Loyalty without truth
is a trail to tyranny.
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a middle-aged George Washington
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Thursday, 2 September 2004 at 6h 16m 1s | Liberators or Occupiers | Zell Miller preceded Vice President Dick Cheney, saying that "nothing
makes this ex-marine more mad" when American troops in Iraq are
called "occupiers" instead of "liberators" by what he calls
democratic "partisans."
Well sir, tell that to the Iraqi's.
When United States troops remained in Germany and Japan after World War Two,
not one soldier, NOT A SINGLE SOLDIER was shot or killed by militia groups.
How many American soldiers have died since the day Bush landed on an Aircraft
Carrier and announced "Mission Accomplished?" As of September 1st 2004, twice
as many as were killed before the mission was accomplished.
And don't liberators do deeds like repair the infrastructure, rather than skim
off billions for profits or importing cheap labor instead of hiring unemployed
young Iraqi's in need of work?
Do liberators round up random groups of teenagers, toss them in jails like Abu
Ghraib, and subject them to humiliation akin to (if not outright) torture?
Do liberators appoint corrupt Baathist officials and promulgate a constitution
instead of holding free elections, because the Bush administration was more
interested in creating economic opportunities for foreign investors and
multinational corporations? This is what happened when General Jay Garner was
pulled out of Iraq in June 2003 and replaced by Paul Bremer.
And is it to liberate Iraq that appointed ambassador John Negroponte says this
week that he is going to divert reconstruction spending into security forces?
Will the Iraqi's see Americans as liberators when they are dying from depleted
Uranium, who have sewage in their water supply, and who can't get more than 4
hours of electricity because privatization has been an absolute failure. Does
that hate in their eyes come from the love they have for what is presumed by
speakers at the Republican podium?
And now in the wake of these compiled failures, the urge for stability is so
great that we are in the midst of creating a police state headed by a new thug
named Allawi, using the same police that Saddam used, and the same prisons
where Saddam tortured.
Living in a bubble, blind patriots don't connect the ineptitude of the Bush
administration to the current results, since they have assumed the morality of
ending one dictator will automatically produce a glorious democracy of freedom
regardless of history and deep rifts in the Iraqi state. We don't take up arms
in the United States when we disagree politically, but will the well trained,
armed militias of the Kurds, Shitites, and Sunni's do so.
According to observers with 20-30 years of knowledge and real experience in the
region (as opposed to the ideologues who safely write position papers in the
cubicles of statuesque offices at think-tank Washington D.C.) no one in Iraq
believes the elections of 2005 will matter at all.
This is not a "miscalculation." That word implies that you dutifully multiplied
2 and 4 and ... oops ... you got 6. This is a disgraceful failure, and the
vehemence of rebuttal is just defiant denial. Not only did the administration
not study for the test, not only did they not pay attention in class or do
their homework, but they also presumed they didn't even have to read the book
on how to effectively pursue foreign policy and warfare.
But some people who take a shit will eat it too.
Beating the chest and shouting "USA" is not going to change reality. And
completely misses the point. Admitting that the Iraq war is a disaster because
of incompetence and lies is not anti-patriotic. Are we going to chop off our
nose to spite the face?
Two sources you can consult : Robert
Fisk and juan cole.
| Thursday, 2 September 2004 at 4h 0m 12s | The Party that does not Hate | 
Picture of old geezer with squishy face, wearing a band-aid on his chin to
mock Kerry -- based on lies that he believes to be true.
| Thursday, 2 September 2004 at 5h 57m 24s | Schwastikaneger Lies Again | On Tuesday, 31 August 2004, at the GOP conventions, Schwarzenegger said:
I finally arrived here in 1968. What a special day it was. I remember I arrived
here with empty pockets but full of dreams, full of determination, full of
desire.The presidential campaign was in full swing. I remember watching the
Nixon-Humphrey presidential race on TV. A friend of mine who spoke German and
English translated for me. I heard Humphrey saying things that sounded like
socialism, which I had just left.
