John Kerry’s web site has what they call the DBunker, where they take “Facts” from the Bush campaign, and then “debunk” them. It is interesting to see how much of it is just saying “Isn’t” to every claim of “Is” without any facts to back up the rebuttal. But much is also quibbling.

One of the “facts” they debunk is just plain dishonest, which I find interesting coming from someone who’s whole campaign is on how Bush lies. It is about Bush’s claim that Kerry has voted for higher taxes 350 times.

“350″ Tax Hike Claim: Bush & Cheney Inventing Numbers

BUSH FICTION: John Kerry has voted to raise taxes 350 times.

FACT: Bush and Cheney’s fabricated “350 tax hike” attack has already been D-Bunked by FactCheck.org. FactCheck looked into the “350″ claim and said this: “The President misled voters and reporters in a March 20 speech when he claimed that Kerry "voted over 350 times for higher taxes on the American people" during his 20-year Senate career.”

According to FactCheck, “the Bush campaign’s list of Kerry’s votes for "higher taxes" is padded. It includes votes Kerry cast to leave taxes unchanged (when Republicans proposed cuts), and even votes in favor of alternative Democratic tax cuts that Bush aides characterized as "watered down."

The March 30th issue of the Los Angeles Times writes, “One example was found on page 83 of the Bush campaign’s 87-page listing of Kerry’s votes. Listed as “Senate Vote 167-S 1054,” the measure was the Senate Democrats’ substitute to counter Bush’s 2003 economic stimulus package. The Democratic plan, which Kerry voted for, and the Republican plan, which Kerry voted against, would have lowered taxes. Why did it end up on a list of “votes for higher taxes”?”

Notice the change in terms? The Bush claim is that when faced with choices between lower or higher tax, Kerry chose to vote for the higher tax 350 times. But they changed what Bush said to make it “tax hike” instead of “higher taxes”, thus they can say the claim is false.

At best this is quibbling. Kerry freely admits that most of the time, he did vote to raise taxes. However on a few occasions, he voted for tax cuts, but only because he knew they had no chance of passing when up against more substantial cuts.

But a more accurate way to put it is that this is dishonest. To change your opponent’s words so that you can claim that he is lying, is lying.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s limo has been clocked by State Troopers going over 100 mph nine times since November.

The governor’s office issued a carefully worded statement from the governor.

“I am not aware of any instance of my executive detail being cited for driving at unlawfully high rates of speed. I depend on my detail to drive me to and from my many appointments each day … and they serve me well,” Rendell’s statement read….

Of course the State Police aren’t citing the Governor’s car, which is driven by a State Trooper. Aside from professional courtesy, ticketing the Governor is a sure way to miss a promotion. And, yes the drivers are serving him well, from the perspective of getting him from one place to another in as little time as possible.

The governor said he has asked state police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller to review the reports of his car speeding.

In other words, find out who those State Troopers are who painted him on radar those nine times and make sure any Troopers don’t talk if they do it again.

Headline AP: Kerry Blames Bush for High Gas Prices

Headline AP: White House Blames Congress for Gas Prices

Here’s an oldie. This article was published in the dark ages, way back last Monday. But, as our loyal reader has pointed out, we wasn’t posting much last week, so we didn’t get around to commenting on it when it was still fresh news.

The National Review has somehow gotten hold of the "transcripts" of one of the secret meetings between John Kerry and one of his admiring foreign leaders. Unfortunately, there really isn’t much content to the meeting because:

1. Much of the dialogue is in French (as security against Ashcroft’s listening devices).
2. Part of the communication is done by knowing glances and nuanced shrugs (the kind of subtle communication only done by Europeans).
3. The meeting is cut short when Teresa kicks John out of the bathroom (he has to leave his beloved mirror).

The Republican candidate running for U.S. Senate in Illinois is in some trouble. He was married to an actress that people who watch TV might recognize (we’d never heard of her), but was divorced in 1995. The divorce records are sealed, and some people are hinting that there is something embarrassing to the candidate in the records. None of that is really any interest to us here at mj.

What we found to be interesting is the candidate’s name. Jack Ryan. Didn’t Tom Clancy end up making him President at the end of Debt of Honor, not Senator?

