(no subject)

The best response for any criticism against John or John's missed votes & meetings this past year: And how many weeks has President Bush spent on vacation during his term, and on the campaign trail this year? Just wish he'd had more of a chance to respond on that one - perhaps the times Dick didn't reply should've been given, timewise, to John?

ETA: And a note from selinakyle47 in the comments here - "Before this year (2003), Edwards missed just seven votes out of 1,307 in his first four years in office, Briggs said. During his five years in the Senate, Edwards voted 1,551 times out of 1,626 roll-call votes, Briggs said, or 95.4 percent."

Now, here's a bit about Bush that's pretty contemporaenous with the article I quoted above - "According to an August 2003 article in the Washington Post, President Bush has spent all or part of 166 days during his presidency at his Crawford, Texas, ranch or en route. Add the time spent at or en route to the presidential retreat of Camp David and at the Bush family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, and Bush has taken 250 days off as of August 2003. That's 27% of his presidency spent on vacation. Although to be fair, much of this time is classified as a 'working vacation.'"

And as of mid-August, 2004, "A CBS News tally shows that President Bush is now making his 38th visit to his Prairie Chapel ranch since taking office. Add up the number of full or partial days he has been there - it comes out to 254. That's about 20 percent of his presidency. Add in his time at Camp David and the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, and the percentage more than doubles."

Historical Fiction - How do medieval-themed restaurants get it wrong?

Something amusing for the SCA-ers among you.

Actual Analysis

This is something I haven't seen anywhere yet.

Here's what Cheney said last night about PM Allawi of Iraq:

Our most important ally in the war on terror, in Iraq specifically, is Prime Minister Allawi. He came recently and addressed a joint session of Congress that I presided over with the speaker of the House.

And John Kerry rushed out immediately after his speech was over with, where he came and he thanked America for our contributions and our sacrifice and pledged to hold those elections in January, went out and demeaned him, criticized him, challenged his credibility.

And as you can see in the transcript of Allawi's speech two weeks ago in front of Congress (you know, the speech that was cowritten by someone from the Bush campaign), Allawi said:

[W]e are succeeding in Iraq.
It's a tough struggle with setbacks, but we are succeeding... When political leaders sound the siren of defeatism in the face of terrorism, it only encourages more violence.

So Kerry said, regarding Allawi's speech:

The prime minister and the president are here obviously to put their best face on the policy, but the fact is that the CIA estimates, the reporting, the ground operation and the troops all tell a different story... I think the prime minister is, obviously, contradicting his own statement when he said terrorists are pouring into the country

And he got slammed for it. He was raked over the coals by Bush in the last debate, by Cheney the next day and again last night, by Republicans around the world.


But here's what Allawi said yesterday in his first speech before the interim National Assembly in Iraq regarding the country's instability - he said it's a:

"source of worry for many people" and that the guerrillas represent "a challenge to our will."

Can a someone who thinks Kerry's statement was Really Evil or somehow Supportive Of Terrorists please explain why you think that? Kthx!

(no subject)

copperbadge has finally finished, and posted, the Registering for Hogwarts story he wrote for me while my husband & I were tag-team-waiting-in-line overnight to register our son for a special program at his elementary school.

Much adoration for Sam! And for the story!