Kerry Haters: We're Not Fonda John

 
Tomorrow Morning--Thune Versus Daschle Live on Meet the Press!

Check your local listings for the time. I may live-blog this one.

 
French Behind Forged Niger Documents?

That's what this article says. Wonder what Jean Kerree thinks of his friends the French now?

As our commenter George (who pointed us to this story) notes, one of the things that CBS and France have in common is that they tried to use forged documents to embarrass President Bush. Amazing.

 
Anatomy of RatherGate

Jonathan V. Last at the Weekly Republic does a marvelous job of tracing the ball as it went from Buckhead to Powerline to Little Green Footballs. I particularly agreed with his comments about the left wing of the blogosphere:

Aside from technological advantages, there seems to be an ideological divide at work, too. The political blog world is arguably more conservative than liberal, though there is a sizable contingent of liberal blogs. But these liberal blogs function more like the old media than do their conservative Internet brethren. While blogs such as Power Line and Little Green Footballs and Instapundit were chasing the CBS story, interviewing experts, posting material as they found it--whether or not it supported the case against CBS--many of the liberal blogs went into entrenched-partisan mode.

Exactly. Think how quickly I started backing away from the little girl crying story. Look how I put my doubts at the top of the three posts we had regarding that story after getting a comment from a left winger. We're interested in getting to the truth here.

 
Have You Seen Me?



The new kid on the milk cartons.

 
Kerry Treason Coming Out

Fox runs with the story about Kerry's meeting with the North Vietnamese.

Kerry's meeting with Binh occurred while he remained a commissioned officer with the U.S. Navy. Kerry was, by then, a member of the Navy Reserve and not on active duty.

"We've had presidents who have served in the military. We've had presidents who have never served in the military. But we've never had an American president who met with the enemy in a time of war while a naval officer in reserve status. Inconceivable," said John O'Neill, a key member of the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (search).

They note as well Gerald Nicosia's comment that Kerry actually went to Paris twice in the early 1970s to meet with the North Vietnamese, contrary to his claims that it was only once.

This story is finally coming out.

 
Funniest Comic Book Ever!

(Note: This was originally posted Saturday, and is being promoted to show it to our larger weekday audience; there is a lot of new content below this post if you've already read it. I really, really enjoyed this comic and whole-heartedly recommend it.)

I felt honored when the guys putting out Major Flip Flop Comics offered to send me a review copy of their book on John Kerry. I surfed over to their site and was quite pleasantly surprised to see that this was not some crude effort slapped together to make a buck; instead it was a highly polished effort with excellent artwork and funny writing slapped together to make $4.99 plus $1.00 shipping.



My review copy arrived today, and this not being a cookie experiment, I dived right in.

And started laughing.

And laughing.

And laughing.

Major Flip Flop is the funniest thing I've read in years. Written by Mort Todd, the former editor-in-chief of Cracked Magazine, and drawn by Cliff Mott, the former art director of that same esteemed publication, the comic features laugh-out-loud dialogue and sight gags in almost every panel.

The Mort and Mott team must enjoy politics, because the comic is filled with political caricatures that are devastatingly accurate, with tons of inside jokes. The humor is up-to-date as well, with references to Christmas in Cambodia, Sandy Burglar, and the Swift Boat Vets.

If you like politics (and who here doesn't) and you have fond memories of reading magazines like Cracked and Mad as a kid, don't hesitate. You are going to thank me for pointing you to this comic. I'm making not a penny for this review; the only thing I got from the publishers was that free copy, which to me was a wonderful gift.

We showed our copy of Major Flip Flop to our longtime reader, Johnny the K. His opinion was the same as ours:

 
Digital Brownshirts News is On The Air



Click here to surf over to Aaron's report. (Some strong language)

Click here to surf to Kitty's closing comments, where she reminds us that size does matter.

Bill at Passionate America has a fourth post here about old media versus new media.

 
More Bad News for Kerry

Ralph Nader is on the ballot in Florida (by a decision of the Florida Supreme Court no less) and Colorado.

The New York Times/SeeBS poll shows President Bush up by nine points. The same poll shows the President's support hardening, while Kerry supporters are wobbly.

 
Babbling Brooks

David Brooks, that is. He's got an outstanding column in today's New York Times.

And so the age of nymphomottomania did begin. Suddenly it was realized what was missing. A theme! A slogan! The muses were mobilized to find that motto, which would give shape and precision to the cause. Over the weeks "A Better Set of Choices" begat "Safer, Stronger and More Secure," which begat "The Real Deal," which begat "Change Starts Here," which begat "Let America Be America Again," which begat "Hope Is on the Way."

Night and day the serial sloganators did work. And the seasons did turn and the conventions did come and go. Kerry's speeches were shortened, and parts of his life were edited out of his story (adulthood, for example). And yet there was still wailing in the House of Kerry for the message was still unhoned.

Read the whole thing. Brooks, as I've said before, runs hot and cold. This is one of his hot columns.

 
If The Campaign Is Lurching From Side to Side, Is There Any Doubt Who's Driving?



Fortunately, as M@ says in the comments, we've already crossed the bridge to the 21st century.

 
This Looks Like It Could Be Fun



USA Today is reporting on a new video game where you are in command of a Swift Boat in Vietnam.

In this case, they learn about how a Swift boat is operated and the watery terrain in which the Kerry mission plays out. "As you are playing the game you have to use the information picked up in the past," Halper says. "They walk away from this understanding the events and have better tools for understanding. If the game does nothing more than highlight the Swift boats and what they did in Vietnam, we will have succeeded."

Some screenshots of the Kerry mission are here. Not sure if they're going to make it hagiographic; the text at that website says this is a recreation of the mission "that earned Kerry the Navy's second highest honor." Of course, the Silver Star is the Navy's third highest honor, after the Navy Cross (second highest) and the Medal of Honor.

To be released September 30 (est). I'll keep a lookout for it and let you know. No word yet on whether you win the game by accumulating three purple hearts.

Hat Tip: Kerry Spot

 
Looking for An Elections Law Expert

I have it on good authority that a story is breaking that we covered briefly below. In August, the SBDC Advisor, (PDF warning) a magazine put out by the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers, published an article by John Kerry (page 11) that was mostly boilerplate stuff, but included this paragrpaph:

It’s no secret that the 25 million small businesses in America create nearly two-thirds of all new jobs in this country. But most people don’t know that in the past four years the Bush Administration has slashed funding for the Small Business Administration by 25 percent – more than any of the other 26 major federal agencies.

The SBDC of Pennsylvania is funded by the federal government. So this magazine was funded by the federal government, and ran an article by John Kerry in which he bashed the Bush Administration.

Anybody know what rules/laws were broken and by whom?

 
Lost Vegas

Here's a pretty amusing Kerry interview with a Las Vegas TV station. The interviewer (former Phoenix newsguy Mitch Trusswell) only gets to ask questions on the Yucca Mountain controversy, but does not appear to know enough to grill Kerry on his many votes in favor of Yucca Mountain. The "interview" starts about 1:25 into the clip; in actuality Kerry answers one question; the rest of it is Trusswell reporting his impression.

But the best part comes immediately after the interview starting about 3 minutes into the clip. They cut to a Veterans for Bush meeting where Paul Adams of that group gets about a minute to absolutely hammer Kerry as a flip-flopper not just on domestic issues but on foreign policy and characterizes him as dangerous.

