Get your Kerry news here!

[whometense]

Kerry to visit Pakistan
http://www.eians.net/2005/01/11/11kerry.html

: Islamabad, Jan 11 : Former US presidential candidate John Kerry will arrive here Thursday, reports Online news agency.

Kerry was scheduled to visit Pakistan in December but the trip was postponed.

Kerry will call on President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, officials here said.

He will discuss matters of mutual interests as well as regional and international situation with Pakistani leaders.


Indo-Asian News Service

[whometense]

1. I love Tom Oliphant.

For you non-readers of the Boston Globe, you will recall Oliphant as the journalist in Going Upriver who accompanied JK to the Senate for his testimony. Oliphant is one of the few reasons to read the damned paper, and this is a great editorial.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped...

One of the major questions President Bush is facing about Iraq is how long he wants to take to get cracking on John Kerry's ideas for dealing with the mess Bush made.

*****

A year ago, when the Iraqi insurgency included radical Shiites killing Americans as well as the Sunni and Baathist forces still fighting, Kerry made his points about international support. Bush was too preoccupied with his advertising assault on Kerry to pay much attention.

*****

As the campaign progressed, Kerry chose to soft-pedal his views, but by the Democratic convention last summer there was no question where he was heading, as could be discerned from such supporters as Senator Joe Biden, former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, and Senator Edward Kennedy. They talked openly of a clear message to moderate countries in the region and NATO members in Europe that opposed Bush's invasion -- all of whom have a bigger security stake in a stable Iraq than the United States does -- that it was time for them to step in so we could begin to step back.

Now, amid chaos and carnage, Kerry's thinking lives on. Hopefully, he is preparing to develop it further as he travels in the region. Meanwhile, Kerryism is doing just fine in and near the Bush administration. At high levels of the Defense and State departments as well as in the military, the right questions are being asked about the current mess.

[ginnyinWI]

3. how ironic--

Kerry has the best answer to the Iraq problem--but the guy with the worst answer, and who caused the problem in the first place still has the WH. I certainly hope Kerry gets the credit if and when * uses his advice!

By the way, I posted a link to this article in the Editorials forum just before I saw it here--saw it in my Yahoo Alerts.

[angrydemocrat]

6. Well Now

Here we are after the election proving Kerry and his supporters were right all along. Which we already knew this fact of the matter but what make this so nice is the fact that once again we are proving and showing that the illiterate dumbass that is a occupier at the White House and his dumbass followers are dead as wrong and don't have the what it takes to be a leader, they don't have the knowledge and know how in foreign policy and how to conduct smart leadership with foreign countries to bring about world peace, they don't have the knowledge and ability to wage a smart war against terrorism in this country and all around the world. Instead all these dumbasses know how to do is destroy the lives of innocent people, killing off our own men and women in a unjust war, and destroying the the credibility and creating huge deficits for America and all its people.

Oh well what can we say to these dumbasses other than the big simple "WE TOLD YOU SO!" And ask the dumbasses the simple question "WHAT HAPPEN? I THOUGHT YOU DUMBASSES KNEW IT ALL?"

Oh BTW another question for all you dumbasses out there lurking around that voted for the illiterate dumbass that that is a occupier at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave "WHAT HAPPEN TO YOUR SO CALLED BRAINY ASS LEADER? WHY DO YOU HAVE TO DEPEND ON OUR LEADER TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS? WHY DO YOU NEED OUR LEADER TO COME TO THE RESCUE? AFTER ALL IT WAS YOUR DUMBASS THAT PRAISED THIS ILLITERATE DUMBASS AS IF HE WAS GOD AND AFTER ALL IT WAS YOUR DUMBASS THAT VOTED FOR HIM NOT US. SO WHY DO YOU NEED OUR LEADER NOW?"

Now this couldn't be because John Kerry is a real leader that knows what he is doing.

[whometense]

7. nah...

couldn't be that.

[angrydemocrat]

8. "HA"

Nope that could never happen.

[whometense]

2. Eminem regrets not releasing anti-Bush track earlier

http://www.examiner.ie/breaking/2005/01/11/story184147....

Eminem fears he may have cost US presidential wannabe John Kerry vital votes last November because he didn't get his emotive single Mosh out sooner.

The rapper released the anti-George W Bush single and accompanying video just before the election, but he fears he could have swung the vote against the President if the track was released two weeks earlier.

[Der Blaue Engel]

4. Maybe we should write to Eminem and let him know about the fraud?

Wouldn't want him to feel guilty for a failure that never happened.

[LittleClarkie]

5. Aw bless his heart!

That makes me wanna cry. Marshall sweetie, it wasn't you!

That poor kid, he said that before the election too, that he'd hoped it wasn't too late.

Rather than blame Kerry, he's blaming himself. I want to write him now too. I loved Mosh, I thought it was very powerful.

[Pirate Smile]

10. I had wondered why it came out with only two weeks left before the

election.

[whometense]

9. U.S. Iraq Policy Frustrates Mideast States - Kerry

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050112/pl...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Middle East countries are frustrated by U.S. policy in Iraq (news - web sites) and feel too little is being done to end violence there, U.S. Senator John Kerry said on Wednesday on a visit to the region.
*****
"All of the countries of the region have a significant stake in the outcome and yet they are frustrated," Kerry said in Cairo, where he met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites).

"They are frustrated because they don't feel that the steps necessary to be able to advance the stability of Iraq are really being taken," he said.
*****
U.S. and Iraqi officials should take full advantage of an Egyptian offer to help train Iraqi security forces, he added. Egypt was currently training 146 Iraqi officers, but had offered to train 500 or more, he said.

