From Roger L. Simon:

If the reports that Mohammed El Baradei or someone close to him is behind the leak of the putative documents that caused the new NYTrogate Scandal regarding missing explosive in Irag, the implications are staggering.

Consider this: That means a high official of the United Nations... and not just an ordinary high official but one empowered with preventing nuclear weapons proliferation... is trying to influence a US election. And we thought we had seen everything with the Oil-for-Food scandal!

Read the whole thing.

Via Protein Wisdom.

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. . . gives us "tomorrow's news today"—

On Thursday, the L.A. Dog Trainer will run a long piece on the Iraqi quagmire, repeating uncorrected the claim that 380 tons of explosives disappeared from the Al Qaeda military facility, long after President Bush had sent troops into Iraq. Patterico will then send a polite email to “Readers” Representative Jamie Gold, informing her that the explosives actually disappeared shortly before our troops arrived last year, and that in any event, the facility is called Al Qaqaa, not al Qaeda.

It just gets better. Go, now.

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. . . for the Kedwards October surprise. You'd think the poor dears could do better than this ancient "missing explosives" nonsense.

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All of which you need to read, right now. But here's a money quote for you, anyway:

This is no time to vote for Europhile delusions. The Continental health and welfare systems John Kerry so admires are, in fact, part of the reason those societies are dying. As for Canada, yes, under socialized health care, prescription drugs are cheaper, medical treatment's cheaper, life is cheaper. After much stonewalling, the Province of Quebec's Health Department announced this week that in the last year some 600 Quebecers had died from C. difficile, a bacterium acquired in hospital. In other words, if, say, Bill Clinton had gone for his heart bypass to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, he would have had the surgery, woken up the next day swimming in diarrhea and then died. It's a bacterium caused by inattention to hygiene -- by unionized, unsackable cleaners who don't clean properly; by harassed overstretched hospital staff who don't bother washing their hands as often as they should. So 600 people have been killed by the filthy squalor of disease-ridden government hospitals. That's the official number. Unofficially, if you're over 65, the hospitals will save face and attribute your death at their hands to "old age" or some such and then "lose" the relevant medical records. Quebec's health system is a lot less healthy than, for example, Iraq's.

One thousand Americans are killed in 18 months in Iraq, and it's a quagmire. One thousand Quebecers are killed by insufficient hand-washing in their filthy, decrepit health care system, and kindly progressive Americans can't wait to bring it south of the border. If one has to die for a cause, bringing liberty to the Middle East is a nobler venture and a better bet than government health care.

Via Roger L. Simon.

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If Hawai'i is in play, the Dems are in even more trouble than they appear to be.

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With all the contradictory poll data going around, it's nice to see Clinton hit the campaign trail on Kerry's behalf. There's no better indication that the Democrats know Kedwards will be going down in flames.

(Why, you ask. Well, because at this point Clinton's legacy is getting pretty dicey, and I genuinely think he would like to be part of the first/only husband-wife team to take the White House separately: it would ensure him a unique place in history. You can take your conspiracy theories, 'cause I think most Democrats want desperately to take the White House back right now. But I also think Bill would like to see Hillary ensconsed there in '08. He wouldn't be campaigning for Kerry if he thought the Dems had a chance this year.)

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The husband and I are driving up to Santa Barbara for a two-night mini-vacation. I believe he'll be taking his computer, so there will be a dialup connection through his Earthlink account, but if all goes well you won't hear a word from me until Monday night.

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. . . among teenagers, that is. I'm hoping One Vote's Mock Vote is a harbinger of things to come: it was quite a little landslide for the President. Illinois!

Via martini man.

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I spend too much time preaching to the choir. This essay is different, because it is where I will lay my case out for re-electing George W. Bush. It is not for political junkies, but for people who only follow the news when they have a chance between their other obligations. I'm going to put it to you as straight as I can, and try not to inject a lot of emotion into this piece—though I promise I am passionate about it.

