A lot of people have a pretty poor opinion of John Kerry. Some have even gone so far as to term him a “traitor”. I’ve never been one for such overblown characterizations, I just thought he was a well connected idiot, like so many of his peers.

Now I have to say I was wrong. John Kerry has admitted on nationwide TV that he was running guns to the Khmer Rouge “insurgents” in Cambodia while he was on his truncated Vietnam tour. As is noted here, the Khmer Rouge was supporting the North Vietnamese and opposing the United States during this time.

It is obvious that he must have been working for the other side even this early in his career. If the mission he were on, where his noisy 12-cylinder twin diesel powered boat was used to deliver guns to the Khmer Rouge, was a secret U.S. mission, a lowly USN LT.jg who was acting as a deliveryman clearly would not have been privy to the super secret machinations that would have to have taken place. He had no “need to know”, the cardinal qualification for access to information. The only way he could have the information that he is now putting out is if he were working for our enemies.

Kind of makes you look at The Manchurian Candidate differently doesn’t it?

I was looking over the posts at Portland Indymedia. I like a good freak show and they’re usually eager to provide one, when I came upon a posting that actually made sense.

I know what you’re thinking. “Yeah, John, you expect us to believe that? Next you’ll be telling us that they were upholding the Second Amendment.” Well…Yeah. At least as much as a liberal who thinks that his rights were given him by the government instead of having them protected from the government can make sense. Take a look.

portland imc – 2005.01.30 – Firearms: National Misdirection and Misconceptions

Why are guns the big evil? Because people are afraid of them. Why are they afraid? Because most people don’t understand them. A firearm is a tool. It is a piece of equipment that, when activated, sends a piece of metal traveling a thousand or more miles per hour towards what you’re pointing it at. Quite frankly, an inexperienced driver behind the wheel of a several thousand pound vehicle hurtling down the freeway at 85mph frightens me more. They’d do about the same damage if they hit you, but the SUV is less likely to miss.

Kind of like seeing a really ugly man in drag, isn’t it? You just stare in disbelief. But the guy really is a liberal. Lives in San Francisco and everything; thinks Bush stole the election. But he admits that the great fear of guns in liberal circles is primarily due to ignorance.

Amazing. I suppose he will soon be slapped down by the regular freaks, his thinking is starting to stray from the party line and he might start asking questions about other liberal dogma.

But it is nice to see that they haven’t all had their brains sucked out and replaced by sawdust.

Day-by-Day

Ankle Biting Pundits compares the experiences of the Democrats that are supposed to have been intimidated into not voting in Ohio and the Iraqis.

Voter Intimidation – Ohio Democrats v. The Average Iraqi

Looks to me like the Average Iraqi is made of sterner stuff than an Ohio Democrat

The Diplomad noted the UN penchant for dropping in after the work is done and claiming credit. They did it in the case of the Tsunami and now they are doing it in Iraq.

In recognition of the bravery of the Iraqis for voting in the face of dangerous terrorists, Salim Lone, the communications director for Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN special representative in Iraq, who was killed in August 2003, declares the election illegitimate.

The millions of Iraqis, as well as the UN electoral team and the Iraqi election commission staff, who did participate in the process despite the grave risk, deserve our respect. But it was a risk taken in vain. The election was illegitimate, and cannot resolve the rampant insecurity resulting from the occupation. The only way to stop the destruction of Iraq is to end the occupation and enfranchise the Sunnis, who are leading the resistance because they see the US as systematically excluding them from the role they deserve to play in Iraq. …

Mr. Lone retired from his UN position after the bombing of the UN office and the subsequent withdrawal from Iraq. He is a virulent critic of any U.S. policy that doesn’t entail payment of large amounts of money to UN bureaucrats and grant them control of U.S. policy. He sounds rather bitter that his Oil-For-Food money was cut off and his fancy nameplate removed.

Gregory at The Belgravia Dispatch takes the left side of the blogosphere to task for opposition without offering alternatives.

THE BELGRAVIA DISPATCH: The Deafening Silence of the Left Blogosphere

If the Duncan Black’s and Marcos Zuniga’s represent the future of the Democrat party, rest assured the democrats will be out of power for a good long while yet. And that would be a good thing if these are the people who get the pulse of the party’s activists racing. They are simply too busy carping from the sidelines to put forward serious alternative ideas about America’s role in the world today. What should we do, really, about the threat of radical Islam? What would they have done so differently in Afghanistan? Why was Iraq such a mega-blunder, if a viable democracy can take root there? What would they be doing better against al-Qaeda? (let me guess, Gore would have nabbed UBL right out of the gates, right?) They have little on tap on all these matters of any note, truth be told. I sense, in all this, an unconcern about the greater world outside the United States (particularly with Black) and a good deal of intellectual laziness. Tant pis, I guess.

