An interesting little story in the NY Post highlights the true nature of the Democrat party’s attitude towards blacks. They simply look at them as a guaranteed bloc vote and nothing more. There’s no true desire to advance the hopes and dreams of blacks, there’s only a desire to pander and purchase the vote. There’s no true desire to see equality for all, there’s simply a few token, election-year stops at black churches and an assumption that blacks will expectedly pull the blue lever.

But instance like the one highlighted by the NY Post show why polls are indicating an unprecedented increase in support for the Republican President among blacks.

On Saturday, Oct. 16, Kerry gave a speech at a high school in the small town of Xenia, outside Dayton. Nearby is Wilberforce University � the oldest private historically black institution of higher learning, whose president is former Rep. Floyd Flake (D-Queens).

A rally, mainly of students from Wilberforce and its sister school, Central State University, was staged at the Wilberforce campus. Organizers were led to believe that if there were at least 100 people, Kerry’s motorcade would make a quick stop.

Eventually 150 students and supporters � including congressional candidate Kara Anastasio � gathered for four hours on a cold (rainy and snowy) Ohio day.

And the Kerry caravan drove right on by. All the long-suffering got from the candidate was a clenched “victory” fist out the window.

According to Shavon Ray, president of Wilberforce’s NAACP, the students were devastated � with comments such as “This is why I don’t vote.”

Ray told the local NAACP chapter the affair was a “slap in the face.”

After the incident � and Ray’s criticism � made the local paper, the Democratic Party sent one Ken Miller to Wilberforce to meet with Ray. He offered 50 tickets � and 8 VIP tickets � to a Kerry event in Dayton.

Ray declined what she saw as “hush tickets.” Taking seriously the idea that the NAACP is supposed to be non-partisan, Ray turned the tickets over to Wilberforce’s student government.

Next, Miller offered to have Rev. Al Sharpton stop by as a speaker. That annoyed Ray even more: “We don’t want a black face to speak to black students.”

The final straw was when Miller said Sharpton would be sent to speak to Central State University � along with X-rated rapper Foxy Brown.

When Ray reminded Miller that they didn’t want anything to do with Sharpton, Miller allegedly responded, “What do you want � Kerry to lose the fucking race? We got you Al Sharpton. What more do you want?”

What more do you want? Perhaps a political party that respects you for more than just your ballot.

Meanwhile, this past Wednesday, George W. Bush had a huge rally in the Pontiac Silverdome in the battleground state of Michigan. On stage with him were two of the most popular black gospel singers � Marvin Winans and Freeport, Long Island’s own Donnie McClurkin.

Hat tip: Mark

An official Navy document on Senator Kerry’s campaign Web site listed as Mr. Kerry’s “Honorable Discharge from the Reserves” opens a door on a well kept secret about his military service.

The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter administration’s secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes Mr. Kerry’s discharge as being subsequent to the review of “a board of officers.” This in it self is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary honorable discharge action in the Navy that requires a review by a board of officers.

According to the secretary of the Navy’s document, the “authority of reference” this board was using in considering Mr. Kerry’s record was “Title 10, U.S. Code Section 1162 and 1163. “This section refers to the grounds for involuntary separation from the service. What was being reviewed, then, was Mr. Kerry’s involuntary separation from the service. And it couldn’t have been an honorable discharge, or there would have been no point in any review at all. The review was likely held to improve Mr. Kerry’s status of discharge from a less than honorable discharge to an honorable discharge.

…

For example, while America was still at war, Mr. Kerry had met with the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegation to the Paris Peace talks in May 1970 and then held a demonstration in July 1971 in Washington to try to get Congress to accept the enemy’s seven point peace proposal without a single change.

…

The “board of officers” review reported in the Claytor document is even more extraordinary because it came about “by direction of the President.” No normal honorable discharge requires the direction of the president. The president at that time was James Carter. This adds another twist to the story of Mr. Kerry’s hidden military records.

Mr. Carter’s first act as president was a general amnesty for draft dodgers and other war protesters. Less than an hour after his inauguration on January 21, 1977, while still in the Capitol building, Mr. Carter signed Executive Order 4483 empowering it. By the time it became a directive from the Defense Department in March 1977 it had been expanded to include other offenders who may have had general, bad conduct, dishonorable discharges, and any other discharge or sentence with negative effect on military records. In those cases the directive outlined a procedure for appeal on a case by case basis before a board of officers. A satisfactory appeal would result in an improvement of discharge status or an honorable discharge.

