Funmurphys: the Blog

The Triumph of Hope over Experience

Posts Tagged John Kerry

Kerry Snubs Troops

Jan 6

Posted by Kevin Murphy in National Politics | No Comments

In the lastest example of a Seinfeld scandal (the length of a Seinfeld scandal is directly proportional to the strength of its vacuum, which is why 3 years later the saga of the plastic turkey continues) it’s official – John Kerry wasn’t snubbed by soldiers in Iraq, he snubbed them. For a pair of reporters.

Let’s give three cheers (or if Brother Byrd is reading, two Hallelujahs and an Amen) for the political acumen ofJohn ‘Malpractice’ Kerry. Maybe somebody should give his staff T-shirts that read “Kerry went all the way to Iraq for a photo op with the troops and all he did was talk to a lousy pair of reporters”.

You’ve got to know you’re base. If you’re John Kerry, who’s more important, a whole bunch of ignoramuses who blew their schooling and wound up in Iraq, or a couple of reporters for the New York Times? Kind of a no-brainer, isn’t it?

Bryan Preston actually apologizes for calling Kerry “lonely” – which rates two Hallelujahs! and and an Amen! for Brother Preston from this corner at any rate. Although I will note that since loneliness is an emotional state it can’t be determined from a photograph – you can be lonely sitting at a table full of people (remember the start of Freshman year anyone?) and whatever the opposite of lonely is sitting all by yourself.

Flap apologizes an a more Kerryesque style.

Just to get out ahead on big John, here’s the next Kerry scandal of Sienfelding proportions.

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You End Up Getting Your Foot Stuck In Your Mouth

Nov 1

Posted by Kevin Murphy in National Politics | 1 Comment

I’m willing to accept that John Kerry was not trying to criticism American soldiers as stupid but mistakenly called them unmotivated, lazy, and ignorant. So I agree with Ms. Barber that Mr. Kerry is being unfairly attacked on this subject:

“I can’t overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq.”

That’s a clear reference to Bush, who Kerry implies is dumb. But it came out like this:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

It’s bad enough that he’s being condescending. John Kerry is where he is today not through diligent application in school, but by being willing to do anything to advance himself no matter what.

But far worse is that he’s trying to turn a policy disagreement into a stupid joke. Literally. Great, that’s who I want trying to determine national policy. I guess that means Kerry’s idol, JFK, is a dumb fratboy like Bush because he got stuck in Vietnam – the original “quagmire”.

Not every politician can tell a joke, and it really isn’t a senatorial requirement, but I don’t think that let’s JoKe off the hook. Besides, calling them stupid woudn’t have been near as bad as things he’s actually called them – war criminals.

What are the things Democrats complain about Bush?

That he’s a poor public speaker? Guess what, this latest from Kerry only shows that Kerry’s worse.

That he doesn’t admit mistakes? Has Kerry admitted his mistake and apologized? Ha, he’s gone the blame everybody else route. [And now belatedly apologized.]

That he’s dumb? Hey, Kerry got worse grades in school. And he flubbed an easy joke.

Look, I find that Kerry is everything that the Democrats today complain about Bush (including the liar part) only moreso, yet not only can they stomach Kerry, they made him their Presidential candidate in 2004. The Democrats could have been a contender – they could have put the standard in Joe Lieberman’s capable hands in 2004 but instead that went with a pathetic loser like Kerry and kicked Lieberman out of the party.

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Thank You Maam, May I Have Another

Oct 28

Posted by Kevin Murphy in National Politics | No Comments

I’m not one to criticize the family of politicians (minor children are strictly off limits in my book), but Teresa Heinz Kerry is exceptional. She throws around insults like breath mints. She’s like Leona Helmsly, only with less charm.

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It’s Coldest Before the Dawn

Oct 7

Posted by Carl Drews in The War on Terror | 2 Comments

I just handed in a research paper on the sandstorm that hit Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom last year. You’ll all get to read this paper when I post it on the web after the professor grades it. The dust storm was most intense on March 25, 2003, so I looked up some old news accounts of what was going on then. Basically, the U.S. Army and Marines were approaching Baghdad, and the Iraqi Republican Guard were getting into position to defend the city. What was most interesting to find were the opinions expressed by correspondents and bloggers on both sides of the conflict.

There was a lot of pessimism on the coalition side. Many observers thought the siege of Baghdad would be long and brutal. The media worried that a lot of Iraqi civilians would get killed, that every block of the city would be defended.

There was also a lot of bravado from the Iraqi government, and not just from Information Minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahaf. Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed had this to say (posted on March 28):

Asked what kind of battle he expected, Defense Minister Ahmed said: “Baghdad is the cradle of civilization. Iraqis inherited this history from their forefathers. They will defend this inheritance in a way that will satisfy God.” 

