Sunday - September 12, 2004

What A Tangled Web They Weave …

Blogs For Bush has a diagram showing the tangled web of intrgue, lies and forgery of the Dummycraps. It is a very complicated web indeed and sitting right in the center of this web is John Kerry, the spider who stands to benefit from this sleazy web of DNC operatives. Dan Ra^ther is only a small insect on part of this web. Go take a look at this hideous diagram of disingenuity. And ask yourself why would anyone want to vote for this tangled web of arachnids and insects.

Methinks it’s time to call Orkin .... before this varmint causes more trouble.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/12/2004 at 07:36 PM   
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Monster Takes Aim At Panama City

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/12/2004 at 05:05 PM   
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

How many of you read and understand Latin? Not many, I’ll be willing to bet, considering the sorry state of today’s education system in America. Our children are graduating from high school and cannot even read English, much less another language. That is sad because no one will know what the title of this post means unless they can Google the internet and find out. But the topic of this editorial is not our rotten education system but another important issue facing us today.

Over two hundred years ago our Founding Fathers sat down and invented a whole new form of government out of whole cloth. The inserted all kinds of checks and balances in the Constitution to insure that no one individual or group could obtain dominance over the majority of people in the country. They very carefully crafted a cunningly interwoven system of government whereby each branch of government constantly kept an eye on the other branches and they were all controlled by the citizen’s vote and even that was balanced by the Electoral College. They created this byzantine system of shared power and then, to top matters off, they added a “Bill Of Rights”, the first of which added another “check and balance” with the First Amendment that guaranteed freedom of the press. They reasoned that a free and unfettered corps of newsmen, outside the government, could maintain a vigilance over the government’s actions to keep the people informed in case that government started behaving badly. They became the “watchers” over the government and were to be given the freedom to keep the American people informed.

Today that system of checks and balances is in jeopardy. A large portion of the national “media” has come under the influence of Liberals and the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has become a haven for all sorts of Liberals and Socialists in modern-day America. That by itself, is not a bad thing. Unless that group manages to exert an undue influence over the “watchers” in the media. This has been evidenced in several alarming episodes during the current election.

First, the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth questioned John Kerry’s war record. Since Kerry was the Democratic Party’s nominee the media took it upon themselves to discredit this group. At first they ignored the story but when it became evident that the American people were paying attention to the story they followed the Democratic Party line and started attacking the veterans and their story. They covered extensively John Kerry’s complaint that President Bush was behind their attack on him. How did the American people become aware of the story of the SBVT and how did the American people get a chance to listen to the veterans and to hear their side of the story? It was not the national media, who have instead attacked ad hominem the veterans and picked away at bits and pieces of their story. No, the entire set of facts was brought into the public eye and covered extensively by .... the blogosphere.

Second, the recent documents presented by CBS News purported to show President Bush had not fulfilled his duties in the National Guard thirty-five years ago. This “news story” aired on CBS last Thursday night and immediately became a talking point for all other media outlets the next day. They were all eager to find fault with President Bush, as per the Democratic Party line. In fact, the documents are suspected to have been originally sent to the DNC which gave them to CBS. But then a strange thing happened last Friday and Saturday. A group noticed that the documents in question didn’t seem to be quite right and started an investigation to determine their validity. Those experts unanimously agreed that the documents were a forgery. The group that disclosed this trickery by the national media was .... the blogosphere.

What is the blogosphere? It is a diverse collection of ordinary people sitting down at their computers every day speaking their minds. Men, women and children all participate. A CBS News executive recently characterized them as “ignorant fools sitting around in their pajamas trying to write”. He couldn’t be more wrong. The blogosphere contains people from all walks of life, all occupations, all religions, all ethnic groups and all political parties. The blogosphere is the American citizenry armed with the ability to communicate instantly with hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens. The blogoshpere has become the modern-day method of communicating news and opinions all across the country at the speed of light but unlike the major national media there are two very important differences, (1) blogs cannot get away with reporting erroneous facts because the readers will fact-check your butt in a New York minute and tell you so .... publicly, and (2) bloggers have to reveal their sources .... those same readers who fact- check the bloggers constantly want to know “where did you find that picture?” and “what is the source of that statement?” .... the same readers won’t believe anything a blogger posts unless there are links to the source material. The readers are the American people and at times it seems that 99.9% of them are from Missouri (the “Show Me” state).

