The Culture of Smug Assumption

Why do we have to go to a Canadian paper to read this kind of wisdom. He hits the nail on the head with this one:

The clever people at the mainstream television networks, the stylish types in New York and Los Angeles, the icons of glamour and glitz all said that John Kerry was the only choice for a person with any intelligence. As for those ignorant evangelicals, those stupid church-going Catholics, those family-values fools, those dumb redneck hicks, they weren't real Americans.

Then, in the smiling twilight of the new political morning, the unwashed told their betters to shove it.

Pictures from the Other Side

Wonderful people. They could be your neighbors. Content warning for those with a problem with bad language.

Good advice for Democrats..if they'll listen

Glenn Reynolds has some wisdom for the Democrats following their defeat this week...if they'll accept it:

If you think that much of America is like a foreign country, you're not likely to win many elections -- because it's hard to get foreigners to vote for you. Calling the voters dumb probably doesn't do much to win people over, either. It always strikes me that so many people who are quick to note the importance of understanding the differences in perception between nations, or races, or sexual preferences, and to try to bridge those gaps, are so unwilling to do the same thing where people from elsewhere in their own country are concerned. But Democrats must do better, or become a regional party. Because contempt doesn't win a lot of votes.

I'll have to agree with Glenn on this point. Today, I had lunch with a group of legal aid attorneys who are trying to get more of those in their profession to donate more time to giving the poor pro bono legal help. The head of the local Legal Aid office also did a ton of MoveOn work as well. (I bit my tongue and kept my leanings to myself, as a good journalist should.) Of course, the topic of the election came up and I pointed out the map that's further down on the page that shows where the red and blue votes were concentrated. When I said that the Kerry votes were centered around the areas of the west and east coast, plus other regions, one black lawyer practically spat out her hatred and contempt for those who voted for Bush, calling them uneducated, religious crazies...among other things. "You see, the intellectuals, the educated in the cities and the universities all voted for Kerry, while out here in the boonies..."

In fact, her comments and others I have heard along these lines since Tuesday sounded a lot like this fellow:

"Take the issue of elections, for instance. What do you think of a voting system like the American one that gives a physician, an intellectual, an astronaut, an intelligent person and the head of the family, a vote that has the same weight as the vote of an ignorant, a fool, an idiot, an imbecile, a hippy, a bum, an unemployed man, who has no diploma, culture, or brains. What is this?!"

Ladies and gentlemen, the wisdom of Saudi cleric Saleh Al-Munajid.

And now, waiting in the wings...

As soon as the election was decided the other night, and I mean within minutes of it, guess what pops up on the wires...yep:

NEW YORK -- The outcome of Tuesday's presidential election could well determine whether Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will have a chance to personally return her family to the White House. A victory by President Bush could establish New York's junior senator as the front-runner for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president. A win by Democrat John Kerry could put off any run for the White House by the former first lady for at least eight years, and maybe forever.

You know that certain people in the media are waiting in orgasmic expectation, like rock and roll groupies backstage, to get a piece of this action. Some are printing it as a foregone conclusion:

Hillary Clinton to become the next US president

11/04/2004 12:06

Kerry's loss has opened up the way to the White House for Hillary Clinton American presidential elections are officially over. In the meantime, British bookmakers are already starting to accept bets for the next US leader. According to them, Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to be the most prominent candidate for the post. The world's biggest bookmaker company Ladbrokes has already begun accepting bets for the US" former first lady in a five to one ratio. The William Hill Company considers Hillary's chances for victory as six to one, reports RIA "Novosti." Neither Ladbrokes nor William Hill proved to be wrong. Both of them placed their bets of George Bush in yesterday's presidential elections in the US.

You will also note that this article is from Pravda...so take that as you will.

Lt. Bart Simpson, report to debriefing

There are no doubt, thousands of kids across the country who have dreamed of doing this:

LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. -- A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a nighttime training mission Wednesday fired 25 rounds of ammunition that tore through an intermediate school. No one was injured.

Best comment of the day is from FR:

Pilot shaking fist: "NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING, HUH?"

Pilot should lose his wings for this, though.

Not very nice

CNN Names Image Files For President Bush: Asshole.jpg; Moron.jpg

No media bias, huh? Instapundit has more.

County by county

Thanks, John.

Glad to see that Kerry saw the writing on the wall and chose not to drag the election out like Gore did four years ago. Of course, the numbers this time probably had a lot to do with it. Good to see that one democrat puts the nation ahead of his political career...

Edwards however, sounded like he's already running for 2008. He'll have to get past Hillary first.

