Ron Siddell Archives VIII

“American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Ledeen recounted
a fascinating story of media bias in Monday’s National Review Online.
After being taken hostage near Fallujah, Italian security guard Fabrizio
Quattrocchi was forced to dig his own grave before his execution by
terrorists. With his last breaths, he struggled to rip off the hood
over his head and yelled defiantly to his captors, ‘Now I’ll show
you how an Italian dies.’ Mr. Quattrocchi, a volunteer in Iraq,
died without being submissive to terror, without cowering in the face
of evil.

“…What is equally interesting about Mr. Quattrocchi’s powerful
resistance is how few people know about it. The major network and cable
news programs did not run tape of this act of bravery over and over
again as it does with film that shows scared and submissive hostages.
Exhibiting the Italian hero’s resolve would help undergird the civilized
world’s resolve against terror. It’s curious that the Western press
largely spiked the story.”

“Democratic turnout in the party’s 2004 presidential primaries
was low, the third-lowest on record. Low enough that only 5 percent
of eligible Americans participated in the selection of Massachusetts
Sen. John Kerry as presumptive nominee to face President Bush in November.”

– John McCaslin’s “Inside the Beltway,” 4/21/04

SCRAPING UP A
PURPLE HEART

“(W)hy isn’t (John Kerry) releasing all of his (medical) records?
It doesn’t take a Yale graduate to figure this one out. Kerry’s former
commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Hibbard, is raising questions
about the severity of the injury that Kerry was awarded the Purple Heart
for. Turns out it may have just been a very tiny injury, something along
the lines of a fingernail scrape. This won’t look good for the Kerry
campaign.”

“Though the (John Kerry) campaign released more than 120 pages
of Navy records yesterday, Mr. Kerry still refused to release medical
records that more thoroughly describe the injuries. Among the records
that the campaign will not release is any explanation for the injuries
that led to Mr. Kerry’s first Purple Heart, less than a month after
going into combat.”

“A federal judge outlawed the Boy Scouts of America’s use of public
land because a lease implies the city endorses the group’s ‘inherently
religious programs and practices.’ U.S. District Judge Napoleon
Jones Jr. scuttled the Scouts’ lease of a bayside aquatics center at
Fiesta Island. Last year, he barred a similar lease to use a city park.
Citing church-state separation, the American Civil Liberties Union had
sued the city and the Boy Scouts on behalf of a lesbian couple and an
agnostic couple. Judge Jones, a 1994 appointee of President Clinton,
called the Scouts ‘an admittedly religious, albeit nonsectarian,
and discriminatory organization.’”

– American Scene, Washington Times, 4/22/04

PUBLIK SKOOLS AT
WERK

“One-half of Philadelphia middle school teachers couldn’t pass
a basic federal competency test.  As they said on Fox News
last night, this means that middle school students in Philly have a
50/50 chance of being right when they say that their teachers don’t
know what they’re talking about.”

– Talk show host Neal Boortz, 4/22/04

STUPID NOT THE
SAME AS FUNNY

“David Shaw, the Pulitzer-prize winning media critic for the Los
Angeles Times, decided to try out Air America, the new liberal talk
radio network, by listening to it for a full 17 hours on Good Friday.
His conclusion: ‘It may have been the most boring day of my life.’
Mr. Shaw, an admitted liberal, says he started from the premise that
talk radio ‘is ideally suited to conservatives,’ but that
Air America might succeed by matching conservatives’ invective and being
funny at the same time. Mr. Shaw did find plenty of name-calling on
Air America. . . . What Mr. Shaw didn’t find was laughs.”

– John Fund, Political Diary, 4/20/04

TIME TO DRAIN THE
SYRIAN SWAMP?

“The pathway into Iraq for many foreign fighters is through Syria.
It’s a fact. . . . The Syrians could do more to stop it.”

– Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

NOT UNPATRIOTIC…JUST
NAIVE

“Our democracy is a farce; it is not the best in the world.”

