8-10-2004

Donut Filler?

I don't understand all of the hoopla these Swift Boat Vets for Truth have stirred up.

The Dems are freaking out and crying "Foul!" WILK's Nancy & Kev think it's an outrage that these 'Nam vets would dare disparage Kerry's four month mini-tour of duty. And through all of this, I'm shrugging my shoulders. What's the big deal with a case of he said/he said?

Kerry claims he was a war hero of the highest order when he wasn't busy committing atrocities. Some of those who served in his unit claim that he's no war hero and unfit for command. So let's examine both sides of the convoluted story, make a decision and vote accordingly? Why the outrage?

The same stringent standards for tossing around unprovable accusations certainly don't seem to apply to the Prez. Somebody accused him of being AWOL during his stint in the Texas Air National Guard thirty years ago and that was investigated to death. Nothing to substantiate that accusation was ever found, yet, folks are still running around accusing him of being AWOL way back when. And I never once heard Nancy or Kev take any offense to that lowlife witch hunt and the presumptive guilt that resulted from it. Funny how that works.

Okay, so Nancy & Kev are on record as saying that the ad from the swift boat dudes was nothing less than vile. Last week a caller to WILK mistakenly claimed that MoveOn.org ran ads comparing Bush to Hitler. Nance & Kev were not up to speed on that one, but they did spend this past weekend researching said claim and seemed generally delighted to report this morning that no vile television attacks on Bush were launched from MoveOn.org. Oh really? It seems they've got some more digging to do. Here. I did it for them. Their brand of research is a bit too selective.

The following text is from television ads paid for by MoveOn.org:

Accusing Bush of Ignoring Corruption

(Announcer): Instead of protecting pensions George Bush supported a bill giving Enron huge new tax breaks. Instead of giving seniors real prescription drug benefits Bush gave drug companies billions in his Medicare bill. Instead of fighting corporate corruption George Bush gave no-bid contracts to Halliburton, a company caught overcharging for food and fuel for soldiers in Iraq. George Bush. He turned the White House into corporate headquarters.

Blaming Bush for Rising Gas Prices

(Announcer): Since oil company executives George Bush and Dick Cheney took office, gas prices have risen in Wisconsin by a whopping $.53 a gallon, costing the average family an extra $723 a year. Meanwhile, oil companies are making record profits. What did you expect?

Scaring Seniors

(Announcer): Seniors who thought the Bush prescription drug bill would really help them are in for a big surprise. George Bush sided with the drug companies, who had given him big contributions.
So the bill forbids Medicare from neotiating lower prescription drug prices. Forbids it! And prevents getting lower priced prescriptions from Canada. George Bush, he's pulling the rug out from under Medicare.

Calling Bush a Misleader

(Announcer): In his State of the Union speech, here's what George W. Bush should have said about his new Medicare bill: My fellow Americans, my Medicare bill has real drug benefits, but not for you; for my contributors at the big drug companies. My bill actually forbids Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices, and you won't be able to get cheaper prices from Canada. The Bush Medicare sellout. It's enough to make you sick.

Bush will eat Your Children

(Announcer): George Bush supports the school lunch program only because he wants to fatten up the children of America for his cannibalistic barbeques at his Crawford, Texas ranch. George Bush. He will eat your chidren.

Alright. Alright. I made that one up. But don't be surprised if the folks straight out of leftie field, i.e., George Soros Field, decide to run with it.

Isn't it interesting how the Republicans are supposedly supported by big oil, big drug companies, big tobacco, and big whatever. What? The Dems are supported by small oil, teeny tiny drug companies, microscopic tobacco companies, and shrimpish whatever??? That oft-repeated charge is a gross perversion of reality and everyone knows it. Well, excepting for many Dems.

Whatever. Bush has been smeared with relentless and baseless attack ads for seven months, but let a few veterans take issue with Kerry's four-month 'Nam stint and that's going well over the line??? Whatever Kerry says is instantly etched in stone as an undeniable truth of life? Just like that?

In case anyone missed his acceptance speech, he has chosen to run on his short war record and his short war record alone. How dare anyone challenge his version of past events. Why...he's a goll dern, real life war hero and thereby above such outrageous partisan scrutiny.

And his enormous army of lawyers are trying to threaten television stations into doing no such thing.

Maybe the stations that do run the Swift Boat ads will be accused of being "big tv" that gave handsome sums of cash to Dubya. George Bush. He'll eat your children. Right, Kev?

Somebody left a...

...Christine Katsock For State Representative flyer on my porch today. The very first paragraph had me flabbergasted. Get a load of this:

Christine Katsock has a proven record of making positive things happen in the Wilkes-Barre region

During her Mayoral Campaign for Wilkes-Barre, Christine introduced her Katsock Plan for Wilkes-Barre. Today, her Katsock Plan remains the blueprint for the City's bailout, and the plan's provisions continue to get approved and adopted. That's one of the strong reasons we need Christine Katsock as our next State Representative in Harrisburg in the 121st district.

