"There's no place like home. (Tap Tap Tap)
Posted on 08/27/2004 8:40:40 AM PDT by presidio9
Edited on 08/27/2004 10:24:07 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Note: The writer of this column wishes to acknowledge her debt to the late journalist Michael Kelly, whose 1998 essay, “I Believe,” served as her template. Anyone desiring to read the original, which the author highly recommends, will find it archived here, copyright The Washington Post Company, February 4, 1998.
I believe the senator. I have always believed him. I believed him when he said he supported the war in Iraq, and I believe him now when he says he was really opposed to it all along. I believed him when he said he would take care of our troops regardless, and I believe him now when he says he was only showing them just how much he cares by voting to cut off their funding when the going got rough. I believed him when he said he was caught in the crossfire in Cambodia in 1968 and I believe him now, when he reportedly admits he wasn't.
I believed the senator when he said every last detail of that blue Cambodian Christmas was “seared” into his brain, and I believe him now when he says he’s not quite sure if his recollection of that blessed event is solid. And I most certainly believed him when he testified before the transparently non-partisan Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971, swearing America made him commit horrific but strategically needful acts, like hunting down cattle and dogs for sport. I believe the senator and his fellow Vietnam Veterans Against the War were motivated by nothing but patriotism and love for their vile country.
I believe the senator’s totally unsolicited television appearance on the Dick Cavett show in April 1971 was in truth doctored, even then, by the radical right-wing Carlyle cabal, operating in concert with the Saudi royal family, the CIA, and the reactionary conservative media conglomerate, News Corp. I believe in a secret, subterranean, centralized corporate authority.
I believe in the Kerry standard of adherence to the First Amendment, enunciated by the senator in his formal complaint to the FCC accusing the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the Bush campaign of illegally conspiring to discredit him--a standard which holds that censorship is okay so long as it acts to suppress speech in instances where there exists "overwhelming evidence [of] coordination with the Bush campaign." I note with appreciation the senator’s use of the word “overwhelming.” I believe the senator when he says there is no evidence of any similar coordination between his own campaign and MoveOn.org.
I believe the senator when he says Bush’s attorney, Benjamin Ginsberg, is clearly in bed with special interests, and I believe him when he says his own lawyer, Joe Sandler, clearly is not. I believe counselors like Ginsberg who represent campaigns, parties, and soft groups simultaneously are all acting illegally, even though the law and the FEC declare they aren’t. I agree with the senator that all lawyers working in conjunction with the Bush reelection team and the SBVT are automatically suspect, and I agree with him, too, that counselors representing the DNC and their sludge funds are by default not even remotely fishy.
I believe the senator has the right to criticize his country, just as I believe VVAW had the right to criticize it, too. And I believe the senator now has the right to force John O’Neill to abrogate his right to criticize the senator, just as I believe the SBVT should be forced to abrogate its right to criticize the senator, too. I believe those sixty-some-odd veterans who signed affidavits are all lying, just as I believe the senator and his massive army of eight are the only ones telling the truth.
I believe the senator is being sincere when he lauds Michael Moore, whom he thinks should never be censored, and I believe he’s being sincere, too, when he denounces Paul Galanti, whom he thinks must be. I believe the senator is being sincere when he condemns as illicit the $17 million in 527 and 501 soft money the Bush campaign has raised thus far, and I believe he’s being sincere when he condones the $186 million his own campaign has to date accumulated by these same unquestionably above-board means.
I believe the senator when he says he favors a strong national defense, and I believe he was in fact actively strengthening our nation’s defenses throughout the 1990s by systematically hacking military and intelligence budgets to bits, and by voting to slay every single major weapons system that ever dared lumber across the Senate floor.
I see nothing suspicious in the report that the senator was awarded the Purple Heart for sustaining mortal scratches etched by whizzing bullets on December 2, 1968, even though he wrote in his journal a full nine days later, on December 11, that he and his crew in the Viet Cong had not yet “been shot at.” I believe the Purple Heart was similarly bestowed upon every rice-paddy warrior, who, like John Forbes Kerry, suffered self-inflicted, practically lethal nicks, cuts, and bruises, and I believe, too, that the Bronze Star and other medals of valor are routinely granted for knee scrapes.
I believe the terror threat was first invented and then exaggerated by the Cheney administration in order to build a pipeline in Afghanistan and seize Iraq’s vast oil reserves on behalf of Hallow-burton. I believe George W. Bush is personally responsible for every single plight the world has known since 9/11 and for every single individual grievance, too. I believe Michael Moore, Al Gore, Howard Dean, Paul Krugman, Jim Hightower, Jeff Rense and Janet Jackson are all part of a vast left-wing anti-conspiracy truth squad called Bush-Busters. Especially Janet Jackson.