“Communism was not a threat to our country…”

– John Kerry in a 1971 speech at West Virginia’s Bethany College

MAKING MOUNTAINS
OUT OF MOLEHILLS

“The idea that John Kerry would have put in for three Purple Hearts
during only four months in country is just ridiculous. Most of us came
away with all kinds of scratches like the ones Kerry got but never accepted
Purple Hearts for them.”

– Mel Howell from Evansville, Ind., a retired Navy officer who flew
helicopters in Vietnam, Washington Times, 4/22/04

ENVIRO-WACKOS OF
THE WORLD UNITE

“Three environmental groups yesterday announced a campaign to oust
President Bush from office, but nationwide surveys show voters don’t
much care about the topic this election year. The League of Conservation
Voters, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund and Friends of the Earth Action
are targeting swing voters in parts of Florida, New Mexico, Oregon and
Wisconsin via door-knocking, phone calls, mailings and TV advertising.
. . . But pollsters say Mr. Kerry of Massachusetts likely won’t get
much traction from the issue because this year voters have two main
concerns: the economy and national security amid the war on terrorism.”

– Washington Times, 4/22/04

CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST
FOR DUMMIES

“Jamie Gorelick has now issued her defense for staying on the September
11 commission, and the usual media and Democratic suspects are rallying
behind her. So let’s put the issue as simply as possible: If Clinton-era
Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick were not already a commission
member, does anybody doubt that she would be called to testify before
it? . . . Ms. Gorelick’s failure to resign and testify herself in the
face of a clear conflict of interest is reason enough for the American
public to distrust (the commission’s) ultimate judgments.”

– Wall Street Journal editorial, 4/21/04

“The commission findings need to have truth and credibility, and
with (Jamie Gorelick) remaining on the commission, that will not be
the end result.”

– Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, Florida Republican

“The (September 11) commission is a reunion of political has-beens
who haven’t had face time since ‘Seinfeld’ was a weekly show. In their
scramble to make the evening news, they’ve turned this grave matter
into a get-even-for-Monica investigation – a switch the American people
see right through.”

– Rep. Jack Kingston, Georgia Republican

“Obviously, (Jamie Gorelick’s) got a vested interest in this
to make sure this (September 11) commission clearly comes out and blames
somebody in some organization other [than] — and some policies
other than — the ones she was integral in formulating.”

I attended a small, private briefing at the Pentagon yesterday for about
a dozen and a half leaders of public policy organizations hosted by
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and General Peter Pace, Vice Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Unfortunately, the briefing was “off
the record,” so I can’t share with you the exact nature of
the discussions. But I can tell you this: If you like watching Don Rumsfeld
on TV as he slices and dices the Washington press corps, you’d
absolutely love him in person.

And if there’s ANY doubt in your mind as to the dedication, effectiveness
and professionalism of those who are in charge of killing the bad guys
over in Iraq…sleep easy tonight. Although challenges, set-backs and
problems will continue to confront us in Iraq – especially during the
transition period after we turn control back over to the Iraqi people
on July 1 – don’t doubt for a minute that as long as George W.
Bush is in the White House and Don Rumsfeld is in the Pentagon, we won’t
quit…and we won’t lose.

“(T)here is little need for Mr. Kerry to run anti-Bush ads. Democratic-leaning
interest groups that the Kerry campaign can’t legally coordinate with,
such as the Media Fund and the AFL-CIO, are doing it for him.”

– Washington Times, 4/22/04

PROGRESSIVE
BOYCOTT

“Though it’s not clear who is behind it, an effort is underway
to convince conservatives and supporters of President George W. Bush
to boycott Progressive Auto Insurance, the nation’s third-largest auto
insurer. The reason? Progressive’s chairman and former CEO, Peter Lewis,
has committed to give millions of dollars to political groups working
to defeat George W. Bush in the November election.

“A statement posted on the BoycottProgressive.com Web site urges
those holding the company’s policies to consider that ‘Switching
auto insurers, if you or someone you know is a Progressive customer,
will tell Mr. Lewis loud and clear that you oppose his giving millions
of dollars to support front groups’ working to defeat Bush with
monies raised outside the new McCain-Feingold campaign finance regime.”

Perhaps it would be best to make contact with the author. Here’s what
I have: