John Kerry: What We Need is More Media Bias

After all, some ideas that are unpopular with liberals are being given press coverage:

I have to tell you, I say this to you politely, the media has a bigger responsibilities than it’s exercising. They have to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it or simply because somebody says something which everybody knows is not factual. It doesn’t deserve the same credit as a legitimate idea about what you do. Everything is put into this tit for tat equal battle and America is losing any sense of what’s real, who’s accountable or not accountable or who is real or isn’t, who’s serious or isn’t?

I have to tell you politely, John Kerry, that's you're an idiot. Of course, he's talking about the Tea Party people in his complaint and the fact the media covered their concerns about the debt bill. If a liberal doesn't like your idea, then you're obviously wrong and the media should ignore you the way they do.

Can you imagine what this moron would have been like as president?

2004 Dem Nominee Gets Spanked by the 2016 or 2020 GOP Nominee

This is 14 minutes of good political theater.  It starts off with a great floor speech by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and after he's sliced and diced the Dems for awhile Sen. John F'ing Kerry (D-MA) decides to debate him.  Epic fail on the part of Kerry who gets completely spanked by Rubio.  Here you go:

John Kerry's Swiftboat Defender Loses Silver Star Medal

It's a pretty serious occasion when the military strips a high honor like the Silver Star from someone to whom it was awarded:

Ben Smith catches a Navy Times report that Capt. Wade Sanders -- best known for vouching for John Kerry's dubious war record and introducing the candidate at the 2004 convention -- has been stripped of his Silver Star by the Navy:

"Had the subsequently determined facts and evidence surrounding both the incident for which the award was made and the processing of the award itself been known to the Secretary of the Navy in 1992, those facts would have prevented the award of the Silver Star," [Mabus spokeswoman Pamela] Kunze said.

Aside from improperly receiving a medal, and Sanders is currently in jail for child pornography.

My father-in-law was awarded a Silver Star for actions in WWII, but didn't actually receive it until many years later when after research his son discovered he'd earned the award but had never received it. They don't just give those things away.

Meanwhile, Kerry's Swiftboat record continues to take a beating.

Energy Quote of the Day

Regarding increasing America's supply of domestic oil (h/t Red State):

“Critics (of Arctic drilling), including Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., say the drilling plan would violate the nation’s last remaining pristine wilderness. Moreover, they charge, the oil would consist of a 6-month supply for the nation, and would not be ready for use by consumers for up to 10 years.”

Oh, I should mention that the excerpt above was published on April 2, 2001. Almost exactly 10 years ago.

I wonder what gas prices would look like today if we had just ignored John F'ing Kerry and gone ahead and drilled for our own oil?

John Kerry Continued Global Fooling

Even though it's now well known that man-made global warming is an elaborate hoax, Sen. John Kerry is still a believer:

Cap and trade may be dead, but Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry recently told an audience he intends to push legislation in the 112th Congress that will have a similar effect on the nation’s carbon emissions.

Kerry made his comments before a Chinese delegation, led by former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa, while speaking at the liberal Center for American Progress earlier this month.

“In this next Congress, we will have a major debate over energy policy in the United States,” Kerry said. “We will, even though we may not have a cap and trade mechanism,…have very significant measures introduced that will move us toward energy efficiency.”

The senator hopes to press for the conversion of the nation’s trucks to natural gas, the inclusion of green building standards in construction codes, and a nationwide renewable energy standard, among other ideas.

“I think even though we may not get [cap and trade], we can get in the next 10 years an almost equivalent reduction of emissions as if we had put that trading system in place, provided we do the right things with this legislation,” Kerry said.

With 56 Republicans in the new Senate it's unlikely that Kerry will be able to get his global warming pipe dreams enacted into law, and he knows it.  But you don't get invited to these liberal non-thinking tanks if you admit your party has been neutered.

John Kerry's Big Night

Sorry I won't be able to make this one

Battle-weary Bay State Democrats are getting squeezed by U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry this Christmas, as the nation’s richest senator puts the arm on cash-strapped party donors to fill his campaign war chest — even though he’s not up for re-election for another four years.

“I think people feel very tapped-out,” said Phil Johnston, former Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman, who is helping to organize Kerry’s Dec. 13 gala. Johnston, who said he is seeing steady ticket sales, still expects a full house.

“It’s a measure of John Kerry’s strength among Democrats that this event should be hugely successful,” he said.

The state’s senior senator — recently ranked the nation’s richest with $2.7 million in his campaign coffers and an estimated net worth of $239 million — is asking fellow Democrats to open their wallets yet again after they dug deep during a hard-fought election year. His extravaganza at the Boston Symphony — where tickets range from $75 to $4,800 — could be a tough sell as the party’s rank-and-file struggles through another Christmas in a tough economy.

“For Democrats, there’s a bit of fatigue — people have been giving aggressively,” said Democratic consultant Scott M. Ferson, president of the Liberty Square Group. “But we need John Kerry now more than ever. He’s one of the few (Massachusetts) Democrats left in a leadership position.”

The guy has enough money to more than fund his own campaign - why bother beating donors up for more? I think he just wants to feel the love.

Political Quote of the Day

From John F'ing Kerry who thinks you're basically too stupid to understand what's going on in the world:

“We have an electorate that doesn’t always pay that much attention to what’s going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what’s happening,”

You mean like "Hope and Change"?  You mean like "we're the ones we've been waiting for"?  I could go on.

Kerry In For Clinton?

I'm still predicting that Hillary Clinton leaves the State Department shortly after the November election to begin work on her primary challenge to Obama, and one website thinks John F'ing Kerry will replace her at State:

Word on Capitol Hill is that Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee with a well-worn passport to the world's hot spots, is in the mix to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who's been hinting of an exit before the end of President Obama's first term. Kerry, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has acted as an emissary for Obama.

Hey, maybe we can get another Republican Senator in Massachusetts if Kerry takes the job.

Sailing Away From High Taxes

Sen. John F'ing Kerry has a new multi-million dollar yacht, but don't look for it to be harbored in Massachusetts waters.  The taxes there are too high:

Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.

Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.

But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.

Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?

Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.

This is a classic example of why the "tax the rich" schemes Democrats love so much rarely generate the level of revenue promised: Rich people go somewhere else. High earners have been fleeing places like New York State and Massachusetts to lower tax states, and every time a new tax on wealth is imposed the pace of exodus increases. It's one thing for someone like Rush Limbaugh, who has no power to set tax policy, to decide to abandon high tax New York for no state taxes in Florida, but another thing altogether for a Senator who has used his power to vote on tax increases to dodge them this way. That's classic hypocrisy.

The Most Popular Politician in Massachusetts is a Republican

John Kerry must be feeling a little blue today:

US Senator Scott Brown, who only months ago was a little-known figure even within the tiny band of Republicans in the state Senate, not only catapulted to national stature with his upset US Senate victory, but is today the most popular officeholder in Massachusetts, according to a Boston Globe poll.

I hope Brown realizes that the reason he is so popular is because he doesn't vote like John Kerry. If he forgets that he'll be in trouble.

Heinz Ketchup Goes For Their Version of "New Coke"

Remember "New Coke", the "improved" cola recipe introduced by Coca-Cola in 1985?  A complete marketing disaster, mainly because people hated the new formula.  Coke had to quickly return to their old formula to save the company.

Heinz Ketchup has been making the same formula for 40 years, but in response to the food Nazis is making a change:

Heinz has cooked up a new recipe for its iconic ketchup. The Pittsburgh-based condiment maker has started making batches of ketchup using a recipe with less salt. The new version will hit store shelves this summer.

Company officials say the 15 percent cut in sodium is the first significant change of formula in nearly 40 years.
But fear not, ketchup connoisseurs. The new recipe has been thoroughly taste tested.

Company spokeswoman Jessica Jackson says tests were conducted in Pittsburgh and other cities across the country.

Jackson says there won't be a splashy graphic on the labels to announce the new recipe. Consumers will have to check the nutrition panel instead.

The good news is there are other brands of ketchup out there for those who still want their ketchup with a blood pressure kicker.

Since the company is owned by Mrs. John Kerry it won't bother me a bit if the whole thing fails.

Cap-and-Tax Back From the Dead

Lurch and Lieberman are still intent on destroying what's left of the economy:

On Wednesday, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) plan to introduce legislation designed to inflate the cost of energy, strain family budgets, and decimate America's manufacturing sector -- all in the name of supposedly saving the climate.

Kerry and Lieberman have been revamping legislation that narrowly passed the House of Representatives last year. The House bill imposes oppressive limits on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and establishes a complex cap-and-trade scheme in which the federal government determines how much CO2 a business may emit. If a business exceeds its allowance, it may purchase additional "carbon credits" from an exchange, where the credits will be traded like a commodity. Rules for the exchange of carbon credits, including the trading of carbon derivatives, are addressed in the House bill, and my sources tell me that the Senate version will include these same stratagems.

In an e-mail sent to the media last week regarding their plans, Kerry and Lieberman said, "We can no longer wait to solve this problem which threatens our economy, our security and our environment."

Of course, that's complete nonsense.  The lack of massive new taxes is not threatening our economy, security or our environment.  Even significant reductions in carbon emission won't begin to change the environment, nor will it offset the increases in emissions from China and India.  It's all symbolic nonsense.

Lurch and Lieberman lost Lindsay Graham's support, so as of right now there are no Republicans on board. I think they still have hopes of getting one of the Ladies of Maine or perhaps even Scott Brown.  Given the state of the economy it's hard to believe that they'll even be able to hold all the Dems together on this, let along add any Republicans.

There's more at American Thinker.

Voters Hate the Idea of a Gas Tax

Imagine that:

Senators Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman are getting ready to introduce a bill in the U.S. Senate that will impose dramatically higher gas taxes, which 7 in 10 Americans oppose according to a new American Solutions poll.

71% of respondents oppose higher gas taxes (sometimes called “linked carbon fees”) in order to limit greenhouse gases, while 78% believe that higher gas taxes will either kill jobs or have no effect on job growth.

Meanwhile, 84% of all adults and 61% of independent voters have very little or no confidence that a fuel tax will lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

The poll also found that 64% of all adults are less likely to support a candidate for Congress who supports a gas tax, and 67% of independent voters are much more likely not to support a gas-tax candidate.

Gas prices are already rising, and now Senators Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman want to increase the price of a gallon of gas with a new tax that Americans overwhelmingly oppose.

Lindsay Graham ought to know better than to hook up with Kerry and Lieberman on anything, let alone a bill that purports to fix a problem that doesn't exist. We'll have to hope there's at least one Democrat who won't vote for this bill so a filibuster can be upheld even with Graham's vote.

The Three Stooges Plan New Climate Bill

Leave it to John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham to try and solve a problem that doesn't exist:

Three senior US lawmakers are piecing together a sweeping bipartisan energy and climate bill, which looks set to include sweeteners to galvanise support among Republicans and industry groups.

The proposed legislation, encouraged by President Barack Obama, dilutes a climate bill that stalled last year in the Senate. The senators have hosted meetings with industry groups over the past two weeks, revealing details about their plan that would cap carbon emissions while expanding offshore oil drilling and nuclear power generation.

Nearly six months have passed since the Senate’s last climate bill failed to win over conservatives and moderates, a political stalemate that cast a shadow on America’s presence at the Copenhagen climate summit. But some Democrats say the passage of healthcare reform has opened the door for climate change legislation, while acknowledging tradeoffs will be needed to secure 60 Senate votes. “They know that to pass a comprehensive bill they will have to ease concerns of some special interests and mid-western senators whose states have manufacturing-oriented economies,” said Daniel J. Weiss, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a liberal think-tank....

The bill’s sponsors – John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat, Joseph Lieberman, the Independent from Connecticut, and Lindsay Graham, the South Carolina Republican – said the new sectoral approach would begin imposing carbon caps on utilities in 2012 and manufacturers in 2016.

The bill includes a new petrol tax, which would be passed on to consumers, though this could be vulnerable in the efforts to reach a compromise. By mentioning investment in conventional energy, the senators have elicited favourable responses from industry leaders, including BP executives and lobbyists from the US Chamber of Commerce, who opposed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill passed by the House of Representatives last spring. After meeting the senators, Bruce Josten, the chamber’s top lobbyist, said their efforts were “largely in sync” with industry targets.

Mr Graham, distinguishing his legislation from last year’s bill, told reporters this month “the cap-and-trade bills in the House and Senate are dead” and would be replaced.

He hopes his sector-by-sector approach to regulation, unlike Waxman-Markey’s economy-wide cap, will help him save face among conservatives. His role in the bill’s formulation was itself in doubt after he said the Democrats’ handling of healthcare reform “poisoned the well” for bipartisan co-operation.

This bill needs to die. Imposing carbon limits on business will not "fix" the climate but will only further damage US business. They're trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist, but will instead create new problems that didn't exist.

John Kerry Stands at the Edge of the Cliff Urging His Fellow Dems to Jump

Just because global warming has been thoroughly debunked as both a religion and science doesn't mean John Kerry isn't still a true believer:

In an already challenging election year for the majority, Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) rush to pass a climate change bill has many Democrats scratching their heads and charging that their 2004 presidential nominee could further imperil vulnerable Members this fall.

Climate change had been considered all but dead this year, and Senate Democrats have little appetite to take up the controversial issue after the beating that they have endured over their as-yet-unfinished health care reform efforts.

“The United States Senate is not going to transition from doing health care to a [global warming] bill,” one Democratic Senator said. “It’s not going to happen.”

But that’s not what Kerry believes. He said last week that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is “determined to bring it to the floor.”

Unfortunately at least one Republican, Lindsay Graham, is working with Kerry on this, thus making it "bipartisan". That won't be enough to pass it, though:

Though Kerry has argued he has new momentum for a global warming bill given his collaboration with Lieberman and Graham — Kerry previously co-authored the bill that passed Boxer’s committee last fall — Democrats of all stripes said the political risks of taking up such an explosive issue are too great.

“It is laughable if Kerry and Boxer think Senate Republicans are going to pass a major environmental bill and have [President Barack] Obama sign it right before the midterm elections,” one Senate Democratic source said. “They make Don Quixote look like a realist.”

Indeed, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) said doing climate change would “absolutely” be a gift to the GOP in an election year in which they already feel they are riding a tide of angry voter sentiment against Democrats.

“It would be, I think, further gasoline on the fire,” he said.

Cornyn added that Graham’s bipartisan stamp would not stop him from branding the issue a “job-killer.”

“I just hope Sen. Graham doesn’t provide cover for a really bad idea,” he said.

I don't know what Graham is thinking. He's completely ignoring the ClimateGate info that debunked global warming and is pressing ahead with a guaranteed job killer in the form of cap-and-tax. No wonder so many conservatives don't trust him.

In days of old he probably could have counted on good friend John McCain to side with him, but not this year. McCain has a re-election battle in Arizona and I doubt the senator wants to give people another reason to vote against him.

Political Photo of the Day

From Red Mass Group, a photo of the John Kerry rally for Martha Coakley in Worcester, MA:

They had John Kerry, their sitting US Senator, Jim McGovern their sitting US Congressman (and a supporter of terrorists), Tim Murray, our sitting Lt Governor and former mayor of Worcester, and the current mayor of Worcester, Joe O’Brien. They still ONLY turned out about maybe 150 people. Two hours later there were thousands showing up for Scott a couple blocks down the street. I thought this was pathetic and showed the weakness of their campaign.

