Boston Herald howler:

[whometense]

Virginia Buckingham whining, "why aren't jewish voters slobbering over Bush?"
http://news.bostonherald.com/columnists/view.bg?articleid=149788

See, this is what you expect from the Boston Herald.

Why aren’t Jewish voters rock-solid behind the first president who has made eradicating terror as big a priority for the United States as it has long been for Israel?

President Bush hasn’t just correctly filled out some American Israel Political Action Committee questionnaire. He’s put American lives where other politicians’ mouths have been.

What has he gotten in political returns? Bupkis.

Bush’s unwavering support for Israel has won him no friends in the Kofi Annan-led “international community” and no political support from American Jewish voters.

It’s not going to help his party in the 2006 congressional races, either. The 2004 Democratic standard-bearer, in fact, laid the new conflict in the Middle East at Bush’s door, saying Sunday: “If I was president, this wouldn’t have happened.”

According to the Detroit News, Sen. John Kerry added, “The president has been so absent on diplomacy when it comes to issues affecting the Middle East. We’re going to have a lot of ground to make up (in 2008) because of it.”

And this kind of mush earned Kerry 77 percent of the Jewish vote in 2004 to Bush’s 22 percent, according to national exit polls? Even more stunning, the president barely gained any ground among Jewish voters from 2000 to 2004 (when he got 19 percent with Sen. Joe Lieberman on the Democrats’ national ticket?) What’s up with that?...

It is to laugh. This woman can't buy a clue.

[Blaukraut]

1. She is insulting the American Jewish community with this

by insinuating that they should base their support of the president/nominee solely on his support for Israel. Give the people some more credit, lady. Most of them can think beyond one issue, and it's not like Bush has really done a whole lot in support of Israel anyway. He let the peace talks fall by the wayside, and even now is not stepping in to get cooler heads to prevail.

[whometense]

6. I sure found it insulting.

She might be surprised to hear that not every jewish voter is an Israel-right-or-wrong supporter. But then, she does not appear to be a dweller in the reality-based copmmunity.

As he explained his reasoning, I resisted the temptation to stick my fingers in my ears and make loud noises.

How mature.

[TayTay]

2. Yeah, they should listen to her

After all, she was in charge of Mass Port and therefore security at Logan Airport on, oh, Sept. 11th, 2001. I think Jews and everyone else should take her opinion into extra special consideration when she talks about terrorism and who can and who cannot keep you safe.

Some people really are shameless.

AT THE STATEHOUSE - Massport official to get $175,000 severance pay
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL BULLETIN (RI), p 08 10-31-2001


Massachusetts Port Authority Executive Director Virginia Buckingham, whose resignation takes effect Nov. 15, will receive a severance package worth at least $175,000, according to a Massport spokesman.

Buckingham, who announced she was leaving Oct. 25, will receive nine months' severance pay totaling $112,500 and a two-year consulting contract worth $62,500. She earned $150,000 a year as executive director.

James Borghesani, a spokesman for Governor Swift, said the governor was made aware of the package last Thursday, the day Buckingham announced her resignation.

Borghesani said Swift had no comment on the agreement.

Massport is the agency that oversees Logan Airport, the origin of the two hijacked flights that brought down the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, killing thousands.

Massport's director of security Joseph Lawless and Buckingham were the subject of criticism following the attacks, particularly after security lapses were reported once Logan reopened. The agency has long been criticized as a patronage haven.

Yeah, she should talk about the war on terror. Let's put her up front and center, and maybe throw in a discussion of how to get incompetent people out of government while we are at it. Maybe we could even put her in charge of consultant contracts; she could be in charge of getting the pork out of severance packages and stuff.

[whometense]

3. Yeah,

she's got credibility to burn.

And, what exactly about what Kerry said was "mushy"? Never mind, no point in applying logic to that piece of tripe.

[TayTay]

4. Well, from her point of view, to give her credit

There's nothing worse than someone who just won't stay bought. I mean really, the Repubs paid out big cash for this WOT, the least the Jews could do is be grateful by throwing them some votes. They just refuse to be bought. How dare they!

[whometense]

5. That's pretty much how I heard it too.

Some one named Buckingham using yiddish to lecture jews on their ingratitude? Loses on points.

[Mass]

8. Kerry mushy on this issue. If anything, I am disturbed because he has

still had no word for the humanitarian situation in the area (killing of civilians in Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine). A little bit of humanity would be great, I think.

[TayTay]

9. I would also like to see a statement on the ceasefire

and on how Lebanon is slipping into a humanitarian crisis. Condi only brought $30 mil in her bag of goodies yesterday for the LEbanese govt and reports are that billions in damage was done with Israeli bombs that were, after all, US made. (We don't make much anymore in the US, but I think we are still #1 with bombs. Sigh!)

The statement was very good this morning, but I would like to see something on the innocents in Lebanon who are suffering. Kerry's prior statements on what needs to happen in ME countries shows a lot of understanding and compassion for the ME countries. I would like to see some of that come out in a statement.

BTW, did you see this article in the BGlobe today:

Some in Iran skeptical of Hezbollah
They say Mideast conflict obscures problems at home
By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff | July 25, 2006

TEHRAN -- Here in the capital that US officials blame for prodding Hezbollah to attack Israel, city-sponsored posters herald the Lebanese militants as heroes of resistance, and official newspapers portray the bloody Israeli-Lebanese conflict as one of Iran's biggest concerns.