I want you to vote for the President, no matter what you might think of him as a man, or as a speaker, or as a politician. No matter which of his policies you might disagree with. And no matter what your party affiliation might be. I'll try to keep it short. I have high hopes that I'll at least get you to think about a few important issues. Please read this through, and if it makes you think at all, pass it along to your friends—whether I persuaded you or not.

To begin with, I want to point out two things about the voting process. First of all, it's private. You don't have to tell anyone the way you voted. Not your spouse. Not your parents. Not your teachers, co-workers, or friends. Some of us let our concern over what other people might think prevent us from voting the way we might want to in our most private moments. To do this is to squander the privileges that a lot of men (and a huge number of women) died for over the centuries winning our independence, strengthening the Union, and defending this country. Democracy is precious; use it to its fullest. I may wear my politics on my sleeve, but there is really no need for you, dear reader, to be as vulgar as I am.

Secondly, political thought is not an aesthetic issue, but one that requires reason and common sense. In other words, when you are thinking about your vote, do not use the part of your mind that puts your wardrobe together, or arranges your art on the wall, or engages in any creative endeavor: this project needs your problem-solving mind, the part of you that figures out how you're going to make more money this month when you're short on rent, or how to open new markets for your small business, or how to position yourself so you can get that promotion next year, or how to sell your art. This realm is a function of your left brain; fashion and aesthetics have nothing to do with it.

What I'm suggeseting here, in part, is that you can be a Bohemian and still vote for Bush: no one will confiscate your hemp clothes or your vintage hats if you do so. Promise.

THE WAR IN IRAQ
There are a lot of arguments either way about whether we should have invaded Iraq. The fact is, we are there now, and millions of people are better off without Saddam Huessein in power. By deposing Saddam, we saved a lot of lives that would have been lost if we hadn't followed through on regime change (a policy that was initiated by Bill Clinton, by the way). Let me say it again: there are people who are alive now that wouldn't have been if Saddam had stayed in power.

And now that we're in Iraq, it's worth noting that some Iraqis are saying the terrorist/Baathist insurgents in their own country will take heart if George Bush is not re-elected. It will be seen as a repudiation of his policies, and there will be a very real expectation that John Kerry, as President, will be more likely to cut and run. The predictable result: there will be more assaults on innocent citizens of many countries, and particularly Iraq.

No matter how or why we got into the Iraq situation, it would be fatal to falter now: for the sake of the Iraqi people, we need to see this situation through in a resolute fashion. A win for John Kerry would cost lives, no matter what policy course he pursued. If you want to stop the suffering of the Iraqis, you'll vote for Bush.

THE ECONOMY AND TAX CUTS
This is a hard one, because for so many of us prosperity has appeared to be "around the corner" for some time now, and it's hard to keep the faith when you're one of the ones who isn't working. Yet considering the suddenness with which the "dot-com" bubble burst, and how closely after that 9/11 occurred, the economy has made a dramatic turnaround over the last two years. Obviously, the way to create jobs is to cut the taxes of those who are in a position to hire people. As is so often said, I don't usually get hired by people who are in a weaker financial position than I'm in; usually it's people (and companies) with money that do the hiring, and when they are being taxed at a high rate that simply doesn't happen as much.

MILITARY MATTERS, SECURITY, AND CONSCRIPTION
There are two allegations against the President in this regard: that he hasn't executed the War on Terror very well (either in Afghanistan or in Iraq), and that the military is at this point stretched so thin that a draft may become inevitable. As to the first charge, both the Afghani campaign and the Iraqi effort were far more successful than anyone dared hope. Certainly Iraq is at a delicate point wherein there are a lot of insurgents trying to do a lot of damage. But the Iraqi bloggers tell us that if Kerry is elected the insurgents will assume a drastic change in U.S. policy. Right or wrong, they'll perceive a high likelihood that we'll "cut and run." This would be a complete disaster for both countries. In fact, some maintain that the modern Islamic extremist movement that is hell-bent on killing Westerners started in Afghanistan, in the power vacuum left when the Soviet Union and the U.S. finished their proxy war there and abruptly departed. Do we want to risk electing a guy—John Kerry—who might set up exactly the same conditions in a Middle Eastern country?

