All across America, Viet Nam vets are smiling. At last, perhaps they can bury their demons. These angry vets are demanding that this man who sentenced them to being shunned as criminals, tell the world that he was wrong and that he is sorry for what he did to them. Kerry must admit that he lied about them. For many, it would still not be enough. Satisfaction and hopefully peace will come when Viet Nam Vets see and hear John F. Kerry give his concession speech the night of November 2, 2004 with the knowledge that it was their votes that helped defeat him.

Last month TTP gave you a heads up that Hillary, in order to run in 2008, will gut Kerry with an October Surprise. Last week all of Hillary’s players were put in place. She immediately leaked Slick’s advice to Kerry delivered by phone from his hospital so the Clinton-as-guru/Kerry-as-neophyte story dominated the news. She then conned Kerry into inserting a raft of Clintonistas deep into his campaign. Guys like Paul Begala, James Carville, and Joe Lockhart will just make a lot of noise, however. The real player is Hillary’s former chief of staff, Howard Wolfson. You see stories now about Kerry’s campaign divided into two camps, the Massachusetts crowd who used to run the campaign, led by Mary Beth Cahill (Ted Kennedy’s chief of staff) and the recent addition of John Sasso (Michael Dukakis’s campaign manager in 1988), and the Clintonistas. Many of the media stories focus on the resultant chaos and confusion - not realizing that this is by Hillary’s design.

The term “killer ap” is geek-speak for a computer application that blows the doors off any competition. By letting anyone or any company write software programs for Windows rather than keep Windows proprietary to Microsoft, Bill Gates made his product the killer ap that left Apple light years behind. Excel did the same thing for spreadsheet applications.So when Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, whispers in Karl Rove’s and George Bush’s ears this week at the convention, let’s hope they recognize a political killer ap when they hear one.

John Kerry’s 1971 screed against America, The New Soldier, written when he was the leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and testifying in Congress that his “band of brothers” (as he calls them now) were war criminals, is available in its entirety online at http://johnkerrythenewsoldier.blogspot.com/.You can download and read the whole book for free. Also free are three chapters of John O’Niells bestseller, Unfit for Command. If you know anyone wavering on Kerry, send them the link.

Alaska’s Frank Murkowski has my nomination for the most courageous governor in the US. Sick and tired of spineless Washington Republicans unable to overcome the religious worship of the Alaska tundra by Democrats and Eco-Fascists, Murkowski has announced oil and gas lease sales for offshore drilling in the Beaufort Sea off the coast of ANWR (the sacred and holy Alaska National Wildlife Refuge).

CARACAS, Venezuela -- On Monday afternoon, August 16, dozens of people assembled in the Altamira Plaza, a public square in a residential neighborhood here that has come to symbolize nonviolent dissent in Venezuela. The crowd was there to question the accuracy of the results that announced a triumph for President Hugo Chávez in Sunday's recall referendum. Within one hour of the gathering, just over 100 of Lt. Col. Chávez's supporters, many of them brandishing his trademark army parachutist beret, began moving down the main avenue towards the crowd in the square. Encouraged by their leader's victory, this bully-boy group had been marching through opposition neighborhoods all day. They were led by men on motorcycles with two-way radios. From afar they began to taunt the crowd in the square, chanting, "We own this country now," and ordering the people in the opposition crowd to return to their homes. All of this was transmitted live by the local news station. The Chávez group threw bottles and rocks at the crowd. Moments later a young woman in the square screamed for the crowd to get down as three of the men with walkie-talkies, wearing red T-shirts with the insignia of the government-funded "Bolivarian Circle," revealed their firearms. They began shooting indiscriminately into the multitude. A 61-year-old grandmother was shot in the back as she ran for cover. The bullet ripped through her aorta, kidney and stomach. She later bled to death in the emergency room. An opposition congressman was shot in the shoulder and remains in critical care. Eight others suffered severe gunshot wounds. Hilda Mendoza Denham, a British subject visiting Caracas for her mother's 80th birthday, was shot at close range with hollow-point bullets from a high-caliber pistol. She now lies sedated in a hospital bed after a long and complicated operation. She is my mother.

[A review of Hugh Hewitt's book, If It’s Not Close They Can’t Cheat , originally posted on Amazon.]The results of this year's presidential election boil down to one simple question: does America want to win the war against terrorism? The choice between the two political parties will determine the answer. All other issues are beside the point if we cannot defend ourselves. If America votes Republican, it chooses to keep up the fight and America will win. Should it vote Democrat, America will suffer unspeakable loss of life and liberty because the Democrats won't take the fight to our terrorist enemies.Given the high stakes involved, everyone who cares about the country's defense should get this book. This reviewer ex-Democrat turned Republican reviewer strongly recommends it. Consider this book the serious voter's guide to the 2004 elections.