The national media hides behind denials and cover-ups. They pretend that there is some Constitutional protection over their sources and they have even defied the courts in this matter. There is no such Constitutional protection and if government has to reveal its documents because of the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), why shouldn’t the national media do so also? They don’t do so because in so many cases it would reveal shoddy reporting based on lies and forgeries. Take a look at recent scandals at the New York Times if you want proof. CBS News and the forged documents last week are only the latest symptom of this disease in the national media.

But the blogosphere is the cure. Thus the Latin title of this post. Roughly translated it asks, “Who Watches The Watchers?”

The answer to that question is “you and me, sweetheart” .. and thousands of other people out there typing away even as I speak. They are all watching, researching and most importantly .... reporting. Something the national media has long forgotten how to do. At least .... they have forgotten how to do it honestly.

I would like to personally recognize the bloggers who researched and reported on the forged documents last week (or at least who were the first ones to reveal this false reporting by CBS). They all deserve a big pat on the back and a “thank you” from all of us.

The Honor Roll Of Watchers

Powerline
InDC Journal
Allah
Pacetown
RatherBiased.Com
Little Green Footballs
The Drudge Report
The Politburo Diktat
RightWing News

And Finally: Frank J. who put it all in perspective in his own unusual way.

In addtion, there are thousands of others out there who refused to buy into CBS News’ forgery and helped expose the lies and distortions of “major media”. Congratulations, everyone! Well done!

Memo To Our Readers: Naturally, we would normally have been first to reveal this story but Vilmar is out of town and I spent Thursday evening and all day Friday recuperating from surgery. We didn’t jump on this story until Friday morning at 5:00am - a whole six or seven hours after the story broke. We’ll do better next time. I promise.

As For The Latin: The answer to the question is simply derived as follows .... we take the word “blogosphere” and break it down into its component parts: WEB+BLOG+SPHERE and take the Latin translation of each as follows:

(WEB) tela : a web, that which is woven, cloth, tissue
(LOG) perscribo : to write out, write down, place on record
(SPHERE) orbis : world, circle

Or .... tela perscribo orbis. The Blogosphere.
Note for nit-pickers: don’t even expect me to remember proper Latin conjugation. It has been forty years since I had Latin in the Ninth Grade. Hail Caesar! Hail Yes!

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/12/2004 at 01:58 PM   
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Holy S**T!

There are some things you just NEVER want to see when you look out the window on your next flight ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/12/2004 at 07:39 AM   
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Weekly Roundup

Axis Of Evil Weekly Report:

A large explosion and mushroom cloud were observed in North Korea yesterday. Korean Commies claim it was just an “accident”. Yeah, right.

The Europeans ask Iran to stop producing nuclear fuel. Iran tells Europe to piss off. Goes ahead with nuke program.

Axis Of Stupidity Weekly Report:

John Kerry says Republicans are going to keep black folks from voting in November. No word from Kerry on how evil Repbulicans plan on doing it while the UN and Jimmy Carter are watching.

John Edwards still lives in a divided America. There are those who believe what John Kerry said yesterday and those who believe what he said today.

Axis Of Butterflies Weekly Report:

Hurricane Ivan smashes Jamaica, 56 dead, headed for Florida panhandle. Tons of ganja weed found floating toward Cuba. Castro announces holiday.

The National Weather Service says there is a 45% chance of an “above-average” hurricane season. African butterflies are in a rowdy mood this year.

Axis Of Losers Weekly Report:

Nowadays you can get arrested for leaving too small a tip. No, really. Even if you have a snooty waiter.

Europeans can’t figure out how to spell their currency. Why are we not surprised? We suggest spelling it E-U-R-I-N-E.

Axis Of Lunatics Weekly Report:
It is now illegal to have sex with a corpse in California. What have those Californicators been up to lately that they needed to pass this law? On second thought, I don’t want to know.

In Scotland, a woman is suing her former boss because he told her that her “tits were enormous”. I guess some women just can’t take a compliment.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/12/2004 at 05:03 AM   
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Daily Dose

Quote Of The Day

“Don’t be a fool and die for your country. Let the other sonofabitch die for his.”
-- George S. Patton (1885 - 1945)

September 12, 1953 - Khrushchev Elected Soviet Leader
Six months after the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev succeeds him with his election as first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Born into a Ukrainian peasant family in 1894, Khrushchev worked as a mine mechanic before joining the Soviet Communist Party in 1918. In 1929, he went to Moscow and steadily rose in the party ranks and in 1938 was made first secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party. He became a close associate of Joseph Stalin, the authoritative leader of the Soviet Union since 1924. In 1953, Stalin died, and Khrushchev grappled with Stalin’s chosen successor, Georgy Malenkov, for the position of first secretary of the Communist Party. Khrushchev won the power struggle, and Malenkov was made premier, a more ceremonial post. In 1955, Malenkov was replaced by Bulganin, Khrushchev’s hand-picked nominee.