Wow! What a boneheaded campaign! You purportedly give a Las Vegas TV station the chance to sit down with John Kerry (I'm not so sure this is as exclusive an interview as they are trying to claim with "One on one"), and you don't make some sort of deal for throwing them that bone that they won't turn around and whack you? Kerry gets to talk on a domestic issue and the Veterans for Bush start talking about the War on Terror, which is a real issue in Las Vegas, which has often been cited as a huge terrorist target. Kerry just got sandbagged and he doesn't even know it.

 
Great Article on Kerry Lied Demonstration

John Rudolph, a veteran, writes an article that deserves a wider audience.

And on this day, they were once again going to be heard.

This time, it wasn't a bunch of ragtag hippies pretending to be Vietnam veterans, with John Kerry as their leader, sporting the American flag being flown upside down.

This was the real thing.

This time, these Vietnam veterans were all gathering and coming against John Kerry, the man who betrayed them.

Great stuff. Read it and pass it on.

 
Caption It Yourself

 
Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Chris at Kerry Waffles has put together another one of his multimedia extravaganza pages regarding Kerry's misadventures with the National Pastime. Be sure to listen to the bit where the NPR reporter interviews the two kids about Kerry's famed pitch at Fenway a few days before the convention. This one's better than peanuts and Crackerjack. Great job, Chris!

 
Did John Kerry Break FEC Regulations?

John Kerry published a letter in a Pennsylvania Small Business Development Center newsletter in August. The newsletter is funded by taxpayer dollars and, therefore, cannot permit partisanship. In this letter, Kerry states:

It’s no secret that the 25 million small businesses in America create nearly two-thirds of all new jobs in this country. But most people don’t know that in the past four years the Bush Administration has slashed funding for the Small Business Administration by 25 percent – more than any of the other 26 major federal agencies.

Does that sound like campaigning? You decide.

Hat Tip: SCTA

 
Kitty Corner

Kitty points out that Kerry's been wasting his time going after the gun owner vote and reminds us why the election matters.

 
The Unforgettable What's His Name

KH Reader Eric sent me an amusing clip from Imus in the Morning today. Joe Biden was Imus' guest and mano-a-mano Joe said "...whether it's Bush or whether it is, it is, uh, um, Kerry..."

One suspects that Biden has less trouble recalling Neil Kinnock's name.

 
THE LATEST FROM CRUSH KERRY

Kerry's "Halliburton" Ad: The new Kerry Ad attacking Cheney for getting paid by Halliburton is idiotic strategy wise. Does anyone other than the Moore/Moveon.org loonies think that the Iraq war was fought so that we could give up "Blood For Oil"-and make Cheney rich? Pretty bad when you still have to play to your lunatic fringe supporters. Plus, people vote for President, not VP.
More striking however, is that the ad shows Kerry and his crew have no grasp of economics or private industry. Cheney's Halliburton payments are deferred compensation - a common practice in the real world. The agreement for compensation was based on an agreement reached before Cheney took office. What this means is that instead of taking money HE HAD ALREADY EARNED WELL PRIOR TO BECOMING VP - he chose to have it paid out over time. The payments are a liability of Halliburton that must be paid even before dividends are declared. Further, Cheney's deferred compensation does not change based on the fortunes of the company. If it has a record year he gets no more than he would if they had a bad year. In fact, if Halliburton goes under, he gets nothing. And in all likelihood he's probably purchased an insurance policy with his own money protecting against that occurring. Whoever making these ads -or thinks they're effective - is a damn fool.

 
How to Put Pressure on Rather & SeeBS

Jim Geraghty has some excellent ideas for the Pajamahadeen.

Critics of the report must focus on three alternative targets that are more vulnerable to public pressure: the local CBS affiliates, other CBS employees, and other media. Members of those groups right now are in a state similar to Rather and Heyward's — mildly criticizing Rather and Heyward, looking the other way, or shrugging their shoulders. That course of action is less painful than forcing CBS to make the hard choice about Rather and the fake memos. But a steady and intense campaign of criticism — one targeting them for not taking steps to demand a CBS admission that the network deliberately portrayed fake memos — could alter that balance. Inaction could become more painful than action.

Read it all.

 
The Revolutionary Drug Brothers Handshake



The Blogspirator has more along the same lines.

 
Guest Commentary--Was Kerry AWOL?

KH Reader Karl sent me this email, which was so well-written and informative that I am posting it verbatim. To spare your eyes I'll forego my usual practice of putting quoted material in italics, but this is all Karl's down to my closing comment.

I’m writing this e-mail about your post today, Was John Kerry AWOL, rather than submitting a comment because of the length. I agree with Michael Ashbury’s assessment and have tried unsuccessfully to get others, including discussion groups on the SwiftVets website, excited about this. I believe this may be due, in part, to some confusion, even among vets, over the terminology associated with reserve service, e.g., active, inactive, ready, and standby. Nevertheless, I believe this may be the real "smoking gun" that most worries the Kerry campaign. Thus, they have resurrected the tired old "Bush was AWOL" smear as a preemptive strike to defuse the public reaction if this ever begins to get more widespread scrutiny. Why get excited about Kerry’s reserve status after he served in Vietnam when George Bush got "preferential" entrance into the air guard to avoid Vietnam service and "failed" to fulfill his obligation? I really can’t fathom any other reason for the Kerry campaign, the DNC, and Dan Rather making such a fuss over what is essentially a "so what" issue.

However, Michael Ashbury is definitely on the right track. Kerry clearly had a drilling Ready Reserve obligation once released from active duty. Block 11 of page 3 of his DD214 simply states "released from active duty and transfered [sic] to naval reserve." Since there is no mention of active or inactive in the DD214, he must have been transferred to the Ready Reserve in accordance with his OCS agreement and had an obligation to participate in such as specified in the agreement. There is no available record that he did so serve; nor is there any available record to show either that he formally requested relief from this obligation or that he was "relieved of such participation by competent authority or as otherwise provided by law."

As one who graduated from Navy OCS in 1968, I know for a fact that I would have had to drill in the reserve for two years had I not transferred my commission from reserve to regular and remained on active duty for another 18 years.

I am glad to see both you and Michael Ashbury have picked this up. I suppose most people are aware of John Kerry’s activities after being released from active duty (thanks to the Swift Boat Vets ads) and have probably made their minds up regarding how those facts will affect their vote. On the other hand, I don’t believe there is much awareness that Kerry performed these activities, especially his meetings with representatives of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong, during a period in which he should have been participating in the active Ready Reserve. Thus those meetings may very well have been illegal under the UCMJ. This and the fact that Judicial Watch is also inquiring into his exact status should have the Kerry campaign very worried. I hope you continue to pursue this and give it all the attention it deserves.

(Pat's comment: First, thank you for your service, Karl. As I mentioned in a reply, the blog that seems to be doing the most investigation of this period of Kerry's military life is Useful Fools. We'll try to stay on top of it to the extent we can. I forwarded this email on to John Moore at Useful Fools.)

 
Cadet Happy Hopping

Kevin's been doing a lot of cool stuff lately, be sure to check out his impression of the Dan and John Movie.

 
Was the Crying Girl Incident Staged?--UPDATE Union Apologizes!--Update II

Update II: Conservanatrix points out in the comment that perhaps the incident was fake, but it was still accurate, in that it reflected actual incidents. :)

Update: The union has issued an apology, which certainly indicates that it was not Mr Parlock's son that ripped up the sign. This story gets a little more interesting. Hat Tip for the Apology to KH reader JN in the comments.

