The Razor

While this journal has been late to the fray on this issue, don’t forget that the quest for Truth is the primary reason it was founded. The forgery and the speed at which it is detected show how hard it is to pull off conspiracies.

To that end, here’s an old-media report on the genesis of the detection. Kudos to Powerline, INDC, Allahpundit, Little Green Footballs and Free Republic.

The blogosphere is on a tear, ripping this story to shreds. Last night on O’Reilly, he pretty much did what I would thought he would do because he doesn’t understand the Internet: questioned the authenticity of the docs while slamming bloggers for lacking authority. Sorry Bill: the horse and buggy days are over.

Allahpundit (may his name be praised) has an interesting analysis of the origin of a an acronym that appears in the memos, but isn’t used in the military: OETR. He traces the mistaken abbreviation to a doc on a specific anti-Bush website.

I’ve ignored the introduction which pretty much covers the reason for the writing of the book. It’s all hearsay anyway.

Chapter One – Debating Kerry
Sources of this chapter:
Douglas Brinkley, “Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War,” William Morrow, New York, 2004

Kranish, Mooney & Easton, “John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography by the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best,” New York: Public Affairs, 2004

I haven’t evaluated these sources myself, but I will try to do so soon.

Basic assertions of this chapter:
Kerry’s June 1971, testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was an attack on soldiers he served with in Vietnam.

Proof:
(Unfit For Command): “He compared those of us who served in Vietnam to the army of Genghis Khan, committing war crimes such as rape and baby killing ‘on a day-to-day basis with full awareness of officers at all levels of command’”

(UFC)… how hard we had tried to avoid civilian casualties under terrible conditions…I remembered the fighter pilots who had been killed or were captured because we used small planes and opted for precision bombing in Hanoi… rather than massive, indiscriminate bombing.

(UFC) If John Kerry had just been another politician punching his ticket in the military, I wouldn’t have cared. But for John Kerry to lie at the expense of his former comrades living and dead, in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, just so he could outbid other radicals in the antiwar movement and gain attention was something else. Even his own crew members who now (after long persuasion) support him for president were “pissed”at the time. They ‘knew he was dead wrong,’ and the stomachs ‘turned’ listening to Kerry speak and felt ‘disappointed and betrayed’ (Brinkley)

In a debate on the Dick Cavett show, O’Neill challenged Kerry to list a single war crime committed by their unit, Coastal Division 11. In the debate, Kerry was unable to list a single atrocity that he witnessed.

My Opinion
I am not a warrior myself, but I am married to one, and have several in the family. Till the day he died, my father spoke respectfully of his CO. Even Wife misses the camaraderie of her former life in the Navy. These are relationships that I cannot relate to myself.
However, I sense in this chapter (and the introduction) a deep sense of betrayal that came about through his involvement in the antiwar movement –and most especially his testimony before the Senate. It is clear to me that had Kerry not appeared before the Senate, it is likely that this book would never been written. Nevertheless, Kerry did appear there, and attempted to become a leader in the antiwar movement.

My Questions:
Why did Kerry join the antiwar movement?
Why did Kerry attack not just the war, but the warriors?

Took the family on a trip to a glass factory (Simon Pearce) and watched artisans blow glass by hand. I could have sat there all day and watched them.
There are Creators and Destroyers. Creation is so much more difficult than destruction. It took an artisan about 30 minutes to turn out a single glass – and they sold for $58.
Now I’m a cheap-ass bastard by nature but I had to restrain myself from buying that glass. Why? Because I am so tired of mass-manufactured everything. I want to surround myself with unique objects – one of a kind things that show craftsmanship and thought. As I edge into middle age I find myself craving artistry in everyday life. While I find it relatively easy to create with words, it’s much harder for me to create by hand. That’s why I enjoy TV shows like “Monster Garage” and “American Chopper”. Cars and motorcylces are ordinary objects. Yet there is beauty in each custom creation that simply isn’t found on an auto or bike lot.
3 years since 9-11. There are creators and destoyers, and the men on that day thought that they destroyed, but America is about creation, moving forward often without a firm grounding in the past. But America creates, we create – and America continues on.