The humiliating resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, an agricultural crisis at home, and the deterioration of Soviet-Chinese relations due to Khrushchev’s moderate policies all led to growing opposition to Khrushchev in the party ranks. On October 14, 1964, Leonid Brezhnev, Khrushchev’s protýgý and deputy, organized a successful coup against him, and Khrushchev abruptly stepped down as first secretary and premier. He retired to obscurity outside Moscow and lived there until his death in 1971.

Richard Jordan Gatling, (1818–1903), American inventor of the Gatling Gun
Maurice Chevalier, (1888–1972), French singer and film actor
Jesse Owens, (1913–1980), U.S. track star
_{(At the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, Owens astounded the world and upset Hitler’s “Aryan” theories by equaling the world mark (10.3 sec) in the 100-meter race, by breaking world records in the 200-meter race (20.7 sec) and in the broad jump (26 ft 5 3/8 in./8.07 m) and by winning also (along with Ralph Metcalfe and others) the 400-meter relay race.)}

_{Thanks to The Quotations Page - The History Channel - The Biography Channel.}

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/12/2004 at 04:55 AM   
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   Saturday - September 11, 2004

Barking Moonbat Of The Week

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/11/2004 at 10:36 AM   
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Three Years After

It has been three years since we were attacked on our own soil; three years since nineteen madmen flew four airplanes loaded with jet fuel into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania; three years since we found ourselves involved in a war we did not start, did not want and did not expect. Over three thousand lives were lost that day. They were innocent civilians simply going about their lives, not soldiers in a war. No, those people who died that day were just plain folks going to work to support their families and live the American dream. The tragedy we all felt that day still lives with us. The families of those who died still have to live with their loss and most of them are probably still wondering .... why? I can’t give them an answer. I can only give them my prayers and a solemn promise that the tragedy we suffered will not be forgotten.

That is one of the reasons this blog was started. Last March we held a contest and asked everyone to submit essays describing how they felt and what happened to them on that tragic day. We all read the essays and voted for the best. However, we were all winners for refusing to forget the hurt that was done to us. I urge all of you to go read those essays and remember. They are posted on-line here and are a permanent part of this blog site (See “Required Reading: Memories Of 9/11” in the right sidebar).

After 9/11 this country was united and we all stood together against the enemy that would destroy us. We were proud to be Americans and we demonstrated to the world that we could “take a licking and keep on ticking” as the commercial says. On that day we were all stunned and knocked down with our grief over our lost friends. Our world was shattered. But we got up off our back, stood tall and started to rebuild, recover and go after the bad guys. The evildoers, as President Bush called them .. and they were evildoers, nothing more and nothing less, did not succeed. They were small, narrow-minded men bent on killing Americans, their hatred of us was the only thing they lived for. They really didn’t need a reason. They just hated us and what we stand for .. freedom. Their world is a dark one where women are abused and considered second-class citizens. They cherish war against people who do not believe as they do. They burn with hatred of all things that are different from themselves. They were, and still are, insane madmen with no goal in life except death for their cause. We were an easy target because we thought we were safe behind our Atlantic and Pacific walls. We found out that no ocean is wide enough to keep out determined madmen.

Since that day, however, thanks to President Bush and a majority of Congress we have (1) raised our shields here at home and (2) taken the war to the enemy. In both we are succeeding. There have been no further attacks on American soil in the last three years and we have done it without locking the country down or instituting harsh measures on the American people. Yes, we have to go through that ridiculous routine at the security check-ins at airports but other than that we have not really lost any of our basic freedoms that a declaration of martial law might have taken away. There have been no internment camps, no suspension of habeus corpus, no rationing and no spying into citizen’s private lives as has happened in previous wars.  No, we all have gone about our lives and trusted our government to take care of the problem and keep us safe. Because of that attitude, the economic recovery has progressed and things are getting better. Our law enforcement agencies have quietly done a magnificent job protecting us from our enemies while we keep America strong by doing what we’ve always done .. go to work each day and provide for ourselves and our families, interact with each other socially and politically, and keep dreaming the American dream.

