PLANET CALIFORNIA

During the bad times of lowered poll numbers, unanswered personal attacks and an intractable news media intent upon glorifying the Kerry military record, President George W. Bush maintained his resolute stand in a dignified and noble way.

Panicked friends, even my husband who had learned to trust my political intuition, asked me what the Repubicans should do.

Just put him out there. He's his own best advertisement.

I'm happy to see everyone took my advice. Too bad the Dems can't also follow it. I notice Mr. Kerry is windsurfing while Mrs. Heinz Kerry is...where is she? It's for the best.

Thanks for the read, and enjoy the convention.

This time it's campaign finance reform that suffers from the unrelenting tinkering of McCain-Feingold, presenting a brand, spanking-new way to screw up America's presidential campaigns.

The 527s
No, they're not new airplanes. These groups of like minded people have been allowed to be set up to actively campaign for the candidate. They've been loopholed and then used by George Soros, a Hungarian, and others to give as much unlimited contributions to a campaign (soft money) as they like.

The bad news is there are no real regulations on how they money can be spent. Moveon.com (remember when it was Moveon.org?) is an example of these ad hoc groups who by law are to have no coordination with the campaigns. In other words, they can call the president a thug, Hitlerian, or an idiot with alarming ease in paid-for ads on TV, as long as they identify their status. The principals, Kerry and President Bush stay above the fray while people like you and me duke it out.

Which is why I don't understand why Kerry insinuates himself into the fight. Every time he opens his mouth, the media is there. All he needs to do is stop talking about the Vietnam War--again. And Again.

To be fair, there are obviously counterparts on the Republican side. However, per usual, we Republicans don't possess a sensibility to go for the jugular--never have, never will. That's why we need to understand the game that is being played here. Gentlemen and women don't participate in bar room brawls.

As I've said, the Swift Boat Veterans have the right to defend themselves. The fact that the Swifties consist of half Dems, half GOP and Inds helps their credibility. Two millionaires stepped up with some money, and people in cyberspace have responded with the rest. They've been given $1.2 million in the last two weeks. I believe you call this phenomenon "voting with your dollars."

Psychoanalysis of John Kerry

When you think about it, the Kerry campaign's strange decision to use Kerry's relatively minor war career as its centerpiece is downright Freudian. John Kerry, all grown up now, sees his past as harmful, so to make him right to everyone else, at any cost, he self-aggrandizes. Wanting power more than they want a new wife, Kerry friends think if they can just somehow hang on to the Kerry myth, they will participate in the spoils of the win. They're all auditioning for a cabinet spot. Anything to be close to power. After all, they've been out of power for quite a while now.

Secondly, they're having a lot of fun. There's nothing more silly than aging leftists of the sixties trying to relive their "rebel" pasts. They're acting exactly as they did during the anti-war years: abusive, demanding and self-obsessed. They use, by and large, the same language, the same lies, the same hyprocricy Americans have learned to recognize as overdone and tired. I guess you could say that Americans have it seared--seared--in their memories the harm caused by people like John Kerry and Jane Fonda after the war.

Underneath it all, they must know they are hiding from the results of their heartless, thoughtless treatment of Vietnam soldiers. Underneath it all, they have to realize how wrong they were.

The fact of the matter is Kerry can't run on his record; he knows he'll lose because most Americans are middling types. It seems he can't run on his four-month tour of duty in Vietnam either, thanks to the Swift Boat Vets.

Do you get a Purple Heart when you fall on your own petard?

Thanks for the read.

Last night, Chris Matthews took on Michele Malkin, a syndicated columnist and writer. The topic was about the Swift Boat Vets' book, Unfit to Command .

Things went poorly from the beginning of the set. Unfortunately, Mr. Matthews hadn't read the book--how many times I gotta tell ya--read the book, Stupid.

Anyway, he comes unglued and kicks the woman off the show. You know, like a contratenor who doesn't know if he should go up or down. Guess they won't be spending Thanksgiving together this year.

Well, I like Michelle Malkin. She's accomplished, brilliant and literate. Below is this day's contribution to Planet California.

Dear Chris:

Chris, you were boorish, seemed uninformed and then compounded your defensive behavior by talking about a book you said you had not yet read.

My question to you is this? Do the Swift Vets not have a right, no, this is a matter of honor, to defend themselves? Or do we have to endure another time when words mean nothing?

The corporate guilt and scathing indictments that incites Kerry's enemies to defend themselves is predictable. Why the hell would any grandfather or mother want his kids to know that he 's a baby killer?

I can picture some young boy, about ten, sitting next to Grandpa (MSGT, 2 voluntary tours in country). On the TV screen comes the awful spectacle of Kerry's vicious accusations of war crimes before a senate committee .

Our little boy is silent for a while, tries to watch TV, but feels so uncertain...really doesn't understand. He loves his Grampy. Grampy's not a baby killer. No way. But the president says so, so it must be so. You just never know what little kids think.

Mr. Kerry's warped vanity has presented this gross opportunity to do anything, say anythng. Using the sacrifice of veterans and the memories of 55,000 men to satisfy the covetous John Kerry's requirement to "grow up and be president" is typical of my generation. Shame on John Kerry.

