Archives for 2004

Someone better call Media Matters and the Kerry campaign. They have another veteran to smear research- I am willing to bet his is aracist, xenophobic, bigoted member of the Republican apparatus whose momma didn’t love him. I hear he is also especially cruel to the little creatures:

The new version of Sen. John Kerry’s Cambodia experience is also not true.

Sen. Kerry patrolled from An Thoi on the 94 boat and also from Cat Lo on the 44 boat. There was no way to enter Cambodia from the An Thoi patrol area. That patrol area started at the coastal fishing village of Ha Tien and ran parallel to the Cambodian border, but there was no way into Cambodia. Any good map will show this to be true.

From the Cat Lo patrol area around Sa Dec, it would have been possible for a boat to enter Cambodia, except there were concrete barriers, river-assault group boats and PBRs guarding the entrance.

Anyone entering Cambodia at that location would have known with complete certainty what they were doing.

It just never happened. Sen. Kerry is not being truthful, and it can be easily proven by interviewing his own selected band-of-brothers. The claim that there were so many rivers and canals, and that no one knew where they were, is ludicrous. We had detailed maps and overlays that showed everything right down to movements in fishing stakes.

I drove a swift boat for a year in 1969, and I still remember all the patrol areas.

Also, a single swift boat never went anywhere alone. It would have been way too dangerous. A second cover boat would have gone along. That means the crew of that boat would have also known they were going into Cambodia. Where are the crew members and officer of the cover boat?

Again, it just didn’t happen.

Why has the old media let this slide? Sen. Kerry will say anything if it suits his personal political agenda. His Cambodia lie is just like his atrocity lie when he came back. They served his political purpose when he said them, but neither is true.

I’m not a member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which can be verified. I also will not vote for either Bush or Kerry because I’m anti-war. I don’t think we should be in Iraq. However, I am for the truth.

Liar. Kerry hater.

CambodiaPost + Comments (1)

I just took a few minutes and read what passes for ‘investigative journalism’ in the NY Times, and needless to say, I am not surprised. A few minor comments:

1.) Is there anything new in this commercial about the finances of the Swift Boats 527 that is not publicly available ath, of all places the Swift Boats web site, their book, or Open Secrets?

2.) Do you think this flowchart might have been a touch more informative if it had included all of theO’Neill contacts with prominent Democrats in Texas? Maybe a coherent argument could be made of the web of influence regarding the monied elite of both parties, but such balance is not useful in hit pieces. Maybe a mention of the political affiliations of all 250+ Swift Boat vets.

3.) Is there any aspect of the Swift Vets story they did not distort? My favorite is this:

Mr. Elliott, who recommended Mr. Kerry for the Silver Star, had signed one affidavit saying Mr. Kerry “was not forthright” in the statements that had led to the award. Two weeks ago, The Boston Globe quoted him as saying that he felt he should not have signed the affidavit. He then signed a second affidavit that reaffirmed his first, which the Swift Boat Veterans gave to reporters. Mr. Elliott has refused to speak publicly since then.

Except, of course, O’Neill never retracted his statement in the Boston Globe, as we all know. This was nothing more than a fabrication based on the creative use of ellipses, as stated cogently by Tom Maguire. The rest of the story mainstains the same low standard for integrity and accuracy, including another attempted whitewash of the whole Letson/Carreon bit.

In short, the entire piece is nothing more than agitprop worthy of simpletons like Michael Moore..

But, while we are at it, let’s look at something interesting, since the NY Times and Democrats want to talk about financing. Here is the list of the top 50 527’s and their money received to date and spent to date:

1.) Joint Victory Campaign 2004, $41,685,706, $35,780,404

2.) Media Fund, $28,127,488 27,208,905

3.) America Coming Together, $26,905,450, $24,196,532

4.) Service Employees International Union, $16,652,296, $8,808,017

5.) American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees, $13,658,207, $13,274,331

6.) MoveOn.org, $9,086,102, $17,435,782

7.) New Democrat Network, $7,172,693, $6,970,070

8.) Club for Growth, $4,818,063, $6,610,032

9.) EMILY’s List, $4,162,226, $4,070,369

10.) AFL-CIO, $3,750,840, $3,691,832

Of the top ten, nine are decidedly pro-Democrat and anti-Bush, while the tenth, the Club for Growth, is really pro-Conservative (and not necessarily pro-Bush), and has actually run ads against Republicans who they do not believe advocate appropriate tax and spending policies.

A quick tally shows that the Democratic party and John Kerry have at their disposal a sum near $195, 186, 845.00

And no, I did not put any commas in the wrong place. That is one hundred ninety five million, one hundred eighty-six thousand, eight hundred forty-five dollars and zero cents.

As of August 15th, the Swift Vets have total receipts of $158,750. Quit giggling.

