Res Publica 2005

From the Washington Times Editorial Page

When exactly did CBS News acquire all of those infamous documents? Did the complete acquisition involve a quid pro quo assist from Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart? During Mr. Lockhart's interviews Tuesday morning following that day's USA Today report revealing his Sept. 4 telephone conversation with retired Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, Mr. Lockhart could not have been more emphatic about the course of events. But Mr. Lockhart's timeline may not be accurate.


Read the rest here.

When considering this against the backdrop of DNC ethics that have been absolutely in the gutter, it becomes clear that John Kerry places his own personal destiny far ahead of his regard for his country. This would seem to me to be an excellent reason to give Kerry the next several years to windsurf to his heart’s content.

Read the rest here.

From the Blogs of War:

John Kerry should truly be ashamed of himself. He can make political arguments for his ideas on how he would fight the War on Terror and handle Iraq differently, after all that’s fair game and what political campaigns are all about.

It would be nice if he could do it without sounding the alarm of defeatism and disparaging our allies at the same time. The most despicable blunder he made this week was putting Prime Minister Allawi’s life in even more danger than it currently is.

John Kerry calling PM Allawi a “puppet” of America may have done more harm to the Iraqi people than any of the MSM misleading press all year.

Read it all here:

From Mark Steyn:

John Kerry isn't exactly the best advertisement for his Swiss finishing school. Forget the impeccable carriage -- if you imagine you're watching streaming video on a slow dial-up connection, his gait seems perfectly natural. But the manners thing seems to have passed him by entirely. His decision to break the time-honored tradition of keeping out of the way during the other guy's convention by rushing on the air within an hour of President Bush's speech to give an instant response was boorish and petty. But, given that his ''midnight rambler'' routine in Ohio was a disaster, there didn't seem much point dwelling on it.

But last week he did it again. Ayad Allawi, the first prime minister of post-Saddam Iraq, was in Washington to give a joint address to Congress. A tough, stocky, bullet-headed optimist, Iraq's interim leader delivered a simple, elegant and moving speech, which made three basic points:

Read it all here.

From the Weekly Standard

Disgraceful

WE REALLY DON'T KNOW what a President John Kerry would do about Iraq. His flip-flops about the war, his inconsistencies, the ambiguity of his current position (win or withdraw?)--all of these mean we can only guess about a Kerry presidency. He would probably be inclined to get out of Iraq as soon as possible; it might be the case, however, that as president he would nonetheless find himself staying and fighting. Who knows?

What we do know is this: Kerry and his advisers have behaved disgracefully this past week. That behavior is sufficient grounds for concern about his fitness to be president.

Read More Here.

From Robert Novak:

The executive producer of CBS's "60 Minutes" midweek broadcast, who partially blamed the Bush White House for bogus documents used by Dan Rather, is a former staffer for New York Democrats who was still making political contributions while on the network's payroll.

Josh Howard served on the staff of Rep. Stephen Solarz and worked for Sen. Charles Schumer when Schumer was a state assemblyman, a background confirmed by CBS. Federal election reporting records show that Howard, identifying himself as a CBS employee, contributed $1,000 in each of Solarz's last two campaigns for Congress in 1990 and 1992.

When CBS first conceded possible defects in the documents about George W. Bush's military service, Howard said: "If the White House had just raised an eyebrow -- they didn't have to say they were forgeries -- but if there was any hint that there was a question, that would have sent us back."

Read Here:

From GOPUSA:

He was wounded, he received two surgeries and was only out trying to enjoy some music when he was hit, thrown to the ground, kicked and beaten unconscious. This was the greeting a 19-year-old soldier received from his countrymen while on medical leave from Iraq, according to a report by the Columbus Dispatch.

Army PFC Foster Barton had been sent home for some rest and recuperation, following two surgeries on a serious knee wound. He decided to attend a concert, showing up for the event wearing a pro-military T-shirt.

For that statement of his patriotism, Barton was attacked and beaten while his assailant screamed profanities and hate filled language about the United States Armed Forces. What is even more disturbing are the many witnesses who stood by and watched the attack but did nothing.

Read the rest here.

From the NYTimes (registration required)


TRENTON, Sept. 25 - To those who view this year's presidential race as a battle between politically polarized red and blue states, New Jersey has usually been viewed as so unquestionably Democratic that it could be colored somewhere between midnight and navy.

But after trailing Mr. Kerry by 10 points in New Jersey as recently as late August, President Bush has sustained a bounce he received after the Republican convention, and three surveys released within the past 10 days suggest that the race for New Jersey's 15 electoral votes is now a statistical dead heat.

Read the rest.

MIAMI, WE HAVE A PROBLEM: A senior Republican official tells ABC News' Jonathan Karl that the first presidential debate, scheduled for Thursday in Miami, could be canceled unless there is a breakthrough soon in negotiations between the two campaigns and the Commission on Presidential Debates.

The only remaining sticking point, Karl reports, is the reluctance of the Commission on Presidential Debates to sign the agreement negotiated by the Bush and Kerry campaigns.

Read the rest here.

NEW YORK (AP) -- CBS News has shelved a ``60 Minutes'' report on the rationale for war in Iraq because it would be ``inappropriate'' to air it so close to the presidential election, the network said on Saturday.

The report on weapons of mass destruction was set to air on Sept. 8 but was put off in favor of a story on President Bush's National Guard service. The Guard story was discredited because it relied on documents impugning Bush's service that were apparently fake.

Read the rest.

From Liberating Iraq: Kerry does a full Howard:

The FLIP-FLOP is a full bore Olympic Gold-medal-winning double-take on the whoe war effort. It's as if Kerry decided the Republicans didnt have enough Kerry Flip-flop on Iraq material to work from, and decided to add to it! Kerry was AGAINST the Gulf War I, before he was for it. (That's right, he was against the Gulf War, and then later had some 'memory' of being at the Gulf War signing ceremony ... we'll have to dig into that later.) Then Kerry was FOR Operation Iraqi Freedom before he was AGAINST it.

Read the rest here.

When 9/11 hit, two things came home to me. I wanted a cell phone right away (I had been resisting these for a while, but then I saw how people were at least able to leave last messages I knew I had to have one.) And I was scared. My husband was out of state and we had no idea of how he would get home with all the planes down. I had almost lost relatives in the Oklahoma City bombing (one was working in an office near by and got knocked to her feet, and another just didn't get out of the house in time to go to the Social Security office.) So maybe I was prepped already. Whatever. It hit hard.

I was one of those people who made an emergency supply and evacuation kit. I can understand the concept of Security Mom in a big way, cause I probably am one.

So now I see the press talking about how the candidates are playing with the women. An unusually large number are sticking with the president rather than gravitating to Kerry. I'm not surprised. I don't know if the Alan Alda model is what we want right now.

Anyway, I'm not the only one who feels like this. Kathleen Parker at the Pasedena Star News has written an article exploring this same thing. I quote:

On a deep-brain level, mothers want what they dare not utter aloud in a culture that pretends the sexes are the same. They want a man to protect them and their helpless offspring. And the alpha male will be recognized on a level too primitive to be measured by polls.