In fact, a lot of what Kerry has said indicates that his priority would be getting out fast, rather than leaving the country in the strongest possible shape a new democracy can be in. If this project is handled right, Iraq can be a beachhead for democracy in the Middle East, and that entire region can set a new course. But this cannot be undertaken by a man who doesn't believe we should be there in the first place. Kerry is the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time to pursue a strategy for making this country safe. In fact, he appears to have very few ideas beyond doing things differently than Bush would, and trying to make other countries like us more.

I don't want to be liked. I want to be safe, and I want my friends and family to be safe. As long as there is a guy in the White House who is perceived to be a bit of a "cowboy," we are safer—because although the "non-state actors" may not care too much what we might do, the countries that have been feeding and supporting them will care a great deal. Nations like Saudi Arabia and Iran will come around because they will fear that this crazy guy Bush might—just might—invade them, too.

In the particular world we live in this will be a good thing.

And, as for "the draft," every military expert says there's no reason we'll need any such thing: the armed forces would rather use people who volunteered, because they are motivated and smarter, and they fight harder. The bill proposing a draft was brought up by Democrats, and when it was brought to a vote it was defeated very quickly. Those who talk about a possible draft are usually trying to scare people into voting for the wrong guy: it's a sleazy tactic.

HALLIBURTON
There is a tremendous concern out there that because the Vice President used to work for a company that handles both military contracts and energy, there might be a conflict of interest in terms of our conducting a war at all—and certainly our invasion of a country that has huge oil reserves. Three points:

1) Cheney is paid money from that company that compensates him for work he did in the past, and the amounts are the same no matter how successful (or unsuccessful) the company is—so there is no conflict of interest;

2) A lot of the work done by military contracters in Iraq can only be done by a very specialized workforce. Bush-haters like to talk about "no-bid contracts," but most of these contracts date back to the Clinton era—when we were downsizing the military and it made sense to "farm out" some of their work—and were only renewed during the Bush Administration. Furthermore, there's no point in having an elaborate bidding process when there are only a handful of people in the entire world who can really tackle a particular job;

3) Over 40 people who work for Kellogg, Brown and Root (the military contractors who are part of Halliburton) have died in Iraq. There are a lot of guys who work in either the infrastructure part of Halliburton, or its energy side, who just want to make a living. They are not "the military-industrial complex," or rich buddies of the Vice President. They're people who are feeding their families doing really hard work that is sometimes quite dangerous.

Some see our invasion of Iraq as an amoral project, and maintain that energy interests close to the Bush Administration merely wanted to get hold of Iraq's oil. If they just wanted the oil, though, they could have bought it from Saddam. That would have been less moral, but much easier and cheaper—and without the political price that Bush had to pay.

BUSH'S "LIES"
There was some bad intelligence before the Iraq war, but everything that Bush and his advisors thought before we invaded Iraq was believed by every nation around the world that has any intelligence capability at all. And by officials in the Clinton administration. And by John Kerry. And by John Edwards. In fact, some of Saddam's advisors have said his public statements were meant to deceive other nations—Iran in particular—into believing that he had Weapons of Mass Destruction. He was bluffing, and we called his bluff.

We certainly know that as soon as the inspectors left Iraq, Saddam intended to get his weapons programs back on track. So unless we planned on leaving the inspectors in his country long-term, we would have ended up where we thought we were to begin with. In the meantime, we had tried to keep Saddam under control with sanctions, which led to suffering in his country. Then the U.N. began its oil-for-food program, which turned into a way for Saddam to stash money away for his future WMD programs, and meanwhile to reward countries such as France for allying themselves with him. Billions went to Saddam, and to officials in other countries, and relatively little went to the Iraqi people. It was an obscenity.

RACE AND THE REPUBLICANS
Let's also discuss race. There is a notion out there that Republicans in general—and the President in particular—are uncomfortable with people who aren't white. Yet three of his advisors are black, and his nieces and nephews (Jeb Bush's kids) are Latino. There were a lot of allegations that black people were disenfranchised in Florida during the 2000 election, but there have been many enquiries and no one has been able to document that any such thing occurred. When a charge that serious is made, it should be backed up; otherwise it is just a partisan slander.

