KERRY GOES UNDER
Re: The Washington Prowler’s Emergency
Operation:
Once again, The Prowler has done an excellent job of getting the
story behind the story with his Sept. 7, 2004 “Emergency Operation”
piece on the John F. Kerry campaign apparatus. But it cannot amaze
only me that Kerry is mentally challenged enough to hand over core
operations and the tactics to the Clinton crowd.
Consider the scenarios: if the Clinton crowd gets Kerry elected
he stands a good chance of benefiting from the “incumbent”
principle and holding office for eight years, on his own steam.
That makes the first shot for Hillary for the White House at 2012,
and she would be 65 (born October 26th, 1947). Considering her
recent photos I expect by then she could need a bit more than Botox
and pancake make-up for the campaign trail.
But the alternative strategy is for the Clinton crowd to keep
Kerry like Tantalus, with true political firepower always just out
of reach, closing the gap with Bush, but never quite overtaking
him. Kerry loses the election, and the Clintons don’t get the
blame: Kerry does.
The result? Kerry becomes the Dukakis of the 20th century and
goes back to his role as Ted Kennedy’s sidekick, and Hillary can
run for the Democrats in 2008 on the Joan of Arc-zeitgeist of both
rescue and restoration, even though the Clintons have been in
charge of the party apparatus the whole time.
In 2008 Hillary Rodham Clinton will be 61 and a seasoned U.S.
Senator. Daily Stairmaster sessions, long weekends in Palm Beach,
and Botox can improve on her photos for that campaign trail.
By taking in the whole Clinton apparatus, the Kerry campaign has
downloaded a Trojan Horse. Kerry doesn’t know it, but it is so
brazen it astonishes me he has missed the implications.
— James N. Ward
Breux-Jouy, France
They can bring in a three-ring circus of aides to rehabilitate
Kerry’s campaign but it won’t help. The problem is Kerry. If you
notice, unlike the President’s ads the Kerry ads never use his
voice in the body of his commercials or in the voiceovers. The man
is too ponderous. Someone described his delivery as if he was
reading from a lease. I wouldn’t even give him that much credit. At
least a lease has a point.
— Al Hassinger
Little Silver, New Jersey
I suppose the get well calls were dictated by protocol — but
suggesting as David Frum does that President Bush should utilize
Clinton’s political skills in some diplomacy post is uncalled for.
After all, there is not an honest bone or organ in his body or his
wife’s. Haven’t they garnered enough ill-gotten gain from the
American taxpayer without being further rewarded by the
Republicans? If President Bush gathers these two snakes to his
bosom, following their nature, they’ll bite.
— James Wheatley
Finally, John Kerry has a campaign manager and communications
director for both sides of every issue.
— Bill Attinger
Del Mar, California
TWIN KILLING
Re: Paul Beston’s Remember Me
to Herald Square:
What do you mean “floozy”? [Jenna and Barbara] came across as
very young, unsophisticated, well-protected kids. Maybe they
“should” have a little more gravitas having made it through college
into adulthood, but that is a very small sin and obviously the
result of a concerted effort not to make them grow up too fast as a
sacrifice to their father’s ambition. I can’t believe the cattiness
of the responses to their speech. Their very ordinariness is a
tribute to their parents, particularly in juxtaposition to the
Clintons’ shameless and ruthless subordinating the needs of their
pathetic daughter to political expedience.
— Ann Blumenthal
CAPTAIN BLIGH
Re: The Washington Prowler’s Listless
Kerry:
Just by the way, the recent famous images of Mr. Kerry
windsurfing off Nantucket reveal a bit more about the man to the
expert eye. Kerry was sailing on what we call “light air” gear,
that is, a gigantic sail ( I would estimate something in the 11
square meter range) and a huge board with much, much flotation.
No hard-core windsurfer would be caught dead on a rig like that.
If you need a sail that big and a board the size of the Titanic,
then guess what ? IT ISN’T WINDY ENOUGH TO GO SAILING !
Real sailors head out when high winds call for sails in the 5
square meter size, or smaller, and boards so small ( and therefore
fast and maneuverable) that they won’t even float the sailor unless
they are moving along at a decent clip. They are big skis, not
small boats.
Kerry’s wussy rig is what you use when you must be seen to be
windsurfing. Sailing a rig like that is to real windsurfing what
skippering a supertanker is to riding a jetski.
Now, I know John Kerry is a decent windsurfer, but these photos
are just more phony baloney. The hardcore windsurfer’s credo is
“Just say ‘no” to six-point-oh”, meaning that if you need a sail in
a size bigger than 5.0 square meters, there ain’t no point.
— Paul Kotik
Plantation, Florida
WEED EATERS
Re: Steve Sailer’s The Kinds
Are Alwrong:
Mr. Sailer; With all due respect, stick to being a movie critic
and leave the drug de-criminalization discussion to those qualified
to make coherent arguments. The War on Drugs (aka the War on Drug
Addicts) was, is, and always will be, an abject failure.