Just a note that I finally got my hands on this book, but I haven’t looked at it except for the photos.

By the way, those photos are pretty damning. No one has mentioned the museum in Ho Chi Minh City that proudly displays pics and quotes of Kerry on the walls, nor the numerous photos of Kerry with the unwashed hippies. For you Kerry-ites, imagine W. shaking hands with George Wallace and hanging with John Birchers. Yeah, it’s a bit like that…

Except Bush never did those things; Kerry did. I will be blogging the book as I read it.

Everyone else is on the forgery story today (link to WaPo here). I only wish to add:

No computer-literate person who has used both a typewriter and a PC would have made the typgraphic errors found in the memo. Justified spacing? Superscripted “th”? It seems to me that whomever did this forgery grew up with PCs and never had the “joy” of typing on a manual – or electric – typewriter.

And to think I was just arguing with the Wife (may Her name be forever praised!) about the credibility of the internet vs. traditional media.

Score another for the net – yet one more reason to not read newspapers.

UPDATE: Little Green Footballs is partly responsible for breaking this story (note to self: read them more often). Link to more on the story here.

I learned how to type in 1981 on a manual typewriter in high school. I estimate that whomever forged these docs was either incredibly stupid OR:
1. Is younger than me (37).
2. Never watched a show incorporating forensics (CSI counts).
3. Isn’t familiar with the Hitler Diary Forgery Case - putting that person in mid twenties since the story broke in 1983.
4. Doesn’t the recognize the risk of “blowback” should the forgery be discovered.

A person that young would not be a major player in the Kerry (or anyone else’s) campaign. However he could have thought of it, assured his (older) superiors that he could pull it off (maybe by impressing them with his acumen at computers), and then did it.

He (90% chance) is probably shitting twinkies now – and stunned that no one is returning his phone calls.

Score (another) one for age and experience.

This is a follow up to this
story. Note that my friend is the Delawarean mentioned below. David Horowitz
at FrontpageMag contacted me, and
he contacted my friend. My friend is energized by this battle, and judging by
this press release below, it looks like there’s a lot to be angry about.

SAF Launches Initiative to Fight Indoctrination in K-12 Schools

Dear Students and Supporters,

After many weeks of preparation, Students for Academic Freedom is
pleased to announce that it has launched a new campaign to promote
intellectual diversity and fight political indoctrination in the
nation’s primary and secondary schools. Parents and Students for
Academic Freedom (K-12) will provide support to parents and their
children who experience partisan abuse or indoctrination in the
classroom.

Parents and Students for Academic Freedom will also promote legislation
at the state and federal level to ensure that students are protected by
a Bill of Rights designed to guarantee them an education that is fair,
inclusive and non-partisan. A sample resolution is available on the
organization’s new website at www.psaf.org ; and
a

mission and strategy guide can be found here
; .

The inspiration for this new effort stems from the overwhelming demand
voiced by parents across the nation. Since starting up SAF, we have been
continually besieged to expand our efforts to include the primary and
secondary schools, where partisan indoctrination is reportedly just as
rampant as on the college campuses. Parents and Students for Academic
Freedom will address this need.

A case that poignantly illustrates the problem is that of an
eight-year-old second grader at a Delaware public school who wrote a
composition saying that he wanted to be a soldier like his grandfather.
"If you ever write anything like that again, you are going straight to
the principal’s office," the teacher threatened. When his parents
complained, the teacher again scolded the child, accusing him of lying
about the incident. The mother confirmed the story with two of the
child’s classmates but the child himself was so upset that he didn’t
want to return to class.

Another example occurred at a Catholic high school. During the war
against the Taliban following 9/11, the administration set up a table in
the cafeteria where they encouraged students to send bags of rice to
President Bush to show him that the Afghan people need food, not war.

