Target Centermass

Day: October 26, 2004

  • Teen Runs for Agriculture Post in W.Va.

    Doesn’t look like this will be a battle for the ages, but it certainly is a battle of the ages.

    Andrew Yost is a year and a half out of high school — a teenager who juggles part-time farm work with a full load of college courses. Gus Douglass is old enough to be his grandfather — a gray-haired political veteran who was first elected when Lyndon Johnson was in the White House.

    But the two have one thing in common: They are running for agriculture commissioner of West Virginia. Yost, 19, is the Republican longshot Nov. 2 against Douglass, 77, a Democrat seeking a record 10th term.

    The race is the ultimate study in contrast, pitting youthful idealism and enthusiasm against decades of hands-on experience.

    Yost voted for the first time in May, when he won the Republican primary. Douglass was in the middle of his sixth term when Yost was still in diapers.

    In campaign photos, Yost wears a blue corduroy jacket that proclaims him a Future Farmer of America. Douglass runs a 540-acre farm with his son, and is a past national president of the Future Farmers of America.

    Douglass has raised nearly $18,000 in donations this year and spent about half. By Election Day, Yost will have spent no more than a few thousand dollars on printing and mailing.

    “When I say it’s a grass-roots campaign, I’m not just saying that. It really is,” says Yost, who has pledged to neither solicit nor accept contributions. “When I go into office, I don’t want to owe any favors. I can run the office based on my own integrity and what’s best for the people.”

    Young Yost — no campaign website, miniscule chance, tons of spunk. Youthful energy and idealism, whether I agree with the beliefs or not, are things I’ve always admired. Whether his future is in agriculture or politics, I expect long-term success for Yost. The kid’s got moxie.

  • Zarqawi Aide Killed During U.S. Air Strike

    Scratch one more Islamist bastard.

    Coalition forces launched precision strikes on a safe house in Fallujah early this morning, killing an associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s terrorist organization, military officials in Baghdad reported today.

    Multiple sources confirmed that a “known associate” of the Zarqawi network was present at the time of the strike.

    The strike, which happened at around 3 a.m. in the northwest section of the city, is one of a string of recent strikes and raids targeting the Zarqawi organization that have severely degraded the terrorist leader’s ability to conduct attacks and have effectively reduced his influence.

    Like I said, al-Zarqawi’s noose keeps getting tighter.

  • Kerry Praises Poland’s Help in Iraq

    Having already screwed them over by neglecting their valued contributions to date in Iraq, self-implied diplomat extraodinaire John Kerry has decided to belatedly offer the brave people of Poland a reach-around for their troubles.

    Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry thanked Poland in a newspaper interview published Monday for its military involvement in Iraq and promised Polish businesses a chance for lucrative reconstruction contracts there should he win the Nov. 2 election.

    The comments, published in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, came after President Aleksander Kwasniewski criticized Kerry for allegedly playing down the Poles’ contribution to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

    “I am grateful to Poland for standing by the Euro-American partnership these last few years and for its courageous contributions to Iraq,” Kerry said in the interview, which was also carried by Nowy Dziennik, a Polish language paper published in the United States. “I will not forget that.”

    ….

    Polish troops took part in the invasion last year, and the country now commands an international security force in central Iraq.

    By “not forget that,” I’ll assume Kerry means “not forget that again.”

    Nice of him to include the promise of a bribe of “a chance for lucrative reconstruction contracts” to a nation he included in his derisive “coalition of the bribed and coerced.” If one ignores such areas as diplomacy, military, history, international affairs, domestic policy and economics, Kerry might not be the total jackass he seems to be.

  • France Accepts Iraqi Conference Rules

    I posted last month on France’s requirements for their participation in an international conference on Iraq. I openly ridiculed their demands for inclusion of representatives of the terrorists at the table and a placement of U.S. withdrawal on the conference agenda. Well, now it seems the French have caved on one of their firm stances.

    In a quiet retreat, France on Monday eased off its call to include Iraqi groups that renounce violence in an international conference next month on ways to pacify their war-ravaged country.

    Foreign Minister Michel Barnier acknowledged that the governments-only meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik from Nov. 22-23 would not be open to other factions outside Iraq’s interim leadership.

    “It’s an intergovernmental conference. I’m willing to recognize that only governments will participate,” Barnier told reporters after an informal meeting with European and North African counterparts.

    There is no mention in the article of France’s other demand for discussion of an American withdrawal. To their credit, France’s “quiet retreat” is an improvement over their seeming tendency to run away screaming. Maybe there’s a shred of hope for them yet.