Bob's Place: September 2004

Thursday, September 30, 2004

America hating in Canada runs deep

Even the Canadian Armed Forces hate the U.S. - no surprise about the rest of the "country" , as that's what their leaders project. I'm sure this will be as futile as the efforts of the NYT "ombudsman", Okrent:

"OTTAWA (CP) - The military ombudsman has launched a special investigation into why Canadian Forces snipers were treated like "turncoats" by their comrades after serving with American troops in Afghanistan........../snip/...

Hailed as heroes in early 2002 by the U.S. military, the six Canadian marksmen were later given highly coveted Bronze Star medals - awards normally reserved for American soldiers who display extraordinary heroism during combat.

However, sources close to the investigation say the snipers were treated with much less than high regard when they returned to their Canadian bases, both in Afghanistan and back home.

"They were treated as outsiders and sort of turncoats," said one source who didn't want to be identified.

"At least three of these guys have since quit the army over their treatment."..../snip/"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:24 PM |

Lazy Media Hacks and their agenda

Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy notes that our MSM in their laziness, ignorance, and bias can't even get correctly the law that was overturned in a court decision:(Also linked to Outside the Beltway)

"No, not really. But is it too much to ask that when the mainstream media reports on court decisions that they properly identify the law that is struck down and the Administration that is rebuked? Apparently it is, at least if the Thursday morning papers are any guide.

As I noted in my post below, a recent decision of the Southern District of New York struck down part of a 1986 law known as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. How does the press report the decision? No mention of the 1986 law, of course. Instead, the press is reporting that the court struck down a major part of the Patriot Act, in a blow to the Bush Administration's overzealous response to terrorism. As I trace the history of the statute, this is quite inaccurate: the basic law was implemented in 1986, almost 20 years ago. To be fair, the Patriot Act did amend some language in this section; just not in a relevant way. As best I can tell, the court's decision does not rely on or even address anything in the Patriot Act. (See page 14-22 of the Court's opinion for the details of the statute's history.)

But of course you don't get that from the mainstream press, which likes to report everything related to terorrism as if it were the Patriot Act. Here is the New York Times:"

Judge Strikes Down Section of Patriot Act Allowing Secret Subpoenas of Internet Data
By JULIA PRESTON
A federal judge struck down an important surveillance provision of the antiterrorism legislation known as the USA Patriot Act yesterday, ruling that it broadly violated the Constitution by giving the federal authorities unchecked powers to obtain private information. The ruling, by Judge Victor Marrero of Federal District Court in Manhattan, was the first to uphold a challenge to the surveillance sections of the act, which was adopted in October 2001 to expand the powers of the federal government in national security investigations. The ruling invalidated one piece of the law, finding that it violated both free speech guarantees and protection against unreasonable searches. It is thought likely to provide fuel for other court challenges.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 1:46 PM |

Flip Flop on NRO

I couldn't express my feelings any better than a reader of Jonah Goldberg (of which I am also a regular)(scroll down):

FLIP-FLOPPING [Jonah Goldberg]

Interesting point from a reader:

Sir: You and Kerry both miss the point of the flip-flopping charge. Changing one's opinion isn't a problem. It's changing one's opinion (the flip), then changing BACK to the original opinion (the flop). THAT is what Kerry keeps doing, and Bush doesn't.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 1:04 PM |

Kerryisms conflictatorus

The Manchester Union Leader (New Hampshire - in the Northeast shockingly!) lists a group of the contradictory positions taken by the Democrat leader as a "Cliff's Notes" for the debate tonight:

"SEN. JOHN KERRY has taken so many conflicting positions on the war in Iraq and the War on Terror that there is no telling what he might say during tonight’s foreign policy debate with President Bush. As a primer for tonight’s debate, we give you a brief run-down of the varied and nuanced positions Sen. Kerry has taken (so far) on the issues that will be discussed tonight........."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 11:28 AM |

War questions

Following are my answers to Orin Kerr as posted on the Volokh Conspiracy dated 9/28:

First, assuming that you were in favor of the invasion of Iraq at the time of the invasion, do you believe today that the invasion of Iraq was a good idea? Why/why not?
Good or bad "ideas" are not related to decisions about war. War is only contemplated in response to present or future threats. This war certainly succeeded in moving the battleground from mainland US to the middle east.

Second, what reaction do you have to the not-very-upbeat news coming of Iraq these days, such as the stories I link to above?
The so-called MSM is incapable of providing "upbeat news" from Iraq or any other US Theatre of Operations because their cocooning and pack mentality is left wing and hostile to any assertion of US power.

Third, what specific criteria do you recommend that we should use over the coming months and years to measure whether the Iraq invasion has been a success?
To measure the successful invasion over the coming months would be a self-defeating exercise in futility, as the invasion was completed successfully over a year ago. Criteria to be used in measuring pacification and democracy building efforts are best defined by the troops on the ground and their leaders, even though such criteria and reports will be buried and ignored by the MSM as not fitting their pre-determined and myopic story line. Thankfully, the Blogosphere has numerous members fitting the above and other posts from natives and current residents of Iraq. Perhaps enough people will read them to eventually overcome or at least ameliorate the bias of the MSM. As to specific criteria, what's wrong with economic activity, education, and democratic activity? None of this is noticed by our "elite betters", who report only deaths, kidnappings, hostages, hatred, and "widespread attacks".

UPDATE: The following from Clayton Cramer illustrates my point about the MSM exactly:

Stories Like This Make Me Wonder How Low The Mainstream Media Will Go

This is from an article in the Tennessean, in which one of their columnists relates what he found out from talking to Marines in Iraq. Part of this indicates that NBC is engaging in at least questionable journalistic practices as part of their "Defeat Bush" campaign:

Consider this story Rose saw reported: ''I was going through the battle damage assessment at my desk with NBC's Today on the TV. The attack occurred in the middle of the night. I had the footage of the attack on my computer, and here's Katie Couric (or whoever hosts it) showing the same bomb location.

