Debate Wrap: Kerry failed essential question on national security

Tonight's Presidential debate was arguably one of the best seen, often featuring two candidates with diametrically opposing positions. At other times Bush stood straight by his convictions while Kerry straddled into Olympic caliber linguistic contortions, explaining at one point, for example, how he simultaneously supports both multinational and bilateral negotiations with North Korea or that the war in Iraq was actually both a mistake and yet not a mistake in his actual answers to succeeding questions.

Kerry supporters were no doubt pleased that no problems arose from his pre-debate manicure and while the Senator's make-up experts went a little heavy with his lipstick they were still able to correct much of the damage from the weekend's tanning fiasco, leaving only warpaint like wide highlights from the escapade protruding on his jowels, no doubt adding visual emphasis to his still perpetuating & often nauseating iterative references to his 3 month combat experience in Vietnam.

A number of pundits noticed President Bush's apparent facial irritations in side-by-side shots, obviously annoyed over Kerry's repeated "misleading" charges, Halliburton moore-onics & not so subtle “war for oil” conspiracy weaving, amidst the other standard DNC smear themes. For his part, President Bush refrained from responding in kind and maintained a proper speaking demeanor throughout, even providing some over gratuitously polite compliments for Kerry, his service and family, when offered the opportunity by moderator Jim Leher.

Kerry's demeanor, however, can in no way be seen as likely to sway more than the more dedicated and venomous amongst his base. At one point in the debate Kerry even lied about his history of saying “Bush lied”, to which the RNC promptly put out references to his prior statement regarding accusations he's repeatedly made on the stump in September of 2003 and again to the Boston Globe in December, 2003. His side-screen lip smacking and repeated eye shifting time after time was often Nixon-esque in its slighty appearance.

In another somewhat ungraceful manner, Kerry also dismissed, without comment, the still angered vets he smeared, as would have truly been appropriate, when Leher posed a question in the context of his 1971 Senate testimony, when Kerry likened fellow US soldiers to the army of Ghengis Kahn. He failed to address that in any way and that will undoubtedly continue to fuel the passion of the SwiftVets and other Vietnam Veterans who remain opposed against Kerry. Nor did he ingratiate himself with respect to our allies when he declined to apologize in any way for his campaign’s disgraceful treatment to Iraqi interim Prime Minister Allawi nor any reconciliation offered for calling our allies the "coerced and the bribed".

But among the most telling moments in this debate, and truly a moment, I believe, is worthy of historical recognition alongside Gerald R. Ford's east-european communist gaffe in 1976, combined with Bernard Shaw's 1988 death penalty question & verdict for Mike Dukais, was John Kerry's response to the real question at the heart of the debate, near the end, when Leher asked, "If you are elected president, what will you take to that office thinking is the single most serious threat to the national security to the United States?".

This was one of the biggest softballs tossed to Kerry by an obviously friendly Leher during the debate and Kerry botched the answer badly. The single most serious threat to the United States, in a post 9/11 world, is obviously Al Qaeda and all the other sympathetic, shadowy middle eastern Islamic terrorist groups and their allies who are bent on civilization's destruction. The next level threats are those who work or align themselves with those same terrorists and harbor them, or provide them with WMD, the thrust of the Bush doctrine and the underlying basis for the policy of pre-emption.

Kerry's answer, however, pointing to remaining unsecured former Soviet nuclear material was a rather curious one, and seemingly revealed deeply rooted liberal flaws in the Senator's decades of ill-fated policy thinking, from Vietnam to Nicaragua, through the Nuclear Freeze in the midst of the cold war and seeking cuts of $6 billion after the first bombing of the World Trade Center.

The first peculiarity about Kerry's response was that it was focused on Russia and suggests Kerry has not emerged from pre-9/11 cold war thinking. Obviously the WMD efforts focused on Libya and the A.Q. Khan network are more relevant and critical to the ongoing war with Islamic fascism originating from the middle east and, ton for ton, dollar for dollar, I'd much rather have materials procured from those sources than Putin (who has his own hands full as answers to a later question suggested). In other words, let’s get the stuff off the hands of the middle eastern extremists like Ghadaffi first, while we continue working alongside the Russians.

The second peculiarity about Kerry's response was the degree to which it focused on the weapons rather than the terrorists themselves and was eerily reminiscent of the Senator's often extreme - while also flip/flopping - positions on crime & gun control. In debating those issues, Kerry's focus is often on the guns and not the criminals, or, tonight, lamenting the passing of Clinton’s “100K cops” falsity, a history he shares as the former Lt. Governor for former Mass. presidential nominee Mike Dukakis. He then went on to complain that the US is pursuing new ways to improve our bunker buster level bombing stopping just shy of "blame America first" in words if not in reaction. Bush was right to reaffirm the true ultimate threat is the combination of terrorists and WMD.

Overall, Bush played it cool and played it smart. He reiterated his main themes effectively and wove them into varying responses to any number of questions covering the related topics. Thus, it's likely assured, the main message from each candidate reached their intended audience, whether they watched the entire debate or, as I suspect, many tuned in for certain parts or segments before their attention was warranted elsewhere.

Representing those who were paying the closest attention to Senator Kerry's performance, Sr. Kerry campaign advisor Joe Lockhart was overheard by C-SPAN telling fellow Kerry aide & former Clintonista Mike McCurry, “The consensus is it was a draw”, indicating their DNC focus groups were unable to detect any noticeable shift in momentum or position for the Kerry side, unlike the Senator's statements, himself.

Thus, to gauge the potential affect from this debate, it's likely few, if any, while undoubtedly some, minds were indeed changed by the night’s events. Kerry undoubtedly helped himself with a worthy performance that can only serve to revitalize his base. Bush lost no ground and showed moments of candor that will likely prove helpful in his prospecting amongst those who make up the vital middle in American politics. Kerry's shifting, derogatory and anti-war posturing, however, will not likely play well amongst many of those who're still trying to ascertain what the Senator's real position is on Iraq.

Those voters, still on the fence, are not likely anti-war or Bush-hating candidates at heart, lest they'd be on the fence between Kerry & Nader, as the only likely swayed by Kerry's latest positioning, and thus interesting that such is the path, tact, attack & tactic which Kerry’s debate prep folks chose to present. It might suggest, along with some of the recent rallies targeted by Kerry’s campaign events of late, that Kerry is indeed focusing on sustaining his (liberal / anti-war) base – not a position a general election candidate should want to be relegated to at this point approaching a major presidential election.

Meanwhile those in the middle who are undoubtedly troubled by his perpetual waffling are not likely to approve his defiant denial tonight that he's even engaged in such absurdities, claiming "I've had one position, one consistent position" (on Iraq). Plus it's clear Kerry didn't really get the whole message from Clinton to drop the Vietnam theme since, while he dropped his helmet-tank-ride-esque goofy convention salute and silly “Reporting for Duty”, he still closed with his now long ago over-abused "I defended this country as a young man at war, and I will defend it as president of the United States."

I'm personally betting that Kerry did nothing tonight that would further endanger us with that chance while Bush maintained his composure and the integrity of the office he should continue to hold. The major gaffe over "global test" will haunt him the rest of the campaign.
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 9:06 PM

 
Presidential Debate Context

LGF provides the Slideshow
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:02 AM

 
Ad-mania
A host of creative ads are blasting the airwaves!

"Different": WA Senate Candidate George Nethercutt takes on Patty Murray for her sickening public adoration & excusing of UBL.

Knocking Dan Rather off the air.

New SwiftVets featuring POW wives care of Human Events

Hard hitting GWB "Searching"

Mike Liffrig for ND Senate takes on Dorgan "Kissing Values Goodbye"
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:01 AM

 
At the snap of Saddam's fingers (Iraqi Nukes)
In the NYT today, Mahdi Obeidi, former head of Saddam Hussein's nuclear centrifuge program, who was ordered to bury parts & plans under a tree in his back yard, continues with his revelations on "the real story of Iraq's Nukes", noting:

"... our nuclear program could have been reinstituted at the snap of Saddam's fingers. ... Iraqi scientists had the knowledge and the designs needed to jumpstart the program if necessary. And there is no question that we could have done so very quickly. In the late 1980s, we put together the most efficient covert nuclear program the world has ever seen. In about three years, we gained the ability to enrich uranium and nearly become a nuclear threat; we built an effective centrifuge from scratch, even though we started with no knowledge of centrifuge technology. Had Saddam ordered it and the world looked the other way, we might have shaved months if not years off our previous efforts."

- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:02 AM

 
Debate Prep

Oompa Loompa Updates, Links & Weather Report from Blogs4Bush

Check out this spiffy Kerry Debate Briefing Book provided by the Bush Campaign, a handy scorecard provided by www.grassboots.org and unsolicited self-serving public advice to Kerry from Algore that's truly worth every cent that Kerry paid for it!

ABC/WP: 51-45 + CNN/USATODAY/GALLUP: 52-44 LV, 53-42 RV

UPDATE: Dickie Morris on Point
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:01 AM

 
Ra^thergate Redux: Phony e-mail used by CBS to further "draft" conspiracy
RatherBiased has an excellent synopsis of the latest outrage by CBS, here just a week after CBS announced the start of their official investigation into the now infamous Burkett / memo fraud. The "draft" scam was originated by the DNC to scare (particularly young) voters. Political Gateway recently published a definitive work on this subject, exposing HR 163, sponsored by Representatives Charles Rangel (D-New York), Jim McDermott (D-Washington), John Conyers (D-Michigan), John Lewis (D-Georgia), Pete Stark (D-California) and Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) & SB 89, sponsored by Senator Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina).

UPDATE: Completing the big lie, SpinSwimming has revealed John Kerry's plan for reinstating the draft has now been removed from his web site! This probably accompanied his change in posture over force realignment which the Bush Administration is engaged to free up 150K troops from Europe.
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 10:15 PM

 
Kerry: Botox & Orange Ready for Debate!

Presidential Debate Schedule
Flipper vs. Flopper, BC04 Debate "Preparation"
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:54 PM

 
Kudlow on Kerry / Allawi & American Politics 101
Politics 101 says the guy with the optimistic plan always defeats the dour defeatist. Larry Kudlow fills in the rest of the blanks, concluding Lurch is a pessimist and a defeatist, whose campaign is doomed to failure.
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 12:01 AM

 
Bush Draws Over 50,000 in Ohio

UPDATE: From THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH - Tens of thousands greet Bush in Ohio ... "the largest campaign rally anywhere in the nation this year ... Thousands of people lined the streets — standing four and five deep in Cedarville, Spring Valley, Xenia, Waynesville and Springboro — hoping to get a glimpse of the president ... U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, a Cedarville resident, his wife, Fran, and their eight grandchildren greeted Bush when he arrived at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. DeWine, a Republican, said he’s not seen a campaign like this in 30 years in politics. "He’s literally running in Ohio like he’s running for governor"
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 3:55 PM

 
Comprehensive Battleground Poll
The latest battleground poll by Ed Goeas and Cylinda Lake is out showing Bush +5 over Kerry and JA (Job Approval) > 50
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 12:01 AM

 
Tim Brown gets #100

Tim Brown goes into the record books as only the fourth player in NFL history to catch 100 touchdown passes in the superbowl rematch with the Raiders defeating Tampa Bay 30-20
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 8:31 PM

 
Steyn Cross-Continental 2-Fer
Mark Steyn in two pieces, "Kerry's looking for American failure -- and he's it" for the US, calling Kerry to task for his dispicable behavior toward Iraqi PM Allawi, calling Kerry a "small, graceless man", and The doomed defeatist for the UK, taking on Kerry, Edwards & Theresa suggesting their new campaign mantra, "I’ll surrender faster".
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 2:27 PM

 
Ra^thergate: The Case of the Phony Memos
The Weekly Standard has a very comprehensive examination of the concerted collaboration between the conspiring parties in Ra^ththergate: DNC+Kerry campaign, Media (including 60 Minutes and Boston Globe) & 527s (Texans for Truth and MoveOn.org).

PS:In another Weekly Standard article, Fred Barnes reports "the Republicans' Senate prospects look increasingly good".
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:56 PM

 
Petraeus Perspective
Kerry would be well advised to read today's writing by Lt. General David H. Petraeus in the Washington Post, "Battling for Iraq". From the real ground level perspective Petraeus reports:

...there are reasons for optimism. Today approximately 164,000 Iraqi police and soldiers (of which about 100,000 are trained and equipped) and an additional 74,000 facility protection forces are performing a wide variety of security missions.

Most important, Iraqi security forces are in the fight -- so much so that they are suffering substantial casualties as they take on more and more of the burdens to achieve security in their country. Since Jan. 1 more than 700 Iraqi security force members have been killed, and hundreds of Iraqis seeking to volunteer for the police and military have been killed as well.

Six battalions of the Iraqi regular army and the Iraqi Intervention Force are now conducting operations. Two of these battalions, along with the Iraqi commando battalion, the counterterrorist force, two Iraqi National Guard battalions and thousands of policemen recently contributed to successful operations in Najaf.

...Yet despite the sensational attacks, there is no shortage of qualified recruits volunteering to join Iraqi security forces. In the past couple of months, more than 7,500 Iraqi men have signed up for the army and are preparing to report for basic training to fill out the final nine battalions of the Iraqi regular army. Some 3,500 new police recruits just reported for training in various locations. And two days after the recent bombing on a street outside a police recruiting location in Baghdad, hundreds of Iraqis were once again lined up inside the force protection walls at another location -- where they were greeted by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

...It will not be easy, but few worthwhile things are.

- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:07 PM

 
Camp Pendleton Triumph & Tragedy
From a NC Times and an LA Times article of this date entitled Marines Receive a Warm Welcome:

Battalion with the highest casualty rate in Iraq comes home. The parents of those killed also greet troops.
I'm Doc Mendez's mother. That's how I want to be remembered forever," Aceves said. Her son, Fernando Mendez-Aceves, 27, a Navy medic, was killed while trying to save the life of a wounded Marine. "I'm so proud of my son, I'm proud of all of them," she said. "I wanted to come and be sure these boys got home safely."

- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 10:41 AM

 
WT: Mr. Lockhart's smoking gun?
The Washington Times solves the 2 Document question and ties everything up with Joe Lockhart in a nice little quid pro quo package. Following is the chain of events which the Times has assembled, based on the statements and reports made to date:

Friday, Sept. 3: Ms. Mapes and CBS reporter Mike Smith Got First 2 Documents from Burkett at Pizza Restaurant

Saturday, Sept. 4: Mapes speaks with Lockhart, Lockhart speaks with Burkett

Sunday, Sept. 5: CBS reporter Mike Smith Got the Infamous 4 Documents from Burkett

At some point, on, during or after September 4, in other reports, Mike McCurry said Lockhart also informed Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill about the conversation, and she, personally, informed Kerry himself.
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:01 AM

 
Bush Visits Departing Troops

"May God bless you all," .. "May God keep you safe."
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:01 AM

 
Burkett: Lockhart pushed for fabricated documents ... or did he ???
First, In a Mercury News article "Controversial Texas rancher defends release of documents to CBS", Burkett states, "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." and complains to CNN that the blogosphere brought their scheme down, that "CBS came to me, I did not go to them" and his wife decries, "Our name has been destroyed and cannot be reclaimed". Then Burkett changes his story, now saying he didn't but noting he's had four more seizures which translates to $$$ in his pending lawsuit against CBS. Can you say "Unimpeachable"?
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 11:06 PM

 
Hitchens: Ra^thergate documents are FABRICATED (not "forged")
Christopher Hitchens, this evening, makes an important point about the purported documents portrayed by CBS are FABRICATED - not "forged"; the distinction is critical; forgery implies the falsification of something real. In the case of the purported documents, however, they are FABRICATED to reflect something which is / was NOT REAL. Hitchens further notes that CBS is, in fact, falling back to a position in which they're claiming the documents were forged ie the thrust of their content is true.
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 7:52 PM

 
Allawi Thanks America

A man of courage, Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi addressed a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday, thanked America for our sacrifice and subtly challenged the pessimism of Hanoi John French Kerry and others, whereupon Kerry comes out to call Allawi a LIAR. [Transcript] [Video/Audio]. Afterwards President Bush & Prime Minister Allawi held a Joint Press Conference. [Transcript]

UPDATE: Cheney tells Missouri audience that he's 'appalled' by Kerry's 'lack of respect' for Iraqi leader.
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 9:17 AM

 
Best of the Week
Lots of interesting stuff!

