Mark A. Kilmer (the weblog)

The Dems countered by saying that when President Bush was the managing partner of the Texas Rangers, he opposed the Wild Card. Schillings’ team, of course, was a Wild Card this year, having failed to win their division.

It’s also tough, I imagine, when your father was President and you aspire to the same office. Among other things, though, 41 lacked 43’s certainty and backbone. And the talent of his advisors.

On a side note, C.P.E. Bach’s godfather was Telemann. That means that on at the very least one occasion, J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, and Georg Philip Telemann were in the same room together. I wonder if they talked about my Pittsburgh Steelers. (They’ve got something going,)

This brings a question to my mind: Is attacking a person in a manner reminiscent of Genghis Kahn considered to be free political speech?

Says Dr. Taylor: “[I]f the so-called “security moms” do, in fact, exist, then it will be Bush for four more years.”

It sounds like a really impressive operation they pulled off, despite the obvious moral problems.

What is immoral to the Russians, of course, is getting caught. That’s a marked improvement on the Soviet times, when it really didn’t matter if they were detected doing nastiness or not.

La. Could Decide Party Control of Senate in December.

Helen Dewar’s story is not yet on the page underneath.

I think the South Dakota race will determine control of the Senate, in more ways than one. Like Louisiana, it’s a Dem controlled seat and a possible GOP pickup.

Tomorrow, my new machine will be delivered, which will eliminate my last excuse. I’ll have to take the leap and begin doing this blog with other software. I’m going to need help and advice, and Erickson will probably charge me $500/hour. (Kidding, Erick!)

Which is something, for a violinist.

April 10, 2003, only three weeks into the war, NBC News was embedded with troops from the Army’s 101st Airborne as they temporarily take over the Al-Qaqaa weapons installation south of Baghdad. But these troops never found the nearly 380 tons of some of the most powerful conventional explosives, called HMX and RDX, which is now missing. The U.S. troops did find large stockpiles of more conventional weapons, but no HMX or RDX, so powerful less than a pound brought down Pan Am 103 in 1988, and can be used to trigger a nuclear weapon.

Kerry says: “Bush was silent.” What would Kerry have had him say? I suggest: “When the facts don’t fit the model JF Kerry needs to be elected, he or his crew either deny and contradict them or simply invent new ones.” Kerry’s crew includes the New York Times.

As has been said, JF “has the wrong strategy for the wrong country, at the wrong time.”

Where are they? Syria? Disappeared.

Are they certain that they are certain that Saddam had no WMD?

I think Kerry’s mumbling about General Shinseki again.

He’s not going to let this one go. Once it is in the public’s head, he can simply say that it’s no matter when the material was there. “The simple fact is that this Administration did not send enough…”

Hopefully, he’ll be off the stage by the 1st of the year.

Here’s a press release from 377 Vietnam Special Forces vets demanding that Kerry do just that: sign the form and let us see what is hidden in his records.

They won’t budge JF, but could some of this be ready to leak as an “October Surprise”?

Sometime between Oct. 12 and Oct. 16 unknown suspects vandalized a large Bush/Cheney campaign sign posted in the 700 block of McCray Street, spraying vulgarities denouncing the president, according to a Hollister police report.

In a manner reminiscent of Genghis Kahn.

So in daddy’s mind, it’s criminal for his daughter to get caught trying to lip-synch, but it is standard procedure to shoot her full of steroids.

I like it, but now that I think of it, it shows just how musically out of touch I am. What kind of music does this Ashlee Simpson perform? I think I’ll purchase one of her CDs and a bottle of Nexium.

Call the cops.

Five-percent of the women surveyed selected abortion as their top issue, with that group splitting, 67.5-percent to 27.6-percent, in favor of the President.

It seems more women, according to that survey, adamantly oppose the practice than rabidly support it.

But like with Wagner, I can say: “Good music from a detestable human being.”

