Winning Hearts and Minds:
Damn, all this Vietnam war shit is just soooo retro-cool. It's sooo much like 1992 all over again, when one candidate didn't serve and avoided the draft, and the other, who did (albeit in a "cleaner" war), who criticized his competitor for abandoning service. But, hold on, there, little cowboys and cowgirls, seems like the reverse is happening this time: now the ones who didn't serve in war or avoided the draft are criticizing the one who did because, what?, he didn't serve to their liking? It, like, sooo retro-cool, 'cause, like, we get to go back about 35 years and act like hippies are still roaming the streets, waiting to be beaten by Chicago cops and shot by Ohio National Guard troops.

So Dick "You Heard My Name" Cheney, gets up before Westminster College in Missouri to question John Kerry's commitment to defense and national security because he didn't support huge military buildups at a time that it was unnecessary. Even worse, vile GOP scumfuckers in the House attacked Kerry for his statements opposing the war after he got back. Hey, here's a response: "Because of people like Kerry, the Vietnam War ended. If you oppose Kerry, you supported the killing of more Americans in a war most Americans knew was useless and meaningless." And then there's the stupid fucking hullabaloo about Kerry throwing away his "medals" or "ribbons," trotting out a 1971 interview where a young, angry Kerry used "medals" as shorthand for all of his honors. In what universe is that an issue and the purging of George Bush's drunk driving record and his refusal to say if he snorted coke in the 1970s not? Do you want a President who took a prinicipled stand or a former dope-addict-now-addicted-to-Jesus know-nothing?

For his part, Kerry, who had stayed away from Bush's lack of evidence that he completed his lightweight, rich-daddy gotten duty in the Air National Guard in Alabama, finally called Bush out on it. He did the political equivalent of a bitchslapping, when you take your prison bitch, grab him by his neck, slam him against the wall, and smack him back and forth across his face for dissin' you. What fuckin' universe are the Republicans living in? If you're gonna attack Kerry, don't do it on the weakest point of your candidate.

Later today: Vietnam is soo cool.