But then I heard Nixon speak. Then I heard Nixon speak. He was talking about
free enterprise, getting the government off your back, lowering the taxes and
strengthening the military.
The facts? There was no presidential debate in that election. Nixon never
debated Humphrey.
Mister, I-don't-take-no-special-interest-money-unless-it's-corporate-special-
interests Schwastikaneger lied.
Yes Schwastikaneger said he took no special interest money, and when asked why
he's taking millions from corporate lobbyists by some upsnippity reporter,
Schwastikaneger said he meant unions.
And what things did his friend translate sounded like "socialism?" Could it be
that ole Schwastikaneger threw uneducated nonsense to the hungry idiotic dogs
so that he could fed of off their irrational screams?
Hubert Humphrey of all people. Hubert Humphrey was a great speaker with a
passion for the rights and freedoms of all men. This is the man who bravely
made a speech at the 1948 Democratic convention where he wanted his party to
enter the "beautiful light" by ending southern segregation and add a civil
rights plank. Was ending the culture of racism socialism?
He happened to be Vice President when Lyndon Johnson was president, and became
the Democratic nominee by default after Johnson resigned and Robert Kennedy was
assassinated. What could Schwastikaneger be talking about? What could
Humphrey have said that "sounded like socialism?"
Let's look at some Humphrey quotes from
http://home.att.net/~howington/hhh.html
Fortunately, the time has long passed when people
liked to regard the United States as some kind of
melting pot, taking men and women from every part
of the world and converting them into standardized,
homogenized Americans. We are, I think, much more
mature and wise today. Just as we welcome a world
of diversity, so we glory in an America of diversity--
an America all the richer for the many different and
distinctive strands of which it is woven.
--Hubert H. Humphrey "All-America Tribute to
Archbishop Iakovos," speech,
15 Jan. 1967, Chicago, Ill.
Much of our American progress has been the product
of the individual who had an idea; pursued it; fashioned
it; tenaciously clung to it against all odds; and then
produced it, sold it, and profited from it.
--NO DATE GIVEN
OR FROM http://www.hhh.umn.edu/humphrey-forum/quot.htm
"We cannot use a double standard for measuring our own and other people's
policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more
effective than the guarantees of those practiced in our own country."
--1948
"I am not here to judge whether people are locked in poverty because of
themselves or because of the society in which they live. All I know is that
they are there and we are trying to do something about it."
--1966
"It is all too easy for a society to measure itself against some abstract
philosophical principle or political slogan. But in the end, there must remain
the question: What kind of life is one society providing to the people that
live in it?"
--1966
"When we say, 'One nation under God, with liberty and justice for all', we are
talking about all people. We either ought to believe it or quit saying it ."
--1966
"Equality means equality for all - no exceptions, no 'yes, buts', no
asterisked footnotes imposing limits."
--1967
"Be clear where America stands. Human brotherhood and equal opportunity for
every man, woman, and child, we are committed to it, in America and around the
world."
--1967
"What you do, what each of us does, has an effect on the country, the state,
the nation, and the world."
--1968
"My philosophy has always been that benefits should percolate up rather than
trickle down."
--1971
"There is no such thing as an acceptable level of unemployment, because hunger
is not acceptable, poverty is not acceptable, poor health is not acceptable,
and a ruined life is not acceptable."
--NO DATE GIVEN
Which one of these statements sounds like "socialism" to the schwatstikaneger?
I don't hear any calling for government control of the means of production in
any of these quotations. I don't hear any calling by Humphrey for the workers
to take over the factories.
What I do hear is a sense that there is a moral obligation by our society to
have a bottom level, a bare minimum so that no one should have to be born into
poverty, ignorance, or suffer the indignity of bankruptcy merely because they
become sick. This does not mean government handouts or welfare queens. This
means food stamps so that children don't have to starve. This means a free
public education so that everyone has access to the same opportunity. This
means that no one should be exploited or profit from the sick and disabled.