This post certainly casts some doubt in my mind as to the story. Unlike famed liar Dan Rather we aren't going to stonewall while pretending to investigate; I'm going to say right here and now that the story smells fishier than Fulton's Market. I'm not sure that it was one of the Parlock sons who ripped up the signs, but it certainly appears from the DU post that this has happened before, which makes me very suspicious.

Wild Bill at Passionate America has a link to a radio show where Parlock pere was interviewed.

Hat Tip: Dislogue, who has a new post up about this here.

 
Where Have You Gone, Scoop Jackson?

Crush Kerry has a superb article today on the newest endangered species; the rational Democrat.

Joe Lieberman tried to run as a sane Democrat and they laughed him off the stage. Evan Bayh shows some promise. We even believe there is a place for an articulate thoughtful anti-war Democrat to grab the microphone from ranters like Howard Dean and tergiversants like John Kerry and say look, we oppose the war. Here’s why. We respectfully disagree with the President and we’re going to fight like hell. But we’ll always support the will of the people, no matter the outcome.

Instead we get “No War for Oil!” and “Bush Lied!”

Read it all. Pat and his partner have produced some excellent articles during this campaign, but this one's my favorite so far.

 
NEW BLOG ON THE BLOCK!



Yes, Republicans have endured the occasional sporting shame. George W. Bush traded Sammy Sosa. Ronald Reagan called sports plays more than he played sports. And Vince Lombardi was a Democrat.
But America deserves a President who knows the difference between an airport and a football field, and who can spook a batter at least as well as he scares a dove.
Football Fans for Truth is dedicated to informing the American sports fan realize the great risk that could befall our country.
Dino Panagopoulos, Chairman: "John Kerry is a menace to sports fans everywhere," said Football Fans for Truth Chairman Dino . "Can we take four years of this? I don't think so."
Jeff Larroca, Director: "He is not fit to be our sports-fan-in-chief."

 
More on the Crying Girl--Updated

Update: The story seems a little fishy. See here.

Now you're really going to get angry.

Sophia is the youngest of 10 children in a proudly patriotic family. The oldest two Parlock children, a 22-year-old daughter and a 21-year-old son, are members of the West Virginia Army National Guard, and a third Parlock — who recently turned 18 — will be sworn into the guard tomorrow, Mr. Parlock said.

BTW, the young boy shown in the photo was Alex Parlock. One of our commenters pointed out that the union of the goon with the backwards baseball cap is IUPAT, which I gather stands for International Union of Painters And Thugs.

You know, we conservative bloggers have been called Digital Brownshirts. The sad thing is the Democrats have Physical Brownshirts.

 
BLAH BLAH BLAH



Two articles which illustrate the desperation of Kamp Kerry.
Nowhere Left to Flop
By Charles Krauthammer
How did Kerry get to this point of total meltdown? He started out his political career voting his conscience on national security issues. During the 1980s he was a consistent, dovish liberal Democrat: pro-nuclear freeze, anti-Star Wars, against the Reagan defense buildup, against the war in Nicaragua. And then he joined the overwhelming majority of his party in voting against the Persian Gulf War.
That turned out to be a mistake. And Kerry suffered for it. The very next year he had to watch as Al Gore, who got the Gulf War right, was chosen for the 1992 Democratic ticket, a spot for which Kerry had been on the short list.

WHY SHAKEUP WON'T SAVE KERRY
By Dick Morris
JOHN Kerry's recent shakeup of his campaign illustrates his larger problem: He is playing a simple game of checkers, while President Bush is playing a subtle game of chess.
…
Their basic idea is to hit Bush with everything and anything they can find. But throwing negatives at a sitting president is like punching a pillow. It feels good and keeps the base happy — but it doesn't help to win the election. By the time a man has served four years as president, negatives that pre-existed his tenure are largely irrelevant.
…
With their eye on the cheering section, not on the playing field, Kerry's people are throwing negatives because they enjoy it. An anonymous aide even said that it makes their candidate look good to be fighting back. But it accomplishes no political purpose and doesn't close the gap in the polls. For that, you need a strategy.
…
Kerry doesn't have a strategy because he don't [sic] have an agenda or even clear issue positions.

 
BILL BURKETT & THE KINKO’S COPY BOY



Working Kinko’s
By George Neumayr
How did Dan Rather become the Kinko's copy boy for the Democratic party? Dan Rather won't break this story, but the Kinko's in Abilene might. It stands ready to cooperate with investigating authorities.
…
What happens at Kinko's stays at Kinko's -- in their computer files. As the former employee noted: "It is possible that Kinko's created this document. Unless the Kinko's employee had knowledge of the scheme, he or she could have innocently done the basic typesetting…There may be a record of it. If Burkett paid for this with a credit card, there would be a record, too."
"The forged files could be on the computer services department typesetting computer used exclusively by an employee. Someone should ask. Perhaps the District (State) or U.S. Attorney should send investigators with warrants," the ex-employee writes. "The affixing of a signature by Bill Burkett could have occurred after the document was created, right there at Kinko's. A few generations of copies with the pasted-on signatures -- or forged signatures -- and you have a felony committed at Kinko's."

 
Kerry Versus Kerry

The new Swift Boat Veterans ad is out, and it's a humdinger! You'll be rolling on the floor at the quick cuts back and forth. Great job, guys!

Hat Tip to Chuck, aka Phillies Fan

 
Meanwhile Over at Bush Or Kerry

I've put up my post on the Bush position on our third issue, the war on terrorism. Paul, either email me or leave a comment when you've put up the Kerry position and I'll link over there again.

 
Entertaining Animation

Here's an entertaining little animation (strong language warning) on Kerry's adventures in Vietnam.

Hat Tip: KH reader Shawn, although I think Chris at Kerry Waffles also pointed this one out to me.

 
Now We Know Why They're So Angry: Gallup Says President Bush Up by 13!

They've been hoping that the Harris poll indicated that the bounce had evaporated, but none of the Democrats have been acting like it's a race again. Must be because the internals were telling them what Gallup is reporting.

In a new Gallup Poll, conducted Sept. 13-15, President George W. Bush leads Democratic candidate John Kerry by 55% to 42% among likely voters, and by 52% to 44% among registered voters. These figures represent a significant improvement for Bush since just before the beginning of the Republican National Convention.



Kerry reacts to the news he's down 13.

Hat Tips: Crush Kerry for Poll news, dislogue for teddy bear photo.

 
Crush Kerry: Tomorrow's Washington Post Today--Updated!

Our pals over at Crush Kerry did it again. Thursday afternoon they put up a post about the dissent in the Kerry campaign among the old guard, led by Mary Beth Cahill and Bob Shrum and the Clintonistas with Carville, Begala, Lockhart, etc.

Friday Morning's Washington Post Headline? "Kerry Shakes Up His Team" (at least on the front page of the site; the actual article headline is "Additions To Kerry's Team Shift Influence" and since I've posted this, they've changed the name to the rather gory "New Blood At Heart Of Kerry Campaign").

The campaign dismisses the notion that a "shake-up" has taken place, saying that the recent additions are part of a long-standing plan to add talent as Election Day neared. Yet interviews with more than a dozen Democrats inside or close to the campaign showed Kerry has made significant changes throughout upper management -- changes he was advised several months ago to make.

You could read the Washington Post tomorrow, or you could read Crush Kerry today.

Update: But wait! Here's a report that says:

Despite turmoil in the John Kerry campaign, key Democrats believe Kerry is back on-message and poised to overtake President Bush by Election Day. Following two weeks of Kerry campaign reorganization, optimism flourishes among Democratic insiders.