A "proven record of making positive things happen in the Wilkes-Barre region?" I wish she would have listed a few because I know not what she is referring to.

And here, it's the stupendous Katsock Plan that is reversing Wilkes-Barre's once sagging fortunes. Lordy! Lordy! And I thought all along that it was the Leighton Plan that we adopted. I feel silly. What'd he do, slip it out of her purse when she wasn't looking? Or maybe he distracted her long enough for J.J. to snatch it. What a freakin' sneak?

The Katsock Plan. Who knew?

What in the hell...

...is up with this?

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said on Monday he would have voted for the congressional resolution authorizing force against Iraq even if he had known then no weapons of mass destruction would be found.

Taking up a challenge from President Bush, whom he will face in the Nov. 2 election, the Massachusetts senator said: "I'll answer it directly. Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it is the right authority for a president to have but I would have used that authority effectively."

You have got to be kidding me! That's not as much a flip-flop as it is simply downright shocking coming from Kerry. What the heck happened to "Bush lied?" Where the hell is "Bush mislead this nation into war?"

After months of painting the Prez as a liar, a phony and a boob who led us into an unescapable quagmire, now, Kerry says he'd do much the same thing only better??? He's f**ked up! Unreal. Needless to say, it didn't take long for Dubya to bust his cajones on that unbelievable note.

"Now, almost two years after he voted for the war in Iraq, and almost 220 days after switching positions to declare himself the anti-war candidate, my opponent has found a new nuance. After months of questioning my motives and even my credibility, Sen. Kerry now agrees with me. There are still 84 days left in the campaign."--Dubya

This is nuts. Kerry voted for the "use of force" authorization. Then he voted against funding the use of force. Then he jumped on the Bush-is-a-liar freight train. Now he tells us he'd do the same thing that got Bush in so much trouble according to the pollsters. What gives, man?

I voted for the war right after I voted against it and after months of accusing Bush of misleading this country into war on a false premise, I'd do the same thing.

Does that compute?

84 days left. There's still ample time for Kerry to change his mind. Again. And again. And...

Lane Filler...

...a reporter from the Times Leader called the adobe looking for me today. I missed his call, but I know what he was calling about. He was working on a story about Wilkes-Barre that you'll all get to read tomorrow morning. Front page, Baby. Thompson Street man arrested for spying for Russians. NOT!

What kind of name is Lane? I'm the last person that should be making fun of anyone's name being with what I inflicted upon my kids, but his parents lacked imagination. Why not Pothole? Or Donut? How 'bout Drink Filler? A bartender perhaps. Oh, whatever.

Anyway, he called here and if I had hooked up with him, this is about what I'd have to say to him about tomorrow's story and the reasons I took the actions I did:

Now that the nonstop rancor, the political infighting and the resulting gridlock no longer pass as government in this troubled city, the very last thing this city needs is to start tinkering around with our city charter as the result of a personal vendetta launched into by a bitter, failed candidate for elected office, a city subcontractor who stands to lose his no-bid contract, and a longstanding political muckraker posing as the champion of the downtrodden taxpayers.

Moreover, if we as a city hope to attract qualified professionals from the ranks of the private sector to the public sector, we're not going to accomplish said goal by reducing the compensation paid to our elected officials to that of your basic chump change. If we want the best and brightest to emerge and lead Wilkes-Barre towards a more fruitful future, we will have to compensate those individuals accordingly.

And I've had about as many of these petitions seeking referendum questions as I can stand. Whether it's home rule, reducing the size of council, or redistricting the city, too much of the original motivation for those movements seemed to come from a genuine desire to deliver a bit of political payback. And the latest petitions are no less scurrilous in their nature.

And dig this, kiddies. The loose cannons running around with their stacks of petitions couldn't even manage to fill them out even close to correctly. If you ask me, what they did with those petitions borders on criminal. Left to their devices, we'd have dead people signing those petitions. Stay tuned. You'll see.

Right now, we've got continuity, cooperation, financial responsibility and honest to goodness progress, the brick and mortar kind, on the way to Wilkes-Barre. In my mind, the last thing we need is embittered folks pretending to be looking out for all of us when all they are really doing is playing the needless political games that helped to lead this city to near total ruin.

Petitions? We don't need no stinkin' petitions. What we need is some quality leadership and all sorts of scrutiny brought to bare on our nine elected officials.

As for Walter and his less than completely honest taxpayer crusaders, I say we send them back from whence they came. Namely, nowhere.

CYA