posted February 11, 2004 03:25 PM         

Jwhop, I hope you weren't being sarcastic becuause I think Kerry is corrupt, and that is why he is leading. Dean was right up there and he got bashed for what? For being overly enthusiastic? Come on that is bulloni.

posted February 11, 2004 04:30 PM         

Fact is, Howard Dean scares the hell out of the radical democrat contingent who are now in control of the democrat party. Howard Dean isn't one of them. The President almost always controls the party apparatus----Clinton appointed-annointed Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe is the Clinton's man. They let Dean get out front in the process because the front runner always gets a real going over by the press. They knew Dean would self-destruct---sooner or later. Dean is a volatile personality, used to getting his own way without being questioned closely. To put it mildly, Dean blew himself up but before that, the democrat establishment began sniping at him to help him along.

Dean had almost no chance of winning the Presidency and that was the conventional thinking in both parties. But, my God, what if he had won the nomination and something happened to Bush? Another major attack on American soil? Some scandal either imaginary or real. Anything happening at the wrong time and Dean is suddenly much more electable. Dean was out front against the war, against the President, bashing the President etc. Notice how Kerry picked up that theme and ran with it. Dean tested the strategy and Kerry stole it.

The democrat establishment have been putting their candidates out there knowing they all have major problems that are certain to be exposed in the months leading up to the election.

Wesley Clark ran at the instigation of the Clinton's and had most of their political apparatus around in his campaign staff. Clark was supposed to knock off Dean and Edwards. Clark wasn't electable either. He was dismissed from his post at NATO over "character issues" which would have come out if he were the front runner. Additionally, he was a Republican, praised Bush, the war, etc., until the Clinton's got involved in holding Hillary's place in line for the Presidency and that's mostly what this is all about. Giving Hillary a shot.

But what happens if Dean won? He may be in office 8 years. By that time, Hillary has probably lost her NY Senate Seat and she's old news.
The democrat establishment knows all about John Kerry and his problems with defending America, advocating turning over control of the US military to the UN, his problems immediately after the Vietnam War, his problems with taking money from the Communist Chinese, going to bat with the SEC to get a Communist Chinese company listed on the NYSE, a company tied directly to the Chinese Military and a lot of other stuff that is sure to come out.

The democrat establishment doesn't want a democrat to win in 2004 if it can't be Hillary. In 2008 there will not be an incumbent in the White House and it will be a wide open race for the Presidency. A political decision has already been made that Hillary cannot defeat the President in 2004 but would be a strong candidate in 2008 and believe me, Hillary wants to return to the White House----Bill too. The Clinton's are in charge of the party and the money. If a democrat were to win in 2004, that would evaporate into thin air because the President puts his/her own people in at the National Committee level.

So, you're right StarLover, something is going on.

posted February 11, 2004 06:02 PM         

P.S. This is all very faulty, and the American public will be extremely .

-StarLover

posted February 11, 2004 09:07 PM         

The Democrat faithful should be outraged that the party didn't put forth someone electable, with a clean record and a record of achievement in the political process. The problem is that those Democrats aren't part of the current junta that controls the party and they can't get elected without the help of the DNC and the complicit press who will attack them for every reasonable thing they ever did. Dean self destructed but he had a lot of help.

posted February 12, 2004 10:26 AM         

Seems I was wrong about the authenticity of the photo. The flag was added to a picture of Kerry testifying in front of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

posted February 12, 2004 12:51 PM         

Hello,

This is a doctored photograph. Thank you for your concern!

Sincerely,

Coleen Kearon

PETA Correspondent

We need your help! Please support PETA’s vital campaigns to help animals. Visit http://www.peta.org/j/index.html.

juniperb

posted February 12, 2004 02:30 PM         

It's like me taking my brothers head form one picture and putting it on a woman's body. Hee hee..he didn't mind.

Juni,

I really am sorry if I upset you for laughing. I would never hurt an animal or adovocate hurting an animal. I have spent most my life taking care of them either in hospitals or through my own adoption of the rejected animals no one else wanted.

posted February 12, 2004 04:18 PM         

Re: Atkins. I'm a supporter of animal rights, I'm a vegetarian, but I'm not a supporter of Peta. That said, I don't think they are in any was associated with the potential Atkins debacle.

This is from snopes, read it for yourself at http://snopes.com/medical/doctor/atkins.asp

Here goes:

"Origins: Our sense of the quirky appears to thirst for the irony of life, those strange outcomes that run contrary to what we conclude should happen. It is thus pleasing to envision the doctor who led so many to a permissive diet regimen as having been felled by the very health advice he touted to millions (and which made him millions in return).

Famed nutritionist and author Dr. Robert Atkins died on 17 April 2003 at the age of 72 after sustaining head injuries in a fall outside his New York clinic. But did more underly his demise than merely a slippery walkway?