''I had pictures of the bombed vehicles, which is how I knew she was talking about the same location. The next shot is kids being carried into a hospital. We had eyes on this for a long time. If there were kids in there, they were toting weapons or the terrorists used them as human shields. …

''I went to our Combat Operations Center and walked into them watching the same thing. I verified what I thought and spoke with our intelligence guys. They said the whole thing was staged and probably old footage. They track the footage and have seen repeat footage shown in the past. They also said to look at the footage and see if it makes sense. More often than not, it doesn't … pulling a child from rubble with relatively clean clothes. ''

And there are other examples of significant news that is not being reported, that should be:

''The Najaf shrine — HUNDREDS of dead women and children were brought out after Sadr left,'' Rose wrote. ''They (Sadr's supporters) rounded them up during the battle and brought them in to be executed. Why? Because they anticipated the Americans would eventually enter the shrine and walk into a media ambush. We never went in. The people of Najaf love us right now because of that. They hate Sadr and want him dead.

''Have you heard that one yet (in the media)?''

No we haven't. We just get one side. That's bad journalism — by a news media acting in concert with Kerry.

This sounds like it should have been a major story. But it reflects badly on anti-U.S. insurgents, so don't expect any coverage of it on ABC, CBS, NBC, or CNN.

Is there anything that the mainstream media won't do to defeat Bush?
posted by Clayton at 10:26 AM

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 10:13 AM |

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Despicable Haters

Betsy says what we should all feel about such horrendous people. The shame is that they lie on all their life activities by both word and action:

"Here's on more reason to vote for Bush. I just heard the despicable Julianne Malveaux say on Dennis Miller's show that if Bush wins, she'll be down at the passport office on November 3. If only. Of course, we're still waiting for Alec Baldwin and Barbra Streisand to hightail it out of here.
posted by Betsy Newmark 9:04 PM (0) comments"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 9:54 PM |

"Jimmah Carter sucks"

Denny Wilson at Grouchy Old Cripple (and Georgia resident) has some pithy and accurate observations about the partisan peanut farmer and his revolting family.....come on, Denny - tell us what you really think! I think you may be underplaying the damage caused by this dipwad.

".......I wish Jimmah Carter would just live out his senility in Plains Georgia rather than constantly inflicting himself on us.

There used to be a rule that politics stopped at the waters' edge and politicians (especially incompetent and washed up politicians like Jimmah Carter) didn't run around the world badmouthing the United States' foreign policy. That rule stopped with the Clintons and Jimmah Carter.

The whole Nobel Peace Prize was nothing but a jab at our foreign policy and Jimmah was a nitwit to accept it.

Anyway, Jimmah Carter talking about foreign policy is like Bill Clinton talking about celibacy. It's like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton talking about racial harmony. It's like Ted Kennedy talking about sobriety and safe driving........../snip/...."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 2:18 PM |

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

The Peanut Partisan Hack

Jane Galt has some suggestions for "Jimmah's" latest outrage. It's a shame he's such a hypocrite and ineffective international "leader". Also linked to Outside the Beltway.

"/snip/Your outrage at the idea of a supervisor brazenly allowing people to vote for someone other than Al Gore might give people the mistaken idea that you care less about having democratic elections than having Democratic elections./snip/

.......Just some suggestions. It would be a shame to squander your reputation by accidentally implying that your ideals are subservient to your ideology."

UPDATE:
The New York Post seems to have similar problems with the old hypocrite and dictator lover:

"......Jimmy Carter seems to have a thing for heavy-handed rulers; before Chavez, there was his affection for North Korea's Stalinist thug, Kim Jong Il.

That's between the former president and his conscience, of course. But he would do well to butt out of America's sometimes flawed, but fundamentally fair, electoral processes."

UPDATE 2:

Peter Kirsanow of the US Civil Rights Commission adds some rational thought to Carter's partisan rant in the National Review Online:

....."Yet, despite his concern for the integrity of the electoral process in Florida, Carter fails to make a single reference to the real possibility of outright vote fraud — a problem that could easily be magnified in the 2004 election given numerous reports of problems related to voter registration and absentee ballots./snip/
......The 2000 election in Florida was not particularly unusual. The problems experienced in that state also occurred in many other states and in most previous elections. Even Florida's ballot spoilage rate was within the usual range. But Florida 2000 has devolved into a partisan talking point employed to excite the black electorate with allegations of voter intimidation and stolen ballots. No one disputes that the electoral process needs improvement. But highly charged allegations of bias and partisanship, especially with a racial tinge, won't accomplish that objective."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:15 AM |

Monday, September 27, 2004

Debate?

Courtesy of Lucianne and AFP, this hits to the heart of the debates:

"Honing lines of attack before the first debate of the 2004 White House race, President George W. Bush said Democrat John Kerry shifts positions on Iraq so often he "could spend 90 minutes debating himself.""
Quote of the day:

"President Bush has had to practice twice as hard to learn all the different positions that John Kerry has taken on the big issues of the day." -Dan Bartlett, White House spokesman

UPDATE from Slate:

If the Election Were Held Today

Winner

Loser

321 Electoral Votes
182 solid, 139 close

217 Electoral Votes
153 solid, 64 close

Today's analysis: The five national polls that began 9/20 or later show Bush margins of 4, 4, 6, 7, and 8, averaging out to a 6-point Bush lead. Good news for Bush in Florida: Gallup now gives him a narrow edge. Good news for Kerry in Pennsylvania: A thorough Temple University poll confirms his small lead there. New Hampshire, where Bush had a lead outside the margin, is now a tie (we keep it in Bush's column for the time being), and both Arizona and Missouri have slipped from solid Bush to close Bush. Even Virginia is closer than expected. The trend seems generally in Kerry's favor.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 2:14 PM |

Parody with truth

Michael Ackley parodies the actual rules of "elitist apologies". Unfortunately, it parallels the actual happenings too closely:

"If caught in a serious error, especially one occasioned by your own, questionable motives, always say you "regret," not that you are "apologizing" or "sorry." The first implies that you are feeling pain; the latter two may be taken to connote penitence or contrition.
Always express regret about your "judgment" rather than your intent. Imply your error was the result of your zeal to "get the story," rather than your zeal to advance your philosophical or political agenda. People will forgive the former, but not the latter.
If your error damaged or was designed to damage somebody – say, a political candidates – always pretend that your viewers rather than your target are the aggrieved parties. Never apologize to your real victims."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 10:12 AM |

Sunday, September 26, 2004

Bless Ann Coulter

She may be rough in her language, but her accuracy will withstand challenge:

"CBS was attempting to manipulate a presidential election in wartime. What if CBS had used better forgeries? What if -- like Bush's 30-year-old DUI charge -- the media had waited 72 hours before the election to air this character assassination?