On the external front against the evildoers overseas, progress is even better. Our troops, in cooperation with good people in the Middle East who also want to be free and safe, have cleaned out the pest hole in Afghanistan where the perpetrators of 9/11 had created a safe base from which to launch the attacks. The Taliban has been routed, removed from power and the Al Qaeda terrorist group has been destroyed and dispersed, their funding removed and most of their “soldiers” killed or captured. Their leaders are either dead, captured or on the run. Today there is a democracy in Afghanistan and national elections will take place soon for the first time in that country’s history.

In Iraq we have deposed a tyrant who was guilty of murdering millions of his own people and who started two major wars with his neighbors. This madman who used chemical and biological weapons not only against his enemies but against his own people was dragged from a “spider hole” stinking, bearded and covered with lice after eluding our troops for months. Now he will stand trial before his people. Those people will soon have a democratically elected government. They are already on their way to building the first democracy in that region. Sadly, we have lost just over 1,000 soldiers in that war in Afghanistan and Iraq and, I might add, every one of those troops was somebody’s son or daughter. They will be missed. But what has their sacrifice brought us? Yes, we are definitely safer without Saddam Hussein in power. He had defied the entire world for decades, sought weapons of mass destruction and announced his hatred of not only America but his neighboring Arab states as well, starting costly wars with both Iran and Kuwait. Our troops sacrificed their lives to give freedom to the Iraqi people and rid the world of the menace of Saddam Hussein. In that they have succeeded. There is still work to do though if we wish to make sure they didn’t die in vain. Other evildoers who don’t want to see free men and women in the Middle East are hard at work in Iraq trying to destroy the new democracy there. They have to be stopped .. and they will be stopped. How? One thing that Americans have always had in large quantities is determination We will see this thing through, come hell or high water.

Which brings me to the reason for this editorial. This is an election year in America and as usual the political partys are fighting it out between themselves over who should be the next President. Foreigners may look at the divisiveness, arguing and infighting and see America splitting apart. Wrong! This is just our normal show that the politicians put on for the American people every four years. They entertain us with their rhetoric, accusations, mud-slinging, attack ads, etc., etc. for several months, then the American people go to the polls and freely elect the best man (or woman) for the job. Then the politicians go back to their jobs that we assigned to them for another four years. It’s a never-ending cycle because America is a never-ending work in progress.

So to our enemies we, the American people want them to contemplate that fact. America is a never-ending work in progress. Why? Well, let me allow the men who created this country over two centuries ago to explain it to them and the entire world. This is what we are and what we believe ....

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/11/2004 at 08:25 AM   
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Daily Dose

Quote Of The Day

“The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.”
-- Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, 1966

September 11, 2001 - Attack On America
At 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors. As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767--United Airlines Flight 175--appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center, and sliced into the south tower at about the 60th floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under attack.

Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network based there, began on October 7.

O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), (1862–1910), American short-story writer
Paul (Bear) Bryant, (1913-1983), Best football coach ever; directed Alabama to 6 national titles (1961,64-65, 1973, 78-79)
Brian De Palma, (1940), Contemporary film director

_{Thanks to The Quotations Page - The History Channel - The Biography Channel.}

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/11/2004 at 12:58 AM   
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   Friday - September 10, 2004

Live From Baghdad!

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/10/2004 at 06:06 PM   
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I’ve Started A Fad!!!!

NEWS FLASH! Now, even Drudge is doing it!

From now on, CBS News Anchor will officially be know as Dan Ra^ther. Ei^ther you’re wi^th us or you’re against us. I ^think it’s ra^ther nice to honor Ra^ther for his forgery-based story.

Join ^the Club. Let us all honor Dan Ra^ther wi^{th th}is immortal badge of shame.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/10/2004 at 03:56 PM   
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Who’s Yo Daddy?

I’ve been sitting here giggling over Dan Rather all day watching the Dummycraps implode. Are we having fun yet? Check out the stories below. They are being updated regularly as the MEMOGATE story unfolds.

As for myself, I decided to treat myself to a new piece for my collection that I was going to tell you all about today. I’ll slip it in here for your viewing pleasure. I was shopping around local pawn shops a few days ago and came across this unique and beautiful treasure shown below. I immediately went into “must have” mode. It’s now part of my collection. It’s a Taurus P-92-AFS, with stainless steel slide and barrel ... and gold-plated trim on certain features. Even better, it has a real pearl-handle grip. Something only a New Orleans pimp could fully appreciate. Gaudy, yep. But I thought it was the wildest looking piece I’ve ever seen. I’m going to take it out to the range tomorrrow and see what it can do. I’ll keep you updated. I’ve already broken it down, cleaned it and double-checked the mechanism. All good.

