Real Hardball by John Kerry (this full-of-himself idiot posted at daily Kos website)

dailykos ^ | Fri Jan 20, 2006 at 03:52:31 PM PDT | J Kerry

[dennisw]

There's something that doesn't sit right with me when, on the day Osama Bin Laden resurfaced in a disturbing audio tape, cable television ends up in a game of name calling as a war protester is compared to Osama Bin Laden.

That's reason to be outraged - but even more outrageous is the fact that in a flurry of sound bites what was lost was a real discussion of the fact that more than four years after the devastating attacks of 9/11, more than four years after George Bush boasted we wanted Osama "dead or alive," more than a year after Osama Bin Laden showed his hateful face in yet another video, this barbarian is still very much alive and boasting of additional attacks against the United States.

John Kerry's diary :: :: Here's what I'd like to see debated on Hardball.

President Bush's mouthpiece Scott McClellan can claim this administration puts terrorists out of business, but yesterday's tape reminds us that instead of being out of business, Osama is still out there.

If this administration had followed through on the opportunity to capture Osama Bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001, the world would be a better place with Osama Bin Laden brought to justice -- and we wouldn't be having this discussion today.

And here's what the media should insist we discuss.

President Bush and his defenders continue to claim that Osama Bin Laden didn't escape at Tora Bora. But Gary Bernstein's book Jawbreaker documents what I said early in 2002 and during my debates with George Bush: that because Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon didn't use American troops to do the job and instead outsourced the job of killing the world's #1 terrorist to Afghan warlords, this cold blooded killer got away.

So what's the truth? There's a question that the full force of cable television should demand be answered. Press accounts over the last month have raised new concerns about the reliance on Afghan forces at Tora Bora in 2001. One account cited a Department of Defense document said to summarize the case against a suspected al Qaeda militant. The militant was believed to have helped Osama bin Laden escape from Tora Bora. More recently, August Hanning, the head of German intelligence, has said bin Laden bribed Afghan forces at Tora Bora to make his escape.

The evidence keeps mounting:

Isn't it time we had the truth? Yes or no, did Osama Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora in 2001?

Here's a subject suited for true hard ball, on Hardball: four years of failure - enough is enough - why hasn't Osama Bin Laden been captured or killed, and how will he be destroyed before he next appears on tape to spread his disgusting message?

That discussion -- rather than criticizing American citizens who exercise their right to free speech and express dissenting opinions - is the discussion that America needs. That would be the kind of debate on Hardball to which we should all tune in.

John Kerry

P.S. I want you all to know that I’m reading your many comments. My wife Teresa reads blogs passionately, and I follow blogs too, and I’m glad I can be a part of this – and frankly I’m not worried about taking some slings and arrows along the way. I’ve faced worse! So keep the comments coming -- good, bad, hopefully not indifferent.

[Lancey Howard]

"Mother, tell me again about how I shall be President one day,"

[Howlin]

So is Zawahiri. Perhaps if the administration focused more on them and more humint programs instead of these NSA sigint programs...

Oh, you bought the old media's talking points!

[WorkingClassFilth]

Thanks for the kind words. I meant every syllable.

Best regards,

WCF

[GoodWithBarbarians JustForKaos]

"so far Osama is still out there. so is Zarqawi. So is Zawahiri."

I'm beginning to doubt that Osama and Zawahiri are in operational mode now and they may be dead already. Their most recent messages don't include recent events and could be quite old. If they were alive their messages would defy US attempts to get them and taunt us by pointing out that the bombing in Pakistan didn't work. Yet all they present is old news. I wonder if Al Jazeera has a drawerful of these videos/tapes and releases them at strategic moments to help the Jihad. With their egos and desire to lead the Jihad, it makes no sense that these two new tapes would not mention the Paki bombing. For over a year now whenever a tape comes out I become more optimistic that the scumbags are either dead or unable to function thanks to Bush's direction and our military.
You are in denial of the difference between our current enemies and any other we've faced in history. 1) We knew where the Germans and Hitler were located 2) the Axis wore uniforms and confronted us 3) The terrorists don't confront us 4) They hide 5) They don't wear uniforms 6) The area they hide in is huge and extremely difficult mountainous terrain 7) They have locals and Arab/Paki military helping them either through intimidation, payoffs or collusion in their Jihadist beliefs 8) They use women, children and religious sites for shields/protection 9) Nearly half of our political leaders are trying to tie our hands in this war so we don't win, for their own political purposes - kinda like Vietnam 10) Our PC policies are hindering targeting these 3 leaders 11) The Japanese hid in caves, but we knew where and the areas were small compared to the areas where these 3 may be. You need to look at a relief map of the area and maybe read about cave networks in those areas. Do you remember all the caves in Tora Bora? I think you have a case of 'selective memory'. You make it sound like a troop of boyscouts could round up these deathmongers in a week on a nature walk. Your idealism is laughable!