US missile 'kills Zarqawi aide' (a really bad guy had a bad accident!) + Reuters on same: Zarqawi Cleric Ally Killed in U.S. Strike -Family

Porter Goss confirmed as CIA Chief: Roll Call Vote

Claudia Rosette: What's 'Illegal'? Kofi Annan helped Saddam Hussein steal food from babies. and Possible Saddam-Al Qaeda Link Seen in U.N. Oil-for-Food Program

Schwarzenegger Vetoes Calif. Driver's License Bill

Device found on Australian plane

Kerry's flip-flop of the week: Kerry nixes more troops for Iraq after terrorist thugs kill 2 Italian hostages and U.K. Hostage Pleads for Life on Videotape

Dick Morris: THE ANTI-WAR TURN IS A LOSER

Decorated Soldier Reportedly Attacked At Concert
UPDATE: Arrest Made In Soldier's Beating
COMMENTARY: The Attack on One Man That Was Bigger Than the Clash of Civilizations by Carroll Andrew Morse

Felix Rodriguez speaks out on Kerry: Contra Campaign (an honorable man & patriot describes his experience with Hanoi John French Kerry's lies in his Senate endeavors)

Navy Launches Second Kerry Medal Probe

Campaign News & Battleground Polls!

Why women are edging toward Bush: A growing group of 'security moms' puts national safety at the top of their list, weakening a traditionally Democratic base ... or maybe it's articles like this: Iranian woman wants only to be beaten once a week

Bill Sammon: Rove touts Bush headway in key areas - "Hatred is a powerful emotion, but it's not a very durable emotion. You cannot maintain hatred in your heart for another person and keep it for a long period of time."

Robert Novak: Loose cannons undermining Kerry (he, he, he)

Smart & legal financing management by Republicans while Kerry folks wasted millions of $$$ on the now ill-fated Operation Fortunate Son campaign they'd coordinated with Ra^thergate and another stupid movie featuring Kerry's phony Vietnam war reenactments: Bush Team Orchestrates Larger Ad Campaign

In today's "Actions speak louder than words" category: Kerry Pulls Campaign Ads From Four States (Arizona, Arkansas, Louisana & most critically, Missouri)

Reaffirmed: Presidential campaigns in Arkansas: Going, going, gone

Re-reaffirmed: Arizona not-so-friendly turf for Kerry (he, he)

Arizona Republic: Kerry pulls ads in Arizona

Michigan: The state that Kerry can't afford to lose

ABC: Winning Wisconsin - Well Targeted Campaign Helps Boost Bush in Wisconsin (Gore state in 2000 but Lambert Field? Forget it! Bush 53-43)

More on Wisconsin from AP (Badger Poll, Bush 52-38) with painful analysis by the regularly biased Ron Fournier

GALLUP: Poll Shows Bush Leading Kerry in West Virginia
(Bush 51-45)

GALLUP: Poll Shows Bush Leading Kerry in Nevada (Bush 52-43)

Colorado Pueblo Chieftan: Bush shows sizable lead among Colorado voters (Bush 53-33) with Coors / Salazar in dead heat

Post Hurricane Florida polls all over the place ... and I really don't like the methodologies behind ARG polls + too many around that are closer to the action to even pay attention to their noise any longer. The Iowa Electronic Market is probably as good a guage as any ;)

NBC News/Wall Street Journal: Bush holds narrow lead; Many voters don't believe Kerry has a clear message (Hart/McInturff, non-Zogby, Bush 50-46)

CBS: Check the type! (Bush 51-42)

Real Clear Politics Electoral Count: Bush 284 - Kerry 200

News & Commentary on Ra^thergate!

FYI: I personally trust Thornburgh :)

RNC Chairman Gillespie Statement

Email all 200 CBS Affiliates with just one click!

LAT: CBS Names 2 to Probe Conduct on Memos

Howard Kurtz: 2 Named to Head CBS Memo Inquiry

Elder Bush Slams CBS For Story About Son's Military Service - Former President Calls Account 'Insidious'

FNC: CBS Producer Has Go-Between Past

NewsMax: Mapes Has History of Breaking Rules

William Safire: First, Find the Forger

Ann Coulter: Dan Rather: Fairly unbalanced

Linda Chavez: CBS just doesn't get it

Brent Bozell: Rather's game is over

Noemie Emery @ Weekly Standard: Dear Mr. Rather

National Review: Rather Shoddy

Hugh Hewitt: Ghosting for Les - The speech CBS's president Les Moonves needs to give

Richmond Times Dispatch: The Rather Memos: On Operative Double Standards in the Mainline Press

Business Week: CBS's Latest Whodunit

Union Leader: Foul anchor: Rather sinks CBS' credibility

The Plain Dealer: Part-time pundits in pajamas find CBS asleep at the switch

The View from Australia: Beware bloggers in pyjamas - Humiliation for a CBS Goliath is a victory for the Net's Davids

UK Telegraph: Breaking news: CBS is in trouble

More from Staudt: Staudt speaks out about Bush memo debacle: he's "surprised they finally decided to be honest" stating “I don’t have much to tell. It’s simple to me. There was no political influence. That’s the truth.” ... "He was a good candidate, well educated,” he said. “We needed pilots, and he wanted to be one.”

Burkett going after his lawsuit with CBS & his attorney is speaking out: “Bill did not go to CBS, CBS came to him. CBS spent all summer trying to pressure and coax Bill into letting them have copies of the documents that they believed he had.” ... "Bill Burkett Just Got Burnt by Dan Rather" now that's truly unimpeachable!

And some really funny stuff:

Howie Carr: CBS producer may sleep with the phony fishes

IowaHawk: MY TELEPROMPTER IS DEADLY

- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:01 AM

 
Windsurfing


NOT Windsurfing!


In one of the funniest ads for the season, Bush / Cheney 2004 features Hanoi John French Kerry in action! ROFLMAO! Also see similar production now airing by Progress for America Voter Fund
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 8:50 PM

 
Kerry's Secret Meeting with the Enemy
Preview of next SwiftVets ad via Human Events focusing on Kerry's near treasonous meeting with the Vietnamese Communists, as has been confirmed & admitted to by the Kerry campaign.
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 7:31 PM

 
The UN's annual moment of truth
As long as GWB is President the despot nations of the world which make up the UN will have an annual Moment of Truth

Finding the full promise of representative government takes time, as America has found in two centuries of debate and struggle. Nor is there any -- only one form of representative government -- because democracies, by definition, take on the unique character of the peoples that create them. Yet this much we know with certainty: The desire for freedom resides in every human heart. And that desire cannot be contained forever by prison walls, or martial laws, or secret police. Over time, and across the Earth, freedom will find a way.

- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 4:23 PM

 
Ra^thergate: The Dam Breaks
While D.R. takes to the air to issue his non-apology apology, assuming victim status while politely pressing 30 year Rather friend and now admitted 'unimpeachable source' and former two-time mental patient, Bill Burkett, "Did you forge these documents?" (moia? of course not!). Burkett now claims his source for the forged documents was the ever elusive & unidentifiable Lucy Ramirez ... or were they "handed to him at the Houston Astrodome by an anonymous man" ... or maybe it was a transvestite member of the Kerry campaign. Maybe Joe Lockart, Sr. Communications Director for Kerry campaign, who admits his contacts & coordination with Burkett & CBS "News" in articles by AP and USA Today. With the Watergate like implications hovering over his campaign, and a first line defense that doesn't even pass the laugh test, Kerry should have no choice but to fire Lockhart in the next 72 hours.
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 7:31 PM

 
The Real Forger
For some reason, when Dan Rather headed off to Dallas, I was reminded of his linguistic flair with armadillos ... and ... O.J. heading off to a golf course in Florida to find "the real killer". Whatever D.R.'s shortcomings, however, he's just a little biased. OK, maybe not just a little biased, but he's certainly not a psychopathic cold blooded killer. His child like dig at FOX News was certainly unseemly but it's no real surprise to see the NYT report that:

"Mr. Rather interviewed Mr. Burkett on camera this weekend, and several people close to the reporting process said his answers to Mr. Rather's questions led officials to conclude that their initial confidence that the memos had come from Mr. Killian's own files was not warranted.".

WOW! D.R. is really on his way to breaking this story now! Hold the Presses! 60 Minutes has another blockbuster on the way!

Seriously. They actually pay these people? money? as in commonly exchanged US legal tender? and Hanoi John French Kerry is worried about outsourcing of jobs here in America?

CBS should have - long ago - outsourced its entire fact checking & production staff. And MSM has the audacity to treat the internet blogosphere as a bunch of rank & file Pajamahadeen idiots?

Otherwise interesting is CBS emphasis on point from Newsweek:

Yesterday, Emily J. Will, a document specialist who inspected the records for CBS News and said last week that she had raised concerns about their authenticity with CBS News producers, confirmed a report in Newsweek that a producer had told her that the source of the documents said they had been obtained anonymously and through the mail.

never forgetting, of course, while the documents may (sic) be forgeries, the thrust of D.R.'s 60 Minutes tallest of tall tales shall never be challenged!

UPDATE: As anticipated, statement released by CBS today acknowledging the forgery of the documents but continuing the cover-up & criminality behind the story & continuing the fraud that their story is still true.
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:01 AM

 
John Kerry: Sports Poser


With all Kerry's sports gaffes throughout the campaign, culminating in the fumbling over (not so legendary) "Lambert Field", it's too much for even the novice fan to endure. Football Fans for Truth works to set the record straight!
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 9:39 AM

 
SEC Reports: CEO of Viacom (CBS) dumps nearly $12 million in Stock
At the height of Ra^thergate, it appears Sumner Redstone, Chairman and CEO of Viacom Corporation, has issued his first verdict on the collapse of credibility for its CBS News operation and 60 Minutes programming. In disclosure mandated by the SEC, "STATEMENT OF CHANGES OF BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP OF SECURITIES", Redstone reveals his transaction promptly followed the disasterous & defiant appearance by Dan Rather on last Monday evening's edition of the CBS Evening News. In official filing, and with Viacom currently selling near 5 year lows, records reveal Redstone sold 341,500 shares of Viacom stock options, with an otherwise undisclosed 401K account, significant NAIRI, Inc. investment and spousal holdings remaining, on Tuesday of last week, September 14, 2004. Overall, with reported shares still selling for $11,952,500, though valued at only $35 a share, his gross profit from the transaction appears to have yielded around $6,744,625 in cash. While that might represent only 1/2% of his total holdings and pose no challenge to his shareholder standing, it does appear to be the first transaction of its type (reported for Redstone) in the past 2-3 years.

FOLLOW-UP: Questions arise as to whether Redstone might be guilty of insider trading. My guess is, in court, no, that he can expalin he either sold the stock for unrelated reasons (if that's indeed the demonstrable case) or that - more likely - he was responding to his own impression of the public events & meltdown we've all witnessed (and there's not a jury I'd ever serve on which wouldn't concur in those regards, Rather's stand being so indefensible).

Typically insider sales mean much less than they are often portrayed because even the boardrooms of America are filled with people, like you and I, who enjoy making those occasional extravagant purchases, add on to their house or whatever. In the real world, however, this transaction strikes me as the type of indicator totally outside the norms of everday business for companies in general and given Redstone's recent (lack of) trading history in particular (he certainly has plenty of cash on hand to buy a new boat or whatever in this time of perilous corporate crisis).

Typically, when a company faces some public challenge, the CEO and other "encouraged" directors use such an opportunity to BUY token purchases of stock, to relieve uncertainty in the marketplace. This model is particularly the case when company stock is trading at multi-year lows and it's preferred the market think the executives believe the company is currently undervalued in active trading.

My guess is that in many Wall St. circles Monday AM, Mr. Redstone's transaction will be a point of interest and further discussion, beyond moot gossip, especially amongst the dedicated folks who follow insider trading incessantly. Much of Viacom's stock is held in mutual funds and S&P 500 Index funds and the like which either won't or can't react with any volatility.

Other market factors aside, however, it's quite likely this news will lead to some selling pressure, obviously increasing the available float, a corresponding decrease in on-balance volume and an upcoming test of its price support at the 50 day moving average @ $34.06 or 2003-2004 lows of $33.60 and $32.02 respectively (having closed Friday last trade @ $34.60)

Viacom Stock (VIA.B) Chart here

UPDATE: Commentary from American Thinker, Hugh Hewitt and LGF :)
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 10:44 PM

 
Celsius 41.11
David Bossie's group Citizens United highlights the temperature at which Michael Moore's brain began to die.
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 3:46 PM

 
Ra^thergate Links to Cleland, Kerry & DNC prompt Bush + RNC response
Articles in the Washington Post and New York Times tying apparent CBS document forgery source Bill Burkett directly to Max Cleland, the DNC & Kerry campaign prompts a public response from President Bush and the RNC:

"Bill Burkett, Democrat activist and Kerry campaign supporter, passes information to the DNC; Kerry campaign surrogate Max Cleland discusses "valuable" information with Bill Burkett; Bill Burkett talks to "senior" Kerry campaign officials; an apparently unsuspecting news organization uses faked forged memos and an interview with Ben Barnes at the same time the Democratic National Committee launched Operation Fortunate Son; and Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill was among the first to call Ben Barnes and congratulate him after his interview. The trail of connections is becoming increasingly clear."

- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:46 PM

 
Braids for Bush

Madison Long, 6, of Rochester, Minnesota, wears her hair
braided into the letter "W" at a campaign rally for US President George Bush. (Photo: Reuters)
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 9:44 AM

 
** NEW ** SwiftVet Ad, Gallup Poll & Advice from Bernard Goldberg
O'Neill & Co. with another broadside to one Hanoi John French Kerry while Bernard Goldberg offers CBS + Dan Rather some constructive criticsm plus Gallup reports "Bush Bounce Keeps On Going: President leads Kerry by 13 points among likely voters; 8 points among registered voters"

- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 9:43 AM

 
No Way Out or Maybe One Way Out
Thanks to Dan Rather and CBS News Producer Mary Mapes, the brand image of CBS News and 60 Minutes now lays in a ruinous stench reminiscent of teenage Halloween tricksters' midnight doorstep deliveries. Meanwhile Black Rock executives appear totally clueless as to how they can now ever scrape the last remnants of credibility from the sole of Viacom's truly devastated, tainted entity.

CBS & 60 Minutes have become the laughingstock of society. This wasn't an easy accomplishment as it took a special combination of blindly biased gullibility, elitist arrogance & outright stupidity to continue messing things up this badly.

Much of their failing was in not recognizing how much technology pervades the common day life of many if not most Americans. Beyond their traditional bubble & elitism, CBS execs have treated their American public with all too apparent disdain, as unsophisticated fools or rubes, without realizing the extent to which the internet and modern technologies actually dominate the work and home lives of so many. Their contempt has been particularly ludicrous because it comes from those whom, some years back, so readily mocked the former President George H. W. Bush for marveling at new innovations in scanners, making bar codes much more usable & easier to read (all the while portraying his apparent impression as stupidity, supposedly not even knowing such bar code technologies were to even exist, being so out of touch with the experiences of everyday Americans).

It's now readily apparent that, over all these years, Dan Rather hasn't used Microsoft Word or Windows much, if at all, and doesn't seem to appreciate much of the vast Internet, which his fellow elites readily joined in with CBS in mocking for its legions of partisan Pajamahadeen (credit Kerry Spot), successors to the legendary VRWC. In fact, however, many, many professionals in many, many professions make use of these technologies every day and know it doesn't take a rocket scientist to readily reproduce exact replicas of CBS’ purported (forged) documents and, in fact, many, many were actually even generated in the very homes and offices of millions all across America.

The best hope for CBS at this point might be to set up the equivalent of a Chinese wall and put their best, crack team at the 60 Minutes Sunday show to work on this story. They'll have to focus on the real story, of course, meaning dropping the long worn out National Guard angle and unveil the forging of the documents, their delivery to CBS and 60 Minutes’ dubious use of them in CBS broadcast, and recognition of all the other basic facts & witnesses & conflicting testimonies, etc., etc., etc., which are now all so numerous & obvious for all but Dan Rather to see or ever consider including vs. any more of his self-serving and outright demeaning & belittling public broadcasts.

Supposedly Don Hewitt and others at the Sunday 60 Minutes show have always felt some degree of disdain for their weekday counterpart. I suggest that if they could somehow funnel that contempt & justifiable anger over all the damage Dan Rather & their other counterparts have now wrought, and get the story, the REAL story RIGHT - that could - possibly though far from assuredly - at least stop the bleeding for the time being and allow some feasible hope that what's left of CBS prestige might be rescued from the flames & fumes still smoldering so odorously on their doorstep.

