Debate 1.

And so we begin....

Kerry,
"The president changed his mind on going to the UN. His campaign has a phrase for that."

The president sounded like a parrot, terribly weak, repetitive, redundant, while Kerry was focused, direct, clear and decisive. Resolve and conviction can be a boon when you're wrong and don't know it. Gee those Bathists just didn't fight to the death but disappeared and came back to kill....now. Who'd have thunk it POTUS?

Monarchist

"I don't like debates," said George H.W. Bush to Jim Lehrer in 1989. "You should do what it takes to get elected."

"There's no need to perform like that for the public," he said.

Unbelievable.

Bush On the Couch

Saleton does more marvelous work on analyzing Bush logic. To Bush, he's not always right, but he's never wrong. Through the looking glass to up is downism we go with this pied piper.

The Bush Sylogism

Tim Russert, "The Boston Globe and the Associated Press have gone through some of their records and said there's no evidence that you reported to duty in Alabama during the summer and fall of 1972." Bush replied, "Yeah, they're just wrong. There may be no evidence, but I did report. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been honorably discharged." That's the Bush syllogism: The evidence says one thing; the conclusion says another; therefore, the evidence is false." William Saleton.

This article is a damn fine analysis of Bush's pretzel logic. That he can get away with logic this flawed as the leader of the free world is both amazing and alarming.

Conservative Kin Theory

This is a good piece on how archaic America is compared to Europe who is farther along in the social evolutionary process than we are. As a biologist this is straight kin theory which is this: the closer the gene pool the more you care. European nation states are homogenous ethnically hence socialistic programs like welfare makes sense. It's in the family. Over here we have disparate groups jokeying for resources and space. Sharing the wealth with foreigners goes against human nature. This makes perfect sense from my training in the field. The key is how altruistic can we be despite this set point? That's the real moral question.

Fred Friendly Presents

John Leo reports on the Dan Rather fiasco and bloggers:"Bloggers make their case with hyperlinks to primary sources and other data. Arguments without authority count for nothing, and soft-headed analyses and hoaxes are quickly exposed. As RealClearPolitics said, it's a fast-moving, "very transparent, self-correcting environment ultimately based on facts." "

Yeah, well a nice theory that fails the scratch test. I've not seen links to many "primary" sources. If you did a statistical analysis you'd get 90% linked to other like-minded blogs peddling the same innuendo sans pertinent facts. Just refer to the typwriter misinformation for example. Primary sources are routinely accused of being "forged." I have to point out that the memos can't authenticated. Who can prove they are forgeries? Online, innuendo is all it takes for any document. Who can you hook with the assertion? That's the real game played in the propagandistic world of the blogger. It's the most "truth free" zone there is.

Liberal CBS?

Not according to the parent company Viacom who I have check stubs for from my acting career. CEO Sumner Redstone supports a Republican in the White House corporate reasons. Less regulation, more crony capitalism and so on. Oh yeah that's liberal all right. What a myth.

Kerry's Records OK'd

Good enough for the Navy.

Fake Warriors

Oh brother. Xlibris no less. I have first hand knowledge about how far or serious anything published in this venue will go or be taken. The authors promote the stance in a speech this month that John Kerry must have altered his DD215 under the Silver Star "combat V" listed on his website, as I've said, that only looks like a clerical redundancy to me. To this anti-Kerry crowd it's the smoking gun. Fortunately, it's already fizzled as the minutiae it is despite efforts to puff it up into something more.

Family Values

This is a pretty good historical piece in The Guardian on Prescott Bush's dealings with one of his banks and the connection to Hitler's rise to power. Not surprising, Harriman and Bush like their fathers enjoyed war profiteering. It's how they've made their money and anyone hurt by their dealings is of no concern to them as near as I can tell.

Rosy Scenario

Juan Cole transposes Iraq and the US. Chilling. Accurate.

Wrong

This is the best way to characterize Bush. Not bad, just plain wrong on everything. Bush will portray Sen. Kerry as bad, and immoral. He's wrong.

Breaking News? You don't Want it to be About You

From the department of even a broken clock can be right twice a day.

