Malkin reprints a letter from a Vietnam Vet who says he isn't affiliated with any 527s. He hasn't read Unfit for Command, but he does have a thing or two to say about Tour of Duty, and like many veterans from the Vietnam era—and from other conflicts—he has some issues with Kerry's behavior. Not to mention his command of the facts.

Posted by: Attila at 10:51 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 67 words, total size 1 kb.

This is the text of the letter presented to Max Cleland today when he showed up at the President's ranch to engage in his little bit of political theatre:

Dear Senator Kerry,

We are pleased to welcome your campaign representatives to Texas today. We honor all our veterans, all who have worn the uniform and served our country. We also honor the military and National Guard troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today. We are very proud of all of them and believe they deserve our full support.

That's why so many veterans are troubled by your vote AGAINST funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, after you voted FOR sending them into battle. And that's why we are so concerned about the comments you made AFTER you came home from Vietnam. You accused your fellow veterans of terrible atrocities -- and, to this day, you have never apologized. Even last night, you claimed to be proud of your post-war condemnation of our actions.

We're proud of our service in Vietnam. We served honorably in Vietnam and we were deeply hurt and offended by your comments when you came home.

You can't have it both ways. You can't build your convention and much of your campaign around your service in Vietnam, and then try to say that only those veterans who agree with you have a right to speak up. There is no double standard for our right to free speech. We all earned it.

You said in 1992 "we do not need to divide America over who served and how." Yet you and your surrogates continue to criticize President Bush for his service as a fighter pilot in the National Guard.

We are veterans too -- and proud to support President Bush. He's been a strong leader, with a record of outstanding support for our veterans and for our troops in combat. He's made sure that our troops in combat have the equipment and support they need to accomplish their mission.

He has increased the VA health care budget more than 40% since 2001 -- in fact, during his four years in office, President Bush has increased veterans funding twice as much as the previous administration did in eight years ($22 billion over 4 years compared to $10 billion over 8.) And he's praised the service of all who served our country, including your service in Vietnam.

We urge you to condemn the double standard that you and your campaign have enforced regarding a veteran's right to openly express their feelings about your activities on return from Vietnam.

Sincerely,

Texas State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson

Rep. Duke Cunningham

Rep. Duncan Hunter

Rep. Sam Johnson

Lt. General David Palmer

Robert O'Malley, Medal of Honor Recipient

James Fleming, Medal of Honor Recipient

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Castle (Ret.)

Posted by: Attila at 10:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 475 words, total size 3 kb.

I know that the intense left-liberal media bias is part of the reason people get their news and analysis from blogs. I really do.

But every once in a while, I wish that the mainstream guys would try to do their actual jobs.

Now, as the two tenuous connections between the Bush campaign and the Swifties melt away and I reflect on the intimate connection between the DNC and several anti-Bush 527s—along with the underlying attitude, which from the get-go has been "prove that we're in bed together," I feel wistful again, and long for real, old-fashioned journalists to do just that.

Is anyone outside the blogosphere up to the challenge?

Posted by: Attila at 02:33 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 117 words, total size 1 kb.

James has the skinny (via Drudge) on John Kerry's recent phone call to Robert Brent of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Apparently they bunked together in Vietnam, and Brent used to put Kerry back to bed when he was sleepwalking. (James: "that's not a good thing to do in a combat zone.")

Brent, who lost two of his men in Vietnam, is as outraged as many vets at John Kerry's conduct when he came home, joined the antiwar movement, and lied about supposed "atrocities" committed by our guys in southeast Asia.

Kerry wanted to meet face-to-face, and talk about the factual dispute. Brent declined.

Had I mentioned that this election is over?

The problem here is that the Democratic Party thought they could have it both ways with Kerry: here's a guy who got decorated in Vietnam, but came back and protested the war. I suspect the reasoning was that he could appear to be all things to all people. To the antiwar crowd, he could be a peace protester. To those who are concerned about the War on Terror, he could play the war hero and look "tough."

In their attempt to have it both ways, though, they really have it neither way. Those who are infuriated by the war in Iraq are not turned on by this "reporting for duty" bullshit, and those who are very concerned about the terrorist threat—and support the action in Iraq—are nauseated by it.