We are encouraging parents across the country to start up chapters of
PSAF at their children’s schools and to band together to fight partisan
abuses and encourage specific guidelines for teachers that actively
promote intellectual diversity in the classroom. Parents who aren’t able
to start up chapters at present, can register as members by emailing me
at Sara@studentsforacademicfreedom.org and will become part of the
national organization.

Please notify your parents and younger siblings about our efforts. More
information on starting a chapter of PSAF or on becoming a member can be
found on the program’s new website at www.psaf.org
; .

News from the Campuses:

As we head into the fall semester, SAF has already encountered one major
case of political abuse on campus. At the University of
Missouri-Columbia, the administration has "strongly encouraged" incoming
freshmen to read Barbara Ehrenreich’s socialist tract Nickel and Dimed:
On (Not) Getting by in America and to attend professor-led group
discussions of the book as part of its orientation program. No other
book providing a contrary perspective on the issue of poverty in America
was assigned.

Assistant Spanish Professor Molly Olsen, one of the faculty members
charged with leading a student discussion on Ehrenreich’s book, made
clear that she had explicitly partisan lessons to impart. "Do I hope the
truth that the book contains creates some voters who will ally
themselves with Kerry to oust Bush?," Olsen told Vox Magazine. "You’d
better believe it."

Upon learning of this incident, Students for Academic Freedom took
immediate action, sending a letter to Mizzou Chancellor Richard Wallace
asking that Professor Olsen apologize for her comments and alerting the
legislators within the state about this blatant attempt to use a
taxpayer funded and tax-exempt institution as political base for
partisan agendas.

SAF further recommended that an alternative text on the subject of
poverty (such as W. Michael Cox’s, Myths of Rich and Poor: Why We’re
Better Off Than We Think) be recommended to incoming freshmen, and asked
that Mizzou explicitly incorporate intellectual, political and religious
diversity in its diversity mission statement to ensure that the views of
all students are respected. We will be sure to be watching this case
closely as we head into the fall term.

For more information on starting a chapter or to report an abuse of
academic freedom on your campus, please contact me at 202-969-2467 or at
Sara@studentsforacademicfreedom.org.

Yours in Freedom,

Sara Dogan
National Campus Director
Students for Academic Freedom

Sara Dogan

National Campus Director

Students for Academic Freedom

1015 Fifteenth Street, NW, Suite 900

Washington, DC 20005

Phone: 202-969-2467

Fax: 202-408-0632

www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org

I have grown to be a fan of retiring Senator Zell Miller. He speaks his mind, and votes his heart. I don’t agree with Zell on all issues, but we share alot in common.

Tonight Senator Miller pretty much carpet-bombed Senator John Kerry. I can’t think of any issue he didn’t touch in his sixteen minute long speech. He touched on everything. Kerry’s anti-war rhetoric. His voting record. His shifting stance on the Iraq war. Here is a link to the text of the speech. Classic quotes:
“The clear answer to that question has placed me in this hall with you tonight. For my family is more important than my party.”

“For more than 20 years, on every one of the great issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak and more wobbly than any other national figure.”

“This is the man who wants to be the commander in chief of our U.S. armed forces? U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs?”

“Twenty years of votes can tell you much more about a man than twenty weeks of campaign rhetoric.”

“Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today’s Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator … No one should dare to even think about being the commander in chief of this country if he doesn’t believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home.”

He said Democrats “don’t believe there is any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided foreign policy.” Direct shot at Michael Moore.

I was mesmerized. Southern politicians are classic orators. Even Clinton had the silver tongue, and I pretty much believe his Southern upbringing was the reason for it.

So far, each night has had great speeches. John McCain. Arnold. And now Zell. I almost wish I was a Republican. But then again, as Zell said, some issues trump party politics.

We are at war. There are people in the world who want to see my family ground into dust. I’m sorry, I will not let that happen – which is why come November, I will cast my vote for the man who will best protect my wife and children. As Zell Miller said tonight, John Kerry wants to outsource our protection to Paris and the UN. And George W. Bush will not let that happen.