All too often, that word is abused by politicians with a hidden agenda and a
vain eye looking at power. Schwastikaneger is no exception.
| Thursday, 2 September 2004 at 0h 17m 50s | Did Nixon really say that in 1968? | "When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in a
war in Vietnam with no end in sight, when the richest nation in the world
cannot manage its economy, when the nation with the greatest tradition of the
rule of war is plagued by unprecedented racial violence, when the President of
the United States cannot travel abroad, or to any major city at home, then its
time for new leadership for the United States."
-- President Nixon, 1968 RNC Acceptance Speech
| Wednesday, 1 September 2004 at 3h 31m 37s | Republicans act like they didn't seek the Iraq war | "The speech-makers kept saying "we did not seek this war," and that it was
imposed on us, and by God we were going to keep hitting back. That is, the
rhetoric was that of righteous anger, of the avenging victim. While this
argument works with regard to Afghanistan (which the US did not invade, only
providing air cover to an indigenous group. the Northern Alliance), it is
hollow with regard to Iraq. Only by confusing the "war on terror" with the war
on Iraq could this rhetoric be even somewhat meaningful, and it is not a valid
conflation.
"No American president has more desperately sought out a war with any country
than George W. Bush sought out this war with Iraq. Only Polk's war on Mexico,
also based on false pretexts, even comes close to the degree of crafty
manipulation employed by Bush and Cheney to get up the Iraq war. Intelligence
about weapons of mass destruction was deliberately and vastly exaggerated,
producing a "nuclear threat" where there wasn't even so much as a single gamma
ray to be registered. Innuendo and repetition were cleverly used to tie Saddam
to Usama Bin Laden operationally, a link that all serious intelligence
professionals deny.
-- Juan Cole, at www.juancole.com
| Wednesday, 1 September 2004 at 7h 14m 38s | Another Chronicle Moment | Every now and then I'll pick up the local rag out here in liberal land, the San
Francisco Chronicle. Occassionally there is an insightful piece, and there are
a few good reporters on the staff, but for the most part the "comical" is just
another down-sized newspaper owned by the Hearst Corporation, with ill-informed
self-important hack writers and a lot of slush reporting that reeks of the
worldview of corporate executive bean-counters, cheerleaders of the impersonal
magical delusion that is the misunderstood globalism ideology.
This morning was no different. I have since learned to avoid the editorial
opinion page because it makes my stomach hurt to read what is presented as
factual, or how insidious arrogant banter can be congruent to thoughtful reason.
So today there was this opinion from some naval insider expert who actually
thought that the greatest accounting scandal was .... take a guess? Nope, not
Enron. Nope the greatest accounting scandal was the WMD accounting by the
Saddam regime. Yep, this fool was making muck about how Saddam's minions would
make 40,000 tons of Sarin and write down 50,000 on the books, or vice versa.
He titles his piece "An accounting scandal that could dwarf Enron ."
And that was the gist of the opinion. No mention was made of how the stocks of
the mythical Sarin gas were destroyed in the 1990's by international
inspectors. No mention was made of how the Reagan administration sold Hussein
the original stockpile of bio-chemical weapons, with Rumsfeld as the man who
made the deals.
The navy fool who presumed he was cute and smart, was deceptive beyond belief.
He mentioned how David Kay signed some document saying that Saddam needed to
get rid of these WMD monsters ... but said not one word, NOT ONE
DAMN WORD, about how the same David Kay returned from Iraq in January 2004 to
resign and testify before Congress that not only were there NO WEAPONS OF MASS
DESTRUCTION, but that he had serious concerns that the credibility of the Bush
administration was a matter of grave concern.
Although he has since mended fences with the Bush administration, David Kay did
have a genuine crisis of conscience and decided the truth was more important.
But not this hack Naval expert named Douglas A. Borer, an associate professor
in the Department of Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School in
Monterey.
Wowwie-zowwie, an associate professor, really.
Here's a moment of lucidity offered by this Borer fellow:
Hussein swore on a stack of Korans no weapons or programs existed, but
virtually every intelligence analyst on the planet did not believe him, because
the books did not balance. David Kay and Richard Butler, both former U. N.
chief weapons inspectors, have testified that official Iraqi records seized in
the 1990s clearly showed significant quantities of various chemical agents that
Iraq had produced, but did not turn over for destruction.