There's no there there.

Posted by: Attila at 12:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 250 words, total size 1 kb.

Q and O points out that it was Kerry himself who was first questioning the service record of George W. Bush, and—with an able assist from the Wall Street Journal—quickly puts the lie to the notion that the Swift Boat Vets are out of bounds.

I'm still thrilled with the way Bush handled the calls for him to condemn the Swifties. He distanced himself from them, yet rejected the idea of a unilateral disarmament by those who support him (or at least hate Kerry), and brought up the idea that these 527s are even less accountable than the parties are, as a basis for future policy debate. (I think it's worth noting that a few of the Democratic 527s had offices right next to that of the DNC at the Democratic convention.)

Posted by: Attila at 11:50 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 136 words, total size 1 kb.

Former Presidential Candidate Bob Dole—whose war heroism is bona fide, undisputed, visible to the naked eye, and not sexed-up—has finally had it with John Kerry's brand of "look at me! I was in 'Nam for five minutes and got a hangnail" campaigning:

Former Republican Sen. Bob Dole suggested Sunday that John Kerry apologize for past testimony before Congress about alleged atrocities during the Vietnam War and joined critics of the Democratic presidential candidate who say he received an early exit from combat for "superficial wounds."

Dole also called on Kerry to release all the records of his service in Vietnam.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Dole told CNN's "Late Edition" that he warned Kerry months ago about going "too far" and that the Democrat may have himself to blame for polls that show him losing support among veterans.

"One day he's ... throwing away his medals or his ribbons," Dole said. "The next day he's standing there, 'I want to be president because I'm a Vietnam veteran.' Maybe he should apologize to all the other 2.5 million veterans who served. He wasn't the only one in Vietnam."

Dole added: "And here's, you know, a good guy, a good friend. I respect his record. But three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of. I mean, they're all superficial wounds."

Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said: "It's unfortunate that Senator Dole is making statements that official U.S. Navy records prove false. This is partisan politics, not the truth."

Nevermind that those official Navy records are based on Kerry's own accounts of what happened.

Posted by: Attila at 01:14 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 293 words, total size 2 kb.

Glenn envisions a world in which John Kerry has vision, and isn't whoring his Vietnam record.

N.Z. Bear responds.

And several commenters point out that the John Kerry Glenn has in mind looks a lot like . . . Joe Lieberman. Wouldn't that be a lovely universe? There would be two viable candidates on the ballot, and I'd have an actual decision to make.

Maybe the Democrats should have put some thought into this, instead of saying, "hey. We like your initials, and that Vietnam stuff makes you sound butch. And—most importantly—you aren't George W. Bush.

This Reynolds guy is pretty smart; too bad he doesn't get a bit more exposure.

Via Dean Esmay.

Posted by: Attila at 12:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 122 words, total size 1 kb.

Having an airheaded moment, here: when was it that John F. Kerry demanded that MoveOn.org pull its ads that attack George W. Bush?

I just can't remember at all.

Posted by: Attila at 11:26 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 31 words, total size 1 kb.

. . . when was it that John F. Kerry condemned Al Gore's speech about how President Bush "played on our fears"? When did he distance himself from Gore's statement that G.W. Bush "has brought deep dishonor to our country and built a durable reputation as the most dishonest President since Richard Nixon"?

I'm just having trouble remembering the date. That's all. I'd appreciate it if you could help me out.

Posted by: Attila at 11:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 79 words, total size 1 kb.

. . . when it was that John F. Kerry condemned Fahrenheit 911?

Because the exact date and circumstances appear to have slipped my mind.

Posted by: Attila at 10:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 33 words, total size 1 kb.

All can be told, now that my personal vendetta has been fulfilled. Secretly funded by a Texas cabal, I've been quietly campaigning to have the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth referred to as the "Swifties," rather than the "Swiftees." This effort has taken me days of grueling effort, along with a swift boat load of oil money. Now that the correct term is the dominant one, I feel I can take the next few months off.

Someone wake me up in time for Thanksgiving, okay?

Posted by: Attila at 06:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 95 words, total size 1 kb.