Oh, sorry. That's SeeBS News. Never mind.

 
Two Examples of Hot Air In Action

 
Kerry Thugs Made Her Cry--Update II

Update II--The story seems highly dubious.



Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va

Note particularly the "We're not sorry" expressions; the little punk on the right looks like he's ready to take a swing at the father (Update: A commenter over at dislogue says that the boy at the right is the little girl's brother, so his fist may be clenched in defense of his family against the union jerk, and I found another photo that makes me think this is quite likely true--note particularly that the boy is neatly dressed like the rest of the family, unlike the trailer trash around them). Thugs. The good news is that they do this because they know they're losing.

Hat Tip: KH reader Swamp Fox

 
CLEARING UP OLD QUESTIONS

Lorie, at PoliPundit, has posted an expert’s analysis of Bush’s TANG service records:
"Bush served his country without pay"
A search of the web led me to AF Form 1288 (front/back) in which 1LT Bush requests duty in Alabama on May 24, 1972. Block 17 shows that the request is "no pay, training category G." In the approval section, it is clearly disclosed that this is "pay group none." Why is this important? Regardless, of the ultimate unit he ended up training with, it shows that 1LT Bush was willing to train without pay. The old media remains focused on pay records!! In regards to pay records, USA Today states, "They show he was paid for 82 days in 1972 and 1973, but show no service for five months between April and October 1972." Pay records would show no service during this time period because he was not paid! 1LT Bush served his country without pay. That is why there is no pay record.

WHILE NEW QUESTIONS POP UP

Was John Kerry AWOL?
Lt. John Forbes Kerry was released from active duty and transferred to the Naval Reserve on 3 January 1970. He wasn't transferred to inactive standby status until 1 July 1972, then Honorably Discharged on 16 February 1978.
Where was Lt. Kerry during the18 months from 1970 to 1972?

 
Link to the Story I Talked About on Hugh Hewitt

It's here. Note particularly the comments about the movie the Big Red One.

 
Rather Pathetic

This is almost sad.

"If the documents are not what we were led to believe, I'd like to break that story," Rather said in an interview last night. "Any time I'm wrong, I want to be right out front and say, 'Folks, this is what went wrong and how it went wrong.'"

Dan, you can only break that story in your mind.

 
Lies and the Lying Liars

Our buddy Chuck pointed us to an article on Kerry's military records.

Navy Personnel Command FOIA Officer Dave German wrote in an e-mail to Judicial Watch that the Navy "withheld thirty-one pages of documents from the responsive military personnel service records as we were not provided a release authorization."

This, despite that Kerry has repeatedly claimed that he's authorized the release of all documents.

 
NEW BLOGGER!

LoanCat sent me a message from someone ... a friend, LoanCat? ... who wanted to know if there was a free blogging host available. So, I told him about Blogspot. Luis Moreno is from Phoenix, which is Pat's home as well as Chris from KerryWaffles. And he's already up'n'blogging!
So, check out Luis' blog
JOE AND JANE SIXPACK
Former Vietnam Era Marine. Staunch conservative. I call a spade a spade. Not politically correct. Detest most liberals.
This site deals with the views and happenstance of the ordinary citizen, the Joe and Jane Sixpacks of this country who daily break their backs to provide a living for their families.

 
Kerry Supporter Arrested for Air Rage

Wish I could say this was atypical for Kerry fans.

Husar boarded Flight 849 in Minneapolis on his way from New York to visit some friends in Alaska, his wife, Linda, said yesterday. Officials said Husar, a supporter of Sen. John Kerry, was engaged in a discussion on the upcoming presidential election with a woman seated next to him - a President George W. Bush supporter - when she became turned off by his belligerent attitude and complained to the flight staff.

The woman also did not like that Husar would touch her leg and shoulder when he spoke to her, authorities said. Corona said Husar had "had a few drinks."

Russell Ridd, supervising senior crown attorney for the Manitoba Justice Department, said that when flight attendants approached Husar, he became enraged, deliberately spilling a container of alcohol and engaging in "the boisterous behavior of a drunk."

 
It's Too Late, Baby

We've highlighted the retro nature of the Kerry campaign quite often. Here's another indication.

Linda Ronstadt and Carole King will sing the praises of John Kerry in Tucson on Sunday.

 
Even Arab-Americans Deserting Kerry

The Kerrytanic is sinking fast.

Reflecting a national trend so far this month that shows Kerry's support slipping, polling by Zogby International for the Arab American Institute found that Kerry's support has declined from 54 percent in July to 49 percent among Arab Americans. In July, 24.5 percent of Arab American voters said they would vote for Bush. Now, 31.5 percent said the Republican president deserves to be re-elected.

 
Another Good Cause

You folks know we've been strong supporters of the Swiftees; I've personally donated $75 to their cause and I know readers of KH have probably donated ten times that much. But here's an even more important cause:

Football Fans for Truth, a 527 organization, has been created to help the American voter and sports fan answer a critical question: Can John Kerry be trusted to represent the nation both as president and sports-fan-in-chief?

Football Fans for Truth say no.

Our evidence is compelling.

John Kerry lauded "Lambert Field" in Wisconsin. It is unknown what he thinks of Lambeau Field.

John Kerry praised the Ohio State Buckeyes . . . in Michigan.

ESPN's Peter Gammons reported that John Kerry told a radio interviewer that his favorite Red Sox player was Eddie Yost. Yost never played for the Red Sox.

Gammons also reported that John Kerry lauded "Manny Ortez," an amalgamation of Red Sox first baseman/DH David Ortiz and LF Manny Ramirez.

John Kerry windsurfs.

John Kerry said, we kid you not, "Who among us doesn't like NASCAR?" There is no word on any response from Polonious, Guildenstern or Ricky Rudd.

John Kerry told The Washington Post, "You clean them. Let them hang. It takes three or four birds to have a meal. You might eat it at a picnic, cold roasted. I love dove."

When John Kerry was skiing, he fell. He blamed his Secret Service protection. "I don't fall down," he told reporters after the tumble.

When he threw the first pitch at a Red Sox-Yankees game, John Kerry did not throw from the mound . . . and he still bounced it. He then said: "I held back . . . He was very nervous. I tried to lob it gently."

Disturbing.

"He's a menace," FFFT Chairman Dino Panagopoulos says. "Can we take four years of this? I don't think so."

"I shudder to think of this man throwing out first pitches and menacing dove for four years," FFFT Director Jeff Larroca adds.

Football Fans for Truth is already on the move. We have ordered a billboard near "Lambert Field" to apprise Wisconsin fans of the threat of a Kerry administration. It will stand through the election.

We plan to do more, but we need your help.

Please donate to Football Fans for Truth by sending a check for any amount so that we can continue the fight.

Send contributions to:

Football Fans for Truth
4201 Wilson Blvd., Ste 110
Box 106
Arlington, Virginia 22203
Make your non tax-deductible check out to "Football Fans for Truth."

(Pat again). That's pretty funny; about the only thing they missed was Kerry talking about crawling through the underbrush while hunting deer with his shotgun.

Hat Tip to Aaron at Something to Cry About

 
Kerry Haters on Audio



If you want to hear Kitty's much more pleasing voice, check out her blog. Aaron put up a test post, and Wild Bill, who's obviously an early adopter, already has a roundup of stories in audio format.

 
Teh-RAY-za Weirder Than Her Husband--Updated!

I don't know what else to make of this really oddball comment from the Ketchup Queen:

Teresa Heinz Kerry, encouraging volunteers as they busily packed supplies Wednesday for hurricane relief efforts in the Caribbean, said she was concerned the effort was too focused on sending clothes instead of essentials like water and electric generators.

"Clothing is wonderful, but let them go naked for a while, at least the kids," said Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

The Blogspirator has a hilarious take on this story.

Update: James Taranto apparently found the Blogspirator's post as funny as we did, because he included it in his Best of the Web column today. Congrats, Adam!

 
Take Your Pick

 
Kerry Riding Into the Sunset With Document Dan?

Thomas Lifson has some thoughts on RatherGate.

Anger, the most toxic of emotions, has poisoned the American left and much of the Democratic Party. To the astonishment of many level-headed political professionals, the Kerry campaign is unable to let go of its charges that George Bush’s Air National Guard service was deficient, even as CBS and Dan Rather become a national laughingstock for their airing of forged documents and inability to ‘fess up. The public plainly isn’t buying the notion that something which may or may not have happened thirty years ago is determinative of the worthiness of the sitting President and Commander-in-Chief to be re-elected.

Every day which passes focused on the Guard story is another day that Kerry makes no gains.

Blind rage is the only plausible explanation for the behavior of the Kerry campaign, and the behavior of Dan Rather and his CBS cohorts. Rather is so convinced of the underlying sheer evil of George W. Bush that he is now justifying the “core truth” of his story based on forged documents.

 
Iowa Electronic Markets Stampeding From Kerry

As I often warn, the IEM tells us more about the conventional wisdom than anything. Obviously the conventional wisdom is telling us that Kerry is going to lose and lose badly.

 
The Pandescenderer

You may recall that was one of Mickey Kaus' nicknames for John Kerry. Crush Kerry took a look at two speeches Kerry delivered to two minority groups, the largely black National Baptist Convention and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and found some interesting dissimilarities.

 
Thursdays 'R' For Thune--Updated!

(Note: This post will be promoted to the top of the blog throughout Thursday; scroll down for newer content)

We skipped this last week because of worries that we were hitting up our readers too often for money. But this election is too important to be embarrassed about soliciting donations for worthy candidates.

John Thune is now three points ahead of Tom Daschle in South Dakota. Even better, Daschle's net favorable/unfavorable rating, which was +22 in February is now only +7, while Thune checks in at a sold +32% (favorable 65%, unfavorable 33%). Thune thumped Daschle in the first debate. This coming Sunday, NBC is going to devote the whole Meet the Press program to another debate between the two, so here's a great chance to figure out what you think of John Thune. I assume most of the folks reading this blog already know what they think of Tom Daschle.

The Democrats are not going to let Daschle go down without a fight. Ages ago, I got on the Dean campaign's mailing list so I could post comments on their blog. I still get emails regularly from the Deaniacs. They are soliciting their readers hard to contribute to Disappointed Boy.

UPDATE: I received an email this morning from the Deaniacs:

Last week Governor Dean wrote to you about what's being done to Tom Daschle. In less than two days, you put a nearly a quarter million dollars into the most competitive Senate race in the country. Now Tom Daschle is hitting back. You made that happen.

A quarter million dollars in two days. Now you know why this is important. The Democrats are going to fight tooth and nail to win this election. John Thune should have won in 2002, but the Democrats cheated. Remember, as Hugh Hewitt says, If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat. A three-point lead for Thune is nice, but it's not enough. We have to crush Daschle.

It now looks to me like the Kerry campaign is circling the toilet. Let's add insult to injury to the Democrats by sending the Senate Minority Leader back to the Badlands!

Please, contribute what you can afford to John Thune. If you'd rather contribute by check, send it to:

John Thune for US Senate
P.O. Box 3308
Sioux Falls, SD, 57101

BTW, I received a nice little thank you note in the mail. They did not include a bumper sticker or pins or anything like that, which is smart. I live in Arizona; a bumper sticker on my car is not going to help the Thune cause. I like the fact that they're being careful with their money.

 
Good Article on Kerry's Miserable Military Record

This article was pointed out to me by KH reader Steve. It's a couple days old but it's hitting on points that nobody else is covering.

On Jan. 3, 1970, Lt. John Kerry was transferred to the Naval Reserve Manpower Center in Bainbridge, Md. Therefore, there should be Performance Records for two years of obligated Ready Reserve, the 48 drills per year required and his 17 days of active duty per year training while Kerry was in the Ready Reserves. Have these records been released?

 
More On Rather

This story is exploding so fast that it's impossible for us to create individual posts, so here's a quick roundup:

It appears that the memos were faxed to CBS from a Kinkos in Abilene, TX.

There is only one Kinko's in Abilene, and it is 21 miles from the Baird, Tex., home of retired Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, who has been named by several news outlets as a possible source for the documents.

Burkett has a history of mental problems.

Burkett, who served with the Texas National Guard in an administrative capacity before his 1998 retirement, has been involved in a bitter dispute with the Guard over medical benefits after suffering from a tropical disease following a military assignment in Panama. He has told reporters that he had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized for depression after he left the Guard.

This might explain why SeeBS has been reluctant to reveal the source of the memos. It has been noted that Burkett has been shopping this story to news organizations for years sans documents. His sudden acquisition of "proof" should have been a red flag.

Rather Biased probably has the best updates if you want more. Looks like that website may die before this one. :)

 
Rather Sinking

Our buddy John over at My Take on Things pointed this out to us:

CBS executives on both coasts have become concerned in recent days that Dan Rather's EVENING NEWS broadcast has plunged in the ratings since the anchor presented questionable documents about Bush's National Guard service.

NIELSEN numbers released this week show Rather fading and trailing his rivals in every Top 10 city, other than San Francisco, with audience margins in some cities running more than 6 to 1 against CBS!

Sounds pretty good to me. If you're a Nielsen family, please, please, do not watch SeeBS For anything--entertainment, sports, news, you name it.

So who has to get canned before we start watching SeeBS again?

The list is getting longer:

1. Dan Rather
2. Mary Mapes (producer of the fraudulent segments)
3. Andrew Heyward (CBS News President)

And of course we need to know the source of the memos and the appointment of an acceptable ombudsman, say Bernard Goldberg or Brent Bozell.

Any other suggestions?

 
DAN RATHER’S LATEST HIT


Turn up your speakers!

 
Packer Nation

The WaPo has an amusing article about the Kerry/Bush battle for Packer fans. Wisconsin's definitely one of the toss-up states at this point, and the two campaigns are battling to gain the loyalty of the Cheeseheads.

They mention Kerry's gaffe calling Lambeau Field Lambert Field, and note that President Bush took a poke at Kerry over that mistake:

"I got some advice for him," Bush told Wisconsinites a few days after the Lambert gaffe. "If someone offers you a cheesehead, don't say you want some wine, just put it on your head and take a seat at Lambeau Field." Vice President Cheney made the obligatory pilgrimage to Green Bay last week to pile on. "I thought after John Kerry's visit here I'd visit Lambert Field," Cheney told a crowd at a Republican fundraising dinner Thursday night. Then he went in for the kill. "The next thing is he'll be convinced Vince Lombardi is a foreign leader."



Hat Tip: I was emailed the story by a reader but can't locate the email now; the photo was pointed out by Aaron at Something to Cry About.

 
PRIDE GOETH BEFORE THE FALL


Lord Kerry

Did John Kerry really think it would be easy? Did he honestly (no pun intended) believe no one would check on his Excellent Vietnam Adventures and his medals (to say nothing of his voting record)? Did he really believe that his word was holy, his record sacrosanct? With books and taped interviews and old news stories all waiting to be mined for verification? The truth is that he probably thought no one would bother, that all he had to do was drape himself in the mantle of Vietnam Hero and he was set to go. He’s that conceited. Which is why there doesn’t seem to be a Kamp Kerry Plan B other than to attack. His tactics reveal that he has no sense of shame or conscience, no sense of humility, and, unlike Clinton, Kerry can’t fake them.

Why Kerry is doing so poorly
Marvin Olasky
Neither John Kerry nor his handlers appear to understand the importance of pivotal moments in national and personal life.
…
Candidate Kerry is trying to project an image of first in war, first in antiwar, first in understanding the nuances now. That leaves him last in the American League. Because Christianity, the religion of the second chance, is so important in this country, George W. Bush's declaration of a marred past and midlife change resonates well.

And this won’t help him, either.
KAMIKAZE KERRY RIDES ALONG WITH LOSER DAN
By Deborah Orin
Republicans are bemused that Team Kerry now wants to piggyback on Rather. "All it does is gin up the Republican conservative base for Bush. They hate Dan Rather as much as they hate John Kerry," said GOP pollster Jim McLaughlin.

 
Rather Funny

I had to chuckle at this old comic strip.

Hat Tip: Instapundit

 
LA Times In Fantasy World

What more can you say about this ridiculous headline:

Long a Republican Bulwark, a Growing Arizona Is in Play

But, as Hugh Hewitt points out, if you read the Dog Trainer to the 18th paragraph, there is this little fact:

A poll taken for the Arizona Republic and released last week showed Bush ahead of Kerry, 54% to 38%. In contrast, the newspaper's polls in August and June had Bush ahead of Kerry by just 3 percentage points, a lead within the survey's margin of error.

Translation: When people weren't paying attention, a liberal newspaper managed to cobble together a poll that said that the Democrats had a chance in the Grand Canyon State.

 
This is Good News

Kerry intends to spend lots of money in North Carolina, starting in October. According to Dale's Electoral College Calculator, the last poll in North Carolina had President Bush up 13 percentage points. BTW, since we highlighted him yesterday afternoon, Gerry has moved Ohio out of the tossup category and into slightly favoring the Prez. Life is good!

 
The Antiwar Criminal

 
Cadet Happy Does It Again!

This one got the folks in the other offices poking their heads in my door and asking me what was so funny.

 
New Linker

Just saw that we'd gotten another link in one of the posts below from the Jesse Factor, a blog written by a 14-year-old young man with some guest posting.

Now, I'll warn you up front that his blog has a fair amount of profanity in it, and certainly appears to be a skeptical site about religion. But the poster John (who wrote the most recent post) can certifiably write, or should I say rant. Check out his description of Zell Miller:

Zell wants to grab Osama by the beard, light it on fire, and then choke him to death with his own turban.

Now that is just a fun image to contemplate. There's lots of stuff that made me laugh out loud, and there's a fair amount that made me wince; he is, after all, 14. But, if a little salty language and occasional gross-outs don't bother you, surf on over to the Jesse Factor and check it out. Like I said, this young man can write.

 
FRAUD CBS

Dan Rather is a fraud. He is a liar. He has engaged in a criminal conspiracy in an attempt to throw the election to John Fraud Kerry.



This image created for Kerry Haters by Kerry Waffles.

I watched the show just now and I am absolutely furious. We need to know who gave him those fraudulent memos and how they obtained them, and we need to know it now. Rather is claiming that nobody has criticized the gist of the story, just the documents, ignoring the fact that Barnes' daughter says he's lying, ignoring that without the memos there is no "news" in the story.

Dan Rather is a liar and he needs to be off CBS News, now.

 
SeeBS' Statement

Powerline posted the text of CBS' statement, but I found that CBS had put a longer statement (pdf warning) online. Why would they put up a pdf? The only think I can think of is to make it tougher to copy the information.

About the only "news" in here is the fact that SeeBS had all six of the documents that USA Today mentions, not just the four they noted on 60 Minutes II.

Anyway, the gist is that they are going to put Jerry Killian's old secretary on 60 Minutes tonight and she'll say that she thinks the documents are fake, but that they do reflect actual documents. As one of my friends said, that's like saying this Mona Lisa is a phony, but it is something like what Da Vinci painted.

This is just plain unacceptable. Are they going to present Lt. Col. Killian's widow and son on TV to say that they don't think their father felt that way about the future President?

Mark Steyn on the Hugh Hewitt show today speculated that CBS is protecting the Kerry campaign by not revealing the source. That makes a lot of sense to me. Otherwise, why would they ruin their supposed good name for a story that's quite silly.

 
Rather Tried and Failed

The Boston Globe has an interesting headline on the oped piece by Kuttner:

Kerry must 'reframe' Bush -- and fast

 
Dales Electoral College Breakdown: 270 for Bush

That is, if you include states that Gerry considers "slight" for Bush; 270 is the magic number. Gerry includes 35 EVs in three states (PA, NM, CO) he considers tossup; the latest polls show President Bush leading in all three states.

 
Kerry Started Revising His History As Early As the New Soldier

David Skinner reveals some surprising (and unnoted) deletions in the New Soldier, compared to Kerry's actual testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

It seems interesting, then, that Kerry's own words were heavily edited for the book. For starters, his most provocative statement about war crimes committed by U.S. soldiers was left out. And this elision, like several others, was not indicated in the text by ellipses or any other punctuation to make it clear that what the reader sees on the page is an incomplete and selectively transcribed version of the future senator's testimony.

Among other things, the book does not include Kerry's charges about American soldiers raping, pillaging and acting in a fashion reminiscent of "Jenjis" Khan, as Kerry pronounced it, or his bizarre reference to the Indian nation of Alcatraz.

 
Blogger Roundup

Matt's Rants has some advice for the two candidates in the debates based on his observation of pivotal moments in prior debates.

GOP and the City seems to be channelling Jeff Foxworthy, with a series of "You're so liberal if..." jokes.

The Man Without Qualities speculates that Dan Rather and the DNC are involved in a murder/suicide pact.

Sergeant America at Johnny Four Months says Nuancy Boy is a fully automatic liar. (Sound check at work).

You can hear Wild Bill speak thanks to the miracle of AudioBlogger. I got a hunch a bunch of talk radio wannabes (including yours truly) are going to be all over this.

 
We're Doomed

Uh-oh, sounds like Karl Rove is going to have some sleepless nights.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, often credited with giving a boost to John Kerry's presidential campaign, is launching a seven-week election drive for his Massachusetts colleague that will pair fund raising and travel with a barrage of speeches condemning President Bush's policies.



Hat Tip: Dynamo Buzz

 
The Other RatherGate

Anne Morse details one of Rather's other fraudulent stories in an excellent article in NRO.

Why would Dan Rather do such a thing? Partly because the stories of deranged, trip-wire vets is much more dramatic than the true story: That most Vietnam veterans came home to live normal, productive, happy lives. Second, Rather apparently wanted the story of whacked-out Vietnam veterans to be true — just as he now wants the Jerry Killian story to be true.

I think that nails it exactly. Rather went with both stories because they confirmed his existing bias.

Drudge is reporting that CBS will acknowledge the falsity of the memos but will insist on the truth of the story. Not good enough. First, they've gotta disclose the source of the memos; they have no defense for not doing so now that they've admitted that it was fraudulent. Second Rather Must Go.

