Ben Barnes is about to go bash Bush on 60 Minutes II tonight. Go read all about him.
Then, after being awed by the massive dossier compiled about him and the number of connections to the Democratic party and the Kerry/Edwards campaign, ask yourself this question:
“If Ben Barnes were a SwiftVet and all the ties were to Republicans and not Democrats, would the EVEN MENTION HIS NAME ON 60 MINUTES?”
If your answer is “Yes,” send me some of what you are smoking.
Rick
Well, now I’m refreshed, after receiving my daily dose of Comments retardation.
There, but for the grace of brain cells go I.
Cordially…
Jay
“If Ben Barnes were a SwiftVet and all the ties were to Republicans and not Democrats, would the EVEN MENTION HIS NAME ON 60 MINUTES?”
Hard to say, since none of the SwiftVets have held any sort of respectable elected position such as being a statewide officeholder in one of the largest states. Spare us the “the poor swifties were soooo ignored” whinging. If one of the swifties were a former lieutenant governor then I’ll wager they would get some national airplay.
Ralph Gizzip
But that’s the best part about the Swift Vets. None of them were politicians so you know they’re not professional liars.
capt joe
At least the swift vets are not disgraced fromer politicians implicated in fraud.
Especially those who are the 3rd largest contributirs to the Kerry campaign and next door neighbours in nantucket to Monsieur Kerry.
Or, for that matter, politicians who swore oaths previously that they had nothing to do with finding Bush a job in the guard.
Or , those who can’t keep their stories straight. given that barnes said that when he was LT Gov, he did the job but he wasn’t really Lt Gov until 1.5 years after Bush was already in the guard.
kwe12
Not the Swift Vets thing again. I thought this was finally fading. After all the Swift Vets for “Truth” who have changed their stories, and then we hear that the group included some people in an anti-Kerry letter without even asking them — and the guys later protested but of course by then their names had already been included. We all know these guys disagree with Kerry’s politics (or at least a freeze-frame of his politics from 30 years ago), not his service record, since most of them barely had any contact with Kerry in Vietnam. Of the two people taking charge of that whole group, one had praise for Kerry in the 70’s and the other one frequently debated him on TV over the Vietnam war. If you believe these guys are unbiased, give me a call and I’ll give you a cut-rate deal on the Brooklyn Bridge.
60 Minutes wouldn’t air these guys because unlike Fox News they realize that what people say in CAMPAIGN COMMERCIALS is NOT NEWS.
Rupert Murdoch, who runs News Corp. / Fox News / New York Post is without question the most partisan media mogul in American history. He makes Ted Turner look like CSPAN. (He also owns the Weekly Standard, a highly partisan neoconservative magazine that he loses money on because he mails it out free to thousands of people solely to promote his political agenda!)
I don’t think the Swift Vet for Truth morons should have been running ads in the first place. I also don’t think Kerry should have gone quite so far on the Vietnam thing. I don’t think people should waste so much time on GW’s National Guard record. And I definitely don’t think a Bush ally (which this Republican- and Rove-tied group is) should be attacking Kerry for, of all things, his service record in Vietnam when Bush not only avoided serving, he then — according to the best records I’ve seen — skipped out on skipping out. What possible case do Kerry critics have compared to this?
A small sampling of the craziness:
1969: George Elliot ranks Kerry “not exceeded” in 11 categories, including moral courage, judgment, and decisiveness, and “one of the top few” in five more. He calls Kerry “unsurpassed,” “beyond reproach,” and “the acknowledged leader in his peer group.”
In 1996 when Kerry is running for Senate Elliot defends him, calling a Kerry exploit “an act of courage.”
In 2004 the Swift Vets for “Truth” aggressively approach Elliot and get him to sign some sort of affidavit.
He later feels guilty. “I still don’t think he shot the guy in the back. It was a terrible mistake probably for me to sign the affidavit with those words.”
The Swift Vets approach him again and get him to switch back.
Are you kidding me?
Roy Hoffman, one of the group’s top guns, March 2003: “I am not going to say anything negative about him. He’s a good man.”
Of Kerry’s Silver Star, he said, “It took guts, and I admire that.”
Adrian Lonsdale, another Vet for “Truth,” said Kerry exemplified the “bravado and courage of the young officers that ran the Swift boats.” He said that “Senator Kerry was no exception. He was among the finest of those Swift boat drivers.”
Meanwhile, the guys who served on Kerry’s boat and knew him the best (with one exception) have stuck by him from the beginning. Fred Short: “The Bush campaign has nothing to talk about, so they resort to these dirty tricks.”
As far as I know, the only guys who have switched their stories wildly, usually starting precisely in 2004, are the Swift Vets for “Truth.”
Captain Wade Sanders: “I don’t think that many of the people who are following this gentleman…Roy Hoffmann, really understand the political implications of what’s going on here, I mean what’s fronting this.”
Charles Gibson: “Every day you wake up and say, ‘How the hell did we get out of that alive?’ Kerry was a good leader. He knew what he was doing.”
William Rood: “The critics have taken pains to say they’re not trying to cast doubts on the merit of what others did, but their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us. It’s gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there.”
John McCain called the ads “dishonest and dishonorable.” He said, “It was the same kind of deal that was pulled on me” in 2000 when HE was running against Bush and Rove. He later went further, calling them “completely nauseating.” He said, “The painful wounds we all worked so hard to close will all be reopened. We’ve got to get that garbage off the air as soon as we can.”
Rove’s network did the same thing to Max Cleland of Georgia in 2002, a guy who lost three limbs in Vietnam! That’s truly patriotic.