James Joyner discusses the . . . interesting look of the campaigns right now:

Overall, Electoral Vote.com has it at Kerry 301, Bush 213 at the moment while Scott Elliot at Election Projection has an even more sizeable lead based on his predictive formula: Kerry 327, Bush 211.

Clearly, this is Kerry's race to lose at the moment. That's not overly surprising given the fact that we're in the middle of a controversial war. Plus, of the four biggest states, the Democrats have a virtual lock on two (California and New York), while the Republicans have only one gimme (Texas) with Florida as a perennial swing state (although trending Democrat owing to migration trends).

The Republicans need to have a very good convention.

I'm going to hang tough, and repeat what I've been saying all along: It'll be Bush, and by a comfortable margin.

The GOP convention is coming up, and Bush will get a decent bounce from it. The debates are coming up, and he's going to clean Kerry's clock.

When people wake up on Election Day they'll be thinking about their own safety and security more than "let's get a guy into the White House who's fluent in French." And all those people who hate Bush so much they are going to hold their noses and vote for Kerry are going to sleep late that day, rather than stop by the polls on the way to work.

That's how it goes.

Posted by: Attila at 01:21 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 251 words, total size 1 kb.

Tells his side of the story.

Posted by: Attila at 11:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 10 words, total size 1 kb.

Scott Ott relates a new smear campaign against Kerry; this one is based on his Senate record.

Posted by: Attila at 10:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 21 words, total size 1 kb.

Patterico's famous comparison of the Bush AWOL story with the Swift Boat Vets story, as handled by the Los Angeles Times. Amazing.

Posted by: Attila at 11:40 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 28 words, total size 1 kb.

They've got a bigger problem now.

Even the most passionate Bush-haters are becoming concerned.

(Yeah—I know I said I wouldn't link the Globe any more. But this was compelling, so I made an exception. Too bad, since the Attila Girl boycott had almost brought them to their knees.)

Posted by: Attila at 11:23 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 54 words, total size 1 kb.

1 I love it where Joan Vennochi of the Boston Glob is calling on Kerry to answer the questions about his service. Joan, there's a reason that Kerry is ducking those questions. He can't refute the accusations that he was lying, because he was lying. We know for certain he was lying, we just don't know the full extent of the lies. Or of the field of distortions and half-truths surrounding the lies.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 18, 2004 12:36 AM (kOqZ6)

2 Ooooh, thank goodness for Australia. I was wondering who else was up this late I keep wondering what's in those medical records he won't release about the 1st/3rd Purple Hearts. Paper cut? Nicked himself while shaving? Tummy ache?

Posted by: Attila Girl at August 18, 2004 01:40 AM (SuJa4)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Dean is wondering why the mainstream press is still AWOL on Kerry's Vietnam record in general, and the flagrant lie about Cambodia in particular:

It increasingly appears that one of the few of the fellow vets who have been publicly supporting John Kerry may never have served with him at all.

The media blackout on Kerry's Vietnam record is really quite stunning. I've never seen anything quite like this. We know for a fact that 80-90% of working reporters and editors vote Democratic in every election, but this is simply unreal. As John Rosenberg notes, even so respectably mainstream-left a paper as the Washington Post, on its front page no less, is continuing to gush about Kerry's fantastic Vietnam record and the support of his fellow veterans, while saying not one word about any of the Swifties' allegations or the recently uncovered evidence of Kerry's possibly false claims about Cambodia. Or about a man who served on his boat saying he's a liar and a sleaze.

The Post didn't put the gushy praise-sans-criticism in an editorial either. It was there as front page news.

I would have to ask why a single 20 year old drunk driving charge made screaming national headlines four years ago, but none of this is making it into the mainstream press, except on the editorial pages of a few small newspapers.

I am honestly stunned. This isn't bias. This is... it's... I don't even know the word for it. It's obviously not a conspiracy, and people who think it is one should take off their tinfoil hats. But what do you call it? Groupthink? Mass delusion? Blind spot? You cannot gush praise at a guy's military record and then just ignore the fact that he has heavy duty critics. Even if all of those critics were right-wing Republicans, that doesn't make it less of a story.