Bush agreed with the intelligence experts -- one side of the deadly ledger did
not match the other. These ledgers served as the most compelling evidence that
the president pointed to in making his case for war.
Virtually every intelligence analyst on the planet did what? Why is Borer not
mentioning Hans Blix or Scott Ritter, who have been consistently vociferous
that the 1990's inspectors effectively eliminated the stockpiles provided by
the Reagan administration.
And despite the artful comments about swearing on the Koran, even according to
the same David Kay, there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, swearing
or not. And in the 2000 election, GW Bush didn't swear on a bible when he said
he didn't believe in nation building, but what do you call it when you invade a
nation, appoint their leaders and write their new constitution?
And those mythical mobile trailers that Colin Powell mentioned? And the
yellowcake Uranium that never was? And the aluminum tubes that were supposed
to be for centrifuges, except that oops, they were actually not anywhere near
thick enough. And all of the statements of certainty about WMD made by
Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and Cheney...
But hey, since one side of the deadly ledger did not match the other, Bush went
to war on a shoestring, ignoring the advice of his generals, paying top
dollar for the lies of Ahmed Chalabi and the skimmed profits for the intricate
webs of insider Halliburton consultants and sub-contractors. And
the "compelling evidence" all came from the Office of Special Plans created by
Rumsfeld and headed by Douglas Feith, where all intelligence was routed and
doctored first, and spiced up or ignored the reports to suit what they intended
to on day one.
Mr. Borer, you should apply the Enron accounting principles to the Rumsfeld
intelligence selecting principles.
| Tuesday, 31 August 2004 at 7h 2m 9s | Who's deluded Mr. McCain | John McCain just told a captive audience that anyone who doesn't understand the
dangers out there in terrorist land is delusional?
Oh, so the administration's sloppy, arrogant ability to conduct the wars on
terror represents fearless leadership.
We are told that Mr. Bush makes unpopular decisions, that he doesn't follow the
tide. But he listens to the advice of men who doctor his intelligence
briefing, who pay Ahmed Chalabi $100,000 a month to tell them falsehoods taht
they want to hear, who have Israeli spies in their offices, who out CIA agents
trying to snuff out terrorist networks for partisan political motivations, and
who allow Pakistan's military dictatorship to sell nuclear secrets on the black-
market without so much as a slap on the wrist.
Oh, Bush is so successful at this war on the big bad ambiguous "terror" that he
allowed Halliburton and corporate insiders to do whatever they wanted in Iraq,
even if that meant an inability to adequately supply the troops with food,
ammunition, and guns. In the beginning of that war, our troops had to be fed
by Italian troops, because Halliburton couldn't supply MRE's that weren't
rotten. Our troops were using AK-47's captured from Iraq because Halliburton
couldn't supply enough equipement. They skimmed the profits off first, and
bought the supplies as cheaply as possible ... and this is what the Army
commission concluded in it's own investigation.
The company which Halliburton sub-contracted to deliver the mail refused to
deliver it to the soldiers in Iraqi outposts, and forced soldiers to drive 70
miles through potential ambush territory just to pick up their mail.
And then they overcharged the military for this lame service!! Oh, and you can
bet this ineptitude certainly does wonders for morale of the soldiers. What
ever happened to the days when the military provided these services without
private contractors?
Did I mention sending the unprepared National Guard to Iraq when they should be
hear protecting the homeland. Did I mention dangerously overextending the
military, and ignoring the recommendations of top brass of whom every single
warning about Iraq came true.
And the Iraqi soccer team the Bush used as an example of how great his actions
have been? In a Sports Illustrated article (another bastion of liberal ideas
no doubt) every single member of the Iraqi soccer team asked Bush not to use
them for his political purposes. Every single one wanted the military out.
One member of the team had this to say: "How can Bush face his God knowing he
has killed so many?"