[HarmlessLovableFuzzball]

..Kerry in '04 was only picked as a sure loser so hillary would..

It wasn't so much that Kerry was picked as much as it was about destroying Dean, and then replacing him with any of the other forgetful names who would lose easily. Well Dean would have lost too, but at least he aroused a lot of passion within the fringe kooks and was raising a lot of money fast.

Dean's downfall began when one of Clinton's close aides leaked a very damaging letter to USAToday. I forget what it was. This was then followed by NBC news 'somehow getting hold' of some tapes where Dean criticized the Iowa caucuses as being unfair or some such. Gradually Dean's support in IA began to wade. Make no mistake that Dean's destruction, apart from his own big mouth, was carefully engineered by the Clinton wing of the Democratic party. Kerry the living corpse, was the default runner up 'having served in Vietnam'.

[TC Rider]

Did he forget to mention that he had been in Vietnam???

Whoa! Are you saying that Kerry servered in Nam?

I never knew that.

[Ditter]

I certainly agree with all you said. The clintons were behind Dean and kerry's fall.

[USNBandit]

Your opinions still seem somewhat sinusoidal. In your first post you think McCain collaborated with his captors. In your second you say you respect his service. In your third you are calling him a "Manchurian Candidate."

If you are going to make unsupported statements, at least be consistent.

McCain's problem isn't that he's been programmed by the enemy. His problem is that he doesn't see the inherent flaw in liberal thought.

Liberal thought in this country is flawed to its very core. The flaw can be best described as its complete and utter lack of confidence in Man. Welfare was created because they didn't believe in Man's ability to overcome adversity. They tolerate communism because they don't believe in Man's natural desire to be free. Liberals can't even see our Constitution as anything other than a work in progress because they refuse to see the greatness of our Forefathers and the ability of Man to define the true spirit of our existence.

[billhilly]

What I heard.

[angcat]

How cute who is that?

[JCEccles]

Don't try to lay this mess at Bush's feet, troll.

Clinton was feckless against bin Laden which is why 9/11 happened to begin with.

Had Clinton done HALF the job that Bush has done, there would have been no 9/11.

And bin Laden was offered on a plate to Clinton, and he declined to take him.

[JCEccles]

AM, I do believe we have a troll.

Only a DU troll would dare post rank BS praising Clinton for being tough on bin Laden, and dissing Bush for not doing enough to protect America in the wake of Clinton's incompetence.

[Godebert]

I do believe you are correct about the troll.

[Lancey Howard]

I largely support Bush in the WOT. He's done a lot of good things. But getting Osama isn't one of them. It's one of his glaring failures. It diesn't mean he won't get him. It just means he hasn't gotten him yet.

It staggers the mind to see so many people here believe that bin Laden is still alive. He is "alive" only because it is strategically beneficial to our war effort to keep the boogie man "alive". (Hint: There is a $50 million bounty on bin Laden's head, and that bounty has been advertised all over the region for a long time. No bin Laden. Gee, it's a miracle. Please....)

[Lancey Howard]

That's John Kerry as a little boy.

[WorkingClassFilth]

In my first post I said I thought McCain might have been compromised by his captors and I still do. In my last post, I expanded on the idea of compromise and that it might be McCain's secret as it has been in many others. I also clearly described what I find admirable and honorable in military service, but pointed out that there are exceptions. I think that my original idea is fully consistent with all that followed.

You don't and that's fair enough.

Now supposing what McCain thinks, or not, seems to me a far less supported and a much bigger stretch than matching his actions with logical suspicions. He's not a man I would connect with honor or concern for the nation and I don't give him an automatic pass. FWIW, my father was a Naval aviator and he is even more emphatic in his condemnation of McCain. Seems to me that righteous anger doesn't rest on your case either.

At least we agree that liberalism is flawed. However, what were seeing is much less liberalism than it is socialism and those who serve it's ends deserve no quarter.

[USNBandit]

FWIW, my father was a Naval aviator and he is even more emphatic in his condemnation of McCain.

So being a Naval Aviator makes your father's opinion about McCain more accurate than yours?

[Darkwolf377]

I hated that "I'm reporting for duty" crap.

I literally, not figuratively, recoiled when he said that. I said aloud "Oh my GOD..." in disgust and total shock that a veteran would say those words and salute a political convention in that way.

I know a liberal Vietnam vet whose loathing of Kerry is so intense that he voted for W in 2004. He has since said he is extremely pleased with W's prosecution of the war, and whenever I mention Kerry he unleashes a new volley against him. As one who's never served, I am still often surprised at the HATRED vets have for that man.

[WorkingClassFilth]

No, it makes the point, from a combat veteran's perspective, that being a combat veteran doesn't automatically confer honor. McCain's post service record plainly sucks and, for some, negates all that he served for.

[JCEccles]

Now that I know what a sick and twisted liberal freak you are, I'm going to stay on your case until your sorry carcase gets tossed back over the fence and into the DUmp where you belong.