"Playing", of course, is the operative word.

At this rate, Kerry might actually deliver his version of Jimmy Carter's malaise speech during the DNC convention.

Some recent polls (for instance, this one from Fox News, suggest that a lot of Americans who aren't satisfied with President Bush's performance on Iraq actually wish he'd be _tougher_, unleash the Marines, haul out the MOAB, etc. This may help account for Kerry's current tack.

We had dinner with some very dear, but very Democrat, friends last night. They were discussing Kerry. The phrase voting for a yellow dog came up and they laughed when I quoted Hillary's line: "You don't have to fall in love, you just have to fall in line."

I do not see how the Democrats are going to motivate voters in November. Especially, those who ,unlike my highly educated politically activist friends, do not automatically register and vote at every election.

I keep thinking of Coach Mechling, watching the track team at the first spring practice, knowing that McCarty was his most talented sprinter and that he smoked and did not work out over the winter, pointing to a light pole and saying "McCarty is going to drop about there." And sure enough when McCarty, who had been far ahead of the other boys, got to the pole, he slowed to a jog.

Joe Kerry would love to run to Bush's right. That is where Bush is vulnerable. But he can't. he would lose his base who would desert to Nader in droves. Imagine the unhappiness in Hollywood. Oh, the Humanity!

"Republicans" are so frightening these days. Let's face some facts, shall we:

* The last honest Republican President was Dwight Eisenhower. He brilliantly foresaw, and coined the term, I believe, "Military Industrial Complex" (MIC, hereafter).

* John F. Kennedy was NOT killed by a lone assassin, getting off three kill-shots with a WWII Italian bolt-action rifle in 5.7 seconds. To believe he was is the stuff dreams are made of. Dream on at your peril... He was likely killed by “MIC” (see above).

* Viet Nam cost us 58,000+ U.S. lives, but oh, the UPSIDE for MIC: Hundreds of Billions of big green $$$ spent on...WMD, basically. In the end: Viet Nam - 1, U.S. - 0

* America: The Greatest Democracy the World Has Ever Known. Except we're not. We're a Republic. In a true Democracy, Lil' Dubya would've been kicked back to Texas four years ago, after LOSING the "popular" vote. Too bad. Though I love America dearly, and wouldn't care to live anywhere else (okay, Italy's a close second), there is always room for improvement. Always. The biggest question I've had about our great Democracy for years is: if it's SO good, how come we seem absolutely reliant on so many nasty Dictatorships to keep our costs of Goods & Services so low? And please don't try to tell me what great "exporters" of Democracy we are, we've got a "School of the Americas" where we train Dictators and their scummy underlings. Go Google it, I dare you (you just might learn something).

* So now Lil' dubya, or shrub, or scrub, or whatever, has promised us Democracy in Iraq. "Mission Accomplished," in fact. Let's see:
- Osama: Alive & Kickin'
- al-Qaida: Just wreaked havoc in another Saudi "Expatriate Disneyland".
- Link between Iraq & al-Qaida: Unproven
- WMD: Got to be there SOMEWHERE...
- OIL: Ah, what we went there for in the first place. World market seems a lot LESS stable, and prices certainly are higher, aren't they? This last al-Qaida operation in Arabia might hike it up again...too bad we owe the Saudis a $Trillion, and they've got another $Trillion invested in the US. Sure would be a "bummer" if they called in some markers.
- Oh, let's not forget what will likely reach 1,000 U.S. service folks dead, and thousands more seriously and permanently injured, which hardly makes it onto our “free and fair” news broadcasts.
- Should I bother mentioning thousands upon thousands of dead Afghanistanis and Iraqis? Nah, "Republicans" could care less...
- But I dare not forget MIC: Hundreds of Billions of big juicy $$$ spent, Depleted Uranium dust everywhere (sickening not only Iraqis, but OUR service folk as well), and we STILL have a literacy rate (even among whites, for you racists out there) below Cuba’s. (If you don’t know about depleted uranium, it’s just a Google away…)

Should I bother mentioning this is the same dubya, who on an unbeknownst "open" mike, just before a pre-election campaign speech, complained about New York Times reporter Adam Clymer, calling him "a major league _ _ _hole". That's almost a direct quote...just fill in the blanks!

So, my conservative friends, keep smiling from Disneyland. No need to worry about November: it's in the bag. How could a guy this good possibly lose??? ;-)

Thanks Tony. I see it all now. Osama was the gunman on the grassy knoll who then floated away in a cloud of depleted uranium dust.

>>Joe Kerry would love to run to Bush's right. That is where Bush is vulnerable. But he can't. he would lose his base who would desert to Nader in droves. Imagine the unhappiness in Hollywood. Oh, the Humanity!

Robert, I agree. All the same, judging from the evidence of at least the last few days, Kerry is running as far right as he dares without alienating his base.

Err, so, Tony, who do you think was President when we got into Vietnam?

It is interesting that Lt. John Heinz, (future late hubby of Mrs. Kerry, was at the nearest
AFB at the time, no. When a French OAS assassin
was reputedly in the same area

The Clymer quote is one of the reasons I'm voting for President Bush. It's kind of odd that Mr. Amenta put such a positive note in the middle of the rest of that tripe.

Smells like troll droppings around here. Hope I didn't step in any, because these are waffle-soled shoes...

The JFK assassination has exactly WHAT to do with the Iraqi pacification ?
I see that the "MIC" is implicitly assigned a "star chamber" to coordinate policy and enforcement...
Kinda like "The Smoking Man" and his friends on the X-Files, which is no doubt where little Tony got most of his facts.

Kinda funny, though, that the military suffered rounds of base-closing, personnel reduction, and weapons-system cancellations, without killing more authority figures...
As for the "industrial", isn't the complaint now that they're too weak, with more production facilities leaving the country every day ?

Bush doesn't like reporters, Kerry doesn't like Secret Service agents... Seems like a wash.

I kinda thought that JFK was in deep political poop at the time and some one figured that a visit to Texas might be a good idea.

I also kinda thought that LBJ rather liked the idea of being POTUS.

Seems to me that LBJ came from Texas and just might know some of the good ole boys.......

As I recall, in one of Lyndon's early runs for the Senate, his opponent committed suicide by shooting himself in the back of the head with his rifle.

Tony, we're 80% white and Christian. Are you sure you want mob rule by "true democracy?"

The nice thing about depleted uranium is that, like Mumia Abu-Jamal, it provides quick identification of barking moonbats without all that tedious analysis of their claims.