"You'd think "Buckhead," who first spotted the flaws in the documents, is the cyberworld's Woodward and Bernstein. Now the conventional wisdom is that the media will be kept honest and decent by an army of incorruptible amateur gumshoes. In fact, cyberspace is populated by a coalition of political obsessives and pundits on speed who get it wrong as much as they get it right. It's just that they type so much they are bound to nail a story from time to time."

Tina Brown really nails it with this piece. The Marcia Clark analogy and the gloves? Brilliant.

Late?

They resembled George W. Bush Now that's an insult, but notice CBS and Dan don't get immunity from the facts like W does.

Scandal?

This was a combination of duping and incompetent investgative reporting as Tim Rutten lays out here in a piece a little stronger than I come down on the matter. Check the source: incompetence and deception does not add up to liberal bias as the lynch mob of the blogosphere claims.

Bush Logic

"Now, we're reconstructing the company," Bush said. This is a man that doesn't know he's running an enronesque war. With a preacher's blinders to the cliff we are lead. Some of us anyway. This is a tent evangelist snake oil salesman that hasn't done an honest days work in his life. When his grandiose claims don't materialize he moves the date. Classic shell gamism.

Rathergate

Yeah well, burned by the source. But who was Burkett's source?

NRO

Is there a more pompous little twirp than Rich Lowry? How many wars has he fought in? I'd guess none. David Corn pummeled him on substance in a debate at Cornell, but like all conservatives he sheds responsibility for his policy recommendations just like the president. It's all relative to Rich.

A Hero

Nick Kristopf analyzes the swiftboat crap accurately and the result is: it's crap. An orchestrated smear typical of the Bush family. They always get someone else to do their dirty work for them while remaining aloof and indignant. It pains me to say that it has worked and the damage this time may be fatal to the Kerry campaign as unjust as that is. The press is complicit in this diabolical enabling by running rumor and lies as if they were a realistic representation of the facts. They aren't and stories should say so. Research a priori in the newsroom is the key be it swiftboater claims or documentation verification.

The people are just too dumb to know the difference.

The Talkingpoint of the Right-Leaners

"Patience helps convey the will to persist until stability is reached. Bush vows to persist. Kerry is on the horns of a dilemma because many Democratic voters he needs to win don't believe we should stay, but cutting and running would have profound repercussions. Meanwhile, the press seems unable to map the issue clearly."

Stephan Waters the publisher of the Rome, NY local paper continually makes the weak attempt to shore up the Bush position framed in a critique of the press. A riddle in an enigma if you will. Bob, a conservative student in my newspaper practicum made the same comment to the very word, which is what differentiates conservatives from liberal democrats like me perfectly. We'd never make the exact same points in lockstep like this from two ends of the country. If we leave the country would "descend into civil war," he said. Descend from where? The brink of civil war which is where we've taken them in a year and a half? We're in civil war now in Iraq.

Positive stories toward the invasion were few in the run up to the war. The one series that shored up the policy came from Judith Miller was a false positive. It reflects reality which is we base truth and the news on. More often than not this is not a positive assessment nor should it be. Blaming a skeptical press for not rah rahing the faith and patience of the president's plan is a red flag to me for blind faith. Conservatives trend toward this line of thought. They're willing to ignore giant negatives on the ground because of faith. Faith is not a plan. Ground markers tell us what is and if it's working or not. So far they say we were right beforehand and they were and still are wrong. I'm reporting it now, again.

Rather!

Great job by Dan Rather. "Should we find any evidence that President Bush fulfilled his national guard commitment we will report that as well," he said.

Hint: they won't.

Republican Duck Walking

Like they say if it walks like one it is. Arnold's appointments on environmental positions in state government are mostly timber friendly lobbyists and this mirrors what Bush does on the national level. Business friendly always means they get what they want; the public and ecology be damned.

Egg On Whose Face?

I'm amazed by the Dan Rather hatred, but as analysis of the criticsim by conservative bloggers (and print writers) now championed by William, I don't have college degree, Safire clearly shows, it is they who continue to look worse than CBS or anyone in the business for that matter.

Bureaucrats

There have been more bureaucrats hired, and invented, under Bush than any time in our history. More with Kerry is the charge? Oh contrare look in the mirror W. You even hired me.

