What are they cleaning the sewers this week? IBD trashes Kerry

Investor's Business Daily, in a courageously unsigned editorial, trashes Sen. Kerry for talking about voter fraud in Ohio. IVB points out that because there was one person in Ohio who tried to pay off a signature collector with crack, that everything Kerry says is off. They next trash Kerry because he is standing up for motor voter, ballot by mail and being against Voter Id. (The horror!)Put on some rubber gloves and link on over to http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=241830060806080 to wallow in some pretty bad arguments.

This article is a good chance to try out your skills at debunking illogical articles. For a prize to be determined later (Maybe I will try and get a program signed next week or something) see how many of these fallacies are in this one little article. This info comes from the incredibly great website: http://thenonsequitur.com/?page_id=167



I could make a case for 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7. I could be persuaded on 4. I think 8 and 9 are a stretch. Not bad for the first third of the list of fallacies. Unsigned Editorial Writer, the brave little bastard, is on a roll.

why are they all saying that Kerry sent this to 100,000 people. I strongly suspect it is closer to 3,000,000. (I got it in NJ, and others who mentioned getting it were from all over. Maybe I shouldn't publicly question it, because then the RW will be shocked at the response.

Which is not, IMHO, a good advertisement for a financial web site or publication. (Maybe it's just me, but I prefer to have my investment people have a sense of numbers and the difference between 100,000 and 3,000,000.)

It's just been one of those weeks. I swear, someone is cleaning out the sewers and all the foul things that normally exist in the dank, fetid regions have crawled up to the surface world and are now attempting to eat our brains. (Okay, Allen is sort of safe from them. No brains to eat with that one.) Apparently, they were quite successful with IBD and the courageous unsigned editor.

All I can think of is that they are not happy that:

- Even some conservatives are relooking at Kerry's intelligent comments on terrorism. To a very real degree, no one else in the US was saying what Kerry was in 2004. My husband bought "the New War" from Amazon for me and I read it early this summer - it was amazing that the ideas in it are still beyond most other people talking about terrorism - and that was 1997. Too bad he couldn't convince Clinton to make these things priorities.

- Strikland is ahead and Kerry's well written appeal both makes a great endorsement of who Strickland is, but in precise 100% accurate words describes Blackwell's actions. Imagine 2004 with a Democratic governor in Ohio - if Strickland wins, Ohio becomes winnable and to some degree validates Kerry's strategy in 2004.

The level of attack has been turned up by the right on everything from the election to the war and it appears the far left is trying to capitalize:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/washington/31ohio.html?ref=us

Even Lamont is attacked here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20060830/cm_ucru/takingourbrainofftheball


Kemp appears on the scence; it's like a GOP media smear blitz!

about it.

I only got the email sometime after seeing the article about it posted here. I assumed it got sent out to the entire list after it made the internet news sites. I could be wrong though.

but that didn't surprise me. If he initially only intended to send it to 100,000. The article then really backfired, if it made him send it to all 3,000,000 - which he would have doine if for no reason other than letting as many people see it was the same respectable Kerry as always. (He really makes a poor villian - as soon as people see him, he's really not)

:eyes:

You used to be able to blame it on his bowtie cutting off the oxygen supply to his brain. Now we know he's just another Rethug. Sigh!

Of course he is picking on Kerry. (I always suspected that Tucker had Kerry-envy. Something about the way he talks about Kerry, me thinks the lad doth protest too much.)

This could be a Discovery Channel series: Sewer Week! I think it will get worse next week.

BTW, any Democrats sending Senator Kerry flowers and chocolates for taking so much heat in this midterm season. Seems to be he is deflecting a lot of criticism from Dem candidates to himself. Such a gentleman.

My husband and I tried to watch him the other night but it was like watching a bad traffic accident - can't watch, can't look away.

I think he's trying to recast himself as Keith Olbermann II. Only without brains, without wit, and without an iota of integrity.

I assume the Republicans would love a candidate who was:

- A genuine war hero
- Brilliant on foreign policy (Seriously how many 22 year olds have their comments on a foreign policy issue - where there position was unusual at the time - quoted 40 years later by an ex- secretary of state
- A fighter who led to a terrorist bank closing
- A well spoken statesman capable of saying quotable things off the cuff
- A well versed brillant debator
- An athlete who played 4 sports, skis, windsurfs and bikes 111 miles
- A pilot
- the husband of a lovely, brilliant, warm woman who speaks 5 languages
- A prosecutor who fought the MAFIA
- A person with a calm tempermant who is very slow to show anger

They would be in heaven pushing such a candidate

Kerry's rebuke of Allen has to do with all this. Today they announced Giuliani's endorsement of Allen, as if he isn't mired in controversy (well not in the media).

to speak out at that point and he did it from the high ground. It was right to speak out and it was a case of Kerry acting as a moral leader - the comment really was wrong and wrong in so many ways. (I wonder if being asked about it - and responding to it - on Dkos triggered his prompt comment.