A government think tank yesterday honored a Hezbollah leader as an ally against what it called the West's assault on Islam.

But those sentiments are far from unanimous in the Iranian capital. From the leafy streets of upscale northern Tehran to the poorer southern neighborhoods, a surprising number of young Iranians yesterday shrugged off the two-week old conflict, and Hezbollah's cause, as minor issues compared with inflation, unemployment, and confining social strictures.

``We're up to our ears in our own problems, so we don't care about this stuff," said Nina Kamarzarian, 21, sipping a banana frappe in a northern Tehran café and fretting about the drop in business at her printer repair shop.

``My government, they want to conceal their own problems," she said. ``All the time, they say, `Lebanon, Palestine, Arabs.' They want to conceal the fact that the majority of the people are dissatisfied."

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/07/25/some_in_iran_skeptical_of_hezbollah/

[whometense]

10. I don't really agree.

I think this is set up exactly like the Iraq issue - it's a frigging political minefield. I don't blame him for being careful where he puts his feet. I think it's smart. And you won't find other democrats rushing into that field either.

Anyone who really thinks Kerry has no empathy for the people caught in the crossfire either isn't paying attention or is deliberately deaf to the facts (I don't mean you; I mean the people who will assume the worst about him because of this). If you've been listening to talk radio (and I mean AAR) the past few weeks, you know the firestorm this issue ignites. Emotions run very hot. Leftish people come off sounding antisemitic; pro-Israel callers sound like hawks. It's a mess, there are no clearcut truths, and all sides are burning with self-righteous rage.

I have strong feelings about this. I have a large number of relatives living in Israel, with whom I disagree politically as often as we agree. I would not be happy if Kerry came out with some facile statement, and I appreciate the fact that he's treading carefully. I think that speaks well of him as a leader.

[karynnj]

11. I see what you mean that a facile statement

I think he did handle the question in Detroit well by saying it wouldn't be happening if he were President and then speaking of diplomacy. (I liked the LA comment where he said war was a failure of diplomacy.) That statement is not facile - the lack of diplomacy made war far more likely and avoiding the war was the only way to avoid the deaths.

His comments on Hezzbollah are consistent with what he has always said about terrorism. Israel is not the same as Hezzbolla. His comment to push for peace could be expanded.

[ProSense]

7. What I want to know

is where do they find these people? She probably has access to more information than the average person, yet she comes to the same conclusions as someone who'd been living under a rock for a few decades.

[karynnj]

12. Why does she sound like she has never spoken to a

"Jewish Voter". It kind of sounds like she expects us to wear labels. She obviously ignores that Jews routine define themselves as "liberals" at a much higher rate than Christians do.

I guess she wouldn't have liked my rabbi's 2004 Rosh Hashannah sermon that was on "tikun olam" (repair of the world). She spoke about the things that needed fixing - people without health care, the environment, poverty, a failed foreign policy etc. She mentioned that when voting it should not be one issue but many issues. She didn't say Kerry, but he was better on each issue she mentioned - and likely would have been for any Democrat over Bush.

[ProSense]

13. Must be a running theme:

Snip...

The Middle East is burning. Hezbollah starts a war. Democratic Lebanon is helpless to contain the terrorist army on its southern borders. Israel bombs, invades. Children die. Rumors fly that Hezbollah will unleash sleeper cells on Jewish and U.S. targets around the world.

The United Nations is apparently as helpless to enforce the last U.N agreement as the next one. Yes, last but not least (politically), gas prices threaten to rise to new heights.

How do the Democrats respond? Elect us, Democrats are saying, and bad stuff like this won't happen. Because Democrats value dialogue, diplomacy and other fearsome "d" words that, if you don't listen too closely, add up to a stronger national defense. (Another "d" word!)

So last week Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean sounded the main theme: "If you think what's going on in the Middle East today would be going on if the Democrats were in control, it wouldn't, because we would have worked day after day after day to make sure we didn't get where we are today. We would have had the moral authority that Bill Clinton had when he brought together the Northern Irish and the IRA, when he brought together the Israelis and the Palestinians."

At Honest John's bar in Detroit, Sen. John Kerry picked up the same narcissistic note. "If I was president, this wouldn't have happened," Kerry said, according to the Detroit News. Bush has been so concentrated on the war in Iraq that other Middle East tension arose as a result, he said. "The president has been so absent on diplomacy when it comes to issues affecting the Middle East. We're going to have a lot of ground to make up (in 2008) because of it."

Trickling down to Fox News, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, explained the Democrats' Mideast strategy: Get people talking. "We have the power to bring people together," Rep. Kucinich intoned. Bring them together to do what? the reporter pressed. To talk to each other. Come up with a solution. "We cannot stand on the sidelines," he told Fox News bravely.

How will the Dems resolve this Middle East crisis? Work harder at talking more. Get some moral authority. Stand for something.

Gee, why didn't Condi think of that?

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucmg/20060725/cm_ucmg/nationaldefenseasavaluesissue

Gee, ask her boss -- the worse president ever!