 
New to the Legion

We are pleased to welcome Defeat John-John. Hugh Hewitt mentioned this website on the air the other day and I meant to link it but forgot. Best of all, they've got comics, including this one which reveals the sinister plotting of President George W. Bush goes way back to his Air National Guard days. The magic typewriter now joins the magic hat and the mystery boat as the stuff of 2004 campaign legend.

 
Democrats' Brilliant New Stategery: Gripe About 2000

You know, the libs like to claim that we Republicans get our marching orders via the morning email or fax from Karl Rove. Realistically, it seems more like the Democrats are the ones in lockstep.

Yesterday afternoon, Hugh Hewitt had law professors John Eastman and Erwin Chemerinsky on his show. Given the last word, liberal Chemerinsky went off on a bizarre tangent about how the 2000 election was stolen by the Republicans despite Al Gore's winning the popular vote. Hugh had a good chuckle over a constitutional scholar talking in terms of the popular vote.

This morning, Robert Kuttner voices similar concerns.

Bush's presidency has been an even bigger lie, beginning with the dishonest way he assumed office and the gap between his moderate posture and his extremist policies.

 
Unfit For Selling Books?--Updated

Check out this post on the Borders Books' employees union site on the thread entitled "Unfit for Command" (see update below):

You guys don't actually HAVE to sell the thing!

Just "carelessly" hide the boxes, "accidentally" drop them off pallets, "forget" to stock the ones you have, and then suggest a nice Al Franken or Micheal Moore book as a substitute. Borders wants those recommends, remember?

I don't care if these Neandertals in fancy suits get mad at me, they aren't regular customers anyway. Other than "Left Behind" books, they don't read. Anything you can do to make them feel unwelcome is only fair. They are the people pushing retailers to cut costs, don't forget. And they would censor your speech, your books, your music in a heartbeat, so give them a taste of it!

Don't get mad, get even!

Indeed.

Update: The site went down with the sudden traffic surge from Kerry Haters readers ;). You can view Google's cache of the page here.

Hat Tip: Little Green Footballs

 
Will Somebody Tell the LA Times News Division That The Editorial Divison Has Decided The Memos Are Bogus?

Hilariously, after yesterday's editorial, Elizabeth Jensen writes an article about brave Dan Rather facing down the partisans.

But the issue doesn't show signs of dying down soon, partly because of the 72-year-old anchor's volatile history with the Bush family and decades-old criticisms that Rather has a liberal bent.

How about saying instead, "partly because the memos are obvious forgeries and Dan's driving the tank for John Kerry"?

 
Kerry/Imus Interview

Check out CrushKerry's review:
Here are our quick thoughts on the Kerry/Imus interview:
He was a mumbling fool about being asked what he would do in Iraq. He got very defensive and said "Why don't you ask the President these questions". Imus rightfully pointed out that since Kerry was running for President he should give those answers.
Kerry is so arrogant that he bristles at questions highlighting his multiple contradictions. When someone constantly has to say "I don't think I could have been clearer" or "I've said it hundreds of times", the problem is not with people understanding what you say, it's with you. But he thinks he's infallible.

 
LET’S BE HONEST

8 Honesty voiced at The American Spectator.
Lying in Wait
By Jay D. Homnick
GLOVES OFF, LET'S TELL it like it is. Like it has been for some time. Democrats lie. They lie all the time. Not just campaign promises, which are the political version of the pickup line: conceived in passion, developed in romance, aborted by reality. But vicious scurrilous lies of all stripes, seasoned by all manner of corruption and cheating.

8 Refreshing honesty from Dem strategist, Pat Caddell.
Pat Caddell Unloads on His Own Party
I think the problem is, first of all, I don't think the [Kerry] campaign has a definition. It didn't have one in Boston. You know, the reason we had the problem with the swift boats is not because George Bush rounded up the swift boat veterans, it's because the Democratic campaigners decided they would make John Kerry's campaign about Vietnam. And when you take that scab off, the natural result was going to be to bring people out who have very strong feelings. Nobody in history has ever run for president as a hero. You become a hero because people know you're a hero. You don't run around and say you're a hero.

8 Caddell said he wasn't trying to sensationalize the issue, explaining that instead "I'm trying to save my party, you know, by telling the truth."
He said that forfeiting the presidential race would be the least of his party's problems if Democrats are tied to any forgery scandal.
"The race is over – and we've got bigger problems than that," he warned.

 
Kerry Stops By Steve's Soul Food Restaurant



Meanwhile the campaign staff was on the phone to the local yacht club for shrimp vandaloo and yakuza-dusted scallops.

 
Over At Crush Kerry

They take a hard look at Lt. Col. Killian's secretary's claim that while the memos SeeBS used on their 60 Minutes II broadcast are fake, they reflect actual memos. A superb Fisking of a woman who, while smarter than Dan Rather in that she doesn't try to support the fraudulent memos, is clearly an ABB partisan Democrat.

 
THE SKUNK AT THE LAWN PARTY

When someone wasn't well liked, my grandmother used to say, "He's about as popular as a skunk at a lawn party."
NOBODY LIKES HIM
By Dick Morris
JOHN Kerry is in deeper trouble than the polls indicate. While the Fox News survey taken last week after the Republican convention shows Bush with a small lead over Kerry, the internal data indicates big shifts against the Democrat.
…
[T]he poll shows that Kerry must face a basic problem: His own voters don't like him very much.
…
Kerry never had time to make America like him. He won the nomination before anyone really got to know him and has coasted on anti-Bush campaigning ever since. Even now, he relies on the old National Guard records of Bush to animate his campaign, as if we are about to form our judgment of how Bush would be as a commander based on 30-year- old, possibly forged records rather than on our own observation of how he has done the job. But Kerry has got to close the most fundamental gap of his candidacy: Voters don't like him very much.

 
Silver Star Story Makes the NY Post

I suspect the lag between the stories hitting the blogs and when they hit the maintstream media is decreasing.

Members of the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth say the report vindicates their claim that Kerry didn't show the kind of valor that merits a Silver Star. The after-action report was obtained from the Navy archives by syndicated TV commentator Mark Hyman of "The Point." A Navy official confirmed its authenticity.

John O'Neill, a leader of the Swift Vets running anti-Kerry TV ads, said the document shows Kerry "was pursuing a wounded man and not charging alone into superior numbers and intense fire," as his Silver Star citation claims.

As I've said before, it's high time the solons at the NY Times and other liberal outlets stopped referring to the "discredited claims" of the Swift Boat Vets and started referring to the discredited claims of John Fraud Kerry.

 
Where's the Peach Basket?



Kerry prepares to make himself look foolish at a new sport.

 
Cue the Music to "Rocky"



Rocky LX, that is.

Believe it or not, I did come up with this idea before Lucianne, I just forgot to post it.

 
LA Times Editorializes on RatherGate

They aren't gentle:

A Black Eye for CBS News

CBS News has been had. It's hard to reach any other conclusion about newly discovered documents that CBS and anchor Dan Rather are defending as revealing the truth about George W. Bush's military service.

Despite Rather's statement Monday that the network "believes the documents are authentic," the evidence keeps mounting that they are not. As The Times reported, conservative bloggers detected glaring inconsistencies, such as a Microsoft Word type style. So many other discrepancies have since emerged that it would require a willful suspension of disbelief to take them as merely coincidental.



Anybody think Ramirez reads the blogs? ;)

Hat Tip: Polipundit on the editorial.

 
New Media/Old Media

Cadet Happy has two quite excellent photo gags on new media (especially blogs) versus old media (SeeBS, NY Times). Kevin really does a good job on these; they're smart conceptually, well-executed, and funny. I am continually amazed at the work he does.