By the way, send Michele's book back...and take her to lunch, if she'll let you. (Don't count on it.)

Sincerely,

Andrea Layman Hall

http://www.planetcalifornia.blogspot.com/

www.hardball@msnbc.com

www.swiftvets.com

If you want to help them, send them a couple of bucks. The truth is very expensive these days.

Thanks for the read.

The accusations that Homeland Security and the Bush Administration are currently using alerts for political gain comes from a group of people who would sacrifice you and me to get back into power. Why? Because they really don't get it--and they really want to get back into power. This is Machiavelli 101, kids.

What's an Unsophisticated, Naive Public to Think?
Bruce Springsteen, Michael Moore or any of the Hollywood leftists who declare the president a Nazi, Fascist, whatever, show astonishing ignorance of how security is handled and why it is so important for those who know what's going on to keep the upper hand in public discussion.

My father, now gone for many years, was director of security at one of the world's largest manufacturers of precision guidance equipment for missile systems. He was responsible for 8000 employees' security clearances and a unit of top notch security officials guarding a mile-long facility. Before that post, he was head of security at one of the Manhattan Project's facilities. I won't say which one.

Although my father never, ever talked about work (he simply couldn't), I was informed by my mother that what he did was extremely important to the well being of Americans everywhere. It was not until I was older, and the cold war was over, that I was told exactly what had been going on.

Come to find out, he was one of the very few individuals in the world who knew what was happening in Los Alamos, Richland and Oak Ridge before Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The stakes then were as big as they are now, relatively speaking.

After WWII, "the big one," as Dobie Gillis' pop used to say, my dad was transferred to another area of secrecy. To everyone it looked as if he were going to his office every morning, just like an insurance executive. I didn't know why everyone called him "Chief," or why we had phone calls in the middle of the night. Talk about bliss. I was very protected.

When the Cuban Missile crisis was in full swing, my dad was at the "plant" day and night. I knew something awful was up then.

Security people don't go around flapping their gums about what they do. My father was one of those professionals who knew what was going on and how dangerous the world is. But he never had to confer with a journalist or an entertainment figure to strategize his methods. Even the idea of speaking about security was considered a breach, thus compromising the lives of millions of people.

I'm sure my dad has rolled in his grave two or three hundred times in the last ten years.

Sniveling, Craven Men and Stupid Little Women
The people who are making life miserable for the rest of us, the leftists in media and academia, have become so inured to danger warnings (they call it paranoia to be watchful), they refuse to listen to what is the worst that can happen to them.

For instance, in the Nuclear Free Zone up in Berkeley, the socialist professors wax eloquently about antiwar ideals and practices. They actually feel safe, I guess. I'm wondering; did anyone think to tell North Korea that aiming a missile at Berkeley is against the city's rules?

Or how about that Washington, D.C. council woman who's upset at the "overkill" of our national security? She complains that streets are closed in this higher alert stage, and horror of all horrors, new construction must provide for a set back from the street! Commerce, she proclaims, and convenience is sacrificed.

You want to talk about sacrifice? How about those 3500 souls who sacrificed their lives because of people like her, including those in the past administration, who were concerned about commerce and inconvenience? And legalities. Thanks, Jamie Gorelick. (She's a lawyer, for God's sake...not a security pro.)

Seeing the Enemy Behind Every Tree and Bush
There was a saying in the old days about right wing nuts seeing a communist behind every tree and bush. Actually, this charge was started by active communists in our country who felt the heat from our internal intelligence agencies. It worked nicely to advance their entree into the mainstream. It worked especially well during the McCarthy hearings. A good offense, etc.

To place our nation into further danger by questioning the wisdom of those who know the intelligence is unconscionable. Assaults on national security people from those who know nothing are derelict and irresponsible in speaking as if they do.

Intelligence, old or new, is important information. How dare these idiots question the efficacy of intelligence? Have they read it or seen it? Of course they haven't; nor has the N.Y. Times, the L.A. Times or the Washington Post. I doubt Tom Ridge cc'd Maureen Dowd on his last top secret memo to his people. Politicizing security alerts at the risk of American lives? Just how cynical can they get?

Suggesting that laymen can contribute to the security discussion is like saying a lathe operator can piece a quilt, or a ballet dancer can practice veternarian medicine, or a kindergarten teacher can perform heart surgery. Ludicrous as it sounds, that's exactly what's happening today.

Bill Clinton, at least, has the decency to state publicly that cynicism is not very helpful now and that the president is doing the right thing. Why? Because he knows well what the intelligence is saying to us. It's obvious he's a concerned as the rest of us. He's probably scared.

With due respect, President Clinton, I wish you'd speak more forcefully to your bretheren about our real dangers and the perception the enemy takes home when a large part of your party pooh-poohs the danger of an attack on our homeland. And I pray that I would give a Democrat president that same courtesy and attention.

America and her allies can view the situation from atop the tallest mountain, thanks to the experts. We know the enemy; we've seen his tactics; we know he is here living among us. Now, we must let the pros do their jobs.

Thanks for the read.