Give it up, John

Candidate	Electoral	States Won	Vote %	Votes
Bush	254	28	51%	58,073,612
Kerry	252	20	48%	54,523,310

98% Precincts Reporting - Wed Nov 3, 6:58 AM ET

IA: Bush, 741,325 Kerry, 725,700 with 99% counted

NM: Bush, 335,311 Kerry, 323,691 with 99% counted

OH: Bush, 2,794,346 Kerry, 2,658,125 with 100% counted

AP/ABC

With Bush leading by 145,000 votes and roughly 190,000 yet to be counted, one top Kerry adviser said the Democrat's chances of winning Ohio, and with it the White House, were difficult at best.

Reuters

BOSTON (Reuters) - Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, signaling that the party still hoped to win the close-fought U.S. election, said early on Wednesday that it would "fight for every vote."

Washington Post

Four years later, it is still a divided country -- perhaps more sullenly than ever -- but as a long election night bled into morning the evidence was clear that it is becoming a more Republican one.

President Bush, his fate for winning a second term still officially uncertain, commanded the popular-vote majority that eluded him in 2000. And in an impressive run of battleground states, he seemed to win validation for a campaign that unabashedly stressed conservative themes and reveled in partisan combat against Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.

On the same night, Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate and had the Democratic leader on the ropes. It seemed likely they would also make gains in the House, as voters in an age of terrorism seemed to let go of their 1990s preference for divided government and gave a narrow but unmistakable mandate for the GOP.

These gains came in the face of what Democrats for months had been touting as important advantages: a party unified early around its nominee, an energized base filled with grievance against the incumbent, unprecedented fundraising and voter mobilization efforts. They came despite some stiff headwinds for Bush, including a steady stream of bad news out of Iraq and a weak record on jobs.

The results are "an indication that we still are clearly a divided nation," said John J. Pitney Jr., a political scientist at California's Claremont McKenna College. But he added that Bush's strong performance in Florida and a clear tilt his way in Ohio, combined with the GOP strength in Congress, means that this rough parity has gained a more "Republican edge."

According to this post at FR:

Based on graphic on front page of USA Today:

Media (USA Today, NYT, CBS, ABC) and others are not only refusing to call Ohio with 100% in and 145,000 margin -- The same thing is happening in New Mexico:

New Mexico With 1% of vote out:

Bush 335,226 = + 11,636 Kerry 323,590 Nader 3,568 ------- Total 662,584 1% of total = 6,624

Bush is ahead 11,600 and only appx 6,600 more votes possible?? If Kerry got them all Bush would still win by 5,000 votes.

Similar deal in Iowa.

As someone else said, they don't want to call ANY remaining state REGARDLESS of the vote because it would remove the possiblity that Kerry could win without Ohio, which is his "reason" for not conceding.

Kerry refusing to concede...sending in the lawyers

I'm not surprised. He's trying to drag out Ohio. But Bush has got a 3 million vote lead nationwide at this point. I'm crashing. No need to give myself another near stroke.

The map

Via Yahoo:

Fraud

Volunteers to seniors: Mark ballot for Kerry

PHILADELPHIA – Volunteers with a grass-roots organization in Philadelphia that purports to "help the elderly and immigrant voters get to the polls and understand the issues" are urging Russian-speaking voters in need of translation, or in a few cases are senile and have little grasp of the issues, to vote for Democrat Sen. John Kerry, and are going into the booths with some of them, WorldNetDaily has learned.

Reports of Democrat Illegalities in Michigan

GOP sources on the scene in Michigan tell HUMAN EVENTS of "unbelievable Democratic illegalities."
According to one source, operatives from the United Auto-Workers union and MoveOn.org are already denying GOP election volunteers access to voter rolls.
Our sources also report that MoveOn.org members are campaigning inside the 100 foot perimeter.

Latest poll numbers

Via RealClearPolitics:

The Harris Poll (Telephone Poll): Bush 49, Kerry 48, Nader 2
Harris (Online Internet Survey): Kerry 50, Bush 47, Nader 1
CBS: Bush 49, Kerry 47, Nader 1 | Battleground: Bush 50, Kerry 46, Nader <1
Rasmussen: Bush 50.2, Kerry 48.5 | Marist: Kerry 50, Bush 49, Nader 1
TIPP: Bush 50.1, Kerry 48.0, Nader 1.1 | Bush 46.9, Kerry 44.3
Tarrance Group (R) : Bush 51.2, Kerry 47.8, Nader 0.5
Lake Snell Perry & Assoc. (D) : Kerry +0.5 or Kerry +2.1

In Chicago...

Disenfranchised

All Republicans.

The Market reacts to Kerry

Exit polls get posted on Drudge, and look what happens:

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - U.S. stocks fell from their highs Tuesday amid reports that John Kerry is putting in a strong early showing at the polls.