Although flippant and tasteless, his closing comments were intended as an ironic joke, not as a call to action - an intention he believed regular readers of his humorous column would understand.

There are some things about which humor is not possible, and Presidential assassination is one of them.

I suggested yesterday that Brooker would not be allowed into the United States for quite a while. I hope this is the case. This stuff is serious. But there are no secret service agents in the United Kingdom, except for Her Majesty’s variety.

As I reported in an earlier post, Joe Biden told This Week host George Stephanopoulos not only that he would not say that he thought Kerry would win, but also that he would serve as President Bush’s Secretary of State in the President’s second term. (The State Dept. comment, to be fair, was in response to a goofy question from Steph.)

My word: If Bush wins Michigan, put a fork in the Dem.

With some, it would work better than “boo.”

Once all the linkage has been established, we can pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.

It looks like it’ll be a good system.

And I hated the music at the time.

The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you?

The column was written by a fellow named Charlie Brooker, a British television comedy writer whose TV Go Home website is evidently very popular and can be found HERE.

Methinks he is now ineligible for entry into the United States.

I am quite certain that if Kerry had been president on September 11 he would have reacted more violently than Bush, sending bombers into Afghanistan, not just Special Forces scouts, and demanding immediate co-operation - or else - from Saudi Arabia, not just Pakistan. European anti-militarists have really picked the wrong guy as their hero.

Don’t laugh. He’s making the case for JF Kerry being a ferocious hawk. He is not, to the best of knowledge, a comedy writer. Perhaps he and Mr. Brooker ought to swap positions. Then again, Brooker on a think tank is counterproductive.

The inner perfectionist in Kerry seems compelled to fill in every empty minute and blank spot on a page. Then he crams in more minutes and more pages. The speechmaking prowess that led him into public life three decades ago remains the most daunting weapon in his personal arsenal.

From this line of though, one would think the man were Bill Clinton or JF Kennedy. Kerry can fill time because he thinks and speaks in circumlocution. He can spend a strange aeon saying absolutely nothing.

But, if left to his own devices off script – as in the LA Times piece linked, where his notes sail off behind some Haitians – he “says things.” There is a certain, milder element of Howard Dean in the man when he tries to break out of the second-rate junior Senator stereotype.

It is a highly meritorious work, to be certain, but it renders concentration next to impossible.

Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner said that the committee was premature as the committee’s work was not yet complete. But it’s two weeks before the election, so it’s time for Levin, the committee’s ranking Dem, to rush it out in time for JF Kerry on the stump.

Beethoven’s nine are without compare, though some argue that this applies only to 3-9. I think no 1 is a solid symphony and no 2, the D symphony, is his most fun (and my favorite).

I don’t know that he’ll say or do anything which will lend credence to the “Grand Plan/Hillary ‘08″ theory; rather, he and Kerry probably think Clinton can make a difference in close States, get-out-the-vote stuff.

Kerry’s opponent, Democrat Representative Joe Hoeffel argued: “This is campaign trickery. He’s not supporting John Kerry for president. He’s trying to have it both ways, and get the benefit of these signs.”

Specter has been known to cross party lines.

General Barno called Afghanistan’s October 9 elections a success.

The same could be true, albeit on a less grand scale, of Zarkawi.

Yeah, I said goodbye to this season several innings ago. After three games, the series was almost a coronation. You know, I felt a smidgen of sadness when the cameras panned the youngsters in the stands in Fenway, their dreams of “Go Sox!” having been crushed by the dreaded Yankees.

Now that the tables have turned, I guess I’m allowed to refer to David bleepin’ Ortiz and Johnny bleepin’ Damon.

Quite a story, these Sox.

My corollary is: “When the facts don’t fit the model JF Kerry needs to be elected, he or his crew either deny and contradict them or simply invent new ones.”

It is not known if PJB will be able to sway the rest of the Neptunian vote in the President’s direction.