Oh, by the way, those tremors you feel? Don't be alarmed. It's just the hate-Daddy Metro crowd stamping their feet in protest. This is not an unexpected response when long-buried truths bubble to the surface. It will pass. Sometimes they just need a nap. Meanwhile, as campaign strategists try to paint a portrait of their candidate as the more intellectual, or the smarter strategist, or the morally superior man, or the more nuanced or the tougher hombre, they're missing the point. The real issue in the post-9/11 dating game is simple: Which is the truer man?

Read the rest. It's worth considering.

CBS is starting to circle the wagons...gonna be interesting who gets left outside...Mapes for sure...but is the Dan going to be in or out? LA Times (registration required) has run this story:

When CBS News named its panel of two independent investigators to examine the problems with its report on President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service, anchor Dan Rather learned their names on the same morning as everyone else.

It was an uncharacteristic slight given the deference with which Rather, CBS News' marquee asset for two decades, was usually treated. But it may be emblematic of the every-person-for-himself atmosphere that has engulfed the news division since Monday, when the network admitted what many outside CBS had believed: that the 1970s documents on which it based the Sept. 8 report had authenticity problems.

Read the rest of it here.

Thank you.

Two of the most powerful words ever spoken. Unless you are John Kerry.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi spoke before a joint session of Congress earlier Thursday and thanked this country for its efforts in his country.

First, he offered an optimistic outlook on Iraq’s future and the willingness of his fellow countrymen to rid the country of the terrorists and insurgents who are murdering people in an effort to stop freedom. Then he got around to the most powerful part — in our view — of his speech.

Read the rest here.

Ed Morrisey Jr. has his opinion about rumors President Bush received preferential treatment when he was allowed into the Texas Air National Guard in the late 1960s.

The Blount Countian also has firsthand knowledge.

The 75-year-old Jackson Hills resident is a retired colonel with Texas Air National Guard. He swore Lt. George W. Bush into the service in May 1968.

On Thursday, Morrisey said the argument that Bush got off easy by being in the National Guard doesn't take into consideration the context of the 1960s.

``Bush and the others were flying several flights day or night over the Gulf of Mexico to identify the unknown,'' he said. ``The Cold War was a nervous time. You never knew. There were other things going on equally important to the country, and the Air National Guard had a primary role in it.''

Morrisey said the commander he worked for at the unit in Texas was sent there to rebuild the image of the unit. There were only two to four pilot training slots given to them per year, he said. Individuals questioned by an evaluation board and then chosen by the commander had to be the best.

``Bush was selected and he turned out just fine,'' he said.

Read the rest:

From ajc.com (requires registration)

...there's a problem with Kerry's newfound pugnacity for many swing voters and even some non-Bush-hating Democrats. Ripping your opponent may make good campaign strategy, but making it the only plank of your campaign is hardly presidential. When America is fighting a war, it's plain silly.

So here's an unsolicited memo to Kerry: Attack Osama bin Laden, not President Bush.

Read the rest here.

In a piece that is mostly about why Kerry is better than Bush, Howard Dean, interviewed on Vermont Public Radio said the following:

Kinzel) Dean also disclosed that the Texas National Guard officer who gave CBS News false documents concerning the Guard service of President Bush, contacted Dean several weeks ago to see if Dean would forward this information to the Kerry campaign. It's a request that Dean says he turned down:

(Dean) "I believed it because there was no reason for me not to believe it. I didn't do anything with it just because I get calls from people all the time asking, suggesting that I send this to John Kerry and that to John Kerry. And I'm trying to be fairly judicious in what I do, frankly. I've been out of the country for the last six days and I have not seen as the big brouhaha over CBS so I don't really know how it evaluate all that."

See the rest, if you want, here:

From the NY Post

IMAGINE if, in the presiden tial election of 1944, the can didate opposing FDR had in sisted that we were losing the Second World War and that, if elected, he would begin to withdraw American troops from Europe and the Pacific.

We would have called it treason. And we would have been right.

In WWII, broadcasts from Tokyo Rose in Japan and from Axis Sally in Germany warned our troops that their lives were being squandered in vain, that they were dying for big business and "the Jew" Roosevelt.

Today, we have a presidential candidate, the conscienceless Sen. John Kerry, doing the work of the enemy propagandists of yesteryear.

Read the rest here

JANESVILLE, Wisconsin, Sept 24 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush accused Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry of turning his back on Iraq by doubting Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawis' upbeat forecasts for his country.

"You can't lead this country if your ally in Iraq feels like you question his credibility," Bush told supporters here a day after welcoming Allawi to the White House to help spread his optimistic view of the war-torn nations' future.

"The message ought to be to the Iraqi people: 'We support you.' The message ought to be loud and clear: 'We'll stand with you if you do the hard work,'" the president said at a campaign rally ahead of the November 2 election.

Read more.

Cal Thomas writes:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has achieved something that may be unique in the history of our country. He has managed to oppose two wars while they are being fought, undermine the objective of the nation and give aid and comfort to those who are killing American soldiers and kidnapping American civilians.

Read the rest of this at the Mudville Gazette

From Mark A. Kilmer's Political Annotation:

The Veep says that JF Kerry said "appalled at the complete lack of respect Senator Kerry showed for this man of courage, when he rushed to hold a press conference and attack the prime minister, a man America must stand beside to defeat the terrorists."

The New York Times opined about "Iraq's appointed leader," who delivered "everything the Bush re-election campaign could have asked for."

"Until Iraq holds free elections," the paper vents, "Mr. Allawi cannot claim to speak for more than the narrow coalition of exile parties that maneuvered his appointment as interim prime minister."

As I pointed out last night, the Kerry people "need the facts to fit a particular pattern for their ticket to win, and when they deviate, they have to be changed or denied." The attacks on Allawi are another example of this.

Read the rest here
__________

Just another example of the unthinking spin the viewpoint the media has...if it's pro-Iraq, pro-'we did the right thing freeing this people' or pro-administration, it just has to be wrong. For those not in a very few states, and peer groups, this is obvious.

in who advertises on 60 Minutes, here's a site with a list of their advertisers:

eagarly clicking off the counts by state, check out this site:

Daily Thoughts and Dale's Electoral College Breakdown

I doubt if you will be disappointed!

Neat piece by Victor Davis Hanson

An excerpt:


Worse than being duped, worse than cobbling together a highly politicized hit-piece during a war and in the waning days of an election, worse than the shady nature of the "unimpeachable" sources and the likely sordid origins of the story, and worse even than the pathetic nature of CBS's "expert" witnesses — worse than all that was Rather's ten-day denial of reality, culminating in the surreal half-admission that the phony documents could not be verified as accurate. That's the equivalent of saying that a corpse cannot be proven to be alive. Commentators have envisioned Rather's fall as symbolic of a "paradigm shift" and the "end of the era" — an event that has crystallized the much larger and ongoing demise of the old establishment media. Allegories from the French Revolution and the emperor without any clothes to the curtain scene in The Wizard of Oz have been evoked to illustrate Rather's dilemma and the hypocrisy of all that went before. We have come a long way since the 1960s: The once-revolutionary pigs taking over the manor are now bloated and strutting on two legs as they feast on silver inside the farmhouse


Read the rest!