"They offered to do so. It isn't happening and in the insecurity of Iraq I think it's critical to use every possible avenue of creation of stability forces as fast as possible," Kerry said.

[Pirate Smile]

11. Warning - stay away from the Kerry LBN stories. The a$$holes

are out this morning.

[whometense]

12. Maybe I'm just stupid this morning,

but ????

[LittleClarkie]

13. So did Kerry make it into Pakistan?

Haven't seen any stories yet.

[whometense]

14. Don't think he's made it there yet.

He was in Egypt, and now he seems to be traveling around Europe, meeting with German leaders today and the French tomorrow. Gosh. Taking his Shadow President duties very seriously.

Is it just me, or have others noticed an increase in respect for the man over in GD? There are still trolls, obviously, but it seems like more people are paying attention to what JK's up to, rather than just spouting off. If true, a good sign.

Edited for the dreaded typo.

[LittleClarkie]

15. There hasn't been enough Kerry threads for me over there at all

I'm getting alittle bored.

I need to try and not be so Kerry-centric.

[whometense]

16. Eh-

why bother? He's the best.

Seriously, I like to alternate obsessions, though it's been all-Kerry-all-the-time for over a year now.

Want to trade obsessions? Here are some of my others:

1. Jon Stewart. Nuff said - LOVE the guy.

2. for actors, John Cusack - don't know why, but he's just got it.

3. reading material, anything by Jane Austen, but Persuasion is my favorite
ditto Scott Fitzgerald, with Tender is the Night being my favorite
ditto anything by the late much lamented Laurie Colwin

I see it's six minutes till the Daily Show. C'mon ladies, want to fess up? I'm sure more will come to me. Those are just off the top of my head.

[WildEyedLiberal]

17. Oh, I know

John is my obsession at the moment, and I must say, he's the best obsession I've ever had. He's such an incredible man, in every way. My other current obsession is U2, whose new album I've been listening to for two months. Bono is a sexy fellow as well but I don't know if anyone can ever top John

Wow, that was fangirlish.

[whometense]

18. Hey,

why not???

Nothin' wrong with that.

[WildEyedLiberal]

19. Hah

There is no quota of floaty hearts in the Kerry forum. We give them freely to Big John.

[Withywindle]

22. Floaty hearts are a renewable resource

Environmentally friendly and socially responsible. Just like John Kerry.

[WildEyedLiberal]

23. Hahahaha n/t

[Withywindle]

20. The random-shuffle function of obsessions...

A fun post to write:



1. With ya on Jon Stewart. Mmm-mmmmmmmm.

2. Music from the Middle East and Central Asia. Particularly anything involving that reedy, sad string sound, which is a broad range going from Iranian komenceh player Kayhan Kahlor all the way out to Tuvan throat-singing group Huun-Huur-Tu and trance music from Afghanistan and Pakistan. I just can't get enough of this stuff. I think it might be because I'm a frustrated fiddle player myself: I feel the same way about good ol' Blue Ridge Mountain fiddling. I don't like the classical violin sound much -- I like the grit and the drone and the double-stopping.

3. My own state's junior Senator, the talented and lovely Barack Obama, annoying as his ludicrous amount of hype is. But I suppose it's not his fault it's SUCH a cliche that 2/3s of my city considers his pants highly desirable real estate. (Note that the Second City comedy troupe has a salacious torch-song tribute to him in their current political show.) I think what really won me over to the swooning section was reading his book--damn, he can write too! Not fair! Also, the leftyish alt-weekly paper I work for did a feature story on him as a promising progressive pol back in '95, so we might feel just a little smug.

4. Reading material also. Over the last couple years thanks to Peter Jackson and Alan Lee I've been immersing myself further in Tolkien than I've ever gone before (even though I've loved LOTR since I was 12)--not just the Silmarillion, but also some of the History of Middle-Earth volumes and some biographical stuff. I really loved 'Tolkien and the Great War," which describes in great detail the relationship of his WWI experiences to his use of myths and languages. I also just read a journal of Jack Kerouac's from the '40s (edited by one Douglas Brinkley, known here for biographyin' another favorite son of MA...) and I think that might be my next intensive re-dive-in. It's too bad he's still most known for 'On the Road,' which is far from my favorite book of his...I'm also reading quite a bit of Jorge Amado (Brazilian novelist - literary hero of my mom's hometown), and I am a hopeless Harry Potter addict.

5. "Lost." Yeah, it's Gilligan's Island meets the X-Files. Creepy, creepy plot twists and pretty, pretty men...dangerous combination. (My favorite is Sayid.)

6. Rahm Emmanuel. How did he lose half that finger, anyway? Flipping the wrong person off?

7. Nick Cave. Rowr. Also, for the vintage hotness, am on a young Robert Plant and Jimmy Page kick for some reason.

[GRLMGC]

21. Obsessions

Movies. I want to be a director and movies are my first love, politics being my second. Movies (well the ones I like) aren't generally filled w/ disappointment.
My favorite, favorite director is Almodovar. Because of him (and I suppose my background), I want to go to Spain, Madrid specifically.

[whometense]

24. This is getting interesting.

You can learn a lot about someone by hearing their obsessions.

Here are some more of mine.

My daughter and I (don't fear - she's 22) are currently obsessed with Sex and the City, and having a blast watching year two at the moment. Free HBO on-demand is great.

I wouldn't know where to start with music; we are a music-focused family. I love everything John Renbourn plays on his guitar (partial to Celtic folk music). Love shape note hymns. And also love the Beatles and cheesy 60's rock.