There is one reason CBS couldn't wait until just before the election to put these forgeries on the air: It would be too late. Kerry was crashing and burning -- because of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. (Funny that the Swift Boat veterans haven't been able to get on Kerry PR agency CBS News.)"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 1:01 PM |

Plagiarism by the high and mighty again!

Joseph Bottum in The Weekly Standard describes convincingly plagiarism by one of the highest representatives of the Democratic Party and Harvard University:

"/snip/........

So what shall we say of Laurence H. Tribe when he does it--without the footnotes that he so condescendingly told the Harvard undergraduates exonerated Goodwin? If she deserves excuse because she "had not the slightest intention to deceive, to claim originality for thoughts that were unoriginal, or to appropriate another's deathless prose in hopes that she might be credited with a literary gift that belongs in truth to someone else," what excuse is deserved by Professor Tribe?

Perhaps the explanation for the whole thing is simply vanity, Tom Mallon's "peculiar psychology" by which the famous need constant reaffirmation of their fame. Or perhaps it's merely what Henry J. Abraham supposes: "He's a big mahatma and thinks he can get away with this sort of thing."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 8:24 AM |

The way it is today isn't how it was

Joanne Jacobs comments on Rathergate and the Blogosphere with acute insight and understanding - as Glenn Reynolds says, read the whole thing. She can also be found at her Blog:

"/snip/Here's the way it is now: Americans don't take the news on trust. The idea that something is so because Dan Rather says it's so . . . That pig didn't fly even before CBS staked its credibility on a stack of MS Word documents./snip/

/snip/A few days after "60 Minutes" claimed to have 30-year-old memos from George W. Bush's National Guard commander, a former CBS executive vice president, Jonathan Klein, sneered at the critics who claimed the old memos had to be modern forgeries written on a computer. "You couldn't have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of check and balances (of professional journalists) and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing," Klein said on Fox News on Sept. 10./snip/

/snip/As it turned out, the pajama brigade beat the pants off CBS News in reporting and analysis. It took outsiders, bloggers and CBS competitors, to provide checks and balances./snip/"

Update: Another version can be found here.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 8:00 AM |

Saturday, September 25, 2004

US Military Service

In reponse to Back County Conservative's Jeff Quinton, the following military credentials are presented:
Robert L. Taylor, LTC, MSC, USA (Ret)
served active 1964-1975, including Viet Nam 1969-1970
served reserves 1976- 1992 , including 87th USAMAC exercising plans resulting in all recent Desert Operations.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 8:26 AM |

sKerry Redux

Mark Steyn in the Chicago Sun-Times provides another accurate summing up of the Democratic Party and their nominee:

"....What a small, graceless man Kerry is. The nature of adversarial politics in a democratic society makes George W. Bush his opponent. But it was entirely Kerry's choice to expand the field, to put himself on the other side of Allawi and the Iraqi people. Given his frequent boasts that he knows how to reach out to America's allies, it's remarkable how often he feels the need to insult them: Britain, Australia, and now free Iraq. But, because this pampered cipher has floundered for 18 months to find any rationale for his candidacy other than his indestructible belief in his own indispensability, Kerry finds himself a month before the election with no platform to run on other than American defeat. He has decided to co-opt the jihadist death-cult, the Baathist dead-enders, the suicide bombers and other misfits and run as the candidate of American failure. This would be shameful if he weren't so laughably inept at it......"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:51 AM |

Friday, September 24, 2004

Traitor or Hater or Both?

Kerry and his minions have now insulted and/or denigrated all current US allies, but to insult the Iraqi is, to quote Kristof and Milbank on other issues, "over the top".......the President and Vice-President couldn't have responded better (also linked to Outside the Beltway):

"Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) wrongly questioned the credibility of the interim Iraqi leader, and "you can't lead this country" while undercutting an ally, President Bush (news - web sites) said Friday."

"For the second day in a row, Vice President Cheney also criticized Kerry for his remarks on Allawi."

"I must say I was appalled at the complete lack of respect Senator Kerry showed for this man of courage," Cheney said at an event Friday morning in Lafayette, La. "Ayad Allawi is our ally. He stands beside us in the war against terror. John Kerry is trying to tear him down and to trash all the good that has been accomplished, and his words are destructive."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 2:55 PM |

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Dateline NBC/60 Minutes 2

Byron York on TheHill.com retells the story of Dateline NBC's fabrication of an attack on GM trucks and the similarities to Rathergate. The outcome will Hopefully be the same for both networks , with all persons involved in the lies being fired and disgraced (also linked to Outside the Beltway and Patterico):

"......./snip/ Gartner stood firm. While he admitted that NBC had used what he called “sparking devices” in the demonstration, he claimed that GM’s accusation was a distraction from the real story.

“GM sought to divert attention from the central issue,” Gartner said, “namely that there appear to be fundamental problems with the safety of its trucks.”

“We remain convinced that, taken in its entirety and in its detail, the segment that was broadcast on ‘Dateline NBC’ was fair and accurate.”

The short version of that is that Gartner was arguing that the “Dateline” demonstration was fake but true./snip/

We are now entering the third week of the Rathergate scandal, and there are clear indications that CBS News has no intention of following the meticulous procedures necessary to handle the credibility problem created by its broadcast of forged documents in a segment questioning President Bush’s record of service in the Texas Air National Guard./snip/........"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:24 PM |

Cal Thomas vs the Poodle

Cal Thomas again has capsulized the Poodle's accomplishments in a single paragraph See below and then go to the entire article:

"Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has achieved something possibly unique in our country's history. He has managed to oppose two wars while they are fought, undermine U.S. objectives and give aid and comfort to those killing American soldiers and kidnapping American civilians. ......"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 10:02 AM |

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

International misunderstanding

Found on the Braden Files today, this article by Dr George Friedman on Stratfor.com from 9/14/04 certainly puts the international mis-understanding of the USA in proper perspective , and accurately describes the positions of both our "friends" and "enemies" - read the entire thing!(also linked to Outside the Beltway):