From the Mudville Gazette:

The worm has turned...

This is almost as good as Survivor: Vanuatu. Bill Burkett, Official Unimpeachable Source to the Stars^TM, is dishing on Dapper Dan. He now maintains he warned Rather the memos would be challenged, advising they be validated by experts. Uh-huh. And oh...by the way... 'that creep Lockhart' tried to get his mitts on the memos, putting poor Joe in the running to be voted off the island. And thus the back-stabbing begins...

Read the rest here!

The Blogs of War gives us some of the news you won't hear on night time tv...because it's good news.

The Iraq-America Freedom Alliance would like to share their good news with you as well.

The American Thinker has posted a series of emails from the Yahoo group, Texas Democrat2. Very interesting for you who are tracking the Memogate scandal....

CNS News is reporting that:

Call it a pre-vote headcount: The Association of State Democratic Chairs says it will take an online head-count of Kerry supporters in advance of the Nov. 2 election.

The new Web site, called BeatingBush.com, asks people who want to see President George W. Bush defeated to "stand up and be counted."

Read it and the implications of this at CNS

From Accuracy in the Media:

The CBS scandal gets worse every day. Now, in an amazing twist, Michael Isikoff of Newsweek was on Chris Matthews' MSNBC "Hardball" show on Wednesday night claiming that CBS had been planning to air a story about the White House using forged documents to make the case for war against Iraq. CBS postponed the story so it could go on the air attacking President Bush on the National Guard issue. It backfired when 60 Minutes itself got caught using forged documents. Still, Isikoff indicates that 60 Minutes is planning to air the anti-Bush piece, perhaps as early as Sunday night, September 26.

There is only one big problem—the anti-Bush story, as described by Isikoff and eagerly embraced by Democrat partisan Matthews, is completely false. It's as phony as those National Guard documents.

Read the rest here

From Blogs for Bush

John Kerry is known for nothing if not mastery of such contorted verbal gymnastics and meandering rhetorical platitudes that he accomplishes the rare feat of being arguably the politician best able to utter the most words without actually saying anything. This indecipherability is what makes him insufferable, for anyone inflicted with the pain of having to hear him speak for any meaningful length of time. But Kerry has become so desperate to claw back into the race that his new and desperate attack lines have shifted his campaign from loyal, if inconsistent, opposition to reckless irresponsibility.

While at war, a candidate for President must highlight differences with his opponent while NEVER giving our enemies ANY reason to believe that America is divided over whether to win or lacks the will to do it. Kerry's statements not only show a total lack of judgment on how to campaign appropriately during a war, but also show that he would be a feckless Commander in Chief. Because American power is most effective when it does not have to be backed by force, Kerry’s dithering undermines America’s ability to influence events

Read the Rest.

Why we should fight...why we must fight ...no matter what the nay-sayers say

Remember the Blood of Heroes

Thank you, Spare Change, for sharing the link.

Berkeley Springs, WV (September 23)—Anyone familiar with America's long and shameful history of indifference and hostility to persons with disabilities will not be greatly surprised by the death sentence imposed on Terri Schindler Schiavo by the Florida Supreme Court.

Anyone with an ounce of decency, however, should be outraged. And anyone who cares in the least about his life or the lives of those he loves should be alarmed.

Read the rest!

Walter Cronkite is calling C-B-S' report on President Bush's National Guard service "embarrassing."

Read it all here.

Neat editorial by David Limbaugh

A Campaign Riddled with Weirdness
The Bizarre Candidacy of John Kerry
by David Limbaugh

Remember when former Sen. Bob Kerrey said that Bill Clinton was an "unusually good liar--unusually good?" Well, surely by now Democrats realize that John Kerry is an unusually bad candidate--unusually bad. Just consider:

Read it all here

and want to write CBS's affiliates and let them know how much you dislike what CBS has been doing, you can go to this page and write them all at once.

There's a discussion at Free Republic that CBS was thinking about running with another questionable story about the administration using faked documents to get the Iraqi war underway...interesting bit of Karma there....You might want to check it out here

From Notes and Musings:

It Must Be Exhasuting, With All The Assuming and Pre-Supposing

The media is simply incapable of just covering a speech that is flattering to Bush; they must insert their snarky little comments on how everything that ever happens can be reduced to politics. Just one example from the story linked above:

In an appearance that President Bush's advisers hoped would ease American voters' doubts about the troubled campaign in Iraq, Allawi told a joint meeting of Congress...

Read the rest...just a great example of spin and how it permeates everywhere

With the scandal at CBS still festering, questions are being raised about whether a felony was committed when the network broadcast apparently forged memos in an attempt to discredit George W. Bush. Yesterday, the chairman of CBS's parent company chose Hong Kong as a place to drop a little bomb. Sumner Redstone, who calls himself a "liberal Democrat," said he's supporting President Bush.

Read the rest here.

Wonder if he's positioning himself for the fireworks sure to come at CBS....

Rathergate.com has a most excellent timeline of the Memogate shennanigans...starting from the date of the memos' pdf file creation. It is cited with links to the news articles and other items.

Go read it.

by David Freddoso
Posted Sep 24, 2004

As he described it, Bill Burkett was sick of the Kerry campaign's sheer ineptitude. A member of the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party and a retired Army National Guardsman, he became incensed as he watched his candidate's credibility suffer from TV ads sponsored by Swift Boat veterans, while Kerry and his staff bungled their responses.

Burkett wanted to do something about it, and believed he had the means to do it. But Kerry's people weren't listening.

In an Internet posting, he candidly wrote that he waded through "seven layers of bureaucratic kids trying to get a job after the election" before he finally got on the phone with former Sen. Max Cleland (D.-Ga.), Kerry's veterans coordinator. Burkett also hinted that he spoke to other "seniors" in the campaign.

Read the rest here

Over at the Blogs for Bush, they are running a piece about a woman who lost her father during Vietnam, and why she won't be backing him. She says:

I don't blame Kerry for my father's death, and I don't much care if he shamelessly chased after medals. But I do care that when he returned from Vietnam he gave aid and comfort to the enemy while our soldiers were still dying. I care that he smeared my father and a generation of our armed forces with false charges of war crimes while posing himself as a hero. I care that Kerry's false charges encouraged our enemy who was pressuring our POWs in inhumane ways to confess to imaginary war crimes. I care that he went to Paris to meet with the Viet Cong in 1970 while still an officer in the Navy Reserve, returning to publicly advocate for their position and against America's position.

We need to be thinking about this.

Kerry to gain political power in the 70s joined the side that was using techniques to disihearten Americans to get us out of the war.

He testified to being in Cambodia when he wasn't.

He implied that all soldiers were doing war crimes.

How many lives were hurt because of this rhetoric?

And now, those people who were young in the seventies are trying the same tactics in regard to Iraq. Already, there is a story about one soldier getting beat up going to a theater with a "Free Iraq" tshirt on. Do we let these people trip up our country again?

At Opinion Journal, they discuss a Kerry interview at NPR. Seems as Siegal was trying to pin Kerry down about some of what he thinks about Iraq, he said:

Kerry: I do not intend to increase troops. I intend to get the process in place that I described, and I believe as a new president, with new credibility, with a fresh start, that I have the ability to be able to change the dynamics on the ground.

As Taranto brilliantly noted:

So finally, after asking the question three times, Siegel gets an answer out of Kerry: "I do not intend to increase troops," even if that's what the generals say is necessary. (Note: This column, like Kerry, takes no position on the appropriate troop strength in Iraq, so please don't vote for us either.) He goes on to imply that it won't be necessary, because simply by being John Kerry, he will "be able to change the dynamics on the ground."

That's right, Kerry expects us to believe he will succeed in Iraq on the sheer power of his personality. Really makes you confident, doesn't it?

Go read the whole thing.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — An upstate Republican has condiment giant H.J. Heinz Co. (search) seeing red after claiming the use of its ketchup is equal to supporting Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (search).

Assemblyman James Tedisco made the remark earlier this month while speaking at a Saratoga County Republican rally.

After reading the lawmaker's comments in an article published by The Saratogian, a Heinz official e-mailed the newspaper to say the company's ketchup is a nonpartisan condiment.

"Heinz ketchup is America's favorite ketchup and enjoyed by Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike," wrote Debora Foster, vice president of communications for Heinz.

Read the rest!

To the disgust of Florida's left-wing newspapers, Gov. Jeb Bush has tried to save Terri Schiavo from a gruesome, painful death by dehydration and starvation.

Now the usual suspects in the pro-death crowd are rejoicing at the latest ruling by the Democrat-run Florida Supreme Court.

But the governor said, "I'm disappointed for the moral reasons of the taking of innocent life without having, I don't think, a full hearing on the facts of what her intent was."

He observed that courts can delay death sentences for decades. Will the innocent Mrs. Schiavo be accorded the same privileges granted to vicious murderers? Bush said he might appeal the ruling. He has 10 days to ask for a rehearing.

Read the Rest Here

Evidently, the Communist Party USA has decided to endorse Kerry as their candidate.

Check out this flier someone posted to Free Republic (also has their web address, but I really didn't want to go there to see the original.)

Read this by Barbara Stock, and then ask yourself, why would someone do this to our country?


The Kerry campaign has settled on a battle cry: ''Iraq is the new Vietnam.'' John Kerry couldn’t use his sterling war record to propel him into the White House so he will now walk across the bodies of dead Iraqi children, coalition civilians who are having their heads sawed off for the shock value, and American soldiers who remain in harm’s way. Kerry’s friends depict surrendering marines in their pro-Kerry campaign ads and Kerry struts around America sending devastating signals to the enemy by calling Bush ''unfit'' to lead. Kerry says Bush is far too ''resolved'' in his determination to defeat the enemy. Bush should accept defeat, as Kerry has. That may sound harsh, but just as the protesters of the 1960’s encouraged the North Vietnamese to continue killing until the anti-war activists wore down the government, John Kerry is not only encouraging the Islamic terrorists to step up their attacks, he is almost begging them to do so.

Go hear to read the rest.

Pro-choice Catholics - a deal with the devil

The argument that Catholic elected officials can divorce their faith from their political actions does not apply in the fight against abortion, said Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput.

Chaput is another in a long line of Catholic teachers who reiterates that being pro-choice is putting yourself outside of what being a Catholic means. In fact, he calls it "a deal with the devil."

Read the article here:

Sumner Redstone, chief honcho at CBS parent company Viacom, yes terday told a convocation of senior corporate executives that he is "very concerned" about Dan Rather's now-infamous "60 Minutes" report on President Bush's military record.

As well he should be. The reputation of what was once America's premier television news network was shredded by Rather's credulous embrace of documents that most charitably can be termed amateurish forgeries.

The whole affair is now the subject of an independent probe — and Rather is hot under the collar.

Not with the idea of an investigation, or so he says. (Though given everything that's already come out about the way he and producer Mary Mapes handled the National Guard story, he can't be looking forward to any genuine probe.)

No, Rather doesn't like the fact that one of those named to look into his conduct is — gasp! — a Republican.

And not just any Republican, but one who in the past worked for two presidents — Richard Nixon and the first George Bush — with whom Rather had notorious public clashes.

Read the rest here

Kerry's comments drew a sharp rebuke from the vice president just 40 days before Americans go to the polls on November 2 to cast their presidential ballots.

"I must say I was appalled at the complete lack of respect Senator Kerry showed for this man of courage when he rushed to hold a press conference and attack the prime minister, a man America must stand beside to defeat the terrorists," Cheney told an audience in St. Joseph, Missouri.

"John Kerry is trying to tear down all the good that has been accomplished, and his words are destructive to our effort in Iraq and in the global war on terror.

Read it here.

Newsday runs an article that discusses the reason why certain groups are choosing beheading to both terrorize and probably recruit.

For centuries, it has been one of humanity's most graphic, gruesome ways to end a life: sever the head, home to thoughts, dreams and that most personal of features -- the face. Decapitation by hand, with sword or knife, smacks of ugly yesterdays -- things the West prefers to think it has left behind.

Now, as insurgents in Iraq commandeer a modern medium by bringing decapitation videos to the Internet, an ancient punishment has become a 24-hour news cycle's shocking message of defiance -- one that effectively both sows terror and shows off to the young Islamic men the militants are trying to recruit.

Read it here.

It is being reported that Bill Burkett said that Lockhart pressured him to release the documents to CBS when they had their phone conversation.

At the Star-Telegram: During a single phone conversation with Lockhart, Burkett said he suggested a "couple of concepts on what I thought [Kerry] had to do" to beat Bush. In return, he said, Lockhart tried to "convince me as to why I should give them the documents."

A member at the Free Republic said that they mentioned this story on Fox News although it is not on their website yet.

From the Plain Dealer:

It's too early to say whether John Kerry or George W. Bush is cooked yet, but one of the side dishes of this election year is done.

A week after Dan Rather told us CBS had the smoking gun on The Issue of the 2004 campaign - whether political influence was used to find George W. Bush a slot in the Texas Air National Guard back in the 20th century - he finally admitted that the network had been had. The gun was smoking, all right, but only because Rather had emptied the magazine into his own foot...... The story that the "60 Minutes" team had been the victims of a hoax - and not a terribly clever one at that - didn't exactly break. It detonated, literally within minutes, in a corner of the Internet known to its inhabitants as the Blogosphere.

Read the whole thing here.

NEW YORK - Station managers at several CBS affiliates said Thursday they appear to be a target of a national e-mail campaign placing pressure on the network to oust Dan Rather as anchorman of the "CBS Evening News."

The anger stems from Rather's role in a "60 Minutes" report on President Bush (news - web sites)'s service in the National Guard. CBS has apologized for reporting on documents critical of Bush's service, widely assumed now as fakes, and appointed a panel to investigate what went wrong in the report.

Many e-mailers offer the same message: I will not watch CBS News again until Rather is gone, said Bob Lee, president and general manager of WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, Va., and head of the CBS affiliate board.

Rest of the news story here. Mentions Rathergate.com.

The Kerry Fairy once again comes up with a most outstanding observation.

Does anyone remember March of 2004? Before the Democrats began their onslaught against the war in Iraq? Deaths, though still grievously mourned, slowed dramatically; the reconstruction was well underway. A hopeful beginning was being unveiled. Then Teddy Kennedy stood up and declared, out of the blue, that Iraq was "our Vietnam" - and suddenly all hell broke loose. Deaths in April skyrocketed. The enemy saw an out - and they have continued to pound us, believing that if they could just cause enough bloodshed, the American public would demand a withdrawal...

just like they did in Vietnam.

I wonder who gave them that idea?

Let us be honest, finally, about who gave them that idea...

John Kerry slaughtered one generation of American soldiers in Vietnam, using this same tactic - slander the soldier, slander the cause, and promise to meet the enemy on their own terms. His meeting in Paris effectively extended the war by one year, causing the deaths of 20,000 American Soldiers.

Now he comes again, damning the war, denigrating the soldier, bending towards Baghdad with promises of withdrawal and capitulation.


Go read it now! Think about it. Be ready to do the right thing.

AT Memento Moron (I do so love that name!) we get the following comment:

Iyad Illawi, interim Iraqi Prime Minister, addressed a joint session of Congress today, and thanked the United States, saying in part, "We know Americans have made enormous sacrifices.... We promise you your sacrifices are not in vain."

Well, apparently, that's not good enough for John Kerry:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Thursday that Iraq's Ayad Allawi was sent before Congress to put the "best face" on Bush administration policy.

Nice, Senator. You've just told Allawi he's nothing but a mouthpiece for the administration. I know that's a popular view on the left, but how do you thing that sits with Iraq?

Bush "missed a huge opportunity" at the United Nations this week to try to persuade leaders of other nations to join the United States in Iraq and the broader anti-terror war, Kerry said.

How will you do that, senator? By belittling our allies? By kowtowing to countries who had a vested interest in seeing the US fail? By giving the terrorists a timetable so they know exactly how long they have to lay low before Iraq will be left high and dry? By returning to the ways of the administration prior to this one, and reassuring the forces of evil that the US is a blowhard full of empty threats and swagger, without the will to back up our threats with actions?

Read the whole thing here.

Today, Prime Minister Allawi spoke to the combined congress, starting with a thanks for the US's help. Afterwards, Kerry made a speech, accusing of Allawi of being a mouthpiece for the adminstration among other things. In response, Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign Chairman Gov. Marc Racicot today issued the following statement

Today, John Kerry showed he lacks the judgment and credibility to lead the United States of America to victory in the War on Terror.

"His attacks on the veracity of the Iraqi Prime Minister's historic address to Congress reveal a stunning propensity to take political cheap shots for his own benefit by denigrating our allies in this important struggle against a global terror network. President Bush is proud to stand with Prime Minister Allawi while John Kerry attacks progress and resolve and advocates a policy of retreat and defeat in the face of terror.

"John Kerry said today, 'And when you people judge me and the American people judge me on this, I want you to judge me on the full record.' We're confident the American people will."

Source:

DEFEATJOHNJOHN.COM had this thoughtful response to the President's speach at the UN yesterday. I snipped this much:

Kerry and his supporters still seem to live in this bizarre, convenient little fantasy world in which the policies of non-interference and ignoring those who torture and murder their religious enemies was working just peachy, for they'd surely never come after us unless we came after them. Which not only ignores 9/11, but also the dozens of escalating terrorist attacks on our soil and on our foreign embassies during the decade prior.

Go read it all!

Blogs for Bush has a great piece on the new anti-Kerry ad, Windsurfing.

The Kerry campaign would like the American people to believe this ad is out of line because of what is happening in Iraq. What they don't want the people to realize is that this ad is really about Kerry's record - something the Kerry campaign doesn't want to touch with a ten-foot pole.

This is a case of the Kerry campaign not being able to give an answer so they've decided to change the question.

It seems as if Kerry thinks that he can use the war in Iraq a shield from criticism.

"Windsurfing" covers Kerry's flip-flops on these issues:

• The war in Iraq
• Funding the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
• The No Child Left Behind Act
• Medicare

And the Kerry campaign's response is that this inappropriate because of continued violence in Iraq? Why can't they address Kerry's flip-flops on these issues, instead of conjuring up an excuse as to why the attacks on his record are inappropriate?

Read it all here.

Reacting to the document scandal at CBS News, Sumner M. Redstone, chairman and chief executive of Viacom (nyse: VIAb - news - people ), CBS' parent, vowed that the results of a recently announced probe would be "appropriate--and the consequences will be appropriate."
Read it all here.

Waiting to see what appropriate consequences consist of.

Catholic Answers is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that does not take positions on political candidates, parties, or campaigns. It confines itself to explaining the teaching of the Catholic Church on a wide variety of issues, including the moral obligations of Catholics regarding political involvement.

What follows is a statement by Karl Keating, president and founder of Catholic Answers.

* * *
In a brazen attempt to silence anyone who opposes legalized child-killing in America, the nation’s leading pro-abortion Catholic—Frances Kissling of Catholics For a Free Choice—has launched a full-scale attack on Catholic Answers for publishing the Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics. On September 20, 2004, Kissling and CFFC filed a “complaint” with the IRS, claiming erroneously that our voter’s guide violates tax rules governing non-profit charitable organizations.

And—get this—she’s going to try to STOP US from running the voter’s guide as a full-page ad in USA Today!

In fact, our voter’s guide does not violate any tax rules. We had it thoroughly checked out by legal experts, and we’re well within the law. In the voter’s guide, we don’t mention any candidates, any specific election, or any party, and we don’t endorse or oppose anyone. We merely state the principles that real Catholics are obligated to abide by when voting.

But Frances Kissling, who accuses us of “selective interpretation of Catholic doctrine,” is steaming mad over our voter’s guide. She knows how effective it is. She knows what it will do when 4.8 million people read it in USA Today. And she knows that if she’s going to “protect abortion rights,” she has to keep Catholics confused about what the Church teaches on abortion.

But we’re not going to let her.

We’re going to fight Frances Kissling all the way. This is a blatant attempt at intimidation, and we will not be intimidated. It is an attempt to squelch our First Amendment rights, and we will not be silenced. If the IRS follows up on her frivolous complaint, we will be thoroughly vindicated.

