yeah!

The best Republican I can be? You mean working hard for long, long hours, paying our taxes, volunteering our time off for the betterment of all, keeping our noses clean, obeying the law, waving the flag, and staunchly defendly our sovereignty only to watch the all-knowing ankle-grabbers lead us down the failed path of the European socialist states?

By the way, your intolerance is showing, if not glowing white hot. If a person chooses to read the Bible, they should be subjected to ridicule and scorn from those too frightened to identify themselves on the internet?

If nothing else, those who are proud of their faith and make it known have more testicle matter than those that stand for and believe in next to nothing. Imagine that. We seem to have arrived at the point where those who stand for something other than immorality, abject, yet legal depravity and the killing of unborn children should be targeted for abuse by those that can't stand to take a real stand on anything.

Screw it! Let's legalize practically everything, wait patiently for the end of days, and throw the Christians to the lions if the NFL goes out on strike again.

And if said Christians happen to listen to conservative talk radio, that should stand as stark proof that they deserve their eventual fate delivered to them by the folks unshackled by dated beliefs that should not apply anymore.

We can't tolerate organized religion in this country anymore. Religion is too judgemental. Those right-wing, religious kooks should all be rounded up, packed into unheated train cars and shipped off to San Francisco to the reeducation camp.

Camp Sodomy.

And what's up with this "Marky" crap Mr. Anony-Roboto? If you wanna step it up a serious notch, I'll supply you with one free kick-boxing lesson provided that you're not one of the 191 million currently without health insurance. What's the latest bloated number anyway?

The Glee Club?

You're not worthy.

You're anonymous.

Hannity and Rush? You really should get off of that self-serving, intellectually dishonest kick. Anyone who disagrees with you is a Rush disciple? Basically, you are automatically underestimating your stated opponents, and that is always a serious, serious mistake to make.

But you couldn't know that. You can't even identify yourself, which means you're no veteran of anything of note. And yet, you attack a man of conviction who has enough confidence in himself to publicy state what he believes in.

These troubled days, it seems as if the oft-dreaded bible-thumpers have more balls than those who bounce on lubed spindles and criticize them from afar.

Blessed are they...