Here are the specs .... Caliber: 9mm PARA, Capcacity: 10+1, Barrel: 8.5”, Weight: 33.9 oz. Don’t ask me what I paid for it .... that pimp must have been really desperate when he pawned this.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/10/2004 at 03:05 PM   
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MEMOGATE UPDATE!!

NEWS FLASH! CBS News is suddenly struggling to cover it’s butt. Without much success, I might add. Stay tuned. The MEMOGATE story is fast developing into major news ....

No word yet from Dan Ra^ther who has been holed up in his office since yesterday shredding documents ....

Update I: The Communist News Network (CNN) finally decides to cover the story. The headline reads “Bush Guard flight logs released”, and in much smaller type below that “Authenticity of Bush Guard memos questioned”. Buried in the story about Bush’s last days in the Guard flying trainers is minor coverage of the forgery at CBS.

Update II: MSNBC is finally heard from: ”Authenticity of Bush memos questioned - Typographical, formatting questions emerge”.

Update III: Wheeeeee-doggies! Now we’re having fun! According to USAToday, the White House just issued the following statement ....

“You absolutely are seeing a coordinated attack by John Kerry and his surrogates,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. “The polls show Sen. Kerry falling behind, and it’s the same old recycled attacks that we’ve seen every time the president has been up for election.”

The Kerry campaign immediately fired back with ....

Joe Lockhart, a spokesman for the Kerry campaign, said McClellan was “hurling nonsensical, inaccurate and baseless charges.” The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, issued a news release calling Bush “a liar” who owes Americans a fuller explanation of his military record.

Update IV: Google shows 1,530 online articles covering CBS’s forgery. That’s ra^ther interesting.

Update V: John Edwards apparently doesn’t get it. Now he’s calling for Bush to respond to the accusations made in the forged documents. Hello, John! They were F-A-K-E! Even a lawyer should be able to grasp that. Get a grip, dude!

Update VI: Dan Ra^ther was just interviewed on CNN and he defended the documents he used and fired back at those who are questioning their authenticity ....

Ra^ther: I know that this story is true. I believe that the witnesses and the documents are authentic. We wouldn’t have gone to air if they would not have been. There isn’t going to be—there’s no—what you’re saying apology?

Question: Apology or any kind of retraction or--

Ra^ther: Not even discussed, nor should it be. I want to make clear to you, I want to make clear to you if I have not made clear to you, that this story is true, and that more important questions than how we got the story, which is where those who don’t like the story like to put the emphasis, the more important question is what are the answers to the questions raised in the story, which I just gave you earlier.

Excuse me but wasn’t it Dan Ra^ther who accused Richard Nixon in 1973 of “stonewalling” and hiding the truth? Why won’t CBS reveal the source of the memos? What are they trying to hide? The people deserve to know the truth. They needed to know the truth about who broke into the Watergate Hotel in 1972 and they need to know the truth today about who foisted these forged documents off on us.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/10/2004 at 07:48 AM   
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CBS FORGERY!! MEMOGATE!!

Someone stick a fork in Dan Ra^ther. He’s done.

After being largely confined to the internet and talk radio yesterday, coverage of CBS’s apparent usage of forged documents has exploded into more traditional media outlets with several reports from the Associated Press, multiple stories by ABC News, The New York Times, Fox News Channel, a front-page story in the Washington Post and more.

CBS News hasn’t been so pilloried in the press since Dan Rather’s 2001 keynote speech at a fund-raiser for Texas Democrats. And it is justly being scrutinized today. Against the advice of many of his colleagues, Rather almost single-handedly put a story on the air that had relied on at least two forged documents.

Typographical experts, legacy office equipment collectors, and even the family of the man who supposedly wrote the documents have all called into question CBS’s “scoop.” The fact that a bunch of people working independently on the internet could so readily debunk an obvious forgery tells a very disturbing story about the journalistic practices of a news organization that has allowed one man’s grudge against the Bush family to set its remaining shreds of credibility aflame.

The fiasco is getting so bad that it is tearing up CBS News. Whether news division president Andrew Heyward has the courage to make the changes needed to ensure that his organization is sufficiently ideologically diverse to prevent such an event from happening again is open to question. He has long been known as a toady to Rather and may not have the guts to do what’s right.

One thing is certain, however. Microsoft needs to fix its Auto Correct feature to properly spell CBS’s star anchor’s name without superscripting the “th” in his last name.