We will never back down—especially not when we’re threatened by this devious organization that has the gall to call itself “Catholic.”

We fully expect that our supporters will step forward and enable us to do exactly what Frances Kissling doesn’t want us to do: Reach 4.8 million Americans through our full-page ad in USA Today.

Read it and weep, Frances.

# # #
Earlier this year Catholic Answers published its Voters Guide for Serious Catholics, which identified five non-negotiable issues on which Church teaching has been adamant: No Catholic can support abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem-cell research, human cloning, or homosexual “marriage.” Over two million copies of the voters guide are in print as of this date. On August 31 the text of this voters guide was placed as a full-page ad in selected editions of USA Today. The organization hopes to run it in all editions of USA Today this October. Following the original placement of the voters guide in USA Today, Frances Kissling of the anti-life group “Catholics for a Free Choice” filed a frivolous complaint with the IRS.


Catholic Answers

Newsweek's Howard Fineman argued that CBS News producer Mary Mapes became "obsessed," with trying to prove that George W. Bush got special treatment in the National Guard, because she wanted to "save the world from a George Bush presidency, and in the last five years, she's tried to find that smoking gun that would allow her to do that." Appearing on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning on Wednesday, Fineman fretted that due to the CBS scandal, it is getting "increasingly difficult to prove" that the rest of the media strive for "objectivity" and want to be "fair" and "even-handed." Fineman also predicted that "if Roger Ailes and Fox had done something like this, you know, the world would be on fire."

Read the rest here

Word is that Rather is not happy about the appointment of Dick Thornburg to the panel investigating CBS's improprieties.

Sources close to the network described Rather as "confounded" by the selection of Thornburgh because of his Republican connections; Thornburgh served in the administrations of Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush.

Rather is known for publicly clashing with both Nixon and Bush the elder, and Thornburgh has a history of clashing with CBS.

In 1989, as attorney general, "he drew the ire of CBS News and other news media organizations when the Justice Department was reportedly considering subpoenas for the telephone records of a CBS News correspondent in an investigation of leaks about an inquiry about a congressman's office," said the Times.

CBS News says the choice of Boccardi and Thornburgh was made by Andrew Heyward, president of CBS News, and Les Moonves, chairman of CBS Television and co-president of the CBS parent, Viacom.

Read the rest here.

WASHINGTON — Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi addressed a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday. Following is a transcript of his remarks:

ALLAWI: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, it's my distinct honor and great privilege to speak to you today on behalf of Iraq's interim government and its people.

It's my honor to come to Congress and to thank this nation and its people for making our cause your cause, our struggle your struggle.

Before I turn to my government's plan for Iraq, I have three important messages for you today.

First, we are succeeding in Iraq.

Transcript from FoxNews

On the same day CBS announced the appointment of an independent commission to investigate the circumstances surrounding forged documents aired during a "60 Minutes" segment, the company girded for legal action in the matter. On Wednesday, Anthony Bongiorno, counsel for the beleaguered network ordered a legal hold on all tapes and material relating to the report.

Read the whole piece here.

Wondering, idly, who is going to be first in line....

Good analysis of a faithful, not CINO catholic view of the pro-life stance, and why being a faithful catholic really doesn't let you waffle here by James K. Fitzpatrick writing at Catholic Exchange:

There may be reasons for a Catholic to vote for “pro-choice” Democrats, but this notion of a moral equivalence between them and pro-life conservatives is not one of them. Those who make the claim are either muddle-headed or engaged in a con job.... Well, I no longer have to defend my position on my own. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, has come to the rescue. A letter that Ratzinger wrote in June to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has recently been made public. The letter makes clear the difference between the way a Catholic must respond to the pope’s pronouncements on abortion and the way we must respond to his positions on issues such as capital punishment and the war in Iraq. (The existence of this letter was reported by the Italian daily La Repubblica, and subsequently confirmed by informed sources at the Vatican.)

The central theme of Ratzinger’s letter was whether Communion should be withheld from pro-abortion politicians. But in the course of dealing with that issue, Ratzinger also explained why the Church’s teaching on abortion is different from its position on capital punishment and Iraq. Said Ratzinger,Not all moral issues have the same weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to go to war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.


Read the rest here

Ann Coulter wrote:

I believe we now have conclusive proof that:

(1) Dan Rather is not an honest newsman who was simply duped by extremely clever forgeries; and

(2) We could have won the Vietnam War.

A basic canon of journalism is not to place all your faith in a lunatic stuck on something that happened years ago who hates the target of your story and has been babbling nonsense about him for years. And that's true even if you yourself are a lunatic stuck on something that happened years ago (an on-air paddling from Bush 41) who hates the target of your own story and has been babbling nonsense about him for years, Dan.

CBS' sole source authenticating the forged National Guard documents is Bill Burkett, who's about as sane as Margot Kidder was when they dragged her filthy, toothless butt out of somebody's shrubs a few years back. Burkett has compared Bush to Hitler and Napoleon, and rambles on about Bush's "demonic personality shortcomings." (This would put Burkett on roughly the same page as Al Gore.)

Read the Rest Here

Powerline has this piece on the similarities between Watergate and Memogate...or is it a case of what goes around comes around?

Another victim to John Kerry's military role back in the 70s is his appeal to Vietnamese Americans.

The Michigan Daily reports

A whopping 71 percent of the Vietnamese-American community plans to vote for President Bush in the upcoming election, according to a recent national poll by the multi-ethnic news agency New California Media.

Dan Tran, a member of Vietnamese Americans Against John Kerry, isn’t surprised. Instead he anticipates an even higher percentage, predicting Vietnamese will virtually vote unanimously for Bush.

“I think 90 percent of the Vietnamese in America will vote against Kerry,” he said.

Read the rest here

Another story on the GOP reading of the CBS/Democrat collusion

The chairman of the Republican National Committee suggested Wednesday that John Kerry's presidential campaign and CBS News were in cahoots to derail President Bush's re-election effort prior to the network's now infamous "60 Minutes" broadcast of National Guard memos that have since been discredited.

"This obviously was an effort to elect Senator Kerry and defeat President Bush," said Ed Gillespie, the GOP chairman. "The news report we now know is discredited, although it's not been retracted. The centerpiece of the Kerry campaign's character-based critique ... is based on these forged documents."


Read the rest (including a summary of events) here

Mark Nicodemo has an excellent piece about some of the source and ferment about the lastest "vote for the GOP and get drafted" rumour:

With recent comments by John Kerry that Bush plans to initiate a draft if re-elected, a Google search led me to a site that proves again that the moonbat brigade of liberals are not only very dishonest, but not very good at reading comprehension.

Go see what he found out.

James Pinkerton wrote in Newsday, Questions Abound in the CBS Mess

"With respect, answer the questions."