Speaking of Dan Rather, Chicago Ray has evidence that George W. Bush was not in Alabama in 1972 that would surely pass muster with the fact-checkers at the Tiffany (snicker) network.

 
Kerry Even Incoherent in Prepared Remarks

Get this:

Over the last few years, I've thought a lot about why America is heading in the wrong direction. Lost jobs, health care costs through the roof, the surplus gone, our alliances shredded, and our influence challenged. And then the other day, we were driving along the road in our campaign bus, and I saw a sign with a lone "W" leaning up against a post. At first, I was a little confused. But then, it all made sense.

As the President likes George W. Bush. And the W stands for wrong. Wrong choices, wrong direction, and wrong leadership for America. And this election all comes down to one decision: Do we want four more years of wrong choices, or do we want to move America in a new direction?

"As the President likes George W. Bush"?

 
Blogger Roundup

Cluebat Factory has a great post about the disarray in the Kerry campaign. I especially liked the description of an off-the-tracks speech that Kerry gave in North Carolina (!) last week.

No Oil for Pacifists explains Kerry's apparent flip-flops.

The Blogspirator has a prediction which ties into a Crush Kerry post from earlier today about new documents obtained by the Swiftees that ensure that Kerry will continue to take fire from the men who served with him. This is pretty intriguing.

The Nudnik File has an interesting point on the root causes of terrorism.

If you would like to be included in our next blogger roundup, please feel free to mention the post you'd like a link to in the comments to this post. Usual conditions apply.

 
In Bill's World

Bill Faith was kind enough to email me a little tip to make our countdown calendar a little nicer-looking. He's got a marvelous blog called In Bill's World that I highly recommend. I was especially drawn to this post about "Just Dumb Ol' George", which features two of the most poignant photos of this election season; both still bring tears to my eyes. There are a lot of reasons why President Bush will win on November 2nd, but certainly one of them is that he's just plain a nice guy with genuine compassion in his heart.

Don't pay attention to the date on the post; you haven't missed the election.

 
Generalissimo Blogs

Hugh Hewitt's producer, Duane, has started his own blog. Looks pretty good for a new blog, but he's gotta add permalinks and sadly, his blogroll does not include Kerry Haters as of yet. Perhaps he's a closet Kerry fan? He does have two of his nine slots allotted to guys who are planning on voting for JF'ingK (Matt Yglesias and Mickey Kaus).

 
Dan Rather's No Swiftee

Crush Kerry takes on Newsweek's attempt to draw an equivalence between the latest attacks on President Bush and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Secondly, the “moral equivalence angle” is a diabolical characterization that deserves condemnation from every right thinking American. There is a yawning distinction between the credible questions asked of John Kerry by men who served at his side in Vietnam and the partisan ramblings of forged-document pushing news fossils on Viacom owned news outfits.

Indeed. Can you imagine how discredited the Swiftees would be if they had come forward with four forged documents in an effort to sabotage Kerry?

 
I Am The Great And Powerful Oz!



Hat Tip: Kerry Waffles, which has tons of fresh content. How does Chris do it? My first guess is cloning. He's got a tremendous new movie called Sell-Out (Choose open). Be sure to watch to the end; there's a great gag in the credits.

The only problem with Chris' website is that there is almost too much superb content; you could get lost there for hours.

 
Don't Ask, Just Go!

Our buddy Aaron at Something to Cry About has put up some very impressive posts in the last few months. His mental age is clearly well above his chronological age, as this tremendous post on his experiences at the Kerry Lied demonstration reveals. Warning: page is somewhat slow to load because of all the pictures, but it is well worth the wait.

What a breath of fresh air to see people who are there simply to pay their respect to those who fought for our freedom. I shook the hands of three men and thanked them saying, "I wasn't alive during Viet Nam, but I know that I am free today because of the sacrifices you and your friends made."

Great work, Aaron!

 
RATHERGATE SOURCE?

Leftwing Dissention Sets In as Finger Pointing Begins
Frequent readers of CrushKerry know we have sources inside the Kerry campaign and the Democrat National Committee who occasionally toss us a little nugget of information. Just this morning we spoke to one such source who told us the Kerry campaign is furious with how incredibly out-of-control the whole Rather-gate scandal has gotten.
Our source assures us the Kerry campaign had nothing to do with the memo itself.

Read the rest to learn WHO Kamp Kerry believes created the memos. Do you agree?

 
POLITICAL OPPORTUNIST


(L) U.S. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry admires a shotgun presented to him at Labor Day celebrations in Racine, West Virginia, September 6, 2004. (R) Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry is joined by gun control activist Sarah Brady in Washington, DC September 13, 2004. Kerry rebuked President George W. Bush for letting a ban on assault weapons expire and said his Republican rival paid for tax cuts by taking police off the streets and slashing anti-drug programs.

Big Game Assaulter
By Shawn Macomber
[W]henever Kerry needs a political pick-me-up, he seems to like to go out and have his picture taken shooting some poor creature. It's depressing because you just know watching the whole scene that Teresa is going to refuse to clean and cook the animal, never mind let it anywhere near the Royal Heinz Dining Table. Teresa may have a potty mouth like Granny Clampett, but it is unlikely that she has the same affinity for critter soup.
Kerry, however, is always careful to dilute his brawn with poetry. (Well, outside the Midwest, anyway.) After discussing the ins and outs of hunting with a Washington Post reporter, Kerry shared the following verse he penned:

"I had a talk with a deer today/we met upon the road some way … between his frequent snorts/He asked me if I sought his pelt/cause if I did he said he felt/quite out of sorts!"

So far it is not known whether Kerry has a poem commemorating the moment when he shot that Vietnamese teenager in the back.

"PCF 94 beached in center of ambush in front of small path when Viet Cong sprung up from bunker 10 feet from unit. Man ran with weapon towards hootch. Forward M-60 machine gunner wounded man in leg. Officer-in-charge, LTjg Kerry, jumped ashore and gave pursuit while other units saturated area with fire and beached placing assault parties ashore. Kerry chased VC inland behind hootch and shot him while he fled -- capturing one B-40 rocket launcher with round in chamber."

…
THERE IS NO WORD on what kind of firepower Kerry plans to pick up now that the assault weapons ban has lapsed. It is likely that to some degree it depends on how Kerry's poll numbers hold up. If we get too close to November 2 without a bounce for the challenger, it is entirely possible he might show up hunting rats in the backstreets of Harlem with an M-16 or coyotes in Arizona with an Uzi submachine gun or skunk in the alleys of Concord, New Hampshire, with a pistol-grip shotgun.

 
Dan Rather Isn't Getting Away With It

He gets a gang tackle in the media today:

Jonah Goldberg compares him to the dinosaurs or the Hapsburgs.

Deb Saunders says Rather's got mud all over his face.

CBS' expert witness begins to feel a certain frostiness in his lower pedal regions.

John Podhoretz wonders when the adults will step in at CBS. As I said yesterday, when the controversy starts affecting the entertainment division.

Tony Blankley uses the fishing metaphor.

"The major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur." That observation by the British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead came to mind this past week as I watched Dan Rather struggle violently like a proud old marlin caught on a hook by the young Internet fishermen. Twisting and turning, the great fish only drives the hook deeper in. Plunging and rising, it only exhausts itself while the exuberant Internet fishermen carefully manage the line and grab for the powerful hand hook with which they will end the great fish's sea-life.