August 13, 2004

TV Chef Julia Child Dies at 91
God rest her!
What a wonderful woman, whom I had the honor and privilege to meet and cook for 20 years ago at a KERA event.
She was so gracious and friendly and you really can prepare her dishes!
Notice that even with her diet of "high carbs" and butter, she passed away in her sleep at the tender age of almost 92 and was vigorous until the end.
I'm so glad that President Bush awarded her the Medal of Freedom just last year.
With her indomitable spirit, her flair and grace and the example she set of re-inventing and perfecting herself long after she passed the age of 50, this lady will be an example and role model to me always!
May Light Perpetual shine upon this American original.

August 10, 2004

Keyes: Obama holds 'slaveholder's' view

Republican Alan Keyes ripped into Democratic rival Barack Obama's views on abortion Monday, calling them "the slaveholder's position," as the U.S. Senate race roared back to life in Illinois.

I learned to love Amb. Keyes and his Conservative views on his short-lived show on MSNBC which I watched every night!
( I can hardly believe BSDNC even let him have airtime for a second, they're so pro-Democrat and Left!)
Amb. Dr. Keyes is a brilliant man and a rock-solid Conservative who happens to be black...and at the very least, he will give Obama, the Left's new golden boy who was "crowned" at Donkey Con, a run for his money.
(Love this attack on Obama's defense of abortion as the "slaveholders' view!")
I'd like to think, however, that the citizens of Illinois will remember that they're the land of Lincoln, Reagan and Denny Hastert and elect this fine man to the Senate and I think I'll give some money to Keyes' campaign, too!

DEMOCRAT columnist Novak got ahold of an advance copy of the new book "Unfit for Command" and finds the testimony of 200 Swift Boat Vets pretty damning in regards to disputing Kerry's account of his own "heroism" in Vietnam.
Here's a taste, but I encourage you to read the column:
Deconstructing Kerry's war record

The book's strength is the vehemence of testimony by swift boat veterans, alleging that Kerry ''gamed'' the system to win decorations and later betrayed comrades by charging war crimes. Typical is the quote by Bob Hildreth, commanding an accompanying boat: ''I would never want Kerry behind me. I wouldn't want him in front of me either. And I sure wouldn't want him commanding our kids in Iraq and Afghanistan.'' Some 200 ''Swiftees'' on May 4 signed a letter to Kerry demanding full release of his service records.

Of course, I've pre-ordered a copy of the book from Amazon, where the book's back to the Number One slot!
sKeery has one lone vet supporting him--Jim Rassman--who has an op-ed in the WSJ today entitled "Shame on the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush" but these outraged vets aren't speaking out against Kerry "for Bush!"
(Nor are they being paid by anyone on Team Bush to do this!)
They're doing it for themselves, because their service was honorable, because they know guys killed or hurt in Vietnam who earned their medals or didn't get medals because they're quiet heroes who don't want to laud their own sacrifices, because they've had to live with the nightmare of being called "babykillers" and "war criminals" when they came home from Vietnam because Kerry and his anti-war pals like Jane Fonda branded them as such in the American press and in Senate hearings.
Also, visit the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth website to view their commercial and find out more about what Kerry was really up to in the Navy:
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
Instead of releasing his records and addressing the charges head on, which would be the easiest and most effective way to handle this, Kerry has had lawyers (led by Trial Lawyer King Edwards?) threaten TV stations not to run the Swifties' ad and his minions hacked the Barnes and Noble site, where the book is at the #2 slot, to make the book's cover more Kerry-friendly.
Kerry's people even tried to assert that one of the Swifties had "recanted" his charges against JFK until it was revealed that the Boston Globe reporter, Michael Kranash, was a paid Kerry operative and official biographer!
I see that these 200 men-whom I'd like to thank for their service to our country!--who've come forward with the truth about Kerry have nothing to gain and a lot to lose.
For almost all of them, it's extremely painful for them to talk about their Vietnam experiences and most of them haven't spoken of them until now when their love of country has impelled them to speak out against this lying, immoral man Kerry who is trying to be our next Commander-in-Chief.
It has been their way not to boast of their own service, courage and sacrifice.
More painful even than that was dealing with the charges from their own family and friends that by serving in Vietnam, they had been "babykillers" and "criminals" who put their lives on the line for what the Left considered an "unjust" war.
God bless them--they deserve to have the record set straight!
And if Kerry's lying and "worked the system" dishonestly to get medals and make himself look like a "war hero" while consequently claiming to Congress that he was party to military war crimes, too, the American people need to know that, too.
Kerry comes across to me as not only a liar and a horrible Leftist Liberal, but as completely crazy and schizophrenic, too.
The closest he should get to the Oval Office is a White House tour and even then the Secret Service should watch him like a hawk!

