Bloggers get heated over Sen. John Kerry’s remarks about the military. They also theorize about a recent madrasah bombing in Pakistan and laugh at Fox’s premature announcement of Studio 60’s demise.
Military intelligence: During a speech endorsing California gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides at Pasadena City College yesterday, Sen. John Kerry encouraged students to work hard in school lest they “get stuck in Iraq.” White House press secretary Tony Snow called Kerry’s remarks “an absolute insult,” and Sen. John McCain said the former presidential candidate “owes an apology” to U.S. troops. Conservative bloggers go to town.
Neddy at the conservative Kerfuffles translates Kerry’s comments thusly: “Because you were lazy and dumb in school, you are now in Iraq. Oh, by the way, ’thank you for your service’ and ’we support the troops.’ Vote for us at the polls so we can bring you home.”
Conservative Jonah Goldberg at National Review’s The Corner thinks Kerry is simply out of touch with today’s military: “Kerry’s just a Vietnam-era fossil who thinks the old nostrums about the draft and the underprivileged still apply. … He’s hardly alone in perpetuating the Vietnam paradigm, but he seems uniquely gifted at souning like a moron when he does.”
Conservative Blue Crab Boulevard thinks many Democrats share Kerry’s “contempt for the military”: “They continually refer to the people in the military as ‘children’. They routinely paint them as having joined the military out of financial desperation, lack of education or a lack of ambition.” BCB also thinks that the Democrats may have just lost their political heave in the upcoming midterm elections. Ed Morissey at Captain’s Quarters is eager for Dems to weigh in: “If Democrats that have had John Kerry campaign on their behalf refuse to address Kerry’s remarks or openly supports their characterization, it will expose the hypocrisy and the contempt that the Left has for the military. All of the talk of ‘supporting the troops’ will be revealed as lip service.” But AllahPundit at the conservative HotAir doesn’t find it insulting so much as misguided: “And, of course, completely politically tone-deaf, which makes it vintage JFK. As usual, you can kind of tell what he’s trying to say but it’s so artless you just end up shaking your head.”
Liberal Steve Soto at The Left Coaster scolds Sen. McCain for having “his lips firmly affixed to Bush’s butt”: “McCain can’t bring himself to truly support the troops by demanding a change in course in Iraq and a new defense secretary. Such a move would require integrity and guts, two things that won’t get in the way of McCain’s all-consuming drive for the White House in 2008.”
Kerry released a statement and angrily chastised conservatives in a press conference for spinning his “botched joke.” Gun Toting Liberal applauds Kerry for coming out “both guns a-blazing”: “[T]his may just be the first time I have ever listened to the Senator elitist from Massachusetts and felt a compelling interest to lean forward and listen to what the man had to say.”
Conservative Blackfive, among others, points to a Boston Globe story on Kerry’s own “lackluster” academic record.
Read more about Kerry’s comments. During the 2004 presidential election, Slate chronicled Kerryisms.
Pakistan bombing: A Pakistani madrasah was destroyed early Monday in an attack that killed 80 students. Initial reports suggested Pakistani helicopters bombed the school, but ABC News reported U.S. drones were targeting al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Both the U.S. and Pakistani militaries have denied American involvement. Some bloggers recoil, while others call it a job well done.
Dayfdd at conservative Big Lizards doubts the students were innocent: “The whole point of this kind of madrassa is to teach students how to be proper terrorist jihadis. It’s like saying that the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis isn’t full of Naval personnel… just students!”
“Here we go again,” conservative blog The Reality Show sighs. “Islamists terrorists use civilian areas, local population sympathetic to militants … local population gets hurt in the anti terror offensive and blames ONLY the non Muslim force. Sounds familiar?”
Steven D at liberal Booman Tribune notes that none of the reports mention whether al-Zawahiri was killed: “I don’t know if the intel was wrong, or simply unconfirmed, but the decision to kill 80 people on the hope that you might get Zawahiri on the eve of the election seems rather risky and represents a rather callous disregard for human life.”
Read more on the attack in Pakistan.
Sorkin deep-sixed?: A FoxNews.com columnist fueled rumors this weekend that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Aaron Sorkin’s NBC drama about a sketch-comedy show, would soon be canceled. An NBC spokesman denied it, saying that the company has in fact ordered three more episodes.
Richard Pulfer at movie blog Screenhead isn’t shocked that Fox got it wrong: “Use common sense: it is Fox. No, I’m not bashing the network, but common sense does dictate that Fox is the competitor of NBC, and thus probably not the best source to be reporting on this matter.”
At Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch, Whitney Pastorek calls the network’s request for new episodes “more of a peace offering/contractual obligation to Aaron Sorkin than a vote of confidence, given the god-awful ratings and continued barrage of criticism.”
Read more about Studio 60’s not-quite demise.