Reason, National Review and Cato are probably
(I’m going to go out on a limb here) better sources for information
on the drug war and drug abuse than a Quentin Tarantino pseudo
slasher movie.
Mr. Sailer states “smoking dope saps the energy from youth,
turning them into sedentary couch potatoes.” So? It must have been
an oversight on the part of the founding fathers to place
individual rights ahead of other peoples stoned children. It is
important to note that drugs are much easier to obtain by children
than alcohol due to the fact they are sold only on the black
market.
The U.S. drug policy is obtuse and shortsighted, has made no
progress in 30 years, and is currently funding a large portion of
terrorist activity in the world that we are spending billions to
fight. De-criminalize drugs, tax them, and regulate them (like
booze and cigarettes) and in the process provide the means
necessary to fund a real education for all children (the stoned and
sober alike).
— Ben Berry
Washington, D.C.
Congratulations to Mr. Sailer. At least he is thinking about the
repercussions of the legalization of a purposefully intoxicating
substance. Legalizers never get the real point to the
criminalization of such substances. I will continue to inquire,
“For whom do you wish to legalize which drugs?” They never have an
answer that is socially acceptable. No one is going to legalize
alcoholic beverages and intoxicating chemical substances for
minors, period. Of course the criminal black market is aimed at
those minors, and minors are the vast majority of the drug problem
in this nation, but that just never seems to occur to the
“Legalizers.”
The legalization of marijuana would drastically lower the cost,
and increase the availability of a debilitating, mind altering
drug. Dealing with the associated problems of alcoholic beverages
is almost more than society can bear, how much worse could it be?
Well… let’s experiment! Go ahead and legalize drugs for everyone
(consistency demands no limits be placed on alcohol as well…).
No? how about just “adults” — not those 18-20 year-old
quasi-minors, just the 21 plus crowd. Hmm… not a solution, either
since that crowd has either grown out of the need to be addled in
the head, or it is permanently ruined.
Legalization is a truly bad idea. What drug legalization amounts
to is a surrender, but that never stopped the socially lazy from
arguing hard to abandon the fight. The rich and privileged will be
able to afford to insulate themselves from the hoi polloi and
provide for their expensive rehab stops. The rest of society,
meanwhile, descends into an abyss. The black market will remain,
with an endless cheap supply of product to sell. The highway death
toll and social services bills will come due.
— John W. Schneider, III
Bristow, Virginia
I have to admit, I’m riding the fence on this decriminalization
issue. There are compelling arguments on both sides and it’s hard
to determine if the benefits outweigh the risks, but Steve Sailer’s
argument has to be one of the most amusing. To say that what we
need to fear from marijuana is childhood obesity seems
fundamentally flawed. My notion of legalized drugs has always been
that they would be regulated like alcohol, or at the very minimum,
like cigarettes.
While it is true that teen drinking and smoking is not only
possible in spite of regulation, but actually commonplace, the key
word is teen. Sailer conjured images of kids with their bats and
gloves heading to the ballpark. To me, that screams juvenile, not
teen. Although I can go to any local heavy metal show and see a
hundred teens smoking outside, I’d be hard pressed to find an
11-year-old child smoking at the ballpark. Why should I fear that I
would see an 11-year-old smoking marijuana?
Even if I ignore that Sailer appeared to be talking about
juveniles and assume he was speaking of teens, the argument doesn’t
necessarily hold water. Teens are highly susceptible to peer
pressure and that fact could lead to marijuana use and subsequent
couchpotatofication and obesity. But in the teen world, as we are
constantly reminded by pop culture and endless “Sally Jesse-like”
news reports, appearance trumps all. There seems to be far more
pressure to look good (read: thin) than to look “cool” by smoking
dope. Some of the heavy metal teens I mentioned earlier as
cigarette smoking teens, are also dope smoking teens, but they are
out of the house nonetheless and, at least from my vantage point,
are active and in good shape.
I don’t want to make a case for decriminalization here, but the
whole obesity argument seems silly to me. If statistics exist that
prove juvenile smoking or drinking is a serious problem, I will
respectfully apologize to Mr. Sailer.
— Chuck Lazarz
May I suggest that Mr. Sailer read Why Our Drug Laws Have
Failed and What We Can Do About It by Judge James P. Gray. Our
drug laws have caused increased crime, filled our many prisons,
made drug lords wealthy, cost billions, and has failed just as
alcohol prohibition failed in earlier times. It’s time that we
changed a failed, so-called War on Drugs.
— Jim Kilpatrick
If you are so bent on telling others what to do, why not push to
make TV illegal? Seems your dislike of technology far outweighs
your beef with weed.
— Brian
While I consider laws against marijuana acceptable, I think the
penalties are too harsh. Most infractions should be settled with
drug testing and fines.
— Ian Callum