The Republicans are the party of Lincoln, who issued the order that ended slavery in this country. The Republicans voted for the Civil Rights act of 1964 in greater percentages than the Democrats of the time did. The GOP is the party of racial equality.

Please do not be ruled by prejudice (or the innuendo of those with a partisan agenda) on an important issue like whether a candidate is a bigot or not.

The fact is, black support for Bush has doubled since the last Presidential election; word is finally starting to get out that there is no conspiracy or desire to hold African Americans back, and that the ever-increasing employment rate helps all of us, regardless of our color. As small business owners, many black people are starting to realize that high taxes hurt them, too.

It's a new world, and the old ideas about racial polarization no longer work. (If, in fact, they ever did.)

That's my case. It isn't artful; it isn't particularly well-written. It comes from the heart, and it's meant to make you feel okay about giving the President one more term.

Thank you for your time.

Joy McCann, aka Little Miss Attila
http://attila.mu.nu

Please circulate this to your friends and relatives (as text or as a link), particularly if they are considering voting for Kerry, or insecure in their support for Bush. Or if they live in Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Ohio, Arkansas, Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, or Iowa. Or any of the other 37 important states in the union. Or in Washington, D.C.

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John Hawkins has a brisk little interview with the devine Ms. Coulter. My liberal readers should make sure their blood-pressure meds are working before clicking on the link.

Of course, I shouldn't be linking him, since I'm not on his "favorite blogs" list. I should punish him for the slight, make him feel the fiercesome power of Attila Girl! (Wait . . . that might not work.)

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There's a new political spot being rolled out in the what is supposedly the most expensive political ad campaign this year; it focuses on Ashley, the girl who lost her mother in the 9/11 attacks, whom the President comforted last spring, to the point that she was finally able to cry. You've seen the picture before. Go here to see the ad, which has a Quicktime option (hooray!).

I've always loved that photo for the way the President looks in it.

Via Dean Esmay.

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Blogging light to nonexistent for the next two days: I'm working my office job and fending off my usual sleep disorder thingie ("delayed sleep syndrome," they call it).

And on Saturday, the spouse and I are headed to Santa Barbara for 2-3 days, so you may not hear too much from me for the next week.

Be good.

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. . . focuses on chick warbloggers today. Go watch the fun before we're all shipped off to the Gulag—or whatever punishment he has in store for us.

Clenched fist salute to the Commissar; is nice to be included. I'm sure will enjoy Re-Edukation very much.

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The Club for Growth has completed final edits on the hilarious ad produced by David Zucker, of Airplane! and the Naked Gun series. Please do three things:

1) Go take a look at it, even if you're a pacifist in the War on Terror, and/or a Kerry supporter. I promise you'll still get a laugh out of it. And

2) If you aren't a pacifist, please send whatever you can afford to the Club for Growth to help them buy airtime and get this commercial shown in some of the states (Ohio, Florida, Arkansas, Iowa, Pennsylvania) that are hanging by a thread. Who knows? If they get enough money they might even air the ad in New Jersey, which is now in play (despite being a Democratic stronghold, and appearing on almost no lists of "swing states"—have you noticed that the President and First Lady are spending lots of time there these days?). If each of my non-pacifist readers gave $20, that would be $2,000 for the cause. And if the other bloggers who are currently linking only had my level of readership and did the same, that would be $200,000. But they don't only have my level: Glenn linked to the ad as well, and I wouldn't be surprised if they raise the whole two million, if people are responsive enough. And

3) If you are a blogger, link to this spot and remind your readers that the Club for Growth could use their help in getting the word out.

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George Will discusses the NRA in this New York Post article, explaining why the Democratic Party has abandoned gun control as an issue, and why gun owners and other Second Amendment advocates will be crucial in getting out the Bill of Rights vote for George W. Bush on November 2nd.

Hat tip to the L.A. Cowboy.