"...One of the things to understand about this process is that other countries really don't understand the United States -- and in many cases, they make very little effort to do so. It is a mantra around the world that Americans are ignorant of and indifferent to the rest of the world. There is certainly a great deal of truth in that. However, it is not nearly as true as saying that most foreigners haven't the slightest idea what the United States is about or how it works. Given the enormous power of the United States and the fact that it is, after all, a country of more than a quarter-billion people, this lack of understanding is quite remarkable. Equally remarkable is the fact that foreigners seem convinced that they do understand the United States. Any French intellectual or Chinese businessman will be happy to lecture you on the nature of the United States -- usually in ways that can only be described as bizarre......"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 2:18 PM |

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Only Ben Stein

Only Ben Stein could so perfectly compare politics to life (link to Outside the Beltway)

"......Then a long nap, and then a speech to a large crowd (their biggest ever) for the postponed Lincoln Day Dinner of the Sebastian County GOP. I can summarize my speech in a few words. I said that I was a Republican because when I wanted to go to the Waffle House, Rex and Keith just took me there. Democrats would have to argue with me about carbohydrates and saturated fat and processed sugar. The Republicans just took me there and we all had waffles. (The best part was that the local cardiologist was also there having waffles.) This is GOP vs. DNC in a word. The GOP just lets you live your life. The Democrats want to tell you what to do......."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 6:25 PM |

Canadian anti-American Hate

Antonia Zerbisias at TheStar.com (Toronto Star)accurately capsules the most widespread Canadian attitude about the US.....unfortunately, the Democrats also speak of their country with the same derision. I've highlighted the words" serious political discourse" in the quote to point out that this is limited to mean only anti-Bush, anti-American, anti-Republican polemics rather than "discourse". Read the whole sleazy attack:

"Thanks to your rush to kick off a new season of 60 Minutes II on Sept. 8 with big ratings, your
bungling of what the pro-war blogosphere has dubbed "Memogate," your hesitation to admit the error of your ways and your blinkered eye on the bottom line, you carpet-bombed the U.S. presidential race with bluster and blather about proportional spacing, nuking what little remains of serious political discourse in the U.S. and making the Kerry-Edwards campaign collateral damage........"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 9:49 AM |

Monday, September 20, 2004

If the poodle were to win......

Bitch Girls pick up another good comment:

"Therein may lie the true strategic brilliance of John Kerry: after four years of Kerry in the White House, Osama bin Laden will be so damn confused, he just might forget who his enemy is." -Evan, the hottest guy in New York

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:16 AM |

CBS today

Thomas Lifson at American Thinker capsules Rathergate rather pithily:

"........There's an old saying to the effect that we sometimes become what we hate. Seems to be true for Dan Rather."

Thomas Lifson 9 20 04

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:04 AM |

Sunday, September 19, 2004

MSM Political Power?

Armed and Dangerous has an interesting and compelling discussion about sKerry and the MSM (hat tip to Vodkapundit):

".......A long-serving governor of Louisiana once boasted that he could not fail of reelection unless he was caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl. Thanks to Ra^thergate, George W. Bush has a lock on the White House unless he's at least as seriously embarrassed during the next forty days. Kerry's approval ratings are hovering around 36%. It seems that the MSM cannot deliver Evan Thomas's 15-point swing anymore — or, if it can, that the left-wing Democrats' base has dwindled to 20% of the population or less and the Democratic National Committee, too long swaddled in the media cocoon, is in far worse trouble than it understands.

Either way, the self-destruction of the MSM and the collapse of John Kerry's candidacy looks to me like no fluke. It is, rather, a culmination of trends that have been building for three decades. The trend in communications costs is not going to reverse. Therefore media gatekeepers will continue to lose power, voluntary subcultures will continue to gain influence, and the MSM's ability to set agendas will soon be one with the dust of history."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 9:24 PM |

Gunga Dan again

Kudos to Patterico for picking up this description of Gunga Dan's next 60 Minutes Special as written by LA Times Ron Rivenburg:

........."The JFK assassination: Rather reveals startling evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald met with CIA agents two days before shooting President Kennedy in Dallas. "It's all here on Oswald's Palm Pilot," Rather says."

Heh indeed!!!!!!

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:29 PM |

Blogosphere Response

Professor Bainbridge agrees with me(see previous post here) about the Wasserstein insult in the left-wing Washington Post:

........"Contrary to Wasserstein, there has been a revolution. A revolution of accountability. Hiding behind the First Amendment's skirts, the press has been practically immune to external sources of accountability. Much to the annoyance of old media, the blogosphere has proven that it can hold old media's feet to the fire. When Dan Rather resorts to forged documents provided by a known Bush hater or a columnist like Wasserstein misrepresents the facts (mischaracterizing Malkin's argument), the blogosphere provides an alternative source of information that exposes the lies, frauds, and biases of the old media. If that itsn't a revolution, what is it?"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 2:08 PM |

Clueless MSM

The following excerpt( credit to Lucianne and earlybird) from an article by Ben Wasserstein in the left-wing Washington Post shows the cluelessness and defensiveness of the so-called MSM where the blogosphere is concerned. Obviously Mr Wasserstein and his editors are, as usual, too lazy and/or too stupid to do their homework and actually search even Google for stories such as Trent Lott and AP lies in recent posts:

"Early morning Sept. 11, a poster on the conservative Free Republic website exulted, "[A]ll of us can say we were there when a few people from Free Republic kicked CBS and Kerry ass."//bloggers are getting ahead of themselves by asserting that the CBS disputed memos represent the death knell for traditional journalism//it's worth remembering how many other news stories — basically, er, all of them — have not been broken by the blogosphere."

UPDATE: Powerline provides further evidence against the MSM.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 8:37 AM |

Friday, September 17, 2004

Drill for "points only"

Lori Bird at Polipundit (hat tip to Betsy Newmark) explains the missing months of "duty" in the President's pay records. I drilled "for points only" for a not insignificant part of my retirement pay. This is common in the Guard and Reserves, especially for required Military Education:

"...../snip/in reviewing my own records, 13% of my reserve man days in my first six years were without pay and surprisingly while a college student, 21% of my reserve man days were performed 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. ...../snip/...."

