Kerry Hitting Back, Finally
As far as I know, Kerry has been all but silent about the Abu Gharib pictures, and because of this all his policy speeches the last few weeks have been drowned out of the news cycles. So, no wonder he isn't making a big push in the polls against Bush. Nobody remembers that he even exists.
There has probably been some fear in Kerry's campaign that it would appear that he was politicizing the pictures if he used them to criticize the president's Iraq policy. Well, yea. He is, after all, running for president. It is hard not to politicize something when you are running a presidential campaign. He has a duty to politicize everything about this war. This is Bush's war and Kerry has to keep swinging if he wants to be heard.
This from Reuters:
"Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry saw for himself on Thursday the images of violence and sexual humiliation at a U.S.-run prison in Iraq, and blamed "grievous" errors by the Bush administration and lax oversight up and down the chain of command for the scandal."With that, his most stinging assessment yet of the Republican administration, Kerry made clear he would not back down in the face of charges by President Bush's campaign that he was politicizing the war and prison abuses."
Then he went on to attack the administration on their abuses of the Geneva conventions.
"I would never have thrown out the door or window, the obligations of the Geneva Conventions. Why? Because I know as a former combatant, that had I been captured, I would have wanted our moral high ground, with respect to those Geneva Conventions, to be in place."By being selective and saying they (the Geneva Conventions) apply here, then they don't apply here, and so forth, we invite others to be equally as selective and it puts American troops in greater danger."
Let the Bidding Begin
This from MSNBC, on the battle for distribution of Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11:
"A handful of distributors are interested in picking up Michael Moore’s controversial documentary 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' which Walt Disney Co. refused to allow its Miramax parent to release.
"According to several sources close to the situation, the outfits leading the pack are Universal Pictures’ specialty division Focus Features and Newmarket Films, which distributed Mel Gibson’s equally controversial 'The Passion of the Christ' in North America."
Tucker Tackles the War and PBS
One of the few conservatives that I have always liked, every since his failed TV show 'The Spin Room' with Bill Press, is CNN's Tucker Carlson. He has always struck me as a very honest, funny, and pragmatic guy. I certainly don't agree with him very often, but I respect his moderation when it comes to bombast.
I also always suspected that he was not so crazy about the war in Iraq, though he never once showed his hand. However, I remember hearing him say once that the policy of pre-emption, agree with it or not, was a radical policy. Then I saw this today in the New York Observer, regarding the war in Iraq:
"I think it’s a total nightmare and disaster, and I’m ashamed that I went against my own instincts in supporting it. It’s something I’ll never do again. Never. I got convinced by a friend of mine who’s smarter than I am, and I shouldn’t have done that. No. I want things to work out, but I’m enraged by it, actually."
And starting June 18th you can watch Tucker on his own half-hour show on PBS.
Posted by Paul Hina at May 14, 2004 12:09 AM