"The only thing I can see is that the Drudge Report shows the preliminary exit polls showing Kerry within striking distance," said Jay Suskind, director of trading of Ryan, Beck & Co.

That should tell you something right there

This is the day

Calling this an important day would be an understatement.

Quite frankly, today America makes a choice.

Do we stay the course and keep fighting this war that has been declared on us?

Or do we elect a man that will bow to outside interests and the United Nations.

It's that simple.

Let's hope that we make the right choice.

Dropping to new lows

Do they think this will really work? They must be seeing some awful internals to pull something like this:

TAMPA, FL – Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf today issued the following statement:

"The Democratic National Committee is making fraudulent phone calls claiming that I have endorsed Senator Kerry. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I demand that they stop immediately.

They better call those 1000's of lawyers. They're going to need them

Osama Uncut

Here's the full transcript of the Osama tape. According to LGF, bin Laden "rants about Halliburton, gloats about 9/11’s effects on the US economy, and reminisces about his interviews with TIME Magazine, Peter Arnett, and Robert “Love Me, Osama” Fisk—and threatens attacks unless the US elects John Kerry, explicitly saying that US states voting against Bush will be protected."

Read it before you vote.

UPDATE: And get this, Michael Moore is proud that Osama is watching him!

There he was, OBL, all tan and rested and on videotape (hey, did you get the feeling that he had a bootleg of my movie? Are there DVD players in those caves in Afghanistan?)

That fat, filthy and repulsive swine...

Lost a friend this weekend

Bad news came in this morning...



Skydiving center owner killed

TULLAHOMA (AP) — The owner of Tennessee Skydiving Center was killed in a skydiving accident over the weekend in Arizona, a family friend said Sunday.

Chris Martin, 46, of Tullahoma died Saturday while skydiving in Eloy, Ariz., friend Anne West said. West said she didn’t know any details about the accident.

A message left with the Eloy Police Department was not immediately returned.

Martin had 19 years of experience in the sport and had owned the training center, which is located at the Tullahoma airport, for about 15 years.

He is survived by his wife, Kristi; daughters, Hailey and Annabelle; and a son, according to West.







		

They'll do anything to win

THE SCARIEST THING about this election is not the prospect of a contested outcome with no winner declared for weeks, just as in 2000. No, the most scary thing is the sense of entitlement that many Democrats and their allies have about tomorrow's election. It goes like this: Bush stole the presidency four years ago, then proceeded to act as if he had a mandate, so now we're entitled to do whatever it takes to defeat him, to say whatever we want.

Read the whole thing.

More trouble for Kerry

It's been hinted at for days now, and it's come out a day before the election. The question is: Will the MSM pick this up or bury it like they have everything else:

A former officer in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps Reserve has built a case that Senator Kerry was other than honorably discharged from the Navy by 1975, The New York Sun has learned.

The "honorable discharge" on the Kerry Web site appears to be a Carter administration substitute for an original action expunged from Mr. Kerry's record, according to Mark Sullivan, who retired as a captain in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps Reserve in 2003 after 33 years of service as a judge advocate. Mr. Sullivan served in the office of the Secretary of the Navy between 1975 and 1977.

On behalf of the Kerry campaign, Michael Meehan and others have repeatedly insisted that all of Mr. Kerry's military records are on his Web site atjohnkerry.com, except for his medical records.

"If that is the case," Mr. Sullivan said, "the true story isn't what was on the Web site. It's what's missing. There should have been an honorable discharge certificate issued to Kerry in 1975,if not earlier, three years after his transfer to the Standby Reserve-Inactive."

They'll probably bury it, but here it is in any case.

Guess who Osama is rooting for?

According to MEMRI’s translation and analysis of the latest Osama video, the bearded one is offering protection (dhimmitude) to states that don’t vote for Bush:

The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired on Al-Jazeera(1) on Friday, October 29th included a specific threat to “each U.S. state,” designed to influence the outcome of the upcoming election against George W. Bush. The U.S. media in general mistranslated the words “ay wilaya” (which means “each U.S. state”)(2) to mean a “country” or “nation” other than the U.S., while in fact the threat was directed specifically at each individual U.S. state. This suggests some knowledge by bin Laden of the U.S. electoral college system. In a section of his speech in which he harshly criticized George W. Bush, bin Laden stated: “Any U.S. state that does not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security.”