“God willing, Baghdad will be impregnable. We will fight to the end and everywhere. History will record how well Iraqis performed in defense of their capital,” Ahmed said. 

Ahmed said that the U.S. supply lines were overstretched and reached as far as 300 miles and called a sandstorm that slowed the U.S. push northwards toward Baghdad in recent days “a gift from God.” 

You can read the rest of the story at rense.com.

Remember that? It was only last year. I was kind of discouraged myself at that point, wondering how we would go about capturing Baghdad. I even discussed some options with a former tank commander friend of mine. 

As it turned out, Ahmed was exactly right. History did record how well the Republican Guard performed in defense of their capital. I saw pictures of Republican Guard soldiers stripping off their uniforms and running away in their underwear. 

If the sandstorm was “a gift from God,” then Ahmed’s expression of theistic meteorology did not work out the way he expected. General Tommy Franks and his staff made a military move during the sandstorm that drastically altered the war in our favor. That’s a teaser – you’ll have to read about it in my paper. The historical facts show that U.S. forces soon captured Baghdad after a series of armed incursions. The statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square was toppled on April 9. 

The point is this: On March 25, 2003, things looked pretty bleak in Iraq. But a major military turning point came during those few days, and Saddam Hussein in bronze fell to the ground just two weeks later. Sometimes when things look the worst, there comes a turning point that nobody realizes until later. 

The news from Iraq was depressing until about a week ago. It seemed that our side was losing cities to the insurgents, as more and more “no-go zones” developed. I think we were actually losing progress, as defined by the measures discussed here several months ago. 

Take courage, my friends! Najaf is peaceful once again, even though too many of the al-Sadr militants got away. The shrine’s okay. Samarra has been re-liberated from anti-Iraq forces. By now many Iraqis have had it up to here with militants turning their neighborhoods into battlegrounds. I expect Iraqis have also realized that people who sabotage pipelines aren’t doing squat to defend Islam or fight for Iraq or improve anyone’s lives. Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi is holding tough. And most people who make the decisions have recognized that Kevin was right back in April when he said that the right thing to do in Fallujah is to take back the city from the terrorists, not withdraw. 

If John Kerry is elected president he will follow basically the same plan in Iraq as Bush is following now. Kerry says he will execute the plan better, and any voter can decide if they believe him or not. The Democrats made the choice of Kerry over Howard Dean in the primaries, and with that choice they rejected the option to withdraw from Iraq. Tony Karon at TIME Magazine can complain that Kerry doesn’t offer a choice on Iraq, but that choice is off the table now because it was already rejected. No matter what happens in November, America plans to finish the job that we started in Iraq. And finish it right. 

Thank you, Tony Blair and the United Kingdom and Australia for being there with us all the way! Thank you also to the other coalition countries. 

By my count progress in Iraq is at about 85%. Progress is at 50% automatically because Allawi is in charge and Iraq is sovereign. When I look at the map of Iraq I see about 30% of the population and land as “no-go zones”, meaning 70% is relatively stable and functional. So 50% + 70%*50% = 85%. You do the math. 

Meteorologically Speaking: 

The old saying that “it’s darkest before the dawn” is incorrect. Night is relatively constant in darkness, except for the hour after sundown and before sunrise when blue photons are scattering over the horizon and lighting up things a bit. Surface temperature pretty much follows a sinusoidal curve during the day, with the peak temperature at about 2pm. Surface temperatures are coldest before the dawn because the earth’s surface undergoes radiative cooling all night, at pretty much a constant rate. 

So it really is coldest just before the dawn.

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Warm, Cuddly, Deadly

Sep 27

Posted by Kevin Murphy in International Politics | No Comments

I’d like to live in Teresa Heinz Kerry’s world. No, I’m not talking about being a pampered billionaire, I’m talking about her world where everybody is a rational actor.

She said the United States needs a different approach in the world. “The way we live in peace in a family, in a marriage, in the world, is not by threatening people, is not by showing off your muscles. It’s by listening, by giving a hand sometimes, by being intelligent, by being open and by setting high standards,” she said at the CSU rally. 

That may work for most people in their family lives, but it simply doesn’t work for everybody nor does it work all the time in the world. They’re are plenty of people in prison for whom all those non-forceful methods simply don’t work. And does she honestly think we can sit down with Osama and work this whole ‘infidels-must-die’ thing out with listening and setting high standards?

This sort of thinking gets people killed. But it doesn’t stop there.

“There are about 50 countries in the world that have the capability to build nuclear weapons. Are we going to attack them all?” she said. 

Are all countries equal? Does Canada follow the same foreign policy as North Korea? Of course not. So why should different countries, with different political systems, be treated the same? It’s egalitarianism run amok. Homicidal dictators who feel no compunction in killing people should be treated differently than representative governments that take great care of foreigners and citizens alike.