Democrats howl at party hopping /

Rep. Rodney Alexander's switch late Friday to the Republican Party brought swift and vitriolic responses among Democrats from the Bayou to the Beltway, including from his entire Washington staff that resigned in protest yesterday morning.
    "He's a traitor," fumed Andrew Koneschusky of the Louisiana Democratic Party. "He betrayed the people who elected him to the U.S. Congress and the people who supported his re-election."
[...]
Mr. Alexander initially was registered to run for re-election as a Democrat in Louisiana's 5th Congressional District, where George W. Bush received 59 percent of the vote in the 2000 election.
[Guess Al Gore wasn't going to sue for a "recount" here!--Jen]
He had rebuffed entreaties to join the Republican Party earlier this year.
[...]
 "I just decided it would be best for me to switch parties, that I would be more effective in the 5th District in the state of Louisiana as a Republican," he said Friday.
[...]
The last-minute switch was particularly curious because Mr. Alexander faced little opposition in his district, even as a Democrat.
[Maybe, as with Sen. Zell Miller, it's a matter of party principles...Jen]
[...]
A survey of 600 Louisiana voters found Mr. Bush a full 16 percentage points ahead of Mr. Kerry, who has been campaigning in the state.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Do recall that there was no similar outrage and vitriol--but especially not from the Dimocrats--on either side of the aisle when Jumpin' Jim Jeffords jumped ship from the GOP right after he was elected to the Senate!
At least Congressman Alexander had the integrity and honesty to switch before the election.
Welcome aboard, Congressman Alexander!
You're going to like the GOP and find it's a nice, comfy Big Tent!

Here's the link--it's a long piece--but definitely a must read.
Be sure and check out the maps to see if AQ is targeting your town.
Happy Day: the D/FW area is on 3 of their maps as a nuclear, strategic and infrastructure target because of Commanche Peak nuclear power plant, Bell Helicopter and D/FW airport, respectively.
Great.
Read it and weep (literally!) and say a prayer for our first responders and the fine men and women in Homeland Security and the FBI.
Al Qaeda's Pre-Election Plot

August 08, 2004

Iraq PM Orders Fighters Out of Najaf; Toll Climbs

Iraq's interim prime minister ordered Shi'ite fighters to lay down their weapons and leave the holy city of Najaf Sunday, but the militiamen fortified their positions around an ancient cemetery with mines.

Witnesses said clashes erupted again Sunday in Najaf and also the squalid Baghdad district of Sadr City, as the death toll from four days of fighting in several regions mounted.

The enemy body count was already conservatively estimated at 300 bad guys that have died in the fighting in the last 2-3 days, so if there are more, that's a lot!
Clearly, Allawi is kicking ass and taking names--literally!
Not only did he make this suprise visit to Najaf, but he's just reinstated the death penalty, so Saddam and anyone else who's committed serious crimes like murder and kidnapping is in big trouble.
And the other big Shiite cleric in Iraq, al-Sistani, who ran interference for al-Sadr in the past, just flew to London on Friday, claiming "heart trouble."
This leaves the way clear "spiritually" in Najaf for Coalition and Iraqi forces to take on the Sadr insurgents once and for all.
Just to be on the safe side, Allawi has also shut down Al-Jazeera's operations in Iraq for a month because they're "inciting violence!"
I like this Allawi guy a lot.
Of course, I thought he had style when I read a few weeks ago that he'd personally executed 6 imprisoned murderers with his own handgun!
This has become the stuff of Iraq urban legend, so whether it's true or not, fear still commands respect in Iraq, which is, sadly, still a dangerous and lawless place.
Allawi is the true representative and leader of his people who want these jihadi killers to stop their mayhem which is killing primarily other Iraqis so that the rest of Iraq can get on with rebuilding their country and transforming it into a secular 21st democracy.
(And for those of my fellow Americans--many of whom are also Conservatives--who thought we should have gone into Fallujah with guns blazing, flattened the town and killed everyone in it, especially al-Sadr, I think taking this way of letting the Iraqis sort out the al-Sadr problem themselves is going to work out far better for all concerned and will effect a more lasting solution than his mere bloody death at the hand of U.S. soldiers would have.
Al-Sadr didn't have that many in his "army" to start with and now several thousand are dead because they fought the losing end of battles against U.S. Marines.
His fellow Shiite Ayatollah al-Sistani has abandoned him.
And now the new Iraqi president has called on him to lay down his arms.
It's got to look really bleak for him.
Sometimes letting a man live broken and alone is greater punishment than just killing him and this living end deprives him of martyrdom and its consequent wave of new insurgents.)