Update - courtesy of Betsy's reader:

"Here is the proof that Bush's records would not have been available for Bill Burkett to see. Check out page two of this file - it is the from 330 Records Transmittal Request that was filed in November 15, 1973 that transfered his records from the Texas National Guard to the Air Reserve Personnel Center. So the files weren't hanging around in Austin for Bill Burkett to observe someone throwing them out. Thank you so much to Oak Leaf, an experienced Reservist officer for finding the link to these forms and explaining them to me."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 1:24 PM |

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Ivan

Ivan is getting close to on top of Birmingham now at 1400 CDT.....electricity's been out for 3 hours and is not expected back before the 20th of September......should be an old fashioned (electronics free) 4-5 days.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 2:01 PM |

"Let them go naked...."

McGehee has the right comment about Empress Teresa's latest gaffe:

“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 (news - web sites). “Water is necessary, and then generators, and then food, and then clothes."

"Imagine the media uproar if the wife of a Republican presidential candidate had let those four words escape her lips on the stump."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 1:59 PM |

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

"The Rather Doctrine"

Jane Galt has some pretty trenchant observations from the CBS scandal:

".../snip/Thus, the most important aspect of Ra^thergate is not whether Bush did, or did not, turn up for his national guard drills. The important question is how long can we gleefully revel in CBS's misfortune.)....../snip/
The Ra^ther Doctrine spreads . . . and my job just keeps getting easier. By next week, we're going to give up printing news entirely, and give our pages over to Tom Clancy........."/snip/

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 1:56 PM |

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

CBS and "News Debates"

NRO suggests one proper consequence of CBS' stonewall and falsification - replace Schieffer with another less compromised "news person":

".....Schieffer should be replaced by someone from some other organization. This is not to say that Schieffer himself is not a decent guy or a professional, nor it is to suggest that he personally had any role in the National Guard story. But the CBS controversy is about more than one stubborn icon, Dan Rather. The credibility of the entirety of CBS News is at stake. If outsiders are being stonewalled, it is up to insiders who care about the reputation of CBS to step up — insiders like Schieffer.........."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 4:11 PM |

Blather's epitaph and sKerry

Can't argue with Hugh Hewitt (scroll down)!!

"...Do you think Dan Rather's obituary will include a paragraph or two on this scandal? Of course it will. That's why its over. Rather is now a textbook example of how not to do journalism. His name is now, like Jayson Blair's, linked forever, with self-serving fraud..."

As to J F'n Kerry, see Drudge today:

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 1:34 PM |

Rathergate revisited

Jonah Goldberg at the NRO has the best take on the whole Rathergate mess, with a reasonable simile to history and outcome:

"........And, for Rather, this kind of draw is a loss. This could drag on for days or weeks or months. But even if it's days, the bleeding will be fatal. Already, the man looks like a sad buffoon, in denial that the quicksand is already up to his chest. His flailing about "partisan operatives" being behind the backlash makes him sound like the Norma Desmond of Big Journalism. Someone tell me when ABC News and the Washington Post become arms of the RNC, because I would love to see that memo. But before I believed it, I'd study the size of the "th"s a bit more closely than Dan did./snip/...........You might say the same to me, since I'm one of those people who've seen Dan Rather as a joke for a very long time. Fair enough. The difference is that I have better evidence on my side."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 9:53 AM |

Sunday, September 12, 2004

Rathergate End Game

IBD has some possible outcomes that sound like justice for a change:

"........If it's shown that Democrats or the Kerry campaign are the source — as suggested by comments to the American Spectator by an unnamed Kerry staffer — CBS better say so.

If the documents prove to be forgeries, resignations from Rather and CBS News President Andrew Heyward would be in order — along with a sweeping review of ethical practices at a once-proud news organization......"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 8:04 PM |

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Network News

Perhaps Tom Rosenstiel in the left wing Washington Post has a more accurate take on the impending collapse of network news than many of us have previously believed - read the whole opinion. Certainly Rathergate will support his contentions, albeit from a different direction - the Blogosphere.

"...........After this summer, Americans will no longer see network news in quite the same way. The network owners may not fully understand this. Even if they do, there is little evidence that they care."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 2:26 PM |

Rathergate

I've been watching the development of the Blogosphere response to the BM (Big Media) attack on the President. I 'm proud of the fact that our brothers have forced a response from the BM, even though it's an attempt to maintain a deliberate falsehood. Now that there is no question about the inauthenticity of the documents and the so-called "verifiers" used by CBS/Boston Globe/NYT, is it possible that Rather and company will admit their mistakes? Not a chance, but at least they will have put the first nail in the coffin containing the shreds of credibility permanently lost by the BM, now devolving to the Blogosphere and the community of fact checkers and philosophers found on the internet. To watch the pathetic attempts of the internal enemy to blame Rathergate on the Republicans, or to excuse the traitorous nature of the standard bearer of the party of the left - John Fonda Kerry- is rather enjoyable. Perhaps sometime in the immediate future, a fact-based reporting medium can be invented within the free world - or maybe not! We can only hope that it can.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 1:47 PM |

Friday, September 10, 2004

Rathergate

Q&O has the best answer to CBS's stonewall, as well as the best compilation of document problems in one site....to quote Instapundit - in deed!:

"..............Find me similar examples of the same typographical and stylistic characteristics from Lt Col Killian's records. Because if Lt Col Killian's records have 1,000 monospaced Courier documents, and then these four proportionally spaced Times New Roman memo's, then you've still got lots of questions to answer............................"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:26 PM |

ForgeGate

Donald Sensing piles on - heh!!! squared:

".............The result of all this is that Terry McAuliffe's (hence Kerry's) campaign plan is now finished, and there is nothing in line to take its place.

These documents are so transparently faked, and hence so transparently a measure of the Dems' desperation, that from now on nothing they say about Bush's service will be believed. Nor should it..............."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:58 AM |

Rathergate

No comments needed - from Polipundit:

Ra^thergate

"I asked for a short scandal-gate name for the Bush National Guard forged documents story and I think I already have a winner. Several Polipundit readers submitted Rathergate, with the "th" in superscript. (The title of this post was the closest I could get with my limited technical ability to type in Blogger. If anyone can tell me how to type superscript "th" at Blogger, please let know.) To give credit where due, at least one reader said they thought they saw the name first at Captain's Quarters. Considering the reported personal interest that Dan Rather took in pushing this story, I think the name fits perfectly."