I realize that she is the wife of the candidate, not the candidate, but I get tired of trite moralizing and an inability to face up to reality.

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Missouri, Proud Weathervane

Sep 23

Posted by Kevin Murphy in National Politics | No Comments

We got good news here yesterday in Missouri — John Kerry has decided against running political ads here. Of course, he may decide to run them after deciding not to run them, so I’m not celebrating just yet. But it tells me that as of right now, John Kerry is giving up. I’m not saying he won’t win, I’m just saying if he’s giving up on Missouri, the nation’s political weathervane, he’s giving up actually winning the Presidency. Now if I can survive the blitz of McCaskill and Blunt ads, I’ll keep my sanity. I’m thinking McCaskill is going to win, but not before I have to put up with hours of lousy ads.

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Going And Going And …

Sep 21

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Media Criticism | No Comments

Rathergate just keeps getting bigger, weirder, and more corrupt. It’s reminds me of when I first saw Independence Day: You think you’re watching just another disaster epic, some character starts talking about Roswell and area 51, and the next thing you know all the crazy conspiracy theories about aliens are coming true. Well, that’s where we’re at on this story, we started off with a story of sloppy journalism and all of a sudden CBS news is just another cog in the Kerry Campaign — and it sure seems like we’re still closer to the beginning of the story than the end.

The story as of now – CBS learns by means/people unrevealed that Bill Burkett has some info on Bush’s National Guard service. Despite the fact that Burkett had already fabricated a story about Bush’s TANG files, CBS talks to and believes Burkett (he must be mighty persuasive in person). Burkett tells them he has some documents, gives one to them, and then names as his price for the rest that CBS has the Kerry Campaign talk to him. Mary Mapes, CBS producer, calls Joe Lockhart and Max Cleland, tips them off that Burkett is their source on a big story about Bush’s National Guard service complete with documentary evidence. Lockhart talks with Burkett, but he claims he only humored him, talking about how Kerry could respond to the Swift Boat Veterans ads, and never discussed what Burkett was telling to CBS. It’s pure coincidence that the Kerry campaign had ready that whole “Fortunate Son” theme ready to go immediately after the 60 minutes report. Oh that’s right, Burkett slipped Cleland a copy of the documents (perhaps when Cleland was down at Bush’s ranch?) so why should Lockard spend time yaking with the guy when he can look at the documents for himself.

Gee, I wonder why CBS didn’t also contact the Bush campaign to let them know about the report they were going to do. That way they too could have their comments ready following the show. Maybe CBS found it too hard to think with all those alarm bells going off. I mean, Burkett had lied before about something and cited George Conn as someone who could back him up, and here he tells CBS he got these documents from Conn again (did Burkett pick him for the name alone?). CBS is apparently so dazed and confused that they can’t figure out what their document experts are telling them, don’t bother to check with George Conn to see if they are getting conned, rely on noted liar Ben Barnes to be the face of the piece, and then seemed defensive and shocked that anyone would question CBS authority. I mean, if CBS says they have authenticated the documents (they didn’t), have an unimpeachable source (I guess he’s certifiable, not impeachable), and airtight chain of custody (so airtight they don’t need to check it), who but partisan idiot scumbags can question them? And just because they already told the Kerry Campaign who they’re top secret source is doesn’t mean they should tell the public.

USA Today also received the documents, but seemingly they could hear the alarm bells well enough they didn’t run with the story like CBS. And when they went back to Burkett, they got the greatest shaggy dog story ever told: Lucy Ramirez gave them to me, and I burned the originals because, well, Ramirez didn’t want forensic evidence coming back to name her. Who’s Lucy Ramirez? Apparently USAT doesn’t know either, but didn’t think to ask.

If this were a movie, people would think it too contrived. Sadly, it’s not, it’s the network news in action. I suppose this way they can go out with a bang, not a whimper.

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Is John Kerry a Christian?

Sep 17

Posted by Carl Drews in National Politics | 2 Comments

My daughter attends a private Christian school. This morning she told me that her second-grade classmates “don’t want to vote for John Kelly [sic] because he’s not a Christian. They want to vote for George Bush.”

I was appalled to hear this, but I restrained myself. Who told them that John Kerry is not a Christian? I explained that John Kerry is a Roman Catholic, and that the Catholic Church is one of the “denominations” in the worldwide Christian church. “We don’t go to John Kerry’s church because we are Protestant (Anglican), but his church also believes in Jesus.” That was enough for a second-grader.

But I’m a big seventeenth-grader. Is John Kerry a Christian? The facts show that John Kerry describes himself as a Roman Catholic. His web site says: 

“Not long after John Kerry was born, the family settled in Massachusetts. Growing up there, his parents taught him the values of service and responsibility and the blessings of his Catholic faith, lessons John Kerry carries with him to this day.” 