At this point the truth, for Viacom and CBS, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, might be one and only way out.
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:29 AM

 
Kerry's Union Thugs in Action

Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards (news - web sites) made a brief stop at the airport as he concluded his two-day bus tour to locations in West Virginia and Ohio. (AP Photo/Randy Snyder)

UPDATE: US News & World Report Washington Whispers reports:

If the picture of little 3-year-old Sophia Parlock crying after some Kerry-Edwards supporters tore up her Bush-Cheney poster got to you, well, you weren't the only one. President Bush and even first pup Barney were dismayed too, we hear. It happened at a West Virginia rally last week for Democratic running mate Sen. John Edwards, to which Phil Parlock brought his daughter. After seeing the picture of the tearful Sophia on her dad's shoulders, aides said the president was sending her a little note Friday along with a signed campaign poster and an autographed photo of the prez and his dog. "Dear Sophia," Bush penned, "Thank you for supporting my campaign. I understand someone tore up your sign. So I am sending you a new sign and a signed picture. Please give my best to your family. Sincerely, George W. Bush." And on the picture, he inked: "To Sophia, Best wishes from me and Barney." Phil Parlock tells us it really wasn't necessary. "He already said 'Thank you' when he hugged her" at a previous Bush rally they attended, he says. "She bragged for days."

- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 4:17 PM

 
BUSTED!
BREAKING HARD: Michael Dobbs of Washington Post reveals memos were faxed from Abilene, Texas Kinko's - 21 miles from the Baird, Tex., home of Newsweek suspect and rabid long time Bush-Hater Bill Burkett. When contacted, Kinko's employee states Burkett is known, has an account there and was last there a week ago Tuesday ... while Bush takes lead in battleground states & DemoncRAT strongholds ABC: Pennsylvania 49-46, Gallup: Minnesota 48-46, New Jersey (NEW JERSEY???) 49-45, ILLINOIS dead heat!, Wisconsin +5, Ohio + 8 and Florida +2, +4 + 6
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 11:55 PM

 
ABC's Hidden Bombshell

Tonight Brian Ross of ABC News reports "Casting Further Doubt -
Document Analysts: CBS News Ignored Concerns About Disputed Bush Military Records" noting that "Two of the document experts hired by CBS News say the network ignored concerns they raised prior to the broadcast of a report citing documents that questioned George W. Bush's service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War."

The hidden bombshell?

An observant viewer notes that one of these experts who rejected at least one of these documents, showed the document she'd been given by CBS to work on and - surprise! - ABC News inadvertently revealed it was one of the two "missing" or "mystery" memos that USA Today first revealed on their web site and CBS has so far yet to acknowledge their own receipt of. This one has a two line header which was positioned exactly as the other (two known) memos with 3 line headers (which all, in fact, are aligned similarly & centered proportionately). The implications are huge, of course, because that would mean that CBS was shopping experts and not providing them with a complete set of documents to review, when their only so-called "expert" remaining, at this point, the spiritual handwriting analyst (who's not certified) has claimed in his own prior writings that the recognition of one forgery within a set automatically casts doubt on the remaining documents in that group!
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 10:30 PM

 
Formal Complaint to the FCC
as presented via e-mail fccinfo@fcc.gov & fax 866-418-0232:

Whereas I, the undersigned, hereby officially complain & formally request the Federal Communications Commission do henceforth initiate a thorough, prompt, urgent and complete investigation of the CBS Network, owned by Viacom, and/or its affiliates, operating under a license issued by the FCC; including but not limited to, CBS News, the 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes II and other programs and associated Producers, Anchors and other affiliated officials, associates or interests, including but not limited to Dan Rather and Mary Mapes, and/or other employees, representatives or other agents, all referred to hereinafter inclusive as “CBS”, with respect to any readily apparent forgery of documents first presented by 60 Minutes II and/or any possible attempt to mislead the American public through false and misleading claims in their 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes, 9/10/04 and 9/11/04 broadcasts of the CBS Evening News and any other broadcasts, official statements or other public representations;

Whereas terms and conditions authorized by the FCC for operating a network broadcast or television station, require said operator(s) to serve the public trust and it is now of my personal belief, based on knowledge, facts, impression, training and experience, that CBS may have knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally, and/or may even so possibly continue to, violate the public trust, subject matter which is within the federal jurisdiction for investigation and enforcement by the FCC;

Whereas CBS first publicly displayed and published various (up to 4 publicly known) un-sourced and unoriginal (copied) documents in their 9/8/04 Broadcast of 60 Minutes II;, hereinafter referred to as the “purported documents”;

Whereas these documents and accompanying narrative statements appear to make possibly erroneous and/or unfounded assertions or claims about President George W. Bush's military service history, experience or records and/or other individuals, including but not limited to Mr. Jerry Killian, now deceased, hereinafter referred to as “Jerry Killian” and Walter B. “Buck” Staudt, hereinafter referred to as “Mr. Staudt”;

Whereas CBS, in a 9/10/04 broadcast of the CBS Evening News, publicly displayed, broadcast and/or published contrasting images of document text in apparent proportional font with true superscript capabilities alongside separate text which appeared to depict fixed size characters (height and width) and presented accompanying narrative statements by and including, but not limited to, Dan Rather, for the possibly purposeful or unexpected outcome of misleading the American Public and/or potentially influencing the upcoming 2004 Presidential Election, and/or possibly engaging in a conspiracy to otherwise sustain and /or defend against the numerous, effective challenges which have been publicly issued in response to the credibility & justifiability of prior actions, including but not limited to those listed herein, as may have been taken by CBS;

Whereas CBS displayed, broadcast and/or published said documents through the CBS Network and potentially influencing the upcoming 2004 Presidential Election;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts indicating the Washington Post has reported that ‘the forensic experts contacted by the Post "who said they appeared to have been generated by a word processor. An examination of the documents by The Post shows that they are formatted differently from other Texas Air National Guard documents whose authenticity is not questioned."’;

Whereas these purported documents can be easily & exactly reproduced in mirror image using commonly available Microsoft Word software, default or other installation settings and a modern laser printer using PDF format, some or all such alleged documents, as presented by CBS, readily appear to be copied, falsified and/or otherwise forgeries;

Whereas inspection of copies made publicly available by CBS reveals that there appear to be no official or distinguishing, identifiable letterheads on at least two of the purported documents;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that experienced military professionals familiar with relevant military document preparation, dating & recording standards, have challenged the legitimacy of the purported documents;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of kerning, a feature common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) may appear to exhibit evidence of text ligatures, a feature common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of text centering, a feature common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of text superscript, a feature common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas there have been public reports in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that one or more purported document(s) may appear to contain curved apostrophes, a feature common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of originally being printed upon paper for which the size was not common or possibly even available to the purported author at the time the purported document(s) were allegedly created;

Whereas the specific print font(s) and exact font face(s) may not have been commonly available on typewriters that existed at the time the purported documents were allegedly created, as is readily available and reproducible today using Microsoft Word software;

Whereas there is no specific knowledge or proof yet publicly offered by CBS to identify any specific typewriter or truly compatible printing device that was or would have been in existence, available & accessible to the alleged author at the time the purported documents were originally created;

Whereas there are no other or additional purported document(s), yet publicly offered by CBS, which demonstrate equivalent or effectively similar & exact reproduction capabilities, including any/all records known to exist and/or have already been made available through public FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and other press requests;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of vertical line spacing measured at 13 points, a feature uncommon to typewriters of the day yet common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of page alignment consistent with the default settings of Microsoft Word software;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of paragraph alignment consistent with the default settings of Microsoft Word software;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of tab + spacing alignment consistent with the default settings of Microsoft Word software;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) do not appear to exhibit evidence of the characteristic impressions or depressions commonly expected would or could be visibly seen or felt arising from any alleged physical contact of any typewriter hardware with said purported document(s);

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) do not appear to exhibit evidence of the characteristic ink formations, blotting, bleeding, swelling, smearing or any of the many other readily discernable and often uniquely identifiable traits commonly arising from the use of ribbons or other sources of ink involved in the production of any purportedly typewritten document;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) may have been produced using a Laser Printer or other modern printing device;

Whereas, Hewlett Packard reports first introducing laser printers in 1980 and the first commonly available LaserJet units were not publicly available until 1984;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, one or more purported document(s) appears to exhibit evidence of proportional spacing a feature common to the use of modern word processing software and printing hardware, including Microsoft Word;