Heh!

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:21 AM |

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 10:49 PM |

Dowd Insults the Handicapped again

The National Debate brings Dowd and NYT to task again:

Ken Waight at Lyinginponds pointed out to me earlier today that while I was relaxing over the Labor Day weekend, Maureen Dowd was busy piling on the slurs in her Op-Ed column over the weekend. MoDo writes...

W. suddenly proclaimed himself a compassionate conservative again, even though extra-chromosome conservatives, as Lee Atwater called them, were in closed meetings calling for a culture war to curb the rights of women and gays.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 10:43 PM |

Democratic Party Forgeries

Powerline says that the documents used by the Boston Globe to discredit the President's NG service are forgeries, and provided evidence to support that conclusion:

"..............Every single one of the memos to file regarding Bush's failure to attend a physical and meet other requirements is in a proportionally spaced font, probably Palatino or Times New Roman. In 1972 people used typewriters for this sort of thing (especially in the military), and typewriters used mono-spaced fonts./snip/
I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old. This should be pursued aggressively......................"

Update: see one of the documents yourself and form your own opinion - based on my knowledge of the military in that period, it is unquestionably a forgery.

Update 2: LGF has more visual and analytical information:

".........I opened Microsoft Word, set the font to Microsoft’s Times New Roman, tabbed over to the default tab stop to enter the date “18 August 1973,” then typed the rest of the document purportedly from the personal records of the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian.

And my Microsoft Word version, typed in 2004, is an exact match for the documents trumpeted by CBS News as “authentic.”............."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 1:17 PM |

Indiana Jones

Alec Russell in the Telegraph from the UK (Linked from American Realpolitic) seems to have a better grasp of current American politics than most MSM "pundits":

".............Watching Mr Kerry try to take on Mr Bush brings to mind a classic moment in that cult film of the 1980s, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones is trapped in a back-alley in an Egyptian souk.

A crowd closes in as a giant Arab steps forward wielding a scimitar. Snick-snack it goes through the air, faster and faster. The audience tenses. Indie shudders.

Then he draws a pistol from his belt and shoots the Arab in the forehead. Game over. The crowd drifts away.

Such is America's polarisation that the crowd enveloping the two presidential candidates is not yet drifting away. But, notwithstanding his own twists over Iraq, Mr Bush plays a convincing straight shooter. His pistol is already drawn and all the while Mr Kerry seems happier whirling a scimitar than reaching for a gun........................................."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 10:50 AM |

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Smear Campaign

Hugh Hewitt reproduces the warning letter about the upcoming smear efforts by the MSM orchestrated by the Democratic Party and their operatives dually employed by the Party and the Media - read the whole thing:

"September 8, 2004

To: Bush-Cheney '04 Grassroots Team
From: Ed Gillespie, Republican National Committee Chairman
Subject: Brace Yourselves

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In response to President Bush's Agenda for America's Future and a critique of his policies and Senate record, Senator Kerry's campaign is implementing a strategy of vicious personal attacks against the President and Vice President./snip/.............Of course, the President was called a "cheap thug," a "killer" and a "liar" at a Kerry-Edwards campaign event in New York, Mrs. Kerry has called the President's policies "unpatriotic" and "immoral" and DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe falsely accused the President of being AWOL............................"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 8:26 PM |

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Religion of Peace and Infinite Tolerance

Sad that converts must risk their lives even in the USA (Link):

"Falls Church, Va. (AP) - Christian converts from Muslim backgrounds gathered in the Washington area to share their unique challenges and fears.

The Washington Times reports that the weekend conference - sponsored in part by the Baptist General Association of Virginia - was conducted under tight security, with participants using assumed names to guard against Muslim retaliation.

The newspaper reports that many participants said they face ostracism and even death threats for converting from Islam to Christianity.

Some said they're afraid to tell their families that they've become Christians."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 9:07 PM |

National Guard/Reserve Duty

Chronwatch sums up the little reported FACTS available to the clueless main stream press:

"This is the only place that you will get the full and true story of President Bush’s Air National Guard service. There are no UNANSWERED questions. There are no missing records. He did not miss any meetings. The truth is known. You can find everything in this article, in other publications but none of the others are complete. You have to put them all together to get the full story. It is a shame that our national "objective" media refuse to do their job and put the whole story together.............................................."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:10 AM |

Monday, September 06, 2004

AP stories

Discussion in Powerline (scroll down)(emphasis below added by me) about ANOTHER AP FABRICATION this weekend:

"Before Kerry arrived there was a huge pro-life march led by Franciscan University students, 500 strong. "You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion", read some of their signs. Students and members of local Catholic parishes were full of energy and FoxNews reported that this was the largest protest against Kerry outside of the Democratic Convention....
The Kerry campaign...also chose to hold the rally in a public park which should be open to all the public. Mistake number three. The police chief, sheriff, and mayor all agreed with me that protesters and their signs would be allowed inside the Kerry rally site. Freedom of speech is alive and well here in Ohio. The Kerry campaign flipped out!

So, now add another 500 local Bush supporters to the Kerry rally. They tried to turn up the music but they could not drown us out. According to the Herald Star (local press), "The crowd, estimated by officials as 3,500 strong, was almost split in half with people for and against the Massachusetts senator." John Kerry must know he has a problem when over 15% of his audience was booing him. We were respectful and did not heckle him - but upon arrival and when he sought our applause he got something he didn't expect. As the press arrived a feisty nine year old little girl began shouting, "We want Bush!", and we all chanted along. The campaign staff was beside themselves. This is history in the making! Even places like Steubenville are not supporting John Kerry. He is in serious trouble.

Now, check out this Associated Press article on Kerry's visit to Steubenville by Darlene Superville. Note the next to the last paragraph:

Several dozen Bush supporters greeted Kerry in Steubenville with signs favoring a second Bush term and opposing the Catholic Kerry's support for abortion rights.