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Ilyka gives us a nice dissenting opinion on the Kerry-Mary flap. Go here, and skip down five paragraphs to the discussion of electoral politics. She thinks it's no big deal, and tells us why. And:

I have just one question: Where would the Bush campaign be right now if the Democrats had actually nominated a guy who was any good at this game?

He might be fucked. I do know that if the Dems had nominated Lieberman I would have taken a good, hard look at him and I might have voted for him. And I don't think I'm alone.

But they didn't.

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Well, we went to see Team America today. I thought it was pretty funny, actually, although I don't usually go for really crude humor and I have never seen one episode of South Park.

The husband and I had at least one disagreement about the plot, wherein something I saw as noise looked like signal to him. But the noise-to-signal issue is fascinating, here, because a lot of the really broad humor was, in my opinion, a way of getting the film made in the first place. I think the puppet gimmick and some of the grosser moments were a device for Parker and Stone to hide behind when they needed to: "hey, it's a movie made with puppets, who have sex with each other. And it skewers the idea of American exceptionalism." Yeah. But not like it skewers terrorists and their enablers on the left.

What's amazing to me is that this film got made at all, because 1) it's fundamentally a pro-America, pro-testosterone piece that discusses the very real intentions of overseas terrorists to kill us (while grossly exaggerating this threat, cartoon-style); and 2) it savages the Hollywood left as thoughtless appeasers who are pro-peace until it's time to take up arms against those who want to stop the world from being blown up.

I don't agree with everything in it, and it isn't what you'd call a "think piece." Its comedy is (deliberately) over-the-top. But the tunes are catchy, and there aren't a lot of places you can go to see a Jeanine Garafalo puppet state that "I read the newspaper every day, and then I spout those opinions as my own." Or to hear a theme song whose chorus is "America—fuck, yeah!"

And there's no argument to be made about what an technical achievement this film is. My understanding is that there's little computer animation in the movie, and that most of the effects are achieved by using elaborate sets of international landmarks. The puppets are amazing to watch, yet Parker and Stone made a point of having the strings show at all times—just so we know they don't take themselves any more seriously than they do the Hollywood establishment (epitomized in the movie by the organization the Film Actors Guild; tasteful, the movie is not).

Frankly, I'd like to see this movie do well, because its point of view is underrepresented in my town. But I can't recommend it in good conscience to anyone who's sensitive about . . . anything. There's not a family value to be found in the film, so go in with your eyes open.

But any movie that threw Sean Penn off to this degree can't be all bad. And isn't. It's clever, it's fun, and it's full of bodily fluids, sex and explosions. Enjoy.

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Pierre Salinger died yesteday. James has the scoop at Outside the Beltway, including an excerpt from the MSM coverage and his own thoughts about Salinger's evolution from reasonable journalist to . . . something else.

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Matthew Heidt of Froggy Ruminations lays out his case for the notion that Osama bin Laden is now facing his virginless eternity—and has been for some time. In the course of the entry he explains why Bush's message discipline over the issue of Tora Bora shows that the President places the interests of the country over his own re-election campaign. And he makes a good case.

Via Protein Wisdom, and a couple of others who have clean slipped my mind. Sorry!

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Figured I'd write it now, and save time later.

Bush and Cheney will win in a landslide. Cheney will retire three years into the second term, and Condi Rice will become VP, thereby positioning her to run against Hillary in 2008. Jeb Bush, who think he'll be the next guy by that name to occupy the Oval Office, will arm-wrestle Condi for the '08 GOP nomination. He'll lose.

John Kerry will look even more haggard and pathetic over the next four years than Al Gore has over the past four. He'll lose his Senate seat and mope around the houses until the day Ter-AY-suh declares, "work, or walk." After they split, he'll couch-surf at his friends' and daughters' houses, a broken man.

John Edwards will become the new lib-punk TV commentator, eclipsing George Stephanopoulos.

Elizabeth Edwards will be found in a dark alley in D.C. with her throat cut and a double-ended dildo sticking out of her. Lynne Cheney will have an alibi.

So it goes. (Or will go.)

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