"I don't want to pass on problems to the next generation?" Bush said. Really, what about the national debt Einstein? What the hell do you think you're passing on?

MO

What do John Mccain, Max Cleland, Al Gore, and John Kerry have in common? All are Viet Nam vets savaged by the forunate son coward George W. Bush.

Not Rated

Bush was not rated from May 1972 to April 1973 and no report is available for "administrative" reasons. Yes I think I've heard that, but what were they? Killians signatures match as near as I can tell.

From an AP Story on the NG Records

"Allegations of suspect conduct during the Vietnam war also have been leveled at John Kerry (news - web sites), who won three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star in Vietnam."

This implies equivalence. It isn't.

"A group sponsoring television ads challenging his wartime record contends Kerry's own gunfire caused the wound that brought his first Purple Heart. Navy records and other veterans do not support the charge. "

Hello? Does supporting testimony and official documentation mean anything? Or are all incriminating documents suspect when they go against Bush, and bogus when they support Kerry? This is the blinkerville hypothesis.

Remember Al Qaeda?

Juan Cole does, but does George Bush?

Jefferson on the Yellow Press

Thomas Jefferson, who was the subject of a smear campaign based on sex should know about how the press can be inhabited by unscrupulous partisans looking for legitimacy, such as the swiftnuts. The printing of this disinformation as a factual account does the readership a great disservice. I doubt that's the message that the wingervillain at pressthink intended. He wants to condemn newspapers in general, while supporting the wild-eyed rumormill of tht right-wing blogs as exempt from this assertion. What a joke: the witch's cauldron calling the kettle black.

Jefferson also said if he had to choose between government and newspapers he'd take newspapers. Conveniently the winger left that one out.

"But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them." Jefferson said. I agree. But how is this line a condemnation of newspapers? He means the public can be functionally illiterate. They sure can. Just look at the blogosphere as an example of the free uncredentialed press. Mob rule? Lynchings? Pack of Jackals? Take your pick. Case closed.

Tangled Web Woven By Whom?

Boy what a plot. So two unsigned documents presented by CBS last night are forged. But by whom? Stirling Newberry thinks they were planted by the Bush campaign. Christ on a cracker.

As Josh Marshall said I don't claim to be a forensic expert on documents since I'm used to looking at 200 year-old hand scrawlings with quill pens. Josh can identify with that I'm sure. But it appears that typewriters existed in 1971-2 when I first went to college that could use a superscript key to reduce the "th" date designation. As with the "Combat V" designation different clerks processed these documents. It's difficult to claim much from what we have here, but ideology is in full bloom and possible fraud by the incumbant is a possiblity. Democrats aren't dumb enough to forge documents to shore up a weak case. That's strictly GOP territory. Stay tuned.

Yorking

Definition: To so thoroughly pummel your opponent with well-reasoned argumentation that they scream foul in retreat and toss back a litany of fallacies. Then the moderator bans you for beating up on the pathetic losers out of intellectual pity. In short a mercy killing.

When your name becomes a verb you know you've had an effect on the issues and the culture.

Tricky Dick II

Let's recap: The Supreme Court made the so-called "correct" choice in the last election despite what the people said, yet despite Cheney's perverse/reverse pretzel logic we still got attacked with him and junior at the helm of state. So how will making that same choice again not bring about the same result?

Insanity: doing the same things repeatedly and expecting different results. i.e. Terror, tax cuts; environmental rollbacks and corporate give-a-aways. Terror is on the increase not the other way around. Earth to Dick and Jane (Lynne) Cheney. You've got it backwards again.

Going Well?

Iraq is a mess as I've said all along. 1000 dead and the insurgents own central Iraq. Bravo. Bad choice and yet another example of a Bush crashing the family car. How much of one family's incompetence can the country take?

Dean Rises Again

John Dean that is. Kudos to Bill s.

Who is Steve Gardner?

Another swiftvet with second hand innuendo and nothing more.

Vindicated Biologist

Science wins on the ground and in court in the Florida panther case. Good deal.

Truman?

Harry Truman would have belted W in the jaw for kidknapping his name to attack the New York Times editorial board, a Bush family nemesis. Occupation of Germany? There's no comparison, save to a fool.

