Posted on 09/09/2004 2:09:48 PM PDT by ctdonath2
bookmarking
I've been reading some preposterous theories about how there were various proportional-spaced and multi-font machines available in the early 70s. Like some Lt Col is going to be messing around programming his desktop typesetter with paper tape just to write a freakin' memo.
I was around in that era and messing with computers in the military and also for civilian applications. I had access to about as advanced a technology as would have been in normal use in offices at that time. I can tell you I would have KILLED to have access to machines that could produce a document that looked that good. For our fanciest documents, we mainly used Selectrics hooked up to computers using either serial or parallel interfaces (time has dimmed my memory on that point), and produced them with the Courier font. I used to love watching the Selectric banging out the pages with its flying type ball. It was just so cool and technologically advanced. I can tell you that I could no more have produced the document in question with that setup that I could fly.
Hot damn, you're good.
Seeing your blog, Harkin was out again today, calling Bush a liar, based on these documents.
1) It's inconceivable that someone would go to the trouble to center the address at the top of the page with a typewriter. If the page header was preprinted, maybe. I don't believe there were "memory" typewriters in 1972 that could have typed out the address on command. And centering with that proportional type? No way. You'd have to count the space taken up by each character manually.
2) Is the P.O. Box, 34567 just a wee bit suspicious?
3) I looked up the address (which you can read through the black mark), 5000 Longmont #8 in Houston Tx. That address does exist, just outside the 610 loop, I think in the Galeria area. But Yahoo maps give a different zip code for it than 77027. Perhaps the zip code changed, but that's pretty rare. Could anyone in Tx confirm this?
I have been following this all day. National Review has contacted a document expert (and THEY give his name, UNLIKE CBS) who points out some of the signs that it is a forgery.
There is also a post on here of a blogger who contacted a forensic document specialist who has all sorts of information about type fonts and even has written a program to identify them. That expert is 90% sure it is a forgery.
I must commend you for prodding people last night to investigate this. That thread had to have been the catalyst. Michael Medved was going to discuss this on his show today...don't know if he did, since I can't get that show here.
Anyway, we all should be grateful you set up that initial investigative thread. I hope you get a White House invite or something!!! LOL!
I'm still wondering what you were wondering last night: why.
I sent it to Drudge... feel free...
Bump!
Before claiming a slam dunk, you should know that Times Roman has been around since the 1930s. The computer versions of TR are based on high-resolution digitized copies of the originals (with some variations).
Still, I have a hard time believing anyone would save such trivial documents for decades. Plus, there's no source. Makes me suspicious...
Awesome job! WTG... I really hope you pass this around to Drudge, Rush, Hannity, etc. It is quite revealing. Kudos, my friend.
Not sure I understand the question.
"If they are forgeries - the election is likely over."
I think he may be right.
This looks good except for something I saw right away. In the first sentence, the "1st" clearly has more spacing between the 1 and the letter s. How is that explained?
LOL. I'm glad as hell my brother and sister FReepers are so damn smart and diligent. I ain't got near enough sense or no-how to prove the things they do.
You guys and gals rock!
Ain't nada more powerful than a motivated FReeper.
Thanks
And Wendell Goler is no help either. No questions from him as to the validity of the "documents"--and contrary to what xzins understood about the "sugar-coating" reference, he keeps stating that what was being "sugar-coated" was Bush's fitness reports! Reading the memos again, I think xzins had the right interpretation.
The guy used Word to write this a year before Microsoft was founded...gee, wonders never cease...
Very clever.
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