Ted Kennedy Reaches Out From the Grave to Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

Ed Morrissey has an interesting take on the Massachusetts race and how the Democrats may have outsmarted themselves in their effort to ensure an ideological liberal held onto the "Kennedy seat".

Twice the legislature changed the election laws to satisfy a request from Kennedy, including just a few days before his passing. This latest change set the table for the debacle that appears to be unfolding in the special Senate election. Ed adds this:

But did they outsmart themselves? The special election date was the earliest possible date, as I recall, but the continued focus on ObamaCare came directly from the Democrats’ insistence on changing the Massachusetts law so that Patrick could appoint Kirk to the seat. Without that, the seat would have remained vacant — and Reid and Obama would have been forced to put ObamaCare aside and start working on the economy, especially in November, after the House finally passed its version. It would have given Reid and Obama an excuse to suspend the effort, and make the special election a referendum on health-care reform as a concept, rather than the specifics of the proposal that came out of the Senate.

Most of all, it would have eliminated the back-room dealings and dishonesty that has become so apparent over the last four weeks — which could have saved Ben Nelson’s bacon, for one.

The decision to press the Massachusetts state legislature for that blatantly self-serving change may have ironically enabled the Democrats to badly overreach — creating the impulse that is lifting Scott Brown over Martha Coakley in Massachusetts, and Republicans over Democrats nationwide. And Democrats have no one but themselves for it.

Democrats made the mistake of assuming that whoever the Dem candidate was would be automatically ushered into the job. That could still happen but it's looking much less likely as more and more polling comes out.

Martha Coakley ran a lackluster campaign, full of tin-ear moments and devoid of any sort of charming personality, and thus gave Massachusetts a Democrat that they couldn't even love (and that's saying a lot when John Kerry has been your Senator for nearly 30 years).

We'll see what happens on Tuesday, but the age of "safe Democrat seats" may be temporarily over.

Political Quote of the Day

From John Kerry, analyzed by Don Surber:

“Do we elect Martha Coakley — who will fight for jobs, our families and our communities as my Massachusetts colleague and the state’s first woman senator, or Republican Scott Brown, whose allies in the right wing dream of holding a tea party in Kennedy country?”

Yes, imagine that: a Boston Tea Party.

He really is the gift that keeps on giving.

What a doofus.

John Kerry Windsurfs His Way Into the MA Senate Race

They must be getting really desperate:

Sen. John Kerry is rushing to the aid of Democrat Martha Coakley in the race for the Senate seat once held by Ted Kennedy, making a last-minute fundraising and get-out-the-vote push as her Republican challenger closes in.

State Attorney General Coakley seemed to have a lock on the race going in. But with the special election one week away, recent polling suggests GOP state Sen. Scott Brown could have a shot at not only winning the longtime Democratic seat but breaking the party's filibuster-proof majority in Washington.

In a bid to prevent this nightmare scenario for Democrats, Kerry, the state's senior senator, has contributed his e-mail list of 3 million people to the Coakley campaign. According to an aide, he's sent out four e-mails to drive up turnout and fundraising. And he plans to campaign for Coakley alongside former President Bill Clinton Friday in Kerry's first public appearance since his hip replacement surgery a week ago.

"This is our wake-up call," Kerry said in an e-mail that went out Tuesday seeking to drum up $225,000 for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Coakley's behalf. "Polls in Massachusetts are tightening, and one even shows a dead heat in the fight to keep Ted Kennedy's seat in the hands of a Democrat who will fight and vote for jobs, health care, clean energy and mainstream values."

It's a wake-up call alright, and one that the Dems never thought they'd get in Massachusetts. Even if Brown loses a narrow race, the Dems will have been forced to pour resources into a race that should have been an easy win, and that will scare the living daylights out of Dems in much closer districts.

Health Care Headline of the Day

From the AP:

Sen. John Kerry undergoing 2nd hip replacement

You can replace everything on that guy and he'll never be hip.