Whereas CBS has yet to publicly identify any specific or actual typewriter as that which was actually or even realistically available to and personally used by Jerry Killian as the alleged author of the purported documents;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed or alleged that the purported documents presented by CBS were prepared using some as yet unidentified IBM Selectric Composer typewriter or other unidentified variations;

Whereas it is presumed that IBM as other manufacturers, through trademarks and patents, have the ability to control & restrict the production, use or adaptation of proprietary or effectively additive technologies, including but not limited to the IBM Selectric Composer typewriter;

Whereas there have been public reports in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that the one or more IBM Selectric Composer typewriter model(s) available at the time the purported documents are alleged to have been created, reportedly sold for $3600.00 to $4400.00 or more in 1972-1973 (equivalent to $16,000 to $22,000 today);

Whereas it is reported that the IBM Selectric Composer typewriter would have required additional typewriting hardware, fonts or other modifications feasibly or actually necessary to produce any or all of the purported documents in such form as CBS has publicly presented;

Whereas there have been public reports in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Gerry Kaplan runs the web site ‘ibmcomposer.org’ which describes itself as "the only site on the Internet completely dedicated to the IBM 'Selectric' Composer line of typesetting machines" and reportedly includes information, scanned user manuals, and photographs of the working IBM Selectric Composer;

Whereas it is has been publicly reported or proved that Gerry Kaplan states, with respect to the extensive efforts required to approximate any reproduction of the purported documents using an IBM Selectric Composer, “Superscript didn’t come out so good because when you change the escapement lever (from the larger spacing to smaller spacing, and vice-versa), sometimes the ball actually slips forward by a small amount, so you can see that the superscript looks disjointed” and “To make the superscripted th, I first typed “111”, then switched the font to the 8pt font, switched the escapement lever to the smaller escapement (horizontal movement), reverse indexed the paper ½ line up, typed the “th”, indexed ½ line down, switched the escapement lever to the wider escapement, then changed the type ball back to the 11pt font.”;

Whereas, upon inspection, there is no evidence of the “disjointed” superscript to which Mr. Kaplan refers on the purported documents;

Whereas it is has been publicly reported or proved that Gerry Kaplan states, with respect to the extensive efforts, calculations and modifications required to approximate any reproduction of the purported documents using an IBM Selectric Composer, “the text is centered using proportional spaced text, which means that the typist had to carefully measure the text prior to typing to calculate its exact center point. Typing a superscript, with all its steps, is simple compared to centering text proportionally without digital electronics” and that “If you can produce centered text that matches identically to the letterhead, it is, in my opinion, a true hoax”;

Whereas modern computer graphics driver display and printing nomenclature commonly defines a “twip” as 1/20 of a point or 1/1440 of an inch;

Whereas it is has been publicly reported or proved that Gerry Kaplan suggests that there is little if any likelihood centered text can be readily or reliably & exactly duplicated repeatedly or successively and that even if the purported typist “were able to center text with a typesetting machine such as the composer, a PC (and good word processor), will center the text even more precisely, not at the "point" level, but rather on the twip level”;

Whereas, upon inspection, based on my professional and personal experience, and/or that of others, it appears at least two of the purported documents share the exact same horizontal text centering location and other properties, accuracy consistent with twip level measurement precision and other common characteristics, yet these same documents are otherwise distinct and separately distinguishable in their content and are, in fact, purportedly dated 3 months apart;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that the family members or other friends, partners, comrades, associates of Mr. Jerry Killian, the alleged author of CBS’ purported documents, including his widow and son or step-son, with respect to his limited use or familiarity with typewriters and also to the effect Jerry Killian never used or was never known to have used or possessed a proportional font typewriter and/or that these purported documents are not nor never were the personal work product of Mr. Killian, given personal or professional knowledge & experience and/or subsequent control over his personal space, legacy & possessions, and that they and/or others made CBS aware of such facts, challenges, disputes, doubts, skepticisms, and/or other relevant information or circumstances, and were not included or fully, properly or effectively represented by CBS in their public presentations, broadcasts, statements and public representations, including but not limited to the 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including ABC News, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Marjorie Connell, reported widow of Jerry Killian, has publicly stated that Jerry Killian did not type and specifically that “The wording in these documents is very suspect to me" and that she "just can't believe these are his words”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including ABC News and FOX News, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Gary Killian, reported step-son of Jerry Killian, has publicly stated that “it was not the nature of my father to keep private files like this, nor would it have been in his own interest to do so”, that “We don't know where the documents come from” and “they didn't come from any family member”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including the Associated Press, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Gary Killian, reported step-son of Jerry Killian, publicly stated that “I am upset because I think it is a mixture of truth and fiction here” expressing specific doubts about at least one of the purported documents, stating, “It just wouldn't happen, … The only thing that can happen when you keep secret files like that are bad things. ... No officer in his right mind would write a memo like that”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts indicating the content of one or more of the purported documents appears to explicitly contradict previously disclosed and unchallenged official public records or military documents known to have been prepared by or on behalf of Jerry Killian;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts indicating that Guard regulations officially prohibited the maintenance of such records as are the alleged type of the purported documents;

Whereas Kelly Wright of FOX News has stated “at least three Pentagon sources believe the documents about President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard are fakes”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including material published by ABC News, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Retired Maj. Gen. Bobby W. Hodges, states he was “misled” by CBS, that he never saw the purported documents prior to the 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II, that CBS read him excerpts which they claimed were “handwritten” and Hodges believes these purported documents to be forgeries;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Rufus Martin, reportedly the personnel chief for Jerry Killian’s unit at the time, has stated, ““They looked to me like forgeries” and “I don’t think Killian would do that, and I knew him for 17 years.”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Mr. Staudt was not in the service of the Guard at the time the purported documents may so imply that he was, having retired over a year and one half earlier, on March 1, 1972, while the relevant purported document cited by CBS was dated Aug. 18, 1973;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that at least two of the three people actually cited by CBS as corroborating witnesses or in any way vouching for any or all of their actions described above or herein, have reportedly “tempered their support for CBS” in interviews with representatives from media organizations other than CBS;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including one or more article(s) published by the New York Times, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Robert Strong does not believe Jerry Killian ever used or was ever known to have used a proportional font typewriter;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including one or more article(s) published by the Associated Press, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that “Retired Col. Maurice Udell, the unit's instructor pilot who helped train Bush, said Friday he thought the documents were fake. "I completely am disgusted with this (report) I saw on '60 Minutes,'" Udell said. "That's not true. I was there. I knew Jerry Killian. I went to Vietnam with Jerry Killian in 1968";

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including one or more article(s) published by the Los Angeles Times, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Marcel Matley, an analyst, purportedly under the prior employ or direction of CBS, is solely experienced or qualified in the analysis of handwriting and has acknowledged his limited ability to judge, evaluate, certify or authenticate only one aspect of one of the four purported documents publicly displayed and/or presented by CBS and that such evaluation was limited to any handwriting analysis involved with said (single) document, stating “he had only judged a May 4, 1972, memo — in which Killian ordered Bush to take his physical — to be authentic. He said he did not form a judgment on the three other disputed memos because they only included Killian's initials and he did not have validated samples of the officer's initials to use for comparison.";

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Marcel Matley has previously published his own professional writings including an essay written and published in September 2002 for the American Law Institute, entitled "Using and Cross-Examing Handwriting Experts", and/or a September 27, 2002 issue of "The Practical Litigator", in which Marcel Matley stated, “Do not passively accept a copy as the sole basis of a case. Every copy, intentionally or unintentionally, is in some way false to the original. In fact, modern copiers and computer printers are so good that they permit easy fabrication of quality forgerie. From a copy, the document examiner cannot authenticate the unseen original but may well be able to determine that the unseen original is false. Further, a definite finding of authenticity for a signature is not possible from a photocopy, while a definite finding of falsity is possible”;

Whereas CBS portrayed Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News 9/10/04 reportedly stating "the documents CBS started with were also photocopies" and that CBS neither did nor reportedly does now currently have the originals;
Whereas the Washington Times cites “Eugene P. Hussey, a certified forensic document examiner in Washington state, studied the known signatures of Col. Killian on Air Force documents, and two signatures on documents dated 1972 and 1973 that aired on "60 Minutes" Wednesday night”, with Mr. Hussey concluding "It is my limited opinion that Killian did not sign those documents" The Times reports it “provided Mr. Hussey with copies of the CBS documents, which he dubbed Q-1-3, and records known to have been signed by Col. Killian, (K-1-3). In an official, signed letter to the Washington Times Mr. Hussey reported, "It is my opinion based on the examination of the Q-1 through Q-3 and K-1 through K-3, that Jerry B. Killian probably did not sign his name to Q-1 and his initial to Q-3," … "As to the authenticity of the CBS documents, that is Q-1 through Q-3, [they] appear to be product of a computer, rather than a typewriter."

