The (Almost) Daily Comments and Musings from Dave

My quick take on the Spanish election results is the gates are now open for a whole wave of bombings in Western Europe. To fold like a cheap tent, blaming the government, rather than the people who did the act, is incredibly stupid. The bad guys have already drawn their conclusions and they will proceed with their program.

Well, we are off to a roaring start: the Bush Campaign runs its first ad and immediately there is a "furor" over its content, from "concerned families." The Media jumps on it, and runs with it for a few days until something else comes along.

And then we find out the story behind the story. Rather than truly individual compaints or comments, we see in actuality, it is coming from a far-left wing group, "Peaceful Tomorrows," funded by a rather murky outfit known variously as "Tides Foundation" or "Tides Center," which in turn receives substantial funding from John Kerry's wife! Read a fairly good summary here. Another good article is here. With the second one, note the disclaimer regarding the money: it was donated for environmental causes, not political causes. Right!

Folks, if this is any eary indicator on how Kerry's people are going to run things, it's going to be an awfully long eight months leading to next November. But, try something like this more than a few times, and the credibility starts to peel off his campaign. Kerry is on pretty shaky ground with the flip-flops, pandering, waffles (the blogger Mickey Kaus calls them "Panderflips," which is priceless), as it is. Hiding behind the likes of MoveOn.org and Tides Foundation doesn't help.

UPDATE: Here's an article which attempts to sort out the various "Tides" organizations. It seems to me after reading this piece there is a very deliberate attempt to bury, hide or otherwise obscure funds in terms of their sourcing and eventual destination. The whole thing comes off as a very murky subterfuge to keep people from following a chain of events. This entire matter could stand some real investigation. It's interesting this whole thing started out as a phony "furor" over a Bush campaign ad and now it's starting to turn into a classic case of 'follow the money."

In all of the media frenzy concerning the Primary elections, I've noticed there is one story which hasn't gotten much notice: the RECORD LOW TURNOUTS of voters. Looking at either the number of eligible voters or registered voters vs. how many actually turned up at the polls is interesting, and I think, a bit telling. Some states are showing between 10 to 16%, and the all-time low, as far as I'm aware is Washington, D.C. at 3.5%! Yesterday's New York vote was about one million. How many voters are in New York City alone?...something like eight million.

This is telling me this country isn't as "polarized" as the Media and DNC would have you believe, and Kery's "support," such as it is, is pretty ice-thin. One has to be careful not to read too much into all of this, but I still think it's an interesting marker or indicator. We'll see................

I make no secret of my complete contempt for John Kerry. He is so transparently phony, and is one of the biggest political opportunists to appear on the national scene in quite some time. His flip-flops on virtually any issue you care to name are simply breath-taking. And what's with all of this Vietnam stuff----he interjects it every three minutes even when the subject is something completely different.

I've noticed he is starting to get the third-degree from various people concerning his record and past. A lot of this could be tossed off to right-wing extremists looking for an angle. However, the other day, I saw something from a totally unexpected source: even the Village Voice, yes, the Village Voice of every left-wing position you can imagine is now taking a critical look at Kerry. Read the whole thing here. Question: why hasn't this particular story been picked up by "Big Media"? Hummmmm.

I recently went through all of my links at the right. One seemed to have some kind or server problem, another hadn't been updated in over two months, and others were simply getting stale. The California Recall last summer brought out a lot of new blogs, and while the Recall was underway, many of the blogs I listed at that time were fun and interesting reading. However, after the conclusion of the Recall, a lot of 'em seemingly ran out of steam. So, time to hit the Delete button and send 'em off into cyberspace.

However, I have added some links. Some like Instapundit are familiar to most folks, but others, like IMAO, Wonkette and Tim Blair, might not be. Please at least take a look at them once or twice and decide for yourself. Of all of the links I list, the one which has the most consistently- interesting reading, and written in an extremely humorous fashion is Mark Steyn. BE SURE to give him a read from time to time.

. . .has anyone else noticed the actual numbers of the total number of registered Democrats vs. the actual percentage who are voting in many of these primaries? I've seen averages in the 10-12% range, with a recent high in one state of 16%; and an all-time low of 3.5% in Washington, D.C.!! I'm not sensing there is much of an energized base out there following the Dean implosion.

...has anyone else noticed that during the past ten days of media hysteria over a total non-story, the AWOL/"Deserter"/Pay Stubs/Dental Records "outrage," there is been equal silence on what may also be a total non-story, the Kerry Sexgate "scandal." This other story is all over the Internet and the U.K. and Australian newspapers and tabloids, but is AWOL with our dear 'ol "Mainsteam Media" here in the U.S.

Media Bias anyone?

UPDATE: Shortly before noon today, PST, the AP came out with the denial of the story they have refused to carry the last four days. Everyone involved is denying everything. Possible "follow the money" clue for someone who wants to do some digging: the Father, quoted four days ago as saying Kerry is a "sleazeball" now says he will vote for him. Somehow, I don't think we've heard the end of all this.

FURTHER UPDATE: This story is being spun at the speed of light. Or, should I use the word "story"? Remember, there was no story for the first four or five days, now there is a denial of the non-story that wasn't reported, and now a further update says the one non-story individual named was actually someone else............this whole thing is absurd. However, I'm still pretty sure there is a "follow the money" angle to all this. "Sleazeballs" all of a sudden don't become someone's candidate of choice.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I was absent during part of January plus I haven't had an urge to write much of anything recently. I note a lot of blogs try to post something every fifteen minutes, and I'd think that would be a quick way to get burned out over matters.

Anyway, here's some fun stuff: The Bush Conspiracy Theory Generator! Pick an event, pick your co-conspirators, pick the victim and the goal, hit the button, and vola! Instant Conspiracy Theory! Then send it in to the Democratic Underground forums and watch them go ga-ga!

Everyone else is making predictions for 2004, so I guess I will too. Besides it's fun!

2004 Election: Bush vs. Dean, Bush in a landslide; Bush vs. someone else, it will be closer, but Bush still wins. The Republicans pick up a few more seats in the Senate, but not the "magic" 60.

Middle East: Saddam will be tried in Iraq; Syria pulls a Lybia and folds; Iran sees more civil unrest; and watch for a surprise or two from some place like the Sudan.

Pop Culture: the 2004 primaries and election will be overshadowed by the media circus and frenzy surrounding the Jocko/Kobie/Peterson/Stewart criminal trials. More