I think that until further notice, you should assume that every news article you see that is based on an AP dispatch--probably at least half of the content of most newspapers--should be considered unreliable."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 9:23 PM |

One man's terrorist.......

Lileks is, as usual, dead on about terrorism - read the whole thing (emphasis mine):

"Cicadas, airplanes, wind in the trees. A peaceful weekend. At least here. There’s a bloody child on the front page of the newspaper. The Strib subhead calls them “Islamic guerrillas” and “fighters” and “militants,” because you know one man’s terrorist is another man’s disciple of God who practices his sharpshooting so he can nail children in the back at 50 paces. This teaser to an inside story made my jaw bruise my sternum:"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:57 AM |

Sunday, September 05, 2004

Not a lot to work with

Wind Rider summarizes the Sunday morning political pundit shows on Silent Running - read the whole post:

"As other folks have pointed out over the past few days, the Democrats aren't left with a lot to work with. But they're showing up and trying."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 9:02 PM |

John Kerry's Heroism

Stan Brown comments on Betsy Newmarks's Blog about the Swiftboat controversy and the confusion of the MSM - read the whole thing:

"Are journalists capable of logical analysis? The Swift Vet story is showing us a lot more about the mainstream media besides bias. They don’t seem to understand what the basic issue is. And they are clearly confused about who has the burden of proof.

Many media outlets have claimed that the Swift Vets’ have been discredited (see e.g. Jeffrey H. Smith in today’s Washington Post, “Did Bush Miss Vietnam’s Lessons?”). You don’t have to get down to debating the gritty details to see how far they have missed the boat. One has to wonder if they even have the capacity to see the big picture.

The dispute is really simple. Was John Kerry a war hero? He says that he was and that his heroism makes him the most qualified candidate for president. He stakes his claim for heroism on his receipt of five medals -- a silver star, a bronze star and 3 purple hearts. Kerry and his cheerleaders like Brinkley and Kranish have told voters that he fought with extraordinary courage. They built an image of Kerry as a naval officer who demonstrated bravery far beyond the typical soldier or sailor and who suffered serious wounds in the process. They had successfully communicated this image to a number of swing voters before the Swift Vets appeared on the scene.

The Swift Vets responded with two basic claims. First, that Kerry was not really a war hero. Second, that Kerry betrayed his fellow veterans when he came home. The facts regarding the betrayal claim are not much in dispute, although perhaps still not known by most voters. It will be left to the voters as to whether those actions were appropriate. The current argument focuses on the claim of war heroism.

Have the Swift Vets proven their claim that Kerry is not a war hero? Have they established that John Kerry did not fight with extraordinary bravery? Absolutely. They have blown Kerry’s carefully crafted image clear out of the water. And they have done it with facts. The “mainstream” journalists have completely missed this. They keep focusing on whether or not the facts show Kerry’s actions to have met the lowest possible technical threshold necessary for a medal to be awarded. They also mistakenly put the burden of proof on the Swift Vets......................"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 3:26 PM |

Economy

James Glassman at TCS has a relistic appraisal of the current economy and the Democratic Party attack on it:

"To hear John Kerry tell it,

America

is mired today in the worst economy since the Great Depression. How dumb does he think voters are?

We just set a record for yearly production: a GDP of nearly $12 trillion, or $120,000 per family. As for what really counts, personal well-being: A record 69 percent of Americans own their own homes, and the account balance in the average 401(k) plan is $77,000, up 22 percent in three years..........................................."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:06 AM |

Saturday, September 04, 2004

"Boos to Ooohs"

Update:
Editor and Publisher has the following headline - read the story:

"The AP Changes "Boos" to "Ooohs" in Report on Bush and Clinton"

2d Update:
Newsmax reports a full retraction and error report - I have not been able to locate the actual feed for AP.

"AP Retracts 'Clinton Booed' Story"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 10:20 AM |

AP Fabrications and "Audience Boos"

Taken from Boston.com Friday, and re-published in numerous venues throughout the country verbatim, this untrue and scurrilous statement has been disproved by numerous sources including recordings of the event, and surreptitiously removed by AP on their main site. The outrage from the Blogosphere has made this lie a major event, although it is unlikely that the AP will publish a actual retraction (italics mine)..........a sound clip for your own opinion is here.

"Bush's audience of thousands in West Allis, Wis., booed. Bush did nothing to stop them."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 8:18 AM |

Mark Steyn and "Lurch"

Mark Steyn has it down pat in the Chicago Sun Times - sure to be featured in many blogs today (italics mine):

..........."But the seared senator feels it's lese majeste even to question him. He can talk about Vietnam 24/7, but nobody else is allowed to bring it up.

Sorry, man, that's not the way it works."..............

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:23 AM |

Friday, September 03, 2004

Gone South

Miz Janis has it all right (emphasis mine):

"I thought the Republican Convention could have used less of September 11. But it does no good for me when John Kerry says "Four years ago, Bush said x."
Four years ago, I thought I might have dinner at the World Trade Center one day."
posted by Janis Gore at 1:03 AM

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:19 PM |

Editor and Publisher Bias

This guy offends all of us who note that his candidate Kerry can't even accurately describe the distance between the Yankees and the Red Sox - Kerry stated 2 1/2 games during his whining rant last night when the correct number was 3 1/2 games - and the Red Sox are in Kerry's home town:

"By Greg Mitchell

(September 03, 2004) -- I can take the flag waving, the Kerry flip-flop sandals, the "Where's Waldo/Osama?" posters, but can we please leave baseball out of the fall election campaign?

Sitting in the gallery at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night for President Bush's acceptance speech, only one thing offended me more than the scarcity of people of color among the delegates on the floor below: the use of our grand old game by the Grand Old Party as the climax to the video that introduced the President." .........................

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 3:03 PM |

A Saint

Courtesy of the Braden Files:

Catholic Cardinals don't lie

Kerry was going to visit the Catholic National Cathedral outside Washington as part of his campaign. Kerry's campaign manager made a visit to the Cardinal and said to him, "We've been getting a lot of bad publicity among Catholics because of Kerry's position on abortion and the like. We'd gladly make a contribution to the church of $100,000 if during your sermon you'd say John Kerry is a Saint."

The Cardinal thinks it over for a moment and agrees to do it.

Kerry shows up, and as the Mass progresses the Cardinal begins his homily.

