Fish in the Wrong Bowl

There are some real oddities at this year's Democratic National Convention.

We're not just talking about Teresa Heinz Kerry. I lived in Pennsylvania at the time Senator Heinz was killed, not that far from the school where the crash occurred -- tragically killing some kids as well as the pilots and passengers of the aircraft involved -- and she was hardly a liberal scion back then. I for one take her at her superficial appearance -- a unique person, with many talents, and a lot of money. But while she's not on the ticket and I think much of the talk about her personality is just ludicrous, political spouses do play a traditional role at a convention, and she's now at least a registered democrat (having finally made the leap from Republican just two years ago.)

What on earth is Maria Shriver doing there? Just because she's a "Kennedy" doesn't mean she's not helping Bush's agenda via her hubby the Governator. Or is it because she's a "journalist"? If she's going to be an honored guest at the Republican Convention, that sort of makes any pretense at journalistic objectivity silly.

Bono, aka Paul Hewson, the lead singer for U2, is also annoyingly there, and not on the entertainment bill. I realize as a former citizen of Boston that the city is still half in County Cork in spirit and in head count, but Bono is an Irish citizen. Why we should care what he has to say about our own democratic process is as much a mystery as where the weapons of mass destruction got to. Let him apply for an immigrant's visa under the quota system and get citizenship first. I'm not entirely sure that the internal workings of a US party are the proper place for lobbying by a foreigner. Then again, I'm pretty sure we won't see any Saudis at the Republican convention, but that doesn't mean they're not lobbying their man.

Michael Moore isn't playing a role in the convention, but has been shown on camera in the audience, and the "audience" requires security clearances and invitations. Moore is an independent who's been a fierce critic of democrats and republicans alike on his issues. He has insisted that Fahrenheit 9/11 is about Bush, not a pro-Kerry ad as some conservatives have charged, and I believe him. But showing up at a party convention for a party to which he does not belong is absurd. Then again, so is Ralph Nader showing up at the Green Party convention asking for its endorsement when he refuses to join.

Ron Reagan, of course, is the most visible fish in the wrong gold fish bowl here, giving a prime time speech about his issuue, stem cell research. He is also a political independent, and one out of conviction, taking advantage of the platform the Democrats have given him to make a pitch on a personal issue. Oddly enough, the substance of the speech got to the real differences between Bush and predecessor administrations, a hypothetical President Gore, and in all likelihood a hypothetical President Kerry: the sacrifice of science and reason for ideology that underpins the anti-stem-cell research stance of the Bushites. It's too bad reason vs. superstition can't be made into a more saleable political issue, but that won't work as long as we have too much TV and not enough books in the lives of Americans. And putting it the way Reagan did isn't likely to win him brownie points for being diect:

Whatever else you do come Nov. 2, I urge you, please, cast a vote for embryonic stem cell research.

Thank you for your time.

I just hope "Stem Cell Research" isn't listed under "Pat Buchanan" on my ballot.

Then of course we have the "liberal" media out in force. CNN's analysis team on Larry King consists of a Republican (Tucker Carlson) and a Republican (David Gergen), punctuated occasionally by commentary on what the Democrats should be doing from a Republican (Bob Dole!) They invite in a periodic actual democrat (last night Senator Landrieu of Louisiana), and do silly things like ask her where the extremists are -- you know, sodomites demanding the right to marry naked on main street, environmentalists who want to ban the light bulb, etc.

I caught Ron Reagan briefly on MSNBC with Joe Scarborough, and that was a bizarre sequence. I'm going to have to wait for a transcript because it was hard to describe accurately...

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Speaking of fish out of the tank, Comedy Central's The Daily Show has some hilarious pictures on their convention photo-blog.

A Divided America Comes Together at Last

This is a heart-warming story: nutcases from both the left and right united in bizarre murder conspiracies involving John Kerry. I use "left" and "right" very lightly, since these people are so far around the bend as to defy accurate positioning on a political chart. Maybe on a medical chart.

From the people who brought you the charges that the Clintons whacked over 70 people, Free Republic.com, we have insinuations that John Kerry conspired to kill members of the US Senate.