From this, we can learn two things:

1.) No wonder John Kerry thinks the Swift Boats for Vets are a ‘Republican front.’ Damn near every other 527 is a Democratic front, so if there does exist one 527 opposing Kerry, logically it must be a Republican one.

2.) No wonder Kerry is calling only for the Swift Boat Vets to be silenced, and wants Bush to do the same. Of course the hypocrite is unwilling to condemn all of the 527’s as Bush has- he stands to lose two hundred million in attack ads against Bush.

And remember, this is common knowledge in the media. Remember, it is the very same NY Times who just several weeks ago was gleefully reporting that these 527’s would be actively working to fill the void for Kerry during the month of August.

In fact, it is the same damned author for both stories- Jim Rutenberg. Surprised? I am not.

Yesterday I noted that the mainstream media seems intent on answering the charges of left-wing media bias. Their answer appears to be a resounding “Guilty as charged.”

The Shameless DemocratsPost + Comments (21)

Chris Matthews is now officially off the deep end. He completely distorted a section of a piece with Michelle Malkin in which she was discussing how the veterans in Unfit to Command had suggested that one of Kerry’s purple hearts was from a self-inflicted wound into putting words into Malkin’s mouth that she somehow believed that Kerry had intentionally inflicted his own wounds.

It was stunning. It is almost like the major media outlets have decided to answer the question about media bias once and for all. Their answer?

“We are whores for the Democrats.”

I will discuss this exchange tomorrow if the Howler does not nail it first.

*** Update ***

Never mind- Michelle Malkin defends herself:

Willie Brown expresses exasperation over Swift Boat Vets’ questions about Kerry’s wounds. He says: “There are questions about the shrapnel wounds. So what else is there? How much he got shot? How deep? How much shrapnel does he have?

Note that I didn’t bring the subject of shrapnel. (Got that, Keith Olbermann?) Willie Brown raised the issue.

Here is how I responded verbatim:

“Well yeah. Why don’t people ask him more specific questions about the shrapnel in his leg? There are legitimate questions about whether or not it was a self-inflicted wound.”

Matthews frantically stuffed words down my mouth when I raised these allegations made in Unfit for Command that Kerry’s wounds might have been self-inflicted. In his ill-informed and ideologically warped mind, this transmogrified into me accusing Kerry of “shooting himself on purpose” to get an award.

I repeated that the allegations involved whether the injuries were “self inflicted wounds.” I DID NOT SAY HE SHOT HIMSELF ON PURPOSE and Chris Matthews knows it.

Only someone who had not read Unfit for Command would interpret what I was saying the way Matthews did. The book raises questions by vets, many of whom were with Kerry, about whether there was or wasn’t enemy fire during the Dec. 1968 incident that led to his first Purple Heart (Patrick Runyon is quoted in a Boston Globe account on p. 35 saying “I can’t say for sure that we got return fire or how [Kerry] got nicked. I couldn’t say one way or the other. I know he did get nicked, a scrape on the arm.”) and whether the injury came from a self-inflicted wound after he caught a tiny piece of shrapnel when he fired a grenade from his M-79 grenade launcher too close (p. 36); whether or not there was “intense rocket and rifle fire” during the Feb. 1969 incident that led to his second Purple Heart (Rocky Hildreth, officer of an accompanying boat on Dam Doi Canal that day, says there was no “intense rocket and rifle fire” on p. 78); and whether the shrapnel wound in his buttocks, which Kerry says he sustained in March 1969 and led to the awarding of his third Purple Heart, was the result of a mine explosion while on a mission or from a wound from his own grenade that he set off too close to a stock of rice he was trying to destroy (p. 87). See also pages 30-31. I was trying to get to these points, but Matthews would not let me finish a sentence.

Well, guess what? This foaming jerk Matthews, who called me irresponsible and kicked me off the show admitted that a) he himself had not read the damned book, b) he was not interested in asking Kerry about the specific doubts raised by vets about his wounds, and c) he had not and would not question Kerry about these specific allegations.

“Are you saying he shot himself on purpose?” Matthews hammered. I repeated myself again clearly that I was referring to the allegations about self-inflicted wounds in the book. When I tried to explain that the vets who were with Kerry had cast a lot of doubt on whether enemy fire occurred during the first two incidents, Matthews cut me off again. “Why did you say that?” he badgered. Because, I said, I was talking about what was in the book, which he had admitted he hadn’t read.

Yep. ‘Foaming jerk Matthews’ about sums it up. Maybe he was auditioning for a Media Matters job with Atrios.

*** Update ***

There is no way to descibe this Oliver Willis post as anything other than a flat out lie. Oliver Riefenstahl. Has a nice ring to it.

*** Update ***

Matthews better stay the hell away from google.

HardballPost + Comments (46)