Whereas CBS has not yet publicly identified any legitimate, recognized document typography printing forensics experts whom CBS may claim, or already have claimed, have legally testified, officially certified and/or authenticated any of the purported documents;

Whereas Howard Kurtz has reported in the Washington Post that “CBS's lead expert was Marcel Matley said last night that a "60 Minutes" executive had asked him not to give interviews”;

Whereas Howard Kurtz has reported on CNN Reliable Sources that “Although I have interviewed Rather and Andrew Heyward, the president of CBS News, and I said, well, look, who are your document experts? So they finally gave me the name of a handwriting expert in San Francisco, and I called him, and he says, I am muzzled, I can't talk, CBS has asked me not to talk to the press”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including one or more article(s) published by the Associated Press and/or MSNBC, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Sandra Ramsey Lines, reportedly a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, believes the purported documents are, indeed, forgeries and, according to the Associated Press, “Lines said that meant she could testify in court that, beyond a reasonable doubt, her opinion was that the memos were written on a computer”, thus proving the purported documents are, indeed, obvious forgeries;

Whereas there have been public reports in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Dr. Joseph M. Newcomer of Pittsburgh, PA., who received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie-Mellon University, spent several years on the CMU CS faculty, was a founding scientist of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at CMU and is arguably one of the pioneers of electronic typesetting, has disputed the purported documents and asks “How could anyone believe these memos are other than incompetent forgeries?”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including one or more article(s) published by the Chicago Sun Times, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that “Philip D. Bouffard, is a nationally recognized forensic authority in typewriter and electronic typefaces, that Bouffard has the largest collection of full letter impact typewriter specimens in a private collection today. Having worked at NCR and a forensic laboratory for more than 30 years”, that Bouffard “still works with entities such as the State of Ohio on Medicare fraud cases”, reportedly states, "All the documents have been created on the same printer. And the proportional spacing and the common characteristics of numbers like 4 and 7 and letters like lower case c and upper case G are beyond the capabilities of any of the typewriter impact specimens I have in my collection. The centering of headings is also beyond the capabilities of any typewriter I know of", concluding "It is remotely possible there is some typewriter that has the capability to do all this ... but it is more likely these documents were generated in the common Times New Roman font and printed out on a computer printer that did not exist at the time they were supposedly created.";

Whereas the INDC Journal has claimed, alleged or proved that Philip D. Bouffard, in response to articles subsequently appearing in the Boston Globe, New York Times or elsewhere, Dr. Bouffard has stated “What I said to them was, I got new information about possible Selectric fonts and (Air Force) documents that indicated a Selectric machine could have been available, and I needed to do more analysis and consider it...but after looking at this more, there are still many more things that say this is bogus...there are so many things that are not right; 's crossings,' 'downstrokes' ...More things were looked into; more things about IBM options. Even if you bought special (superscripting) keys, it's not right. There are all kinds of things that say that this is not a typewrite." and that Dr. Bouffard further told INDC Journal specifically ”he wants me to correct the record. He did not change his mind, and he and his colleagues are becoming more certain that these documents are forgeries";

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Robert Cartwright, Professor of Computer Science at Rice University states “A cursory glance at the "Killian documents" shows that they are
forgeries, the product of a modern word processing system”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Farrell Shriver is the owner of Shriver & Nelson, a document investigation lab in Woodstock, Georgia, is Certified by the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners, is a Member and Treasurer of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, a Member of the Questioned Documents Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, a Member of the Southeastern Association of Forensic Document Examiners, a Former Chief Document Examiner - U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory, an Editor, Journal of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners, a Graduate of, and former chief instructor for the U.S. Army's two-year resident training program in Forensic Document Examination and Court qualified expert, including U.S. Federal District Court, the author of numerous papers and articles on the subject of Forensic Document Examination and Retired Special Agent of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Farrell Shriver has stated “it would be quite easy for some one using computer manipulation to take a genuine signature and manipulate it on to the document if they had those available from other records” and that “if the documents are all supposed to be from the same source, certainly if two of the documents can be shown to not be genuine, that might cast doubt on the other documents that were associated with it”;

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted or not included important facts or other relevant or known information about Ben Barnes in its 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II, including but not limited to the true extent to which he is or may be associated with the Democrat Party and/or the Kerry / Edwards campaign, any other related or sympathetic interests, nor mention any prior or conflicting statements;

Whereas there have been numerous public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Ben Barnes has raised between $100,000.00 and $500,000.00 or more for the Democrat Party, the Kerry / Edwards campaign and/or other sympathetic interests;

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted or not included important facts or other relevant or known information along with other acts taken or portrayed, as described herein and elsewhere, actually revealed in their own prior reporting, possibly including but not limited to previous reports by Beth Lester reportedly stating that “As of last week, according to information received by CBS News, 20 donors have given and/or raised more than $250,000, enough to earn them the designation of Trustee. Of those, eight have actually raised more than $500K. Those half-millions include Texas lobbyist Ben Barnes”;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including personal public interviews, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Amy Barnes, daughter to Ben Barnes, speaks of and attributes prior conflicting statements to Ben Barnes and disputes one or more statement(s) portrayed by CBS in their 9/08/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that Ben Barnes has previously testified under oath in direct contradiction to statements later made or portrayed by CBS in their 9/08/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes;

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information about Ben Barnes in its 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II, by not including reported statements by Ben Barnes to the effect he allegedly aided or assisted George W. Bush enlist in the National Guard when he “was Lt. Governor”, while, reportedly, in fact, Ben Barnes did not hold any position of Lt. Governor at the time George W. Bush enlisted;

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information about James Moore in its 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II, including but not limited to the true extent to which he is or may be associated with the Democrat Party and/or the Kerry / Edwards campaign, or mention of any other prior or conflicting relationships, including past writings, such as being the author of anti-Bush books to include Bush’s Brain and Bush’s War for Reelection. Reportedly, in support or justification for CBS, Moore asserts that the lack of a White House statement discrediting the documents (yet) shows that "the White House probably knows that these documents are, in fact, real.";

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information about Bill Burkett in its 9/8/04 broadcast of 60 Minutes II, including but not limited to the true extent to which he is or may now previously be associated with James Moore or others sympathetic to his work, including but not limited to the DNC or the Kerry / Edwards campaign, his prior and/or conflicting statements, or his actual possible use or reliance upon as an alleged source or purported supporting witness for CBS, as suggested by Newsweek Magazine, which describes Burkett as one who is “a disgruntled former Guard officer” after having reportedly suffered two nervous breakdowns;

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information about Murphy Archibald and/or others whom, according to an article in the New York Daily News, reportedly saw & remembered George W. Bush during his period for reporting at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery, AL as CBS or other parties may so allege or suggest he was not (present);

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information, including prior reports by the Associated Press, about the numerous public statements of Lt. Col. John "Bill" Calhoun and/or others whom reportedly saw & remembered George W. Bush during his period for reporting in Montgomery, AL as CBS or other parties may so allege or suggest he was not (present);

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information about James Copeland and/or others whom, according to a 9/12/04 article in the Decatur Daily, reportedly saw George W. Bush doing his required drills at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery, AL during the period CBS reporting or other parties may so allege or suggest he was not (present);

Whereas it appears that CBS may have omitted, not learned or not included important facts or other relevant information about Joe Holcombe and/or others whom reportedly state other facts pertinent to George W. Bush’s presence, experience or activities in Alabama during the period CBS or other disparaging parties may so allege or suggest he was not (present);

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including the Washington Post, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved that, on one or more occasions, CBS and/or 60 Minutes have previously made and/or even apologized on-air regarding alleged misstatements of fact and/or involving fraudulent witnesses and errant or forged documents;

Whereas there have been public news reports, radio and television broadcasts, including ABC News, in which it has been claimed, alleged or proved CBS actually modified their official & succeeding public statements
from:

"As is standard practice at CBS News, each of the documents broadcast on 60 MINUTES was thoroughly investigated by independent experts and we are convinced of their authenticity. In addition to analysis of the documents themselves, CBS verified the authenticity of the documents by talking to individuals who had seen the documents at the time they were written. These individuals were close associates of Colonel Jerry Killian and confirm that the documents reflect his opinions at the time the documents were written."

to:

"As is standard practice at CBS News, the documents in the 60 MINUTES report were thoroughly examined and their authenticity vouched for by independent experts. As importantly, 60 MINUTES also interviewed close associates of Colonel Jerry Killian. They confirm that the documents reflect his opinions and actions at the time.";

Whereas there have been subsequent public news reports, radio and/or television broadcasts, including one or more article(s) published by Elliott Minor and the Associated Press, which may reference these purported documents or other related facts in dispute without any/or adequate qualification or mention of ongoing disputes or alternative considerations;

Whereas Bernard Goldberg, a potential expert witness with years of personal & professional experience working with and/or under the employ of CBS and/or other news gathering organizations, has written two published books based on such actual specific experiences including his extensive, relevant observations entitled Bias and Arrogance;

Whereas Title 18, Part I, Chapter 47, Section 1001 of the U.S. Criminal Code, provides:

Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully -
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both;

Whereas federal laws or other relevant statutes or official regulations may have been violated in these regards;

Whereas the FCC has a statutory obligation to serve the public trust and to enforce the laws, terms and conditions under which the FCC legally licenses broadcast networks and television stations;

Whereas I, the undersigned, believe the foregoing to be true and correct, to the best of my knowledge, personal & professional experience, available information and belief;

I hereby execute and publish this instrument under the rights afforded to me by the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and the laws of the State of California.

Thank you in advance for taking all the publicly anticipated, urgent & judicious actions as appear may be necessary in these regards.

Sincerely,

Steven W.

cc: The Honorable Fred Upton, Chairman of Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet via facsimile (202) 225-4986
CBS News via facsimile (212) 975-1998
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 7:05 PM

 
9/11 - God Bless America


and NEVER FORGET


- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 11:16 AM

 
FLASHBACK: Rather & Sandy Burglar
From MRC 7/22/04: Dan Rather insisted “this was triggered by a carefully orchestrated leak about Berger, and the timing of it appears to be no coincidence,”
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 1:56 AM

 
Ra^ther's "Explanation" Only Indicts Himself
Tonight on the CBS News evening broadcast, Dan Rather took to the airwaves to present their defense of the now infamous 60 Minutes documents which numerous experts have since proclaimed to be obvious forgeries. This “explanation” did not even begin to address the litany of individual challenges, inconsistencies and volume of other observations which have been forthcoming over the days since the 60 Minutes broadcast.

Thus far many of the critiques of 60 Minutes have focused on the general aspects or characteristics of these documents and related technologies, particularly the ready use of Microsoft Word software to easily generate exact replicas of 60 Minutes’ documents using MS Word’s default settings, no less. There are additional aspects of corresponding hardware technologies which have yet to be discussed at large, however, and that is equally important.

Another multitude of additional questions arise as to the availability of suitable hardware printing devices required to actually produce the specific 60 Minutes documents in question. At the time the documents were purportedly created the printing technologies of the day largely included typewriters and also some computer driven letter quality or production line printers and other wheel or chain driven devices which functioned similar to the most advanced (and expensive) programmable typewriters of the day; they could print single lines of text at a time and skipped from line to line, feeding paper from top to bottom, similar to the way a typist would construct a document and hit the carriage return at the end of each line to move to another.

The standard ASCII control sequence defined two characters to replicate such action an “LF” or Line Feed character, and the “CR” or Carriage Control character, which were combined to form the dual action of shifting to the next line and moving to the beginning of that line, as the traditional carriage return bar on a typewriter is used to accomplish.

The problem readily discernable in Rather’s explanation this evening is that the issues and documents depicted tonight illustrate the endless yet distinct & specific differences in variable character based printing that is not readily observable in any of the apparently forged documents revealed by CBS 60 Minutes.



Note the underlined “th” combined character (non-true superscript) combination in what CBS correctly identifies as an “OFFICIAL RECORD”, one of the litany of documents released to date by the Pentagon at the request of the Bush administration.

Observable characteristics include a fixed height & width for each character space, identifying the actual printing hardware as either a typewriter or other programmable fixed character printing device, to include even the most basic typewriter or even fancier selectric programmable variety or the legacy block style character printing devices of the day. Those would include any number of different styles of printers which shared the same characteristic of a typewriter in that each printed character was produced by striking a raised character, on a key or ball, through a ribbon to generate (actually embedding) the image of the character on the paper.

Note both typewriters and legacy character printers from that era were all dependent on regular cleaning rituals and routine maintenance to avoid the build-up of ink on the characters from the ribbon or other similar source. This build-up would create unique patterns that one needn’t have been a regular viewer of Columbo in that day to recall each produced distinct & distinguishable type print patterns unique to any particular device. The “OFFICIAL RECORD” readily displays all these types of properties, such as the unique character formation and fading or blotting of ink along the edges of each keyed character, as should be expected.

In absolute sharp contrast, however, the (apparently) forged 60 Minutes document CBS identifies as “NEW DOCUMENTS” depicts a true superscript ^“th”, in proportional font and raised above the line of characters. As has been discussed, this capability requires newer technologies, as does the appearance of other characters on the suspect documents, which the truly unique type face appears firm & crisp and, as now known, can easily be reproduced by typing the text from each 60 Minutes ‘memo’ into Microsoft Word and printing an exact mirror image duplicate.

In addition to software not available during the era these 60 Minutes documents were allegedly printed, there was also not adequate hardware printing technology available, either commonly or even perceivably at all, suitable for producing such documents in the fashion they’ve been presented. Newer technologies are certainly capable of generating such output but, again, CBS, Rather & 60 Minutes have some ‘splainin’ to do.

The Dot Matrix printers were really the first affordable printers even capable of these kinds of features. The print head of a Dot Matrix printer contained a number of pins organized in a multi-dimensional matrix, each of which might be rapidly struck in conjunction with one another to form any particular printed character or portion of other image on the target document. However, these printers were notorious for their dotted character images, which would further distort significantly upon each sequential reproductive copying.

Physical contact by a printing device with document paper, albeit typewriters or other legacy fixed character devices, also yield distinguishable characteristics which do not appear present on the documents provided by 60 Minutes on the CBS web site. The response by CBS to the effect that those making such observations based on the internet copies are too far removed from their original source documents to comment accordingly is actually more damning to their case than helpful. The use of a typewriter or other legacy fixed character printing device would result in obvious impressions & depressions on the printed page which are readily observable through sight and feel. These distortions become even further enhanced through copying yet do not appear in any way perceivable in observation of the copies CBS has provided.

Similar – though not as obvious or distinct – ink + drying patterns are yielded by InkJet printers. Ink jet printers rely on ink programmatically sprayed in varying volumes and location, also subject to pooling, smearing or other identifiable patterns, tendencies or other distortions, both routinely or regularly characteristic (in particular characters or combinations) or randomly (due to smears or other page specific or common device anomalies). Again, while a top quality, modern ink jet printer might be considered as the source of these documents, the printing made on the pages produced by 60 Minutes bares no such resemblance.

Hewlett Packard’s official history of Laser Printers notes their introduction in 1980 with the subsequent LaserJet printer line, the first truly affordable series of office Laser Printers, first debuted in 1984 (affordable then a relative term in those days as they were still quite costly, compared to dot matrix or other fixed character devices). Laser printers are the most capable of WYSIWG (“what you see is what you get”) quality of printing, outside high quality ink jets, really truly capable of producing the 60 Minutes documents which have been called into question.

For these reasons, and many others, a document forensics expert will be easily able to determine the type of device used to create the documents which 60 Minutes has presented and, in all likelihood, the specific models or types of the required devices, albeit typewriter, hardware or software. Again, facts are not on CBS side here; the less modern the device the higher degree of certainty which can be assured in identification. For example, a Selectric Type of a particular Font or 13 point line separation is readily distinguishable from all others while only today’s sophisticated combination of software and hardware yields a greater or less specific category of qualified candidates. The unwillingness of CBS to allow these documents any further scrutiny, combined with their other actions, such as denying the purported author’s wife and son the opportunity to comment, speaks volumes as the possible reasons why 60 Minutes is so hesitant.
- posted by SEO LinkTagstic @ 6:51 PM