Monthly Archives: October 2004

That’s Us Lying in the Bushes

Today’s New York Times looks at the role of bloggers in keeping the mainstream media honest. Well, that’s not quite how they put it: Practicing cheap and dirty politics, playing fast and loose with the facts and even lying: Accusations like these, and worse, have been slung nonstop this year. The accused in this case are not the candidates, but the mainstream news media. And the accusers are an ever-growing »

South Dakota Swinging Red

Good news from the latest Zogby poll in South Dakota: John Thune has a three-point lead over Tom Daschle. This would seem to confirm a trend in the recent polling, which has been moving consistently in Thune’s direction. I suspect that the more South Dakotans read about polls showing Thune in the lead, the more people will vote for him. Thune is a much more attractive candidate than Daschle, and »

Major Media Alert

NBC News has asked me to be part of their election night broadcast team. I’m not sure yet exactly what the format will be, but I’ll be in New York at the NBC studio. I’ll once again be paired with the Wonkette. Given the long hours that these election night shows consume, I expect to get some air time. I’ll try to lend whatever balance I can to NBC’s coverage, »

He would do better

Dick Morris thinks that the Kerry campaign committed a major blunder by running with the New York Times story on Al Qaqaa. On the other hand, Dick Morris always thinks the Kerry campaign is committing blunders. »

What’s happening in Pennsylvania?

A Quinnipiac poll has President Bush up 49-47 in Pennsylvania. A week ago the same poll had Kerry leading 51-46. It’s hard to say what would account for such a swing, but the Bush camp must believe the president has a good shot in Pennsylvania, because he campaigned there yesterday. I recall, however, that four years ago at this time Bush looked good in Pennsylvania too. I still consider that »

At the Times, the Lying Continues

The New York Times reports again on Al Qaqaa this morning, and again its report is misleading at best. Astonishingly, the Times has yet to mention the fact that the 3rd Infantry Division was at Al Qaqaa on April 4, 2003; that they knew that the site had been designated as one that was important to search; and that they did search the site. As we and many others have »

Russians Helped Saddam Move Explosives

Tomorrow’s Washington Times features an article by Bill Gertz in which John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, says that Russian troops “almost certainly” helped Saddam’s men clean the Al Qaqaa site out before the Iraq War started. We’ll have more on this tomorrow. One way or another, it appears clear that the 380 tons of explosives that are now “missing” were moved by Saddam »

More than a field goal?

Jayson at PoliPundit thinks the current “over/under” for the U.S. Senate is GOP + four. Here’s how he reaches this conclusion: GOP hopeful David Vitter now is tracking at 51 percent in Louisiana. RCP is reporting that Rasmussen has John Thune leading Daschle by three points in S.D., with only five percent undecided. Once-lost GOP candidates, Richard Burr and Tom Coburn, appear to have sealed their respective races, apparently in »

Is something happening here?

Tomorrow John Edwards appears for the Kerry campaign in Duluth and Vice President Cheney appears for the Bush campaign in International Falls. The apparent focus of the Bush and Kerry campaigns on northern Minnesota (the territory covered by Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District) is no accident. The issue of snowmobile use — see “Desperation & snowmobiles” discussing the Edwards appearance in Minneapolis yesterday — in the federal Superior National Forest preserve »

Arafat Near Death?

Yasser Arafat is reported to be very ill; descriptions of his condition vary, but it seems possible that his condition is terminal. It strikes me that Arafat’s demise could only be a good thing. Not because his successor, or successors, couldn’t possibly be worse; in some ways, they probably could. Rather, because Arafat’s political persona–his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize, his being feted by liberals on several continents, his »

Deqonstruqting Qaqaagate, take 3

A Power Line reader writes from a .mil address: I am a reservist stationed at CENTCOM. I did a search on SIPRNET the other day and I came up with a document with the following (unclassified) subject: IIR 7 921 0164 03/DRAGON HUNTER – DUPLICATE U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR SEALS ENABLED IRAQI REGIME TO RELOCATE PROHIBITED MATERIALS. Other parts of the document are classified. The subject pretty much tells it all »

Flight of the Hindrocket

When my older brother and I were kids, one of our favorite movies was Flight of the Phoenix. It was about a plane that crashed in the Kalahari desert. After some days of peril and adventure, one of the passengers steps forward and says that he is an airplane designer and thinks he can build an airplane out of the wreckage of the crashed plane that can fly the passengers »

Epidemic of Campaign Vandalism Continues

This AP photo shows a Bush-Cheney sign that was knocked down and spray painted by a Kerry supporter in Buck, PA. You can also see the response by the owner of the original sign: Reports of such sign vandalism are flooding in from all over the country, along with far worse violence being perpetrated by Democrat partisans. »

Media Alert

I’ll be on CNBC’s Capitol Report tonight talking about Al Qaqaa. I believe the program airs at 6 p.m. central, 7 p.m. eastern. Much bigger media alert to follow later tonight. UPDATE: The Spoons Experience reports on my appearance, with a transcript. I think it’s fair to say that he was more impressed by my take on the “issue” than Gloria Borger’s. »

Cloma has left the building

How goes the Kerry get-out-the-vote effort in Nevada? The Las Vegas Review Journal reports in “Thirty take bus rides to vote for Kerry.” The Review Journal tries to put a positive spin on the results, but the story shrieks of failure: It wasn’t the most successful get-out-the-vote effort in history, but it meant a lot to Las Vegas Democrat Cloma Williams. She was one of about 30 people who were »

Deqonstruqting the UN’s role

Our friends at the Heritage Foundation have alerted us to this excellent piece by foundation fellow Nile Gardiner tracing the evidence linking the United Nations to Qaqaagate: “Is the U.N. meddling in the U.S. presidential election?” UPDATE: And don’t miss Clifford May’s NRO column: “Bomb-gate.” DEACON adds: I strongly urge our readers to look at May’s column. First, it is probably the best summation of the issue I have seen. »

Reassuring words from our man in Ohio

Peter Schramm of the excellent Ohio-based blog No Left Turns believes that President Bush will carry Ohio by 4 or 5 percent. Bush is doing much better in Ohio than the MSM gives him credit for; the MSM are spinning. And this explains why Bush was able to stay away from the state for ten days; he has a chance to take Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, and still hold Ohio. »