The San Francisco School District received 300 million in capital improvement bonds over a fourteen year period. An audit conducted a year or so ago revealed that 100 million was 'lost' and could not be accounted for. A substantial amount of the 200 million was not devoted to the capital improvements required. Not one District employee has been fired or even had his pay cut. So much for school bonds.---Posted by Fred Jacobsen (San Fran) on March 2, 2004 10:03 PM

And it was San Francisco (insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over in the hopes it will work the next time) that put Prop. 55 over the top again, too. The other propositions went well, though. I think the Lege should be on notice that the public expects more than hot air from them. Like I said in October, a whack on the head with a 2x4 to gently remind them who's the Boss.

Kerry has sewn it up. Well, argh, I dunno if I can stand the Flipflopping Cadaver for eight more months. He keeps saying to Bring It On. (He thinks Bush saying that in Iraq was stupid. Yeah, do you see our cities burning? Al-Qaeda is busy trying to derail Iraq's new constitution instead.) OK, I can do that, with this bloggery I have been carrying from day to day...

So Kerry is the nominee. Here's his funding plan. (Cartoon.)

Don't Play the VietNam Card with ME, John Kerry!

What's wrong with John Kerry? Tim Blair has some ideas, as well.

John Kerry is all tied up in nuances, Mark Steyn: "Just for the record, Kerry can take strong, clear positions. It's just that he tends to take both of them." John Kerry's Waffles.

Sgt. Stryker. The attacks on Shiites. comment at Polipundit: A Great quote from Glenn Reynolds:

The war in Iraq must be going well, or John Kerry wouldn't be spending all his time talking about Vietnam.

Random Jottings::

Still. one has to feel some sympathy for the poor Dems. Bush is a man who says what he's going to do, and then does it. Can you imagine how bewildering that must be to a guy like John Kerry? Bush says, "We're going to invade Iraq." Then he invades Iraq. Then all the Democrats drop their jaws and cry, "He tricked us!"

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Kerry's Home Paper: "Presidential hopeful John F. Kerry has been a virtual no-show in the U.S. Senate over the past 14 months, but he hasn't missed a paycheck, even though a dusty federal law says some of his $158,000 salary should have been withheld. " Another Polipundit quote on that: "It's sad when it takes political strategy to make Senators be present and actually vote and actually do their job.
"If Kerry and Edwards cannot adequately show up for work at their "day jobs" and run for president at the same time, they should resign their Senate seats or choose not to run for president.
"The fact that Kerry and Edwards have missed so many votes is one more reminder that they don't care about the people who elected them...they only care about themselves.
"Another Thought | 03.02.04 - 8:41 am"

NY Daily Sun (via Glenn):

[T]he fabled and distinguished chief of naval operations,Admiral Elmo Zumwalt,told me -- 30 years ago when he was still CNO -- that during his own command of U.S. naval forces in Vietnam,just prior to his anointment as CNO, young Kerry had created great problems for him and the other top brass,by killing so many non-combatant civilians and going after other non-military targets.�We had virtually to straitjacket him to keep him under control,� the admiral said. �Bud� Zumwalt got it right when he assessed Kerry as having large ambitions -- but promised that his career in Vietnam would haunt him if he were ever on the national stage. And this statement was made despite the fact Zumwalt had personally pinned a Silver Star on Mr. Kerry.

Lucky to have gotten the turkey this far (to quote Kaus): "The biggest difference between us is we are running a full-bore campaign," said Mary Beth Cahill, Mr. Kerry's campaign manager.
Heh. Is this exactly the word they want?

Glenn: "As with Kerry himself, if they thought his stands then were worthy of praise now, they'd be praising them -- instead of concealing them."

But the more we know, the less we like... Kerry has been wrong a few times. Kerry's war record and military votes (first two entries).

Areas Kerry is weak.

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Gay marriage could be a problem for Kerry. Donald Sensing says to separate the civil and spiritual marriage. More. Dick Morris:

Bush�s argument that activist courts are forcing his hand by reading rights into the Constitution that have eluded our scrutiny for two centuries turns the tables on this hesitation and puts him in the position of defending the Constitution by amending it. With each indication of the power of courts and city halls to take matters into their own hands, his case will grow stronger.

Sen. John Kerry will lose a lot of votes over the issue. But he will likely lose even more from his handling of it. As he tries to thread his way between his gay supporters and donors and the majority of the voters on this issue, he will come across as looking very weak and very political. His layered position � opposing the amendment, backing civil unions, opposing gay marriage and voting against the Defense of Marriage Act that President Clinton signed � will seem disingenuous to voters on both sides of the issue.
...
Kerry will seem like the quintessential political weather-vane candidate as he trims his views to suit the polls.

By contrast, Bush will come across as simple and straightforward as he fights for his amendment.

Tim Blair:

Some Democrats worry that Kerry is leaving himself open to similar attacks on the latest issue.