It is heartening, though, to realize that Spongebob has to yet been enfranchised to vote. Then again, with the crack-laced left(ish) “get-out-the-vote” campaigns, it may be only a matter of time.

And my Nancy Sinatra CD arrived from Amazon today. (There’s a story behind that one.)

But then he presented an opinion he had not publicly expressed before, saying, “The attacks of international terrorism in Iraq are directed today not only and not so much against the international coalition forces as against President Bush personally,” and that terrorists have “the goal of preventing Bush’s election.'’

He later said, darkly, “We must understand that in this case this will give international terrorism an added impulse in their activities, will give them additional strength and may lead to their growing activity in the various regions of the world.”

Vlad’s taking the same tack as I did several months ago: the terrorists do not so much want JF Kerry to win the election, as they don’t give a rat’s arse about that, as they want their enemy, President Bush, to lose.

Remember, Afghanistan’s Mullah Omar wanted Clinton to be impeached so that the Arab world could get along with the U.S. This wasn’t because they liked Al Gore, per se.

This puts Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Putin so far “declared” in the President’s camp. They were not among the world leaders, we can assume, who spoke to JF Kerry about his having to win.

Or was that a mistake which he arrogantly refuses to admit, like the Mary Cheney comment?

The 2002 elections will be held with the map as currently drawn, i.e. – the challenged GOP districting.

Go Yanks!

Bush’s focus never wavered. It has not wavered to this day, despite the culture of fuzziness that exists in large segments of society and government. Politicians, and too many private citizens, have made “judgment” a bad word and thoughtlessly gone along with “just a little evil” instead of facing the tough decisions.

Those large segments of society worship at the vacuous altar of insubstantial nuance.

“And yours makes four! Thank you for stopping by, Princess Margaret, but if you’d like to learn something, stop scrolling and start reading.”

Go Yanks!

I’m not sure why these election officials want to play this game, especially so close to Al Gore’s 2000 tirade.

[D]eny it, pretend it’s not there, and then try to hide it when it comes out and act surprised.

Vote for Kerry/Edwards and you won’t get flu?

But keep your eyes on Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

It is 13-6 New York in the top of the 6th. What are the Red Sox doing in the playoffs?

In a widely quoted remark, Wilson said after a speech in 2003 that it might be “fun to see Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs.” Wilson has accused Rove of spreading word of the Novak column to reporters.

The actual quote taken from a transcript:

At the end of the day, it’s of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words.”

The AP version makes Wilson seem a jovial and playful man, joking about Rove being arrested. The actual version has a serious and vindictive Wilson, his beady eyes darting around the room, speaking in low tones.

Ask Dan Rather. And Kenneth.

Boston has a problem with the “Killer B’s”: The Babe, Bucky, Buckner, Boone… and this year, the Broom. A sweep.

The 1992 debates – with Bush I, Clinton, and Perot – snagged 62.4-million, 70-million, and 67-million viewers.

Debate #1 was the highest since Reagan-Mondale, 1984, which was the highest since Reagan-Carter 1980.

How did he become a great candidate, a master debater, a towering intellect? The public wants what the public gets. The media has given them the media’s dream, –and the media’s tight contest — all that via pretense.

Yes, the series is “over.” It can still be exciting, though.

The President won the debate, and I think he won it decisively. He was the President this time, and Kerry seemed to be throwing numbers in from left field.

That was the introduction to the Debate Notes which are below this note on the weblog.

As the debate ended, my wife called up on the intercom for me to put on the ballgame. I figured the Yankees were in the middle of a rally, or some such, so I switched when Schieffer ended it. Michael Robinson, a former professional football player, was performing a moving rendition of God Bless America for the 7th inning stretch.

With a firm reliance on providence, we enter the final three weeks of the Presidential campaign.

This moved me in a way which was not per se rational, but not all things are. A sign? The twilight is no longer gleaming, and we have a long way to go until the dawn’s early light, but I think I saw.