The Islamist website Al-Qal’a explained what this sentence meant: “This message was a warning to every U.S. state separately. When he [Osama Bin Laden] said, ‘Every state will be determining its own security, and will be responsible for its choice,’ it means that any U.S. state that will choose to vote for the white thug Bush as president has chosen to fight us, and we will consider it our enemy, and any state that will vote against Bush has chosen to make peace with us, and we will not characterize it as an enemy. By this characterization, Sheikh Osama wants to drive a wedge in the American body, to weaken it, and he wants to divide the American people itself between enemies of Islam and the Muslims, and those who fight for us, so that he doesn’t treat all American people as if they’re the same. This letter will have great implications inside the American society, part of which are connected to the American elections, and part of which are connected to what will come after the elections.”(3)

Another interesting aspect of the speech is the fact that while bin Laden made his specific threat to each U.S. state, he also offered an election deal to the American voters, attempting to influence the election by these means rather than influencing it through terrorist attacks.(4) This peace offer is a theme that follows up on his April speech directed to Europe, in which he offered a truce.(5) The Islamist website Al-Islah explains: “Some people ask ‘what’s new in this tape?’ [The answer is that] this tape is the second of its kind, after the previous tape of the Sheikh [Osama bin Laden], in which he offered a truce to the Europeans a few months ago, and it is a completion of this move, and it brings together the complementary elements of politics and religion, political savvy and force, the sword and justice. The Sheikh reminds the West in this tape of the great Islamic civilization and pure Islamic religion, and of Islamic justice...”

More bias in Kerry's favor?

According to the Captain's Quarters, NBC may have done some editing of their Kerry interview to omit a key fact:

As I reported then, Brokaw's questioning of Kerry about his IQ caused the Senator to bristle (emphasis mine):

Brokaw: Someone has analyzed the President's military aptitude tests and yours, and concluded that he has a higher IQ than you do.

Kerry: That's great. More power. I don't know how they've done it, because my record is not public. So I don't know where you're getting that from.

However, in the transcript for the interview based on tonight's Dateline segment for the interview, the answer has been edited to remove Kerry's admission...

Before you vote...

..read this.

Osama: The Extended Director's Cut

Wouldn't you know it? We only got to see the tame parts of the latest release from our old friend Osama bin Laden. Apparently, there was a bunch of stuff on the tape that someone didn't want us to see!

Officials said that in the 18-minute long tape — of which only six minutes were aired on the al-Jazeera Arab television network in the Middle East on Friday — bin Laden bemoans the recent democratic elections in Afghanistan and the lack of violence involved with it.

On the tape, bin Laden also says his terror organization has been hurt by the U.S. military's unrelenting manhunt for him and his cohorts on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

A portion of the left-out footage includes a tirade aimed at President Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, claiming the war in Iraq is purely over oil.

The tape also sparked some concern that an attack aimed at disrupting Tuesday's election may be planned.

Very crafty of them, knowing that we'll shell out the $39.95 later in the year for all the cut footage and documentaries on the making of the film. Damn that Peter Jackson! Damn him!

Wait. That's a fantasy film. In this one, our enemy says that Bush has been successful in Afghanistan, is hunting down and killing his buddies, parrots lines from Michael Moore's latest film and says that we're basically kicking his ass all over the Middle East and Central Asia.

This isn't fantasy! This is a reality show! No wonder the MSM don't want us to see it!

More Voter Fraud...in PA

It never ends...and they don't seem to care if they are caught:

"We have every reason to believe that there has been gross abuse of the absentee ballot process in the prison system," said U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-7, of Thornbury.

While waiting to begin a press conference outside Philadelphia’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility Friday afternoon, Weldon said he watched the crime he was prepared to speak about unfold before his eyes.

"Four girls walked out from the prison who had clearly been doing some kind of election work," he said. "When (state Rep.) Steve Barrar and I went up and asked them what they were doing, they said ‘We can’t tell you.’

"We told them who we were and asked if they had collected any absentee ballots while they were in the prison. Sure enough, one of them pulled out a ballot and showed it to us. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen -- just the type of illegal, third-party handling of ballots that we had been tipped off about. And there were TV crews there filming the whole thing."

It runs in the family

Had we seen a quote like this from one of the Bush twins, we would never hear the end of it:

John Kerry's stepson, Chris Heinz, 31, displayed his mother Teresa's famous lack of rhetorical restraint at a recent campaign event with a group of Wharton students. Philadelphia magazine reports: "Heinz accused Kerry's opponents - 'our enemies' - of making the race dirty. 'We didn't start out with negative ads calling George Bush a cokehead,' he said, before adding, 'I'll do it now.' Asked later about it, Heinz said, 'I have no evidence. He never sold me anything.'"

So, you admit you are a drug user. Just who did sell you some, Chris? There's also a statement here that our Jewish friends might want to be aware of.