But you go ahead and believe Bush is a valiant, bold leader who is going to
protect us from terror. Meanwhile, you need to go back and brush up on Senator
McCarthy. He too was praised for his boldness, and his bravery. And then one
day America woke up and saw McCarthy for the drunken opportunist that he was.
Yes, he was a really a drunk, and the corporate anti-unionists used the Red
Scare to pursue their own political agendas under the guise of patriotism.
Myself, I know a phony when I see one.
There were more police in New York City keeping an eye on the peaceful
protestors, than there are military personnel in Afghanistan, which is bombing
voter registration areas and asking the American appointed president to resign.
And cutting the budget that would secure our ports and beef up local fire-
fighters and police forces is another grand example of an effective war on
terror. Keep in mind that the Administration did not even want a national
agency of airport baggage screeners because they thought it was better to allow
the same inept private firms repeat the same poor performance because they
prefer making money more than providing adequate security.
John McCain is just another vainglorious fool who sees a chance to be a
national figure, and he's so politically ambitious that he'll sell his soul to
the devil to have a chance at the Presidency.
If someone slimed my honorable war record after I was in a prison camp for 5
years, if someone belittled and insulted my family like Bush did to McCain in
2000 South Carolina, there's no way I would praise this man in public.
And what does this Republi-thug party that swore they would not use 9-11 for
partisan gains do on day one? Choose one of the many 9-11 family members to
cry on stage before a national audience.
You can call this leadership. I call it disgusting and disgraceful.
But some people will blind themselves in order to pursue their relentless
ambitions. What a shame. I used to have respect for McCain.
And I'm sorry if you fall for this bull too. You can't fight a war on terror,
with the same foreign policy that created the anger which causes people to
perform terrorist acts. They don't "hate our freedom". They hate our foreign
policy.
Would you want a nation to invade, pillage our museums, destroy our electric
grid and sewage maintance systems, promulgate a new constitution that allows
foreign companies to import Mexican labor replacements and export 100% of the
profits, and then appoint all the officials in the government? Would the
nationalism of Americans who rose up and fought be terrorists?
Think about it people.
| Tuesday, 31 August 2004 at 6h 4m 47s | Hypocrisy at it's worst | "...isn't it hilarious how the absolute worst thing the Right has
been able to dredge up about John Kerry is that he might sort of maybe have
exaggerated some facts about his various Vietnam medals and acts of and valor
and deeds of astounding heroism, which is sort of like saying well sure you
saved 10 babies from that burning building, but jeez, you were wearing special
shoes at the time and by the way couldn't you have saved 11? Traitor! And how
hard should we guffaw while we note that, as Kerry was volunteering in Vietnam
and earning his medals and risking his life in the most volatile and ugly and
pointless and lethal and hideous war in American history unless you count Iraq,
which you really really should, Dubya was "serving" in the Air National Guard,
which we all know translates to mean "hangin' down in Tijuana slamming tequila
shooters and annoying the waitresses, all while praising Jesus that he had a
daddy who could keep him away from scary complicated violent stuff."
--Mark Morford--
SOURCE: http://sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgif=/g/a/2004/08/27/notes082704.DTL&nl=fix
| Tuesday, 31 August 2004 at 5h 56m 27s | Corporate Media Whores Unite | I'm sick of these people whining about how come Kerry didn't do this or Kerry
didn't do that. Or how come he let them put him on the defensive? Or
whatever.
We have got to understand how much power the media has to present the world and
not let our opinions be influenced by the suggestive wording and visual
stimulations offer by media production. What you see on TV is all produced,
down to the sequence in which the images are presented, and the words used.
How much time spent on any one event, and what does not make the screen are all
decided by corporate executives and lawyers that you don't see.
Yes, it is that simple. The media is an octopus of multi-layered corporate
bodies, and it's gonna stay that way until we start enforcing the anti-trust
laws. If you think a story doesn't get pulled, or edited because of the
concern of some legal advisor representing the holding company and advertizers -
- then you are quite ignorant of reality.
No matter what Kerry does, media talking gossip artists would have lambasted
him, because they don't have an imaginative thought in their pompous self-
important mind. They are too busy practicing how to look and sound to spend
time educating themselves.