Headline International Herald Tribune: Pressure mounting on Rice

Headline AP: Experts See No Law Barring Rice Testimony

Headline AP: Scientists Win Prize for High-Yield Rice

Headline AP: Gorilla Pair at Philadelphia Zoo Break Up

The Philadelphia Zoo has had some tough times. On Christmas Eve in 1995, they had a fire that killed 23 primates. Apparently all of their gorillas were killed, except for Chaka, who was on loan to the Cincinnati Zoo, where he fathered five children.

Chaka was returned to the Philadelphia Zoo where they hoped he would repopulate their stock of gorillas with Demba, a female they had acquired. But after five years, it is apparent that Chaka and Demba are not going to produce any baby gorillas, and so, they are shipping Chaka off to a South Carolina zoo.

If things don’t work out in South Carolina, they could send Chaka to Dallas. I hear they’re short one gorilla.

John Kerry, a Roman Catholic, gave a “speech” at Baptist Church in Saint Louis today (Sunday), and used James 2:14 to attack President Bush. Presumably the “speech” was part of the predominately black church’s morning worship service.

Kerry never mentioned Bush by name during his speech at New North Side Baptist Church, but aimed his criticism at “our present national leadership.” Kerry cited Scripture in his appeal for the worshippers, including James 2:14, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?”

“The Scriptures say, what does it profit, my brother, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?” Kerry said. “When we look at what is happening in America today, were are the works of compassion?”….

Kerry told worshippers in the largely black congregation that the country’s leadership has served the privileged while ignoring people across America who live in neighborhoods like theirs.

“Today we are told that, after 3 million lost jobs and so many lost hopes, America is now turning a corner,” the pending Democratic presidential nominee said. “But those who say that, they’re not standing on the corner of Highland Street, where two 15-year-old teenagers were hit in a drive-by shooting last week.”

This is a good example of eisogesis, coming to scripture with your own idea, and then forcing that meaning into a passage. Senator John Kerry looks at James 2:14 and reads his liberal ideas into it. He sees “good works” as the federal government redistributing the wealth from the rich to the poor. He sees “good works” as the government “creating” jobs by intervening in private business.

But by any reasonable reading of of the book, you realize James isn’t talking to the government at all, but rather than to people within the Christian church. To treat the passage as if it is advocating a liberal government is to read your own ideas into the passage.

And what in the world is any church doing letting a politician “speak” to the congregation on a Sunday morning? What is a Protestant church doing giving the pulpit to a Roman Catholic as part of their worship service? And why isn’t the black congregation insulted that John Kerry would say he wants to be the “second black president”?

You can understand a politician twisting scripture to their own advantage, but why would any Christian church give part of their morning worship as a platform for this pandering?

The police got a search warrant for a Carlsbad, California family’s home because they displayed two characteristics of people who grow and sell marijuana. They had a high electric bill and they took their trash out.

When police noticed Dina Dagy’s family was spending $250 to $300 a month on electricity, they suspected a marijuana farm was flourishing under high-intensity lights inside their suburban home.

What they found when they showed up with a drug-sniffing dog and a search warrant was a wife and mother who does several loads of laundry a day, keeps a dishwashing machine going, has three electricity-guzzling computers and three kids who can’t remember to turn the lights out when they leave a room….

When authorities noticed how high the bill for the Dagy home was, they sent a police dog to the neighborhood, and it reacted as though it had smelled drugs.

They also noticed the family had put its trash out that morning, something police say drug growers often do to hide the evidence. In the Dagys’ case, however, it was trash day.

We must admit that we too are guilty of putting our garbage out on garbage day. I sure hope the Carlsbad Police don’t look at the worldwide mj corporate headquarters gas bill for last month….

Victor Davis Hanson writes about the death of the liberalism of the 1960s under which he was raised. He ends with this insight:

Most Democrats we saw this year–Howard Dean, Al Gore, John Kerry, Terry McAuliff, and John Edwards–either grew up in aristocratic bounty or are themselves multimillionaires. Does this matter?–only in the sense of sincerity and consistency. When Republican grandees talk of the glories of the free market you know what you get; when very liberal grandees talk of its evils, you have only the assurance that what they advocate and whom they champion most certainly will have little to do with the lives they themselves will live. And the message is no longer one of guaranteed equality of opportunity but of forced equality of results–as long as we accept that such a utopia applies for everyone else outside the world of corporate Ketchup money, astronomical trial lawyer fees, inherited Kennedy capital, Park-Avenue bond security, Sun Valley, and prep-school privilege.

I don’t know quite how they did it, but the Democrats’ candidate looks as at home snowboarding at a ritzy ski resort as George Bush does at a NASCAR rally.