LOL.
Sharon..you'll enjoy this...I have a casual friend of some 20+ year's aquiantance. He's a lib Dem.....but not WAY out there...so we can discuss politics without the rancor..even occasionally learn something from each other..it's an enjoyable discuss. We see each other about 2-3 times a year, but e-mail often..Two days ago, I asked him how he felt about the SBV ads..Iw as trying to get a sense of how it was impacting Dems..what they really felt...His replyto me was priceless.."rememberr how you told me YOU felt in 2000 when the "story" about Bush's supposed DWI arrest broke a few days before the election?" well, he said, multiply it by 100...
"There's no place like home. (Tap Tap Tap)
I Believe bump.
"I believe the president. I have always believed him.
I believed him when he said he had never been drafted in the Vietnam War and I believed him when he said he had forgotten to mention that he had been drafted in the Vietnam War.
I believed him when he said he hadn't had sex with Gennifer Flowers and I believe him now, when he reportedly says he did.
I believe the president did not rent out the Lincoln Bedroom, did not sell access to himself and the vice president to hundreds of well-heeled special pleaders and did not supervise the largest, most systematic money-laundering operation in campaign finance history, collecting more than $3 million in illegal and improper donations.
I believe that Charlie Trie and James Riady were motivated by nothing but patriotism for their adopted country.
I believed Vice President Gore when he said that he had made dunning calls to political contributors "on a few occasions" from his White House office, and I believed him when he said that, actually, "a few" meant 46. I believe in no controlling legal authority.
I believe Bruce Babbitt when he says that the $286,000 contributed to the DNC by Indian tribes opposed to granting a casino license to rival tribes had nothing to do with his denial of the license. I believed the secretary when he said that he had not been instructed in this matter by then-White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes. I believed him when he said later that he had told lobbyist and friend Paul Eckstein that Ickes had told him to move on the casino decision, but that he had been lying to Eckstein. I agree with the secretary that it is an outrage that anyone would question his integrity.
I believe in the Clinton Standard of adherence to the nation's campaign finance and bribery laws, enunciated by the president on March 7, 1997: "I don't believe you can find any evidence of the fact that I had changed government policy solely because of a contribution." I note with approval the use of the word "evidence" and also the use of the word "solely." I believe that it is proper to change government policy to address the concerns of people who have given the president money, as long as nobody can find evidence of this being the sole reason.
I believe the president has lived up to his promise to preside over the most ethical administration in American history. I believe that indicted former agriculture secretary Mike Espy did not accept $35,000 in illegal favors from Tyson Foods and other regulated businesses.
I believe that indicted former housing secretary Henry Cisneros did not lie to the FBI and tell others to lie to cover up $250,000 in blackmail payments to his former mistress.
I believe that convicted former associate attorney general Webster Hubbell was not involved in the obstruction of justice when the president's minions arranged for Hubbell to receive $400,000 in sweetheart consulting deals at a time when he was reneging on his promise to cooperate with Kenneth Starr's Whitewater investigation.
I believe Paula Jones is a cheap tramp who was asking for it. I believe Kathleen Willey is a cheap tramp who was asking for it. I believe Monica Lewinsky is a cheap tramp who was asking for it. I believe Lewinsky was fantasizing in her 20 hours of taped conversation in which she reportedly detailed her sexual relationship with the president and begged Linda Tripp to join her in lying about the relationship. I believe that any gifts, correspondence, telephone calls and the 37 post-employment White House visits that may have passed between Lewinsky and the president are evidence only of a platonic relationship; such innocent intimate friendships are quite common between middle-aged married men and young single women, and also between presidents of the United States and White House interns.
I see nothing suspicious in the report that the president's intimate, Vernon Jordan, arranged a $40,000-per-year job for Lewinsky shortly after she signed but before she filed an affidavit saying she had not had sex with the president. Nor do I read anything into the fact that the ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, visited Lewinsky at the Watergate to offer her a job.
I believe the instructions Lewinsky gave Tripp informing her on how to properly perjure herself in the Willey matter simply wrote themselves.
I believe that The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, PBS and NPR are all part of a vast right-wing conspiracy. Especially NPR."
Michael Kelly is a senior writer for National Journal.
bump TO SUPPORT THE NEW SWIFT VETS AD AND GEORGE BUSH... http://swift2.he.net/~swift2/gardner2.mpg
Yep...series lee hugh!!!
Ms. Pittman should have credited the late Mr. Kelly. I miss his columns, BTW.
Well, it seems to have caught a couple of posters, anyway. My guess is that they didn't read past the first two sentences.
