Building a Coalition?

There's what Kerry says and then there's what Kerry does. John Kerry talks about building better coalitions, but his actions don't support this goal.

A week ago Iraqi prime minister Allawi spoke to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. Rather than attending this historic event and welcoming Allawi, Kerry chose to stay on the campaign trail and attack Allawi's credibility. Politically expedient, but very damaging were he to become the next U.S. president.

Germany and France are saying they will not send troops even if Kerry is elected.

And Kerry's sister is in Australia attempting to undermine our coalition in Iraq.

So, Kerry needs to apologize to Allawi and the Iraqis as well as the Australians and then explain how he's going to get other nations (i.e. France & Germany, etc.) to join in the effort. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was laughing earlier this week when interviewed about having to attend a summit under Kerry's leadership saying there was no chance of German troops being committed to Iraq.

I believe that Bush has built the best possible coalition given the circumstances. Is it "ideal"? No, but Kerry certainly wouldn't do any better and seems bent on tearing down the existing coalition, even referring to these nations as a "trumped-up, so-called coalition of the bribed, the coerced, the bought and the extorted".

UPDATE: Captain Ed points out a BBC article regarding talks with North Korea. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing described the multilateral talks as the "only feasible and correct option". During tonight's debate Kerry attacked Bush's coalition effort in dealing with North Korea. Kerry would prefer to hold bilateral talks (read: appeasement) with North Korea rather than use China's leverage to push for a solution.

Ready for the Debate?

An AP report discussing tonight's upcoming debate mentions:

Kerry also says Bush has neglected other major problems like North Korea and Iran, two nations suspected of pursuing nuclear weapons.

Thanks to Bush's leadership in the war on terror, Iranians are rising up against the Mullah's militias as they understand that they're next on the list if there aren't some changes. Democracy is exactly what Iran needs. On the other hand, Kerry has proposed providing nuclear fuel to Iran. The North Korea situation escalated to a dangerous level under Bill Clinton's watch...appeasement failed us then and appeasement will fail us again if Kerry is elected.

The Botox Theory

John Kerry's been looking a little "orange" lately...

Oh, the vanity! Here are some facts that we can string together:

1. Kerry is known to sweat profusely
2. Kerry is concerned about sweating during the upcoming debate(s)
3. Botox helps prevent excessive sweating
4. Botox injections temporarily leave little red marks

So, what are the chances that Kerry just got a nice plug of Botox in preparation for this Thursday's debate and he went with the heavy make-up to obscure the red marks left from the injections? I think we have a winner!

Rathergate: repeat

First CBS uses obviously forged documents to smear Bush and now CBS is perpetuating a hoax that Bush is planning to reinstate the draft...you can read more here. Let it be known that there are two bills in Congress right now pushing for a military draft, but they are both sponsored by Democrats. In fact, John Kerry himself "believes we need to think big and do better and get more young Americans serving the nation."

Needless to say, CBS may as well spin away...it's not like they have any credibility left to lose!

RatherGate: the Merchandise

Welcome!

Let's open this thing up! I want this to be a forum to flesh out ideas. I want to keep turning the diamond around and examine all its facets. I want feedback. I want to highlight fresh news stories as well as sit back and dissect culture and worldviews.

I'd like to start by looking at a recent article in the National Catholic Register:

Using Church documents, Catholic Answers has written a guide citing "Five Non-Negotiable Issues" for Catholic voters.
"These five current issues concern actions that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by the law," says the guide. We used the guide as a starting point to compare each candidate’s positions.

The five issues mentioned in the article are (1) abortion, (2) euthanasia, (3) embryonic stem-cell research, (4) human cloning, and (5) homosexual "marriage". I know of many Catholics who, nonetheless, will be voting for John Kerry in the upcoming election. Has the Catholic church lost its ability to be an effective instrument in these times of moral relativity? Does truth matter? How do we navigate the waters where politics and religion run together? These are questions worth exploring...