Had Kerry reacted as you wanted, the corporate media and their shills would
have portrayed him as out of control, and they would have edited his words and
chose poor soundbites to make Kerry seem out of touch with mainstream America.
So Kerry took the high road and let the American people see these lying
bastards for who they are. Some Americans won't see a lying bastard, and
there's nothing anyone can do to reach these people.
You might think yourself the best armchair warrior in the world, but you don't
fight a pig by jumping in the pig-sty. The pig will only blame you for the
mud, and what can you do when you are covered in mud -- nothing! The lying
whores will all gossip about Kerry's mud, while they bust out with soap and
water to clean off their pre-ordained holy-man, arming the followers with all
the necessary phrases and word bombs they need.
You see this is a religious revival, and television has became the vehicle.
Kerry has a strong inner confidence, and you don't get to see the pounding he
and Edwards are doing everyday because the media doesn't show it too you. It
took guts to come back from Vietnam and try to get the truth. It took guts to
persist in the BCCI banking investigation for 3 years when everyone was too
afraid to touch it. Yea, he voted against the Iraq funds in the second vote
because it was going to pass anyway. He voted for the funds on the first vote
because that vote would have scaled back some (not all) of the tax cuts to pay
for the funding. He voted yes on the first vote, but every single self-
proclaimed fiscally responsible Republican voted against the funds because they
preferred to pile more debt on the nation.
How many of you even knew there were two votes on the Iraq funds? How many of
you heard of BCCI? And now you expect the media to fairly present anything?
You don't see Edwards and Kerry, because they don't show you Kerry and Edwards,
except for a suggestive 10 or 15 second clip culled from an hour long event --
followed by overpayed meat-heads pontificating about the meaning of the edited
clips. This is the world in which the meat-heads live. This is the world to
which they are responding, and in that stuffy room, they give you all the
culled facts and necessary details to portray themselves as knowledgeable. They
make grandiloquent statements and pat themselves on the back as the
representatives of what they call true America. But this is like tearing out
and presenting all but 10 of the pages from a 500 page book for people who
won't bother to read the 500 page book for themselves, and then acting like
they have a firm grasp on reality while the pasty, cosmetic blush gleams off of
their shiny faces.
Do you want the shills in the corporate media to babysit your mind?
People who go see Kerry and Edwards in person are allowed to ask questions and
participate, without having to be searched for evidence of liberal
paraphrenalia or the need to sign a loyalty oath. They get to hear more than
10 seconds and talking media heads. They come away feeling that these are two
people who care about this country, who take the time to listen, and who take
time to fill their minds with information.
And when those who disagree shout out, or make statements with bull-horns, the
Secret Service does not force the local police to make arrests. Try going to a
Bush rally with a Kerry T-shirt and you are asked to leave, or forced to take
the shirt off.
Throw away the TV, get on the internet, start informing yourself, and start
talking to your neighbors instead of getting pacified by lame sitcoms that
remind you when to laugh, cry, or get scared by a digitally mastered soundtrack.
It's time to get real baby.
| Sunday, 29 August 2004 at 5h 4m 44s | Another misinformed voter | Today I walked past a fellow with a Nader button on his shirt. His Tee-shirt
contained the words "Anti-war.com" on the front. He was carrying his
groceries.
When he walked by I had the temerity to utter, "A vote for Nader is a vote for
Bush."
Immediately this fellow told me that Kerry was for the war, and then told me I
should cut my hair.
I didn't see how the length of my hair was pertinent to the details of the
argument, and mentioned that I could accuse him of having short hair, so what?
And besides, look at the President on your One dollar bill -- or the writer of
the declaration of Independence whose nabob is on the US nickel. I don't think
length of hair has anything to do with an individual's integrity (or lack
thereof.)