"John Kerry is petty, a self absorbed hypocrite and a nit-wit. He is a liar, a cheat, and a thief. He is the worst example of a Catholic I've ever personally known.

...but compared to Ted Kennedy, John Kerry is a Saint."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 1:36 PM |

"Laphams"

Nick Schulz at Tech Central Station seems to sum up on target the main stream media for the past week:

"Early in the week I wrote a piece called "Media 'Con Game': Predetermined Storylines" in which I asked TCS readers to send me evidence of what I dubbed "Laphams" -- the predetermined and biased storylines reporters and journalists frequently insert into their stories. I was not expecting to be deluged with instances, not just of predetermined storylines, but of predetermined stories. As it turns out, news organizations were writing, editing and publishing stories all week about events that had not yet happened."..............

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 8:58 AM |

Thursday, September 02, 2004

Democrats

Da Goddess posts a long list of characteristics for Democrats:

"FUN FACTS ABOUT DEMOCRATS

* Democrats chose the donkey as their symbol because the Democrat base smells as bad as one and has the same verbal skills. In the donkey's defense, it's smart enough to understand a butterfly ballot.

* The name Democrat comes from the combination of "demo" - which means "demonic" - and "crat" - which is a term for something unidentifiable which you scrape off your shoe.

* If your skin pigmentation is dark enough, you may be legally required to vote for Democrats.

* Democrats are big into class warfare. They also are for gun control which has caused the deadliest firearms to be too expensive except for the rich to buy. So, if class warfare ever goes to blows, it won't last long.

* No matter what legislation the Republicans propose, the Democrats call it "just a tax cut for the rich." When Republicans proposed to free the slaves, Democrats called it "just a tax cut for the rich."

* The base of the Democratic part is thought to be angry, drunken dwarves, but they may in fact be gnomes."..................

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 7:52 PM |

Red State/Blue State

James Taranto excerpts comments about the "Roe Effect" on politics and race:

"High fertility . . . correlates strongly with support for George W. Bush. Of the top 10 most fertile states, all but one voted for Bush in 2000. Among the 17 states that still produce enough children to replace their populations, all but two--Iowa and Minnesota--voted for Bush in the last election. Conversely, the least fertile states--a list that includes Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Connecticut--went overwhelmingly for Al Gore. Women living in Gore states on average have 12 percent fewer babies than women living in Bush states. . . .

In states where Bush won a popular majority in 2000, the average woman bears 2.11 children in her lifetime--which is enough to replace the population. In states where Gore won a majority of votes in 2000, the average woman bears 1.89 children, which is not enough to avoid population decline. Indeed, if the Gore states seceded from the Bush states and formed a new nation, it would have the same fertility rate, and the same rapidly aging population, as France--that bastion of "old Europe." . . ."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 4:47 PM |

Kerry and Veterans

LTC Ralph Peters(Ret) has it right on target in the New York Post - you would never see opinions like this in NYT:

"Perhaps the best line making its way around veterans' Web sites these days is: 'A Kerry defeat would be the welcome-home parade we never had.' "

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 6:38 AM |

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Kerry and VVAW

World Net Daily and Ravenwood have published one of Kerry's VVAW handouts - traitor is too mild a description:

"A U.S. INFANTRY COMPANY JUST CAME THROUGH HERE!
If you had been Vietnamese ---

We might have burned your house

We might have shot your dog

We might have shot you

We might have raped your wife and daughter

We might have turned you over to your government for torture

We might have taken souvenirs from your property

We might have shot things up a bit

We might have done ALL these things to you and your whole TOWN!

If it doesn't bother you that American soldiers do these things every day to the Vietnamese simply because they are 'Gooks,' then picture YOURSELF as one of the silent VICTIMS.

HELP US TO END THE WAR BEFORE THEY TURN YOUR SON INTO A BUTCHER or a corpse.

VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 9:57 PM |

Political Humor (?)

Via SayUncle:

Jay Leno (paraphrased):

"Did you see the pictures of John Kerry windsurfing? Even his hobbies depend on which way the wind blows."

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 9:19 PM |

USA

Horsefeathers says it all:

"There is nothing like being away from America for a couple of weeks to make you love it more than ever. This is one helluva great country. Other countries may have great wine, or great art, or great buildings, or great fjords, or great squares—but America is a great country. It has a great spirit, a vitality, an optimism—based on its freedom of opportunity and its promise to let each of us pursue our respective dreams—that no other country in the world has with all its great wine or art. This perception is the most striking thing about coming back to America from abroad. Sweden, Finland, and Denmark—tiny countries—are countries that have no social problems: there is no poverty, no illiteracy, no medical indigence, and no crime. But there is also no passion, no struggle, no ambition, no vitality or excitement. In what other country can you find an Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Tiger Woods, a Bill Gates, an Oprah Winfrey, a Thomas Edison and an Irving Berlin?"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 5:28 PM |

Axis of Weevil

Thanks to the Possum, I am ecstatic with the award of one of the highest possible honors for a Alabama native, and other very special species:

Eschewing the wisdom of Groucho Marx

Last evening, Chet the E-Mail Boy came running in breathlessly (breathlessly being more his normal state, and running being more of a shuffle) from his Linotype machine in the basement with a printout of the following message from someone who obviously never thought it wrong to want to be in club that would have him as a member:

Request permission and qualifications to join the Axis of Weevil.......see http://rltaylorjr.blogspot.com.....Bob's Place.

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 3:33 PM |

Guard/Reserve

Betsy Newmark points to an article detailing reserve duty duplicated in my experience, and I qualified for retirement.

"An Air Force National Guard colonel has a great editorial answering the questions that Kerry has posted on his website about Bush's National Guard service. He provides detailed answers to all the questions/accusations. The strange thing is that Kerry would have such a list of questions on his site. Talk about questioning an opponent's patriotism and service!"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 6:54 AM |

Religion of Peace

Another example of tolerance and diversity from the Religion of Peace:

"CNN) -- Armed attackers on Wednesday seized a school in a town in southern Russia in the latest in a series of terrorist attacks in Russia that have killed hundreds of people. Here is a timeline of the most significant recent strikes:"

# posted by Bob Taylor @ 6:39 AM |

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