Those were Dan Rather's words to George W. Bush last week, as recorded in The New York Observer - back when Rather was still prosecuting the president on the basis of those Texas Air National Guard memos. But, now that the documents have been revealed to be fakes, turnabout questioning is fair play.

Read the rest here

I think many of us would also join in, "Mr. Rather, with respect, answer the questions."

Interesting piece at the Captain's Quarters about Indian perceptions and wishes about the election and why they feel that way:

Considering the uncertainty of the world and especially their region, in the final analysis Sanghvi asserts that Indians would rather stick with stability and continuity rather than take chances on a newcomer like Kerry. Americans appear to be coming to much the same conclusion this month.

Read it here

Dick Morris, over at the New York Post has published a piece called The Anti-War Turn Is A Loser. It deals with the new strident voice Kerry has flipped into about Iraq. Morris says:

Part of Kerry's vulnerability on the Iraq issue is because he is really not proposing anything new to deal with the war. His four-part "plan" — which centers on urging our allies and the U.N. to do more and calls for strong efforts to provide jobs to Iraqis (the John Edwards message, sent abroad) and to train Iraqi police and troops — just mirrors what Bush is already doing.

That is, it is only in retrospect — in criticizing past actions — that Kerry really differs from Bush. He is proposing no real alternative for action in the future.

This is an important point. What is he really saying? Do more like Bush, but maybe alienate more people at home by acting more in concert with Europe while you are doing it?

Morris also notes:

Since elections are about the future and history books about the past, Bush can fairly ask Kerry what he would do differently. When the Democrat ticks off his agenda, Bush can reply with his statistics saying (in effect), Been there, done that.

John Kerry has zigged when he should have zagged. He has chosen to fight over terror and Iraq when he should have stayed on domestic issues. He has tacked left when he should have stayed in the center on foreign issues and attacked on matters closer to home.

Kerry has defined himself as a liberal — and will pay for it with his defeat.

Read the entire piece here

The GOP has released what they call Chronology of Character Assassination.

It is fascinating. Using published press reports, they recreate the timeline of events.

And where are their sources coming from? Places like Newsmax? Not at all -these are from sources like the Washington Post, NY Times, USAToday...

Read it here

Then go to Blogs for Bush where Mark Noonan has done an excellent analysis of it.
I found particularly telling:

3. At each step of the way in the DNC/Kerry-Edwards attempt to revive the National Guard story, it was a well-connected Democrat who was providing the information to the MSM. The CBS interview with former Texas Lt. Governor Barnes (a gigantic financial contributor to Kerry/Edwards) showed that the Democrats were determined to make the National Guard story come to life again, and that the MSM was playing along with it.

and

Note that - four days before CBS aired its story, senior Kerry aide Joe Lockhart was talking with CBS' primary source. We have no evidence that they spoke prior to this date, but at the very least Kerry/Edwards had a four-day advance notice of a CBS report which would dovetail into the character assasination they started ramping up about six days before the CBS report.

Obvious collusion between a major news outlet and the DNC.

Blogs for Bush article Here

This is a disturbing, but meaningful essay.

I watched video of the most recent beheading in Iraq from my crisply air
conditioned living room in San Antonio--but I couldn’t manage to watch the
entire clip.

It may have been the most brutal thing that I’ve ever seen in my life.

Rest of the essay here

He discusses the nature of horror, the similarity between the heart of Darkness in Conrad's and Francis Ford Copola's Kurtz, and the terrorists who can inflict this type of killing. What is the right response? It may not be the one you want to hear.

Today, President Bush said this about Mr. Kerry:
"He has had many different positions on Iraq. Incredibly, this week he said he would prefer the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to the situation in Iraq today," Bush said.
"You cannot lead the war against terror if you wilt or waver when times get tough," Bush continued. "You cannot expect the Iraqi people to stand up and do the hard work of democracy if you're pessimistic about their ability to govern themselves. You cannot expect our troops to continue doing the hard work if they hear mixed messages from Washington, D.C."

Two days ago, someone counted 14 flips from earlier positions in one of Mr. Kerry's speech, and Vice President Cheney mentioned nine yesterday.

I saw an ad for a Kerry weathervane...I can see why some might think it might be an appropriate image.

But I wonder, is he a weathervane, or a puppet, being directed by his campaign advisors? But if so, I wonder who will be the puppet master if he is elected?

Today, President Bush said this about Mr. Kerry:
"He has had many different positions on Iraq. Incredibly, this week he said he would prefer the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein to the situation in Iraq today," Bush said.

Two days ago, someone counted 14 flips from earlier positions in one of Mr. Kerry's speech, and Vice President Cheney mentioned nine yesterday.

I saw an ad for a Kerry weathervane...I can see why it might be an appropriate image.

But in some ways, I wonder who will be the puppet master if he is elected?

From Blogs for Bush:

John Kerry must be living in a fantasy world if he thinks he has a chance to win this election. Yesterday, we learned that blue states from 2000 are not safe territory for Kerry in 2004, and now, Kerry has given up on four states that went to Bush four years ago - and pulled campaign ads from them. Kerry cannot win if he can't snag one or two red states from the last election...

Read the rest here

The jig is up. The game is over. CBS tried to energize the country into voting against President Bush by highlighting forged documents it said would prove Bush's failure to serve honorably in the Texas Air National Guard. The smoking gun went up in smoke. Once caught, CBS and Dan Rather could have responded with a simple apology. Instead, they went ballistic -- and now must pay the price for their defiance.

Read the Rest Here

Powerline has noticed Kerry playing the "GOP will bring back the draft," which looks like it's been coordinated with a set of emails and advertising at the college aged...read here

Lime Shurburt sure looks to have Kerry's agenda for today. Check out his Kerry To-Do List...

Credibility is a journalist's core credential. What a shame that Dan Rather has gambled his away by trusting an "unimpeachable" source who turned out to be a partisan political operative and vehement critic of President Bush.

Read it here

Kerry nixes more troops for Iraq

But the Democrat's staunch refusal to consider sending more US troops contrasted with his remarks in a televised interview in April, when he also spoke of resistance among US allies to putting boots on the ground in Iraq.

"If it requires more troops in order to create the stability that eliminates the chaos that can provide the groundwork for other countries, that's what we have to do," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Read it here

David Van Os said that it was CBS’ intention from the outset to cast Bill Burkett in an unfavorable light. “Dan Rather and CBS were intending all along to use the interview to dump on (Burkett),” Van Os said.

Rest of it here

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Islamist group in Iraq (news - web sites) has said it killed two female Italian hostages in a statement posted on an Internet site not often used by Iraqi militants.

Rest of the Story Here

Some of the reasons for the war on terror, the reason Iran and N. Korea continue to be an issue, and why it really matters:

- A trained nuclear engineer using material the size of an orange could build an atomic bomb to fit into a van, proliferation expert Laura Holgate said, sketching a nightmare scenario of a terrorist attack on a major city.

She recalled that terrorists had attacked the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 with a van loaded with conventional explosives.