He then started to tell me that Kerry was lying about his war record, which I
thought was ridiculous, since he would have gotten his information from the
corporate media that Naderites are so quick to protest. I mentioned the facts,
as they stand. Every single one of the persons that were on the same boat as
Kerry stand by Kerry. All of the military records stand by Kerry. The only
individual who was on the same boat with Kerry, the gunner Steve Gardner,
admitted when questioned thathe was not on the same boat with Kerry at the time
of Kerry's first purple heart -- which was the incident to which Mr. Gardner
claimed "first-hand knowledge." Charles Rood, an editor for 35 years at the
Chicago Tribune, was the only other lieutenant alive who was on that mission,
and he stood by Kerry's events in a recent article in the tribune, stating that
the swiftboat vets were saying things that he knows to be "untrue."
Louis Letson was not the doctor whose name was on the medical form, whose name
was Carreon. Letson says he had this medic sign his forms, but this is not
very believable since Kerry's shipmates who were with him disgustedly said
otherwise. Shrapnel in the air as a result of bullets flying is a wound that
needs to be seen by a doctor. It's only an inch to severing the Aorta artery.
Does a man have to be blown to bits and disabled in order to deserve
consideration?
Thurlow and O'Neill have been caught in so many discrepancies, that anything
they say is not worth listening to. And Hannity can selectively read parts of
Kerry's diary, but it proves nothing but Hannity's willingness to carry out
character assassination. Top Secret Swiftboat missions dropping off Green
Berets in Cambodia did occur. Do you think Kerry is going to write Top Secret
information in his journal?
And so what? One can denounce 527 groups all one wants, but this 527 group was
advised by top administration lawyer Ginsberg -- who resigned, and actually
wants the public to believe that he was advising the group to make sure that
there was no coordination. And Moveon.org's advertisements are at least
truthful.
When President Bush talks about Billionaires writing checks, he's talking about
his longtime Texas friend Jim Perry who wrote the checks that got the Swiftboat
group started . Moveon.org has always been a grassroots organization, whereas
the swiftboat vets were coached by the same political consultants who
smeared John McCain, signing affadavits acclaiming first-hand knowledge they
did not have. A sheet of paper that attests that someone told you something
about someone else does not hold up in a court of law. Signing an affadavit
based upon heresay is called perjury.
So this fellow immediately starts telling me how Kerry shot a teenager in a
loin-cloth in the back, and then says that Kerry was a war criminal.
Man, oh man, how ill-informed of a voter is this Naderite, who presumably wants
to toss Corporations overboard, and yet is so filled with corporate abetted
lies.
I didn't get a chance to ask him if he heard Kerry's testimony before Congress
that the Swiftboat vets selectively editted. Had he taken the time to hear (or
read) the testimony, he would have known that Kerry was merely recounting what
other vietnam veterans had told him in a Detroit meeting. He would have known
that Kerry stated he did not see or participate in the crimes he was speaking,
but did state that he did participate in Free-fire zones and search and destroy
missions, because it was part of the military mission as set forth by the
military top brass leaders. Kerry was not trying to discredit or dishonor the
soldiers. He was trying to present the facts so that there could be changes in
leadership, instead of allowing the continuation of what he thought was failed
policy.
This Naderite chose to throw these accusations out at me, while I calmly tried
to explain the facts and tell him where he could get better informed. But he
was not interested in listening and chose to stay ignorant. Instead, he
decided to get personal, and again told me I needed to cut my hair, while
walking away, thinking he had the last word.
I told him that his personal vendettas meant nothing to me, and that he
shouldn't presume to be informed just because he saw something on TV, or heard
a rumor that confirmed his preconceived ideas. Cable companies and media
conglomerates will sensationalize a story without the least bit of journalistic
integrity.
So if you want to find out the facts you can go look them up for yourself.
Don't presume that you got the straight story just because you saw a few
fellows on cable television with deep roots to a Republican smear campaign.
You can go to http://www.salon.com and
search for "swiftboat vets."
Or you can go read a large compendium that refutes the lies sponsored by
friends of the Bush administration at http://www.eriposte
.com/media/liars_inc/swiftboat.htm.
I have written a tome on this topic, because I do research when I find myself
to be ill-informed. If you want to read what I said you can go to the Voice
of the People section, or read a text document I wrote here.
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