Kerry likely made it harder to sweep the nastiness under the rug.

The slams made on the email could easily be dispelled by Kerry. All he has to do is read the email. He stayed well within bounds. (His generous description of Strickland was nice too.)

and speaks truth to power. There is no one more dangerous to the corrupt than an honest politician.

Coming to a Rally Near You!

At this time in the morning I'm sometimes silly, but I think he does scare the bejesus out of them. That's why the senator's statements provide a lighting rod for RW attacks. These people are nothing if not strategists. They don't waste time attacking anyone who's not relevant, but they are listening carefully to Senator Kerry. This is actually a good sign. They have studied their opposition and know who has a large base of support and who doesn't.

And you're right. If Kerry get's in, the gravy days are over for Washington. He's honest and he's got a the eye of a prosecutor. That makes some people nervous.

The NORM for fund raising letters is that they are very partisan, usually beyond public statements of the author. They seem to always project a message that it is critical for "our side" to win and refer to tire consequences. Kerry's have always been refreshingly free from this jargon. They have all used simple language to explain why the person he is supporting deserves support - and sometimes listed, in a defendable way, why the opponent needs to go.

Yet I have NEVER seen a concerted attack on any other mail piece. Why this one? Because it's Ohio, where in the last year the stones have been rolled away exposing corruption everywhere? Because RFKjr wrote his piece and people like Clinton have refused to reject it? I do hope that Kerry is asked about the uproar - his comments are defensible.

I agree that it is Kerry's lack of corruption and honesty that makes them fear him - the one thing we know from 2004 is that he really has managed to be a politician for nearly a quarter of a century without violating the public trust.

And justice isn't always swift. Perhaps they are afraid of more than losing an election. One thing is certain: the Republicans are terrified that the truth about Ohio will come out. And it will come out. It may take a while, but air-tight cases usually do take a while to prove. A sloppy case and the culprit gets off scott free. Case in point: the OJ trial.

I too hope that Senator Kerry has more to say on his position, but he may not be able to elaborate at this time. IMO, the e-mail terrified the Ohio repugs because it put them on notice. It was a shot fired across their bow and they responded accordingly. Senator John Kerry is relentless and methodical. One thing we know about him: he won't show his cards or play his hand too early.

Aren't the Rethugs suspected of trying to take the election fraud issue and making it their own? So far, there weren't too many Dems who spoke out about the issue on a larger, more visible scale. Then along comes RFK who poses a relevant question; "was the election stolen?" and has some irrefutable evidence to back up such a claim. Still, no need to get too excited, think the Rethugs. They can still turn this around and claim that it's the Dems who are doing it.
But then comes Kerry's none too subtle e-mail. Oh shit; here's the guy who got robbed actually flat out saying he got robbed. No way to spin this in their favor except trying to ridicule, and compare to Gore. Essentially adopting the sore loser tactic.
It's great that Kerry is on top of this. As long as he talks about it in the terms he does, Republicans are going to have a difficult time spinning '06 losses or 'close wins' into (attempted)election fraud by Democrats.

Not too long ago, election fraud and troop withdrawal were not big, mainstream issues. Now a majority of Americans are concerned, and are with JK on both.

The way I see it is that the Repubs can only distract from the issues for so long, and they know it. When votes start following the issues, people like John Kerry start looking better and better.

I do think it big that people are beginning to see that what Kerry described was not domestic law enforcement - but using law enforcement techniques in conjunction with other countries because all countries have an interest in stopping this. It also includes intelligence. James Bond vs Rambo, who suceeded more?

You're right - JK is a terrorism/international crime expert.

That, as much as anything, is his signature issue in his tenure as a US Senator. The man knows whereof he speaks.

He literally wrote some of the laws that deal with US policy on terrorism, money-laundering and stopping international crime networks. (Al Qaeda is one, their motives just aren't drugs or money, primarily.) That is, he did when the Repub and Conservative Sens didn't think it was 'over-regulating' the banking industry. (Gee, what was one of the problems with the Savings and Loan scandal of the early '90's. Those institutions were doing international money-laundering. I would love to see an investigation come back on what that meant and who in the Congress was involved in that.)

This is why Kerry is so easy to defend - he was trying to take down illegal activities as McCain was, at least, making it easier for banks to do them.

Some people have never eally explained why they were in bed with 'dirty banks' and did favors for them. Not really explained all that well at all.