I have also seen a news photograph of John Kerry receiving Communion. This indicates that he is at least somewhat active in his church. So we can conclude that John Kerry is a practicing Roman Catholic. So far, so good.

A fair number of people claim that Kerry is not a true Christian because he doesn’t vote against abortion. That stance may not make him a “good Catholic“, but that’s not the question here. I have heard laundry lists that a “true Christian” should: believe in Jesus, oppose abortion, be against homosexuality, tithe, attend church regularly, be in favor of a balanced budget, and believe that the earth is 6,000 years old.

Frankly, I have very little interest in definitions of “What is a true Christian?” that fail to cite the Bible by book, chapter, and verse. If the official definition of a Christian includes opposition to abortion, then the Bible ought to state that pretty clearly. So – what does the Bible say?

Romans 10:9-10 says: “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (NIV) That passage tells us how to be saved, but it’s not quite a definition of what is a Christian.

John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Again, this tells us how to be saved, but not what constitutes a Christian. (Maybe the Gospel writers cared more about Salvation than what exactly is “proper Christianity.”)

James 1:27 says: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Some translations use the phrase “true religion” here. I don’t see anything about abortion in James 1:27, although one could argue that not opposing abortion is “being polluted by the world.” Good luck with your exegesis.

There are lots of things a Christian should do, according to Jesus: love your neighbor, turn the other cheek, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, and be faithful unto death. In fact, a Christian should not sin! But as Peter learned after the resurrection, even the sin of denying Jesus does not kick you out of the Christian club.

The Gospels are more concerned about pointing the way to Salvation than about defining what makes a proper Christian. The Pharisees were very concerned about defining what makes a good Jew, and Jesus rebuked the Pharisees. I’ll take my definition of “What makes a Christian?” from Romans 10:9-10:

1. Believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God, and make Him the Lord of your life. 

2. Believe that Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning. 

That’s it. Everything else is commentary. 

I would like to ask Kerry personally about points 1 and 2. But until I find evidence to the contrary, I’ll have to assume that he follows the position of the Catholic Church, which is in agreement with points 1 and 2. 

I think John Kerry is a Christian. I think he’s wrong about abortion. I hope he changes his mind. 

I expect to see John Kerry in heaven when I get there.

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No Trumans Here

Sep 8

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Media Criticism, National Politics | No Comments

The Post ran one of my letters to the editor after a long absence. I would have liked to have written at greater length, but brevity is the soul of wit (and the secret to getting a letter printed). I wrote in response to both letters and editorials – it was a Post editorial that labeled Zell Miller’s speach “vituperative.” I suppose I labor under the illusion that anybody, and I include the paper’s staff, reads the editorials or opeds or letters to the editor. I barely know anbody who gets the paper, let alone reads anything beyond sports and everyday (comics). 

I reproduce the letter for your reading enjoyment:

The responses to the Republican National Convention make it clear that the Democrats are no longer the party of Harry Truman; they can’t stand the heat. The Republicans told the truth, and the Democrats thought it was hell.

The Democrats can’t tell the difference between ad hominem attacks and factual takedowns. Pointing out that John Kerry was on the wrong side of a number of issues and votes is called vituperative; calling George W. Bush a moron, a fascist, a liar and AWOL and Dick Cheney a war profiteer and a coward for obtaining draft deferments passes as reasonable debate. 

Considering the identical responses of mainstream media and partisan Democrats, it’s clear that the media represent the view of partisan Democrats and not unbiased reporting. 

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Jason Goes To New York

Sep 2

Posted by Kevin Murphy in National Politics | No Comments

My wife wanted to watch Zell Miller last night, so after I got back from working on the parade float and walking the dog, we turned on the TV to the convention. Since Zell wasn’t on yet, my wife called her Girl Scout co-Leader and then Zell came on. She was bummed she missed most of it, but I got to see the whole thing. Wow. It should go down as the “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” speech – an even better version of Howard Beale from Network. 

I hope John Kerry took notes on the effective way to mention one’s military experience (“And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators”) – as little as possible and in context with the point. 

Zell put on the hockey mask, revved up the chainsaw, and went to work on the objects of his wrath. He didn’t stop when he finished with politicians, he kept it up on Hardball. After that speech, the two Cheneys were anti-climactic and I didn’t stick out Dicks speech for very long before I was back to handling Scout administrivia. 

Tomorrow night is Bush – I have School Night for Scouting and Open House at school, but I’ll be back in time I hope. My wife and son are off to a Cardinals game, so she’ll miss Bush’s speech for sure. I’ll be torn – a politician speaking, or uninterrupted time to take on Andariel and go on to Act II. Decisions, decisions.

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