At this point it is becoming a bit shocking. But look at the polls: Kerry and Bush appear to be in a dead heat, statistically. No liberal editor wants to run a story that might influence a single swing voter in the "wrong" direction.

What's especially hilarious is that a lot of my liberal-left friends maintain that the media bias is in the other direction. Amazing, that.

Posted by: Attila at 08:43 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 390 words, total size 2 kb.

On the issue of Dean's Pledge vs. Ironbear's counter-pledge—how we must conduct ourselves if the unthinkable happens and Kerry wins, so that our feelings about Kerry's decisions do not imperil our troops, or embolden our enemies—it turns out the two approaches aren't mutually exclusive at all. Therefore, although I'm a Dean partisan, Ironbear has granted me permission to use his bitchin' cool graphic for those who will be engaged in the resistance during any possible Kerry ad, Kerry admin, Kerry...as he'd be . . . in the White House. I mean, if a guy like him could, you know. Win.

Sa'ang-Fori.

Posted by: Attila at 12:20 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 123 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Not mutually exclusive? Ummm.... I've been busy and haven't been back to the comments there - did I miss a resolution? (00) Or did Dean take my suggestion that we table the brawl over it until we find out wether Kerry wins or not? ;]

Posted by: Ironbear at August 15, 2004 05:26 AM (PG+qd)

2 As I recall, he did. At least, that was the consensus among his commenters--we'll work out the practicalities if worse comes to worst. As for me, I think I can figure out ways to criticize any missteps without giving AQ any aid and comfort. I think, for instance, that if Kerry wins I'll be writing a lot of letters. It's worth remembering that even Rush Limbaugh, right after the OK City bombing, spoke forcefully about supporting the President in that situation (that was before we knew it was a "domestic terrorist," of course). And that, of course, was Clinton. I think there are ways to be the loyal opposition without making the troops feel like they are high and dry--it's just in how you go about it.

Posted by: Attila Girl at August 15, 2004 09:34 AM (SuJa4)

3 Yeah. It's been one of *those* weekends... I'm sure you know the kind I mean. ;] I was only able to keep up with this because of the trackbacks. Makes perfect sense. I don't mind the argument, and either way, I'm going to do as I choose, but a Bush win will make the whole discussion a moot point, IMO. Kerry wins, we can work out how best to deal with him and the gloating moonbats after the 3rd, prefferably in some way that won't wreck both the Union and the blogosphere in the process. Or the union, anyway. Wrecking the blogosphere is always kinda fun.

Posted by: Ironbear at August 15, 2004 07:30 PM (qIC+p)

4 Oh, do let's!

Posted by: Attila Girl at August 16, 2004 02:01 AM (SuJa4)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

In case any of you missed out on the link over at Dean's place, here is the Winter Soldier web site. At the bottom of the home page it tells you how to skim through the material: check out their key points, and take a peek at their reproduction of John Kerry's book The New Soldier, almost in its entirely. The claim is that Democratic operatives have been snapping up so many copies of this book in an attempt to suppress it that a single copy now goes for $500 on eBay.

I wonder what they do with all these copies once they buy 'em. Make a big pile and set it afire?

Please, please. Think carefully before you vote for this guy.

Posted by: Attila at 01:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 129 words, total size 1 kb.

Dean Esmay has an open letter to Senator Kerry that everyone should read. A few points will do it right now:

1) The Democratic Party is, at this moment, the party of dirty tricks.

2) Any newspaper that takes the bait the Kerry campaign is giving out—the "brown books"—should not be supported, either online or offline. Cancel your subscriptions, and stop linking any news organization that runs negative biographical material about the Swift Boat Vets, rather than investigating and discussing their actual charges. This is beyond the pale. I will no longer link to or read on paper:

The New York Times;
The Boston Globe; or
Media Matters.

3) Any campaign that addresses a book that factually disputes a candidate's war record, on which he rests his claim to the office of President by threatening a lawsuit has lost its right to anyone's vote. John Kerry has said, regarding his record in Vietnam, "bring it on." Now that someone has, he might consider discussing the actual facts, rather then engaging in the politics of personal destruction.

I haven't been this angry in a long time.

Posted by: Attila at 03:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 197 words, total size 1 kb.