I'll be in the shower!! LOL
Instead of responding factually to the charges, Kerry and his defenders have:
-- personally attacked the Swiftees and reportedly hired private investigators to look for dirt on them;
-- mischaracterized Swiftee John O'Neill as a Nixon dirty trickster;
-- reiterated their lies about President Bush's Air National Guard service;
-- filed complaints with the FEC to muzzle the Swiftees;
-- pressured media outlets not to run the Swiftees' ads;
-- whined about coordination between the Swiftees and the Bush campaign because attorney Ben Ginsberg advised both;
-- gloated when Ginsberg resigned from representing the Bush campaign, saying it proved there had been coordination all along, though Ginsberg denies any coordination;
-- refused to insist that their similarly situated lawyers or operatives Robert Bauer, Jim Jordan, Joe Sandler and Zack Exley -- sever their ties as well;
-- theatrically dispatched former Senator Max Cleland to the Bush ranch with a letter imploring the president to urge the Swiftees, over whom the president genuinely has no control, to cease and desist.
-- called other veterans to pressure them into supporting Kerry;
-- invoked the only sacred Republican name among Democrats, John McCain. (Bob Dole lost similar status this week when nobly standing up for the Swiftees.)
-- suppressed John Kerry's shameful, America-trashing book "The New Soldier," refusing to allow it to be reprinted;
-- said, dishonestly, that the Swiftees keep changing their stories;
-- repeatedly changed Kerry's story on Christmas in Cambodia. The reasons it was "seared, seared" in Kerry's memory were that it was during Christmas time (people associate events with the sentimentality of Christmas) and President Richard Nixon had supposedly ordered Kerry into Cambodia illegally -- which outraged Kerry. Turns out Nixon wasn't in office yet. How can people brush this off as inconsequential? This lie really mattered at the time, and, obviously still does today in terms of the negativity it generated against America;
-- dramatically backtracked on the first Purple Heart account, being forced to all but admit that Kerry wasn't injured by enemy fire -- which means, if nothing else, that he wasn't entitled to that Purple Heart nor his early out after four months;
-- watched as their enabling mainstream media -- the Democrats' most powerful and unregulated "527" group -- have systematically tried to discredit the Swiftees' claims by masquerading as objective, investigative journalists. In fact, they've combed records to catch the Swiftees in supposed inconsistencies and painted a fantastic picture trying to connect absurdly remote dots tying the Swiftees to President Bush. All the while they've ignored the mountains of factual evidence against Kerry and even mindlessly repeated the dismissive conclusion that almost all of Kerry's stories have held up to scrutiny. Never has the liberal bias of the partisan media been so conspicuous.
On August 25, the twin print media goliaths: the New York Times and The Washington Post, sang a propaganda duet dismissing the Swiftees' claims: WP: "Many of the charges have been rebutted by veterans who served with Kerry and by military records." NYT: “the Swift Boat group, almost all of whose challenges to Mr. Kerry and his war record have been contradicted by official war records and even some of its members' own past statements." Makes you wonder whether these two media outlets are recipients or authors of Democratic talking points.
-- peddled the lie that the Swiftees "weren't there" because most weren't on Kerry's boat, ignoring that they were in adjacent boats within witnessing distance;
-- avoided Kerry media appearances -- he doesn't want to have to answer even the obligatory questions the partisan media might lob at him. And you can be sure there'll be no second or third Kerry-O'Neill debates -- no thrilla in Manila. Even Don King couldn't get Kerry to step back into the ring for a rematch with O'Neill, who knocked Kerry cold in the first fight;
-- with the media's help, held up Kerry's "heroism" as sacrosanct and unchallengeable while simultaneously disrespecting the heroism of Kerry's some 254 accusers;
-- with the media's help, held up official Navy records as sacrosanct and unchallengeable, ignoring the compelling Swiftee claim that Kerry manufactured false records;
-- refused to release Kerry's complete military and medical records and diary;
-- complained about the campaign's focus on Kerry's long-ago record, when they brought it up in the first place.
You are right -- I did enjoy that one!
That tells me all I need to know.
The DWI controversy cost W maybe 1% of the vote...so perhaps this will cost Kerry a lot more.
Criminal investigators will tell you that a liar will look up and to the left when accessing a lie in their memory to repeat. Multiple personalities (those who can be on both sides of an issue at the same time) will use one eye for each personality within physical limits. So his eyes say he is lying while being for and against whatever he was talking about.
Besides Bush is behind this anyway!! Bush is just not an honorable man like Michael Moore. (/sarcasm)
The following was Ms Pittman's subheading to this column, which I accidently omitted.
Note: The writer of this column wishes to acknowledge her debt to the late journalist Michael Kelly, whose 1998 essay, “I Believe,” served as her template. Anyone desiring to read the original, which the author highly recommends, will find it archived here, copyright The Washington Post Company, February 4, 1998.
I believe that I'll have a beer.
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