Comp Time

Yes, by all means more time off without pay is just what America needs. Hell, in Bushworld I've got all of that I can use. What I'd like is pay, except my last employer, George W. Bush, laid me off and then hired a team of lawyers to prevent me from collecting unemployment a year later. Nice man. Flex time? Bend over.

Increase Pell grants? Sure they've been the same for years. Reagan removed them in his day so we're making real progress; because of Bill Clinton that is, not this joker. Like the Red Queen said, you have to run faster to stay where your are.

Kerry's Records

On Kerry's DD214 paperwork the Silver Star is listed with a Combat V right under the Bronze Star that should have one. Since this valor designation is moot in the case of a Silver Star by definition, I hereby declare this to be a clerical error and of no significance whatsoever. According to the document the officer in charge of this is T. Vanstrydonck LTJG. Ask him.

The Divine Ms. D.

"Despite the fact that the economy is cratering, Iraq is teetering, Afghanistan is reverting to warlords, Dick Cheney is glowering at the world, the war on terror has created more acts of terror, Ahmad Chalabi is an accused spy for Iran and the Pentagon has an accused spy for Israel, Republicans felt so good about themselves that when Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was inspired to become a Republican by Richard Nixon, they exploded. When Tricky Dick is a hot applause line, they're feeling cocky.

Republicans are political killers"
NY Times Columnist extrordinare Maureen Dowd

The fallacy of the Excluded Middle

John Savage explains the flawed logic behind never changing positions according to changing facts on the ground as found in the John Kerry bio. Correcting course is the scientific way, but detractors use it as a sign of wishywashiness. It isn't. It's a sign of an active analytical mind in action.

He concludes with this crystal clear paragraph:

"So, in the end, Kerry's evolution of his position and the contrast between his actions under orders and his later consideration of the justifiability of those orders are far from inconsistent with being a good officer or a good politician. I would argue the opposite; but then, I'm one of those wierdos who realizes that one's country can sometimes be wrong, so I'm obviously not cut out for national politics."

Well said.

Blinkered by Ideology

This is clip from the pretzel logic files of Patterico a right-wing Texan, anonymmous blogger and prosecutor for Los Angeles CO. Scary I know, but at least at work he'll have help thinking and writing.

"As I have argued, this was not a trivial mistake. It concerned a matter of intense national interest," Paterico pontificates. "Kerry's campaign repeatedly defends Kerry against the accusations of the Swift Boat Vets by arguing that we should look to the opinions of those who were on the boat with Kerry. Yet Swift Boat Vet Steve Gardner says he spent more time on the same boat with Kerry than any of the crewmates who are supporting Kerry.While Gardner may not have witnessed the incidents for which Kerry was awarded medals, he would know something about an issue that could pose a real threat to the Kerry campaign: the "Christmas in Cambodia" story. Indeed, Gardner is appearing in a new commercial focusing on the "Christmas in Cambodia" fabrication. It's important for the citizenry to understand that Gardner knows what he's talking about when he speaks about Kerry's Cambodia falsehood."

So let's recap: Gardner wasn't present on all of the medal-awarded missions, but was still on the boast with Kerry. I suppose this is where his omnipresence comes in handy. He has "feelings" about it though. He just has a hunch John Kerry is wrong in hindsight. Right, that's credible in blinkerville.

Was he in Cambodia? Who knows? Kerry was on his way there on a secret mission Christmas day. Where did they drop anchor? Answer that counselor Fife. Moreover is two feet shy of the border literally a lie when you aren't aware in the jungle?

Such semantic crap.

Zellot

Zell Miller is a traitor as far as I'm concerned. He's a descendant of the war monguering Scots-Irish appalacian mountain people that have been since the time of Jackson, one of their own, the quickest to go to war anyhere on earth for any reason regardless of how small, than any of the "Albion's Seed" that founded America. That is what drove them to Northern Ireland and to America in the first place. He's true to his roots. It's genetic.

Weasel-wording

The Guliani hit job on John Kerry is eviscerated by Glenn Kessler of the Washpost here. In a nut a nutsell: classic out of context hatchet job.