Robert Atkins has been termed "the apostle of protein gluttony as a passport to health, wholesomeness and the perfect figure." He came to public notice in 1972 with his claims for a revolutionary diet that guaranteed weight loss. What became known as the "Atkins Diet" was first published in his book Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution and swiftly became popular with those looking to shed pounds. Whereas advocates of other diets entreat the weight-enhanced to shun fats even as they feast on rice and yogurt, those on the Atkins diet are enjoined to carry on with their eating of steaks, roasts, fried eggs and bacon, but to eschew carbohydrates.

The hungry flocked to the Atkins Diet standard as soon as it was raised. It is estimated Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution has been read by more than 30 million people, many of them now intent on chewing their way to weight loss through flouting the conventional diet wisdom of "fat = bad." As popular as the diet has proved to be with the masses, critics claim it raises the risk of heart disease and kidney stones. It is for this reason speculation about the cause of Dr. Atkins' death is such a hot topic.

It is known Robert Atkins did indeed weather a heart attack during his lifetime. In April 2002, the diet guru issued a statement saying he was recovering from cardiac arrest related to a heart infection he had suffered from "for a few years." He said it was "in no way related to diet."

However, revelations in February 2004 from the city medical examiner's report let slip the information that Atkins had suffered a heart attack, congestive heart failure, and hypertension, before his death. The report was given to the Journal by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group that advocates vegetarianism. Because the medical examiner's office is claiming this information was circulated in error, it may not be possible at this time to determine if what was in that report referred to events that immediately preceded (and therefore might have caused) the doctor's death, or if they were in reference to damage done over the course of a lifetime. (The report had been sent to a doctor in Nebraska who requested it. It was later discovered the person it was sent to was not "the treating physician" and so should not have had access to the report.) At present, the medical examiner's office will only say Atkins died of a head injury from the fall. "I can't comment on people's previous conditions. It's against the law," said spokeswoman Ellen Borakove.

It needs be kept in mind that even if the medical examiner's office does become more forthcoming, it still may not be able to answer the question of whether a heart attack brought about the demise of Dr. Atkins. An autopsy was not performed on the him because of family objections to the procedure. Consequently, the medical examiner conducted only an external exam and a review of Atkins' hospital records.

The state of Robert Atkins' health is open to debate. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's body-mass index calculator, at 258 pounds, the 6-foot-tall Atkins would have qualified as obese. (The CDC's calculator offers a classification system of four benchmarks: underweight, normal, overweight, and obese, so an "obese" determination should be viewed as extending far beyond the carrying of a little additional poundage.) While it is true the data of the extremely well muscled (e.g., Arnold Schwarzenegger) would likewise show them to be obese, more physically typical people will find these determinations relevant to themselves.

However, Atkins' widow and Dr. Stuart Trager, the spokesperson for Atkins Physicians Council, both contend Robert Atkins weighed less than 200 pounds at the time of his accident, claiming "During his coma, as he deteriorated and his major organs failed, fluid retention and bloating dramatically distorted his body and left him at 258 pounds at the time of his death, a documented weight gain of over 60 pounds."

Thanks to his death certificate (as displayed at The Smoking Gun), we know Atkins was 258 pounds at the time of his death. Yet according to a copy of his medical records, as turned over to USA Today by the diet guru's widow, Atkins weighed 195 pounds upon admission to the hospital 8 April 2003 following his fall. He died on 17 April 2003 after having been in a coma for more than a week.

Barbara "weighty matters" Mikkelson

posted February 12, 2004 04:34 PM         

I hated seeing any animal abused, and since I worked in Portland, OR and in So cal- I saw my fair share of abused animals. Nothing caused me to be more prone to violence than seeing what a person could do to an animal. One of the few times where I actually got violent was in grade school when some jerk kid told me he used to hang cats and hit them with a bat. I took my math book and b1tch slapped him so hard he fell of his chair. LOL...you should have seen his face, and it was the best use of a math book I have ever found. I said to him "Now you know what it feels like, next time we'll see if you split open and candy comes out". I was sent to the principal, but he got in trouble.

My male cat, Fletcher was abused and thrown out a moving car. To this day he hates men in boots. He has gotten used to my boots because we play a game with them and a fake mouse. He now climbs on them. I adopted him after he had been worked on at the hospital and when the vet couldn't keep him.

My other cat, Pheobe was also an adandoned kitty that was hit by a car. All of my animals but 1 have been adopted after being mistreated.

I KNEW the picture was BS. It is no worse than the pic of the cat after a bath which is used to protray Stress. I also laugh at the funny home videos of cats falling off things - because mine to that and they don't get hurt.