Holgate told reporters at a meeting in Vienna of the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it was "not widely shared and understood" how risky the current situation is, especially since terrorists would not necessarily need top-level scientists to build a bomb.

Read the rest here

Seems like there is a certain point that here in America, we realize when enough is enough.


"Ratings for 'CBS Evening News With Dan Rather' fell by 10 percent last week compared to a year ago, a drop that network sources privately attributed to the steady erosion of news viewers rather than the controversy surrounding CBS' decision to air dubious documents attacking President Bush's National Guard service," the Chicago Tribune reported today.

Read the rest here

The Kerry Fairy Blog quotes Ratherbiased.com with this piece of news:

Embattled former National Guardsman Bill Burkett, the source of CBS's forged documents has more ties to the Kerry for Senate campaign, RatherBiased.com has learned.

In a message posted on the Texas Democrats message board that everyone has been looking through of late, RatherBiased.com discovered that Burkett was an official "City Captain" for an event sponsored by the Kerry campaign.

Go read it!

What Sen. John Kerry has said in the past about the Iraq war.

Oct. 9, 2002: "I will be voting to give the president of the United States the authority to use force - if necessary - to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security."

Sept. 4, 2003: "I don't think any United States senator is going to abandon our troops and recklessly leave Iraq to whatever follows as a result of simply cutting and running. That's irresponsible."

Dec. 4: "The administration is considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy. Their sudden embrace of accelerated Iraqification and American troop withdrawal without adequate stability is an invitation to failure."

Aug. 6, 2004: "I believe that within a year from now, we could significantly reduce American forces in Iraq, and that's my plan."

Aug. 16: "I would have voted for the authority [to go to war]. I believe it was the right authority for a president to have."

Sept. 6: "We want the troops home, and my goal would be to try to get them home in my first term."

Sept. 20: "Iraq was a profound diversion from that war and the battle against our greatest enemy, Osama bin Laden and the terrorists."

Yesterday: "Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place in hell. But that was not, in itself, a reason to go to war.

(From Newsday, Quoting Vice-President Cheney)

A hat-tip to Occam's Tweezer

From Ratherbiased.com

The Fallout From Memogate

Earlier, we gave you the internet's reaction to the CBS semi-apology, now, RatherBiased.com is looking how a few of America's newspapers are responding and reporting on the CBS documents kerfuffle.

• The New York Times, always the paper with the best network contacts, further confirms that Memogate producer Mary Mapes has become the sacrificial lamb. But not every CBSer is happy about that, Jim Rutenberg and Bill Carter report; some employees believe more important heads need to roll. They also talked with a former colleague of Mapes's, a conservative radio talker who used to work with her, who recalls the CBS producer as being "ardently liberal."

  Elsewhere in the Times, Kate Zernike reports on the immediate role-reversal that ensued after former Clinton pressec Joe Lockhart admitted that he was asked by CBS to contact its primary document source, Bill Burkett. Prior to that, the Bush people didn't want to talk much about Memogate while the Kerry folk were pumping up the National Guard story.

There is a lot more than this. Go here to read it all.

Very recently a lot of buzz is going around about Laura Bush vs. Teresa Heinz Kerry ... This is the second one I have come across today....

Teresa Heinz Kerry's public approval ratings are far lower than Laura Bush's, in part perhaps because of her blunt outspokenness. However, a recent poll by GMI Inc., a marketing research firm, did find that 56 percent of the American public found Heinz-Kerry more physically attractive. University of Washington sociologist Pepper Schwartz theorizes that the Democratic candidate's wife won out because she is "more natural and perhaps a bit more unpredictable." Whether that allure will subliminally influence voters to support her husband remains to be seen.

Excuse me? I think Laura Bush is FAR more appealing than THK. And, she exudes much more class. Plus, kids don't bore Laura.

Go to DaGoddess's blog and compare the pic yourself!
(Thanks to Knowledge is Power!)

USAToday Reports:

CBS News executives want to know why Mapes, one of Rather's most trusted producers, repeatedly assured them that both Bill Burkett and the documents he gave her could be trusted — only to have both widely called into question by Internet bloggers and rival news organizations soon after 60 Minutes aired the story. On Monday, CBS said the story should have never run, and Rather apologized to viewers.

I would say that is a question a lot of us would like to know the full answer to...and perhaps some people are sitting nervously hoping the full truth doesn't come out...or at least, it is easy to think we see the rippling effects of stonewalling circling further and further from that report....Lockhart has said different things on different days that contradict the earlier statements...and I am waiting to see how far the ripples go...

Drudge reports:

The Honorable Dick Thornburgh, former governor of Pennsylvania and United States attorney general under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and Louis D. Boccardi, retired president and chief executive officer of the Associated Press, will comprise the independent review panel that will examine the process by which a recent 60 MINUTES Wednesday report was prepared and broadcast.

Read the rest here

Deroy Murdoch writes:

If John Kerry's skin were any thinner, he would seem contained by Saran Wrap. Criticize the Democratic presidential nominee to any degree, and he responds as if gravely and unfairly wounded, even if he threw the first punch.

"The Bush campaign and its allies have turned to the tactics of fear and smear because they can't talk about jobs, health care, energy independence and rebuilding our alliances," Kerry whined at Cooper Union College in New York on August 24, soon after the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth began broadcasting torpedoes below Kerry's water line. Never mind that Kerry himself placed a mine downstream from President Bush's reelection juggernaut more than six months earlier: "The issue here, as I have heard it raised, is was he [Bush] present and active on duty in Alabama at the times he was supposed to be," John Forbes Kambodia complained last February 8. "Just because you get an honorable discharge does not in fact answer that question."

Kerry now cries anew, like a toddler deprived of his ice cream.

Read the rest here

It was no accident that John Kerry appeared on a daytime television interview show and recalled his days as a young prosecutor representing a rape victim. Or that he then flew from New York to Florida to promote his health care proposals. Or that on Thursday he will preside over an Iowa town hall meeting on national security with an audience made up entirely of women.

Read the Rest Here

Campaigning in Ohio Tuesday, Vice President Dick Cheney accused Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry of changing positions on the war in Iraq.

"Kerry," Cheney told the crowd, "outlined what I think is his ninth position on the war in Iraq during what Democrats said was a major address on foreign policy Monday."

"He attacked the progress we are making and the policies we've implemented," Cheney said of the speech.

"Yet despite all the harsh rhetoric (Kerry) endorsed many of the same goals President Bush has been pursuing in Iraq."

Full Story Here

From Yahoo News:

Frustration and ire gripped CBS News on Tuesday, with staffers and the main "60 Minutes" newsmag trying to distance themselves from the scandal that has embroiled the spinoff edition of the show.

Across the country, CBS affiliates continued to be bombarded with mail from viewers expressing their outrage over Dan Rather in particular and the journalistic debacle in general. Affiliate board is sure to take up the subject at its next meeting, set for Oct. 5.

"Some people broke the cardinal rule and screwed us all," one "60 Minutes" veteran said Tuesday.

Story Here