Of course, John Kerry could submit a SF-180 and clear this up. But don’t expect that to happen until at least a week before the election…. because they take up to 2 - 4 weeks for servicing. You can’t put something up as the centerpiece of your qualifications to be leader of the free world and expect to keep select parts hidden from the public.

Update: Another interesting take on this story.

Update: Linda Chavez addresses the story that the media is totally ignoring: “The media rule seems to be if a story might hurt President Bush, play it up big; if it might help Mr. Bush, bury it; and if might hurt Mr. Kerry, ignore it altogether. In an election as close as this one, the media’s role could be decisive. We used to expect the candidates to unleash their own October surprise in an effort to sway the voters at the last minute. Now it’s the media that plays that game. Come Halloween, it’s media tricks for Mr. Bush and treats for Mr. Kerry.”

Early Voting Has Begun

Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein’s weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.

John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, “almost certainly” removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.

“Whatever was not buried was put on lorries and sent to the Syrian border,” the defense official said. … The Russian “spetsnaz” or special-operations forces were under the GRU military intelligence service and organized large commercial truck convoys for the weapons removal, the official said.

Middle East Newsline reported the U.S. assessment was based on satellite images of convoys of Iraqi trucks that poured into Syria during February and March. U.S. intelligence officials say the trucks contained missiles and WMD components banned by the U.N.’s Security Council.

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Update: This story just keeps getting worse for Kerry. Now ABC is reporting the amount of missing explosives may be substantially less than the Iraqis reported. The information on which the Iraqi Science Ministry based an Oct. 10 memo in which it reported that 377 tons of RDX explosives were missing � presumably stolen due to a lack of security � was based on “declaration” from July 15, 2002. At that time, the Iraqis said there were 141 tons of RDX explosives at the facility. But the confidential IAEA documents obtained by ABC News show that on Jan. 14, 2003, the agency’s inspectors recorded that just over 3 tons of RDX was stored at the facility � a considerable discrepancy from what the Iraqis reported… Although these bunkers were still under IAEA seal, the inspectors said the seals may be potentially ineffective because they had ventilation slats on the sides. These slats could be easily removed to remove the materials inside the bunkers without breaking the seals, the inspectors noted.

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Update: Get ready, the Left in all their furor will likely try and discredit John Shaw with this story. However, the DoD has issued a statement that “Shaw is not now, nor has he ever been, under investigation by the DoD IG.” Just call this update a pre-emptive strike. Now get back to the real story.

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NEW DELHI, October 25: Fugitive Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been spotted in the Tibet-Laddakh region, close to the North-Eastern tip of Pakistan, bordering India and China, Indian and US officials believe.

A high-ranking official of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) flew from Islamabad on Sunday to meet top Indian officials here in Delhi after reports of Bin Laden�s presence in the region.

Hat Tip: Captain’s Quarters

“These explosives can be used to blow up airplanes, level buildings, attack our troops and detonate nuclear weapons. The Bush administration knew where this stockpile was, but took no action to secure the site. They were urgently and specifically informed that terrorists could be helping themselves to the most dangerous explosives bonanza in history, but nothing was done to prevent it from happening.”

cBS was holding back on unleashing the story of the missing explosives WMDs at the al-Qaqqa plant in Iraq so they could achieve maximum effect on the election. Thankfully for us, the sheer greed of power and money involved in ’scooping’ a story led to the premature release of this non-story.

Jeff Fager, executive producer of the Sunday edition of “60 Minutes,” said in a statement that “our plan was to run the story on [Oct.] 31, but it became clear that it wouldn’t hold, so the decision was made for the Times to run it.”

The basic story coming from cBS/NYT/DNC/Kerry camp is that 380 tons of explosives WMDs were ‘looted’ from the al-Qaqqa plant because of the incompetence of George W. Bush. The original story failed to mention the fact that the explosives WMDs had been moved before the U.S. military arrived. The opposition was hoping to assault the voters with this last minute “revelation” late enough so the facts wouldn’t arrive before the election.

Here are some stories worth noting in light of this attempted, concerted cBS/NYT/DNC/Kerry camp October Surprise:

Syria Storing Iraq’s WMDs (Washington Times - October 29, 2003)

As for shipping weapons out of Iraq, he said, there is “no question” that people and material were taken to Syria. He said he did not know whether material also was moved to Iran. Convoys of vehicles, mostly commercial trucks, were spotted going into Syria from Iraq shortly before the start of the war March 19 and during the conflict, he said.