“The governor’s return to the private sector will be welcome relief for the taxpayers,” Republican spokesman Brian Callanan said Tuesday.

But will he go away?

Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time? Thank God that they were not told that by anyone credible.

[Iconclast publisher W. Leon] Smith said he hopes tempers cool and his relations with Crawford merchants improve after the election.

Asked about that possibility, [Coffee Station owner Nick] Spanos replied, “With him? Hell, no.”

Even the small publishers so want to appear enlightened to their peers.

Then the damn dam broke and the Sox scored 5 in the 7th.

Headed to the 8th, the Yankees have Flash Gordon and Mo Rivera to put this game away, so all other things in the universe being right and equal, the Sox have scored their last. Of course, one never knows. …

This was the game the Red Sox had to win, though. This afternoon, I noted elsewhere that if the Yankees won the first game against Schilling, they will return to the World Series. And they will.

Scratch that. David Ortiz just smacked a two-run double off Gordon. It’s 8-7. Rivera to pich to Millar.

“Our goal is not to reduce terror to some acceptable level of nuisance,'’ Bush said. “Our goal is to defeat terror by staying on the offensive, destroying terrorist networks and spreading freedom and liberty around the world.'’

JF says he was quoted out of context. He was not, and I don’t know that Kerry’s people could nuance that one.

Perhaps by he meant that his plan would reduce the capabilities of the terrorists to pelting people with Nerf balls and giving them wedgies at shopping malls. In that case, terrorism would be a nuisance. The problem is that gambling and prostitution are considered to be vices. Would terrorism, under the Kerry plan, also be a vice?

Yay, Kerry! Go, fight, win, etc.!

But Scott Ellis’s(Election Projection) latest has the President taking 274 to JF’s 264.

And CBS News is now calling the race for Al Gore.

You know, my own finances are somewhat simpler than all that.

So far, the President lost the first debate and won the second; Kerry was there just to fit into the other category.

The Yankees vrs, the Sox at the Stadium, game two is Wednesday night.

Islamic terrorism of this brand will be a threat for as long as it exists. That is its nature.

Remember the story of Cinderella, the downtrodden girl who gets to shine at the ball for a few hours, thanks to a fairy godmother? Afghanistan’s first-ever presidential election Saturday was much the same.

Never mind the inanity about the impossible road ahead. Here is the British lefty daily Guardian Unlimited is reporting:

The insurgent force had issued warnings of bombings, beatings and rocket attacks. But millions of Afghans were undeterred, flooding into bullet-pocked schools, mosques and clinics to cast their ballot.

One official with the peacekeeping force said a line of voters had had to scatter after a rocket exploded in Jalalabad. But after a few moments, they had returned to the queue and voted.

It’s a human appetite for freedom. It worked in the United States over impossible odds.

Joe Biden likes summits, which is why JF Kerry digs summits. I wonder if they approve, or if those who are working to make Iraq succeed care what those two think.

Karzai, 46, cast his vote under heavy security at the former prime ministerial compound in Kabul, Agence France-Presse reported. “If I win or someone else, the main winner will be the Afghan nation,'’ AFP quoted him as saying.

Fifteen of Karzai’s opponents, the New Zealand press emphasized evidently withdrew from contention because the indelible ink marking the fingers of voters could actually be rubbed off, allowing for multiple votes.

Democracy is on the move, as the President said. And the ABB crowd will be quick to point out that the $3.5-billion pipeline to carry oil from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan can now go forward. “Bush, cronies, big oil, Halliburton, maaan.” (We know the spiel.) It’s progress.

Don’t confuse a man who is capable of contradicting himself four times in one sentence without even hinting at the noumena with a reasonable intellect.

The Yankees victory occurred, as I’ve been fond of repeating, at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis.

Yanks-Sox, Tuesday evening at the Stadium. It will probably be Mussina vrs. Schilling.