Military source: “In short, for the several hundred thousand dollars we taxpayers spent on getting [Bush] trained as a fighter jock, he repaid us with sixty-eight days of active duty. And God only knows if and when he ever flew on those days. I’ve spent more time cleaning up latrines than he did flying.”
Colin Powell (pre-Bush, not referring to anyone in particular): “I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed…managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units… Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country.”
Bush: “I’m a war president.”
Bush, on what he WASN’T willing to do to get out of Vietnam:
“I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes.”
As long as he does what makes him happy, that’s what’s important. Serving your country is a waste of time, as Cheney pointed out:
“I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service.”
Bush apparently thinks that just by saying he’s been to war, that makes it so:
“I’ve been to war. I’ve raised twins. If I had a choice, I’d rather go to war.”
By all means, no one’s holding you back…
Did Bush even TALK about Vietnam during that era?
“I don’t remember debates. I don’t think we spent a lot of time debating it. Maybe we did, but I don’t remember.”
You don’t REMEMBER? This guy was an absolute sloth as a young man.
US News said friends described a young Bush “as a wisecracking jock who’d rather talk baseball than discuss his ‘stupid coat-and-tie job.’ ” The magazine summarized him as “a fun-loving party guy who bounced from job to job,” and paraphrased his girlfriend as saying that “his only real interest was sports.”
If he bounced from job to job, what about one of those jobs?
Early boss Robert Gow (a friend of Bush Sr., naturally) said Bush “wasn’t one of those people who you said, ‘Boy, whatever he does, he’s going to be a big success…’ ”
But since it’s not always “Truth” that wins elections in America, I guess these guys might as well keep running their ads. Sadly, as far as I’m concerned, it seems to have worked so far.
triticale
John, I’ve been smoking Cornish Game Hens, over mesquite. You can pick up your own at Aldi’s but I’d be glad to send you the recipe I use.
Lynxx Pherrett
kwe12, give youself a cookie.
“60 Minutes wouldn’t air these guys because unlike Fox News they realize that what people say in CAMPAIGN COMMERCIALS is NOT NEWS.”
CBS News, August 28, 2004:
But what they say on a video posted on a partisan campaign website is news, eh, kew12?
M. Simon
Send you what I’m smoking?
Hey didn’t any one tell you that stuff was illegal?
====
If you didn’t get a link on Ben Barnes from R. Simon’s comments try here:
Ben Barnes
–==–
Why did John Kerry meet with the representatives of the Viet Cong and Communist North Vietnam on his honeymoon?
I guess selling out his country was more exciting than his new wife.
New Soldier html
What is the War Hero Afraid of?
Form 180. Release ALL the records
Justin O.
Beginning to believe the AWOL claims now?
While Kerry’s record is attacked disgustingly, Bush doesn’t have one, or only a part of one, and yeah he got preferential pudding.
M. Simon
Justin O.,
John Kerry was not AWOL in ’71.
He was in Paris talking to the Communists.
Just so we get that one straight.
M. Simon
Why is the DoD checking on Kerry’s Medals? Because tampering with Military Records is a Federal Crime.
russ
Re: Ben Barnes
Check out how Barnes stacks up with others..
Contributions From Kerry’s Top Fund-Raisers, 1999-2003
russ
Let’s here it for the clueless tools who think Kerry getting exceedingly hosed
Kerry was AWOL in ’71
Far North
So, the Whitewash House produces 2 documents re: Bush National Guard duty that they contend never existed….that is until CBS produced them tonight. Looks like Bush approached his superior officer and tried to get out of his already minimal obligations to his country.
Geez, the man ran and hid from ‘Nam, got a cushy position in the NG, then claimed he couldn’t serve in the NG anymore becasue he was invovled in a real important political campaign.
Oh, I forgot. Bush was “born again” so all that stuff doesn’t count.
Remember, nothing in more stunning in politics than the pathetic hypocrisy of the new century conservative.
Far North
kwe12,
Great post! Thanks for taking the time to write that up. The loyals at this site don’t like to hear or read things that contradict what they already “know as the truth”. They need to hear it nontheless.
That guy from Oregon
“Oh, I forgot. Bush was ‘born again’ so all that stuff doesn’t count.”
So true, so true…
Of course, the real story here isn’t that Bush was AWOL thirty years ago, but that he’s been lying about it to the American people for the past four years.
So if Bush is “born a third time” in October, will the Republican faithful forgive him for all his latest sins? Wait and see…
Mikey
The Nat. Guard story. Again.
That was so debunked so many months ago, but I guess you can’t keep a true believer from his worship.
Declan
Boy! These dem trolls sure are getting NERVOUS!
Newsflash: Americans do not give a rat’s ass about who did what 30-35 years ago. ich wiederhole: we do not care.
What we do care about is who can lead us in 2004. Poor John “But I served in Vietnam” Kerry is in deep shit and he knows it. Is it too late for him to recover? No. I hope to see better from him in the coming weeks. The fact is, he needs to redefine himself in A HURRY. Oh, and he needs to tell his wife to keep her mouth shut. She IS an albatross.
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/9617461.htm
Rick
Oregon guy,
The (now) first comment in this thread was directed at you, and now goes double.
Gratefully…
Rick
Yeah, Kevin’s site, where the admission is made that the alleged “AWOL” “smoking gun” memos were *sent* to the WH from CBS.
LOL! How you leftie guys *ever* expect to win any ass-kicking contests when you keep blasting your feet away?
Smirkingchimpingly…
Rick
John Cole,
I luv ya, guy (insert lame Oregonian gay joke here), but your deleting of that encephalitic moron makes it seem as though I have Tourette’s Syndrome, snarling at nobody.
I’m kinda hurt, y’know?
Cordially…