Redstate

Posted at 11:15pm on Jun. 30, 2008 Guilt by Association only applies if you're John McCain, and your "associate" is the Most Highly Decorated Living Veteran

By Jeff Emanuel

According to Huffington Post writer Sam Stein:

Sen. John McCain's campaign on Monday launched the McCain "Truth Squad" - a group of political and Vietnam contemporaries who would counter attacks on the Senator's military record.

In hopes of nipping any criticism in the bud, the campaign brought on board a man quite familiar with how these types of attacks gain legs: Bud Day, a fellow POW who was part of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that worked so hard to defame Sen. John Kerry's own Vietnam record.

Day has been targeted by the Left as a "right-wing extremist" ever since he spoke against John Kerry in the 2004 campaign (remember 2004? That was the year that service in Vietnam was supposed to make you qualified to be President -- as opposed to 2008, when the opposite is now supposed to be true).

The pundits and bloggers who attack Day for speaking out about Vietnam service, the effect of virulent protests like those engaged in by John Kerry after his return from combat, always seem to leave out any biographical information about the retired Colonel, except, occasionally, for the fact that he served in Vietnam, and that he was a POW for a period of time.

Given the dearth of information provided by media members bent on marginalizing the man and his opinions, you may be asking a very important question right about now: Just who is this Bud Day character, and why in the world does he matter?

I'll tell you why.

Posted in 2008 | Bud Day | John Kerry | John McCain | SBVT | the pot calling the stainless steel black — Comments (27)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:05pm on Jun. 17, 2008 Do You Support Habeas Corpus Rights for Osama bin Laden?

John Kerry and Barack Obama Do

By Ben Domenech

From Michael Goldfarb, we learn an astounding fact: John Kerry supports granting Habeas Corpus rights to Osama bin Laden. From the NY Observer:

When asked by a reporter about the McCain campaign's assertion that Obama would want to give Osama Bin Laden habeas corpus rights, Kerry answered angrily.

"The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that they have those rights -- this is not Barack Obama, this is the Supreme Court of the United States. If John McCain were president he'd have to give them those rights. This is a phony argument. And it is typical of what the Republican playbook is, which is, say anything, no matter what the other side has said, just say it, people may believe it, unless you folks write the truth and write it boldly and clearly. The truth is that this is exactly what they tried to say back in 2004 and the record absolutely contradicts it."

Obama himself, of course, already made the mistake of suggesting that granting habeas rights are just following the example of Nuremberg, where no such rights existed.

Conservatives would emphatically support Obama's position if it means as POTUS he would hold to the Nuremberg standard for international tribunals, since this measure would grant far fewer allowances for terrorists on trial than any court arranged by the current Administration. And it's not like Nuremberg was just a slaughterhouse - they acquitted more than one individual - they just weren't as interested in giving a whole slew of known killers and villains undeserved rights. Imagine if Nuremberg had the kind of allowances and presumptions of today's American courts? We'd have been arguing about these Nazis til the Reagan presidency.

It is a simple, straightforward, and reasonable position: Known terrorists, who have done nothing to earn the rights of American citizens but prove that they have varying degrees of skill in killing American citizens, should not have the same court experience as American citizens. The American people agree, emphatically rejecting the Obama-Kerry position in the ABC News/WaPo poll released today:

13. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that non-citizens suspected of terrorism who are being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be allowed to challenge their detentions in the U.S. civilian court system. (Supporters of this ruling say it provides detainees with basic constitutional rights.) (Critics of the ruling say only special military tribunals should be allowed, because hearings in open court could compromise terrorism investigations.) What's your view - do you think these detainees should or should not be able to challenge their detentions in the civilian court system?

Should 34%
Should not 61%
No Opinion 6%

Even on a question that convoluted, people have no qualms: access to the civilian court system is not a universal right, but a right that terrorists do not deserve. If caught alive, Osama bin Laden should be tried and executed. He should not be granted rights he has no claim to, by birthright or service or any other measure.

Barack Obama must answer this question: why does Osama bin Laden deserve these rights?

Posted in Barack Obama | Gitmo | John Kerry | John Kerry good John McCain bad | scotus | War — Comments (123)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:02pm on May 29, 2008 Shorter John Kerry

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

"Hey, China and India, if you don't reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we'll make life utterly economically miserable for our own citizens!"

Really, that's what he's saying:

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) told reporters today that the United States and Europe could limit the flow of foreign goods from India and China if the countries don't agree to start reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

"I think Europeans and Americans are aware of those tools but acknowledge the focus is not to get to a place where they have to be entertained," he said.

Yeah. This threat will work wonders.

Posted in Economic Ignorance | Economy | Free Trade | John Kerry | Protectionism — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:58pm on May 9, 2008 Barack Obama has already been "Swift-Boated"

By Dan McLaughlin

This was originally posted as a comment to this.

You know, one of the funny things about watching the Democrats is their alternation between fear and bravado about whether Republicans will "Swift Boat" their candidate this time around. Orwell once said that "The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies "something not desirable.'" This is roughly the way the Democrats use the term "Swiftboating" to suggest a political attack of thoroughgoing fraudulence and impropriety concocted out of whole cloth. Never mind that each and every one of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was a combat veteran, including a number of highly decorated veterans; it's casually accepted that they were all liars, knaves and pawns.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John Kerry | Swiftboating — Comments (26) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:43pm on May 7, 2008 MA-SEN: Ogonowski airs first television ad

By EaBo-Clipper

Now that the signature drive is over, Jim Ogonowski's campaign for US Senate has taken the next step. Starting today they have gone on cable television statewide with the ad below. The ad captures the heartbeat of the Commonwealth pretty well. What do you think?

Posted in Archived | Jim Ogonowski | John Kerry | MA-SEN — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:35pm on Dec. 24, 2007 I'm Pretty Sure That Art. I, Sec. 8 Of The Constitution Doesn't Cover This

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

John Kerry is using his political office to--wait for it!--pressure the NFL into showing the final regular season Patriots game. Note the following language in Kerry's letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell:

For a game of this significance to be used as a bargaining chip or point of leverage between corporations locked in a dispute would say a great deal about the esteem in which America's football fans are held by the big interests. Under the unfortunate circumstance that this matter remains unresolved, leaving 60 percent of households across the country - including thousands in Massachusetts - without access to Saturday's game, I will ask the Senate Commerce Committee to hold hearings on how the emergence of premium sports channels are impacting the consumer, and I will consider what legislative measures may be necessary to ensure that consumers are more than bystanders in this process.

"Nice NFL you have. Be a shame if anything were to happen to it." Is this what United States Senators spend their time on?

Posted in Big Government | Congress | John Kerry — Comments (31)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:42pm on Nov. 20, 2007 The Return of John Kerry and his Magic Hat

Magic Hat FTW!

By Ben Domenech

Over the weekend, in response to T. Boone Pickens' $1 Million challenge, John Kerry has reported for duty once again: this time, to prove that something the Swift Boat Veterans said in their 2004 ad campaign was wrong. Wrong, I say!

You can read the letters between Pickens and Kerry, and more on the changing etymology of the "swiftboating" term. But I am really looking forward to Kerry's efforts, considering they might finally give us all a chance to see that famous hat.

But to be honest, I kinda suspect Kerry's case is going to come down to a bunch of clippings from The New York Times.

Posted in 2004 | John Kerry | Swiftboating — Comments (14)/ Email this page » / Read More »