It seems impossible to me that John Kerry would not remember whether he was at the meeting where he personally quite the organization which catapulted him to national fame. FBI records say he was there, other people say he was there: they recall because he gave an extended speech attacking Al Hubbard, another leader of the group, and then delivered a dramatic personal resignation. Why wouldn’t he remember? Given this stunning lapse of memory why isn’t the media, which spent several years spreading every hint of a lie about George W. Bush’s supposed “drug use” looking into the question of just how many drugs the French-looking Senator was doing at the time?

Think about this for a moment: we had weeks of acrimony over charges that President Bush blew off a few National Guard drills in 1972. The media (and the left) demanded “answers” and “evidence.” Now we have a case where the presumptive Democratic nominee for the august office of President of the United States, himself a United States Senator, may have actually debated the merits of and then voted upon a resolution which would have, effectively, authorized the assassination of a number of members of the United States Senate. Even accepting the accounts of those who say that Kerry voted, “no” on the motion, this is still a deeply alarming issue. After all, there’s no evidence that Kerry, on hearing deadly serious talk about assassinating officials of the Untied States, reported it to the proper authorities. If he did, let him say so: and let the proof in the matter be produced.

Mon dieu! "French-looking!" What a canard!

Not to be outdone, an anti-semitic LaRoucheian named Randy Crow is hawking murder-conspiracy theories surrounding the death of John Heinz pointing the finger at you know who:

Odds are there are many, many fine people who went/go to Yale. Two people come to my mind as very fine people who went to Yale. But good grief, there are some bad apples who went to Yale. An article on the Internet states John Kerry's wife's former husband died in a plane crash when the plane he was riding with two pilots crashed with a helicopter and I think four pilots and Heinz died. The crash seemed out of the CIA fantasy department. (Not everyone believes everything they see in James' Bond movies' is logical and happens in real life.) Mr. Heinz easily could have been set up and murdered in the crash. Actually I will call Mr. Heinz's death murder. It is not logical pilots in a helicopter would be asked to check to see if the landing gear on a plane is down unless something fishy is/was going on. Heinz's plane logically would have flown over or beside people on the ground or in the tower, with or without binoculars, to check to see if the landing gear was down.

There was a big motive out there to kill Heinz. He hated NAFTA about like I hate zioni$t communi$t$ and we know Yalie's can't make it without NAFTA affirmative action. John, I believe I heard you favor NAFTA. The Yalie gang didn't chit chat with you and it was determined that the only way to get NAFTA passed was for your wife's deceased husband gone? Then you married his widow? Can't we hear the Skull & Bones frat guys now. We killed ole Heinz and then John married Heinz's widow. Ha. Ha. Ho. Ho. Ho. Cool. Neat. Good BS.

Kerry is a Yalie and I certainty hope he is a good Yalie. However, what is the need to choose him to run against Little George before the Democratic Convention in July? The Administration is up to no good in the Mid East and the Republicans not knowing who the Democrats will run against them for sure may save lives because the Administration should fear a real Democratic anti war candidate may emerge if the Administration's operation "Lent Blood" kills many people in the MId East between now and the Democratic Convention.

That damn flouride in the water! It's interfering with the satellite signals the CIA is sending to my brain!

I would not be shocked to see this kind of dreck dredged out for a Kerry Presidency, of course. The age of innuendo and out the other is too firmly entrenched.

'ucker 'arlson

Ah, Tucker Carlson, what a memory he has for an elephant. On CNN tonight, he criticized Bill Clinton for making "too partisan a speech"for a former President. Funny me, I tought a PARTy convention was to be PARTIsan. At least that's what Ronald Reagan thought in 1992 when he skewered the democrats. Even when he's trying to say something nice about Bill Clinton he can't bring himself to use a truthful parallel.

Full Undisclosure

Is it just me, or does the undislosed location look a lot like the lair John Connor ends up in at the end of Terminator 3?

900 dead. Nearly 6000 wounded, with a rate of severity of wounds higher than any war since the Civil War. Suicide rate among the troops who's served in Iraq at least 35% over the norm. Over 1000 total coalition deaths.

But John Kerry isn't fit to be commander in chief. He can't decide whether or not he drives an SUV.