U.S. says WMD went from Iraq to Syria (UPI - October 29, 2003)

Middle East Newsline reported the U.S. assessment was based on satellite images of convoys of Iraqi trucks that poured into Syria during February and March. U.S. intelligence officials say the trucks contained missiles and WMD components banned by the U.N.’s Security Council.

Powell Confronts, Assad Prevaricates (DEBKA-Net-Weekly 107 - May 4, 2003)

Now, our intelligence sources can disclose exclusively that the relocation of Iraq�s WMD systems took place between January 10 and March 10 and was completed just 10 days before the US-led offensive was launched against Iraq. The banned arsenal, hauled in giant tankers from Iraq to Syria and from there to the Bekaa Valley under Syrian special forces and military intelligence escort, was discharged into pits 6-8 meters across and 25-35 meters deep dug by Syrian army engineers. They were sealed and planted over with new seedlings. Nonetheless, their location is known and detectable with the right instruments. Our sources have learned that Syria was paid about $35 million to make Saddam Hussein�s forbidden weapons disappear.

This fits in well with the Captain’s review of necessary logistics for “looters” to have stolen the explosives WMDs after the U.S. took over. His estimate is that it would’ve taken a total of “19-20 trucks and 90 men working continuously for two weeks to “loot” facility.” It’s highly unlikely this could occur under the nose of the U.S. military, but it certainly fits in with the allegations that the Saddam regime coordinated this transfer before we got there.

To say nothing of the fact that two major news outlets have already come out debunking the attempted, concerted cBS/NYT/DNC/Kerry camp October Surprise.

And now for the shocker. Of all places to debunk the attempted, concerted cBS/NYT/DNC/Kerry camp October Surprise … cBS itself! In a story on April 4, 2003, cBS reported that the al-Qaqqa site HAD BEEN investigated by U.S. troops:

The senior U.S. official, based in Washington and speaking on condition of anonymity, said the material was under further study. The site is enormous and U.S. troops are still investigating it for potential weapons of mass destruction, the official said. “Initial reports are that the material is probably just explosives, but we’re still going through the place,” the official said. Peabody said troops found thousands of boxes, each of which contained three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.

So the attempted, concerted cBS/NYT/DNC/Kerry camp October Surprise is really nothing new and should prompt us to look at the intentions of the MSM outlets that wanted to try and launch a coordinated attack on the Bush administration within 48 hours of a Presidential election. THAT’S the news story here.

The Ultimate John Kerry Ad

This is a must hear.

Further analysis of this document supports the contention that Madame Binh used her Paris meeting with John Kerry to instruct him on how he and the VVAW might best serve as Hanoi’s surrogates in the United States. In the spring and summer of 1971, a key strategy of Hanoi was to advance what was known as Madame Binh’s Seven Point Peace Plan.

The plan was cleverly constructed to force President Nixon to set a date to end the Vietnam War and withdraw American troops. According to the 7-Point Peace Plan of Madame Binh, the only barrier to Hanoi setting a date to release American Prisoners of War was President Nixon�s unwillingness to set a specific date for military withdrawal. Of course, accepting the full terms of the 7-Point Peace Plan would have amounted to an American capitulation, a virtual surrender that included the payment of reparations to the Vietnam communists as an admission that America was the wrongful aggressor in an immoral war.

A section of the Circular titled “PREPARATION FOR THE FALL ((1971)) ANTIWAR MOVEMENT” makes clear the importance the Vietnamese Communists placed on advancing Madame Binh’s 7-Point Peace Plan within the United States:

The seven-point peace proposal ((of the SVN Provisional Revolutionary Government)) not only solved problems concerning the release of US prisoners but also motivated the people of all walks of life and even relatives of US pilots detained in NVN to participate in the antiwar movement.

The fifth paragraph of this document makes clear that the Vietnamese communists were utilizing for their propaganda purposes the activities of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The protest described as occurring from April 19 through April 22, 1971 coincides directly with the dates of Dewey Canyon III, the Washington, DC, protest led by John Kerry, during which John Kerry�s testimony before Senator Fulbright’s Foreign Relations Committee was a televised centerpiece. The description of the protest activities in the Directive even include the “return their medals” ceremony in which John Kerry and other VVAW members threw their medals and/or ribbons toward the steps of the US Capitol, with several shouting threats of violence against their government as they did so.