To its credit, CBS has included some critical remarks from Gary Killian--the son of Jerry Killian, the deceased man at the center of the controversy--on its Web site.

Unfortunately, though, the Rather-run Evening News decided not to mention the questions surrounding the alleged memos. We also couldn’t help but notice that the CBSNews.com’s Opinion section (which is currently featuring a number of anti-Republican articles and no anti-Democrat ones) has not reprinted any of the media criticism its online partners National Review, and The Weekly Standard, something it was not averse to doing when one of its liberal magazine partners accused the media of being biased against John Kerry.

“In a telephone interview from her Texas home, Killian’s widow, Marjorie Connell, described the records as ‘a farce,’ saying she was with her husband until the day he died in 1984 and he did not ‘keep files.’ She said her husband considered Bush ‘an excellent pilot.’

“‘I don’t think there were any documents. He was not a paper person,’ she said, adding that she was ‘livid’ at CBS. A CBS reporter contacted her briefly before Wednesday night’s broadcasts, she said, but did not ask her to authenticate the records.”

More:

A senior CBS official, who asked not to be named because CBS managers did not want to go beyond their official statement, named one of the network’s sources as retired Maj. Gen. Bobby W. Hodges, the immediate superior of the documents’ alleged author, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian. He said a CBS reporter read the documents to Hodges over the phone and Hodges replied that ‘these are the things that Killian had expressed to me at the time.’

‘These documents represent what Killian not only was putting in memoranda, but was telling other people,’ the CBS News official said. ‘Journalistically, we’ve gone several extra miles.’

The official said the network regarded Hodges’s comments as ‘the trump card’ on the question of authenticity, as he is a Republican who acknowledged that he did not want to hurt Bush. Hodges, who declined to grant an on-camera interview to CBS, did not respond to messages left on his home answering machine in Texas.

Marjorie Connell, who was married to Jerry Killian, the deceased Texas Air National officer who allegedly wrote CBS’s controversial Bush memos appeared on Thursday’s Nightline, blasting the network for promoting “untruths” about her husband.

Some excerpts:

“What aggravated me so much, was that he can not be here to say and yet they can drag his name onto television, making bad accusations about our president and a man that he respected and I know for a fact that he thought this young man as a second lieutenant or first lieutenant was an excellent aviator, an excellent person to be in the guard and was very happy to have him become a member of the 111th F.L.S.”

“Number one, he would not have typed because he did not type. Number two, the wording in these documents is very suspect to me. I just don’t believe that, it looks like some things may have been picked up out of a document and then other things just made fictitiously to fill in things, to make them flow. I just can’t believe that this is his words, my late husband’s words.”

“Not a typist, definitely not a typist. We had no computers at home but he wasn’t a typist, and what is remarkable to me is that he was a person who did not take or make copious notes. he carried everything in his mind and he didn’t have time to make notes.”

“He would just write little notes on the back of anything. unfortunately or fortunately as the case may be, if he needed to jot something down he would jot it on any paper that he could find, on a card, like a calling card that you would have, or just little bits of paper. He always knew where everything was, and if he needed to pull it out of his wallet on a little note or something, but he just didn’t take many notes.”

In an interview with the Washington Post, Connell said she was “livid” at CBS.

In related news, the Houston Chronicle talked more with Jerry Killian’s son, Gary, who expressed further doubts about the CBS documents’ authenticity.

Confirming his mother’s assertion that his father was no typist and that he had no “secret file” where controversial documents would be stored.

“It would have been against his own self-interest to keep a memo like that on file,” Killian told the paper. “It was just not in his nature to do that.”

Killian also said he never saw his father sign documents using his first name and that he believes they are fakes.

Further Reading:

The Washington Post:  “Some Question Authenticity of Papers on Bush”

ABC News: “False Documentation?”

Fox News: “Bush Guard Memos Questioned”

The Weekly Standard: “Is It A Hoax?”

RatherBiased.Com: “What’s New”

Chicago Sun-Times: “Critical memos on Bush’s Guard service faked?”

Update: Now the daughter of Ben Barnes says he lied to CBS ....

A woman purporting to be Amy Barnes, daughter of former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes, said Thursday that her father had fabricated claims that he used his influence to get President Bush into the Texas Air National Guard 36 years ago.

In a phone call to WBAP’s Mark Davis radio show in Dallas, Texas, Ms. Barnes told guest host Monica Crowley that her father was an “opportunist” who had lied about Bush’s Guard record during a “60 Minutes II” broadcast Tuesday night.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/10/2004 at 05:06 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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