Maybe not. There�s only eight or so months left until the election. After covering all the rest of Kerry�s inconsistencies, there might not be time to deal with this.

Kerry v. Kerry (Scrappleface):

I think we're going to see them go at it hammer and tong until the convention," said Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democrat National Committee. "We couldn't hope for two men who offer more contrast; the war hero vs. the peace protestor, the wealthy husband of an heiress vs. the assailant of the privileged class. One backed the attack on Iraq, the other opposed it. One voted for the USA Patriot Act, the other denounces it. One supported the president's 'No Child Left Behind' education plan, the other is harshly critical of it."

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John Ellis:

It's enough to give any good Democrat the heebie-jeebies. Senator Kerry's inability to put this race to bed is disquieting by itself. His precipitous drop in the estimation of Badger State voters is positively unnerving. The question that hangs there is: what happens when the Bush people start to carve him up? It's not like they don't have a lot to work with!

Polls--- Bush is essentially tied with Kerry and Bush hasn't yet even begun. Mickey Kaus and exit polls.

The perfect Bush ad. Mr. President, take the gloves off.

Mr. Bush is the triumph of the seemingly average American man. He's normal. He thinks in a sort of common-sense way. He speaks the language of business and sports and politics. You know him. He's not exotic. But if there's a fire on the block, he'll run out and help. He'll help direct the rig to the right house and count the kids coming out and say, "Where's Sally?" He's responsible. He's not an intellectual. Intellectuals start all the trouble in the world. And then when the fire comes they say, "I warned Joe about that furnace." And, "Does Joe have children?" And "I saw a fire once. It spreads like syrup. No, it spreads like explosive syrup. No, it's formidable and yet fleeting." When the fire comes they talk. Bush ain't that guy. Republicans love the guy who ain't that guy. Americans love the guy who ain't that guy.

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1000 fighting styles of Rumsfeld

A Kerry-Specter ticket?

"The most amusing phone call of coming days will be Al Gore trying to endorse Kerry or Edwards" --- Jeff Jarvis.

Heh. Kerry's plan to save the economy.

He also comments (seriously this time) on 5.6% unemployment:

Here�s CNN in July 1996, as the Clinton-Dole election approached:

Economists didn't expect June's unemployment rate to be much different from May's, which was an already-low 5.6 percent. But in fact, it did fall -- to 5.3 percent. The unemployment rate hasn't been that low since June 1990.

So 5.6 percent is �already-low�. Now here�s CNN in December 2001:

The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 5.7 percent in November - the highest in six years - as employers cut hundreds of thousands more jobs in response to the first recession in a decade in the world's largest economy.

Old news: Will Saletin on Kerry-Edwards, and on the Wisconsin debate.

National Enquirer on Kerry

Lonewacko: "I just noticed that John Kerry has been endorsed by Antonio Villaraigosa. Villaraigosa is a current L.A. City Councilman and former candidate for mayor of L.A.

"Villaraigosa is also the former president of the UCLA chapter of the racial separatist organization MEChA."

Mark Steyn:

A decade ago, after the death of her first (Republican) husband, Mrs Heinz politely declined to run for his Senate seat. Well, not that politely. As she put it, �Political campaigns are the graveyard of real ideas and the birthplace of empty promises.� And how! In the graveyard of ideas, for the last two years she�s been interred in the biggest mausoleum in the grounds. He had enough money to hire top gun Bob Shrum, but Shrum could find nothing in his repertoire to palm off on Kerry except the same old populist platitudes that proved so successful for all his previous presidential candidates: President Dick Gephardt (1988), President Bob Kerrey (1992), President Al Gore (2000) and President Insert Namehere (2008). �We need to offer solutions, not just slogans,� intones Senator Kerry portentously. That�s how much a straight shooter he is. His slogan is a slogan about the inadequacy of slogans.

Glenn Reynolds on Kerry's positions.

Kerry follows Scrappleface!

Dean Esmay comments on the French-looking part... they call him a 'croque-mort'.

Another bad omen from Kerry country: the Boston Herald reports Republican Scott Brown beat Democrat Angus McQuilken in a special election for a state Senate seat. McQuilken is demanding a recount, but the margin is 291 votes out of only 40,000, so he's unlikely to prevail. If Kerry doesn't have the coattails to help a fellow Democrat to victory, in his home state and on a day when Democrats but not Republicans are voting in a presidential primary, it's hard to see how he can win nationwide. And McQuilken, as we noted last month, built has campaign around an issue that seemed a sure winner in the Bay State: taxpayer-subsidized "sex change" operations.

Tim Blair's comment on feminism.

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Mark Steyn: THE JOHN KERRY CANCELED WEAPONS SYSTEM OF THE DAY. Thrilling tales of America�s fighting men and women in action using stuff Senator Kerry didn't want them to have!

A veteran's letter to the liar.

Blame Bush.

Questions for candidates.

First things first.

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WHEW!!!