The left likes to pose as intellectual, but their lack of ideas in dealing with the world, other than running home and hiding under the bed or begging the French to save us, shows that to be a lie.

Link from Instapundit

There is a movement afoot in media circles to paint the Iraqi elections as a failure due to low participation by the Sunni population. The idea is that if the Sunnis did not vote in large numbers that the election itself is somehow invalid.

But just last year in Kosovo, the UN painted a different picture.

UNMIK – News

24 October 2004 – Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his senior envoy to Kosovo today hailed elections for the province’s assembly, saying the high and peaceful voter turnout Saturday showed the public wanted to participate despite pressure from some quarters to stay home.

“The Secretary-General calls on all of Kosovo’s political leaders to respect the result of the election,” his spokesman said in a statement issued in New York after the poll for the 120-member Assembly.

“The turnout and good management of the electoral process, for the first time by Kosovans themselves, demonstrate their understanding of the importance of making their voices heard and taking a direct hand in shaping Kosovo’s future.”

Mr. Annan said he expected a new government would be formed quickly and would cooperate closely with the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), which has been in charge of the province since June 1999.

The statement stressed the importance of the incoming government working “for the benefit of all,” including Kosovo’s ethnic minorities.

While noting the low turnout among Kosovo Serbs, Mr. Annan praised “those who voted and those who stood as candidates for their courage in the face of severe contrary pressure.”

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative Søren Jessen-Petersen, who spent Saturday touring polling stations across the province, described the election as peaceful, well-organized and a success.

Acknowledging that many Kosovo Serbs who would have liked to vote did not because they were afraid, he pointed out that there were those who did vote, including some in areas where not a single party had campaigned, and this meant that there would be Kosovo Serb representatives in the Assembly.

“This is the important thing: there will be representatives who will be part of the dialogue, and we will now reach out not only to all voters in all communities who did vote, but also to those who wanted to vote but were afraid, because they also share a common interest in the future of Kosovo.”

(emphasis mine)

People seem to casting about for analogies to the low participation criticism. But why theorize? The UN provides us with a real life parallel.

The UN, always a good example of a bad example.

The theme of the day from the left is that the Iraqi elections are not “real”. Here’s a blast from the past to remind you of what type of election they consider “real”. From January 21, 2003: Cuba declares socialist victory

ScrappleFace: Kennedy: U.S. Troops Restrict Al Qaeda Civil Rights

(2005-01-28) — The U.S. occupation force in Iraq is placing unconstitutional restrictions on the free speech rights of Al Qaeda and former members of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party, according to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-MA, who today introduced a resolution expressing “solidarity with our repressed brethren in the Iraq insurgency.”

It sure sounds like something Kennedy would say.

Seattle-The Iraqi election took a surprising turn today when Saddam Hussein took the lead by approximately 90 million votes. Everyone expressed shock at the new developments as early poll numbers showed him losing decisively. This trend continued throughout the day as voting continued in Iraq.

It was not until the voting had ended and the ballots were being counted that approximately 90 million votes for Saddam Hussein were found in the headquarters of the King County Democratic Party in Seattle.

The new count makes the deposed dictator the winner in the election and spokesmen for Democrats in Seattle are demanding his release and re installation in his palaces. Husseins’ palaces were taken from him in an illegal invasion by the United States and have been used as their headquarters in Iraq.

Democrats John Kerry and Edward Kennedy hailed the outcome of the elections and vowed that the United States would learn a lesson from this and never bother another vicious dictator again. Michael Moore and billionaire George Soros announced plans to provide chipping machines to the Iraqi government to replace those that were taken by the U.S. “There are a lot of people in Iraq that have a date with the machines”, said Moore, “We intend to help the reinstated secret police in any way we can to insure that the Baathist government is secure and children can go back to flying kites.”

Celebrations broke out on college campuses across the country as ecstatic students learned that they would be in no danger of having their partying interrupted by a war.

(Note to the humor impaired: This is a (very poor) attempt at parody. Don’t get your panties in a bunch)